Locations
Over the years, we’ve seen a couple of interesting takes on 
tokens in Modern. This had been especially true after Bitterblossom was unbanned, but the deck has been showing up less and less in recent months. Similarly, Young Pyromancer is a card that we saw a lot of after it was first printed, but has really found more of a home in Legacy than in Modern. What we haven’t seen much of is what happens when you try to mix and match pieces of these strategies:
Mardu Tokens - Modern | Selfeisek, 5-0 Modern League
- Creatures (10)
- 2 Monastery Swiftspear
- 4 Bedlam Reveler
- 4 Young Pyromancer
- Instants (12)
- 1 Burst Lightning
- 2 Lightning Helix
- 2 Terminate
- 3 Kolaghan's Command
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- Sorceries (18)
- 1 Dreadbore
- 2 Forked Bolt
- 3 Thoughtseize
- 4 Faithless Looting
- 4 Inquisition of Kozilek
- 4 Lingering Souls
- Enchantments (1)
- 1 Blood Moon
- Lands (19)
- 1 Swamp
- 3 Mountain
- 1 Blood Crypt
- 1 Marsh Flats
- 2 Sacred Foundry
- 3 Wooded Foothills
- 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
- 4 Bloodstained Mire
- Sideboard (15)
- 2 Blood Moon
- 2 Dragon's Claw
- 2 Fatal Push
- 4 Leyline of the Void
- 2 Pithing Needle
- 1 Shattering Spree
- 2 Wear // Tear
tokens had two big problems in the format. First, Bitterblossom is a little bit slow, given that some opponents will untap on the third turn and kill you. Second, Path to Exile isn’t always the removal spell you want, Dismember has a high opportunity cost, and Fatal Push hadn’t been printed the last time the deck saw a resurgence. Similarly, Young Pyromancer decks have always had problems with flying creatures, particularly Inkmoth Nexus and Blinkmoth Nexus.
Selfeisek has solved this problem by taking all the efficient interaction from both decks and combining them with both Young Pyromancer and Lingering Souls. It turns out that you don’t necessarily need Blue cantrips to combo with Young Pyromancer. Faithless Looting does just fine when you’re using the graveyard to power either Lingering Souls or Bedlam Reveler. It’s also worth noting that Young Pyromancer is a much better engine when you have Kolaghan's Command to rebuy your Pyromancers after the first one or two inevitably get killed on sight.
The key question is whether this deck has enough power to close out games once you’ve made a bunch of one-for-one trades. This deck plays so much efficient interaction that you’re going to get to make whatever trades you need to. The question is whether Young Pyromancer and a couple of elementals are enough to close out games once you’ve made those trades. With a burn spell or two pointed at your opponent’s face to speed things along, I see no reason why this aggressive style of deck packed with interaction shouldn’t be able to close things out against most of the top tier decks in Modern.
