Metashaker Deckbuilding Contest Results

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#1

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For the past two weeks you have been sharing your awesome ideas for the decks with us and now it is time to conclude what ideas are the best. However, before we jump into the results let’s look at some of the cards which you needed to build a deck with.

Aquablad did a great job reviewing the six new cards and we are not going to do it again. Read Aquablad’s reviews if you haven’t already!

You may also want to watch Luuu90’s new cards review video [The Simmering Sextuplet][7].
[7]: https://youtu.be/fxOHwAN-VBA

However, some of the new cards have so much potential that it is very hard to cover all their uses and synergies. The following is an attempt to make a comprehensive list of everything you can do with Deepwood Stalker, Divine Guardian and Illusion of Grandeur. Let’s get rolling!

Deepwood Stalker


This is a good removal that plays from hand and leaves a creature on board. Here are some potential uses and synergies this card has.

  • Handbuffs. Cards like [Card=149]Oakling[/Card], [Card=37]Court Jester[/Card], [Card=174]Spirit of Rebirth[/Card] and [Card=187]Eredon[/Card] can power up Deepwood Stalkers while they are in your hand making their Gift effect even stronger. [Card=361]Long-horned Yak[/Card] is a little different but still his Last Words effect does essentially the same thing.
  • On summon effects. If you have a [Card=143]Tiki Totem[/Card] on board, it can buff your Deepwood Stalker before its Gift effect is played. Same goes for [Card=135]Ancient Beastmaster[/Card], however, it only buffs creatures with 5 Life or more whereas Stalkers have only 4. You can pass through this threshold by using handbuffs mentioned above, Eredon is especially good because it buffs all your Stalkers in the deck and also buffs all other 4 health creatures like [Card=134]Sagami Grovecaller[/Card], [Card=170]Wood Elemental[/Card] and many others.
  • Board continuous buffs. The simpiest example is [Card=198]Kobold Barracks[/Card] which can give +2 attack buff to your Deepwood Stalkers before its Gift effect is played if you play them near the Barracks. Another somewhat complicated example is [Card=294]Golden Aviary[/Card] + [Card=366]Mistral Guide[/Card] but… yeah it’s too next level.
  • Deepwood stalker is a combat removal (like [Card=273]Wind Soldier[/Card]). It means that it triggers cards like [Card=231]Volcanic Collosus[/Card] and [Card=217]Blood Obelisk[/Card].
  • This card has a very strong effect meaning that it might be a not bad target for [Card=127]Failed Experiment[/Card]. 1 cost 2 damage might be useful in certain situations while also buffing your Illusions…

Divine Guardian


This creature has a unique Divine keyword that makes this creature untargetable by enemy removals and thus making it a perfect target for buffs. However, you as well can not target your Divine Guardians with buffs so here are some ways to do it.

  • Handbuffs. You can not target Guardians on board but you can “target” them while in your hand. [Card=149]Oaklings[/Card], [Card=37]Court Jesters[/Card], [Card=174]Spirits of Rebirth[/Card], [Card=361]Long-horned Yaks[/Card] and [Card=187]Eredon[/Card] are your handbuff cards.
  • On summon effects. [Card=143]Tiki Totem[/Card] and [Card=135]Ancient Beastmasters[/Card] can buff them as well. Like Deepwood Stalkers, Divine Guardians also have 4 health which enables them to be buffed by Beastmasters in combination with handbuffs.
  • Board continious buffs. [Card=198]Kobold Barracks[/Card] can buff adjacent Guardians as normal. Not to mention [Card=294]Golden Aviary[/Card]…
  • Random buff effects. [Card=133]Soulbound Sagami[/Card] and [Card=139]Elderwood Hermit[/Card] Last Words effect give a buff to a random frienly creature that might be Divine Guardian. And it is not just one more funny way to buff them but Guardian is a card that can make Soulbound Sagami and Elderwood Hermit work better. The problem with these cards is that your opponent has a lot of ways to play around the Last Words effect, in most situations he is able to remove all your other creatures before killing Sagami or Hermit and thus making their Last Words effect useless. But now we have Divine Guardians with their Divine keyword that is very hard for your opponent to remove. Therefore as long as you have Guardian on board you will always have a creature to catch these Last Words buffs from Soulbound Sagami and Elderwood Hermit. This can make decks using them a lot more consistent. And two more things with random buff effects: [Card=12]Steam Forge[/Card] and [Card=62]Fortune Hunter[/Card].
  • Divine Guardian is a very cheap high health creature that makes it a perfect target to sacrifice with [Card=185]Voice of Hunger[/Card] for a 2 cost +4/+4 buff.

Illusion of Grandeur


There are only 3 creatures in the game which cost 1 or less: [Card=1]Farm Boy[/Card], [Card=71]Ruby Fish[/Card] and [Card=253]Khalim’s Follower[/Card]. [Card=95]Dark Stalker[/Card] also can cost 1 in some situations. And its not nearly enough to buff Illusions to make them worthy for their 7 cost. However, we can use creatures that cost more and use some cost reduction effects. Here are some ways to buff Illusions.

