20/20/20 Tooth Fairy in tiebreakers (Afanas & Senka) [Standard]

I brought this Afanas & Senka list to the Monday A.W.O.L. tournament on 2024-12-16, where it went 6-0 for 1st place out of 55.

R6 featured one of the most exciting games I’ve played since launch. It had the high stakes of a finals match while also containing the kinds of tense turns and massive swings that make Altered so engaging.

The hero

Afanas & Senka make use of Yzmir’s card draw and disruption tools in a spell-based tempo deck that only gets stronger as it gains access to more mana. Their gameplan is to stick an unassuming character in each expedition, then cycle through cheap spells to apply boosts towards whichever expedition the opponent commits to.

Afanas’s stat power lies in his spells, so if an opponent holds back, he can flexibly convert his mana into a resource advantage. Conversely, if an opponent overcommits, he can bank anchored/asleep stats for the next turn.

Afanas applies pressure on several fronts: if your opponent contests you with small characters, you can blow them out with spell boosts; if they contest you with medium/large characters, you can blow them out with removal. Your low-cost cards pass priority, so you can often force your opponent to tap out before your characters are worthy of removal themselves.

Your opponent has to work extra hard to block you, because if you ever get within one expedition of victory, you can instantly win the game with Small Step, Giant Leap (C).

Afanas’s biggest weakness is to disruption. If you’re missing the spell half of your engine, you’ll just be playing understatted characters. If you’re missing the character half, you’ll have a hand full of spells that contribute no stats to your expeditions.

The deck

Others have more experience with the intricacies of Afanas builds than I do. I’ve mostly synthesized the best parts of the lists I’ve seen and tweaked them in a way that I thought might work for me.

One of the things I’ve tried with this build is to spread out the rare slots by including 2-ofs and 1-ofs. Afanas is fortunate in that he has access to plenty of rares that are comparably powerful but are at their best in different situations. Since Afanas draws through more of his deck, the increased rare diversity hopefully means that choosing the right card for the situation results in fewer rares being put into mana overall.

Card choices

• Kadigiran Mage-Dancer (R): At first, I had some concerns that this would require putting all of your eggs in one basket. After playing with it, I’ve realized card draw is important enough for Afanas that you’re willing to go out of your way to boost this up. What pushes this over the edge is the fact that a single Helping Hand (F) brings this up to 4/4/4 to trigger the at-dusk ability.
• Meditation Training (R): Going all-in on anchoring characters risks making them even more vulnerable to removal, but at one copy, the upside is so high when you’re able to successfully able to anchor a multi-boosted character. This gets more appealing with Sneezer Shroom (F), Kadigiran Mage-Dancer (R), at-dusk uniques, and multi-boost uniques.
• Magical Training: The rare’s reduced cost from reserve makes it much easier to weave into your turns. Still, I figured I could afford to run one copy of the common: if you ever have multiple copies at once, the rare is the one you want to cast from reserve while the common can be the one you return to hand with cards like Flamel (C).
• Bravos Bladedancer (R): Cheap boost-bearers enable multi-spell turns earlier in the game. This felt strong by virtue of being a 1-drop with better stats than any in-faction offerings.
• Baba Yaga: The rare’s stats make it an amazing early-game play, but it starts to fall off as you’re able to chain more spells together. It was hard for me to justify a full playset of rare slots on cards that you’ll often put into mana if you see late-game.

Uniques

My rating system

Ordis Trooper: 6/7

Two boosts off of each spell scales terrifyingly quickly with Afanas’s plentiful 1-mana spells. Effectively, the only condition on the trigger is that you must give Afanas’s hero ability boost to the Trooper with the first spell you cast after playing this.

This demands removal in the late-game, but since it only costs 2 mana, you can also just run it out with a spell on T1 as a 3/5/3.

