Hello. This is the deck I started playing magic with, and the deck which i keep Updating as my normal modern play deck/ my casual 60 card deck.
In college when i started playing, the guys I played and I with considered modern the main way to play the game. Standard is a little hard for poor college kids to keep up with. Especially bugetarily. Rabblemaster, for example, was 25 bucks until he rotated out of standard. Once he did he dropped to 3. We were casual players, but, we were oddly competitive, even though we only really ever played for fun. This deck played against eldrazi tron, and the rich kid and magic veteran in our play group(i don't mean that pejoratively, he could just access far more expensive cards than the rest of us. For example, the first time we went to a card shop with him he dropped 200 on Tundra. My price limit for a card in those days was $20) ran 4 old emrakuls Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and 4 Karn Liberated. He also ran pod pre banning. Another guy in my group ran green ramp eldrazi. He didn't have emrakul, but he had Ulamog Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. Crackling Doom was also excellent to deal with eldrazi. It even got around Emrakul's protection, which was hilarious as my friend would take the extra turn he got from her, and she wouldn't even be on the field anymore. This deck, due to the sheer number of creatures, actually could deal with Annihilator for a turn or two. Pod was problematic because it went infinite and blew up me and my board, but post banning this deck was very relevant. This deck could hang with abzan midrange too, which was what another friend in the group ran. Seige Rhino? ha! it blocked my 1/1 and i Mardu Charmed it. crackling doom also often hit it. We would play casual modern in 4 person ffa, so the 'each opponent' part was really good for me too.
Khans was the first set i drafted. That is why this deck will include a lot of things that were standard in 2014, and a lot of khans block cards. This deck was basically a standard deck back in 2014. Now it's modern. In modern it's probably not quite as competitive, but, it does have merits that let it hang with better decks. Its limiting factor right now is the land base in my opinion. Since i started playing my friends told me i needed fetchs, or at the very least shock or pain lands. I went with scryTemple of Silence and lifeScoured Barrens lands for budget reasons. The scrying is also nice to fix draws a little. Nomad Outpost is a no brainer too, since it had all 3 of my colors. These lands just make it a little slower, since they enter tapped, that's why they told me shocks, pains, and fetchs. Fetchs are also good for deckthinning and making draws a little more consistent. I suppose i could put in 3 Evolving Wilds to achieve the same, and cut 1 basic of each type. Then i still have some if I'm pathed. There are a couple one ofs I'm running because I don't have better stuff or am just trying it in my playing. They aren't necessarily bad though.
Goblin Rabblemaster is a win-con in and of himself. Unanswered he will fill the board with tokens. Same with Krenko, Mob Boss. I only have one of him right now, but I want to see how he does doubling my tokens. Mardu Ascendancy rounds out my token spamming. Mardu charm can do it too, but it's generally better for removal since I don't run Lightning Helix in this now.
Now for warrior and attacking creature synergy, the other half of the deck. Chief of the Edge and Chief of the Scale are great. When this deck more resembled warrior tribal, they were the backbone of the deck. Now they tend to just buff up eachother and a few cool combo pieces, like rabblemaster and krenko. They also buff our next yet unmentioned card, Foundry Street Denizen. Our little 1/1 will sometimes enter as a 2/2, or even 3/3. And his +1/+0 on other red creatures entering can trigger many times in a single turn, making him a 6/3 if we have out rabblemaster and ascendancy. If krenko is out too, FSD can be a lethal threat on his own. In the same vein as him, but at the opposite end of the mana curve is Boltwing Marauder. he gives target creature +2/+0 on any etb creature on our side. that can be an easy +4 or +6 in a turn, or 3 +2's distributed among your 1/1s, and with krenko, he is very lethal. Next is Dragonscale General. Since rabblemaster makes all our goblins attack, and we have a lot of them, when he bolsters at the end of turn he can make our little guys huge. Gruesome Scourger is our next card. As a 5 drop coming out later, we should have a decent board. He can be a free lava axe, and he gets buffed by our chiefs. Brutal Hordechief is also a warrior, and he drains our opponents life for 1 whenever a creature we control attacks. We can drain a lot each turn with him out. He is very lethal if left on the field for a few turns. Being able to make opponents block andchoose how opponents block is cool too, if you want to let your buffed up guys get through and have them waste blocks on 1/1s. Or you could use your big guys to kill their important combo pieces. This can hit their Birds of Paradise, or facsimiles of it. Orc Sureshot is a little weird in this deck. I have him in as a way to deal with anything being indestructible, as we can give something -3-3 or more in a turn with the right stuff out. Corpse Knight is another etb guy that synergizes well with token spam. I need more of him. He can be dangerous too, and as said before, him+krenko can be a quick gg. Now we have the star of the deck, the one guy that makes this all hilarious - Ankle Shanker. He triggers our etb stuff, he has haste, and giving all our 1/1s first strike and death touch is ridiculous, and he can do it the first turn he enters. And flavor/lore wise this card is just hilarious. A little midget goblin running around cutting people's Achilles tendon so his friends can finish them off. With him is an old favorite that can help you deal with burn and flyers Butcher of the Horde. There will almost always be tokens to sac with him, so you can give him vigilance and leave him as a blocker, or lifelink. a 5 life swing is almost guaranteed if they don't have flyers.
