Mardu Surge Upgrade Guide: 17 Easy Changes You Can Make

Last updated on April 5, 2025

Zurgo Stormrender | Illustration by Lie Setiawan

A new set means new precons to despair at as we marvel at Wizards of the Coast’s ability to design Magic: The Gathering cards without ever understanding how to construct a functional deck. Tarkir: Dragonstorm brings us five examples, one for each of Tarkir’s 3-color wedges (Abzan , Temur , Sultai , Jeskai , and Mardu ).

Today, I want to upgrade the Mardu Surge deck that’s led into battle by Zurgo Stormrender, which promises to be an aggressive deck and showcases the mobilize mechanic. Can it hold up to that promise, and how can we make it better?

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Deck - Mardu Surge

• FIGHT DRAGONS WITH DRAGONS—Return to Tarkir for an epic battle between dragons and clans; discover which clan fits your playstyle with distinct three-color gameplay, and add draconic power to your collection
• STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS HOT—Ally with the Mardu clan to make attacker tokens and sacrifice them for value with this Red-White-Black Commander deck
• 2 FOIL BORDERLESS COMMANDERS—Command your army with the Mythic Spirit Dragon, Neriv, or Zurgo, leader of the new Mardu; every Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Deck includes 2 Traditional Foil Legendary Creature cards featuring gorgeous Borderless art
• BATTLE ALONGSIDE YOUR CLAN—The Mardu are nomads who defend and expand their vast territory through agile tactics and the exploitation of weakness. A unified force, they are revered for their lightning-wielding fighters, expert beast riders, and commitment to their clan.
• INTRODUCES 10 COMMANDER CARDS—Each deck introduces 10 never-before-seen Commander cards to Magic: The Gathering

$44.66

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Deck Overview

Mardu Ascendancy | Illustration by Jason Chan

Mardu Surge has a pretty simple game plan: Smash face with its commander, Zurgo Stormrender, and various other cards that like attacking to kill your opponents dead. My first impression was pretty favorable; the cracks became clear as I looked closer, of course, but I’ve seen far weaker precons. It’s underwhelming, but it looks leagues better than the Jeskai Striker precon.

Pretty much any precon has four weaknesses:

• They contain a bunch of under-supported themes and concepts, leading to an incoherent deck.
• They play individually weak cards, leading to a weak deck.
• They don’t run enough interaction, leading to games that stall out because the only way any player interacts with another is through board wipes and resetting the game.
• They have terrible mana bases (I’ve given up on hoping that Wizards will fix this).

Mardu Surge is no exception, with the under-supported cards leaping out to me as a prominent flaw. It has more sacrifice outlets than the deck warrants; while they’re useful with Zurgo’s second ability, many of them appear at odds with the token cards. That tension needs to be solved one way or another.

This deck almost impresses me with its interaction; I don’t think Eliminate the Competition is quite where you want to be, but Hour of Reckoning provides an invaluable, mostly one-sided board wipe and you have a few reasonable spot removal spells.

The card quality is… better than I’ve seen in other precons. Some precons have strictly bad cards, while this one just has good cards that are rather out of place. For example, this deck strikes me as one that wants to be aggressive, so you need 4-mana plays with more impact than Solemn Simulacrum. Cards like Myr Battlesphere and Legion Loyalty, while powerful, look better-suited to a midrange plan—which ripples back into identity crisis weakness.

While the deck has some glaring holes, it has good bones; we just need to pack some healthy meat on there.

Upgrade Plan

I think the deck’s biggest tension rests between cards that want to play a grindy, midrange game plan and the ones interested in being a lean, aggressive machine, like Loyal Apprentice, and ostensibly, the commander. I intend to resolve this by leaning harder into the aggressive token-themed strategy and cutting some of the top end to bring our curve down.

To make up for the lost top end, I’m adding anthems and Impact Tremors effects to provide extra power and reach to help close out the game. I’ve also heavily trimmed the sacrifice cards, though I haven’t eliminated all of them as they pair nicely with Zurgo.

I wrap things up with a handful of simply high-quality cards to increase the decks power level, which include more removal and some protection to keep Zurgo turned sideways as often as possible.

Agate Instigator

Suggested Cut: Goldnight Commander

Goldnight Commander looks like a fine payoff, but this deck sorely needs the reach provided by Impact Tremors effects, and Agate Instigator is one of the best. I’m happy to play it on turn 2 before Zurgo and ecstatic to offspring it on turn 4 after my commander, and generally couldn’t be happier with it.

Impact Tremors

Suggested Cut: Aron, Benalia's Ruin

Even if I wanted to keep the sacrifice theme, I’d cut Aron, Benalia's Ruin for the sin of being Draft chaff. Impact Tremors does far more work for this deck.

Warleader’s Call

Suggested Cut: Bastion of Remembrance

Bastion of Remembrance and Warleader's Call fill very similar slots in the deck as a means of enhancing the game plan. Bastion isn’t particularly weaker than Call, but it doesn’t suit these upgrades nearly as well.

