Master Deck Page

## Deck Concepts and Explanations

\*If you see information that needs updated, or deck concepts that are missing, feel free to add to this page!

## Beginner Decks

Note: Beginner decks listed here are only recommendations to give beginners an idea on the mana curve, races to combine, and cards to buy with dust. It is recommended for beginners to just play the game as normal, and deckbuild as they get rarer cards from packs and to determine which cards work in decks by playing them. Most likely you will put all epics and rares in your deck until the campaign and pvp become too difficult. That is when you should consider spending dust on specific rares/epics to start building strategy specific decks.

### **Heal Badger (Roughrock and Empire)**

This is a beginner deck, because it utilizes a lot of strong rares (rares are very cheap in the dust shop, and it is highly recommended to buy a handful of these).

This is the priority of the dust shop:

1. **Burrow Badger** x3 (This is the core of the deck)
2. **Roughrock Pangolin** x3 (This is a very strong turn 1 card, followed by a badger turn 2)
3. **Cull** x1 (CULL WAS NERFED you don't need 3 copies anymore)
4. **Light's Retribution** x3
5. **Prime of Life** x2
6. **Shield Janissary / Fortification / Life Guardian** (These protect your badger, a good turn 1 or turn 2 play)
	* Note: **Shield Janissary** is very useful in many different decks. He is a high priority for generic decks, compared to a heal badger deck which utilizes many healing cards.
7. **Unstoppable** x1 (A badger that is buffed to 10 attack won't heal unless he hits the player. If you give him trample, you can utilize every attack point buff he has)
8. **Logistics Officer / Temple Knight / Angel Nectar** (These are support cards, to get the badger healing, but not necessary)
9. **Behemoth Hunter / Temple Captain** (These are again support cards, but higher mana. These can be replaced with other high mana heal cards)
10. The two epics in this deck are not necessary. **Janissary Commander** is a very high priority for beginners, he is useful in many many decks. **Seal of Roughrock** is less priority, but can help if used right!

### **Inferno Paradise Takeout**

This is a second beginner deck, once again focused around rares that can be purchased from the shop. These rares will be very helpful for PvE galaxy and Campaign missions, and can definitely be used in PvP too. There are no epics in this deck, because this deck is not specific to anything. It is mainly a collection of strong rares that specializes in destroying units and killing the enemy fist quickly. I will list a few recommended epics at the bottom.

This is the priority of the dust shop:

1. **Firestorm x3** (Firestorm is very strong and is used endgame)
2. **Chain Lighting** (This is a very good spell for AI decks, they will stack units adjacent)
3. **Mind collapser, thunderbolt, night ambush, mindstorm** (these spells are called takeouts: cuz they prioritize destroying enemy units. They all pretty much do similiar things, just some are more usful than others in specific situations
4. **Evil eye, firetrick sorcerer, petrel's mortor, scarlet warrior** (these are the units that will be supported by your spells. If you have too many spells, then you will lose late game. You want to play aggressive to win earlier, but this can backfire. If you see yourself drawing too many spells and no units, you might want to consider using less spells and more units.
5. The rest is filler. **Blade Hunter** is strong priority target and with support you can keep him alive and easily have board control. **Scorched Demon** is also good, he has weaknesses but you can use him to keep board control. **Navigator** is interesting because he denys enemy mana and gives you 1, so you essentially can play him turn 1 then turn 2 play a big support to keep him alive while shutting the enemy down. If he is lucky to survive you will have an advantage all game.

   Epic cards to consider:

**Skullcrusher**: (Inferno 2 mana) A favorite in aggressive inferno/para rush/takeout deck. He is a very strong turn 1 drop and has few counters

**Bloodlust Osluth** (Inferno 4 mana) A very strong priority target for 4 mana. Tons of damage, buffable with trample. If the enemy ignores this,

**Thunderstorm** (Inferno spell 5 mana) The epic verison of firestorm. 3 thunderstorms and 3 firestorms in a deck is awfully annoying and is actually very strong/meta.

**Infernal Butcher** (inferno 5 mana) This epic is very very strong, but needs to be used right. Destroying a random enemy can be useless if the enemy has a lot of 1/1 low priority units. Used right and you'll control the board.

**Genie's Lamp** (paradise 4 mana) This epic can be devastating when used right. He also excels in decks where you don't have a lot of cards in your hand, so using him and your top deck draw in the late game keeps your mana usage per turn optimal.

**Black Fleet Captian** (paradise 6 mana) Black Fleet will heal you, damage enemy at turn start, and steal attack. This card is crazy strong and will snowball you to victory. He is best used by playing aggressive in the beginning so that when he hits the board you keep your momentum.

## Advanced Player Decks

### **Deus Heal (Deus and Recluse)**

This deck relies mostly on common and rare cards, although there are some needed epic cards. Dues heal is a popular deck, which relies on filling the field with as many frozen tiles as possible, and taking advantage of the many Dues cards that utilize the mechanic to heal the player, deal damage, or draw cards. This is largely a "control" style deck that builds up from a weak start to a very strong finish. Early game is aimed at sustaining/removing threats to take advantage of heal/draw/kill cards that rely on Frozen tiles. Mid game should aim to win card advantage, either with a board wipe from an *Ice Age, or* by drawing cards with *Howl of Dues.* The win-condition can come from having more health at the end of the 11th round, or from outright killing the opponent.

