So I attended the Khan's prerelease and release day FNM and one thing is very clear. Removal is common in this new set. Very common.
Now removal has a way of really messing with this deck design because it will allow them to keep sweeping the board clear until they get nasty critters like Zurgo Helmsmasher out which can really ruin my day.
As such I have decided to add more protections and less minor boosts such as Spear of Heliod and mass targets like Launch the Fleet. It will slightly slow the ability to create a powerful armada, but will still allow the creation of a smaller selection of powerful critters.
The main bonus with the protections I have selected is that I will always end up better off than the person who casts the kill spell. We both spend mana and a card, but I get to activate heroic abilities and gain a secondary benefit from the card (scrying, more 1/1 counters or a +1 for the turn)
Overall I think it will slow the deck down slightly but provide a lot more stabiltiy.
My sideboard is designed to offer my own selection of nasty removal. If it is clear the opponent has no removal and no protections, just big vicious beasties, I can happily take them out of the game in a calm and controlled manner.
But why add the Archetype of Courage? I'm sure you are all wondering that. It's simply to deal with Ankle Shanker. That thing is vicious and I expect it to make a common appearance in my aggro based local meta. As such, I want an option that completely removes him and all the silly 1/1 goblins that his owners have a tendancy to produce.
Have a look at the changes and let me know what you think. I will probably not get to test this for the next 3 weeks due to other commitments, so if anyone else could give it a go and let me know how it worked out, I'd be thankful.
