“If I’d have known, if I’d have known.”
Art:Zurgo Stormrender
by Lie Setiawan
Table of Contents
After doing the other clans, its time to get back to basics, no more defenders or spellslinging just good old fashioned going to combat, luckily that is exactly what Zurgo provides us, well all of the mardu designs as of late feel like they are just destined to go into Isshin, we are still going to play Zurgo and they offer a very nice token package and some classic turning cards sideways action, I am not the biggest fan of Mardu but was quite surprised by this deck and found it performed much better than I thought it would, as always, budget upgrades help this deck a ton, I never strayed away from the token strategy just included some cards I thought made the deck better. Without further ado, let’s get it!
Original Precon Decklist:
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Mardu Surge Precon Decklistt!
Budget Upgrades for the deck:
Add:
On TCGPlayer, copies of Caesar, Legions Emperor range from 2 to 3 dollars; some copies are a little cheaper, depending on the version.
Cut:
While flavor-wise, it really doesn’t make a ton of sense that Caesar is on Tarkir, from a gameplay perspective, it makes a ton of sense. Caesar is an extremely strong card for the deck that gives us strong token production, as well as card draw and non-combat damage. While it is a little pricey mana-cost wise, it is very strong. In testing, I had a ton of success with Caesar, and it added a lot to the deck. The main reason I cut Loyal Apprentice is that they are slow token production, and we have considerably better token production.
Add:
On TCGPlayer, copies of Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon range from 3 to 4 dollars; some copies are a little cheaper, depending on the version.
Cut:
Anim is a token-generation machine and can pump out tokens at a ridiculous rate, which synergizes extremely well with our commander; Most opponents tend to undervalue Anim until it is too late. I think this card is a banger in the deck and can allow you to have some ridiculous play lines. I cut Ironwill Forger mostly because we have much better token production and really just don’t need the myriad ability. I found Forger to be consistently underwhelming during testing.
Add:
On TCGPlayer, copies of Impact Tremors range from 2 to 3 dollars; some copies are a little cheaper, depending on the version.
Cut:
I am truly shocked that they didn’t include Impact Tremors in this deck, the only reason I can think that they didn’t include it is that it is quite the mean card and may not be balanced against the other precons, Impact Tremors makes this deck extremely strong and be able to output a ridckous amount of non-combat damage with ease. The reason I cut Legion Loyalty is that it draws a considerable amount of heat from our opponents and is just expensive and slow. I don’t think that its effect is worth it; we just do better damage and bigger and better things for not eight mana.
Add:
On TCGPlayer, copies of Bone-Cairn Butcher range from 0.25 to 0.30 cents; some copies are a little cheaper, depending on the version..
Cut:
Bone-Cairn Butcher is an insane card that really helps to put us over the top and make us an absolute menace in combat, giving all of our tokens deathtouch makes us an absolute nightmare for us to deal with in combat. It is a little pricey, but it’s a strong creature that has a really insane effect for our deck. Aron isn’t a bad card at all, but in my opinion, we can do a lot better than giving our creatures +1/+1. I think it’s a lot of mana investment for not a lot of payoff.
Add:
On TCGPlayer, copies of Enduring Courage range from 1 to 3 Dollars; some copies are a little cheaper, depending on the version.
Cut:
I am not a big fan of Sun Titan in this deck. I don’t think Sun Titan is as good as it used to be, and it just feels underwhelming now. I do like Enduring Courage a lot in this deck, as it allows us to output a crazy amount of damage and be a lot more threatening to our opponents. I think this is a great card for our deck.