Hi all! Ancient Bonds expansion equals drastic metagame changes which means the deck I opted for this month is wildly different than my usual but as you all know by now I play what I think wins as opposed to my personal preferences. This list went through at least half a dozen revisions- some of which were pretty dramatic- before finally arriving on the current list which I’m confident is about right. Once I arrived on this specific list the journey to S wasn’t overly difficult. In total, it took me 69 wins to achieve S, which is about 5~ below average for me.
EO Magmar Control-
Vaath The Immortal
2x Azure Herald
2x Healing Mystic
3x Young Silithar
3x Ragebender
3x Saberspine Tiger
3x Thumping Wave
3x Blistering Skorn
3x Sunsteel Defender
2x Sworn Sister L’kian
2x Earth Sphere
3x Egg Morph
3x Lavaslasher
3x Plasma Storm
3x Makantor Warbeast
1x Emp
The more aggro their deck is, the better the matchup is for us. If you’ve read my walkthroughs from previous months you’ll notice I say that a lot. I very deliberately build my ladder decks to have very good matchups against aggro and thus far that strategy has worked for me.
Azure Herald/Healing Mystic/Ragebender/Earth Sphere all prevent us from being bursted down.
Lavaslasher/Plasma Storm/Blistering Skorn as well as the two very resilient Rebirth creatures are also strong against aggro.
Generally, the plan is to survive the early game, begin to take over in the mid game and REALLY take over in the late game. Early and mid game unless your opponent has a terrible draw and you’re really pressuring the crap out of him/her the best play is the most conservative one. Most of the time if you just play around the absolute worst case scenario (in the early and mid game that is) you’ll win out in the end. At least half the losses came for me from not respecting their burst enough, even if it was some highly unlikely exact three card combination when they have exactly three cards in hand and 8 resources, so I highly recommend you feel absolutely confident and absolutely sure they cannot burst you down, even with a very specific and unlikely combination, before switching gears and going aggro. Generally in the mid to late game the absolute ONLY way aggro decks can beat you is via you making a mistake/not being conservative enough and them bursting you down from nowhere in one massive all in turn.
Notes on specific cards-
Azure Herald/Healing Mystic- Split at 2/2 because Herald heals ME better wheres Mystic heals my guys better (though it often still targets me) and generally has the more desirable body. On turn 1 going first, for example, a 2/3 is a lot better than a 1/4. Sometimes gaining 3 versus gaining 2 is huge, however, and likewise the ability to wall a 3/3, which Mystic cannot do, also comes up, so both cards definitely have pros and cons and I think a 2/2 split is about right.
Young Silithar- The best overall 2 drop in the faction and just generally solid against anything. Rancor doesn’t have the synergy here it would need to earn a spot and Gro is not only unreliable in general but we’re simply not an aggro deck.
Ragebender- Definitely the best 3 drop in the faction. Early on its Bond ability does not trigger and that’s perfectly fine. Remember, a 3/4 Rebirth for 3 is very good on its own. It’s just a larger Young Silithar. Mid to late game its ability triggers more often than you think it would and the 3 health matters a lot. Lavaslasher, other copies of itself and the 1 of Emp are all golems. It’s definitely not worth it to run Golem Metalurgists in this deck, however. The 2 drops that we have are far more important and the upside isn’t strong enough to justify a spot.
Saberspine Tiger- I have a ton of different things in this spot through multiple revisions of the list but once I finally settled on Tiger I felt like a complete idiot for not having them all along. Tiger + Thumping Wave to finish games is just too good. It provides way too much reach to not play. I had Sojourners here and they were really underwhelming for me and I also tried Wings of Paradise trying to get cute and have them survive Plasma Storm but Tigers were easily, far and away, the best performers of all options I tried.
Thumping Wave- Thumping Wave is one of the biggest reasons to play Magmar. Extremely flexible, highly powerful card. You can burst them down from nowhere with TW + Tiger, completely wipe out everything in site with late game TW + Warbeast, make their dude suicide into your Sunsteel Defender or your general or simply pump your own dude turn 2 to deal with an Obelysk. I had one game where I went first and played Azure Herald and my opponent simply played +1 Obelysk on the Mana tile. I Thumping Waved my Herald to kill the Obelysk and it left me with a 3/3, which was fine. Gotta do what you gotta do.