Core cards for this strategy include:

* **Frozen Deep** (freezes a tile; delay's opponent's damage and potentially removes a threat),
* **Frostiron Soldier** (Generates frost; provides a blocker and/or decent damage)
* **Winter Warlock** (reliably generates frozen tiles),
* **Winter is Coming** (generates frozen tiles, draws cards),
* **Conscript Apostle** (generates frozen tiles; provides blockers),
* **Frost Drain** (heals to sustain; removes opponent's threats),
* **Conjuration Proctor** (takes advantage of healing/other spells),
* **Howl of Dues** (gives reliable draw; health gain to sustain opponent's damage),
* **Ice Age** (clears the field)

Cards to consider:

* **Ice Wall** (helps delay until late game; creates frozen tile when it dies)
* **Numbing Frost** (creates frozen tile; silences a threat)
* **Frost Flamen** (debuffs threats; creates frozen tiles)
* **Ice Golem** (creates a threat for your opponent, creates frozen tiles at debut and death)
* **Iceplague Carrier** (heals a large amount late game)
* **Killing Freeze** (creates a surprise win late game)
* **Avatar of Dues** (creates a large threat; heals each round)
* **Yateras Iceberg** (delays a turn; creates a lot of frozen tiles)
* **Ice Behemoth** (creates a large threat late game)
* **Ice Dragon** (creates a large, cheap threat late game)
* **Meara No.2** (Can keep casting frost drain over and over)
* **Lost Faith** (a relativly cheap mana cost removal card. Because this deck is mostly freezing and healing, you don't have many units. This can give you a free unit and neutralize an enemy all in one go!)
* **Sound of Silence** (Silence is very strong, and drawing cards is very recommended in deus heal decks. This can help when fighting many different types of enemies and you don't know who it'll be)

Example Deck and How to Play

 This Deus heal deck is best played by getting freeze out asap. The way this deck wins is usually by having more health than the enemy after turn 11. By surviving long enough, having 7 mana to play Conjuration proctor and frost drain in the same turn guarantees tons of healing. It is very risky to play CP without any spells because the enemy will neutralize this ASAP. If they don't, they deserve to lose a terrible frozen death.

The best starting hand is winter warlock x2, conscript apostle, and winter is coming. Turn 1 play a warlock to maximize freeze. Turn 2 play a conscript apostle on the enemy fist (you don't want to play it on your fist because frost zombies make their area frozen). After these few turns, you will have some decisions to make.

By now, the enemy probably has 1 or 2 big threats, that if you don't take care of them, they might snowball. You might need to waste a frost drain to kill a threat, or try to get an ice age by drawing cards with howl of deus. Either way, you want to stay alive, so either kill a target or heal so that you stay alive.

Ice age is your best friend. By killing all enemies, the opponent will probably only have 1 or 2 cards to play in the next turn. Assuming these cards are not high mana cost and will not cause them to win, you have even more time to get more freeze on the board and continue to heal with draws.

Don't be afraid to cast howl of deus when you only have 1 or 2 frozen spots. The card draw is really what you need in the beginning, and once you have a few frost drains in your hand you can feel safe that you can kill and stay alive, the best combo. Try to keep one frost drain for CP for late game, but saving one might cost you the game so don't be too set on this tactic.

   Tips and Tricks

* If you play a Conjuration Proctor and he stays live that turn, your next turn he will cast double spells no matter what. Even if the enemy plays a spell that kills him. You can use this to play a CP early (turn 4) if you think the risk is worth, and double spell Howl of Deus, to get 6 cards, which is a very smart play and can give you a huge leg up.
* Conjuration proctor makes 1 mana Frozen Deep spell kill anything since the first time it freezes the square and the second time kills something that is already on a frozen square.
* This deck can lose to quick, rush decks. Those decks tend to have low health units and they tend to charge cards to get their strong units on the board ASAP. Your best bet against these decks is once again, get freeze out early, but you will almost NEED ice age to stay alive. The heals with only a few frozen squares will not be enough.

### **Buffed Archers (Empire and Roughrock Weald)**

This is a rush deck that seeks to win as quickly as possible, by casting buffs on specific creatures. The specific creatures chosen typically have a means of dealing damage to the opponent twice. This deck topped the leader boards until sacrifice decks became popular.

Core cards for this strategy include:

* **Loam Wall** (creates a safer turn one, by protecting the creature you start with)
* **Fearless Hunter** (great target for the many buffs; especially when given trample)
* **Power-Charge Archer** (great target for buffs; hits twice, one of which is unblock-able)
* **Temple Marksman** (the ideal target for buffs; hits twice, one of which is before anything else happens)
* **Power charging** (good, cheap buff)
* **Prime of Life** (decent buff)
* **Bartender (**excellent method of buffing your archers)
* **Zax Commander** (drops a creature/blocker, as well as buffing and giving an ally trample)

Cards to consider:

* **Adaptability** (super cheap, yet unreliable, buff)
* **Mania** (super cheap, yet unreliable buff)
* **Unstoppable** (one of the few ways in this game to give a creature trample)
* **Distribute Arms** (cheap buff; works nicely with creatures with synergy)
* **Janissary Commander** (good unit overall, armor can be very helpful)
* **Seize Position** (lane clears are very important)
* **Wake of Force** (very expensive, very powerful buff)
* **Logistic's Officer** (another fun target for the buffs; doesn't contribute to the rush concept of the deck)

Example Deck and How to Play

 The archer rush deck is best played fast, but you must be careful. Placing a temple marksman turn 1 is strong if no opposite enemy to kill him, so there is luck.

