Today I attended my first Altered constructed event. I decided to bring the strongest-looking Lyra deck I could come up with, which had me looking at Fen & Crowbar.
The deck
I think the most broken thing that Fen & Crowbar have access to is that their hero ability can get characters with the “anchor target character with hand cost 3 or less” support ability directly into your reserve. Whenever you resupply one of these, it’s as though your hero ability were Arjun & Spike’s minus the cost of a card from reserve, or (optimistically) “At Noon - Create a 4/4/4 in target expedition”.
This deck plays the maximum number of non-uniques with this support ability: 3 The Hatter (C) and 3 Kodama (F). The rare slots prioritize characters that benefit from being the target of these abilities such as Cernunnos (F), Aloe Vera (F), and Alice (F). Other high picks are characters that are strong from reserve like Tinker Bell (F) and Ouroboros Trickster (C) or cards that benefit from the constant resupply like Anansi (C) or Paint Prison (C).
I envisioned the deck as a tempo midrange deck. The goal is for the well-statted characters to fight for early advances while using efficient removal to trade up and close out the game. Fen & Crowbar’s hero ability can keep up with late-game decks while being able to flexibly convert value to tempo by spending resources from reserve.
Uniques
Cernunnos: 7/7
The strongest unique I currently own, by my estimation. For a minimal sacrifice in stats, you get to discard a character with hand cost 3 or less, which will be most characters in an average constructed deck. The card from reserve is barely a cost in Fen & Crowbar, and it’s an arrow ability, so it will trigger even if this gets put into reserve with Fen’s resupply.
Amahle, Asgarthan Outcast: 6/7
Another removal-on-a-stick unique that barely sacrifices any stats, only this one can hit any object. Returning a card to the top of your opponent’s deck is often at least as good as discarding it, except in the case of a premium card with a when-played trigger. This unique’s only downside is its relatively high costs, but it more than makes up for it with its absolute flexibility.
Aloe Vera: 5/7
This Aloe Vera is blessed with the best support ability in the game so far, and it’s already well-statted from hand. The deck is already built to take advantage of the passive resupply if you manage to anchor it with a Kodama (F) or The Hatter support ability. This is a slot I’m potentially looking to upgrade.
The games
Round 1 (W): Basira & Kaizaimon boost from reserve
As the first player, my opponent led with a Haven, Bravos Bastion (R). I had kept a Tinker Bell (F) in my opening hand, which I played to get the only advance on the first day and set up for a sabotage. Next turn, I replayed the Tinker Bell to sabotage the Haven Trainee (C) they had resupplied. They got down a Ratatoskr (C) and another Haven Trainee (C) but couldn’t do better than trade with me due since my Tinker Bell was in a region that didn’t care about forest.
They quickly started getting constant value out of their Haven plus hero ability, and soon I was fighting just to secure a single advancement on each side. It worked out that a mountain region was adjacent to a forest-mountain region, letting me play Mighty Jinn (F) from hand one turn, then from reserve the next, only putting it into mana after its second play.
By the late-game, we were each two spaces away. They had more total power, but I fought hard for one side to bring us both of us one space away. They used this window to get their Sun Wukong (R) into reserve while I figured this was the last turn I could get value out of a support ability to anchor a middling character.
They were the first player this turn, and I resupplied a Cloth Cocoon (C) with another already in hand. It didn’t occur to me until after they played their Sun Wukong from reserve that I wouldn’t be able to target it with either of my Cloth Cocoons. The region they played it into was favorable for mountain, so I forfeited that side entirely and played purely to survive until tiebreakers. They dropped a Haven Warrior to challenge me, but I was able to narrowly edge it out by dedicating all of my characters to that expedition.
