Mardu Energy: Sideboard Guide

By: Korae

Mardu Energy is a spikey take on the Energy archetype designed to quickly take down games against the field in Timeless. The deck packs the interaction and sideboard cards to contain unfair decks, while also being able to achieve quick kills. This build of the deck does sacrifice some percentage points versus other fair decks and energy mirrors to gain significant percentage against unfair decks, so in fair mirrors, the deck will pivot roles frequently depending on both players' hands. Sequencing is king, and make sure you understand your deck's role in each match-up when sideboarding!

Post Strixhaven, Mardu sits in a very unique position where it can leverage both Strip Mine and Library of Alexandria effectively. The deck excels at pivoting roles based on the match-up, so these lands will be swapped in sideboarding frequently! I'll explain which on a deck-by-deck basis.

See my YouTube channel for more Timeless guides and gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/@KoraeTimeless

VS CREATURE DECKS

Against other creature decks, we are generally sideboarding out discard and “ragavans” to bring in extra removal spells. Match-up-specific cards like Lithomantic Barrage will sometimes be brought in as well. This deck is generally on the beatdown versus slow blue strategies, generally playing reactive versus fast blue tempo decks, and can pivot to play controlling depending on "who's on the beatdown" in energy mirrors.

Mardu Lurrus Energy, aka The MIRROR MATCH

The mirror is very skill-testing when two seasoned pilots play against each other. The main skills being tested are sequencing and removal priority. Winning these match-ups relies on being able to stick your powerful 2-card combos on the battlefield (Guide of Souls/Ocelot Pride or Ajani, Nacatl Pariah/Goblin Bombardment) through opposing disruption, while also disrupting your opponent enough that you do not get run over. With certain hands, mirrors can play out very slow, with both players carefully playing around Goblin Bombardment and being hesitant to over-commit to the board.

If you're struggling with the mirror or encountering a huge amount of lurrus mirrors, consider adding Portable Hole to your sideboard plan, as that card removes every threat in the deck cleanly. You may also consider adding Chthonian Nightmare, which I used to play as a value engine to out-grind my opponents in long games.

IN: 3x Prismatic Ending, 1x Static Prison
OUT: 2x Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer 2x Juggernaut Peddler
PLAY/DRAW swap Library and Strip!

My current philosophy is to play Strip Mine when on the play and Library of Alexandria when on the draw. It may even be correct to play Library on the play in the mirror! Part of me wants to be a psycho and play both. Need to play more games and library mirrors to be sure lol.

UBx Tempo

Mardu Energy is favored vs Psychic Frog-based tempo lists, especially when the die roll is won. A really good tempo player will give you a run for your money, but on the ladder, I do think the match-up is favored. Their deck is full of incredibly efficient threats, so we're going to want to board up on removal spells to make sure we're always able to answer their 1 drops (Hydroponics Architect/Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student) on turn one.

I'm currently not the biggest fan of discard in this match-up. I used to run all 8 discard spells, but with the amount of value that their snowbally creatures provide, I'd rather have removal spells. Depending on whether or not they're leveraging Hydroponics Architect, you'll want to swap out Strip Mines for Libraries. If they're low to the ground with Hydro Homies, play Library. If they're on a slower build with Tamiyo instead, play Strip.

IN: 2x Lithomantic Barrage, 3x Prismatic Ending
OUT: 2x Ragavan, 2x Static Prison, 1x Juggernaut Peddler
LIBRARY/STRIP depending on their deck's aggro pressure

UR "Delver" Tempo

These incredibly low-to-the-ground decks have been running over ladder lately, and they're incredibly good at leveraging both Daze and Strip Mine to keep us off our game. We're going to pack as many removal spells as possible for their threats, jam cards until they run out of permission, and avoid trading strip mines - because if we trade Strip Mines, that just fuels their Treasure Cruises.

IN: 4x Library of Alexandria, 2x Lithomantic Barrage, 3x Prismatic Ending
OUT: 4x Strip Mine, 2x Ragavan, 1x Static Prison, 2x Juggernaut Peddler

Rakdos Burn

Play safe and sideboard in more removal. Sandbag your lifegain creatures until your opponent uses their removal if possible.

IN: 3x Prismatic Ending, 1x Static Prison
OUT: 2x Ragavan, 2x Juggernaut Peddler

Other Aggro Decks

Same as burn

IN: 3x Prismatic Ending, 1x Static Prison
OUT: 2x Ragavan, 2x Juggernaut Peddler

VS STOMPY DECKS

Golgari/Mono-Black Midrange

This is our worst match-up. Currently out of the meta after Strixhaven, but I'm too traumatized to delete this. Strip Mine is an incredible tool for Mardu that allows you to knock your opponent out of the game, but these decks are simply better at leveraging Strip Mine than Mardu, and having our own colorless sources versus them is really a liability.

When this deck was truly at the top of the meta pre-ALTA, I was making radical changes to Mardu to try and help. But now that the deck has been knocked down a peg, having a bad match-up vs a deck is a much easier pill to swallow than having a bad match-up versus the most popular deck.

My current philosophy for approaching this match-up is to load up on interaction, because their deck is less threat-dense than most fair decks. Their deck actually contains a lot of "hot air," meaning they're playing ~30 mana sources if you count Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, and arguably Deathrite Shaman in that category.

They run few enough threats that you can fully contain them and keep their board empty with fair interaction, especially considering they often 2- or 3-for-1 themselves to turbo out a threat early. Discard is key to ripping The One Ring out of their hand before they get to draw cards. Instant-speed removal is key to hitting Wary Zone Guard before they go to combat. If things line up well, you'll win some games. If they don't... you're gonna have no lands in play.

