Are you sure that not killing Leovold is worth it? I could just jam in the fetches. I've got access to all the Red fetches I need, I just don't like the idea of getting Stifled.
Chaos Warp is weird yes. It's basically anti reanimator/Sneak and Show(might show up too)/Depths tech that doubles as enchantment removal and land destruction. I honestly haven't played with it much, it might be too out of left field and I might be leaning too much on my modern sensibilities, but it feels like Path, Disenchant, and Ghost Quarter all rolled into one to me. Now those cards don't see much play in legacy, especially at 3cmc, but it might be a good 1-card catchall for stuff that Red doesn't deal with well.
Hey so I'm working on getting a Legacy community set up at my LGS and figured my Burn deck should get looked at, something that hasn't been done since before Vegas, in preparation.
The meta's pretty blind at this point. We have W/U Stoneblade, 4c Leovold, Sultai Delver, RB Reanimator, Mono Red Storm, and probably Merfolk as decks that are possibilities to show up and beyond that idk so I tried to kind of cover as many bases as possible.
Good luck in building the deck and I hope you have lots of fun in the legacy format
Blood Moon seemed to work really good in the Modern Format because the format is slower than legacy. On the flip side, I never understood the milticolor burn decks in the modern format because mono red with blood moon in the main is freak'n awesome. Not to mention the modern mono red burn player would always have an advantage from the shock/fetch damage.
In legacy burn we seldom want to play 3cc or higher spells. And most players believe that dropping a blood moon won't speed up the deck for the win. And in come cases by the time you play blood moon the opponent has the advantage.
As an aside I mostly play modern so I figured I could clear that up. The basic answers to the mono-colour/multi-coloured question is a lack of Red sideboard tech and added explosiveness.
The in depth answer is that White has the best graveyard hate in the format, Wear // Tear which is super important because of Leyline of Sanctity, Kor Firewalker, Deflecting Palm,and most importantly Path for stuff like Wurmcoil Engine or Kor Firewalker and Green has the better way to deal with enchantments in Destructive Revelry. Green also gives access to Atarka's Command which in addition to being a straight upgrade to Skullcrack, combos with a Swiftspear or 2 (sometimes a Guide can sub for 1) and 3-4 Bolts depending on creature count to deal 20 damage by turn 3. Oh and white gives Boros Charm which is like a better Flame Rift, and Lightning Helix which offsets the life loss from the landbase.
Cool, I might look into those if I do go more midrange, which would reduce the mana intensity. I guess I could also run Manamorphose if I need to though and I have slightly reduced my reliance on green.
I get what you're saying with Horned Kavu. Valley Dasher or Goblin Heelcutter might be better in that slot now that you mention it. But I haven't really come across the mana problems you're talking about in testing. Part of that is that BTE is actually non-land mana fixing for the RG creatures and that any speed I lose with having a land tapped turn 1 or 2 is usually made up for by the quality of my creatures. Definitely changing Horned Kavu but losing 2/x's for 1 or other above curve creatures just seems to good to scrap the deck.
I hope this isn't necroing the thread, as it's still on the first page. I just wanted to say I've found a lot of success with Lightning Berserker. It dodges most sweepers, triggers Champion and Lieutenant as well as the Soul Sisters which some people run, and the firebreathing effect gives a late game mana-sink so it's not a dead draw later on.
And if @Les777 still wants some advice I'd cut Disenchant for Kor Firewalker or something to that effect because Wear//Tear does a better job and you already run 4 of them.
So I'm new to pauper, and although I usually play Burn in any format I can I figured I would try something a little more like my first competitive deck, Gruul Zoo back in Kamigawa-Ravnica Standard. This is what I've come up with.
