Updated June 10th with Set 5.2 decks

I thought I would simply provide some competitive deck lists in a spot where you can access them easily and I will try to keep them updated. I will definitely not take credit for most of the decks and I have to admit that most decks ideas are not new and come from other players. If you think you deserve a mention or have a neat deck idea yourself – you can PM me on the SolForge forums (konanTheBarbar) and I will mention you along with the name of your deck here.

I won’t write lengthy things about the decks, but I will write a few lines about the deck idea, what your main must-levels are and which are good and bad match-ups.

Alloyin-Nekrium

AN Soulshatter

3 Anvillon Arbiter

3 Duskmaw, Twilight Drake

3 Leyline Demon

3 Cacklebones

3 Crypt Conjurer

2 Sorrow Maiden

2 Xithian Direhound

3 Epidemic

3 Scythe of Chiron

3 Howl of Xith

(2 Leyline Sentry / Soulreap)

I think the main idea from this deck comes from the so called Fun Police deck – based around Anvillon Arbiter, Cacklebones and Leyline Demon. It basically tries to reduce the drawbacks of Cacklebones with the help of Anvillon Arbiter and Leyline Demon. This deck is good against decks that play multiple cards or that build big threats – which can be taken out by Duskmaw or Cacklebones. The win condition is the Crypt Conjurer lifedrain combo with Tendrils and other Nekrium Spells. With three Howl of Xith this deck has incredible lategame reach and is the only AN archetype that is quite good against the AT goodstuff deck in the current metagame. Just be aware that this deck is complicated to play and definitely not for beginners, since you need different tactics for different match-ups. As a meta-call (see comments below) I removed the Soulreap and added Leyline Sentry. It’s also a possibility to keep the Soulreap and remove Sorrow Maiden – just see what works best for you.

Must-level: Cacklebones; Crypt Conjurer

Good Match-up: AT Goodstuff (not great, but very winnable)

Bad Match-up: UN Zoo

Date Added: 16.04.2015

AN Metaminds

3 Ghox, Metamind Paragon

3 Drix, The Mindwelder

3 Metamind Archivist

3 Torrent Acolyte

3 Ironmind Acolyte

2 Leyline Sentry

3 Ambriel’s Edict

2 Lucid Echoes

2 Leyline Demon

3 Duskmaw, Twilight Drake

3 Scythe of Chiron

This deck tries to build a huge board full of Metaminds and get consistency and extra cards plays by drawing additional cards. Ghox and Drix are your best friends 🙂 AT is a really tough matchup and UT can be challenging as well. If your opponent can’t remove Ghox or Drix then he will get overwhelmed quickly. The deck doesn’t use any of the new Set 5.1 Legendaries so it’s quite cheap to get for a Set 5.1 archetype. The number of Ambriel’s Edict and Leyline Sentry can potentially be reduced and be replaced by other cards that are good for challenging match-ups.

Must-level: Ghox, Metamind Paragon; Drix, The Mindwelder

Good Match-up: AU

Bad Match-up: AT Goodstuff, UT Herald Bomb

Date Added: 16.04.2015

Alloyin-Uterra

AU Next Level

3 Esperian Sage

3 Ironmind Acolyte

3 Malice Hermit

3 Oreian Justicar

2 Shardplate Behemoth

2 Aetherphage

1 Oros, Deepwoods Chosen

1 Nova, Grove Queen

1 Killion, Infinity Warden

3 Ambriel’s Edict

3 Dendrify

3 Energy Surge

2 Lucid Echoes

This archetype evolved out of the Malicious Gnomes deck and is way more competitive and very good in the current metagame. It’s a quite greedy AU deck and therefore hard to pilot, but once you have mastered it the deck can be a beast and many decks have already adapted and are using Aetherphage to be able to disturb this deck. This version is a mix of Captain78 and Kyle Duncans version from the recent WC. Captain78’s version even made it into the finals! Your must levels are Malice Hermit and the Energy Surges. Once you got them leveled (and hopefully also have an active Lucid Echoes) this deck is usually able to stall the game until you can play your Nova, Grove Queen lvl4 and win the game this way. Captain78’s version used 2 Glowstride Stag instead of the Aetherphage, but I think currently Aetherphage is a great meta call and let’s you stand a chance against Shockfinity (another control deck that can get it’s combo usually before PL4). Btw. isn’t it great this deck plays 3 Forgeborns and each as a 1 of?

Also be aware that Oreian Justicar is a must level agianst the UN Broodstone decks! Otherwise that deck will overwhelm you pretty fast.

