Angry Artists

After hitting masters a couple of months ago with Heavy Metal Headliners, I decided to see if how far I could take a budget version. After some tweaking this is the final version that I ran though Diamond 2&1 to hit masters. It's pretty straightforward, most games it plays the beatdown, playing Onis each turn and bashing face, but with some solid Mid-game options as the games go longer.

Surprisingly Forgemark Scrivener ended up being the heart of the deck. Playing a +1/+2 weapon on your otherwise vulnerable Oni is great, and buffing your entire board at Mastery 6 is quite often backbreaking for your opponent. Her best friend is undoubtedly Oni Quartermaster, who draws you a card for every weapon you play. Which is exactly what Jishu, the Burning Brush does every time you simply play an Oni, and also allows you to tutor a weapon to the top of your deck. Rounding out this core is Acclaimed Artisan who will allow you Oni to hit that little bit harder, and generally trade up. On turn 2 you ideally want to play Forgemark Scrivener to get started on the Mastery ASAP. Following up with Oni Quartermaster, allows you to immediately buff your Quartermaster to a 3/4, AND draw a card, while Acclaimed Artisan on turn 3 will mean it only takes 2 attacks to buff your whole board with Mastery 6.

The 1-drops (Oni Ronin, Oni Patrol and Oni Samurai) not only allow you to apply early pressure and punish any stumbles from your opponent, they are also crucial in going wide to make the most of the weapons from Forgemark Scrivener and ensure you always have a target available.

For a long time I resisted adding Autotread to the deck, wanting to keep all the units as Oni. But after getting beat up by Skycraggro, I finally saw the light, and swapped the tiny sentinel in (replacing Char) and it just did so much work. A 1-drop to enable turn 2 Onslaught, clearing out X-1s (such as Open Way Supplier and seemingly half the Skycraggro deck), finishing off blockers, removing Aegis, or even going face. I was never sad to see the little robot.

The other Oni (Ankle cutter and Markmaker) were never really settled. If you wanted to make any changes, it is here I would start for cuts. Anklecutter is great in a world of Sandstorm Titan, Vara, Vengeance-Seeker and Rolant, Iron Tyrant so if you are seeing plenty of them, you may want to go up to 4. Otherwise I could see any number of cuts to squeeze in some combination of Sear, Char, or the full 4 Finest Hour

The weapon package is in here mainly to be tutored up with Jishu, the Burning Brush. They all have a role to play depending on the board state. Nearly every time, the first card I tutor up is Sword of Icaria to clear out early blockers and let my Oni punch through. Occasionally I would grab Ornate Katana if I wanted to play around board wipes. But I found Gemblazer Cannon to be absolutely clutch in closing games. The +4/+4 means your unit can typically tangle with anything else on the board, and if the unit also has Aegis (from Press the Advantage) then you have a very sticky threat that is fantastic at pushing the last points of damage.

The spell package begins with Torch, rightly a staple in (nearly) any fire deck, clearing out early blockers, and providing reach as the game goes long. Finest Hour constantly shifted anywhere between 0 and 4 copies. I was usually happy to see it, but other times it did get stuck in hand with no units on board.

The Market was constantly in a state of flux. I think a Fearless Crescendo market is the way to go, mainly because Red Canyon Smiuggler is much too fragile to be worth a slot. The added evasion is also welcomed, I lost count of the number of times I sent Forgemark Scrivener into the air to ensure she hit Mastery 6 and buffed my entire board. But if you are on a budget, feel free to use whatever market access you already have, just alter the market accordingly. Every market card saw play, with Wind Conjuring often my first choice to power through a blocker, and often draw an extra card from the invoke (since the deck really only needs 3 power to function). As the game went longer, I would tend to grab Manacles to clear out two blockers and open the way for my units to swing (often for lethal). Topple is great at removing a single (often Time) fatty, while Ruincrawller Yeti is the only option at 3 for dealing with attachments.

Press the Advantage is probably the most important Market card, giving one of your units Aegis as early as turn 3, ensuring you have something survive a board wipe, allowing you to keep the pressure on, and also activating Onslaught. Many times I had a large, flying Aegis threat, thanks to Press the Advantage, Fearless Crescendo and various buffs (warcry, +1/+2 Weapons, or Gemblazer Cannon).

The powerbase was incredibly solid, with 32 Oni in the Deck, it was rare that Common Cause didn't provide influence early. With only one card (in the market) requiring more than a single influence of either faction, Diplomatic Seal ensures we have the influence we need, while crucially, also being undepleted. I was initially running Seat of Glory, but even with 9 sigils in the deck, it was coming in undepleted way to often, so took them out for the Diplomatic Seals. No longer running seats means the waystones are better than sigils, with the single sigil remaining simply to fetch when your opponent Ice Bolt's a unit. Feel free to add whatever rare power you have, it would probably benefit from running some number of Emblems (probably Emblem of Shavka simply becasue you tend to need Fire from your Common Causes and Diplomatic Seals). Undepleted power is critical to making sure your aggro deck curves out, so you want to keep any depleted power (eg Granite Coin or Emerald Coin) to an absolute minimum, and it also means properly sequencing your power each turn is crucial so you maximise your pressure.

Possible Upgrades
When substituting rares / legendaries from your collection, try to replace like for like. The addition with the biggest impact would definitely be a Pristine Light in the market, to deal with midrange decks and let our little beaters go face. A safe craft as it goes in any aggressive Justice market. After that, any existing rares and legendaries (or campaiogn cards) you already have in your collection can easily be subbed in, just try to replace like for like (Kazuo, Melee Virtuoso for Oni Samurai, or Kaleb's Pursuader for Gemblazer Cannon etc). Try not to go down on the number of 1-drops, any less and it can be a real struggle to apply enough early pressure. And if you aren't sure what to cut to try something out, I'd probably start with cutting some combination of Ankle Cutter, Markmaker and Finest Hour, they were certainly the flex spots in my testing.

For a completely budget version, containing with only commons and uncommons, check out Budget Barbaric Ballad-Mongers