Hello friends! This is going to be a short article on my journey to master playing sleepless night. I have a bigger article in the works that I am still chewing through, but I thought I would blast this one out since I was able to make master last night. For those who didn’t know my “Brewer’s Challenge” card this month was Sleepless Night, and I was already able to complete it! Unfortunately the deck was not particularly innovative as you will see, but I was able to try it out in a few other spicier lists that all felt close to good. Let’s take a look!

Sleepless Feln

1 Sabotage (Set1 #252)

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Suffocate (Set1 #251)

2 Annihilate (Set1 #269)

1 Eilyn’s Favor (Set0 #24)

4 Lightning Storm (Set1 #206)

4 Vara’s Favor (Set0 #35)

1 Extract (Set2 #155)

4 Feln Bloodcaster (Set1 #386)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

2 Deathstrike (Set1 #290)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Steward of the Past (Set1 #287)

3 Champion of Cunning (Set1 #371)

3 Withering Witch (Set1 #368)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Azindel’s Gift (Set1 #306)

2 Sleepless Night (Set2 #170)

1 Vara, Fate-Touched (Set1 #307)

8 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

9 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Feln Banner (Set1 #417)

4 Seat of Cunning (Set0 #62)

Yeah, so this is basically Greedy Feln with 2 Sleepless Night at the top end. I chose this for 2 reasons. The first is that Sleepless Night is legitimately a good replacement finisher. We are actually living in a world with a surprising number of Backlashs and Eilyn’s Choice, but I can imagine a time when you might want to play this as opposed to something like a 3rd Vara. I actually think I like it more than Channel the Tempest in lists like this because you are rarely dealing that much damage with Channel. Although the list is not particularly innovative for the most part, Sleepless Night was totally a respectable inclusion that I was happy to draw in some match ups.

The other side of this: Feln is soooo good right now. It seems like 1/3 of your matchups can’t beat Gift, 1/3 can’t beat storm, so that last 1/3 can’t beat Steward of the Past. Obviously I lost my share of games to drawing the wrong half of my deck in the wrong match up, but I was crushing people left and right. The Chalice match up is especially interesting, and surprisingly good. I did start running into the mirror as well, and having 2 Gifts makes a noticeable difference (as well as having a lot of practice in the Feln Control Mirror).

Anyone that wants to adjust to a Sleepy version of the deck just play -2 Sleepless Nights, +1 Vara and +1 Champion of Cunning. Season removal to taste, though this mix felt pretty great.

Sleepless Kalis

4 Combust (Set1 #392)

4 Grenadin Drone (Set1 #5)

4 Slumbering Stone (Set1 #255)

1 Suffocate (Set1 #251)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

1 Charchain Flail (Set1 #3)

4 Dark Wisp (Set1 #264)

4 Devour (Set1 #261)

4 Quarry (Set1001 #15)

4 Assembly Line (Set1 #29)

4 Bloodrite Kalis (Set1 #397)

3 Madness (Set1 #267)

1 Shadowlands Guide (Set1 #280)

3 Torrent of Spiders (Set1 #272)

1 Deathstrike (Set1 #290)

2 Smuggler’s Stash (Set1 #396)

2 Sleepless Night (Set2 #170)

6 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

7 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Seat of Chaos (Set0 #60)

4 Stonescar Banner (Set1 #419)

4 Diplomatic Seal (Set1 #425)

One of my lines of thought for coming up with potential decks was “Hey, the Eclipse Event was built around a busted card draw engine! Sleepless Night is kinda like that too! What decks were good in the event?” This was one of them. What is interesting about Kalis is that it doesn’t have good/bad match ups as much as good/bad cards. It is really bad against Lightning Storm, Steward of the Past/Statuary Maiden, Obelisk and anything large with overwhelm. If your opponents don’t draw any of those things you are actually in a very good position. The meta right now is somewhat short on Storm and Stewy, but the Dawnwalker decks are really a pain. Sleepless Night was really close to an alternate Smuggler’s Stash, and I was very rare to have the issue of discarding my powerful cards since I could usually dump my hand very quickly. This deck is powerful, and I may be worth revisiting, especially if Dawnwalker decks get pushed out a little bit.

Sleepless Xenan

4 Cult Aspirant (Set2 #35)

3 Dark Return (Set1 #250)

2 Sabotage (Set1 #252)

4 Sanctuary Priest (Set1 #73)

4 Water of Life (Set1 #68)

4 Oasis Seeker (Set2 #41)

4 Temple Scribe (Set1 #502)

4 Vara’s Favor (Set0 #35)

2 Xenan Initiation (Set2 #44)

4 Ayan, the Abductor (Set2 #204)

3 Banish (Set2 #207)

3 Extract (Set2 #155)

2 Deathstrike (Set1 #290)

4 Katra, the Devoted (Set2 #208)

3 Sleepless Night (Set2 #170)

7 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

1 Amber Monument (Set1 #420)

9 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Seat of Mystery (Set0 #61)

4 Xenan Banner (Set2 #201)

Another deck that did well in the event that I was attempting to adapt to ranked! I was actually impressed by Water of Life in some of these build at times. In Time mirrors the explosion of resources you can get from even just 1 turn with Katra in play is unreal when you are packing Water of Life. I tried some versions with Bloodcall Invocation, and it was pretty close to good. The Sleepless Nights felt pretty bad in this build, but I am starting to think there is a real deck here outside of the confines of the Eclipse Event.