Blistering Skorn- Most devastating against Swarm Abyssian and Cancer Burst but also helps us deal with Artifacts (since we’re not running traditional Artifact removal we’re relying on this guy, Rush minions and the lone Emp to deal with them) and is just generally good against aggro decks. If it comes in and kills Bloodtear Alchemist or Flameblood Warlock or whatever you’ve generated card advantage immediately. You’d be surprised how often this guy finishes off minions that aren’t base X/1 to devastating effect. Better players try to keep minions around with just a slither or health to really maximize their card advantage.
Sunsteel Defender- I tried Earth Sister Taygate here but ultimately defender was more reliable, more a pain for most decks and survived my Plasma Storms which was a massive plus. This card tends to generate card advantage on its own and is almost always the best thing you can do on turn 2 when you go first.
SSLK- As you may have noticed, I tend to throw two of her into my mid range and control decks most of the time. Just a little bit more late game reach, just in case… Obviously she’s best against other attrition decks or in the super late game.
Earth Sphere- Don’t be that guy who is at 10 and takes exactly 10 in burst with this sitting in your hand… Yes, sometimes you need to deal with the board, but if you’re not removing immediate threats that if left unanswered would kill you anyway, definitely go for Earth Sphere before playing a minion for the sake of playing a minion. You’ll win out in the end if you simply stay alive.
Egg Morph- Our removal rocks! It’s awesome that we don’t need to run any Dispel effects whatsoever, as both of our big removal pieces- this and Thumping Wave- effectively do the same thing. Morph + Tiger or Skorn to free kill something in the mid to late game. Can also make Lavaslasher fight an Egg. Usually Lavaslasher wins that fight.
Lavaslasher- This, along with Thumping Wave, is the second of three big reasons to play Magmar. Not overpowered and therefore hopefully shouldn’t get nerfed but nonetheless very, very good. 4 power over 3 from Dancing Blades is a very significant difference, as is the lack of a specific position requirement, and a lot of the time it comes in with as much or more health than Blades anyway. It often times just picks off a Golem Metalurgist or a Healing Mystic or something along those lines and leaves you with a big guy, which is awesome, but if it happens to beat up an opposing Ragebender or Warbeast or something along those lines that’s obviously incredibly good too. Fantastic card.
Plasma Storm- Magmar decks that aren’t all in to the face variants absolutely MUST play 3 of this card right now. Too much Golem Vetruvian, too much Swarm Abyssian and it’s also really good against Songhai and Vanar even if they’re not hyper aggro the way the two former decks are. I would not even think for a fraction of a second about cutting even a single copy of this card. It’s just way too important and way too much of a blowout in too many matchups. Granted, there are a couple specific matchups where it’s bad, but it’s at least a 3 to 1 ratio of great to bad, and when it’s bad there is this nifty replace button in the corner…
Makantor Warbeast- The third big reason to play Magmar. What’s to say about this card that hasn’t been said a million times? 3 of staple in every single Magmar deck ever.
Emp- I originally had all three of these, then two, and finally made the hard decision to go down to just one but I definitely would not cut the one. Too much utility and too good in its good matchups. I won at least 2/3 of the time within two turns of playing this card. Obviously you want to replace it early in every single matchup other than Artifact Vet (unless you already played your opponent earlier and you’re CERTAIN beforehand that they’re Artifact Songhai) but late game it’s such a blowout. Even if the effect does little to nothing (it almost always does something good, but bare with me…) keep in mind that it’s simply a 9/9 for 7, which is an EXCELLENT cost to body ratio. Compare that to other 7 drops that see, and have seen, competitive play and you’ll realize that it’s a very large man…
I don’t have too many comments on matchups beyond what I’ve already said. Again, be as conservative as possible in the early to mid game and only switch gears to aggro when you’re absolutely certain they cannot burst you down no matter what they may be holding. The more aggro their deck is, the better the matchup is for you. Mulligan to stay alive. Don’t worry about dealing damage early- just survive- and you’ll win out in the end.
As always I’ll be checking on the thread to answer any questions anyone may have. Enjoy!
Happy Gaming,
EO
