This is my interpretation of UW Heroic, as made popular by Tom Ross.
Let's get underway with the tech! The first thing you are probably asking is, who are you to change Tom Ross's deck? And to easily summarize it, I'm an eclectic egomaniac who overvalues his Magic: The Gathering skills....moving on!
The Creature Base:
Favored Hoplite: This little dude is our premier turn 1 threat. I like to think of him as Delver's white half brother from the Standard format. He gets big quick and as an added bonus to our protection suite, can utilize Defiant Strike to survive pesky burn and combat damage.
Lagonna-Band Trailblazer: The "other" turn 1 play. Not as strong as the Favored Hoplite out of the gate, but laughs in the face of Bile Blight, Ulcerate,
Pharika's Cure
, Lightning Strike, Magma Jet, Magma Spray, and with a single heroic trigger, the dreaded
Stoke the Flames
. With the additional ability of Heroic, he can also become a win con, like Favored Hoplite, but it will take a little more work.
Heliod's Pilgrim: Tom Ross's Stoneforge Mystic...bah! Enough with the Boss's deck tech, this is my story! To be honest, I'm bad at this game and like to play lots of cards. I tossed a few of these babies into the deck to thin it out so I didn't confuse my standard deck with my Battle of Wits deck.
Hero of Iroas: He's a bear, and he gets bigger. In addition he makes my big stuff cost less, so I can play fewer lands, to further my goal of not confusing this with my Battle of Wits deck.
Battlewise Hoplite: Scry on heroic? Yes, Please! This thing cuts through land pockets, ensures hitting my top decks off cantrips, and has a really big spear! Those people that said size didn't matter...yea, screw them, they never played heroic!
The Aura Package:
Aqueous Form: The scry is almost as good as a cantrip in some instances, your creature gets through the waves of creatures, and its only 1 mana...without our buddy Hero of Iroas! This guy is the epitome of finisher!
Ordeal of Heliod: You may have noticed that I'm not running
Seeker of the Way
, that's because I've got Ordeal of Heliod doing double duty. I really almost feel like boosting it up to a two of.
Ordeal of Thassa: The reason to play the deck. Make your creatures bigger and draw cards! If I could run 7, I would...oh wait...I am! #Heliod'sPilgrim
Battle Mastery: Its that card that lets us close out the game when we are running low on heroic triggers. Suiting up a creature with this is usually enough to close out a tight game or one we are slightly behind in.
Stratus Walk: Its like Aqueous Form, but not as good. Wait, no its more like Singing-Bell Strike, but not as good. No its more like Defiant Strike, but not as good. You get the picture, its not as good as these other cards in any one department, but there is almost never a time I can't put this guy to work. I like it as a game 1 flex card.
Instants:
Defiant Strike: Trigger heroic, draw a card! Oh wait, it gets an extra damage in too, all round all star; simplicity at its finest!
Feat of Resistance: Not as cheap as Gods Willing, and it doesn't scry, but the extra counter can be huge when racing, and yes, it still protects. I like to think of it as a 1/2 Gods Willing. It's also good for building up a threat after you lose your previous one (but let's hope that doesn't happen often)
Gods Willing: This is our premier single target F you! It also provides a scry to fix our top decks and triggers our heroic. Oh by the way, it also reads "Ignore Hornet Queen tokens" if you look underneath the flavor text.
Stubborn Denial: I've had funny looks at this card in the mainboard, but this card is a protection spell with a role as important as Gods Willing or Feat of Resistance. Stubborn Denial protects us from
Cackling Doom
, End Hostilities, and Perilous Vault. It serves double duty against
Jeskai Ascendancy
and Whip of Erebos as well. Did I mention its also good as another copy of Gods Willing or Ajani's Presence later in the game because it still trades with any removal spell?
Lands
Not listing them, you know what they do, I'm running an extra Tranquil Cove because of my extra reliance of blue in my build.
Sideboard:
Aqueous Form, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, Stubborn Denial, Feat of Resistance and Ordeal of Heliod for the same reasons as listed above, only when they become better for my matchups.
Ajani's Presence: Extra protection and a good substitute for Feat of Resistance when I don't have to worry about exile effects or
Jeskai Charm
.
Erase: I'm looking at you
Jeskai Ascendancy
and Whip of Erebos. Also handy to keep our opponent's off their own Ordeal of Thassas in the mirror.
Treasure Cruise: When the game doesn't end fast, we need to find more answers, this card is perfect against midrange decks that want to fight us and go the distance.
Glare of Heresy: Hits nearly anything we could ask for. Not tutorable, but far more versital than the other options. With the extra counters being ran in my deck, I think we only need 1 though, to nab something that gets through the cracks (or to help us vs the mirror).
Trition Tactics: Other than Mardu, this deck seems to be week to Abzan Aggro (They have removal, a quicker clock, and hand disruption). This will let us try to slow down their clock just enough to try to race them down, while also putting another +1/+1 counter on our creature(s) (gotta love double trigger!)
Honorable Mentions:
You may have noticed I'm not running some really great cards that most people auto include in their builds. This isn't a lack of supply or not taking time to think about my deck. Below I will reference what didn't make the deck and why. Disagree? Comment below and tell me why I'm wrong!
1.)
Seeker of the Way
: Why is it in heroic decks to start with? Answer number 1: Residual damage off of heroic triggers. The problem: Most of the time, we are targeting to protect our dudes, this means we aren't swinging in with SotW for extra damage. In addition to that, once the opponent casts, Siege Rhino,
Butcher of the Horde
, Stormbreath Dragon, etc, SotW becomes outclassed (unlike our heroic dudes). Therefore I don't believe it is a reliable source of damage. Anwswer number 2 to run Seeker of the Way: Life Gain! What will usually give us more life over the course of the game? A Ordeal of Heliod or SotW? The answer is probably ordeal and its tutorable. Much easier to play 1 mainboard and 2 in the sideboard to keep the deck lean and still give us the extra push we need.
2.) Singing Bell Strike: It was originally in the deck, but always felt lack luster. I almost always preferred to dig for something else, and never wanted to see this in my hand. My sideboard contains things like Triton Tactics, which can absorb rhino damage for a turn, and things like Glare of Heresy that just make the thing I need to get rid of disappear entirely.
3.)
Eidolon of Countless Battles
: Too expensive! Couple that with the fact that my Ordeals fall off often and I never have more than a couple creatures online to pump its numbers, and its also underpowered. Did I mention its not tutorable?
4.)
Fabled Hero
: Why would I want to cast him for 3 and suit him up, when I can get tutorable double strike via, Battle Mastery, which is not double white, is tutorable, and can be thrown on something already suited up. Battle Mastery can also be cheaper (via Hero of Iroas).
Thanks for taking a look, and feel free to comment and leave your thoughts/criticisms.
