Fervent Champ & Kazuul Toll Collector

[bruizar]

Very rough draft here.. I want to do something broken with Fervent Champion and Bloodforged Battle Axe.


4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
12x Snow-Covered Mountain
4x Shrapnel Blast
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Chrome Mox
4x Blood Moon
4x Magus of the Moon
4x Fervent Champion
4x Kazuul's Toll Collector
2x Armory Automaton
3x Goblin Engineer
4x Bloodforged Battle-Axe
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of War and Peace
1x Sword of Feast and Famine

Sideboard:
1x Sword of Death and Shadow
1x Sword of Sinew and Steel
4x Pyroblast
2x Red Elemental Blast
2x Abrade


XMAS God hand:
Turn 1: Spirit Guide, Ancient Tomb, Fervent Champ, double Battle Axe, equip, attack for 5, create 2 tokens.
Turn 2: Attack for 9, create 4 tokens (or attack for lethal if you have a sword or near lethal with shrapnel blast (19) )

[FTW]

Bloodforged Battle-Axe involves surviving multiple combats unobstructed. It doesn't have trample, so any 1/1 blocker ruins your fun. With only one Axe it also takes several combats before it gets out of hand. Any non-Goldfish interaction (blockers, removal, counters, discard, faster combo) can disrupt you.

Why not use Sunforger as your payoff instead? It abuses the free equip much more. You can win on the spot without needing multiple combats or worrying about blockers. White also lets you play Stoneforge Mystic.

[jhhdk]

I kinda like the axe too but the creature you contemplate using to break it seems too fragile.
Something uncounterable, unblockable, hexproof and possibly with doublestrike would be nice i guess.

[bruizar]

I think the biggest issue with Fervent Champ is 1 toughness vs Wren & Six, but then again. The thing is only 1 mana, and it's hasty so you can equip immediately and attack before Wren & Six can ping it. Any sword or Jitte renders W&6 irrelevant. The first strike makes chump blocks OK imo, except when it's a young pyromancer feeding it continuously. For this, you can Goblin Engineer a Sword with protection from red or white in the case of Monastery Mentor.

There are 6-8 alternatives to Fervent Champ in the form of Kazuul's Toll Collector and Armory Automaton. The latter is really nice because it ignores Karn, Null Rod, Sorceress Spyglass and Pithing Needle against your equipment. I know about the Sunforger interaction but I feel that that's a different deck. IF I would play Sunforger, I would only splash it in order to grab Shrapnel Blasts to close out the game. Weird Mana Morphose / Ritual / Grape Shot kills are too convoluted for the aggro plan this deck attempts to achieve, and you only need 2 Shrapnel Blasts anyway. Sunforger's activation cost is not compatible with Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors and 8x Blood Moon.

[FTW]

The first strike makes chump blocks OK imo, except when it's a young pyromancer feeding it continuously.

The chump block won't kill it, but the lack of trample/evasion stops you both from making more Axes and dealing lethal damage once its big. You could have 4 axes equipped and deal 0 damage to opponent. You might need 5+ attacks to win, which is not quick for an "aggro" strategy.

Champion & Equip. Attack as 3/1. 1 Copy. (17)
Equip 2 Axes. Attack as 5/1. 2 more copies. (12)
Equip 4 Axes. Attack as 9/1. Opponent chumps. No damage and no more copies.
Attack as 9/1... Chump/removal.
Equip palm to face.

YP and Mentor tokens block it for a long time. MoM or TNN block and kill it. Thalia trades. Random dorks still stall you from dealing damage and making Axe copies.

Same goes for Toll Collector or Automaton. Your 12/2 attacker can be chumped easily. They don't have first strike, so they trade with regular 2/x dorks.

The problem is none of your guys have built-in trample, protection or evasion. They die to everything, can be blocked by everything, and need multiple consecutive attacks to get threatening. Yeah W6 kills Champion. But so does Bolt, StP, Fatal Push, PFire, Dismember, etc. The right Sword can protect them, but that's a slow interaction with a 3-of Goblin Engineer to set up. It costs many turns of tempo, slowing down your "aggro" plan to play around 1 cmc instant removal (which they can still cast in response to equip). Spellskite might be a cleaner way to dodge removal.

Yeah Sunforger combo is a very different deck. The advantage is it just wins the turn you equip. You don't have to keep attacking for 4+ turns (giving opponent more time to disrupt you with blockers or removal or racing). Are there other equipment you could use that let you win faster? Axe is just slow and vulnerable outside magical Xmasland.

Would Quietus Spike kill in fewer hits? Your first attack already does the most damage, so even if you get disrupted before you untap they're in easier range to pick them off with random attacks and burn.

Edit: If you do want to break Bloodforged Battle-Axe, what about playing RW for Puresteel Paladin? The Axe tokens turn on Metalcraft and the copies entering draw you cards! White also gives Stoneforge Mystic (to find Swords) and Mother of Runes (to not die to everything as easily).

[bruizar]

I hear you on the chumping, Jitte could easily be played in multiples as it picks off chumpers easily. The Battle Axe is vulnerable, and you may be right in that it is too vulnerable, I'm not sure. I want to see it in action because the upside potential is high. Puresteel Paladin is a solid card, it would require a different manabase and list, but serving as an aggressive draw engine is good upside. Do you have a list in mind? I like Spellskite, you can easily equip it if you have nothing else on board to protect.

O-Naginata is also an efficient option, it used to be played in Workshop decks in Vintage many many years ago. 1 mana for 3 damage is the same ratio as lightning bolt, and it gives trample.