Heavy Metal Headliners

After running into a few Oni lists on ladder this month, I decided to make my own version. It ended up being surprisingly viable, and was the only deck I played on my journey from the beginning of Diamond III all the way to 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.

As an aggro deck, your 1-drops (Akko, Inspired Artist, Kazuo, Melee Virtuoso, Oni Ronin and Oni Patrol are your bread and butter, and you will usually want to mulligan (even to 6) if they are missing in your opening hand. I cut 1 Akko, Inspired Artist since our only pump spell is Finest Hour and so it can take some time to deal the 9 damage for his Mastery to go off. But when it does, it will often be game over. A 4/7 Cozin Darkheart is a lot of fun when she hits the board.

Our 2-drops are the glue that hold the deck together, allowing all our units to punch above their weight, and closing out games very quickly. Given the choice, it is often correct to play Forgemark Scrivener first, to get the Mastery started ASAP. Following up with Acclaimed Artisan means it only take 2 attacks to buff every unit on the board with a +1/+2 weapon.

Jishu, the Burning Brush is great on her own, buffing every unit you play, but is absolutely fantastic in combination with Oni Quartermaster, drawing a card and buffing every Oni you play. If you manage to double up on either half of the combo, you can quickly flood the board with buffed units while also refilling your hand. But we only run 3 Oni Quartermaster since she doesn't really do much on her own.

Finally, Cozin Darkheart is in the list because she is one of my favorite cards, but only as a 3-of, since you don't want it clogging up your hand. It's entirely possible the correct number to run is anywhere from 0 - 4. I only own a single Kyojun, Grand Shugo and I was never sad to see it in hand, but again, I could see an argument for running anywhere from 0-4.

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. Often in the early game I would grab either Sword of Icaria if I needed removal, or Ornate Katana to push damage without committing more units to the board. Only once I was sure to hit 4 power would I grab Kaleb's Persuader, which goes great on Cozin Darkheart. I never intentionally grabbed Deepforged Plate, (5-power is a LOT in this deck and the JJ is hard to hit as well). But as a late game topdeck, it turns any of your units into a solid threat that will often be enough to close out the game. It may be worth finding room in the list for either (or even both) of Elder's Feather or Warhelm

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, especially if you can put Akko, Inspired Artist into the air. Every market card saw play, with Manacles usually the first choice, clearing out two blockers to open the way for your 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. Other cards that were in the market at various times were Jekk, Mercenary Hunter, Sanity Scorcher, Beacon of War, and Wind Conjuring (although again, there is no guarantee to actually hit JJ when you need it).

There are plenty of other options for the market, (check the sideboard for some ideas), and there is certainly plenty of room to improve (especially considering the significant overlap between Pristine Light, Manacles, Topple and Pyrotech Explosion). I completely forgot Press the Advantage was a card, and it should be the first addition to slot in (probably over Topple. Jekk's Takedown is an intriguing option to provide reach against control lists.

The powerbase was very solid, with 35 Oni in the Deck, it was rare that Common Cause didn't provide influence early. Undepleted power is critical in an aggro deck, so unfortunately, without a Rakano Painting (or even Vow), we are limited to seats and banners which means running enough sigils do reliably turn on our seats, and so there isn't really room for the "Utility" powers (Waystones, Emblems, Coins, Standards, Sketches and Runes). There isn't even really room to run Crest of Glory, Rakano Cylix might fit in, but would mean running less Sigils, probably too often be depleted, while basically never giving the Treasure Trove.

There are plenty of Budget Substitution you could make, with none of the legendariles critical to the function of the deck. Oni Samurai (or even Reliable Troops) slot straight in for Akko, Inspired Artist (and even for Kazuo, Melee Virtuoso if you need to keep rares to a minimum. Cozin Darkheart (and even Kyojun, Grand Shugo) could easily be replaced by any 2 or 3 drop Oni (The 4th Oni Quartermaster and then probably some Markmakers). That leaves the 2 weapons then as the only legendaries in the main deck, both of which are well worth crafting, but could be replaced by any other impactful weapons you already have (eg Gemblazer Cannon), any of the weapons we have already mentioned, or even more copies of Sword of Icaria or Ornate Katana.

You can check out the full Budget Version at Angry Artists that I threw together. It does alright, should be good to push at least into low Diamond.

Edit: After hitting masters, made a few of the changes suggested above, which have worked well, and make the deck function even smoother. Still not sure about Warhelm but the Elder's Feather has been a great addition.