Doesn't Mardu's raid mechanic feel out of flavor? It feels blue and something else to me. You get the unblockable creatures of blue combined with the raid tricks from other colors. Well, let's fix that! Let's run raid in a Commander deck that includes blue. How about . . . Esper? That seems like a solid idea—it gives us the friendly cards that would work well with raid (Venser, the Sojourner and Inkfathom Infiltrator come to mind) while giving two raid colors to use in the deck.

Let’s get to it!

Esper Mardu ? Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Zur the Enchanter

• Creatures (32)
• 1 Aetherling
• 1 Agent of Erebos
• 1 Archetype of Courage
• 1 Archetype of Imagination
• 1 Bloodsoaked Champion
• 1 Dauthi Marauder
• 1 Dauthi Mercenary
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Deepchannel Mentor
• 1 Doomwake Giant
• 1 Draining Whelk
• 1 Inkfathom Infiltrator
• 1 Invisible Stalker
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Liliana's Specter
• 1 Mardu Hordechief
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Nighthowler
• 1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Sphinx of Uthuun
• 1 Timely Hordemate
• 1 Triton Shorestalker
• 1 Wei Night Raiders
• 1 Wingmate Roc
• 1 Athreos, God of Passage
• 1 Ephara, God of the Polis
• 1 Lu Xun, Scholar General
• 1 Sun Quan, Lord of Wu
• 1 Venser, Shaper Savant

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
• 1 Venser, the Sojourner

• Spells (27)
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Dismiss
• 1 Dissipate
• 1 Dromar's Charm
• 1 Ghostly Flicker
• 1 Utter End
• 1 Replenish
• 1 Act of Authority
• 1 Aura of Silence
• 1 Blind Obedience
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Land Tax
• 1 Larceny
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Seal of Removal
• 1 Soul Snare
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mask of Memory
• 1 Quietus Spike
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak
• 1 Bident of Thassa

• Lands (38)
• 8 Plains
• 9 Island
• 9 Swamp
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Orzhov Basilica
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rupture Spire
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Transguild Promenade

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There's my take on doing Mardu the Esper way!

After some obvious additions in this vein (Rogue's Passage and Whispersilk Cloak), I added some solid raid cards. In order to abuse raiding creatures, particularly Wingmate Roc, I wanted to include a bit of support for these enter-the-battlefield (ETB) abilities. Deadeye Navigator and friends will help to ensure that you have a nice raid experience.

Since these folks were in, let's add in some more ETB stuff! Obvious players such as Mulldrifter and Karmic Guide slid in. We can kill, bounce, tutor, draw cards, or discard as needed. The deck gained some ETB reusability.

What commander should make the cut? Well, I needed an Esper-colored body that worked with the theme, but none did. I could play a generic guy like Dromar, the Banisher, but remember that I want to attack in order to set off raid. The only commander that worked with an attack ability was Zur. All right, Zur, head on in!

That obviously shifts the focus of the deck. Might as well have some enchantment-based removal, right? So, Act of Authority and Seal of Removal are solid Zurditions.

Next up is fleshing out the various pieces. In heads some removal and tools, such as Utter End and Dromar's Charm. Draining Whelk is a good counter that is on theme. Phyrexian Arena and Rhystic Study are good card-draw choices with Zur grabbing them. Might as well run Replenish and Unburial Rites.

We're hitting folks a lot, so cards that give my creatures abilities when hit opponents do so seem useful. Bident of Thassa and Larceny are both useful, as is stuff like Quietus Spike. It seems that the deck could use some tempo, so stuff like Cyclonic Rift, Blind Obedience, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, and Cryptic Command are added. Venser, the Sojourner is perfect to make stuff unblockable for a turn for raiding or for blinking something and reusing it.

And there's my sneaky-raid-shadow-horsemanship-enchantment-ETB-tempo deck for you! It's among the odder concoctions I've brought out recently. There are a lot of ways you can take it due to the many places it dips. Enjoy the quirkiness of Esper on Mardu!

I hope that you enjoyed it . . . 

But that's not all . . . 

After I started adding in a few horsemanship creatures, I had a fun idea for another raid-based Mardu deck without blue completely. Maybe I don't need to dip into blue at all for this stuff . . . 