Since I'm new to Pauper I'm not all that familiar with the meta so I'm sort of flying blind, especially with the sideboard. Cards I'm not all that sure of are Horned Kavu which is great when it lands but is vulnerable on cast, Mogg Fanatic which might be better as Young Wolf, Blazing Volley which I think is better for my purposes than Electrickery and Tranquility which I went with although I don't know if there are many enchantment based decks in Pauper. Feed the Clan is also a bit shaky, but will be replaced by Life Goes On which I like a lot more as anti-Burn tech. Any thoughts?
So I took a non-budget build of Boros Humans to my local modern night, and won with a 3-1 record! Here's how it went and what was good where, and cheaper alternatives where I can come up with them.
Creature replacements: Lightning Mauler-Replaces Goblin Guide. Pluses are that it's a human and is better when jamming multiple creatures. Drawbacks are that it takes an extra turn to come out and is bad in topdeck mode.
Game 1: I'm on the play. He gets Tron on turn 3 and plays Karn. Fortunately I've been applying a lot of pressure so he has to -3 to remove my Champion and I have Bolt in hand. He then sees no threats in his next 2 draws and I win by turning things sideways.
In: 4 Paths
Out: 4 Bolts
Game 2: So he starts by ripping Magus out of my hand and I assume it's going to be game for him. However he saw no threats and I got 20 damage by turn 4. It wasn't really a game.
Conclusion: So my opponent had bad draws and it wasn't much of a match. However, I have tested quite a bit against other tron variants, mostly G/R but also G/W, and have yet to lose. We're fast and can run land hate, so I'm pretty confident that we're favoured here.
Abzan-0/2
Game 1: I kept a slower hand, and it bit me. He landed 2 Birds of Paradise which allowed him to push through 2 Maguses.
In: 4 Paths
Out: 3 Thalia, 1 Bolt
Game 2: I start fast, but his creatures outgrow mine thanks to a T2 Anafenza and when he lands Siege Rhino it closes out the game.
Conclusion: If the game goes too long against B/G/x, we don't have much game. Definitely putting Mirran Crusader back in the board.
Boros Burn-2/0
Game 1: I'm on the draw, but he suspends a Rift Bolt instead of landing a creature which sets the tune for the rest of the game. A lot of burn also goes to my face instead of my creatures, which was probably a mistake.
In: 2 Leyline, 1 Path
Out: 3 Magus
Game 2: So game 2 goes very similarly to game 1, only with more of my creatures dying. However I land a Thalia when he's at 2 lands and he had already used up his removal. This allows me to play pretty much unmolested.
Conclusion: So these were very much races. I'd tested against R/W/g Burn which is roughly half a turn faster, and came out roughly 50/50. That half a turn counts for a lot, though I was about 1 or 2 burn spells away from losing both games so it's still really close.
Bant Eldrazi-2/0
Game 1: My opponent didn't draw any Thought-Knots or Displacers which I think helped a lot. With some strategic blocking and a couple of Lieutenants I manage to beat him down.
In: 4 Paths
Out: 3 Thalia, 1 Bolt
Game 2: I land Magus with him at 3 non-basics and he doesn't draw another land. It was decidedly one-sided.
Conclusion: Magus and Thalia's Lieutenant can win games out of just about nowhere.
Overall: I boarded in Paths every game so 3 are going mainboard for the 3 Accorder Paladin which did literally nothing. Burn was close, and with a better pilot I might have lost and would have at least gone to 3 games, so some better hate might be in order. I definitely need something against B/G/x which is in my experience our worst matchup. And although I didn't mention it, I also found myself topdecking lands frequently so I think 20 is a better number.
Hey, so some people at my store are kind of looking at legacy because of an upcoming GP, and I'm putting together a NO Elves deck. Anyway I was wondering if I could get a hand with the list.
First off, I know I need Cradles. I just don't have them yet. I was thinking of putting in 3-4 Cavern of Souls and a couple of Shaman of the Pack at the expense of the Archdruids. The sideboard is kind of weird as I don't have Bayou yet either, and Seedtime is kind of a pet card that will probably get cut soonish. I just like the idea of getting an extra turn off an end of turn Brainstorm.
