• 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.