Hear ye! Hear ye!

Let me tell you a tale, adventurer, of a grand paladin, armour gleaming, unleashing their wrath upon all evil foes that dare to stand in their way (your opponents).

Welcome.

You have rolled into the Aura of Courage, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms preconstructed commander deck review and local upgrade guide. This tale is brought to you by Unplug Yourself, Command This!, Top Deck, and Easy Gaming Group (EGG).

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The Aura of Courage is all about attaching auras and equipment such as Colossus Hammer or Rancor to your creatures making them huge and giving them abilities, such as double strike, haste and ward with cards such as Shielding Plax or Winged Boots. The commander of this deck Galea, Kindler of Hope is a value engine on her own making me think of a Bolas’s Citadel for auras and equipment (with the added benefit of attaching equipment instantly, I might add).

This deck makes all your creatures a threat with your opponents wondering if the beefed-up creature is heading their way. Let us adventure on and see what the deck provides you with.

View Aura of Courage on archidekt.com
  • On release, the deck will cost you R900-R950 from local suppliers in South Africa.
  • The value of the cards that you get in the deck sits at R1700 according to MTGGoldfish which uses TCGplayermid prices. (This estimation of value may increase or decrease depending on exchange rates, playability of the cards, and the secondary market).
  • The deck is very focused on what it wants to do containing 15 auras and 16 pieces of equipment. Some of the removal included are auras synergizing with your commander as well.
  • 38 Lands – This is the perfect amount for the deck. The mana base is very good albeit a bit slow for this strategy as many enter the battlefield tapped.
  • 8 Ramp spells – The ramp included is great especially with the lands included. Nature’s Lore can go find lands such as Canopy Vista. The aura ramp spells are low-cost which helps you power into your commander and protect her as fast as you can. And as a bonus they work well with Galea .
  • 9 Targeted removal – This deck contains a good amount of removal and balances it out between all permanent types. One can understand why there isn’t so much creature removal as you would want to make your creatures evasive so that your opponent’s creatures don’t matter.
  • 16 Card draw spells – Most of these cards are a one-shot draw which trigger when they enter the battlefield, such as Angelic Gift These are great value with your commander. Cards such as Sram, Senior Edificer draws you tons of cards with his best friend Puresteel Paladin.
  • 3 Board wipes – Boardwiping your suited up creature does not feel good, but sometimes you are so overwhelmed you need to press the emergency purge button. Cards like Winds of Rath are great as you keep your big creature while your opponents lose theirs. I would cut a board wipe to make a spot for protection or ways to kill your opponents faster.
  • 2 Graveyard shenanigans – This deck has low recursion as you would most probably want to protect your creatures before they go into the graveyard. Board wipes do happen and with them, your auras go into the graveyard. Luckily you have Mantle of the Ancients. Open the Vaults could be a cool addition to the deck even though it is a high mana value card.
  • 1 Graveyard exile effect – Certain playgroups will have a deck that plays with their second hand (the graveyard) and it is important to shut down the possible value they might get.
  • Game ending cards – This deck does not win with one card that puts them far ahead. One of the cards that I feel is going to win you games is the face commander of the deck Galea, Kindler of Hope since she is a big value engine that strings a lot of cards from atop your deck.
  • New cards – The deck contains 17 new cards of varying power levels. The ones I am the most excited about especially for this deck are Robe of Stars, Holy Avenger and Mantle of the Ancients. The robe is a great way to protect your commander from board wipes and even mass bounce effects. Phasing out keeps the auras and equipment attached to it protecting them as well. Holy Avenger is a slam dunk in any future aura and equipment strategies giving double strike and letting you put an aura onto the battlefield. Lastly, Mantle of the Ancients is a recursion card with a huge upside that can turn the game on its head in an instant.

What were my plans with upgrading the deck:

My plans for the deck were simple in the sense that the deck is focused on what it wants to do. What we are going to do is lower the mana curve, take out cards that do not fit our theme exactly, increase the power level of the auras and equipment, and finally increase the card draw from auras and enchantments.
 
Hopefully, these upgrades sponsored by Top Deck will make the deck more efficient in its theme.
 

Upgrades:

View Aura of Courage R350 upgrade on archidekt.com

Remove

Add

Reason

Lowering the curve

Lowering the curve

Flying + theme upside

Repeated draw effects within the theme

Board wipe but we keep our suited up creature

Repeated draw effect without the fuss

Repeated draw effects within the theme

High synergy equipment

Lowering the curve, increasing power level

Replaces  itself and gives keywords

Lower the curve for the same ability

Another way to get double strike

Same effect with the added effect of flying

Protection + evasion

Increases the power level of the deck

Lowering the curve + protection

Protection for our creature

Strong synergy with our deck and flying

Repeated draw on the theme

Upgraded land to find with your ramp

Upgraded land to find with your ramp

Honourable budget mentions:

  1. Danitha Capashen, Paragon – Great card in lowering the costs of equipment and auras with a lot of keywords already.
  2. Sigarda’s Aid – Slam dunk in this deck! It gives  all your auras and equipment flash, which is great. Not sure why it wasn’t included in the base deck.
  3. Open the Armory – A good tutor card in the sense that it can find one of your toolbox auras or equipment to deal with a situation.
  4. Dance of the Manse – This card is extremely versatile in that it could be played as recursion or a late game-ender.
  5. Helm of the Gods – This card is great since it fits so tightly in this theme it might be an auto-include in the future in the same vein All that Glitters should also be included.
  6. Blackblade Reforged – I think most Voltron decks should run this card as it is an instant boost to your commander and each subsequent land you play grows your commander. With the face commander of this deck, it can act as a 2 mana +7/+7.

Aura of Courage Fully Upgraded

How would I build the deck if I had no budget, well I am glad you asked me:

By upgrading the deck to the fullest we get the best enchantments and most efficient artifacts. The land base is the best upgrade this deck gets as fetchlands are perfect to clear the top of your library for your commander so you can continue to cast equipment and auras.

Stoneforge Mystic is great in any deck that has equipment as they can tutor and equip the equipment that was found. We also shave the mana curve as low as we can so we can get a quick kill on our opponents. This deck seems very inexpensive to upgrade and has many options available to it.

With that our tale has ended adventurers, now go on and lay your hands on this deck and instakill your opponents.

See you on the battlefield!

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Source Credit: 

https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx

Easy Gaming Group