Article: 981's Decks and Discussion - Mafia or Hero?

[darkarts981]

As some of you may remember, before I left the forums over a year ago, I had begun writing a series of articles, though I don't remember what they were called at the moment, reviewing and analyzing decks posted on this forum, or design a deck and explain card choices and interactions. I have decided to begin this series once again, hopefully posting one article per week (if I continue to get feedback of course), and maybe with suggestions from all you wonderful viewers and maybe Piotr himself I can improve enough to become a forum writer (which is my ultimate goal here). So, without further ado, here goes...

981's Decks and Discussion - Mafia or Hero?

Welcome back to 981's Decks and Discussion. Mostly I'll talk about decks, but maybe not. To get the ball rolling again, I would like to say that I am thrilled to be back, and have also found a wonderful deck to be reviewing. My searches through the Standard deck section of this forum have led me to CbStrad's Theros Mafia deck (http://imtgapp.com/forum/index.php?topic=32905.0). I have found this deck to be particularly interesting to me because it uses a multitude of cards that many people have forgotten about or have never even known existed. This led me to the decision to write an article about it. To kick things off with an overview of how I see the deck, I'll say this: WB Aggro with a twist? That's what I thought at first, but the more I analyzed the deck, the more I realized that it was more than that. It is completely based off the interactions between cards utilizing the Heroic ability, and cards which make good spells to trigger said ability. Being {W}{B} as well, it is able to have the option at spot removal, something which a standard white weenie deck (usually splashing {R} for {Boros Charm} is not able to have. This deck, by utilizing certain Heroic cards is able to find equally, if not more effective ways of pushing damage through than by the use of {Brave the Elements}. All of that being said, let's move on to the breakdown.

Well, here we are at the breakdown, so let's start at the top, with the creatures. The first creature on this list seems like a given, that creature being {Banisher Priest} which is an auto include in almost any white based deck. Honestly this card probably doesn't need a whole lot of explaination, so let's move on to the next one.
The inclusion of {Agent of the Fates} in this deck fascinated me at first, but upon thinking about it more, and analyzing the interactions I realized why it was in this list. At first I thought of the obvious "because it has a Heroic ability", but then I thought about it further. In a deck like this, where not all of the creatures respond to {Brave the Elements} , you need another way to get damage through, and what better way than making your opponent sacrifice creatures. I feel that this card is a brilliant choice in this deck, not only for the utility it provides but because most people won't expect it.
{Imposing Sovereign} probably doesn't need a whole lot of explanation either. It seems obvious that it is just another way to stop blockers, if ever for a turn. Although the use goes past that. With cards floating around the standard metagame like {Stormbreath Dragon} and {Hammer of Purphoros}, an agro deck without the option of haste is going to be automatically slower than most agro decks. This card solves that problem entirely, and combined with options such as {Agent of the Fates} it eliminates any problem quickly and efficiently.
This next card I think is possibly the best creature in the deck, and a card which I had almost entirely forgotten about: {Phalanx Leader}. So we already established the role of the Agent in this deck, which is to force through damage, now with the addition of this card, you are able to force through more damage. Especially with the choice of {Dauntless Onslaught} to trigger heroic. If you are able to trigger this card and the Agent in one turn, your opponent may end up close to dead in one turn!
If I had to choose the most underrated card in Theros, I may have to go with {Tormented Hero}. Whenever I suggest for someone to put it in a deck, they always say something like "it's too slow", or "it comes in tapped", or "it's only a 2/1". Well, let me present to you my counterargument for each of those claims. "It's too slow" – what do you mean? It's a 2/1 for {B}! "It comes in tapped" – it's a one drop, and it's not like you're going to be attacking with it anyways. "It's only a 2/1" – so was {Elite Vanguard}, and that got plenty of play! My point is, people can only focus on why this card is barely suboptimal to any other 2/1 for 1. But in a deck such as this, the Heroic ability makes up for it. Sure, it's only one life, but that can be relevant, and adding the gain for you as well! Each time it gets triggered it sets your and your opponent's life totals apart by two points!
{Soldier of the Pantheon} is the last creature which needs to be talked about, though not much. As is with {Banisher Priest} it seems like it is an auto include in any white based deck.

