This was the sealed deck I played at the second Trial by Frost pre-release I attended.
The pool
First impressions:
- Kojo & Booda and Fen & Crowbar are two very strong options for heroes, which is fortunate because Bravos and Lyra are also my strongest factions.
- Bravos is very deep and offers a great aggressive curve with four copies of Fire Rabbit.
- Lyra is not as deep, but it has two copies each of three excellent characters: Snowball Commando (C), Nisse (C), and Nyala, Gifted Conjurer (C).
- Muna and Yzmir are light on playables, so I wrote both off very quickly.
- Axiom provides some resupply/reserve synergies and solid 2-drops but won’t be giving me an increase in power.
- Ordis’s cards are higher-costed and require more to go right, but there’s a higher quantity of strong cards.
Kojo is probably stronger in a vacuum, but there’s enough Fen support in the pool that I think she’s a better fit:
- Fen’s card advantage can make up for the low-value Fire Rabbits.
- The Haven Seiringars can be resupplied into reserve.
- Nyala, Gifted Conjurer (C) can get cards where they need to be.
- Field Reinforcements (C) and Geyser (R) get extra value if they’re resupplied.
The deck
This is a Fen character aggro deck. The highlight of the deck is four copies of Fire Rabbit as a 1-mana 2/2/1 or 2/2/2; gaining fleeting is less of a downside due to Fen’s free resupply.
With all the Fire Rabbits and a healthy amount of 2-drops, Ordis Liaison becomes a reasonable late-game finisher despite not having a token-generating hero.
Multiple copies of key Lyra commons provide utility in the form of exhausting cards from reserve, resupply, and swapping cards from hand. Two Haven Seiringars that can get put directly into reserve ensure I won’t run out of cards.
The aggressive gameplan means that the pool’s lack of removal is less of a downside. The only removal spell is Geyser (R), which was worth including because Fen can make use of the ramp thanks to her built-in card advantage. Break the Ice (C) still didn’t seem worth it since it would almost always cost 4 mana.
Takeaways
Overperformers
- Icebound Lake (R): In R2, this 2-mana investment single-handedly won an expedition against my opponent’s entire 9-mana turn. You need to do quite a bit of work to ensure you have an expedition that’s behind until you want to trigger this, but the swing when you pull it off can be massive.
- Haven Seiringar: I felt so advantaged when I got an early card draw off of this, especially when Fen put it directly into reserve.
- Fire Rabbit: This was great for Fen, who’s happy to spend her extra resources for a well-statted play that passes priority.
Underperformers
- Field Reinforcements: I never drew this in my opening hand, and my deck was aggressive enough that both modes were never online past D1.
- Nyala, Gifted Conjurer (C): I thought this would be one of the deck’s best cards, and instead it was just solid. This deck doesn’t support her all that well, to be fair, but the swap ability was usually a break-even; I never came out clearly ahead, and once or twice it made my hand worse. It’s possible this is due to a limited sample size.
The games
Round 1 (W): Subhash & Marmo (Axiom-Lyra-Muna)
My opponent created a Brassbug but didn’t have a follow-up play, which let me 2-0 with an Ordis Nightwarden (C) and a Fire Rabbit (C).
Over the next several turns, I traded while pulling way ahead on cards thanks to drawing with both Haven Seiringars, one of which I resupplied into.
On D4, I resupplied into the Geyser (F) which removed a Brassbug while ramping and let me win an uncontested expedition.
Meanwhile, my opponent was low on cards and mana due to Subhash’s hero ability. I was able to play out more cards and stats over the last two turns to close out the game.
Round 2 (W): Basira & Kaizaimon (Bravos-Lyra-Muna)
As the second player, my Nisse (C) sized up perfectly against a Snoozer Shroom, which let me get off to an early 1-0 lead.
I could only play a single card on D2, so I replayed the Nisse into a forest-water region. My opponent Geyser (R)-ed it back to hand for no progress between the two of us. They put me ahead on cards, but landed some early ramp for themselves.
On D3, they played a Demeter (C/F) ahead of schedule into the starting region where they knew the forest-water region would be coming up. I resigned that expedition for this day and the next, but I took the opportunity to draw with a Haven Seiringar and set up an Icebound Lake (R).
We both dumped all of our characters in the non-Demeter expedition, and I came out slightly ahead to trade expeditions.
On D5, my opponent ran out their Demeter from reserve into the other starting region with forest upcoming. Fortunately, I had drawn into my Geyser (R). I only had one character to play with my 3 remaining mana, but going 1-0 while taking care of a 2-turn Demeter was a huge swing. I made sure to not to win in the expedition where I was behind by one to keep my Icebound Lake active.
When they replayed their Demeter alongside a Repotter Otter (R), I played three characters to the expedition that was behind in order to lock it down while accumulating all three trial counters on the Icebound Lake (R). This created the 5/5/5 Dragon Shade and slept Demeter to instantly flip the expedition, all for just two mana invested on a previous day.
I was able to play to the non-Demeter expedition to close out the game on the following day.
Round 3 (W): Fen & Crowbar (Bravos-Lyra-Yzmir)
The exact details of this match are the haziest for me, but I’ll summarize what I remember.
Both Fens stayed pretty even in the early game while building up resources in hand and in reserve. A Haven Seiringar put me ever so slightly ahead on cards.
My Will-o’-the-Wisp (R) and Snowball Commando (C) shut them out in a region where I wasn’t equipped to contest in forest.
On the turn that they resupplied into Geyser, I exhausted it with a Snowball Commando (C) to delay their ramp (I forgot to roll a die for a chance to let my opponent exhaust one of my cards in return. Apologies to my opponent!).
I was happy with Dong Da Shen (C) and Akhlut (R) in the late-game. Their Fen resupply ensured that there was always a target worth nullifying.
My Fire Rabbits were excellent at passing priority, once long enough to dedicate minimal resources with an expedition-winning Field Reinforcements for an Ordis Recruit. I later learned that my opponent’s hand had several removal spells that I forced them to tap out of before presenting a worthwhile target.
At one expedition away from victory, I played around their face-up Geyser and Eat Me Energy Bars (C) by playing a 3-drop and Fire Rabbit to one expedition, then was able to win with an Ordis Liaison (R).