Edit: This deck in the following article was a theory craft and untested. I just played a few runs and it’s a little weaker against fliers than I’d like. Geomar with combat tricks could pick off fliers and gain life. So we need some more removal. Probably something like -1 Healers Cloak +1 Vanquish and a Scorpion Wasp or another Desert Marshal in the Market -1 Hourglass. The two main deck hourglass should suffice.

Inspired by CVH’s fantastic “Budget-ify” Series from Elder Scrolls Legends, and a few people asking for budget lists, I wanted to take one of my top performing gauntlet lists and budgetize it. This is the deck I called “Enduring Combrei” (yes, I’m awful at naming things). For those interested in CVH’s series here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=hGMkB1ZHF9w

First, I have an exciting announcement! I am always thinking about how to better engage with the community. As such, I would like to announce that I have started a new subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/AIEternal/

This is meant to merely compliment https://www.reddit.com/r/EternalCardGame/ and I created it after realizing that Gauntlet and Forge players account for a much smaller percentage of the playerbase than Ranked and Draft. I feel that having a smaller separate space with focused community discussion will be beneficial. My site is linked in the sidebar, and I encourage other producers of content to DM me if they would like their site added to the sidebar as well.

This will be a community space, and as such I will not be posting any of my articles or decklists in the AIEternal Forums. Again, my site will be in the sidebar for those who wish to read it. I will still be a very active member in EternalCardGame, and I encourage all of you to stay active as well. Just to reiterate, AIEternal is meant to compliment EternalCardGame with focused discussion of AI related modes, in much the same way as CustomEternal is for focused Custom Cards discussion and compliments the Custom card thread on EternalCardGame.

I will continue to post some of the major strategy articles to EternalCardGame, but everything else you can check my blog or my EternalWarcry lists which link here. Lets get to the deck discussion!

Another name for my deck could easily be something like Flying Shiftstone Pile or Flying Wallet Combrei. The point is that this deck is not cheap, costing 51,700 Shiftstone or 200,000 in Premium(!). And after all,

(Image and paraphrased quote from The Matrix – The Wachowski Brothers and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)

So, here’s the fully powered legendary filled list:

4 Finest Hour (Set1 #130)

2 Infinite Hourglass (Set1 #67)

4 Lingering Influence (Set4 #100)

2 Sharpened Reflex (Set4 #102)

4 Amaran Armadillo (Set4 #60)

4 Awakened Student (Set1 #331)

2 Desert Marshal (Set1 #332)

2 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Auralian Merchant (Set4 #70)

2 Stand Together (Set1 #334)

4 Unseen Commando (Set3 #122)

4 Valkyrie Enforcer (Set1 #151)

4 Geomar, the Steel Tempest (Set4 #128)

2 Sword of Unity (Set4 #249)

4 Amilli, Cloudmarshal (Set3 #136)

6 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

7 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

4 Combrei Banner (Set1 #424)

4 Crest of Progress (Set4 #247)

2 Crownwatch Standard (Set4 #97)

4 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

————–MARKET—————

1 Lumen Defender (Set1 #115)

1 Xenan Obelisk (Set1 #103)

1 Sword of Unity (Set4 #249)

1 Stand Together (Set1 #334)

1 Infinite Hourglass (Set1 #67)

Lets start with a general example. The first thing we want to do when we make a budget deck is be honest with ourselves. Take Elysian Midrange in Ranked. Do we really want to play Beckoning Lumen, Sandspitter, or Snapping Brushstalker to have a four drop that gets back Dawnwalker? Absolutely not. Sandstorm Titan does so many more things for that deck. There is no budget substitute. “But wait, that’s not helpful, I want to play Elysian!” Good news, you still can, but you would approach the deck differently. Maybe play a tempo build with Whispering Wind and Praxis Displacer for example.

Now we’ll take a look at my list in this mindset. Commons and Uncommons are no problem. The rares I use are extremely core from Ranked so you should craft them as soon as you can or already have them, with the exception being Amaran Armadillo. However, it does so much work in the deck that we can’t cut it.

Cutting the powerful legendaries is where we will save the vast majority of our shiftstone. However, remember back to my Titan example that this isn’t just something you sub out for a budget card at that same cost.

First off, I absolutely love this card in gauntlet! It is an extremely powerful lifegain and damage dealer.

That said, I have my doubts as to this card in Ranked so I usually don’t recommend crafting unless you have extra shiftstone in the Auric Bank. However, we have a Market! But, not for Justice cards unfortunately. So we need a substitute for four cards.

An extreme budget option would be Karmic Guardian, but it’s not going to perform well unless we run it alongside more weapons, which would change the way the deck plays a lot. There are better options at Rare. I think the best option is a 2/2 split of Marisen’s Disciple which can stump the AI with a deadly 1/1 or 2/2 Flier and plays well with Obelisk and 2x Peacekeeper’s Prod. We usually dont want the 3/3 overwhelm with this deck for Disciple. With Prod, we have the Justice influence to hit that on curve, and the stun helps us race and make up for missing lifesteal from Geomar.