Here it is:

Horse Mardu ? Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Blazing Specter
• 1 Bloodsoaked Champion
• 1 Hellkite Tyrant
• 1 Liliana's Reaver
• 1 Lord of the Void
• 1 Mardu Heart-Piercer
• 1 Mardu Hordechief
• 1 Prophetic Flamespeaker
• 1 Scion of Darkness
• 1 Stoneforge Mystic
• 1 Stonehewer Giant
• 1 Timely Hordemate
• 1 Vampire Nighthawk
• 1 Wei Night Raiders
• 1 Wingmate Roc
• 1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1 Commander Eesha
• 1 Guan Yu, Sainted Warrior
• 1 Iroas, God of Victory
• 1 Liu Bei, Lord of Shu
• 1 Lu Bu, Master-at-Arms
• 1 Tajic, Blade of the Legion
• 1 Yuan Shao, the Indecisive
• 1 Zhang Fei, Fierce Warrior
• 1 Zhang He, Wei General
• 1 Adarkar Valkyrie

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
• 1 Chandra, Pyromaster
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

• Spells (31)
• 1 Into the Core
• 1 Sudden Spoiling
• 1 Utter End
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Entreat the Angels
• 1 Howl of the Horde
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Mass Mutiny
• 1 Relentless Assault
• 1 Rolling Earthquake
• 1 Syphon Mind
• 1 Unburial Rites
• 1 Vindicate
• 1 Celestial Mantle
• 1 Dauthi Embrace
• 1 Dictate of Heliod
• 1 Larceny
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mask of Memory
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Quietus Spike
• 1 Rogue's Gloves
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak
• 1 Hammer of Purphoros
• 1 Spear of Heliod

• Lands (39)
• 9 Mountain
• 9 Plains
• 9 Swamp
• 1 Boros Garrison
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Nomad Outpost
• 1 Orzhov Basilica
• 1 Rakdos Carnarium
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rupture Spire
• 1 Slayers' Stronghold
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Transguild Promenade

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That's not a bad sneaky-raid deck either!

We have a lot of horsemanship options that I delved for the deck. Cards like Wei Night Raiders, Yuan Shao, the Indecisive, and Lu Bu, Master-at-Arms all have interesting elements to consider. You know what works with horsemanship? Rolling Earthquake! I also pushed this into nonhorsemanship territory as well. Dauthi Embrace can be used to enshadow an attacker. We also have two of the Swords of X and Y to slip through defenses that rock vulnerable colors.

Again, I also added some cards with damage triggers. Since we have a different style of deck (without the enchantment theme and without blue), I certainly kept some nice tricks (Larceny and Quietus Spike), but I mostly added in some new stuff, such as Rogue's Gloves, Mask of Memory, Celestial Mantle, and the Swords.

That's a lot of Equipment, so instead of the enchantment theme, how about an Equipment one? Stoneforge Mystic and Stonehewer Giant both will fetch the requisite aid. Gird your heroes with only the best that money can forge.

So tricks like Dictate of Heliod and pump like Spear of Heliod are useful. We can add the Hammer of Purphoros to speed up our stuff (as well as enable raid on the first turn when we drop a critter, swing, and then play the raid card right after).

Prophetic Flamespeaker wields Equipment well, wants to be unblocked, and looks good when amped. There are some other similar guys running around under the hood. We have Ajani, Caller of the Pride to throw someone into the air and give it double strike. And check out Commander Eesha's unblockability here!

Next up is the needed support. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is a solid producer of bodies turn after turn while Chandra, Pyromaster draws you a card every turn—sort of. Without blue, we can stretch with stuff like this or Syphon Mind. The deck'll work on that part.

Removal follows. No, these decks don't have typical Swords to Plowshares–style removal, but Vindicate, Into the Core, and Utter End are useful. Sudden Spoiling is a great trick to unleash on someone and usually results in a lot of dying bodies. No deck is complete without some sort of mass removal, even if just one or two cards. In addition to Oros and the Earthquake, In Garruk's Wake is a solid choice for late game. I decided not to run the common Insurrection for that ability since our commander can churn the creatures dead, and it doesn't play well with stuff like Howl of the Horde. Mass Mutiny does, and it’s cheaper, so it leaps into the deck instead.

Don't forget that these decks don’t need to worry about opposing defense. When you have Invisible Stalker and Commander Eesha dicing with Dauthi Marauder and Lu Xun, the deck has a lot of ability to hit. Winning is not a problem, and triggering raid should be fine as well. Therefore, you are more concerned with keeping up an open defense to protect against folks coming your way. If you want to throw in stuff like Kor Haven, Maze of Ith, and such, feel encouraged. There are a lot of other options, too (such as going after attackers with Wing Shards or Vengeful Dreams or bouncing them with Aetherize).

There are a lot of ways to explore raid in your decks. So have fun with it!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent