Ramping past a day 1 Mana Eruption (Atsadi & Surge) [Standard]

This week, I brought Atsadi & Surge to the ACE Week 5 tournament, where the deck went 4-1 in single-elimination for 2nd place out of 22.

The deck

The last time I played this deck.

The deck has the same philosophy as last time: you can afford to play fast and loose with your resources since Atsadi’s hero ability will help you recoup the cards and then some. If you’re able to ramp enough, you can use your mana advantage to pass priority and play your large characters once your opponent is unable to react.

I’ve tweaked several of the slots after getting a better feel for how the hero plays.

Card choices

• Mana Channeling (C): Ramping on D1 puts you at a huge advantage, and this is the easiest way to achieve that.
• Tiny Jinn (R): Costing 1 is very important since it can played alongside Mana Channeling (C) or Chiron (C) on D1.
• Atlas (R): This gets you the first Atsadi draw and will usually at least trade if played on D2 or D3. It plays well with boost support abilities, Helping Hand (R), and other copies of itself.
• Kaibara, Asgarthan Leviathan (R): The bump in stats for the rare lets you feel a lot more comfortable tapping out for this. I like having two copies to make it more likely you trigger the fifth card draw.
• Son of Yggdrasil (F): Blue put me onto one of these as another gigantic threat that’s excellent if you’re able to time it with a forest-only region.
• Helping Hand (R): This might be the best tempo card in the game. It’s nice for Atsadi who runs gigantic characters and can draw to make up for the card’s low value.
• Sakarabru (F): This usually isn’t a card that you want to play on 7 mana. It’s here to stabilize you once you’ve ramped and to counter Small Step, Giant Leap.
• Bravos Tracer (C): This helps you not fall behind early and can be played before an expensive character in the late-game. Fleeting is less of a downside when you can rely on your hero ability to draw you cards.
• Haven, Bravos Bastion (R): This has only minor synergy with the deck (boosting gigantic characters, Bravos Tracer), but I think the card is strong enough on its own that it might be worth running a copy. I especially like it as a Magical Training-style after-you once you’ve ramped. I didn’t love it when I tried two or three copies because you don’t want more setup cards on top of your ramp.
• Mana Eruption (R): All-purpose removal is important, and the rare’s reduced cost makes it easier to play on the same day as an expensive character. Losing a mana orb matters less for a deck that ramps.
• Ratatoskr (C): I like one of these because it can pass priority for a large character, but it’s also nice to have a 3-drop from reserve once you’ve already ramped.

Uniques

My rating system

Kappa: 6/7

Ramping twice instantly gives Atsadi mana to play his biggest characters. The fact that this has respectable stats in mountain and water means you sometimes won’t even go 0-2 while playing this. You’ll always be able to fulfill the cost of putting a card from hand in reserve since this will trigger Atsadi’s hero ability to draw a card.

Asmodeus: 4/7

The stats aren’t stellar for a 7-drop, but ramp for Atsadi is still meaningful after 7 mana. This being the deck’s only 7-drop that really wants to be played on curve means it will likely draw him a card.

Sakarabru: 4/7

The Sakarabru effect helps Atsadi stabilize once he’s ramped. Most of the characters you want to discard are 3-drops, and hitting a valuable target can prevent you from going 0-2 due to Sakarabru’s low stats.

Putting a card from hand in reserve is less of a cost when this is drawing a card for Atsadi, and the powerful support ability will help put you ahead on cards anyway.

The unbalanced stats can sometimes be awkward if you’re moving your opponent backwards into a mountain region.

The games

Link to the tournament on BGA.

Takeaways

Atsadi can steal some games purely because many decks aren’t prepared to deal with multiple large characters.

I had more awkward hands than I would have liked today (see R2, R4, and R5). The deck feels strong when it gets the ideal 1+2 start, but I want to have enough ways to trade on D1 when that’s not possible. At a minimum, I’m planning to swap back in a third Haven Warrior, ideally the rare.

Round 1 (W): Fen & Crowbar

Mana Channeling (C) let me pass priority while ramping so that Issun-bōshi (C) could win an expedition on its own.

