And here is the master list complete with long winded posts on each. I never make a bad deck, I put a lot of work and love into each one, many will never be tier one, but they should all at least be quite playable. Keep in mind this receives frequent updates, and again is not a tier system. I personally dislike Aggro, Burn, and swingy RNG so you wont see much representation for those even if they are top notch.
If you copy everything after the # on the bagoum links it works as an import code.
Summary
Bottomless Abyss: Dying Wish/Ramp, S Rank.
Summary
https://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoyMDA1OSwzOjE5MDUyLDM6MTEwODQsMzozNTksMzoyMDA0OSwzOjIwMTk5LDM6MjAwNTcsMzozNDEsMzozNDAsMzozMDAzOSwzOjMxNCwzOjExMDkzLDM6MTExMjE=
I call it bottomless abyss because well…that would be a pretty big abyss. Big abyss is an old archetype featuring the factions powerful late game minions and ramp, but these days it has taken on a dying wish spin.
Carrion Collector really changed the Dying Wish game, pushing a somewhat gimmicky archetype into an extremely consistent top tier deck with quite a few variants. All three generals have made pretty good use of it, and Lillith has really been enjoying THREE sources of ramp.
The deck has an appropriate amount of globe contestors as well lurking fear to serve as openers. Because your planing to dfc the body on your opening play really doesn’t matter, so I favor utility minions instead of good bodies. This deck is just all about ramping out your big units as fast as possible.
Rather than going all in on the dying wish plan I sport only a select premium couple of them turning Nekoma into a hyper consistent tutor that can chain into its self and or deso reliably ensuring you never run out of cards despite your excess ramp. Dagona was a fairly new edition as having immediate impact is pretty important with the popularity of BOA/Sandswhirl and the like. Its once prohibitive mana cost is almost meaningless with all of this decks ramp.
Furor Chakram is pretty much an auto include for Lillith now, it provides some much need Aoe and is extra nasty with Vorpals dying wish. While EMP conflicts a bit, he is still a great DFC target and he felt just to important to skip with the amount of Walls, Eggs, and Artifacts that have resurfaced in the Eternal format.
The deck has a touch of healing, lots of control tools, and between its very heavy top end, Desolator, and Nekoma it does fine on card advantage, leaving you with a well rounded deck prepared for most matchups. Although the Vet match-up can still be tricky.
SWARm Highly Competitive
Summary
https://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoxOTA1MiwzOjExMDIyLDM6MzMxLDM6MjAyNzIsMzoxMTA4OCwzOjIwMDQ5LDM6MzE3LDM6MTExMjYsMzoyMDA3MSwzOjExMTI1LDM6MjAxMzMsMzozMDAwMiwzOjMwMDM5
A swarm deck featuring grimWAR, and also a shoutout to my old horsemen series.
Its a pretty classic deck, swarm the field, play death watch, win. There is a lot of micromanaging to be done, and you always have to be careful not to overextend into a field wipe. Don’t be to greedy with your win cons, you have quite a few of them, its just fine to cash in a small swarm instead of risking loosing it all.
Grimwar is the decks saving grace, it simultaneously makes it really hard to clear your field and provides a powerful win condition. This is a very AOE prevalent meta, making hyper swarm a very tough deck to play. But I have tweaked it to be as resistant as possible to AOE, while still retaining its lightning fast gameplan.
Your nine deck thinners will help maintain your hand and help in digging out Grimwar. Cresendo is another classic, shatter adds speed, and Chakram can do a ton of work. Instead of picking most of the classic swarm tools like priestess or dancer we are favoring bloodbound mentor as it provides card advantage and dodges rebuke, two things that help with resiliency.
Its a very powerful deck, but despite its resiliency it still suffers from the usual polarized match up effect of “Do they have good aoe? Yes, you probably lose. No, you probably win.” and thus why it only gains a highly competitive rating despite having some of the most raw power of any deck.
