Pattern Recognition #365 - Mardu Bounce

Current Standard Features Pattern Recognition

berryjon

24 April 2025

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Hello Everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Also the only one. I am a well deserved Old Fogey having started the game back in 1996. My experience in both Magic and Gaming is quite extensive, and I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. I dabble in deck construction, mechanics design, Magic's story and characters, as well as more abstract concepts. Or whatever happens to catch my fancy that week. Please, feel free to talk about each week's subject in the comments section at the bottom of the page, from corrections to suggested improvements or your own anecdotes. I won't bite. :) Now, on with the show!

Today's deck is a work in progress, and was suggested to me by a user on another Forum, Darklyre. They asked the question of "What is Esper Bounce, but Mardu?" and moved to include Cori-Steel Cutter in the deck. I was intrigued by the concept and asked for a decklist. I played it, made a few changes as cards like Blazemire Verge didn't synch well with the fact that there were only 3 basics in the initial deck. What you see above is the current version, and is still a work in progress.

The idea is simple. The deck is currently a Bounce/Control deck that reuses ETB threats and responses to generate value. However, there is four copies of Cori-Steel Cutter to make this a proper Mardu deck in order to generate more creatures to act as a threat on-board.

It's hilariously interactive, highly disruptive, and stupidly low to the ground in terms of mana value. There are a few bad matchups, obviously. A full Jesaki Control deck can out-control me, and if you watch the video to the end, you'll see a game that I had no business winning, win.

And the best part it, it's easy on the Wild Cards. If you want to ease up on the mana base, keep the Restless Fortress as it's my primary anti-RDW deck card as you can see in the video. The lifegain cannot be oversold. Everything else can be reduced to Basics or Common Taplands/Deserts.

Among the more interesting and standout cards, the Mardu Devotee is there for an early drop to block, and the ETB of Scry 2 is very useful. Especially if I flick/bounce it later in the game. Also, color fixing helps where is concerned.

Momentum Breaker also serves as an emergency life-gain, but its nice in that it hits creatures or the hand, and not just one or the other. Never underestimate hand diruption.

I moved Temporary Lockdown to the sideboard because it was too easy to hit your own stuf, but the capacity to Lockdown, then bounce the Lockdown to get all the ETB triggers again can do a real number on the opponent, especially if they are token heavy, like Artifacts.

Sage of the Skies was another card I moved from the mainboard to the sideboard. It wasn't working well with the rest of the deck as I was refining it. I found it worked better as a case of bouncing and replaying it on the second main phase, after you swing in the air to have one card and two token copies. As a means to either have flying blockers, or more lifelink to get around more aggressive decks, it works. But it doesn't advance the deck, it's more of a buildup. Your value may vary.

It's a great deck! Give it s swing! You won't regret it!

Thank you all for watching and reading, and I'll see you all next week!

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job (now), but more income is always better, and I can use it to buy cards! I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!