The best starting hand is loam wall, fearless hunter, powercharge archer and power charging. If you play a wall and archer, then power charge her turn 2, she will do tons of damage! Alternatively, playing a fearless hunter then archer will help avoid the single target spells to destroy, which slows down your speed to win but gives you less risk to destroying of a single unit.

Take a look at the enemy's races: are they playing quad? dont stack your units in the same row. Are they playing inferno? Don't stack in same row and you need more units on the board to mitigate infernal butcher.

You are much better off buffing a temple marksman rather than a powercharge archer. This is because his damage is guaranteed (due to the turn start rather than turn end) even if the enemy destroys. If you buff the archer, you need to hope she survives to the end of the turn to get the buffed damage.

Tips and Tricks

* Temple Marksman will do damage turn start NO MATTER WHAT. Even if he turns into a panda, gets -4/-0, returned to hand or destroyed. This means a buff or adding adjacent ally to improve the synergy will give him attack to destroy the enemy they only way they can survive is by HEALING.
	+ Buffs and unit placement occur before marksman does damage. Debuffs and returns/destroy will occur after he does damage.
* Fearless hunter will do extra damage if she does 1 point of damage to the enemy fist. That means if she has trample, kills a unit and 1 extra attack hits the enemy, she will deal the extra X damage
* Mania will hit a single unit if you have no other units. Use this when really buffing up one unit but be careful, buffing one unit is risky cuz they are suseptable to destroy units like **Light's Retribution** or **Infernal Butcher**.

### **Sacrifice (Dues and Inferno, Paradise, or Zen)**

This deck aims to maintain board control by playing cards that summon multiple creatures, and then sacrificing them to efficiently add creatures while removing opponent options. This strategy largely rose in popularity as a response to the "Buffed Archers" strategy. The strength here lies in the ability to remove few creatures and ensure the opponent does not have a change to gain a foot hold. Most popular (most consistent) build combines Dues and Inferno, although other races also work well with the strategy. Paradise works due to their easy kill-cards, creature summoning cards, and draw cards. Zen brings heritage to the table, which can be fun to control by sacrificing strategic creatures to pass heritage.

Core cards for this strategy include:

* **Animated Wight** (sacrifice fodder; place it turn one and your guaranteed to have a target to sacrifice)
* **Polar Fanatic** (adds a creature to the board, removes one of yours, and one of the opponents)
* **Bone Explosion** (sacrifice one of your creatures; debuff or kill two of the opponent's)

(Dues) Cards to consider:

* **Necromantic Augury** (does not contribute to killing opponents, but card draw is always good)
* **Bone Mound** (0 cost; drop it turn 1 with a skeleton soulhunter, or turn 2 with a polar fanatic)
* **Skeleton Soulhunter** (becomes stronger as you kill more of the opponent's creatures)
* **Winter-eve Herald** (contributes to delaying the opponent helpful if you have cards in hand to play)
* **Stitch Master** (generates strong creatures as opponent's creatures die)
* **Ruin Temple** (generates creatures each turn; gets stronger as creatures die)
* **Skeleton** **Summoner** (generates sacrifice fodder as opponent's creatures die)
* **Endless Wintersoul** (the ideal sacrifice fodder)
* **Boreas, Dread Lord** (strong card overall; doesn't specifically contribute to the deck concept)

(Inferno) Cards to Consider:

* **Hell Recruit** (summons 3 blockers/sacrifice fodder at the end of turn; very good)
* **Evil Eye** (sacrifice fodder that also kills a card in the opponent's hand)
* **Unholy Transition** (a solid kill card)
* **Torment Fire** (Not as strong as firestorm, but it deals enough damage to kill many popular cards)
* **Scarlet Warrio**r (decent attack; hits the enemy even if it dies)
* **Reaper of Despair** (great vs the heal meta; overal a strong card)
* **Winter-Veil Knight** (a very strong filler card, if you have it)
* **Firestorm** (a soft row-clear plus damage to the opponent)
* **Thunderstorm** (Firestorm's big brother)
* **Infernal Butcher** (kills a creature without sacrificing one of your own)
* **Lilith, Blood Wing** (strong overall; contributes to keeping the opponent's board clear)

(Paradise) Cards to Consider:

* **Beast Smuggler** (summons two creatures, a blocker and sacrifice fodder; combines well with sacrifice)
* **Pot of Souls** (you're killing your creatures anyways, you might as well draw a card for it)
* **Chain Lightning** (a solid damage dealer; helps keep the opponent's board clear)
* **Powley, Petrel** (summons sacrifice fodder; returns to hand to do it again)

(Zen) Cards to Consider:

* **Anima Seed** (provides a good target for receiving heritage)
* **Purple Censer** (sacrifice fodder; passes heritage)
* **Master of the Cosmos** (buffs creatures around him; largest heritage in the game)
* **Holy Blade - Lin** (moves around the map; good target for receiving heritage)
* **Seiso Monk** (strong, versatile card; can return a creature or create heritage)
* **Senior Mammon** (provides a blocker/card draw)
* **Ferry Hermit** (provides a good target for receiving heritage)
* **Pigsy, Zen Hero** (decent card; passes heritage)

Example Deck and How to Play

 This is one of the best decks in the game. By sacrificing your own bad, low cost units, you can kill enemy units. A few deus units that summon more units synergize with this... and then sacrificing these units gives you even more board control.

