HEERU of the People

This is more or less the deck that I used to climb to Masters in Expedition this month. It was my first time achieving masters with a deck of my own creation and I'm proud of it. I figured I would share since I didn't come across any other players running a similar list and because I hope the community can potentially improve upon the deck.

This list may not be top tier, but for me it is an extremely satisfying archetype to play. You will often feel like you're losing for most of the match, but the deck can do a fantastic job of turning the corner with lifesteal and hard to remove units. The deck lacks card advantage, but lots of Aegis and Exalted can help ease the pain. Relic weapons and silence effects can be a bit of a bummer.

There are two basic game-plans.

The first is to get Hero of the People in play and tack on skills. Steadfast Deputy may look like a weak card, and kinda is, but it is the fastest, safest way to get an Aegis Hero on board, which can set you up to run away with the game. A Deputy can also look pretty good late game when suited up with an Exalted weapon or two. It can be tempting to play Hero on turn three, but it is risky, since Hero eats removal like candy. It is usually better to play Hero on turn four with Deputy, or play Hero on turn five with Crownwatch Paladin or an Ice Elemental off your Emblem of Linrei. Then you are hoping to get Hero airborne with one of your fliers and close things out quickly.

The other plan is to get an Aegis unit down and get some skills on it with Daring Gryffyn or Ghostblade Outcast. I've won many of my games with a chonky flying Ice Elemental.

For maindeck "removal" you have Permafrost (good for slowing down aggro and for late game threats without endurance), Turn to Seed (stops threats that have immediate impact when played, often saved for a bit later in the game), and Fall Short off of Master's Blade, which hits a surprising amount of threats in the meta (even slumbering Little Seeds). Many of the big bad Strangers and other card with huge walls of text don't actually have battle skills, and many skills prove to not be battle skills when scrutinized (Mastery, Ambush, Pledge, Infiltrate, etc). Reinvigorate can also function as pseudo-removal, as people often aren't expecting exhausted units to spring to life and become massive blockers.

Daring Gryffyn is one of the real MVPs of this deck. Not only does it stand to counter an opponent's spell, but it turns Hero into a serious threat immediately, and can suit up one of your Aegis units quite nicely. One thing to be aware of is that a single spell from your opponent will kill all of your Gryffins on board, so plan accordingly. Also, a Gryffin on an empty board feels bad, y'all.

I initially had Silverwing Familiar in the deck instead of Vorlunk Corps, since Silverwing singlehandedly makes Hero scary and can wear a Master's Blade very well, but I think the Vorlunk is more likely to be higher impact. It provides two skills that are unique to the deck and with a Hero on board can devastate the opponent.

The Market is certainly flexible. I've won games with all of the cards and they all serve somewhat different purposes. When I'm grabbing Kodosh's Armor it is usually for the pump, when a game is going long, but more than once I've had the Spellcraft and the Exalted parts of its text be very relevant.

Anyhow, I hope you like the deck and please let me know your thoughts or personal take on it.

Cheers.