We also have a few enchantments that help us with our creatures. Brave the Sands is very helpful against other aggro decks, as it leaves you blockers and lets your 1/1s potentially block 2 guys. With it is perhaps the more important Raiders' Spoils. This is a chief of the edge effect for all our creatures, and when a warrior we control deals combat damage to a player, we can get card draw with life. Mardu ascendancy, as mentioned before, also helps with our creatures in a big way. We can sac it to save our board from a Pyroclasm or something like it.
Now we have some weirder stuff that doesnt have token spam synergy as much, but does have deck synergy or helps with card draw. First is bloodsoaked champion. Great attacker and sac outlet for butcher, but we don't usually need it. He's in to help with the mana curve and he gets buffed by the chiefs. With him is Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. She can bring back rabble master, chief of the scale, and rabblemaster. If we ever have to discard an ankle shanker, we can use alesha to cheat him out turn 4. Speaking of discard, this deck struggles hard with card draw. our next two cards are in almost solely for that, but they have some synergy with the rest of the deck as well. Vaultbreaker lets us pitch stuff away and draw. This can be how we discard an ankle shanker and then cheat him out. You can dash him if you want to, but i think its usually better to just put him out unless you don't have the mana yet or there's a threat to him. Keldon Raider is similar, but he only gets the discard/draw on etb. I think he may be the worst card in the deck, but at least hes red and a warrior, so there is synergy. The last card to talk about is Rush of Battle. This card turn 6 or 7, if you have a decent board, can be the win con. It can also help save you if youre suffering from burn, because of the number of warriors in the deck. The final card in the deck besides lands is Murderous Cut. Delve destruction usually cast for 2 mana. very helpful.
The sideboard has Zurgo Helmsmasher and Zurgo Bellstriker. Both were recently moved out of the mainboard, but if you want a bomb to drop, I'd say helmsmasher works great. He was always good in the deck, but i wanted to move it more towards token spam. If the keldon raider or guresome scourger isnt as good as i hope, he will be back in. Malakir Cullblade against certain decks, especially the eldrazi scion sac decks, can be insane. I used to run him, and he would stop decks like that out of fear or they would turn him into a giant. I used to have Deflecting Palm in as a meme as well. I played against eldrazi guys. Deflecting palm gets around emrakuls protection from colored spells. It doesn't target her, i just choose her. Weird but true. They would think they had the win, then i redirected 15 damage at them. Hilarious. The rest of the sideboard is just more of what cards are already in the deck, to play with numbers a little.
I've been looking on here to see if anyone else has a similar deck. I'm kind of suprised most are running Young Pyromancer and no rabblemaster. I've seen similar stuff, but not one like this exactly yet. I wasn't inspired by anything on this, this is an original deck.
2022 update
I moved out boltwing maurader and Keldon Raider for another Vaultbreaker and Goblin Rabblemaster. I also cut a Chief of the Edge for another Brutal Hordechief since the deck is moving further from warrior synergy. With that, rush of battle was cut too. The deck is a little inconsistent by design, but it keeps it fun and there's enough value for it to work.
