I’ve stopped recording playtesting matches at this point but the overall winrate that I’ve had is about the same at close to 85%
16-2 against Avatar of Earth
16-5 against Deathspeaker
1-0 against Enchantress
23-3-1 against Pathfinder
10-2 against Avatar of Air
6-1 against Seer
4-1 against Geomancer (another game where Crown of the Victor did absolutely nothing.)
7-1 against Battlemage (2 of these games I drew Crown and it never had a use. Crown has been cut after brief testing.)
7-2 against Elementalist
1-0 against Flamecaller
7-2 against Sorcerer
5-1 against Sparkmage
Greetings, Sorcerers!
Aggro in Sorcery: Contested Realm is a bit different from other games that I've played like Magic: The Gathering and Flesh and Blood. The grid system slows combat down in the early game a LOT and that may be discouraging for lovers of Aggro strategies who are familiar with the concept as it plays in other games. Fear not! Aggro is still viable in Sorcery. You just have to approach it with the understanding that the pace of the game is set by how you and your opponent utilize the grid and deploy your minions and spells.
The goal of this particular build is to summon efficient minions whose overall power is greater than their mana cost in order to overwhelm opponents who are looking to play a longer, slower game. This deck is also great at putting down aggressive starts from the opponent and then grinding them into the dirt through pure attrition. One of the classic weaknesses of Aggro strategies is their tendency to fold once they run out of gas. It's nice to be able to start fast and strong but if you lose 3 minions to an Earthquake on your opponent's 4th or 5th turn, you may find yourself in a position where your smaller, more efficient minions are now outclassed by your opponent's larger threats. This is where the Avatar really shines. Being able to function well at 4-6 total mana means that at the time in the game where you would typically be running out of spells to cast, you can simply start drawing two cards from the Spellbook each turn. Most other Avatars won't be able to keep up with an you drawing twice as many new cards.
Putting pressure on your opponent early in the game is important with this deck. The grid system will slow you down a bit compared to other card games where your creatures can just start swinging as soon as they are no longer summoning sick. Sites like and really help you start dealing damage early on as they both allow you to get a site placed adjacent to one of the opponent's sites as early as the first or second turn. Without either of these utility sites, the games can be a bit slower as you will have to place sites in a direct line towards the enemy. Many players will meet you in the middle though which is very helpful!
, , , , , and the Desert Sites are all great ways to pick off smaller minions. With clever placement/movement they can combine to take down much larger minions or deal the final blow once the opponent is at Death's Door (Deserts being excluded from this last option). Because of how the turn structure in Sorcery works, it can be easy to deal a point of damage to a minion with at the beginning of the turn and then forget about that damage later in the turn. After you've summoned a fresh minion, moved and/or attacked with your existing minions, and cast a spell or two, you might not be thinking about finishing off that opposing minion that was injured by the . By moving a or into position you can make sure that any damage dealt during the earlier parts of the turn don't go to waste! This may seem like a super basic concept but if the board begins to get cluttered in the mid/late game, it can be difficult to keep track of everything that is going on so stay sharp! Every point of damage counts when you're playing Aggro! The new rules update on Projectile origin does make this aspect of the deck less flexible but I think that it is still a solid strategy.
When I first saw the card I was immediately impressed by her incredible power to mana ratio and I started looking through the card database to find the best ways to wake her up. As it turns out, Fire has a ton of cards that are powerful in their own right but have the flexibility of being able to wake up our Sleeping Beauty so she can start pounding the opponent's face right away! , , (currently out of the list), and all of the basic Desert Sites can immediately get the Giantess out of bed and into her brawling boots. and are some additional - albeit slower - ways of getting the job done.
One last method that involves a little more setup is . If you play the Giantess above a burrowed Spider, her genesis trigger will never resolve. Just remember that you’ll need to move the Spider away before she can get to work.
