COST EDIT: According to TCGPlayer, buying the singles for this deck will only set you back $3.68 (timestamp: October 15 2014, 9:20 PM)
I suggest everyone who reads this go out and get the singles because the amount of fun you can have with this deck and a couple friends is easily worth atleast the $20 i ended up spending on it
So I decided to post my first Build. Its a take on RW Heroic.
This is a SERIOUSLY budget deck I am pretty sure you *could* build it under $10 or even less if you root around for trades and deals.
The Premise
My first ever mtg deck was a theros event deck. Of the cards I really loved the heroics because I was often able to use cheap instants like gads willing to pump them up and protect them at the same time. When I decided to go out and buy new deck I knew I had to go with a Heroic based deck. I went to my LGS and the clerk pulled out "Forged in Battle" a Born of the Gods heroic intro pack. I have since made some improvements to the deck and I feel it is moderately strong. Perhaps not yet FNM worthy but my next build should cover that
ordeal of purphoros and ordeal of Heliod are the two other main cards the way I see things. Both trigger either phalanx leader or one of the other creatures' heroic abilities, and ALSO pump them for 1/1 upto three times. In addition if they resulve completely you gain life or deal direct damage to your opponent. Keep a watch though since the secondary abilities trigger when 3 or more +1+1 tokens are on the creature, so the heroic abilities or abilities of other spells contribute to that.
1. Gods Willing and ephemeral shield provide close to bullet proof protection. Attack with phalanx leader and 1 or 2 creatures that have 1 or 2 less power. Once phalanx leader is blocked play either of the spells to protect it and pump the other unblocked atackers to deal some extra damage
2. Use the "ordeal" cards wisely. Play them either on phalanx leader (for a lot of creature pumping) or on akroan skygaurd (to deal flying damage that increases every turn) Since both have pretty notable secondary abilities once you hit 3 +1/+1 counters on the enchanted creature you should consider burning through gods willing or ephemeral shield to protect them if possible.
3. Using cheap spells like Mortal's ardor on akroan crusader is a good way to get a considerable number of tokens. This is useful against other token decks and seems to be the only strategy to really protect yourself from 5 tokens attacking you because you don't have much to defend with.
4. Labyrinth Champion is hard to get on the field but if you do consider atacking and then triggering his heroic with an instant like Mortal's ardor to deal considerable additional damage and gain some life back.
Additional Thoughts
Perhaps reducing to 3 phalanx leaders and 3 akroan skyguards in favor of couple more 1 drop instants will allow more maneuverability.
I have also been considering some CIPT lands but that may ruin the little speed the deck has
Finally, I feel like some of the new KTK spells like Defiant strike and Trumpet blast could REALLY boost this deck. Not etirely sure if trumpet blast would act as a Heroic Trigger but if it does I need it!
The phalanx leader decks face a very serious issue: They need to actually draw it and have it live. It is for this reason that I do not endorse phalanx leader heroic most of the time. Trumpet blast does not trigger heroic. The multi-trigger spell you may be looking for is coordinated assault.
4 of the best cards, 0 of the stuff that isn't the best as a bare bones generality.
I see what you are saying about having to actually draw Phalanx leader to use its universal buffing, but the thing is, EVEN when I don't draw him, I find that the other heroics are plenty strong to hold their own. I even managed to beat down a pure burn Modern deck this afternoon. It wasn't even a dirt cheap one. Looked to be around 50 bucks.
Also in regards to 4 of the best, 0 of non best: does that not limit you somewhat...?
You vs modern burn shouldn't be a contest. You should lose every time. The only way you win is to hit ordeal of heliod... but it should never be accompanied without "I bolt it in response" and your gods willing should be met with "I bolt it in response again" unless they have a skullcrack or a flames of the blood hand. A modern burn will be finishing you in 4-5 turns and you don't win that race without getting an ordeal off which you never should. Chalk it up to bad construction or bad play.
