Foreword
I started designing this as a demon deck, but I shifted to trying to make it as efficient as possible. What I mean is that I attempted to create a deck where I would spend as little time just drawing as possible. I want my plays on my turn to get me far ahead, and I want my plays on my opponent’s turn to also get me ahead, just not by as much. The challenge was doing this in Evil with minimal card draw. Well, we’ll see if I succeeded.
First Shot Deck List
Evil (48)
Slow (24)
2x Angel of Death
1x Drinker of Blood
3x Infernal Gatekeeper
3x Murderous Necromancer
3x Necromancer Lord
3x Raxxa, Demon Tyrant
3x Reaper
3x Succubus
3x The Gudgeon
0x Trihorror
Fast (16)
1x Demon Breach
2x Drain Essence
3x Final Task
3x Medusa
3x Necrovirus
1x Raxxa’s Displeasure
3x Zealous Necromancer
0-Cost (8)
3x Plentiful Dead
3x Spawning Demon
2x Wither
Good (6)
Slow (0)
Fast (4)
1x Inheritance of the Meek
3x Resurrection
0-Cost (2)
2x Brave Squire
Sage (3)
Slow (0)
Fast (3)
3x Erase
0-Cost (0)
Wild (3)
Slow (0)
Fast (3)
3x Surprise Attack
0-Cost (0)
First Shot Explanation
The slow cards in this deck do something powerful initially and must be removed. Aside from Drinker of Blood, none of these champions suffer terribly from bounce.
The fast cards in this deck were picked because they (almost) all provide incredibly strong effects on my opponent’s turn. Ideally, I can use the powerful effects each turn to grind down my opponent quickly. Essentially, I do not want to let up the pressure to spend my turn drawing 2 cards.
I am attempting to make this work due to 2 factors. I am including The Gudgeons, Succubi, Zealous Necromancers, Erases, and to a lesser extent Resurrections, Final Tasks, and Necromancer Lords to draw cards. Demon Breach and Plentiful Dead can both be returned to hand as well.
In addition, I have limited the number of 0-cost cards in this deck to 10. Since I have fewer 0-cost cards, I do not need to draw as many cards to be able to continually play 1-cost cards. In other words, I am less likely to be in a situation where I unload all of my 0-cost cards and run myself out of fuel. The 0-costs I included are either big threats, continuous threats, combo/defense, or efficiency enablers.
Spawning Demon can create an army of demons while I play my Evil 1-cost cards normally, and it can start on my opponent’s turn.
Plentiful Dead is a constant stream of zombie tokens. Wither can work with my deck or prevent the damage from a Secret Legion on my turn into Insurgency combo. (Wither wouldn’t kill those tokens with Insurgency, but it would remove their offense for the turn.)
Brave Squire is included for 2 situations, in addition to it being a combat trick. Final Task + Brave Squire is the first. Zealous Necromancer + Brave Squire is the second.
I am really curious to see how this deck works out. My greatest fear is discard, but Human tokens could be an issue too. The nice thing is that Zealous Necromancer does turn those broken human tokens into zombies.
This deck was incredibly difficult to pare down initially. I wanted more of a few cards because they are so powerful, but I cut them because they are either situational or 1 effective use is all that is needed in a game. I also had to cut Trihorror even though it works well with Necromancer Lord, Final Task, Resurrection, and Reaper as well as the demon specific cards. Trihorror just doesn’t seem reliable enough. I did not include Dark Assassin because it breaks a champion, but then it is too easy to remove. Necromancer Lord gives a permanent champion and The Gudgeon draws 2, so neither of them need to stay around to get excellent value.
Let me know what you think in the comments below. I am especially curious to hear how many 0-cost cards other people include in decks and why. Is 20 the goal every time, do you have a formula you like, or is it more about selecting the best cards regardless of 1-cost to 0-cost (as long as it is legal)?