Guardians' Creed - Top 25

Written By - AJ Christiaens, Hunter Smith, Patrick Watt, Sylas Belmont & Thomas NeilsonJune 6, 2024

With Creed being just a day away, I was curious to see what cards were catching peoples attentions, so I talked to 4 of the current top players to get the top 5 cards from the set they're most excited about. The results stretch across all 9 realms, and highlight a ton of support for a variety of archetypes including consistent faves, rising champs, and some future potential!

5th Place

Hunter - Mysterious Mechanism

If I had to choose one card out of Guardians Creed to win the ‘Instant Sideboard Staple Award,’ it’d be Mysterious Mechanism without a doubt. Not only does its floodgate ability hate out any of the Bounty-based shenanigans that decks have begun to splash as of late, but it also hates out a variety of eradication-based strategies, such as Black Magic and the like. Keep in mind that the Static ability is symmetrical, so look for Mysterious Mechanism being leveraged in decks that have strong in-Legion interaction on their Unified cards, such as Heroes with Hood Protection Cloak and the newly printed Hood Oath to the Bloodline.

Sylas - Unfettered Devotion

I think this card is really funny, I want to play a weird pummel deck. Swift in guy turn two, flip a big shield plus other buffs, pummel your face for 20+? I'm in.

Thomas - Frozen Fist

The Frozen archetype has continued to receive bits and pieces of support, with Frozen Fist being one of the latest. The condition of conscripting or reviving a Frozen Warrior to activate may stop this card from being currently played. For example, 8 Frozen Warriors in a 50 card deck only gives you around a 67% chance to see one in your opening hand, limiting how often Frozen Fist will be online to act as interaction on your opponent's first turn. With more future Frozen support however this becomes an incredibly appealing and valuable removal piece.

AJ - Incendiary Dragon Fire

Anyone that hasn't played dragons are in for a surprise with this one. This will give dragons another way to push damage that they really needed. Keep in mind incinerate sends so it won't trigger hatch.

Pat - Duxvox's Doomsday Reactor Core

The addition of core to Duxvox gives a massive boost to the deck, making all of their cards Duxvox. This now provides Duxvox the ability to protect those much needed ooze cards with chamber while also giving the ability to better interact with Vox’Tox. Also super excited to see the first match where cores static effects triggers and defeats both players together.

4th Place

Hunter - Putrid Eruption Bloom

Mal’ady is finally getting some of the necessary pieces that all two of her fans have been clamoring for since she was introduced in EOR. Eruption Bloom is a great starter for any Putrid-based strategy, allowing Mal’ady to trigger the eradication effects of cards that have either been milled, or any already played cards that have been sitting in discard. Eruption Bloom also puts Carrion Flowers on the board, which fuel Decay-centric strategies, and it acts as a life gain piece when it itself is eradicated by an effect. Pair this with Mal’ady’s Putrid Mausoleum for an easy-to-achieve mini-combo that burns your opponent for nine (or add Asphyxia’s Perish ability into the mix to burn for even more!).

Sylas - Genhildr, Sage of the Stormclan

In my opinion, one of the most versatile guardians from the set, he works very well with either Dwarf Warlord at the moment. In frost tempo you can sculpt your hand pre game, and get rid of your opponents' board turn 3. In Ethelhime, you can sculpt your hand, send cards to the bottom to bottoms up, and shuffling away your opponents board turn three, plus with some added deck stacking with Howler.

Thomas - Rogue Dynamite Dice

Heroes aren't anywhere close to my most played legion, but I've been a fan of the incredibly modular "archetype soup" build seen in Fandorian Midrange for a while. Whilst Angelica has seen play with her main Dice Combo build, there are a ton of Rogue tools to support a more Tempo or Midrange style of play more similar to the build commonly seen with Alero. With the release of Rogue Dynamite Dice, this build gains a surprisingly consistent way to push in Damage with the help of Angelica's Emerald Luck Charm, and I'm excited to see how that build stands up beside the other main Hero archetypes.

AJ - Ruby Amulet

May be annoying to resolve for both players but it's nice to see demons still get something that does what our queen desires. This can also help your opponent filter through their own deck or fill their discard for undead so make sure to use it when it helps you the most.

Pat - Sildud's Blood Majik Blight

The addition of blight to the pool of cards in the orcs arsenal gives a whole new aspect to orcs being able to push more effect damage and make their opponents have to think about where their health pool is if they are worried about there being a blight on board.

3rd Place

Hunter - Land of Dreams

Land Of Dreams, on face value, may have you distracted by Max Chernyshev’s wonderful rendition of Calypso (lucky Gailion, I’m impressed), but should you read what the card does, you’ll find a Titan Unified that stays relevant in every stage of a game. It acts as mass Warrior recursion on play, a practically one-sided floodgate while on the field by preventing non-Titan cards from leaving eradication, and if that wasn’t enough, it’s also a card advantage engine that procs your eradication triggers. What it lacks in inherent protection from interaction it makes up for in sheer immediate impact, should it hit the board. I’d say Land Of Dreams is a home-run generic Titan staple for many formats to come.

Sylas - Geode, Crystal Scales Dragon

He's just a goofy little guy. Swift in dragons feels good, he can be hatched from your eggs, Shed pushes more damage in a deck that can sometimes lack sustained damage in the early turns of the game.

