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[Gauntlet] Consistency Elysian Midrange

Gauntlet Deck By
Wingflier

+21

Cost Curve

Type

Faction

Information

Edit: For anyone who has been enjoying my Elysian Gauntlet deck, I encourage you to try my Ranked Elysian Deck as well!

I've spent hundreds of hours in Gauntlet and made it to Masters in ranked multiple times. The biggest design flaw I see in most popular Gauntlet decks is that they lack consistency.

This deck has extreme draw consistency and is reliable by exploiting 3 major flaws in the AI programming:

Dawnwalker - The AI will constantly make unfavorable trades against this card giving you essentially free removal which can be resurrected at no cost. The stacking overwhelm damage also ensures that the game will be over quickly.

False Prince - The AI seems unaware that this card can be answered by any single target removal, and will therefore either ignore it making it an extremely cost effective threat for you (5/5 Overwhelm for 3 mana). If they do waste a removal on it, such as a Vanquish or Slay, even better.

Cirso, the Great Glutton - The ultimate value cheese against the AI. The AI will often waste high value blockers just to kill, making it a 3 for 1 trade, or 4/5 for 1 if Xenan Obelisk is active. It also operates as a powerful defensive tool, ensuring that the AI can not kill you regardless of how powerful a threat it has before you take control of the board.

These 3 cards will trick and confuse the AI, giving you a huge advantage in Master's League Gauntlet. From my testing, these are the most efficient cards in the game when it comes to tricking and "outplaying" the Artificial Intelligence coding.

Now on to why it's called "Consistency Elysian":

Just now I gave you an explanation of what makes this deck reliable, now I will explain what makes it consistent. Its consistency comes in the form of a myriad of card draw engines.

With Friendly Wisp, Strategize, Lunar Magus, Beckoning Lumen, and Temple Scribe, there are 20 card draw options in the deck, some like Lumen which can be used over and over again throughout the game. The chance of running out of cards or not drawing into the threats/answers you need with this deck is incredibly low.

So a combination of exploiting the AIs weaknesses, mixed with the consistency of having so many card draw possibilities at your disposal means reliable AI beatdown at any difficulty.

The deck is pretty straightforward to play. In general try to keep your Initiate of the Sands and Beckoning Lumens alive as these typically have more value on board (for the effects they provide) than they do as attackers. Of course once the board is clear, feel free to attack with them.

In general only use Friendly Wisp in the same turn that you can activate its "ultimate" effect (Friendly Wisp + False Prince is a classic combo). If you are confident that the AI has no removal or silences you can risk it, but generally it's not a good idea. Sandstorm Titan and Cirso are your most powerful defensive tools against more aggressive decks.

The deck, while not technically a lifegain deck, has 12 different ways to heal which is designed to synergize with Beckoning Lumen's passive effect, so it does have some ability to stabilize in a bad situation and turn it around. Try to stagger your healing effects to one each turn, as to get the maximum value from Lumen's ability.

Crystallize is a common finisher. Once you have a powerful board presence (especially with Xenan Obelisk active), simply Crystallize their board and kill them within two turns. There is very little the AI can do to stop you. Save your Xenan Initiations for Dawnwalker (infinite value) or Cirso (anti-huge threat removal).

This deck has two sets of Legendaries so it's not a budget deck, but it's not the most expensive either. If you have most of the cards, I encourage you to give it a try.

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Common questions:

Why Lunar Magus?
Ever since Lunar Magus was buffed into a 3/4, it has become god-tier card in my opinion. 3/4 stats on a 3 cost creature is at a premium power, shared only by the legendary Knight-Chancellor Siraf. The 3/4 body of Lunar Magus both offers powerful defense support, gives extra card draw with Nightfall, and synergizes with Beckoning Lumen because of the heal effect. The dream scenario is to play Lunar Magus on turn 3, into Lumen on turn 4, activating the heal effect in the same play, instantly allowing you to draw 3 cards in the same turn. Additionally, once Xenan Obelisk gains potency, Lunar Magus' body simply becomes too massive to ignore.

Why only two Permafrosts and 2 Xenan Initiations, don't you need more removal?
In short, no. Both Permafrost and Xenan Initiation are, at their very core, situational removals. Permafrost is useless against Endurance creatures and Killer is only useful with the right unit(s) on board. Having 4 of either of these options ends up creating horrible situations for you, 2 of each is the most consistent. Rely on your card draw engines to get you the one you need when you need it.

