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Mardu Smallpox

Welcome to your modern Mardu Smallpox Primer. Here you can expect to gain a detailed understanding of the variation of Rakdos Midrange, Mardu Smallpox. It is my goal to provide this primer as a source of continually-updated information on our Mardu Smallpox archetype. This is a modern deck designed to break the symmetry of Smallpox and win the game of attrition after sufficiently taxing our opponent's resources.

Our goal with this deck is to mimic the strength of the most disruptive card in MTG, Pox . While modern doesn't have access to such a powerful card, we do have access to two smaller effects in Smallpox and Crack the Earth . The beauty of playing symmetric disruption is that our deck is designed to mitigate the damage done to ourselves by these cards while maximizing the damage done to our opponents. Young Pyromancer is our biggest payoff once we have shunted our opponent's plan. It dodges each of our sacrifice effects while slowly developing power over multiple bodies.

Playing Smallpox is a lot like sieging castle. Choke your opponent on resources, and only once their people are dying of famine and disease do we bring in our threats. When playing this deck, this is our philosophy. Attack your advisory's lands early, clean up the creatures, and once they are unable to fight back favorably, start applying pressure back.


Lands

One of the most important part of building any deck is the manabase. Building a manabase in modern is more complicated than in either Standard or Legacy, due to its sheer volume of sub-optimal choices. Here I use the term sub-optimal to emphasize that Legacy has the far superior land options. This deck has a high requirement for colored mana in order to cast our spells, and therefore its extremely important to have the correct landbase for the deck. Generally, our color priority looks like: red > black > white.

Blackcleave Cliffs : Cliffs is outstanding for Smallpox decks (in the first three turns at least), It provides us with our most commonly required opening colors (black for discard, red for bolt/crack) and fixes our mana throughout the game. The advantage to running Cliffs is that we don’t lose any life in the early game from our fixing. The disadvantage in using Cliffs is that once we have three mana in play, Cliffs enters the battlefield tapped. However, this is effect is highly mitigated by the fact that the deck operates quite fine on three lands only (which we can nearly guarantee since we are running Smallpox/Crach the Earth).

Bloodstained Mire : This is the deck's first fetchland of choice. Fetches both of our non-basics and grants access to all of our shock lands. Absolutely four copies. No Exceptions.

Marsh Flats : This is the deck's second best fetchland. Fetches both of our non-basics and grants access to all of our shock lands. Three to four copies.

Blood Crypt : Contains both of our desired turn two colors.

Godless Shrine : Sets us up for an early TDE into our turn two disruption.

Sunbaked Canyon & Silent Clearing : Sunbaked Canopy is a new toy for multicolored decks. Here I cut one Sacred Foundry for the added top-deck utility this provides. However it comes at the cost of being unfetchable. Running two or three of in either Sunbaked Canyon or Silent Clearing is correct.

Castle Embereth : This is a new and interesting entry from Eldraine. It by itself is a land that pumps your creatures once the game has gone long, but has the downside of possibly coming into play tapped. First, let us look at the upside of this card. This card is at it's highest value with go-wide creature strategies (think Lingering Souls or Young Pyromancer). In addition to this our deck also plays Dreadhorde Archanist meaning we can use Castle Embereth to pump Archanist so that we can get back 2 cmc spells. For us, this means extra Smallpoxes or Manamorphose. Other decks might hedge on more 2 cmc removal spells like Lightning Helix, Dreadbore, or Terminate if this ends up being a worthwhile synergy. Notice that we have 14 sources that can put a mountain into play early. This means that (according to Dr. Karsten's probabilities) we have a 92.3% chance that this will come into play untapped if we draw it in our opening hand. I believe that via fetchlands and shocks, our deck is one that can minimize the downside of this card while capitalizing on it's strength.

Snow-Covered Mountain & Snow-Covered Swamp & Snow-Covered Plains : Every deck needs some number of basics to play around Blood Moon. We choose to play one basic Mountain to help play around Path to Exile , as our deck has many red spells that we would like to keep access to.


Slow them down

Just like other our other -Midrange brothers (BGx, Orzhov, Rakdos, ect.), we have the early-game goal of 6-7 targeted discard spells complimented by 6-8 one mana targeted creature removal.

Targeted discard (IoK/Thoughtseize) effects [TDE], in terms of card advantage, represents a 1-1 trade. I.e. no advantage is gained directly. Therefore, step one in considering whether a deck can even support trading 1-1. Since the purpose of our deck is to slow our opponent's early-game to a halt, we are fine trading in this way until we can leverage an advantage of being prepared for a low resource game. However, TDE don't affect the board and trades with a card your opponent hasn't yet invested mana into. This puts us behind in tempo, just a little. That being said, TDE allow value oriented BGx-style strategies to compete against the more powerful synergy-based decks. TDE represent a way for the value player to trade resources quickly and efficiently while breaking up synergies better than reactionary spells like (Lightning Bolt, Fatal Push, Path to Exile, Naturalize) because of its wide-spread applicability. The real key to TDE follows from the ability to see your opponent's hand and then knowing the state of the game, you get to decide what to take from your opponent's hand (not your opponent). This allows you the possibility to poke a hole in your opponent's strategy. Look for a vulnerability and push that angle of attack. Once you know the matchup, you need to decide which cards are most important to consider taking with your TDE and remove them so that you can gain control of the situation.

