Mardu Treasures

> Overview

This is a midrange deck that seeks to establish an early game with Akiri on the board providing incredible (non-flying) board presence stockpiling treasure tokens and a later game focused on draining your opponents out by using those tokens.

Play this deck if you:
Enjoy playing the most refined color pairing in Commander
Love generating a pile of treasure
Enjoy a very consistent turns 1-3
Enjoy a variety of paths to victory

Do not play this deck if you:
Are looking to aggressively combo off (this deck is purposely tuned to my meta)
Think treasures are way too pushed by WoTC lately (they are, but I won't let that stop me from continuing to love it)
Enjoy being rewarded for simply breathing through your mouth by being allowed to vomit lands onto the battlefield and drawing beyond hand size every turn (go play Simic)

> Introduction

Previous versions of the deck that I played for several years focused on an aggressive strategy pairing Akiri with Tymna, looking for explosive turns 1-3 powering Akiri up and ramping with 0CMC mana rocks while establishing the Akiri/Tymna engine to blow the game out by turn 5. This strategy was usually too potent for my playgroup, and removing the 0CMC rocks left the deck (in my opinion) as an aggro deck with no gas. I wanted a change and to re-tool the deck into midrange with some oomph in the end game.

This iteration of the deck replaces Tymna with Nadier and is an artifact token aristocrats deck at its heart. There is a certain Yin and Yang between Akiri and Nadier. Stockpiling treasures powers Akiri up but does nothing for Nadier. Using treasures powers Akiri down but charges Nadier up. My buddy describes it as "the transfer of power being complete."

True to being a midrange deck, it seeks to establish an early aggressive board presence with Akiri while seeking to amass a pile of artifact tokens. As some point you will want to start using your treasures. You should get Nadier out before this point to maintain the value from them. Nadier provides a growing inevitability that a simple Path to Exile can't solve for your opponents. Nadier along with various cards synergistic with the sacrifice of artifacts allow you to milk maximum value out of your treasures to drain your opponents out while using them to fuel your spells.

> Starting Hand and Early Game

A perfect starting hand has these elements, in priority order:

• A way to generate W and R on T2
• An artifact or a way to generate an artifact token to turn Akiri on by combat on T3
• A way to start generating treasures
• A card advantage source to refill by T4 or T5

Early game looks remarkably similar each game, and it's here you can choose to power up the deck with duals, 0CMC artifacts and/or off color fetches.

• T1: Fetching Savai Triome, dropping a tapped dual artifact land, or playing an on-curve 1CMC drop (Esper Sentinel, Sol Ring, Curse of Opulence, and Shadowspear are your best bets). The land you play T1 needs to be able to make W or R.
• T2: Playing your other source of W or R as a land drop, and then dropping Akiri. I have purposely removed all 2CMC mana rocks from this revision of the deck. You nearly always want to play Akiri on T2. Dropping a 2CMC rock on T3 is fine (perhaps you have 2 in hand and would thus be able to play both) but I want to trial higher impact 3CMC mana rocks that don't mind being played on curve.
• T3: Things start to open up here. Remember those 3CMC rocks I talked about? A charged Coalition Relic on T3 will ensure a T4 Nadier with a land drop. Note that Curse of Opulence or Guild Artisan are perfectly fine T3 drops, as they give value on the attack trigger. A 0 power Akiri will immediately generate 1 Gold token or 2 Treasure tokens on attack, effectively "jump-starting" her before blockers are declared. The 3CMC slot is absolutely loaded in this deck and it's hard to go wrong. Cursed Mirror or Skyclave Relic are fine to drop here if you've got nothing else, but both of these are excellent late game.
  • Cursed Mirror: Doesn't target and gives haste. Amazing. Cut through Hexproof or Ward and grab that Tivit, Seller of Secrets and swing it to get two triggers. Maybe your Nadier died and left behind a bunch of bodies. Go ahead and copy your opponent's Craterhoof and finish them off. Every red deck (including yours) runs Dockside Extortionist, so odds are good that you can simply hit that. All of these are actual examples that have occurred in game with Cursed Mirror.
  • Skyclave Relic: At worst it is a Darksteel Ingot. Better, it provides 3 Darksteel Ingots for 6 mana. At best, you're dropping it with an Ingenious Infiltrator or Reckless Fireweaver and/or Anointed Procession out and creating an absolutely mad value play for 6 mana.

