Mardu Bomber Theorycrafting

With some of really strong new MH3 cards, it is possible to build a very explosive deck that uses Goblin Bombardment as a finisher. Mardu Bomber is a fast aggro deck with combo elements. It is aggro in that it can build a huge board as early as turn 2, and combo in that it can instawin if it assembles the right pieces. Since MH3 isn’t released yet, this is all theorycrafting, but I am confident that this shell or something close to it has great potential: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/zn0suRIpnkCiW-jMSjGYSA

You'll notice that the deck consists largely of generically good cards, so one of the deck's strengths is that the individual card quality is high. I think the strategy will become apparent if we go card by card. I’ll start with Bombardment itself and then the MH3 additions.

Goblin Bombardment: The centerpiece of Mardu Bomber is the old Tempest enchantment that is deceptively powerful, even in a broken format like timeless. With the right support, Bombardment threatens to either wipe out opp’s board or to kill them in one turn. You’ll see its various synergies in the following card explanations.

Ajani, Nacatl Pariah: Ajani is amazing on rate, and I think some players underestimate just how strong a 2/1 + 1/2 for 2 is. But it doesn't end there of course, as the PW side can expand your board and deal massive damage. The deck is often looking to sac the cat token to get the PW, preferably with a red permanent in play. For this reason, Ajani + Bombardment is an insane combo because Ajani gets both a sac outlet and a red permanent which results in two cards that deal lots of damage. In fact, having this combo can win on the spot, depending on your creature count. With 6 creatures in play, you can at a minimum deal 12 damage to opp's face, while also getting to attack with your creatures before saccing them!

Amped Raptor: Possibly the most exciting of the three new cards, Raptor can lead to truly absurd openings. There are no cards above cmc 2 so it can always cast something. The deck runs 12 creatures that come with a token and if you hit one of those (roughly 33% chance), you can have up to 5 creatures in play ready to attack on turn 3 (see below). This kind of start gets truly nasty because the more damage you deal through combat, the easier it becomes to finish opp off with Bombardment, Ajani and/or Apprentice. Conveniently, Raptor is also a red permanent for Ajani's PW side.

Here is the sequence that can lead to 5 creatures on turn 2, which should happen reasonably often: T1: DRS/Ragavan T2: Amped Raptor > Bowmasters/Ajani/Apprentice + Use DRS or treasure from Ragavan to cast another 1-drop

Marionette Apprentice: Apprentice looks unbelievably good in the deck, both providing two bodies and threatening an instant win in conjunction with Bombardment. If you assemble the trifecta of Bombardment, Ajani and Apprentice, you can deal upwards of 20 damage in a single turn. Even outside of those synergies, making a big attack with Apprentice in play can often make blocking difficult for opp, with any blocks leading to life loss. Sweepers will also cost opp a bunch of life.

Forsaken Miner: While an individually weak card, Miner is an automatic 4-of due to its machine gun potential with Bombardment. The crime trigger lines up such that you can keep pinging until you run out of black mana. So you either kill creatures/planeswalkers or damage opp a lot. Miner with Bombardment and Apprentice means that every B makes opp lose 2 life, killing them in short order. Miner is also good against sweepers and removal and should certainly help you win long and grindy games.

Orcish Bowmasters: Arguably the best card in timeless, Bowmasters is already an easy inclusion, but it also plays perfectly into the deck's strategy. Getting two bodies is huge, and the ping helps getting opp to 0 or mowing down their board along with Bombardment.

Deathrite Shaman: DRS is one of the best cards in timeless and like Bowmasters, it simultaneously fits perfectly in this deck. DRS accelerates you to enable 2-drop + 1-drop on turn 2 or two 2-drops on turn 3. It commits crimes for Miner and the black ability helps you whittle down opp's life total.

Ragavan: Monke is a bit of a problem child in timeless, often falling short in various shells. I run the full 4 here because he's an excellent fit for the overall strategy. The deck wants 2-powered 1-drops as it seeks to push damage early and he helps you accelerate on turn 2-3, and is also red for ajani's PW side.

Lightning Bolt: Bolt is the perfect removal spell for this deck. Going face is very relevant and unlike Fatal Push and other removal, hitting Bolt off of Raptor isn’t a blank when they have no creatures.

Bartolomé: Bart is clearly the weakest card in the deck. He's there as an additional repeatable sac outlet to provide redundancy for Bombardment. With Apprentice, he can do double damage in a way similar to Bombardment; sac your team for pings and attack with a big Bartolomé. This is way more conditional than bombardment though, since it's easily disrupted by removal. This is a flex slot that could be something else, a demonic tutor for instance.

Lands: Phyrexian Tower: An extra sac outlet is welcome for Ajani in particular, but can also help you accelerate through saccing Miner and disposable tokens.

Overgrown Tomb: It’s mainly there for DRS’s green ability, but also for Boseiju from the sideboard.

Sokenzan: Tokens on a land is awesome for a deck that wants as many tokens as possible.

Sideboard: Sideboarding feels a bit tricky due to restrictions from amped raptor. Since the meta can change greatly, I will also refrain from speculating too much. I really like the following card however.

Boseiju: While 4 DRS and a lone Overgrown Tomb might be too ambitious mana-wise, I find Boseiju very interesting because it’s widely applicable interaction that doesn't interfere with Raptor hits.

Lurrus: And then Lurrus of course. Such a luxury to have this companion for a deck that auto-accommodates it thanks to Raptor.

Maybeboard: Demonic Tutor: I think Tutor may well be an auto-include in order to put together the deck’s synergies such as finding Ajani once you have Bombardment or vice versa, but I’m waffling a bit due to Tutor’s clunkiness. It supports the combo plan but not the aggro plan.

Dragon’s Rage Channeler and Mishra’s Bauble: This package might work but I dislike it with Raptor.

Chthonian Nightmare: While slow and mana-intensive, Nightmare could work as sideboard tech for grindy matchups.

Happy to hear your ideas!