Tooth Fairy: 6/7

This is another double-booster, only this one sabotages when it goes to reserve if it meets the trivial condition of having 1 or more boosts. Things get even crazier when you play it from reserve, then target it with a Helping Hand (F) so that it hits reserve again for another sabotage.

Its only downside is that costing 3 mana from hand makes it trickier to play than you might expect, since you want to combo it with at least one spell, ideally more.

This one’s especially strong in the Beyond the Gates meta since the timing on the sabotage prevents Treyst from getting a scrap counter.

Spindle Harvesters: 5/7

“When I leave the expedition zone” is a distinct downgrade from “at dusk”, but returning even a single spell is very powerful for Afanas. Like any Spindle Harvesters, its ability to self-anchor ensures that all the boosts you stack on count for both this day and the next.

Takeaways

Splitting the difference on some of the deck’s rares felt good during today’s games:

• In R4, I simultaneously drew a rare and common Baba Yaga, so I put the common into mana.
• The only time I needed to cast the reserve side of the common Magical Training (C) was in R6, on a build-up turn when I didn’t have another use for the mana anyway.
• I drew and put both copies of Baba Yaga (C) into mana in the late-game during R6. I would have done the same if they were the rares, which would have put me down two rare slots that game.
• Bravos Bladedancer (F), the fifteenth rare, proved its worth in R1 and R2.
• Meditation Training (R), the fourteenth rare, felt great as a 1-of. I only played it twice in six games, but it was a key part of winning R2 and R6.

The games

Round 1 (W): Kojo & Booda

The spell-heavy list immediately came back to bite me with no characters in my opening hand. I kept two copies of Magical Training (R), hoping to draw into a 2-drop. As luck would have it, I drew into the single copy of Bravos Bladedancer (F) which let me burn my second Magical Training to 1-0 against an Issun-bōshi (C).

Helping Hand (F) offered me the opportunity to go 1-1 while my opponent set up their first Haven, Bravos Bastion (R). The problem was that doing so would either overflow my reserve or require playing the Bladedancer without a Helping Hand. Instead, I got down a Sneezer Shroom (F) and boosted it with Magical Training from reserve to push against Booda. I was content to go 0-1 if it meant starting T3 with a card and board advantage.

I started T3 by anchoring the Spindle Harvesters (U) for the best chance at going 2-0 while drawing with Baba Yaga (R) and conserving my precious spells. When my opponent played a Mighty Jinn (R), I went for the Baba Yaga, but with 1 mana, they responded with a Helping Hand (R) to win that expedition.

On T4, a tempo Beauty Sleep (F) on my opponent’s Mighty Jinn (R) prevented them from ramping while securing me a 2-0 and a draw from Kadigiran Mage-Dancer (R). Because this was the turn the Spindle Harvesters (U) would go to reserve, I had the luxury of being more liberal with the cards I played from hand.

Thanks to some help from the Mage-Dancer draw, I was able to sculpt my hand perfectly for the following turn. Their Mighty Jinn (R) could only threaten companion-side, so I dedicated my Mage-Dancer and Tooth Fairy (U) to that expedition as scaling threats. This let me save Beauty Sleep (F) for wherever Tomoe Gozen would end up.

At 3/5 on expeditions, Small Step, Giant Leap (C) in hand let me Beauty Sleep (F) without repercussion, as I could play for the 2-0 then win the game as my first action on the following turn.

Round 2 (W): Sigismar & Wingspan

On T1, I boosted a Sneezer Shroom (F) with a Magical Training (R) to trade expeditions with their Baba Yaga (R).

As a 1-mana play, Bravos Bladedancer (F) enabled a T2 double-spell with Magical Training (R) from reserve and Helping Hand (F) for a critical 2-0. I lost the 4/4/4 Bladedancer to a Monolith Legate (C) sabotage, but I was going to have to get rid of something anyway with three cards in my reserve.

