Budget Deck: Shadow Paladin (Raging)

You Mad?

With Divine Dragon Caper we got Reprints. And among those reprints was Raging Form Dragon. Who is now $3-4.

Yep. Today's post is Ragings. I can finally call Raging a budget deck.

Raging Form is a really powerful deck,  one of the meta Shadow Paladin decks actually (although they are getting beaten out by Diablo at the moment). They're really powerful and really fun. He even got some support in the last booster set.

Before we start, I should talk about Rapt. A bunch of people were disappointed with it. A bunch. And it wasn't hard to see why, with a huge cost of Retire 2 and Discard 2 Abyss Dragon Grade 3s. But! I found that it was actually really easy to get three or even four attacks with Rapt given the right build.  And three to four vanguard attacks usually ends games, if I remember correctly. Rapt is a solid card.  And he's $6-7. Cheap. Effective. Deadly. Perfect

Grade 3

This guy has some pretty

crazy stilettos

4 Rapt. 4 Slay Hex. That much isn't negotiable.

But I still got plenty of things to talk about.

What?  More than 8 Grade 3s? Yes. You need to pay for Rapt and more Grade 3s means more things to pay for Rapt.

Moving on, there's three viable 1 to 2-of Grade 3s for Raging: Dragruler, Abyss, and Claret.

Dragruler is an Abyss Dragon Grade 3 with Revenger in its card name. Pretty much anything with those requirements can work.  Can pay for Rapt and doesn't mess with your Especial Counterblasts.

The next one, Abyss, is good for the same reasons as Dragruler and has the added benefit of being a second finisher and not a dead fish when you ride it. The downside is that he costs moolah, so run if you got said moolah.

Now Claret is the interesting one. While he doesn't share the benefits of Dragruler and Abyss, he DOES have the added benefit of being a searchable G3 Abyss Dragon, thanks to Branwen. Having this as an option is really good if you plan to focus on Rapt over Form.

Grade 2

Mana is bae.  She does it all. Tutors Grade 1s that,  in turn,  search for your G3s and give you LB. All for the low cost of free.  Alas, she is a bit pricy, but she's definitely worth the money and effort to get.

Darkbless for enabling triple Raging Rapt and triple Raging Form.

BDR"Abyss" if you're playing PB"Abyss".

There's two direct G3 searchers for this deck:  Buwer and Detonate Heat. One costs CB and is slow,  while the other is faster, on-hit, and for free. I run Buwer, simply because the on-hit pressure is really good and forces your opponent to either burn guard or give you combo pieces.

Grade 1

The Original Raging

Now let's first talk about Aife, who a lot of people are running.

She flat out sucks. She only searches Raging specifically, it's up to RNGsus whether it actually works,  and it doesn't even work on the Vanguard. You can use her to fill space, but that's honestly the only use for her.

Then PGs. We have a new TD PG, so yay for budget.

Maul searches out G3s. As does Branwen if you so choose.

Finally, LB Enablers for obvious reasons.

Don't run Weitgore. Please don't.

Grade 0

We have two viable starters: Judgebau and David. Judgebau is better if you want to focus on Form, and David is better if you want to focus on Rapt. Take your choice.

8 Crit, 4 Draw, 4 Heal. Try to stay around this amount. Howl Owl can also give you soul for Raging Rapt if necessary.

Grade 4

3-4 Rapt. Godly finisher,  if you can get him off. Then a Dragruler Revenant or two.  Honestly all you really need, but I'll just quickly list off other good options if you can afford them.

PB"Diablo", SB"Diablo", Grim Recruiter, etc.

We're stuck with Ludvik as GGuard till Plotmaker gets cheap. And Dizmel+Agleam if you're able to afford.

                                                                                                        

Decklist: 

NOTE: This is only an example decklist and should only be used as a base. I recommended that you create your own decklist through your own testing. I found this decklist to fit me, but it is up to you to find a decklist that fits you.

Grade 0:

1x Promising Knight, David/Judgebau Revenger

16x Triggers of Choice

Grade 1:

4x Perfect Guard of Choice

4x Vigor Revenger, Maul

3x Tempting Revenger, Finnegas

2x Cherishing Knight, Branwen/Detecting Revenger, Aife

Grade 2:

4x Wily Revenger, Mana

3x Heat Elemental, Buwer

3x Revenger, Darkbless Angel

Grade 3:

4x Revenger, Raging Form Dragon

4x Revenger, Slay Hex Dragon

2x Supremacy Dragon, Claret Sword Dragon

Grade 4:

4x True Revenger, Raging Rapt Dragon

2x True Revenger, Dragruler Revenant

4x Dark Knight, Ludvik

                                                                                                        

Effectiveness: 9/10

Price:$80-100

Competitive: Yes

Final Words: While the deck fails miserably when you don't get your pieces, everything falls into place perfectly once the pieces are assembled. Very enjoyable deck and fairly low cost for how well it works.

Anyhow, leave your comments below and see you in the next one!

- Robot

Side Note: Decided to not always fill up the G-Zone to 16 slots to save money, and will continue to do so unless I feel the need to revert back.