Heroic Tempo

Modern Aggro Tempo WU (Azorius)

SoundTramp

Instant (18)

• 4x Artful Maneuver
• 4x Emerge Unscathed
• 2x Essence Capture
• 4x Gods Willing
• 4x Swan Song

Enchantment (9)

• 3x Aqueous Form
• 3x Curiosity
• 3x Ordeal of Thassa

Land (20)

• 4x Flooded Strand
• 4x Hallowed Fountain
• 5x Island
• 5x Plains
• 2x Windswept Heath

Creature (13)

• 3x Battlewise Hoplite
• 4x Favored Hoplite
• 2x Judge's Familiar
• 4x Lagonna-Band Trailblazer

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Sideboard

Enchantment (7)

• 2x Ethereal Armor
• 2x Hyena Umbra
• 3x Oblivion Ring

Instant (4)

• 2x Spell Pierce
• 2x Triton Tactics

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Hidden Strings

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Maybeboard

Instant (7)

• 1x Apostle's Blessing
• 1x Defiant Strike
• 1x Redeem the Lost
• 1x Sheltering Light
• 1x Stand Firm
• 1x Twisted Image
• 1x View from Above

Creature (4)

• 1x Cursecatcher
• 1x Fabled Hero
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Spiketail Hatchling

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Distortion Strike
• 1x Slip Through Space

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Curious Obsession

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Green White Heroic was my first mtg deck. It then moved to Mono White, sacraficing some of the growth of green in favor of the aggro and consistance of just white. Finally, I moved to Blue White for the utility and control Blue offers. After Theros rotated out of standard, I stopped playing as much. I did however make a Modern legal budget version of my Theros UW Heroic (Modern Heroism).

Now I've been inspired by Mono Blue tempo in the current meta (2019). My current goal is to re-make my UW Heroic deck, but make it as 1v1 competetive as I can, as well as include more of the control aspects of blue to allow the aggresive white damage to hit face.

The main focus of this deck is, as you probably already guessed, heroic creatures. This means that the deck has lots of spells that target your guys to make them big, then swing for the kill. (Heroic: if the creature is targeted by a spell you cast, X happens. In this deck it usually puts a +1/+1 on the creature)

Turn four kill example Show

Hand: Island , Plains , Favored Hoplite , Aqueous Form , Ordeal of Thassa , Emerge Unscathed and Artful Maneuver .

T1: Draw Curiosity . Play Plains and Favored Hoplite .

T2: Draw Seachrome Coast . Play Aqueous Form on Favored Hoplite . Swing for 2, then cast Emerge Unscathed and hit for 3.

T3: Draw Emerge Unscathed . Play the Rebound copy of Emerge Unscathed . Next, play Curiosity and Seachrome Coast . Swing with Favored Hoplite for 5, then cast Artful Maneuver and hit for 8. Draw Ordeal of Thassa (from curiosity).

*Note: drawing the right cards is facilitated by the scry from Aqueous Form .

T4: Draw and play an Island . Cast the Rebound copy of Artful Maneuver . Play both of the Ordeal of Thassa 's on Favored Hoplite . Swing for 13, and game.

For the majority of games, only one of your creatures will be needed to kill, so the number of creatures in this deck are limited. Most of the instants are protection, but some are also for damage. The enchantments are more for some longevity and utility. I currently find that sorceries are too slow to be super useful; they bring down the flexibility of the deck. I could however see Distortion Strike and Slip Through Space being usefull; they need some playtesting. The main reason I'm not using artifacts in this deck is because they don't trigger heroic when being equipped (heroic being the primary focus of the deck).

Detailed Creature Explanation Show

As you can see, there are not very many creatures. As a result, the creatures that are in this deck are all very important (I know that there may be some better creatures out there, but I want to make this a heroic deck, so heroic creatures it is).

Firstly we have Favored Hoplite and Lagonna-Band Trailblazer . Both of these are one drops, and have some sustainability that makes them easier to throw on the field and not have to worry too much about their survival. I'd like to note that Lagonna-Band Trailblazer was close to not making it in this deck, but in the modern format where Lightning Bolt reigns supreme, having 4 toughness is a nice.

Next we have Battlewise Hoplite . Many people find him to be an absolute star, with +1 counters and scry for a heroic trigger, there's not much more we can ask for.

A new addition to the deck is Judge's Familiar . While not being incredibly useful as a creature, he is a counter on a stick. Counters are always a good thing to have available, and Judge's Familiar works even when we're tapped out.

As for the instants and enchantments, they fall into four categories of spells: Attack, Defend, Draw, and Control.

Attack Show

The Attack category is the most straight-forward. Although all cards in the deck trigger heroic and allow our creatures to hit harder, these are the cards that ensure big damage, as well as that the damage hits the player. We have three main cards for this:

Artful Maneuver : Hit harder and it triggers twice with rebound, doubling it's worth.

Defiant Strike : A small boost, but it triggers heroic and replaces itself.

