The Opening Act

This is my budget Version of Angry Artists, which is in turn a budget(ish) version of Heavy Metal Headliners. This budget version actually performs reasonably well, managing to win more than it lost and take me through Gold into Diamond.

The biggest change as a budget deck, is many of the cards lacking the raw power of the other versions. A such, it is a much more combo focused deck, with most wins powered from either Forgemark Scrivener buffing your board, or Oni Quartermaster keeping your hand full (or, when the stars aligned, both!).

Like most Oni decks, it is at heart an aggro deck, and your 1-drops (Oni Roninand Oni Patrol) allow you bring the pressure from the very start of the game. Unfortunately, the other 1-drops (Oni Samurai and Reliable Troops) don't apply enough pressure on their own to be worth a slot, so we are forced to rely more on synergy and synergy and mini-combos rather than raw aggression.

Autotread in NOT a 1-drop. It is MUCH too valuable to pick of Skycrag Aggro units (oppossing Autotreads, Oni Ronin, Champion of Fury, D'Angolo Houndmaster or Magmahounds) Time power dorks (Open Way Supplier, Initiate of the Sands, Logistics Expert) any other 1 health units our opponent might play, or even finish off a larger unit after blocking.

Our 2-drops are where things get interesting, with Forgemark Scrivener often our preferred Turn 2 play so we can get started on the Mastery ASAP (unless we are hoping to bait out removal with our other 2-drops). Either of the other 2-drops is a great follow up, Acclaimed Artisan means it only takes 2 attacks to trigger mastery 6, while Oni Forgemaster is a natural recipient of the +1/+2 weapon to trigger it's own renown.

Our 3-drops give us little more punch, The Shingane Mark's from Markmaker are surprisingly good at pushing just that bit more damage through blockers, and is one of the best triggers for Oni Quartermaster, which is fantastic at keeping our hand filled with all the weapons flying around. You do need to pay attention to sequencing to get the most out of her, and she comes with a big target on her, so be careful running her out too early without any payoffs.

Torch has rightly earnt it's place as a staple in fire decks, clearing out early blockers, finishing off bigger units (sometimes with an assist from Autotread or Sword of Icaria). With the deck built around unit combat Finest Hour allows our units to survive while killing theirs, triggers renown, and speeds up mastery. Pummel is basically copies 5 and 6 of Finest Hour, but as a late addition, I'm still not sure if it belongs or not. I could easily see Svetya's Bravery being a spicy addition instead. The 1-of Wind Conjuring is basically our catchall, giving us an answer to stuns, and the invoke functions as our "Hail Mary" play. Youcould maybe go up to 2, but 3 cost JJ is hard to reach in this deck.

Elder's Feather sends our units into the air so we can soar over blockers when the board gets stalled, and continue to bring the beats. Ornate Katana allows us to keep up the pressure without going down on cards, and Sword of Icaria pulls double duty as either removal, or a hard to remove threat vs control decks.

While very solid, the powerbase is somewhat intricate, and you will need to pay careful attention to your sequencing to ensure you have the influence available on the turns you need it. With 28 Oni in the Deck, it was rare that Common Cause didn't provide influence early. There is only a single card requiring double influence (Wind Conjuring) and so Diplomatic Seal is a natural choice. Undepleted power is critical in an aggro deck, so unfortunately, without a Rakano Painting (or even Vow), we are limited to banners and insignias, as there is not enough room to run the sigils needed to ensure Seat of Glory is undepleted the majority of the time. With no reason to run sigils, Emerald Waystone and Granite Waystone are straight upgrades, providing benefits in the mid game. The single Fire Sigil is simply to take advantage of opponents Ice Bolts but could easily be any other power card (Granite Coin, Emerald Coin, or even Shugo Standard or Crownwatch Standard).

The simplest upgrades would be adding a market. I prefer a Fearless Crescendo market, but even adding whatever combination of market access you already have available wold go along way. For suggestions to go in the market, you an check out the markets of Angry Artists, and Heavy Metal Headliners. The first craft I would probably be Jishu, the Burning Bush, which is could probably be a straight swap for Markmaker.