This is the first of a weekly installment highlighting emerging decks. These are decks that do very well versus the current meta but are not overplayed. Every week I will aim to highlight 2 decks that fit this criteria and give a flavor of their playstyle.

Note: these articles are not meant to innovate completely new decks. These are decks that are in the meta, but not in the top 10 in playrate by Shadowlog. For those who closely follow Gamepress and the Japanese sites, these decks will be old news. But if you follow the scene more casually and just want to win with decks that aren’t the same old, these posts are aimed at you!

Without further ado, onto the decks for this week:

Deck #1: Guardian Sun Havencraft

Deck code and JP article

Deck code and Gamepress article

Popularity: #13 on Shadowlog

Overall strategy: Uses Guardian Sun to put up a wall of wards. and healing to stall into late game. Once in late game, Dark Angel Olivia and Prince of Darkness act as unstoppable finishers.

Mulligan strategy: In general, keep 1 and 2 drops to try and curve out. Versus Forestcraft would keep Guardian Sun. Versus Seraph Havencraft would hard mulligan for Odin.

Matchups versus meta: Crushes Daria and Aggro Bloodcraft. Favored versus OTK Forest, especially if you have your Guardian Sun down early. Even matchup vs control blood.

Weak matchups: Like other control decks, struggles versus Seraph and D-shift. You can steal games by trying to rush them down, but highly draw dependent.

Potential tech cards: This is just one example of a list, and it is far from refined. Consider Beastcall Aria for a stronger midgame, Bahamut for another board clear, Ancient Lion Spirit for midgame board clear.

Deck #2: Aggro Swordcraft

Deck code and JP article

Popularity: #16 on Shadowlog

Overall strategy: Strong aggro deck that floods the board early with 1 and 2 drops. Maid Leader and Pompous Princess create redundancy and consistency of draws. Awilda’s Command and Albert, Levin Saber serve as your finishers.

Mulligan strategy: Mulligan for 1 drops, try to curve out.

Matchups versus meta: Very strong versus other aggro decks, highly favored against Aggro Bloodcraft and Shadowcraft. Weak versus Daria. Crushes slower decks like D-shift, Seraph Havencraft, Nephthys Shadowcraft, Ramp Dragoncraft.

Weak matchups: Performs poorly against Midrange/Control Swordcraft, who can keep pace and outvalue your early drops. Moderately weak against Daria as noted above.

Potential tech cards: Fencer could be a strong choice to buff your early drops. Some lists run Gabriel as a strong finisher.