Long Beach 3rd Place Deck Breakdown!
Hey everyone its BurnedByKevin here! Today I wanted to do a deck break down of the deck that took 3rd place at the Clash at Long beach tournament!
Of course this had to be the first deck breakdown I do, I mean come on it is a flame deck, the aura type I have the most expertise with. Lets dive in!!!
At first glance you can see there's no new cards in this deck besides two copies of Area 51 Which is a powerful terra btw. This isn't your average flame deck as this is a midrange build. This build focuses on eliminating most if not all threats in the meta. With access to 4 copies of explosion, and 5 copies of unholy fire, opposing casters will have a hard time keeping anything on board that doesn't have magiproof or burrow! Besides having 10 essential removal spells and direct damage, I do like the addition of the 5 unholy fires to hit aurafacts since this deck does not have any early game fleet beasties to interact with aurafacts. So unholy fire is a great addition as it acts as a hybrid spell to hit beasties and other pages, where as explosion can be direct damage or take out a beastie and cripple another. So much utility with those two spells alone.
As a midrange deck does, as the game progresses and you take out most things, this deck plays powerful top end beasties that do great damage and have great interaction with the board. And that is what midrange does, has a slower first couple of turns and progressively gets stronger mid to late game to take control of the pace. Below I will talk about Key cards in this deck and why they are great.
Area 51 is a super smart addition to this deck and all midrange decks. This will slow down those Aggro decks and give you more time to stabilize. It can act as removal if your opponent decides to let the beastie enter with confusion and miss the die roll. Also boosting your Iowa dragons and Piasa bird with their Desert terra bonus.
Headless Coalminer is a name very recognized and for good reason. This beastie is essentially Flames mini board wipe and to cripple down bigger beasties and take them down later on with spells. Headless Coalminer has a lot of utility and a big threat as it swings for 50, or 75 with coal within eyesight. Also having the spirit trait makes it more likely for you to trigger your dynamite tokens, and more survivability. Good card against cosmic, light, and lightning to destroy tokens or cripple down big board states!
Iowa Dragon is also a great addition to this deck. You get instant payoff the moment you contract Iowa Dragon, everything receives two burn, opposing beasties and casters. Also having flying is great to deal with common opposing threats.
BBQ Sam is the swinging menace of the deck. The fact you can cryptid nation into BBQ Sam turn one with neutrality or turn two with cryptid nation as well, it can end games before they start. BBQ Sam helps neutralize the board with the tokens it creates which allow you to remove traits for problematic beasties, Quetz, Frogman, Crab, amikuk, the list goes on. BBQ Sam is a whole unit and the biggest top end of the deck to close out games with board stalls!
Gaasy is a force to be reckoned with. Playing a Gaasy and having access to countless removal and direct damage is the essential control of this deck. It gives another outlet where you may be behind. Bigger beasties this deck crippled earlier on in the game become 1 shot targets when you recontract unholy fire or explosion, with also the option to close out the game with Explosions to the face. Gaasy is a game turning card if used wisely!
Piasa bird is powerful 3 drop that can be your early game removal as it swings for 75, or 125 if Desert is active! With its arena ability to contract flame spells for 1 less gives the caster a huge advantage to contract multiple spells in a turn that they couldn't normally do without Piasa Bird. Combine Piasa bird and Gaasy and you pretty much have a board wipe when you awaken everything your next turn and recontract your spells.
1st anniversary, powerup red, nynb, and lightning in a bottle are all staples and some decks. I think 1st anniversary celebrations should be in every deck to deal with things your aura type cant handle. And for flame that's a very spell heavy deck that would be stone skin, burrow and magiproof. The addition of 1 is nice to main. I see lightning in a bottle use here, especially playing headless coalminer to instantly trigger Dynamite tokens as soon as they come in, or even to close games out with BBQ Sam. The addition of 3 copies to lightning in a bottle is the perfect amount as this deck isn't a Aggro deck so any more would be to much. Playing 12 aura is beneficial in this midrange deck as you want to ensure you get to play your late game and want to abuse Gaasy to its fullest.
Overall this Flame build is super solid and can see it being played a lot until the release of seance. I appreciate anyone taking the time to read this breakdown and I hope you all have a fantastic day!
Cast on !
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