Gauntlet Lifesteal Combo - Bolstered

Updated 5/20

Removed Freedom Fighter in favor of Ponysnatcher. They largely fill the same role as units that can attack aggressively, but Ponysnatcher has the added bonus of being able to trigger Aerie Steward the turn she is played, and just being another source of life gain and another flying unit is huge. You can't cheese the AI quite as much into sacrificing their units, because the AI understands how quickdraw works and not invulnerability, but quickdraw does handle decay units much better too.

The market has been revamped as well to include Dark Return and Forget. Dark Return is generally better than Sinister Rumors, and Forget is almost exclusively included for the incredily rare times where the enemy is able to play multiple copies of Groundbreaker before you are able to find a wincon. I've lost one out of the last 10 or so with this deck because of that, and this definitely helps negate that, as well as dealing with anything else that might need silencing as well.

------------------------------

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 or Ponysnatcher 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.