Mardu Monday

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

While a large number of North Americans this weekend were watching Super Bowl, hard-core Magic: the Gathering players were watching tournament coverage at Pro Tour Aether Revolt behing held in Dublin.  Previous large tournaments held in Columbus, then Richmond showed favour for Saheeli Rai / Feldiar Guardian (aka 'copy cat') decklists and then Black-Green Delirium / Aggro featuring Winding Constrictor and friends.

The winner of Pro Tour Aether Revolt in Dublin was Luis Esper Berthoud who was playing the very popular Mardu Vehicles deck.  The core of the deck included Heart of Kiran, Toolcraft Exemplar, Scrapheap Scrounger, Thraben Inspector, Veteran Motorist, and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. The light splash of Black was usually for Scrapheap Scrounger, Unlicensed Disintegration, and Fatal Push.  Pop of over to the Wizards of the Coast page here for the Top 8 decklists, or alternatively over here for the other players with at least 9 wins for Pro Tour Aether Revolt.  As always, SaffronOlive at MTG Goldfish has an excellent write-up of this past weekend's tournament right over here.

Of the Top 8 decks, there were 6 Mardu Vehicles, 1 Jund Engery Aggro and 1 B/G Delirium.  Of these top decklists, there was a total of 26 Heart of Kiran being played.  The 'go-to' creature spell to crew Hearth of Kiran was Scrapheap Scrounger, as it has the benefit of recursion from the graveyard.  Even the lone Jund Energy Aggro list had 3 copies of Heart of Kiran, using a spicy tech in the form of Greenbelt Rampager on the stack to crew the vehicle.

Thankfully, the Pro Tour is not largely indicative of the metagame at the local gaming store (at least in my neighbourhood).  At our gaming store, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario, inovation and the spirit of invention is still king.  Instead of concentrating on what should be in your 15-card sideboard for the anticipated mirror-match against another Mardu Vehicles decklist, there is a variety of different decklists.  

Price - Heart of Kiran from www.mtgstocks.com

Perhaps a good thing too, as dishing out for a playset of Heart of Kiran may set you back around $110, which in our opinion is certainly prohibitive for new (or returning) Magic: the Gathering players interested in getting into the game.

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