Gr'Endra, Champion of Drones

Gr'Endra, Champion of Drones

This is my take on an Endra, Champion of Shavka combo deck. We basically want to stall the board with a typical Grenadin aggro deck until we can assemble our combo and go off for as much damage as we need to end our opponent. I find this is a really fun deck and going off can be really satisfying.

Combo Pieces and Explanation

Endra, Champion of Shavka, this is our finisher. We will play how ever many are needed to deliver lethal damage.

Replication Cell, this will usually target Endra, Champion of Shavka, although other targets can also lead to a win condition separate to our usual combo, which will be explained below.

Counterfeiter, this is the key to our combo. We play counterfeiter targeting ANY Grenadin, making ALL of our units Grenadin as long as he remains in play. If we have already sacrificed an Endra, Champion of Shavka to Replication Cell we can now cast her as many times as needed to finish the game.

Any Grenadin, as this implies, we need a Grenadin in play to make all of our units Grenadin for the combo to work.

How to Play This Deck

Early Turns
This deck plays like a common Grenadin rush deck, until it doesn't. We open with things like, Grenadin Drone, Scrap Hound, or Ticking Grenadin. Then we proceed to flood the board and rush early damage as the opponents play permits. Disassembler works well to disguise our combo intentions while also helping to make early unit loss tick away at our opponents health. We can sometimes win just from these cards alone. Don't be afraid to sacrifice Grenadin to our Scrap Hounds or to go for an early Bandit Queen if this seems like a path to victory. REMEMBER: Always Be Closing!.

Midgame
This is where we start to see the combo coming together. We want to be going for Replication Cell early if we have most of the combo pieces fairly early. We have a finite number of shots at the Market and we need to make the right picks. Often it is correct to grab the Replication Cell first if we don't see an immediate path to close the game with token aggro. We can usually stall until the combo comes together, some exceptions apply, of course. We will discuss this in the Weaknesses section. Some tips for this point in the game:
1. It is often correct to drop an early Endra, Champion of Shavka and then sacrifice it to Replication Cell as soon as is practical. This is because the making every card a grenadin effect applies even after we have set up our cell.

2. We should really avoid wasting our Counterfeiters. This card is essential to making the combo work correctly.

3. There are definitely times where playing the cell on a different card can win us games. This usually occurs when we haven't gotten our main combo together but are in a place where waiting for it could be detrimental. REMEMBER: Always Be Closing!!

4. REMEMBER: ALWAYS BE CLOSING! This means to constantly be looking for the path to Zero or less health for our opponent. The combo is NOT the only way we can win.

Endgame/Combo Sequencing

This is where we will talk about our combo and some of the other ways to close out the game, other than just wide open face aggro. Most of the time the combo will come together over 2 or 3 turns. We will have played or will play/recur a Endra, Champion of Shavka by this point. Now we really want to sacrifice her to the Replication Cell. It is often correct to save this step until a turn where the opponent has zero power remaining. Playing Endra early can really help us to go off, assuming we have the means to recur her from the void. We need to be able to have enough Shavka's Songs in the void to replenish enough power to go off. Having a Howling Peak Smuggler in play can really help this as well. The last piece of the puzzle is to play a Counterfeiter targeting ANY Grenadin. This makes all of our units grenadin, including the Endra that we have imprinted on the Replication Cell. Now just continue to replay our Endras until the opponent succumbs.

Other Ways to Win:
1. Target a Ticking Grenadin with the Cell and just make one or more per turn until the opponent dies from the constant 3 damage. This works best when the early aggro was strong and we only need to sac/attack with them to get the remaining damage. A late or recurred Scrap Hound can help this to work, as well as a Devour or two.

2. Bandit Queen can be copied if the early Grenadin load was strong, then just face aggro with +1 atk and Quickdraw every turn until game over for the opponent.

3. Gearcruncher can be copied late in the game if power is high and attrition has left enough Grenadin in the void to start to clear the enemy units a couple per turn. 6 or more power is strongly recommended for this. This is NOT my favorite option to copy.

4. The Grenadin route. We can also just copy a Hound or a Disassembler if there is a need for bigger units or not a lot of health to close the game. REMEBER: Always Be Closing!

Weaknesses

This combo is entirely shut down by anything that completely/permanently transforms a combo piece. That doesn't mean game over for us, but it does force us to go the more traditional Grenadin deck route.

Having our Cell removed, stolen, or transformed after we've played it is also not fun.

Negation effects can slow us down or even stop the combo from going off on a certain turn, which is why we like to hold out for the opponent to have zero power. Unfortunately, this is not always an option, a good draw go player, or a good player in general will almost always fein a negate effect if they have Primal and the leftover power.

Powerscrew doesn't happen too often, but it is usually correct to redraw if you don't have at least one of each color available... and at least 2, preferably 3 power cards in the opening hand.

I hope you find this deck as fun as I do and please comment/rate it if you can.

Thanks for reading this freaking novel of a post, and REMEMBER: ALWAYS BE CLOSING!!!

5p3c7re

~FIN~