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Evenhanded Xenan Consistency (~85% 7-0 in Masters)

Gauntlet Deck By
Smiguli
Smiguli+3222

+13

Cost Curve

Type

Faction

Information

This deck is heavily based on one I found here over 6 months ago, but it has since been removed and needed some fixing up after nerfs etc. I figured to share it because it is by far the most consistent deck I have played in gauntlet (after 'KCBandits FJS' got nerfed to the ground) only losing something like 1 out of 6 boss battles. It's almost impossible to lose to aggro or control with the deck. It's only real threat are fast midrange flyer decks if you fail to draw any of your plethora of answers.

The gameplan is to cantrip through your deck with Evenhanded Golem, Temple Scribe, Devour and Talir's Favored, while at the same time stalling aggro decks. You almost always want to shift Devotee of the Sands on turn 2 or 4 to jump up in even powers and get more options. Blistersting Wasp and Ripknife Assassin are the best 2-power cards that scale into lategame as removal or stall; the AI is infamously bad at assessing poisonous units.
Sandstorm Titan and Vara, Vengeance-Seeker take over the midgame from aggro and go even with most midrange decks. If you have only drawn your small cantrip units then Xenan Obelisk can turn them into a sudden threat. At this point aggro is utterly done for, midrange should be under control or losing and control has lost or is about to.

The only problem now might be strong midrange decks and that is why we have the superstar show stopper Azindel, Revealed. When you get him down it often means the game is over. The reason is that he's instant staller with 2 poisonous units, he's a big body himself and the card draw value is obsene to follow. Azindel often survives a very long time because at that point of the game the AI has usually blown it's removal on Titans, Varas, Teachers of Humility and poisonous units.

When it comes to Gauntlet bosses the ones you expect to face in high elo Master are Company of Exiles, Double Damage and Units have Charge. Company and Charge you can beat very consistently by playing your cards right and understanding the fight, but generally most of the games you're gonna lose are to Double Damage when he just draws completely unavoidable damage like Ticking Grenadin and Umbren Reaper.

Some tips are to take the early game slow except if you know you're playing against non-interactive AI decks like Spells of Praxis etc. Always shift your Devotee for guaranteed ramp and play card draw before units like Ripknife and possibly even Titan or Vara. Let the opponent make the attacks so you can trade efficiently and let them use removal on your smaller units to make sure you win the game when you get Azindel. For example graveyard decks only get more powerful if you actively trade with them but they usually wont make attacks with units other than Dark Wisp so you can stalemate them until you get Azindel or two and maybe an obelisk to quickly clock the opponent down. Obviously the more you know about gauntlet the more you can cater to whatever you're playing against.

The deck has lots of card replacement possibilities to suit your collection. Most of the core cards are cheap to craft and you get Azindel and Vara from same expansion. The first cards to definitely go if you don't have them are Teacher of Humility. After the nerf to her health she's just not the same and usually just ends up being an average body to trade, with a rare twist of card draw. I'd probably try Argenport Instigator for decent body or Dark Wisp for the cantrip. Possibly also some removal like Defile or Vara's Choice.

Thoughts or questions much appreciated, since this is my first deck posted here.

Details

Shiftstone Cost
Does not include campaign cost
33,100

Premium Cost
235,200

Influence Requirements
2 2

Power Sources
20 19 13

Power Calculator
Shiftstoned Icon View Deck on Shiftstoned

Deck Rarities
16 23 10 16

Card Types
38 2 9 0 26

Contains Cards From Campaigns
Dead Reckoning [Set1003]
Into Shadow [Set1004]

Archetype
Midrange

Added
April 16, 2020

Views
4,803

Eternal Version
Whispers of the Throne

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Deck URL

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Comments

Rebel_ETC Eternal Version: 1.51.6
A great addition to this deck is Eremot, Mindsplinter! Great for stalling the board the the AI doesn't know how to play around it at all.
Martel Edited Eternal Version: 1.51.6
I use to play this kind of deck for a while because of its regularity (and I love Xenan !) ; I just don't play Teacher of Humility (too weak now) and Vara's Choice meh card, and only 1 in a deck is irrelevant imho ; 3 Azindel, Revealed is enough, I think. My suggestions for replacements are : In Cold Blood, Gentle Grazer and, as you mentioned it, Argenport Instigator. To eventually bounce back the Golem into your hand : Burdenbearer Wisp and/or Insistent Automaton (or even 1 or 2 Temple Standard) are nice options. But anyway this kind of deck in gauntlet is Mint Car. GG !
Duelist Eternal Version: 1.51.6
I didn't find much consistency with this list, sadly. 7-0, 3-1, 0-1, 0-1, 2-1.. even decks just don't seem consistent enough for gauntlet in general because of mana issues. Find the Way could be an option to fix this, but it probably slows down the deck too much. Talir's Favored is an awful card so I can't see adding more of those, either.. Vara's Favor used to be a good option but I'm not losing to small units as much as I am to big units with this deck. Any other suggestions would be great. Speaking of struggling with big units...this list probably would have worked much better before the Desecrate nerfs..
HiroProtag Eternal Version: 1.51.6
I look forward to trying this out. Curious if you considered Xenan Initiation (does great work with the 2-cost Deadly units) or anything to draw Evenhanded Golem from the void.
Smiguli Eternal Version: 1.51.6
Evenhanded golem has Voidbound so that doesn't work. As for killer-spells I feel like they're too niche since most of your units are with small stats. Instead of Initiation I'd look into normal kill spells and cut out the middle man of needing a viable unit.
AJLooch Eternal Version: 1.51.5
Good list!
splodead Eternal Version: 1.51.5
7-0'd in early masters ~5 times out of maybe 7 or 8 today. Really enjoying this deck.
Comment Deleted
JiltWithKicker Eternal Version: 1.51.6
Except this is an even deck. ;)
Stormborne Edited Eternal Version: 1.51.5
Just finished my first play through in gauntlet with the deck going 7-0. I did swap out the ToH for Dark Wisps and liked the synergy with devour. I won several different ways and never felt behind in any match. It’s an excellent deck. Thanks for sharing!