To learn how to build a deck in general, go to the page Deckbuilding 101.
So, you want to know how to make an aggro deck. Good choice!
Information[]
Aggro decks are decks that go as fast as possible, not concerning themselves with the long game. Aggro decks sacrifice any chance of winning a long game to defeat an opponent in the early game.
In comparison to other decks, aggro decks:
- Are simply faster than other decks. This is their main pull.
- Lose power as the game goes on. End your opponent quickly!
- Play cheaper and weaker creatures. They want to get killing very quickly.
- Play less removal and only a few stall breakers. These slow you down, and you want more threats.
- Play more card draw.
- Play less color fixing/ramp. They have a ton of cheap and weak things; those things pay for themselves.
- Play more threats. Midrange decks play around 30 threats. Control decks play around 3. Aggro decks play around 37. If a card you put into an aggro deck isn't killing your opponent, it better have a good purpose.
- Gravitate towards red and yellow. Blue can aggro, but tends to go into aggro-midrange, whilst Green has very few aggro cards.
Analyzing an aggro deck[]
To understand how an aggro deck works, we're going to look at monoyellow aggro.
FIGHTERS |
---|
AgentBloxxer x1 |
emilvita x4 |
Finland x4 |
Hallow's Boon x4 |
Pilot x4 |
Western Bandit x4 |
PEEPSTERS x3 |
SoftCollision x3 |
Unlimxted x3 |
Valletta x3 |
DIY Headphones x2 |
Loogi x2 |
Coordinated Attack x1 |
Mzh3000 x1 |
The Piece Breaker x1 |
First off, all the cards in this deck can be split into four categories:
- Aggro Cards
- Western Bandit, emilvita, Pilot, Finland, PEEPSTERS
- Off of the bat, 17 of the 40 cards in this deck cost 0-2 Colourless Studs, with cards like Finland giving you your Yellow Studs back. This means you can almost empty your hand very quickly and very easily on the first turn. Aggro decks have of the most explosive first attacks in the game.
- AoE Buffs
- AgentBloxxer, DIY Headphones, Hallow's Boon
- These cards are to be summoned to buff your cards to ridiculous heights before slamming into the opponent. You'll normally have 1-2 of them in your opening hand, allowing for extreme damage on the first attack, bypassing most defenses an opponent could muster on that turn.
- Midrange Cards
- SoftCollision, Unlimxted, Valletta
- These 9 cards are the "top-ends" of this deck. Note that for a midrange deck, these would be near the middle or bottom of the curve. These cards exist to kill off enemy midrange strategies, closing and finishing the game. Valletta is particularly important because he draws cards, allowing you to extend how long you can keep the pressure.
- Stall breakers
- Mzh3000, The Piece Breaker
- These cards are a small toolbox of different effects, designed to stop you from falling behind. Mzh3000 destroys the mirror and helps against control decks while wiping the board clean, and The Piece Breaker burns off the remaining Life the opponent has if they barely stabilize.
Note that every single card in this deck is a fighter; every card is in there to hit the opponent until they die, including the stall breakers.
Examples[]
We're gonna walk through and evaluate some cards in order to see if they'd fit in an aggro deck. Now, which card would be better for an aggro deck?
About mickymack | About Pilgrim |
---|---|
Cost: 3C | Cost: 2C |
Health: 350 | Health: 300 |
Power: 450 | Power: 350 |
Effect: When this card is cast: | Effect: N/A |
mickymack, while having better stats and an effect, is one more white stud expensive than Pilgrim. This might seem like a miniscule difference, but this means that without Crowd's Favour or some other form of Colourless Stud generation, you would have to wait 2 turns to play mickymack. Waiting is often a huge roadblock in aggro decks, since they want to go fast.
Pilgrim, being a cheap fighter with decent stats, is clearly designed to be used aggressively. His cheap cost of only 2 Colourless Studs allow him to be spammed to overwhelm the opponent. He has no effect, but most cards designed to be swarmed like Pilgrim often have lackluster or no effects anyway. He'd be the better aggro fighter in this scenario.
