Get Your Scars of War Spoilers from Battleshopper on Launch Day! (Editor's note: This article was originally written for last week. But given the tone of the article we did not want to publish it. But it has come to the attention of the staff that some of the problem cards outlined in this article aren't seen as problem cards by large portions o the community so we are deciding to run it.)

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Joker, The Dark Knight Everything Burns”Joker, The Dark Knight

For the last three months, Mono-Ruby Angus the Arsonist has been the most popular ladder deck while maintaining a 60% win rate. It has been equally efficient in tournament play, regularly placing in the top eight and achieving win rates far above the norm. In short, since the Herofall set was released, Mono-Ruby Angus has been the most played and the most successful deck in the game.

It's getting stronger with Scars of War.

This is not what most of us expected. So far, it is what we've gotten. Let's take a deep dive into why Angus will be stronger than ever. Welcome to Scars of War: Entrath Burns.

First, a disclaimer: I could be wrong on this. I was largely wrong on the effect the card Herofall would have on the meta-game, and that was when I had the complete Herofall set spoiler available. At the time of writing (2/8/2017), we've only had a fraction of the Scars of War set spoiled. That is enough to know there will be extremely powerful Angus decks possible. It is not enough to know that there won't be decks that are stronger yet based on unspoiled cards, or that there won't be exceptionally potent Angus hate to counteract the immense power of Angus Burn. However, I sat down here to chew bubblegum and prematurely over-react, and I'm all out of gum.

Let's start with a simple question: What decks currently beat Angus? This is actually a bit hard to answer, but in my opinion the two cleanest countermeasures to Angus are Mono-Wild Grandfather Elk and Rutherford Banks Diamond/Sapphire Bird Control. Elk combines resource acceleration with Chlorophyllia and Howling Brave, big troops that Angus can't easily remove in Wrathwood Master Moss, Crocosaur, Justicar of Aryndel, and Succulent Cluckodon, life gain with Carnasaurus, Succulent Cluckodon and Balthasar, and potent dinosaur based removal (which is my very favorite kind of removal). Bird Control leans on early 1/1 cantrip troops to chump block or trade with Baby Yeti or Boltspasm, cheap, quick speed removal in Transmogrifade and Repel, life-gain and card with Silver Talon Adjudicator, Dark Heart of Nulzann to chew through Angus' troops, and Rutherford Banks' charge power to return Dark Heart or Adjudicator.

Both of these Angus predators lose their teeth when the sets Shards of Fate and Shattered Destiny rotate with the Scars of War release. Mono-Wild's anti-Angus package is gutted by the cards it loses.

Good-night, sweet princes, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Those two are the obvious losses, but Chlorophyllia and Howling Brave were nearly as important against Angus, and both of those rotate also. I expect that there will be a way to build Elk that is at least ok against Angus, but it's not likely to be a match-up Angus has to fear. Diamond/Sapphire Bird Control - and this breaks my heart - probably won't survive as a deck. Countermagic, Repel, Phoenix Guard Messenger and, critically, Rutherford Banks, all rotate. These losses might be survivable for the deck, but if I'm right about how good Angus will be, Dark Heart of Nulzann - currently one of the very best answers to Angus - will become so bad against the arsonist that it won't even be a main-deck playable card. We'll get into the why a little later.

I'm not an ecologist, but it's pretty well known what happens when a species' natural predators are removed: Their population grows out of control. This might not happen in the case of Angus if the burn deck was also getting weaker with the first two sets rotating, but that doesn't look likely. Let's look at what Angus loses with rotation, and the four cards we know it gains that, in my opinion, likely leave its meta-game position stronger than it has ever been.

First, the losses: Burn, Crackling Bolt, and Psychotic Anarchist rotate. These are each core cards for Angus, and losing them would greatly weaken the deck if they were not replaced by comparably powerful cards. Spoiler alert for the rest of this article: They're getting replaced with very, very, powerful cards. Let's examine the four spoilers we've gotten that will keep Angus burning everything in sight for the foreseeable future.

1. Ruby's Favor

I think this card has not received nearly the attention it should have. To my eyes, this looks like one of the most powerful, meta-warping cards not just in the spoilers we've seen so far, but in the entire game. This level of flexibility and power in a one cost card is absolutely incredible. Its baseline is dealing three damage to target opponent at quick speed. There is an analogous card in Magic the Gathering, Lava Spike, that also deals three damage to target opponent, at the same cost. That's all it does, and it is not quick speed. Yet it is a main-deck four-of in Burn decks, in both the Modern and Legacy MTG formats. If Ruby's Favor were just Lava Spike, it likely would warrant main deck consideration for Angus. But Ruby's Favor is so much more. The first strike mode will make blocking a nightmare for opposing players. If Angus can freely attack into blockers, it is much harder to stop.

Then finally we get to the third, and in my opinion most problematic, mode: Each opposing champion sacrifices an artifact. Dark Heart of Nulzann is an artifact. Along with pretty much every other artifact that costs four or more resources, Ruby's Favor will make Dark Heart a functionally unplayable main-deck card if Angus continues to be the dominant ladder deck. Because Ruby's Favor is quick speed, and only costs a single resource, Dark Heart won't even get one sacrifice trigger the vast majority of the time. It just ignobly dies, to a one cost card Angus would have happily played anyway. The tempo loss there is just crushing. This powerful of an answer usually requires sacrifice - right now, if Angus wants to beat Dark Heart, they need to reserve Trashmute or Vandalize. They don't have any counter to Dark Heart in their main deck other than double direct damage action, and their reserve cards are narrow, useful only against Dark Heart. Ruby's Favor lets Angus hate artifacts out of the meta-game with no meaningful opportunity cost - it's just a free side benefit to playing a card that would be good even if it only had the first two modes.

