Congratulations to Batteriez for piloting his “Combrei Plate” brew to #1 on ladder. (ManuS and Batteriez, both top players, have worked together on developing this deck.) Combrei Plate basically plays the good aggressive units in the Combrano (FTJ) factions combined with Deepforged Plate as a finisher (alongside Jekk, the Bounty Hunter).

Having messed around with that deck, there is an interesting combo between Deepforged Plate and Righteous Fury. Played on a 5-power unit, the combo can deal 20 Overwhelm Lifesteal damage in one hit. It’s quite amusing.

There is also synergy between Jekk and Deepforged Plate. Jekk with Quickdraw and Plate is very difficult to block. He is also multi-faction (for resiliency against Annihilate) and helps you beat down opponents while silencing units.

I’m really excited about this deck as it should be very healthy for the meta as a Tier 1 deck:

It’s interesting to pilot. It’s interesting to play against, unlike Big Burn and Armory. It can be tuned to have good matchups against Big Burn and Armory.

Combrei Plate is surprisingly Tier 1

Let’s start off by looking at the “Combrei Plate” deck. You might ask… why the heck is this really good in the current meta? Combrei Plate has elements that historically haven’t been considered strong in aggro:

3-faction influence base

Copperhall Elite, a card that you wouldn’t normally splash for.

Combrei Healer

To put it simply: Combrei Plate is the aggro deck that preys on aggro. Combrei units haven’t been nerfed unlike the competition – Crownwatch Paladin, Frontier Jito, and Champion of Chaos. The deck also runs “burn” spells in the form of Deepforged Plate- a recurring burn spell if unanswered. Combrei Plate eats other aggro decks because it runs more efficient units and tech cards like Righteous Fury and Deepforged Plate.

Original Deck List

3 Finest Hour (Set1 #130)

4 Inspire (Set1 #129)

2 Protect (Set1 #132)

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

4 Awakened Student (Set1 #331)

4 Desert Marshal (Set1 #332)

3 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Knight-Chancellor Siraf (Set1 #335)

4 Copperhall Elite (Set1 #340)

1 Righteous Fury (Set1 #322)

3 Deepforged Plate (Set1 #317)

2 Reality Warden (Set1 #343)

2 Jekk, the Bounty Hunter (Set1001 #11)

2 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

3 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

4 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

1 Amber Monument (Set1 #420)

4 Combrei Banner (Set1 #424)

1 Praxis Banner (Set0 #59)

4 Rakano Banner (Set1 #427)

4 Seat of Glory (Set0 #56)

4 Seat of Impulse (Set0 #54)

Current Deck List (Batteriez)

The current decklist uses Jekk as a finisher over Reality Warden. It runs 1 less power and adds 3 amber acolytes for fixing. It does not run any Sandstorm Titans due to the questionable influence requirements that Titan would impose. According to Batteriez, Titan would have a 60-70% chance of being able to be played on turn 4 (deck calculators help).

The list has more wombo combo goodness due to 3 Jekks, 2 Righteous Furies, and 4 Deepforged Plates.

3 Finest Hour (Set1 #130)

3 Protect (Set1 #132)

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

4 Awakened Student (Set1 #331)

4 Desert Marshal (Set1 #332)

3 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

3 Amber Acolyte (Set1 #93)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Knight-Chancellor Siraf (Set1 #335)

4 Copperhall Elite (Set1 #340)

2 Righteous Fury (Set1 #322)

4 Deepforged Plate (Set1 #317)

3 Jekk, the Bounty Hunter (Set1001 #11)

2 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

6 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

4 Combrei Banner (Set1 #424)

1 Praxis Banner (Set0 #59)

3 Rakano Banner (Set1 #427)

2 Seat of Glory (Set0 #56)

3 Seat of Impulse (Set0 #54)

3 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

ManuS video series

In his video series, ManuS runs a different list. It runs Amber Acolyte for fixing. The extra power helps achieve 6 power to cast 4-of Jekks. Inspire has been cut. The first downside to Inspire is that it screws up your mulligan decisions. You’d rather know if you have power or a unit. Because the influence base is 3-faction, being able to see whether we have all the required influence is helpful. Secondly, it can randomly put Siraf into Vanquish range.

The tempo-oriented version I run

(This is the decklist that I have been playing… not having seen the current deck list. I don’t have experience with the slower builds so I can’t give you much insight into them.)

I went a different tempo route that’s more aggressive. Ideally, we drop cheap units until we have two on the board. Then we protect them against Harsh Rule with a pre-emptive Stand Together (rather than Protect). Once we have 2 aegis units, we can commit the rest of our units to the board because a Harsh Rule would not be a great idea for the opponent (unless they have silences or other ways of popping aegis). Against Armory and Big Combrei, a preemptive Stand lets us commit units to the board as long as we already have 2 aegis units that won’t die to Harsh Rule. Being able to spam the board with units is great against Armory.

Valkyrie Enforcer replaces Desert Marshal as a more aggressive unit that will do a lot of damage as a 3/3 flyer. The finishers (Reality Warden and Jekk, The Bounty Hunter) have been cut for Sandstorm Titans and Deepforged Plate.

Sandstorm Titan is overpowered- a win condition that is also a very good defensive unit and races opponents like a champ. It randomly wins games by itself. The added benefit of Sandstorm Titan is that it provides a very beefy body to put Plate on. This helps to break through board stalls.

Because I play too many proactive tempo decks, I don’t like Jekk. If you’re the control deck versus aggro (e.g. Rakano, Jito, Burn Queen, Big Burn) then Jekk is not great in the matchup because he comes down very late and isn’t great defensively. If you’re the beatdown, sometimes you don’t get that 6th or 7th power. Against Armory, Jekk is bad. I feel like Vanquish and Sandstorm Titan are overall better in various matchups.

