Here is my third Gods Unchained F2P Deck Guide, this time on Zoo Light. You can check out my guide on Zoo Nature here @meltysquid/gods-unchained-f2p-welcome-core and Slayer War @meltysquid/gods-unchained-f2p-welcomecore-slayer-war-deck-hive-140217. Leave a comment for the next decklist you want or any cards I should go over more.
Zoo Light has made a big splash in the meta recently with @clutchgu going 25/25 this weekend with it and has sleep removal against top tier decks Board Wipe Death and Sleep Deception. Light has the best buffs and is great at building a board although it struggles to come back from behind. Budget Light is decent but not top tier, most of Light's strongest cards are expensive like Highborn Knight and Cudgel of Atonement.
Strategy
God Power
Choose Summon Acolyte for 99% of matches, 3 mana for a 2/2 is weak but it helps you maintain board when you are low on cards and you can do it every turn.
Choose Heal if you're going against a hyper aggressive deck that only goes face so you can stay alive and outvalue them.
Lysander's Honor is too slow to play.
Mulligan Guide
Going first you want to curve out with relics and sticky creatures to establish board through good trades.
Going second you want reactive cards, Light's Levy, Axewoman, pingers, and relics to comeback from behind.
Light really wants to go first, it has a tough time coming back from behind since it has few reactive cards.
Playstyle
The deck is tempo-based, the game plan is to win the board early with your relics and sticky creatures, control the board, then finish out the game with big buffs.
In aggro matchups, you win through controlling the board, use your relics and buffs to get good trades. Try to always have creatures on board so your buffs are live.
In control matchups, you want to end the game before your opponent can get to they big threats. Don't play too many creatures on the board and overextend into a board wipe. Hold Radiant Dawn for when they sleep your creatures. Use Summon Acolyte often to maintain board while keeping cards in hand.
Sample Decks
Welcome
If you're are just starting out, here is a Welcome deck, an upgrade over the default starter deck. Check out gudecks for the card descriptions and other decklists. https://gudecks.com/decks/9642
Welcome and Core
Here's a sample decklist with only common and rare Welcome and Core cards, easily accessible to anyone starting out. https://gudecks.com/decks/5994
Budget Divine Order
Once you've won some weekend ranked reward Divine Order Packs, you can start building up to something like this. https://gudecks.com/decks/9650
Card Choices
Welcome and Core
- Wild Hog, Skeleton Heavy, Helios Battlesworn: Sticky vanilla creatures
- Vanguard Axewoman: Blitz lets you make good trades
- Trial Spirit: Buffs creature to trade up and has good stats
- Panacean Messenger: Helps you keep creatures on board
- Devoted Follower: Early creature with ward
- Bright Mage: Nice body with ward, keeps your face or creatures healthy
- Battlement Luminary, Holy Enchanter: Buffs your creatures
- Athenian Archer, Carthaginian Marine, Ogre Archer: Pingers let you clear while also being a body on board
- Light's Levy: One of the best removal spells, gets rid of most early creatures and gives you a 2/2
- Imperious Smite: Good for killing big creatures
- Bronze Servant: Nice 2/4 body and removes those pesky relics
Upgrades
Core Epic & Legendary
- Ritual Rod: 1 mana 2/2 relic gives you great early board control, one of the best turn 1 plays, +1 durability happens sometimes but still great as 2/2
- Blind Martyr: Really annoying for your opponent, 0/2 frontline that gives your board +2 hp when it dies, frontline means your opponent has to run into it first and your board gets big making it hard for the opponent to trade
- Asterius, Glittering One: The best core legendary, nice body with frontline and huge +2/+2 buff to your creatures with 2 or less strength
Cheap
- Olympian Guard: Frontliner that starts at 1/2 and gain +1/+1 at the start of the opponent's turn upto 3/4, nice early body that can get big if your opponent can't deal with it immediately
- Watchful Hound: Goodest boi, locks down an opponent's creature with +10 order while Hound is on the board
- Radiant Dawn: The best buff spells, +1/+2 to your board, great for trading up or waking up your sleeping creatures
- Guild Enforcer: Big frontliner, good for protecting your other creatures
- Golden-Winged Sphinx: 5mana 4/5 frontline on roar gives god protected and afterlife gives your creatures protected until end of turn. The god protection is nice to protect your face. Even though the creature protection only lasts until the end of turn it has your board trade up or keep them alive to buff them on your turn
Expensive
- Netherborne Binder: Good stats early for board control
- Pyramid Warden: Huge stats early, keep in mind what is in your opponent's void and what your put in there while Pyramid Warden is on board
- Highborn Knight: 4 mana 3/3 frontline, protected, and ward. Super sticky creature, great for trading up or getting buffed
- Master of Indulgences: 4 mana 2/2, swaps hp with another creature, good for weakening big opposing creatures and getting a big body on board
- Sern, The Moderator: Amazing legendary, gives +3 order to an opponent's creature, heals your creatures and your god, and draws cards everytime a creature is healed. Good stats and does everything, lock down a creature, heal, and card draw.
- Cudgel of Atonement: Another 1 mana 2/2 relic, heals god for 4hp on afterlife nice for keeping healthy
- Canonize: +3/+3 and protected lets you trade up and still have a big creature
Replacements
- Shieldbearer: Rarely seen now since it got nerfed to 0/1, still can buff creatures to trade up, sometimes gets left alone and can get buffed up
- Felid Janissary: 2 mana 2/1 that gives +1/+1 to a friendly creature, it has low stats but the buff can help trade
- Hunt Warden, Dune Calvary, Wetlands Ogre: Vanilla curve fillers
- Ranger Firstbow, Veteran Archer, Feral Shapeshifter: Other pingers