Constructed Epic: Big Breakthrough

Foreword

This was one of the first Epic decks I designed. I did get a bit carried away talking about revisions.

Deck List

Good

Slow (5)
2x White Knight
3x Palace Guard

Fast (16)
3x Angelic Protector
2x Angel of Light
2x Banishment
3x Ceasefire
2x Divine Judgement
2x Noble Unicorn
2x Resurrection

0-Cost (9)
3x Brave Squire
3x Priest of Kalnor
3x Watchful Gargoyle

Wild

Slow (9)
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex
3x Triceratops

Fast (11)
2x Flame Strike
3x Hurricane
3x Mighty Blow
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (10)
3x Cave Troll
2x Flash Fire
2x Lash
3x Rage

Explanation

The goal of this deck is to attack with a big, breakthrough, unbreakable, untargetable champion. This worked fairly well because that type of attack is hard to stop. You can’t chump block it, break it, targeted bounce it, or off-turn breaking board wipe it. The only reliable answers are non-targeting banish: Lying in Wait, Wave of Transformation, and Inheritance of the Meek (Surprise Attack + Time Walker would also work).

Surprise Attack is very important in this deck because it sets up the attack. Surprise Attack in a Kong on opponent’s turn, after they spent their gold, to break a champion. Then, immediately on your turn Lash/Rage the Kong and use Priest of Kalnor/Angelic Protector. Your opponent is now facing a 17/13 breakthrough, unbreakable, untargetable monstrosity. In addition, they had no chance to use a gold to disrupt it.

In my first iteration I ran Lord of the Arena which comes equipped with 13 offense, blitz, and unbreakable. I cut them because it was frequently getting bounced due to the lack of untargetable. (Untargetable does need to be applied after breakthrough is added.)

Now that I have a bit more experience playing, Cave Troll, Flame Strike, Divine Judgement, White Knight, Angel of Light, Banishment, Watchful Gargoyle, and Noble Unicorn seem a bit out of place. Unfortunately, I don’t see a lot of Good cards I would want to replace them with. I initially did want to stay roughly 30/30 so I can trigger both Raging T-Rex and Priest of Kalnor. I might want to add High King and White Dragon to help me stall as I set up. Jungle Queen and Lurking Giant might be worth it since the ambush is so helpful. Wurm Hatchling is another option if I go further wild.

Adding Jungle Queen and Sea Hydra might be enough draw to offset having less Good. In addition, adding those champions would make Resurrection better…

Updated Deck List

Good (22)

Slow (6)
3x High King
3x Palace Guard

Fast (10)
3x Angelic Protector
1x Ceasefire
3x Inheritance of the Meek
3x Resurrection

0-Cost (6)
3x Brave Squire
3x Priest of Kalnor

Wild (38)

Slow (15)
3x Jungle Queen
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex
3x Sea Hydra
3x Triceratops

Fast (11)
3x Hurricane
2x Lurking Giant
3x Mighty Blow
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (12)
3x Flash Fire
3x Lash
3x Rage
3x Wurm Hatchling

Updated Explanation

I’m going to try this updated list next time I run this deck instead. I am a bit concerned at my lack of off-turn targeted removal. In addition, I cut 2 Ceasefires assuming Hurricane, Flashfire, and Inheritance of the Meek would be sufficient. The Lurking Giants should hopefully help deal with bigger attacking threats too.

I’m curious which deck list everyone thinks is better. Feel free to let me know in the comments, especially if you think the changes are a terrible idea.

2/29/16 Deck List

Good (21)

Slow (6)
3x High King
3x Palace Guard

Fast (9)
3x Angelic Protector
3x Ceasefire
3x Resurrection

0-Cost (6)
3x Brave Squire
3x Priest of Kalnor

Sage (9)

Slow (0)

Fast (6)
3x Erase
3x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (3)
3x Muse

Wild (30)

Slow (14)
1x Burrowing Wurm
3x Jungle Queen
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex
1x Sea Hydra
3x Triceratops

Fast (8)
3x Hurricane
2x Mighty Blow
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (8)
3x Flash Fire
2x Lash
3x Rage

2/29/16 Explanation

Thinking about it this morning, I decided to make a few more changes. I replaced the Inheritance of the Meeks with Wave of Transformations, and I went back up to 3 Ceasefires. For this deck, I assume I will almost always want to use IotM/WoT on my opponent’s turn. In that situation, WoT banishes all champions including Thundarus, it doesn’t draw my opponent a card, and it leaves wolf tokens that my Flash Fires and Hurricanes can deal with. In this deck, WoT seems almost strictly better. I added the Ceasefires back in to keep my Good count at 21. (It is also one of the best cards, if not the best, to play on an opponent’s turn when they try to end their turn without spending their gold.)

I removed 8 Wild cards to add Sage cards to help me deal with Thundarus. This also let me bring Muses. I cut the Lurking Giants, Wurm Hatchlings, 2 Sea Hydras, 1 Lash, and 1 Mighty Blow to make room. With that last space I added a singleton Burrowing Wurm. An ambushed Wurm with unbreakable and untargetable seems strong.

I will continue to update this page as I play with this deck, assuming the deck does well enough.

