5 Awesome Aggro Decks With Alchemy Horizons: Baldur’s Gate

Hello everyone!

The spoilers have been out for a few days and set release is right around the corner! With any new set, I’m always going to first build my favorite style of decks: Aggro. There’s something so satisfying about curving out and beating down the opponent before they can find their footing.

With that, beyond Mono Green Aggro, aggro decks in general have been having a tough time in Alchemy. It’s hard to say if Baldur's Gate is going to change that dynamic at all, but you better believe we’re going to try! Without further adieu, here’s the 5 aggro decks that I’m the most excited about going into the new set!

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Rakdos Demons

To kick off the article, we have to start with the coolest and most speculative deck (although these aren’t in a particular order otherwise), Rakdos Demons.

While I never thought Demons would be a dedicated tribe, we have our cheapest and most expensive threat both acting as lords! Tiefling Outcasts are a very solid one drop that gives a power buff to your team while also providing card advantage in Double Team (When a creature with double team attacks, if it’s not a token, conjure a duplicate of the original into your hand, and then both cards lose double team.) which is a phenomenal amount of text on a one drop.

Raphael on the other hand is a true lord that grants stat boosts, lifelink, and can produce more Devils if you’re trading creatures away. Both of these are quite powerful in their own right and make building around them worthwhile.

So what demons do we get to play? We have one at each spot of the curve! Blade of the Oni is a 3/1 Menace which is a solid stat line, by being able to buff your tokens into a 5/5 is a huge deal.

Ob Nixilis, the Adversary obviously isn’t a creature itself, but produces more Devils that can gain bonuses from our lords. Furthermore, it’s just a generically powerful card that any deck is lucky to have access to.

Finally we have Kardum, Patron of Flames which we play just because it’s a powerful card that gives good card advantage on top of being a demon! Getting card advantage is quite rare in aggressive decks (more on this later), but being able to have card advantage in the form of a creature makes it much more valuable! In a way, this is like a huge Bomat Courier that gets better and better with each attack so it’s near guaranteed to be an extremely potent threat.

Overall, this deck is a very classic aggro deck with a strong curve and solid synergies which should help it contend with any strategy it comes across. Better yet, since it’s a Rakdos deck, you’ll have access to an excellent sideboard as you’ll be able to play a suite of great interactive spells that can assist you in any matchup. Admittedly, I’m unsure if the tribal lords are actually strong enough to put this deck into competitive territory, but they definitely have a lot going for them!

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Mono Red Aggro

Next up we have to revisit an old classic: Mono Red Aggro.

I feel like every single set we creep closer and closer to Mono Red being good again. It’s really hard to match the power that was Bonecrusher Giant, Anax, Hardened in the Forge, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, and Embercleave, but that was just one of the golden ages for Mono Red. Realistically, all you need is a good curve, good threats, and good burn spells for it to be good, and we may finally be there.

The two killer one drops from Kamigawa, both Kumano Faces Kakkazan and Rabbit Battery are great ways to start off your curve. Both are one drops that are effective early and late so they’ll go a long way to making this deck tenable. However, these tools are available in Standard and Mono Red still doesn’t see play, so what do we have in Alchemy that could change that?

While the one drops are solid in Standard, the two drops did leave something to be desired, however that’s no issue in Alchemy! Rahilda is an old favorite, but having an Ophidian in Red is extremely powerful especially when backed up by other aggression and burn spells.

For a new threat, Karlach, Raging Tiefling is also annoying in combat with First Strike and can threaten to be a big pain if killed and the game drags on. I don’t want to speak at length about Karlach as I already have, so if you want a full breakdown on it, you can check out that article.

Why Karlach, Raging Tiefling Is Way More Busted Than It Looks

I digress, both of these are excellent options, but if we only got Karlach I wouldn’t be so excited for Mono Red. So what’s changed?

Now this card is disgusting. 3 mana for 4 damage is a great rate that was usually reserved to RRR spells, so only needing two Red pips is a big deal. Furthermore, letting the opponent’s creatures accumulate damage is a much bigger deal that in seems. This is no Wither or Infect, but a big issue for Mono Red is a large creatures as you need to devote multiple resources to killing it at the same time.

While being down on resources is annoying, the time that it saves the opponent is generally the real killer when playing small aggro decks. However, if you aren’t forced to kill large creatures immediately out of fear of losing too much value, you can make more aggressive attacks more often which will be a huge game play shift for Red. With this and solid threats, it may just be Red’s time to shine again.