Must Level: Energy Surge; Malice Hermit

Good Match-up: UN Broodstone

Bad Match-up: AT Aggro, AN Soulshatter

Date Added: 10.06.2015

AU Moving Golems

3 Nexus Aeronaut

3 Relic Hunter

3 Ironbeard, Hammer of Anvillon

3 Leyline Sentry

1 Steeleye Seer

2 Oreian Justicar

3 Ancestral Echoes

3 Aetherphage

3 Shardplate Behemoth

3 Leyline Golem

3 Dendrify

This archetype is probably one of the best archetypes against the AT Goodstuff deck. AT uses lots of movement and by playing triple Leyline Golem it gives AT a hard time. Especially Ironboard is great, because his ability also causes the movement of your opponent creatures and is an addtional source to get free Leyline Golems. On top of that this deck has two strong counters against decks that produce tokens or revive creatures – Oreian Justicar and Leyline Sentry. One of the drawbacks of the deck is that it can be inconsistent at times, because of all the situational cards like the Leylines, Justicar and Relic Hunter.

Must-level: Ironbeard, Hammer of Anvillon; Nexus Aeronaut

Good Match-up: AT Goodstuff

Bad Match-up: some UN variants

Date Added: 16.04.2015

Alloyin-Tempys

AT Goodstuff

3 Nexus Aeronaut

3 Oratek Explosives

3 Relic Hunter

3 Borean Windweaver

3 Brimstone Tyrant

3 Frostmane Dragon

2 Oratek Battlebrand

3 Rage of Kadras

Flex Slots:

2 Korok, Khan of Kadras

2 Windspark Elemental

3 Herald of Destruction

AT Goodstuff is the most legendary heavy, competitive archetype that exists since Set 3. The core of the deck is Frostmane Dragon, Nexus Aeronaut, Borean Windweaver and Brimstone Tyrant. Combine these cards with Oratek Explosives and Rage of Kadras and you can often snowball to victory while keeping the board clear every turn. AT Goodstuff is really great since it can beat basically any archetype given good draws and is especially good against UT.

There are 4-6 flex slots – although I usually always play Korok the other cards are more situational and could be replaced. Right now I run 3 copies of Herald of Destruction and 2 Windspark Elemental. Because the Alloyin count is quite low in this version Burnout might even be better than Oratek Battlebrand – I’m just so used to Battlebrand that I don’t want to miss it (although you will likely miss an allied trigger once in a while). Herald helps you against UN and Windspark Elemental just gives you a great finisher potential with Brimstone Tyrant, Rage and Explosives.

Must-level: Frostmane Dragon, Nexus Aeronaut

Good Match-up: UT Herald Bomb

Bad Match-up: UN Broodstone

Date Added: 16.04.2015

A/T Shockfinity

3 Master of Elements

3 Ironmind Acolyte

2 Metamind Adept

1 War Machine

3 Ambriel’s Edict

3 Burnout

3 Energy Surge

3 Perilous Insight

1 Ice Torrent

2 Lucid Echos

2 Metatransfer

2 Nanoswarm

2 Oratek Battlebrand

I thought I would give this deck some more visibility – Stautmeister came up with this fun brew and it’s quite competitive for a combo deck. That’s what he wrote about it on the forums:

As an ode to the now nearly dead Kitfinity, which based itself around a one turn kill combo, I have been brewing for a new one turn kill deck. This is what I came up with:

The theory of the deck. You have 9(+) cards with Overload.

3 Gnomes that draw 1 card

3 Energy Surges that draw 3 cards each.

This means if you play all your Overload cards and are capable of having a 21 card hand you win.

How do you get there?

We have 12 card draw for free, 3 Surges/3 Gnomes.

We can draw 3 cards with a Level 3 Adept bringing us to 14 (discard pool gets card you don’t want to draw).

This means you need to have a 7 card hand to get infinite.

Cards you need to have leveled:

1 Static Shock to Level 3

3 Energy Surges to Level 3

1 Metamind Adept to Level 3

1 Lucid Echoes l2/3

Played 9 Overload cards.

In general you will reach these conditions in 3.2, 3.3 or 3.4

You can take out a Metatransfer and/or 2 and add 2 War Machines if you want more Overload cards.

How do you win? You achieve the above conditions and don’t die. If you do this you will be able to cast Static Shock level 3 into Energy Surge, repeat. I have done this on stream and it’s possible. It takes some time to get the deck down, but when it does the feeling is amazing.

Must levels: Master of Elements + Energy Surges. You can drop some Overload cards through your Masters, but realize you are going to need 9 plays to get there. It’s hard and requires you to make absolutely stupid plays sometimes.

