Budget Arena: Izzet A Bogle? (Standard, Magic Arena)
This week we've got quite an enchanting episode as we try to beef up all of our threats!...
Gameplan
This deck plays the all-the-eggs-in-one-basket plan so make sure you mulligan for your threats. Our two biggest threats are Champion of the Flame and Valduk, Keeper of the Flame.
These two will take over the game if they stick around. Champion gets out of hand when we have a ton of cheap one cost auras to enchant him with as he gets a bonus +2/+2 for each aura or equipment. Valduk helps us go wide with a ton of 3/1 elementals that have haste and trample. Their upsides are worth protecting with cards like Dive Down and Siren Stormtamer until we can get to turn three and jam a Curator's Ward
If we equip the Ward then we're sitting pretty outside of a board wipe or something that would make us sacrifice like Plaguecrafter. The deck has a plethora of auras for various situations but the most well known will be Curious Obsession but outside of that, here are a few sweet auras.
With all of these buffs and enchantments, your opponent won't have many ways to block and will then be forced to race. Let's take a look and see how we fared overall with a quick recap of the 7 matches in the video!..
Match Recaps
Mono Red Aggro (W): Champion just got too swoll
Mono Blue Aggro (W): Valduk does what a Valduk does and overran the little blue creatures. Turns out that a bunch of 3/1's with trample is pretty sweet
Rakdos Aggro (L): We seriously get destroyed. This deck had sac effects all over the place which really punishes this style of deck.
Orzhov Vampires (W): We trade damage back and forth but Valduk loaded up with enchantments was too much for the vampires.
Esper Midrange (W): I was truly nervous about this match as their Thief of Sanity kept hitting us but we sat behind our protection spells and got a swoll Champion of the Flame.
Jund Midrange(W): Quite unfortunate as our opponent was having mana issues.
Izzet Drakes (W): Champion truly lives up to his name. Both the opponent and I are mana stuck but we had a champion and in one turn we did a gigantic Falcon Punch to eat most of our opponent's health.
Conclusion
The deck is hilariously explosive. Your creatures can be small nonfactors but then out of nowhere you go in for one big punch. The best part is that this deck is all Uncommons and Commons outside of the Steam Vents and Sulfur Falls. The deck does lack a little staying power for the late game so prioritize protecting your threat over getting it all beefed up unless it's for lethal! I thought about adding countermagic and white to give us lifegain off On Serra's Wings. If the budget weren't of a concern, I'd like to try Jeskai as the mana base will be costly in terms of wildcards. Regardless, this deck can be explosive as you saw in a few games, and the element of surprise will usually lead to some stolen games in your favor.
See you at the next one!
-TheAsianAvenger
