Maehv:
Summary
Ramp Mythic Maev: Highly Competitive
Summary
Underlord Xor is such a neat card, when it was spoiled I was certainly hyped. But it has proven to be a bit tough to get out rarely coming down before eight mana even in decks focused on getting it out. So I have found the best way of making the deck is not to really use him as your primary win con but just sort of reassurance that you will win the late game if you get there.
This list sits somewhere between tempo maev and classic ramp abyss. It utilities a hefty amount of two drops to provide sacrifice fodder for Maevs BBS as well as Ritual and darkfire. Pair those with necrotic sphere and extra bbs from crypto and you can get xor out pretty reliably by the time if and when you need him. Due to him filling up your hand the deck needs to lower its curve to avoid burning cards and to be able to use desolator, but between deso, lots of late game drops, and having Xor for about when you would start running out of cards it does fine on that front.
Azure Shaman is the real back bone of most Maev decks due to how it works with her BBs. Not only will it buffs things it dies around but it will also buff the newly created husk for a staggering 4/8 for the cost of three mana, and in a pinch you can use your other sacrifice effects on azure as well. Gibbet is abyss’s new little toy, and he is extra scary when combined with the health buff of azure.
Early BBs via crypto is amazing early game tempo, we pack a good amount of healing to offset the self damage, aoe with thunder and necrotic, ramped Vorpals and EMPs are lynchpins and good counters, and healthy amount of control spells leaves you with a well rounded deck prepared for most matchups.
Focused Xor: Competitive
Summary
Sitting somewhere between the dedicated ramp list that has Xor as a back up rather then a focus, and the dedicated dying abuse list is all about sacrifice effects, this one carves out its own niche.
Making consistent Xor lists is a real challenge, but this one is just right on the money featuring some interesting tech. Shoutout to @Bubblingbeebles for pointing out how good Bone Reaper was vs swarm brome and Ascension sajj, as well as dancer being another great artifact counter and alt win con. This list really focuses on getting xor out fast boasting an impressive 12 sacrifice cards on top of maevs BBS which can be spammed with crypto as well. Combine that with a powerful control suite and an excess of healing and the deck is actually pretty dang good at getting Xor out and then closing the game.
Azure Shaman is the real back bone of most Maev decks due to how it works with her BBs. Not only will it buffs things it dies around but it will also buff the newly created husk for a staggering 4/8 for the cost of three mana, and in a pinch you can use your other sacrifice effects on azure as well. Gibbet is abyss’s new little toy, and he is extra scary when combined with the health buff of azure. Demonic Lure, while being a powerful control tool, also combos really nice with both Gibbet and thunderhorn.
Sarlac and or desolator tend to be fairly high priority finds as with out them you tend to run out of sacrifice targets. In general remember that your a xor focused deck so digging for sacrifice cards is usually worthwhile. Learn your matchups for when to dig for removal, aoe, and or healing and you will stand a decent chance vs most decks.
Dying Wish Xor: Competitive
Summary
A focused Xor deck packing a ton of control tools and sustain to get you to the end game.
Carrion Collector is a real superstar here letting you really push out a lot of units, and when mixed with Consuming or echos can make your entire decks cost negligible, and thanks to Nekoma and Desolator you can keep a constant stream of units out. Sarlac gives us some consistent sacrifice fodder, and is a classic with consuming/echos. Consuming/Echos turn the usually subpar Cacophy into a real force to be reckoned with.
Azure Shaman is the real back bone of most Maev decks due to how it works with her BBs. Not only will it buffs things it dies around but it will also buff the newly created husk for a staggering 4/8 for the cost of three mana, and in a pinch you can use your other sacrifice effects on azure as well. Gibbet is abyss’s new little toy, and he is extra scary when combined with the health buff of azure.
Between Gibbet, Lure, Ritual, Caco, and Necrotic you can answer just about anything your opponent puts down. Between desolator and drain you have exelent sustain, and your sporting a staggering 14 sacrifice effects on top of Maevs effect making the trial a breeze to complete. Leaving it a solid deck, but one that is tough to play and can struggle vs decks that have heavy dispel and or transform.
