Skycrag Throne Room Aggro v2
Special thanks to Alover for his support! Statistics First:
v1: 40+ runs recorded for v1 (pre-nerf), with an 88% win rate against non-boss AIs and 86% win rate against boss AIs. The fastest 7-0 run was only
15 minutes.
v2: Currently at 26 GPM.
Google Sheet This deck does require at least one campaign.
I have been playing ECG for half a month now, and am trying to build a budget but effective gauntlet grinder since the beginning. Aggro, despite being relatively inconsistent and vulnerable to flood/power screw, has become my first option due to its speedy nature and cheap cost.
After dozens of runs and tweaks, here's my answer: a skycrag aggro (which got me to throne master without much effort) as its core, with
The Throne Room and
Jekk, Mercenary Hunter to get you out of some quagmire where aggro will just drown.
Your main gameplan is still just like any aggro: torch/perma/salvo/ping your way out, and go for the face.
Even if you have drawn both
The Throne Room and
Autotread early, don't force yourself to go for the combo.
Card choices and notes:
Prowling Amaruq:---OUTDATED
The choice between aegis and quickdraw depends on matchups, could make or break the game. Keep in mind that this is NOT a play-not-to-lose deck. When you are facing a unit-heavy and not removal-packed AI (or relic weapon AI), go for the aggression.
The Throne Room: If the pressure won't allow you to play the
Autotread when you have 4 powers (or you just don't have the 4th power card), try to play some other "decoy" units along with it and the AI might not kill your Autotread.
Passionate Stonehammer---OUTDATED
Your best power fixer and (arguably) second-best throne room enabler.
Torrential Downpour Your lifesaver in games against AI with lots of critters or the
Burn Scars boss.
Jekk, Mercenary Hunter If you don't have the campaign, ditch it for more 1-drops.
In that case, you could place your sigils with decimate lands (
Emblem of Shavka/
Emblem of Linrei) as a possible upgrade to make your main game plan more consistent.
League Explorer If you don't have the campaign, ditch it for more 1-drops.
But unlike
Jekk, Mercenary Hunter, this deep-diving beauty is
ridiculous strong for your main game plan, so grab the campaign as soon as you can.
Autotread
x3
1
Champion of Fury
x4
1
Oni Patrol
x1
1
Oni Ronin
x4
1
Permafrost
x4
1
Snowcrust Yeti
x4
1
Torch
x4
2
Blazing Salvo
x4
2
Blitz Stone
x3
2
D'Angolo Houndmaster
x4
2
League Explorer
x4
3
Howling Peak Smuggler
x3
3
Jekk, Mercenary Hunter
x4
3
The Throne Room
x2
5
Thunder of Wings
x2
Fire Sigil
x10
Primal Sigil
x4
Seat of Fury
x3
Skycrag Banner
x4
Skycrag Insignia
x4
View Deck on Shiftstoned
Still, even 22 GPM is still ok.
Still wondering about Jekk, Mercenary Hunter, not just because he doesn't always fire off (great when he does), but also because he can pull extra cards which reduces the effectiveness of two of the best cards: D'Angolo Houndmaster and League Explorer.
I've been playing and tweaking this deck a lot, I tried adding justice, taking out primal, then back to Skycrag with a lot of tricks. It seems to be working well and once I get 200 games I will update my article.
Qty / Card / New Qty / Comment
SAME 3 / Autotread / 3 / Agreed, having multiples of these in your hand isn't useful.
