Mardu Vehicles Comes Full Circle

A few weeks ago at GP Denver I was chatting with a pro for whom I have a
great deal of respect. We were talking about how great this current
Standard format is. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “Standard’s really great right now.”

Him: “Yep.”

Me: “I mean, there are like a ton of different Tier 1 decks, right? You’ve
got Temur, Mono-Red, Zombies, Mardu, God-Pharaoh’s Gift, B/G Constrictor,
even U/W Monument!”

Him: “…well, actually, I don’t think that Mardu counts as a Tier 1 deck.”

I played it cool, politely ending the conversation, and then took a moment
to steady myself. Mardu’s not a Tier 1 deck? Sure, it had been a poor
choice for Denver, but didn’t it just put two copies in the Top 8 of GP
Minneapolis?

It’s not like people don’t agree with him. The popular consensus is that
Temur, Zombies, and Ramunap Red are all unfavorable matchups. While this
can be true depending on the version of Mardu, I think this belief stems
from a common misconception: people think that the only reason to play
Mardu is to cast Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.

At its core, Mardu is really about presenting a fast clock in the form of
threats that are resilient and difficult to interact with. It’s tough to
make a Scrapheap Scrounger stay dead. Flying Vehicles are hard to block and
dodge sorcery-speed removal. Sweepers are bad against you. The deck
maximizes the potential of Pia Nalaar and allows you to play Unlicensed
Disintegration alongside Archangel Avacyn, two excellent tools for racing.

Gideon just augments this plan in the spots where your opponent can’t
threaten it and allows you to transform into a planeswalker control deck in
matchups where early aggression is ineffective. I’m not saying that Mardu
is always well-positioned in every metagame. I’m just saying that sometimes
one-mana 3/2s and two-mana Serra Angels are good.

Gideon wasn’t a big part of the early iterations of Vehicles. One reason
for this is that Smuggler’s Copter was legal: it both attacks opposing
Gideons and is already an excellent threat on its own.

W/R Vehicles

Chris VanMeter

1st Place at Star City Games Standard Open on 10-01-2016

Standard

Creatures (21)

Lands (24)

Spells (15)

Sideboard

The earliest versions of the deck were relatively straightforward. Chris
Van Meter won the SCG Open with zero copies of Gideon in the maindeck. He
focused almost entirely on presenting a fast clock with threats there are
difficult to interact with. His four-drop is Fleetwheel Cruiser, and his
late-game is Skysovereign, Consul Flagship to dominate the battlefield.

By the end of Kaladesh Standard, Mardu had evolved, but the spirit
of the deck was the same:

Mardu Vehicles

Matt Severa

1st Place at Grand Prix on 12-03-2016

Standard

Creatures (22)

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Lands (22)

Spells (14)

Sideboard

We now have black for Scrapheap Scrounger and Unlicensed Disintegration,
two cards that fit into our plan of racing with resilient threats. We also
have two copies of Gideon in the main as our curve-topper, but our deck is
still fundamentally the same as the earlier versions.

The Shift to Midrange Control

What changed? Well, for one, Smuggler’s Copter was banned. Although it was
replaced immediately with Heart of Kiran, the emergence of two new
archetypes demanded some additional changes.

B/G Delirium

Brennan DeCandio

1st Place at Star City Games Standard Open on 01-21-2017

Standard

Creatures (25)

Lands (23)

Spells (12)

Sideboard

Four-Color Saheeli

Robert Graves

5th Place at Star City Games Standard Open on 01-21-2017

Standard

Creatures (20)

Planeswalkers (4)

4 Saheeli Rai

Lands (21)

Spells (15)

Sideboard

After Aether Revolt, Mardu faced a few challenges:

1) It couldn’t consistently get under B/G Constrictor.

2) Mardu was good against Saheeli combo, so Mardu mirrors became common.

The answer to both of the above was to move away from Inventor’s Apprentice
and shift into more of a midrange role. The most effective way to win Mardu
mirrors and beat B/G Constrictor is to resolve a planeswalker on an empty
battlefield. It became typical to side out Toolcraft Exemplar in favor of
more planeswalkers and removal, transforming into more of a tap-out control
deck. Mardu and Saheeli remained the two dominant decks throughout the
course of that season, and as lists converged, 75s with eight or more
planeswalkers became the norm.

