A Warlord's Best Friend

>- Part 2 ->

Written By - Thomas NeilsonJanuary 14th, 2024

Your Warlord is the defining aspect of any deck, and the first thing your opponent will see at the start of a game. Your Warlord's abilities and exclusive cards are the cornerstones of archetypes and signify what decks can and cannot do. Before your warlord can do anything however, your Guardian is the card that starts the game off for you, often creating a pivotal decision point before turn 1 can even start. With a start of game ability that puts your gameplan into motion, and a consume ability for repeatable value, your Guardian is a key component of your arsenal and gameplan.

So when your opponent sets their Guardian face down at the start of the game, what should you prepare to see and play against? If you're trying out a certain Warlord, what Guardian should you run and why?

Whilst the original Warlords were generally unreliant on their Guardians and often turned to the Bounty options, the EOR Warlords are generally more focused on using their intended Guardian. For some, the Guardian is an absolute necessity, but for many there are other Guardian options for niche builds, alternative utility, or sideboard tech.

Angelica, The Rogue Princess Of Blades

Fawdon Raspy, The Rogue Gambler

The primary version of Angelica is the dice combo version, of which Fawdon Raspy is a crucial component. Using Land Of Fire And Ice to loop Angelica's Special ability, and Back Alley Rogue Majik to loop Fawdon's Consume ability the deck can power out a combo kill as early as veil pierce. For the combo version, Fawdon Raspy and Back Alley Rogue Majik are completely necessary, and Fawdon's start of game ability can help setup your gameplan, potentially drawing you up to 3 cards.

As Fawdon has no other necessary cards for the deck outside the combo however, other non-combo versions of Angelica have experimented with other Guardians such as The Mystic Druid, Leader Of The Hood to gain access to Hood Protection Cloak and Anti-Magic Resistance Force, although these lists have yet to recieve as much attention as the combo version of the deck.

Duxvox, The Doomsday Abomination

StinkNar, The Mechanized Goblin / Serenasada, The Secret Soothsayer

Duxvox's guardian StinkNar, The Mechanized Goblin, is a solid stall/value tool, with it's start of the game locking a synergy down until turn 4. Ultimately though, StinkNar isn't necessary for the deck so the list can also utilize Serenasada to better setup early turn control pieces.

StinkNar does provide more utility with his consume ability compared to Serenasada, providing a way to trigger Duxvox destruction events, remove doomsday counters, and generate card advantage at the same time. Duxvox's ability isn't yet the most powerful, has a Bloodbourne cost of 10, and a cooldown of only 2 turns making Serenasada's abililty to reuse Special Abilities mostly unnecessary for the deck.

Players running Serenasada as their Guardian may want to still run StinkNar in the sideboard for lists reliant on their synergy on turn 3.

Ultimately, Duxvox isn't fully reliant on any given Guardian, with Serenasada being less useful than usual. Viviana or Galterius could both be reasonably used for different pieces of tech or value.

Adramelech, The Lord Of Black Magic

Verrine, The Black Magic Pale One

Moving to another essential Guardian, Verrine is a powerhouse in Black Magic, and is also needed for one of your best cards.

Black Magic Tome - Greed is an incredible card in Black Magic, eradicating two cards from deck and drawing two cards whether played normally or eradicated. Greed is locked to Verrine, which on it's own is almost enough to warrant the Guardian, but luckily Verrine's abilities are also custom tailored to help Black Magic making it a sure choice.

Verrine's start of game ability sets any Black Magic Fortified card in play immediately, often setting Cathedral Of Black Magic as a repeatable negate, that can force your opponent to consider how they play around interaction even when going first. Apart from Black Magic, the deck has a few other notable options in Black Magic Curse and Vault Of Black Magic, although these cards are more niche and specific.

Verrine's Consume ability is additionally powerful when finding a kill, being able to revive an eradicated Ermadexa, Black Magic Sorcerer to use his lethal Scour and Extinguish abilities.

Castiel, Tears Of The Lost MEssiah

Sigrid, Avenger Of The Lost Messiah + Alexandria, Protector Of The Pure

Sigrid, Avenger Of The Lost Messiah is crucial for Castiel for one main reason: Empyrean Empire Of The Lost Messiah. Sigrid's start of the game ability searches your deck to eradicate any Lost Messiah or Chaos Divine card. Usually this will eradicate Oath To The Lost Messiah, which in turn puts Empyrean Empire into play immediately. This selection is key for giving Castiel an incredibly consistent first turn, letting you tutor a card with an eradication effect every single turn, whilst churning out Holy Counters.

Sigrid's Consume ability is key too, giving an out to find lethal through Alburdunn's Mayoral Announcement, or in situations where Castiel can't quite find enough counters for lethal otherwise.

Alexandria, Protector Of The Pure is a nice sideboard option for Castiel, either in matchups where Empyrean Empire is prone to being removed, such as against Ethelhime, or in aggro matchups where Helios & Luna, Chaos Divine Lovers can be necessary to survive an early onslaught, such as against Sharn Boars/Orcbane.

