Mardu Warrior Aggro (Frontier)

What does the deck do?
It plays Warriors and cards that have synergy with the archetype.
It goes fast, wide, and underneath other decks.

What inspired the deck?

• I was looking at building an eldrazi vehicles deck and was noticing maybe I could go with a second creature tribe/type. I looked at warriors and realized it did not work for that deck, but that there were a lot of low costed powerful warrior cards.

Step 1: Looking at 1cmc creatures. (this is never step 1 for me)
Looking at playing 14 of them so I can curve out as often as possible with a 1cmc turn one and then a 2cmc and a 1cmc creature on turn three.
looking at 2 power creatures

a) Bloodsoaked Champion. 4 copies.
*The best 1cmc creature we have since its recursion triggers so easily.

b) Zurgo Bellstriker. 2 copies.
2 toughness is relevant against certain removal.
legendary rule means we only play 2 copies.
*being able to dash it midgame is pretty sweet.

c) Mardu Woe-Reaper. 4 copies.
*removes a card from a graveyard, can be important in a few matchups.

d) Dragon Hunter. 4 copies.
*Glorybringer will be around, so I guess the ability can be relevant in rare instances.

Step 2: Looking at 2cmc creatures.
*They must either anthem our board or provide evasion.

a) Earthshaker Khenra. 4 copies.
haste is really nice.
makes sure an early game creature cannot block.
*recursion is nice, but if we ever hit six mana on board we are likely in trouble.

b) Chief of the Edge. 4 copies.
has nice stats as a 3/2.
anthems our entire board.

c) Blood Chin Rager. 3 copies
great menace anthem effect.
menace is not a stackable ability, so despite wanting to draw BCR multiples serve no purpose whatsoever.

d) Mardu Skullhunter. 2 copies.
some minor disruption in the early game.
as the midgame approaches this could actually make the opponent make a difficult decision.

Step 3: Looking at 3cmc.

a) Reckless Bushwhacker. 3 copies.
really a 2cmc creature for turns three or four.
provides the deck with a blowout swing as he and the other creature you cast that turn get haste to attack and he gives other attackers +1/+0.
*Great company when you also attack with Blood Chin Rager, Chief of the Edge, or both.

b) Ahn-Crop Crasher. 2 copies.
stopping their best threat from attacking is amazing.
haste is excellent
*3 power is decent.

Step 4: Look at 4cmc creatures.
*looked at three possible creatures.

i) Mardu Strike Leader

• tricky card with pseudo haste
  -leaves behind a warrioor token
  -3 power will likely get pumped to 4 on attack
  -Why not? you want to cast it as a dash creature and I'd rather play Bushwhacker or Crasher with another creature on turn four.

ii) Brutal Hordechief
-dealing 1 damage just for attacking with a creature is great.
-his own stats are not great, making this mostly a spell on an average body.
-if he lost the second ability and gained haste, then we'd be in business.

iii) Hazoret, the Fervant
-not a Warrior, but just so explosive at the top of an aggro curve.
-to play Hazoret you really want to be playing 23 lands and I just do not want to be that high up on the curve, I'm looking at 21.

Step 5: Look at some utility spells.

a) Pride of Conquerors. 2 copies
getting +1/+1 for 2cmc is really good.
getting the city's blessing is possible, but unlikely.

b) Stoke the Flames. 2 copies.
*We may not play enough red to cast it for free, however for R is possible.

c) Fatal Push. 3 copies.
weaker because we are not going heavy on fetches.
still kills all 1/2cmc creatures without restrictions, a lot of times that is enough for 1 mana.
*creatures will die in combat, thus enabling revolt.

Step 6: Looking at mana base.
21 lands.
fetches will not work if we want to curve out well.
*sources needed are: white-14, black-14, red-12 (I get to cheat on red because although we have 1/2cmc red spells, I would not want to play them before turn three).

a) Concealed Courtyard. 4 copies.
b) Inspiring Vantage. 4 copies.
c) Bloodstained Mire. 3 copies. can only fetch two cards, so watch out in opening hands.
d) Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. 1 copy.
e) Unclaimed Territory. 4 copies. noncreature spells will be fine in midgame.
f) Swamp. 1 copy.
g) Mountain. 1 copy.
h) Shefet Dunes. 1 copy. bonus anthem effect.
i) Caves of Koilos. 1 copy.
j) Westvale Abbey. 1 copy. if the board stalls we have an out

Step 7: Sideboard.

a) Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. 2 copies.
can target 28 main board creatures to return.
decent stats herself, with first strike

b) Fleshbag Marauder. 2 copies.
often a great trade to sac off a 1cmc creature to kill an opponents quality midrange threat.
targeting Bloodsoaked Champion is always a great play.

c) Combat Celebrant. 2 copies.
*sneaky card to play against other decks that are trying to out aggro us.

d) Mardu Skullhunter. 2 copies.
*Blood Chin Rager serves little purpose against decks that will not have blockers.

e) Shock. 2 copies.
better against more targets then say Rending Volley.
1cmc cost is important
*mainly here to kill Saheeli (breaks up the combo)

f) Duress. 3 copies.
Settle the Wreckage and Languish are really difficult for us to navigate.
Usually sides in well for Fatal Push.

g) Chandra's Defeat. 1 copy.
*Deals with red threats not named Hazoret or Rekindling Phoenix.

h) Declaration in Stone. 1 copy.
*Best option we have for the real nasty stuff in the format.

Final Thoughts

A) This deck plays some very powerful aggro creatures.

B) There is a lot of synergy amongst the warrior tribal theme.

C) Although we are playing very little removal, what we are playing is very good and at a very low cmc.

D) We are very weak to Settle the Wreckage and Languish. i considered playing Selfless Spirit in the sideboard, however it will not defend us against either of these cards. Therefore we side in Duress and hope we draw it, they don't draw their mass removal, or we simply out race them.

E) This deck has some very big midgame swings that come out of nowhere. There is a lot of haste, evasion, and anthem effects for the opponent to contend with, and often they will not see them coming until they explode on them.

F) I honestly believe that in a slower format this is a viable deck. If aggro is not a big part of a meta then this deck can be very sneaky.

G) I wish we had a way to protect ourselves from sweepers. Indestructible just doesn't do the job in this format.