Unstoppable Aggression

This deck is a current theorycraft on an aggressive strategy centred around The Undying.

This card has fascinated me since I first saw it – it’s virtually impossible to get rid of, but can’t block. The enemy can block it to protect themselves, but in so doing they may well kill it – meaning their problems only get worse.

So, what can we tell about this card?

• It favours an aggressive strategy, basically devolving the game into a race as to whether your opponent can kill you before your undying horde kills them
• Given it gains bonuses whenever it self-revives, it’s an ideal target for any cards which require you to sacrifice or damage a friendly minion
• We have to run Shadow Isles (of course)
• It can’t block, which is its main weakness; we need a way to deal with that
• It’s fairly low tempo given its starting stats; we’ll need to mitigate that too

So, enter this deck. Since we’re running a fundamentally aggressive shell I’ve decided to pair it with another source of aggression – Noxus. In my earlier tests I ran a Demacian side-set with it, abusing Lucian/Senna as throwaway beatsticks which the opponent typically over-prioritised. Wasn’t too happy with it though – it felt like two half-decks rather than one whole one.

What are the other major tools I’ve added?

Katarina – she’s the big one, and currently grossly underrated by the community. She solves our biggest weakness right now – we can’t block? Well, we don’t need to if we get to attack every turn. Twice as many attacks means the clock gets halved, and she’s all but impossible to get rid of without targeted removal, either. Of course, she costs mana to repeatedly re-summon, but this is an aggro deck – we’re going to run low on cards pretty fast anyway.

Vladimir – I’m not actually sure on this. He wasn’t a part of the original concept, but when scanning over cards it occurred to me that a) he’s dealing direct damage to Nexus, which we want, and b) he’s damaging our minions to do so, which we generally don’t care about (or actively want) in this deck. So, I’ve slapped him in. Make no mistake – Vlad is not a centrepiece here – what he is is a chunk more direct damage that your opponent may overprioritise.

Atrocity – our highest cost card, so I suppose you could call it a major tool. It’s actually deceptively cheap because we’re not running all that many spells, so we’re likely to have some spell mana around sooner or later. It’s there for two reasons – firstly as targeted removal to deal with major threats if our primary gameplan fails (looking at you, Fiora), and secondly because if you do manage to buff one of your Undyings up to monstrous size, it’s an easy slap to the Nexus for lethal.

Other cards:

Ravenous Butcher – Not a great card really, his main job is to counter the tempo loss dropping the Undying offers – after (potentially) attacking, it’s still just a 3 mana 2/2. Drop this guy and now it’s 3 mana for a 3/3 and a 3/2, which is much better.

Hapless Aristocrat – Primarily there because we have several cards here requiring sacrifice and there’s always the chance we can’t find any Undyings to throw away. Adding this chap should add to consistency, as well as giving us reliability of the 1-drop on 1.

Legion Rearguard – Part of our Noxian aggro component, he’s just big and aggressively statted in our aggro deck. Cheap damage to throw at the enemy.

Mark of the Isles – This card, if properly timed, is basically 1 mana to deal 3 to face. Drop it on an Undying after your opponent decides not to block it and not only do you deal extra damage, you also buff your Undying by making it fall over. Alternatively, can be used to get a beneficial trade if your opponent manages to drop something big on the board.

Oblivious Islander – Primarily here to be a fairly aggressively-statted 1-drop to play when you have an Undying in hand. Takes it from being a 3 mana 2/2 to a 2 mana 3/3 (effectively). Useful.

Glimpse Beyond – One of the biggest issues the deck looks to have is reliability – the deck heavily relies on the Undying for inevitability and to make its cards efficient. A potent draw engine helps with that, especially when it’s the Undying you’re sacrificing.

Legion Grenadier – Another part of our Noxian aggro contingent.

Might – Alongside Atrocity, another way to make our big Undyings suddenly hit face Nexus to seal the game away. Cards like these are important because if your opponent isn’t braindead they’ll see you setting a clock for them – so you want to make sure the time on the clock is different to what they’ve counted it as.

Reckless Trifarian – Part Tres of the Noxian aggro contingent.

Chronicler of Ruin – Really unsure of this card, which is why it’s a one-of right now. I’m considering it alongside a few other cards for consideration – would appreciate others’ views on this. As it stands, this is just a way to multiply Undyings, really.

Cards I’m not really convinced of – Vladimir, Chronicler of Ruin, Legion Grenadier, Oblivious Islander

Possible alternatives:

Crimson Awakener – Big ol’ lump o’ stats with a downside – but the downside is less of an issue for us than it is for most decks…

Culling Strike – Kinda expensive for a deck that typically won’t care about removal, but it occurs to me that Braum would actually shut this deck down pretty bad since he can block Undyings all day without killing them. Possible tech card.

Legion Marauder – Possible alternative as an aggressive minion to something like Legion Grenadier, but feels like it’s building up for a long-term game plan that we really don’t need.

Vision – Pretty expensive for what it is, but adding threat to existing Undyings makes them more likely to force blocks… or just clock the opponent faster. Brothers’ Bond is another option.

Ethereal Remitter – The other high-cost synergy card I was considering alongside Chronicler of Ruin. Instead of multiplying an Undying (and at a statline which is probably less relevant at this mana point), creates a random 5-drop. I need to do some more looking into the average quality of 5-cost followers before I can really judge this card.

Splinter Soul – Cheaper version of Chronicler of Ruin but without the body.

Black Spear – Decent removal, but we don’t really care about removing and the opponent is disincentivised from trading anyway.

Shark Chariot – Strong card, but I don’t think we have enough ethereal support in the deck right now to make it work…

So, that’s the theory so far. Thoughts, folks?

N.B. I've tried to link a few of the cards above for reference, but the runecard tag doesn't seem to be working?