I am actually surprised how the metagame seems to diversify a bit again; there might just be one or two more viable strategies that I haven't given credit to in this thread. Expect an update to mono-Black as well as a GB Delirium and a Mardu Control list.
In the meantime, let's take a look at a basic concept that hasn't gotten much attention:
Shifting Gears: How to adapt decks to your liking. (Example: Mardu Vehicles)Let's say you have a deck that you like, but that you want to optimize so it works better. Or you found a decklist online that seems sweet, but you really want to fit your own card into that deck. How do you do that?
The easiest way would be to just slam the card into your deck and call it a day. This is bad, since you exceed the minimal deck size, making it less likely to draw your best cards/hands. Thus, we have to find an appropriate cut for the card(s) we would like to add.
Furthermore, you will sometimes need to adapt the manabase in order to cast your new addition to the deck reliably.
And finally, when you have changed the manabase, make sure to adapt your deck to the new manabase.
Sounds fine and dandy? Let's take this for a spin on a real decklist, like the Mardu Vehicles decklist I've posted in the OP.
Creatures (21)
1 x
Kytheon, Hero of Akros2 x
Toolcraft Exemplar3 x
Inventor's Apprentice2 x
Sram, Senior Edificer2 x
Selfless Spirit3 x
Veteran Motorist2 x
Scrapheap Scrounger2 x
Thalia, Heretic Cathar2 x
Pia Nalaar2 x
Depala, Pilot ExemplarVehicles (7):
2 x
Smuggler's Copter1 x
Heart of Kiran2 x
Aethersphere Harvester2 x
Cultivator's CaravanPlaneswalkers (2):
1 x
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar1 x
Chandra, Torch of DefianceInstants (7):
4 x
Shock3 x
Unlicensed DisintegrationLands (23):
6 x
Plains4 x
Mountain2 x
Needle Spires2 x
Smoldering Marsh2 x
Clifftop Retreat2 x
Dragonskull Summit2 x
Isolated Chapel3 x
Aether HubWe might want to make some additions to the list.
Fatal Push seems like a great early-game removal spell as it hits more targets (for example opposing Copters).
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship is a great curve-topper that this list is lacking; and if we bump the curve up to 5, we might as well include
Archangel Avacyn as a nice way to protect our creatures/vehicles from removal. And finally,
Walking Ballista is a flexible artifact creature that can turn on our artifact synergies, trigger Revolt for Fatal Push and provide an instant body for our
Scrapheap Scrounger to re-enter play.
So, what are our cuts?
Fatal Push will go over the Shocks, which would otherwise be our removal options. We don't quite know what to do with the fourth Shock slot yet; maybe we'll use that slot to add a 24th land.
Skysovereign would be an additional Vehicle, which doesn't seem amazing. 7 Vehicles already are plenty, so we should probably cut the weakest one of them. Given that we need Cultivator's Caravan for manafixing, that weakest Vehicles is probably
Aethersphere Harvester. Avacyn could be included in the second of these slots.
Finally, Walking Ballista will enter the deck instead of Sram. Sram has been a filler card anyways; and it has just gotten worse considering we've cut down to 6 vehicles.
Thus, our maindeck currently looks like this:
Creatures (22)
2 x
Walking Ballista1 x
Kytheon, Hero of Akros2 x
Toolcraft Exemplar3 x
Inventor's Apprentice2 x
Selfless Spirit3 x
Veteran Motorist2 x
Scrapheap Scrounger2 x
Thalia, Heretic Cathar2 x
Pia Nalaar2 x
Depala, Pilot Exemplar1 x
Archangel AvacynVehicles (6):
2 x
Smuggler's Copter1 x
Heart of Kiran2 x
Cultivator's Caravan1 x
Skysovereign, Consul FlagshipPlaneswalkers (2):
1 x
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar1 x
Chandra, Torch of DefianceInstants (6):
3 x
Fatal Push3 x
Unlicensed DisintegrationLet us now look at the manabase. We currently have 11 Black sources to cast Unlicensed Disintegration and activate Scrapheap Scrounger's ability. Two of these come online turn 3 at the earliest (Caravans), three of them are volatile sources (Aether Hubs). That is not enough Black sources.