Mal'ady, Creator Of The Putrid Sickness

Belladonna, The Putrid Nightshade / Serenasada, The Secret Soothsayer / Meg'Saria, Princess Of Lost Souls

Mal'ady currently has two different main builds that have been popping up, that being a true Putrid Mal'ady list, and a Grimm Malady list that works similarly to Mortis, swapping out some of Mortis' exclusive cards for the powerhouse of Mal'ady's Putrid Mausoleum.

For the true Putrid verisions of the deck, Belladonna, The Putrid Nightshade is your best bet, giving you immediate token fodder, and a powerful Consume ability tutor for continuous value. Belladonna also provides the deck with access to Denial By Doomfire, similarly to Meg'saria.

For the Grimm combo build of Mal'ady however, there are two different options. Meg'saria, Princess Of Lost Souls allows for early game setup by sending a warrior to discard to immediately use with reanimation effects, and gives you access to Denial By Doomfire which can be incredibly helpful for protecting your Mausoleum.

Other versions of this deck have however preferred Serenasada, once again for her powerful hand selection allowing you to more consistently put a Mausoleum into play on turn one. The choice here is ultimately still pilot preference, with neither Guardian yet pulling ahead as the superior choice for the archetype.

gaia, The Earth's Unstoppable Ambition

Erebus, The Unstoppable Chaos

Gaia doesn't have any cards locked to Erebus, but his start of game ability and consume ability are incredibly powerful options to setup and maintain your board lock.

Erebus, The Unstoppable Chaos can start the game putting Jasmine, The Unstoppable Water Beauty into play immediately, which lets you generate two more cards immediately, and trigger up to two unstoppable eradication effects. This amount of immediate card advantage is comparable to Galterius, especially if you can find another Jasmine for turn 1.

His consume ability as well can tutor and eradicate an insane number of cards, helping to find more important control pieces such as Unstoppable Titan War Path, Unstoppable Defence and Quake, The Unstoppable Terra Stone.

Whilst Serenasada can be helpful to setup an opening hand, Jasmine helps Erebus to churn through cards, making the hand setup far less necessary.

Merrisod, The MAster Of Dragonic Spirits

Nyx, The Indigo dragon Lancer

Whilst many of the EOR guardians are useful for certain card inclusions or useful start of game synergies, Nyx, The Indigo Lancer is simply a super powerful Guardian, arguably one of the strongest in the game.

Her start of game ability is a great tutor piece, allowing you to grab Millennium, The Rainbow Sprite immediately which additionally lets you tutor a dragon into eradication to setup for your Crystal Dragon Eggs. Nyx's Consume ability is a fantastic value piece. Being tied to Merrisod's Special Ability lets it be used every three turns, and tutoring and triggering five eradication effects is an incredible amount of value, that is incredibly difficult to stop or negate, being tied to a Guardian.

Additionally, as Bind The Dragon Soul is locked to Nyx, she's locked in as Merrisod's guardian for the foreseeable future.

Ethelhime, The STrongarm Alewife

Saphina, Enchantress At The Alehouse / Serenasada, The Secret Soothsayer

Ethelhime is an explosive tempo deck with the ability to go incredibly big, and both Saphina, Enchantress At The Alehouse, and Serenasada, The Secret Soothsayer are solid options for aiding this gameplan.

Saphina gives you immediate access to Exit The Alehouse, one of the strongest Fortified negates in the game. Setting immediately on turn one, and shuffling back the target makes Saphina a powerful option when you're opponent is going first, forcing them to consider interaction when they could otherwise play out without worry. Her Consume ability is another nice control tool, helping you to turn a board of Ale Counters into a refill for your DCM.

For more aggressive builds of Ethelhime however, Serenasada has shown to once again be a powerful option. In a deck like Ethelhime especially, finding the right opening hand can be crucial for an explosive start that immediately puts your opponent on the back foot. Serenasada's Consume ability too allows you to use Ethelhime's special ability twice, allowing for even more lethality with less Ale counters in play.

Marianas, The Corsair Of Despair

Sea Omen, Mollymock

Many Warlords are generally reliant on their Guardian, with other options only being useful in niche scenarios. Marianas however, is completely locked to Sea Omen, Mollymock as her Guardian. Mollymock's start of game ability is mostly flavour text for the time being, but Infamy counters are likely to become a much more crucial component of Marianas' kit as more pieces come out.

Mollymock's Consume ability helps to put threats on the board, immediately equipping them with Ancient Relics to push in damage.

The EOR Warlords show a much more diverse selection of Guardians, with their equivalent EOR Guardians taking the slot for most. Other utility choices such as Serenasada, or the original RVL Guardians can also be seen in various lists looking to take advantage of different synergies or strategies.

Of course, the most popular Guardians aren't necessarily the only good options, and skilled brewers may find success in experimenting and swapping the Guardians from EOR, RVL, and the Bounty options, to tune and customize lists. Aswell, different Guardians can provide unique and powerful sideboard options to aide in changing up your gameplan to better combat problematic strategies, with better access to card advantage, utility or hate pieces, or simply a change in gameplay.

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