[Gauntlet] Consistency Elysian Midrange

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!