Mardu Treasures

> Introduction

This is a midrange deck that seeks to establish an early game with Akiri 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 turn 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)

> Overview

Previous versions of the deck that I played for several years focused on an aggressive strategy pairing Akiri with Tymna, looking for an explosive turn 1-3 powering Akiri up and ramping with 0CMC mana rocks while establishing the Akiri/Tymna engine to keep your hand full and 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 looks to establish an early aggressive board presence with Akiri while seeking to amass a pile of artifact tokens. At 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.

> Strategy

> 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 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.
• T3: Paths start to open here. In theory playing a bunch of mana rocks in your deck is fine, and a great T3 would be land, 2CMC rock, 2CMC rock. This deck just creates so much passive ramp through treasure generation. It loves playing up the curve and rocks just haven’t felt necessary. Curse of Opulence or Guild Artisan feel great on T3, as they give value on the attack trigger. A 0 power Akiri will immediately generate 1 Gold token or 2 Treasure tokens on attack with these cards, effectively "jump-starting" her before blockers are declared. There’s so many new 3CMC engines you don’t feel bad about dropping – Professional Face-Breaker, Black Market Connections, Smuggler’s Share, Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter, Academy Manufactor. Get a sword out. Drop a recruiter and get a value piece. Don’t feel bad about playing Cursed Mirror on curve because it is at the end of the day simply a 3CMC rock.

> Mid Game

At this point, your 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 from here

• 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. Mother of Runes doubles as a way to get damage through or to provide protection.
• 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 treasures 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 and removal in your deck to the palm of your hand. It should probably be the first thing you grab with Stoneforge Mystic or Fighter Class, unless you think you have a direct line to victory someplace else. You can always Sunforger for Enlightened Tutor.

> Infinite Combos

As far as I know, the only infinite combo in the deck is generating enough treasures (or using Sword of Feast and Famine) with Aggravated Assault to continue endless combats.

> Wincons

• 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, Mother of Runes 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 or Jan Jansen 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.
• 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.

> Single Card Discussion

• 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.
• Disciple of the Vault: Don’t be like me. Recognize this card sees ALL artifacts on the board hitting the bin.
• Fighter Class: Slept on tutor. 2 mana to go find Sunforger isn’t a bad rate. Paying 3 to reduce equip costs by 2 stapled to a tutor is fantastic. God help them if you get Sunforger equipped with this at Level 2. Shadowspear, Cranial Plating, and Sword equips become free.
• Mother of Runes: Doubles as evasion (pick a color so they can’t block) or protection (pick the color of the removal pointed at your creature to make it whiff). Great card.
• Ruthless Technomancer: If you missed it above, sacrifice a huge Akiri to the Technomancer to make a pile of treasures. Akiri, having 0 power in the graveyard, will only need 2B + 1 treasure sac to reanimate.
• 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, Recruiter of the Guard).
• Skyclave Apparition: Can deal with nearly any problem card I can think of off the top of my head, can be recurred with Sevinne's Reclamation, found with both Imperial Recruiter or Recruiter of the Guard, and blinked with Sword of Hearth and Home.

> Notable Exclusions

• Wheel of Fortune: Was avoiding the Wheel/Breach/Tithe combo.
• Fast Mana: Deck is tuned to my meta. If you want to play fast mana, I suggest an Akiri/Tymna variant. Being able to ramp through playing Akiri on 2 / Tymna on 3 (or earlier!) while getting Akiri online is ruthless and fantastic.
• Black Tutors: Deck is tuned to my meta. That said, I feel like my abuseable creature-based tutors and artifact/enchantment tutors generally get me where I need to go.
• Ancient Copper Dragon: Very expensive card ($$$). At the end of the day it's a big beater without haste that needs to cause combat damage to trigger. Hellkite Tyrant suffers from the same problem, and I'm running Hellkite Tyrant before I run this. The only 6 mana creature I want to eat removal is Nadier. Marionette Master is great because if it's not countered, you get to sac all your treasures in response to any removal.
• All That Glitters / Nettlecyst: It breaks my heart not to have these cards in the deck. Getting Cranial Plating type effects on Nadier is gross. Getting them on Marionette Master is gross. Sac’ing them under Disciple of Bolas or Ruthless Technomancer is gross. Attacking with them under Akroma’s Will or Embercleave is gross. Ultimately, an extra 1 mana to cast and 1 to equip is a tough sell in return for Living Weapon with Nettlecyst. Yeah, for 3 mana it comes right out and you can sac the germ to Disciple of Bolas or the Technomancer. If you don't have those cards though, you just wind up with a big beater. Akiri is great comparatively because she costs 2 and has the vigilance and first strike. I'd rather just give this slot to a tutor and have the flexibility of finding Cranial Plating or any of my other weapons in a pinch. All That Glitters is great but without any aura recursion I have a hard time justifying a one-shot effect.
• Artifact Lands: They’re a great idea to power Akiri up until someone drops a Collector Ouphe, Stony Silence, or Null Rod or casts Farewell. And when you’ve been Ouphed and Farewelled enough, you take these lands back out of your deck and burn them.

