Wonderland Dreams: Community Theorycrafting

Bagoum / June 28, 2017

For the past few days, we've been collecting some theorycrafted decks for Wonderland Dreams from community members over at the Shadowverse Bagoum Discord. Today, I'd like to showcase a few of the most interesting theorycrafts the community came up with, as well as provide my viewpoint on how these decks might function in the new meta. We have four decks here today.

Neutral Aggro Sword - Neyuh

This is the first time in about seven months that I have seen a serious Swordcraft deck without Albert. Current Sword is heavily reliant on Storm damage, but the incredibly powerful stats offered by neutral synergies in Sword may make it viable to focus on hard board gameplay. This deck currently runs 11 Sword cards, and while this is an optimal number for card counting interactions like Beauty and the Beast, it may be less necessary for this sort of deck, where the only major counting interaction is Strix.

In the end, though, I do think that all Sword decks are better with 3x Albert, and I would imagine that an optimized form of this deck would cut Goblin Princess for Albert. Some players may want to take this build in a more faction-specific direction, but any more than 14 faction cards makes Strix questionable. One could replace Strix for Jeno, but 4/5/5s are incredibly strong, and any faction cards beyond that would make Alice questionable as well.

Neutral Tempo Haven - Unna Forte

This deck is intriguing mostly because it so greatly refuses to abandon class synergy for neutrals, even while incorporating the neutral powerhouse Lion of the Golden City. From my perspective, it's not clear whether these faction synergies can outpower the potential of an early Lion-- would you rather hold the threat of Snow White into Heavenly Hound, or the threat of a 4-5 mana Lion on Beastcall?

Regardless, this deck does strongly resemble Storm Haven, and I imagine that it will likely be played in the same vein, except with a greater emphasis on board control with Snow White/Hound, Teatime, and Lion. As such, I would strongly support the inclusion of Dark Jeanne in this list, replacing most likely Whitecat Sage and Ancient Lion Spirit. In addition, it should be noted that Lion is an incredibly powerful play even when not boosted, and is in many respects simply better than Garuda (since you do not need to pay for the amulet). I wouldn't worry too much about ensuring Lion synergy, unless you want to go really hard (deck by Bagoum).

Neutral (Actually Tempo) Tempo Forest - kowoyoshi

Last expansion, some of the most well-known streamers in the community hyped up the power of Beetle Warrior, a card they declared would bring back the days of RoB-era 6pp Forest lethals. Yet for all that, Tempo Forest saw absolutely no play in TotG, and the question now is whether more powerful curve options for Tempo Forest can make it worth playing over Roach OTK.

We will need to test the archetype extensively, and the list here provides an example of how one might build a Tempo Forest deck with Neutral synergies. However, excessive reliance on Looking Glass (as Forest cannot afford to cut much of its faction package) hinges much of the new neutral synergies on draw luck, and I suspect that a more direct faction-heavy Tempo Forest, reminiscent of DE, will provide more consistency. Consider, for example, the classic Tia and Cynthia, as well as the TotG powerhouse Aerin.

Aggro Carabosse - Just Lurking

Carabosse is certainly one of the least understood cards of the expansion, and we currently don't have a proper idea just how powerful it will be. This deck seeks to take advantage of Blood's incredibly powerful tempo-removal options in the form of Knuckle and Sabreur to aggro down the opponent, but tops with Carabosse and Sabreur to provide powerful refuel into the midgame.

It's not clear that Carabosse is more optimal than more early-game consistency for Aggro Blood, but if WD brings a resurgence in midrange decks, then Carabosse can effectively counter them by providing a source of DoT burn that few factions can sustain. Otherwise, I'd advise you to keep your eyes on Disagreeable Demon and Knuckle-- these two cards, while only Bronze, may end up being some of the most oppressive cards of the set, both within and without Aggro Blood.

Closing Thoughts…

I am in part excited for, and in part wary of, the many new archetypes that will see play in the new expansion. In large part, I anticipate that we will see a surge in value-based midrange decks (much like Daria in RoB), with Abyss Blood joining Aegis Haven and Nephthys Shadow as the major control decks. With the way things are going, I don't have much hope for combo decks. Is it finally time for Roach to go? Find out next time on Community Theorycrafting :11: