Budget Praxis Token Deck (/w Deck Tech and Explanation)

Hey there,

this time around im posting a decktech about a praxis token budget list.
To make it easier for newer players and getting an early understanding on how to upgrade / update the decklist, I decided to mention some interesting cards you can pick up later on, the moment your shiftstone count allows you to, maybe even linking to other, tested lists the moment you dont have to run a budget list anymore.

As always, this deck also has a video as a companion tied to it, making it easy for you to understand the basic concept of our gameplan, why we chose the cards we did and how to pilot the deck, in case you lack the experience.

Video Showcase of the Deck
https://youtu.be/EgeNdEiSTak

The Gameplan

This deck, in its current form, tries to get as many units on the board as possible while being as fast as possible.
Adding buffs through Rally to win trades and push damage to end the game early on.
There are different strategies in regards to the core of this deck.
Some players decide to take a beefier approach to this gameplan by adding a steeper midrange curve through cards like Sandstorm Titan or even Heart of the Vault.

Its up to you to decide if you like the fast hit and run playstyle of the token list provided or if you want to have a decent early aggression while also having some kind of topend in this deck.
They are not mutually exclusive but need some cuts to prevent anti-synergies like the Sandstorm Titan making our Humbug Swarm lose their valuable and evasive 'Flying' tag.

The Core of the Deck
Grenadin Drone is one of your bread and butter units of this deck providing you with a small sized body while summoning the drone to the field. This fact allows us to build overwhelming boards in the blink of an eye and further using spells to deal a heavy amount of damage early on in the game. Our opponent will most likely struggle with the tempo we generate, dropping 1 Unit while we play 2-3 in one turn. This is the basic concept of the deck and is easy to setup in most every game because of this little efficient buddy of ours. <3

Spark Hatcher is a little more aggressive with its 2/1 statline but also has the added bonus of leaving another Grenadin Drone. Not much more to mention here.

Temple Scribe is a solid unit that provides some card draw that we very much need in a deck like this, trying to play as many minions as we can in one turn. The 1/1 body it provides might not look that impressive which is true, but just the card draw alone makes it worth to run and handle it as just another grenadin drone for now. It can still rack up damage over the course of a game.

Torch is really strong in the current metagame because it allows you interact with your opponent in the early turns, maybe preventing some shenanigans they try to setup or hitting the daunting Teacher of Humility.

Assembly Line definitely needs a special mention here, cutting it would result in your early aggression to most likely fall down completely, so as i mentioned with the grenadin cards earlier, this is considered a grenadin card aswell in context of this 'guide'.

Rally has some interesting synergies with our deck and we should definitely be running 4 at any point of this decks existance. Cutting Rally would hurt you in the long run, sometimes killing off enemy blockers while adding a lot of damage onto the enemy face.

Possible Cuts

Look out for cards that dont provide much synergy to our basic gameplan, like, for example Ornamental Daggers or Rampage first.

Ticking Grenadin looks like a solid card on paper but is really only worth it to run in budget decks because other options are much better statwise. Though the effect helps us with our effort on killing our opposition rather quickly with many small units on board. It also has decent synergy with Disassembler and just being a nuisance in general.

Disassembler is only worth running in this deck until you start to drop the weaker grenadin units out of your decks. You will be able to deal quite a heavy amount of damage even if your units die to blockers, ignoring the fact that you cant even reach their face.

Calderan Gunsmith works really well in in context of this deck and our general gameplan. It definitely deserves to stay, until you can afford most other cards I mentioned below. If you take this deck out to give it a swing, you will realize how much damage it actually deals to the enemy over the course of the game, sometimes just through the summon effect while having a decently-sized board.

