Ok, out of all the decks here, does anyone notice any difference? Hint: one of them cost a total of 15 tickets to build. I piloted a bit more than a week ago to a 3-1 record, and so far I have played a total of 5 dailies with it, going 1-2, 1-2, 3-1, 1-1 and 2-2. I also 3-0’d one 8-man queues with it, putting its competitive results in total at 11-8, or in other words, pretty decent for a deck that costs next to nothing. You can find the list here.

Why this deck is good is because of several factors, which might be unique to this format:

The amount of comes into play tapped lands is staggering. As such, a mono-colored deck such as this (and Boss Sligh) have a huge advantage given its lands are nothing but plains (or mountains), which doesn’t hurt the deck’s price either. So plays where you go 1 drop, 2 drop against decks that go land land is an incredible piece of tempo advantage for you, especially since with a Raise the Alarm you can already have an Obelisk of Urd out and pretty much seal the game up before they even have a creature on the board.

The format is susceptible to going wide rather than going large. Hordeling Outburst sees a lot of competitive play for a reason, which goes beyond just being sacc’able to Butcher of the Horde. Going wide means that the opponent either needs a sweeper or simply be engulfed by a horde of tokens, and a single Siege Rhino/Courser just won’t do to keep the horde away. The decks token creation abilities also are pretty decent, with 12 cards making tokens. Launch the Fleet is by far the star of the deck, often netting you 3+ tokens while buffing your team with the Phalanx Leader. But, when you are going wide you really cannot go wide enough. Another token generating creature such Brimaz, King of Oreskos or Akroan Crusader WOULD be a huge boon to the deck as it creates more redundancy, and makes the deck less susceptible to disruption.

Versus the other deck that’s able to boast these two facts (Boss Sligh) it has some advantages: It is able to dodge Drown in Sorrow and/or Anger of the Gods by playing conservatively (i.e. beef up the team early or keeping those Defiant Strikes/Ajani’s Presence in hand to lure it out then save a heroic dude), and it doesn’t have any uncommons costing over 5 tickets (hint: you absolutely need 4 Stoke the Flames in Boss Sligh).

If you are looking for a competitive deck, this is certainly competitive for a minimum investment. It is, however, a 20/20 deck(20 creature/20 non-creatures spells) and you’ll often get hands which will either consist of nothing but supporting spells/protection and no creatures to target or just creatures which without supporting spells/protection are pretty sub-par. This also feeds the deck’s huge vulnerability to Thoughtseize, which can completely wrap up the game by taking your one creature/protection/pump spell to disrupt you. This deck need all of its part together to run well; and there are no cards that can simply win the game by themselves (i.e. Elspeth, Wingmate Rock, Rabblemaster etc.). When you get the right mix of cards, this might actually be one of the better agro decks out there in the format, regardless of the cost of the deck. However, when it does not run well, it really does not run well at all.

In order to alleviate this qualm, I thought long and hard, and I think the best possible solution is also the most unattractive: to add more value/power to the deck. Within the budget, this really simply comes down to adding two Brimaz, King of Oreskos to the deck and upping the amount of land to 21 instead of the lean 19 it was previously running. Now one can also cut 1 Obelisk of Urd and 1 Phalanx Leader, while making place for the lands by cutting 1 Ajani’s Presence and 1 Seeker of the Way. The Brimaz also allows the deck to put down a threat after a sweeper takes out your guys, since it is able to create a small army of its own (akin to the role Rabblemaster fufills in Sligh). In case no sweeper is in sight, the Brimaz just fits the gameplan extraordinarily well.

An alternative build within the budget would be an R/W build with 4x Wind-Scarred Crag and 4x Battlefield Forge that allow you to add 4x Akroan Crusader and 4x Dragon Mantle. 1x Obelisk of Urd, 1x Phalanx Leader, 4x Soldier of the Pantheon and 2x Ajani’s Presence would make way here for the additional token-generator and cantrip. However, running 7x (W)(W) two drops without Mana Confluence might simply not responsible manawise – although truth be told, Phalanx Leader is best saved for turn 3+ at any rate, since they pose a small threat on their own and you’d always want the mana up to either protect it or to get an activation out of him as soon as he hits the board. The Vanguard, however, you always want to have on the board as soon as possible, so he can start pumping out tokens. Come-into play tapped lands are generally not the best for a deck that tries to be aggressive from the very first turn.

As a final note, the lack of deck manipulation and card draw means that the deck is very prone to flooding and or mana screws. Since it is in principle a 20/20 deck, it also mulligans rather badly, and I perhaps lost too many games keeping a one lander for fear of going down to 6. So overall, this deck is not without its flaws and it isn’t a format breaking deck – but it has demonstrated to be a deck that can stand its ground against decks costing 20 times its price.