Inquisition of Kozilek : With our subtheme being land destruction, our opponent's will likely be our of range of casting higher cost spells for the majority of the game. This means that we can leverage playing more IoK rather than doing the even split.

Thoughtseize : The most iconic TDE in magic. When a deck implements the above strategy, they always include some number of this spell. In our deck, we complement TDE with Spallpox so playing fewer of these to save a few points of life is correct.

One mana removal [OMR], just as above in terms of card advantage, represent a 1-1 trade. The main downside to OMR spells is that they are reactionary spells, meaning your opponent has to choose and invest mana in a card in order for your to gain value out of your card. However, this allows us to easily quantify changes in tempo (small mana advantages and favorable changes in board-state). Whether you need to stop green from taking an early mana advantage with dorks or you need to kill that imposing attacker, these instants and sorceries will slam foes with death and take them off the field.

Lightning Bolt : Red's optimal OMR. This hits creatures, players, and planeswalkers. Bolt is a must have for any red deck due to its reliability and versatility.

Fatal Push : Black's optimal OMR. While this only hits creatures, it can pump into killing even converted mana cost 4 creatures. Playing 8 fecth lands, crack, and smallpox all turn on revolt. This means we should rarely fail to be able to cast with revolt in a pinch.


Engine

Smallpox is a very tricky card to cast because it's a symmetrical card. If you put it in the average deck it would often be a 3-4 (as in your opponent loses three cards and you lose four since you are casting smallpox) that's why we need to specifically build around it. As I mentioned above the best case scenario is a 3-1 but be aware that there are other scenarios that are also favorable. Most of our wincons are single cards that can win without any support besides time to set up. This means it's favorable for us to 1-1 and trade resources. TDE and OMR are clear examples of 1-1's which are very good for us. When you have dead cards in hand discarding them to Smallpox is mostly free. Usually this means having three lands but depending on your hand or build you may need to stay on four lands. Often If my opponent plays a turn one mana dork, I get more interested in a turn 2 Smallpox. Hitting any mana source your opponent was planning on for their next turn is valuable but hitting two mana sources is great. Trading a souls token for a relevant creature is also a good trade to make when casting smallpox. Be sure to consider the value of a token and the value of your opponent's worst creature to determine if that's a reasonable trade. I often value my spirit tokens as half a card or even less but often your opponent's creatures can be very low value as well. Examples include weak creatures with ETB triggers and late game mana dorks.

For the most part, any Smallpox that trades cards 1-for-1 or better is a good smallpox to cast assuming you aren't sacrificing any vital resources. The more you play with the card the better your understanding of it will be. It's important to remember that you lose a lot when you cast a smallpox but attrition is our primary game plan against most decks so smallpox tends to favor us.

Smallpox : This is our deck's main engine. Our goal with this deck is to grind the game to a halt attacking each player's resources. Our deck is designed to mitigate the damage of the symmetry of this card.

Crack the Earth : This card is generally seen as a 1-2, but our deck can mitigate our this making it a 1-1 that can hit lands specifically. Once we clear the way with TDE and OMR, we can often force our opponent into a situation where they are sacrificing valuable lands. This card is basically free with Young Pyromancer in play and flashing it back with Dreadhorde Arcanist when your opponent is low on perminants is remarkably satisfying.


Threats

Where this deck differs from its Orzhov cousin is in the threats our deck puts into play. While the BW Smallpox deck tries to stabilize using Planewalkers, our deck uses efficiently costed creatures and spells to threaten our opponent's life total. We borrow the go-wide synergy of Young Pyromancer and Lingering Souls from the Mardu Pyromancer lists of the past. These cards pair excellently with smallpox. We need some creature which are efficient bodies on their own so that we can turn the corner quickly once we have our opponent pinned.

Young Pyromancer : YP greatly benefits from our high spell count, essentially adding the text: "Create a 1/1 elemental token" to every spell we cast. This card is a grind machine, and if it sticks on the batttlefield long, it will likely win the game on its own. A common line of play is playing Crack/Smallpox with this guy on the field so that we can break the symmetry of those cards by sacrificing the token that we creates.

Lingering Souls : First choice when discarding cards off of Smallpox or Liliana. The tokens can block early or provide a threatening body in the air.

Dreadhorde Arcanist : This card allows us to double up on TDE or OMR. Since bolt is our preferred OMR this guy can be a threatening body on his own and almost always baits removal from our opponent. While he doesn't win the game on his own, he provides double value out of all of our early spells and the 1/3 body is surprising great for blocking in some match-ups.

Gurmag Angler : With all the spell slinging, discarding, and permanent sacrificing we are going to do with this deck, our graveyard will fill remarkably quickly. Delving this guy for 1 a very efficient way to close out a game quickly.


Value

Liliana of the Veil : The most important walker in our deck, kills things and discards cards. Resource denial is our primary game plan and Liliana supports that strategy.

