In the early play stages of Legions, Heroes were a deck that often faltered due to the suite of Warrior removal that most other Legions had access to, as well as due to an absence of ways to recur their Warriors in response to these measures. As Alero’s Heroes were often reliant on consistently having Warriors on the field, this was clearly an issue.

Angelica works to solve this by going at it (almost) completely solo. Capable of running the lowest main deck Warrior count in the game, Heroes now have a solution to their issues:

“If my opponents keep playing removal, then I just won’t play anything for them to remove!”

Most die rolling effects DO NOT roll dice until the effect is resolving. In such cases, your opponent must respond to your effects before they know the outcome of the roll.

There are, however, some effects that either:

⦁ Alter the result of the roll, through rerolling, or simply changing the result without rerolling,

⦁ Or trigger because of a die being rolled or rerolled.

These effects are applied BEFORE resolving the effect that rolled the dice in the first place.

⦁ Example: Activate the effect of Back Alley Rogue Magic, while Angelica’s Luck Charm is in play.

⦁ Back Alley Rogue Magic rolls a 1. Angelica’s Luck Charm deals 1 damage before Back Alley Rogue Magic applies its 1-3 effect. 

⦁ In addition, one could choose to change the 1 to a 6 with Angelica’s Luck Charm before Back Alley Rogue Magic applies its 1-3 effect, now making it the 4-6 effect instead.

A good rule of thumb is to apply effects as follows:

⦁ Roll the die through an effect.

⦁ Change the result of the die through an effect that changes without rerolling.

⦁ Apply any other effects that happen when a die is rolled.

⦁ Change the result of the die through an effect that rerolls.

⦁ Change the result of the die through an effect that changes without rerolling.

⦁ Apply any other effects that happen when a die is rerolled.

⦁ Finish resolving the initial effect.

Don’t worry if your opening hand doesn’t have any combo pieces. Most of them can be tutored for through your Realm effect or are often drawn through Beacon of Hope. Your plan at the start of the game is to survive until turn 3, so we mulligan heavily to find enough damage prevention to get there. 3 copies of any combination of Welcome to Alburdunn, Mists from the Fata Morgana, Ecrutek the Wandering Warlock, Angelica’s Emerald Luck Charm and Mystery of the Dark Wood should get you there in most cases. Look at what deck your opponent is playing to better sculpt your opener as well. More combat fogs against a more combat-focused deck, more effect fogs against an effect damage-focused deck.

This combo revolves around using Fawdon Raspy, The Rogue Gambler’s Consume Ability to buff Angelica’s Physical Attack. There are slight variations regarding how this line works, especially regarding going full or partial combo, depending on how many copies of certain cards you see.

Activate Angelica’s Special Ability, adding 2 rerolls to your stock.

Activate Land of Fire and Ice, moving 2 Cooldown Counters from Angelica to your Synergy.

⦁ It would be beneficial to do this after activating your Synergy, as once you do, you’ll be unable to use it.

Repeat Steps 1 & 2 for as many times as you can activate Land of Fire and Ice.

Play as many copies of Back Alley Rogue Magic onto your field as possible.

Activate Fawdon Raspy, The Rogue Gambler’s Consume Ability.

⦁ This buffs Angelica by xd6 Physical Attack, where x equals the number of times you’ve activated your Special Ability in Section One.

Each copy of Back Alley Rogue Magic will hit your opponent for 1d6 worth of damage.

⦁ Activate the ability of Back Alley Rogue Magic.

⦁ This is where you often want to spend your stock of rerolls. Rolling a 4 to 6 is the goal here, and filtering your resources into doing so is crucial if you’re unlucky.

If you roll 4 to 6, activate Fawdon Raspy, The Rogue Gambler’s Consume Ability, paying 10 life instead of AP.

⦁ This buffs Angelica by xd6 Physical Attack, where x equals the number of times you’ve activated your Special Ability in Section One.

Each copy of Back Alley Rogue Magic will hit your opponent for 1d6 worth of damage.

⦁ Repeat the last 3 steps for each copy of Back Alley Rogue Magic.

Play and activate the ability of Angelica’s Rogue Independence.

⦁ This will buff Angelica by 2d6 Physical Attack.

Conscript Fandorian Freedom Fighter

⦁ This will destroy Angelica’s Rogue Independence, making it a legal target to (Retrieve) with Fandorian Freedom Fighter’s enter play ability.

⦁ This can be repeated for as many times as you can conscript a Warrior with (Retrieve).