I find they add tremendous consistency to the deck's manabase, almost guaranteeing red while also keeping the amount of white you have as high as it needs to be. It also lets me play Magus of the Moon with less downside.
It's not like the deck is bad without them or anything, far from it. I was just building my version to be the best it could be, not a budget affair, and felt they moved it closer towards that and I thought it might be worth noting if somebody else was planning to evolve their deck over time. Really I imagined the rest of my post would be more helpful.
Well you don't have to devote the extra sideboard room for Rending Volley or what have you for twin anymore, and it's not like we boarded much aside from maybe Deflecting Palm against Bloom and that's still good in other matches. The biggest change was probably adding in graveyard hate like Ravenous Trap, Grafdigger's Cage, or Rest in Peace to deal with Dredge, and although they got hit with the loss of their Grave-Troll I would still have a couple pieces. Heck some people, myself included, even run Anger of the Gods over Volcanic Fallout in part due to Dredge.
On a side note, if you want to end up including fetches you don't actually need Arid Mesa if you cut the Basic Mountains. Nothing costs double red so even though I have a playset of each I only run 2 Sacred Foundry and 2 Inspiring Vantage along with 8 fetches and 9 plains. With that manabase, or one like it, you could simply play Flooded Strand and/or Windswept Heath making it much more affordable.
Overview and Strategy
This is a fairly simple aggro deck. Our strategy, obviously, is primarily to fill the board with efficient creatures and turn things sideways until we win, but we've got a couple of tricks to help us do that that other similar decks often don't. We run Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to disrupt non-creature based decks and Magus of the Moon to disrupt almost every multicolour deck out there, neither of which hurt us much. We've also got Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant growing with every human that hits our board, which is great with Hanweir Garrison. Overall it's pretty self explanatory, so I won't take up any more of your time explaining it.
Accorder Paladin: We play a lot of creatures, so Battle Cry can add up. Goblin Guide: The only non-human here. It makes the cut by simply being the best 1cmc creature in our colours. Kytheon, Hero of Akros: A 2 power 1 drop that flips fairly easily into a planeswalker/4/4 beater. Mardu Woe-Reaper: A 2 power 1 drop. The lifegain/grave hate is negligible. Soldier of the Pantheon A surprisingly resistant 2 power 1 drop. Unlike Woe-Reaper the Lifegain can actually help. Wojek Halberdiers Giving your field First Strike can be great, an it's attached to a relatively well costed body. Student of Warfare A great mana-sink if games go long. Then again, if games are going too long you are probably losing. Hero of Bladehold She makes tokens and has Battle Cry. Probably the only 4cmc creature I would run
Magus of the Moon: We usually use our non-basic lands for red anyway, so Blood Moon doesn't hurt us much if at all. The Magus is much more fragile, but is a Human and a body in an human based aggro deck. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: Given that the only non-creature spells we play are already super-effecient and there are only 8 in the main 60 we can usually afford her, and she makes our opponents choose more often between removal and threats.
Champion of the Parish: Usually a 3/3 on turn 2 without having to take damage the same way as you do with Wild Nacatl, and it only gets bigger from there. Hanweir Garrison: A potent threat on its own, the fact that the tokens it makes are humans is super relevant. Thalia's Lieutenant: A Champion of the Parish with a field-wide pump to all your humans is pretty good. It is a 2cmc 1/1, so that's not great, but it grows quickly.
Lightning Bolt: It's Lightning Bolt. It slices, it dices, it deals 3 for 1, it's great. Path to exile: One of the best removal spells ever printed. Chained to the Rocks: Path diet. It requires a Mountain, but doesn't give anything to your opponent.