The addition of gives this deck another ping effect to help wake her up!
and are great when you're trying to outclass a larger minion or take a bigger bite out of the opponent's life total but these cards get absurd when you use them to pump . Since the boost from these spells lasts for the whole turn, the Kobold's end of turn ability benefits from any additional power that they have. Your opponent might feel safe and cozy at 16 life but a Gigantic Kobolds will knock them to Death’s Door if you can attack and end up with them nearby the enemy Avatar at the end of the turn! With the inclusion of you also have the ability to shut Kobolds off if you want by reducing it's power. This can be handy if they can't get into a good position during your turn.
I've seen and heard a lot of people mention that they think the Cores and Stone are overrated. Yes, they are at their worst when you draw them late in the game or when you need your Spellbook to deliver action rather than ramp. They are certainly not something that you need to play in every deck but they are good here. The sooner you can get to 5 mana, the sooner you can start activating the to double up on card drawing. If you can start drawing twice as many cards as your opponent earlier in the game, that will greatly increase your potential to win. In the late game the Cores and Stone can certainly be a liability as a bad top-deck when you need action but at that stage in the game, the allows you to simply draw another card so it is very unlikely that you won't be able to find anything relevant to play each turn. Any turn that you can draw two spells instead of one is fantastic and the Cores allow you to continue developing your mana without needing to draw from the Atlas. Taking a full turn to draw and play a Site is much worse than drawing a Core and another Spell.
In a lot of deckbuilding scenarios you want to see a smooth curve with something to do on all of the relevant turns of the game with a higher concentration of spells in the middle of the curve (turn 3 usually). This deck has enough 2 drops to allow you to be able to cast two of them on the 4th turn of the game in a lot of situations. Additionally, something like a turn 4 followed by a Desert to wake her up is an acceptable turn even if the mana from the fresh Desert goes to waste. (currently out of the deck) can also help round out odd mana turns. With fewer 4+ mana spells, you are less likely to see them early in the game where they can keep you from playing on curve - something that is extremely important in aggressive strategies.
Since you really only need around 5-6 mana sources to fully function before you start drawing mostly from the Spellbook, it is important to have the Threshold that you need early on. Any colorless Sites that you draw mean that you are more likely to need to keep drawing from the Atlas to hit Threshold requirements when you would rather be drawing spells. is very important in this deck as it allows you to fight through defensive sites like , and . It is also incredibly powerful against any opponents.
While this deck is Aggro in the sense that it can put a lot of early pressure on the board, it also has very solid late game grinding power fueled by the ’s ability to outdraw many opponents. I’ve adjusted the deck a bit to function at 6 mana since Flame Wave is such an effective finisher.
For cards that have been tested and are currently out of the list, I’m keeping the explanation for why they were originally in the deck, why I’m not running them in the current iteration, and why they might come back in.
- Now that is the clear best avatar in the game, I've been less happy with . Giving your opponent extra mana when their eventual goal is to use or as a finisher is not a great idea. I've decided to go with Town instead as it is often able to give a 1-2 mana discount every turn and doesn't ramp the opponent. The spellbook has been adjusted to increase the amount of Exceptional minions as well.
- With the increase in popularity of Midrange, the Lance helps you clear larger minions. The technical 2.5 power body also allows you to sneak this guy onto .
- With how popular is right now, it's nice to have a way to fly units around. With Town, this is also just a great inclusion as a 4 power for 3 mana.
(Currently out of the deck) - After a post-game talk with @Ilphikur I've been convinced to run Cone over . While does allow you to hit avatars in more locations than Cone, it is also more difficult to use when both players are at Death's Door. never being a liability when you are at Door and being generally more useful in the mid-game makes me feel confident that this is a good adjustment.
After adding in a second copy of , a , and , I'm feeling like this deck has enough finishers that are easier to cast and don't clog up your hand in the early game. As such, I've taken Cone of Flame out for the time being.
- This card is very, very powerful. It wakes up your , it combos with the rest of the ping effects in the deck to help with efficient removal of nearby threats, and it gains you life you that you have a much easier time in the aggro matchups!
