Core Incremental Targeted Removal

Forward

This article follows the progression of my core-set-only Incremental Targeted Removal deck. I start by explaining how I created the experimental, untested deck (in preparation for the core only alpha for Epic Card Game Digital). Then, I plan on updating this article with an analysis of how the deck performs, in addition to explaining any changes I make to it (assuming it performs well enough to update).

Other decks in this Epic Card Game Digital series include: Core Evil Tokens, Core Sage Army, Core Wild Champion Overload, and Core Epic Humans. They are all built following my Epic Constructed Process.

(Extra 5 decks: Core Token Control, Core Sky Force, Core Feint, Tom’S Core Discard Deck, and Tom’S Core Aggressive Burn List)

Current Deck List

As I update the deck list, I’ll update this picture and written list (currently prototype deck list).

Evil (9)

Slow (3)
3x Inner Demon

Fast (3)
3x Drain Essence

0-Cost (3)
3x Guilt Demon

Good (27)

Slow (9)
3x Avenging Angel
3x Banishment
3x High King

Fast (9)
3x Angel of Light
3x Angel of Mercy
3x Noble Unicorn

0-Cost (9)
3x Priestess of Angeline
3x Watchful Gargoyle
3x White Dragon

Sage (18)

Slow (3)
3x Blue Dragon

Fast (9)
3x Ancient Chant
3x Lying in Wait
3x Memory Spirit

0-Cost (6)
1x Amnesia
3x Forcemage Apprentice
2x Ogre Mercenary

Wild (6)

Slow (2)
2x Rampaging Wurm

Fast (2)
2x Lightning Storm

0-Cost (2)
2x Fireball

Prototype Explanation

Click here for my explanation of the deck prototype and how I built it

Deck Idea

This was the first deck I made when I found out I would need a core-only deck for the Epic Digital alpha. I wanted to make a Sage deck that didn’t rely on Sea Titan, Thought Plucker, or Muse. The only cards I knew I wanted were Blue Dragon and Forcemage Apprentice (probably Drain Essence too). I figured I would build some form of mid-range controllish deck with the ability to apply consistent pressure while fighting off aggro/burn decks.

Gather Cards

In my initial gathering of cards I didn’t find too many Evil cards I wanted to include outside of an Evil-focused deck, aside from Drain Essence and probably Guilt Demon. I was a little surprised to see that I had grabbed a significant number of Good cards including: Inner Peace, Angel of Light, White Dragon + Banishment, and High King.

I was even more surprised to find out just how few Sage cards I actually wanted to include. In addition to not wanting Sea Titan, Thought Plucker, and Muse out of stubbornness, I didn’t want Erase/Time Bender because I expected a lot of Strafing Dragons and other strong tribute/loyalty, bounce-dissuading champions. I didn’t really want Juggernaut with its 3 defense. Wave of Transformation wasn’t really what I was looking for, etc. Wild also didn’t have much of what I was looking to do.

Therefore, I decided to pursue the Banishment + White Dragon route that I have been toying with for awhile. I think White Dragon is an incredibly powerful card, especially when used along an on-turn targeted removal card, namely Banishment or High King (removal + an airborne, recycling threat). Since I want to hit High King loyalty, I wanted other powerful Good cards: Angel of Light is great against burn, Noble Unicorn is one of Good’s best cards, and Priestess of Angeline can help keep me alive against burn decks while not costing a card in hand.

To compliment the Banishment/High King + White Dragon plan, I wanted other ways to gain incremental advantage while disrupting my opponent. Inner Demon as removal + demon intrigued me, and in combination with Drain Essence, it gave me the ability to run triple Guilt Demon.

With the idea that I wanted to gain incremental advantage through on-turn events like Inner Demon and Banishment, Memory Spirit seemed like a great addition. Get me back my powerful events while giving me an off-turn, airborne threat. In order to get access to more off-turn threats and to increase my Good pool of cards, I decided to add in Angel of Mercy (especially with the reduced access to discard pile banish cards for core only decks).

With only 2 answers to Muse so far, I figured It would be worth splashing a bit for some Fireballs (also great with Memory Spirit), but I didn’t know the other Wild cards I wanted to go with them. At this point, I had the core of the deck set with the cards I knew I wanted. The rest of deck construction was largely filling the holes left in my distributions. This is what my gather cards list looked like:

Evil ()

Slow ()

Fast ()
Apocalypse, Army of the Apocalypse, Bitten, Demon Breach, Final Task, Inner Demon, Plague, Vampire Lord, Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost ()
Dark Knight, Guilt Demon, Plentiful Dead, Wither

Distributions

One aspect my deck was clearly lacking was on-turn gold-punishers. To resolve this, I decided to go with Rampaging Wurm and Avenging Angel. Rampaging Wurm is just a great no-alignment-commitment-required, on-turn gold-punisher (although the lack of 0-cost removal or Lash/Rage to support it is concerning). Avenging Angel is an airborne blitz threat with health gain and attack prevention. Seemed pretty strong for what the deck is trying to do.

To fill out my Good 0-cost cards, Watchful Gargoyle was basically the only other 0-cost card that seemed to fit with what I wanted. Because there were no other 0-cost cards I wanted, I decided to try playing with only 27 Good cards. The only card that absolutely needs loyalty 2 in the deck is High King, so we’ll see what happens.