By adding two
Shambling Vents, we add two Black sources for a total of 11 sources turn 2. That would not be enough; and since we don't want our manabase to slow down even more by using other taplands or
Evolving Wilds, we will begrudgingly add 2 more Swamps to the base. These also help activating Vents reliably lategame, so it's not all bad news; and with a Boros dual land and a Swamp we can still cast every card that costs 2 or less except for
Veteran Motorist.
With 2 Vents and 2 Swamps, we now have 27 lands. That is too many, we want to go down to 24. Furthermore; cutting any of the dual lands seems bad; we actively need all the mana sources they provide and most of them can come into play untapped later. Thus, we have to cut three Basics.
Thanks to us adding in Shambling Vents, we added two White sources putting us at a total of 19, so cutting one Plains seems to not be too bad. Cutting more Plains seems horrendous, though; as this further decreases our chances of playing our best 1-drop, which is
Toolcraft Exemplar. Thus, we'd have to cut two Mountains, leaving us with this manabase:
Lands (24):
5 x
Plains2 x
Swamp2 x
Mountain2 x
Shambling Vent2 x
Needle Spires2 x
Smoldering Marsh2 x
Clifftop Retreat2 x
Dragonskull Summit2 x
Isolated Chapel3 x
Aether HubThis leaves us with 15 Red sources, 2 of which we only get late, 3 of which are volatile. That is not enough sources to reliably cast Chandra, and it makes our
Inventor's Apprentice look a lot worse as we no longer can reliably play Apprentice plus another red card (for example, Pia Nalaar).
There are two solutions to this problem. One would be cutting our manlands for Evolving Wilds. This would add two Red and two Black sources to the deck, meaning we can cut one of the Swamps to re-add a Mountain. This leaves us at 18 sources for Chandra while hitting the important thresholds for Black; also this accelerates our manabase slightly as our other duals come into play untapped more often (benefitting Veteran Motorist).
However, the manlands are one of the few manasinks in the deck and the deck is prone to flooding. Also, neither Chandra nor Inventor's Apprentice are the best cards in the deck anyways. So, why not keep our eye out for cards to replace them as well?
For example,
Anguished Unmaking is another great removal spell that hits basically anything we want. We're still aggressive enough that the lifeloss doesn't matter to us that much; and we appreciate its ability to deal with problematic cards.
The loss of Inventor's Apprentice as a 1-drop can be made up for by including
Bomat Courier, a nice and aggressive little critter that can run away with card advantage given the chance; and can be cast off 12 lands turn 1. However, we have also gone a bit more mid-rangey and might add more cards to represent that. For example, we could add more Walkers like
Nahiri, the Harbinger and
Sorin, Grim Nemesis.
Or, we could utilize a novelty card.
Sram's Expertise has never really found a home; but here it can rebuild after a sweeper, cast 85% of our nonland cards off its secondary clause and crew any of our Vehicles on its lonesome (2 of them if you trigger its secondary clause).
This list still needs to be tested, but that would be how it looks:
Creatures (19)
2 x
Walking Ballista1 x
Kytheon, Hero of Akros2 x
Toolcraft Exemplar2 x
Selfless Spirit3 x
Veteran Motorist2 x
Scrapheap Scrounger2 x
Thalia, Heretic Cathar2 x
Pia Nalaar2 x
Depala, Pilot Exemplar1 x
Archangel AvacynVehicles (6):
2 x
Smuggler's Copter1 x
Heart of Kiran2 x
Cultivator's Caravan1 x
Skysovereign, Consul FlagshipPlaneswalkers (1):
1 x
Gideon, Ally of ZendikarInstants and Sorceries (10):
3 x
Fatal Push2 x
Anguished Unmaking3 x
Unlicensed Disintegration2 x
Sram's ExpertiseLands (24):
5 x
Plains2 x
Mountain2 x
Swamp2 x
Shambling Vent2 x
Needle Spires2 x
Smoldering Marsh2 x
Clifftop Retreat2 x
Dragonskull Summit2 x
Isolated Chapel3 x
Aether HubI hope this little article could give you a slight idea on how to adapt decklists.
The discussion on how to turn Mardu Vehicles into a more mid-rangey deck as well as the recent changes to Standard Mardu made me rethink the list, I figured I might as well formulate my thoughts into this small article here.
As stated, the decklist posted is not tested yet (mainly Sram's Expertise), so I'd like to hear your input on that matter.
Also; do you think the article would be helpful if posted outside of here, or do you think it's too specific/basic/whatever to be useful in a more generic context?