On D2, Mighty Jinn (C) was able to perfectly block a mountain-only region. My opponent’s Spy Craft (F) combined with the upcoming forest-mountain and mountain-only regions made me decide not to ramp with the Mighty Jinn (C), which is unusual.

Haven, Bravos Bastion (R) on D3 let me pass priority to replay the Mighty Jinn (C) blocking my opponent’s Esmeralda (C). Esmeralda resupplied into a Cloth Cocoon (C) which my opponent used to remove my Haven, but I think I would have been worse off if they had removed my Mighty Jinn in order to flip an expedition. As it was, I was able to use my last mana to play a Ratatoskr (C) to 2-0.

My Haven had resupplied into my Asmodeus (U), which I could just play on D4 thanks to ramping twice. It blocked my opponent’s Mighty Jinn (F) to trade expeditions. My opponent had kept me low on cards, so the fact that Atsadi’s hero ability let me draw was critical.

My opponent resupplying into Cloth Cocoon (R) with an A Cappella Training (C) in reserve meant my Kaibara, Asgarthan Leviathan (R) was a no-go, but I was happy to play out Kappa (U) to ramp towards a stronger follow-up. Kappa (U) let me put a Mana Channeling (C) in reserve as a non-cost.

Mana Eruption (R) costing 2 mana instead of 3 let me take out a 5-5-5 Anansi (C) after passing priority with Mana Channeling rather than having to fire it off right away. My opponent had to pivot to an A Cappella Training + Cloth Cocoon combo to 1-0 that day, which let me play Kaibara to 2-0 for the win on the following day.

Round 2 (W): Teija & Nauraa

A hand full of 5+ mana cards and spells had me deliberating for a while on my opening hand. I ended up keeping one Atlas (R) to guarantee a 5-mana play and a heroism counter. I also kept both Mana Eruptions because they could at least remove anchored characters and stall the game. I could potentially recover from the mana loss if I were to draw into ramp.

I reluctantly fired off a D1 Mana Eruption (C) on my opponent’s Sneezer Shroom (C). De-ramping myself wasn’t great, but the Sneezer Shroom would have likely won its expedition on this day and the next, which would have been backbreaking.

On 3 mana, I played the Tiny Jinn (R) I drew into on D2, which went 1-1 against my opponent’s Kodama (C) and Chiron (F). I was able to recover on the next turn when Mighty Jinn (C) let me trade thanks to a forest-mountain region flipping over.

Tiny Jinn (R) from reserve let me finally pull ahead on mana while Haven Warrior (R)’s great stats ensured that I could trade.

On 8 mana, I passed priority with a Mana Channeling (C). This was key, as my opponent split their expeditions evenly, which meant my Son of Yggdrasil (F) with a Haven Warrior (R) boost could 2-0 even though forest wasn’t active in either expedition.

Tomoe Gozen (C)’s 5 in mountain was instrumental in winning one side alongside the Son of Yggdrasil. At 1/3 on expeditions with 11 mana to my opponent’s 7, I was confident I would win one expedition regardless, but Haven, Bravos Bastion (R) resupplying into Kaibara, Asgarthan Leviathan (R) let me do it in style.

Round 3 (W): Nevenka & Blotch

From my opening hand, I opted to keep a Mana Channeling (C), Atlas (R), and Kappa (U). Mana Channeling (C) made Atlas (R) a powerful D2 play, and Kappa (U) on D3 would put me far into the lead. This required giving up a Ratatoskr (C) for a likely D1 progression, but I was confident I could get a bigger advantage by playing for the long game.

D1 and D2 went as expected. Atlas (R) took an A Cappella Training (C) but ensured I was only behind by one expedition going into my Kappa (U) turn.

Kappa (U) put a Tiny Jinn (R) into reserve in order to ramp. A Cappella Training (C) prevented me from playing it again, but my opponent was only able to win one side with their card-draw Kappa (U).

At 9 mana on D4, I had the option to run out a tough 5 Kaibara, Asgarthan Leviathan (R) for a virtually guaranteed 2-0, but my opponent could just pass and conserve resources. I instead chose to ramp twice more with the Tiny Jinn (R) from reserve and Mighty Jinn (C) from hand while sabotaging their Kappa (U). This line was still able to 1-1 and bring us to 5/3 on expeditions.

