First of all, a shoutout to DWD for making an absolutely incredible set! It’s good to be back to writing as I have been on an extended break. Since my last article, I have gotten married, moved into a new house, and certified as a Personal Trainer. Good stuff.
Echoes of Eternity is here, and I have to say, this is perhaps the most fun set yet. There are tons of interesting possibilities to brew with the new cards. Today, I am going to evaluate the Market Spell Cycle in the environment of Gauntlet. I will look at these from a theoretical perspective as there are so many different decks and market combinations that I simply can not test them all. Before we begin, please note that you do not need to run a Smuggler when you run this cycle. This may or may not have been obvious to most of you but I feel it is important to note. You may also include cards in multiple factions. For example, Blazing Salvo in a Fire, Primal, Shadow deck could have cards in any of those combinations including multi-faction ones.
Let’s look at the first card:
Right off the bat, this is an extremely pushed removal spell, even if it doesn’t hit face. While Char is not quite good enough for Gauntlet, it is able to kill virtually all one-drops and quite a few two-drops including Ripknife Assassin and Rakano Outlaw as a FAST SPELL. What this means is Blazing Salvo is able to pull some weight as an anti-aggro tool and lessen the need for cards like Torch and Suffocate (although you should almost always be running these in some number).
Since I am currently testing this card in a controlling build of Fire, Primal, Shadow Dragons, I will use that deck as a discussion point. I feel that even though this is just one deck, a lot of the flexibility of Blazing Salvo can be illustrated this way. My market currently consists of Eremot’s Designs, Kaleb’s Choice, Miner’s Musket, Rindra’s Choice and Rapid Shot.
Eremot’s Designs or perhaps Lightning Storm are an absolute necessity for a slower deck to be able to beat many of the token decks (decks that spam the board with numerous cheap units and then go for a kill with a spell, unit or relic that pumps them up). My build does not run any one or two-cost units, but it does have a three-health, three-cost unit. Running Lightning Storm ends up being anti-synergistic with Spellbound Vestige by causing it to kill our own unit which is critical for the deck.
Kaleb’s Choice is rarely going to be a negate effect, because we generally aren’t able to hold up power when curving out in the four-six slot with Dragons. However, for games that go very long it can function as a negate to protect a unit. The primary use is as relic hate or more precisely, to kill Xenan Obelisk. In testing a slower deck like Dragons, I found my winrate was lacking against these types of go-wide token decks, thus its inclusion.
Miner’s Musket fulfills the role of killing small units, including ones with Aegis. It has the added benefit of reducing the cost of the top unit or relic of our deck which can be a nice tempo swing, and can also finish off a relic weapon that would otherwise be a real thorn in our side. I found it to be solid against Kodosh’s Armory. That said, Edict of Shavka is probably better in this slot. It is more effective at killing larger Aegis units, as well as a catch all removal against most Justice and Primal units. I do not consider Edict of Linrei as necessary for the deck, because we have access to Annihilate to kill Sandstorm Titan. If we were a Skycrag deck, I would strongly consider the card, depending on whether I am running maindeck Ice Bolts or not.
Rindra’s Choice is in the market to kill, you guessed it, multi-faction units. For a deck that leans on Annihilate and a couple Ice Bolts (the powerbase is a little strained for Desecrate), I found that this remedies that glaring weakness effectively.
Rapid Shot can function as removal if you evaluate the likely blocks that the AI will take when you attack with a smaller unit into a larger one. It also combos nicely with Cozin Darkheart to potentially kill a unit, push damage and generate a Treasure and a 4/4 Dragon.
Let’s look at the next card:
This card can sometimes act as a blocker to trade against a one drop, or defensively to chump a large unit. The cultist subtype is relevant in a deck running Karvet as well. Since Crack the Earth pulls five-cost cards, I would consider running Auralian Merchant in addition to it (in a Time based midrange deck). Ramping us to five on turn four allow for a very consistent Worldbearer Behemoth as an example. However, Tocas, Waystone Harvester also provides ramp in the three-slot and testing would be needed to determine if you really need the additional market support and ramp when you likely have Initiate of the Sands too.
Perhaps a more interesting use of Crack the Earth would be in a Big Combrei list. You could run a Market Configuration with one of Reality Warden, Worldbearer Behemoth, or Marshal Ironthorn depending on the mix of cards you want in the maindeck. Grodov’s Stranger can potentially replace Mystic Ascendant in the maindeck which would mean four Worldbearer Behemoth may not be as necessary (although it still can help to hit eight or twelve power for the Great Parliament).
Harsh Rule or Shen-Ra Speaks is an obvious inclusion, and you can maindeck the other if you feel it is necessary.
Confiscate is a possibility if you are really hurting for attachment removal, but I would probably rather see you run Sabertooth Prideleader in the maindeck instead if that is an issue as it pulls double duty as an anti-aggro tool.
Grodov’s Burden is a reasonably good card! That would give the deck a tremendous amount of lategame grinding ability.
Lumen Defender is a decent anti-aggro card that doubles as some support against midrange. The AI is often a little gun-shy about attacking into Deadly units.