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Mono Red Dragons

Next up we have an old favorite from some time ago, Mono Red Dragons!

Mono Red Dragons was a powerful aggro deck that was fueled by the insanely strong Fearsome Whelp, but when Whelp was nerfed, it fell out of favor quickly. However, I think it may be high time to bring it back!

First off, Dragons was excellent against the other aggressive decks and Mono Green Aggro is one of the most popular decks right now so this could be a solid meta call. Between a good amount of cheap interaction and large bodies, it’s tough for these aggressive decks to break through our boards.

This card is still bananas and you should probably play it in any deck that can afford to run it. While not as good here as it is in Aggro, being able to kill large creatures or increase the clock by a turn is still a very worthy investment of mana.

Beyond Uthgardt Fury, Dragons is more or less the same as before, but personally, I think players dropped the deck a bit too soon. Controlling the board early into slamming big threat after big threat is a very effective game plan that many decks can and will struggle against.

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Boros Aggro

Next up on our list we have Standard’s best aggro deck, Boros Aggro!

So in both Standard and Alchemy, Boros was doing quite well for itself on Best of One ladder. As we’ve also seen, Boros has taken a tier 1 spot in Standard because of it’s high play and win rate. The deck was so good that it was ported over to Alchemy with zero changes and was still a great option! This was a Standard powered deck in Alchemy, and it was even worse in Alchemy as Luminarch Aspirant is nerfed! Clearly this deck was already the real deal, but it got even more tools to fight with.

I’ve already spoke about Karlach, but the card is so good! A 2/2 First Strike is a mighty fine stat line, and out of all the Specializations, the White one is the best so getting it for Boros is a big deal. Like Karlach, I already spoke at length about Ulder Ravengard, Marshal, but I’ll give a recap none the less.

Ulder Ravengard, Marshal Is Going To Make Boros Aggro Even Better

Aggro decks aren’t known for their card advantage, and even when they do have access to it, you have to choose between adding to the board or accruing that advantage. With Ulder Ravengard, Marshal, you don’t have to choose. Adding a 3/3 to the board that can “draw” a card on entry and then keep drawing cards with each attack is quite the scary ability and will push you extremely far ahead if not interrupted.

It doesn’t even seem like Boros needed anymore help to be strong, but with these new cards in the mix, it’ll likely continue its reign of dominance in Best of One.

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Abzan Party

For the final list of the article, we finally have an aggro deck that isn’t playing Red with Abzan Party!

Typically, Party decks were Bant which made a lot of sense. Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate, Concerted Defense, and Spoils of Adventure are all great cards that work well towards the deck generally game plan. However, being able to go Black now is a huge deal for the deck as there were a substantial amount of payoffs that never saw the light of day. Let’s first discuss the card that facilitated the change.

One of the issues with the Bant version of Party was running out of gas. Spoils of Adventure obviously helped with that, but what if the opponent has answered a few of your creatures? It can quickly becomes hard to cast or come too late to be relevant. Nalia de'Arnise on the other hand is a Future Sight for party creatures which is very powerful, and if you fill out your party, you get a massive bonus on your combat.

Another big (and unsurprising) issue I had with Bant Party is the complete lack of reach. If your creatures couldn’t connect with the opponent, you were in huge trouble. For this version though, that’s going to be much less of an issue with Malakir Blood-Priest. This is an aggressive deck so you’re already going to pressure the opponent’s life total constantly, but couple that with the threat of burning the opponent out and winning games becomes much easier!

The final issue that I had with Party decks was staying power. Since the deck is so synergistic, losing a few key pieces can be extremely back breaking as each card gets better with each other creature you get to keep on board. If the opponent starts answering your threats, Thwart the Grave can help rebuild.

On average, this will be a 3-4 mana double reanimate which is obviously strong, but in a deck that is looking to assemble a full party can be insane. Imagine bringing back a Squad Commander or Nalia de'Arnise which fills out your party and gives you their insane combat triggers? Very easy way to end games quickly.

Although cool, Party decks have had a lot of issues that prevented them from seeing play, but by going a different direction, we may be able to alleviate a lot of those problems.

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End Step

That’s all the decks for this article! If there’s a deck you’re particularly interested or you think I missed a cool deck, let me know in the Discord!

Thanks for reading!