26

(1 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

If you're looking to aggro, it doesn't get much better than Akroan Hoplite. Especially if you have a lot of ways to throw tokens onto the field. Your Brimaz will do that nicely, as will your Goblin Rabblemaster. Other ways to pull that off are Akroan Crusader and Satyr Nyx-Smith. Maybe replace your Seeker of the Way with one of those, get more creatures out there faster.

Not many decks run red-white aggro, not since Sunhome Guildmage and the Battalion mechanic left standard. So I really don't know. These are just my thoughts.

27

(5 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Okay, so it's an artifact deck. That helps me figure out how you want the deck to play out. The thing about your deck as it stands is that it relies on one card (Ensoul Artifact) to work properly. And you have a good chance in a 60-card deck of not drawing that until later in the game, when your opponent could have something like Centaur Battlemaster with a lot of +1/+1 counters on it, or been churning out stuff with an Arbiter of the Ideal. Or you could be going up against a red-white swarm deck that runs Archetype of Courage, Archetype of Aggression and Akroan Hoplite. And these decks would win faster than you could be sure you would get your combo on the field. Or they would just swing more creatures than you could block. This deck would cause problems, especially because it is tribal, letting every creature benefit from tribal effects.

So coming from that observation, we have a couple options:

First, we can find ways to slow the game down, maybe some small artifacts (Pillar of War or Bronze Sable or Opaline Unicorn, which also taps for mana) or tiny non-artifact blockers (Embodiment of Spring or Disowned Ancestor). That way, we can afford to wait until our combo comes together.

Or, alternatively, we can look into deck control (our deck, not theirs), making sure we get to our killer combo more quickly. Say, throw a few Oracle's Insight in there, maybe a Jace's Ingenuity. Now, with this strategy, we need to stall out the early rush that we might see from a Rakdos or mono-red deck. For that, we can throw in some Blinding Sprays (which also lets us draw), some Crippling Chills (again, we get card draw with it), and maybe a Thassa's Bounty in there as well.

Now, there are 3 things you should probably realize about my advice:
1) I am assuming you absolutely want to stick with an UBW (Esper) color scheme.
2) I am assuming you are playing standard. (If not, look into the Alara block for great artifacts.)
3) This is only a suggestion. Feel free to take my advice or ask someone else what they think of what I said. In fact, that would probably be a good bet.

28

(7 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

Yes. It should work fine. But if you can get your hands on them, I would suggest sideboarding some removal spells (like Murder) and maybe more lifegain (like Congregate) to deal with frustrating opponents (Murder for big green creatures that you won't like, Congregate to deal with the inevitable token-ramp decks).

29

(5 replies, posted in Decks and Deckbuilding)

What is the goal of your deck? That is to say, are you focusing on cancels and shutdown (an Azorius or mono-blue style like Azorius Arrester or Arrest), destruction (mono-black, like Murder), controlling your opponent's deck (Dimir, like Mind Funeral), or life-gain and extortion (Orzhov, like Syndic of Tithes's Extort ability)? Or something completely different, like an artifact focus (Esper)? Once we determine what you are looking for in a deck, we can tweak this.

Also, if I used any term you don't know, I suggest you look it up. Even if it doesn't really help you become a better player, it will make you sound like you know more. Always a plus.