Deflecting Palm: Good for going all out against Infect. Also good against Tron, Scapeshift, and Suicide Zoo. Kataki, War's Wage: Artifact hate. For Affinity and Lantern Control. Kor Firewalker: Burn hoser. Maybe useful against Zoo. Mirran Crusader: Good against Abzan, Infect, Jund, Abzan, and basically anything with B/G. Rest in Peace: Graveyard hate. Stony Silence: More artifact hate. Also good against Merfolk. Blessed Alliance: Good everywhere Palm is, but also against Burn and other aggro decks.
Abzan: Should be slightly favourable. We have a lot of cheap threats even when compared to their removal suite. Bring in the Crusader and pull Accorder Palladin and a Bolt.
Ad Nauseum: Should be favourable. We can put pressure on and keep it there. Board out Path and board in Mirran Crusader and Kor Firewalker for the extra damage.
Affinity: Bad pre-board. They are usually faster. Post board our hate should be enough. Board in all your Artifact hate as well as Thalia. Possible cuts include Soldier of the Pantheon and Woe-Reaper.
Bant Eldrazi: We are relying on being the faster deck. No idea how it would play out, so assume the worst. Bring in Blessed Alliance/Deflecting Palm, bring out Thalia.
Burn: Prepair for lots of removal. Side in Thalia, Kor Firewalker and Blessed Alliance, take out Magus, Woe-Reaper, and/or Accorder Paladin. Surprisingly even matchup before board after some testing. Should be good after boarding.
Dredge: They took at hit recently with the loss of Grave-Troll, but don't count them out. Side in RiP and maybe Thalia, pull out Accorder Paladin.
Infect: Should be a strangely good match. We have a lot of creatures to gum up the ground, Thalia limits their pump abilities, and some good removal. Post board bring in Palm/Alliance and Mirran Crusader pulling Hanweir Garrison and Accorder Paladin.
Jund: A fair matchup. They have a lot of removal though. Bring in Mirran Crusader and depending on the manabase you see game 1 either pull Accorder Paladin or Magus and a Bolt.
Tron: A good matchup. We maindeck Magus and are just generally quite fast. Palm is good as is Stony Silence.
Hey, so I don't know if this is still something anyone is interested in, but I tried building a Jund Madness deck pre-Shadows and figured I could chime in. My original build was awful, is way obsolete and not exactly what I'm here to talk about. What I am here to talk about is where I went wrong.
Where I went wrong is that Vengevine is not that easy to trigger with (the old) madness creatures. It looks like a match made in heaven, but in reality it felt like too much setup for more often than not, no pay-off. That may have changed with the new vampires, but I don't know if would make it worth the effort. Side note you could maybe play Memnite and/or Ornithopter as ad-hoc Basking Rootwallas to trigger Vengevine.
What I would do now is go for a more mid-range, creature heavy approach like this. It takes some of Lantern's deck and some of my old one and mashes the two together.
Incorrigible Youths: A 4/3 with haste huh? Seems familiar. Only this one is much more reliable, though it does cost mana. Also dodges Fatal Push
Zombie Infestation: Repeatable madness enabler with no activation cost? Yes please! Comes on a turn earlier than Lilly, and is harder to remove. And since this deck can actually take advantage of an empty hand sometimes, discarding 2 cards at once isn't too much of a drawback.
Fatal Push: Didn't exist before, better against creatures than Decay. We also have enough madness enablers that we shouldn't need Faithless Looting.
Leyline of the Void: With Dredge being a big part of the meta before the ban, and probably a good enough chunk after, we needed some grave hate. Hate that didn't hurt us.
Chaos Warp is weird yes. It's basically anti reanimator/Sneak and Show(might show up too)/Depths tech that doubles as enchantment removal and land destruction. I honestly haven't played with it much, it might be too out of left field and I might be leaning too much on my modern sensibilities, but it feels like Path, Disenchant, and Ghost Quarter all rolled into one to me. Now those cards don't see much play in legacy, especially at 3cmc, but it might be a good 1-card catchall for stuff that Red doesn't deal with well.