> Change Log

Revision 9 August 19, 2022 Continuing to increase interaction, looking specifically at treasure hate cards like Ouphe and Stony Silence. -1 Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter, who's neat but there's no room in the deck for an alternate strategy. -1 Reiterate, which fits better in an Aikido Sunforger package. +1 Farewell, which is one of the best wipes ever printed. +1 Skyclave Apparition, which can deal with nearly any problem card I can think of off the top of my head, can be recurred with Sevinne's Reclamation, found with both Recruiters, and blinked with Sword of Hearth and Home.

• Revision 8 August 17, 2022 Lands: I changed them. Having all your artifact lands turn off to an Ouphe or get wiped away in a Farewell doesn't feel good. All my off-color fetches are in my lands deck. Put simply, I readjusted the land base back to utility lands that can be bounced for additional value. Updated Protection package to be more creature/combat focused and less Aikido (-1 Comeuppance -1 Deflecting Palm -1 Spectacular Showdown -1 Pyroblast +1 Akroma's Will +1 Flawless Maneuver +1 Mother of Runes +1 Reiterate). The next chunk of cards is just a tuning pass after conversation - synergistic tutors and engines, more removal. I took out cards that felt tertiary to my gameplan (+1 Damn +1 Disciple of the Vault +1 Fighter Class +1 Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter +1 Recruiter of the Guard +1 Vanishing Verse -1 Academy Rector -1 Coalition Relic -1 Dauthi Voidwalker -1 Opposition Agent -1 Descent into Avernus -1 Inspired Tinkering)

• Revision 7 July 9, 2022 Felt comfortable going down to 34 lands (-1 High Market), replaced it with a treasure generator / burn I've been wanting to try out (+1 Descent into Avernus). Wanted to add in some Aikido type endgame to the deck and felt Idol of Oblivion was perhaps too slow (-1 Idol of Oblivion -1 Magda, Brazen Outlaw -1 Skyclave Relic +1 Comeuppance +1 Deflecting Palm +1 Spectacular Showdown)

• Revision 6 June 15, 2022 Wanted to try out Bennie Bracks, Zoologist and Idol of Oblivion, which both synergize with the tokens this deck is making. Removed Stinging Study (Draw 6 Lose 6 for 5 at instant speed is great but...) and Hellkite Tyrant. Yes, it's a wincon but honestly it's a 6 mana beater with no haste or protection and I just can't convince myself to keep it in for long.

• Revision 5 June 15, 2022 Modified the land base to include all off color fetches, removed Bond Lands / MDFCs to better support getting Akiri out on T2.

• Revision 4 June 12, 2022 Decided that Iroas, God of Victory was adjacent to my strategy and that Mayhem Devil should be back in the deck. While writing the Primer, realized I should probably be running Hellkite Tyrant as a Magda, Brazen Outlaw tutor target (possibly as a way to win the game as an instant speed tutor right before upkeep).

• Revision 3 June 11, 2022 Big CLB update. Removed 2CMC ramp for more attractive on-curve options for turns 1 and 3, as Akiri should always be played turn 2 (-1 Arcane Signet -1 Boros Signet -1 Orzhov Signet -1 Rakdos Signet -1 Talisman of Conviction -1 Talisman of Hierarchy -1 Talisman of Indulgence +1 Black Market Connections +1 Coalition Relic +1 Curse of Opulence +1 Guild Artisan +1 Skyclave Relic). Modified tutors to be more synergistic with Sunforger or treasures (-1 Demonic Tutor -1 Fighter Class +1 Enlightened Tutor +1 Magda, Brazen Outlaw). Removed off-color fetches for more basics and utility (-1 Flooded Strand -1 Polluted Delta -1 Scalding Tarn -1 Verdant Catacombs -1 Windswept Heath -1 Wooded Foothills +1 High Market +1 Inventors' Fair +1 Phyrexian Tower +1 Mountain +1 Plains +1 Swamp). Swapped out a fun combat trick for a fetchable enchantment that provides protection and evasion (-1 Hatred +1 Iroas, God of Victory). Modified artifact synergy package to try out some of the promising CLB options (-1 Mayhem Devil -1 Nettlec

• Revision 2 June 11, 2022 sorted into custom categories

• Revision 1 June 11, 2022 initial commit