Hi all!
I ran into a budget Anubian deck in Diamond that looked different enough that I had to try it. I want to give the deck creator credit, so great job "??"! 😆 Anyway, after playing the deck in casual a bit and then a few games in ranked, I wanted to share it.
Deck Code:
GU_1_1_CCcCCcKDKKDKKBzKBzGCbGCbCDvCDvBAuBAuKCIKCIBEwBEwKCBKCBGAHKCJKCJCFGCFGKCMKCMKCVIBRKCGKCTKCW
The 1-2 mana drops look like standard Anubian fare, but then you notice these cards:
Firstly, I love that the deck uses these unloved legendaries. It also supports them with card choices like Burrowing Scarab instead of Lootable Corpse. You don't want Triage Necromancer bringing back 0/1s.
Quorum of the Pharaohs provides a secondary win condition that helps mitigate void hate. Assuming opponents are looking at your deck (and have gleamweaver), they have to choose between removing your Priestess or Heirlooms. Thawed Heart is really the only void hate that shuts the deck down.
There are several cards that generate heirlooms, but unlike most Quorum decks, it doesn't go overboard. This is good, because many of the cards that generate Heirlooms aren't that good. This deck sticks to the ones that are:
Malissian Magistrate also deserves a shoutout. It's been surprisingly fun coming up with combos using this card. With a Priestess/Necromancer on board, you can blitz a vile reaver that comes back to blitz again. It's a lot easier to setup these comboes with Magistrate than something like Martyr. Plus, Magistrate is an Anubian. In my game against death, you'll see me use it on my priestess, which is also incredibly effective.
Firstly, I'll start by saying the creator of this deck has clearly hit on something. 65% win rate over 40 games with a $35 deck is fantastic. I'm going to play more games with the deck as is before making any changes, but I do want to suggest some. I also want to keep the budget spirit of the deck in mind, so I won't be suggesting Wardens and Blades.
I really don't like Scarab in Anubian decks. Board Wipe Death likes scarab because it goes all in on drawing the opponent cards. To the point of milling a lot of their deck. It also runs Siren of the Grave to prevent milling your own cards. Anubians do neither of these things.
Instead, aggro loves the extra card draw and will use it to run you over. Control likes the extra card draw too; it helps them find answers including whatever void hate they are running. I played a game against CDM. Scarabs were dead cards. As a result, I usually run Lootable Corpse and/or spells like Dangerous Ritual for card draw in my anubian lists. As mentioned, we don't want Corpse in this list because of Triage Necromancer, so here are some options for card draw:
Of these three, I'm leaning towards Looter. He provides a great Untold Greed target or can help trade to slow down aggro war. Brimstone and Dangerous Ritual help against control opponents, but they actually hurt quite a bit against aggro if you fall behind.
This list runs Skull Scepter. It's a solid choice, and I can't complain too much about it. However, I've really started liking Necroscepter. The biggest threats to this list are hyper-aggro decks like War and Hidden Rush. Skull Scepter never feels great in those games. You still aren't faster (unless you have perfect draws), and the leech from zombies is so much better at stalling them.
More than any other deck I've seen, this list had a solid argument for running only 1x Land of the Dead. The second Land is basically replaced by Quorum. That's fair. Still, I'm tempted to replace one Dead Body Guard and add the second LOTD.
So 2x of these cards nearly doubles the budget of the deck, so consider that. However, they aren't $80+ like PW and Blade. They offer a great way to control wide aggro boards, and they also allow for combos to kill your own creatures after dropping a Priestess. However, it does have some anti-synergy. You don't want to be burning your Asenath or Necromancer. It's also hard to find room in this deck for it while preserving what makes this one unique/fun. After all, if I want standard anubian, I can just play that.
I've got two games to share with this deck. I wanted to highlight this one against Control Death even though it was a budget control list. The second game is against a $1k aggro light list (that also went first), so definitely check that one out too, but this one shows off what makes this deck special.
I know I'm facing a control deck, so I'm looking for Priestess and Raving Necromancer, but I don't find them. I get my 7 drop though, so that's great (/s).
I have nothing to play. A Vile Reaver just gets killed by their GP. Neither of us play a card for several turns. This is unfortunate for me. I would have loved to start playing priestess and putting pressure on.
Finally, something to do! I play priestess, vile, and blight bomb. I don't accomplish any lasting face damage, but I want those cards in play and in the void. Death has no transform that I'm aware of, so I wasn't worried about leaving the priestess on board.
The first interesting line. I bring back my anubians and then use Magistrate to buff Priestess. Now, she'll require two removals to deal with.
As you might imagine, you don't want to waste Curse of Greed in this deck without generating an Heirloom, so that's the line I take.
Reach is guaranteed to pull back great anubians, which is always great. Then I decide to play around Bifurcating Curse by sneaking out Asenath with a pip (4 mana is even).
Hey, look at us playing around curse! It looks like we know what we're doing. Asenath brings Priestess right back. How many times has our poor opponent removed this thing? We get in some damage with Body Guard and GP. Then I opt for card draw from the sanctum. The Heirloom counts towards Quorum when it's in your hand. You don't have to play it.
This line puts our opponent in a tough spot. It's hard to prioritize removing Asenath with Priestess on Board. At the same time, Asenath will just keep bringing her back.
Annnd she's coming right back. This time with her twin sister! I actually misplay here. I meant to empower the heirloom, so that's a bit of a bummer. Looking back at the turn, I could have pipped into Hand for another Heirloom. Probably the right recovery play after making the mistake.
He finally either decides to remove Asenath or draws a card to do it. The Priestesses deal 4 damage for it, though. Hand of the Abyss works out amazing for us. We get an Heirloom and a Body Guard we can kill to do more damage.
Our opponent concedes, but next turn would have Quorum for lethal. GG!
As you can see, this deck doesn't struggle against greedy control lists. Aggro is more of the issue, which is why my suggested tweaks try to strengthen it in those matchups.
This one is a nail-biter. Going second against a $1k aggro light is a scary thing. Several times I almost conceded. However, I was able to pull it off thanks to drawing a few cards we needed to draw.
General observations about the match: I never had room to play Asenath. If I could have establish board, Asenath would have won the game. From behind, though, he was dead. Also, aggro light loved my burrowing scarabs. They had 2 more cards to play!
I thought turn 5.5 was pretty clever on my part. In short, I used the fact that PW is anubian against him and actually wanted his martyr to bring back PW (also to bring more of my cards from the void).
6.5 mana was the huge swing turn. I was basically dead, but Reach turned everything around. Probably one of the biggest swing turns of my GU career, actually. At 7.2 mana, Quorum seals the game. Triage Necromancer was putting in work, too.
