In the recent Lysander’s Trials #2 tournament, I competed against some of the best players and managed to secure 8th place. While it may seem like a low ranking, the time zone seeding put all the heavy hitters together, and the last 3 rounds I played in each would have been worthy of a finals showing. In this post, you can find the decks I played and my thoughts on the games.

Tournament Format

The Lysander’s Trials tournaments, hosted on GUStakes, consist of four weekly events that lead up to the month-long Main Event. With a prize pool of 700+ $GODS and 280+ Packs, participants are seeded according to their GUStakes rating and time zone. The format is a single elimination bracket with best-of-three matches until the semi-finals, using a conquest format.

The second Trials Tournament banned all neutral cards, so none of those P2W cards like Demogorgon, Pyramid Warden and Blade of Whiteplain, and Etherbots (looking at you Magic Missile Launcher) were allowed.

Decks

The format weakened control decks, so aggro was prominent, and midrange decks popped up. I changed up the decks I played a lot during the tournament and even swapped around a few cards during matches based on what I thought my opponent would play.

Aggro Nature

This is a classic aggro nature deck that overwhelms opponents with huge stats every turn. The deck is comprised of beefy creatures such as Marsh Walker or Black Jaguar, strong removal with Underbrush Boar and Lightning Strike, and buffs with Wildfire and Sudden Bloom.

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Hidden Rush Deception (HRD)

This deck is based on Clutch’s HRD list that I’ve been playing on Weekend Ranked for a while. I swapped Pyramid Warden, Feral Shapeshifter, and Blade for Orfeo, Champion of Deception, Phase Crawler, Arms Dealer, and Shakedown. I didn’t play HRD often in the tournament since Nature was popular.

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Aggro War

It’s the standard aggro war deck. You’re probably sick of seeing it so much. It has close matchups with most decks, so it’s good to lead off with.

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Zombie Death

After losing to Zombies twice during the tournament, I thought it might be good to play against Doubtless. As I’ve learned firsthand in the tournament, if you can stick a Cursed Obelisks or Necroscepter, your opponent is going to have a tough time trying to fight back the zombies every turn.

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Heirloom Death

I haven’t played Anubians before, but I heard it’s good against control. I practiced it a bit beforehand to play against cautionfun since I remember him hating playing against it on stream. It also did well against Clutch who also hates the deck. I’m not sure how to build or play it though, I’ve only played like a dozen games total with it. This list is based on Wargizmo’s deck and you can read their analysis on it.

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Rounds

R1 BYE

R2 hetfield

I played against hetfield in the Lootrush Tournament #3. They played Control Deception and Zombie Death, so I expected to face them again.

My opening hand looks good, with Underbrush Boar being a great early card and Marsh Walker being useful for taking down zombies. I start with Underbrush Boar to clear the Vile Reaver, but looking back, I should have started with Marsh Walker instead. The Reaver would have died to burn anyway, so clearing it didn’t do much. On turn 3, I should have taken the 50/50 chance with Canopy Barrage to clear the Cursed Obelisk. It was my best opportunity to clear the Obelisk since Canopy Barrage wasn’t going to get any better. The Necroscepter follow-up was dangerous, so I needed to find relic removal quickly, or else I would have been overrun by zombies. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop the swarm and conceded on turn 7.

I anticipate that my opponent will play Control Deception, so I choose to queue HRD. I get a lot of early damage with a Phase Crawler buffed with Assassin’s Aim and Dark Knives. They’re down to 12 and I try to figure what’s the best way to find lethal damage. Arms Dealer constrains my mana, so I play Crawler first and sit on it. I will have lethal on board with both Dealers buffing my board as long as they don’t have another frontline. My plan goes off without a hitch.

For the next game, I choose Aggro War, expecting Hetfield to play Control Deception again. Although the matchup is favored for me, I had lost before against Hetfield in this matchup. Going first is good for me, letting me establish the tempo. I’m not sure what to lead with on the first turn; Valka’s Captain deals the most damage early, Master Tactician is hard to deal with, and Skollkin Valkyrie lets me save my pip. In hindsight, playing Valkyrie first would have been better, as Tactician can be useful later to give flank. Hetfield slows me down with removal, but I put all my cards on the table and slam their face. I almost run out of cards, but they’re low on life, and I have the almighty Slayer button to finish them off.

