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Written By - Thomas NeilsonFebruary 15, 2024
So far in ELP, we've seen new support for an array of new Bounty package tools for any deck to try, and boons to new and old archetypes in Orcs, Mythic Beasts, and Angels. Lets now dive into a divide of fire and ice with Demons and Dwarves, and dig through the history of the Primordials!
Demons - Mount Bane
Demons - Mount Bane
Demons have seen bits of support for Mount Bane in every set since Frontiers, and the latest addition to the archetype is a powerhouse, with Fallout, Mount Bane Behemoth! All 3 of this Warriors Keywords are sure to make for a powerful engine piece for decks going all in on the Mount Bane archetype.
(Pyroclast) gives an easy way to start setting up your "Mount Bane" and "Lava" Warriors in discard to revive with Mount Bane Magma Chamber or Mount Bane Firestorm. It also feeds nicely into Fallout's second keyword, (Plume), which lets you revive your other "Mount Bane" and "Lava" Warriors off of being discarded. His (Perish) secretly might be the most useful piece of the package, letting you sacrifice another card to bring Fallout back to hand. From there, he's ready to discard again for Plume, or to conscript for Pyroclast.
Speaking of conscripts though, the next piece for Mount Bane is slightly less flashy, but an incredible engine piece. Evocation From Lava on play lets you retrieve any Mount Bane or Lava card, and once per turn lets you discard 1 Demon card to conscript a "Mount Bane" or "Lava" Warrior. With being able to control multiple on board, this is an incredibly flexible tool that lets you setup all of your needed tools in the archetype.
I suspect that this and Fallout will become the two key pieces of the Mount Bane Archetype, giving you the setup needed to enable the entire archetype. As it stands however, there may be some other tools still needed to let Mount Bane fire on all cylinders, but this is certainly a fantastic upgrade as it stands!
Demons - Paradise Found
Demons - Paradise Found
One other exciting new piece for the Scorch Realm is the Paradise Found. This Renowned location gives a nice boon to Demon decks looking to force-feed their opponents cards, whether through Ruby Amulet, Black Magic Manipulation, Black Magic Dark Order, or with some "Generous" Bounty Realm options. The new Majik Void Staff may be a great card to pair with this archetype, giving you a win-condition to pay off for an opponent having a full grip of cards.
Dwarves - Frozen
Dwarves - Frozen
Going from Fire to Ice, the Frozen Archetype has picked up a nice collection of new additions which may be strong enough to let Frost Tempo drop it's Blastforge package entirely.
The name of the game here is DCM Recovery, with Algidus, The Frozen Borealis, and Frozen Hyperborean Hills both offering a way to recover DCM. Algidus gives a potentially huge burst of healing, maxing out a 9 DCM by milling 3 Dwarf Cards. Hyperborena Hills is your much more consistent heal piece however, heavily rewarding looping Frozen Adventurer, Freezalina, and Frozen Adventurer, Glacialina. Conveniently this works very nicely with Glacialina, immediately giving you the 2 DCM needed for Windchill.
The next half of the power here is in card advantage, with Algidus providing a great new way to draw additional cards, and Frozen Hyperborean Hills letting you trade Frost Wolves for card draw. One interesting thing to note with Hyperborean Hills is it's Guardian lock to a Dwarf Guardian. Frost Tempo has historically reached for Serenasada as a way to clean up opening hands, and build value off of your Special Ability. With Hills requiring a Dwarf riding shotgun however, it'll be an interesting choice between Genhildr and Raylene, Gatekeeper On Fingar's Peak. While Genhildr has seen more recent experimentation and play, Raylene's start of game ability can be nice to screw with opposing player's openings, and having access to Arcana's Blessings for control power and additional healing ain't half bad.
Beliefs In The Frozen Spirit is another nice board tool, giving you a way to generate even more Frost Wolves to draw off of your Hyperborean Hills, with it's Once Per Turn giving an interesting way to control the board. The first Static will be especially useful with Frozen Adventurer, Freezalina, (Rather fittingly) being able to swift in on your opponent's turn and turn off 2 Warriors from attacking.
Frozen already boasts a sweet suite of new tools, including some incredibly impactful but bloodbourne heavy Fortified cards, and powerful recursive control tools and sticky Warriors. The new additions to the Frozen DCM recovery options, and new ways to make your board state just that little bit more sticky should give the deck the control tools to make the existing tools quite a bit more appealing.
Dwarves - Hammer Of The First Forge
Dwarves - Hammer Of The First Forge
A new generic support piece for Dwarves, the Hammer Of The First Forge will likely be a welcome addition in Frozen Control, while also being a potentially strong piece in Blastforge Aggro. The static ability is a nice way to bolster a tempo build, letting you tutor out a Dwarf Fortified every single turn, while the on-mill ability provides a nice bit of incremental damage when milled off of Into The Blastforge or Frozen Adventurer, Glacialina.
The best place for Hammer might be in multi-archetype builds, like Frost+Blastforge Tempo or Cold Brew, where having an ARM that can be equipped to any of your Warriors offers some great flexibility and utility, and you don't have to relive the plight of having a Blastforge Melt-Cannon that can't equip to your Frozen Warriors, or a Frozen Adventurer Pickaxe that can't equip to your Blastforge Warriors.
Titans - Arion
Titans - Arion
A few new tools for Arion may help push the archetype into a separate build of Prometheus, with the First Battlefield Of Arion, and Bolden, The Great Arion Smith. First Battlefield is a strong generic removal piece, letting you take out two cards on activation, and giving you a way to buff up boards, and keep them locked down with (Fierce), preventing them from being removed by battle with Warriors.
The eradication ability ain't shabby too, letting you take out any of your opponent's Warriors, and bringing back an Arion Warrior of your own.
Speaking of Arion Warriors, Bolden is a great new option with plenty of flexibility. With Swift making him easy to conscript, Bolden lets you revive any Titan Warrior from your discard pile on perish, giving you the ability to bring back powerful options like Primordial Prophet Of Light, Phoebe, or when we see it, the Titan False God.
Reviving Phoebe might not be as necessary however, with one of our other new Titan pieces, Primordial Reckoning. On the front side, this is just a Unified Negate (with a hefty cost), but on eradication, this lets you revive any Phoebe from eradication, potentially making Phoebe, Consumed By Light a much more appealing addition to Prometheus decks.
Titans - Perses, The Unbound Cataclysm
Titans - Perses, The Unbound Cataclysm
The Titans have picked up the latest false god, with Perses, The Unbound Cataclysm. This exciting win-condition for any Titan deck offers a way through pesky fog effects like Welcome To Alburdunn, and Mists From The Fata Morgana. An Immunity to Fortified cards makes it even more difficult for your opponents to prevent it's damage, especially if you're able to buff it up with effects like Pantheon Of Unstoppable Power or Enhance My Power. While this isn't an archetypal piece, Titans have had existing synergies with large attack Warriors, like with Land Of Goliaths.
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