Kolaghan's Command : The main reason Kolaghan's Command is so strong is it's flexibility against nearly every deck in Modern.

Manamorphose : Manamorphose as a card seems very odd to run in our deck at first glance. Essentially it can be seen as a free cantrip, filtering for your mana (if you need white for Souls or double black for Smallpox for example). Technically it does really contribute to our main strategy. However, deck space is quite limited and I think you cannot overload on the card too much. Often times it can also get quite awkward on what mana to produce with manamorphose, as you don't know what you will draw. Sometimes this may result in unspend mana, which can also hurt you. But I think running 0 or 1 copies makes sense and can really help powering out Smallpox, which is the strongest thing we can do.


Changelog 8-Oct-19

-1 Manamorphose -1 Dreadhorde Arcanist +2 Pack Rat

-2 Crach the Earth +1 Unearth +1 Dreadbore

-1 Silent Clearing +1 Shambling Vent

While Manamorphose did help stabilize my mana for some turn two Smallpox's and some synergy with Young Pyromancer , I found myself siding it out in nearly every match-up to make use of better cards. This gave me the impression that the card was probably better suited for the bench and that I should probably make way for something stronger in the main deck. I often found myself in the predicament where my opponent was hellbent and needed to close out the game fast, so I gave Pack Rat a try as a finisher that enables discard for Lingering Souls . One of it's strengths is that it can some down for only two mana and then on subsequent turns swing for 2, then 6, then 12 (supposing we use our draw to make a new rat). This means that it will only take three swings on a clear board to kill our opponent.

Crack the Earth was great on a clear board, but a very mediocre top deck if my opponent had some non-important permanents on board. With all the artifact decks running around and with our deck not making use of Flagstones of Trokair I think its safe to say we don't get the benefit we need out of this card. We can use the slots to open up some different utility in the form of Unearth and Dreadbore . The former is another great target for Dreadhorde Arcanist and the latter is solid removal that can also target planeswalkers like Wrenn and Six , Oko, Thief of Crowns , or the like.

The burn match-up can go either way and is often decided by who wins the coin-flip. Due to this, I think it's nice to add another persistent threat to help us stabilize once they go hellbent, and I believe that simply swapping Silent Clearing for Shambling Vent is a good way to give us a minor edge. If burn continues to produce results at tournaments, I believe that a maindeck copy of Smiting Helix might also help us out.


Changelog 14-Oct-19

+3 Seasoned Pyromancer -1 Young Pyromancer -2 Gurmag Angler

+1 Collective Brutality -1 Dreadbore

+2 Hazoret the Fervent -2 Pack Rat

+1 Lightning Axe +1 Dreadhorde Arcanist -1 Basic Swamp -1 Shambling Vent

+1 Sacred Foundry -1 Basic Plains

There are a few things that I've noticed with my testing. First is that, with the previous list, I found myself in the situation where I had dead spells in hand often. Second is that our clock wasn't quite fast enough to go under UW control or Amulet Titan. Seasoned Pyromancer is a threat that also helps us filter our draws to find the cards that are relevant in each match-up. Since it's still relevant if we end up discarding/sacrificing it to a resolved Smallpox , seemed like a much better option than being disincentivized from casting Smallpox if our threat was a Gurmag Angler that was stuck in hand.

Collective Brutality doesn't do anything powerful on its own, but at least one mode will be relevant in any game. This doubles as a discard outlet for any Lingering Souls that get stuck in our hand. I have swapped this into the main deck, replacing Dreadbore which is better in match-ups with both planeswalkers and creatures that are problematic.

While Pack Rat is a resilient threat that can be brought back with Unearth , it is just barely too slow for the current state of modern. Hazoret has the benefit of being an indestructible blocker in the match-ups where that's relevant, but this mostly helps us shore up the mid-late game with some inevitability.

These changes have added a ton of incidental discard to the deck. This means that we can nickle and dime value off of discarding cards that are relevant at the time ( Smallpox ), or getting some value off out of the graveyard ( Lingering Souls or Seasoned Pyromancer ). We have the choice on where to Smallpox. Is your opponent missing land drops? Do we have extra lands in hand so that we could mitigate the damage? Have we seen our opponent's hand with TDE and will casting Smallpox create an opening for us to capitalize on? These are just a few of the considerations that could go into whether or not to cast a Smallpox. If we find ourselves in a place where Smallpox would leave us in an unfavorable position, we now have the option to discard it to get a more relevant effect.

Finally, I've adjusted some of the land count in the deck. We've added one more OMR spell in the form of Lightning Axe and the fourth copy of Dreadhorde Arcanist . Arcanist felt very strong in testing and whether you're: stripping your opponent's hand with flashbacked TDE, deleting their creature's with OMR, or bringing back one of your mancers after cycling an Unearth you won't be disappointed seeing Arcanist in more games.

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Date added 4 years
Last updated 4 years
Exclude colors G
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

26 - 9 Rares

21 - 3 Uncommons

1 - 3 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.00
Tokens Elemental 1/1 R, Spirit 1/1 W
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