Rakano Outlaw is just a nice unit to play in the early turns, having some synergy with weapons we run and buffs we put on our units, like rally. The moment you decide to cut the daggers to add more expensive cards, consider dropping the Outlaw aswell.
If you really like what the Outlaw provides, make sure to keep it in there. It really does put in quite some work and also provides warcries for future units and turns. As mentioned though, this deck doesnt really need the warcries since we focus mainly on going wide on the board, by playing many different units that summon other units through their summon effect and sadly, those cardtexts dont get anything from the warcry buff.


Possible Upgrades and Honorable Mentions

Xenan Obelisk to improve our gameplan of spewing out little units or tokens onto the board, buffing them through a static effect that gets stronger later on the moment you hit 8 Mana.

Marisen's Disciple giving you the option to get another, second unit out while playing the card. Most of the time, you will pick the strongest body in the 3/3 overwhelm unit, but there are times where chosing the 1/1 deadly unit or the 2/2 flier is a decent pick too.

Sandstorm Titan in case you are able to craft or open this badboy from a pack, feel free to put it into your list. Sandstorm Titan is a extremly well-statted creature but does have some negative synergy with the Humbug Swarm.

Arcanum Monitor was a promotion card, which makes it a 600 shiftstone craft in case you are interested to pick up this card into your deck. The effect it provides strengthens our other units as well as making itself beefier the more units we assemble on board. Definitely a nice card to add to our deck and worth a shoutout.

Marisen, the Eldest could potentially work in this deck aswell, but never consider to craft her, only if you actually got her from opening a pack directly. She basically grants you the same effect as Marisen's Disciple but every turn and would be a greedy lategame option for our gameplan.

Heart of the Vault would be an extremly nifty pickup for this deck, giving you access to more carddraw through the summon effect while also being our topend for this deck. Definitely one of the mainstays over the years that also stood the test of time of various token strategies but also midrange gameplans aswell.

Teacher of Humility is another honorable mention, even though it doesnt really have anything in common with our token strategy. The 3/3 body it provides justifies its inclusion into many decks and lists and therefore many different gameplans. Getting off the infiltrate effect onto a slower opponent could be decisive as early as turn 2. Definitely an amazing unit to pack into this deck.

Obliterate has seen quite some play in earlier strategies revolving around the token gameplan but has since been dropped. If you feel like you could afford to run this as another finisher or to push through the last opposition, definitely give it a try. Obliterate itself wastes no damage which means that the overwhelm effect on the card allows you to trade another unit for it and deal the excess damage to the opponents face, which makes it very valuable.

Initiate of the Sands provides you with additional maximum power which is eternals form of 'ramping'.
Ramping allows you to get to later stages of the mana curve like 6 or 7 faster, especially if you can keep those units safe from the opposition. IotS is definitely one of the prime targets for silence in our deck, making it a 1/1 for 1 which is still fair.
It also allows you to get to your very strong Turn 8 earlier, making your Xenan Obelisk provide another +2/+2 to your units.

Trail Maker provides the same effect Initiate of the Sands does, but also allows you to 'fix' your influence for your later drops. Both Initiate of the Sands and Trailmaker are being used in a more midrangey approach to this decklist running many lategame threats like Sandstorm Titan and Heart of the Vault. Since most beefier units you would have access to on a budget are lackluster at best, even though they might look amazing on paper, running a more aggressive style is definitely beneficial to you. This is why this decklist is rather cheap on the powercurve.

Praxis Displacer allows you to 'bounce' another card back into their owners hand, potentially used on your own units to provide another summon effect when replayed OR bouncing back an enemy unit that sits in front of their face, protecting it as a blocker. If your enemy uses their whole turn to replay that minion, they lose valuable tempo while you developed yet another threat on your own board. Decent pick up that might be worth to run in our current budget list aswell but could also be hit or miss.


Disclaimer

As always, I don't recommend just copy pasting this list and get your playsession going.
Try to find things you like or dislike and try to improve it to your liking instead.
Make sure you stay close to our gameplan that is provided by the cards added in this deck.
We have many different, other lists that can be run so check those out in case that doesnt quite hit the spot for you. :)

Eclipzerlol aka Philipp