There is no substitute at all for the lategame power of Amilli with Obelisk and Stand Together. The good news is that this deck often doesn’t even need Amilli to win, it just adds a few percentage points against some of the grindier decks. This is an open slot for us.

This weapon has overperformed to the extent that I ended up adding one to the market in addition to 2x in the main. In the interest of staying budget, you can craft one just for the market or run 2x Healer’s cloak main, and probably another in the Market or maybe a Devoted Theurge Market if you have the Horus Traver campaign (not in the main because TT is hard to hit on curve in this deck. Sword is an exception because it is often a turn six play.) Combrei Healer is another option as this would gain you life with six power Merchant + Healer if you really need to stabilize that turn, and make a bigger blocker or pop Aegis to set up Vanquish. The new decks have really strong aggro AI so we really need lots of lifegain.

Here is what a list might look like. Keep in mind this is untested and is a theory craft based on the principles of this article. I hope this will guide your thought processes on how to budgetize a deck. If you try it out and find we don’t need that much lifegain, cut the Cloaks for Hammer of Might:

4 Finest Hour (Set1 #130)

2 Infinite Hourglass (Set1 #67)

4 Lingering Influence (Set4 #100)

2 Sharpened Reflex (Set4 #102)

4 Amaran Armadillo (Set4 #60)

4 Awakened Student (Set1 #331)

2 Desert Marshal (Set1 #332)

2 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Auralian Merchant (Set4 #70)

2 Stand Together (Set1 #334)

4 Unseen Commando (Set3 #122)

4 Valkyrie Enforcer (Set1 #151)

2 Copperhall Elite (Set1 #340)

2 Healer’s Cloak (Set1 #98)

2 Marisen’s Disciple (Set1 #104)

2 Peacekeeper’s Prod (Set2 #86)

2 Throne Warden (Set1 #514)

7 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

6 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Crownwatch Standard (Set4 #97)

4 Combrei Banner (Set1 #424)

4 Crest of Progress (Set4 #247)

4 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

————–MARKET—————

1 Infinite Hourglass (Set1 #67)

1 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

1 Stand Together (Set1 #334)

1 Xenan Obelisk (Set1 #103)

1 Lumen Defender (Set1 #115)

One thing you might notice is there are now a lot of two-ofs. This is because we need to fill the shoes of strong four-of legendaries with more situational cards. The deck will work well, but not as consistently as with four-ofs. I hope you enjoyed this article. Be sure to check out the reddit thread. Let me know if you liked this format, and if you want to see this done for other decks.

One last card that I don’t think was necessary with all my fliers in the original list was Randori (we are rarely getting blocked in the air). It’s a cool and potentially powerful combat trick that is a lot more relevant with on the ground attacking units, so in this budget version it might be worth testing out.

The name also brings back memories of my couple months of Judo classes. Randori is sparring in the Japanese art of Judo. I’ll not soon forget the pain of being thrown to the thin mat repeatedly, and the Sensei saying how HE trained on hard wooden floors, and I need to more or less “git gud” at break-falls. Good times.

One more thing, I wanted to share something from my personal life. My Chameleon recently passed away. I don’t want to get into too many details but suffice it to say, the pet store recommended dirt or whatever for the floors of cages is a choking hazard. We believe she was also pregnant so it sucks even more. As such, I am changing my name on Discord and EternalWarcry to FallenChameleon (hopefully in-game as well) to remember her. This is something my girlfriend encouraged me to do.

Since Reddit doesn’t allow name changes I’ll stay as MagicTurtle_TCG as it’s not that big of a deal, and I really don’t want to start with a new account anyway even if I could as I have so much content there and it’s just too confusing in my opinion. You can call me by either name, or just Chameleon or Turtle for short.

On a positive note, if you see FallenChamelon on ladder you’ll know it’s me, and not one of the at least two other MagicTurtles from ingame. Also, if anyone was wondering how I came up with my MagicTurtle name originally, it was from back in my Heartstone days. I was thinking up names, most of them lame mtg related things like “BoltSnapBolt” so I just used the random name generator and it came up with that on the first try. I had just bought a pet Turtle a few days prior so I figured, why not?

Next week, I’ll have a special article for you regarding Game Theory Optimal Play, Exploitative Play, understanding Variance and handling Tilt. It’s something I’ve been meaning to write for over a year now and finally have the time to write it! I will draw on my experience as a Poker player and coach at the low-mid stakes live no limit holdem games. I’ll format it as an example from poker immediately followed by Eternal play. It will apply to all the formats in the game, including Gauntlet. Speaking of tilt, I’ll leave you with this gem.

Yep, the AI tilts too!

Thanks for reading,

FallenChameleon (MagicTurtle)