Big Abyss: Highly Competitive
Summary
http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoyMDA1OSwzOjMzMSwzOjIwMjcyLDM6MTEwODQsMzoxMTA4OCwzOjIwMDQ5LDM6MjAwNTcsMzozNDEsMzozMDAzOSwzOjExMDMwLDM6MzE0LDM6MTEwOTMsMzozMjAsLTM6MjAwNTIsLTM6MTA5ODEsLTM6MTAzMDYsLTE6MjAzMzE=
Its been awhile since Big Abyss, much less Lillith, was meta, and the current meta is rather unkind to her, but its still one of my old favorites.
Big Abyss is an old and simple archetype that revolves around ramping out abyss’s powerful late game minions like Vorpal Reaver and Revenant alongside a few other targets that have changed out a lot over time.
Furiosa, your healing units, and yes even inkling are all great globe contestors to try and go for that turn two Vorpal. Aside from darkfire abuse the deck has liliths favorite swarm package with crypto/furiosa for those high roll early game turns.
Furor Chakram is pretty much an auto include for Lillith now, it provides some much needed aoe and is extra nasty with vorpals dying wish. It is also pretty nifty with Spectral Revenant allowing it to proc its effect multiple times for an insane burst. Between that and paragon, which is also great anti wanderer tech, you have a decent chance vs brome and other swarm decks.
The deck has a healthy amount of healing, and a lot of control tools. Between its very heavy top end, desolator, and inkling it does fine on card advantage, leaving you with a well rounded deck prepared for most matchups, but Vetruvian is a pretty hard match up and that alone keeps it from regaining its old S rating.
Necromancy: Arcanyst Variants, Highly Competitive to Competitive/Gimmicky.
Summary
Dedicated Arcanysts: Highly Competitive
http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoyMDA1OSwyOjIwMDcwLDM6MjAyNzIsMzoyMDA1MiwzOjEwOTkzLDM6MTExNTIsMzoyMDA0OSwzOjEwMzAyLDM6MTAzMDMsMzoyMDA1NywyOjEwMzA2LDM6MTAzMDUsMzoxMTA5NywyOjMzOA==
Unbirth: Competitive/Gimmicky
http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoyMDA1OSwzOjIwMjcyLDM6MjAwNTIsMzoxMDk5MywzOjIwMDQ5LDM6MTAzMDIsMjoyMDM0OCwzOjEwMzAzLDM6MjAwNTcsMjoxMDMwNiwzOjEwMzA1LDM6MTEwMTEsMzoxMTA5NywyOjMzOA==
I call this deck Necromancy because it can raise an army from the dead, or stitch together a massive abomination out of a pile of corpses.
The first version is the Trials of Mythron update to the old archetype finally having a proper set of two drops, oher then that not much has changed for the deck. The second version sacrificed a bit of consistency all around to fit a fun gimmick with Unbirth that can be pretty devastating when it works.
For those that don’t know how Abhorrent Unbirth works, it destroys all minions on your field, and summons one giant abomination with all the combined stats of the destroyed creatures as well as their keywords, but you need to make sure you get rush on him or its just to risky to play, and in this decks case our rush source comes from the Spell Sparks that firestarter spawns. Do keep in mind you unfortunatly need a spellspark spawned from something other then the Unbirth cast its self. Oh btw yea the abomination steals temporary buffs like Chakram, and then Chakram buffs him again after he is done forming.
Arcanysts have fallen out of favor for awhile, but they are still a very solid archetype, the oldschool ability of Owlbeast or Prismatic to snowball out of control when combined with abyssians array of cheap spells is classically powerful. Trinity provides card advantage and more spells to abuse your spell procing minions and Bond even works with Death Knell, the crown jewel of Abyssian Arcanyst decks, who can bring back every-single destroyed arcanyst for a truly spectacular end game finisher.
The Arcanyst engine alone is solid, but it is really well complemented by Unbirth since Firestarter is an arcnyst and is super key in using unbirth effectively. You can either try to set up an early combo if you manage to get a decent field to stick, or for a truely epic finisher you can play Unbirth the turn after Deathknell brings back all your dead arcanyst including firestarer for truly insane abomination, my record 35/310 with rush.