In addition, much of your "removal" comes from the AI's stupid blocking decisions against your overwhelm creatures.

This deck seems too slow to be a gauntlet deck?
Again, the name of the game for this deck is consistency. Some gauntlet decks are much faster (such as Skycrag Aggro and Stonescar Queen), but often they may lack consistency, especially against the final boss. I feel that this deck is extremely reliable against any final boss.

In addition for me personally, I hate playing aggro decks in either Ranked or Gauntlet, and if I'm going to grind Gauntlet, I'd rather do it playing something I enjoy.

The biggest problem I have with the most popular Gauntlet decks I see on this site is that they lack consistency. Generally they have few card draw options and are extremely susceptible to mana flood or mana screw (or to simply failing to draw the threats/answers you need). The entire purpose of this list is to avoid those pitfalls as much as possible.

What do you recommend for card replacements on a budget?
-Amaran Camel or Trailblaze for Lunar Magus.
-Champion of Wisdom or Devoted Theurge for Sandstorm Titan.
-Twinbrood Sauropod or Worldbearer Behemoth for Cirso, the Great Glutton.

Keep in mind that these are subpar replacements for the actual cards however, and will make the deck perform sub-optimally.

How does this deck fare in Casual/Ranked modes?
Surprisingly well, for the same reasons it works in Gauntlet. It's very consistent and does not have any glaring weaknesses.

Leave any comments or thoughts below. Have fun!

Details

Shiftstone Cost
Does not include campaign cost
46,200

Premium Cost
195,200

Influence Requirements
2 2

Power Sources
21 16 12

Power Calculator
Shiftstoned Icon View Deck on Shiftstoned

Deck Rarities
12 24 22 8

Card Types
36 6 8 0 25

Archetype
Midrange

Updated
March 15, 2018

Added
February 24, 2018

Views
13,420

Eternal Version
Draft Changes

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Deck URL

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Comments

neonangel Eternal Version: 1.31.6
@Wingflier - This is an excellent deck! I was using The Budget Gauntlet Grinder before I was able to afford any of the Legendary cards. It was good, but nowhere near the power level of this build. Thanks for sharing!
leobanz Edited Eternal Version: 1.31.6
Ahh, this deck is the first one I made back when I was still new to the game.
I just regret cracking my Cirso's (had 2) in trying out different kinds of decks over time.
This version is very nice and smooth. The only differences I've made are using Worldbearer Behemoth with Mystic Ascendant for even more card draw. LOL. Good job on this upgrade, dude!
Comment Deleted
profmonkeys Eternal Version: 1.31
This deck has become my favorite gauntlet grinder. It is definitely not the fastest, but I have not found a more reliable deck for it.

One note about playing the deck is that the AI handling of Friendly Wisp is very exploitable as well. It attaches a very high priority to killing this unit, even after the ultimate has been used. This means that it can be used as a removal magnet just by leaving it on the board and not trading it off after the ultimate has been used.

As some others have noted, I found that swapping out an Initiate of the Sands for an extra time sigil helps the consistency a lot. I am also playing around with swapping out the 4th Xenan Obelisk for something else, but haven't had any obvious wins yet.
Wingflier Eternal Version: 1.31
Really happy it's working for you.
WinterWolf1297 Eternal Version: 1.29
Do you find this really consistent in gauntlet because 2 games in I just lost to power screw which seems a common theme in the gauntlet (masters). I know it just happens but it happens often enough that I am finding no "Gauntlet" labeled decks to be consistent enough. Particularly frustrating when the quest of the day is for a boss.
slyverine Edited Eternal Version: 1.29
I made this account just to say thank you mate! I made a few adjusments because i didn't have all cards and couldn't afford to make them and i not only farm gaunlets , i climb the ladder as well, started silver 2 and iam platinum 3 within 2 weeks with just 9 wins a day casual play. Even beated some top 130 masters and top 560 guys. The unseals i added i think are very helpful , you can protect your big creatures when you are cornered and turn the game.
Wingflier Edited Eternal Version: 1.29
Hey man, I'm really glad it's been working well for you!

If you want to ladder with an Elysian deck, I made this one specifically to use against people. I'm using it in Masters right now. Hope it works well for you!

Ranked Elysian Deck
Petycar Eternal Version: 1.28.7
Heya, Wingflier, love the deck! I've been having a blast with it in the last few days.

