Clutch Ruckus

Now with Primal's Sandstorm Titan!

Copy Ruckus Rouser 2+ times, play a huge Clutch of Talons, fill the board with dragons, merchant for Kaleb's Choice with the 8 power generated from Clutch or play a Xo of the Endless Hoard if you're not worried about sweepers.

The deck also has a Plan B in beating down with 4-cost 6/8 Half-Overwhelm Half-Aegis Ambush units. Yes, Primal has found its very own rival to Sandstorm Titan and Vara, Vengeance-Seeker in playing one of your myriad copy effects on Glacier Shaper. Shaper provides a solid blocker vs aggro by itself, but when you get to ambush in a 6 Attack and 8 Health mixture of Ice Beast and Shaman with a Sudden Schism... kisses fingers.

Mass Entomancy targeting an active Rouser along with other units can double your power, setting up a lethal Flame Blast or massive Clutch. Bottoms Up serves a similar role and can act as a finisher with Ixtun Merchant's or a Glacial Monstrosity's Overwhelm, a Humbug, or a Screamed Rouser. Entomancy also has utility as a bad removal spell to deal with Sandstorm Titan, Telut, Queen's Hand, or any other unit preventing your dragons from closing the game. Flame Blast can also be pointed at an active Rouser to set up larger Clutches or a Bottoms Up.

Haunting Scream lets you play out a Rouser on 4 without concern for its safety. If it gets killed you can scream it back to go for the combo on 5 power if you have a Mirror Image or on 6 power with Sudden Schism or Clutchmate. You're in trouble if Rouser gets silenced or transformed, so use caution around Valkyrie Enforcer, Statuary Maiden, and Feeding Time. You can also Scream a Merchant at the end of the combo to grab Clutch, Blast, Choice, or even Skycrag Banner if you need the 3rd Primal or 3rd Fire influence for the wincon in-hand. Regardless of their size, Glacial Monstrosities cost 3-power and can be screamed, so making a monstrous monstrosity with Bottoms Up or Entomancy and screaming+copying can be a nice line to finish games.

While the deck is very fun to play and most games feel close, I still haven't found a build that can sustain a 50% win rate, so don't play this if you want to climb the ladder. Unfortunately, the deck's win rate will drop further if it gains popularity and opponents learn to make better market decisions and stop wasting fast speed removal on Merchants.

My basic redraw advice would be to redraw any hand that doesn't have a 3-drop and access to a Rouser. I would also keep Rouserless hands with a Shaper, a copy effect, a second unit and 3 power. Go for PPP before FFF when playing Seek Power since the Flame Blast kill is much harder to pull off than a sizable Clutch. Haunting Scream is your only Shadow card, so it is often correct to seek for your second (sometimes even third) Primal or Fire influence before your first Shadow influence.

Against aggro you need to play turn 3 Merchant into turn 4 Rouser and pray they waste their torch on the merchant or turn 3 Glacier Shaper into a copy effect on turn 4. If you can't play a unit on 3, you might be forced to block with your Rouser to survive, and that spells doom unless you have the Scream/Mirror Image immediate follow up.

The deck matches up decently with other removal-light combo decks like Chainbrei and Talir/Voda. Both decks can have access to Desert Marshal, which will mess you up, but, when undisrupted, I believe this deck goes off on turn 5 more consistently. Telut and/or Sword of Unity plus Icaria, Valkyrie Captain gives Chainbrei an out to a large Clutch, but Entomancy can help you fight through.

Against Harsh Rule control decks, pressure with Merchants and Shapers when you can and take your time to set up a large Clutch with Kaleb's Choice up or try for the Flame Blast kill before Cobalt Waystone comes online. Against Regent's Tomb decks it can be smart to hold a merchant until the combo turn to avoid getting your Clutch, Blast, or Choice sabotaged. Playing a smaller Clutch to pressure and bait out a Rule can be better than emptying your hand to play the max number of dragons if you can't protect them.

If you suspect the opponent is holding up Torch or Annihilate and you're not under immense pressure, merchant for Kaleb's Choice before going for the Ruckus combo. You get the power from Rouser's trigger immediately after casting a copy effect, so you'll have the power to cast Choice when your opponent tries to kill your Rouser in response to the copy spell. If you have to go for the combo into an opponent holding up fast removal like Equivocate, play your most expensive copy effect first as you still get the power from the Rouser trigger. Clutch at 8-12 power can still win the game or stall it out long enough for a second try at the big combo. It can even be correct to lead off with Flame Blasting or Humbugging your Rouser if your opponent's fast removal is face-up. Any copy effects left in hand are good at making additional dragons or "Snowstorm Titans" post-Clutch.

End of Hostilities is usually just a Mirror Image with Warp that gives you +6 power with Rouser as the deck has no tribute enablers, but keep an eye out for any lines where suiciding a merchant or spent Rouser enables a double copy on the best unit on the board. Flame Blasting your Rouser activates tribute and can generate the power to do things like play Xo and immediately double copy it. The deck only has 2 copies of EoH because a hand with two EoH goes off 2 turns slower than a hand with any other copy effect and a single EoH, but the extra 2 power can really matter when trying for the Flame Blast kill.

If the combo pieces don't come together, sometimes you can buy time by casting 6-power Clutches on Jennev Merchant. If your hand lacks Clutch or a lethal Flame Blast, you can try to get there with a 10-power Xo+Mirror Image Xo turn.

The card cost increase from Amplify works differently for spells and weapons. Amplified spells increase in effective cost, so Mass Entomancy on Rouser can double your power, whereas amplified weapons do not increase in effective cost, so Clutch of Talons only ever gives 8 power when triggering Rouser or a 4/4 monstrosity when attached to a Shaper. DWD has confirmed that these disparate Amplify interactions between card types are intended and not a bug.

Props to Almost's WWH combo decks for the inspiration to include Haunting Scream.

This deck is one Clutchkeeper short of being clutch tribal.

Game's over boys.