Playing out my Ordis Trooper (U) with just a single spell was plenty strong enough, as it immediately boosted up to a 3 in water, letting me dedicate a Helping Hand (F) to a fleeting and anchored Sneezer Shroom (F).

T4 presented me with a very tough decision on what to put into mana. I wanted to hold onto my Tooth Fairy (U), but its cost of 3 meant I probably wouldn’t play it this turn alongside my hand of even costs. The ideal turn was Ordis Trooper (U) into Helping Hand (F) from reserve into Meditation Training (R).

However, if my opponent led with a sabotage, I’d need Flamel (C) to be mana-efficient. If they specifically sabotaged Helping Hand, I’d need to keep Meditation Training (R) to get any value out of Flamel (C). Thus, the responsible keep was Flamel and Meditation Training, forfeiting the Tooth Fairy (U) to mana.

Sure enough, my opponent had the Ordis Spy (R) and correctly identified Helping Hand as the key sabotage target. Fortunately, the Spy cost them half of their mana, and Flamel let me go 2-0 while recurring the Meditation Training.

My opponent got shockingly close to blocking both sides with a Charge! effect on a Haven Trainee (U), but the 4/4/4 Sneezer Shroom on board and the Ordis Trooper (U) in reserve got me over the finish line by one stat point.

Round 3 (W): Treyst & Rossum

A Kadigiran Mage-Dancer (R) backed by a Magical Training (R) was enough to 1-0 against my opponent’s Ada Lovelace (R) start as the second player.

On T2, I immediately sabotaged their Ada Lovelace with my Tooth Fairy (C). This did give Treyst a free scrap counter, but it was much better than allowing my opponent to easily move cards from hand into reserve.

The next turn, I misplayed by putting the Tooth Fairy into my forest-only region when I could have placed it in the hero-side starting region. Their 3/0/3 Lyra Chronicler (U) punished me, though on 2 mana, Jian, Assembly Overseer (C) or Coppélia (C) would have had the same effect.

On the following turn, their Lyra Chronicler (U)’s support ability helped them leap from 1 to 4 scrap counters. I feinted to contest their Haven-boosted Foundry Mechanic (C)s, then played my Tooth Fairy (U) to the other expedition, threatening to boost to 3/3/3 with 1 mana up.

If my opponent played another character, I could sleep my own Mage-Dancer, then sabotage their character at night with the Tooth Fairy. If they passed to avoid the sabotage, I could sleep a Foundry Mechanic to go 2-0.

They ended up playing an Yzmir Stargazer (F), and I was content to keep their reserve empty at 4 counters and sleep a Mage-Dancer for next turn.

The awakened Mage-Dancer and Tooth Fairy (U) gave me the freedom to draw up with Conjuring Seal (C) the following turn while still going 2-0. I spent a Beauty Sleep (F) to prevent an Axiom Salvager (R) from hitting reserve.

They found their second Haven, but a Tooth Fairy (C) sabotage left them starved of things to do with it on the turn it came down.

My opponent won an easy 2-0 with two Havens and enough cards to boost with them, but I took the turn to anchor two characters and Banishing Gate (C) one of the Havens to set up for the following turn. Not applying more pressure, however, gave my opponent space to Boom! (C) my Spindle Harvesters (U).

A lucky draw of Small Step, Giant Leap (C) meant I only needed to win one expedition. This was manageable since my opponent drew/resupplied into 3+ cost cards while I had both sides of a Beauty Sleep (F) for whichever expedition they commited fewer characters to.

Round 4 (W): Teija & Nauraa

An awkward opener had me keeping a Tooth Fairy (C) as my only cheap character. I opted to mana the Tooth Fairy (U) in favor of keeping a Helping Hand (F) + Flamel (C) combo.

I lost T1 to a Daughter of Yggdrasil (R), but its symmetrical draw benefits Afanas at least as much as it does Teija. Drawing into a common and rare Baba Yaga made me feel great about mana-ing the common next turn.

