If you've played this weekend, you know for a fact that the game is currently Mages Unchained. Magic decks are running wild with the series of buffs introduced by the Core Set Refresh and it has led to more than 40% of all players playing Magic in the last 6 hours (according to GodsUnchainedRightNow). While I really like the idea of playing Transform Ramp Magic, I couldn't possibly give up a chance to hit 20+ wins this weekend. So I became the scumbag and played the most hated deck this weekend - Card Draw Magic.
Giveaway Results
Every week, I give away a few units of Hive SBI which help to upvote your Hive posts for visibility and rewards for as long as they run - you don't have to do anything on your part. I explained the mechanics of how this giveaway works in another Weekend Ranked Rundown post, but in short, the more active you are in the GU Hive community, the more chances you have to win. You can check your HBI status here.
This week's winners:
@phoenixskye, @lxxicf, @meltysquid - Leave a comment to accept the prize/give it to someone else or it will be forfeited once I post the next giveaway's results. Once you've accepted the prize once, you don't have to leave a comment anymore; future prizes will automatically be sent to you. Congrats, and thanks for being part of the GU community!
Deck Overview
Deck Link: GUDecks
I played Tempo Mage a lot previously, but I'd say the changes introduced here make it less of a Tempo deck and more of a midrange deck with tons of card draw. The strategy has changed from that of trying to overwhelm the board early while clearing creatures efficiently, to one that aims to set up a draw engine, getting chip damage in, and obliterating the opponent's face with direct damage spells.
I don't remember what the old Choralis Rune Moth was, but the current Choralis Rune Moth is really powerful. If left unremoved, it generates free useful spells for you each turn, synergizing with both Leyhoard Hatchling and Oni Spellsword really well. I feel that Choralis Rune Moth is just a tad too strong currently and may see a nerf soon, either by the removal of Backline or increasing the generated rune costs to 1.
To be honest, I'm still not sure whether Scepter of Artistry is good enough in this deck. With a +2 spell boost, it can add a lot of damage to the direct damage spells. But at the same time, it can be a dead card for a while especially if I am still in the early game and trying to set up a draw engine. It could probably be replaced by another direct damage spell like Epiphany or Blizzard Bolt.
The Oni Spellsword change seems like a small one, but I feel it has made it much stronger. It used to grant the Ward buff to the creature with the lowest health, which was great but optimal buffing wasn't very easy to control in my opinion. Now, this change allows it to much more easily do an optimal board Ward buff. Let me give an example.
- T4: Play Oni Spellsword. The opponent doesn't remove it.
- T5:
- Cast Ancient Texts on Oni Spellsword. This brings it to a 2/3 and replenishes Ward.
- Play Vortimer the Volatile. Since the +1 strength comes first, Vortimer is guaranteed to get the Ward buff.
- Mana pip to play Rune Choralis Moth. The Moth gets the Ward buff.
This change also allows Oni to buff the Monolith much more easily as long as the Oni has high enough attack.
And everyone's most hated card this weekend, the Leyhoard Hatchling. It's just too strong; it's usually a Starshard Bolt + a 3/3 for 3 mana or less, and it can also hit the opponent's face directly if more direct damage is needed. It'll most likely get hit by the nerf hammer next week, so play it as much as you like this weekend.
Performance and Matchmaking Breakdown
Starting Rank: Mythic
Wins: 22/25
Reward Packs: 1x Core Rare, 1x Core Epic, 3x Core Legendary, 3x DO Legendary
Theoretical pack value based on current pack prices: $74.97
| Opponent God | Deck Archetype | Score (Wins / Total Games) |
|---|---|---|
| Nature | Aggro Nature | 4 / 4 |
| Control Nature | 1 / 1 | |
| War | Control War | 1 / 1 |
| Frenzied Aggro War | 2 / 2 | |
| Magic | Card Draw Magic | 8 / 8 |
| Control Magic | 0 / 1 | |
| Spell Damage Magic | 2 / 4 | |
| Death | Zombie Death | 1 / 1 |
| Deception | Order Deception | 1 / 1 |
| Light | Aggro Light | 1 / 1 |
| Midrange Light | 1 / 1 | |
| Total | 22 / 25 |
I don't think I've ever seen this many Magic decks in GU before. It's insane. That being said, this week was a clean sweep, with 3 losses to other Magic decks. 2 of those losses were to Yec, who ran a deck specifically to counter Card Draw Magic. Safeguard Incantation and Recursion are both hard to deal with and caused problems in those 2 matches that I lost. If you want to be annoying, including Safeguard Incantation in your own Card Draw Magic deck is a surefire way of pissing your opponent off. Wins are not guaranteed though.
Light decks are a threat due to high health creatures and Ward, but Light's current state is still very much lacking and you won't see too many of them on the ladder. If Light becomes more popular, this deck's performance is sure to suffer.
Footage: Mirror Match
If you aren't sick of seeing Card Draw Magic yet, here's a video of how I pilot the deck against the horde of other Card Draw Magic decks out there. It's not the most exciting of games, but maybe it can help you see how the mirror match can be played for a win.
Historical Performance
Well, I couldn't give up the opportunity for a 20-win run and I managed to get it this time. But at what cost?
