Relic OTK War is what I’ve been running for the last couple of weekend ranks. It has quick games, is relatively easy to play, and you have that big war energy going Whetstone, Unrestrained Power and doming your opponent for 20. I haven’t done amazing with the deck averaging about 11/18 wins in Mythic during the weekend.
Gudecks calls it Aggro War, lumping it with the other aggressive War decks, making it kind of hard to search for.
There are two main variations of the deck, Control and Aggro. The decks are mostly the same except for a couple of cards. Most of the deck is pretty cheap outside of the required Whetstone.
Control runs Tavern Brawler, Demogorgon, and another playset of relics. I don’t have Demos, so I don’t know how good they are in the deck, but personally I almost always have won or lost by 7 mana.
Aggro runs a small Out of its Misery package with Leviathan Hunter, and Encumbered Looter. Leviathan Hunter gives you a cheap relic to play with Carnage Sweep. Encumbered Looter gives you a hidden creature that helps get in chip damage or break protected while drawing you a card. OOIM lets you turn these creatures into drawing a big threat.
The main parts of the deck are
You can swap out a playset of relics or some removal for tech/flex cards like Nokkvi Warrior, Auric Rush, Gleamweaver, Iron-Tooth Goblin, or Vow of Champions.
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As far as I could find, Hpain was the first to popularize the Relic OTK deck.
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I couldn’t find who first made this version, gudeck cannot load the match results.
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I cut the expensive Magic Missile Launcher and Demogorgon from Hpain's list for Devouring Blade and Archangel Bruiser. You can cut Scythes of the Harvest for Ramshackle Hatchet for even more budget.
The deck plays like a control deck most of the time. Although it is called Relic OTK, you rarely do 30 damage at once and kill them on the spot. Usually you get in some chip damage with your creatures/relic/Slayer then deal around 20 damage with Whetstone and Unrestrained Power and finished them or you can hold 2 durability on your relic then get it buffed and kill your opponent in two swings.
If you have a Scythe equipped and play Whetstone then Unrestrained Power for 20 strength, at the end of turn Whetstone removes 4 strength, leaving you with 16 strength relic.
Keep in mind your damage ranges and how you can put your opponent into lethal range with creatures, relics, and slayer.
4 str + Whetstone + Unrestrained = 20 dmg
4 str + 2xWhetstone + Unrestrained = 28 dmg
5 str + Whetstone + Unrestrained = 22 dmg
Taking anything from the sanctum is very risky. Relic removal, frontlines, or healing can show up and ruin your plans. Relic removal is the worst one and should be taken so your opponent can’t get it. The others can be dealt with easier.
I haven’t played a lot with the deck, so I’m not sure what the best strategy or cards to mulligan for are.
If I think I will live till turn 6, I usually look for I Need A Weapon, so I have a buffed relic and something to spend my mana on turn 2, and Unrestrained Power for the combo. I mull away relics since I’m likely to draw into them later.
Against aggro, you mull away the combo and look for your blitz creatures and removal to stay alive early. Once you’ve stabilized, you’ll have the time to find the combo pieces and go for the kill.
Against control, you try to pull off the combo ASAP before they can play big problematic frontline creatures like Ekrileth, City Planner, or Helian Elite. You can play with your creatures without using the blitz to get in face damage since you won’t be needing to take board control.
The deck loses to relic removal, big frontlines, faster decks, god protection, or god sleep. Keep in mind what cards you opponent has to counter you and what answers you have.
Relic removal means you have to spend a turn playing another relic, buying your opponent time to kill you or find more counters. You can’t play around it other than playing your relics and bluffing the combo, forcing your opponent to destroy it.
Smaller frontlines like Pyramid Warden, Highborn Knight, or Stormstress can be answered easily by Wolf-Cult Vanguard or Orcish Elite. Guild Enforcer is a huge pain and will usually need two cards. Ekrileth, City Planner, or Helian Elite will take a ton of cards or Carnage Sweep. Playing another relic to pop your Devouring Blade can out a frontline if it’s the only creature or you are feeling very lucky.
Faster decks like Hidden Rush Deception or Heirloom Death can kill you by Turn 6 on a good draw. It’s a coin flip and could go either way if you draw removal or the combo before they kill you.
God protection is only currently seen in Magic but it’s a real pain to deal with. Ancient Text can give protected while Safeguard Incantation gives protected and ward. This usually delays the combo one or two turns while you use Slayer to pop the ward, then protected. You need to save Bar Fight for this.
God sleep is a very rare thing to see, but it stops you from attacking with your relic. Only 3 cards can do this, the newly changed Singsong Satyr, Lokian Disciple occasionally played in Hidden Rush Deception, and Solemn Lecturer a Deception tech card. You don’t need to worry about them since they’re not meta, but pay attention if they’re played.
Here’s some gameplay of the deck.
0:00 Aggro Deception
Going second against aggro isn’t pretty. I have enough removal to slow them down and give myself enough time to draw lethal.
5:38 Control Deception
My opponent doesn’t put any pressure on giving me time to find the combo, but I have to find a way through these frontlines. Orcish and Axewoman for the Guild Enforcer, then a Savage Strike and Devouring Blade for the Ekrileth. My opponent plays a desperation Double Dealer to disrupt me but I still have the cards to kill them.
12:08 Zombie Death
Zombies are a pain to deal with. The leech keeps them out of your combo range, the zombies will eat up all of your removal, and they can be fast enough to run you over before you can find combo. I try to live long enough to find Unrestrained Power, but the zombie swarm gets me.
