The AFA (Azorius Faerial Aggro) [Budget]
Standard
SCORE: 5 | 913 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS
Changes to better cover deck's weaknesses —March 22, 2024
I've been playing a lot of Bo1 Standard at Platinum rank and I'm working on adjusting the deck to better cover its' weaknesses. The biggest adjustment I made is adding in two copies of Elspeth's Smite to deal with some problematic creatures, mainly Phyrexian Missionary, Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor, and Glissa Sunslayer. I often can't kill these creatures with Overwhelmed Archivist Flip given black's abundance of creature removal. This deck tends to have a decent match up against Sheoldred, the Apocalypse due to its speed, but the draw and life gain combo with Gix tends to kill my chances.
I also added two copies of Fading Hope, which is very strong against the +1/+1 counters decks that often outpace me. It also has some utility with disturb creatures, as it allows them to be "reused" if my opponent attempts to remove them. The removal suite does look odd now, with two copies each of four cards, but each spell has situational restrictions, and I don't want to be in a situation where I have too many of a spell I can't use.
With three more instants than the deck had formerly, I am trying out one Picklock Prankster. I tried it for a quick minute a while ago and it felt too slow, but it's going for nearly $2.50 (as an uncommon) so it must be pretty damn good. Its self-synergy is tempting me to add one or two more, but I have no idea what I would cut.
This season's meta seems more difficult than the last two, probably due to more established archetypes. I pushed this deck up to Mythic the last two seasons so I'm hoping I can find a balance that'll propel me up the ladder. If anyone has any recommendations or ideas, please let me know.