- The Atlas needed some tweaking to support more triple-Fire threshold but I think it is well worth it. Morgana is absolutely amazing and a much needed Spellcaster for this deck.
- Charge is a very powerful ability and the power to mana rate on this card is quite nice. This deck wants to be attacking any chance it gets so the drawback on this card is worth the upside.
- With , , + , and all entering the expected meta shift, I wanted to have a nice silver bullet to mulligan towards in those matchups. This card is also fantastic if you expect to face a lot of Fire aggro.
- This card is amazing if you ever get to untap with multiple minions on the board. Even if you only have a single good attack on an enemy Site, a 3-power minion that gives +3 to another minion for the turn is a good rate.
(Currently out of the deck) - Very simple and very powerful. This deck loves dropping multiple minions in a single turn and that is tough the further up the curve you go. This card is a clean 2-for-1. There will be games where you draw both of them and that's going to be a bummer but I think it's still well worth including. I've cut for the time being. There are a lot of fire-based aggro decks in the meta right now and having both halves of this card trade for a single or has been feeling pretty rough. They've been replaced by for now.
(Currently out of the deck) - This card pairs very nicely with and even without her, it's still a fantastic rate. Making 3 bodies and having the anti-projectile ability makes this card incredible against things like , , and . Having some extra resistance to , , and is also really nice. Now that I'm running 3 copies of , I had to cut Morien to make room for additional Exceptional minions.
(Currently out of the deck) - Lethal and Lance are such good abilities together! This card is mainly a silver bullet option against with but the fact that it can always at least trade for 1 or 2 enemy minions regardless of their size is awesome.
- I'm not 100% sure if this is going to end up making the cut in the long run but it's worth testing out. The ability is very powerful but there are going to be times where you are the one with more minions on the board than the opponent. Luckily, most of your minions will be easy to replace because of their low cost and 's draw power.
(currently out of the deck) - I'm not 100% sure that this is going to be better than an additional Desert site but Lance is a nice thing to have around when you're trying to get into combat and that is exactly what this deck is good at.
(Currently out of the deck) - Holy cow, this card is amazing! This will typically be an easy 2-3 damage to the opponent which is wildly powerful for a Site. It gets a lot better if you have to really get into the middle of the opponent's home.
The damage from Deserts have been more relevant lately than the 1-2 average damage from Poisoned Well. As such, they're currently on the bench and replaced with additional Deserts.
- When I first started playing Sorcery, I underestimated just how important mobility on the grid would be. Since your opponent will likely use their turn to prepare for your next turn (specifically what you have on the board) being able to surprise them with extra movement can turn the game in your favor. At this point, most people have seen the power of cards like and but without Air, you need to dig a little deeper if you want to get access to more mobility. drawing you a replacement spell is really nice in a deck like this that is looking to start casting two spells per turn in the mid to late game but the extra movement and damage output from makes all the difference in a lot of situations. I originally started with a single copy of mostly as a late-game finisher for an opponent already on Death's Door. Repositioning Sorcerer to line up or simply moving or within range of the enemy was great! After playing with for a while now, I'm realizing how good the combo is and I'm up to the full 3 copies of and I can't imagine going back down to a lesser number. This card has over-performed every time I see it and is responsible for tons of wins!
*The current list is running 0 copies of so I've shaved down to a single .
(Currently out of the deck) - I am back to zero copies in the maindeck. Archimago has virtually nothing you'll want to steal and the other aggro decks are so low to the ground that 4 mana is just too much for what you're likely to be able to target. Don’t forget that you can a spellcaster to finish the game with !
- You don’t usually want to draw this card early but there is no denying its power. When I initially built this deck, I didn’t consider how valuable rearranging the sites could be. As an aggressive deck, access to your opponent’s sites is very important and being able to Quake a hiding avatar into the line of sight for a finish is great. Pulling their avatar towards one of your sites can also set you up to kill with , , , or just a simple attack. Even if you have to kill some of your own minions with , you can easily replace those cards since at that point in the game, you’re just drawing two spells per turn. I may end up wanting two copies main but I feel like there are some decks where the effect is not needed or decks that use a lot of Water sites so I’m splitting the difference.