Got a problem, though - I find that unless I draw SST, I'm dead against fliers. Removing them with killer is unreliable - unless I draw both a Dawnwalker and the Initiation, they act as one-ofs and do very little aggainst aggresive flier swarms. Permafrost is also similarly scarce.

The two decks that really give me problems are Army of Justice (all green) and Apex Hunters. The first one just starts slamming down valkyries and either silences or vanquishes my SST. The second one is full of deadly/killer units, which means that unless I draw Cirso, they start to outvalue ME.

What would you suggest? I rarely lose against aggro, and more often than not it's due to my own mistakes, but perhaps adding a creeper would improve the early game? But what to do about air control?
Wingflier Eternal Version: 1.29
I have another variation of the deck I run on ladder that has more tools against Air threats. Perhaps it will work better for you.

Ranked Elysian Deck
Bionova Eternal Version: 1.28.7
very awesome list! I am always looking out for good gauntlet decks and this is legit. I went 4 straight 7 wins so far with it. love it. thanks for sharing!
BadBug Eternal Version: 1.28.7
Can you add few words about the best way to mulligan this deck ?
Thanks :)
Wingflier Eternal Version: 1.28.7
Generally speaking you want 3 power cards in your starting hand. 5 is too many, 1 is too few. Sometimes you can do it with 2 power cards in your starting hand, if you have a Initiate of the Sands available, or if you can play Temple Scribe by turn 2 (so in other words, 2 Time Influences in your hand).

The best cards to start with are Initiate of the Sands (absolute best), Temple Scribe and Strategize. If you have some of these in your starting hand, with a decent power base, it's the dream.

Lunar Magnus and False Prince are decent to start with as well because they cost only 3 mana, and they offer big bodies to block enemy attacks with until you can assert board dominance over the AI.

So these are the questions you have to ask yourself:
1. Does my starting hand have 2-4 mana?
2. Do I have Initiate of the Sand, Temple Scribe, or Strategize?
3. If I don't have those cards, then do I at least have False Prince, Lunar Magnus or Frostbite in my hand to protect me until I can gain board control?

The answer to question 1 must always be yes. If you can't answer yes to question 2 or 3, then mulligan.
BadBug Eternal Version: 1.28.7
Thanks!
danielqbr Eternal Version: 1.28.7
Man, congratulations! I created an account just to congratulate you!
Yesterday afternoon I guess I went 6 out of 7 Guanlet Masters runs, and my loss was due to a situation in which I believe I should had take a mulligan.
And I don't even have the four Cirsos, I changed then for 2 Champions and 2 Carnossaur.
I tried the deck again today to check if it wasn't just luck yesterday, and guess what: easy 7-0.
Fantastic deck!
Wingflier Eternal Version: 1.28.7
I'm really happy you're having so much success! I wouldn't have believed it was possible to do so well without the Cirsos.
JustLola Eternal Version: 1.28.7
Man i have to say, i have been playing gauntlet a lot and been very successful and this is my favourite gauntlet deck by far =)
Reason nr2: it is pretty fun.
Reason nr1: IT HAS NO FAST SPELLS!!!
I play gauntlet when i'm watching a movie or playing some other game and having no fast spells to respond makes it so much easier and faster to play when i'm focused on something else ^^ just play my turn and chachacha =) thank you
Wingflier Eternal Version: 1.28.7
I'm glad you're enjoying it!
BadBug Eternal Version: 1.28.7
Thx for sharing, the deck is fun and verstile !
I'm having a bit problem only when in some cases i'm being overwhelmed early and I have no crystlize to stop the snowball.
Wingflier Eternal Version: 1.28.7
If you're struggling against Aggro, take out 4 Strategize and add 4 Nocturnal Creepers. These have a similar effect but Nocturnal Creeper protects the player.
BadBug Eternal Version: 1.28.7
I'll give it a try, thx !
Wingflier Eternal Version: 1.28.7
I'm changing the deck up a bit to be more reliable against Aggro.
deadlypandaghost Eternal Version: 1.28.7
Why not some deadly units like nocturnal creeper in place of friendly wisp or initiate. The ai absolutely hates deadly units. It won't attack into them unless it has game. Daring pioneer is another card it doesn't know how to play around
Wingflier Eternal Version: 1.28.7
Thanks for the suggestion, I took your consideration into account.