So my prerelease deck ended up with a pretty entertaining name, but I wanted to put the deck list up as well and do a deep-dive into the card list. Don't let the deck name fool you, it has Antagonized everyone I've played it against.
So far for this deck I am 6-0 (4 at the pre-released event and 2 with my SO). Overall, this feels like a very strong control deck that loves to dictate when your opponent can forge keys. It is a toolbox of a deck that needs to dig for answers while controlling your opponent to setup a power turn.
Card breakdown:
· 12 Creatures (5 Dis, 3 Logos, 4 Shadows)
· 2 Artifacts
· 1 Upgrade
· 21 Actions
Right away, this deck feels very light on creatures (I’ve seen mostly 14-16 creature decks), however, many creatures are Elusive, you do get a Shadow Self to help soak damage, and you even have an amazing healer/damage dealer/reaper in the Guardian Demon.
I rarely ever attack with the creatures in the deck and usually just end up reaping. Most of the action cards are great at controlling the board so there really isn’t a need to fight, but the Reaper of Souls does loves to fight.
Finally, there are very few duplicates so the consistency does feel a bit lacking, but you usually have enough cards in your toolbox to handle most situations.
House Dis
Dis does not have a ton of synergy with the rest of the cards in this deck, you usually end up calling out house Dis occasionally to help manage the board state until you drop the Gateway with a big power play.
You have your single board-wipe card with Gateway to Dis. Usually I want to hold off on playing Dis early (does negate the Dominator Bauble a bit) because you really want to be able to follow-up Hand of Dis with a strong board presence. This deck lets you do that with the high percentage of Dis creatures.
However, using Hand of Dis, Fear, Gongoozle, Succubus, and Snudge earlier to help control the flow and speed of the game is useful.
The Dominator Bauble is not as useful as it doesn’t play with the Gateway to Dis bomb and you often don’t have a lot of creatures that are all that useful of a proc. Ozmo can be great, but you would usually just get an extra reap (nothing to shake a stick at) or get an attack with an Elusive creature (also nothing to shake a stick at). I do usually end up playing this card as a “why not”, but I don’t think I’ve ever triggered it.
Key Hammer is not a useful card. Really you will only play it for the Aember as there is no decent way to follow up and bring the opponent back under the forge threshold. The edge case I can see is if your opponent has a card that increases forge costs for everyone or if Shooler can bring their total to less than the forge threshold. I’ve only ever used this to gain one Aember.
The creatures are pretty decent with Shooler probably being one of the weakest (and that is saying something). Snudge and Stealer of Souls lets you maintain control of the board after Gateway to Dis while generating Aember. The Guardian Demon is just amazing and keeps the Stealer of Souls healthy while dealing damage and generating Aember (seriously, it is stupid good and a great target for Rocket Boots). However, be careful when healing as if the enemy has no creatures and you choose to heal, you must damage your own creatures. Succubus is also just a great control card to slow down the opponent.
As a thought, all of the Dis cards are great targets for you Archive abilities as this helps the capitalize on the Gateway to Dis bomb.
House Dis is usually your finisher and once you Gateway, you are probably calling house Dis for the rest of the game (until your creatures die)
Shadows
Yeah…Bait and Switch is in here, ‘nuff said.
In all seriousness, though, you have a ridiculous amount of control in Shadows here. Oubliette lets you just delete a creature from the game (Hunting Witch, Witch of the Eye, any S3 creature with armor or taunt). Never Blast steals Aember AND deals damage. Lights Out removes scary board presence for at least one turn. Miasma controls when your opponent is allowed to forge a key and lets you steal for longer (plus can setup a ridiculous Bait and Switch or Too Much to Protect turn).
Protect the Weak (combined with cards like Madga the Rat, Urchin, and Nerve Blast) can easily prevent your opponent from forging. Bait and Switch is just gross and you have so many ways to enable massive Aember swings.
Imperial Traitor is interesting. One Aember and being able to look at the opponent’s hand is decent. I can let you potentially spot things coming in the next turn and can even help setup a next turn Control the Weak. Against an Archon with Sanctum this can be just crippling as with no effort you can just delete a creature with no risk to you. Hitting a horseman or something big with taunt/shields or a combo character is just dirty.
Creatures are mostly Elusive and can steal Aember. Magda is fantastic and the Shadow Self really makes your Elusive creatures even more annoying. The Macis Asp is also one of your few creatures that can outside of your removal abilities that can knock out big or shielded enemies, though often your opponent will use up their direct damage or chump creature to try to take it out (also not bad). Not a ton of creatures, but they are all annoying and can generate a good amount Aember.
Logos
Logos fills a weird role in this deck. Like always, they are very “supporty”. There are several direct damage abilities in Positorn Bolt and Twin Bolt Emission. Phase Shift lets you setup some other cards and clear stuff out of your hand (Dominator Bauble is great).
Wild Wormhole is a world of yolo, but it’s goofy and fun. The most fun I’ve had was Wild Wormholing into a Bait and Switch, though this can easily backfire. Archiving cards to setup for a massive Dis or Shadows turn through Sloppy Labwork and Labwork are good, even the discard from Sloppy Labwork isn’t really that much of a bad thing if you are looking to quickly cycling cards.
Rocket Boots are solid and pair amazingly well with the Guardian Demon, Stealer of Souls, and Ozmo, but even getting a double reap out of most creatures are useful. Library of Babble is okay, it’s really there to hopefully luck into another Logos card, but getting a card out of your deck for the next shuffle is bad.
For creatures, Mother is great overall, keep her on the field and just reap while drawing cards. Dropping her next to a Shadow Self isn’t bad. Research Smoko is really just a 2-power suicide bomber that archives a card, you don’t get to choose what is archived, but additional cards in your pseudo-hand are always good. Ozmo is also just weird, overall he’s a worse Urchin, but if your opponent has Mars cards, drop rocket boots on him and they will have a really rough day.
Conclusion
This is a very solid deck just from the annoying Shadows cards. It will be generating most of your Aember by stealing and playing cards while controlling the opponents with actions. It doesn’t have a lot of consistency, but there are a lot of tools in the deck.
Logos allows the deck to cycle cards faster to get the tools and combo pieces into.
Dis has a lot of control and a nasty bomb turn that they can spring with the right tools in place.
Shadows has a lot of manipulation and stealing abilities and is a general pain in the neck.
As long as cards keep getting cycled through the deck (if at least 3 cards aren’t being cycled a turn, this deck tends to stall out), it has an answer to what opponents can throw at it.
Edited by nungunz