> Mid Game

At this point, your goal priority is to establish a treasure generating engine if you have not already, and to get Nadier out to snowball the value out of sacrificing your treasures.

Directions to go:

• Swinging in with a sufficiently large Akiri is certainly a valid option. Tacking on a sword or two, doubling up with Cranial Plating, or hitting enough artifacts that Embercleave becomes a killer are all Voltron avenues of play.
• Get Nadier out and snowball treasures. You've got a truckload of options now.
  • Dockside will always do it.
  • If you have a handful of evasive attackers, Curse of Opulence, Guild Artisan (which will trigger separately for both Akiri and Nadier!), Professional Facebreaker, Goldspan Dragon, and Grim Hireling will start making huge piles of treasure.
    -- Make at least 5 in combat with Aggravated Assault out (or use Sword of Feast and Famine) and go infinite on combat.
  • A gross interaction exists between Akiri and Ruthless Technomancer. Akiri's power can get huge on the battlefield (her own ability, equipment like Cranial Plating, etc.). You can drop the Technomancer, sacrificing Akiri to it for a massive blast of treasures. Then any time before your next turn, simply pay 2B and sacrifice a single treasure (X can't be 0 after all) to bring your 0/3 Akiri back out of the yard.
• Establish Sunforger. Sunforger brings all the protection in your deck to the palm of your hand. It should probably be the first thing you grab with Stoneforge Mystic, unless you think you have a direct line to victory someplace else.

> Closing Out the Game

• Persist and drain. The "Token Synergies" package is your route to closing out the long game the midrange way. Use your treasures to fuel your spells and grow your Nadier and drain out your opponents. At some point your gigantic Nadier will die and leave behind a pile of 1/1 elves. Don't let off the pressure. Agent of the Iron Throne can (again, double) trigger on their deaths along with Nadier's Nightblade. Neither of these cards care if elves or treasure are hitting the bin. With a pile of elves you can continue a go wide strategy to generate treasure with Grim Hireling and the gang to repeat the process. Use Skullclamp on your elves to refill your hand. Drop 10 tokens into Bolas's Citidel (even better with Mayhem Devil) to start closing things down quick.
• Again, swinging in with a sufficiently large Akiri (or Nadier, late game) is a valid option. Between the three swords in the deck, you have protection from all colors available to you. Shizo, Death's Storehouse as well as Embercleave and Shadowspear ensure you push through. Hopefully you have the Sunforger package online to cover your ass as you Voltron out. Opponent playing a Grave Pact deck, which is the bane of any Voltron strategy? Cover your Akiri with a Nadier sac and fill the field with token fodder to sac to the triggers, and benefit from it all with your Nightblade, Agent of the Iron Throne, or Mayhem Devil.
• How big of a treasure pile have you generated?
  • Do you have Magda, Brazen Outlaw out? Attempt to tutor Hellkite Tyrant before your upkeep and win.
  • Do you have Academy Rector out? A sac outlet? Sac her before your upkeep to grab Revel in Riches and win.
  • Suit up Marionette Master. A sufficiently large Master (God help them if you get Cranial Plating on it) can turn treasure sacs into nuclear bombs.

> Other Interactions and Closing Comments

Sword of Hearth and Home has some serious value attached. Not only does it ramp you, you can shake extra value out of your ETB creatures, and you've got plenty (Disciple of Bolas, Dockside Extortionist, Ruthless Technomancer, Stoneforge Mystic, Imperial Recruiter).