Can't say I agree here... it's been key to T4 wins in testing for me. Basic route goes like:
1. Play any of the 1-drops in the deck, but ideally Soldier of the Pantheon
2. Play Phalanx Leader, attack for 1 or 2.
3. Play Fabled Hero, attack for 2 or 3.
4. Play Dauntless Onslaught targeting Phalanx Leader and Fabled Hero, attack for 18 or 19.
Compare Dauntless Onslaught with the alternatives: Ajani's Presence gives +1/+1 indestructable to two creatures for 4, but is also usable for 1. Gift of Orzhova gives +1/+1 flying lifelink for 3 (or less with Hero of Iroas). So while Dauntless gives more immediate power, it has only one use. Ajani's protects agains Destroy. Gift grants permanent evasion.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
Compare Dauntless Onslaught with the alternatives: Ajani's Presence gives +1/+1 indestructable to two creatures for 4, but is also usable for 1. Gift of Orzhova gives +1/+1 flying lifelink for 3 (or less with Hero of Iroas). So while Dauntless gives more immediate power, it has only one use. Ajani's protects agains Destroy. Gift grants permanent evasion.
I play with both Ajani's Presence and Dauntless Onslaught. They don't have to be "alternatives". Ideally the heroic deck has an equal number of creatures with heroic and heroic enablers. That said, I don't think Ajani's Presence is going to result in anywhere near the amount of damage in the scenario I mentioned. You'd be attacking on turn 4 for 13-14 damage instead, for a cumulative 4-turn total of 18-19 damage; not enough to win by turn 4. It's best to hold the Ajani's Presence to protect against removal and use the Dauntless Onslaught for fastest win possible.
As you choose. It's not only fastest kill that matters, and I prefer resilience against removal to straight pump. I pulled a 4 turn win against mono-black today, proving speed isn't a problem in this archetype.
T1: Nyxborn eidolon
T2: ethereal armor, respond to removal with Ajani's Presence. Attack 4.
T3: Hopeful. Attack 4. Phalanx Leader.
T4: ethereal armor on phalanx. Respond to removal with gods willing on phalanx.
So 3 base power, 6 +1 counters, +4 per ethereal = 17 damage, or 24 in all.
Great as this was, it was misplayed. Phalanx leader should have been killed when I was tapped out, and thus I should have withheld Hopeful Eidolon to not be tapped out. Then T4 I could play Hopeful, Ethereal and God's Willing and still attack for 14, still lethal.
So because the deck is so explosive, I prefer cutting back on attack for better defense, and to use multipurpose cards over single. Ajani's Presence, Acolyte's Reward, Gods Willing, Brave, Glimpse make the cut.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
Lajube youre using the deck correctly. Its about sticking a threat and using their anticipated response to kill them. Dauntless is good on paper but one doomblade and it is infinitely worse. Its also 3 mana and is terrible without phalanx leader. Disregarded that card LONG ago. Only works if you go the battlefield thamaturge route. Ive won two events and 6 of 7 fnms playing this way so im comfortable it works.
Well it looks like I can put some of skepticism away. A monowhite heroic deck is currently preying on the mana issues of the 3 color decks in the Block constructed tourney right now.
And some of my optimism just tanked. The results from white blue, white red, AND mono white Heroic were all less than stellar and the last aggro deck was just eliminated from this block constructed event.
Oh no, I looked at them. The problem is that only one made it to the finals. It was not the mono-white or the w/u variant (which is my favorite personally) and this page:
Very plainly points out how the deck under performed for the number of people who were there playing it. It does confirm the general strategy of the OP of this thread, I.E. the need to effectively protect the specific threats, but that was ALSO confirmed by the u/b heroic deck that did decently a while back. The point is we got a decent sample size this time and the numbers for heroic were not particularly spectacular. It doesn't change my desire to test much but it does dampen my enthusiasm for after rotation.
First of all, you have to be very careful about how you use your spells, he cautioned. There are appropriate times to just load up on one guy, and other times when you need to pace yourself and try to play a more grindy game. Knowing which is which is probably the hardest part of playing the deck. There are a lot of threats in this deck, and most of the removal is just a one-for-one. That will let you just grind away at an opponent's hand until they don't have anything left before you pile on the damage.
