This article follows the progression of my core-set-only Core Sage Wild Champion Overload 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).
As I update the deck list, I’ll update this picture and written list (currently prototype deck list).
Deck Idea
Make a core only Wild-focused deck.
Gather Cards
Based on my general play style, I naturally gravitated towards all of the Tribute -> draw a card champions. By including those and most of the other powerful non-burn Wild cards, my deck was pretty much complete. 3 Jungle Queen, 3 Kong, 3 Raging T-Rex, 3 Rampaging Wurm, 3 Sea Hydra, 3 Triceratops, 3 Flame Strike, 3 Strafing Dragon, 3 Surprise Attack, 3 Cave Troll, 3 Fireball, 3 Flash Fire, 3 Rage, and 3 Wurm Hatchling were pretty much auto-includes for me. The other primary Wild cards I was considering were Lurking Giant, Rain of Fire, Hunting Raptors, Pyromancer, Lash, and Fire Shaman.
Drain Essence was basically another auto-include for me, and I knew I wanted Guilt Demon to go with it. This is basically what my gather cards list looked like:
Evil ()
Slow ()
Army of the Apocalypse
Fast ()
Plague, The Risen, Zombie Apocalypse
0-Cost ()
Guilt Demon
Good ()
Slow ()
Fast ()
0-Cost ()
Sage ()
Slow ()
Fast ()
Crystal Golem, Deadly Raid, Ice Drake, Turn
0-Cost ()
Amnesia
Wild ()
Slow ()
Bellowing Minotaur, Burrowing Wurm
Fast ()
Hunting Raptors, Hurricane, Lightning Storm, Lurking Giant, Mighty Blow, Pyromancer, Rain of Fire, Wolf’s Call
0-Cost ()
Fire Shaman, Lash
Distributions
In order to be more resilient against 1-cost bounce effects, I eventually landed on Hunting Raptors. Since many of my other cards just draw cards when they enter play, I wanted something that could do permanent damage if I am continually forced to replay it. I view this essentially as Flame Strike with a body. Without access to Lightning Strike or Vanishing, if I play this on my opponent’s turn when their gold is down, I am almost assured to be able to use it at the start of my next turn too. In other words, I get 8 direct damage through, and if they return it to my hand, I’ll probably get another 8 direct damage through later. (Strafing Dragon is also excellent in this role.)
Another card I really like in these straightforward decks is Amnesia. Cutting off your opponent’s access to their discard pile at a critical time can largely cripple them and cause them to succumb to my pressure. It will briefly prevent them from recycling, and it can stop big Army of the Apocalypse or similar turns. To allow me to run Amnesias, I decided on Memory Spirits because they let me get back my powerful 0-cost events (Amnesia, Fireball, Flash Fire, and Rage), and they can get back Drain Essence, Surprise Attack, or Flame Strike too.
To fill out my required Evil 1-cost cards, I went with Zombie Apocalypse because my deck is full of champions, and I have significant discard pile removal already. For my final Sage 1-cost card, I settled on Djinn of the Sands as an additional on-turn gold-punisher with its 8/8 airborne, blitz body.
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. (31.5)
Reliable (30): 3 Zombie Apocalypse, 1 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Memory Spirit, 2 Amnesia, 3 Jungle Queen, 3 Raging T-Rex, 3 Sea Hydra, 3 Triceratops, 3 Surprise Attack, 3 Flash Fire, 3 Rage
Unreliable (3 x 1/2 = 1.5): 3 Cave Troll
20 0-cost Cards (20)
3 Guilt Demon, 2 Amnesia, 3 Cave Troll, 3 Fireball, 3 Flash Fire, 3 Rage, 3 Wurm Hatchling
20- On My Turn Cards (19)
Champions (19): 1 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Jungle Queen, 3 Kong, 3 Raging T-Rex, 3 Rampaging Wurm, 3 Sea Hydra, 3 Triceratops
Events (0):
33+ Primary Alignment Cards (45)
3 Jungle Queen, 3 Kong, 3 Raging T-Rex, 3 Rampaging Wurm, 3 Sea Hydra, 3 Triceratops, 3 Flame Strike, 3 Hunting Raptors, 3 Strafing Dragon, 3 Surprise Attack, 3 Cave Troll, 3 Fireball, 3 Flash Fire, 3 Rage, 3 Wurm Hatchling
3-9+ On-Turn Gold-Punishers (7)
1 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Rampaging Wurm, 3 Strafing Dragon
3-9+ Off-Turn Gold-Punishers (12)
3 Memory Spirit, 3 Hunting Raptors, 3 Strafing Dragon, 3 Surprise Attack (3 Jungle Queen to enable 15 other off-turn gold-punishers)
1+ Mass Discard Pile Banish (2)
2 Amnesia
3 Drain Essences or Comparable Health Gain (3)
Reliable (3): 3 Drain Essence
3-9+ Muse/Thought Plucker 0-Cost Answers (7.5)
Reliable (5): 3 Fireball, 3 Flash Fire
Unreliable (3 x 1/2 = 1.5): 3 Memory Spirit
Anti-Sea Titan/Bounce Plan
Hunting Raptors and Strafing Dragon get damage past Sea Titan, Memory Spirit and Djinn of the Sands can too. Cave Troll can chump Sea Titan, and Zombie Apocalypse can break it if needed.
Rampaging Wurm as well as a Raged Kong/Raging T-Rex/Triceratops (potentially Sea Hydra) doesn’t really care that much about Sea Titan either. A blocked Kong attack followed up by a Flash Fire also breaks Sea Titan.
Thoughts/Concerns
The deck is fairly simple: play big things and attack with them. The 12 Tribute -> Draw a card champions or better allow me (in theory) to keep playing threats without needing to draw 2 too often. Due to these 12 champions, it might be correct to go first with this deck. Probably not because basically no deck wants to go first, but we will see. Being able to start the game by establishing the first threat could be the best case scenario.
Deck List
Evil (9)
Slow ()
Fast (6)
3x Drain Essence
3x Zombie Apocalypse
0-Cost (3)
3x Guilt Demon
Good ()
Slow ()
Fast ()
0-Cost ()
Sage (6)
Slow (1)
1x Djinn of the Sands
Fast (3)
3x Memory Spirit
0-Cost (2)
2x Amnesia
Wild (45)
Slow (18)
3x Jungle Queen
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex
3x Rampaging Wurm
3x Sea Hydra
3x Triceratops
Fast (12)
3x Flame Strike
3x Hunting Raptors
3x Strafing Dragon
3x Surprise Attack
0-Cost (15)
3x Cave Troll
3x Fireball
3x Flash Fire
3x Rage
3x Wurm Hatchling
Pending testing and modifications. I had significantly less to say about this deck, so if you are curious about any of the decisions I did not talk about, feel free to ask in the comments below.
Forward
