Pleiades

[komfyrion]

@MeowMeow You're right on the money, it's my attempt at porting that deck to Silver Age. It was quite fun. 0 cost attacks are so nice for the suspense aura game plan!

[2Riptide2]

@komfyrion This is a spicy looking list! I was expecting fatigue Pleiades which bores me tbh. I'll have to try this list out it seems interesting to me!

[komfyrion]

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.

[komfyrion]

My counter fatigue strategy is now more item-focused so that I can set up for a truly monstrous turn where I get to deny Defense reactions.

[komfyrion]

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 - welp

Aggro 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.

[komfyrion]

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.

[komfyrion]

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.

[komfyrion]

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.

[komfyrion]

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...

[komfyrion]

Screw it. I'm going for the 0 cost attack plan, except I'll throw in some 1 costs which benefit from WHN and Slap-Happy.

Recent innovation: Flock of the Feather Walkers. I was skeptical at first but I goldfished a bit and it's pretty awesome, actually. Arsenal management is key with this latest build. Arsenal should be reserved for the 1 cost cards and Short Shrift (since it's the best attack in the deck and should never be blocked with). We strongly prefer to have a clear arsenal when we play Snatch or Flock. I don't own Smash Up, but I suspect it's a good one. I would like to try to fit yellow Tension in the Air, since it's a good card to have if WHN hasn't arrived yet. It plays sort of efficiently with our 1 cost cards.

[komfyrion]

3-1 at Armory yesterday with version 1.3

This time I have video!

Cindra: https://youtu.be/2Prs2u7Saf4
Cindra struggles really badly with covering on hits and doesn't threaten crazy amounts of on hits damage in return, so when I got decent hands and they stumbled a bit I soon came out on top. They didn't have the experience to optimise their play lines to use Garland of Spring effectively, also.

Riptide: https://youtu.be/IxQV9cswgHc
I set up the most board state I have ever had in Flesh and Blood in this one. Confidence Dominate Go Again for 20 FTW.

Dorinthea: https://youtu.be/irWaJvjeYU8

Here I made two clear mistakes: I should not have wasted my buff in the early game by not attacking. Just swinging hammer would probably have been better. Also, I probably should have played out my second Oasis Respite when they had their big 3 attack turn. I was a bit too hellbent on arsenalling it to play it later for free off of WHN, but the amount of damage I would have prevented by stopping them from hitting was probably the better play.
In general, it is hard to play against Dorinthea with this deck because I have so many 2 blocks. Overblocking for 3 just isn't really viable, and I frequently need to keep 3 card hands to sustain the blue suspense auras.

Pleiades (not recorded)

They ran a much more normal version with Thump, Boulder Drop, Comeback Kid, etc. Very tight came that came down to a TSIKM. I sided really badly, though. I should have only sided in two potions. The full four is too many and I ended up bricking my arsenal with a Potion of Strength. Also, the potions compete with Helm of Isen's Peak for my action point during full set up turns.

Very scary to take set up turns against Pleiades, since she can often convert full hands, but luckily it paid off a bit sometimes. Definitely should have kept in Oasis Respite since they use confidence. I had previously played against full fatigue Pleiades so my mind was in that place, even though I kinda knew this Pleiaes player was not full on fatigue.

In this game I think I would have preferred Helm of the Adored, but that might just be because of the potions.

Card choices

Flock of the Feather Walkers felt pretty decent, but I'm still not 100% sure what I think about it. The Quicken was sometimes wasted. Perhaps I would need more 4 cost blues so that I can more often do attack action card + hammer for 4 on my turns with go again. But that makes the reveal condition less reliable. Out of my 0 cost blues, Cheers! was the only one I was actively interested in playing, and only in certain matchups.

Strike Gold honestly feels pretty good, so I think I should go back to two copies. I'm also thinking maybe I was too harsh cutting Small Problem. It works so well with my overall game plan value wise (2 pitch, 3 block, 0 cost 4) and the crush effect can actually be very nice, such as against Dorinthea.

I'm also thinking about Sound the Alarm. It can be a decent 0 for 5 with a nice upside, but is also a 3 block. Info is always good, and I am also considering some red Staunch Response for the sideboard, which is useful against reaction heavy decks and evasive decks, so then we could have the Sound the Alarm combo up.

[komfyrion]

I went back to Helm of the Adored for now. Might consider having Helm of Isen's Peak in the sideboard.

[komfyrion]

1-2-1 Skirmish today

Dorinthea

Swapped Strike Gold for Staunch Response.
I went first and got a great setup with WHN and a red Edge of their Seats. That set me off to getting the lead, and I was eventually at 9 to their 1. Most of my armour was used. I fumbled it by choosing to apply pressure every turn, when I should have just taken a setup turn to have a big evasive attack. I had everything I needed on board, but stupidly chose to prematurely pop my buff instead of waiting for my confidence off of Superstar. Pretty bummed about this one, it was such an obvious misplay in retrospect.

Draw against Arakni, Solitary Confinement

No sideboarding. Pretty crazy game. Turn 0 they really screwed me by having 3 reactions on their Double Trouble, so I leaked 9 damage. Still I clawed my way back into it and even survived their late game flicks thanks to Slap-Happy. It ended with a draw but I would have fatigued them if we had an extra turn cycle to work with.

Great game, lots of back and forth.

Bye

Kayo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1ulgSSotZQ

Swapped Strike Gold for Staunch Response and Civic Steps for the dominate boots. I was pretty exhausted at this point and didn't play super seriously. I did Snatch+ Razor reflex + hammer on turn 0 when I should have just played blue Act of Glory and arsenaled Snatch. I should have played mostly defence, holding Edge of their Seats in arsenal and waiting for Short Shrift. Eventually the life totals were kinda close, but I was behind on tempo. They got me with a pummel I should have seen coming, but respecting it would probably have resulted in dying anyway. I only saw one Oasis Respite and no Staunches, which felt pretty rough. The rest were in the bottom 5 cards of the deck.

Not getting to play at this week's Armory due to family visiting made me feel a bit out of my game, I guess. This is a difficult deck, but it feels like I have a good chance in every game I have played so far. But I miss playing a deck that plays itself at least some of the time

[komfyrion]

Having some games under my belt, I am starting to feel like impatience is causing a lot of problems for me. Sending damage in the moment is not getting me to where I want, but sending disruption and damage at the right time is. Another problem is while there are many good 1-cost cards that we enjoy playing for free, we are not guaranteed to find our What Happens Next? early enough. So, is there a way to guarantee finding it every game? Well, yes, there is; by making the game go long. Snatch and Razor Reflex, being 2 blocks, are in my mind not the right tools for that job. They can force us to commit to an aggressive line even if the time is not right for it and are just liabilities if we want to block.

Blessing of Patience, however, is a card that is in line with this strategy. It blocks for 3, but it can also be played for free once we are "online" (or from a Slap-Happy). Sound the Alarm also hits the spot, being a similar 1-costed payoff card with a penchant for defence that blocks for 3 at worst. It feels like there is a coherent game plan coming together here.

[komfyrion]

2 – 0 – 2 at armory this week with version 2.0

This time I think I'll let the games speak for themselves, since they were all captured on video. But I will say that I think this version of the deck is more consistent and feels quite powerful. I still think it lags behind hyper fatigue Guardian decks in terms of raw numbers, but I really like this play style and I think there are some matchups where we have some quite unique benefits. I'm really loving Sound the Alarm and Emboldened by the Crowd.

Isylander

Azalea

Viserai

Arakni, Solitary Confinement