19 Mountain
Creatures(12)
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
Instants(15)
4 Fireblast
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Price of Progress
3 Searing Blaze
4 Chain Lightning
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
Enchantments (2)
2 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Chaos Warp
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Harsh Mentor
2 Pyrostatic Pillar
2 Relic of Progenitus
The meta's pretty blind at this point. We have W/U Stoneblade, 4c Leovold, Sultai Delver, RB Reanimator, Mono Red Storm, and probably Merfolk as decks that are possibilities to show up and beyond that idk so I tried to kind of cover as many bases as possible.
As an aside I mostly play modern so I figured I could clear that up. The basic answers to the mono-colour/multi-coloured question is a lack of Red sideboard tech and added explosiveness.
The in depth answer is that White has the best graveyard hate in the format, Wear // Tear which is super important because of Leyline of Sanctity, Kor Firewalker, Deflecting Palm,and most importantly Path for stuff like Wurmcoil Engine or Kor Firewalker and Green has the better way to deal with enchantments in Destructive Revelry. Green also gives access to Atarka's Command which in addition to being a straight upgrade to Skullcrack, combos with a Swiftspear or 2 (sometimes a Guide can sub for 1) and 3-4 Bolts depending on creature count to deal 20 damage by turn 3. Oh and white gives Boros Charm which is like a better Flame Rift, and Lightning Helix which offsets the life loss from the landbase.
And if @Les777 still wants some advice I'd cut Disenchant for Kor Firewalker or something to that effect because Wear//Tear does a better job and you already run 4 of them.
4 Evolving Wilds
8 Forest
8 Mountain
Creatures (28)
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Horned Kavu
2 Jund Hackblade
4 Kird Ape
2 Mogg Fanatic
4 Rip-Clan Crasher
4 Scab-Clan Mauler
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Colossal Might
4 Lightning Bolt
Enchantment (4)
4 Rancor
2 Blazing Volley
2 Cartouche of Zeal
2 Feed the Clan
2 Flame Slash
2 Molten Rain
3 Tin Street Hooligan
2 Tranquility
Since I'm new to Pauper I'm not all that familiar with the meta so I'm sort of flying blind, especially with the sideboard. Cards I'm not all that sure of are Horned Kavu which is great when it lands but is vulnerable on cast, Mogg Fanatic which might be better as Young Wolf, Blazing Volley which I think is better for my purposes than Electrickery and Tranquility which I went with although I don't know if there are many enchantment based decks in Pauper. Feed the Clan is also a bit shaky, but will be replaced by Life Goes On which I like a lot more as anti-Burn tech. Any thoughts?
The list
9 Plains
4 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded Strand
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Inspiring Vantage
Creatures (35)
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Goblin Guide
4 Hanweir Garrison
3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3 Mardu Woe-Reaper
3 Magus of the Moon
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
3 Accorder Paladin
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
1 Stony Silence
3 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Rest In Peace
3 Boros Charm
2 Leyline of Sanctity
Land replacements:
Battlefield Forge & Clifftop Retreat-Budget Shock/Fetch replacements. Also consider running more copies of Inspiring Vantage.
Creature replacements:
Lightning Mauler-Replaces Goblin Guide. Pluses are that it's a human and is better when jamming multiple creatures. Drawbacks are that it takes an extra turn to come out and is bad in topdeck mode.
Isamaru, Hound of Konda-Another Goblin Guide replacement. No haste, still isn't a human, but doesn't feed lands.
Dragon Hunter-Third Guide replacement. Another 2/1 Human for W.
Vryn Wingmare-Replaces Thalia, though as it's not a human I would leave it in the sideboard.
Scab-Clan Berserker- Thalia, Guardian of Thraben replacement. Better main than Wingmare thanks to human creature type.
Ghost Quarter-A Magus of the Moon replacement as although it's a budget-ish replacement for Blood Moon
the price difference is only about 5$.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar-Replaces Magus to hose greedy manabases.
