Core Sage Army

Deck Idea

After my Core Incremental Targeted Removal deck (my original Sage deck plan) morphed into a Good-focused deck, I decided to look through Sage to find a more natural take on a Sage deck. I figured Steel Golem would play a role, but I didn’t know much more than that before gathering cards. (I explain the emergent deck idea in the Gather Cards section below.)

Gather Cards (With Explanation)

While gathering cards and not seeing anything particularly new and interesting, I decided to fall back on a classic: Sage Evil with blitzing 0-cost champions, bounce effects, and Army of the Apocalypse.

Guilt Demon, Dark Knight, and Warrior Golem are excellent blitzing 0-cost threats that can be played while both players still have their gold. Frequently, your opponent can’t stop the 0-cost champions without spending their gold, so they either take the damage or risk exposing themself to a 1-cost blitzing champion (on-turn gold-punisher).

If they didn’t deal with the 0-cost blitz champion, cards like Time Walker and Sea Titan can return them to my hand to be used aggressively again next turn, or even on the same turn. Dark Knight attack, deal damage, then Sea Titan it back to hand, great.

Army of the Apocalypse can also bring multiple of these champions back to play for an even bigger attack, especially when you add in any other 1-cost inherent blitz champions in my discard pile. However, while building I decided I wanted to use my Armies more frequently than just as a kill shot. To accomplish this, I include 3 Amnesias (+ the 3 Guilt Demons) to attack my opponent’s ability to get value from Army. At the same time, in addition to my blitz champions, I have Crystal Golem to draw cards and just obnoxiously big, untargetable champions. Essentially, if I can Army to get back 2 1-cost champions on my turn while providing no benefit to my opponent, I probably will, especially if at least one of those champions is an inherent blitz champion or Crystal Golem.

Once I established this premise, the auto includes were: 3 Guilt Demon, 3 Dark Knight, 3 Army of the Apocalypse, 3 Juggernaut, 3 Sea Titan, X Time Walkers, 3 Crystal Golems, 3 Amnesia, and 3 Warrior Golem. (24 cards). This is what my gather cards list looked like.

Evil ()

Slow ()

Fast ()

0-Cost ()

Good ()

Slow ()
Avenging Angel

Fast ()

0-Cost ()

Sage ()

Slow ()
Blue Dragon, Djinn of the Sands, Frost Giant, Steel Golem, Winter Fairy

Fast ()
Ancient Chant, Lying in Wait, Memory Spirit

0-Cost ()
Amnesia, Hasty Retreat, Keeper of Secrets, Muse, Ogre Mercenary

Wild ()

Slow ()
Rampaging Wurm

Fast ()
Flame Strike, Surprise Attack

0-Cost ()
Fireball, Flash Fire

Distributions

Drain Essence was an easy add to fill out my Evil 1-cost cards. Same with Forcemage Apprentice to fill my 0-cost Sage slots and to break Muses. I still wanted more ways to break Muse and I was struggling to find any other 1-cost Evil cards to allow me to bring Wither/Unquenchable Thirst, so that left me with Wild, specifically Fireball. I didn’t know exactly what 1-cost Wild cards would go with it, but at least there were viable options.

In order to reach 33+ Sage cards, I decided on Djinn of the Sands, Steel Golem, Ancient Chant, and Erase for 1’s. Even though Djinn of the Sands won’t get counters when I bring it back with Army, it is still a 5/5 airborne blitz champion. Steel Golem won’t gain blitz (because its Loyalty 2 effect won’t trigger when brought back with Army), but it is still a 13/13 untargetable champion. Erase is nice for returning my 0-cost champions after attacking and drawing me two cards. It is also strong in aggressive decks because your opponent has less chance to gain value from replaying strong Loyalty 2/Tribute champions. (Bouncing a Raging T-Rex when your opponent is already at 7 cards in hand is just fine).

Hasty Retreat was added primarily as a safety valve against other aggressive decks, but it can also be used to return my attacking champions. Play and attack with Guilt Demon, banishing 2 cards in the process. Your opponent blocks with Thundarus, flipping it. You play Hasty Retreat, return Guilt Demon to hand, replay it, attack, banish 2 cards, and safely fly past the now flipped Thundarus.

To fill out my 1-cost Wild cards, I decided to go with the blunt, aggressive approach: Rampaging Wurm and Flame Strike. This deck is already fairly aggressive, but both of these can really help beat an opponent to a pulp. Getting a 14/14 blitzer back with Army of the Apocalypse and something else is pretty great.

Filling out my Evil cards was much more challenging. There weren’t really any other 1-cost Evil cards I wanted, but Guilt Demon and Dark Knight were non-negotiable. I ended up reluctantly taking Zombie Apocalypse since I already wanted to prevent my opponent from having champions in their discard pile. In addition, it is another safety-valve if I get behind, Juggernaut lives through it on my turn, and it can draw 2 (which I needed). Final Task was my last choice, primarily because it can draw 2 too. It can work great with Juggernaut, and I do have big champions like Sea Titan that can win games if Final Tasked, but I still don’t really want it in this deck.