GONE 2 / Grenadin Drone / 0 / Removed as these were mostly in support of Amaruq
LESS 2 / Oni Patrol / 1 / I prefer Oni Ronin, but kept 1 copy
MORE 2 / Oni Ronin / 4 / warcry beats most other 1-drop features, most of the time
SAME 4 / Permafrost / 4 / awesome
MORE 3 / Snowcrust Yeti / 4 / aegis great, and ensures banners will be undepleted on turn 2
SAME 4 / Torch / 4 / awesome, especially with Howling Peak Smuggler
SAME 4 / Blazing Salvo / 4 / still good at 2 cost, and added Howling Peak Smuggler to get more access to market
SAME 4 / Champion of Fury / 4 / awesome
SAME 4 / D'Angolo Houndmaster / 4 / the nerf to make 4/1 hounds instead of 4/4 isn't so bad as you are steamrolling at this point anyway
SAME 4 / League Explorer / 4 / great card if you can empty your hand so be careful of Jekk replenishing it
GONE 2 / Passionate Stonehammer / 0 / good card, but felt like it was slow and needs a market trick to make it pop
GONE 3 / Prowling Amaruq / 0 / seems this nerf is most noticeable, so completely removed
NEW 0 / Blitz Stone / 3 / great removal, and means you can charge a boosted Jekk, Smuggler or anything that wouldn't normally attack
NEW 0 / Howling Peak Smuggler / 3 / too many times wanting a market draw that wasn't there means this goes in, and the spell damage boost is great
MORE 2 / Jekk, Mercenary Hunter / 4 / powerful, save sigils ... prevents some losses when you don't win quickly
GONE 3 / Milos, Rebel Bomber / 0 / the bomb is worth 0.1 damage on average and the lifesteal rarely kicks in, so this was demoted
SAME 2 / The Throne Room / 2 / still great, if your timing is right
SAME 2 / Thunder of Wings / 2 / no change here either
MORE 9 / Fire Sigil / 10 / more Jekks means more fire influence needed
LESS 6 / Primal Sigil / 4 /
MORE 2 / Seat of Fury / 3 / influence screw happened more often than sigil screw
SAME 4 / Skycrag Banner / 4
SAME 4 / Skycrag Insignia / 4
--------------MARKET---------------
NEW Backlash changed to Cyber Combustion which (with Smuggler) is like a board wipe
SAME Edict of Shavka still great
SAME Scythe Slash probably the most used market draw
NEW Slag changed to Ice Bolt as a more reliable, and FAST, removal for anything
SAME Torrential Downpour kept for those grenadin/decay wide boards
What do you think?
So I guess I trust your experience and skills enough to update the list before I have enough data myself :)
And thanks!
I swapped Slag in the market as I suggested earlier, which is clearly a great add, and kept Backlash as a late-game unit saver on the AI turn but it's also good for playing PvP.
I've noticed many of my losses had Jekk, Mercenary Hunter not firing off, and even on winning games he often sits in my hand wanting a sigil (or the 2 attack isn't enough) or the 3F influence to play him at all. I've taken him out, and added another copy of Prowling Amaruq and Throne Room. This also has the benefit of being able to include some different power cards including Skycrag Crest, Broken Contract and Rune of Flame as this deck is especially susceptible to power flood at almost any stage of the game with its incredibly low power demands (which is a huge advantage overall, but can contribute to some Gauntlet losses). Will keep up the testing.
Overall I had a lower win rate against non-boss AIs but a higher win rate against bosses, and a shorter game avg. length and a higher GPM. I am not yet convinced enough due to the relatively small sample size, but maybe, the "ultimate" version of this, is just to stick with the aggro plan as much as you can, while still maintain a high probability to activate The Throne Room.
I've had a half-dozen runs and love your deck though I need to master it a little more against certain AI positions. Some ideas for now ...
* Inoa's Fury in market, maybe instead Slag as I think it doubles as removal?
* Increasing League Explorer to 4 and decreasing Autotread although I probably don't know every exploit with the latter I find myself having multiple copies of the little blaster and would rather be spamming depth charges).
So happy to see another certified GPM posted, congrats Shangalar great work!
There's an AI rotation earlier this month, so I'll try to make time to have more recorded runs against a larger variety of AI pools.
I'm not sure about taking out Slag, although in 95% of the cases it's kind of a dead card in the market. The (almost) only target is Sandstorm Titan since that thing on turn 4 might just single-handedly wreck the whole aggro plan.
+1 League Explorer and -1 Autotread could definitely be a valid change here. It's hard to tell from paper, since Autotread is more of a defensive card (against nasty critters and to trigger throne room when things did not go well earl), and League Explorer is all about going face, and the impact of the curve change (although it is only -1/+1) is uncertain. I'll test it.
You are right about the Slag.
I ended up swapping Scythe Slash instead of Kaleb's Favor and Invasive Species instead of Backlash. (Both the ladder market cards seems to be ones that I never needed to pull). I'm interested to see how the bargain card works out, all those depth charges going off at the same time as the mandrake shows up. :-)
The slash is very powerful with the valkyrie (or almost any card) it can finish from a losing position, and take out an AI unit by surprise as well potentially.
I'm also getting about 26.7 GPM after 13 runs, and that's not counting a couple of runs where I made mistakes.
Therefore, I think your deck is the overall gauntlet champion, loving it!!
Scythe Slash yes! How can I forgot about it... xD