Going Infinite with Heroics and Burn
This week we took two of the best budget pauper decks I could find into some leagues to see just how well one can fair for less than $20 in a competitive sense. Now, keep in mind one league isn't really enough to be considered a proper sample size, but I do feel the games showed the decks are strong enough to be more than worth their cost and one could easily grind with them if you're willing to put in the time.
Coming in at just under twelve dollars, we have the Theros throwback, White Heroic. The entire idea of this deck is almost like Bogles in how it works with the main difference being that our spells are what give us protection compared to it just being part of the creature. The two creatures that have heroic are Lagonna-Band Trailblazer and Akroan Skyguard, allowing us to eventually be too much for the opponent to handle. To gain some life and also have an extra body we run Seeker of the Way which will get pumped even if we're targeting something else. The last creature we run is also our only 'removal' in the main deck in the form of Deftblade Elite. Ideally, we want to get it just big enough with first strike so that we can force problematic creatures to block it so we can kill it. Tremble in fear elves, TREMBLE! From there we have our pump spells in the form of Cartouche of Solidarity, Ethereal Armor, Hyena Umbra, and Mutagenic Growth which all trigger heroic. We do have one heroic triggering cantrip in the form of Defiant Strike which is more often than not 'put a +1/+1 on a creature and draw a card.' Then we have eight slots in our deck that offer protection for our creatures. While we have a slightly odd mix, feel free to experiment with what you personally prefer.
We did manage to get a 3-2 record with Heroic, so that was nice, but we did learn that decks that have Edict effects are effectively the devil for us and that we just can't beat elves sometimes, though other times they can't beat us. There is a weird trick with Birchlore Rangers they can use to keep our Deftblade from killing their creatures and it makes the matchup miserable.
The second deck we ran this week is a bit of an unliked deck by most, Burn. A lot of people hate it because it is just too linear and uninteresting. I do get the argument, but at the same time it is a deck that consistently gets 5-0 records and, on average, only takes around fifteen minutes for a match. So, if you just want to grind tickets, it is arguably the best deck you can choose to run. I know that that might not sound fun, but in a world where the fun choice isn't always the optimal choice, that's just how it is. I have touched on this deck a few times in the past so I am going to just gloss over it for now and state that the entire plan of the deck is to just go to your opponent's face and drop them to zero. There is a little bit more to it than that, but that feels like an accurate enough of a description.