This section is simple, now that Angelica has become massive, use your Physical Attack to hit your opponent for lethal damage.

Depending on the board situation, some removal may be needed (either through pre-preparation or during your turn).

⦁ Mystery of the Dark Wood shuffles a Warrior back to the deck.

⦁ Rogue Wire Trap is single target removal, as well as being a shuffler in the discard pile.

⦁ Dark Wood Archers of Evergreen is a 3-damage board wipe, good for small Warriors. Also, a situational heal card.

⦁ Deadly Rogue Assault is a 2d6-damage board wipe, which can be repeated from the discard pile.

⦁ Rogue Resistance Power Struggle allows you to use your Magical Attack in addition to using your Physical Attack on the same turn.

Angelica’s Emerald Luck Charm

Playing Angelica’s Emerald Luck Charm allows any die roll to be converted to direct damage. For each die rolled (and rerolled, so burn that stock!), the charm burns your opponent for 1 damage per die. This adds up quickly, and often can lead to kills before needing to swing with Angelica’s Physical Attack.

The charm can also burn your opponents on their turn, say for example, through a Fortified that rolls dice, so it often works as a stax piece, preventing opponents from paying too much life, for fear of the potential instant-speed damage.

Even more so, as if the card’s damage potential wasn’t enough of a selling point, it also prevents half of all combat damage, rounded down. This makes boards of large Warriors a miniscule threat, and the ever so rampant running-arounds of Warriors with 1 power deal nothing.

Dismantle // Seal Their Fate

Besides the fact that these cards are staples in practically every deck in the format, the main question I receive is: “Why run so many copies of them?” This list currently runs 3 copies of each, and simply put, the reason behind that choice is because of how easily our deck can fold to Fortified interaction when we go to combo off. Consistently having 1 or more negates in hand during each stage of the combo is important to counteracting interaction.

Peace of Mind

Peace of Mind works as our card selection engine. The deck plays in two distinct stages, pre-Realm and post-Realm, and many of the cards in the deck fall into the category of being a pre-Realm or post-Realm card. Peace of Mind allows us to get rid of cards we don’t need for the stage that we’re in, in the hopes that we draw into cards we do need. 

And while End of Days isn’t running around as rampant as it used to be in earlier days, Peace of Mind also works to counteract discard hate.

Betrayal from Within

Betrayal from Within is an interesting card conceptually. It functions as both a tax piece for Warrior-focused strategies, but also destroys our own cards as if our opponents had destroyed them. Interestingly, that second effect is the most appealing part of the card, thanks to different cards in our deck that react to being popped by an opponent. For example, Dark Wood Archers of Evergreen allows us to pop 3 more cards when it’s popped, and Peace of Mind allows us to put it on the bottom of the deck and draw a card.

Warriors (In General)

This deck focuses on going all-in on the combo kill, rather than opting for a more Warrior-focused gameplan. As such, we opt to run cards that further the combo, or act as better protection than an individual Warrior could, such as fog effects. The few Warriors that we do run act as either combo recursion (Fandorian Freedom Fighter), or as a fog effect (Ecrutek, the Wandering Warlock).

Rogue Smuggler’s Ring

While the ceiling of this card is high, the floor is also fairly low. In addition, the card advantage granted by Beacon of Hope is just too great to discredit, especially in a combo-oriented build. I could see argument for playing this card in a more midrange Rogue deck, but it just doesn’t fit here.

I purposefully did not include a sideboard in this version of the primer for a number of reasons. Notably, sideboards should be tailored to your local meta, or should have a small sprinkling of everything when playing in larger events that combine playgroups (such as Siege Series). Notable cards that I tend to include in my Sideboard include:

⦁ Cards that 'hate out' specific playstyles (Concrete Catacombs for eradication-style decks, etc.)

⦁ Cards that modify our deck against different strategies (More fogs against aggro, less against control, etc.)

In short, find cards that you believe will work well within your deck, as well as work well against other players.

Angelica is a really interesting deck, both to play at a functional level, through the dice rolling mechanics, as well as a competitive level. While it does rely on randomized outcomes at times, there are ways to both change the outcomes of your die rolls, as well as benefit off of what some would consider 'whiff rolls,' turning a disadvantageous situation into a beneficial one.

While Angelica may be considered a rogue deck (no pun intended), it's certainly not a deck that should be ignored when piloted by an experienced individual. I look forward to seeing how people take their own personal spin on the list.