Some say that he never reaps, and that he turns his enemy's corpses into Aember. All we know is he’s called the Stig!
Here is my second Decklist Deep Dive, and it is Stig, Monzaline Stonemason! This was the deck my SO pulled for the pre-release event, and holy crap is it a swarming, smashing, Aember looting deck of death.
This deck does one thing, and one thing well. Swarm the field with creatures and murder everything the opponent has while looting their precious Aember. Oh, you opponent managed to kill all your creatures? Just Reverse Time and do it all again. The is very little stealing, capturing, or really any form of Aember control. The goal is to fight your way to victory….and if there are no enemy creatures, just reap whatever else you need.
Card Breakdown:
· 16 Creatures (5 Brobnar, 5 Untamed, 6 Logos)
· 4 Artifacts
· 1 Upgrade
· 15 Actions
This deck rarely has a need to reap, but can do so if it there is nothing to fight. There is limited control (aside from direct damage), and no real stalling mechanisms. Everything in here just screams Aggro. With the addition to the goofy Logos contribution, you have a high-risk high-reward setup that can even ramp your (and your opponent’s) ability to forge keys.
This deck does not play the long game well, so it needs to recklessly charge ahead and Smaash everything in its path.
Brobnar
The major house driving this deck. Finding the Warchest as soon as possible is huge, with all the big creatures and direct damage actions in-faction you can easily wipe the enemy’s board…..combined with Loot the Bodies, you can make a stupid amount of Aember just killing things.
Anger lets you attack (or reap, I guess) with a creature right out of hand or let you use a creature twice if it’s already on the board.
Lava Ball and Punch hit like a truck and pair amazingly well with Loot the Bodies (be careful, though, they do not proc Warchest).
Screechbomb is one of the very few control cards in the deck, but once it’s down, you can use it while setting up another house. Reverse Time can also let you potentially use if again fairly quickly.
Barehanded is niche, but gets rid of pesky artifacts (yours too, so be careful) and places them on the top of the deck and slows the game down a bit, though it is usually just played for the Aember gain.
The creatures are all big and beefy and almost all can deal bonus direct damage. Firespitter is great and helps stock up Loot the Bodies against weaker enemies (or even enemies that have been damaged by, say, Laval Ball’s splash and help setup a Save the Pack bomb.
Remember that Hebe the Huge and Firespitter’s special abilities DO NOT trigger the Warchest, but do trigger Loot the Bodies. Both of them also pairs really nicely with Save the Pack (though Hebe takes some finesse).
Untamed
This is the second combo enabler of the deck. With Full Moon and Hunting Witch, you get loads of Aember playing creatures that can get loads of Aember when they start smashing stuff. Witch of the Eye also lets you get some awesome key cards back (Common Cold, Cooperative Hunting, Save the Pack).
The Snufflegator is not a bad skirmisher, but sadly will never proc the Warchest or Loot the Bodies, so it is really just another body on the board. But hey, any free Aember off Hunting Witch or Full Moon while also adding to Cooperative Hunting is just gravy. By itself it isn’t great, but the synergy with other cards is ridiculous.
Ancient Bear falls into the same category as Snufflegator. Not great on its own (because you really want to be fighting out of Brobnar), but it is decent at fighting and combos really well off of other untamed cards.
Flaxia is a great one-shot Aember gain and you can quickly suicide attack with her and then pull her back with a Reverse time. And once again, combos great with the other untamed cards.
Common Cold and Cooperative Hunting are fantastic and combo with Save the Pack (though you have a decent chance of nuking your own cards with Common Cold + Save the Pack). If you can play Common Cold + Save the Pack into dropping several creatures, you’ve made a great trade.
Ritual of Balance is a bit “meh”, as at best you will probably fire it twice, but can be hard to do as you need to play Untamed just as you opponent is about to forge a key and that may not be the best use. It’s also a huge non-bo with Titan Mechanic.
Grasping Vines is okay as there are some nasty Artifacts out there, but is mostly just a stalling mechanic.
Key Charge can be hit or miss, though it pairs crazy well with Titan Mechanics if you can get a stockpile of Aember and just rush out your opponent. You can easily use this as a closer (though situational) and quickly get two keys in a turn.
Logos
This is the decks support faction, but boy oh boy is it risky as heck to play.
We’ll start off immediately with the elephant in the room: Titan Mechanic. With three copies of this card, you are going to be playing them at some point. Holy smokes is this the definition of reckless abandon in this deck. Ideally, you will want to play these when you know your opponent can’t forge on their next turn and set yourself up with a discount; major props if you already have a key and can combo yourself into a Key Charge next turn for a quick win. You can mitigate the downside by playing creatures on the flanks for the next turn. Otherwise, you will want to suicide attack with these guys on the next turn (strength 6 makes this hard to do), or try and use Save the Pack to get rid of them. Or you just cross your fingers and race your opponent to victory. I kind of love that this card is in the deck as it really, really, plays to the deck’s reckless aggro.
Research Smoko and Ganymede Archivist can help you stockpile up for a massive Untamed or Brobnar turn. Common Cold + Save the Pack into a bunch of creatures on the board, anyone?
Batdrone is one of the few stealing cards in the deck, but can be fairly lackluster as you don’t typically call house logos a lot.
Rocket Boots is flat-out amazing, especially on the Witch of the Eye or something like Firespitter. Ganyemede Archivist or Batdrone aren't bad choices either.
Neuro Siphon is a great play after you forge a key and quickly moves you to towards you next key.
Library of Babble is okay, mostly good just to clear cards out of your deck/discard pile, but card draw is always welcome if you pull another Logos card.
Foggify protects your creatures, but really isn’t great as you might as well just call Untamed or Brobnar and fight anyway. It’s mostly useful when setting up for another Logos turn next with the Batdrone, Ganymede Archvist, or Smoko.
Positron Bolt is a solid damage dealer, but it doesn’t proc Loot the Bodies or Warchest so really it’s there for you to setup your Untamed/Brobnar if you don’t have them already in play.
Reverse Time is FANTASTIC as it lets you quickly cycle your best cards back in your deck and quickly get to a second shuffle. It’s just great to keep the Untamed and Brobnar train moving along.
Conclusion
This deck is an all-out creature playing, opponent murdering rushing aggro deck. It capitalizes on high-risk, high-reward play and even has ways to let you deal with the ramp cards (Titan Mechanic). You have very little control so you need to press onward and can’t let your opponent generate Aember on their own, because there is very little you can do to slow them down.
This is a very interactive deck and turns every game into a race against the clock, forcing your opponent to deal with your creatures instead of being able to just ignore them.
It does not do as well against creature-light decks and does have problems generating Aember against Elusive creatures as you can’t easily or efficiently Warchest them. However, Elusive isn't terrible to deal with as you do have a lot of answers to get them off the board (Lava Ball, Hebe the Huge, Firespitter, Cooperative Hunting, Positron Bolt) and you can occasionally get some Loot the Bodies money off of them.
Overall, this is a very fun and fast-paced deck to play.
Edited by nungunz