There is no best starting hand because your deck is a direct counter to all other decks. Usually, based on the races of the enemy player, you can get an idea on what deck they might have and plan accordingly. Personally, I like to play Winter-eve herald first. This causes the enemy to play something turn 2 if they did not play something turn 1. This is usually through charging a card, then they have less cards and you can get more control. Turn 2 is a good turn to play Evil Eye, to give you more control.

A very common play is to play animated wight and sacrifice it using Polar Fanatic or Bone Explosion the turn after, since it will summon a 2/1 right where the Wight stood so you keep that spot occupied while killing the enemy units.

Ideally, you want to play ruin temple, stitch master or skeleton summoner before you start sacrificing, but sometimes you don't have a choice. keeping the enemy board clear is your main goal, so that when the butchers come out they are targeting the enemy's high mana cost units.

Tips and Tricks

* Lilith will deal 2 damage to your health if you have no cards even if the enemy has no units on the board. Don't let this kill you!
* Playing two polar fanatics next to each other in the same turn will sacrifice 2 enemy units. Both fanatics will be dead.
* Ruin temple will go back to 7 defense each time it transforms. Use this as a rebuildable wall. It will only transform twice, so watch out.
* There are lots of variations in Deus Inferno Sacrifice deck. Try replacing things to keep the enemy guessing at what you are going to do, and also watch for enemy sacrifice strategies and learn from better decks.

### **Cow Heal (Empire and Recluse)**

This deck takes advantage of (abuses) heal cards to a ridiculous level (it is not uncommon to end a game with 2K or more hp). This is a combo-deck, that is to say, it relies on a specific combination of cards to win. *Conjuration Proctor* is core in the deck, and is used to duplicate the effect of *Empire's Vitality.* Early game requires some simple setup, establishing and protecting a few, key creatures on your board, and drawing as many cards as possible.

Core cards for this strategy include:

* **Angel Nectar** (early-game sustain; draws a card)
* **Fortification** (early-game blocker; automatically self-heals)
* **Ask The Hermit** (draws cards; improves consistency, necessary since this is a combo-deck)
* **Empire's Vitality** (heals; buffs creatures)
* **Conjuration Proctor** (duplicates spells, abusing the healing mechanic in this case)

Cards to consider:

* **Holy Power** (doubles creatures hp; draws a card; combines well with empire's vitality)
* **Blessing of Reyna** (buffs all allies on board; increases likelihood that they will survive)
* **White Robed Bishop** (buffs all allies on board; increases likelihood that they will survive)
* **Happy Dairy Cow** (heals each turn based on it's hp)
* **Counter-Ambush** (can turn an even-board in your favor, especially with *Conjuration Proctor*)
* **Mystery Tree** (adds mana; adds to card-draw; very useful blocker)
* **Times - Maera No. 2** (never-ending spells; can be cast again after dying)
* **Seize Position**(wave clears are essential in this game)
* **Storm Hydra** (gets stronger the more spells you cast)
* **Light's Retribution** (wave clears are essential in this game)
* **Honor Asylum**(protects your creatures from removal, when you suspect a kill spell)
* **Ian, Archbishop of Yang** (doubles all healing, as if this were needed :) )

## Fun Decks

### **Root Apocalypse (Recluse and Empire)**

This deck takes advantage of the Shroud ability. Shroud is typically viewed as weaker than Hexproof, due to the fact that you can buff a hexproof creature. Shroud has the distinct advantage of being immune to board-wipes played by **both** players; this deck aims to establish a *Hoary Root* or two, and then casts *Apocalypse* to wipe the board.

Core cards for this strategy include:

* **Hoary Root** (Has shroud)
* **Apocalypse** (Kills everything (well, up to 4 creatures per fist) without shroud)

Cards to consider:

### **Matchstick Curse (Recluse and Paradise Harbor)**

This is a simple deck, the concept and core cards are mostly rare or common; although the concept really comes together when combines with several epic and legendary cards.