One of the biggest advantages I think I had was the Ajani's Presences I had in my main deck. With all of the black decks running around, Presence adds two more ways that my creatures can survive Hero's Downfall. They already tend to be big enough to get above Bile Blight and Drown in Sorrow, so having Gods Willing and Presence to protect them from Downfall has been great. I'm also playing Brimaz, King of Oreskos, over Fabled Hero, which many of the other decks are playing. The black and red decks have any number of ways to kill Fabled Hero if they can catch him early, but most of their removal spells just don't kill Brimaz. In addition, you often find yourself needing to go around blockers rather than try to go through them, and Brimaz gives you a way to do that."
I think Jared is absolutely right, but it would surprise me if other pro's aren't already doing this.
Block is the format that sort of predicts the future of Standard. The coverage made a big deal out of that. There's no reason to expect that Drown in Sorrow, Anger of the Gods, Bile Blight (which is already seeing play) won't see more in the future. That's not even factoring in things like Banishing Light. Again, I've been pretty happy with my own testing for a future FNM... but I don't like what I'm seeing in the data for the purposes of me enjoying rooting for the aggro deck in tournament coverage.
Block is a very restricted format. In my standard deck i utilize quality early game creatures to maximize phalanx leader. In block its harder. Thats why you see brimaz over fabled hero, same concept. Quality over synergy sometimes. Also im sure the three color control decks outnumbered the aggro decks by a wide margin as they do on mtgo.
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Can't say I agree here... it's been key to T4 wins in testing for me. Basic route goes like:
1. Play any of the 1-drops in the deck, but ideally Soldier of the Pantheon
2. Play Phalanx Leader, attack for 1 or 2.
3. Play Fabled Hero, attack for 2 or 3.
4. Play Dauntless Onslaught targeting Phalanx Leader and Fabled Hero, attack for 18 or 19.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
I play with both Ajani's Presence and Dauntless Onslaught. They don't have to be "alternatives". Ideally the heroic deck has an equal number of creatures with heroic and heroic enablers. That said, I don't think Ajani's Presence is going to result in anywhere near the amount of damage in the scenario I mentioned. You'd be attacking on turn 4 for 13-14 damage instead, for a cumulative 4-turn total of 18-19 damage; not enough to win by turn 4. It's best to hold the Ajani's Presence to protect against removal and use the Dauntless Onslaught for fastest win possible.
T1: Nyxborn eidolon
T2: ethereal armor, respond to removal with Ajani's Presence. Attack 4.
T3: Hopeful. Attack 4. Phalanx Leader.
T4: ethereal armor on phalanx. Respond to removal with gods willing on phalanx.
So 3 base power, 6 +1 counters, +4 per ethereal = 17 damage, or 24 in all.
Great as this was, it was misplayed. Phalanx leader should have been killed when I was tapped out, and thus I should have withheld Hopeful Eidolon to not be tapped out. Then T4 I could play Hopeful, Ethereal and God's Willing and still attack for 14, still lethal.
So because the deck is so explosive, I prefer cutting back on attack for better defense, and to use multipurpose cards over single. Ajani's Presence, Acolyte's Reward, Gods Willing, Brave, Glimpse make the cut.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
You can check out my artwork here and here
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
You can check out my artwork here and here
top decks block
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/ptjou14/wuheroic
Very plainly points out how the deck under performed for the number of people who were there playing it. It does confirm the general strategy of the OP of this thread, I.E. the need to effectively protect the specific threats, but that was ALSO confirmed by the u/b heroic deck that did decently a while back. The point is we got a decent sample size this time and the numbers for heroic were not particularly spectacular. It doesn't change my desire to test much but it does dampen my enthusiasm for after rotation.
You can check out my artwork here and here
We're fortunate in standard that Drown in Sorrow and Silence the Believers aren't played.
I think Jared is absolutely right, but it would surprise me if other pro's aren't already doing this.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
You can check out my artwork here and here