Hexploration – Hitting Like a MACC Truck

Welcome back friends! I hope you all had a great Halloween. I had a terrific time with my family and got to take my son to trick or treat for the first time. I wish I got excited about almost anything else as my son does for candy. At least I get to live vicariously through him. When you read this article, the Cosmic Crown Showdown (CCS) will be over. I’m writing this piece before the CCS happens, so keep that in mind as you read this advice.

I qualified for the CCS, but unfortunately due to obligations that I’ve planned almost a year in advance, I cannot attend. However, in the future I will be sure to join all of them because they are a fantastic opportunity. Today I want to talk about the deck options that I was considering for the CCS. This is where MACC comes into play. What is MACC?! Well, I’m glad you asked! MACC is an abbreviation for deck types:

M: Midrange (Decks that are usually very grindy and operate best during the mid-game)

A: Aggro (These decks tend to try and end the game as quickly as possible. Some last until the mid-game)

C: Combo (Combo decks try to buy enough time until they can instantly win through a combination of cards)

C: Control (Typically slower decks that stall the game out until they can play a card or two that will take over the game if left unchecked)

I try to have one of each of these decks in mind for any given tournament. The CCS was no exception. Since my article series is based around new and exciting decks, I’ve come up with one deck for each category to talk about. I will list the decks in order of my first to last option and briefly talk about what each deck tries to accomplish.

First up is my personal favorite and was my go to deck for the CCS. It’s a combo deck that I’ve been working on for a while.

Combo





I believe this deck is a fantastic choice against the current metagame of decks. It is favored against all the midrange and most of the control decks out there. The only decks that give it trouble are hyper aggressive decks, things like Morgan McBombus with Seeing Red or Angus the Arsonist because of his champion power. Basically, everything else was a good matchup. Since this tournament only went down to the top 64 players from each ladder, I had a good feel for what people were playing since I played in the top 64 constructed a lot to grind for a slot into the CCS.

Goal of the Deck

This deck wins by making your opponent draw all their cards in one turn or by attacking with Artisanal Cheesesmythe and a Cheese Goliath over the course of a couple turns. Decking them happens a lot more frequently and is the primary win condition. You can easily slide a Chronic Madness into the main deck to make winning less complicated and faster, but you honestly don’t need it game one if you play the deck optimally. You want to get a Syzygy or Sight of the Sun out and then begin to cycle through your deck. Getting to use Sight of the Sun just one time can put you so far ahead that it should usually spell game over. This is because Sight of the Sun will gain you a lot of health by replenishing your resources and since you have a lot of card draw in your deck you will get to fully abuse it by drawing a bunch of cards or taking extra turns with Mastery of Time.

Eventually, you’ll get to a point in the game where all your actions are basically free. This is when you’ll want to resolve a Chimes of the Zodiac to close out the game. You don’t need Chimes of the Zodiac to win, but it will help you tremendously by making each action count twice. Even if you don’t win on the spot, Chimes will get you insanely far ahead. Keep in mind that Mastery of Times stack. So if you cast multiple, you’ll take multiple turns.

At this point, scheming Mastery of Time or Zodiac Divination is what you’ll want to do. Once you ensure that your opponent won’t get another turn, you Zodiac Divination to make your opponent draw their whole deck. Scheme will copy itself with Chimes of the Zodiac out and the copy will go to the crypt! This is fantastic with Winter Moon since you can put them back into your deck and insure you never run out of cards.

Another way to win that is a little more complicated is to have a Kraken Barrel Cheddar in hand and in crypt, a Chimes of the Zodiac in play, and at least one Syzygy. You can then loop the Kraken Barrels copying and returning Kraken Barrels all the while reducing their cost to zero. If you have enough resources you can have an infinite number of Kraken Barrels that are free to cast. You should have an Oracle Song or Zodiac Divination that costs zero or less at this point and you can then deck your opponent out this way by recurring that Zodiac Divination or Oracle Song and targeting your opponent to make them draw their whole deck.

Reserves

The reserves of this deck are mostly dedicated to the aggressive decks. For example against something like Angus with Mama Yetis and Matriarch of Flames you’ll want to do this:



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