Core cards for this strategy include:

* **Matchstick Girl** (Provides fuel for cards that grow stronger as you cast spells)
* **Cursed Bat** ( Nice, one cost card to drop turn one in front of *Matchstick Girl;* grows as you cast)
* **Liera's Secret Scroll** (A spell that feeds your need for need for more spells)
* **Cursed Cat** (Two cost card; grows as you cast spells)
* **Ask the Hermit** (Spell that feeds your creatures and gives you more cards)
* **Mystery Tree** (Good blocker; gives mana; provides card draw to replace your spells)
* **Conjuration Proctor** (Doubles the value of your spells)
* **Times Maera No. 2** (Returns your spells; returns to your hand when she dies)
* **Storm Hydra** (Gets significantly stronger with spells cast spells)

Cards to consider:

* **Night Ambush** (Effectively functions to kill an enemy before they have the chance to attack)
* **Chain Lightning** (Efficient kill card)
* **Careful Arrangement** (Adds 2 creatures to the board)
* **Magic-Break Professor** (Great 2-cost creature, silences an entire row)
* **Little Witch** (Adds a bit more effect when casting spells)
* **Scroll of Immensity** (Draw a card; returns to your hand to reuse)
* **Mindstorm** (Deals one damage to all creatures in a row, returns to your hand to do it again)
* **Captain's Greed** (Steal 1 attack from each opponent, twice if you have *Conjuration Proctor* out)
* **Greedy Old Witch** (Drains hp based on your # of spells cast)
* **Inversion** (Casts a spell, copy a creature)
* **Sexy Witch** (Adds a bit more effect when casting spells)
* **Disarm and Counter** (Hinders your opponents, buffs your creatures)
* **Skynet** (Delays for a turn while powering up and allowing your creatures to attack)

### **Mountain Power (Zen and Empire or Recluse)**

Core Cards for this strategy include:

* **Animaivy** (
* **Mountain Power** (
* **Wild Boar Axe** (
* **Immortal Ficus** (
* **Protective Anima** (
* **Courage Teacher** (

(Zen) Cards to consider:

* **Mountain Hermitage** (
* **Leaf Mesmer** (
* **Master of Cosmos** (
* **Seiso Monk** (
* **Nun of Cloud** (
* **Ink-House Hermit** (
* **barn of Glen** (
* **Senior Mammon** (
* **Zen Hero of Ocean** (

(Recluse) Cards to consider:

* **Planar Switch** (
* **Mystery tree** (
* **Lost Faith** (
* **Maera No. 2** (
* **Frigate-Pangu** (
* **Sagacious Sphinx** (
* **Destroyer-Tainwei** (

(Empire) Cards to consider:

* **Holy Power** (
* **White Robed Bishop** (
* **Empire's Vitality** (
* **Seize Position** (
* **Siege Tower** (
* **Light's retribution** (
* **honor Asylum** (

### **Returns**

A return deck specializes in board clears by using Zen return spells and units. Quad also has a very nice return spell (Seize Position) and other useful units to make this deck work.

PROS:

* Cheap lane clears to remove threats
* Lots of board control if set up right

CONS:

* Enemy has a full hand to play better turns
* Weak if the enemy has a sacrifice deck or lots of spells
* Weak early game

### **Summon Deck**

This summon deck specializes in flooding your board with units to help mitigate single target random eneny spells (like sacrifice). It is strong on its own, but does lose pretty poorly to rush decks (like archers) or inferno lane clears (firestorm or kensai/guqin artist)

Core cards for this strategy include:

* **Loam Wall** (keeps your guard/wolf/ivory alive)
* **Temple Guard** (perfect turn 1 play, with high threat priority from the enemy's point of view and free 1/1 blockers)
* **Wolf-moon Shaman** (cheap, 3 mana core summon unit. Keep him alive to summon lots of wolfs)
* **Ivory Maden** (the best summon unit, a 4/6 mammoth is very hard to get rid of so keeping her alive is your top priority)
* **Honor Aslylum** (the most useful, synergyzing spell for this deck. It keeps your very squishy units alive, buffing all untis, which you should have a lot cuz you summon them)

(Quad) Cards to consider:

* **Anabel** (She will buff all of your units, which you should have a lot)
* **Lights of Dawn** (buffs all units)
* **White Robbed Bishop** (very low mana for quick defense up. Keeps 1 defense units not at 1, to avoid 1 damage enemys like guqin artist)
* **Counter Ambush** (Buff all allies debuff all enemies)
* **Hymn of Light** (Buff all allies, arguably better than lights of dawn)
* **Fortification** (Cheap wall, keeps your squishy units alive)
* **Blessing of Reyna** (Give all units health, keeps them alive)
* **The Empire Tent** (relatively high cost summoner, use the 1/1's to block for your ivory maden)
* **Dazzling Radiance** (keeps all units alive)
* **Temple Captain** (Strong summoner if hits, lots of heals)

(Roughrock) Cards to Consider:

* **Shamen of Madness** (allows an ivory to be played turn 2)
* **Chief Bigmouth** (Summoner, but does not synergize with this deck because no heals for lizards)
* **Totem of Madness** (buff all allies)
* **Life Guardian** (Block and protect weak defense units)
* **Life Bond** (Draw cards for lots of units)

(Deus) Cards to Consider:

* **Bone Mound** (0 mana blocker)
* **Winter-eve Herald** (very strong unit, keeps enemy mana low)
* **Stitch Master** (Summons 4/4 units if 2 units die. You have lots of low health units so lots of units will be dying)
* **Ruin Temple** (Summons if 2 units die)
* **Skeleton Summoner** (Summons strong 1/1 units, very strong summoner choice)
* **Bone Explosion** (Can sacrifice weak units to destroy enemies)
* **Deus Herald** (Summons 2/1 units and gains attack when units die)

Example Deck and How to Play

This deck's strategy is to summon a lot of units to mitigate single target random enemy spells such as Infernal Butcher. By having a full board of strong units, Honor Asylum can give you an even greater edge. Add in lots of buff all unit spells and you have a very full board of weak units that will get stronger.

