If you've played this weekend, you know for a fact that the game is currently Mages Unchained. Magic decks are running wild with the series of buffs introduced by the Core Set Refresh and it has led to more than 40% of all players playing Magic in the last 6 hours (according to GodsUnchainedRightNow). While I really like the idea of playing Transform Ramp Magic, I couldn't possibly give up a chance to hit 20+ wins this weekend. So I became the scumbag and played the most hated deck this weekend - Card Draw Magic.
Giveaway Results
Every week, I give away a few units of Hive SBI which help to upvote your Hive posts for visibility and rewards for as long as they run - you don't have to do anything on your part. I explained the mechanics of how this giveaway works in another Weekend Ranked Rundown post, but in short, the more active you are in the GU Hive community, the more chances you have to win. You can check your HBI status here.
This week's winners:
@phoenixskye, @lxxicf, @meltysquid - Leave a comment to accept the prize/give it to someone else or it will be forfeited once I post the next giveaway's results. Once you've accepted the prize once, you don't have to leave a comment anymore; future prizes will automatically be sent to you. Congrats, and thanks for being part of the GU community!
Deck Overview
Deck Link: GUDecks
I played Tempo Mage a lot previously, but I'd say the changes introduced here make it less of a Tempo deck and more of a midrange deck with tons of card draw. The strategy has changed from that of trying to overwhelm the board early while clearing creatures efficiently, to one that aims to set up a draw engine, getting chip damage in, and obliterating the opponent's face with direct damage spells.
I don't remember what the old Choralis Rune Moth was, but the current Choralis Rune Moth is really powerful. If left unremoved, it generates free useful spells for you each turn, synergizing with both Leyhoard Hatchling and Oni Spellsword really well. I feel that Choralis Rune Moth is just a tad too strong currently and may see a nerf soon, either by the removal of Backline or increasing the generated rune costs to 1.
To be honest, I'm still not sure whether Scepter of Artistry is good enough in this deck. With a +2 spell boost, it can add a lot of damage to the direct damage spells. But at the same time, it can be a dead card for a while especially if I am still in the early game and trying to set up a draw engine. It could probably be replaced by another direct damage spell like Epiphany or Blizzard Bolt.
The Oni Spellsword change seems like a small one, but I feel it has made it much stronger. It used to grant the Ward buff to the creature with the lowest health, which was great but optimal buffing wasn't very easy to control in my opinion. Now, this change allows it to much more easily do an optimal board Ward buff. Let me give an example.
- T4: Play Oni Spellsword. The opponent doesn't remove it.
- T5:
- Cast Ancient Texts on Oni Spellsword. This brings it to a 2/3 and replenishes Ward.
- Play Vortimer the Volatile. Since the +1 strength comes first, Vortimer is guaranteed to get the Ward buff.
- Mana pip to play Rune Choralis Moth. The Moth gets the Ward buff.
This change also allows Oni to buff the Monolith much more easily as long as the Oni has high enough attack.
And everyone's most hated card this weekend, the Leyhoard Hatchling. It's just too strong; it's usually a Starshard Bolt + a 3/3 for 3 mana or less, and it can also hit the opponent's face directly if more direct damage is needed. It'll most likely get hit by the nerf hammer next week, so play it as much as you like this weekend.
Performance and Matchmaking Breakdown
Starting Rank: Mythic
Wins: 22/25
Reward Packs: 1x Core Rare, 1x Core Epic, 3x Core Legendary, 3x DO Legendary
Theoretical pack value based on current pack prices: $74.97
| Opponent God | Deck Archetype | Score (Wins / Total Games) |
|---|---|---|
| Nature | Aggro Nature | 4 / 4 |
| Control Nature | 1 / 1 | |
| War | Control War | 1 / 1 |
| Frenzied Aggro War | 2 / 2 | |
| Magic | Card Draw Magic | 8 / 8 |
| Control Magic | 0 / 1 | |
| Spell Damage Magic | 2 / 4 | |
| Death | Zombie Death | 1 / 1 |
| Deception | Order Deception | 1 / 1 |
| Light | Aggro Light | 1 / 1 |
| Midrange Light | 1 / 1 | |
| Total | 22 / 25 |
I don't think I've ever seen this many Magic decks in GU before. It's insane. That being said, this week was a clean sweep, with 3 losses to other Magic decks. 2 of those losses were to Yec, who ran a deck specifically to counter Card Draw Magic. Safeguard Incantation and Recursion are both hard to deal with and caused problems in those 2 matches that I lost. If you want to be annoying, including Safeguard Incantation in your own Card Draw Magic deck is a surefire way of pissing your opponent off. Wins are not guaranteed though.
Light decks are a threat due to high health creatures and Ward, but Light's current state is still very much lacking and you won't see too many of them on the ladder. If Light becomes more popular, this deck's performance is sure to suffer.
Footage: Mirror Match
If you aren't sick of seeing Card Draw Magic yet, here's a video of how I pilot the deck against the horde of other Card Draw Magic decks out there. It's not the most exciting of games, but maybe it can help you see how the mirror match can be played for a win.
Historical Performance
Well, I couldn't give up the opportunity for a 20-win run and I managed to get it this time. But at what cost?
I like playing fun decks. But I like opening packs more, so I decided to be the scumbag for a week. Now, I know how it feels like to play BWD. You don't feel good while playing the games, but that feeling vanishes when you see how many packs you'll receive 😂
Past Weekend Ranked posts and performance in order of recency:
| Time Period | Deck | Score (Wins / Total Games) | Starting Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2022 W2 (Current) | Card Draw Magic | 22 / 25 | Mythic |
| Mar 2022 W1 | Control Nature | 19 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W4 | Control Nature | 19 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W3 | Tempo Magic | 18 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W2 | Tempo Magic | 19 / 25 | Mythic |
| Feb 2022 W1 | Tempo Magic | 18 / 25 | Mythic |
| Jan 2022 W5 | Tempo Magic | 19 / 25 | Mythic |
| Jan 2022 W4 | Mid-range Nature | 17 / 25 | Mythic |
| Jan 2022 W3 | Mid-range Nature | 15 / 25 | Mythic |
| Jan 2022 W2 | Mid-range Nature | 11 / 25 | Mythic |
| Jan 2022 W1 | Aggro War | 18 / 25 | Mythic |
Concluding Thoughts
It's farm or be farmed in the cruel world of Gods Unchained. For the sake of the health of the game, I hope the balance team will push balance changes before the next Weekend Ranked comes around. The pre-CSR meta was way more balanced but it took a few months of DO balance patches to make it there; let's hope it doesn't take another few more months for post-CSR meta to be balanced and more stabilized.
Post Header image source: Gods Unchained Media Kit
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Some of the card images in this post are generated by GUListCreator, a tool I created for fast card list lookup and creation to write posts like this on Hive. Do check it out if you like to create content for Gods Unchained!