Swift and Strong; The Shield Sturdy; The Sword's Sharp Shriek.
SCRAPPED
Rotation.
When Chief of the Edge and Chief of the Scale were spoiled, I knew, I just knew, that warrior tribal was going to be a thing. With so any layers in this deck, so much advantage and resilience, I'd have a hard time believing that this deck won't become top tier competitive worthy.
On the other hand, with so much changes to this deck after much introspection and many playtesting, the warrior tribal theme goes out. Bai bai warriors, I'll always be a warrior at heart for you!
This deck is an aggro-midrange deck. It relies mainly on creature cards that provide superior advantage to the board, and utilizes synergies with abilities of creatures and enchantments to push through the opponent and force them down to concede.
Bloodsoaked Champion, an excellent one drop creature that has a very bright future in the modern format as well. This creature grants real bonus points to resiliency of this deck as I can recover from a wrath much more easier, and have no problem just swinging with him every single turn. Thanks to his raid, I can just reanimate him the turn he swings and dies, meaning I lose no net board state.
When I realized that
Seeker of the Way
was a warrior and not a solider, in it went! Making my total lifelink cards up to 12, I'm really resilient against any of the fast builds thanks to my ability to have gained just enough points to outlast their aggro and overpower them with mine.
Seeker of the Way
really solidifies my unsure turn 2 and turn 3 plays. Turn 2
Seeker of the Way
followed up by a turn 3 enchantment is a really nice way to gain a good head start over the opponent.
Goblin Rabblemaster makes a rabbley scene thanks to the synergy he poses to the entire deck. Creating tokens every single turn to allow me to utilize them to provide constant pressure on the opponent, whether by the tokens themselves, or synergized with another card.
In the midrange creature department, we have our greatest win condition,
Butcher of the Horde
. Bloodoaked Champion, the tokens from Goblin Rabblemaster, Raise the Alarm and Mardu Ascendancy all pose as really nice sac target for
Butcher of the Horde
to allow him to be used in any situation and gain an advantage over the opponent at any time. Whether it be making aggro and tempo useless via life gain or stabilizing the board through first strike and vigilance, he is always able to beat down the opponent for the victory.
Let's present the enchantments and start out with Spear of Heliod. A constant "Buff Everything" on my side of the field is extremely potent, as every token I generate now does 2 damage each! So for each creature I swing, I get ANOTHER 2/2 creature swinging! That is easily doubling my fire power each and every single turn! It has the bonus of situational destruction, helping me stave off my opponents for a few more turns to find myself an answer, or get a board state to beat them down to victory.
But let's look at the real sheen to this shining deck. Mardu Ascendancy. With EVERY SINGLE creature I attack with, I get tokens EVERY SINGLE TURN. I mean come on, what isn't awesome about getting a token that stays on the board INDEFINITELY!? Bloody massive! Even more massive when you consider that all those tokens can now do damage the moment they enter the field with Purphoros, God of the Forge. But there is another side to Mardu Ascendancy that brings forth to its resilience to this deck. Is that it provides a superior advantage against other token and creature heavy builds. Sacrificing Mardu Ascendancy to grant all my creatures +0/+3 means that all my creatures can survive even the most heaviest of blockers, allowing me to wipe out my opponents defences and attack again for the next turn. It is likened to a one-sided wrath. The little additional side effect, is that I can sacrifice it whenever it is about to get destroyed, meaning that I will ALWAYS get its effect~
Raise the Alarm pairs up with Goblin Rabblemaster and Mardu Ascendancy in the token production front. Pretty simple and easy to understand, it either works for fueling
Butcher of the Horde
, final damage points with Purphoros, God of the Forge, or surprise blockers against my aggressors as thankfully, it is an instant. This can allow me to trick my opponent into swinging in with a lot more than is safe for them, only to block their creatures with my tokens and allow a counter attack to their face through an open field.
Gods Willing is probably the most controversial choice in my mainboard. But because of all the removal, evasion and combat tricks, I really needed my own to keep up on par with them. With this, my
Butcher of the Horde
and Goblin Rabblemaster will stay on the board much longer. With this, my Goblin Rabblemaster will run free in your field to punch you in the face. You will keel over, go ow, and I'll claim my victory! Also: the scry is a nice bonus.
