Elham Go-Wide Armory [Masters April 2020]

Elham, Keen-Eyed is by far the least hyped card of his cycle, but I think it's got a lot of potential and people might be kinda sleeping on it. Elham hints at a different way to play armory: instead of running very few units and maxing out on boardwipes to try and kill any opposing units that might break your precious relic weapons (which you then use to punch the opponent in the face), you commit to the board with tons of units and generate enough armor that whatever damage makes it through your blockers isn't enough to break your weapon. This also helps take the deck in a direction that enables Naoki to shine: there's almost always a body to put her exalted weapon on, and a board with Naoki+any corrupted unit takes either a decimated Shen-Ra Speaks or 3 single-target removals to fully clear.

There are a lot of traditional armory staples that didn't make the cut here thanks to the increased focus on bodies on the board. Rakano Artisan ended up getting cut because it only makes one body. Pillar of Progress? No bodies, bleh! Even though I am running a toolbox of 1-of weapons I chose not to include Dragon Forge because I want to spend as little mana as possible doing anything that doesn't put bodies on the board. I also ended up CUTTING CONSPICUOUS TRAVELER (very painful decision) because there just wasn't room for 12 4-drops and I prioritized the ones that have multiple bodies and work with Burden. Sadly I also ended up cutting Solburst Scimitar, one of my favorite pet cards, because even though it can make multiple bodies for the board, it only really shines with either attack buffs or burn spells and this deck doesn't have much room for either.