Hi everyone – as promised I’m back with a new deck article – the set 6.0 metagame is still quite fresh, but the first dust has settled now, so it’s time to gather decklists again!

So what is the biggest difference to set 5.2? First of all: four cards out of my personal top5 from my set 5.2 metagame summary got a nerf. This has hit especially the UT Herald Bomb deck quite hard (Patch Notes). It’s not so much Herald of Destruction himself, but it’s rather that Dendrify and Malice Hermit both got a nerf, which weakens the archetype quite a bit. That being said the UT Herald deck remains very good against certain strategies so it’s far from being unplayable. The second biggest change is the nerf to Spiritstone Sentry (SSS) – it first didn’t look that huge on paper, since the lvl1 has always been the strongest level, but SSS doesn’t see a lot of play anymore (which is a good thing in my opinion).

Now let’s have a look at the set 6.0 cards that had the biggest impact on the meta.



2 Heroics and 1 Rare? All of them are tribals? Yeah SBE has actually learned quite a bit from the past and has pushed the tribals much more again than releasing so called “good stuff” cards like Shardplate Behemoth and Frostmane Dragon. Also most of the new legendaries require you to build around them instead of being simply good. So far it seems that Marty McGear and Xerxes, The Executioner are the most played of the new legendaries. The other new legendaries also see some play in dedicated top decks (e.g. Valifrax, Iztek’s Champion in AT Stasis Warden and Alyssa Strifeborn in AT Goodstuff), but they aren’t meta defining (so far). I’m actually still curious how good Ariadne, Spider Queen really is, since I don’t own her. One of the reasons why I didn’t forge her is that I haven’t seen her performing that well so I’m still waiting for someone to come up with a competitive Spider deck.

So let us start with the Robot, Dinosaur and Zombie tribals first. Of the three tribals Dinosaurs has been (by far) the most played deck in the constructed tournament queue. It was in fact so popular that I wasn’t surprised when I faced at least 2 Dinosaur decks out of 4 games. I have predicted that Mosstodon would push the Dinosaur tribal quite a bit in my preview article, but I have been surprised by how popular Dinosaurs got. With the recent Golden Gauntlet Dinosaur’s got a little less popular again, since basically everyone was prepared to beat them.

My recommendation right now is to play Dinosaurs without Duskmaw, Twilight Drake – I know that the most competitive Dinosaur decks play him right now, but the meta has caught up already and nearly every Nekrium deck plays 3 Leyline Demon (and some Alloyin decks Anvillon Arbiter). Interesting enough hard removal is way less prominent than in the last meta, so the build a huge threat strategy works quite well again (especially against the winning Golden Gauntlet decklist from Eon). That being said – sadly Wegu got a little more popular again 🙁

The Meta decks

UN Dinosaurs

3 Bron, Wild Tamer

3 Roaming Warclaw

3 Mosstodon

3 Thundersaur

2 Uterradon Rex

3 Shardplate Behemoth (Swampmoss Ancient)

3 Leyline Demon

3 Dysian Siphon

2 Lysian Shard

1 Scythe of Chiron

2 Immortal Echoes (Swampmoss Ancient)

2 Dendrify



The Dinosaur archetype is simple straightforward and quite powerful against a wide range of decks. Especially against decks that don’t run Oreian Justicar, Leyline Sentry or Herald of Destruction this deck can often trample your opponent down with Bron, Wild Tamer and his Dino Knight. This archetype is also quite simple to play – I can definitely recommend it to new players.

Against decks that don’t run hard removal like Dendrify (mostly AN and AT) you can simply build a huge threat with breakthrough (Bron or Thundersaur) and try to win that way. If you don’t own Shardplate Behemoth or Immortal Echoes I would play Swampmoss Ancient in that slot or add some Dendrify, Lysian Shard, or Uterradon Rex.

