Foreword
The goal of this deck is to force your opponent to spend their gold first as often as possible.
First Shot Deck List
Evil (0)
Good (0)
Sage (34)
Slow (11)
3x Elara, The Lycomancer
3x Juggernaut
3x Sea Titan
2x Time Walker
Fast (12)
3x Helion, the Dominator
3x Memory Spirit
3x Temporal Enforcer
3x Turn
0-Cost (11)
3x Forcemage Apprentice
2x Fumble
3x Hasty Retreat
3x Muse
Wild (26)
Slow (6)
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex
Fast (12)
3x Draka’s Enforcer
3x Hurricane
3x Strafing Dragon
3x Surprise Attack
0-Cost (8)
2x Feeding Frenzy
2x Flash Fire
1x Lash
3x Lightning Strike
First Shot Explanation
In Epic, it is frequently advantageous if you can get your opponent to spend their gold before you do in a turn. For instance, say it is your turn and you pass holding your gold. Your opponent then ambushes in Lurking Giant. After that enters play, you then spend your gold to play Kong and break their Lurking Giant. If you would have played Kong first, a Lash, Flash Fire, etc. would have been able to finish off your Kong, and then your opponent would still be able to play Lurking Giant unanswered.
Another example of this is when your opponent immediately spends their gold on their turn to use a “if it is your turn” board wipe like Apocalypse. If you still have your gold, once Apocalypse finishes, you can slam down a Draka’s Enforcer. You draw a card and have a 7/7 airborne champion ready to attack face next turn unopposed. On your next turn, you attack before spending your gold, and if they Surprise Attack in a Thundarus to block, you can play your Turn to permanently gain control of that Thundarus, or possibly just take it for the turn with blitz and attack face with it since they spent their gold.
So, since the goal is to get your opponent to play their gold first, I have included a lot of high-impact 0-cost cards and ambush champions. Hasty Retreat and Lightning Strike are solid 0-cost cards for dealing with threats. With a 0-cost card, you can potentially remove a 1-cost card leaving your opponent in a neutral or behind position. They can either play a 1-cost card (depleting their gold) or pass holding on to their gold. If they pass, you can let their turn end and just move into your turn denying them a chance to play their slow champions. If they play a 1-cost card, you have a significant advantage in deciding which card you will play afterwards. Fumble works similarly in that it can completely negate an attack while still recycling. Feeding Frenzy, Lash, and Forcemage Apprentice are generally much more devastating on your turn. Almost all of the 0-cost cards included can also be used to draw 2 if needed. Most of the 1-cost cards in this deck don’t have an or draw 2 option.
Helion the Dominator, Memory Spirit, Temporal Enforcer, Draka’s Enforcer, and Strafing Dragon are all excellent ambush plays. They can all do something worthwhile on your opponent’s turn, in order: stop an attack/use one of your opponent’s other champions to block their own attack, return an event to your hand (particularly a 0-cost event to immediately play), bounce a champion, block a champion, or deal 5 damage and potentially block. Memory Spirit, Temporal Enforcer, Draka’s Enforcer, and Strafing Dragon also all have evasion (airborne or unblockable) for attacking your opponent. Whether you attack or expend/hold your Helion depends on the board state, cards in hand, etc. In addition, Helion is an excellent answer to an opponent’s ambushed in champion on your turn.
I am very interested to really try out this deck, since I’m not sure how strong it will be in practice. If it can consistently draw out your opponent’s gold, I think it could really do work. The cards you would want to play on your turn to a neutral board are generally Juggernaut, Sea Titan, Forcemage Apprentice (enough of a threat that it needs to be eventually answered), and Raging T-Rex.
I am not sure how this deck will do with hand management generally, since it relies a lot on single use 0-cost cards and I don’t have events like Ceasefire and Erase. Juggernaut, Memory Spirit, Raging T-Rex, and Draka’s Enforcer due provide some card draw, but if you use all of your 0-cost cards for their effects, you might get into trouble.
As a final note, Surprise Attack into Time Walker is an excellent way to stop token strategies. It can also disrupt most other non 0-cost blitz champion strategies for at least a turn. Swinging in with a 10/10 on your next turn with a probably empty board is also a huge perk.