Darkfire sacrifice really helps to speed up the deck, although you don’t usually want to use it with deathknell since you want to make sure to be getting a lot of spawns out of it but it is an option. Mainly its used early game with trinity in order to proc that effect and usually have the mana to spare to even cast some of those spells right away, and sometimes you use it to combo a firestarter an unbirth in the same turn. But darkfire and a few others are situational so they are all kept at two to make room and to keep the curve from being to low.
Its a very effective deck that has a lot of threats, decent card advantage, healing, and a healthy amount of answers.
Midrange Unbirth: Highly Competitive/Gimmicky
Summary
https://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoyMDA1OSwzOjExMDk4LDM6MjAwNDksMzoxMTEyMywzOjM1MSwzOjExMTI2LDM6MjAzNDgsMzoyMDA1NywzOjM0MSwzOjMwMDM5LDM6MTEwNjQsMzoxMTExMiwzOjMxNA==
Between celebrant and darkfire we very consistently get those turn two 5+ mana plays allowing us to play under BOA/Sandswhirl which is the bane of most ramp lists.
For those that don’t know how Abhorrent Unbirth works, it destroys all minions on your field, and summons one giant abomination with all the combined stats of the destroyed creatures as well as their keywords, the most important of which being rush, which lets you pull a massive out of hand burst from no where. Oh btw yea the abomination steals temporary buffs like Chakram, and then Chakram buffs him as well after he is done forming.
We sport 2.25 sources of rush for chakram/unbirth abuse between Metaltooth, Letigress’s summon, and Krong (Kron requires some luck to get rush out of). Kron and or Chakram give magmar a pretty hard time, and putting the focus in the midgame lets us play around other transforms/dispels without to much tempo loss. We run just enough mechs to make getting rush on metaltooth viable. We have a dab of healing with deso, and between deso/rep/medium curve we do alright on card advantage.
It is a pretty decent deck but unbirth by its very nature is a bit gimickky and can be tricky to set up. Luckily the deck still just plays a strong tempo midgame so even unbirth aside its solid.
Mid-range Dying Wish: Competitive
Summary
https://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoxMDk5MywzOjM1OSwzOjIwMTY2LDM6MjAwNDksMzoyMDE5OSwzOjM1MSwzOjIwMDU3LDM6MTA5ODIsMzozNDEsMzozNDAsMzoyMDMzNCwzOjMwMDM5LDM6MzE0
Lilitthes take on the popular tempo based dying wish deck. Rather then relying on awkward dying wish effects for our answers Lillith allows us to sport good old reliable options like Ritual and Chakram much more effectively then Maev can, meanwhile Ritual/Consuming still give us ways to proc our dying wish dudes even without Maevs bbs, and we can also bolster our field without having to suffer the health drain, meanwhile we have insane card advantage built into the engine and Lillith lets us use Vellumscry to refill our hand after excess ramping which is far less awkward and slow then the popular Rite option…
Sadly while the deck does not rely on highrolling like the Maev variant it just lacks the raw tempo that is needed to keep the pressure up, leaving it more consistent but ultimately weaker. It can still highroll like crazy and do spooky things with chakram while never running out of cards but it just is not as good as I had hoped.
Midrange Swarm Competitive
Summary
http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoxOTA1MiwzOjMzMSwzOjIwMjcyLDM6MTEwODgsMzoyMDA0OSwzOjMxNywzOjExMTI1LDM6MjAwNTcsMzozMDAwMiwzOjIwMTMxLDM6MzQxLDM6MzAwNTEsMzozMDAzOQ==
While it shares many similarities with hyperswarm and still has the ability to win really fast, this one opts for a much more midrange approach looking to slowly overwhelm your opponent with an army of massive wraiths rather then just trying to win quick and early with deathwatch.
Despite generally considered being an underwhelming card, Breath has actually turned out to be really good. Not only does it clear seekers/eggs/walls/swarm but because we are rocking thick and juicy wraiths the healing has actually been quite relevant.
It can keep pace with aggro, its built an a way that it does not fold to AOE to hard, it can easily outvalue and aoe other swarm like decks like fault, and it is surprisingly good at out-valuing wanderer. Between inklings cycle, mentor, and deso you tend to do fine on card advantage despite having a lower curve then is normal for a midrange deck.
Mix all that with various abyss staples and you are left with a very solid reliable deck, but still unfortunately its a struggle to keep pace with the current very powerful meta.