Going to tiebreakers, I would be the first player. They were empty-handed but had the Sun Wukong and Haven Warrior in reserve. With 11 mana, I miraculously drew Amahle, Asgarthan Outcast (U) and resupplied Cernunnos (F). I led with Cernunnos. I then let them play Sun Wukong, which I sent to the top of their deck with Amahle. They replayed their Haven Warrior which I Cloth Cocoon-ed, leaving their side of the board empty with a Physical Training (C) stranded in their hand.
Round 2 (W): Teija & Nauraa anchor and boost
I was thrilled to keep my Cernunnos (U) in my opening hand against a deck that would likely dedicate a lot of resources to their 3-mana characters. Alongside it, I opted for an aggressive start of a Martengale (C) and Ouroboros Trickster (C).
My keep paid off, as they spent their whole T1 to deploy The Spindle, Muna Bastion (R). I knew the landmark would be trouble later, but splitting up my 1-drop and 2-drop to go 2-0 on the first day put me massively ahead.
I slow-rolled by replaying the Trickster while they played a boosted Dracaena. I wasn’t beating that, so I dedicated my second play to the opposite expedition, happy to maintain the status quo in my favor.
On T3, they spent their whole turn to get down a boosted Coniferal Coneman. I played a 3-drop to advance and block on the Dracaena side, then used the support ability of one Martengale (C) and discarded another from reserve to Paint Prison (C) their Spindle for only 2 mana.
As it turned out, they topped their Spindle and replayed it the following turn. The anchored Coneman was awkward for them due to being on the back foot; I was perfectly happy to forfeit the Coneman expedition, dedicate all my resources to the opposite side, and maintain a 2-region lead.
When they replayed the Dracaena the following turn, I didn’t mind paying an effective 6 mana to play Cernunnos (U) and discard it. I was enough ahead at this point that it wasn’t hard to play for a single advance each day and close out the game.
Round 3 (L): Sigismar & Wingspan go-wide aggro
The beginning of this game had several interesting decisions, and I’m pretty sure I made some wrong ones. Seeing Sigismar on the opposite side of the table, I decided to put a Martengale (C) and Paper Herald (C) into mana since they compare unfavorably to an Ordis Recruit. Instead, I kept more substantial threats: Aloe Vera (U), Tinker Bell (F), and Anansi (C).
They led with a Monolith Rune-Scribe (R) and resupplied Anubis (R). I knew that this would be a problem for me as the first player the following turn, but I didn’t register that I needed to play the Tinker Bell here to get it into reserve in order to sabotage the Anubis. Instead, I opted for max-stats in the form of my Aloe Vera (U), played to the Ordis Recruit side in case they had an Ordis Trooper (R) or Frog Prince (R).
I got a lucky top-deck of a Paper Herald (F) which let me delay the Anubis problem. They responded, and I safely played my Anansi for two boosts. It felt bad to spend the Aloe Vera (U) support ability to anchor it into a likely Anubis play, but my reserve would have overflowed anyway if I didn’t. I figured I would need to force the play eventually, but I wonder if I could have continued to play around it long enough until my Tinker Bell (F) was active.
They predictably ate my Anansi with Anubis the next turn. I played an Ouroboros Trickster to the opposite expedition, and I low-rolled with it. This turned out to make a huge difference, as they followed up with an Ordis Trooper (R), edging it out. My Cernunnos (F) could now only win me one of the two expeditions.
I lost a lot of ground over the next two turns. I had a Cloth Cocoon (C) and Paint Prison (C) in reserve without any great single target, and I drew into another Paint Prison (C). One turn I made a play that was suboptimal in terms of stats but didn’t involve discarding two cards from reserve that night.
There was one turn where my opponent thought for a while and settled on the greedy but correct play of not committing a card from hand to their already winning expedition, banking that I couldn’t generate 2/2/2 to block with 2 mana open, which as it turned out, I couldn’t.
There was an interesting board state on the penultimate turn, where we were tied on one side, and they had two Ordis Recruits on the opposite side with 2 mana up and one card in hand. I had a Martengale (C) in hand and Ouroboros Trickster (C) in reserve. I figured I was behind enough that I needed to make the optimistic play of sending the Ouroboros Trickster against their pair of Recruits with a 50% chance to block. I low-rolled, but they had the Ordis Trooper (R) in hand anyway.
