Here are some strengths and weaknesses of the War God:
Strengths
-Great amount of face damage to aggressively kill your opponent
-Protected minions keep a good board presence
-Plenty of Blitz creatures and removal spells for reactive plays
-Strong relics that provide value and damage
-Good buff spells to gain back the board or provide more damage
-Great Viking synergy
Weaknesses
-Limited Ward creatures to protect from spells and hard removals
-Not that many draw/card generation options
In terms of deck types, the most common are Aggro and Control, though Midrange has a decent shot as well. However, the Control decks that perform well are quite expensive. There is also a combo-ish deck that focuses on relics and dealing large amounts of face damage with them. With the Welcome and Core sets, I believe the best option is Aggro, though you may sprinkle in some higher mana cards to make it more Mid if you have decent options there.
The most popular God Power is Slayer, as most Aggro decks will run this and sometimes Control as well against certain matchups. The pressure it puts on your opponent cannot be denied, and it closes games against other Control decks and Combo as well before they can take over. Valka’s Presence is used mainly in Control decks to provide a body, which if your opponent attacks it means less damage to your God, and if they don’t it can be used to generate favor and chip away certain targets for your other removal. Enrage is mostly used in Armor Aggro/Mid decks as you’re basically giving a minion +1 attack with no downside, and works with creatures that has upsides for surviving damage which War has a few of.
As you finish the tutorial and level up, you’ll start collecting Core cards; War has lots of decent Core cards that you should substitute into your starter deck right away.
Bladecaster is a great 2-drop for you, as it has vanilla stats (to remind you of what the vanilla test is, check out the initial deckbuilding guide here) but can grow beyond that every time it attacks. Warmonger Smith on the other hand, has better than vanilla stats PLUS it has an upside if you have a relic equipped! This guy should be in your deck once you get him and will be there all the way to Mythic. The one downside is that he’s not a Viking so doesn’t benefit from their synergies. Tavern Brawler, Viking Longship, and Orcish Elite are all great blitz creatures that can clean up with blitz and still leave a threat, all of them are auto-includes as well.
You can’t be a War God without great Relics! They are pretty amazing honestly: Enduring Shield is a little slow because it doesn’t have Blitz, but provides awesome value as you can give two of your creatures Protected for good trades. Blade of Styx on the other hand has Godblitz which can push damage to your opponents God or take down his creatures. Finally, Devouring Blade provides awesome control since it destroys an opponent’s creature, which you can manipulate by killing another creature with an attack since it has Godblitz as well. They only have 1 creature? Well that’s 4 damage to the face!
But wait, War also has spells! I Need A Weapon draws one of your awesome relics from your deck and gives it a buff as well, and is necessary in Big Relic decks and sometimes used in Aggro decks. Carnage Sweep is a scary spell when you have a Relic equipped, as it destroys ALL creatures which is amazing control. Redfume Serum is a huge buff to your creature and allows it to deal big damage and make it very hard to kill with high health.
If you luck into one of the Core Legendaries, a couple of them are pretty useful in Mid to Control decks. Grendel is pretty annoying for your opponent if they don’t have a spell, as it gains Protected after it attacks plus it has Blitz to boot. Hector, if you satisfy the conditions of having those keywords in your void, is an amazing comeback creature that provides healing, twinstrike, blitz, protected, etc, phew!!! Ulfgaar obviously wants Viking synergy but its effect isn’t too great, although it can come in useful sometimes.
I’ll go over some of the cheaper expansion cards which are good value for your deck first, then some more expensive options if you decide to invest in it.
Thunder Caller (~8 GODS) is an amazing snowball machine and can singlehandedly win you the game with an Aggro deck if your opponent cannot deal with it. Skollkin Valkyrie (5 GODS) is a good 1-drop that can buff up your other creatures (sometimes itself). Wolf-Cult Vanguard (0.6 GODS) provides more Blitz options and when Empowered will often trade 2-for-1, and can be used in Control and Big Relic decks as well as Aggro. Woodcutter Imp (14) just came out with the Winter Wanderland set and gives you an above vanilla Godblitz creature whose downside is rarely an issue especially when you’re the Aggro one. White Fur Guard (0.4) was recently buffed and now provides a sticky frontline creatures that wrecks havoc if your opponent only has small creatures. Another Round! (1.9) is generally the buff card used in Aggro decks over Redfume Serum due to its lower cost and handbuffing ability.
On the higher end of cost, Master Tactician (~64 GODS) is a staple 2-drop in many War decks which is sticky and provides for a good buff target. Oddi (62) is another that can be used in various War decks and helps you drop down your bigger creatures earlier, which in this game with its non-linear mana gain can be devastating. Even if you discount a lower mana creature you can drop more threats at once. For relics, Scythes of the Harvest (250) is great for pushing damage, while Magic Missile Launcher (~900) is the relic to use for Control/Big Relic decks due to its insane afterlife.
I’ve provided some example decks here for Aggro War, from a Welcome and Core deck as you’re first starting out to build towards, then budget Big Relic and Aggro decks with some expansion cards, then finally a more expensive Aggro deck. These aren’t set in stone; feel free to experiment and check out GUDecks.com for more! There are a lot of cards that can do well which aren’t mentioned here.
