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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Oros's Avengers
August 7, 2007

Here is my Oros's Avengers deck.

It is a Oros and knight deck, with no white creatures other than Oros himself. It is designed to go aggressive with cheap knights, discard Haakon or a dragon, reanimate, and finish them off. Everything else it to help set this up.

(16 creatures)
3 Oros, the Avenger
2 Hunted Dragon
3 Haakon, Scourge of Stromgald
4 Stromgald Crusader
4 Blood Knight

(14 instants)
4 Funeral Charm
4 Magma Jet
3 Disenchant
3 Rebuff the wicked

(10 sorceries)
4 Smallpox
4 Dread Return
2 Damnation

(19 lands)
4 Blood Crypt
4 Godless Shrine
2 Graven Cairns
3 Sulfurous Springs
3 Caves of Koilos
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Sacred Foundry

(1 legendary land)
1 Uborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

My worries are it doesn't have enough creatures or it is to slow. After it leaves standard I was wondering about, black knight, disorder or strength of lunacy. But until then any suggestions?

Thank you

Oros, the Avenger!  A while back I had someone send in an Intet, the Dreamer deck.  Now her brother stars in a deck.  Frankly, I'm surprised I don't see more of the Planar Chaos dragons in decks.  And I'm a bit surprised at what I see in this one.

Whenever Oros makes contact with an opponent's face, a payment of 2W will give you a sort of Sunlance for every creature on the field.  It only affects nonwhite creatures, so typically you see Oros leading the charge of a pack of white creatures.  You've opted to go the other way-- only black and red creatures.  Especially unusual is that your non-Dragon creatures are Knights, a tribe dominated by white.  But I do like your choices of Knights nonetheless.  Blood Knight and Stromgald Crusader, despite being nonwhite, are safe from Oros's holy fire because they have protection from white.  Haakon, Stromgald Scourge... isn't exactly immune, but he comes right back.  And then there's Hunted Dragon.

Hunted Dragon seems fine, seeing as how it's a 6/6 hasty flyer and can therefore join Oros in the sky, deliver the hits, and survive the Sunlancing.  But giving your opponent three 2/2 Knights?  White Knights, that Oros can't kill?  Of course, Oros can't kill any of the creature tokens produced by Hunteds in his colors (the Centaur tokens Hunted Horror produces have pro: black, and Hunted Lammasu's Horror nemesis has 4 toughness).  But then again, you have stocked your deck with pro: white creatures, so I guess you've put a lot of thought into this.  And no other pro: white creatures in Standard are coming to mind, so for once, I find myself unable to suggest a better-suited creature to this deck.

Let's move right along then to your instants and sorceries, where I can indeed recommend superior card choices.  You say that you have thoughts for when it rotates out of Standard, which implies that you want it to be Standard-legal now.  Well, my friend, Magma Jet is not in Standard.  It was in Mirrodin, and hasn't been reprinted yet.  Perhaps you meant Riddle of Lightning?  It does sort of the same thing, damage and Scry, but it costs more for the potential of more damage.  it also gives you the opportunity to ask your opponent, "What's black and white and red all over?" before revealing Oros; a joke I happen to find hilarious.  But in the interest of keeping cost down and efficiency maximized, we'll leave the riddle of building around Riddle of Lightning for another day.  In Magma Jet's place, try an even more analogous card: Judge Unworthy.

Next, for your sorceries, it looks like you're all about the reanimation.  Smallpox to discard 'em, Damnation to wipe away the competition, and Dread Return to bring back your trump.  Unless your trump is Haakon, who doesn't need any help, thank you very much.  What could I possibly add to a well-oiled machine like this?  More reanimation?  All-purpose utility cards?  I'm honestly not sure.  All these cards require double-black; are there alternatives that don't?  Well, there's Lightning Axe as a discard outlet instead of Smallpox, but that doesn't exactly wreck your opponent as thoroughly, does it?  Delirium Skeins?  Hmmm.

And then your lands... might as well be diamond-encrusted, from the look of it.  How much did all this set you back?  And yet, it still isn't enough.  Twenty-three lands is generally the baseline.  For a deck with a six-mana headliner, 24 might do better.  You could pull the Disenchant (it's sideboard tech at best) and add in a few more lands.  Preferably basic Swamps and Plains, in case you run into a Magus of the Moon.

Actually, if you face a Magus of the Moon, you should have some way to kill it using only red mana.  Maybe Magma Jet should become Incinerate instead of Judge Unworthy.  Or maybe some Prismatic Lenses or Coldsteel Hearts?

Come to think of it, this deck was already pretty tuned up when it got here.  Usually decks that I can't significantly improve don't get featured here.  Why was I compelled to do an article on this one?

It must've been the opportunity to use the black-and-white-and-red-all-over joke.  I'm still laughing at that one.

~BMoor