For #natureunchained competition, I'm going to analyze my weekend ranked and other top player's nature decks.
My Weekend Ranked Deck
https://gudecks.com/decks/14676
Mostly just slammed the best cards together. I like early creatures to fight for the board so I can land my random removal, and protect my value cards like Finnian, stag and, Selena. Better against Nature and War, most of the meta, kinda autoloses to sleep.
My Card Choices
- Netherborne Binder: Better hog. 3hp heal doesn't matter in this deck.
- Skeleton Heavy: Above-curve vanilla. Cut PW for this, see why I don't like PW in this meta below.
- Guild Enforcer: Big frontline. Stops early aggression well.
- Chiron, the Teacher: Relic removal and a creature buff
- Low-Hanging Fruit: Pings and puts a body on board. Find it more usefully than Axewoman.
- Marsh Walker: Sticky early creature. Dangerous if buffed.
- Canopy Barrage: Good removal.
- Faeflame Blade: Can pick off weak creatures or proc frenzy.
- Finnian Fruitbearer: Strong early threat that can win games.
- Underbrush Boar: Big 3/3 stats for 2 mana and impacts the board the turn it's played.
- Celestial Stag: Blessed and card generation are strong. Try to protect it to keep getting cards.
- Lightning Strike: Kills almost all creatures up to 6 mana.
- Overgrown Rhino: Big body.
- Selena, Champion of Nature: Good value card, pings creatures and is hard to kill. Sometimes it is hard to find the right time to play it.
- Brazen Moose: Bigger body, blessed is good too.
- Giant Pangolin: One of nature's most busted cards. 6 str and blitz kills most creatures, 2 armor and 4 hp is tough to kill.
- The Hunt: Strong flexible removal. Will wipe your opponent's board if they have 8 or less health of creatures.
Top Player Decklists
Let's see what top players run in their nature deck.
Voland
24/25 on the weekend ranked with an impressive 91.1% winrate over 56 matches. An aggro build with gloam druid, sip from the spring, 2x wildfire, and 2x falling star. Looks to go wide and capitalize on buffs thru falling star to summon creatures and buff board, followed up by gloam druid or wildfire is a game-ending combo. Interesting no faeflame or staff of roots.
https://gudecks.com/decks/GU_1_5_BALBCCBCCBEXBEXCArCAuCAuCBxCByCByCCOCCOGAbGAnGAwHAEIALIALIAOIASIDFIDFIDKIDKIDMIDMIDOIDOIDS?godPowers=100121&creator=Voland&userId=714962&archetype=Big%20Beasts%20Nature
[TOXIC] Fakemews
Supreme Leader of TOXIC, went 23/25 this weekend running the flux wheel.
Mostly looks like a conventional list. Low-hanging fruit, and watchtower are of note.
https://gudecks.com/decks/GU_1_5_BCCBCCBEXBEXBHDCATCATCAuCAuCAvCAvCBxCBxCCOCCOGAbGAnGAwIASICHICHIDFIDFIDKIDKIDMIDMIDNIDNIDX?godPowers=100121&creator=[TOXIC]%20FakeMews&userId=147667&archetype=Other%20Nature
[CUJO] Clutch
Gods Unchained 2021 Community Tour Winner, not a Nature main. Nothing special here, BigGuysBigSpells.deck
https://gudecks.com/decks/GU_1_5_BCCBCCBEXBEXBHDCArCArCAuCAuCAvCBhCBhCBxCBxCCOCCOCDfCDfGAwHAFHAFIALIALIASICHICHIDFIDFIDMIDM?godPowers=101311&creator=[CUJO]%20Clutch&userId=288757&archetype=Big%20Beasts%20Nature
Aftermath
One of nature's most dedicated players. Doesn't run any neutral cards.
This deck went 23/25 a few weeks ago, and has been copied a lot to decent success.
https://gudecks.com/decks/GU_1_5_BCCBCCBCeBHDCArCArCAuCAuCAvCAvCBxCBxCByCCOCCOCDfCDfGAbGAnGAnGAwIALIALIASIDFIDFIDKIDKIDMIDM?godPowers=101311&creator=Aftermath&userId=231860&archetype=Big%20Beasts%20Nature
Analysis
All these decks run playsets of Chiron, Marsh Walker, Canopy Barrage, Finnian, Underbrush Boar, Lightning Strike, Brazen Moose, and Giant Pangolin. So that is 14 cards that are the same between all the decks and for good reason, these are all very powerful cards.
IMO 2x faeflame is the way, you want board control so your random removal hits where you want.
There is contention between Stag and Bear in the 3 slot. I like stag better, blessed is good, the card generation is strong if you can protect it or play it later with a creature.
Card choices are mostly meta dependent and your playstyle.
You can see similar curves between the decks, 3-5 1s, 8-11 2s, 4-6 3s, 1-3 4s, 5-6 5s, and 2-4 6s.
Possible Card Choices
Here are some cards that top players run that I cut, couldn't find space for, or don't own.
PIC
- Vanguard Axewoman: Faeflame and low-hanging fruit take most of the early removal slot.
- Pyramid Warden: I cut Pyramid Warden from my deck. I find it a lot worse in this meta, less aggro and more midrange, more focus on board control, still good in aggro decks or decks with buffs. Still good for protecting your small creatures early. The afterlife is more of a liability since they are fewer small creature to bring back. The statline is less impactful with bigger creatures. There are a lot of common cards that hurt PW: Musosian Infiltrator sets the hp to 2, Guild Enforcer is huge and abundant, Archangel Bruiser deals 5 damage and lives, Orcish Elite kills it easily, Giant Pangolin eats PW for breakfast.
- Gloam Druid: Big cheap buff, firewine on a body for 2 mana.
- Rabid Bear: Vanilla 3/4 most of the time, +1 str and confuse can help sometimes. 3 mana floor card most of the time, there to fill out the curve but the not best.
- Starving Sabertooth: Never played with it. Not sure if it is better than rhino.
- Avatar of Nature: Big 5/5 body for 5 mana and summons plants that heal. Forces aggro decks to clear it otherwise you'll get more plants to heal.
- Watchtower of Agrodor: Haven't played it. Gets hosed by Light's Levy but Light isn't seen a lot and you know to play around it. If they can't answer it, it should win you the game.
- Sip from the Spring: 3 mana for 2/2 fast stats is meh at best, bad going second unless you open 2 1-drops to frenzy pip next turn. Want the frenzy to go off so you're leaning towards an aggro build to get board first.
- Wildfire: Good AOE and buff, hard to find time to play it when you have creatures to buff.
- Falling Star: 6/6 stats and removal at the floor. Feels like it is slept on, just found the right build yet. The str buff wants to go wide. Burn is slow removal, the burnt creature will usually eat one of your badgers.
- Sudden Bloom: 6/6 stats with overkill and frenzy is a big ceiling that can win games. The rng and wanting frenzy hurt its consistency.
- Compost Charm: Good healing against aggro decks. Mostly a meta call.
- Jaguar Staff: Doesn't fit as well in the meta with big creatures around. Still good value, 2 hits and 2 jaguars.