Here's another example, but this time with buffs.
About Cooldude4851 | About Meta Girl (man8976) |
---|---|
Cost: 1C 2R | Cost: 4C 6R |
Health: 300 | Health: 600 (900 after effect) |
Power: 100 (150 after effect) | Power: 200 (350 after effect) |
Whenever you cast a fighter: All allied fighters gain 50 power. | Effect: When this card is cast: All allied fighters gain 300 health and 150 power. |
These two cards are very similar, both being AoE effects. However, which one's better for aggro decks?
Cooldude4851 is much frailer and more vulnerable to damage, but his effects are much better. Unlike man8976, which is just a flat 150 power, Cooldude4851 buffs 50 power every time you cast a fighter. Aggro decks tend to do that a lot. He is also very cheap, costing only a single colourless stud plus two Red Studs. The only issue is that he doesn't buff health, but often other cards can cover that up.
man8976, on the other hand, is MUCH more expensive. Starting off, four Colourless Studs is a lot to ask for an aggro deck, as we've previously discussed. While six Red Studs is more manageable for aggro decks since they play a lot of fighters which will generate the Studs needed, it's still a steep hill to climb. Although, man8976 has a few things over Cooldude4851 though. For starters, she also gives 300 health to each fighter, which is a lot by aggro standards. She is also much a bigger fighter in terms of just raw stats, being a 900/350 after her cast. She can tank hits to shield your other, more important fighters.
However, despite all of man8976's strengths, Cooldude4851 would be better. He's cheap, buffs strength more, and is overall just useful in more scenarios. This is often a trend in cards, where there will be a card and then a more expensive but powerful version of the card. Most of the time, the cheaper version will be better for aggro decks.
Here's one last example to test your knowledge. This time, you're the opponent, against the aggro deck.
About Janitor of the Pits | About Mohawk725 |
---|---|
Cost: 3C 1G | Cost: 2R |
Health: 400 | Health: 800 |
Power: 400 | Power: 800 |
Effect: Whenever your opponent casts a fighter, if they control four fighters: Deal 200 damage to all enemy fighters. They lose 200 power | Effect: Whenever your opponent casts a fighter: Destroy that fighter and this card. |
We're assuming its turn 1-3 and your opponent has the board state with a few fighters on the board. Both fighters share about the same stats.
Janitor of the Pits has the potential to be more punishing than Mohawk725, since it reduces both power and health of the enemy's entire board instead of serving as just a removal to a single card, and can trigger indefinitely. However, Janitor of the Pits could be taken care of with more ease than Mohawk725 (Without triggering its effect) and is only seen in its full effectiveness when healed and protected against other enemies.
Mohawk725's effect is much simpler, he can just destroy an enemy fighter when cast, potentially removing a big threat for a small price if forgotten about. like Janitor of the Pits, he can just be dropped and nullified since his effect triggers when an opponent's fighter is cast. The biggest downside is that Mohawk725 needs to destroy himself, but that doesn't really get in the way since it's just a 2R fighter with really good stats if the enemy really doesn't want to lose that summon.
Overall, both fighters can have their moments, but when it comes to wiping aggro decks, it's generally more useful to focus on de-buffing in an area of effect so you can destroy all of their defenses at the same time
Conclusion[]
So, what can we learn from this?
- An aggro deck needs to be able to empty its hand quickly in the first few turns.
- An aggro deck needs to have something to prevent the stabilization of the opponent; that's the buffing cards here.
- All cards in an aggro deck serve to close the game early.
Here are some good aggro cards in other colors:
- Red: Fleeing Survivors, Cooldude4851, PixelFlame, Zephu
- Blue: Pizzablawk, EzCheez, Halo4master233, Spark
- Green: Specimen Migration, Davidii, Chef, Spyro759, Spiteful Apocryphantom
Aggro Groups: Toys, Doges, Bees, Ninjas, Lycanthropes, and Infurnished.