Intro

The current meta is really aggro and lots of decks (e.g. anubians) are running zoo lists that attempt to overwhelm with small creatures. I realized that armor cards - particularly Bronze Gate and Guild Enforcer were extremely effective. Both are neutral, so I've decided to try and make an armor-focused deck with each god to see how effective it is.

Deck

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Heal is definitely an option for God Power.

Strategy

The deck synergy is fairly obvious. We have tough creatures with frontline supported by other creatures that buff or heal. This helps us get a wide board for either Asterius or Prayer of the Desperate.

Mulligan is pretty standard. Look for a relic and good 1-2 mana creatures to play. If going second, look for Light's Levy.

Frontliners

These guys beg the question: "How much removal do you have?" Only Death has a prayer of having enough removal (apoc now). Any other god is going to have to throw creatures at these guys to clear. These are truly our frontline troops.

Venerable Paladin is questionable, but I like that she can give your other creatures armor - often giving another frontliner 2 armor total. 3/2/1 armor is better than 3/3 plus she has frontline and the armor mechanic.

Support Troops

These guys are coming down behind our frontliners. Engaged Healer surprised me; I didn't read the text closely. It heals at the end of each turn, which includes the enemy turn. The echo gives you 4 cards. With the way this deck works, it's going to be hard to remove them all. If they draw removal spells, they have effectively 'healed' that much by preventing it hitting your frontliners. Just don't drop 3 at once (asking for AOE clear).

With the Shieldbearer re-nerf, Janissary becomes the better buffer once again. Archers are there to clean up the trash, pop protected, etc. Axewomen are are kamikaze troops per usual.

Win Conditions

Establish a board and then win with these. Feel free to run 2x PoD instead of Canonize, but I like Canonize in this deck. Protect bubbles are really strong when combined with armor (pings don't pop the shield). Also, it's effective even if you only have a single creature on the board.

Asterius does double duty as a win condition and a frontliner. Also, Kadmos can easily buff him to 2+ armor, which is just nasty.

Gameplay

In this game, we show that the deck is aggro enough to beat combo magic (although the deck was a little janky). We actually managed not to draw many of our armor creatures, which was surprising given how many we have.

Conclusion

This deck feels good to play, but certainly not invincible. Light does seem to synergize well with armor with heals and buffs. Frontliners with armor also give this deck a leg up when going second. If they keep having to 2-for-1 against your creatures (with either removal spells or their own creatures) you're going to get board at some point.

Up next: either War or Deception. Both have some tools that synergize with armor.