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. (31)
Reliable (31): 3 Army of the Apocalypse, 3 Final Task, 3 Zombie Apocalypse, 3 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Juggernaut, 2 Ancient Chant, 3 Crystal Golem, 3 Erase, 3 Amnesia, 2 Hasty Retreat, 3 Warrior Golem
Unreliable (0 x 1/2 = 0):

20 0-cost Cards (20)
3 Dark Knight, 3 Guilt Demon, 3 Amnesia, 3 Forcemage Apprentice, 2 Hasty Retreat, 3 Warrior Golem, 3 Fireball

20- On My Turn Cards (20)
Champions (11): 3 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Juggernaut, 3 Sea Titan, 3 Steel Golem, 2 Time Walker, 3 Rampaging Wurm
Events (3): 3 Army of the Apocalypse

33+ Primary Alignment Cards (33)
3 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Juggernaut, 3 Sea Titan, 3 Steel Golem, 2 Time Walker, 2 Ancient Chant, 3 Crystal Golem, 3 Erase, 3 Amnesia, 3 Forcemage Apprentice, 2 Hasty Retreat, 3 Warrior Golem

3-9+ On-Turn Gold-Punishers (15)
3 Army of the Apocalypse, 3 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Juggernaut, 3 Steel Golem, 3 Rampaging Wurm

All but Steel Golem and Rampaging Wurm have alternate uses than on-turn gold-punisher. Arguably Time Walker and Sea Titan could be added to this list.

3-9+ Off-Turn Gold-Punishers (3)
3 Crystal Golem

This deck generally tries to kill on its turn and survive its opponent’s turn.

1+ Mass Discard Pile Banish (3)
3 Amnesia

3 Drain Essences or Comparable Health Gain (3)
Reliable (3): 3 Drain Essence

3-9+ Muse/Thought Plucker 0-Cost Answers (6)
Reliable (6): 3 Forcemage Apprentice, 3 Fireball

Anti-Sea Titan/Bounce Plan

This deck is fairly ill-equipped to deal with Sea Titan. Only Zombie Apocalypse removes it, only Rampaging Wurm beats it in combat, and only Djinn of the Sands can fly over it; however, the deck will hopefully be able to apply enough pressure to force Sea Titan to stay on the defensive. My own Sea Titans and Steel Golems can also block enemy Sea Titans while being immune to bounce effects (untargetable). In addition, I can theoretically throw enough attackers at my opponent to overwhelm their Sea Titans.

Aside from that, I actually met all of my distributions!

Thoughts/Concerns

This deck is very strong while ahead. It can pressure with 0-cost blitz champions and punish hard on its turn when an opponent spends their gold first. If this deck is able to come out of the gate quick and force the opponent to play reactively, it might do well. It also has the ability to finish off a weakened opponent with burn.

On the flip side, it seems very weak from behind. It doesn’t have a ton of interaction, and all it can pretty much do is attack. If the opponent gets a couple champions ahead on the board, this deck can currently only really reset with Zombie Apocalypse, Time Walker, or Sea Titan. It might be correct to add in more board clears like Apocalypse/Plague or Stand Alone, but that would potentially diminish the effectiveness of Army of the Apocalypse and the unrelenting blitz pressure.

In addition, while untargetable on Sea Titan, Steel Golem, and Crystal Golem is excellent protection, it does prevent me from including Lashes/Rages to get damage through with them. Add that to the fact that the deck only has 3 Fireballs for fast 0-cost removal and tokens become a real problem. One unremoved The People’s Champion or Plentiful Dead could halt much of my champions’ aggression, at least until my opponent can board clear me. While I don’t expect to see a lot of The People’s Champion, it would go a long way towards beating this deck.

It’s possible that the deck might work better in Evil. Bring Angel of Deaths, Apocalypses, and Plagues with Vampire Lords and just keep playing 0-cost blitz threats while repeatedly clearing the board. Or, keep it Sage focused, so I can run 3 Time Walker instead of trying to reach 3 Angel of Death… Okay, I talked myself into making a change: **see Board Clear adjustment below**

Deck List

Evil (18)

Slow (3)
3x Army of the Apocalypse

Fast (9)
3x Drain Essence
3x Final Task
3x Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost (6)
3x Dark Knight
3x Guilt Demon

Good ()

Slow ()

Fast ()

0-Cost ()

Sage (33)

Slow (14)
3x Djinn of the Sands
3x Juggernaut
3x Sea Titan
3x Steel Golem
2x Time Walker

Fast (8)
2x Ancient Chant
3x Crystal Golem
3x Erase

0-Cost (11)
3x Amnesia
3x Forcemage Apprentice
2x Hasty Retreat
3x Warrior Golem

Wild (9)

Slow (3)
3x Rampaging Wurm

Fast (3)
3x Flame Strike

0-Cost (3)
3x Fireball