The best starting hand is loam wall, temple guard, wolf shamen and ivory maden. Turn 1 play a guard and wall, and hope he hits the enemy. If he does, hope the 1/1 militia is not in the back row. The enemy will instantly try to take out temple guard, probably by placing a unit opposite row. You play wolf shamen behind the 1/1 or in another row. The temple guard will still be alive, but neutralized, and now wolf shamen is top priority. The enemy will cast a spell or again, place a unit to kill him. This is when you play ivory maden in the row without guard or wolf, the biggest threat. If she can get a few mammoths to spawn, you will probably already be in great shape to win. Most likely, the enemy will have more takeout spells to kill her too, that is why Honor Aslyum is recommened with 3 copies. If you play Ivory turn 3, turn 4 you can charge to play HA, allowing her to live another day, summoning 2 mammoths. This is very very strong, and will have no counter beyond direct damage to your fists (archer rush)

The Reyna and Dapton are if you make it to late game and you happen to draw them when you need them. They will give you an edge, but of course not needed. I would use more copies of hymn of light or another white robbed bishop without those legendaries.

    Tips and Tricks

* Keep giving the enemy new, bigger threats to take care of. They might charge or kill them, but if you keep the pressure they will run out and you can build your army.
* Don't be afraid to play a wolf shaman or ivory in a lane with no unit in front. This deck isn't the best, nor the most consistent, so there is a lot of luck invovled. If you hope the enemy doesn't play something you will come out ahead. If they do, you might surrender due to the entire strat is to getting these units to survive at least 1 turn.
* Seize position give a 1/1, use that guy to block an ivory or a wolf shaman!
* Honor Asylum is a key card, and you might want to consider keeping it in your starting hand. If you get some good draws on turn 2 and 3, you can keep your momentum going and guarantee safety in the future, but you are risking safety in the beginning.

### **Phantom Prismatic Bomb (Recluse and Paradise Harbor)**

This deck is so cool in theory, yet quite week in practice. Future cards/balance changes will hopefully make it stronger. The basic strategy is to load the enemies board full of *Psionic Bombs,* while summoning cheep and efficient Phantom cards on your fist. Because *Psionic Bombs* count as creatures for the purpose of Phantom, your Phantoms can stay alive and attack through the *Psionic Bombs*. Additionally, this concept includes several cards that have stronger effects when the opponent has more creatures on the field. The below concept is rather confused, in that, it seeks both to encourage the opponent to use charge, in order to damage themselves by blowing up the *Psionic Bombs,* and to keep the bombs on the board to allow your Phantoms to stay alive. Decks would likely be more successful if a player chooses to focus on one of those concepts, but not both at the same time.

Core cards for this strategy include:

* **Psionic Conspiracy**
* **Behind Enemy Lines**
* **Psionic Engineer**

Cards to consider:

* **Phantom Python**
* **Blackwing Owl**
* **Obstructing Guard**
* **Spellbreak Obelisk**
* **Navigator**
* **Ask the Hermit**
* **Captain's Greed**
* **Prison Breaker**
* **Petrel's Command**
* **Humble Research**
* **Phantom Bear**
* **Phantom Dragon**
* **Illusion Professor**
* **Ulviirala No. 6**

### **Parasite Deck (Inferno and Paradise Harbor)**

This deck has a lot of variations, with no set required way to play. An ideal hand can win early, but the strategy is more likely to be control in style (surviving the early game by creature removal and healing, and then winning late game from card advantage). There are actually two distinct ways of playing this deck, but they are not mutually exclusive. The first version of this deck, focused on using *Parasitic Seed* and *Space of Happiness* to draw enough cards for a fast win by discarding a hand for up to 18 damage with *Flaming Ironarm.* More recent versions dropped the *Flaming Ironarm* focus in order to more generally utilize creature removal to stall the game and allow *Parasitic Seed* and *Gluttonous Wing* to deal enough damage to win (while still using *Space of Happiness to win card advantage)*. The cards below reflect both focuses. As a word of caution, you may want to avoid random-target abilities such as *Night Ambush* as it may kill your seeds. Likewise, use caution if you include *Chain Lightning, Firestorm, and Thunderstorm.* That is not to say that you would never want to kill your seeds, but do be aware of the potential decisions you may have to make.

