To start I want to give a big shout out to Clutch, Aura and Foxx. We all built similar decks and collaborated to find the most optimized list so shout out to my guys.
I found this list fairly easy to play and also pretty budget with the exception of Pyramid Wardens. In this article I will briefly explain how we play the deck and why I think it's good.
In the mulligan we look for Enduring Shield, Warmonger Smith or Pyramid Warden in most match ups. In a mirror match or against Death I also like having the Iron Tooth Goblin to take down Enduring Shield or Necroscepter. Going first vs second is less important because we run reactive cards and can take the board back easily. The extra pips can come in handy to pip out a Redfume Serum or Sole Survivor.
We like playing Enduring Shield turn 1 if we have it, especially going first. The Warmonger Smith is a good turn 2 play after shield because we can almost always trade out a creature and now we have a 2/4 with protected.
This deck is like any other aggro deck, we look to make value trades and control board until eventually we can buff up and send face. It plays a lot like zoo light, but instead of buffing our board with Asterius/Radiant Dawn we have huge single target buff cards with Another Round, Redfume Serum and Sole Survivor. An early Another Round is usually enough tempo to win a game, especially if we are able to go face and start buffing hand.
It is best to try and guarantee we always have at least 1 creature surviving so that we can buff if we need to. Sometimes this means taking value trades, then putting shield on our creature instead of shielding before trade. Even though our creature is weaker we now have protect which is harder for our opponent to deal with.
If we fall behind in tempo, we can make a comeback with Guild Enforcer, Grand Hall or save a 1 mana creature to play with Sole Survivor. Guild Enforcer is a great Redfume Serum target, it takes no burn damage and is especially hard to kill with it's armor.
I had one match against BWD this weekend which I ended up winning. I think the key is to try and weave in the god power as much as possible and saving 1 mana creatures and Sole Survivors to deal with Demogorgons. Since they are sleeping our board a lot, we save our resources until we are able to send it, only buffing with Another Round or Redfume Serum when we are able to hit face. Once I have a buff creature on board, I save resources again and force them to use removal. Sometimes this means floating mana or milling cards. BWD wants us to flood the board so they get maximum value out of their Apocalypse Now, if we are conservative with our stronger creatures and buffs we force them to either Apoc or take chip damage which adds up over time.
Although we didn't make Top 10 I felt pretty solid about this list. I don't play a ton of a war and this was my first weekend in a long time I played it on the weekend. One thing I really like about this deck is that it feels like it has the potential to beat any list. It can be draw dependent against other aggro decks but what aggro deck isn't. We run x2 of everything to try and make the draws as consistent as possible. I think this is one of the biggest mistakes people make when building out decks. We can't always rely on drawing exactly what we need so we run reactive cards like Axewoman/Tavern Brawlers and stall cards like Guild Enforcer to keep us in the game until we draw the nuts.
There were other lists we tried that had moderate success:
Trojan Battlemage instead of Raid Reveller was a great buff target. Having twin strike on a huge buffed creature allows for huge tempo, the down side is it only has 1 health so can be taken out easily by pings or the Blood Ritual god power.
Master Tactician is a great 2 drop. 2/2 are decent stats but the fact is comes down with protected means it will likely trade with 2 of our opponents creatures. It can also give our board flank which can mean for a clutch lethal (Think getting around a Poly or Guild Enforcer.) I did not have these for my weekend games but would have probably put them in the list if I did.
Trial Spirit is another good 1 drop that enables value trades. Can also use it with Sole Survivor at 7 mana if we are behind.
Skeleton Heavy has great stats for a 2 mana creature. If you wanted to try this list but don't have Pyramid Warden I would recommend the Heavies as a replacement.
Aeneas is a great 6 drop used for clearing the board. Another great card to try and take the board back. The fact it gets protected every turn is also crazy. If I had one, I would consider running it in place of the Grand Hall.
Netherborne Binder one of the best 1 drops in the game. It does heal your opponent upon death but this is negligible if you win the board. If you run this list with the Binders and Trial Spirits this also gives you more turn 1/2 options.
Scythes of the Harvest are one of the best relics in the game if not the best. Super strong but I'm not sure if they fit this deck. I feel that if you run Scythes you probably want a more aggressive list that wins before/around 6 mana.
If you try this list out let me know what you think! Are there any cards you think could make it better? Cheers!
-Bad Baba