Dollmaker’s Shop // Porcelain Gallery

Suggested Cut: Myr Battlesphere

Myr Battlesphere has a place in many decks, but Mardu Surge simply isn’t one of them. Dollmaker's Shop provides a far cheaper source of token production that survives board wipes and expands into a powerful anthem with Porcelain Gallery.

Veteran Soldier

Suggested Cut: Emeria Angel

I’m a huge fan of backgrounds that curve into this commander, and you should have no trouble deploying Veteran Soldier into Zurgo Stormrender to flood the board with tokens each combat. Emeria Angel hasn’t committed any particular sin; the curve could just use a bit of a trim.

Skyknight Vanguard

Suggested Cut: Ophiomancer

Ophiomancer would be a fine card if you wanted to be defensive or keep up the sacrifice synergies, but I don’t and I won’t. This generally produces one token, while Skyknight Vanguard has much more potential without competing with Zurgo on turn 3.

Siege-Gang Lieutenant

Suggested Cut: Solemn Simulacrum

Look, I love a Sad Robot as much as any value-oriented player, but this deck needs more impactful 4-drops, and the card gets significantly worse as I cut both sacrifice outlets and ramp targets. Siege-Gang Lieutenant is much more of what I want: It’s a card that deploys a bunch of tokens and poses a serious threat all on its own.

Rabble Rousing

Suggested Cut: Thalisse, Reverent Medium

Rabble Rousing and Thalisse, Reverent Medium are incredibly similar, but the New Capenna enchantment just barely beats out the creature for a few reasons. First and most importantly, it takes way less work to enable Rabble Rousing. Any creatures will do, while Thalisse specifically requires token producers.

Being an enchantment rather than a creature gives it resiliency; while Thalisse gets caught by any sweeper, Rabble Rousing sticks around and helps rebuild with its tokens and the hideaway card. Having tokens that enter tapped and attacking is also very relevant with this commander and cards like Hero of Bladehold or Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor.

Battle Screech

Suggested Cut: Release the Dogs

Release the Dogs wishes it could be Battle Screech. Bird tokens are just better than Dogs, plus flashback lets you “save” two tokens for later if you’re worried about a board wipe.

Basri Ket

Suggested Cut: Kaya, Geist Hunter

Kaya, Geist Hunter counts as a token doubler, but it’s such a bad one, and the other abilities aren’t particularly exciting, either.

Basri Ket is simply the superior planeswalker for this deck. An indestructible Zurgo basically always attacks, making attacking tokens is better than not, and it takes more than a simple Blasphemous Act to undo the ultimate.

Mother of Runes

Suggested Cut: Viscera Seer

Sacrifice cards are out, so let’s say farewell to Viscera Seer and welcome Mother of Runes into the 99 with open arms. This deck has quite a few powerful creatures to protect, and Mom’s inclusion also opens the door to a sneaky Zurgo attack here and there.

Giver of Runes

Suggested Cut: Wayfarer's Bauble

You just don’t need Wayfarer's Bauble as badly when you cull the curve, and I like Mother of Runes enough to bring in the distinctly weaker but still powerful Giver of Runes for another 1-drop.

Dark Confidant

Suggested Cut: Legion Loyalty

Legion Loyalty feels an awful lot like Myr Battlesphere as a great card for a different deck. Dark Confidant simply brings the curve down and adds a hair more card advantage.

Generous Plunderer

Suggested Cut: Bone Devourer

I’ve never been particularly impressed with Bone Devourer and similar effects; they just seem too fiddly. But Generous Plunderer has pulled its weight time and time again and happens to punish all those artifact players.

Dawn’s Truce

Suggested Cut: Stroke of Midnight

Stroke of Midnight’s a fairly weak removal spell, and this creature-centric deck is vulnerable enough to board wipes that I want another protective spell in Dawn's Truce. I don’t want to concede the moment my opponent drops a sweeper.

Winds of Abandon

Suggested Cut: Commander's Insignia

I don’t have flowery words for this one. Commander's Insignia looks weak, and Winds of Abandon is very strong, so I made the swap.

Fire Covenant

Suggested Cut: Eliminate the Competition

Eliminate the Competition is an awesome card and I’m very happy this deck introduced it to me, but I can’t help but feel I can do better than this wonky board wipe. Fire Covenant also deals with the most prominent threats on the board at a fraction of the mana cost. As for the life… which warrior doesn’t put their life on the line for victory?

The Final Deck and New Cards

Here’s the final decklist, plus a separate list that just contains the upgrades. If you want to snag either and help support Draftsim, the shopping cart button in the corner helps you out!

Commanding Conclusion

Neriv, Crackling Vanguard | Illustration by Lucas Graciano

There’s nothing like a fresh batch of precons to tear apart and laugh at while we wonder why Temple of the False God doesn’t work in our 32-land Boros () aggro deck. Mardu Surge honestly could have been far worse, and I’m interested to see how other players tweak it. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to focus on the sacrifice theme or try and keep the midrange gameplan, perhaps with a few more top end cards like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and better ramp.

How would you upgrade Mardu Surge? Do you like Zurgo Stormrender as the commander, or would you prefer Neriv, Crackling Vanguard? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!

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