Decklist: https://gudecks.com/decks/2144
One of the most fun and most powerful tempo decks in Gods Unchained is Thanetar Death zoo. It can be a difficult deck to master, requiring the pilot to utilize their health as a resource, and navigate a card pool that requires them to sacrifice their own creatures in the name of value. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the overall strategy of the deck, and run through the list to examine each card’s role within it.
Strategy:
Thanetar zoo is an aggressive tempo deck. Each game usually lasts between 6-10 turns. Thanetar zoo uses Afterlife cards, in conjunction with cards that sacrifice your own creatures, in exchange for a powerful effect. The deck also utilizes cards that only activate when you have 15 or less health, like Possessed Acolyte and Deathwish Thanetar.
Thanetar zoo uses the classic TCG strategy of taking powerful cards with big drawbacks, and turning those drawbacks into additional positives. For example, Daemonic Offering gives you 2 random Anims for 3 mana. Anims are 2 mana creatures, so Daemonic Offering gives you 4 mana worth of creatures for only 3 mana, but requires you to sacrifice one of your own creatures in order to play it. Untold Greed is similar, drawing 2 cards for only 1 mana, but requiring you to destroy one of your own creatures. Thanetar zoo makes use of cheap Afterlife creatures to turn those drawbacks into positives. Thanetar zoo has cards like Expectant Chicken and Nether’s Advocate to mitigate Untold Greed and Daemonic Offering’s downsides and generate additional tempo. In combination with Chicken, Untold Greed draws you 2 cards and makes a 1/1 and 2/2 creature, all for 2 mana. That’s insane! Daemonic Offering functions the same way. Chicken plus Daemonic Offering makes 2 Anims, a 1/1, and a 2/2 for 4 mana. That’s way more than 4 mana worth of stats. Turn 1 Chicken, into turn 2 mana pip + Daemonic Offering is one of, if not the most powerful openings in the game.
Cards like Cavern Arachne and Dangerous Ritual also have drawbacks that this deck turns into a positive. These cards are extremely powerful for their mana cost, but deal damage to their controller's god. In order to turn that negative into a positive, Thanetar zoo uses cards like Possessed Acolyte and Deathwish Thanetar to capitalize on inflicting damage to yourself. When you have 15 or less health, Possessed Acolyte is a 2/2 that makes a 6/6 when it gets destroyed. 2 mana 8/8 sounds good, right? Possessed Acolyte can be paired with Daemonic Offering, Untold Greed, or Living Container for some really explosive mid-game turns. Deathwish Thanetar gets cheaper as you lose life, and costs 0 when you have lost 16 or more life. 0 mana 4/4s can swing a game very quickly. Here’s an example: on turn 5 you can play Cavern Arachne, and 2 Deathwish Thanetars, as long as your life total was a 20 or lower at the start of the turn. Cavern Arachne is a 5/6 with frontline, and the Thanetars are 4/4s, so in this scenario you played 13/14 in stats on turn 5. This kind of tempo explosion is usually enough to win the game on the spot.
Mulligans:
Generally speaking, the best opening hand for this deck is Skull Scepter, Expectant Chicken, and Daemonic Offering. Skull Scepter is probably the card you want most for turn 1. The damage really piles up over time, and it makes all your sacrifice cards even better. Nether’s Advocate is also good in the mulligan. Much like Expectant Chicken, Nether’s Advocate works with all the sacrifice cards, and is particularly good with Living Container.
When going 2nd, Nether’s Advocate, Living Container, and either Daemonic Offering or Untold Greed is a really good start. That being said you still really want Skull Scepter for turn 1. If you don’t have Skull Scepter, and you still have charges for your mulligan, throw something away and keep looking. When you play a Skull Scepter on turn 1 and it goes unanswered, you win games.
Important Note:
When playing against Light and Deception, you have to activate your afterlife cards on the turn you play them so they don’t get Light’s Levied or Umber Arrowed.
It’s also important to remember, one of your goals while playing this deck is getting to 15 or less health, so don’t be afraid to use your god power in the early game. Especially against some of the slower meta decks, like Onslaught for example.
Let’s run through each card in the deck:
Death Cards:
2x Untold Greed: Afterlife activator and card draw.
2x Skull Scepter: Deals tons of damage over time and makes all the Afterlife stuff even better.
2x Bombfly: Aggressive 1 drop. Good with Living Container. Provides some burst. Bombfly + GP = 5 damage.
2x Brimstone: Draw + damage.
2x Blight Bomb: Cheap removal for early game tempo.
2x Dangerous Ritual: Draw + damage.
2x Nether’s Advocate: Great with all the sacrifice cards.
2x Living Container: It can activate Afterlife creatures, or buff injured creatures.
2x Possessed Acolyte: BIG payoff card for doing so much damage to yourself. Insanely strong with any of the sacrificial cards.
2x Daemonic Offering: Power card. Activate an afterlife and get 4 mana worth of creatures on top.
1x Soul Shatter: Handles any buffed early game creature (Canonize, Boost Walker, Out of its Misery). It also destroys Pyramid warden, Jinxblade Duelist, and Bardelys (with a GP).
1x Amazon Hearteater: Destroying a creature and making your own creature is good tempo. Highborn Knight hard counter.
Neutral Cards:
2x Expectant Chicken: Cheap Afterlife creature. Great with Daemonic Offering and Untold Greed.
2x Vanguard Axewoman: Good card.
2x Cavern Arachne: Big stats with frontline, and gets you closer to 15 health.
2x Deathwish Thanetar: BIG payoff card. When Thanetar is 0 mana you can play a crazy amount of stats in 1 turn.
Thanks for checking out this deck breakdown covering Thanetar Death zoo!
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Written By: themudman
themudman is a competitive Gods Unchained player for TST. He enjoys building decks, streaming on Twitch, and topping the ranks. His playstyle lends itself to decks that are mostly aggressive and tempo based. His only goal: get his opponent to 0. Find him in the [tst]lounge or the RNG discord at 
w/ contributions from: cautionfun.
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