MHA Deck Tech: Pauper Ojiro 2

In almost every ccg, play focuses on decks using the best and most powerful cards. This, along with inherent scarcity, drives prices on those cards up. Some players simply cannot use those cards, either due to lack of resources or a small card pool. Many card games have formats that limit players to using cards that are more easily available, such as Pauper for MtG. Chaos Gaming designed a deck using this philosophy for MHA. I recently played the list in a store provisional tournament.

While this isn’t a “true” pauper deck, as it includes several uncommon cards, nothing in the deck is expensive or hard to get hold of. Trading with fellow players is the best option for getting anything missing, although buying them should be inexpensive as well. In any case, the list is below.

Character
Mashirao Ojiro 2 Earth

Foundations:
Student of the Art x4
Male Bonding x4
Prehensile Tail x3
It Can’t Be Fixed x4
Manly Passionate Guy x4
Resistance x4
Tight Lipped x4
Someone With Style x3
Manly Friendship x2
Proud Scion x3

Attacks:
Overhead Reversal x4
Hardened Frenzy x4
Hardened Jab x4
Creeping Vine Eruption x2
Spinning Kick x3
Trap Flex x4

The deck can be aggressive or more mid-range, depending on how well you draw. One or two copies of Student of the Art in your opening hand can definitely lead to turn 2 victories. That said, Student of the Art is vitally important, and if you don’t have a copy in play within the first few turns, your chances of winning drop.

Ideally, you have a copy or two of Student of the Art in play, a hand full of attacks, and a full discard pile. I find Overhead Reversal to be a good opening attack, although Spin Kick can be more useful depending on what else is in your hand. You want to use Student of the Art to add the other two attack zones into your card pool as quickly as possible, then use Ojiro’s top enhance to give the attack +3 damage and speed. As many attacks are throws, you will do more damage than the relatively low buff implies, assuming Wall Cling, Faith’s Shield, or Training With Gunhead aren’t a concern.

Hardened Jab is the workhorse of the deck. It has good base damage, and the ability to pull a foundation to your hand and build a new one keeps your hand stocked. If you already have a high and low attack in your card pool, try to play two copies back to back, using your once a turn to put the first back in your hand before playing it again. Doing this potentially deals 24 damage, not counting any other bonuses you may be able to add.

As mentioned before, Student of the Art is a must. The deck doesn’t like to block, preferring to focus on attacks, so Male Bonding and Resistance help keep you alive long enough to make your big attack turn. Manly Friendship can give a little damage debuff in addition to helping your attacks. Tight Lipped helps guarantee another point of damage on your throws if the base damage is even. I found Proud Scion to be extremely useful, potentially locking down foundations for the entire game.

I played this deck to 6th place overall in the tournament against players using decks across the power spectrum. As is, it struggles against highly tuned aggro decks Decks that can mitigate or otherwise deal with taking damage are also a problem. Anything that removes cards from your card pool also disrupts this deck.

Overall, this is a fun deck that’s easy to build and play. A new player can use this at any store level event and do well. It can also be a fun experience for a veteran player, and works wonderfully as an example that a deck doesn’t have to be stacked with ultra rare and promo cards to be effective. I’m curious if this concept works with other characters; if I make a list that I think works, I will post it as well.