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Gauntlet Lifesteal Combo - Bolstered

Gauntlet Deck By
dbrugler
dbrugs+0049

+9

Cost Curve

Type

Faction

Information

I've played through 7 gauntlets with this so far with no losses and it's been an absolute wrecking ball. This is an iteration of my previous lifesteal combo deck Gauntlet Lifesteal Combo - More Combos, More Bees!, but much faster and more consistent. With the addition of bolster and Dran, Won't Back Down, you can win games under 4 power with ease, and you are much less reliant on drawing Katra, the Devoted, who was the core of every win condition in the previous deck.


Strategy


This deck is all about synergy. Use your triggers (Sanctuary Priest, Grumbo, Temple Scribe, Ancient Bauble) to activate your heavy hitters (Dran, Katra, Aerie Steward) and blow up your board to win fast and big.


Tips


Pause for Reflection can be used to remove blockers, remove units with weapons, protect your own units targeted by kill spells, and activate bolster/lifesteal.

Pause for Reflection and Condemn can be used on the enemy turn to activate bolster, which is very valuable with an Aerie Steward on the board, especially in reponse to removal to get an extra Albatross out before she dies.

Grumbo, Tota Legend should almost always be your first 2 drop on the board unless you fear Vara's Favor or Torch. Then it might be useful to try and bait those out with Freedom Fighter or a 1 drop, since those are less essential units to your wincon.

Spiritweaver, Moldermuck, and Katra, the Devoted are an incredible combo and have been the core of all of my lifesteal combo decks.
Grumbo, Tota Legend, Moldermuck, and Katra, the Devoted are also a game winning combo if left unchecked.
Try and play into these as much as you can.

Try and always play Aerie Steward with a Grumbo, Tota Legend on the board or at 5 power with a Condemn or Pause for Reflection or Ancient Bauble in play. Playing her just to die to removal without giving you an albatross is a waste. It's also usually best to play her before Katra, the Devoted whenever possible because the AI likes to target her albatrosses with removal.

Aerie Steward and Spiritweaver are a powerful combo, because your albatrosses gain lifesteal and you can replenish one per turn by triggering bolster by either attacking or blocking.

Market


Since the deck is now faster, we use Condemn for market access. This also can kill annoying 1 health units and trigger bolster/lifesteal, with the added bonus of being fast (allowing you to bolster on the enemy turn as well which is huge).

You pretty much always want to be pulling Ancient Bauble first, and probably Sinister Rumors second to bring back a key unit.

Infinite Hourglass is there for permafrost, and specifically the Deep Freeze gauntlet deck. You essentially win on the spot with it, it's great.


Alternate Cards



Curtain Call: While this deck has been performing really well so far, I feel like adding Curtain Call somewhere would be pretty devastating in allowing more aggressive attacks against deadly units and locked boards, more access to lifesteal. and more protection against removal. However, I'm not sure how reliably you would be able to play it with TTTT influence to gain its invulnerability when you want to play it given how fast this deck can play. It might slot in well in place of Rite of Renewal or maybe 1 or 2 of Sanctuary Priest.

Bloodnurse: Bloodnurse is super fragile and really needs a triggered Dran, Won't Back Down or Katra, the Devoted on the board to have any impact, but it can be pretty devastating if it gets rolling. Particularly, the combo of Bloodnurse, Grumbo, Tota, Legend and Katra, the Devoted is incredible and almost immediately game ending. However, it can't do much by itself. I could see it potentially being a replacement for Sanctuary Priest, however my hesitation with that replacement is that Sanctuary Priest can trigger Aerie Steward when you have nothing else going on, and doesn't die immediately to cards like Vara's Favor that gauntlet decks love so much. It depends if you want a facilitator or a win-more card.

Details

Shiftstone Cost
Does not include campaign cost
48,200

Premium Cost
209,600

Influence Requirements
2 2

Power Sources
23 19 17

Power Calculator
Shiftstoned Icon View Deck on Shiftstoned

Deck Rarities
18 26 24 8

Card Types
40 2 13 0 25

Contains Cards From Campaigns
Hour of Glass [Set1115]

Archetype
Combo

Updated
December 6, 2023

Added
December 5, 2023

Views
2,356

Eternal Version
Battle Lines

BBCode For Comments

Deck URL

Revisions (Since last major patch) December 6, 2023


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Comments

spatula5 Eternal Version: 23.12.06
Very fun gauntlet deck! Usually you'll get at least part of the combo going and end up with some ridiculous stats on the board. The only problem I had was occasional power screw; you can definitely win with only 3 power with this deck, but it's not a given. I ended up replacing Grumbo with Seek Answers to make the power draw a bit more consistent (and I haven't missed having the extra bolster activator).
dbrugler Eternal Version: 23.12.06
I would recommend against replacing grumbo with anything for a couple reasons.

It's the most reliable bolster/lifesteal trigger in the deck, and removing him makes Cult Aspirant, Aerie Steward, and Dran all notably worse.

Generally speaking, power screw happens at 2 power with this deck, and Grumbo is a great stabilizer at low power, since he can provide a big blocking body with enough 1-2 power units to boost him (and Cult Aspirant also benefits from all of his triggers). It would probably be more useful to replace a card that would be otherwise unplayable or useless at 2 power, so something like Rite of Renewal would probably be better to remove. Maybe 2x Rite of Renewal and 2x Sanctuary Priest in Grumbo's place?
danagle Eternal Version: 23.12.06
This deck is ludicrous. 4 gauntlet runs and no losses... and only one even close game. I've had crushing victories with only 2 power. Most of my games end with me 180+ health, foe with -70.

Thanks for posting this. It's just hilarious to play.
dbrugler Eternal Version: 23.12.06
Glad it's been working for you! I'm a sucker for ridiculous board states against the gauntlet.
Rebel_ETC Edited Eternal Version: 23.12.06
I just did 4 gauntlet runs with this, went 7-0 each time. The only close one was the gauntlet boss that has the passive "Units deal double damage". Thank you for posting this masterpiece of a deck, can't wait for future updates with new and better cards!

Edit: 5 gauntlets run with 0 losses. (35-0)
dbrugler Eternal Version: 23.12.06
Glad you've been enjoying it! I'll definitely keep updating with each new set release.
Sabrewulf81 Eternal Version: 23.11.09
First run I lost with rakano warfare
dbrugler Eternal Version: 23.11.09
I recommend not doing that
Sabrewulf81 Eternal Version: 23.11.09
Sir what do you mean about "I've played through 7 gauntlets with this so far with no losses" you have win 70 match in Guntlet or 7 on 7?! Anyway I make. Another run and I complete the run, this is a nice deck, I need probably more practice..
dbrugler Eternal Version: 23.11.09
I played through 7 gauntlets (each gauntlet is 7 games), so that'd be 49 games won in a row. I'll be playing more soon to see how far I can take it.