Hello everyone! Today we will be doing Bo3 on MTG Arena and we will be playing Mardu Control. This deck is a great choice for you if you want to have a chance against every deck in the current metagame. This deck will not give you free wins, but it can win against any deck which is a pretty big appeal to a day. It's basically like a "jund" style of deck. Let us have a look at the deck!

Time Stamps:

Match 1 - 00:03:17

Match 2 - 00:25:40

Match 3 - 00:51:20

Match 4 - 01:08:50

Mardu Control | Allegiance Standard | Ali Aintrazi

• Creatures (6)
• 4 Basilica Bell-Haunt
• 2 Lyra Dawnbringer

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 2 Karn, Scion of Urza
• 3 Angrath, the Flame-Chained

• Instants (4)
• 4 Mortify

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Duress
• 4 Kaya's Wrath

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Captive Audience
• 2 Dawn of Hope
• 2 The Eldest Reborn

• Artifacts (6)
• 2 Thaumatic Compass
• 4 Treasure Map

• Lands (25)
• 1 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 3 Blood Crypt
• 3 Clifftop Retreat
• 3 Dragonskull Summit
• 3 Sacred Foundry
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Isolated Chapel

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Banefire
• 3 Star of Extinction
• 2 Sorcerous Spyglass
• 1 Bedevil
• 1 Profane Procession
• 1 Cry of the Carnarium
• 2 Theater of Horrors
• 2 Moment of Craving
• 1 Ethereal Absolution

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Again, this deck is built with the metagame in mind. A card like Duress may look out of place but it is actually very good right now in the main deck. Before, Mono-Red burn played more creatures, but right now, they have a ton of non-creature spells. The worst Duress gets is against Sultai but you can still snag a Vivien Reid or even Find // Fatality. It just does not hit Hydroid Krasis but Angrath, the Flame-Chained can steal Hydroid Krasis and bash them in the face before it dies. Basilica Bell-Haunt is an excellent card against aggressive decks, especially mono Red. It forces them to pitch a card and if that card is not a land, they are in trouble because the Bell Haunt has the magic butt with 4 toughness. Bell Haunt into Lyra is usually good game against the Red deck.

Mortify over Bedevil in the main deck because you want to be able to interact with Nexus of Fate decks. Blowing up things like Wilderness Reclamation and Search for Azcanta is very important in that matchup. Captive Audience excels in this matchup as well forcing the opponent to continuously pick modes, even if they take more turns.

As for the Sideboard, you have tools to just become better against whatever metagame deck you are playing against. I like Sorcerous Spyglass against planeswalkers like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria because I can preemptively play it and name Teferi while also getting a peek at their hand. With Bedevil I must hold up mana and wait for them to play Teferi and draw a card before I can try to destroy Teferi. Even if I destroy Teferi they are still up a card over me. I still like access to Bedevil for decks that are playing both creatures and planeswalkers but against Nexus decks, Sorcerous Spyglass is much better. I've moved Ethereal Absolution to the Sideboard, it's different than the video but this list you see now is where I am at, so I would copy this one over the one in the video. Absolution proved to be too dead against non-creature decks and that hurts as a 6-drop. Star of Extinction is for the Sultai/Golgari midrange decks and Banefire is obviously for control decks.

Feel free to watch the video to gain some knowledge on how the deck plays, if you play it correctly, it is very rewarding!

As always, thanks for reading,

Ali Aintrazi

Follow me @AliEldrazi

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