Budget to Built is a new series about building heroes on a budget and having a roadmap to upgrade them to optimized. These decks are great for anyone wanting to try the game or a hero for the first time. And we’re starting the series with Kayo.

Kayo has returned with the release of Heavy Hitters. He’s brought all the attitude and half the arms. This new version of Kayo offers consistency never before seen in the Brute class. Running a pile that has almost no non-six cards is huge when you want to play cards that draw and discard randomly. This lets Kayo put out high-damage turns constantly. Another great feature is his ability to be turned into a budget deck. The lil’ guy has some great cheap equipment choices and his deck is mostly commons and rares. This makes him one of the stand-outs in the budget category.

Strategy and Goals for Kayo

This build of Kayo is a rush-down aggro deck. He uses his big attacks and access to go again to make to keep the pressure on his opponents. A two-card hand usually presents between seven and nine damage. This adds up quickly in Blitz.

To supplement this aggressive strategy, we play Bloodrush Bellow. When it comes to Brute, this is the marquee card, and Kayo is no different. Bloodrush takes all of our aggressive go again plays and makes them hit harder. This includes our weapon. Commonly, his Bloodrush turns are putting out around 20 damage. Consider putting a go again attack in arsenal for your Bloodrush turn.

You also want to know when to block. Kayo has a lot of good four-card hands, but sometimes it’s better to save some life. His deck has some solid two-card plays, and they can help mitigate the tempo lost blocking. That being said, Kayo is mostly a no-blocks aggro deck. He loves to use all the cards in his hands most turns. When you sit down with this Kayo build, you acknowledge that you’re here to throw big numbers, and whatever happens happens.

The Actual Deckbuilding

The Preconstructed Deck

Kayo has a pretty good preconstructed deck available. LSS made it show a lot of the things he can do well. It also comes with some cool extend art versions of a card we use in this list. I think it can be a great start for this deck if you already have it or don’t want to source as many commons.

Here’s the stuff we use in this build.

The Base Build

This is intended to be the minimum you can spend while having a deck that can hold its own at an Armory. This deck is missing a handful of the money cards, but I think it hits on all of the high points. Bloodrush Bellow is the only card in the base over a $3 at the time of writing. Because of this, I think this should be under $40 for a while.

Equipment

Kayo has some of the best budget equipment in the game. This is largely due to his new specialization hat. Temper 2 on Knucklehead is great and can really let the deck keep hands that it it wouldn’t be able to without it.

One thing to note about Knucklehead is its ability. You can activate it, but I’d recommend saving that for last resort situations. Rolling anything below a four will impact your game greatly and probably lead to a loss. Though, sometimes you’re presented with a situation where you definitely lose the next turn if you only have four cards to block and crack back. When this is the situation, roll away.

Barkbone Strapping is another block that can really help extend a turn for the deck. It’s generally just a great Brute equip. I usually save Barkbone for my Bloodrush turn to try to get Claw in the mix if I’m a little low on resources.

Then there’s the yellow feet. Beaten Trackers is one of the most important cards in this deck. Trackers create an action point whenever you need it with the condition of discarding a six-power card. When you’re playing Brute this is usually not much of a condition. It should be noted that Savage Feast claims Beaten Trackers as its best friend in its autobiography. (Seriously, this combo is real good.) These boots can extend a turn from okay to great and have been known to singlehandedly flip a game in your favor.

The rest of the equipment can really swap in/out based on situation. Goliath Gauntlet is used into controlling decks that don’t play a ton of disruption to help get damage in on big turns. Skull Crushers is played strictly when you need more block into decks like Guardian and Ranger. Gauntlet of Might can be substituted in its place, but Skull Crushers can help with Mechanologist attacks that require you to block with an equip. Nullrune Gloves and Skullhorn are just for when you see arcane damage (just Gloves for Runeblade). If you’re feeling risky, Skullhorn can be skipped to have another inventory slot.