Core cards for this strategy include:

* **Parasitic Seed** (Core in this deck; heals each turn)
* **Space of Happiness** (Care in this deck; draws each time you heal)
* **Black Fleet Captain** (Drains hp at each turn start; probably will drain attack from an opponent as well)
* **Gluttonous Wing** (Works very well with seeds; can attack through them without damaging them, and has a change of gaining +1/+1 each time the seeds drain hp)
* **Scarlet Minion** (Deals damage direct when dead)

Cards to consider:

* **Thunderbolt** (Very cheep, three damage on a targeted square)
* **Mind Collapser** (Very cheep, with a small drawback of hurting your hp)
* **Soul Burning** (Very cheep creature removal; 4 damage is enough to remove most threats)
* **Endless Bloodshade** (This works well if you plan to rely on *Flaming Ironarm;* he provides a creature on board to block or attack, and returns to your hand so be discarded)
* **Soar, Fleuret Gent** (Just a really strong card; heals to synergise with your *Place of Happiness*)
* **Seal of Paradise** (Fun card with *Flaming Ironarm*, it deals 2 damage and then returns to your hand before it is discarded, dealing another 2 damage)
* **Mindstorm** (A decent removal card; versatile due to it's ability to be cast on an empty square to force an opponent to discard a *Seal of X*)
* **Sell Your Faith** (Probably not actually a core card, but it gives consistent draw)
* **Pillage** (Not the best card, but deals OK damage and heals you)
* **Assassination** (Fairly cheep tarted kill card; plus insight for a bonus of seeing what may be coming)
* **Greedy Old Witch** (Heals at turn-end for each spell you cast; synergizes well with the strategy)
* **Thunder Strike** (Another good, targeted kill/damage card)
* **Chain Lightning** (Nice removal card that may hit 2; caution/luck is needed to avoid killing your seeds)
* **Liera's Secret Scroll** (Works well with *Flaming Ironarm;* also provides decent damaging cards)
* **Flaming Ironarm** (Bread and butter for a surprise win; draw as many cards as possible and drop him)
* **Unholy Transition** (Nice, targeted kill card)
* **Pool of Grime** (Decent blocker that also gives cards; you heal a lot so the 2 hp/card is not terrible, plus a card in hand is usually worth at least 2 hp, either because it's a creature that blocks that much, or because it heals you/does more damage to the opponent)
* **Navigation Supply** (Not the greatest option, but it heals, and summons 2 blockers that heal again)
* **Devouring Grudge** (Very strong legendary in this strategy)
* **Furious Fireball** (Deals good Crash damage, returns to hand if you happen to have no other cards)
* **Firestorm** (Deals good damage to player/creatures in a row)
* **Thunderstorm** (Deals good damage to player/creatures in a row)
* **Skynet** (Fun spell card to deny the opponent an opportunity to attack; allows you to take a free turn of draining plus attacking)

### **Petrel's Fleet** **(Paradise Harbor and Empire)**

* Soar, Flueret Gent
* Lucky Pumpkin
* Overdraft
* Petrel's Bodyguard
* Beast Smuggler
* Powley, Petrel
* Petrel's Mortar
* Temple Marksman
* Seize Position
* Black Fleet Gunner

### **Return and Burn (Zen and Inferno or Paradise Harbor)**

This deck is not very consistent, but can be a fun concept.  The idea is to constantly return threats to your oppoents's hand, and then force them to discard their hand.  There is not realy a list of "Core Cards," due to the small pool of cards that actually lend themselves to the strategy.  Instead this list shows everything that could contribute to the strategy in the future.  Paradise Harbor is the least adept for this concept currently; they were only included in this list because they just gained a card that returns creatures to opponent's hands, they have access to limited discard effects, and their Deadly *Scarecrow* card is the best (scarecrow) suited for the concept.

* **Disorientation**(Pretty bad card; it could contribute to the concept)
* **Tornado** (Returns a creature plus one adjacent to it)
* **Evil Eye** (Places a weenie on the field; opponent discards a card)
* **Seiso Monk** (Returns an opposing creature)
* **Tiger Palms** (Double strike combines well with *Mekki, Illusionist, Howling Fiend, and Windwalk Martialist*)
* **Hurricane** (Returns an entire row)
* **Puzzled Scarecrow** (I do not like this card; it does contribute to the concept.  It is also exploitable if the opponent has a strong debut effect. The opponent dropping an *Evil Eye* in front of a *Puzzled Scarecrow* for example, is pretty annoying)
* **Howling Fiend** (Opponent discards a card on hit)
* **Mekki, Illusionist** (You draw, opponent discards on hit)
* **Ink-House Hermit** (Coppies a creature on the field; since many of the creatures listed here have debut effects, this allows you to reuse those creatures)
* **Demon Scarecrow** (Since you will be returning opponent's creatures, they will also be replaying their creatures, giving more opportunities for *Scarecrow*cards to get extra use)
* **Blood-Flame Erinyes** (Deals decent damage; opponent discards a card at turn-end)
* **Wind Chime Taoist** (Returns a random creature at debut)
* **Windwalk Martialist** (Returns a randon creature on hit)
* **Spring Breeze** (Pretty bad card; it could contribute to the concept)
* **Deadly Scarecrow** (Since you will be returning opponent's creatures, they will also be replaying their creatures, giving more opportunities for *Scarecrow*cards to get extra use)
* **Blackgold Trickster** (Returns an opponent's creature as Pre-strike, if you have more creatures on the field)
* **Infernal Butcher** (Not specifically part of the concept, but killing a creature the opponent is trying to get on the field is good)
* **Maze of the Huntsman** (Pretty bad card; it could contribute to the concept)
* **Crippled Thoughts** (Deals damage directly to the opponent; they discard two cards)
* **Lilith, Blood Wing** (Simmilar to *Infernal Butcher; not part of the concept, but helps it)*
* **Moel?** (Simmilar to *Infernal Butcher; not part of the concept, but helps it)*
* **Nightmare Horror** (Assumming you have blown your hand, the opponent should have a lot of cards, this card comes into play to destroy their options and makes both of you top deck)
* **Bewitching Shadow** (Steals a card that has already been places; in effect, this returns a card to the opponent's hand, discards it from their hand, and then lets you draw a card)

## Galaxy Decks

These decks are designed for Galaxy stages, not PvP/campaign.