My opponent went for an anchored Aloe Vera, but I had the Off You Go! (C) ready.

On T3, they played opposite my Kadigiran Mage-Dancer (R), and I was able to punish them with a both sides of a Helping Hand, boosting up to 7/7/7 to 1-0 while drawing a card.

I drew into another Helping Hand (F) for the Mage-Dancer. My opponent tapping out for Son of Yggdrasil (C) let me recur an Off You Go! (C) with Flamel (C) to disincentivize them from playing another high value 3-drop.

My opponent had Cloth Cocoon (F)s for when I replayed my premium characters from reserve, but I had no shortage of cards, and was happy to trade up on mana each time to 1-0, then 2-0. Banishing Gate (C) and Beauty Sleep (F) backed by cheap characters closed out the game.

Round 5 (W): Sigismar & Wingspan

My strong Sneezer Shroom (R) + Magical Training (R) start got blown out by my opponent’s 2/2/2 Kadigiran Alchemist (U) that made an Ordis Recruit in each expedition. Next turn, though, the anchored 3/3/3 Sneezer Shroom gave me a window to get value by returning the Magical Training to hand with a Flamel (C).

Helping Hand (F) removed fleeting from the Sneezer Shroom and boosted it to win the side with an Ordis Recruit. Meanwhile, my opponent’s token-light start meant I could Off You Go! their Ordis Attorney (R) to ensure no progress in the other expedition while also denying them the card draw.

Going into the turn with an anchored Sneezer Shroom and my powerful Ordis Trooper (U) meant that playing out cheap spells could have won against any removal-less sequence from my opponent. However, realizing that paying 4 mana for Off You Go! (C) from reserve was sufficient to 2-0 put me in a great position for next turn.

My opponent’s The Sandman (U) slept one of my characters to guarantee a 1-1 while drawing them two cards.

Finding a Small Step, Giant Leap (C) at 2/3 on expeditions gave me the opportunity to aggresively play for one expedition. My opponent had just refilled on cards, though, and I hadn’t seen a single Teamwork Training (C) from them yet. I tried to play it safe by drawing up with a Conjuring Seal (C) rather than prematurely playing both sides of a Beauty Sleep (F), which would get massively punished by removal.

Conjuring Seal didn’t find me any additional spells, so I had to fire off the Beauty Sleep without an obvious target. The Sneezer Shroom would become a 5/5/5, so my opponent would need exactly Teamwork Training (C) and either a 2-drop with 3 in forest or another Teamwork Training to stop me. Ultimately, I figured that if my opponent had the second Teamwork Training, I would prefer them not having access to a Paper Herald (C) in reserve for next turn, so I slept it for no impact in forest.

My opponent did in fact have a Teamwork Training (C) for the Tooth Fairy (U). They also had the The Frog Prince (C) to block exactly, punishing my greedy Paper Herald (C) sleep. Notably, this also meant that playing a Kadigiran Mage-Dancer (R) instead of Beauty Sleep (F) would have earned me an 0-2.

Fortunately, I was so far up on resources on the following turn that I had no trouble guaranteeing a 1-1, which let me win with Small Step the turn after.

Round 6 (W): Treyst & Rossum

Disclaimer: My opponent had to take an important call in the middle of the match. It’s hard enough to play this game well with my full focus; I can’t imagine how tough it to play a finals match while dealing with outside responsibilities.

The downside of running only two copies of Small Step, Giant Leap (C) is that seeing both in my opening hand meant I had to put them into mana and plan to win the game the hard way. It was also too soon for Banishing Gate (C), but I kept it in case I had no better play than to take a turn off to remove an early Haven, Bravos Bastion (F).

After trading on T1 without having to spend a Magical Training (R), I thought I had a good shot at drawing with Baba Yaga (R) on T2 while going 1-1. Instead, my opponent had an incredible turn, beating Baba Yaga with Amelia Earhart (C) from reserve alongside an Axiom Salvager (R), and beating my Studious Disciple (C) with a Kelon Elemental (C) which also played a Coppélia (C) asleep for free.

