This deck is a Mono-Shadow Gauntlet farming deck. It is rather simple to run and is built strictly on consistency while countering popular strategies seen in the Gauntlet format.
The early game is focused on controlling the board and card draw. Fallen Oni is a strong counter to Warcry decks that got a few Warcry triggers off. It works really well with Steward of the Past by sending it to the void and then silencing it immediately, making it almost worthless. Unseen Agent and Dark Wisp is both your main card draw engines: Dark Wisp helps chump block and draw extra cards while Unseen Agent gives you an cheap body to do chip damage with and aggressively draw more cards. Vara's Favor is almost small removal and power fixing at the same time. Plague is an extra weapon for those swarming strategies like the Grenadin deck you may find there.
There are 3 "bombs" in this deck that chosen to win you the game. Steward of the Past stops aggressively strategies cold by having a defensive body along with Deadly. It's abilities help make it even better by countering Entomb and Revenge creatures. Impending Doom is a big body with a small cost to pay. It can win games all by itself with its big evasive body. Lastly, Umbren Reaper may be easily pinged off with cheap removal but its Emtomb effect is well worth the cost, giving you extra life and dealing damage at the same time. I have even won games just bringing it back constantly with Dark Return and Sleeping Draught and let the Entomb effect do the heavy lifting. Also, it is a 5-power Flying creature.
While the Gauntlet bosses can truly be a flip of the coin depending on who you get, I do find this deck will be very effective for farming the Gauntlet move, even up to Master rank. Also, if you need help getting your Shadow rank up, this deck can do wonders as well.
If you want to make some changes, there is some that can be considered. I will be adding more information on that later this week.
Enjoy!
Dark Return
x4
1
Fallen Oni
x4
1
Slumbering Stone
x3
2
Annihilate
x2
2
Dark Wisp
x4
2
Devour
x4
2
Vara's Favor
x4
3
Devouring Shadow
x4
3
Extract
x3
3
Scheme
x4
4
Impending Doom
x4
4
Memory Dredger
x2
4
Steward of the Past
x4
5
Umbren Reaper
x4
Shadow Sigil
x21
Amethyst Waystone
x4
View Deck on Shiftstoned
One of them is Memory Dredger. That card is only here to help prolong the long game if it goes down that path. Most games, I don't see it (mainly because I run 2 copies) and the few that I do, it makes little difference. I am considering taking it out or bumping it up to 3 copies just to make it easier to find and play while changing the 1 and 2 drops a little bit to make its effect actually matter.
I am also considering bumping Annihilate to at least 3 copies since it is generally pretty good. Of course, that is also debatable to some degree because some games, it can be a dead card. I am still torn between this and Suffocate because the latter can hit multicolored cards, which is a big deal in Gauntlet.
If anyone has any suggestions, I would be glad to hear them and test it out. I also plan to write a detailed guide along with working on the other colors to make good mono-color Gauntlet decks with in the near future.
Despite that, if you feel uncomfortable with it, you can take it out. I am using a slightly different build that doesn't have Plague in it and it works just as well, if not better by a small margin. I will be posting these changes shortly provided college doesn't keep me hostage.