- There are several problematic sites that your opponen t can play against you. , , , and especiallly are all serious issues that impede your game plan. If you do go long against a deck, Smokestacks is probably the best card you can have.
- This card is really nice against Deathspeaker in particular but it can also be incredibly powerful in any damage race situation you may find yourself in. Don't forget that you should play this card for little or no value if you suspect that your opponent is also holding a Pillar of their own. Denying them the life is often more important than waiting to gain a bunch of life yourself.
(Currently out of the deck) - Sometimes I’ve found the lack of Spellcasters in the deck can lead to games that are difficult to close out if the opponent has positioned their avatar out of projectile and Vile Imp range. While you don’t necessarily want to get up to 6 mana right away with this deck, you do want to get to 5. Because of this it means that you only ever need to simply draw and play your 6th site if you have . This card is one of the few auto-mulligan cards if it’s in your opener but the ability to kill an opponent at Death’s Door without needing to worry about board position is super valuable. So far, this card has felt great! With the addition of there are more spellcasters in the list but is still excellent.
- This card offers a nice way to finish an opponent at Death's Door when you pair it with something like , , or . I'm testing a list with more Fire Minions right now and Jihad has come back into the deck after a long time sitting on the sidelines.
- While watching coverage of the West Virginia Courtesan Cup Qualifier I noticed that Scott/@bubba was running Fire/Earth Sorcerer Aggro had two Trinkets in their list and I really liked the look of that card, especially in the mirror match. It allows all of your minions to kill their enemy dopplegangers without actually having to trade! I played with a single copy of for a while since it worked well with the Kobolds and allowed your s to eat the opponent's Spiders. Trinket does both of these things and just keeps coming back to your hand for infinite value. While you can't tutor for it with like you can with I still think that it's a great inclusion in the deck.
(Currently out of the deck) - This card has felt fantastic in testing so far and I think that it may be here to stay. There is a lot more control in the current meta (as of April 2024) and more and more decks are able to deal with a single threat per turn for the first 2-5 turns of the game after which, they can bring sweepers like Earthquake, Major Explosion, and Death Dealer online. Getting underneath control decks and taking huge bites out of their life total before they can stabilize has become more difficult when you're plan is to simply curve out with a 2-drop on turn 2, a 3-drop on turn 3, etc. Some control lists like @Zalem's Enchantress runs over 20 removal spells starting at 2 mana. One way to beat this strategy is to drop multiple minions per turn early in the game and then continue playing at least one minion per turn after that. If you can land a Bosk Troll and a Mercenaries on turn 2, or a Dragonettes and Mercenaries on turn 3, you'll be in a good position to keep the damage flowing.
Discarding a random card can feel scary and there are definitely some times where you will want to wait to discard but in most cases, just go for it. The extra minion on the board will very helpful most of the time. Another cut for Exceptionals while I test .
(Currently out of the deck) - The cat is out of the bag with and as such, the 3 interchangeable tech slots in the Atlas have all been dedicated to at this point. If you're against , , or otherwise know that your opponent is on a Roots plan, you'll want to mulligan aggressively towards . is also good in these matchups (particularly against Elementalist), but most Roots decks can move their sites around using or so depending on your placement of Smokestacks, it may or may not be very effective in the long run. If and when Roots becomes less popular (or if you simply don't expect to play against Roots very often) you can cut 2 copies of and use some combination of and . *With the increase to a 30-card Atlas, Roots has fallen off a bit and as such, is out of the list for now.
- This is another piece of anti-Roots tech and is particularly good against Roots players who are using . Thaïs is also fantastic against decks running . You typically don't want to see this card when playing against other aggro decks but it can still be very useful as a finisher once your opponent is at Death's Door. Now that is the clear best avatar, Courtesan is back in.