It is not about winning, it is about winning in style.

Nothing says, Get Rekt!, like casting 25 Static Shocks Level 3 for a victory!

Pion playing the deck: twitch.tv/pionathan…../c/6619633

Must-level: Energy Surge, Metamind Adept

Good Match-up: AT Goodstuff, slow decks

Bad Match-up: AN Soulshatter, UT Herald Bomb

Date Added: 01.05.2015

Nekrium-Uterra

NU Broodstone

3 Dysian Broodqueen

3 Malice Hermit

3 Shardplate Behemoth

3 Spiritstone Sentry

3 Weirwood Patriarch

2 Aetherphage

2 Thundersaur

1 Varna, Immortal King

3 Dendrify

2 Dysian Siphon

2 Lysian Shard

2 Scythe of Chiron

1 Howl of Xith

This archetype was already strong in set 5.1 and got the nice little addition of Varna, Immortal King in set 5.2. You could probably play 2 copies of him, but with so many Oreian Justicar and Herald of Destruction in the current meta – having him as a one of seems to be alright. This version of the deck is very close to Stillhadalldeez deck, who made the top 4 in the 2015 Solforge World Championship. I added Aetherphage instead of Soothsayer Hermit – he is definitely a much needed meta call and is one of the reasons why he lost the semi-finals against an AU leveling deck. I know that Suruzal can do amazing things in this deck, but as mentioned above – there exist many hate cards against revival effects and therefore I added a Dendrify and a Howl of Xith in that slots.

Must Level: Malice Hermit; Dysian Broodqueen

Good Match-up: AT Goodstuff

Bad Match-up: UT Herald Bomb

Date Added: 10.06.2015

NU Tarsus

3 Malice Hermit

3 Shardplate Behemoth

2 Ferocious Roar

2 Leyline Golem

3 Spiritstone Sentry

3 Duskmaw, Twilight Drake

2 Dysian Siphon

2 Dysian Broodqueen

2 Immortal Echoes

2 Nethershriek

3 Tarsus Deathweaver

3 Leyline Demon

There was already a similar NU list in the original article, but this version is more streamlined and probably also more competitive – that’s why I thought I had to add it to the collection. The list has a good mix of underdrops, threats, removal and cards that allow you to stay ahead in it. On top of that it is quite good against AT – which not a lot of decks can say of themselves.

Use your creatures to force your opponent to use the side-lanes – where you can block with Spiritstone Sentry or let them open lane their creatures so that you can use Nethershriek or Duskmaw to take out his threats. Tarsus is basically your threat amplifier and also makes the Leylines Stronger if you can trigger them. Immortal Echoes is best played as underdrop when you have a Tarsus on the board in PL2 and beyond. There are cases when you can use it aggressively in PL1 – e.g. an early Behemoth died, but in general it is best used later. I initially had Broodqueen in the deck and replaced her with Suruzal, Emissary of Varna. Broodqueen is really good in some match-ups, but can easily mess up your own Death Pile and was therefore replaced.

Must-level: Spiritstone Sentry, Nethershriek

Good Match-up: AT Goodstuff, AU

Bad Match-up: NT Hate

Date Added: 24.04.2015

NU Zoo

3 Bron, Wild Tamer

3 Roaming Warclaw

3 Thundersaur

3 Uterradon Rex

(3 Shardplate Behemoth / Swampmoss Ancient)

3 Leyline Golem

3 Lysian Shard

3 Dendrify

3 Dysian Siphon

3 Leyline Demon

The archetype is simple straightforward and quite powerful against a wide range of decks. By playing both Leylines the AT match-up is quite good – especially if they don’t play Oreian Justicar. Since this archetype is also quite simple to play I can definitely recommend this to new players. I restricted the Legendary count to 9 and I don’t think the deck took a big drawback by that. Another version of the deck could include two Tarsus Deathweaver and two Immortal Echoes, which both synergize well with the deck.

Against AT, Thundersaur is a must level, since they have a really hard time removing buffed Thundersaurs. If AT is still giving you trouble you might want to add Scythe of Chiron.

Must-level: Bron, Wild Tamer; Thundersaur

Good Match-up: AT Goodstuff

Bad Match-up: AU Moving Golems

Date Added: 16.04.2015

NU Wegu

3 Shardplate Behemoth

3 Oros Deepwood’s Chosen

3 Wegu the Ancient

3 Crypt Conjurer

3 Immortal Echoes

3 Epidemic

3 Howl of Xith

3 Scythe of Chiron

3 Vyric’s Embrace

3 Duskmaw, Twilight Drake

I know how everyone hates this deck, because it is so frustrating to loose against it. But it’s still part of the meta and refuses to die (in a fire). You have the Lifegain Engine with Crypt Conjurer and Duskmaw + Nekrium Spells and use it to let your Wegu grow out of control. I should also note that you should definitely value Scythe of Chiron quite highly as well. The lvl2 cast on an Oros can turn the entire game around if things get out of control. The best deck against Wegu is still AT Goodstuff – an early lvl2 Wegu can turn the game around against AT, but otherwise this matchup is really hard.