Mask Control

1 Permafrost (Set1 #193)

1 Sabotage (Set1 #252)

2 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Suffocate (Set1 #251)

2 Annihilate (Set1 #269)

1 Backlash (Set1 #200)

2 Eilyn’s Favor (Set0 #24)

3 Lightning Storm (Set1 #206)

4 Vara’s Favor (Set0 #35)

2 Banish (Set2 #207)

2 Extract (Set2 #155)

3 Feln Bloodcaster (Set1 #386)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

2 Deathstrike (Set1 #290)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Steward of the Past (Set1 #287)

3 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

3 Withering Witch (Set1 #368)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

1 Azindel’s Gift (Set1 #306)

2 Sleepless Night (Set2 #170)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

4 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

5 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

2 Feln Banner (Set1 #417)

4 Seat of Cunning (Set0 #62)

4 Seat of Mystery (Set0 #61)

Before caving and playing the classic Feln Control shell I tried really hard to find some Mask of Torment list that made sense. The idea was generating a lot of power off Mask, allowing me to ramp to Sleepless Night as a busted draw spell. I looked at straight Xenan, TPS, and then finally Feln splash Time. The decks all felt they were incoherent, and the Time was really not offering very much power, especially with Armory dropping significantly in popularity. Forcing myself to play a minimum of 2 Sleepless Night did not help this pursuit, as I was playing an 8 power do-nothing with my 5 power do-nothing. Still, when the deck was firing on all cylinders it was powerful, but that was not nearly common enough for me to recommend the deck in its current form.

3F Cauldron Cradle

3 Permafrost (Set1 #193)

1 Sabotage (Set1 #252)

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Suffocate (Set1 #251)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

4 Annihilate (Set1 #269)

1 Backlash (Set1 #200)

1 Kaleb’s Choice (Set2 #188)

2 Lightning Storm (Set1 #206)

4 Vara’s Favor (Set0 #35)

2 Extract (Set2 #155)

3 Feln Cauldron (Set1 #380)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Calderan Cradle (Set2 #192)

2 Deathstrike (Set1 #290)

4 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

2 Stray into Shadow (Set1001 #9)

1 Azindel’s Gift (Set1 #306)

2 Sleepless Night (Set2 #170)

3 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

4 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

5 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Seat of Fury (Set0 #53)

4 Seat of Cunning (Set0 #62)

4 Seat of Chaos (Set0 #60)

1 Stonescar Banner (Set1 #419)

4F Cauldron Cradle

1 Permafrost (Set1 #193)

1 Sabotage (Set1 #252)

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Suffocate (Set1 #251)

3 Torch (Set1 #8)

4 Annihilate (Set1 #269)

1 Kaleb’s Choice (Set2 #188)

2 Lightning Storm (Set1 #206)

3 Vara’s Favor (Set0 #35)

1 Extract (Set2 #155)

3 Feln Cauldron (Set1 #380)

3 Privilege of Rank (Set1 #157)

4 Slay (Set2 #236)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Calderan Cradle (Set2 #192)

3 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

1 Azindel’s Gift (Set1 #306)

2 Sleepless Night (Set2 #170)

1 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

5 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

3 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

2 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

2 Seat of Vengeance (Set0 #55)

4 Seat of Fury (Set0 #53)

4 Seat of Cunning (Set0 #62)

2 Seat of Chaos (Set0 #60)

Close to the end of the Event I realized that Cauldron + Cradle was a combo. Take your extra power and throw it in the Cauldron to get more spells to feed the Cradle. I was able to go 7-1 with a deck similar to this, so although it is extremely weird, it certainly has some legs. Once again, in the spirit of “if it worked there”, I decided to try it out here. This deck may look like an abomination, but it is surprisingly close to playable, and that is even including the Sleepless Nights that were awful in this deck. This is very much the kind of deck where you often want to hold your cards, so Sleepless Night was often uncastable when you were ahead, and too slow when you are behind. The 4F version is certainly very sketchy, but the combo of Feln Cauldron + Privilege of Rank was too much for me to give up. Plus you get to play Harsh Rule, which turns out to be a good card. Now that I no longer need to play Sleepless Night I might try and revisit the deck, but if you are into something a little on the wild side, this archetype is a blast, and much closer to playable than it looks.

That’s it friends! Although I did get to master with a pretty bland list, I did try some spicy stuff on the way. It is crazy that I feel like so many of these decks are inches away from playable, even when I know Sleepless Night was one of the worse cards in the deck. There is still so much more to explore!

Also, as a fun fact, I got into master at around 90th place, which means Sleepless Night has been in a top 100 decklist. Another card to add to the list of crazy stuff that has made top master at one point or another.

Have fun with the lists everyone, and for those who are trying out the challenge this month, I wish you the best of luck!

Love,

Neon

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