FakeMews Flux Wheel Pilots Guide in depth summary part three:
We are going to delve into each of FakeMews 6 lists used during the flux wheel challenge into detail and discuss proper ways to pilot each deck and the reasoning behind certain decisions. Please note that minor revisions were made from the 22-win and the 23-win weekend this week for the purposes of this article the deck lists being discussed will be for the 23 win weekend. This will be a 6 part series as I realized how time consuming it is.
Flux deck Profile 2: “Bored Wipe Death”
Deck Code: GU_1_1_CCcCCcIAIBCxBCxHBIHBIBEXBEXCCzCCzBAFBAFBCzGCNCBTCBTICHICHGAdBGkBGkBBrBDFBDFBBqBBqCCaCCaIBy
God Power: Always Blood Ritual
Deck Description:
This is one of the classic archetypes in GU the dreaded “Death Board Wipe” “Board Wipe Death” whatever variant you call it this is a deck that strikes fear and dread into the entire community as it delivers long and painful losses to the opposition. The main things to note about this build is I don’t play the sleep variant I play a greed variant. With that which aches and Jason, Medea’s Muse this deck can reach infinite value. 4 hard clears with 2x Apoc and 2x End Times and a soft board wipe in Neferu. This list can be tricky to pilot as its not just infite card draw / sleep as some variants are however there is some versatility in this trade off as well.
Mulligan tier system:
In an effort to save time I am designing a pretty basic mulligan tier system that I will assign to each card on a 1-5 scale 1 being the most desirable cards to keep while 5 being the least desirable.
Tier one mulligan: These are the premium cards you want to keep in your opening hand during the mulligan phase. Your dream is to end up with 3 cards of this tier by the end of the Mulligan. Typically you should never mulligan away these cards and "full keep" if you see 3 in your opening hand.
Tier two mulligan: Solid card you don’t feel bad ending up with this in your opening hand It’s a keep over any tier 3, 4 or 5 card in the mulligan phase I also suggest keeping these if you are on your last charge in the mulligan (at this point you’re more likely to get a worse opening hand card than improving). However if this is your worst mulligan card in your hand with 2+ charges left you ditch these.
Tier three mulligan: These are not the worst cards to end up with at the end of the mulligan however I always recommend mulligan aggressively on these even with one charge left. This is your mid-tier type of card while not a disaster to end up with in your opening mulligan to have a good starting hand you will not want multiple cards of this tier/worse in your opening hand.
Tier four mulligan: You will feel bad if you end up with any of these cards in your opening hand. Maybe there is a rare niche case you can consider keeping one of these however in reality you will always feel bad if one of these ends up in your opening hand.
Tier five mulligan: These are the worst possible cards you can get in your starting hand for your deck list. Typically characterized by your most expensive cards ideally these are cards you might be wanting to top deck when you have 9 mana crystals however you do not want to have early.
Mulligan tier lists:
This time around we are listing cards in a list format on roughly the priority (keep in mind you may want to deviate in certain matchups this is a rough guide).
Tier 1 mulligans:
Blight Bomb
Pyramid Warden
Eva, Baroness of the Dead
Fanatic of Khnum
Runed Asp
Half-life (Conditional) (ONLY if Fanatic of Khnum or Eva, Baroness of the dead is in hand)
Tier 2 mulligans:
The Trial Begins
Eldritch Demonologist
Tier 3 mulligans:
Half-life (If prior conditions from tier 1 mulligan are not met)
Guild Enforcer
Neferu, Champion of Death
Tier 4 mulligans:
Reap
Demogorgon
Apocalypse Now
Just a nibble
Jason, Medea’s Muse
Tier 5 mulligans
That which Aches
End Times
Polyhymnia, Aetheric Hydra
Card by card analysis:
Blight Bomb: Cheap removal spell good at countering early game minions. A solid keep vs aggro less impactful vs control.
Eva, Baroness of the dead: The most important anti-aggro counter in the deck a better keep than even Pyramid Warden. This is a tricky card to pilot and easy to misplay but you want to set this up in a situation where her afterlife triggers you can use Blood Ritual to kill any zombie. Keep in mind its usually best to not use blood ritual to remove the token if there are no other targets for the afterlife. The 1/1 zombie is a liability for your opponent as you can always remove it with blood ritual.
Pyramid Warden: Great early game card general idea in this list is to help stall and get you to your late game.
Just a nibble: Generic healing card for the list. Doesn’t have the anti-ramp drawback that Return to the cave has. Healing is essential as this deck will lose board early-game in almost every matchup so when that happens you will take lots of damage.
Fanatic of Khnum: Ramp to both players- speeds up both players to reach the late game quicker (generally favors you)
Runed Asp: Usually pick the ramp however situationally can be used as card draw later in the game. The 2/1 stat line can be advantageous as you can play this card and kill it with blood ritual in the same turn (while the Fanatic of Khnum your opponent can elect to ignore you and not kill it denying you ramp for one turn.
Half Life: Conditional card your main targets are Fanatic of Khnum to accelerate ramp and Eva, Baroness of the dead to re-start afterlife zombie train. One note this does not synergize with Runed Asp afterlife (I’ve seen people make this mistake)
Jason, Medea’s Muse: Late game card that adds win conditions in your deck. In the mulligan phase it should be treated as a very late game option. In desperation can be played earlier for board presence. You do not want to play this on turn 3 as on average it weakens your deck early game. After 7+ mana range on average it should strengthen your deck.
The Trial Begins: Can search out any death domain card in your deck. Your main targets are Neferu (conditional board wipe) or Eva (to trigger infinite zombie afterlife train). This can search out fanatic of khnum if desperate for ramp.
Eldritch Demonologist: Searches for your highest cost nether (in this list its Demogorgon) If you’ve drawn both of your demogorgons the next card on the list is That Which Aches (also a nether). Nice early game body/tutor to get to your Demo’s which are critical vs aggro.
Guild Enforcer: Frontline minion idea to slow down opponent so you can get to 7 which is the most critical number curve wise in the deck. This can buy you time to get there.
That Which Aches: Mana cost shows 6 however you rarely will ever want to play this at 6 mana. Generally, this is a strong win condition in control vs control in other matchups not very useful. Very greedy and fun “niche” inclusion in my list not often included in others. Great in the mirror matchup just make sure you can summon 2+ minions when you play it.
Neferu, Champion of Death: Deaths insane card that slipped through the cracks of the balance team during Trial of the Gods. This can be a recurring board wipe and be a one card win-condition all in one. While Neferu is a “situational” card. This situation seems to occur a lot.
Reap: Removal and heal what more can you want?
Apocalypse now: Destroys everything even gets by ward as this is considered two different cards in one.
Demogorgon: Aggro decks worst nightmare. In particular vs Slayer War this is the key card you need to find and play on curve to have a chance. With that being said when you play it usually the game swings in your favor.
End Times: A board wipe that leaves you a minion after the dust settles. Solid late game win condition.
Polyhymnia, Aetheric Hydra: The debate for the top-end of these decks continues. Tyet? Hippocria’s Monster? There are reasons for any of the 3 but I don’t like running multiple 9 drops (though you can obtain multiple with Jason) Solid frontline + armor minion the nightmare of zoo decks and often an insta-concede when Poly enters the board by the opponent.