Pleiades
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I went 4–1 at armory with this list (version 1.0)
There could be something here!
Dash, Database
They started. They didn't expect this game plan. They were playing setup/payoff that would normally be good into guardian but this allowed me to play a lot of cards and apply pressure. After the first few turns I was at 12 or so and they were at 8. I sent a boulder drop, they said no blocks, +1 in reactions for the win.
Kassai, Cintari Sellsword
They started. They were not very experienced with Kassai
(they were borrowing a deck from someone), and it felt pretty chill to take the worst edge off of their attacks while still doing my thing. I got them on the back foot and had just enough equipment to keep denying refraction bolters while sending 8+ every turn. Eventually I got there. OTK Viserai
with lots of D reacts and blocksI did classic setup/payoff to leverage their lack of ability to convert a full hand. Confidence
FTW! Macho Grande
got there in the end. I won with 19 life and they had something like 12 runechants, so this one felt pretty easy. If I took a setup turn they would just meekly create 3 runechants or whatever. Kayo
This was a really close game where I had to make some tough blocking decisions. Overall I played really quite aggressively and ended up eventually winning when they had two red non blocks and could only send claw for 3. They had a 19 damage turn with buckwild, Pulping
and run roughshod so it wasn't like they completely whiffed either. Still, this was really close, too close for comfort!
Oldhim
Ahh, the fabled blockslop. I won the roll for the first time of the day and got a decent enough turn 0 setup. They discarded fruits. Off too a decent start, I felt, and I managed to play mostly confidence 9+ attacks in the early game. Then it hit me just how bad confidence actually is in the matchup since block cards are excepted, and they have a whole lot of them. My biggest turn was macho grande with confidence for 23, but even so they still blocked 14 (4 block 2 equipment, 8 staunch). Had I been more focused on going super duper tall and not sent as many attacks for 10 or so I might have gotten more hits in, but with only two dominate cards in the deck I don't really think I had that great of a chance. I got fatigued like a puny aggro deck in the end.
Heroic Pose
is not the right sideboard tech for fatigue because of the prevalence of block cards, which is a bit unique to Silver
Age, so this is one area where we clearly have to diverge from Elly's CC tactics here. We need to combine confidence with dominate. -
@komfyrion Seems like a cool list! I was playing Elly's list in CC last, and this has that vibe. Glad it went well for you! I might have to tinker around with it for SAGE. The gameplay is super fun with that style.
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I went 4–1 at armory with this list (version 1.0)
There could be something here!
Dash, DatabaseThey started. They didn't expect this game plan. They were playing setup/payoff that would normally be good into guardian but this allowed me to play a lot of cards and apply pressure. After the first few turns I was at 12 or so and they were at 8. I sent a boulder drop, they said no blocks, +1 in reactions for the win.
Kassai, Cintari SellswordThey started. They were not very experienced with Kassai
(they were borrowing a deck from someone), and it felt pretty chill to take the worst edge off of their attacks while still doing my thing. I got them on the back foot and had just enough equipment to keep denying refraction bolters while sending 8+ every turn. Eventually I got there. OTK Viserai with lots of D reacts and blocksI did classic setup/payoff to leverage their lack of ability to convert a full hand. Confidence
FTW! Macho Grande got there in the end. I won with 19 life and they had something like 12 runechants, so this one felt pretty easy. If I took a setup turn they would just meekly create 3 runechants or whatever. KayoThis was a really close game where I had to make some tough blocking decisions. Overall I played really quite aggressively and ended up eventually winning when they had two red non blocks and could only send claw for 3. They had a 19 damage turn with buckwild, Pulping
and run roughshod so it wasn't like they completely whiffed either. Still, this was really close, too close for comfort! OldhimAhh, the fabled blockslop. I won the roll for the first time of the day and got a decent enough turn 0 setup. They discarded fruits. Off too a decent start, I felt, and I managed to play mostly confidence 9+ attacks in the early game. Then it hit me just how bad confidence actually is in the matchup since block cards are excepted, and they have a whole lot of them. My biggest turn was macho grande with confidence for 23, but even so they still blocked 14 (4 block 2 equipment, 8 staunch). Had I been more focused on going super duper tall and not sent as many attacks for 10 or so I might have gotten more hits in, but with only two dominate cards in the deck I don't really think I had that great of a chance. I got fatigued like a puny aggro deck in the end.
Heroic Pose
is not the right sideboard tech for fatigue because of the prevalence of block cards, which is a bit unique to Silver Age, so this is one area where we clearly have to diverge from Elly's CC tactics here. We need to combine confidence with dominate. -
Excited for my next Silver
Age armory tomorrow! I made some changes, in particular adding yellow Snatch
and making sure the blues are worth arsenalling. I also put in Comeback Kicks
and a singular Heroic Pose, which essentially means I get a third copy of Razor Reflex
, just not at reaction speed. -
This armory was a bit tough! Was on verison 1.1
Drew against Dash
- new player who had to learn the game
Won against fatigue Pleiades
- great matchup for me
Lost to Kayo - welp
Lost to Kayo - welpAggro is hard. I really need a good turn 0 setup and see Short Shrift
early to be able to win, since I can't sustain good value turn by turn the way a well built aggro deck can, and unlike other guardians I don't have the defensive tools to draw it out and fatigue them (too many 2 blocks). The anti fatigue tech that I put in was great. I feel very confident about fatigue matchup. But to keep up with aggro I think I need more disruption to reliably have it up. More 3 blocks would be handy, to have the option of doing more midrangey things. That kinda goes hand in hand with running more suspense auras to absolutely ensure that we get to steal value turn 0.When I get my hands on magmatic carapace that will probably come in, and maybe also civic steps.
I will tinker with these ideas for a bit. I feel like the Snatch
and Razor Reflex package, while really cool, is a tad unreliable. It doesn't steal value turn 0 and it is a struggle to build the deck so that we can use that card drawn. Thump
seems like it could be good, leveraging Slap-Happy
, Magmatic Carapace
and What Happens Next?Still unsure about Embolden
. It has similar problems to Snatch in that we don't know if the card drawn will be usable. But if we pivot towards using more Guardian attacks like Thump and maybe even Concuss
it seems like a plausible card.I'm tempted to test one copy of Energy of the Audience
and Emboldened by the Crowd
which seems like ways to maybe keep up in the value game against aggro. It's not at all hard to make it a 2 card 8 and on a really good turn it could be even more. Blocking with Helm of the Adored
and playing a free 0 for 6 seems pretty alright.Oasis Respite
is another consideration, which is quite awesome if we have What Happens Next? in play and are facing aggro. It's easy to side it out when we are up against fatigue. -
The Razor Reflex
strategy is a lot more viable in Elly's CC deck due to Enlightened Strike
and the tower attacks, I feel. I could keep trying to make it work by going back to Strike Gold
, though, and maybe adding Scar for a Scar
. Still I feel like we are way too dependent on getting a sort of lucky turn 0 and seeing Short Shrift early for that to work. -
I think I will try to keep Razor Reflex
for now, but cut yellow Snatch and Small Problem
. Short Shrift and Razor Reflex is such a potent combo. -
I will look into having more 3 cost blues. Getting 4 value from a blue is a good follow up to Razor Reflex
and is of course is solid when taking an off turn, too. -
In my most recent iteration I've taken out Razor Reflex
and Snatch and put in Thump, Oasis Respite and some more suspense auras and 3 cost blues. Less spicy and explosive, but I am still very much playing to abuse WHN and Slap-Happy, which I think separates us from the more block oriented builds. I so wish we had access to the reviled guardian 0 cost attacks...