Tempo-ing out the Ordis Trooper (U) for a single spell trigger was enough to go 1-0, since my opponent’s two Kelon Elemental (C)s fared poorly into a forest-only region. They able to get Treyst’s hero ability online on T3, though, which was a tradeoff I’m sure they were happy to make.

I felt pressured to replay the Ordis Trooper (U) immediately since my opponent could at any moment place a Tinker Bell (C) in reserve for instant sabotage.

I was worried enough about falling even further behind on expeditions that I went for a double Beauty Sleep (F) line when I noticed that their Foundry Mechanic (C) wouldn’t contribute anything to the forest-only region. I did manage to go 1-0 but spent two valuable spells to do so and only postponed the problem.

Next turn, it looked like they drew into their Haven with Treyst’s hero ability. Playing it gave me the chance to Tooth Fairy (C) sabotage their Ada Lovelace (R) to slow down their reserve velocity. No more characters were commited companion-side, so re-sleeping Dr. Frankenstein (R) put me temporarily ahead in both expeditions. My opponent only having one play on 3 mana meant I was able to eke out a trade.

I saw no way to avoid losing the next day, so I decided to anchor my Spindle Harvesters (U) and boost it up for the future while drawing with a Conjuring Seal (C) and both sides of a Magical Training (C). This line loses to Kelon Burst (C) or Boom! (C), but luckily my opponent didn’t have removal.

Down 3/1 on expeditions, I played a Kadigiran Mage-Dancer (R) to hold down the non-Spindle Harvesters (U) side while my opponent finally found their second Haven. Again, I saw no winning line other than to assume my opponent didn’t have removal, so I anchored the Mage-Dancer with Meditation Training (R). Afanas’s hero ability was at its best here, as I could reactively apply boosts to wherever my opponent decided to commit.

Saving 1 mana for Beauty Sleep (F) to flip an expedition let me 2-0, bringing us to 1/1. Critically, after burning through my whole hand, the Spindle Harvesters (U) bounced a Beauty Sleep from reserve, and the Mage-Dancer drew me a card.

When my opponent reinforced the expedition with their now-awake character, I decided I couldn’t fight them on that side without playing into their long-overdue removal, so I drew cards and set up a second Mage-Dancer to make my other expedition resilient to Kelon Burst (C). Right on queue, they resupplied into one and used it to clear out my lone Sneezer Shroom.

Once I saw that they had forfeited the Mage-Dancer side, I switched gears to prepare myself best for tiebreakers. The ticket ended up being Beauty Sleep on the larger of the Mage-Dancers, letting me start tiebreakers with 10/10/10 in stats.

My opponent began by sabotaging my Mage-Dancer in reserve, kneecapping my boost potential. Thankfully, I still had the Tooth Fairy (U) in hand which could boost even more rapidly.

Disaster struck when my opponent played an incredible Haven Bouncer (U) which could (1) send a character with hand cost 3 or less to reserve and (2) put a card from hand into reserve in order to sabotage. Arranging the triggers in the right order let them sabotage the very same character they sent to reserve. So long 10/10/10 Mage-Dancer.

All I had left was a Tooth Fairy (U) and a dream. I started by using a Spy Craft (C) to sabotage the Amelia Earhart (C) their Haven Bouncer (U) had conveniently put into reserve.

The upside of not seeing my Helping Hand (F)s early was that I was holding all three right now. With six mana left, that was enough to cast four instances of it. Each time, the Tooth Fairy (U) boosted itself twice, the spell gave it a boost, and it received an Afanas boost for a total of four boosts per cast.

At the end of the day, the Tooth Fairy stood alone for a massive 20/20/20 in stats to my opponent’s 19/22/17, edging out the narrowest of wins in tiebreakers.