I like playing fun decks. But I like opening packs more, so I decided to be the scumbag for a week. Now, I know how it feels like to play BWD. You don't feel good while playing the games, but that feeling vanishes when you see how many packs you'll receive 😂
Past Weekend Ranked posts and performance in order of recency:
| Time Period | Deck | Score (Wins / Total Games) | Starting Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2022 W2 (Current) | Card Draw Magic | 22 / 25 | Mythic |
| Mar 2022 W1 | Control Nature | 19 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W4 | Control Nature | 19 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W3 | Tempo Magic | 18 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W2 | Tempo Magic | 19 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W1 | Tempo Magic | 18 / 25 | Mythic |
| Jan 2022 W5 | Tempo Magic | 19 / 25 | Mythic |
| Jan 2022 W4 | Mid-range Nature | 17 / 25 | Mythic |
| Jan 2022 W3 | Mid-range Nature | 15 / 25 | Mythic |
| Jan 2022 W2 | Mid-range Nature | 11 / 25 | Mythic |
| Jan 2022 W1 | Aggro War | 18 / 25 | Mythic |
Concluding Thoughts
It's farm or be farmed in the cruel world of Gods Unchained. For the sake of the health of the game, I hope the balance team will push balance changes before the next Weekend Ranked comes around. The pre-CSR meta was way more balanced but it took a few months of DO balance patches to make it there; let's hope it doesn't take another few more months for post-CSR meta to be balanced and more stabilized.
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Hey! First I want to thank you for being one of the winners for your giveaway. I'll take your price as a compliment and another motivation to keep being active here. 🙂
For this weekend I also changed to Magic but I played a Portal Wrangler Clone Deck.
The main reason for the change was that I wanted to play as much games as possible after CSR Release. Most of the games were finished before 6 Mana and with a winrate of nearly 80% I decided to continue playing with this deck in WE-Ranked. At least I finished at 17/25 but in my last games I was a little bit unlucky with ultra aggro decks or missing cards for the needed combo.
This result is good but I had the same feeling like you. Playing wasn't so much fun but I hope with the right cards from my packs I can build a new Deception Deck soon.
Of course I'll post my latest WE-Ranked experience here. 🙂
IMO Magic got too much love and a few cards needs a nerf soon. But will a change of cards shuffle the meta again? We will see.
Haha, I think Clone Magic is more dependent on a good early draw compared to Card Draw Magic, but 17/25 is still really good! Actually, I think Clone Magic isn't buffed too much by the CSR unless you play Leyhoard, so I'd say that your deck isn't as scumbaggy as Card Draw Magic 😂
Looking forward to reading your WE experience! Just sent the prize your way too 😄
Yes a good early draw is needed and that deck would not work that good if Magic wouldn't have foresee 2 for 1 mana. And of course my deck isn't as scumbaggy as Card Draw Magic but to feel the shock of my opponent (by doing nothing for 30 seconds) after filling my own board with Portal Wranglers was very funny.
In 2 or 3 matches I was lucky to copy a zero Mana Leyhoard because this was the last creature played. 4 more damage for free 😎
Again thank you for the prize! 🙂
Thanks, I'll accept the prize.
Not playing magic this weekend was copium. Tried Light to counter magic, didn't end up running into that many, and still lost to magic anyway.
Feels bad when that happens, sometimes RNG decides to be a scumbag and gives you bad match-ups.
The deck is busted, like really busted. I get why all the players that could afford it or had the cards would play it. Its the WE, high prizes high competition it makes sense. I got mostly disappointed with the devs that did not think this through. Mage was already in a good position, he had strong decks and cards and they made it into this extravaganza deck which smashes almost everything. At the point I reached my 10th game , I did not even want to finish my WE this week.
I just hope devs pay attention and make changes fast!
Congrats on the 22/25 however, as I mentioned I have no grudges against the players.
Yeah, I know how you feel. I think they honestly underestimated the sheer power of the buffed Leyhoard (which 90% of the comments stem from), but I hope they think through whatever buffs/nerfs they're gonna give in the future. To be fair to them, it's just one card change (maybe 3 if you count Rune Moth and Wyrmbreath) that was OP and there were tons of new cards changed and introduced this patch. I'm quite certain they'll have to nerf some Magic cards before next week for sure, I saw a message on Discord that showed that 86/100 of the top performers in WR are Magic decks.
Thanks! I was "lucky" this time around since I already had all the cards for this deck 😅
I accept the prize of course haha and thank you!!!!!
Also, might as well take advantage when you can. Congrats on your personal best!
Haha yeah, although I do feel kinda scumbag "abusing" unbalanced decks. Thanks!
Still have not played my weekend games yet and expecting a lot of mage decks since they are being heavily abused this week. Can't wait to get my ass kicked :p
Answer: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. This WRE has the most number of complaints I've seen so far, so I'm pretty sure the balance team is working overtime to figure out how to fix this before the next one 😂
True a lot of people ranting about magic and how busted it was and tbh I think that's what happens usually in card games usually it's either follow the meta or get lower win rate and I accepted my ass to get kicked this week :p
Pallas' Wand is critical for this deck I'm discovering. Running something like this but don't have wand or Ancient Texts. Could be bad luck, but it's not performing anywhere near as well.
Sadly I also do think Pallas' Wand is needed in the deck to get more consistent drawing power, without it you're left with only the All-seeing Spires and Mortimer for draw which is not enough sometimes.
Noooo, you went to the darkside D:. Scumbag Mage 🤣. But seriously though, congrats on getting those wins, regardless it's still a challenge, especially those mirror matches. I still stuck to my faithful deception. Did pretty meh. I need to practice this mage deck maybe, although I'm still missing a lot of leggies to maximize efficiency.
Haha couldn't resist a good chance for more legendary packs even though card values are waning! Honestly, this deck's outsized win rates will probably be balanced out by next week so you probably can stick with whatever you're playing unless the balance team doesn't see a problem here 😂
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Nice build, unfortunately i haven't resource to build this awesome deck 🤣
Still amazing the way you write and explains the synergy.
and nice road on WE btw.
I'm following you and hope you release a low budget deck 🤣🤣