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>-July 2024->
Written By - Hunter Smith, Jasper Kasunic, and Thomas NeilsonJuly 31, 2024
Two months deep into Guardians' Creed, the metagame has started to settle slightly more, and a recent SRL change list looks to tune and prune a healthy developing meta. Additionally, we have results from the Group Stage of the current War Of Attrition, with a fascinating look into what's getting played, and what's performing well.
Competitive Shifts
SRL List Shifts
SRL List Shifts
In a healthy metagame, a long list of changes has the potential to upset the balance, and trying to do too much can sink the ship. The recent SRL list has however brought a healthy selection of hits to some Metagame breakouts like Mal'ady, Gaia, Ethelhime, and Sapphire Storm, whilst also taking some restrictions off of previous powerhouses like Demons, Angels, and Mortis, to help keep them relevant and thriving in this evolving metagame.
War Of Attrition Group Stage Results
War Of Attrition Group Stage Results
The Group Stage for the LRAWSnapshot War Of Attrition #1 ends tonight, and the group stage results have been exciting to go through. Sapphire Storm, Grimm Midrange, Mal'ady Putrid, have all appeared at 2 copies each, alongside top-tier competitors like Ethelhime Alehouse Tempo, and rogue lists like Blastforge Aggro! The top 8 will be locked in officially soon, and players will soon be able to watch the top 8 matches, where players will be competing for $500+ in prizing!
For more information, checkout the >-LRAW Snapshot Tournament Discord Server->
Emerging Archetypes
Sapphire Storm had a breakout performance at the post-GCD Siege Series, and it's carried it's success through more Weekly events and the current War Of Attrition group stage. Hunter Smith brought the deck to popularity, and brought it successfully through the group stage of the Snapshot War Of Attrition #1. Mount Bane on the other hand has remained a more fringe list, as a sidegrade for Onoskelis, still waiting for it's time in the spotlight.
Sapphire Storm
Sapphire Storm
Hunter Smith
When Sapphire Amulet was first previewed, it was a card that was easily dismissed by players at most top tables. In general, active cards that have no built in protection aren’t great given the amount of removal currently in the format, but tacking on the fact that Sapphire Amulet doesn’t do anything without a second card to turn on, it was deemed pretty subpar early on (especially in comparison to other Amulets in the cycle).
In fact, the concept of using the Amulet in any deck stemmed from a joke between a few friends: “What if we just played 48 Warriors and 2 Amulets?”
Then the brewing started…
Sapphire Storm is a deck that seeks to win the game as fast as possible. The deck is built to excel going second, using a suite of hand traps and board breakers to fight through our opponent’s setup from turn one. Utilizing the namesake card Sapphire Amulet, the deck breaks parity on the Warrior conscription limit per turn, while gaining value off the Warriors that it conscripts, via Keyword Abilities or other support pieces. The deck closes out games through a combination of Ancient Relic – Sword of Sacrifice loops and Betrayal From Within burn damage.
To complement this strategy, Sapphire Storm runs a lot of resiliency pieces. Heroes boast some of the best tutors and Unified recursion in the game, such as Marovin’s Ancient Text and their suite of (Retrieve) Warriors, allowing Sapphire Storm’s notable 3-Card-Engine // 6-Card-Combo to put in work. The deck also runs a massive amount of negates and board breakers, maxing out on Dismantle, Seal Their Fate, Darkwood Archers Of Evergreen, Fandorian Ferocity, and Sunrise, Consumed By Courage, cementing their position as a strictly going-second deck (one of the few in the format that can successfully pull of such a feat).
The benefits of Sapphire Storm as a deck is that it can only get better with time. Any keyworded Warrior that gets printed is an immediate consideration for the deck, and without a dedicated Warlord to the strategy, the whole deck can shift to a new figurehead on a dime.
Mount Bane
Mount Bane
Jasper Kasunic - Team Shockwave
What if I told you there was a super cool and based way to play demons?
One that didn’t involve eradicating your opponents deck or taking all their warriors?
Ok so you still take their warriors but trust me it’s cool when you do it the Mount Bane way.
Mount Bane is an archetype for demons that centers around two key cards: Molten Valley Of Mount Bane and Mount Bane Monster. With both of them face up on the field at once it bestows a nice +4 Atk to all your warriors, making your field quite hard to deal with against warriors based decks.
With the new Exalted Mount Bane Magma Chamber you have a consistent way to always have your Mount Bane Monster on the field and reuse his Shockwave keyword.
You can also easily find the cards to setup this strategy as the warriors Sekhmet and Sinister find the pieces right out of your deck while also using a standard Fallen card advantage engine to draw other strong pieces.
Overall, Mount Bane is a fun way to play Fallen Demons without relying on using your opponents warriors too much as it uses the strong warriors demons have available to themselves. It plays to the Hero player in me by being a strategy that uses consistent high Atk warriors just getting in and doing damage. It relies on quite a few ACT cards so it can be weak to unified and fortified removal or negates. It does however get run strong cards like End Of Days, and Rapture that can easily win games on their own.
I honestly think this deck has some decent fight to it but it can’t really tango with the best of the best right now. I eagerly look forward to seeing both more Mount Bane support and also Hell-Plains support as I think they can compliment each other well. If not just for the sole reasoning of being able to say I’m playing Mount Bane Hell-Plains.
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