This is the sealed deck from my third and final Trial by Frost pre-release. I finally managed to open a unique!
The pool
First impressions:
- My pool doesn’t have any of the top-tier Trial by Frost heroes: Sigismar & Wingspan, Kojo & Booda, or Fen & Crowbar
- I briefly considered Gulrang & Tocsin. Two copies of Flutter of Moths (C) and a Moth to a Flame (C) would be strong finishers, and two Sunisa, Dedicated Ensigns might be able to turn off defender if things line up right. My token-generation is too light to reliably get a benefit out of Gulrang’s hero ability, though, and I don’t have enough ways to ensure it wouldn’t more often be a detriment.
- Subhash & Marmo are strong in the early game, but I have very few ways to compensate for their card disadvantage.
- Sierra & Oddball were off the table since Axiom doesn’t offer any 3+ mana permanents and no two factions together fill the void.
- Rin & Orchid’s hero ability provides generic card advantage, and the pool has a Magic Beans (C) and two copies of Persephone to help it trigger more often.
- I have access to two copies of Demeter as a win-condition between Bravos and Muna.
- Axiom can fill out the deck with solid 2 and 3-drops in a way that none of Lyra, Ordis, or Yzmir can.
Uniques
Gibil: 2/7
You never want to play this for its front-side, but I could see being okay with it in a Subhash deck where you put it into reserve, play it as a 5-mana 9/9/6, and potentially draw a card.
The deck
This deck tries to fight for early forest wins to draw into one of the two Demeter (C/F)s as a late-game win condition.
Cards that can change a region to forest like Persephone and Magic Beans (C) support Rin’s hero ability in the early-game while doubling as late-game finishers that can keep Demeter out for more than two turns.
I’ve prioritized cards with high forest stats like Haven Seiringar (C), Snoozer Shroom (C), and The Little Match Girl (C). To take advantage of Rin’s hero ability, I’ve also included cards that play better from reserve like Walrus Scout (C), The Machine in the Ice (R), and Gibil (U).
Takeaways
Overperformers
- Demeter (C/F): This was responsible for each of my wins today. Playing this with an upcoming forest region ensured it would stay out for at least two turns. When I kept it out for any longer than that by turning a region into forest, I pulled very far into the lead.
- Icebound Taiga (C): The condition isn’t hard to trigger, and the anchored Dragon Shade is one of the better payoffs from the icebound cycle. This was my R2 finisher, and my opponent’s R3 finisher.
- Persephone (R): Shifting my opponent’s region never resulted in a blowout, but the fact that it’s effectively a 3/3/3 that costs 2 on the back side meant I was always happy to have this. Synergies with Rin and Demeter pushed it over the top.
- Sow (C)/Magic Beans (C): Absent 3-mana 3/3/3s, these 1-mana boosters made my opening hands a lot smoother. In R1 and R2, they let my 2-mana characters go go even against my opponent instead of falling behind an expedition.
- Magic Sleigh (R): This impressed me when my R3 opponent played it. They didn’t move forward that turn but effectively paid 3 mana for a free progression at some point in the future.
- Eat Me Energy Bars (R/F): My R3 opponent generated a truly absurd amount of stats for just 2 mana. They got even more value out of this by winning the other expedition and only blocking on the expedition with this gear so that it stayed out for an extra turn.
Underperformers
- Avalanche (C): I was surprised at how difficult it was to find worthwhile targets for this. I let it overflow from reserve one game and in another, I regretted keeping it over a Rocket Puffin (C) in the late-game.
- Repotter Otter (R): Rin was already helping me get cards into reserve, and I really didn’t want to give my opponent the extra draw.
The games
Round 1 (W): Fen & Crowbar (Bravos-Lyra-?)
I kept characters that allowed me to trade through the early turns, getting the first two draws off of Rin’s hero ability.
This drew me into Demeter (C/F), which I played on curve into an upcoming forest region.
I hadn’t seen a Persephone or Magic Beans (C) to keep Demeter eternal, but I did have a Frozen Delivery (F) in reserve. I played it and exhausted resupplied into Magic Beans (C). It came in exhausted, but I had been holding onto a Rocket Puffin (C) for exactly this situation.
I was able to play out the Magic Beans for Demeter to win the expedition again and stay out that turn. My opponent didn’t have disruption, so I was free to replay the Magic Beans and keep Demeter out an additional turn.
My opponent was generating more stats per turn with multiple Bravos Trailblazers and Magpeng Hoarders in both common and rare, but Demeter stayed out for the rest of the game and carried me to victory.
Round 2 (W): Kojo & Booda (Bravos-Lyra-Ordis)
I kept a Bravos Trailblazer (C) and Magic Beans (C), which was enough to trade against Gericht, Revered Duelist (R) as the first player. On D2, they replayed Gericht, and the Trailblazer was able to win against Booda.
Rin’s hero ability drew into the Mana Flare (C), and I was thrilled to cycle a fleeting spell into reserve.
The Mana Flare let me play out a D3 Demeter one day early into a starting region with forest upcoming. When she moved forward, I was able to use Rin’s hero ability to put my Gibil (U) into reserve.
I was planning to play Magic Beans to keep Demeter out, then with my empty reserve, play a 9/9/7 Gibil (U) blocking a forest-mountain region to 2-0. However, my opponent had the chance to disrupt me by playing a Snowball Commando (C) to exhaust a card in my reserve.
With no Persephone in hand yet, hitting Magic Beans would have made Demeter lose eternal - I suggested as much to my opponent - but they preferred to target my Gibil. Losing Gibil meant I could at best go 1-1 and missed the opportunity to play it into perfect regions, but being able to play Magic Beans meant I could keep Demeter out for even longer.
My first Demeter eventually went away, but I drew into the other, which stuck around for the rest of the game.
I was ahead at 1/2 going into the final turn, but my opponent matched my Demeter with an Ordis Nightwarden that they were able to sleep and double-boost with a Magpeng Hoarder (U).
On 9 mana, I drew into Icebound Taiga (C). I played out the Taiga, played Persephone (C) from reserve, played the other Persephone (R) from reserve, then played my Rocket Puffin (C). This triggered the third trial counter to create a 5/5/5 Dragon Shade for enough stats to 2-0.
Round 3 (L): Fen & Crowbar (Bravos-Lyra-Muna)
My opponent pushed against my Persephone (R) on the first turn to prevent me from triggering Rin’s ability.
I got down Demeter (R) on-curve into a risky water-mountain region, but I was the second player, so my opponent couldn’t prevent her from moving into forest. Since they were winning the other expedition uncontested, they got down a Magic Sleigh (R) which a turn or two later ended up being worth a progression.
My opponent attempted to Heimdall (C) my Demeter into an upcoming water region, but I slow-rolled the Magic Beans (C) to ensure she stayed eternal regardless, both that turn and the next.
When I played out my second Demeter, my opponent played out Lost in the Woods (C) to send her to reserve and trade expeditions.
Somewhere in here, my opponent found a window to get down the Icebound Taiga (R) they had resupplied into. It sat there with one counter until they popped it on the turn I thought I would be going from 2/3 to 1/2 with two eternal Demeters.
All of a sudden, they created the 5/5/5 Dragon Shade, boosted it with Sow and Saskia, and played an Eat Me Energy Bars (F) in its expedition to 1-0 me such that one of my Demeters lost eternal. The worst part was that the Eat Me Energy Bars expedition was the one that exactly blocked, so the 8/8/8 Dragon Shade would remain gigantic on the next turn.
Even my Eros (R) + Demeter play would have lost to their stats as of morning, but they had two removal spells in hand to win the final day decisively.