Deck Goal:
A good budget, beginner deck for playing in Pioneer with the ability to upgrade later on. The first things I'd add would be Declaration in Stone, Thalia's Lieutenant, and potentially a Gideon.
The Weenies:
Boros Elite (W) - 1/1 One drop for the early game, with a solid +2/+2 ability for when other weenies are on the board. Also fits in the human tribal theme.
Dauntless Bodyguard (W) - 2/1 Decent attacker for early damage, plus ability to protect more valuable cards down the line. Kind of like a budget Selfless Spirit with human synergy.
Faerie Guidemother (W) // Gift of the Fae (1W) - 1/1 Decent flyer for the early game, and adventure mode is a good extra bonus. Might replace with something more human-centric later on (e.g. Thalia's Lieutenant)
Giant Killer (W) // Chop Down (2W) - 1/2 Solid weenie for an early draw, good removal potential later in the game with adventure mode.
Mardu Woe-Reaper (W) - 2/1 Life gain and human synergy's a plus, and can shut down some decks that rely on graveyard interaction to revive creatures. However I feel like this may be the weakest weenie in the deck, open to substitutes.
Thraben Inspector (W) - 1/2 Provides a much-needed card draw ability and human synergy.
The Utilities:
Raise the Alarm (1W) - Gets bodies on the field when you need them. Useful for blocking, and also works with Conclave Tribunal/Venerated Loxodon's convoke ability. If I were to cut Conclave Tribunal, I would cut Raise the Alarm as well and replace it with 4x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar or 4x Thalia's Lieutenant.
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Conclave Tribunal (3W) - The only true removal spell at the moment other than Giant Killer's adventure mode. This should definitely be replaced with Declaration in Stone ASAP.
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Benalish Marshal (3) - Best to drop when the board is full.
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Brave the Elements (W) - A versatile protection spell, works with most/any decks.
Upgrades/Potential Changes:
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3x Declaration in Stone instead of 2x Conclave Tribunal and 1x Brave the Elements
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4x Thalia's Lieutenant instead of 4x Raise the Alarm
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Add in 4x Law-Rune Enforcer and cut Faerie Guidemother. This is because Enforcer is flexible against more annoying creatures that need to be tapped down. Having flying isn't as important when you can simply tap opposing flyers anyways.
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SB as described below.
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After adding Thalia's Lieutenant, add 2x Knight of the White Orchid. Cut 1x Benalish Marshal and 1x Venerated Loxodon. This is to help out with our mana curve, and can make some opening hands more playable (better to have 1x Knight of the White Orchid and 1x Loxodon than 2x Loxodons in an opening hand!).
WEAKNESSES (and SB):
What're we weak to? What strategies will we be up against? And how can our SB play around them?...
- Card advantage. We want to be playing out our entire hand, constantly. We have a tough matchup against decks who have lots of options in terms of drawing extra cards/scrying (flash decks), or use the graveyard as a resource (dredge). Therefore we need SB cards that a) prevent drawing cards, scrying, or casting instant spells, and b) prevent graveyard interaction.
- a) Deafening Silence. A must-have against any instant/sorcery heavy deck. No downside for us.
- a) Tithe Taker. Great against any flash deck that relies on spending their mana during your turn.
- b) Rest in Peace/Grafdigger's Cage. Instant shut-down for any reanimation or gy dependant deck. No downside for us.
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b) Mardu Woe-Reaper, against any deck that relies on bringing back big critters from the gy.
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Board sweepers. A single card can wipe our board. It's crucial that we have some sort of counter to this at all times. We can maindeck generic options such as Brave the Elements, but we should keep more targeted/cheaper counterspells in the SB as well.
- Brave the Elements. Generic main deck card, works well in a variety of cases.
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Unbreakable Formation. A great card to use as a finisher if board presence is large enough, or simply to survive decks playing strong sweepers.
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Big flying baddies. Glorybringer, etc. We need something that can slow these creatures down or silence them entirely if Giant Killer can't get to them in time.
- Declaration in Stone. This is best for shutting down powerful engine creatures that opponents' decks rely on. Downside-lets the opponent investigate.
- Devout Decree. Also provides us a scry option and works for PWers. Downside is that it only works on red and black.
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Law-rune Enforcer. The ability to tap-down powerful enemies can protect creatures from being chump-blocked and buy us time.
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Planeswalkers. We want to be going face all the time, planes walkers distract us from that goal. We need something to shut them down quickly so we can focus on our A-game.
- Pithing Needle. This is really the best cheap solution.
- Prison Realm. More expensive, but provides some scry and completely shuts the PW down.
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Devout Decree. A fantastic middle ground between Pithing Needle and Prison Realm, but only works on red and black.
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Control. We need something to keep us in the game when things get grindy.
- Gideon Blackblade. A 4/4 on the board every turn is plenty of board presence, plus the ability to give key creatures vigilance/indestructible gives us wiggle room against the opponent.
General SB rules:
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Mardu Woe-Reaper, Tithe Taker, and Law-rune Enforcer are somewhat interchangeable depending on the makeup of the opponent's strategy. Is this a GY deck? Use Woe-reaper. Flash? Tithe Taker. Annoying big creatures? Law-rune Enforcer.
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Gideon Blackblade should sub in for one of our pumpers, e.g. Benalish Marshal or Venerated Loxodon.
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We essentially have slots for 6 counter-spells (maindeck: 3x Brave the Elements, 3x Declaration in Stone). The first is sweeper protection, the second is spot removal. Unless the opponent has no sweepers, it's probably best to keep a bit of sweeper protection in and swap out something for Declaration in Stone.
- Rakdos PWers & creatures spot removal: Devout Decree
- Generic PW shutdown/spot removal: Pithing Needle.
- Flash protection: Deafening Silence
- GY interaction shutdown: Rest in Peace.
- If Mardu Woe-Reaper, Tithe Taker, and Law-rune Enforcer aren't particularly useful, 2x can be swapped out for more counterspells if necessary.
