I've been playing Selesnya heroic for about two months, and my overall experience has been moderately successful. I have, however, changed the premise of the deck to be more competitive, and I think I found a cool recipe.
There are a number of issues with the typical Selesnya heroic deck that I'm trying to address with my approach.
First off, I believe Selesnya heroic should not be run as an agro deck. The deck is too dependent on heroic that rushing champions into combat is a liability which may result in a hand full of amp cards and no champions to host them. You can certainly win by turn four, but lets assume our opponents are not morons and incapable of preventing such an assault.
Here are the issue's I've run into and the cards I've selected to address them.
-----Lack of Removal-----
I have replaced all of my defensive/amp instants with fight cards such as Mutant's Prey and Pit Fight. The objective is eliminate the opposing champions while procing heroic. For instance, while declaring blockers I can cast Pit Fight on Favored Hoplite to destroy a creature while procing the heroic to prevent damage from the blocked creature.
With 7 fight cards, I can routinely eliminate opposing champions while scaling the champions with heroic.
-----Threat of Removal-----
Besides
Unflinching Courage
, my enchantments are defensibly focused with Indestructibility and Alpha Authority. Most decks have affordable removals which can seriously handicap your deck. IMO, just avoid them.
With heroic, your champions are going to scale quickly. So in my opinion, there is no need to build a 12/12 super champ by turn 4 who can easily be eliminated. Also, since I'm running fight cards, my champions will continue to scale while having some board control.
-----Top Decking by Mid Game-----
It's easy to run out of cards quickly playing Selesnya heroic, and there is nothing more debilitating than having a single champ or amp card.
I've had a lot of success with
Hunter's Prowess
refilling my hand. A lot of players prefer
Warriors' Lesson
, but I've found the card typically produces one draw and two heroic procs. Consider
Hunter's Prowess
like Sphinx's Revelation, but focused on damage output. You're almost guaranteed to draw 5-10 cards.
-----Mid Game Push-----
By mid-game, I typically have 1-3 heroic creatures with one champion extremely buffed, and if you haven't won, then your opponent has likely built up his forces too. Archangel of Thune and Kalonian Hydra are available to take your champions to the next level. Both units synergize well with heroic champions (Archangel of Thune
+
Unflinching Courage
).
-----Forced Sacrificing-----
The biggest threat that I encounter is
Celestial Flare
and
Devour Flesh
. Typically, you're going to have 1 or 2 buffed champs, and if you charge in,
Celestial Flare
and
Devour Flesh
easily eliminates your guys. You just have to be careful and not push too hard until you have a stronger presence. I have side boarded Silence in case I face an unusual amount of forced sacrifice.
-----Side Cards-----
Akroan Skyguard
- counters flying
Elspeth, Sun's Champion - counters large creature agro
Gladecover Scout - counters heavy removal
Gods Willing
- counters removal, assists combat
Indestructibility - counters board control wipe cards
Revoke Existence
- counters Gods and control enchantments
Selesnya Charm
- counters large creature agro
Silence - counters fog decks and sacrifice
Let me know your thoughts. Any help will be appreciated.