3/1/16 Minor Change and Explanation

Deck changes
-2 Resurrection
+1 Rampaging Wurm
+1 Thundarus

I decided I wanted a big blitzer that can make use of Lash/Rage + Priest of Kalnor. I chose Rampaging Wurm instead of Lord of the Arena for a couple reasons. Rampaging Wurm is Wild so, if needed, I can ambush it in with Jungle Queen (in addition to Surprise Attack). It has 1 higher offense. The unbreakable from Lord of the Arena is also largely irrelevant because I currently plan to only use it with Priest of Kalnor.

I want a big blitzer because I feel like this deck is a lot more dangerous on my opponent’s turn. The best play this deck can make is to ambush in a big attacker on my opponent’s turn after they spend their gold. Then, on my turn, I immediately Lash/Rage followed by Priest of Kalnor/Angelic Protector. Without a big blitzer, I felt like I would need to wait for that opportunity to present itself. We will see with testing.

In addition, I wanted to put in a Thundarus. Surprise Attack Thundarus followed by Lash/Rage and Priest of Kalnor/Angelic Protector would be 14/14 breakthrough, unbanishable, unbreakable, untargetable. The only answers to that are Wave of Transformation and Surprise Attack/Final Task Time Walker.(Surprise Attack -> Necromancer Lord -> Time Walker also works.) If you add Mighty Blow (+ Lash/Rage and Priest of Kalnor), Thundarus becomes a 24/14 breakthrough, unbanishable, unbreakable, untargetable.

Burrowing Wurm, Sea Hydra, Rampaging Wurm, Thundarus, and Lord of the Arena are all potential cards for this deck. Testing will determine which ones perform the best and get to stay.

3/11/16 Playtest Notes

This big breakthrough combination is terrifying. I have not played this deck enough to know the best champions to include, but the unbreakable, untargetable, breakthrough, big champion combinations is really strong (especially when unbanishable too). Due to this deck, I am at the point where I basically always include Wave of Transformation. This, and other constructed testing, has raised the value of Wave of Transformation in my mind significantly. Watch out for this deck.

Untargetable Breakthrough Rework Deck List 5/7/16

Evil (0)

Good (18)

Slow (2)
1x Markus, Watch Captain
1x Thundarus

Fast (12)
3x Ceasefire
1x Divine Judgement
1x Inner Peace
3x Resurrection
3x Royal Escort
1x Vital Mission

0-Cost (4)
2x Blind Faith
2x Priest of Kalnor

Sage (0)

Wild (42)

Slow (20)
3x Brachiosaurus
2x Burrowing Wurm
1x Draka, Dragon Tyrant
3x Fire Spirit
2x Jungle Queen
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex
3x Triceratops

Fast (12)
3x Draka’s Enforcer
3x Draka’s Fire
3x Smash and Burn
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (10)
1x Feeding Frenzy
3x Fire Shaman
2x Flash Fire
1x Lash
3x Wurm Hatchling

Untargetable Breakthrough Rework Explanation 5/7/16

I started this update just because I really wanted to use Burrowing Wurm. By the time I was finished, the general spirit of the deck had turned into a less combo-heavy variant of Big Breakthrough. So, I’m putting it here as that deck’s spiritual successor.

The main difference between the two decks is that this one, Untargetable Breakthrough, relies a lot more on champions inherently having breakthrough. Brachiosaurus, Burrowing Wurm, and Triceratops being the big 3.

This deck also carries significantly fewer ways to grant breakthrough, just 1 Lash, and to grant unbreakable/untargetable, no Brave Squire and no Angelic Protector. It does get access to Royal Escort, however, which is amazing. I can get Royal Escort out, then I can follow it up with Burrowing Wurm later. This will generally give the Wurm at least one turn before it can be answered. Surprise Attack makes that a potentially very threatening Wurm. Playing Draka when Royal Escort is in play is also nice for a 9/9 blitzing airborne untargetable champion.

The other critical card in this deck is Brachiosaurus. This card is so important because I can play that into Burrowing Wurm etc., and then I still have one big breakthrough threat left if they remove the other. Brachiosaurus and then pass is also nice, since they can spend their gold, leaving me open to drop another big Wild champion, or they can pass leaving me with an 8/12 breakthrough, win win. Resurrection on Brachiosaurus can also be quite nice.

I did purposefully keep my 0-cost cards down to just 14, as I am a bit scared of running out of cards in hand. I am also trying the deck out initially with only 18 Good cards, even though I am trying to hit loyalty on Priest of Kalnor and potentially Markus.

For dealing with my opponent’s threats, I hope to be able to have my massive Wild Champions handle the big guys, while my Fire Spirits and Fire Shamans handle the small guys. I do also have Flash Fires and Draka’s Fire to help with the small guys too. The other main reason for including Draka’s Fire is to finish off big untargetable blockers like Sea Titan, without hitting my own champions (which is why I didn’t include Hurricanes).

Smash and Burn is included primarily for card draw. Most of the Good cards are included to hit loyalty and to provide me a bit of protection. Inner Peace is nice since it can potentially keep returning to hand for loyalty triggers, if I do need to play it.

I decided not to run any Evil or Sage, although I was considering Army of the Apocalypse, Final Task, Heinous Feast, Ancient Chant, Lesson Learned, and Amnesia. Instead, I decided to keep my Wild Ally count high (also helps Wurm Hatchling) and my Good Loyalty not too low.

A singleton Vital Mission is included for removal, or if I need to target something big like my Burrowing Wurm (or Thundarus) for 18 health and 2 cards.

Overall, this deck just wants to flatten its opponent by connecting with a big Breakthrough champion that can’t have targeted removal played on it.

 

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