With the new Journey Into Nyx Standard in full swing, we’ve had time to update and try out our ole American Heroes list!

On our first Standard Night together, I took the Heroes deck, and ZaIn brought an exciting new brew which we will be posting a primer for soon. We both went 3-0 and drew out at the top! Perfect victory!

Here’s the cards we think are relevant in Journey into Nyx:

Satyr Hoplite – Guess what, our “curve” lowered even more! 1-drop heroes are the most important thing in this deck for speed, and JOU gave us two more options for them. It also gives us something to do on no-white hands, which makes things surprisingly smoother on a mana intensive deck. These go straight 4-of into the main deck, edging out Nivmagus Elemental and Hero of Iroas for Hero slots.

Lagonna-Band Trailblazer – This thing is actually a lot better than first glance. Any 1-Drop hero immediately goes into our consideration list after all. It fixes some of our iffiest matchups and is a great tempo pivot. Having a hero that doesn’t die to Shock, Lightning Strike, or Magma Jet means we can easily pop off an Ordeal of Heliod against Burn and other RDW style decks. We can also sneak this in to block and pivot around other early aggro drops. This also is a great side-in on the draw for Judge’s Familiar, which only really shines when we’re on the play. Easy 4-of in the 75.

Mana Confluence – This is a godsend for this deck, as we are crazy color hungry. We need one on the field to fix our mana, so depending on how much pain you enjoy taking you should definitely run 3-4. These just edge out basic slots so they’re an easy auto-include.

Here are some other options to consider but ultimately we don’t feel need to be in the deck.

Ajani’s Presence – This is an nice alternative to Boros Charm in the side. However, we really aren’t ever planning to cast this for Strive, so Boros Charm is really just better. Depending on your meta you might want to change it up, but there’s just too much exile removal for me to want to edge out Mizzium Skin. If you like it, this is an option.

Mortal Obstinacy – This is kinda cool, but there’s very few problem enchantments we need to get rid of after they hit the field. And the ones we do want to get rid of, we want to get rid of immediately. This makes Annul or Wear // Tear better in the board for Unflinching Courage, Whip of Erebos, and the like. If you like it, this is still an option.

Sage of Hours – This is cute, but not much else. We have 1-drops now so they’re just better. Same thing applies to the other heroes.

Battlefield Thaumaturge – This is a really cool card and opens up the “possibility” of a going-wide build with Launch the Fleets and Akroan Cusaders/Phalanx Leader. But you know what? Going tall is just faster. I wanted to try it, but I quickly abandoned the idea.

Here’s our current list:

Lands (17):

– 4x Hallowed Fountain

– 4x Sacred Foundry

– 4x Steam Vents

– 3x Mana Confluence

– 1x Plains

– 1x Island

Heroes (12): (I’m on the line between 12 and 13 Heros. Since our curve went down I think we can run slightly more enablers now though).

– 4x Battlewise Hoplite

– 4x Satyr Hoplite

– 4x Favored Hoplite

Primary Enablers (16):

– 4x Hidden Strings

– 4x Ordeal of Thassa

– 4x Aqueous Form

– 3x Madcap Skills

– 1x Ordeal of Heliod (I popped one into the maindeck to free up board space).

Protection/Disruption/Utility (15):

– 4x Judge’s Familiar (I might start experimenting with some in the side in favor of Lagonna-Band Trailblazer Maindeck.)

– 4x Gods Willing

– 3x Boros Charm

– 2x Mizzium Skin

– 2x Chained to the Rocks

Sideboard (15):

– 4x Lagonna-Band Trailblazer (Fixes RDW matchups, Side some in for Familiars on the draw. I might try 1-2 Maindeck.)

– 3x Ordeal of Heliod (Side in against Aggro decks.)

– 1x Triton Tactics (I came around on this card. It’s better than Mizzium Skin to protect against burn, and we want a certain threshold of untap effects against aggro.)

– 2x Dispel (Hits Sphinx’s Revelation, and works better against Celestial Flare and Devour Flesh).

– 1x Mizzium Skin (In some matchups we want 1 more of these effects, but I’ve never been comfortable siding in more than one.)

– 1x Chained to the Rocks (In some matchups we want slightly more removal. The vast majority of creatures we can ignore on account of simply being huge and better, but there are certain decks where we need a speedbump or a catchall.)

– 1x Annul (There are a number of problem enchantments we just can’t let resolve stick around.)

– 1x Wear // Tear (Same reason as Annul. Helps hit the enchantment if we miss it, but not as good against Banishing Light and Detention Sphere).

– 1x Boros Charm (For the Verdict Matchups. You can also try Ajani’s Presence in this slot.)

Thanks for tuning in!

– EvaRia