Hex has three types of cards that stay in play: Constants, Artifacts, and Troops. In constructed play, after Ruby's Favor enters the format, it will have two.

2. Lorenzo the Wyrmsinger

This may well be the brutally efficient endgame for Angus decks going forward. After Lorenzo (or any other troop) enters play, the Angus player retains priority. That means that the charge power can go on the chain before their opponent has an opportunity to respond. Lorenzo effectively deals four damage to target opponent even if it is answered immediately. On an empty board, he represents eight points of damage in a single turn. Along with the charge power, Lorenzo can take you from twelve health to zero in a single turn. Devastating. That said, a five cost troop is not a free deck-building inclusion for an aggro deck like Angus. There will need to be a few sacrifices made to include Lorenzo - Angus players will either play a couple more shards, or accept that some times they won't be able to play him on curve - but this card is powerful enough to justify that. Extra shards are handy for Angus anyway - Matriarch of Flames loves hitting at least five shard drops (and the Burn to the Ground she makes doesn't mind it either), and being able to reliably play Mama Yeti on curve is no small gain. As an aside, I just love the art for Lorenzo. At least I'll be repeatedly dying to a truly sweet looking card.

3. Pool of Wrath

How is this not a Blood card?

This is among the most potent anti-Control reserve cards I've ever seen. Control decks have to tailor their answers to the deck they are playing against, and can not afford to play constant hate against an aggro deck. But any deck relying on removal actions rather than blockers will have no credible way to beat Pool of Wrath. It may well bully action-based Control decks out of the meta-game.

4. Righteous Outlaw

This is a really good, well designed card, and an excellent replacement for Psychotic Anarchist. On the play, it may well be devastating against decks planning to play turn two blockers such as Mightsinger of Ages or Daughter of the Poet against Angus. Outlaw attacks for two on the second turn, transforms into Scarlet Swordsman on turn three, attacks, kills the blocker and deals four to the opponent. That type of tempo and card advantage swing is more than the vast majority of decks will be able to overcome. But this is also a flexible card: the diligence option to create a Valor lets it grow every turn it can safely attack while also synergizing beautifully with Sunsoul Phoenix or Heart of Embers.

Righteous Outlaw's two biggest fans.

It's worth taking a bit of time to discuss how good Sunsoul Phoenix could be in Scars of War vintage Angus. If Lorenzo doesn't see much play, I'm pretty sure it will be because Sunsoul Phoenix turns out to be even better. Righteous Outlaw can make one cost actions. Cremate, Fireball, and Ruby's favor are one cost actions. Blamsmith with the Minor Ruby of Valor makes a one cost action. It's pretty easy to come up with hands that play three actions on turn three, and the beautifully constructed Ruby/Wild Valor deck Arrgh played to a top eight finish in the season three Cosmic Crown Showdown proved just how powerful Phoenix can be when combined with early pressure and cheap actions. Let's take a look at a hypothetical first three turns for an Angus deck with Phoenix, on the play.

Turn one - Boltspasm, pass.

Turn two - play Righteous Outlaw, attack with both troops to deal five damage, pass.

Turn three - Transform Righteous Outlaw into Scarlet Swordsman, play Fireball, Ruby's Favor and Cremate targeting the opposing champion's face, play Sunsoul Phoenix, attack with all three troops. Swordsman kills a two toughness blocker and deals two damage to the opponent on the attack trigger. Hit for nine damage. Total damage to opponent: Twenty-Four. Through a blocker. This is a nearly perfect hand of course, but it can be a bit worse and still deal twenty or more damage to an opponent in various ways. For instance, if we only have two direct damage actions, we can replace transforming Righteous Outlaw with creating a valor and playing it on him if the opponent lacks a blocker, and still deal twenty damage by turn three. Or if we've got Baby Yeti rather than Boltspasm on turn one, we deal twenty one damage. If we don't have the Sunsoul Phoenix, we deal twenty damage. There are a whole lot of possible hands that can deal twenty or more damage in the first three turns and leave two or three attackers left that the opponent must answer - without even accounting for Angus' charge power looming over the game, waiting to finish the opponent off. Brutal. And all accomplished without the traditional heavy hitters for Angus in Mama Yeti and Matriarch of flames.

This might seem like an unrealistic curve. And it is a nearly perfect hand. But if you have twenty cards in the deck that are or that create one cost actions (4 Cremate, 4 Ruby’s Favor, 4 Fireball, 4 Righteous Outlaw, any other 4 [possibilities include Blamsmith with Minor Ruby of Valor, Zap, and Ruthless Intimidator], according to a hypergeometric calculator, you have a 64% chance of having three or more one cost actions by turn three on the play. With four resources, you only need two single cost actions to bring the cost down of Phoenix down to two, so turn three Phoenix should be playable much of the time, and Phoenix should be playable the vast majority of the time by your fourth shard drop (and two actions + Phoenix + Charge power is a pretty devastating burst of damage).

As I said earlier in this article, we've got a lot of spoilers left to go before we have a complete picture. But as you're brewing new decks, keep this in mind: Unless you've got a way to answer a curve like the one described above, be ready be incinerated by Angus the Arsonist inside of four turns.

While ThufirHawat's time in the game has been short comparatively, he has a lot of competitive achievements, including finishing second in the Constructed Ladder in Season One, finishing third in the Constructed Ladder in Season Two, and making the top eight of the last two Cosmic Crown Showdown events. Including going undefeated in the swiss rounds of the last Cosmic Crown Showdown. He also has authored multiple top tier decks including Mono Wild Shoku and Diamond Sapphire Banks control.

