Intro

With the Dralamar nerf, I figured I would try out my pack stalk nature deck this week. I wound up making some changes during the ranked games to try to make the deck a bit more consistent. TLDR: the deck felt dominant against War, competitive against most other gods, but weak going second against Light (but who doesn't?). Importantly, this deck felt more competitive in all games compared to the midrange nature deck I had been running.

Starting Deck

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I started with this deck that I had been playing during the week. It's a lot of fun and holds its own. However, its tendency to brick is a touch too high in competitive play I think. It runs 6 cards that depend on board presence:

• 2x Pack Stalk
• 2x Wildfire
• 2x Trial of the Hydra

Getting a hand full of these is bad news. During the week, just concede and on to the next game, but it feels bad during weekend ranked.

Final Deck

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I went 9/14 with this deck, which isn't great, but I did have a nasty habit of going second this weekend, and this deck hung in there admirably.

Changes:

Remove 1x Pack Stalk

It's a great card, but you can't afford to draw 2 and not have any creatures.

Sudden Bloom instead of Hydra

This is taking notes from our MightyUncle decks. Sudden Bloom is one extra mana compared to Trial of the Hydra, but it only needs 1 creature on board to pay off and it doesn't need to be wild.

Feral Shapeshifter

The change to Sudden Bloom also impacts our 4 mana slot creature choice. Rather than Sabertooth, which can get regen and combo with Hydra, we take Feral. In my recent post on Light, I mentioned being surprised at Feral's value. Hidden made it a great card to target for buffs, and the same is true here. 2 games this weekend were decided based on Feral -> Bloom.

Other Changes

Taking a look at MightUncle's latest decks, he is still running Sudden Bloom + Wildfire, but he also included Porphyrion and Frost Giant and did some tweaking of his removal spells. I decided to follow his lead, but I'm not sold on the Giants.

Also, I think I will consolidate into fewer singleton cards. For example, I think 2x Lightning Strike instead of 1x of Canopy.

Pilot Guide

I think Animal Bond is the right GP for all gods except War. They run a lot of protected creatures and Selena's Mark is fantastic for popping that or cleaning up their token 1/1s so they can't get buffed. MightyUncle runs only Mark, though, so YMMV. I think Animal Bond just complements our buffs and Pack Stalk better.

Check my detailed post on this deck for more info on how to play this. TLDR: Fight for board presence early and then hit your buffs at 5/6 mana.

Gameplay

I put together a compilation of 4 highlight reels from the weekend games. I only just learned how to merge recordings together, so no fancy transitions (so it's kind of abrubt). The first highlight was from an early game where I still had Trial. Each of these highlights sealed their game.

Conclusion

I think some more tweaking of the deck is warranted, but I like the core switch of Hydra -> Bloom. Such a last-minute change just meant I didn't have time to fully adjust the deck to take the most advantage.

I played with multiple decks this weekend and stopped when I hit 15 wins (15/23 overall). I'll get a DO leggy, but I also get 6 core packs!