### jibbbyy's Artist Deck

**Here is my Galaxy Deck: jibbbyy's Artist Deck**

This is a well-rounded deck, effective against 60-80% of all Galaxy missions. It has a pretty high win rate although success does depend on the stage.

Here are the main cards:

* **Peripatetic Guqin Artist**: This is the eponymous card of the deck. This unit can kill all 1/1 creatures, which is a common creature pattern in Galaxy missions. Even if the mission doesn't have 1/1 units, it can slowly tic away X/2 or X/3 units if sufficiently protected behind a Janissary Commander or Fortification. It is ESSENTIAL to use 3 of these in your deck. Any less will severely compromise the deck's success rate.
	+ You are in luck! You get a Peripatetic Guqin Artist for free if you can beat the Zen Black Hole: Grim Berg. Unfortunately, it is a very hard mission which I could not beat without Avatar of Deus. Good luck!
* **Sika Magi** Don't have an Artist in your starting hand? Enemy units with 1 health are overwhelming you? Sika played in the front column of any row will kill them all on debut. I use 3 of these because damage to x/1 units is necessary.
* **Celestial Kensai** This is a row specific Artist... dealing 2 damage to all enemies in the opposite row. This is effective but doesn't give you overall board control. I only use 2 for that reason.
* **Janissary Commander** He is very important and I recommend 3 in your deck. The enemy doesn't use too many spells in galaxy, and when they do you know they are coming. The AI is pretty stupid, so Commander will often protect your key units. The AI will prioritize killing him, so if they do have spells they will usually target this.
* **Temple Guard** A safe turn 1 play. Usually I charge to get an Artist turn 1 but Guard is a decent choice. Sometimes I will play Guard turn 1 and Artist turn 2, to keep my hand full. If you don't pull an Artist, the 1/1 units will act like 1 damage to those pesky x/1 units.
* **Fortification** Is a cheaper Janissary Commander. I use them to protect my Artists.
* **Light's Retribution**  The AI will stack units in a row so this helps a lot. It is very strong.
* **Protective Anima / Seiso Monk** These are support cards. The PA helps against missions where the enemy has spells. Monk is a very strong card that can help remove units with return or keep your snowball going by spreading heritage. I usually save it for returns unless I already have board control when I draw him.
* **Anabel, Dapton, Reyna, Master Ren, Immortal Ficus, Wild Boar Axe** These are the legendaries I own, so I use them. They all work very well in this deck so why not?
	+ Dapton and Reyna are for late game and can give you the edge when top decked. Otherwise they might be charge material if I get a poor starting hand or when the enemy starts to take advantage.
	+ Ficus is a huge wall with card advantage and healing. A very strong card.
	+ Boar Axe's Rejuvenation can really make the difference for some harder missions, but don't count on drawing it; you can't plan a deck strategy around drawing a single card.
	+ Master Ren is a pseudo Artist, keeping the damage constant. Combined with an Artist, enemy units take 3 damage in a turn, seriously suppressing the opponent.
	+ Anabel is just a great card. Cheap legend, buffs your creatures, and ideal to play behind a Janissary.

Cards to Consider if you cannot make this full deck

You probably won't have all of my legendaries. Substitute whatever ones you do have (especially Reinhardt, Master of Cosmos, Caroline, or Pigsy) or other epics.
I would not use Ian Archbishop, Lay Monk or Azhen.

If you are missing epics you might have a tough time. You could try using these rares if you have them:

* **Shield Janissary**  This deck is often employed against 1/1 units, so armor 2 is strong.
* **Elite Archer** Cheap first strike unit. Will kill low health units easily.
* **The Empire Tent**  Generates 1/1 units to defend/kill enemy 1/1 units.
* **Drunk Taoist**  Great stats for a 3 mana creature. Can kill enemy 1/1 units.
* **Windwalk Martialist**  Can return units if the enemy ignores the lane. Very strong against predicable AI.
* **Horse Barrier** This is a good common card. 2 mana for a 1/5 wall with counter attack. It's cheap, big enough to block several creatures, and can kill an entire row of 1/1 or 2/1 creatures in a single turn.

These are other epics you could use in this deck

* **Royal Archer**  Generates 1/1 first strike units. Useful as blockers or to kill small enemy units.
* **Retribution Angel**  If you can predict the AI (which you should be able to) this can keep you on top.
* **Deadly Swordman**  Not strongly recommended. It is expensive and has low stats but is ideal for several specific missions. I wouldn't use more than 1 of these in a generic Galaxy deck.
* **Testudo Arhat** In my opinion, just as good as the Janissary Commander. If you are missing any of this deck's high-cost creatures you could replace them with 3 Arhats. It is very strong against the AI.