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GCD Upate
Written By - Thomas NeilsonJuly 15th, 2024
Legions Realms At War currently has 17 different warlords, and even more archetypes, competing for your interest. But when you're just starting out and learning the game, what deck should you try out first? What decks are easy to learn, and great at teaching you the game, without breaking the bank?
This article update shows off some of the upgrades/changes for the original 5 budget starting decks with the additions from Guardians' Creed!
Updated Budget Starting Decklist Links
Updated Budget Starting Decklist Links
+2 Eshreal, Lost Messiah Diviner
+1 Zadkiel, Consumed By Honour
+1 Castiel's Alchemic Bloodbond
+1 Lost Messiah - Punishing Light
-1 Dominium, Lost Messiah Judgement
-1 Lost Messiah Radical, Mindamax
-1 Lost Messiah Sentry, Crucidel
-1 Precila, Angel Of New Beginnings
-1 Divine Denial Of The Seraphim
Castiel has seen quite a bit of flux as a result of both Guardians' Creed and the most recent SRL list. With Halo Of The Lost Messiah and Chaos Divine Reconnaissance both getting hit on the SRL list, luckily GCD has brought quite a few upgrades to push the deck back up.
Castiel's Alchemic Bloodbond is a great negate and heal that helps to give the deck a good chunk more backline power, whilst Eshreal, Lost Messiah Diviner is arguably one of the strongest Lost Messiah Warriors, going a long way to pump out more Holy Counters early.
New Upgrades
New Upgrades
Radiant Orb Of Divine Light
This new Exalted for Angels is a generically fantastic piece, letting your Sanctify Warriors be a bit more tanky, and offering an uncounterable negate every turn. It doesn't really change the gameplan of the deck at all, but it's a nice stax/control piece, especially against revive heavy decks.
Mysterious Mechanism
Whilst it may not seem as obviously powerful as Radiant Orb, Mechanism lets you refill your deck by shuffling your previously eradicated cards back into deck, letting you reuse important pieces like Army Of The Lost Messiah, Acceleration Into The Chaos Divine, and Halo Of The Lost Messiah.
+2 Fandorian Darkwood Dryad, Fullilia
+1 Fandorian Ferocity
-1 Fandorian Warmonger, Fuldonia
-1 Fandorian Halberd
-1 Elorian Longbow
Not too much has changed for the base version of Fandorian Midrange, but some of the new pickups are fantastic for the deck, giving it more control tools and pressure on board. Fandorian Darkwood Dryad, Fullilia is a fantastic way to push in damage, and trigger the destruction effects on cards like Fandorian Outpost or Forgotten Fandorian Keep.
Heroes also picked up a few appealing new control tools through the Magi Package with Magi Temporal Barrier and Magi Shieldstorm. Whilst Temporal Barrier is a more useful piece with Hero Guardians other than the Druid, Magi Shieldstorm is a great option against quite a few decks, especially Demons.
New Upgrades
New Upgrades
Alero has received quite a few new Exalted tools to run in the deck.
Cornelius, The Magi Changeling
This is one of the two new Exalteds that are instantly great in Fandos. Making your Hero Unified cards unnegatable is a great protective piece to force your opponent into more awkward play lines on your turn, whilst the Recover is huge for staying alive.
Hood Oath To The Bloodline is another great piece as a one-use unified negate. Whilst you only get to activate it once per game, it completely shuts down whatever Fortified you're negating.
The other 2 Future drops for the deck are both solid options, but neither are truly necessary.
Call Upon The Shield Wall
Call is a great upgrade to the Statues/walls archetype, letting you tutor out your Fortified "Wall" Cards and making it easier to push in damage with your statues. The card isn't too strong however if you aren't focusing in on the Walls archetype.
Dark Wood Archer, Deadshot
Deadshot is a nice piece, being able to swift in to remove Warriors, and push in a little bit of extra damage, but doesn't synergize with the Fandorian tools and isn't always worth the card in hand. It is however a flexible and great Warrior that can be made better with more focus on the Dark Wood pieces.
+3 Duxvox Doomdrill
-1 Gone But Never Forgotten
-2 Deflect
Sharn also stays mostly the same, not much if anything changes for the Orcbane/Outer Rim archetypes. For generic Orc options however, Duxvox Doomdrill is a huge upgrade over Deflect, not needing to discard a card, and hitting your opponent's Cooldowns. Additionally, while Gone But Never Forgotten is a solid value tool, it can be bloodbourne heavy, and doesn't hurt to trim down to 2 copies.