Now with 12 mana on D5, I could keep my opponent low on resources with a Haven Bouncer (C), pass priority to make them dedicate another card, then shut out both expeditions with the Kaibara.

On the following day, I played out the Kaibara immediately to play around sabotage, then targeted it with Helping Hand (R) as soon as possible to rule out Cloth Cocoon and boost it to 20-20-20 across both expeditions. I wasn’t afraid of Twinkle Twinkle (C), since they’d still have to pay the tough 2, meaning I’d be free to win one expedition, and they’d have to answer the Kaibara again on the following turn.

At 1/3 on expeditions, my opponent was beating me with a double-boosted Lyra Thespian (R), but my Sakarabru (U) discarded it so that even my opponent’s Twinkle Twinkle (C) couldn’t stop me from winning an expedition.

Round 4 (W): Sigismar & Wingspan

I had a weak opening hand that had me running out a Haven Bouncer (C) against my opponent’s Ordis Recruit. Fortunately, my opponent’s looked equally weak, as they were only able to 1-0 me with a Foundry Mechanic (F).

On D2, I accepted a 1-2 to ramp with a Mighty Jinn (C) that couldn’t block either water region. The play I was likely ramping to was a D3 Daughter of Yggdrasil (F), so I played the Mighty Jinn (C) companion-side for a 50% chance of moving into a forest region rather than the 0% chance hero-side.

Fortunately, a forest-mountain region flipped up. My Son of Yggdrasil (F) earned me a 1-0. My opponent could have progressed themselves but chose not to; since they played out all of their characters, it’s possible they miscalculated and/or valued a Monolith Legate (C) sabotage on the Son of Yggdrasil higher than the progression.

On the following day, I double-ramped and drew with Kappa (U). I put a Chiron (C) into reserve rather than a Helping Hand (R). I figured I had cards to spare and could afford to hide the Helping Hand (R) to surprise my opponent.

It ended up not mattering, since my opponent slept my Kappa (U) to 2-0 while preventing me from replaying it on the following day.

On D5, my opponent dropped a Grand Endeavor (R). Thankfully, I had held onto a Mana Eruption (R) and was able to 2-0. My mana advantage meant that sacrificing a mana orb hardly hurt.

With 10 mana, I led with an Atlas (R), then boosted it with Helping Hand (R). Sticky Note Seals (C) wouldn’t have been too much of a blowout since Atlas has seasoned. My opponent just played characters instead, and my Mana Eruption (C) on their The Sandman (F) let me narrowly 2-0.

At 1/2, I replayed my 5-5-5 gigantic Atlas (R) on the following day. My opponent played a 2-mana Ordis Trooper (U) that creates an Ordis Recruit whenever another non-token character joins. I passed priority with a Mana Channeling (C), which crucially disguised where I’d play my final character, a Haven Warrior (C) into either a forest-water region or water-only region. My opponent played out all of their characters, creating a token each time.

Once things all shook out, they were winning one expedition by exactly one stat while I was winning the other by one stat as well. Since I just needed one progression, I barely squeaked out the win.

Round 5 (L): Afanas & Senka

I had a ramp-less start with several expensive/situational cards. I kept Haven, Bravos Bastion (F) despite the card being stronger in the mid/late-game. Still, as the starting player, Chiron (C) wouldn’t block, so I ran out the Haven in hopes of resupplying into ramp.

Unfortunately, I resupplied into my Kappa (U) while drawing two copies of Atlas (R)s on the next day. My opponent was free to Beauty Sleep (F) my Chiron (C) for a 2-0 since their Spindle Harvesters (U) and Sneezer Shroom (U) would each return a spell when they left the expedition zone.

My hand only let me play one character on the next day which my opponent could Beauty Sleep (F) regardless. Together, their uniques let them return both the Beauty Sleep and a Magical Training (F) to hand.

The best I could do on the next day was play two characters instead of one gigantic one, but my opponent had the Off You Go! (C) for the Chiron and Beauty Sleep for the awoken Mighty Jinn, both of which boosted their Sneezer Shroom (F) above my Haven Bouncer (C). My opponent went 2-0 for a D4 win.