Must-level: Sorrow Maiden, Nexus Aeronaut

Good Match-up: UT Herald Bomb

Bad Match-up: AT Goodstuff

Date Added: 01.05.2015

Nekrium-Tempys

NT Torment & Destruction

3 Duskmaw, Twilight Drake

3 Grimgaunt Devourer

3 Ebonskull Knight

3 Scythe of Chiron

3 Leyline Demon

2 Sorrow Maiden

2 Howl of Xith

3 Byzerak Spitemage

3 Herald of Destruction

3 Borean Windweaver

2 Frostshatter Strike

Have you missed the good old days, when NT Removal was among the best archetypes? Hectares took some of the traditional NT core – Grimgaunt Devourer (GGD), Ebonskull Knight and Byzerak Spitemage – and mixed it with some “Hate” cards like Herald of Destruction, Sorrow Maiden and Leyline Demon to get competitive. I could just briefly play with this deck and it was great to have the opportunity to play with some “old” friends 🙂 One small advice – pay attention to the matchup and don’t play GGD against AT.

Must-level: Sorrow Maiden

Good Match-up: UT, some UN variants

Bad Match-up: AT

Date Added: 24.04.2015

NT Lifedrain

3 Spiritstone Sentry

3 Nethershriek

2 Tarsus Deathweaver

3 Xithian Direhound

3 Duskmaw, Twilight Drake

3 Crypt Conjurer

2 Immortal Echoes

3 Scythe of Chiron

3 Epidemic

2 Howl of Xith

3 Borean Windweaver

This deck can be very fun to play with and makes great use of Spiritstone Sentry – especially in combination with Borean Windweaver, which you can use to move Spiritstone Sentry back to a side lane. Tarsus Deathweaver, Immortal Echoes and Neithershriek go really well with that combo. Apart from that you have the Duskmaw and Crypt Conjurer engine (similar to the AN Soulshatter deck) which gives you additional reach and survivability.

Must-level: Spiritstone Sentry; Crypt Conjurer

Good Match-up: NU without Leylines

Bad Match-up: AU Moving Golems, AT without Justicar

Date Added: 16.04.2015

Uterra-Tempys

UT Herald Bomb

Preconstructed Core:

3 Herald of Destruction

3 Malice Hermit

2 Windspark Elemental

2 Lysian Shard

New Cards:

3 Phytobomb

2 Weirwood Patriarch

3 Uranti Warlord

(3 Shardplate Behemoth / Swampmoss Ancient)

2 Shardbound Invoker

2 Aetherphage

3 Dendrify

(2 Botanimate / Metamorphosis)

This deck is one of most explosive archetypes of the current metagame and made it’s way into the recent WC finals. What is really nice about this archetype that you can get the most important legendaries for this deck in the preconstructed deck Blistering Chaos. Apart from that deck you only need Shardplate Behemoth as legendary which has a nice budget replacement in the form of Swampmoss Ancient.

The game plan is to level every Herald of Destruction that you can get, while keeping the board clear. If you have a Herald of Destruction and play Phytobomb, the Herald of Destruction deals damage equal to its attack for every token it generates for your opponent. E.g. a Herald of Destruction 3 deals 36 damage to your opponent when you play Phytobomb and your opponent has three open lanes. If you also have a Windspark Elemental the damage even gets doubled.

Dendrify is in the deck to deal with huge threats (e.g. Thundersaur), while Malice Hermit acts as your board wipe. I should also note that Dendrify deals damage to your opponent and might get directly killed if you have a Herald of Destruction on the board. There are several other strong synergies in the deck – e.g. pump your Herald with WWP or Shard to make the Phytobomb combo even stronger or use the Yetis (Malice Hermit is also a Yeti) with Windspark Elemental to deal damage. Apart from that the deck is actually really cheap to build, while being very competitive. For the preconstructed core you will only need the Blistering Chaos deck.

Must-level: Herald of Destruction; Malice Hermit

Good Match-up: Slow Decks (AN)

Bad Match-up: AT Goodstuff

Date Added: 16.04.2015 (updated 10.06.2015)