Extreme Budget Deck - Rakano - Slingers

Part of the updated Extreme Budget Deck series. Criteria are no legendaries, rares or promos.

Play Tips

- In general, you want to mulligan for a curve of units you can play out beginning on turn 1. A combat trick or weapon is a nice addition.
- Relentless Deadshot, Censari Dervish, and Elder's Feather allow you to evade most big bodies to keep swinging.
- Showdown allows you to take down units that would ordinarily be too large to otherwise kill while preserving your own unit. Added benefits are applying 2x damage from fast spells to your opponent's face rather than to their units, and blocking unlimited damage (emergency use only.)
- The most common mistake with this deck is not being aggressive enough. You need to kill your opponent quickly, which often means deciding to race rather than trade. You should be constantly calculating best use of your fast spells on blockers vs. face to minimize the number of turns until your opponent is dead.
- As with any go-wide aggro deck, don't play units unless they lower your # turns to lethal damage--this allows you to recover from sweepers without reducing your current odds of a win.


Build Tips

- If you own the campaign, I would strongly suggest replacing another weapon with Inquisitor's Blade.
- Tailor your removal package toward the current meta or prevalent opponent units which usually cause a loss. I'd suggest:
Varied meta: Sword of Icaria or Flame Blast (can both go face when not needed versus units)
Other aggro: Defiance
Mastery: Inflict Conscience
Recursion: Defiance or Edict of Kodosh
Lifesteal: Edict of Kodosh or Ankle Cutter
Aegis: Edict of Shavka
Big Time (aggro's arch-nemesis): Vanquish
Sites: Flame Blast or Streets Aflame; Casualties of the Cause is also good for this but less versatile versus sweepers or removal piles; Signal Flare only kills smaller sites but is fine versus something like Skycrag yeti.
Avoid removal which requires sacrificing a unit; you really need all of your units.
- I've included what I believe are the best all-purpose weapons, but you can also try relatively inexpensive weapons with good stats and keywords that reward attacking, like Warhelm or Morningstar.

Upgrade This Deck
0. Merchants: This should probably be your first purchase. Red Canyon Smuggler is favored for this deck, but you'll eventually want Ixtun Merchant and Winchest Merchant as well--so these are good options if you'd like them for other decks. Be careful to remember Ixtun Merchant and Red Canyon Smuggler are not gunslingers; this card art has cost many excellent players a match!

1. Market Legendaries (single copy):
- Deepforged Plate: Probably Rakano aggro's single most powerful upgrade. Use this to break Permafrost and push damage through blockers.
- Pristine Light: A great tool for aggro that deals with Big Time or other decks that produce larger units very quickly. Most of your board dodges this removal, and you'll get back all the cards that don't. Use this rather than Harsh Rule. Please, please do not be an aggro player who uses Harsh Rule.

2. Weapons:
- Vanquisher's Blade and Longbarrel each provide some utility as removal while providing stats or keywords which make them worthwhile to play as-is without spellcrafting.
- Inquisitor's Blade provides another source of evasion and accumulates warcries which remain upon recursion.
- Auric Runehammer can typically be relied upon to remove two units and has the added benefits of both denying lifesteal to the opponent and protecting your own health.
- Kaleb's Persuader is the legendary weapon I would recommend for most fire-based aggro decks, as it breaks face aegis for your direct damage, pumps Flame Blast, removes power after T4 to increase the odds you'll draw gas, and generally rewards attacking.

3. Units:
- Highland Sharpshooter, Champion of Glory, and Valkyrie Enforcer (in that order) are the primary units I would recommend as upgrades.
- Sheriff Marley is a good inclusion in control metas with lots of removal.
- Marshal Ironthorn and Jekk, Hunted Fugitive might be good inclusions at 2-3 copies per deck.
- Notorious Scoundrel does especially well paired with combat tricks, but be careful when you include and use this card as the Wanted Poster is often a significant benefit for your opponent. I typically like to wait until I have both a combat trick and Valkyrie Enforcer in-hand so that I can silence Scoundrel after it has swung and gained stats but before my end-of-turn.

4. Spells:
- A single copy of Bore in your market can liberate multiple units from Permafrost or remove an Avigraft. If you typically only need a single attachment removed to win, I tend to prefer Ruin instead.
- A single copy of Righteous Fury in your market can push extra face or overwhelm damage for lethal, and helps sustain you for an extra few turns versus midrange decks.
- A single copy of Withstand in your market can often substitute for Deepforged Plate as it liberates a unit from Permafrost while providing a few extra stat points to swing for lethal. If you find that you often need to play Deepforged Plate on a unit before the unit can swing and dies to removal, try this instead and apply it at your opponent's end-of-turn.
- A single copy of Cloud of Ash in your market often allows you to A+space for lethal.
- A single copy of Obliterate in your market acts as emergency removal for large blockers, and can often deal direct lethal to your opponent.
- My preferred strategy is often to run Flame Blast main (here it would replace Outlaw Ringleader) and a copy of Obliterate in the market. When I'm relying on big fire spells for at least some direct damage, Obliterate often removes a blocker and deals 1-2 Overwhelm damage to break face aegis, permitting me to Flame Blast for lethal after a swing the following turn.

5. Relics:
- Paladin Oathbook rewards aggro strategies and helps decks that rely on snowballing rather than going wide.
- Golem Press is a good market card to repopulate your board in a Hailstorm meta.

6. Power:
- Emblem of Shavka and Emblem of Kodosh can help you avoid flooding while giving you more bodies for aggro. This strategy works less well with warcry, however, because you're often dependent on snowballing buffs to your deck.
- Crest of Glory can help you pull a warcried unit or weapon to the top, rather than a power you don't need. Be careful of including too many depleted power in your deck; aggro doesn't fare well unless it can play early units on curve.
- Rakano Banner should almost always be present as a one-of in your market if you struggle with power or influence, because the merchant played for access ensures the power never comes into play depleted.
- Common Cause is an option if you find you're struggling with influence.