AN Zombies

3 Xrath, Dreadknight of Varna

3 Zombie Dreadknight

3 Zombie Titan

2 Abyssal Brute

2 Tomb Pillager

3 Xithian Direhound

3 Leyline Demon

3 Xrath's Will

2 Ambriel's Edict

3 Discordant Strike

1 Howl of Xith

1 Nether Decay

1 Scythe of Chiron

I’m personally a fan of Relic Hunter, in AN Zombies, but the deck works very well without him, so it’s easily possibly to build a budget friendly and very competitive Zombie deck without the need of legendaries (you get Scythe of Chiron from the campaign missions – that’s why it’s in the list). Have a look at my Zombie article on solforgegame.com if you need more information about the archetype.

AU Robots

3 Brightsteel Gargoyle

3 Brightsteel Sentinel

3 Forgewatch Sentry

3 Leyline Sentry

2 Anvillon Arbiter

2 Batterbot

2 Marty McGear

3 Aegis Knight

2 Shardplate Behemoth

3 Gauntlets of Sulgrim

2 Lysian Shard

2 Ancestral Echoes

This deck is actually quite similar to the set 2 AU Growbots archetype and is fueled by Marty McGear. You basically try to build a huge board and make it hard for your opponent to block your Robots, since they could get victim of the Brightsteel Sentinel/Forgewatch Sentry and Aegis Knight blowout. Gauntlets of Sulgrim acts as your removal in this list and Ancestral Echoes enables your grow wide Strategy with Marty McGear.

AN Hatorade

“Hate” Package:

3 Leyline Sentry

3 Leyline Demon

2 Oreian Justicar

2 Anvillon Arbiter

Armor Package:

3 Forgewatch Sentry

3 Nexus Aeronaut

3 Relic Hunter

3 Aegis Knight

2 Gauntets of Sulgrim

2 Pummel Pack

Support:

2 Ebonskull Knight

2 Scythe of Chiron

This is Eon’s winning decklist from the recent Golden Gauntlet. It was a great way to counter the meta, since the deck has a huge package that counters a lot of meta decks (especially Stasis Warden and Dinosaur decks with Duskmaw, Twilight Drake). The Armor package is also really solid and can be very tough for many deck’s to deal with (especially when your only “hard” removal is Duskmaw). Read more about the deck on Eon’s Article about it.

AT Stasis Warden

3 Stasis Warden

3 Ironmind Acolyte

2 Oreian Justicar

1 Valifrax, Iztek's Champion

1 Barrier Soldier

3 Lucid Echoes

3 Static Shock

3 Energy Surge

3 Oratek Battlebrand

3 Ambriel's Edict

2 Glacial Crush

2 Nanoswarm

1 Perilous Insight



The AT Stasis Warden archetype exists since set 2 and always runs rampant when neither Anvillon Arbiter nor Aetherphage are played by any of the meta defining decks. This deck is one of the few viable control archetypes of Solforge – you basically try to level your Energy Surge’s and shut down the board with Stasis Warden and when things get out of hand you clear the board with Ambriel’s Edict. When you don’t have the tools to handle this deck it can be very frustrating to play against, since the game can get very un-interactive – the board get’s locked down and rarely anything attacks or isn’t directly removed. It’s incredibly complex to play this deck and very hard to get the leveling priorities right – no recommendation for beginners.

AT Goodstuff

3 Nexus Aeronaut

3 Relic Hunter

3 Borean Windweaver

3 Brimstone Tyrant

3 Frostmane Dragon

3 Oratek Battlebrand

3 Rage of Kadras

3 Oratek Explosives

2 Windspark Elemental

2 Herald of Destruction / Nanoswarm

2 Oreian Justicar

AT Goodstuff still exists in set 6 and is still really powerful against a wide range of decks. I actually called this package AT Dino Hate and it was used to great success by my teammate in the Golden Gauntlet (top6 – he lost to Eon in the semi-finals). Right now I like Nanoswarm over Herald of Destruction, since it is a good counter to the grow big strategies (like Eon’s deck) and AT usually has trouble dealing with those decks.

The fresh decks

This decks aren’t unknown archetypes, but rather archetypes that I have revisited and that are competitive enough for a 3:1 in the constructed queue. Also I haven’t seen this archetypes played in the ladder tournaments, so they should be rather new for most players.

