Building on a Theme: Zumog Phoom’s Ambition

Welcome back to our Building on a Theme series, where we take the pre-constructed Theme Decks in The Elder Scrolls: Legends and upgrade them! In this series, the only cards we add are commons and rares, so newer players on a budget can hone their decks further while going light on the Soul Gems. Today, we’re looking at the Sorcerer Theme Deck released alongside Moons of Elsweyr, Zumog Phoom’s Ambition!

Here’s an import code for the base Zumog Phooom’s Ambition deck, should you want to start from scratch: SPAKihvZdKlwhUwBkZeoeunNACwDwrAMvLvKvOvGoOwgjHwfvWvJvIvQ

(To import a deck, copy the deck import code to your clipboard, navigate to your Legends collection, and select “New Deck.” The game will identify your code and ask if you’d like it built!)

While the Khamira’s Rebellion Theme Deck was built around the new Wax/Wane mechanic, Zumog Phoom’s Ambition is all about Consume. Cards with Consume effects allow you to get a bonus by removing a creature in your discard pile from the game. Several cards like Imbued Argonian/Breton and Crocodile Brute have additional effects when THEY are Consumed. This is an aggressive Sorcerer deck that wants to knock the opponent’s life total down early while taking advantage of those synergies whenever possible.

This deck already packs a hefty amount of Consume cards from Moons of Elsweyr, such as Nibenese Mercenary, Midnight Trespasser and Skeletal Mage. To really build around Consume, there are some other great cards like Alfiq Conjurer and additional copies of Ruin Shambler that help out a ton, but they’re too expensive to include in today’s rebuild; however, they’d be great places to consider investing your Soul Gems if you really like Consume!

As with Khamira’s Rebellion, there are some classic “staples” that this deck could take full advantage of. Though these cards might not be Consume-related, we’ll still want to make space for them as they’re very flexible and pack a ton of value.

Wardcrafter: This deck doesn’t really mind if some creatures like Crocodile Brute are killed, since they can be Consumed later; however, Wardcrafter is still very valuable when you’re battling with your opponent’s creatures and want to keep your most important creatures alive to see another turn.

Haunting Spirit: This deck already plays one copy, but we’ll be turning that into a full playset due to the high-pressure board states it can create early on. If your opponent can’t get rid of it while your board is otherwise empty, you’ll keep piling stats on your creatures.

Sorcerer’s Negation: This is the quintessential Sorcerer card, in my opinion. It can do anything from clearing a creature equipped with tons of Items to Silencing your way through a Guard, all for the low price of two magicka.

Royal Sage: This deck already has some great plays on turns one, two, three and five, but Royal Sage will give us something strong to do on turn four when we don’t want to Lightning Bolt anything. (Note: this slot could also easily be used for more copies of Ruin Shambler if Soul Gems permit, or Bleakcoast Troll from the Forgotten Hero Collection.)

Now, the tough part - we have to make room for all these new additions!

While there are a few Consume cards I mentioned earlier that I think could make great additions, there is one Consume card I’ll be subtracting: Bone Armor. As an aggressive deck, we’re not really interested in cards that only buff our creatures’ health.

Additionally, we’ll be taking out the relatively low-impact cards Expunge and Grave Grasp, as we now have a variety of strong on-curve creatures to use our magicka on. Grave Grasp in particular is a little too defensive for this deck, although it might be perfect in a deck built around Skeletons.

Next, we’ll be removing several one-ofs in the deck. I’m usually a fan of playing 2 or 3 copies of most cards that aren’t either Unique Legendaries or fill very specific roles that we don’t want to draw often. Two creatures with less power than our additions are Deathless Draugr and High Rock Summoner, and we’ll also be removing the removal actions Cruel Firebloom and Mummify, since we now have a full complement of Sorcerer’s Negations.

Let’s take a look at the final build!

+3 Wardcrafter

+2 Haunting Spirit

+3 Sorcerer’s Negation

+3 Royal Sage

-1 Cruel Firebloom

-1 Deathless Draugr

-1 High Rock Summoner

-2 Expunge

-1 Mummify

-2 Grave Grasp

-3 Bone Armor

Here’s the deck import code for the new brew: SPAFvZlwwBeunNAAAPvLvKvOvGhUoOwgjHwfvWvJvIoMnrrC

Even with the changes, this deck is still low enough to the ground to pack a solid punch in the early game. Moving forward, some solid Epics to consider are Corrupted Shade and additional Shadowfen Priests, plus great Legendary cards like Ancano, Daggerfall Mage and Alfiq Conjurer. If you continue to focus on the Consume mechanic, I would strongly recommend more copies of Ruin Shambler and Dro-m’Athra Reapers in addition to the Conjurers. In the meantime, the powerful, well-rounded cards we’ve added in today’s article have laid the foundation for a powerful Sorcerer deck no matter which direction you take it!

I hope you found this article helpful, and good luck Consuming your way up the ranks!