Budget Arena: Mardu Humanz
Remember how I love Hero of Precinct One? Well this time we're going to try it in the Mardu colors, but we're also going to be Human themed!
Disclaimer: On Budget Arena we try to only use the number of wildcards that people can acquire after playing for about a month. We also don't account for the Rares that are given to us from the starter decks.
Gameplan
We're an aggro deck but the nice thing is if we get to keep our main threat in Hero of Precinct One...we could go off and produce a massive board without even having to commit a ton of resources. On top of that, the threats are mostly humans outside of Footlight Fiend. This means Radiant Destiny can pump everything including our tokens.
The other pump effect we have in the deck comes in the form of Judith, the Scourge Diva. Though our tokens won't be able to ping our opponent's faces it is still sweet to have Judith as she seriously is the reason we win by one point of damage sometimes. She's also a nice card to have when you feel a board wipe coming. Just remember that Cry of the Carnarium exiles so she won't trigger.
Another small but cool thing is that since most of our threats are humans we get to use Unclaimed Territory to fix the greedy mana costs of our deck.
Match Recaps:
Esper Control (W): We make quick work of an Esper deck that looked to have some mana color issues as Hero of Precinct One got to run wild. It's also absurdly nice to be holding two Heroic Reinforcements in hand with a hero on board.
Orzhov Angels/Midrange (W): We had a pretty aggressive start with Footlight Fiend into a Fireblade Artist x2. We follow this up with a Judith which is dealt with in the following turn thus causing our opponent to not advance their board. This also put our opponent at a low enough health, which is where Hackrobat became a must block threat all the while Fireblade was sending small critters upstairs.
Mono-White Aggro (L): Their threats get too big since we can't really beat Belalish Marshal and Venerated Loxodon. They were able to go wide and overrun us with a million little critters to make quick work of us.
Mono-Blue Tempo (L): They got on the board early and never eased off the gas pedal. They jammed two Tempest Djinn and destroyed us in the air. Djinns are a very big deal.
Mono Red Goblins (W): We had a grip of pump spells and a Radiant Destiny on board so our Hero of Precinct One spawned a ton of tokens that wouldn't die to Goblin Chainwhirler. Our Boros Challenger even got to be a 4/5 which meant it had many things to teach its smaller comrades in battle. This allowed us to go wide and have beefy threats.
Mono Black Vampires (W): Having two Hero of Precinct One and then being able to cast a ton of multicolored spells is VERY good. It's even better when you get to close out with a huge Heroic Reinforcements
Orzhov Control(W): They were trading one for one spells with us but we were able to seal the victory by nickel and diming our opponent with Footlight Fiend and Fireblade Artist. We also jammed a Hackrobat which ate an Ixalan's Binding which gave us an open window to jam a Judith, the Scrouge Diva to seal the deal for exactsies.
If Budget weren't a factor?....
I would look to trying Joe Soh's spicy Mardu Vampires list from Mythic Championship #1 in Cleveland. This deck is hilarious and is packing a ton of spice. I know it ends up dropping the human and Hero gameplan but maybe that's what we need to do? Plus having a Legion Lieutenant and a bunch of tokens from an Adanto, the First Fort is a beauty. Pair that with Judith and that could spell trouble for decks that aren't packing any Cry of the Carnarium in their deck.
Conclusion
I'll be the first to say it...the Rakdos Firewheeler was still too greedy of a mana cost to play and not really worth it. This deck can have some explosive starts that can kill as early as turn four with a Heroic Reinforcements + Hero of Precinct One. Yeah, the deck heavily leans on Hero but it's pretty solid for a deck using about half the wildcards as most decks in standard are using if we ignore Mono Red and Mono Blue. If you're a fan of multicolored spells and Hero of Precinct One, this may be the best way to play it on a budget.
See you next week for some user submitted decks!
-TheAsianAvenger