Aqueous Form : Primary purpose is allowing our big creature to hit the enemy without worry. Being unblockable is superior to Trample and is one of the main reasons to run this deck as U/W, and not G/W. The scry that comes along with Aqueous Form is also more valuable than it first appears; a reliable way of setting up what is being drawn is important to make sure that this deck runs smoothly and avoids running out of fuel.

Ordeal of Thassa is another notable Attack card, but is used in this deck more for it's card draw (which is why it's here, and not Ordeal of Heliod . I would like to note that every spell in this deck triggers Heroic, so they could all be considered Attack spells, these three are just the main ones.

Defend Show

In the Defend category we have main three cards: Gods Willing and Emerge Unscathed : Both offer protection from colour: protection from murder, burn and creatures. They can also be used for unblockable attacks, should Aqueous Form be absent. Gods Willing also has added scry for more control, and Emerge Unscathed has rebound, effectively doubling it's worth.

Ajani's Presence : Present mainly to protect against the board wipes, because those don't target and thus cannot be prevented with “protection from X colour”. It also can target multiple creatures, and adds attack power.

Another point to notice is that any spell that targets Favored Hoplite will prevent any damage being dealt to him. So even a Defiant Strike can work in a pinch.

Draw Show

For Draw we have two major cards: Curiosity and Ordeal of Thassa . Many cards, creatures and spells alike, offer many opportunities to scry and organize the top of the deck. However, Curiosity and Ordeal of Thassa allow for this deck to actually draw the cards. This is very important because of the low mana cost of everything; it's easy for the deck to run out of steam.

One combo that works particularly well is Aqueous Form + Curiosity , allowing for a free scry, and then draw. Card draw is the main reason that U/W is a more viable heroic deck than any other, including the faster R/W and mono W decks, or a more aggressive big G/W deck.

Control Show

There are very few cards in the mainboard that fit this category exclusively; namely Essence Capture and Swan Song . Both are to be reserved for game ending threats. Hold onto them and keep the mana up to use them. Keeping track of what the win-cons are in your playgroup or just in various modern decks will be helpful in fine-tuning the piloting of this deck (as with any control deck).

Additionally there are the psudo-control cards; Gods Willing , and Emerge Unscathed . Not only are they pump spells and evasion enablers, they grant hexproof as well. Dive Down has nothing on these two. Just keep in mind that they only protect our creatures from spells that target. Settle the Wreckage still scoops them up.

With the sideboard I want to be able to change the deck so that it performs well in a longer, more drawn out match. That is one of the reasons that I like this deck, it can be played as an aggro deck, as well as a slower tempo deck.

Sideboard and Tempo Setup Show

Oblivion Ring is a spot removal for longer games where you need to respond to threats that your opponents have. Path to Exile is an alternative, but it is much more expensive ($ wise) and it only hits creatures. O-Ring can hit a wider range of threats and give you the 1-2 turns you need to finish the game. (Good in sideboard so you can swap them in, and then hold them in hand until a vital combo piece or large threat hits the table).

Hidden Strings is an absolute beast in a Heroic deck. Why? Because when you have Aqueous Form + Hidden Strings you can trigger Hidden strings every turn. And Hidden Strings allows you to trigger heroic twice. If you choose, you can grant you're attacker psudo-vigilence by using one target of Hidden Strings on him every time he swings. Or, you could just target him twice for two +1's. But wait, there's more! Hidden Strings can also be used to untap your lands, or tap your opponents. No matter how you decide to use it, Hidden Strings grants a level of control that is admirable in an aggro deck. But again, it's a little to slow to be running in a regular match, so it lives in the sideboard.

For more defensive games, in addition to Hidden Strings you can use Triton Tactics . Due to a slower tempo, it is likely that you will have more than one creature hitting the field and being important. This cards lets you share the target love and buff multiple creatures, as well as either attack without tapping, or untap for a surprise block. While Triton Tactics is not the powerhouse that Hidden Strings is, it can still be a very useful card.

Next we have Ethereal Armour. This card is excellent. The only reason I chose to take it out of the mainboard is because of the lack of enchantments in general in the mainboard. The only enchantment that works well with it now is Curiosity , because Ordeal of Thassa blows up, and Aqueous Form renders the first strike useless. However, it's still a worthy card, especially if you need to be blocking. (Just for an illustration: Putting two Ethereal Armours on grants the creature +4/+4 as well as two +1/+1 counters... Yeah). If you want to run this deck with a couple more enchantments and a few less instants, Ethereal Armour will be the best card in your deck.

Last but not least is Lithomancer's Focus . This is to deal with artifact decks that get around the "protection from colour" spells that make up the majority of the instants. If artifact creatures are an even bigger threat in your playgroup, I would also recommend adding Apostle's Blessing to the sideboard (perhaps replacing Triton Tactics ?).

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Key combos	Aqueous Form + Curiosity
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Rares 17 - 5 Uncommons 19 - 10 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.30
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U
Based on	Modern Heroism (10$) SoundTramp MDN