R3 tremolo

I’m not sure what my opponent will do, so I choose aggro war. It’s a mirror match and I start second, which isn’t great. I copy their first move with Captain, then Woodcutter Imp with Trial Spirit help me gain control of the board. We’re both jockeying for board control. Thanks to Scythes of the Harvest, I manage to take the lead on board. And with it, I can wear them down and eventually take them out.

Anticipating aggro war again, I choose HRD, but my opponent surprises me by playing Control Magic. Starting first, I have a strong opening with Shadow of Lethenon, Switch Duelist, and Dark Knives. Drawing the second Knives, I turn Duelist into a massive threat that my opponent struggles to deal with. In the end, Duelist proves too much for them to handle and secures my victory.

R4 Doubtless

I start with aggro war, which is good against most decks. However, facing zombies and going second is tough. The Voracious Fiend is a problem and the zombie from the afterlife triggers frenzied on the Obelisks on turn 3, making it hard to clear them. Despite my efforts, my board keeps getting cleared and I can’t keep up with the zombies. Eventually, I concede.

Aggro war still seems good to me so I queue it again. This time I go first against midrange war. I start with Imp to deal damage and potentially get frenzied for Captain next turn. In hindsight, it’s probably better to lead with Captain and save Imp as removal. We engage in back-and-forth trades, each of us trying to gain control of the board. Doubtless drops Grand Hall on turn 4, which appears to be a desperate move. I use Blade of Styx and Trial Spirit to clear it and play White Fur Guard, which will be difficult for Doubtless to handle. I topdeck the second White Fur and slam it. He uses Grendel to clear one of my White Furs. I use Tavern Brawler to pop protected and clear the Grendel with White Fur. Einar comes down, I’m surprised to see it, and it clears my Shieldmaiden. I draw Scythes and think I can finish Doubtless soon so I play Scythes and go face with it and White Fur giving me enough favor to get the Nightleaf Trapper and prevent him from getting it. With Doubtless at low health, and I go wide on board to set up the kill. He can’t clear my board and I finish him.

After losing to Doubtless’ zombies, I thought it might be a good idea to play against him again. I didn’t have a turn 1 creature to set up frenzy, but I did have Cursed Obelisk and two Necroscepters. It wasn’t exactly the ideal starting hand, and I was worried that I might lose without even getting started. I pipped out Necroscepter since I had two of them, and it would be hard for Doubtless to deal with. Dagan came out, and I was in trouble because Dagan is a huge growing threat that would buff his regen creatures. I had nothing to do but toss out Obelisk and hope for the best. Doubtless cleared my board, and it looked bleak for me, but I top-decked Curse of Greed to clear the Dagan. He put on the pressure with more creatures, but I started to claw my way back by clearing a Celestial Stag with Pharaoh’s Heirloom and Wicked Fae. He cleared my board again, this time with Valka’s Discovery. It was looking up for me because he had to spend his resources clearing my board every turn and not developing his. Obelisk and Fae let me go wide on the board. I held off on taking the Rune of Strength since relic removal could take its place, turns out I was right. My board almost got cleared, but this time Obelisk lived. Decaying Rhino was hard to clear, and zombies managed to survive. Whatever 5 drop that popped out of the Ominous Burrow felt scarier than the Black Jaguar, so I used Curse to clear the Burrow. Watchtower of Agrodor came out, another surprise from Doubtless. Bifurcating Curse cleared his board and left mine untouched. Doubtless couldn’t handle the zombie swarm, and it slowly overwhelmed him.

