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"Merciless" Mardu TortEx

Pauper

Shaka141

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Creature (24)

Land (22)

Sorcery (10)

Enchantment (4)

Sideboard

Creature (10)

Instant (5)

Who doesn't like TortEx (really?) - it's a little silly as far as archetypes go, and allows for a # of fun degenerate lines of play if your opponent lacks the ability to deal with your graveyard or a resolved Tortured Existence.

This deck is a variation of the Mardu Torturex Existence deck that I have trophied with a couple times in the past, modified based on what I percieve to be the current meta.

  • 4x Fume Spitter is a necessity for metas with heavy Delver and Elves. As much as I think the little guy is underwhelming in specific matchups, he makes a couple of the toughest matchups G1 much more competitive.

  • 2x Lone Missionaries gives this deck a little more game against the really fast aggro decks that can overwhelm you before you are able to activate Crypt Rats for the first board wide. Sometimes it steals games against burn too.

  • 2x Stingscourger is incredible in certain matchups. For Elves it gets Vanguards and Timerwatch off the board. It's great against Gurmag Angler. The aggro decks often get 2-1'ed on this or blanked a combat. It buys a turn against Izzet Blitz.

  • 3x Crypt Rats is absurd in most matchups. The 4th in the board is meant to make the aggro matchups even better (they are already pretty good...)

  • 3x Liliana's Specter is suprisingly good against both control decks and Delver. It is a 2-1 and regularly helps you win long attrition wars. It also regularly helps you steal away Monarch, which makes these matchups more reasonable. It's a card I've been including in this archetype more often lately and been very happy with.

  • 4x Golgari Brownscale is the bread and butter creature in the TortEx archetype. I like running 4 and no other dredgers, but I know that is controversial. It's the way I like to roll.

  • 3x Grave Scrabbler because it's absurd at getting you again in the mid - late game and is good in every matchup. But over many hundreds of games in this archetype, I don't like having 4. You really shouldn't side more than 1 of these out (maybe)...

  • 3x Horror of the Broken Lands is something I'm coming back around to. It cycles early to get you deeper into your deck and it's obnoxiously good at winning games late very quickly. I've found that when I don't have it, I very often miss it. I also like it better than Angler, but could imagine a 2-1 split.

As for the sideboard...

  • 2x Gorilla Shaman is something I also often run as Ingot Chewer, there is a good argument for both options. Shaman is the preferred option against Boros Monarch and Affinity because it eats all their artifact lands. Chewer is better against other decks that you expect to bring in artifact-based GY hate to force them to pop it. Shaman I think is slightly better overall, and 3x would be too many.

  • 2x Whispmare deals with Journey to Nowhere, Oubliette, Tortured Existence, CoPs, Jace's Erasure, Pestilence, etc. It's a fun little card that makes the Mardu build of TortEx playable against the rest of the meta. Too many enchanements you really need to be able to address.

  • 3x Faerie Macabre is there mostly for UB, Mono Green Aggro, Tron and the Mirror. It's good against any deck that is doing screwy things with their graveyard to give us a leg up. Also eats Rancors in response to their return to hand from graveyard trigger which is why you play it against MGA.

  • 3x Merciless Resolve is an uncounterable way to fizzle a Capsize which is something this deck has to do to beat Tron. I've tried other options for doing this and Resolve is the only one that is foolproof which is why I'm using it here. It also comes in against Burn to get more Brownscale triggers and get Lone Missionary in the graveyard to get recurred. You can also use it in response to a Journey to Nowhere/Oubliette if you're trying to be a troll in these matchups.

  • 2x Snuff Out comes in against Elves, Crusher decks, Izzet/Boros Blitz, creature based combos, Affinity, etc. Several matchups it gets rid of the one troublesome creature that can't be swept with Crypt Rats and otherwise is also usable with no mana untapped. Very useful.

  • 2x Custodi Squire comes in against slower decks to win the mid-late game attrition war and helps to recur a Tortured Existence. You can also infinitely Recur Tortured Existence if you need to by playing TE with mana option to recur the Squire if they try to destroy TE. Very handy.

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