So, when I looked at
Archmagister's Portal at first, I didn't think too highly of it. "Oh look, another inconsistent highlander relic to buff mediocre units, while you swim through hands of below average cards hoping opp doesn't just remove your attachments with a 2 cost fast spell...yeee...".
Then tho I noticed that this card TECHNICALLY only cares about units, so why not try and build a deck with highlander units, but ALSO high quality spells? The +2/+2 is permanent too, therefire if I play a unit over and over It gets stronger and stronger.
First iteration of the deck was a T/P/S trashcan. When you are forced to run only 1 of your units you exhaust pretty swiftly the number of good candidates in such a small pool, and since the deck, end of the day, revolves around units, they gotta be good and able to stand on their own in matches when I don't draw
Archmagister's Portal. What faction combination has the biggest pool? 5f ofc. So I made the deck 5f. All the units in there range from good to exceptional, and 5f gets plethora of great cards overall. Key cards are ofc
Archmagister's Portal,
Veena's Masterpiece and
Eremot's Machinations. The first being the powerhouse, second the draw engine, third the big tempo swing card. To build around machination, as well as lowering the deck's curve, I decided to focus mostly on units with cost between 1 and 3, as well as units with summon effects. These units can become extremely beefy as game goes thanks to
Archmagister's Portal anyways, so no need to ruin our curve by running bigger stuff.
Now onto the card breakdown:
1 Cost units
Autotread: I'll repeat the same thing for every unit in here (besides 1 I'm unsure about), but this card is good. Free ping, free discard to set void for great
Eremot's Machinations plays later, you can proc
Veena's Masterpiece without attacking, all for just 1 mana.
Logistics Expert: A little bit of max power always helps. The amplify can be good later + overwhelm synergizes really well with
Veena's Masterpiece. You can run
Praxis Adept instead if you want, but I think Expert is slightly better in this deck.
Snowstorm Druid: On demand face aegis. That's it. Oh you want more? It flies. And costs 1. And occasionally you can proc the muster ability and stall 1 unit. Neat little card, grants your relics much needed protection, especially when you continuosly bring it back from the void using
Eremot's Machinations.
Gustrider: Cycling is always great, and this lil' girl is cheap at 1 mana, helps you dig through your deck quite easily.
2 Cost units:
Ascetic Lantern: This card works very well with
Archmagister's Portal, as its unique bounce mechanic gives you the opportunity to play it, make it soak the +2/+2 buff, return it to hand and repeat the process. The disc/draw is also very good. I wish it still costed 1, but as an all time aggro hater, I understand the nerf. Regardless, very good unit in this deck.
Desert Marshal: It's a cheap way to silence units, +ambush is a very versatile keyword. One of the oldest units around, yet many combrei decks still run this guy. For a reason. You can always find a way to squeeze some use out of marshal in any matchup.
Oni Inciter: On summon kills a relic or gives you a useful card in hand. Not a bad deal.
Grenahen: 1 for 1 on summon, can get you
Vikrum's Bomb and
Blazing Salvo too. Lifesteal is incredibly useful as a way to stabilize, especially when our relics allow us to buff its 1 attack to 5/6.
Lethrai Marauder: Best unit in the deck. This card is already good, but in this deck it's just...goated. So let's figure things out together shall we? First: it has overwhelm and 3 attack, fantastic for
Veena's Masterpiece. Second: by costing only 1 discard from hand (which can be argued to be a bonus, since it allows us to set up our void) can either
- Give killer to something. This means that every single time we play that mf it is gonna be able to proc the killer attack. This can happen often during a match, and if the killer unit also has overwhelm with
Veena's Masterpiece on board...well...you are gonna get a LOT of value.
-Remove a relic/curse/unit with formbend. Also extremely good because our decks allows us to do it over and over by playing this card multiple times. Project being annoying? Just turn it into a water droplet and then swing into it with your 5/3 killer overwhelm.
-Play an extra body on board. If it is the first time you do that and have
Archmagister's Portal on board, it will also get the buff and become a 4/3.
Insane unit. If you draw this you are gonna be happy in every matchup.
Passionate Artisan: Great summon skill and cool lil' added protection while this sticks on board.
Plunk Wumpkin: Insane with
Veena's Masterpiece and vs control, that's really it.
3 Cost units:
Auralian Supplier: You are about to notice a theme with 3 cost units. Let's start with supplier: draws cards.
Auric Interrogator: Draws cards.
Strange Rider: Most likely draws you a card.
Rime Conclave Smuggler: Access to market (not every card but still good) + it gives you face aegis on demand.
Stonepowder Alchemist: with
Veena's Masterpiece it is cool. But tbh I'm not sold on this card.
Spells
Calibrate: 1 cost draw a relic or fix your power, either way, you win.
Blazing Salvo: 2 cost access to market that also doubles as a removal? Count me in! Blazing salvo also has some of the best options for market in 5f, so many good candidates that it is hard to settle on just 5.
Torgov's Wares: It gains you a bit of life, cycles through your deck, costs only 2, just your run of the mill cycle card.
Vikrum's Bomb: Omniremovals come handy in every matchup, and if they don't, just discard them with your cycle cards. try to play the smartly tho. If you are against creation decks save this for project, if you are against heroes burn it vs ambassador ecc.
Display of Knowledge: Draws you a relic and doubles down as a niche removal at times.
Eremot's Machinations: The high end card of this deck. Creates really unfair board states out of nothing, really love this card.
Relics:
Veena's Masterpiece: Draw engine of the deck, not the only one, but surely the most effective. It is so good that often it baits out relic removals, which conversely allows your portal to stick more easily.
Archmagister's Portal: Key card, makes you able to holld your own even in later stages of the game.
Krogar's Grave: Max power + relic + removal. It can also damage face if needed. Krogar's dying was the best thing happening to 5f for a while tbh.
Market
Recovery: Resets a summon and gives you back a unit from void, great value overall, especially since it can be used as a reaction to enemy spells targeting your units.
Rujin's Choice: Gives you access to all your units at fast speed, in a highlander deck it is quite a versatile effect to have.
Strip for Parts: removes a relic, plays one of yours from the void. Since your deck revolves around your relics, this effectively gives you 4 mana+ worth of stuff at just 2 mana and fast speed.
Trials and Tribulations: I hate aggro decks. Nothing feels better than removing one little shit minion on 2 with
Blazing Salvo and follow up with this on turn 4. Besides, board clears are universally good market cards, especially when this cheap.
One Eye's Choice: This card does a lot of stuff. It is an emergency relic buster, it gives something killer and overwhelm, (both really valuable) or it draws something from void, which is also really good.
And that's it! Hope you'll have fun if you try this out, but be very careful against
Crack the Earth, as
End Of An Era is a card you either play around or lose to with this deck.