Mardu Vehicles

Samuel Vuillot

1st Place at Grand Prix on 02-27-2017

Standard

Creatures (18)

Planeswalkers (6)

Lands (24)

Spells (12)

Sideboard

Mardu Vehicles

Paul Rietzl

3rd Place at Grand Prix on 03-11-2017

Standard

Creatures (21)

Planeswalkers (4)

4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Lands (24)

Spells (11)

Sideboard

By then it was well-established that Gideon was one of the premier threats
in the format. If you weren’t planning to make arbitrarily large numbers of
Cats, there just wasn’t really anything better to be doing than casting
Gideon, and Mardu was the best home for him. Calls for his banning became
commonplace.

When the spring bannings took Felidar Guardian and left Gideon alone, I was
feeling pretty confident about my chances at the Pro Tour. After all, I had
just spent months getting in tons of reps with the best home for the best
threat in the format. What could go wrong?

Mono-Black Zombies

Gerry Thompson

1st Place at Pro Tour on 05-12-2017

Standard

Creatures (24)

Lands (24)

22 Swamp
2 Westvale Abbey

Spells (12)

Sideboard

Temur Aetherworks

Yuuya Watanabe

2nd Place at Pro Tour on 05-12-2017

Standard

Creatures (10)

Lands (22)

Spells (28)

Sideboard

Our testing revealed that Zombies beats Mardu. Dark Salvation, Liliana’s
Mastery, and Diregraf Colossus all allow your Zombies opponent to amass a
huge horde of creatures before you can establish a battlefield safe enough
for Gideon. Transforming into a control deck and sweeping them is not
particularly effective against Relentless Dead and Dread Wanderer. I found
that staying aggressive and racing with Aethersphere Harvester swings the
matchup back to about a coin flip, and that Gideon should not be a big part
of your post-sideboard plan.

Similarly, Aetherworks Marvel decks are not afraid of Gideon. “Seven power
for four mana? Okay, cool, I’ll cast Ulamog now.” Even their Marvel
“misses” gave them a Whirler Virtuoso or Rogue Refiner with which to chump
block and recharge for another spin.

It didn’t take long for Aetherworks Marvel to get banned. However, as soon
as one tough matchup left, another rose to take its place.

W/U Monument

Todd Anderson

4th Place at Star City Games Invitational on 06-30-2017

Standard

Creatures (24)

Lands (25)

Spells (11)

Sideboard

U/W Monument does not care about Gideon. Between Thraben Inspector and
their token engine, he can be chump blocked for days. The 2/2 Knight Allies
are meaningless against a deck that can out grind any midrange opponent.
Selfless Spirit, Bygone Bishop, and Spell Queller can just attack and kill
him before he gets out of control.

Then there’s Temur Energy.

Temur Energy

Matt Tumavitch

1st Place at Star City Games Classic on 05-28-2017

Standard

Creatures (22)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Lands (21)

Spells (14)

Sideboard

This deck first appeared before the Marvel ban and soon took up an even
larger share of the metagame. Even when it’s not helping to set up a combo
that’s too good for Standard, the Temur Energy package is quite strong.
Whirler Virtuoso and Glorybringer both make it hard to keep a planeswalker
on the battlefield. Rogue Refiner and Thopter tokens can chump block until
it’s safe to attack Gideon. Bristling Hydra is impossible to remove once it
resolves. What are you going to do when that thing is on the battlefield,
just chump block with Knights forever?

The situation did not improve after Hour of Devastation.

Ramunap Red

Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa

1st Place at Pro Tour on 07-28-2017

Standard

Creatures (26)

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Lands (24)

Spells (8)

4 Shock
4 Abrade

Sideboard

You don’t want to be casting Gideon against Ramunap Red. The most likely
outcome after casting him on turn 4 is that they remove your 2/2 blocker,
attack Gideon to death, and then cast another spell that turn to get even
further ahead on mana. Sometimes they just ignore Gideon and attack you
instead, which feels even worse.

