The Diversified Mardu Horde

Commander / EDH Aggro Control RBW (Mardu) Reanimator

saintnum5

Land (33)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 1x High Market
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Needle Spires
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 2x Plains
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Shambling Vent
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Tokens (5)

• 1x Angel of Invention
• 1x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 1x Ponyback Brigade
• 1x Priest of the Blood Rite
• 1x Siege-Gang Commander

Mill (2)

• 1x Crow of Dark Tidings
• 1x Returned Centaur

Combos (8)

• 1x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Master of Cruelties
• 1x Murderous Redcap
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Reveillark

Protection (8)

• 1x Champion's Helm
• 1x Feldon of the Third Path
• 1x Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Reconnaissance
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

SacOutlets (7)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Goblin Bombardment
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan

Tutors (7)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

CardDraw (4)

• 1x Cathartic Reunion
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Key to the City
• 1x Mentor of the Meek

Commander (1)

Ramp (8)

• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Sword of the Animist

Sunforger (7)

• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Master Warcraft
• 1x Pull from Eternity
• 1x Reiterate
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Tithe
• 1x Utter End

Toolbox (6)

• 1x Agent of Erebos
• 1x Duplicant
• 1x Faceless Butcher
• 1x Fiend Hunter
• 1x Leonin Relic-Warder
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic

Wraths (4)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Retribution of the Meek
• 1x Wrath of God

---

The Mardu Horde has never really gotten the appreciation it deserves in commander, especially considering the few commanders available to lead it. Kaalia of the Vast has only one possible strategy, which crumbles with a well-placed removal spell. Zurgo Helmsmasher and Jokulhaups may be best friends, but this is not the strategy of the Mardu. The only leader qualified enough to represent the Mardu is Alesha, Who Smiles at Death.

This deck is capable of searching up the perfect solution for any problem you may have in commander, clearing the way for a game-winning combo or simply an attack for the win. First, we should take a look at the way the gears of this deck turn.

Reanimation

The most obvious thing about Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is that when she attacks, you can pay W/B W/B to reanimate a creature with power 2 or less. Every creature in our deck (with one exception, but it's a good one) has power 2 or less to optimize this ability. The only problem with this triggered ability is that it requires Alesha to attack. While a 3/2 first strike is no joke, it will eventually become outclassed by your opponents' creatures. We have some ways in the deck to get Alesha through without being blocked by a huge monster from your opponent:

• Reconnaissance is great for this because not only does it protect Alesha from tricky combats, it also allows you to attack players willy-nilly in the early game without drawing any aggression.

• Sword of Feast and Famine will often allow Alesha to attack at least one player unblocked and protect it from some removal, while also allowing you to essentially reanimate for free by untapping your lands after combat damage.

• Whispersilk Cloak is pretty straightforward, protecting Alesha from removal and blocks alike.

• Key to the City is sweet in this deck where all three of its abilities have use. The discard outlet is great for getting potential reanimation targets in the yard for reanimation, granting unblockability is great for reasons outlined above, and it can be a source of card advantage in the late game.

In addition, we have a few ways to protect Alesha from removal:

• Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are commander staples, and the haste allows for reanimation on the same turn we play our commander. The aforementioned Whispersilk Cloak also works here as well.

• If the commander tax ever does get too high to efficiently use Alesha, we have a few backups. Grenzo, Dungeon Warden can grab any of the creatures in our deck without any counters on it, and Feldon of the Third Path is another way to reanimate our creatures, although at a less efficient rate than our commander.

Toolbox

It may seem like creatures with power 2 or less is a paltry selection, but we have creatures in our deck that can do anything you require. Here is the structure of our creature toolbox:

Agent of Erebos

Solemn Simulacrum and Knight of the White Orchid

Duplicant, Faceless Butcher, and Fiend Hunter take out creatures, while Leonin Relic-Warder deals with artifacts or enchantments.

Mentor of the Meek provides great card advantage for obvious reasons.

Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Ponyback Brigade, Priest of the Blood Rite, and Siege-Gang Commander produce plenty of tokens, great for blocking or sacrificing for value. These cards will also be useful in one of our combos.

