Whenever a new set of cards is released, especially when it’s the games first expansion, as is the case with Trial of the Gods, the first ever expansion set for the blockchain-based card game Gods Unchained, we can expect the meta to take a few weeks to work itself into shape. That being said, if a new card or a new archetype is powerful enough, it usually doesn’t take long for the player base to recognize that fact, and take advantage of it.
(Purchase Trial of the Gods packs here!)
We saw this in the first Weekend Ranked Event of Season One, in which 7 of the top 10 players (including yours truly) achieved their status running midrange Nature and the deck’s favorite new tool in its arsenal, Jaguar Staff. Needless to say, identifying the most powerful cards and most consistent archetypes as early as possible can give players a significant advantage. With that in mind, I’m going to recap the three decks I’ve found the most success with at this point in the Trial of the Gods meta. Small sample sizes be damned! 😂
Midrange Nature: https://gudecks.com/decks/1990
Midrange Nature probably had the easiest time transitioning into the Trial of the Gods meta, and incorporating some powerful cards into an already optimized list. Ironclad Minotaur offers Nature another super sturdy body on 6 mana, and wakes up your large creatures to finish off your opponent, where they may have been neutralized by Demogorgon or Memory Charm before. Militant Gladiator is another TotG card that fits seamlessly into midrange Nature. Before, Nature often ran over opponents with a myriad of 5/5 bodies. Now, they have a couple of 7/7s to boot, provided they control the state of their void with Forage.
The most polarizing, and perhaps the most powerful card added to Nature’s arsenal is the aforementioned Jaguar Staff. Nature already had an abundance of options to provide mid game value or tempo, and Jaguar Staff provides both. As a 2 attack weapon with Blitz, it can help chip away at your opponent’s creatures to facilitate value trades, or to help mitigate the randomness of Nature’s removal spells, all while dropping a 3/3 creature with each swing.
If Jaguar Staff can be used for all four attacks, it can swing a game or finish off an opponent on its own. Therefore, it’s single-handedly made weapon removal like Nefarious Briar or Iron-tooth Goblin a must-have tech in nearly every other deck. We’ll see how long it can avoid the nerf-hammer.
Intense Training War: https://gudecks.com/decks/1988
Another card looking to avoid the nerf-hammer is Might Makes Right, the bread and butter of this Intense Training list. Since Gods Unchained’s inception, Intense Training has been one of the least-used and least successful God Power, mostly due to it being so slow, and giving up too much tempo in the early game to justify the buffs it provides. My thesis with this deck was simple: if all of my creatures eventually had +2/+2 and Leech, could I recapture all the tempo I lost using my God Power within one or two turns of playing Might Makes Right?
The results so far have been an overwhelming YES! Losing 10, 20 health, or 15, 20 stats on the board, or both, by turn 4 or 5 is immediately rendered moot when you can clear, heal, and play threats for 4/5 mana. Fully stocked with cheap Blitz and Frontline creatures, this list is built to recapture any tempo lost in the early game by the mid game, and finish off your opponent before the late game with your massive stats. Might Makes Right also helps out a few Roar creatures in the deck, namely Hyrtacus, Brazen Hero, and Ashen Drake. When buffed with Leech, these creatures can provide the same functionality as your cheap, buffed, Leech-ridden blitzers in that they can clear your opponent’s creatures, provide a threatening creature on your side of the board, and heal you with their Roar damage. I’d be shocked if Might Makes Right keeps Leech for more than a week or two, so check this list out while you can!
Deathwish Zoo: https://gudecks.com/decks/1989
A personal favorite of mine! Death zoo got a really neat creature from Trial of the Gods in the form of Nether's Advocate. Its Afterlife effect can help mitigate the effectiveness of board clears, a common threat to most creature based zoo decks. On top of that, Death is stocked with several powerful spells and effects that require you to sacrifice a creature, like Living Container, Daemonic Offering, and Fleshbind. Being able to drop an additional 3/2 body with any of these effects provides for some powerful turns and nice synergies.
Another quirk of Death Zoo decks is incentivizing the pilot to use their health as a resource, with cards like Deathwish Thanetar and Possessed Acolyte. Trial of the Gods provided a new card that fits the same script in Diones, Spectral Sceptic. A 3/3 body with a draw engine is fantastic, and getting your health to 15 or less is easy enough with all of Death’s mutual damage burst. Diones can help you find late game lethal, or more value in the mid game to maintain tempo and chip down your opponent’s health. I’m very excited to experiment a bit more with this archetype. I think it has a lot of potential, especially if we see nerfs to Nature and Might Makes Right.
Obviously, a lot can change quickly with regards to these lists and the cards within them, so I encourage everyone to tinker with the lists and curate the decks to their own styles and ideas. And as always, I welcome any and all feedback and suggestions. We’ll check back in a week or two as the new meta matures and develops, and see what’s popped up and what’s faded away in the interim. Til then!