Sideboard replacements:
Kor Firewalker-Replaces Leyline. Actually may try this one over the Leyline regardless of budgetary restrictions.
Burrenton Forge-Tender-Replaces Leyline more completely as it also protects against Ad Nauseam decks, but is worse against burn.
Relic of Progenitus-My favourite RiP replacement thanks to card draw.
Matches:
G/B Tron-2/0
Game 1: I'm on the play. He gets Tron on turn 3 and plays Karn. Fortunately I've been applying a lot of pressure so he has to -3 to remove my Champion and I have Bolt in hand. He then sees no threats in his next 2 draws and I win by turning things sideways.
In: 4 Paths
Out: 4 Bolts
Game 2: So he starts by ripping Magus out of my hand and I assume it's going to be game for him. However he saw no threats and I got 20 damage by turn 4. It wasn't really a game.
Conclusion: So my opponent had bad draws and it wasn't much of a match. However, I have tested quite a bit against other tron variants, mostly G/R but also G/W, and have yet to lose. We're fast and can run land hate, so I'm pretty confident that we're favoured here.
Abzan-0/2
Game 1: I kept a slower hand, and it bit me. He landed 2 Birds of Paradise which allowed him to push through 2 Maguses.
In: 4 Paths
Out: 3 Thalia, 1 Bolt
Game 2: I start fast, but his creatures outgrow mine thanks to a T2 Anafenza and when he lands Siege Rhino it closes out the game.
Conclusion: If the game goes too long against B/G/x, we don't have much game. Definitely putting Mirran Crusader back in the board.
Boros Burn-2/0
Game 1: I'm on the draw, but he suspends a Rift Bolt instead of landing a creature which sets the tune for the rest of the game. A lot of burn also goes to my face instead of my creatures, which was probably a mistake.
In: 2 Leyline, 1 Path
Out: 3 Magus
Game 2: So game 2 goes very similarly to game 1, only with more of my creatures dying. However I land a Thalia when he's at 2 lands and he had already used up his removal. This allows me to play pretty much unmolested.
Conclusion: So these were very much races. I'd tested against R/W/g Burn which is roughly half a turn faster, and came out roughly 50/50. That half a turn counts for a lot, though I was about 1 or 2 burn spells away from losing both games so it's still really close.
Bant Eldrazi-2/0
Game 1: My opponent didn't draw any Thought-Knots or Displacers which I think helped a lot. With some strategic blocking and a couple of Lieutenants I manage to beat him down.
In: 4 Paths
Out: 3 Thalia, 1 Bolt
Game 2: I land Magus with him at 3 non-basics and he doesn't draw another land. It was decidedly one-sided.
Conclusion: Magus and Thalia's Lieutenant can win games out of just about nowhere.
Overall: I boarded in Paths every game so 3 are going mainboard for the 3 Accorder Paladin which did literally nothing. Burn was close, and with a better pilot I might have lost and would have at least gone to 3 games, so some better hate might be in order. I definitely need something against B/G/x which is in my experience our worst matchup. And although I didn't mention it, I also found myself topdecking lands frequently so I think 20 is a better number.
Out Maindeck:
3 Accorder Paladin
1 Plains
In Maindeck:
3 Path to Exile
1 Mardu Woe-Reaper
Out Sideboard:
3 Path to Exile
2 Leyline of Sanctity
In Sideboard:
3 Mirran Crusader
2 Kor Firewalker
10 Forest
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
1 Dryad Arbor
Creatures (30)
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Elvish Archdruid
1 Elvish Mystic
4 Heritage Druid
2 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Natural Order
4 Reclamation Sage
3 Mindbreak Trap
2 Faerie Macabre
4 Seedtime
1 Terastodon
1 Progenitus
First off, I know I need Cradles. I just don't have them yet. I was thinking of putting in 3-4 Cavern of Souls and a couple of Shaman of the Pack at the expense of the Archdruids. The sideboard is kind of weird as I don't have Bayou yet either, and Seedtime is kind of a pet card that will probably get cut soonish. I just like the idea of getting an extra turn off an end of turn Brainstorm.