Stoneforge Mystic has many targets in this deck with a variety of functions, all of which could take up a list of their own. Free, instant-speed sacrifice outlets are great for this deck and a new addition from Aether Revolt allows us to add one to the toolbox in the form of Yahenni, Undying Partisan.

We have plenty of tutors to access this toolbox. Some like Demonic Tutor put the card into your hand, some like Entomb put the card in the graveyard, and Gamble splits the difference.

Combos

As mentioned above, this deck has a couple ways to combo out the table. Due to the nature of reanimating small creatures, we are unlikely to make any big swingy plays that win the game. We intend to stop those big swingy plays, while subtly putting our own plans into motion. This is not a deck that intends to combo out as soon and as fast as possible. We want to play the value game, using our combos to finish the game or as a last resort.

Master of Cruelties

This combo is one unique to Alesha, Who Smiles at Death (and Kaalia) because it requires her ability to put creatures into play attacking. First, you need to get Master of Cruelties in the graveyard, an easy task considering the amount of discard, sacrifice, and mill contained in the deck. You have to attack a player who is not able to block for some reason, whether it is because they have no blockers or something like Master Warcraft. You pay 2 mana to reanimate the Master after Alesha has been declared attacking, which allows you to bypass its restriction on only attacking alone. After blockers, the ability on the Master of Cruelties triggers and sets the defending player's life total to 1. It deals no damage that combat, but Alesha still deals damage as normal and kills your opponent! This combo is more effective in the early game when opponents may be unprepared to kill the Master of Cruelties, but in the late game it can still be effective against Voltron opponents who are forced to lose their huge creature to your Master or risk death. In the late game, Master of Cruelties can be a one-sided The Abyss.

Kiki-Jiki

You may recognize Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker from Modern, and he plays the role of a combo piece in this deck as well. I have only included one creature that combos with him, the new Felidar Guardian, due to its additional synergy with our ETB effects. The way the combo works is that Kiki-Jiki taps to make a copy of Felidar Guardian, which flickers the Kiki-Jiki when it enters. The Kiki-Jiki is now untapped, and you can tap it to make another Guardian. Repeat how many ever times you like, and kill the table with infinite 1/4s. Another option that Alesha can reanimate is Village Bell-Ringer, but I decided to omit it from the deck due to its lack of value outside of the combo.

Persist

You may also recognize the combo of Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit and Murderous Redcap from Modern. Along with a free sacrifice outlet, this combo deals infinite damage to your opponents. You sacrifice the Redcap to the sac outlet. When it returns, Anafenza triggers. The 1/1 Redcap will always be one of your smallest creatures, so you put the +1/+1 counter on it which cancels out the -1/-1 counter. You may repeat this as many times as you want, and each time the Redcap enters it deals 2 damage to one of your opponents.

Reveillark + Karmic Guide

This is where the exception to all of my creatures having power 2 or less comes into the picture. While Reveillark cannot be reanimated by Alesha itself, it provides incredible value on its own and also a combo. This combo also requires a free sac outlet. If the Reveillark is in the graveyard, then when the Karmic Guide enters the battlefield you reanimate the Reveillark. When it comes back you sac both creatures. This puts the Reveillark's LTB trigger on the stack with both creatures in the grave. Reanimate the Karmic Guide and one other creature with power 2 or less and continue the process. As you can see, not only does this create infinite ETB triggers, infinite LTB triggers, and infinite activations of your sacrifice outlets, it also lets you infinitely reanimate and sacrifice another creature with power 2 or less. You can win by looping a Murderous Redcap or milling your opponents out with Altar of Dementia, just to name a couple ways.

This deck is not the typical EDH deck, with an abundance of ramp and huge creatures. This deck intends to be a reasonably competitive deck that can shift to fit the meta and/or situation. I appreciate any suggestions for additions or removals, as well as an upvote if you enjoyed this deck tech!

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Exclude colors	UG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 53 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.90
Tokens	Copy Clone, Demon 5/5 B, Goblin 1/1 R, Morph 2/2 C, Servo 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 C