Then we have our gods. Purphoros, God of the Forge presents even more resiliency to this deck than even considered before! Every time I swing, I'm guaranteed to do damage directly to your face. It has excellent synergy with Bloodsoaked Champion in that I can swing with it every turn, have it get chump blocked, and just activate its raid reanimation to bring it back on the same turn for a ping of two. If I have Mardu Ascendancy on the field, that means 4 damage instead of 2, a really fast clock to put on the opponent. And oh, guess what? I can buff all my creatures for an even greater beatdown.
With Iroas, God of Victory, I can swing with any of my creatures, have a large portion getting through, and never have to worry about any of them dying. Him combined with Purphoros, God of the Forge and Mardu Ascendancy means that I can swing every turn for more tokens JUST for the damage on Purphoros, God of the Forge. Goblin Rabblemaster becomes a threat to behold when every single turn he is swinging in with 5+ plus damage, and generating more tokens each turn just to get even more stronger. Iroas, God of Victory also makes my raid mechanic on Bloodsoaked Champion occur much more frequently. Finally, the icing on the cake is that Iroas, God of Victory can easily become a creature to attack. An indestructible 7/4 that must be blocked by two or more creatures. GO GO GODS, GO GO! GO GO GODS, GO GO!
Ajani Steadfast is here to help my lone creature that is on the board be a constant threat. Swinging every single turn and granting me life without any worry of it dying. Ajani Steadfast helps ease the token consumption that
Butcher of the Horde
requires, making only the opening play haste sac required. This allows my tokens to build up at an intense pace, overwhelming my opponent with little effort. On the other side of the spectrum, Ajani Steadfast works really well in mass buffing everything permanently. His counter production on everything is like putting a nonlegendary Spear of Heliod token onto the battlefield. Finally, he makes Goblin Rabblemaster a threat to behold in that ol' Rabbly can swing every single turn without worry of an opposing threat, while gaining me an enormous amount of life in the process.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor presents the final piece in our three part resiliency plan of Ajani Steadfast, Iroas, God of Victory and Sorin, Solemn Visitor. This plan is basically meant to make my aggro style able to withstand any board state the opponent may decide to throw at me. With Iroas, God of Victory, I can freely swing without worry and then gain a tonne of life to survive whatever they decide to chuck at me. I can do this every single turn, and will quickly over power my opponent with all of my token producing cards.
Now let us consider the sideboard. This is a work in progress as I have no idea what the meta is going to be like, no idea what to expect from KTK. At the moment, I feel that the ability to swap from aggro to midrange is the best method this deck can have to counter numerous different decks.
Anger of the Gods
deals with a lot of decks. Firstly, it deals with other token decks. Secondly, it deals with the heroic decks. Thirdly, it deals with DW and sleigh decks. Finally, it deals with decks. That is a lot of opponents this card deals with, and the damage it is done to me is mitigated by the fact that I have Mardu Ascendancy and can sack it to create a mini-one-sided-wrath effect to decimate my opponent with.
Crackling Doom is really useful against voltron builds, as their most strongest creature is usually what I want to get rid of. It also holds a lot of relevance against control builds as they won't have very many creatures out, and their win condition is what I want to kill. It can also by-pass indestructible, which is important against Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. The extra damage is just added bonus~
Deflecting Palm deals with any game ending card that may finish me off. This could be anything in the heroic arsenal,
Pearl Lake Ancient
and Goblin Rabblemaster. Maybe any god swinging at me.
Hero's Downfall is our main removal for the midrange version of this deck. And probably the best removal in standard since RTR rotated out. All the rest either do not kill straight up, deal too much damage to myself, or straight up being way too costly.
Master of the Feast is mainly here to deal with tempo decks and all of their hefty fliers like
Mantis Rider
,
Ashcloud Phoenix
, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and Wingmate Roc.
Ride Down
is once again meant to deal with control decks and decks, also good against because of all their heavy blockers. Any deck that poses board state problems against Goblin Rabblemaster, this card goes in.
Thoughtseize, everyone knows this card, it is a pivotal turn one play that prevents the win conditions of control and combo from ever hitting the field. It is also useful for getting those wraths before they are played.
