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Xenan Novaquake Ramp

Throne Deck By
Rainbird
Rainbird+5138

Work in Progress
+6

Cost Curve

Type

Faction

Information

I tried to get Novaquake Titan to work in Praxis with an explorer and sentinel deck and failed miserably (dropped several hundred places in masters). (Such a shame, I recently got my fourth Heart of the Vault in draft and I can't seem find a good deck to play it in.)
Anyway, this is my attempt to get Novaquake Titan to work in Xenan and it seems promising so far.
The game plan is the following: Ramp up to a lot of power with Power Stone, Trail Maker and Mask of Torment in combination with life gain.Then win the game with big sentinels or Mystic Ascendants. Novaquake Titan should be able to break any board stall. The life gain in this deck not only triggers Mask of Torment to increase your maximum power, it also helps you to survive longer to use all the power you get.

Individual card choice:

Ancient Bauble: Very cheap and consistent way to trigger Mask of Torment. Also draws you a card with Novaquake Titan.

Sabotage: Good in almost every match-up, IMHO. Any Harsh Rule, kill spell, Starsteel Daisho, Deepforged Plate, or even Rapid Shot in aggro decks you can hit with it is a win.

Copper Conduit: One of the three bond targets for Novaquake Titan and a good way to sink you excess power in.

Power Stone: Necessary to get to your 4+ drops quickly. Also draws you a card with Novaquake Titan.

Trail Maker: Another ramp card with influence fixing and a chump blocker for emergencies.

Vara's Favor: Gets you Shadow Sigils, kills X/1 units, gets rid of Aegis and triggers Mask of Torment.

Ayan, the Abductor: Lifesteal to trigger Mask of Torment, a great ultimate to get you big body sentinels back on the board and also good vs. aggro (ambush bock Rakano Outlaws etc.).

Banish: A Xenan staple. Kills a lot of units as well as Crystalline Chalice, Auric Runehammer, etc.

Extract: Good against aggro and relic weapons as well as another source to trigger Mask of Torment with a scout ability on top.

Moondial: Ever sit on a lot of power with no cards in hand? This fixes it. Two may be enough. I currently run three and I really like it so far.

Deathstrike: Not much to explain, I guess.

Sandstorm Titan: Strong body, endurance, suppresses flyers and acts as a bond target for Scourstone Sentinel and Novaquake Titan. Absolute must have in this deck.

Mask of Torment: The main source to ramp up your power. And, at 20 power it gives you The Tormentor as an additional edge to win the game.

Mystic Ascendant: Insanely strong card on its own. Not much to explain, I guess.

Scourstone Sentinel: This card looks bad but bond makes is pretty good. Bond it to a Sandstorm Titan or

Copper Conduit. The main reason for including it is as a bond target for Novaquake Titan. You only need 9 power then.

Novaquake Titan: Instant win against any unit-based deck. Against others, it is still a great source of card draw since we run a lot of relics. Requires a sentinel to bond, tough. There are currently 9 other sentinels in this deck. However, the ultimate of

Ayan, the Abductor can also bring back any sentinel as a good bond target. The silencing does not destroy the unit property to be a sentinel.

Amber Waystone: Free triggers for Mask of Torment.

I hope you find this interesting. Any feedback or suggestions welcome!

Details

Shiftstone Cost
Does not include campaign cost
55,200
Premium Cost
201,600
Influence Requirements
4 2
Power Sources
17 16 8
Power Calculator
Shiftstoned Icon View Deck on Shiftstoned
Deck Rarities
26 15 6 15
Card Types
22 12 16 0 25
Contains Cards From Campaigns
The Tale of Horus Traver [Set1002]
Archetype
Combo
Added
December 27, 2017
Views
1,494
Eternal Version
The Dusk Road
BBCode For Comments
Deck URL
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Comments

Chromeleon Edited Eternal Version: 1.27
I recently picked up a couple Novaquake Titan cards and was looking at sentinels trying to figure out the best Bond targets. Like you, my first instinct was Praxis, the obvious "big sentinel" faction. And then I noticed Copper Conduit, and remembered making Bloodrite Kalis huge by recurring it with Smuggler's Stash, and came to see if there were any Xenan takes on that particular pair of cards, this being the only one.

Trying to use Ayan, the Abductor (which you already have), Dark Return, Memory Dredger, and maybe even Xenan Cultist to make Copper Conduit huge, could be worth looking into.
Rainbird Eternal Version: 1.27
To be honest, that sounds too unreliable to me. I think it is much easier to get high power though Mask of Torment and life gain though sources that are good on their own (Amber Waystone, Vara's Favor, Ayan, the Abductor, etc.) than to make bigger sentinels. At 9 power, A Sourstone Sentinel becomes a bond target. Once you have 11 power, an unbuffed Sandstorm Titan becomes a bond target.
In my experience, the bonding of the titan almost always went fine. IMHO, the real problem with this deck is more that Xenan has a hard time in the current meta in general. Xenan did not get a crest (yet) and its answers to aggro are pretty limited. Some people seem to have good results with Devastating Setback against aggro (which I haven't tried yet). But, compared to Feln control, for example, with all the card draw and scouting, Xenan currently just feels underpowered to me. You just die or run out of cards before you get to the good stuff.
I think, once Xenan has gotten a crest, I will try this deck again with Worldbearer Behemoth as a second ramp source and probably Devastating Setback against aggro.
Chromeleon Eternal Version: 1.27
Yeah, I've been experimenting with the idea and haven't had a lot of luck with it yet, for much the same reasons you mention. Draw/selection problems, few tools against aggro.

Complete agreement with your assessment of Xenan's position in the current meta.
Comment Deleted
Randygonzo Eternal Version: 1.27
This deck looks interesting. I hadn't thought of a xenan ramp type of build. Sorry you didn't find a praxis ramp deck that worked for you. I've actually been having some success on ladder with this praxis deck:

https://eternalwarcry.com/decks/details/JUVG-GSR3Lw/big-praxis-sentinels

My only apprehension here is I feel like Novaquake Titan wants to be in a deck with a lot more sentinels. He's good to play not because you want a 10/11 body on the board, but because you want to activate his bond ability. So I would want a lot more other sentinels to ensure that when I do have him in hand there's another sentinel there to bond him with.
Rainbird Edited Eternal Version: 1.27
Thank you, Randygonzo.
Contrary to your deck, I was always trying to use a lot of relics for Monolith Guardian. You are running Seek Power, Power Stone, Trail Maker, and Secret Pages at the same time, interesting. Doesn't that leave you quite vulnerable to aggro? (I really like Vara's Favor for that reason.)

As far as bond targets for Novaquake Titan go: This deck currently runs 9 sentinels and 4 Ayans that can bring them back to the board with +3/+3. And with Sabotage you can protect your sentinels from Harsh Rule, which Praxis has a much more harder time to do. So I don't think that's a problem.
Randygonzo Eternal Version: 1.27
I did try a praxis deck with Monolith Guardian and more relics like Mysterium Orb. But it didn't do as well for me cause sometimes I'd have my Monolith Guardian with no relics or Mysterium Orb with no explorers to get power from it. I've found that a more straightforward ramp deck that just tries to ramp into fatties to be more consistent. As far as matchups against agro decks, they're not great, but they're not bad either. If I can ramp into multiple Sandstorm Titan, Worldbearer Behemoth, Heart of the Vault, etc. before they kill me that usually creates a board stall they can't attack through, and then the decks superior late game can swing the match in my favor.

I forgot Copper Conduit is a sentinel too lol. 9 sentinels isn't a bad number since your not totally relying on Novaquake Titan to win matches.