Hey guys.
Want some fun times? I like to have a fun time. Here’s some of my decks built since Ancient Bonds that have been both competitive and vastly entertaining. Sorry I don’t name all my decks, but I do love them, I promise.
Abyssian
Nightshroud Arcanyst
This was the first true deck I built after Ancient Bonds dropped, as an Abyssian main excited to play with some new toys. It has been through many renditions, and may go through many more, if I ever get around to it. Climbed to S with this deck in under 60 wins for the first two seasons of Ancient Bonds.
Playing the deck: Off the bat you’re looking to get an Illusionist going. Ideally you’ll play Manaforger T1, then Illusionist and a reduced cost spell, using a mana tile if needed. Sphere of Dankness becomes free and cycles, Whip is removal and 1 mana for a proc. Very efficient. After that you build up Arcanysts or a swarm, and look for the appropriate profit cards. If the game is still going, end it with Death Knell for a big health swing and bigger board. Nightshroud should be carefully replaced or kept, as it is either detrimental to your hand or critical to play at exactly the right time.
- Loreweaver is a mediocre card, but I really like it. Feels so good to draw double Whip, Void Pulse or Sphere.
- Nether Summoning could also be replaced, but it’s fun for punishing greedy minion decks or other arcanyst decks (summoning an enemy Trinity Wing is incredibly powerful).
- The rest of the card choices are rather self explanatory, I think.
Roulette Abyssian
You can see my original post on this deck here. It’s an absolute blast, and with a little luck can win games at any rank on ladder. Playable rng is always fun, as well as punishing greedy Magmar players. I wish I had more screenshots of the shenanigans this deck pulls off.
How to be lucky. I mean, good: P1 opening you want Jaxi or Lurking. Play Shroud if you need to, the tile is important depending on your hand and the deck is loaded with removal. P2 you want Lurking+Jaxi or Sarlac. Keep Rite any time you draw it after turn 1 or 2. Even one Sarlac and one Jaxi is a solid Blood Echoes if you can suffer the tempo loss, the power you gain for the long game is overwhelming. Start looking for big threats sooner than you think you need to. Oh, and Grimes is OP.
- See original post for card choices/more info.
Vetruvian
Sajj: Gotta Blast
The naming of this deck has more to do with the power of the playstyle than blast ability itself.
This deck started as a Zirix list, but I became increasingly dissatisfied with the amount of ranged removal available. Being forced to either ignore something like a slightly buffed Heartseeker or else spend a precious Blood of Air getting rid of it was simply frustrating (no surprise). This being my first go at Vetruvian besides aggro or megastructure Zirix, I experimented, and settled on this, using Sajj’s BBS and Wildfire Ankh as pseudo-ranged removal. With just over a 70% win rate on the road to S (never reached it, stopped playing for several weeks) this deck was a lot of fun, especially with the cool toys it packs in secret.
Play/Card Choices: Find as many 2 drops as possible off the bat, your hand will refill from Dreamshapers and tempo plays combined with cantrips, and it can build a quick and powerful Sirocco. Use Falcius, Ankh and Wind Striker for removal that isn’t worth a BoA, and end the game with Sirocco or Autarch’s, or simply use Breacher to snowball your board into too much damage to handle.
- Thunderclap and Autarch’s are in the deck simply because they’re fun, and have done enough worth to be worth keeping in the deck, at least as 2 ofs. Your hand is almost always big enough to be able to have it in hand without it being your only option. Both have won games on their own, although I consider Autarch’s weaker (in this deck). If you’re wondering where Rasha’s Curse is, well, I don’t have any and didn’t have a reason to craft them, but I’d slot them in for Autarch’s if I needed to.
- I don’t like Wind Striker, but it can be ramped out and is somewhat threatening to ranged enemies as a buffable flier (your enemy doesn’t realize you have no Second Wish or other powerful buff for this, so it often pulls removal). It’s really just in the deck as a bootleg Falcius to be combo’d with BBS to kill enemies that are over 8hp.
- The most prominent problem in building this deck was the choice of AoE. Bone Swarm and Star’s Fury aren’t consistent enough due to the lack of decks that play into it and high level players that play into it, respectively. I settled on Skorn over Zephyr due to Skorn’s range (think Heartseekers) and it not being limited by BBS timing, although there are plenty of scenarios where I wish I just had a Zephyr. Besides, the body is way better and they’re the same price when you take into account the BBS proc.
