Intro
Over the past week, I've been noticing a dramatic rise in the number of magic players I was running into. This was especially noticeable when playing my aggro war decks - I swear it was nearly 100% losses against the tempo magic variant.
A quick check at https://godsunchainedrightnow.com/ shows that it wasn't my imagination. Magic has unseated War as the #2 most played:
Why is this a problem for aggro war decks? Order.
The current aggro War meta decks have basically zero answers for these. I started adding an Auric Rush into an otherwise standard build, but it wasn't enough. So I brushed off an old friend.
Relic War
I rebuilt my Relic War deck. It provides answers to Tempo Magic while still being fast enough to compete against other gods. If you over-tune your deck to face one god, you're going to have a bad time. The key thing to remember about Relic War is we have access to spells that give us direct damage similar to a Magic or Deception deck.
We also have plenty of relics to choose from (even as a F2P / Budget player). The only one of these that costs anything at all is Leviathan Hunter.
The Deck
I want to start by saying this is still a work in progress. I have some games under my belt, but I'm actively switching cards out. Here's where I'm at right now, though. I'd love for people to leave comments / constructive criticism to help make it better!
Deck Code
GU_1_6_BAmBAmBDyBDyIAVIAVBFvBFvBEXBEXBGWBGWCDqCDqIDjIDjCBBCBBCAZCAZIDkHAcHAcIDmCCjCCjCAXCAXCCLCCL
Cards I question
There are some cards in the deck right now that may need to come out.
Grand Hall a great card, but it excels in creature-heavy decks and wide boards. We are going for a relic/spell deck, and so I think it's questionable here.
Same idea with Redfume Serum. We have a much higher chance of this being a dead card in our hand with no creatures to play it on. On the other hand, the surprise +5/+5 on turn 4 or 5 wins games. If there is room in this deck for one creature buff card this would be it. Another Round definitely wouldn't work, as it needs even more creatures in hand to get full value.
Relics / Spells Missing
Some cards we might consider swapping in.
Avalanche Strike and Auric Rush in particular feel like they need to get in this deck. Avalanche costs more mana than Hurl, but it doesn't destroy your relic, which is a big deal. It's not able to take out a monolith on its own though. Auric Rush takes care of both Demetrios and All-Seeing Spire. It can also clear boards filled with nasty Shadows of Lethanon or other 1 HP creatures.
I think we can live without Enduring Shield. Whetstone is nice, but if you start pushing too many relic spells, your hand starts to brick too often. I think Sharpen is far superior. It can give you up to 6 extra damage, but you can still make use of it even if you don't have both a relic and creature.
So here are some possible trades I'll test:
- Remove Hurl Weapon for Avalanche Strike
- Remove Nokkvi Warrior for Auric Rush
If Nokkvi comes out, Out of its Misery starts to move into questionable territory. You're still looking for Leviathan Hunter + OOIM first turn, but I might drop down to 1x OOIM after further testing.
Conclusion
Both Monolith and All-Seeing Spire have had their order reduced from 10 to 5, but they are still extremely hard for creature-heavy war decks to deal with. As we get ready for Weekend Ranked tomorrow, making adjustments to a changing meta is crucial for top performance. Obviously, if you have Scythes of the Harvest or Magic Missle Launcher, your deck will perform even better.
Tempo magic decks (so far) love matching into aggro war. GuDecks is showing nearly a 60% win rate against aggro war. Relics fix this. Magic's removal spells do nothing to stop buffed relics going face. When they drop All-Seeing Spire turn one assuming it's safe, you surprise them with an Auric Rush. Deception's The Hollow is a little harder, but not much.
What do you think? See any ways to improve the deck?