Let’s look at the next card:
First off, note that this is permanent Flying and at fast speed. Imagine you have no units in the air but a big ground blocker. The AI has a 3/3 flier, you give your unit Flying, Block and kill the unit for just one power. Or perhaps you’re playing an aggro deck and need to push more damage over a stalled out ground, this card can help you out.
This card can also give you access to Harsh Rule without running Merchants in the main deck. You could run a Merchant as one of your three-slots, and a Harsh Rule and then just three other three-cost cards and if you need Harsh Rule, plan accordingly and grab Merchant, play Merchant, get Harsh Rule and then play it the next turn. I am not sure this is an optimal use of the card, but it is a cool idea if you don’t really find five useful cards.
I am having success with this card in Combrei aggro. I couple it with a few Aegis beaters to prevent the AI from easily removing my flying unit, and for Unseen Commando synergy.
Wind Conjuring grants a huge boost, and can remove a permafrost or surprise block. Late game, the invoke adds some additional value.
Vanquish is a strong removal option and it makes the market as such.
Qirin-Ascendant is a situational card that is great for this market. Not only does it have synergy with Unseen Commando, it provides a valuable attachment removal on demand. Weapons and pump spells make getting the mastery easy as well. Lifesteal helps out against aggressive decks.
Copperhall Bailiff is a gauntlet all star and comes in against aggro/token decks to stabilize the board.
My last slot is currently occupied by Knight-Chancellor Siraf, but is up for grabs. I felt having an additional three-drop that can generate late game value could help, but with Emblems we are not really at risk of flooding to seven power. Scorpion Wasp could be a fine replacement as a way to kill Aegis fliers that get out of hand.
Copperhall Bracers is another strong possibity as a weapon that helps us push damage and attack with impunity, in addition to giving us more power to work with.
Let’s look at the next card:
My first thought when seeing this was to build a deck with Wardwielder, a 5/5 for two when you have an Aegis. Paired with Rime Conclave Smuggler, maybe an Eilyn’s Favor or two, Cobalt Waystone and a few other cards as needed and you should be fairly consistent there. However, the problem with decks like these is you can only play four Wardwielder. When you don’t draw one, the deck tends to suffer a fairly dramatic decline in winrate.
Hooru control or midrange on the other hand looks at this card and sees a host of powerful options:
Avigraft is a somewhat situational removal but can still be very effective even at its nerfed four-cost.
Not every deck in gauntlet wants maindeck Auric Runehammer, but I’m always happy to see one in the market for anti-Aegis tech.
Poaching Drake can be useful as a card to knock out a flier to push through, or stop a Siraf that is closing in on seven power.
Windshaper could be an option for Hooru fliers as an Obelisk effect while keeping your maindeck four-slot open for a card like Shelterwing Rider. I especially like Transpose as a one-cost option to access the market, as Hooru fliers has notoriously been crowded at the three-slot (Enforcer, Commando, Pacifier, Merchant, sometimes Ice Sprite).
Elysian and Hooru fliers may both be viable and the deal one damage to the enemy player does one other thing, it triggers spark for Skyrider Vanguard. I especially like that card in Elysian since it has a couple one-drop fliers in general and could potentially get significant value on turn four with the transpose + Vanguard combination. Having access to Xenan Obelisk is pretty sweet as well.
Let’s look at the final card in this cycle:
Some of the cards this can pull are Suffocate (although you should almost always maindeck three-four of these I have found), Edict of Makkar as a very efficient situational removal, Sabotage for attachment and removal hate, Shakedown to snag a removal spell or early pest like a Desert Marshal or Valkyrie Enforcer, Spiteful Strike as a nice combat trick when you prefer Rapid Shot maindeck, Torch if you are a slower deck that doesn’t need face damage to close out games regularly and instead opt for four Suffocate in the main deck. This is not as crazy as it sounds as it kills Steward of the Past, Memory Dredger, Streetwise Informant, Skywalk Enforcer, Kimi Expedition Guide, Horde Plunderer, Karmic Guardian, Auric Sentry to name a few, and most of the things Torch kills with the notable exceptions of Iceberg Warchief and Champion of Fury). Note that Torch is dramatically nerfed in Gauntlet as a Slow Spell because it no longer can blow out the AI mid combat, hence why I think Suffocate is far better overall in slower midrange and control builds.
Bore is a very powerful attachment removal and conveniently is just one power.
Charchain Flail is now unnerfed to being a one-cost relic weapon with the flexibility to kill Aegis units and larger units at the price of some health.
Flame Blast can help close out games and you might opt for a card like Obliterate in the maindeck instead or more likely if you’re playing a late game card, Eclipse Dragon.
If you are in primal, it can pull a great removal like Permafrost if you opt to exclude it from the maindeck for whatever reason.
Levitate is a neat option when you need to get through on a stalled board or surprise block the AI.
Argenport might want Condemn to pull the recent campaign card Shattered Hopes which is actually maindeckable as well if you can find room for it. I’d opt for a Paladins build where the Decimate matters and access cards like Soulflame Rider which can often be a free 6/6 flying endurance or a three-cost very consistently.
Also of note is the voidbound is relevant as it can kill Dawnwalker and keep it dead.
Thank you for reading this article! Please let me know your thoughts on these cards, what you have tested and what has worked and not worked thus far. Happy brewing!
Eternal Gauntlet 