Go Again Enablers

This deck likes to attack multiple times a turn and we have a good handful of things to enable that. Wild Rides and Pulpings are your mainstay go again attacks. With the exception of the two non-attacks in the deck, these cards are meeting their condition off anything they end up discarding. You need to be careful with Pulping though. If the opponent has a defense react in arsenal, they can remove its go again.

Other notable cards are the Agile Windups and Assault and Batterys. These make Agility tokens and can be great to set up. It’s particularly nice to have them on your first turn to set up an Agility and a Might for your next turn.

Bang for Your Pitch

This section is a handful of cards that just make aggressive value a little better than a lot of the Brute cards do. Bare Fangs and Rising Power are in this category.

These cards buff themselves to create more damage than you typically get from two resources. Bare Fangs is actually the best value two-card play you have in the deck. Because of Kayo’s ability, they send eight or nine damage and make a Might token for the next turn. Rising Power is specifically to pair with Pulping, Wild Ride, or Bloodrush. Two for seven damage isn’t anywhere near the level of Bare Fangs, but this card blocks, and seven is still pretty solid.

The Bonk

Savage Beatdown is a mean card, and it’s easier to play with the addition of Windups than it ever has been. This card is one of the solutions to control decks. If you can pair it with a Pulping or Wild Ride, it’s devastating.

If you manage to end a Bloodrush turn with it, you probably just have tempo for the rest of the game. There isn’t much more to say about the card. If you can line one of these up, it’s going to be pretty rough for your opponent.

The Inventory

There are two cards in the inventory with pretty straightforward uses. Cadaverous Contraband is brought in for decks that will never block.

Threatening to Bloodrush again is usually enough to make the opponent want to block you with cards from hand. The yellow Predatory Assaults comes in to help with decks that block constantly.

The Full Build for Kayo

When the deck is fully built, it picks up a bit more power and is a force to be reckoned with. I’ve seen it win matchups because the opponent didn’t think it could keep up the barrage of damage all game.

Recommended Upgrade Path for Kayo

Filling Out the Main Deck

To fill out the main you’re going to pull out Bare Fangs yellow as well as Assault and Battery yellow. In place of these four cards, you’ll pick up two of Swing Big and Beast Within.

Swing Big is considered the best attack Brute has access to by most Brute players. Here it’s specifically taking yellow Bare Fangs’ spot. Swing Big is the same overall value, doesn’t discard a card out of our deck, and it blocks three. Beast Within is replacing Assault and Battery. These both function as turn extenders in some way but Assault and Battery extends the next turn while Beast Within extends the current turn. In a big turn, you’d rather see Beast Within as discard fodder.

Fancy Hat and the ONE Brute On Hit

Next you should upgrade your Inventory and headpiece. Knucklehead is great, but there’s a better hat. Scowling Flesh Bag is one of the best headpieces in Blitz. When it’s played correctly it stops two damage as well as whatever damage the intimidated card would do. This can be a great way to stop the opponent when you want to keep your hand and send Bloodrush. It’s also good when you want the opponent to arsenal for the other card you add in this upgrade.

Contraband is swapped for Send Packing as our on hit that makes the opponent care about our turn. Send Packing has a few distinct advantages over Cadaverous Contraband. It’s a better on hit typically, and it also blocks three and gets buffed by Bloodrush.

Finishing the Deck

The last thing that you should do to this list is upgrade the main and Inventory equips.

Goliath Gauntlet and Skull Crushers are great, but having Apex Bonebreaker and Scabskin Leathers lets the deck mitigate things with big dominate attacks. Apex Bonebreaker becomes our main armpiece because having two more health and making Might tokens is extremely beneficial to the plan that this deck is on.

One Arm and Too Fun

Kayo is one of the goofiest aggro decks out there. Once you start tweaking this deck to your personal tastes it gets even better. Play around with the list. Change the non-attacks. Try more non-attacks. Swap it to Berserk. Try different weapons. The possibilities are endless. The new Kayo is a refreshing but familiar addition to the Brute roster.

Further Reading:

The Blitz Format is Great, and You Should Be Playing It!

Where to Start in Flesh and Blood

Make Every Flesh and Blood Game Count!