Dino's Elysians

Hi !

This is the first deck I post over here. I am a big gauntlet grinders, I like this format very much and I have hundreds of wins in masters (never counted them) although I never tried ranked heavily.

This list is probably not the best for gauntlet grinding - Hooru Flyers or Tavrod's Argenport being probably quite better - but it did surprisingly well, much better than initially expected. The reason I post it on here is that I find it extremely fun to play. This is an Elysian deck, running mainly dinosaurs and explorers with quite a few synergies.

Deck description
If you can play an Evelina, Valley Searcher on turn 2, you're looking really good. She's the star of the list and if you can follow with other explorers (assuming she doesn't get torched), the game is close to won. Derry Cathain, Ripclaw Rider is also a pretty strong unit. It's a great blocker and a crucial one to have early as it gives you the information on what spells the IA currently has and gives a clue on how likely the Worldbearer Behemot we're about to play is gonna survive. The ultimate makes it even better.

The Behemot is our biggest wincon, we usually like to have a killer effect on it. A very nice combo with the guy is to give it a killer effect kill something and then copy it with Clutchmate. Using the copy after the killer effect has been triggered will make the copy draw an extra power, and this is one power less in the deck that you will not draw later when you need gas.

The decks runs many killer effects and this is the way we try to handle the opponent's board as the deck has no hard removal, just 2 soft removals with Substitute.

Colossal Pteriax is a great late game card helping a lot with his pledge effect. Don't hesitate to pledge it.

Avisaur Patriarch is another key card of the list. The discount is really nice, it's flying and the ultimate is usually a game winner.

Scaletender is the card I am not 100% convinced with, although it is a decent CA as it provides a 3/3 overwhelm (4/4 if Evelina is on the board. I cannot find a good replacement for it but after the first tests, it seems to be the weakest spot in the deck.

The market offers mainly situational tools : soft removal with Permafrost and Equivocate, a killer effect with Savagery, hard removal for against the aggro decks with Hailstorm and the finisher with End of Hostilities. The AI being pretty dumb, it will always take the sacrificed Trail Maker, enabling you to get 2 copies of your lovely Behemot with a killer effect already on it ;-)

On the mulligan, be careful that the list has heavy influence requirements at TTTPPP, TTT for the Wordlbearer Behemoth, PPP for Savagery (which you could replace but I don't know the correct replacement). So don't hesitate to throw away the hands which are unlikely to fulfill quickly those requirements. Especially you need the TTT rather quickly as the Behemoth should be played as soon as possible.

Possible upgrades
I don't have all the cards although I have a decent collection, so I know that a few upgrades are possible :
- Twilight Hunt is a better choice than Xenan Initiation, so I think it would be safe to replace those if you can, I had only two and didn't want to craft those as they're niche cards.
- Great Valley Smuggler is superior to Jennev Merchant, but I don't have more than one copy. If you can have 4 smugglers, it might be a good idea to run Infinite Hourglass in the market, I would probably swap Permafrost for it. Infinite Hourglass is crucial to get against Deep Freeze, this simple card auto wins the match-up which can sometimes be very tricky and annoying without it.
- I cannot make up my mind between Clutchmate and Mirror Image. Is the +1/+1 worth the extra cost, seems it is, but sometimes you're one power short and you wish you would play the cheaper one. I guess it's a matter of taste.

Final words
Hope you enjoy the deck. It is in my opinion a really pleasant one to play and although it might not the be the greatest in terms of gold per hour, it does the job with a relatively good winrate according to my first tests.