Thomas - Eshreal, Lost MEssiah Diviner

I don't think it comes as a surprise that I'm excited about the new additions for Castiel, and Eshreal is a subtly great addition to the Tempo/Burn strategy. Whilst the card may not read as too exciting compared to other Sanctify warriors, that Archetypal naming is huge, allowing Eshreal to be tutored or revived off of Army Of The Lost Messiah. The current selection of Lost Messiah Warriors doesn't offer the most towards board protection or card generation, and Eshreal is a simple but effective way to shore up one of these two weaknesses.

AJ - Open The Gates

Very good unique card for demons who typically don't relay on their warriors as much as other Legions. This is wont be played too often for its 20 Bloodbourne cost, but it should get better with time as we get better warriors and warrior payoffs in demons. Will be interesting to see some new builds, especially in the Mount Bane lists.

Pat - Gnabandok, Blood Majik Envoy

With the addition of a new guardian pick for orcs he gives them all the things they may need, with additional advantage going second with the potential of putting a pride or carnage in discard along with a choice pick of up to 2 card sent by his effect. His Consume ability is his biggest strength however with orcs now having a way to open up their warrior zones to be able to continue pushing damage.

2nd Place

Hunter - Tethered to the Chaos Divine

Tethered to the Chaos Divine’s effect is short and sweet, preventing players from doing the one thing the love the most in any TCG: touching more of their cards. A well timed Tethered can often lead to forcing sub-optimal gameplay choices, or very telegraphed turns from your opponent, should they respond with all of their tutors (much like one responds to Void Hollow). If timed right, the card could tempo swing into almost a whole turn skip if your opponent doesn’t have much to work with after resolution. Being a Chaos Divine card allows Castiel to benefit from Tethered being within their archetype, however, any non-Chaos Divine strategy should be considering this card in some amount for its versatility.

Sylas - Zenacon, the Magnificent Marvel

My favourite guardian of every guardian released to date, shuts off your opponent quite effectively turn one, grabs a decent devotion that lets you go harder turn one, and create more warriors from hand onto field if it lasts to turn two. His consume ability grabbing 2 cards from discard or eradication to push harder turn 3. Glitter works incredibly well with this guardian,

Thomas - Unrelenting Devotion

It may be a bit weird to see the Devotion without the Guardian, but for a sanctify build Angels, Unrelenting Devotion steals the show more than Azrael does. The ability to gain more counters off of every Sanctify keyword is a great way to give the deck the protection needed to keep warriors on the board, and the fuel needed to keep cards like Kabshiel's Favours For The Seraphim online. Additionally, the 25 DCM heal on the final step is a huge piece in letting a more Midrange version of Angels keep aggressive decks at bay, and to help stay out of range of control finishers like Gaia's Unstoppable Presence.

AJ - Twilight magnolia

Simply one of the more interesting control cards to come in creed, and the fact it's a Twilight flower really adds to its competitive usage. Another card I only see getting more use with time. I wish it included Manifest haha.

Pat - Snouter

A great addition to orcs looking to push more board damage. While not as ideal with the new creed guardian, it gives a new big boost to Visceria. Paired with the orc essence, it opens up a lot of potential for being able to clear the board while dealing effect damage and boosting your warriors on board to swing in directly.

1st Place

Hunter - Sapphire Amulet

It wouldn’t truly be a Guardians Creed sum-up if they didn’t let me ramble on about Sapphire Amulet, would it? Sapphire Amulet allows Heroes to conscript as often as they like (on either turn), as well as allows them to dodge any conscription negates, as the only way to counter Swift is with a keyword negate. Watch out for this card as a primary enabler in the new Hero Storm deck, which aims to churn out multiple Warriors a turn, accrue mass value, and go all in for big damage ASAP (primer in progress, look forward to that soon!).

Sylas - Hissy

Removal that gets through anything. Before turn 3 flip a Unholy Trinity, Turn 3, they sacrifice 3 on the veil, Kasavaka sacrifices 3 more, Hissy then targets 5 cards and they are sacrificed. Goodbye 13 cards, goodbye your opponents DCM, goodbye my sanity when this happens to me.

Thomas - Wooley

How about one more Angel card to round out my top 3? Wooley is definitely the card in my list that I'm most excited to try out first when Creed comes out. This fluffy ball of holy counters works fantastically with Alexandria, Protector Of The Pure, turning her Consume ability into veritable flood of holy counters over your warriors. In Castiel, this enables a whole new build leveraging some Seraphim tools, which I'm incredibly excited to try out. With Azrael in Sanctify, this gives your freshly revived board a sweet layer of protection too!

AJ - Majik Void Beast

Best cat in the game, what more could you want? He's akin to void collapse which everyone knows is my favorite. I think most decks won't make use of denial as it's a high cost and not what you should include in him your deck for. As we've seen, more and more warriors with swift are very good at being disruptive pieces. Pair that with Null and he's going to make some decks very sad out of nowhere. P.s. can't Shockwave lol.

Pat - Helga, The Alehouse Brewmaster

A great addition to the deck in a multitude of aspects with being able to grab a needed drink from deck to counter generation, all the way to recycling eradicated cards back into the deck from using the in discard effect of Exit The Alehouse, or from an opponent trying to get rid of key pieces.

Snapshot Guardians' Creed Spoiler Review #1 | Snapshot Guardians' Creed Spoiler Review #2 | Snapshot Guardians' Creed Spoiler Review #3

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