It's not like the deck is bad without them or anything, far from it. I was just building my version to be the best it could be, not a budget affair, and felt they moved it closer towards that and I thought it might be worth noting if somebody else was planning to evolve their deck over time. Really I imagined the rest of my post would be more helpful.
On a side note, if you want to end up including fetches you don't actually need Arid Mesa if you cut the Basic Mountains. Nothing costs double red so even though I have a playset of each I only run 2 Sacred Foundry and 2 Inspiring Vantage along with 8 fetches and 9 plains. With that manabase, or one like it, you could simply play Flooded Strand and/or Windswept Heath making it much more affordable.
My Current Build
We'll start with what everyone wants to see, the deck itself.
4 Arid Mesa
2 Inspiring Vantage
9 Plains
2 Sacred Foundry
4 Windswept Heath
Instants (8)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
Creatures (31)
2 Accorder Paladin
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Goblin Guide
3 Hanweir Garrison
3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
2 Magus of the Moon
3 Mardu Woe-Reaper
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Mirran Crusader
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silience
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Overview and Strategy
This is a fairly simple aggro deck. Our strategy, obviously, is primarily to fill the board with efficient creatures and turn things sideways until we win, but we've got a couple of tricks to help us do that that other similar decks often don't. We run Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to disrupt non-creature based decks and Magus of the Moon to disrupt almost every multicolour deck out there, neither of which hurt us much. We've also got Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant growing with every human that hits our board, which is great with Hanweir Garrison. Overall it's pretty self explanatory, so I won't take up any more of your time explaining it.
Card Choices
Accorder Paladin: We play a lot of creatures, so Battle Cry can add up.
Goblin Guide: The only non-human here. It makes the cut by simply being the best 1cmc creature in our colours.
Kytheon, Hero of Akros: A 2 power 1 drop that flips fairly easily into a planeswalker/4/4 beater.
Mardu Woe-Reaper: A 2 power 1 drop. The lifegain/grave hate is negligible.
Soldier of the Pantheon A surprisingly resistant 2 power 1 drop. Unlike Woe-Reaper the Lifegain can actually help.
Wojek Halberdiers Giving your field First Strike can be great, an it's attached to a relatively well costed body.
Student of Warfare A great mana-sink if games go long. Then again, if games are going too long you are probably losing.
Hero of Bladehold She makes tokens and has Battle Cry. Probably the only 4cmc creature I would run
Magus of the Moon: We usually use our non-basic lands for red anyway, so Blood Moon doesn't hurt us much if at all. The Magus is much more fragile, but is a Human and a body in an human based aggro deck.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: Given that the only non-creature spells we play are already super-effecient and there are only 8 in the main 60 we can usually afford her, and she makes our opponents choose more often between removal and threats.
Champion of the Parish: Usually a 3/3 on turn 2 without having to take damage the same way as you do with Wild Nacatl, and it only gets bigger from there.
Hanweir Garrison: A potent threat on its own, the fact that the tokens it makes are humans is super relevant.
Thalia's Lieutenant: A Champion of the Parish with a field-wide pump to all your humans is pretty good. It is a 2cmc 1/1, so that's not great, but it grows quickly.
Lightning Bolt: It's Lightning Bolt. It slices, it dices, it deals 3 for 1, it's great.
Path to exile: One of the best removal spells ever printed.
Chained to the Rocks: Path diet. It requires a Mountain, but doesn't give anything to your opponent.
Arid Mesa/Marsh Flats/Prairie Stream/Windswept Heath: Our fetches of choice.
Plains: Our Basic of choice.
Sacred Foundry: The Boros shock land.
Inspiring Vantage: We're fast enough to play a couple of fast lands.
