• Lukas Richardson

Blastforge Dwarfs is the first Legions deck I ever played with, and it’s the deck I've piloted at every competitive event that I've participated in to date.  I've always been naturally drawn to combo decks and the lines that Blastforge can play definitely scratch that itch for me in a way that no other Legions deck has so far. Guardians' Creed cemented Blastforge as a viable competitive option with it's new card Grue, The Blastforge Hunter Owl. Grue is a warrior with swift and snapshot  that gives the deck more ways to trigger its strongest tools that rely on conscripting a Blastforge warrior, and also gives the deck consistent burn damage output.

At the surface the game plan with Blastforge is simple - spam the board with warriors, clear your opponents board, use your armaments to boost your warrior's atk and deal lethal damage as fast as possible. The tools Blastforge has make it pretty versatile in dealing with different types of threats but executing the game plan is easier said than done. It can be overwhelming when you have so many different options to try to get through your opponents defenses, and the deck is pretty fragile. If even just one of your key combo pieces is interrupted (or heaven forbid eradicated) and you don't have an answer, it can often mean the end of your turn or even a swift game loss.

Let's talk about some of the key tools and combo pieces that the deck has;

- Blastforge Xtreme, Into The Blastforge & Blastforge Turbine

These are your main combo pieces that you want to see on your first turn. Blastforge Xtreme effectively searches for two Blastforge cards and helps to get combo pieces into the discard pile which often feels like a second hand with this deck. Into the Blastforge and Blastforge Turbine plus any warrior allows you to conscript up to three Blastforge warriors from your deck for the cost of 6 bloodborne. Successfully resolving this combo leads to insane card and board advantage.

- Kindle-Haust, Blastforge Fire-Sparker & Stoga-Frost, Blastforge Flame Keeper

These two warriors work in conjunction to both get you card advantage and remove warriors from the board. Stoga-Frost can often resolve wisdom multiple times in a turn letting you dig through your deck quickly and her perish effect is your most reliable way to get to Kindle-Haust who removes up to 4 warriors from the board with the combination of gust and shockwave.

- Blastforge Melt-Cannon

This armament is the decks main win condition. Equipping one or more of these to a warrior and attacking for up to 19 damage,  returning the equipped warrior to your hand, and doing it all over again leads to damage that not many other decks can output in a single turn. Melt-Cannon doesn't stop there and also offers free single target removal when it's in the discard pile.

Even though Blastforge has incredible kill potential, there are plenty of decks in the meta that can shut you down if you choose to go second and try to get damage in on your first turn. In my opinion it's for this reason that Blastforge is at its best when it can go first and set up interruptions that leave your opponent wide open for you to push for game on your second turn. In fact, if you can successfully set up your ideal board going first, it can seem impossible for your opponent to get into the game. Your ideal set-up when going first is to have copies of Blastforge Blastbombs and Blastforge Barrier Buckler set. Backing these up with strong bounty fortifieds like Magik Void Hollow and/or The Twilight Gardens combined with getting a copy of Blastforge Melt-Hammer in the discard pile is more than most decks can deal with and gives you a great opportunity to win the game on your next turn.

To summarize, Blastforge is a glass (melt-) cannon deck with a great ability to generate card advantage and output lethal damage very quickly. It feels Xtremely rewarding to pilot thanks to the seemingly infinite decisions one can make during the game - especially with Blastforge Xtreme. The deck is not without its faults and definitely struggles against certain matchups that prevent you from getting your engine going, but once you stoke the Blastforge its very difficult to cool it back down.

Let me take you back in time, to a time before the Guardians Creed, when Empires started to rise, especially if you ignore ALL the lore. Back then, Gaia was a deck few paid attention too, it didn't have the strength, consistency, and killing power of a top tier deck, and with all that combined with the smallest health pool available, players quickly dismissed Gaia as one of the weakest decks in the format, and they weren’t wrong. 

After some time had passed, Guardians Creed was announced and many of the Titan cards in the set are tooled specifically for Gaia. Unstoppable Titan War Smash is an incredible consistency piece that allows you to constantly draw cards, blockade your opponent, and eradicate warriors. Unstoppable Momentum also allows you to draw even more cards. Topaz Amulet is another strong control tool lending itself to the deck, even if it isn't archetypal. Gaia's Unstoppable Presence is a card that allows Gaia to output a considerable amount in damage, and after testing it in the Tall Tales format, it can output some SILLY numbers. 

Finally we have Land Of Dreams and Lavictus, The Son Of Sunder, both future drop Exalteds. When they first came out, land of dreams quickly overshadowed Lavictus, but after playing with the cards in multiple tournaments, Lavictus definitely holds up his exalted status. After all these cards were spoiled, I set to work building a Gaia deck with other members of Team Shockwave, and we quickly came to a solid list we all like, with some minor differences. This deck was then tested and tested and brought to a few tournaments, putting up some good results, and cementing its spot as one of the strongest decks in the meta. 

Personally, in the current meta of Legions: Realms at War, I enjoy Gaia a lot, because against the more aggressive decks I can simply shut them down, and the control decks I can out grind with my healing and recursion. A few struggle points can be Angels, specifically Castiel, what's Michael gonna do, attack me? (He isn’t, he has blockade) Castiel however, can build a board, build some warriors, stack counters, and oblate your minuscule health pool in a single turn. 

How do you stop it? Good question, can’t give away all my secrets tho! 

Another stumbling point can be Mythical Beasts, the best way to deal with them is to stick an amulet and a Land Of Dreams, and then start that grind. The final stumbling point of the deck can be Dwarves. First up a pure Blastforge Aggro deck can just run you down, especially if they can set up before you. Ethelhime can also be a problem. She doesn't need warriors to beat you down, she can just beat you down with her fists. Other than that, the deck doesn’t have too many unfavourable match ups. Playing the deck can be a blast if you know what you’re doing, and knowing when to activate different cards is key. 

The only way to learn this deck is to practice it, and there may be some stumbling blocks along the way, but it is for sure worth it, and the deck will reward players that stick with it. It has a lot of strong points, and I think it will only get stronger as the card pool continues to grow!