Glimpse?! In THIS meta?! It's more likely than you think.

So after spending the past half-year away from the game while recovering from the RSI I suffered playing my previous iteration of this archetype to a QCP Top 32, I returned to what is possibly the most Glimpse-hostile format I've ever experienced. Not to be deterred, I put on my deckbuilding socks and got to work.

If you want to skip my whole Glimpse manifesto and just get a q̶u̶i̶c̶k̶ overview of the deck then see below.

Now I don't know if it's the months of quarantine, or maybe the sleep deprivation finally catching up with me, but I think I might be onto something here. Just the fact that I haven't found this build to be completely unplayable in a meta where almost every viable deck is running multiple sources of relic hate says a lot - not to even mention the Yetis.

One of the biggest problems right now with Glimpse (other than the fact that it's Glimpse) is the variety of answers you need against the current field. You need early answers like Torch and Blazing Salvo to not get run over by Yetis and Mono Fire, you need versatile hand disruption like Bar the Gates to deal with the relic hate found in every deck you go against (and Dazzle... Man, I really hate Dazzle...), and you need Protect so that you don't just lose to a bargained Draconic Ire before you die to 12 damage in the air the following turn.

So after some very extensive deckbuilding science and l̶o̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶d̶o̶z̶e̶n̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶s̶ many hours of research, this is the build I've settled on vs the current field. I'm as surprised as you are that the deck still combos with so much of the core cut. Somehow Find the Way has been one of the MVPs in many of my recent games. (It's also been the LVP in a decent chunk too, but I'm willing to chalk that down to some of the dodgy hands I've kept.)

The deck's honestly feels pretty hard to pilot properly, but again, that might just come down to sleep deprivation. I've been finding that most of the games I've been losing with it have just been huge punts by yours truly, so I'd feel bad for the deck going too deep into that sort of thing. The other games I've been losing are basically lost from as soon as I keep my hand, whether it's mulling down to six (or just being greedy) and bricking, keeping a hand without enough interaction and getting run over, or getting Royal Decree'd or Rain of Frogs'd with shields down.

With this being such a hostile meta to relic-based decks anyway, I could see this deck really shining (for a Glimpse deck, let's not set our expectations unreasonably high) in a narrower meta where you don't have to go as wide with your answers.

With all that being said, let's get into some of the changes since April.

One of the biggest changes is the aforementioned inclusion of Find the Way. Without any card draw in the deck, it was pretty rough marketing a lot of the time. It's also helping glue our Frankenstein's monster of a manabase together. Who knew that echo cards go so well with markets ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I could really see cutting one copy for another Torch, Protect, or chant. I've no idea, really. It's sometimes fantastic, but sometimes you just wish you drew basically anything else.

Probably the biggest addition is the Rujin's Choice suite that's been added. The card's straight-up fantastic. They're almost free includes as I realised they let me cut two copies of Packbeast while comboing with similar consistency. We've also got a bit of a Rujinn toolbox going on in the new build. I've found Stoneshaker to be great. It lets you get away with some really nasty T5 or T6 kills that you'd never be able to get otherwise. Desert Marshal was originally a concession to Tocas, Waystone Harvester, but I've found that he can put in some solid work vs Yetis when you just happen to draw him. Grenarender has been pretty mediocre, on the other hand. It's okay when you hit a Sling of the Chi with it, but it might be better left in the sideboard until Avigraft starts becoming common in markets, again.

The only thing that makes Glimpse even semi-functional in this anti-relic meta is the disruption suite. Bar the Gates is by far the most impactful card to the deck's playability in this format. Protect has won me a fair few games, too, but not hitting Dazzle is big. Vara's Choice is comparatively lackluster, but it sniping its fair share of Saber-Tooth Prideleaders, Siege Breakers, and Marley, Heroic Marshals while not being completely dead against aggro makes it more than deserving of its inclusion, in my opinion.

I've gone down to two copies of Blazing Salvo since the nerf. Starting the game at as little as 17 life was never really gonna fly in a deck that relies on its life total this much. And honestly, every time I die to my own salvo (which is actually quite often), I consider cutting the two remaining copies. It'll happen one of these days, I know.