Cavern of Souls: Plays most of the deck, but not being able to play a Guide or Bolt can be back braking.
Deflecting Palm: Good for going all out against Infect. Also good against Tron, Scapeshift, and Suicide Zoo.
Kataki, War's Wage: Artifact hate. For Affinity and Lantern Control.
Kor Firewalker: Burn hoser. Maybe useful against Zoo.
Mirran Crusader: Good against Abzan, Infect, Jund, Abzan, and basically anything with B/G.
Rest in Peace: Graveyard hate.
Stony Silence: More artifact hate. Also good against Merfolk.
Blessed Alliance: Good everywhere Palm is, but also against Burn and other aggro decks.
Sideboarding and Projected Matchups
Abzan: Should be slightly favourable. We have a lot of cheap threats even when compared to their removal suite. Bring in the Crusader and pull Accorder Palladin and a Bolt.
Ad Nauseum: Should be favourable. We can put pressure on and keep it there. Board out Path and board in Mirran Crusader and Kor Firewalker for the extra damage.
Affinity: Bad pre-board. They are usually faster. Post board our hate should be enough. Board in all your Artifact hate as well as Thalia. Possible cuts include Soldier of the Pantheon and Woe-Reaper.
Bant Eldrazi: We are relying on being the faster deck. No idea how it would play out, so assume the worst. Bring in Blessed Alliance/Deflecting Palm, bring out Thalia.
Burn: Prepair for lots of removal. Side in Thalia, Kor Firewalker and Blessed Alliance, take out Magus, Woe-Reaper, and/or Accorder Paladin. Surprisingly even matchup before board after some testing. Should be good after boarding.
Dredge: They took at hit recently with the loss of Grave-Troll, but don't count them out. Side in RiP and maybe Thalia, pull out Accorder Paladin.
Infect: Should be a strangely good match. We have a lot of creatures to gum up the ground, Thalia limits their pump abilities, and some good removal. Post board bring in Palm/Alliance and Mirran Crusader pulling Hanweir Garrison and Accorder Paladin.
Jund: A fair matchup. They have a lot of removal though. Bring in Mirran Crusader and depending on the manabase you see game 1 either pull Accorder Paladin or Magus and a Bolt.
Tron: A good matchup. We maindeck Magus and are just generally quite fast. Palm is good as is Stony Silence.
Where I went wrong is that Vengevine is not that easy to trigger with (the old) madness creatures. It looks like a match made in heaven, but in reality it felt like too much setup for more often than not, no pay-off. That may have changed with the new vampires, but I don't know if would make it worth the effort. Side note you could maybe play Memnite and/or Ornithopter as ad-hoc Basking Rootwallas to trigger Vengevine.
What I would do now is go for a more mid-range, creature heavy approach like this. It takes some of Lantern's deck and some of my old one and mashes the two together.
4 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Asylum Visitor
4 Bloodhall Priest
4 Bloodghast
4 Falkenrath Gorger
4 Incorrigible Youths
2 Insolent Neonate
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Stromkirk Condemned
Enchantments (3)
3 Zombie Infestation
Instants (6)
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Fatal Push
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Ancient Grugde
2 Collective Brutality
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Kolaghan`s Command
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
So here`s why I added what I did:
Incorrigible Youths: A 4/3 with haste huh? Seems familiar. Only this one is much more reliable, though it does cost mana. Also dodges Fatal Push
Zombie Infestation: Repeatable madness enabler with no activation cost? Yes please! Comes on a turn earlier than Lilly, and is harder to remove. And since this deck can actually take advantage of an empty hand sometimes, discarding 2 cards at once isn't too much of a drawback.
Fatal Push: Didn't exist before, better against creatures than Decay. We also have enough madness enablers that we shouldn't need Faithless Looting.
Leyline of the Void: With Dredge being a big part of the meta before the ban, and probably a good enough chunk after, we needed some grave hate. Hate that didn't hurt us.