Intro - Welcome to my first real homebrew! Born as Tech Dot Deck, disparaged as 2-For-1 Special, and briefly known as Hidden Heroes, Shifting Counters before being reborn into it's present form, it's undergone quite a bit of evolution and several iterations despite only being around since this past weekend (for reference, it's currently Wednesday).
So, looking for the next big thing to take down the reigning top-tier decks? Good luck with that. Want an efficient, reliable deck that can stay flexible against a variety of threats? Sorry, that's a differant deck too. Want to win some games? Um, maybe, sometimes? If you want to explain stack interactions to your incredulous opponents and, sometimes, swing with a few 4/4 or 5/5 heroes while your opponents creatures are all tapped on your extra turn and draw a few cards to top it off, well, fortunately for your strange and oddly specific taste in deck ideas, I have just the thing here. Guaranteed to amuse, bemuse and confuse.
Components - The nuts, screws and bolts that make the gears of the deck turn, now divided into 2 easy-to-digest sections, Summons and Interrupts! Cards will be ordered by ascending rarity because who organizes things by mana cost? I mean, if I wanted convenience and simplicity I would've played mono-red.
Summons -
Wavecrash Triton - This guy can lock down games, keeping opponents creatures tapped not just for one turn, but through the opponents entire next turn as well. A 1/4 body for 3 also helps block early, before we've had time to beef up our boys.
Stessan Oathsworn - So, sure, at 1GG his mana cost is a little demanding, but waiting one more turn to cast Staunch-Hearted Warrior instead simply wasn't an option. He gets double the +1/+1 counters per heroic trigger, making him a solid target for our heroic abuse. Vulnerable until he bulks up though.
Triton Fortune Hunter - So, he's our first and only uncommon summon, and the last of our 3-drops, he will be a prime target for those heroic triggers, hopefully letting us draw 2-3 cards each turn when our engine is running. As a 2/2 with no inherent ability to get scarier, he is maybe our most vulnerable creature, and from a stable of highly vulnerable creatures that's saying something. He also tends to be a priority target for your opponent to remove, especially game 1 before they've seen how scary our other guys can get, because who wants to let you draw cards whether they know what deck you're playing or not? It almost makes him a red herring, as I don't really expect to draw any cards from him but he can be a smokescreen to give my opponent a more tempting target while NivMagus Elemental or Hero of Leina Tower sit there, all non-threatening and innocent-looking. And hey, if I get to draw an extra card or two, bonus!
Hero of Leina Tower - A one-drop with a variably valuable heroic trigger, the Hero acts as the sucker punch card. Unassuming at first, it can grow to massive proportions very quickly, and it's that quality of underestimatedness that finds it a spot on this list. Rita Repulsa would love this card. "Make my creatures grow!"
Nivmagus Elemental - Another one-drop with a deceptively powerful ability, this guy enables some shenanigans that will be certain to stump new players at first. For a junk rare this guy is the secret weapon on which the whole game plan is built. Once a copy of Hidden Strings has triggered it's 2 heroic triggers, but before it resolves and taps or untaps your guys, he can exile it and get bigger. He can also exile any spell you might cast, and the spells will still trigger heroic.
Artisan of Forms - In a deck of confusing tech, the versatility of this card still shines. Your opponent has a big scary creature? Bam, now you have your own copy, maybe even a bigger version if you had some +1/+1's on it. Key combo piece just got Doom Bladed? Bam, copy that creature and losing the old one hurts a lot less (especially if you Bioshifted it's delicious counters off it first). Oh, and it only cost 2 mana to drop? If there's anything this Artisan can't do, you either don't need to do it anyway or you already lost the game.
Sage of Hours - THIIIIIIS guy! So, our solitary mythic rare clocks in at a 1/1 for 2 and gains a +1/+1 counter on a heroic trigger. Neat. But he also has the ability to lose his muscles to get you an extra turn (or two...) and that is why he's in the list. Hopefully with enough heroic abuse we can trigger him early and often and pop off the extra turns with some degree of reliability. That's the plan, anyway.
Interrupts-
Aqueous Form - Wait, that's an enchantment, not an "interrupt!" Deal with it (because your opponents won't want to). Triggers heroic, then makes a dude unblockable and scrying power. Seems cool.
Ordeal of Nylea - Another enchantment?! Does the title of this section mean nothing?! Apparently not. This card is in there to help get extra lands in a pinch, and it does so in a way that triggers heroic and then adds a few extra +1/+1 counters on top. It's probably the weakest card in the deck as a whole, since it's easy to get 2-for-1'ed with this card, which is true of most any Aura, but the issue is that it's all too easy to get hit with that 2-for-1 before this card pops and does what it's supposed to, beyond be a very expensive heroic trigger. However I don't fully feel comfortable taking it out, because we are running low on lands to start with, so here it stays, two copies for a little extra peace of mind.
Now, real Interrupts! But first, a riddle. What do Bioshift, Warrior's Lesson and Trition Tactics all have in common? They each target 2 different creatures for 1 mana each. That's .5 mana for a heroic trigger, doesn't get much more efficient than that. Alright, well, let's look at each one of these great cards in turn.
Bioshift - By far the MVP of these three spells, this guy is here to trigger heroics and shift around those +1/+1 counters. From salvaging the progress from a Setessan Oathsworn who's been Banishing Lighted to getting the last couple counters on Sage of Hours for the extra turns, Bioshift is a workhorse and the lynchpin of our game plan.
Triton Tactics - Primarily a defensive trick to block and frost breath a couple annoying attackers, in a pinch this can be simply an efficient heroic trigger that gets exiled to Nivmagus and for the cheap casting cost, that's perfectly alright. So it won't wash your car but it will take out the trash.
Warrior's Lesson - Card draw and a pair of heroic triggers in a cost-effective package. Same as with Trition's Tactics, even if it's just cast to trigger heroic and then exiled to feed the elemental, that's still efficient.
Solidarity of Heroes - For 2-cmc per creature I wish to target, I can double the +1/+1 counters on those creatures? Yes please. No lengthy description required, getting two times the amount +1/+1 counters is just good. Triggers heroic too, so you can add the one (or two) counters from heroic then double the counters, which is nice.
Hands of Binding - This card can keep an opponent's biggest threat asleep for the entire match if it's left unchecked. If you don't need to tap down anything, it's ciphered copies can stoke the fires of the nivmagus elemental.
Hidden Strings - And finally, the card that this deck was truly built around. Cast it, tap down a blocker, then trigger heroic on one of your guys while choosing not to tap him ("MAY tap or untap") then cipher it onto one of your guys that should have a wide open attack. No blockers in the way? Cast it and untap the two lands you just used to pay for it, then cipher as usual and enjoy. Once it's been ciphered and starts making copies of itself, you can trigger 2 heroics on your guys and still exile it with the elemental.