Mechanical Abomination: Competitive
Summary
http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoxOTAwMiwzOjIwMjcyLDM6MjAwNDksMzoxMTEyMywzOjExMTI2LDM6MTkwMDMsMzoyMDM0OCwzOjE5MDA0LDM6MjAwNTcsMzoxOTAwNSwzOjE5MDA2LDM6MzQxLDM6MzAwMzk=
I have tried out a more traditional swarm approach with Abhorrent Unbirth, but between Metaltooth being his favorite partner and the recent nerf to their interaction, I figured I may as well go all in on the mech plan giving us a solid back up plan that wont fold to this AOE prevleant meta. We pack our own Aoe thanks to Furor Chakram, which also serves as a powerful win condition, which is another card that absolutely loves metaltooth.
For those that dont know how Abhorrent Unbirth works, it destroys all minions on your field, and summons one giant abomination with all the combined stats of the destroyed creatures as well as their keywords. Although now you need at least one other mech on board to get rush off of metaltooth but thats not to hard considering we have a lot of them. Oh btw yea the abomination steals temporary buffs like Chakram, and then Chakram buffs him as well after he is done forming.
Early on you tend to want to dig for cheap mechs to start your progression, finding metal tooths and one copy of chakram is usually a fairly high priority, Unbirth can be hard to set up sometimes so it so I sometimes replace it early or when it does not look feasible. Its a bit tricky to get the hang of knowing when to focus on mech, how to set up unbirth, and when to just switch gears into more control with desolator spam but its pretty rewarding once you figure it out.
Between its cycles, and desolator for emergencies, card advantage does not tend to be an issue. Its a very fun, and very competitive deck, although its a bit meta dependent on how good it is.
Famine: Variax Control, Competitive
Summary
http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoyMDA1OSwzOjIwMjcyLDM6MTEwODQsMzoyMDA0OSwzOjM2MywzOjEwOTgxLDM6MjAwNTcsMzozNDEsMzoxMDMwNiwzOjExMTE1LDM6MzAwMzksMzoyMDIyNywzOjMzMw==
This deck plays a a long slow game as it starves your opponents resources and takes over the late game slowly devouring the board. Its also a shoutout to my old horsemen series.
Variax is a fun card, once upon a time it was the queen of the lategame, but times have changed and it has a lot of competition. Luckily between the meta being just slow enough, and the deck having enough control tools to stall out vs just about anything it can perform decently.
Its got its aoe covered with chakram, necrotic, and thunder, lure combos with gibbet and thunder, its got dispel, its got healing, its got a touch of card advantage and an excess of control.
One big thing is you will notice I am not including anything beyond six mana in the deck, even going for bender over EMP, because you always want to be able to play and BBS. Course EMP is strong enough to never be a bad pick either, but IDK if it fits here.
The deck can certainly win with chakram and midgame value, but its primary goal is Variax ASAP, then usually holing up in a corner and slowly overwhelming the board. Its a solid enough deck, but its a bit of an ancient relic of the past and has been powercreeped out of being anything more then just competitive.
Stitched: Creep/Wraith, Competitive
Summary
http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzozMDgsMzozMzEsMzoyMDI3MiwzOjExMDg4LDM6MjAwNDksMzozMzcsMzoyMDM3NCwzOjIwMDcyLDM6MzQxLDM6MjAwNTEsMzozMDA1MSwzOjMwMDM5LDM6MjAyMTM=
We can now comfortably stitch together creep, wraithling, and swarm cards into a hybrid deck stitched together out of different archtypes.
Nocturne is really what brings this deck together letting you have the highest creep development potential of any deck thanks to all the mass spawning of wraithlings, as well as the ability to push out a ton of wraiths with things like Shadow Nova or Crawler. While the deck is great at making creep, it is equally good at making wraithlings meaning Furosa, Chakram, and Crown can get some crazy work done, and there in lies the decks strength, it has two very different angles to win and its really hard to fight against both of them. You overwhelm people early with classic swarm plays, and if your board just keeps getting wiped you can return the favor and nuke the board with Oblit later on while munch sustains you until that point.
