I talked with Freedan of Team Rankstar who is currently rank 6 with their Magic deck. To figure out how and why their deck works. At the time of this writing the deck is 102W-50L. He calls it Face Blaster Mage.
About the deck
You can find the deck details and stats on Unchained Stats The deck is a combo deck built around using the large amount of direct damage available to Magic decks to eviscerate your opponents health. This is deck has 51 points of direct damage through spells, relics, and creatures. That gives you a lot of damage to play with during your match. With plenty of draws and Foresee 3 with Circe, Vengeful Sorceress getting the damage cards you need by turn 8 is almost guaranteed.
This is a variant of mage that I haven't seen much of. It's extremely potent against the right matchups, though. Do you hate onslaught war with every fiber of your being? How does a 15 - 1 record against that deck sound? They can't kill your creatures if you don't play any!
- Freedan
The Cards
| Mana | Name | # of cards |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ancient Texts | 1 |
| 1 | Backstreet Bouncer | 2 |
| 1 | Deuteria, Manashard Mage | 1 |
| 1 | Leviathan Hunter | 1 |
| 2 | Dread Pirate | 2 |
| 2 | Staff of Shards | 2 |
| 2 | Starshard Bolt | 1 |
| 2 | Tracking Bolt | 2 |
| 3 | Malfunctioning Servitor | 1 |
| 4 | Beam | 2 |
| 4 | Faraday Cage | 1 |
| 4 | Shadow Slash | 2 |
| 4 | Wyrmbreath | 2 |
| 5 | Odysseus, Tried Victor | 1 |
| 5 | Ratify | 1 |
| 5 | Rune Viper Tincture | 1 |
| 6 | Astric Implosion | 1 |
| 6 | Rune Smuggler | 2 |
| 7 | Circe, Vengeful Sorceress | 1 |
| 8 | O Fortuna | 1 |
| 10 | Leyhoard Hatchling | 2 |
God Power: Blastwave
- There is not a lot to say about this God Power. Just use it the way your god intended. Hurt the opponents feelings and leave them with an empty board.
- In niche cases where they are up against very aggressive decks like Enrage or Slayer War other players have chosen Clear Mind, but most of the time Blastwave is the correct choice.
Early Game
In the beginning we play this deck just like we were playing another magic control deck. Keep the board clear. I said. Keep the board clear. Using your creatures and relics to help remove any of the more troublesome creatures.
Against Aggro Decks
Remember you are pretending to be a control deck in the early game. If we fail to keep the board clear we will die to a thousand paper cuts. Whenever possible take the swing on the opponents face, but not if you can use it to keep the board clear. Once they run out of steam. We have direct damage we can start dealing in the mid-game. We just have to get there.
Against Control Decks
Again you are a virtual control deck but every stall or removal they throw at you is just playing into this deck's game plan. You still need to keep their board clear to prevent them chipping away at your health but that is par for the course. Just keeping damaging them when you can and drawing cards. Our biggest issue is Leech with Demogorgon or Avatar of War as it can get out of hand and undo all the damage you have dealt to the face.
Against Mid-range / Combo Decks
This is one of our tougher match-ups. We are going to prioritize keeping creatures on the boarding. We are going to keep killing the opponent's creatures until the late mid-game. It is better to not use our direct damage cards on big late game threats. Instead, save the transform cards Malfunctioning Servitor and Ratify for those. Especially the Demogorgon which can destroy our game plan starting at 6.5 mana. Clear it that turn if possible or suffer.
In the late game, though, you can ignore their board, and push some ridiculous damage combos.
-Freedan
Combos
- Leyhoard Hatchling
- Double Wyrmbreath or Shadow Slash at 8 mana
Cards to play around
We do have to be aware of creatures that stick around or summon another creatures. This forces us to use more removal. Which in turn means we will potentially run out before we can win.
When playing against Thief Deception it is vitally important to use your draw cards as soon as possible to prevent them from being stolen.
Sometimes you will get stalled or the plan will gets thrown off here is what Freedan says to do.
It's happened many times. In those cases, I try to stay alive, while making sure to save some burn as a finisher. One time healing is usually not enough (I have gotten through two compost charms, or 20 points of health, before). The real problem is continuous healing, like leech.
In cases of stalling, draw, such as rune viper tincture, and especially O Fortuna, are paramount
These cards often give you the resources needed to close out a game.
- Freedan
Last Call
This is a powerful deck against many match-ups in the current meta. It has a large amount of Genesis cards in the core of this deck that can't be reproduced with anything else currently available in the game. It is a slowing overheating nuclear reaction just waiting to explode on your opponent. Thank you to Freedan for talking with me.
See you next time.