GCD did bring some support for another aggressive Orc list, with new burn tools in Emerald Amulet and Sildud's Blood Majik Blight. Whilst these pieces have found more play alongside Duxvox, they're interesting new options to consider and try out.
New Upgrades
New Upgrades
Again, there isn't too much new for Sharn, but there are a few options to consider.
Gnabandok, Blood Majik Envoy
The new Orc Guardian isn't strictly better than the other main Guardian options for Sharn, but is a solid side-grade with some fantastic potential in setting up your early game and offering a good chunk of burn with his Consume Ability.
Emerald Amulet
Amulet is a fun potential addition to the deck, punishing your opponent for removing your Warriors and potentially dodging negates with it's After mulligan ability.
Void/Twilight Renown Rare Cards
Past the Orc Cards in the set, the Twilight Gardens Collection and Majik Void collection both saw a reprint, making some strong bounty options like Twilight Rose more easily accessible.
+1 Across The Soul River Styx
+1 Unholy Trinity
+1 Whispers Of The Grimm
Another deck without too many changes, and with the mill nature of the deck one that doesn't need to cut anything for some new inclusions, Mortis gets back a copy of Across The Soul River Styx thanks to the SRL list. From GCD itself, Mortis has some interesting interaction options. Unholy Trinity and Putrid Parasol are both solid tools, albeit Bloodbourne heavy ones. Unholy Trinity is the more main deck appealing one for me, letting you 3 for 1 your opponent, even on their first turn.
I do suggest going up to a full playset of Whispers Of The Grimm, as with the printing of Twilight Magnolia and some of the Amulets, there's even more hate targeting the more combo-centric mill strategies.
New Upgrades
New Upgrades
Mortis doesn't receive too much on the top end, but his GCD guardian option is a great one for setting up your mill effects right off the bat.
Kasavaka, Soul Forsaken Veneficus
Kasavaka and his Devotion offer quite a bit of smoothing in the early turns, with Kasavaka's starting ability let you get immediate value out of any when-milled cards like Windmill Of Corpses, whilst his Consume ability gives you a powerful way to wipe your opponent's board.
Hissy
A fun option with any Undead Guardian, Hissy is a huge removal piece, giving you a targeted sacrifice on your Guardian's ability. With Kasavaka, you can rip 8 cards off of your opponent's side of the field, or with Meg'Saria you can potentially use Hissy multiple turns in a row.
+1 Grue, The Blastforge Hunter Owl
+2 Frozen Adventurer, Glacialina
+1 Frozen Fist
-1 Ecrutek, The Wandering Warlock
-1 Diary Of A Blastforge Survivor
-2 Gone But Never Forgotten
The two Archetypes of Blastforge and Frost have both seen a few new additions, with Frost specifically receiving a new chunk of support to potentially start pulling it into it's own separate archetype. Frozen Fist is a fantastic new removal tool, letting you conscript or revive a Frozen Warrior, and destroy up to three cards on the field.
The one boon of the card is also a downside however, as you aren't able to activate the card at all without a Frozen Warrior in hand or discard. Luckily, GCD came prepared with another solid Frozen Warrior: Frozen Adventurer, Glacialina. Glacialina gives us a good target to revive with Freezalina's Perish ability, helps to mill a few extra cards to setup discard pile effects, and can grab back some great cards including a chunk of your fortified lineup, Frozen Frontier, and can even get back Freezalina for some Warrior looping defensive action to replicate Grimm Midrange. Lists could go more heavy into the Frozen Archetype with more Fists, an additional Glacialina, and other Frozen tools, but that'll come up to pilot preference.
Grue, The Blastforge Hunter Owl swaps out for the second copy of Diary, as another easier way to connect Melt-Cannon kills, and threaten some Effect damage to finish off a game through a Welcome/Ecrutek.
New Upgrades
New Upgrades
The Dwarf Exalted in the set went to Alehouse, and the Creed Guardian is more supportive for other Dwarf Archetypes like pure Blastforge, but many of the Renown tools in the deck can be used to good effect in the list.
Onyx Amulet
Onyx Amulet is a sweet new control tool that can heavily disrupt your opponent's turn one setup, forcing them into more awkward lines to keep their boardstate on the field. It's a good generic piece, and can be nice as an interactive tool if going second.
Void/Twilight Renown Rare Cards
Once again, the reprinting of the Twilight Garden and Void Hollow collections make this array of Bounty Control tools more accessible. Whilst none of them are locked in additions for Frost Tempo, they offer plenty of flexible options against a variety of decks, and can be found much more easily now.
Budget Starting Decklist Links
Budget Starting Decklist Links
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