Divorcing Gideon from Mardu

With all Gideon had going against him, why did I play Mardu at Pro Tour Hour of Devastation?

The biggest reason was that I had a limited amount of time to prepare, and
it was the deck I knew best by far. But it was also because I had a plan
for the expected metagame, and I realized that I didn’t have to play four
copies of Gideon in the maindeck. I expected to see a lot of Ramunap Red,
against which my record on Magic Online in the preceding weeks had been
excellent. I was very happy with my list, and I registered almost the same
75 at GP Minneapolis.

Mardu Vehicles

Matt Severa

32nd Place at Grand Prix on 08-05-2017

Standard

Creatures (20)

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Lands (25)

Spells (14)

Sideboard

I still had one copy of Gideon in the maindeck. Due to the popularity of
Ramunap Red and Zombies at that event, it might have been correct to play
zero. I ended up with a pretty middling 11-4 at that event, but my friend
Rob Castro made Top 8 with almost the same 75, qualifying for his first Pro
Tour.

Switching It Up

Steve Locke took down GP Minneapolis with Zombies. With that and the
sustained presence of Ramunap Red and Temur Energy, I expected Gideon’s
stock to stay low for a while. Since Deserts had been printed in Hour of Devastation, I had thought about trying Thought-Knot Seer,
as it’s just an objectively messed-up Magic card. It fits nicely into the
space left by Gideon, crews Heart of Kiran, dodges Abrade, and attacks the
metagame from a different angle.

After a few weeks of jamming Leagues on Magic Online, I ended up here:

Mardu Vehicles

Matt Severa

1st Place at Grand Prix on 09-02-2017

Standard

Creatures (24)

Lands (24)

Spells (12)

Sideboard

Thought-Knot Seer lines up well versus many of the decks that Gideon
doesn’t. Against Temur Energy it usually takes a creature like Bristling
Hydra, Glorybringer, or Whirler Virtuoso that would have swung the game in
their favor. Even if they immediately kill Thought-Knot Seer, you’ve slowed
down their progression and given yourself more time to chip away at their
life total with Scrapheap Scrounger. Against Ramunap Red, the dream is to
take their only copy of Hazoret, but even just taking a removal spell and
then sitting back with a four-toughness creature can buy you a lot of time.

You lose out in the spots where your planeswalkers are still good: Mardu
mirrors, B/G Constrictor, control, and ramp. Against the latter three you
don’t lose too much; your post-sideboard plan is still good and
Thought-Knot Seer is still a fine card. However, against traditional builds
of Mardu, you are definitely giving up some equity.

A note on the Deserts: you have to play them if you want to cast
Thought-Knot Seer, but otherwise they’re not great. Ramunap Ruins is the
best, and there are certainly spots where you activate the other two, but
the utility is more than offset by the life loss.

Looking Forward

While I think this version is still a fine choice for pre-Ixalan
Standard, it’s not necessarily better than a traditional version of Mardu.
Thought-Knot Seer is a great Magic card, but it should be considered a
metagame call that you would make if you expect to face a lot of Temur
Energy and mono red. If Mardu and ramp look to be popular, then I’d go with
Gideon instead.

After Ixalan

While most of the pieces for Mardu Vehicles stay in after the rotation, the
loss of Thraben Inspector might be enough to kill the deck completely.
Bomat Courier stands out as a possible replacement, but losing a sticky
artifact is a big deal, and the play pattern of Courier doesn’t fit neatly
into current Mardu builds. Only a fraction of the set has been revealed, so
anything’s possible, but my best guess right now is that we could see a
switch from white to black, away from Toolcraft Exemplar and towards some
of the new Pirates like Ruin Raider.

A lot will depend on how Heart of Kiran lines up with the rest of the
format, as well as how much support there is for other aggressive
strategies. There might be better payoffs, for instance, if you just stick
to playing Pirate synergies.

This Standard format has been great, and I’ll be sad to see Mardu Vehicles
go, but I’m excited for Ixalan. In particular, I’m hoping for good
support for aggressive Pirate or Merfolk strategies. Will it be as much fun
as driving cars into things? I don’t know, but I’m optimistic.