On the last turn with 9 mana, I had a nice curve of Cernunnos (F) into Aloe Vera (F) on water into Paint Prison, but being the first player hurt me here: I had to Paint Prison before they played their last card, so they were able to dedicate the Ordis Gatekeeper I had put on top of their deck the previous turn to whichever expedition I didn’t target for removal.
Round 4 (W): Auraq & Kibble 0-cost
I kept a pretty greedy hand and led with a Kodama (F) with no follow-up. Fortunately, they only had one play on the first turn and could only advance on one side. On T2, they gave my Kodama fleeting with A Cappella Training, but this let me play another beefy character to advance on both sides.
They played characters that got them a ton of card advantage like Esmeralda (R), but I had a bunch of well-statted characters that left me slightly ahead on expedition progress. My Cernunnos (U) from my opening hand resulted in a massive swing on one turn. They were able to sabotage it with a Tanuki (C), but it did more than enough by coming down just once.
Their Auraq & Kibble timing was a bit awkward, as they were stuck on 4 performance counters. By the time they jumped up to 6 to play a free The Hatter (C), I was already within one advancement of victory. (This was the first time it occured to me that a 0-stat character played from Auraq & Kibble’s hero ability still adds another performance counter, making it slightly easier to trigger each subsequent time.)
I played hard to the opposite side with a double-boosted Anansi (C) and another small character. They played a strong character and then removed my Anansi, but because I still cared about water on their The Hatter side, I could play my Alice (F) there for the win.
Takeaways
I think the most important consideration when building a Fen & Crowbar deck is making sure that every card in the deck is a card you’re happy to see in your hand or in reserve at any point in the game.
The above point makes ratios of characters to non-characters particularly relevant. I was worried that 2 Paint Prison (C) would be too low, but after getting stuck with a Cloth Cocoon in reserve and Paint Prisons in hand and reserve at the same time against Sigismar, I’m starting to wonder if going down to 1 Paint Prison (C) would be better.
Single-target removal performs especially poorly against token-generation. If the mana you spend on removal prevents you from playing something to that expedition, a 1/1/1 will win it just as easily as the character you removed.
If you fall behind early, you open up a win condition for your opponent: they can win by only advancing and blocking on one side for the rest of the game. You can’t afford to spend an early turn without getting some stats on board.
Overperformers
- Cernunnos (F): The pure stats are just good. I wish I could run 3, but I think the unique is worth the slot.
- Martengale (C): I wasn’t sure if this would have a high enough impact, but it ended up being critical in two games. Once it snuck out an advancement with exactly 1 mana, and another time in R2, its cost-reduction support ability enabled a me to play two 3-mana cards when the alternative would have been significantly worse.
- Mighty Jinn (F): This ended up being strong even from hand. Once I had it ramp me as soon as possible when I was drowning in cards, but another time I actually wanted to let it go to reserve first due to its strong but uneven stats.
- Lyra Thespian (C): I liked this as a 1-of with 3 Ouroboros Tricksters. It got boosted two out of three times, and the other time I was totally fine with a 2/2/2.
Underperformers
- Paint Prison (C): It felt bad to draw the second copy when my hand and reserve were full of removal spells.
- Ouroboros Inkcaster (C): Activating the ability would often have been a liability: I wanted cards like Tinker Bell and The Hatter to stay in reserve, and I needed other cards there to fuel my Anansis, Paint Prisons and uniques. I only triggered it once, when it brought a Paint Prison back to hand just so that I didn’t have to discard down to my reserve limit.
- Anansi (C): More often than I expected, I wasn’t able to play this for three boosts because the Paint Prisons, support abilities, and uniques were fighting for my resources in reserve. Still a premium common, but there are some awkwardnesses attached.