  • [Card=247]Ogre Dance[/Card] and [Card=201]Bold Bargainer[/Card]. Illusion might fit very well in a BR Bargain decks that feature some sturdy 7-8 cost creatures like [Card=200]Ogre Battler[/Card] which can be played for 1 cost.
  • [Card=94]Aurora’s Creation[/Card]. It copies a creature and reduces its cost by 5 which you can use to play originally 5-6 cost creatures to buff Illusions.
  • [Card=127]Failed Experiment[/Card] also gives you an option to play a creature for a reduced cost.
  • [Card=123]Ancient Herald[/Card] might enable you to play Sturdy Shells and Living Willows for 0 or 1 cost. Aurora’s Creation into Ancient Herald might give you a good 1 cost body as well as one more cost reduction for another creature.
  • [Card=106]Tale of the Old Turtle[/Card] reduces the cost of three of your creatures by 2 so you can fill your board and buff Illusions with 2-3 cost creatures. [Card=103]Sturdy Shells[/Card] and [Card=158]Living Willows[/Card] both have very good stats and are perfect for Illusions but [Card=300]Deathwalker[/Card] and [Card=266]Shaytan Demon[/Card] are even better stat wise.
  • [Card=114]Aurora’s Dream[/Card]. Buffing Illusions to 20/20 in a single turn? Sounds good.
  • [Card=357]Blood Song[/Card]? I guess. Though it’s probably not a reliable way to buff Illusions.
  • [Card=352]Radiance[/Card] is a 10/10 that can be played for 1 cost but yeah it is probably practically undoable.
  • Handbuffs. Again. Pls Abrakam. Imagine this combo: [Card=149]Oakling[/Card] + [Card=188]Feed the Forest[/Card] + [Card=95]Dark Stalker[/Card]. For 2 cost you have 8/7 on board and all three Illusions are buffed to 8/7 as well. One Oakling is worth 4 +5/+5 buffs. Sounds insane, doesn’t it? [Card=187]Eredon[/Card] can be quite cool as well because if you have nine 1 cost creatures in the deck, Eredon buffs all of them by +1/+1 and all your Illusions are buffed by +1/+1 and by another +1/+1 for each 1 cost card you play.

Metashaker results

Yakthorn Fieldbuffs


This deck made by OmicronBob is 100% concentration of pure synergy.

  • Divine Guardians and Deepwood Stalkers are both great targets for Oakling buffs as well as Seifer and Long-horned Yaks.
  • Long-horned Yak Last Words effect might go to Divine Guardian, Deepwood Stalker or another Yak to make them even stronger.
  • Kobold Barracks might power up Deepwood Stalker’s Gift effect and also this +2 attack buff affects Long-horned Yak’s Last Words for even more power for future Stalkers.
  • Long-horned Yak is also a great target for buffs like Elderwood Embrace abd Crackthorn Beast’s Gift effect.
  • Divine Guardian is a great target for Crackthorn Beast’s random buffs.
    And this is not the end of the list. For this indeed awesome deck OmicronBob recieves 4 Battle Chests. Good job!

Combat Survivors


This deck made by oahksdfuios which makes use of [Card=371]Krog’s Dinner[/Card] and [Card=368]Krog’s Command[/Card] has a lot of ways to keep your units alive. Unlikely Hero is a great turn 1 harvester that can grow into a monster with the help of the Emperor’s Command and Safeguard, which also have a lot of good targets like Seifer and combat creatures. For this very solid and fun deck oahksdfuios receives 2 Battle Chests! Nicely done!

B(F)G Illusuions


This deck made by flador combines handbuffs with cost reduction to buff Illusions of Grandeur. Ancient Herald in a combination with Aurora’s creation gives you a stable cost discount while Oakling buffs on Living Willows and Dark Stalkers result in massive Illusions later in the game. For this creative idea flador recieves 2 Battle Chests! Great stuff!

Honorable mentions

We have recieved a ton of decks for the contest and it was very hard to pick the winners. Thank you everyone for submitting your cool ideas and here are a couple of decks that unfortunately didn’t make it into the top 3 but nevertheless made a good expression on the judges.
Hey, Listen! made by Drafi is a faeriefest using Iona’s Smile to get faeries and then flip them all at once. Iona’s Smile draws 2 top creatures meaning that there is an increased chance that the next card you draw would be an event. Nice little trick to flip faeries, isn’t it?
Weeping Idol Turbocharge once again made by Drafi generates tons of faeria using Forbidden Library and Weeping Idol and once you are done you can destroy your own Libraries using Emperor’s Command. Seems like a hell of fun!

That’s it!

Thank you everyone for sharing your awesome ideas! Watch Luuu90’s Metashaker deck submissions review to take a look at some other submissions as well and to know what he think about them. You should also watch his Simmering Sextuplet (Deck Tech) video for some other decks with the new cards.

See you next week with the Metashaker deckbuilding contest #2!

2 Likes
#2

Thanks for running this contest and all the winners and participants. Those decks are very cool and interesting.

The prizes could be better, the winners deserve more I think. Anyway, looking forward to the next one. :relaxed: