[Newbie Friendly] the Ultimate Gauntlet Grinder

Gauntlet grinding is the most efficient way to get gold and dust in this game, granted that your deck is able to consistently get 7 wins, which this deck specializes at. Yes, the PvP part is the fun of the game, but it really sucks to get into middle rank with no dust to craft any real decks and find yourself keep losing to all the meta decks.
If you are a fresh starter. I’ve also made a first day gauntlet deck you can craft right of the bat after the tutorial campaign by disenchanting the rares and legendaries you get for completing it. Here’s the deck list: [newbie friendly] AP gauntlet starter If you play for a couple of hours every day and improve the deck step by step, it’ll probably take about 5 days to complete this deck, since it’s got no legendaries to craft and requires only one campaign.
First I wanna explain why consistency is the most important for gauntlet decks. A 5-win run rewards 3 copper chests (with ~50 gold and a common), the 6th win upgrades one copper into silver (with ~250 gold and an uncommon), the 7th win upgrades the other two. Besides, opening a chest has a 10% chance of upgrading it. A gold chest contains ~500 gold and a pack. It’s clear that any runs with 5 wins or less reward basically nothing and it’s crucial to get 7 wins consistently. This deck can very consistently (>80%) get 7 wins and the games go by fast. It’s gonna make you heaps of gold.
Now let’s talk about the game plan of the deck, it revolves around lifesteal flyers. With them you get to completely ignore your AI opponent’s units and keep attacking their face and gaining life every turn. This means most games will be a fast win.
For the consistency part, the deck has a total of 35 powers, counting seeks and inscribe cards, which is almost half of the deck. And all cards cost 2~4 power, which means we never get power screwed. Also most of the powers are undepleted due to being a two color deck. On the other hand we rarely get flooded either thanks to Argenport Cylix, merchants, and especially Argenport Blueprints and Spire Loyalist being a power house if you draw them late. Also as a side benefit for having tons of small lifesteal units, we are well prepared against aggro decks, a lot which rely on a-spacing with a ton of small units. Well, unfortunately they are still gonna be the number one decks that crush you with a god opening.
Onto the cards that I consider the core cards for any gauntlet decks. I’ll always add them in first while building a gauntlet deck.
Deathwing: 323 flying lifesteal deadly Valkyrie-warp. Flying lifesteal is the best skill combination in gauntlet, and flying deadly locks down the whole board against any mid to large-sized enemy units. The cherry on the top is the Valkyrie-warp, although not purposefully building for it, we actually have 12 valkyries in the deck, and since the flying lifesteal strat involves pretty much no unit exchange, it’s gonna jump out of the deck way more often than you think. And what’s more, it’s an uncommon, Paying only 100 dust for such a card, I would call it a steal.
Unseen Commando: 334 flying lifesteal on attack, can buff itself multiple times with multiple copies at which point it becomes crazy(3->8->15->24 in terms of damage per turn)
Minotaur Platemaker: it is effectively a 445. It does a good job at stalling the ground, and giving +2/+2 twice to lifesteal flyers on the next turn usually ends the game on the spot.
Spire Loyalist: a great addition in the new set. 646 flying lifesteal alone is basically Rolant's Honor Guard stat, which was actually a one of in my old deck, the issue with honor guard is that it costs 6 power, at which point a typical gauntlet game would have likely ended. Whereas for the spire loyalist it’s a power that you would normally play that turns into a huge lifesteal flyer when you need it.
Then it’s the “good units” part.
Hojan, Crownbreaker: 243 lifestealer on attack, great at stabilizing and absorbing removals for your commandos and deathwings. AI will prioritize trading with it, even with x4 units or a ton of tokens. Good target for plate maker. Can swap for Reborn Master for a cheaper 2-cost option.
Valkyrie Enforcer: 333 flying silence. Provides great utility especially to silence opposing flying blocker while having a great body. Can deal with problematic units such as Oni Forgesmith.
Vara, Vengeance-Seeker: Utility card for popping aegis. Usually AI will have small units to sac so we won’t get +2/+2 deadly, a 33 lifesteal kill a small guy is still pretty good against aggro.
Now let’s talk about the removal suit.
Slay*4 and Annihilate*4: universally great removals in gauntlet. Necessary for dealing with AI bombs that you can’t ignore.
Desecrate: It’s a campaign card. But it’s NOT necessary, swapping it for uncommon removals such as Deathstrike or Fell Ritual would have basically no effect on win rate. (It’s here only because I think it fits the slot best. The only campaign I would recommend for this deck is “Into Shadow”)
Market options.
Vanquish: cheap solution against bombs
Nothing Remains: cheap board wipe to make sure you won’t fall behind on tempo
Waxing Moon: mainly for the card draw, deadly can synergize with unseen commando buff and is great against big fatty decks.
Telut, Queen's Hand: if you play him with one lifesteal unit on board, it usually swings the game into a winning spot from an extremely bad position.
Crest of Vengeance: the 36th power that you can grab with 6 merchants, can swap for any cheaper power.
So that concludes my thoughts on building the deck. Building and tweaking it was a lot of fun for me, and if you’re a starter, or need some dust to try out new decks, I hope this guide will help.