A pseudo-sligh deck originally designed by Tom Ross that I've been modifying and experimenting with. The deck is essentially designed to outrace everything else in standard, and to rebound quickly in the event of a stalled board state or mana screw.
The Deck:
Akroan Crusader
: His token dudes make great chump blocks, demon food, and batallion enablers. This is probably my least favorite creature that I'm currently running, but he does fill a niche that I have yet to find a replacement for.
Ash Zealot
: An extremely efficient, hasty beater. Wears Madcap Skills like a champ.
Firedrinker Satyr
: Even if there was something better I'd still probably play this glorious bastard. That pitiless look of madness in his eyes makes him worth playing alone. In all seriousness, a 2/1 for R is great, firebreathing is a great way to spend extra mana, and games rarely last long enough for the drawback to become an issue.
Firefist Striker
: Option 1 of 2 for anti-blocking tech. His effect isn't realistically usable until turn 4 or 5, but his reusability is enticing.
Goblin Shortcutter
: Option 2 of 2. In aggro mirrors the ETB trigger is brutally useful, but he's a dead-draw if I lack a board presence. (In all fairness, if I lack a board presence, I've probably already lost.)
Foundry Street Denizen: This little guy has surprised me. I'm running enough 1 drops to have him consistently swing for 2 or 3, barring any pumps.
Legion Loyalist: An Akroma's Memorial strapped to a Raging Goblin If that doesn't convince you then nothing will.
Rakdos Cackler
: Isamaru's evil cousin. He's a consistently solid draw.
Dragon Mantle: Red has a cantrip! Red has a cantrip! This thing is a nifty combination of hand-cycler and heroic-trigger. Sometimes the firebreathing is handy, too.
Madcap Skills: This card is good when attached to creatures. This card is evil when attached to creatures who have first-strike.
Titan's Strength: A turn 2 lightning bolt, or a good way to preserve your legion loyalist for a second swing.
Lighning Strike: It's alright. Unless I can burn out my opponent, I'd usually prefer to play two creatures or pumps, but this deck really needs removal, especially for the mirror.
The sideboard is pretty simple. I have Shock and
Peak Eruption
for the mirror and Pithing Needle and Skullcrack for the control matchup.
Coordinated Assault
is useful in anything where I need to push through creatures or block, and has been suuper helpful against white-weenies as well as other aggro and midrange matches.
12/11
I decided that I didn't have enough pumps to reliably trigger heroic on
Arena Athlete
when I need it, so swapped them out for x2
Goblin Shortcutter
and x2
Firefist Striker
in order to see which one of the two works better for me. So far, the Shortcutter is definitely better against aggro matchups because of the ETB effect, but Striker makes me more resilient to removal, because I never feel bad about putting it into play "prematurely."
Another consideration that I've had is dropping the Akroan Hoplites for Nivmagus Elementals or Blistercoil Weirds (leaning more towards the weirds), because then I can target whatever I"d like to and still benefit from the pump. Not to mention that pseudo-vigilance that I can get from Blistercoil off of a lightning strike has been pretty marvelous in my playtesting. My hesitation for removing the Hoplites is that their token generating is great for indirectly pumping Foundry Street Denizen and the tokens make great chump blockers/demon food in stalled midrange matchups.
I think I'll take it as-is to FNM this week and decide from there. I haven't been in a couple of weeks so I'm not sure what the meta is currently looking like, but that'll affect where I go with it from here.
12 JanuaryAfter playing it for a month, I've decided to swap the Goblin Shortcutters back out for firefist strikers. While I did love the immediate impact that Shortcutter made, the lack of reusability was a problem.
