T32 Ranked Masters Challenge Evenhanded Katra Combo

Ladder players hate him! These 12 weird tricks will improve your rank!

Updated list for T32 Ranked Masters

EDIT: Just realized I never mentioned I was sitting in Top10 masters with this, lol

Debated with myself and some of the TDC guys (look out for their Draft Tier List coming soon) about whether or not to post this list, frankly because playing the mirror to this sounds horrendous, but I figured what the heck. This is the deck I’ve been playing in ranked for the last week. The original list was made by Mgallop and myself and I’ve changed around some numbers based on performance.

It’s an Evenhanded Golem Xenan midrange deck that has access to the Katra combo. For those who do not know what that is, it involves Razorquill, Katra, and Twisted Honor. With all 3 in play you can activate Razorquill a number of times equal to your opponent’s life total, as Razorquill costs 0 to twist and gets Health every time you gain life with its twist. It’s one of very few true combo kills available in Eternal.

So, why Evenhanded Golem? I knew this card was going to be fantastic when it got spoiled, and my first craft of the set was a premium playset or these guys. For the low low price of every odd costed card in the game, including merchants, you get a factionless 2/2 that draws you 2 cards on summon. You may ask yourself, “Why is this so good! I can just play markets and Wisdom of the Elders”. Well my naive friend, when this ability is tacked onto a unit, unit recurring effects suddenly gain an option to draw 2 cards. And that piled up. For all who are like me and love Golem, I’d recommend sticking to shadow with him, as you lose the least for staying even. You still get desecrate and Vara, which are some of shadows best cards, as well as Memory Dredger and Last Chance to keep the golems coming. Also every piece of this combo is even, so it works.

“You’re playing a combo deck without a market, wouldn’t markets work better? Honestly I don’t know, but my gut tells me no. The combo itself is pretty fragile. You’re playing a bunch of units that eat it to torch, annihilate, and Ice Bolt, so going all in on the convo seems poor. In addition I’m not sure how I would configure a market for this. Xenan usually struggles to keep cards in hand, so the idea of holding the 3 cards and waiting until 10 mana is suspect at best.

Anyway onto the list itself. We have our Last Chances at 0, which are nice versatile ways to recur anything from Golem to Azindel to a combo piece. Word of advice you have dredger in deck so unless you absolutely need to i would hold off using last chance on a golem.

At 2 we have 4 copies of Golem, 4 Temple Scribe, 4 Devotee of Sands, and 2 Twisted Honor for units. Golems are the bread and butter, Scribes act as another good dredger target and a katra trigger without a response window, Devotee is a great 2 drop for decks that want to accelerate their curve, which we do as we don’t have any 3 drops. Generally speaking Devotee should be the first unit you play on 2 as it allows for a 4 or 2 2s on 3. Outside of the combo Twisted Honor is some Garbo, but we want to have access to the combo against control and such, so he gets the nod at 2 of. We also have our removal suite of Desecrate, Annihilate, Vara’s Favor, and Vara’s Choice. Each do their own thing.

At 4 we have Vara, Katra, and Dredger at 4-of, with Razorquill at 3. Razorquill isn’t as embarrassing as Twisted Honor sans ckmco and also does a good job paired with just Katra. In addition Razorquill does some dirty things with Azindel.

Speaking of, we have 3 of him. Usually you’ll draw enough power that you want something to do with it, and Azindel certainly does something with it.

Matchups to come when I’m not lazy. I'm not putting % because it's really down to individual market cards or techs with a lot of these decks. I'll just state favorable, unfavorable, or even.

Hooru Control - even - You need to start out of the gates pretty hard. Memory Dredger is at its best in this matchup as 4 cost 3 power means it dodges Defiance's removal and vanquish, 4 toughness keeps it above Hailstorm. If you have one going don't be afraid to V Favor your Scribes. Watch for Ice Bolt stops, don't add more than 2 "real" units to the board at any time unless you have the read on them not having a Harsh Rule in hand. Don't be afraid to run out Razorquill without friends, as it's hard for them to remove it. You can check for fast spells out of them with the resolved Razorquill before committing to the combo.

Hooru Fliers - unfavorable - Their clock is pretty rough, and Sediti annoying, it's certainly winnable but it comes down to if they can silence your combo pieces. If you can get a good Katra turn to make your units large enough without getting hit by Pristine Light you can push through.

Stonescar - favorable - You have a lot of roadblock units, and being able to Katra your units above torch range and be able to trade your dorks for their threats is great, in addition you have just enough lifegain to keep you above their Flame Blast/Obliterates and present a real clock.

Praxis - favorable - Teacher>Stinger, you have enough small things to deal with an infiltrated stinger if need be but you don't want disciplinary weights. Keep your life total high enough to avoid getting killed by Berserk/Deadly+Shugo Tactic and it's pretty easy to win. Don't play katra until you can activate her in the same turn, but once she's above 3 health it's really hard for them to remove her.