Next up is the spells, which is where the synergies of this deck really come together. The first one I will talk about is {Ordeal of Heliod}, which by the way is a genius idea in a deck with {Phalanx Leader}. Put this on one of your creatures, and it may only take one attack to make it fall off! Especially if you put on a Phalanx Leader! If you've targeted the Leader once, and you put this on it, it will trigger Heroic again, and then on the attack you gain 10! People overlook this card a lot, but 10 life is a huge gain, considering that your starting life is 20.
I believe I already extolled the virtues of {Dauntless Onslaught}, so I will move on to the next spell, which is {Read the Bones}. I personally dislike this card, so it's hard for me to talk about why it's good in this deck. But it is. In a deck based on the Heroic mechanic, it's very important that you draw the right cards; I do know this from experience so this card seems like a natural choice. Not only does it let you decide if the top two cards of your deck are the right ones, it gives you card advantage and increases the probability that you do draw what you need. The main downside that I see to this card is that you have to waste a turn to cast it.
{Gods Willing} is another obvious choice for a deck such as this, as it triggers Heroic and forces damage through, but in addition to that you scry from it, which achieves the same effect as {Read the Bones} without the card advantage.
Finally there's {Orzhov Charm} a forgotten card. In this deck, all three uses are applicable. The first use, to reanimate a one drop is obviously good in a deck with eight of them. The removal aspect of it obvious as well, as in that it can be used to force damage through, and you don't care about the life loss, as there are many ways to gain it back, at least partially in this deck. The final use, to bounce a creature and all auras attached to it is slightly less obvious, but still useful. An example of this would be if you have an {Agent of the Fates} with an {Ordeal of Heliod} on it and someone tries to kill it. You bounce it and the Ordeal to your hand, and in addition to that you make them sacrifice a creature. Now with all that out of the way, it's time to visit the sideboard.

To begin, I will establish that I do not like the {Angel of Serenity} or {Merciless Eviction} in here. The reason for this is that they are high drop cards in a deck with 22 lands where the mana curve tops out at three. These spots in the sideboard would probably be better used with more spot removal of some sort, maybe {Hero's Downfall}. {Executioner's Swing} is an interesting choice in this deck, though it can be useful for sure, it gets around indestructible and will kill almost anything, so it's basically just a two-drop removal spell for anything with a slight downside. {Pithing Needle} seems like an inclusion in almost every deck right now, seeing as though there are so many Planeswalkers in the current meta, and {Mutavault} as well. It seems like {Merciless Eviction} is meant to deal with Walkers as well, but it's too expensive. Finally there's {Sin Collector} which is an obvious "middle finger salute" to any spell based control type deck. A few things I might try to include is several copies of {Glare of Heresy}, because it answers {Elspeth, Sun's Champion} and {Detention Sphere} as well. Another good card may be {Wear//Tear} which also deals with a D-Sphere in addition to {Whip of Erebos} or any other of the Gods' weapons.

Finally, I will talk about what I think may be the weak match-ups for this deck. The obvious one would be any {Supreme Verdict} deck, seeing as though there is no way to protect your team such as {Boros Charm} or {Xathrid Necromancer}, although the match-up does improve after sideboarding in {Sin Collector} and {Pithing Needle}. I feel that it's pretty good against any deck with spot removal, because there are plenty of ways to protect the creatures from anything that targets. The last possible weak match-up is the GR Devotion/Monsters deck, simply because they put out massive creatures so quickly, though that improves after boarding as well, with the inclusion of {Ultimate Price} and once again {Pithing Needle}.

Well that's all for today, and with luck I will be posting again next week with a new deck to review, maybe one of my own design. Keep in mind if there's a deck of your own which you want me to write about you can PM a list and I will consider writing about it. There may be some weeks where I compare two decks and argue the virtues of both against each other. So anyhow, goodbye, and I'll see you next week!

[Kaworu, the Fifth Child]

Ooh, I like! More! More! And can we request decks?

[darkarts981]

Ooh, I like! More! More! And can we request decks?

Yes, you can message me with a deck you want me to write about. Your own or just one that you saw somewhere.

[darkarts981]

Interesting, i assumed that was one of the reasons you had it...well, as it is I'm glad i could be of some help!

[darkarts981]

I mainly had it around as a kill spell; it gets essentially the same work done as Downfall without breaking the bank

Yeah, that's all i could really come up with at first besides the possible reanimation, it took me a while to think of the other possible interactions

[Kurama]

Hmm. Nice job, I'm interested to see what comes in the future.