4 of the best, 0 of the rest is fine. You'll learn how to break the generality as you go but for things like this, it is mostly going to be 4, 0, or whatever number less than 4 to make the land base come out. Aggro wants consistency. You'll make adjustments for things you don't want to draw too many of (see how my uw heroic only plays 2 aqueous form which aren't so good in tandem and less than 4 feat of resistance which are "wish they were more gods willing" cards.) but consistency usually trumps variety. Your sideboard is there to shore up things where needed.
GOt it. Thanks. I'll work on it a bit more. I agree it is far from perfect. Thanks again for your help. Are you the only one on here coz every post seems to be by you
Based on what you said, Im thinking of using complete playsets of both ordeals, gods willing, coordinated assault and ephemeral shield. Im guessing that 4 of is mainly to increase the liklihood of drawing a given card? also, I feel like I still draw tooooooo much land. Like my first hand usually has 3-4, so I mulligan, get 2 but my next 8 draws are all land... AM I doing something wrong...?
There are others. I'm jus fairly active. Yes, 4 ofs are to create a mater of consistency. And that is either chance or bad shuffling. For example, there is what I call "the yugioh shuffle" because they all seem to do it the same way. It is just an indian shuffle but the new convertees are often plagued by mana flood and screw since that type is done insufficiently. So we tell them that when they get tired of dying from it, they should switch to faro and pile shuffles among other things or at least add one of them to the mix for randomization to prevent the clumping.
I run Boros Heroic as well. desperate stand is my second favorite trigger next to coordinated assault. I would go with 20 lands, 18 creatures, and 22 triggers. That seemed to help my draw consistency a lot and help me to keep an imposing threat on the board. I would ditch the rabble heroic like phalanx leader and rely more on stand-alone heroics. fabled hero with his double strike is very useful.
If you are having trouble against token decks, you could add Circle of Flame in to your sideboard. I was testing out something similar to this deck and it completely shut down sligh and was extremely useful against a jeskai deck that made use of raise the alarm and rabblemaster. It forces them to use their shenanigans when they attack, so you'll know what's coming before you block.
The jeskai tokens deck doesn't really scoop to circle. They're not that bothered by it, really. There's plenty of times when it will be playing its cards before combat anyway. Triplicate spirits, Hordeling outburst... They also play a few anthems that they can loot to well enough that will heavily diminish the power of the circle. It isn't nearly as problematic to them as you make it sound. Sligh definitely does not like to see it, though. They don't have too many answers to it aside you not drawing it. Their actual card answer isn't so hot.
So I decided to post my first Build. Its a take on RW Heroic.
This is a SERIOUSLY budget deck I am pretty sure you *could* build it under $10 or even less if you root around for trades and deals.
4 of the best cards, 0 of the stuff that isn't the best as a bare bones generality.
Also in regards to 4 of the best, 0 of non best: does that not limit you somewhat...?
4 of the best, 0 of the rest is fine. You'll learn how to break the generality as you go but for things like this, it is mostly going to be 4, 0, or whatever number less than 4 to make the land base come out. Aggro wants consistency. You'll make adjustments for things you don't want to draw too many of (see how my uw heroic only plays 2 aqueous form which aren't so good in tandem and less than 4 feat of resistance which are "wish they were more gods willing" cards.) but consistency usually trumps variety. Your sideboard is there to shore up things where needed.
Based on what you said, Im thinking of using complete playsets of both ordeals, gods willing, coordinated assault and ephemeral shield. Im guessing that 4 of is mainly to increase the liklihood of drawing a given card? also, I feel like I still draw tooooooo much land. Like my first hand usually has 3-4, so I mulligan, get 2 but my next 8 draws are all land... AM I doing something wrong...?
Sick build thanks so much!
You da best!
Nev, I'll try and shuffle more
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1219046
I know it is not budget but that is because of the lands and the side. Quite a large portion of the deck is quite cheap