Bum Rush Deck: A Quest To Counter Meta

With There Being so Many Meta’s How Do I Create a Deck that can Counter Them All? A question we have all asked ourselves, especially after getting our ass, and deck, handed to us by the strangest collection of cards you’ve ever seen. With there being so many ways to win, how do you prevent the other guy from winning? It’s questions like these that have caused counter decks, mind control decks, and mill decks to thrive, but even they fail in their purpose nearly 3 out of five times so what is the best way to stop another opponent from winning?

Well, the only way to do that is to prevent them from building and the only way to do that is to BUMRUSH them. Today I will be speaking about a deck that carried me into diamond, and I won most, if not all of my games before turn ten. Our deck focus will be a white red and none of our creature cards will cost more than three mana. I will first break down what the most important cards of this deck will be, and remember from our last article that for every card you want to use there exists at least three others that perform the same job; so be sure to cross-compare with your own desires before finishing the deck!

Most Important Cards:

Rally the Ranks

Sunrise Caviler

Karagan Intimidator

Karagan Warleader

Expedition Champion

Akkai War Paint

Blade Historian

Raiyuu, Storm’s Edge

Paladin Class

Patch Up

Why Are They Important?

Well the purpose of this deck is to have a seven/four card on the field by turn three. Part of the path to winning here is mental. If you can successfully field at least a seven/four and a five/five card before they have even placed their second creature card you’re already making them realize that their window to build is rapidly closing on them. More often than not I get their health down to eight and they just forfeit. But to circle back, these cards are important because they all build well together and get the job done quickly. You may notice that every card there is a human, well with Rally the Ranks the Sunrise Cavelier enters the field with haste as a four/four. Add the one cost enchantment of Akkai War Paint and suddenly that card becomes a six/five. If you apply it to our two cost Karagan Intimidator It becomes five/two with the chance of adding another +1/+1 to it via its own effects. Toss in Rally the Ranks and it’s a seven/three. Add the Karagan Warleader and now its an eight/four. All of this can be accomplished by turn four which is insane. Now this also relies on them not having counter cards, but that is why we included Patch Up. The card allows you to revive to the field any three cost card, which works great for us because every card in this deck is going to be a human/warrior and a three cost or under. You might be wondering right now, “Okay so what about the Expedition Champion?” and my answer to that is by having Rally the Ranks and another warrior on the field, for a three cost card you now have a five/three on the board. A six/four if you have Karagan Warleader. It’s a great card to have to detract attention away from whichever card you are layering enchantments and equipments on. Sure they can take out your eight/five but what are they going to do about your six/four Expedition Champion that with one Akkai War Paint now becomes an eight/five again?

Now the purpose of this deck is not to just get beefed up cards that can lay down some serious damage. While that is nice, the main goal is to get either Paladin Class fully upgraded or get a Blade Historian/ Raiyuu, Storm’s Edge on the map. Each of these allows for you to attack twice which, in conjunction with your beefy warriors, is a match made in heaven. The truly broken aspect of this deck is if you have a Blade Historian and Raiyuu Storm’s Edge on the field at the same time, and only attack with one warrior that warrior will attack four times in a single turn. That means, with any of the three cost cards you’ve just beefed up, you can kill them in a single turn. Now, at this point you have to consider that you won’t always have the chance to attack, which is true, but with Karagan Intimidator you can make other player’s cards a coward, which makes them unable to block a warrior, so you’re also preparing for that outcome. But if they suddenly have a few too many cards on the field and there is no way you can make them all cowards, you can also give a target warrior of your choice trample so that eight/five that is about to attack four times can have a chance to do a little bit of damage.

Bum Rush Deck Common Sample

bum-rush

Ways to Win with This Deck:

Now, I know last article I said a good deck should be able to win four different ways, and I still stand by that creed, but this deck is brutally simple because you are effectively trying to bully the other player into an early forfeit or just beating them senseless for six turns straight. This deck can only win two ways, which is building with those aforementioned double strike cards, or just by stacking enchanments and equipments on whoever you feel will work the best for you. The beauty of this deck is that the only cards you truly need are the ones listed above, so after that, you can play jazz with the rest of the deck. Put whatever you think will work well, and make it match your style as perfectly as possible. My own preference is to stack Adeline, Resplendent Cathar with Nurturing Presence to give the creature a +2/+2 every time it attacks. By having a card that generates more creatures every attack it makes the final effect of Paladin Class all the more deadly.

Final Note:

This article is short because if you play this deck, ideally your games will be short as well. There is not much grace, nor high brow plays in this style. You are an MTGA equivalent of a schoolyard bully. I especially like this deck when you feel as if you’ve been floundering and nothing has been working because by going back to basics it gives you a lot of refreshed perspectives. I know myself is especially guilty of this mindset, but the idea that your win has to come from some convoluted plan that only you ever thought up is damaging towards your end goal, which is to win. Even if you’re end goal is to have fun, there is nothing more fun than just wailing on a guy with the cheapest cost cards ever and watching them anguish as they try and put anything on the board that will last. All this to say, give the deck a try! Happy dueling and don’t forget to pack your lands!