Empower was one of the primary mechanics given to War with Mortal Judgement, but decks focused on it have underperformed. The original empower war cards were all very weak, but the last few balance patches have seen many of them given buffs. I figured it was worth trying to build a new empowered deck. I'm still in the ideas mode, so I figured this community would be a great place to share and get feedback.
The Deck
Code:
GU_1_6_KBZKBZBFvBFvKDSKDSCDZCDZCGJKBtCDqCDqCBBCBBKBcKBcCAZCAZKBgKBgLAKKBfKBfIAZIAZKBwKBiKBiLALLAL
Obviously, if you don't have Blades and Martyrs, there are tons of options to sub in. Viking Longship is the closest. It's ability to give flank is sort of like Blades ability to remove guild enforcers. It lets you finish the game. Other options are a second Another Round or maybe some 1 drops, which I'm currently lacking.
Empower
After several rounds of buffs, War has enough nice empower cards to build a core out of:
- Lykaios Postulant: Not good enough for most decks, but I'm giving him the nod due to empower synergies. Can be buffed to a vanilla 3 mana 3/4. Not 100% sold on him, though.
- Wolf-Cult Vanguard: Excellent 2-for-1 card. Combines nicely with Enduring Shield to get even more value. Important card when going second.
- Mountain Watcher: basically a 4 mana 5/4 with upside. A great asset against strength steal decks. It just keeps coming back (you'll see an extreme case in one of my gameplay vids). Also a solid play against decks that like to draw cards like Combo Magic or CDM.
- Lykaios Adherent: Nice utility card. Our aggro deck doesn't want to run savage strike or auric rush, so this guy can help us clear shadow cats. He's also an OK finisher if you have a board to buff. At the very worst, he's a vanilla 3 mana 3/4. The option to empower is nothing but bonus. UPDATE: the more I play this card the more I like it. He solves so many problems. Aggro light's board of 1/1s goes bye bye. Just played another game against Dalia Nature. Wiped out so many trees! In the same game the other copy set up sweet trades by doing damage and buffing my guys (I was behind so needed to trade). Great card.
- White Fur Guard: A better guild enforcer in the current meta. Can't be bladed. To be clear, Guild Enforcer is probably still better in lower ranks, but in Diamond/Mythic, blades are everywhere. At 5 strength, he's also a real threat and helps us end games.
These cards make up the "empowered core" of the deck. Then I built around them with some synergies:
These sacrifice a bit of tempo for value, which isn't exactly aggro oriented. On the other hand, with 2 empower cards in hand Garron becomes (effectively) a 2 mana 3/4. Mobilized is effectively 0 mana. The only cost is tempo. I'm normally looking to play mobilized at 2 mana, but if you are gassed out at 5 mana (unusual in this deck), it can refill your hand.
I was running this guy for the gameplay vids:
It's was in there for two reasons:
- To try and get ward/hidden on a creature via tempt fate.
- To get it's cost reduced and be a 2 mana 3/2 buff.
Here's why I broke up with the card: It's a hand buff and most of our creatures don't have blitz. That means it's really slow. I have yet to get it on a Wolf-Cult Vanguard. Also, the chances of getting ward/hidden aren't high enough.
Likely better options:
Hearts of Bronze would play the role of low-cost buff. Adding a second Another Round can't be a bad idea. Sole Survivor would add a finisher to the deck. I've replaced it with Another Round, which I'm liking. We have enough beef to stick creatures, and then this does double duty buffing creatures in hand.
Supporting Synergies
I really enjoy Looter + OOIM. You can play Looter turn 1 and then attack before sacrificing it. This combo also draws two cards, and one is a big boy. All of our "empowered core" cards make excellent targets for OOIM. Perhaps Wolf-Cult most of all: a 6/4 blitz for 2 mana or a 6/6 blitz + twin strike for 4. Seems good.
Now for relics:
As I mentioned, this deck was shaping up to be a bit slow for an aggro deck. OOIM trades tempo for value just like Garron and Mobilized. Relics are how I've opted to shore up the tempo loss. In particular, I Need a Weapon into Blade of Styx is huge. As a result, I'll usually not keep Styx in the mulligan.
Enduring Shield is an obvious keep in the mulligan. The following two cards are in the deck just to combo with Shield:
Hero-in-Training is an interesting option instead of Warmonger Smith. It permanently buffs your relic, which combos really nicely with I Need a Weapon. Right now I'm leaning toward the extra HP on Smith, but I may be wrong. A 3/3 Enduring Shield would be amazing.
Gameplay 1: Win Against Magic
Fair warning that all of these games are in casual. Our opponent's deck isn't mythic level, but I'm including this one just for the fun factor of having Fox's Venture actually work out.
At 3 mana, we get amazing value out of Garron. We play him for 4 mana and he reduces the mana cost of our hand by 3. When our opponent can't clear him, he reduces our hand by another 1 mana. He cost us 0 mana.
At 4 mana we get hidden on our Mountain Watcher. With the 3/2 buff plus his passive, he's a monster. Important to point out: note I'm not taking the value trades into his toads. Not only are we aggro and wanting to go face, but also, we don't want him to have an extra mana on his turn.
At 5 mana, we almost get the order wrong, but realize we need to swing face first to get the rune for another 2/2 on our watcher.
Our opponent goes digging, which gives us another +2/+2, but he is able to find Blizzard Bolt for the sleep. We apply maximum pressure anyway and close the game.
Gameplay 2: Win Against Deception
An important decision turn 2 was not to play Warmonger Smith. Instead, we want to keep that a surprise and take out his Armor Lurker next turn with the buff. The Postulant makes a great option instead.
When our opponent plays the Carriage and doesn't attack with Lurker, we know he's control. We get the ordering right at 3 mana to avoid any bombs. You see me almost play looter, but I opt for INAW instead. Since we are up against control, I need maximum pressure. Also, with 1 shield already played, odds are good we get Blade of Styx (which we do).
At 4 mana, though, I decide to be mana efficient and play both looters instead of the Blade and floating one mana.
The rest of the game basically plays itself. Holding Blade of Styx also means that when I play it, it's too late for my opponent to get value out of a Counterfeit play.
Also note that while Blade of Whiteplain won me the game, Viking Longship would have been almost as good and let my smith attack face and use the god power.
Gameplay 3: Win Against Light
This is the type of funky/fun deck you'll come up against in the Casual queue. Unfortunately for our opponent, our Mountain Watchers are the perfect cards against strength reduction. The only other key for the game was not to fill my board up with weak creatures that could get stuck with 0 strength.
It took me a while to realize I should play wolf-cult + OOIM, so that could have been better. By the end of our game, our watchers have completely exhausted his strength reduction and grown enormous.
While this game was against a meme deck, strength steal deception control decks are very real and very meta.
Conclusion
This deck is fun to play. It's creature/board centric, which I tend to prefer. The Empowered mechanic adds a lot of flexibility to the deck and multiple lines to play - unusual for an aggro deck. After tweaking it in casual, I've taken it out into WR and played control deception twice. The first one didn't go my way, but in the second, my strength steal opponent learned the hard way that Mountain Watchers and Another Rounds laugh at stat reduction.
Definitely give this a go and see if you enjoy it like I do!