Infernus - Fun for the Whole Family!

If anyone's looking for another entertaining aggro-combo deck, I'd suggest you give this one a try. The concept here was inspired from a match I played. My opponent pummeled me with a first turn Infernus which was subsequently silenced by a Deafening Word. I'd never thought of that interaction before and loved the idea.

Since Infernus has little value after turn one, the one-two punch of Infernus/Deafening Word is fundamental for this strategy to be viable. The problem for deck design, of course, was figuring out a template to maximize the value of those two cards if the combo doesn't emerge on turn one. Since I've tinkered so much with Belax, Grand Suppressor, and Deans' Chamber, blending that strategy with the Infernus plan looked promising. If you manage to get Belax on the table, an opponent may still consider the enabling cards (Suppressor/Chamber) as the real threat and try to remove them. If that happens, then playing Deafening Word on Belax is not a bad idea since that move will make later Belax cards easier to play. Drawing 8/8 units that cost two is nothing to scoff at, even if they don't fly. Also, as your opponent may use Permafrost on Belax, Deafening Word provides extra utility. The spell will silence the dragon as well as the curse on it. Moreover, as Deafening Word is a fast spell, opponents may not expect you to silence your Permafrosted Belax on their turn giving you an 8/8 unit for blocking. That combat trick has to score points for entertainment value! In addition, Deafening Word is a great tool for strengthening Barricade Basher draws. A 5/5 unit with a cost of three with no penalty sounds all right to me.

A secondary plan of this deck is also disruption, naturally, since Grand Suppressor and Deans' Chamber play that role. Consequently, adding Deafening Word into that mix doesn't hurt because it can wreck your opponents' plan if you target a key unit of theirs with a cost of three or less. Another disruption element here is Autotread. It eliminates enemy units' regen ability and gives you a great outlet for discarding Infernus cards drawn after turn one, giving you extra value from Infernus. (Discarding late game Deans' Chamber cards to Autotread can also be useful, or discarding other superfluous cards.) Autotread is a great turn one play on its own and additionally works as bait for early removal, making Suppressor/Belax more reliable afterwards.

Because I love double damage tricks and this deck has some huge units like Belax and Barricade Basher, adding in Touch of Force made sense. Using Touch of Force on Autotread can also be amazing. Having a sentinel that can pick off two defence units is great and the extra face damage and powerful swings can win games. Also, since the build here already had Justice/Fire influence requirements, Rujin's Choice was a perfect fit. It gives extra double damage possibilities for your units and is incredibly helpful for setting up Belax. Rujin's Choice is a placeholder in your opening hand - i.e., if you've got Belax and Rujin's Choice with good power cards, you may be good to go. Rujin's Choice with Chamber also works, or Rujin's Choice with Suppressor.

The final cards I chose also have synergy with the game plan. Passionate Stonehammer can kill an opponent by itself, especially when you add in double damage effects coupled with pump-up cards like Scythe Slash and Rampage. Those two cards are arguably your best options since they give overwhelm, which is so critical for a double damage kill with your other units that are on the ground. Torch is also a great card for removal here as well as face damage (and is another awesome Touch of Force target). Finally, I created a tentative market in case I wanted to swap some cards out of the main deck later and add in Caravan Delivery to deal with metagame problems.

I've gotten Mastery with this deck several times. It's really fun to play. If you like aggro-combo strategies, try it out. Let me know what you think!