While I built my deck to be able to fly above/ignore a defending Sea Titan, I still needed a way to deal with an attacking Sea Titan. Enter Lying in Wait (Watchful Gargoyle to an extent too). Ideally, I am able to generate enough value and incremental threat that 1 for 1 trading with Sea Titan isn’t too detrimental for me.

With 9 Sage cards currently, in order to maximize my 0-cost card count, I needed to included at least 1 more 1-cost card. Without enough Sage commitment to bring loyalty 2 cards like Ice Drake, there weren’t any other Sage cards I really wanted. So, I fell back on Ancient Chant. For 0-cost cards, I wanted more 0-cost champions so I decided to try Ogre Mercenary. Hasty Retreat was a very close second and might be more correct. I also still wanted 1 Amnesia, just in case.

Finally, I needed to decide on my final Wild cards. I settled on double Lightning Storm as a way to finish off games. Ideally, I’ll be able to out value my opponent and slowly pressure them down until they die, but Lightning Storm is a nice way to push that final damage through, especially against decks with little to no health gain.

Distributions Breakdown

Below are the break downs for each of my distributions based on my Epic Constructed Process article.

30+ Cards that can Draw/Recycle/Recall/Etc. (35.5)
Reliable (33): 3 Blue Dragon, 3 Memory Spirit, 3 Lying in Wait, 3 Ancient Chant, 2 Ogre Mercenary, 1 Amnesia, 3 Inner Demon, 3 Banishment, 3 Noble Unicorn, 3 White Dragon, 3 Watchful Gargoyle, 3 Priestess of Angeline
Unreliable (5 x 1/2 = 2.5): 3 Angel of Mercy, 2 Lightning Storm

20 0-cost Cards (20)
3 Forcemage Apprentice, 2 Ogre Mercenary, 1 Amnesia, 3 Guilt Demon, 2 Fireball, 3 White Dragon, 3 Watchful Gargoyle, 3 Priestess of Angeline

20- On My Turn Cards (17)
Champions (11): 3 Blue Dragon, 3 High King, 3 Avenging Angel, 2 Rampaging Wurm
Events (6): 3 Inner Demon, 3 Banishment

33+ Primary Alignment Cards (27)
3 Banishment, 3 High King, 3 Angel of Mercy, 3 Noble Unicorn, 3 Angel of Light, 3 Avenging Angel, 3 White Dragon, 3 Watchful Gargoyle, 3 Priestess of Angeline

Breaking my own distributions in my first post-Tom’S Epic Constructed Process decklist… I feel like I’ll be drawing enough and holding back enough Good cards that this will be fine for this deck, since High King is the only essentially mandatory loyalty 2 card in the deck. I might be wrong.

3-9+ On-Turn Gold-Punishers (5)
3 Avenging Angel, 2 Rampaging Wurm

3-9+ Off-Turn Gold-Punishers (12)
3 Memory Spirit, 3 Angel of Mercy, 3 Noble Unicorn, 3 Angel of Light

1+ Mass Discard Pile Banish (1)
1 Amnesia

3 Drain Essences or Comparable Health Gain (13)
Reliable (12): 3 Drain Essence, 3 Angel of Light, 3 Avenging Angel, 3 Priestess of Angeline
Unreliable (3 x 1/3 = 1): 3 Angel of Mercy

3-9+ Muse/Thought Plucker 0-Cost Answers (6.5)
Reliable (5): 3 Forcemage Apprentice, 2 Fireball
Unreliable (3 x 1/2 = 1.5): 3 Memory Spirit
1-Cost Answers (3 x 0 = 0): 3 Blue Dragon

Anti-Sea Titan/Bounce Plan
Fly over Sea Titans with a plethora of Airborne champions and push through extra damage with Forcemage Apprentice, Fireball, and Lightning Storm. Rampaging Wurm also challenges Sea Titan on the ground.

Powerful Loyalty 2/Tribute/Blitz 1-cost champions lessens the impact of bounce. In addition, multiple 0-cost champions allow me to maintain pressure even if my 1-cost champions get bounced.

Thoughts/Concerns

I might have too many non-board-advantage granting events: Lying in Wait, Ancient Chant, Drain Essence, Banishment, and Lightning Storm. Along with that, I might not have enough threatening champions, especially against control decks.

I don’t know how I feel about Lightning Storm in the deck as a finisher.

I feel like I might want Hasty Retreat, but I probably have enough health gain to survive a champion slipping through my defenses on occasion. I don’t know how I feel about Ogre Mercenary.

I don’t like having under 33+ cards of my primary faction.

Rampaging Wurm with only 2 Fireballs to clear away ambushed in chump blockers might be too weak. Bellowing Minotaur honestly might work better, although it is weaker to Sea Titan, but I wouldn’t generally want to play either card while Sea Titan is up.

Drain Essence probably isn’t necessary with my other health gain, but there weren’t really any other 1-cost Evil cards I wanted to support my Guilt Demons. This also makes it harder to add the Dark Knights I think I might want.

Turn is interesting for this deck.

I do think this deck should shred aggro/burn decks though. Aside from my Ancient Chants and 35.5 cards that can draw, I don’t have too much resiliency against discard. However, Guilt Demon can banish Psionic Assaults, and I do have answers to Thought Plucker.

I am very interested to see how this deck performs. (It might be bad.)