IN: 4x Library of Alexandria, 4x Thoughtseize, 1x Static Prison
OUT: 4x Strip Mine, 2x Ragavan, 2x Galvanic Discharge, 1x Orcish Bowmasters
If they're playing Chalice of the Void Too (help me), then bring in the Prismatic Endings for the rest of the Orcish Bowmasters

Red Stompy/Prison

Another rather nightmarish match-up. They trade Strip Mine recursion for being able to play 4 Fury and 4 Pyrokinesis - good grief! Fury/Pyro are fantastic ways for them to answer energy board states and bridge to The One Ring or their wincon. They also slam chalice with Impunity, will turn off your strip mines with Petrified Hamlet, and overall make you have a terrible day.

IN: 3x Prismatic Ending, 1x Static Prison
OUT: 4x Orcish Bowmasters
PLAY/DRAW Library/Strip

On the play, I'll often bring in a few copies of Thoughtsieze to try and take their key pieces (and chalices) out of their hand on turn one.

White Stompy

Somewhat new/trendy stompy deck, with a similar sideboarding philosophy. Does not play Chalice, thankfully, so no Prismatic Ending.

IN: 1x Static Prison, 1x Thoughtseize
OUT: 2x Ragavan
PLAY/DRAW Library/Strip

Eldrazi Decks

Eldrazi Stompy is also unfortunately panning out to be a strong deck, and I just played a tournament match against someone with four copies of Karn's Sylex. I was able to win that game by leveraging discard, and I think you should too. With 4 copies of Chalice, 4 Rings, 4 Sylexes, and lots of cards with cast triggers, discard becomes a very strong answer.

You can play more or less Thoughtseizes depending on your opponent's build: very slow = all 8 discard, very aggro = drop Thoughtseize and only play Juggernaut Peddlers.

IN: 4x Library of Alexandria, 1x Static Prison, 3x Prismatic Ending, 2x Thoughtseize
OUT: 4x Strip Mine, 2x Ragavan, 4x Orcish Bowmasters

VS COMBO DECKS

We are generally bringing out removal and grindy cards, and bringing in direct answers to their deck. Every card in the deck post-board should aggressively impact the board or slow down our opponent. In these match-ups, Amped Raptor will have a 100% chance of hitting a piece of interaction or a busted sideboard card. Neat.

Blue-Based Reanimator

This is an incredibly strong deck comprised of half the Legacy banlist. It can be difficult to contain, because it contains both the Reanimator A+B and the incredibly efficient "blue tempo" creatures of Tamiyo, Hydroponics, and Psychic Frog, which can win games on their own by drowning you in card advantage. Good Reanimator players will sometimes even completely sideboard out their combo versus energy players and just play control (if they do so, sideboard game 3 like you're sideboarding vs blue tempo).

IN: 3x Thoughtseize
OUT: 2x Ragavan, 1x Goblin Bombardment

Show And Tell (Traditional Omnitell)

The former Big Bad of the format. It is now outclassed by Reanimator. I've removed a lot of the SnT hate from my sideboard, if it comes back into the meta please re-add deafening silence. But with this being a minor player in the meta, just discard + strip mine + a fast clock should do the trick.

IN: 4x Thoughtseize, 1x Static Prison
OUT: 2x Swords to Plowshares, 2x Galvanic Discharge, 1x Goblin Bombardment

Sneak And Show

The new Big Boss. This deck is much harder for Mardu to contain, because their A+B combo went from 4 copies of SnT plus 6 Omniscience/Atraxa, Grand Unifier to 8 total copies of Show and Tell/Sneak Attack and 9 payoffs. This means its harder to discard them off their combo, and you can't use Disruptor Flute to slow down their entire "A" side of the combo at once. There's no catch-all card that works against them that I can think of beyond Containment Priest, but they'll have an easy time removing that.

Their deck also has a lot of card velocity by playing all the good blue cantrips + Stock Up and Mystical Tutor, so they have a lot of effective copies of their combo cards and sideboard cards. This is a bad (not terrible) match-up and I'm not sure how to improve it.

The "good" news is that Swords to Plowshares is a 100% cuttable card vs them because Emrakul, the Aeons Torn has protection from it, so you have more slots to work with than usual.

IN: 1x Static Prison, 4x Thoughtsieze
OUT: 2x Galvanic Discharge, 3x Swords to Plowshares

Shift And Tell (and other GY SnT variants)

Dead deck lol. Strip 'em.

IN: 4x Thoughtseize, 1x Static Prison
OUT: 3x Swords to Plowshares, 2x Galvanic Discharge

Ruby Storm

IN: 4x Thoughtsieze, 2x Prismatic Ending
OUT: 4x Orcish Bowmasters, 2x Galvanic Discharge

Underworld Breach

IN: 4x Thoughtsieze, 3x Prismatic Ending
OUT: 4x Orcish Bowmasters, 1x Galvanic Discharge, 2x Ragavan

Lands (Dark Depths)

Orcish Bowmasters is a dead card against them, so swap it 1:1 for discard to take their tutors or value engines out of their hand. If they're a creatureless build, you can cut Galvanic Discharge instead.

IN: 4x Thoughtseize, 1x Static Prison
OUT: 4x Orcish Bowmasters, 1x Discharge

Belcher Variants

Same as SnT, these are less popular in the meta now, so just discard, strip, and run them down before they can activate Goblin Charbelcher. Against Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord / Saint Elenda, you want to keep in Swords to Plowshares.

IN: 4x Thoughtseize
OUT: 4x Swords to Plowshares if not playing Sorin/Elenda, 4x Bowmasters if they are playing Sorin/Saint Elenda