The only other new addition is the Unearth the Past in the market. It's one of the key cards in the relic vs removal battle of attrition that happens every third game or so. I'm not sure it's the best option, though. I could see Pause for Reflection, Dissociate, or maybe even Hesitate being better alternatives (I'd hesitate to include that last one in any tournament list, though).

Open Contract sounds like it would be great, but I lost a lot of games while I tried it by killing my own board while trying to go off. Maybe it has a place in a really aggressive meta, but even them I'm not totally sure.

I've seen other lists run Trickster Mage, but I've found Stoneshaker suits the deck better. The effect being permanent as well as it affecting cards after you draw them outweighs the mage's bigger body.



There're way too many little tricks and nuances to get into here, but I'll just give a quick overview of how the deck plays out and some things to watch out for when you try to combo.

If you're looking at all this and just going "What the hell is this pile of cards? How the hell does it do anything?" let me enlighten you to the way of the light. The synergy between Glimpse the Possibilities and Workshop Forge was obvious as soon as the ECG community laid eyes on the Dark Frontier spoiler. So strong, in fact, was the combo that DWD was forced to hotfix nerf Glimpse from its former glory (don't let anyone tell you any different).

This combo, aided by Seek Powers, chants, and standards are the basis for the deck. The general game plan is as simple as "Play Workshop Forge, play Glimpse the Possibilities, play every other card in your deck, win." It's also not a great idea to go off without influence in all four factions.

Turn timers can be a bit of an issue when you first start playing Glimpse (and when you've played it for a thousand games). It's not a great experience on mobile for that reason. You need to play fast on the turn you cast Glimpse. (It's also good to play fast in general since there are some algorithmic shenanigans going on behind the scenes that make your turns shorter the slower you play. This is the reason you have so much less time on Glimpse turns after the first.)

Mulliganing is one of the most important thing with this deck (as it is with most decks). Time influence is pretty much a must for any starting hand, as is at least one way to access your market. (IMPORTANT: RUJIN'S CHOICE =/= DEMONIC TUTOR. Rujin's is addictive, but overdosing will lose you games.)

Some interaction is always good, too. You can still lose games with four power source; three merchant hands. It's hard to put too much emphasis on this one, though, unless you know what your opponent's playing.

Obviously, it's not quite that simple. As someone asked me earlier today, "how many differnt ［sic］ ways are there to fizzle lmao［?］" Many. There are many.

The main ones are pretty obvious: running out of power and running out of power drops. Your main way of dealing with these are using your Rujins properly. Your first Rujin's Choice should usually be finding a Packbeast unless you're starting to combo low on power to not die (which will, unfortunately, be very often), in which case you probably need to grab a Stoneshaker instead. (Tutoring this card with Rujin has to be my favourite change to the combo in this version. My brain appreciates how much easier it makes the combo.) You can kill pretty consistently on 5 power (please don't play power on the turn you start to combo for obvious reasons) if you have a Rujin in your hand along with Glimpse by grabbing the smoothie shaker with Rujin before spending any other power.

The other very common way to fizzle is by running out of board (don't worry, I'll explain). All the tactics you're going to have to play to deal lethal require targets; as in, they literally need targets to be played. The most notable of which being Cabal Tactic which can't be played on opposing units. As such, going off with no/few units is only recommended in desperation. It's always preferable to have some targets on the board to eat salvos and temple tactics.

You also need a unit that's ready to attack. This is pretty obvious, but I thought I'd mention it anyway since there are going to be times where grabbing an East Annex Smuggler with Rujinn just for the charge is the right move.

When you do fizzle (or shame rope) it's usually best to have merchanted for Excavate and have kept one power up to play it (I usually get too greedy and end up running out of power, though) to hopefully end it the next turn.

There's probably some other big stuff that I've forgotten to mention, but I'm hoping this primer might inspire a few non-believers to convert to the Church of Glimpse, (or at least spend a few tiers worth of rating to appreciate the archetype's beautiful interactions).