Cassyva:
Summary
Death: Aggro, Highly Competitive
Summary
Despite the lack of deathwatch this one gains the title of Death due to its killing speed. Its a hard face deck packing a very low curve and a lot of out of hand damage, and its also a shoutout to my old horsemen series.
I have recently favored the intensify engine over the darkseed package, providing a strong lategame, aoe, a bit of surprise, and consuming is particularly brutal when mixed with Rift Walker as a six mana play, and is decent on bonecrusher or thunderhorn as well. The two versions of the deck are quite similar and its mostly personal preference. But I have found darkseed can be tough to pull off and is often played around, however its still quite solid.
Aggro Cass has dominated metas in the past, but she lost most of her old tools leaving us with either the new intesnify route or the old darkseed/burn side, which thanks to Mythrons eating a handslot has even received a small buff. Add Hound and Jammer to the mix to provide card advantage for our selves while at the same time giving you the digging power to make finding extra intensify copies viable, or keeping your opponent topped off to make Dark Seed pretty nasty. Combine that with its aggressively statted minions and its quite relentless.
Usually Aggro decks skimp on the control side of things but thanks to the control package all costing two or less its easy to fit it in. Gibbet, lure, and punish to keep your opponents field empty letting you go face with ease. The deck has a decent amount of aoe with between thunderhorn and either rift or grasp, which all also combo nicely with lure to deal with various swarm decks. It has a healthy amount of healing to beat other aggro matchups, and a lot of ping to deal with artifacts.
Gibbet and flameblood are flex slots with primus, Blood Tear, and Crypto depending on the meta and personal preference.
All that combined leaves you with a well rounded deck prepared for most matchups that can either smorc people down or sustain into the lategame where intensify and desolator spam can shine. But like most dedicated aggro decks you have a bad time if people tech a good amount of healing, so despite being really brutal I don’t think it can ever truly be top tier in its current state.
Famine: Creep Attrition, Competitive
Summary
This one gains the name of Famine as it slowly starves your opponent of resources, places to position their units, and its also a shoutout to my old horsemen series.
Creep is not in a great spot right now, due to lacking an out of hand finisher, but it did certainly get some neat new tools. Thanks to the looming threat of Tormentor standing on creep is very unappealing allowing it to be used as a good zonecontrol/stall tool while simultaneously providing healing and draw thanks to Munch/Depths. And a combination of Nether, and or Pluck mix nicely with Tormentor as out of hand removal at seven mana.
The deck packs amazing control and ping, and can really punish people that stand on creep, or lategame you can drop Variax to get an awesome BBS, which for cass is for the cost of three mana you summon a 4/4 fiend on every shadowcreep.
Unfortunately generating creep can be tough now, and using variax as a win con is exceedingly slow, but the deck can play a great game of attrition, unfortunately that’s not usually enough to stand up to many of the Mythron and other meta decks.
Pestilence: Cadence Creep Competitive/Gimmicky
Summary
This one gains the name of Pestilence as creep feels very much like a spreading disease, and its also a shoutout to my old horsemen series.
Creep is not in a great place right now lacking a proper finisher, so this deck opts to skip the new creep legend and instead opt for using Corporeal Cadence combined with either Bonecrusher or Juggernaugt as a powerful finisher. I am still on the fence about how many Cadences I want to use, but it is pretty tricky to pull off and nethermeld can be used for a similar combo by placing bone/jug defensively plus is soft removal in a pinch.
Aside from Juggernaught creep is mostly a control tool providing ping, healing, draw, and removal. Hopefully Tormentors mere existence will scare people enough to avoid stepping on creep allowing it to be used as a proper stall/zone control tool. The crypto/mentor package is a great control tool/creep/cardadvantage generator, and having excess ping is super handy.
Its a solid deck, but its a bit slow and gimmicky.
