lyra

I’ve been gradually tweaking my spell-centric Fen list, but it received a massive upgrade when I took notes from some of ElWiwi’s innovations. I took this list to the Monday A.W.O.L. weekly where I went 5-1 for 3rd out of 60. It was especially exciting to practice the Lyra mirror in the semifinals against Gamanight’s Nevenka & Blotch, which went on to win the entire event! The deck One of the most attractive things about Lyra is how versatile the faction is. Since they have access to efficient answers for just about every situation, what they need most is card draw so that it can piece together those answers more reliably. This makes Magical Training (F), Ouroboros Inkcaster (R), and card advantage uniques invaluable. ...

I brought this deck to the Wednesday A.W.O.L. weekly on 2024-12-11, going 3-3 for 21th out of 48. Today’s event captured all the highs and lows of the deck: to play Nevenka, you have to embrace the fact that some of the games will be decided by the roll of the dice. I ran into an eclectic set of decks on the other side of the table, so even when my deck wasn’t the one going off, my opponents managed to pull off some pretty cool things! ...

I played a tweaked version of my spell-centric Fen deck at the Monday A.W.O.L. weekly on 2024-12-09, going 4-2 for 15th out of 56. The deck The last time I played this deck. I cut the Mighty Jinn (F)s from the previous build. There’s tension between wanting to play them as soon as possible for the ramp and sometimes not being able to go for a 0-stat character without letting your opponent through. As long as the build is running The Hatter (C) as another 4-mana mountain-forest character, I’ve decided there are better ways to use a rare slot. ...

The deck Where my last Fen deck was a character-centric midrange deck, this build aims to be a spell-centric control deck. The spells in question are the in-faction A Cappella Training (C) to starve the opponent of resources, joined by Yzmir imports Magical Training (F) and Off You Go! (F) to outcard your opponent and remove their strongest plays. Abilities that return cards from reserve to hand are a high priority. They allow you to use your reserve as a toolbox to recycle the cards that matter most in the matchup, while also letting you rescue cards that are stronger from hand if they get resupplied from Fen’s hero ability. ...

The deck The last time I played Nevenka & Blotch, I tried a midrange approach, but the deck was sorely lacking in ways to interact with my opponent’s gameplan. This deck maintains the midrange gameplan but includes more disruption in the form of sabotage and giving fleeting. I’ve cut nearly all of the expensive characters and focused on lower-cost characters supported by several sources of card advantage. As a result, the deck is still aggressive enough to trade early but can plan to out-resource the opponent and stack several low-cost plays for stronger turns in the late-game. ...

I’ve been tinkering with this Fen & Crowbar list since Altered’s release, so I was thrilled to be able to take Lyra into the top cut with it at Gamers Guild Arizona’s Altered Grand Tournament. The deck The last time I played this deck. This build positions Fen & Crowbar as a midrange tempo deck. The goal is for your 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 offers staying power against late-game decks while being able to flexibly convert value into tempo by spending resources from reserve. ...

I was planning to build another deck before today’s event, but I forgot my Axiom uniques at home, so I ended up bringing out Fen & Crowbar again. This ended up working out, since the games I played over the weekend had me reconsidering my anti-Small Step, Giant Leap stance, and I was curious to test it out as a 1-of. Previously, I had written off the card for being useless until the final turn of the game, like a burn spell in Magic: The Gathering. What I had missed is that Small Step ends the game before progression at dusk. I’d liken it more to a free spell where just having it in hand reduces the number of progressions you need to achieve by one. At its best, it invalidates your opponent’s plays on the final turn and substantially changes your win condition. ...

The deck The last time I played this deck. I’m pretty happy with the build overall, but I’m considering whether my crusade against situational cards may have caused me to overlook strong spells for the deck. In particular, I wanted to test one copy of Twinkle Twinkle (C). Cost reduction abilities are deceptively powerful, so I’m not unhappy if this gets resupplied. Even if it can’t win me a critical expedition, playing it to sleep my own character in a losing expedition gives it enough utility that I’m happy including it. ...

The deck This is a midrange dice-rolling deck that aims to line up multiple rolls for mid-game tempo turns with cards like Kadigiran Mage-Dancer (F). To close out the game, it attempts to go All In! (C) on either an anchored character or an already large character to make an expedition difficult to contest. Martengale (R) feels like the most important card in the deck. Preventing the failure case of Nevenka & Blotch’s hero ability enables you to use it on turns you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. It’s great as an unsuspecting All In! target. ...

The deck There are two ways that I considered building Auraq. One was a more control-oriented build that runs expensive spells and tries to time your unevenly statted characters to block optimally. In some matchups, this deck will only get one ability activation, so you have to make it count. I opted instead for an aggressive build that aims to activate the hero ability as quickly and as many times as possible (usually twice). Sometimes you’ll hit a 1-drop, but it’s fine: at least you’ll get to try again in a turn or two. ...