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This is such an interesting deck and as a newish player, I had no clue what was happening the first time I played against it. It would be great if someone could write a detailed guide on how to pilot the deck properly, thanks! Also just the guide in the comments on how to counter it is very helpful. Quick question, why doesn't the player die when their deck run out of card, I thought that meant insta-death?
Quick answer to your quick question, you dont die when you run out of cards, you die when you end your turn with no cards, so it barely squeaks by with that final turn.
Also, you can find detailed guides on "vodacombo" or "talir combo" which, while not being exactly the same, will give you the vast majority of the piloting advice. The OP commented some links to similar decks, both of which have more of a write-up
Either that or Talir's Favored. Those cards reliably draw something, and this particular list doesn't have enough 5-attack units to reliably trigger the Friendly Wisp ultimate.
If you have face aegis + fast removal, you can try to kill Grinva in response to the Grinva trigger that will break your face aegis. However this can still lose to stand together or double devour, so it's usually better to kill Talir at the start of the combo if possible.
You can also hope that Grinva is the first card that the Talir player draws after they get Vodakhan in play (since it doesn't have destiny), but as soon as the combo player gets a +1 draw effect like an echo card or a friendly wisp ultimate the combo shouldn't fizzle.
Here are tips for playing against the deck:
- Hold up fast removal and either counter last chance or kill talir when you get a response window.
- Even if you don't have fast removal in hand, leaving some power unspent once the talir deck has 8 power, talir in hand, and a merchant in the void might scare the talir deck into not going for the combo until they have 11 power.
- Maiden and Gavel turn Last Chance into a dead card which means the combo can't start until the combo player has 11 power and a merchant in hand, and it also gives the combo a fizzle chance since they can't play last chance to keep the combo going.
- Destroying Eternity Core significantly slows down how quickly the deck reaches the 8 or 11 power threshholds.
- The deck plays only desert marshall as pseudo-removal, so threats like Rizahn, Xo, Elias, and Zal-Chi are fast clocks.
- If you have big flying units, you can try to avoid killing merchants so that they cannot be last-chanced.
Desert Marshal is a pretty good answer to cards like Dusk Raider, Auralian Merchant, Statuary Maiden, Elias, Xo, Cykalis, Vicious Highwayman, and double-damage Deepforged Plate. You often have enough chump blockers or fatties that silenced units are not too hard to deal with. Also, Wasp can be killed by Torch / FTP display, and other fast removal, and when that happens the threatening unit is still a problem.
You could play both Desert Marshal and Wasp if you want.
Also, you can find detailed guides on "vodacombo" or "talir combo" which, while not being exactly the same, will give you the vast majority of the piloting advice. The OP commented some links to similar decks, both of which have more of a write-up
You can also hope that Grinva is the first card that the Talir player draws after they get Vodakhan in play (since it doesn't have destiny), but as soon as the combo player gets a +1 draw effect like an echo card or a friendly wisp ultimate the combo shouldn't fizzle.
Here are tips for playing against the deck:
- Hold up fast removal and either counter last chance or kill talir when you get a response window.
- Even if you don't have fast removal in hand, leaving some power unspent once the talir deck has 8 power, talir in hand, and a merchant in the void might scare the talir deck into not going for the combo until they have 11 power.
- Maiden and Gavel turn Last Chance into a dead card which means the combo can't start until the combo player has 11 power and a merchant in hand, and it also gives the combo a fizzle chance since they can't play last chance to keep the combo going.
- Destroying Eternity Core significantly slows down how quickly the deck reaches the 8 or 11 power threshholds.
- The deck plays only desert marshall as pseudo-removal, so threats like Rizahn, Xo, Elias, and Zal-Chi are fast clocks.
- If you have big flying units, you can try to avoid killing merchants so that they cannot be last-chanced.
You could play both Desert Marshal and Wasp if you want.
- Ravid Talir. The older list, before the addition of Voice of the Speaker.
- Vodakhan's Voice. A copy of this deck but with some changes that I think improve the deck.