The deck has a few weird choices, less so the cards it picked, and more so the cards it did not pick. In order to have the room to run both these archtypes we skipped the usual lilith staple of Ritual Banishing in Favor of Munch, and the usual creep staple of Juggernaught in favor various wraith artifacts. Because the deck does not want to sacrifice its wraiths, and you don’t reliably generate creep early it felt much better off without either of these. Since the deck lacks a lot of digging power the ability to find an Obliterate on curve reliably and or be able to replace it early necessitates having three.
While shadownova is not usually considered to be a good card, I have been running it in a lot of my creep decks lately. Its exceptionally important for this list as it gives it a way to generate a lot of creep without nocturne, not to mention the four wraithlings it makes when combined with nocturne. Nova helps out against mirrors, cataclysm, and all the wall decks running around, while serving as pseudo aoe, ping, its actually turned out to be pretty good for this meta.
Between Inkling, Desolator, and the ability to close out games pretty reliably at or before 8 mana, card advantage is no issue at all. Its a surprisingly effective deck with an aggressive game plan that is strong in the early game and the late game. Its still a little gimmicky since the deck is a little reliant on nocturne, the biggest thing to know is that, other then tossing out nocturne as your turn one play when you lack another option, you tend to want to make sure you are at least getting some creep out of nocturne the turn you play it.
Eternal Army: Sarlac/Gor Abuse. Competitive/Gimicky
Summary
https://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzozMzEsMzoyMDI3MiwzOjExMDg4LDM6MjAwNDksMzozMjYsMzoyMDM0OCwzOjIwMjU3LDM6MjAwNTcsMzoxOTA0NSwzOjMwMDAyLDM6MzQxLDM6MTAwMTIsMzozMDAzOQ==
A very old deck concept of mine that has changed quite a bit over time.
The idea is to abuse stuff like Sarlac and Gor with AOE that hits your stuff mixed with Grimwar. The choice of AOE these days is Unbirth and Blood Echoes. You have the added benefit of being a swarmy deck that does not fold to AOE.
For those that don’t know how Abhorrent Unbirth works, it destroys all minions on your field, and summons one giant abomination with all the combined stats of the destroyed creatures as well as their keywords, the most important of which being rush, acquired from tiger, which lets you pull a massive out of hand burst from no where. Oh btw yea the abomination steals temporary buffs like Chakram, and then Chakram buffs him as well after he is done forming.
The deck is fairly consistent and pretty strong when it works out, but it has a lot of moving parts that need to come together leaving it as ultimately a gimmick. But it is still a lot of fun.
Miss Styx: Stygian Observer Ramp, Competitive/Still Testing.
Summary
http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoyMDA1OSwzOjExMDg0LDM6MjAwNDksMzoxMTEyMywzOjM1MSwzOjExMTI2LDM6MjAwNTcsMzozNDEsMzoxMDAxMiwzOjMwMDM5LDM6MzE0LDM6MzQ3LDM6MzIwLC0zOjExMDkz
Ramp plus big dudes, rush plus Stygian and or Chakram, and some staples. Its a neat concept, but its pretty highrolly. Tested it a little bit and it was alright.
Lil.icorprated: Intensify/Cadence, Competitive/Gimmicky.
Summary
http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzoxOTA1MiwzOjIwMjcyLDM6MTExNDEsMzoxMTA4NCwzOjIwMTY2LDM6MjAwNDksMzoxMDk4MSwzOjM2MSwzOjIwMDU3LDM6MTExNTAsMzoyMDMzNCwzOjIwMjg0LDM6MjAyMjc=
You know corporeal…corporate, Lilithe…heh well I think I am clever.
Its a pretty fun deck revolving around Intensify featuring excellent digging power between inkling and Vellumscry, mixed with consuming rebirth and replicant make playing lots of copies of our two intensify units BoneCrusher and Rift Walker reliable.
The deck has two main tricks, the first being having a good amount of stall/control tools in order to survive until eight mana at which point you can play cadence and bonecrusher at the same time for usually between 10 and 20 damage. Its other favorite trick is combining Rift Waker with Consuming rebirth as a six mana play two proc it twice in a single turn.
