70% win rate in Masters from 20 games.
Update: Continued same win rate since ladder reset (70% from 40 games total).
4F Unitless Spellslinger deck built around
Calderan Cradle and
Moment of Creation. I've been playing with FTP Cradle/Moment decks all week and the deck has slowly transformed into its current state. For a unitless deck, you are still capable of building up a strong board, through Cradle, Moment, and
Torgov's Trading Post.
I decided to add shadow specifically for two cards:
-
Display of Knowledge, which replaced the merchants as a tutor for
Calderan Cradle,
Etched Monolith,
Porcelain Mask, and now
Temporal Distortion. It doesn't require trading a card (so you get to hold on to more spells) and can also act as excellent removal.
-
Quarry feels like a much better
Strategize that helps you find and chain spells.
The deck doesn't have any cards with more than one of a single influence type, except
Etched Monolith (x1) and
Temporal Distortion (x1), which makes meeting influence requirements surprisingly easy. It has an 80-90% chance to play any 2-power card by turn 2.
Diplomatic Seal works so well for this and
Find the Way as well.
An ideal starting hand has:
-
Calderan Cradle
-
Torgov's Trading Post
-1 or 2 removal (
Torch/
Equivocate/
Lightning Storm, either Display)
-3+ types of influence (Time>Primal>Fire>Shadow), with 1-2 undepleted.
-The first 3-4 turns are pretty crucial. You usually want to have 2 open power on turn 2 to play
Torgov's Trading Post or
Find the Way, or to be able to play removal against aggro. Getting
Calderan Cradle out on T3 is also strong.
-Once you have Cradle going, use fast spells to summon Dragons while your opponent attacks, to swing the board into your control.
-
Moment of Creation grows very quickly and can even become OTK with
Etched Monolith and
Porcelain Mask.
-The deck is very reactive so it requires knowing what your opponents are going to do and planning ahead with your fast spells to manage the board. I often fall below 10 health and then completely take over the game.
Other possibilities:
I've had a tough time choosing the final card (x3 of) but have landed on
Dissociate, as it's
very flexible and counters a lot of the deck's weaknesses OR
Corrupt, as it's two spells in one that can counter then kill. I think the former is superior but the latter is more fun.
Other options for this slot could be
Kaleb's Choice,
Vara's Choice,
Purify,
Diogo Málaga, Elonze,
Wisdom of the Elders.