18-6 Amazon Nature for Cujo Challenge

in Gods On Chain2 years ago (edited)

Intro

Team CUJO hosts weekly GU challenges for players to compete for prizes. You can check out their discord and the challenge rules here https://discord.gg/cVZ2y78twA. This week was Challenge #9: Battle Tribes where you had to play a deck with either 15 Amazons or 15 Mystic creatures. The leaderboard was based on most wins for each tribe while maintaining a 70% win rate with a minimum of 10 wins. I took first place for amazons with 18 wins, but your mileage may vary. I ran super hot during my run.

I ran Amazons since I was familiar with the deck, having written a couple of posts on them and I had most of the cards I planned to run. It was a simple deck to make and play, being mostly a one-trick pony aggro deck.

Decklist

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Most of the deck hasn’t changed from Pre-MJ. You can read my previous reasoning for the card choices in my old post https://peakd.com/hive-173286/@meltysquid/amazon-onslaught-gods-unchained-amazon-deck-pre-mortal-judgement.

The main plan of the deck is still the same, go wide to take advantage of the strong synergy cards in Canopy Sniper, Riverjumper Captain, and Myrto’s Daughter. They all want Amazons on board so the deck focuses on that with plenty of sticky 1 drops.

Canopy Sniper is amazing against aggro deck, clearing their board like nothing if you have a few amazons on board. The 1/3 body is lackluster though so it is only useful when you have board against an aggro deck.

Riverjumper Captain is sleeper OP. Played by itself with no board it’s a 3 mana 2/4 with Ward which is on-curve stats but with a board it also gets +1 strength for each other Amazon you control too leading to a big early threat especially troublesome for control decks to deal with.

Myrto’s Daughter is a strong flexible top end for the deck. Either a 4/4 blitz for taking back board presence or a 2/2 blitz that gives a big +4/+3 buff to another one of your amazons. I use the buff side most of the time. The 4/4 side is a little understatted, while the buff side gives more stats and you can use them immediately on another amazon for you to get in face damage.

Aside from the busted cards, the deck runs like bad aggro Light. You have no sticky protected creatures, fewer buffs, and arguably worse god power. At least you have better removal.

Changes

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Changes I made were cutting Arkmonian Onslaught, Nimble Pixie, Pack Stalk, Pyramid Warden, Agrodor Protector, for Lethal Prowler, Lightning Strike, Barksworn Hunter, Barksworn Protector, and Finnian Fruitbearer. I made the changes based on nerfs and the MJ meta. I haven’t tested the deck extensively, so there is room for improvement.

Arkmonian Onslaught got nerfed hard, no longer buffing toughness. It’s a win more card now that is only good for pushing lethal damage on a wide board. This has a knock-on effect cutting Nimble Pixie and Pack Stalk since the combo is effectively dead.

Nimble Pixie isn’t good in the meta with plenty of AOE running around and with Arkmonian Onslaught with nerfed you can’t play them together and expect the pixies to live.

Pack Stalk got nerfed from 0 to 1 mana and you don’t have Onslaught to combo with it.

Pyramid Warden could still make the cut but is a lot worse in the meta with Light’s Thaeric Extortionist and Deception’s strength steal cards around. You have nothing really to take advantage of it like buffs, so it’s just a big early body. Still, an early frontline can protect your creatures like Canopy Sniper or Finnian.

Agrodor Protector is a good card, but I had trouble finding room for it. You probably would cut Lethal Prowler for it. The deck has no frontlines currently, so you should try to fit this or Pyramid Warden in while Relic War is around.

Speaking of which, Lethal Prowler is my janky Onslaught replacement to help push for lethal damage. I need 3 amazons on board for Onslaught to be a lot better than Prowler while Prowler only needs 1 creature and can attack again the next turn if another creature survives.

It usually plays like a bad Wyrmbreath, dealing 5 damage to something after another creature attacks. It’s okay burst damage and is a bad out for Guild Enforcer.

Against aggro, you’re fighting for board which Prowler doesn’t do a great job at only attacking after another creature attacked the creature you wanted to kill.

Against control, most of the time you play it, get in 5 face damage, then the rest of your creatures die to a board wipe and you’re stuck with a 5/5 brick. Rarely do you get two attacks from it.

Lightning Strike is needed for Guild Enforcer and any other big frontlines. There’s a good amount of control decks in the meta that run frontlines.

Barksworn Hunter is the only MJ-Amazon I’m running. It’s decent removal on a body. More of a meta call with aggro decks running a bunch of small creatures that Canopy Barrage doesn’t trade well with.

Barksworn Protector is mostly a filler guy, but the Ward really helps stick a creature against Control Magic.

Finnian fits in with the low curve. The sticky 1-drops make it likely you can proc Frenzy on Turn 2 when you play Finnian. It can win games if your opponent can’t remove it.

Mulligan

Look for sticky 1-drops and mull away anything above 2 mana.

I rarely keep Finnian, Canopy Sniper or Penthesilean Warrior unless I’m going first with at least one 1-drop in hand already.

Sanctum Guardian is a little weird to keep without another Amazon in hand, but one 1-drop is better than none. I usually play on 1 mana even without the roar just for tempo.

Going second against aggro, you look for removal in Faeflame Blade, Underbrush Boar, and Barksworn Hunter.

Against Control Magic you can keep Riverjumper Captain, it’s your wincon but you need a few Amazons on board before.

Video

Here’s some gameplay of the deck.
0:00 Control Magic
5:26 Relic War
12:31 Control Deception

Vs Mystics

BO3 Match vs the Mystic deck with the most wins by ryandobermann

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Love the new take on amazons and excited you did so well with it. Going to come back and watch the gameplay vids in a bit. Nicely done!

Lol it's the same old deck, might see play as the new aggro nature deck with the proposed nerfs to the wild buff creatures.

No way! I mean, it's still an amazon deck, but it feels a lot different. Definitely after watching the vids. I've tried Lethal Prowler, but it just feels so bad most of the time. Toast to peace was its one time to shine, though.

That last game was a great watch. Floating 5 mana to play around rapture dance and several other critical decisions won that game. Nicely played.

Amazons are in a bad spot, but I think you've made the most of it.

One question: first game going second you mulliganed the boar. Were you assuming control magic and thus no creatures? I'm not sure I could have sent him back.

Yeah, I played against a bunch of control magic during the day so I assumed it was another control deck. I'm usually looking for 1-drops to get board early especially with Finnian in the opener.

Prowler stares me in the hand often wondering if it's a good card but Nature is short on reach, maybe Vicious Manticore could be better.

The deck doesn't have any combo potential now with Onslaught cut and plays like go wide Aggro Nature albeit the board wide buffs.

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