Vanar
Yes, there are fun Vanar decks. Lighten up.
Feralu Kara
Of course this deck has the usual Arcanyst Faie tools, but it utilizes minions and spells that your opponent will never expect. Instead of an Owlbeast you’ll play Feralu or Cryogenesis and watch your opponent halt in their tracks as they realize they aren’t so sure what they’re up against. I utilized this deck to sweep the opposing team one week in Team Wars this season, and it has had its fair share of time on ladder as well. My favorite thing about this deck is using Feralu and BBS to swarm with 4/3 Snowchasers and Illusions.
How This Monstrosity Works: Get rid of Kindred until you’re sure you will have an Arcanyst sticking. Can’t keep it and rely on having one later since this is truly a hybrid deck rather than an Arcanyst deck. With BBS and Feralu this thing is two 5/5s for 3 mana, so it’s certainly worth it’s place in this deck. Snowball with BBS/Illusionist/cheap spells in the usual manner, using Vespyric and Kindred to drop solid bodies when you can. Feralu is best played with BBS, just out of range of the enemy but not so far away that it can’t swing in when needed, a 5/4 body isn’t worth being simply a backline threat.
- Single Ancient Grove is fine since it’s mostly a combo play after Gwell or Embla and can be drawn from Cryogenesis. If not drawn, you’ll get a minion that helps keep your hand full (Snowchaser) so it’s not a bad cantrip. If you play Grove on a big board it’s just game over. I love the card too much.
- Single Winter’s Wake is for the sick rng draws and combos with Embla, although occasionally has won the game through Gwells. Surprising how often this card gets played in this deck, actually. I originally put it in to test but was planning on cutting it after a game or two.
- Vespyric Call is just fun, makes crazy plays with Feralu and other Vespyrs, draws two cards when you have a Circulus, good spell proc.
Golem Faie
WIP, this is the last version I have saved and I haven’t worked on it in a while. Super fun to play, position carefully.
I actually had a lot more fun Faie decks, none of them Arcanyst, featuring more cards like Bonereaper, Mind Warper and Ghost Bae, but they’ve fallen out of favor with the nerfs to disruption Faie and I haven’t tweaked them in ages. Maybe one day they’ll show up here again.
Lyonar
I meant to make more, but Lyonar isn’t super fun to play right now, and the older fun decks have fallen out of favor, plus I haven’t devoted time to remastering them. For now, I’ll leave you with this.
Arcanyst Ziran
The concept is simple. Heals to proc Sun Sister, Sun Sister for a ton of cheap spells to control the board and proc Arcanysts. When I first crafted this I assumed it would be garbage memes, but it performed surprisingly well. That being said, it is in need of MUCH more testing. When it works, it feels incredibly satisfying.
What This Nonsense is: Obviously looking for Manaforger opener, using the other 2 drops as heal procs later. The goal early is to develop a board and set up for either Sun Sister or Owl + Aegis. Once you have one, you can continue to develop and control the board as you wait for the other half of the combo, all while pressuring your opponent with your threatening Arcanysts. Thankfully, this isn’t fully a combo deck, since Sun Sister is still useful without Arcanysts and you have enough spells for Arcanysts to be useful without your Sun Sister. Since your only self heal is your two drops and Trinity Wing, value your health a little more than you would with a normal Ziran deck.
- Goat Papa is in the deck for the lategame draw, but mainly as a finisher. If your board state doesn’t explode you’ll end up in a tough state where you don’t die, but can’t kill your opponent. Goat Papa can give you bs tools like MDS, another Owl or even Death Knell to help close the game out.
- Trinity Wing for a full hand, more heals and board control. Very, very useful.
- No Trinity Oath, you might notice. Perhaps it’ll show up in a future rendition, but this one has enough draw and healing to have no use for a more expensive spell such as this.
- Magnetize is a star in this deck, and Lasting Judgement can also be used on your own minions, like to make your Owl a 7 attack for the low low price of 1hp.
I hope these are interesting and, if you try them, fun. They certainly are for me. I’ll update them in the future if I make more, but these are the only decks I play on ladder right now.
Lemme know what you think, and I’ll answer any questions, of course.
No Magmar bc Magmar’s never fun. Jk. But I don’t like them as much. Maybe soon. But memey.
Happy Dueling
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Songhai’s fun. Right?