Fire Midrange Gauntlet

Why this deck for gauntlet

This is one of my favorite Gauntlet decks currently. It is fun to play, has tons of sweet interactions, easy mana, and plenty of reach via burn. And crucially for gauntlet, it's fast.

Strategy

In general the deck works a lot like Rakano. Get out early, build some warcry, and battle through the midgame. The difference is that instead of Rakano's Deepforged Plate, our reach comes in the form of either a double damage overwhelm attack with Zuberi / Groundbreaker / Shugo Standard, or Obliterate to the face. Also, our mana is easier while giving us a lot better chance of cashing in a Granite Waystone-ed Grenadine for a valuable market card.

A note on 2-drops

You'll notice that there are several 1-of units in the 2 spot. This is because Rakano Outlaw is the only great 2F unit, period. The others are just ones I'm constantly testing, and almost always ending up disappointed in them. Previously I tried Hotblood Barbarian and Yeti Sage in this slot and I may just go back to those. Sage in particular handles warcry/Shugo Tactic/weapons really well and gives us a fake card to trade in the market.

Market

Bore is a cheap way to get rid of permafrost, obelisks, weapons, and relic weapons. Furnace Mage represents better value but the ability to immediately market and cast Bore with only 4 power is simply too good.

Mindfire is a meme-tier card but it often lets you win games immediately instead of dangerously dragging things out when the AI may stabilize. Similar to Bore, the 1 cost is key here.

Crimson Firemaw is one of our best midrange threats and being our only flyers, is often something we want to fetch against AI flyer swarms or general board stalls.

Groundbreaker has a ton of utility. Even without double damage it's a stone wall blocker against many spammy AI decks. It also shuts down the Xenan and Argenport lifesteal theme decks the AI sometimes runs. It's also perfectly fine to grab as a simple midrange beater.

Obliterate is the second greatest burn card next to torch, being able to remove tons or things or just win the game outright. You don't want to see too many in your opener, hence the market spot.