Hero of the People is a fun card to build decks around. As a semi-casual player without a full collection of legends, I found myself messing around with ideas for decks for her. A small amount of Primal allows you to use
Haunting Scream and
Gorgon Fanatic, two signature re-animator cards that give the deck a lot of options, card draw, and the ability to give Hero of the People +2/+2, Flying and Charge for just 2 mana.
The basic idea of this deck is to survive until you can get
Hero of the People up and running on turn 5, and then start pushing aggro.
Protect is in this deck in order to keep a key creature alive, especially if it's Hero. One extra benefit of Protect that I discovered when playing with this deck: when played on
Recurring Nightmare, it becomes an unholy monster that can only be defeated if you stock up two removal cards in your hand or otherwise sacrifice a flier. And even then, you can just Scream the Nightmare right back, and every turn that Protect comes back on.
This deck has no legends, and with a reasonable amount of testing I've found that it can compete without them. If you were to upgrade, I'd replace the Crownwatch Paladins with
Bartholo, the Seducer. It'd increase the curve a bit, but Bartholo otherwise serves the same role of putting two skills onto
Hero of the People including the all-important Aegis, but it attacks into crowds better.
Shelterwing Rider is a replacement for
Inquisitor Makto. It puts two skills on
Hero of the People for one mana less, and as compensation for not having infinite revenge, it is within range of
Haunting Scream.
This is my first deck I've submitted, feel free to crique. Some areas I'm interested in getting feedback on: the amount and type of removal (
Slay is a lock, but 4 or 3? Should I replace the others with
Permafrost?), the possible addition of more survivability tricks, the best deck composition to assure that the player survives until the combos start going off.
Dark Return
x4
1
Seek Power
x4
1
Suffocate
x2
2
Crownwatch Paladin
x4
2
Piercing Grief
x4
2
Protect
x3
2
Tranquil Scholar
x4
2
Vanquish
x2
3
Gorgon Fanatic
x4
3
Haunting Scream
x4
3
Hero of the People
x4
3
Recurring Nightmare
x2
3
Slay
x4
3
Valkyrie Enforcer
x3
4
Shelterwing Rider
x2
Justice Sigil
x4
Primal Sigil
x2
Shadow Sigil
x4
Argenport Banner
x4
Diplomatic Seal
x3
Seat of Cunning
x2
Seat of Order
x2
Seat of Vengeance
x4
View Deck on Shiftstoned
As for dropping the Tranquil Scholar, they're on-curve and help put keywords on Hero of the People or Inquisitor Makto if you have any, so I'm reluctant, but the additional card draw might be worth it.
Stonepowder Alchemist is a card that I keep adding and dropping from the deck. I don't know what to make of it. It's a 2/2 with two keywords including the critical lifesteal and revenge, but its 4 power body means its hard to play at the same time as a Hero of the People until late game or unless it plays itself through Revenge.
This is all stuff I'm testing--- right now I'm playing in diamond and this deck doesn't get the best winrate at that level. When it goes off, it wins no matter who you play against, but sometimes you get mana screwed and sometimes the other deck just develops faster. I'll consider some changes and post revised options over time.