(Currently out of the deck) - We are finally at the end of the line in terms of the Burrowing arms race. It started out with being added as part of the package to deal with s and now that enough people are running the Trolls, it's time for something a little larger. Landbound can definitely be a massive disadvantage against water but overall, is good enough in most situations to warrant a singleton slot. With the release of Arthurian Legends, I expect a lot more Water sites in the meta and this makes a rather dubious choice. We'll see how the meta shakes out but for now, I'm cutting it and going back to running to deal with opposing .
(Currently out of the deck) - @zachary showed me the power of this card paired with all of the small damage abilities in this deck. It also helps to fix the issue of not having many spellcasters to close the game with Firebolts which is really nice. I think I want to try to find room for one additional Earth site to help support it. As it stands, if you mulligan towards Earth, you may find yourself unable to cast Dragonettes and with the Witch being a 4-drop you have a bit more time to dig for threshold so it's possible that 8 Earth is enough but I'm going to see how it feels. Sequencing becomes much more important with the Witches in your deck. Make sure to make any aggressive plays first before playing her nearby or you’ll lose out on damage. Because her ability affects both players’ minions, maneuvering on the board can become difficult if you’re trying to push damage after playing her. I do really like the idea of her weakening effect paired with a to just gobble up every 2 or less power minion on the board as long as they aren’t too spread out!
*I'm currently trying out a more aggressive list without Witches. This is mainly due to the decrease in people playing as much aggro in the current meta.
(Currently out of the deck) - With the new rules update about defending and movement, I wanted to give this card a try. I've also been considering as a nice way to potentially clear a lot of enemy minions and then hit the opponent for a good chunk of their life total afterwards. Strider and Spasm seem like they will play together pretty nicely! I like having the as a target for but it's tempting to cut it for a second Strider.
(Currently out of the deck) - With the rise in popularity of Fire/Earth Aggro, players have been working on various ways to combat the deck. Two cards that have seen a sharp increase in play are and . With these sites being more popular, on turn 2 has been less effective. This deck still wants 2-mana minions and Scout feels like a pretty good swap. The fact that Scout is more vulnerable in the mirror match is an issue but it is somewhat mitigated by her +1 movement. You can place her out of reach of Kobolds and Imps but still be able to move up into striking range on your following turn.
Where this card really shines is in control or midrange matchups. Seeing your opponents hand is insanely powerful in most situations. In Sorcery you have almost no way to interact with your opponent on their turn outside of defending with your units. Because of this, the game is all about planning in advance based on what’s on the board and what your opponents are likely able to play on their next turns. With your opponent’s hand revealed, you’ll only be caught off-guard by top-decked spell which gives you a massive advantage. This ability has become increasingly powerful with the uptick in Roots decks that are solidifying their position in the meta.
The additional movement allows her to cruise through to strike another site or get even more value out of !
(Currently out of the deck) - This is the most expensive card in the deck but I think it is worth it. The ability for this card to be able to attack and then untap to defend is wildly powerful. I also feel like it's important to have at least some Airborne options in a deck that is primarily looking to win the game through attacking with minions. This is a card that you will often mulligan from your opening hand to ensure that you have a smoother curve for the early game. You really don't want to draw this until turn 4-5 or later in most games. One thing that I have noticed about running this card is that it is the only card in the deck that you really feel bad about having hit by something like . Most of the time you are able to drop two minions/spells per turn but with Manticore costing your entire turn to play, it allows the opponent an opportunity to effectively trade 1-for-1 which is something that you don’t want. While this card feels very powerful and like a must-answer threat, it’s entirely possible that they should just be swapped out for additional smaller minions.
(Currently out of the deck) - This card is a fantastic way to start getting damage in early as well as being a seriously annoying card in the late game that can keep you safe from huge attacks from Earth or Battlemage decks. It also works well at chasing down opponents who are hiding on a Cloud City! I’m not running at the moment which makes smaller Fire minions slightly less appealing. I also haven’t found myself needing it as a chump blocker as much as I had imagined so I’ve cut it for now. If I start feeling a lot of pressure from large minions, and/or if ends up back in the deck, I’ll add Wisps again...