The decks packed with healing, ping, and AOE letting you be preapred for anything, plus it sports excellent card advantage so you can afford to vomit out your hand going for quantity over quality to survive until you can pull off your crazy combos. Its ultimately a gimmick as it can be pretty hard to pull off your combos and or you actually manage to pull something big off but your opponent will just barely survive and finish you off. But man is it fun to play.
Royal Guard: Blood Baronette Competitive/Gimmicky
Summary
http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzozMzEsMzoyMDI3MiwzOjExMDg4LDM6MjAwNDksMzozMTcsMzozMjgsMzoxMTEyNSwzOjIwMDU3LDM6MjAwODksMzoyMDEzMSwzOjMwMDUxLDM6MzAwMzksMzoyMDIyNw==
Ladys, Baronettes, and the Queen of Wraiths with her signature crown, this deck is all about the most elite wraithling royal guards.
Aside from having lots of fun wraithling synergy and various ways to buff them up, wraithlings can reach some truly absurd levels thanks to Blood Baronette. This deck is all about just trying to get a single wraithling in range to stick and then going for some crazy combos. Typically the deck pretends to be a normal swarm deck until either six or nine mana, at which point you buff a wraithling up and then hit it with baronette, at six mana this can very easily be a 10/10 and often much higher due to prior buffs or artifacts, or course around nine mana you can drop multiple barons for some truly absurd bursts. The main trick is to be stingy baronete and avoid playing her to early as the surprise factor is the decks biggest factor, you typically also want to save wraithling fury but if you have nothing else to do in a turn its sometimes worth throwing down.
Despite generally considered being an underwhelming card, Breath has actually turned out to be really good. Not only does it clear seekers/eggs/walls/swarm but because we are rocking thick and juicy wraiths the healing has actually been quite relevant. Necrotic sphere sees a bit more play then Breath but general not in swarm lists, but due to how this is built it is an excellent stabilizing tool that can produce potential win conditions as you just need one wraith to win.
The deck is pretty decent sporting exelent control tools, sollid snowball style swarm tactics, and of course its silly combos, and thanks to how the combos work its far less vulnrable to AOE due to your traditional swarm deck due to only needing a single wraith. Unfortunately its ultimately a gimmick as Baronette can be tough to pull off and if people catch on to what your doing even harder, but it is sure satisfying to win with.
Flood Gate: Swarm/Gate, Competitive/Gimmicky
Summary
http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTozMDEsMzozMzEsMzoyMDI3MiwzOjExMDg4LDM6MjAwNDksMzozMTcsMzoyMDA1NywzOjMwMDAyLDM6MzUwLDM6MzQxLDM6MzUzLDM6MTExMzksMzozMDAzOSwzOjMyMg==
Its a swarm/gate deck…so you know flood gate.
Gate of the Undervault is one of my favorite cards of the set and I have tried really hard to make it work, but most of the time it feels pretty underwhelming, the trick to making it work is not making it your decks primary win con and loading up on proactive threats in order to soak up removal that way if gate does not stick something else will or vice versa.
The main tip to know about time keeper is you don’t want to play it unless it is going to finish building something, both it and gate tend to get replaced in the mid game, but they are incredibly powerful early on as its often tough to answer a turn two gate. Turn two gates tend to be your priority using even furosa or inkling in order to contest the globe as player one. And then there is also the seven mana combo with time and void talon.
Chakram/Reaper is starting to feel near auto for lillith. Chakram and Grimwar give you some powerful primary win cons to support the swarmy side of your deck. Having the swarm has the extra affect of getting people to replace single target removal in favor of digging for aoe clearing the way for gates and reapers. The decks strength lies in they are going to be well prepared to face swarm or well prepared to face gate and midrange friends, but probably not both.
Combine that with some lillith staples and you have a very powerful deck that is well equipped to deal with the meta with quite a few ways to win. Its got card advantage covered with desolator, inkling, and a medium curve. Unfortunately even with building around it as much as we can Gate is just not as good as I would like it to be, so while perhaps not top tier, its still quite effective and a lot of fun.
You have gained the appreciation of the Cult of the Lurking Fear.