AT Metaminds

3 Ghox Metamind Paragon

3 Drix The Mindwelder

2 Metamind Archivist

2 Mind Breaker

3 Ironmind Acolyte

3 Relic Hunter

2 H.E.R.M.E.S.

2 Ambriels Edict

2 Nanoswarm

2 Lucid Echoes

3 Brimstone Tyrant

3 Oratek Battlebrand

This deck is the most competitive Metamind variant I have found so far. You usually try to hold an even board (with Brimstone Tyrant and Ambriel’s Edict) and once you have an active Drix, The Mindwelder lvl2 you can usually Snowball the game from there on. H.E.R.M.E.S is pretty nice in the list although I’m still not sure if he’s the best addition in that slot (he allows you to protect your Ghox and Drix which is pretty cool). The biggest difference to most other Metamind decks is Brimstone Tyrant – he allows you to make great comebacks when you have fallen behind (or if your about to fall behind). A lot of other Metamind decks are only great when they are ahead, but don’t have enough ways to recover.

UT Othra Winfree

3 Othra, Apex Predator

3 Shardplate Behemoth

2 Ator Thunder Titan

3 Frostmane Dragon

3 Brimstone Tyrant

3 Malice Hermit

3 Borean Windweaver

2 Windspark Elemental

2 Aetherphage

2 Burnout

2 Dendrify

2 Rage of Kadras

This deck is a crazy, but competitive UT variant from my teammate MattHighAs420. It has tons of board wipes (Brimstone Tyrant and Malice Hermit), can be very aggressive with Ator, Thunder Titan and utilizes Othra, Apex Predator very effective (he is one of your main win conditions). A single well timed Othra – even a 2.1 or 2.2 Othra, might win you the game, since you have quite a lot of ways to protect your Othra with Borean Windweaver, Burnout and Dendrify. If your Othra goes into his Cocoon after PL1 you can also make good use of the 0/12 with Brimstone Tyrant or feed your Malice Hermit.

AU Hate

3 Oreian Justicar

2 Anvillon Arbiter

3 Leyline Golem

3 Shardplate Behemoth

3 Malice Hermit

3 Relic Hunter

3 Ironbeard Hammer of Anvillon

3 Nexus Aeronaut

2 Othra, Apex Predator

3 Dendrify

2 Lysian Shard

This deck is very close to the AU Moving Golem variant from set 5, but with the help of Othra you can often get the reach this deck was lacking before. I have had some really good runs with this deck, although it seems also quite hard to pilot, since my teammates couldn’t really make great use of it. There is also a more armor focused variants of this deck with Forgewatch Sentry, but that is still in the making. It should also be clear that this deck is best in a meta with lot’s of movement or revival/token effects. Another neat interaction that I have found myself using quite a bit is to play Dendrify on my own Relic Scout to get a 8/8 Armor 1 with Breakthrough Tree in PL1 – I usually do that if my only other options are to play Leylines or Relic Hunter.

AN Armor Tech



3 Forgewatch Sentry

3 Nexus Aeronaut

3 Relic Hunter

3 Aegis Knight

3 Gauntets of Sulgrim

3 Grimgaunt Predator

3 Leyline Demon

2 Oreian Justicar

2 Anvillon Arbiter

2 Scythe of Chiron



Any combination of:

1 Nanoswarm

1 Nether Decay

1 Dreadbolt

This deck is actually pretty close to Pion’s (and Stautmeisters) deck, but with some hard removal, an additional win condition (Grimgaunt Predator) and a little less hate cards. I enjoyed playing the deck so far. Please note that it’s totally up to you to find out which removal works best for you. I would probably start with 2 Dreadbolt, 1 Nanoswarm.

UT Brons Dream

3 Dream Tree

3 Bron, Wild Tamer

3 Mosstodon

3 Roaming Warclaw

2 Swammoss Ancient

2 Shardplate Behemoth

1 Uterradon Ridgeback

3 Static Shock

3 Firestorm

3 Thunderstomp

2 Lysian Shard

2 Dendrify

This deck is basically a glass cannon and also not well positioned in the current meta with all the Justicar’s and Leyline Demon’s floating around, but it’s so much fun to play and sometimes you just get the most incredible combos going. If you have the cards go for it and have some fun, but I can’t recommend to forge Heart Tree’s right now. The screenshots below show pretty well what you want to archive with this deck 🙂

