There's no doubt that the current favorite decks in the meta are Light decks. Although I try not to be too much of a meta slave all the time, I felt like I didn't have a good enough deck that wasn't a Light deck to overcome the other Light decks I was facing. As the saying goes, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! So that's what I did. But of course, I had to add my own spin to the conventional Light decks that were running wild on the ladder - the Chosen One mechanic. I've already written a little about it a few days ago here and I was eager to see how it fared during the weekend.
Giveaway Results
Every week, I give away a few units of Hive SBI which help to upvote your Hive posts for visibility and rewards for as long as they run - you don't have to do anything on your part. I explained the mechanics of how this giveaway works in another Weekend Ranked Rundown post, but in short, the more active you are in the GU Hive community, the more chances you have to win. You can check your HBI status here.
This week's winners:
Deck Overview
Deck Link: GUDecks
The only change that I made since my last post was the replacement of a Judge Envoy with Asterius. The deck largely remains a standard midrange Light deck with a side theme of Chosen One buffs when it's convenient. Buffing and drawing the Chosen One is made more consistent with the help of cards like the Illuminated Warrior, Pilgrim of the Cause, and Devout Cleric.
It's important to note that this deck is not fully themed around drawing your Chosen One; there will be games that you don't draw it, and it's fine. Rather, since cards like Devout Cleric, Pilgrim, and Kadmos work very well with the buffers in the deck even without a Chosen One effect, you'll be getting strong creatures on the board regardless of whether you manage to draw the Chosen One.
Possible Card Swaps
Depending on how you want to build your deck, the odd 1x Bright Mage and 1x Feral Shapeshifter can be replaced by 2x of any one of Bright Mage, Feral Shapeshifter, or Militant Theist. Having more 2x-es in your deck makes it more consistent, and all of these three cards have their use cases. Personally, I don't have any Militant Theists so I couldn't try it, but I think it would work very well with the other cards in the deck.
If you don't have either Asterius or Lysander, two possible replacements for them are Judge Envoy and Aether Vanguard. All of these cards have their own specific strengths and I don't think any one card is particularly stronger than another.
Sern and The Nemean Lion can also be replaced by cards like Ranger Firstbow, Feral Shapeshifter, or basically any other cards that either provide buffs or deal damage. As a Light player, the ability to deal 1 damage to enemy creatures cannot be understated. These damage-dealing cards allow you to efficiently deal with your opponents' wide boards, which have always been a pain point for Light players.
Performance and Matchmaking Breakdown
Starting Rank: Mythic
Wins: 18/25
Reward Packs: 2x Core Rare, 1x Core Epic, 1x Core Legendary, 2x DO Rare, 1x DO Epic, 1x DO Legendary
Theoretical pack value based on current pack prices: $36.96
| Opponent God | Deck Archetype | Score (Wins / Total Games) |
|---|---|---|
| Nature | Midrange Nature | 4 / 5 |
| Control Nature | 1 / 1 | |
| Regen Nature | 0 / 1 | |
| Aggro Nature | 0 / 1 | |
| War | Frenzied Aggro War | 0 / 1 |
| Aggro War | 1 / 1 | |
| Magic | Control Magic | 1 / 1 |
| Death | Zombie Death | 1 / 1 |
| Deception | Order Deception | 2 / 3 |
| Light | Aggro Light | 5 / 7 |
| Midrange Light | 3 / 3 | |
| Total | 18 / 25 |
A very decent 18 wins with a slightly off-meta theme! Not bad, but I could definitely see this deck doing 20 wins with better luck. I was pretty badly shafted at the start of my WR run, losing 3 games in my first 5 games. Most of them boiled down to getting bricked with high-cost cards in my hand during the early game and being unable to put down pressure on the board. (or simply going second)
Most of the other games went pretty well; if going first, an Illuminated Warrior into a Devout Cleric is tough to deal with. The 2/1 and 1/3 bodies are already not easy to get rid of, plus it gives you a +2/+2 buff to the next creature you draw. It can be pretty devastating, and I've found this to be one of my favorite openers in this deck when given the chance.
Against aggro decks, having a Mace of Calling or Light's Levy can almost secure the win. It's almost imperative to hard mulligan for them since they provide so much value and tempo.
The good thing about Midrange Light is that it's no slouch at being an aggressor against control decks. Against control decks, it is capable of being the aggressor with a good number of early game cards. Against aggro decks, it is also able to cull the aggression with cards like the Mace or Kadmos.
Historical Performance
After three weeks of subpar performance, I'm happy to be scoring 18 wins again! I very much enjoy the playstyle of the deck as compared to just regular Aggro/Midrange Light and probably will be playing variations of this deck up until the next expansion releases. I'm a little sad that there were no new cards with Chosen One effects in the new expansion, but I guess that's because the team isn't really looking to expand this concept further currently. Oh well.
Past 10 Weekend Ranked posts and performance in order of recency:
| Time Period | Deck | Score (Wins / Total Games) | Starting Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 2022 W2 | Midrange Light | 18 / 25 | Mythic |
| Apr 2022 W1 | Hidden Rush Deception/Mixed | 10 / 25 | Mythic |
| Mar 2022 W4 | Aggro Nature | 15 / 25 | Mythic |
| Mar 2022 W3 | Aether Magic | 16 / 25 | Mythic |
| Mar 2022 W2 | Card Draw Magic | 22 / 25 | Mythic |
| Mar 2022 W1 | Control Nature | 19 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W4 | Control Nature | 19 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W3 | Tempo Magic | 18 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W2 | Tempo Magic | 19 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W1 | Tempo Magic | 18 / 25 | Mythic |
Concluding Thoughts
I've succumbed to playing the meta, but I hope I've managed to switch things up a little for my opponents by playing a few less-known cards in the Chosen One package and The Nemean Lion, both of which have created some very interesting board states. If you're looking for a deck that's a little less meta but still very strong, you should try this one out!
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