3 Finest Hour (Set1 #130)

3 Inspire (Set1 #129)

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

4 Awakened Student (Set1 #331)

2 Champion of Glory (Set1 #314)

3 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

1 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Knight-Chancellor Siraf (Set1 #335)

2 Stand Together (Set1 #334)

3 Valkyrie Enforcer (Set1 #151)

4 Copperhall Elite (Set1 #340)

2 Righteous Fury (Set1 #322)

4 Sandstorm Titan (Set1 #99)

4 Deepforged Plate (Set1 #317)

3 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

3 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Amber Monument (Set1 #420)

2 Combrei Banner (Set1 #424)

2 Praxis Banner (Set0 #59)

2 Rakano Banner (Set1 #427)

4 Seat of Glory (Set0 #56)

4 Seat of Impulse (Set0 #54)

4 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

Mulligan

The influence base is incredibly greedy. Lean towards keeping hands that have at least one of every influence + at least one piece of early interaction.

Matchups

For the aggressive variation, I believe that the deck has good or favorable matchups against everything on ladder except for greedy Combrei builds.

Because Icaria Gold is a deck in the same factions as this, most opponents will assume that you are on Icaria Gold (especially if you haven’t shown them Copperhall Elite) and will not block correctly against Finest Hour or Stand Together.

Aggro decks (Rakano, Stonescar Burn variants): as mentioned before, the deck is just a little bit bigger/slower and has excellent tech cards like Righteous Fury and Deepforged Plate. Sometimes you don’t want to block because it would be really bad if your unit dies. You may need that unit to race them back with Righteous Fury or Deepforged Plate.

Shimmerpack: Favored matchup. You can beat them down before they get to 8 power. If they do get to 8 power, they may try to attack you with a lot of units. Righteous Fury can be a blowout to counter lethal attacks. Plate is very good against Permafrost.

Elysian midrange: Favored. Their win condition is beating you down with Cirso or casting Crystallize. Elysian midrange can’t get rid of Deepforged Plate unless they run Praxis Displacer (which does not get around aegis) or you attack into Scorpion Wasp and don’t have Torch. Endurance and aegis can potentially counter Crystallize. Righteous Fury can make it difficult for them to beat you down. The game will often stall out and you may be able to assemble a lethal one-hit kill with Plate + Righteous Fury. Or use Siraf’s ultimate and Plate her to get rid of Permafrost.

Armory: The key in this matchup is to strategically hold up Finest Hour, which will make it almost impossible for them to get their relic weapons going (unless they can Harsh Rule and you don’t have aegis). The dream is to get Plate onto an Aegis unit (ideally a multi-faction one that doesn’t die to Annihilate). Armory cannot beat that unless they strip aegis and play removal (e.g. Harsh Rule).

Feln control, Stonescar midrange: “Slowly tempo” them out. What I mean by that is that you may not want to drop plate onto an aegisless unit right away to play around removal like Deathstrike.

Aggressive Combrei: I haven’t played this matchup much, but I think that this will usually turn into a board stall. Because aggressive Combrei doesn’t play Harsh Rule, you can commit units to the board… which will make the board stall worse. This may turn into a complicated Combrei mirror where you try to out-value them by playing Siraf on 11 instead of 8 or 3 power. If you have Stand Together, you can play her on 7/8 and try to use Stand to counter silence.

Against Obelisk Combrei, they may try to alpha strike you once Obelisk is on 8. You can try to create a trap where they attack with everything and you play Righteous Fury to blow them out. If you think that they are on Obelisk Combrei, save Vanquish for Siraf.

The wombo combo will not work if they have Desert Marshal. You need to carefully watch the priority windows on your end step to see if they have an ambush unit in hand (especially if they only have 2 power open instead of 3). If they have Scorpion Wasp, they may try to Counter Plate with Wasp… and then maybe you live the dream where you can cast Righteous Fury and Torch (on Wasp).

In any of the Combrei mirrors, it would be a good idea for the opponent to hold Combrei healer to strip aegis. This sets up a Desert Marshal to counter the wombo combo (or Siraf).

Greedy / Big Combrei: Unfavored because they out-value you. It will be hard to beat them down because Combrei runs a lot of units with big butts… though it’s possible if they experience power flood/screw.

Another win condition is sticking Siraf with Stand Together to counter their silence.

Another win condition is to bait out silences with Siraf or wait for them to power down such that they can’t desert Marshal. Then Righteous Fury at the end of their turn and cast Plate on your turn to wombo combo them.

Another win condition is to try to get them to Harsh Rule and counter it with Stand Together. (I’ve never done this yet.)

Dark Combrei: I suspect that you are really unfavored because their disruption (Sabotage and Subvert) is so back-breaking. Aggressively beat them down and hope that it works.

Vodakombo: Use Torch on the combo pieces. I’m not sure if Vodakhan Combo plays Harsh Rule… so it’s unclear to me as to whether you can safely commit non-aegis units to the board.

Recap

Kudos again to Batteriez and ManuS for coming up with this deck and demonstrating how powerful it is with a #1 ladder rank.

Combrei Plate will likely make up a good slice of the metagame. It’s fun to play if you’re the kind of person who enjoys proactive strategies and decks that take skill to play (because of the skill-intensive Combrei mirror). The power level and skill-intensiveness of the deck should attract popularity. If you hate the lack of skill required to pilot Big Burn but like aggro decks, this deck is for you.

Because this deck is weak against non-teched greedy Combrei, I don’t think that it will become the best deck. The meta should become diverse as greedy Combrei will be viable, which will make a deck slower than greedy Combrei viable, which will make very punishing aggro decks viable.