A weekly recap of my Mythic Weekend Ranked experience, attempting to do a Free-To-Play (F2P) Gauntlet with all the Gods to show that they can all compete and get Legendary packs. Previously I’ve done Nature and War; this week is my third weekend with Magic.
WOWOWOW! What a turn-around from last weekend when I started off with 2 wins and 8 losses. This weekend I went 13-1 in my first 14 games! And I actually tied my personal best finish with 20 wins!!! Not to mention the last time I achieved that was with my Nature deck which I invested some earned GODs in and it was before the new reward structure/match-making changes; might have been a high roll but damn it felt good as I was about to give up on this deck and switch to another God even before achieving a Legendary pack, but now I got two Legendary packs haha 🥂
| Weekend | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | Nature | Nature | Nature | War | War | Magic | Magic | Magic |
| Wins | 20 | 19 | 17 | 13 | 16 | 13 | 14 | 20 |
| Prize (USD) | $50 | $34.5 | $27.5 | $19 | $27.5 | $19 | $21.5 | $50 |
Here’s the deck that I used, costing 0.0134 ETH or ~$34.
I think one of the reasons why my deck performed this well for this weekend was that most people were running slower decks due to Sage of Renewal being the new go-to for Nature, which at 7 mana is a bit slow compared to previous Nature decks. With everyone else being slow, I was able to control the openings better and then react and provide answers later in the game to seal the deal. Lots of Nature decks played Guerilla Gardener as their 8-mana bomb which is a very juicy target for Trials of the False Reflection; I won 2-3 games doing just that, as the Gardener has Backline and if they can’t kill it on their turn, I’ll get another one. With that, I managed an amazing win-rate against Nature (and War as well!) which gives a great weekend result because as you can see, more than half of my 25 games were against Nature.
The changes I made to this deck from last weekend also helped in this slower meta:
❌1x Lightning Talisman✔️Inferno – I really wanted Inferno in my deck to clear any late board that could develop, and all the other areas were tight so I decided to let go of one of my Lightning Talismans. I think it’s an interesting card, but I realized that I don’t get favor unless I kill the creatures by pinging my face, and sometimes it just gets straight removed. Inferno really helped to stabilize the board late-game or if I don’t draw my Shaped Blasts, and is the perfect damage for most Nature creatures (except Sage or Moose but you just need a ping).
❌Snowstorm Spire✔️Ratify – Snowstorm Spire seems pretty decent against War’s Slayer hero power, but the spell power takes time to ramp up so it was almost useful against other Gods. I felt like a second Ratify would make it more consistent for me to deal with big Nature or War creatures later in the game (and sometimes early if I can’t deal with them otherwise). I actually beat a couple of Aggro Wars in this run without the Ward from the Spire, which proves that it wasn’t necessary.
❌Guardian Simulacrum✔️Labyrinth Guard – I decided to double up on Labyrinth Guard because it’s a beefy frontline that can stall until I find more stalls through City Planner or until I get a Shaped Blast or Inferno. It’s also a good bait for Lightning Strikes and Falling Stars, and it even survives a turn after it gets struck too. Guardian Simulacrum is a fun card and it’s quite powerful when you make multiples of it, but it’s just a bit slow and doesn’t provide immediate protection.
Mulligan is pretty important here to make sure you have cards to play; luckily, you don’t have that many options haha. On top of that, you don’t have any 1-drops and you won’t be putting any pressure on early, so going first or second doesn’t really affect your choices. Aggravated Architect and Bronze Gate are obvious first choices, damage spells a good second, and All-Seeing Spire or Lightning Talisman a good third. That’s basically all your low-mana cards anyways haha. If you have a Diligent Architect in your hand, it’s probably better to keep it until your last choice since it’s still playable within your first turns. If you’re going against Nature and you don’t have Architect out, sometimes it’s better to bait out a Canopy Barrage with your All-Seeing Spire first before dropping a Bronze Gate.
How does this F2P deck compare to the Nature and War ones I played with previously? Well it’s definitely a different archetype as it’s a Control deck, and not Mid-range or Aggro. This means a different play-style and also more decision-making; sometimes you just have to take face damage and gain more value before taking back the board.
Deck Pros
-No confused creatures or spells so your actions have direct and calculated consequences
-Feels very safe if/when you get to the late game, especially against Nature which doesn’t have much face burst damage
-Easy to reclaim the board if you have the right spells in hand
-High value cards that can win games on their own or make very efficient trades to give you advantage
-Diligent Architect Delving can be quite flexible; you can look for early game Bronze Gates to stop aggro or late game winners like Thaeriel’s Anvil
-Killing your enemies’ creatures by throwing a Labyrinth Guard at them via Aggravated Architect is just so satisfying haha
Deck Cons
-Need to mulligan well or else you need luck on your draws; you have lots of high mana cards which you don’t want in your hand because they’ll be dead for quite a number of turns
-Very long games, you’ll get to 8 or 9 mana a lot of the times
-If you get draw through All-Seeing Spire, you may have a stuffed hand and mill yourself since your cards are high mana and reactive, meaning you can’t/don’t want to play multiple cards a turn
-Aggravated Architect can be slow, but most opponents tend to focus on it anyways
-Diligent Architect can sometimes give you 3 bad choices and make you feel bad
-Hard to gain favor at the beginning of a match unless you can keep the board clear or keep a Bronze Gate up
-Not much aggression/pressure at the beginning of a game so it can be susceptible to combo decks or other greedy decks
-No heals or God protection, which means that Slayer or flank creatures can wear you down over time
There are a lot of ways to upgrade this deck, it depends on which route you take. For example, you can do more of a ramp style deck where you try to get to higher mana faster, or you can use better game ending cards, or you can add in some more sustain. I’ve just included some examples here, but there are definitely more options:
Polyhymnia, Aetheric Hydra 0.0083 ETH ($21) – This is one of the most common Control deck win conditions for the late-game; it’s one tough cookie and really hard to dispose of, and it gives you protection via Frontline. It comes later than a Helian Elite and doesn’t do as much damage, but some decks run both
Jason, Medea's Muse 0.35 ETH ($890) – An expensive include in high-end Control decks, this provides insane value as you can delve 3 more win cons for you. I don’t see this as much in Magic decks though
Demogorgon 0.36 ETH ($918) – Another expensive include in high-end Control decks, also not seen as much in Magic, but provides sustain that isn’t found anywhere else. It also provides more stalling for you to clean up their board after as well
Archimedes Mirror 0.03 ETH ($76) – This is a great control tool that can really shut down your opponent’s board. It reflects all damage it takes, from your opponent’s spells or creatures or from your own; hit it with a Starshard Bolt and voila an almost Inferno
Fortified Acropolis 0.0029 ETH ($7) – I love delving this from Diligent Architect. It’s a wonderful addition to your Structure arsenal, plus it can go face! The only problem is that it doesn’t provide immediate value like a big Frontline would; but if it sticks, drop more Structures and watch it go off!
Well, with half of the Gods done in my F2P Gauntlet I shall be moving on to… hmm maybe Death and zombies?? It’s an interesting time right now because the Core Refresh just dropped today; however I probably won’t have most of the new cards for awhile, and no way am I going to buy them now for insane prices haha. We’ll see how the packs look from this weekend, either Hidden Deception or Zombie Death unless something wild happens with the Refresh! And yes I’m saving Light for last because I’m a little scared haha 😅😨
Not too much excitement from last week's pack here but I did get a Shadow Shaped Blast which I used over the weekend (that's why I did so well right??). Also a few decent cards for Deception and Death which I can use to progress in the gauntlet!