R5 [tst]cautionfun

Cautionfun hates Anubians so I tried it out against him in the tournament despite only playing a few practice games with it beforehand. I’m not sure how to play Anubians but I’ve seen it played before and have a rough idea of how it goes. Try to wear down your opponent with burn and set up a lethal Land of the Dead (LotD). How aggressive to play depends on the matchup and you have to be careful of transform cards and void removal. I open well with 2/4 pingers, Priestess of Takhat and Raving Necromancer, in hand and draw a third one. Cautionfun looks like he’s playing a midrange or control nature, which means he won’t have that much pressure but does have a lot of healing available. I try to clear his board every turn while both of our health whittle down. He gets dangerously low at one point, but two Compost Charms put back at a healthy total. Eventually, I wore him down enough where LotD is lethal.

In the second game, I expected Cautionfun to play control nature again, so I played aggro nature to go wide and counter his removal. However, he changed decks and played control war, which favored him. He changed decks and play control war though. This is in his favor. I have a tough time coming back from board wipes. I curve out well with Marsh Walker, Faeflame Blade, and Bladefly. He clears my Bladeflys with Savage Strike and Auric Rush which means he probably doesn’t have Carnage Sweep in hand. My removal is left rotting in my hand against an empty board. I play Wildfire on two Badgers and force out removal since it isn’t likely I can go much wider. Green Giant gets taken out by Devouring Blade. I play out the rest of the creatures in my hand which get cleared by Orcish Elite. I’m stuck summoning badgers since I don’t want to overcommit into a potential Sweep. Cautionfun has to sweep two cards again to clear. Out comes a desperate Grand hall, and he is looking low on cards in hand. I don’t realize he cleared my Jaguar with his face and I try to count 7 damage for lethal, then I look at his health and I have it with Wildfire.

R6 [8M]Clutch

I started off with aggro war, hoping to go first against whatever Clutch would bring. However, I went second against midrange nature, which meant I was going to get outvalued by big guys, so I needed to be quick in this game. I led off with Captain, as it was the slower play, and I could save Imp after seeing what Clutch did next. In hindsight, playing White Fur Guard over Scythes of the Harvest on turn 4 would have been better. While it’s worse against removal, it’s not likely that Clutch has it with only one card in hand. Also, getting White Fur out on a weak board is strong. The Marsh Walker wasn’t something I needed to worry about, and maybe it was just confirmation bias after seeing the moose played. I left the moose alive since it was confused and didn’t trade well with the board. Battlebard was a nasty top deck, and with it and Another Round, Oddi cleared the Green Giant. I’m not sure if going face with Oddi was right instead of trading with the Overgrown Rhino since I was playing into Sudden Bloom, so I don’t know if it was worth the risk. Cardshark would have been better against Sudden Bloom, but it is bad against Wildfire. Unfortunately, I was one mana short from having lethal. It was down to the wire, and if all of Clutch’s Bladeflys went face, he had lethal with the Rune of Fire. However, he opted to clear my board, but he was on a clock to the Slayer button. I top-decked the Blade of Styx and had him dead the next turn. I grabbed the Shieldmaiden so I won’t die to a Sudden Bloom.

Clutch hates Anubians too like Cautionfun so I thought they would also do well. I’m on the back foot the entire game, but Clutch’s health is whittled away by all of my burn. It’s down to the wire again. Moose comes down and I have no way to clear it, Ragnarok softens it, but I’m getting dangerously low. Land of the Dead is lethal, but I haven’t found it yet. I manage to clear some of Clutch’s board and stop him from having lethal. We’re both hanging on to a thread. LotD shows up finally. I just need to survive this one turn. Marsh Walker goes face and if the Sudden Bloom lands on the Dagan, the overkill damage could kill me, but Lady Luck is on my side tonight.

R7 Quarterfinals [8M]Fakemews

I anticipated that Mews might start with a control deck to counter aggro, so I chose Anubians, but he surprised me with an aggro war deck instead. The mulligan is iffy here, the removal is good but I don’t do anything proactive with the hand. Maybe looking for Priestess or Necromancer was better. I spent a considerable amount of removal to slow down Mews, but his White Fur Guard was troublesome. I used two Vile Reavers and Blight Bomb to get rid of it, but when he played a second one, I was out of answers. I played LotD to clear the board and survive, but without another pinger, I couldn’t secure lethal. I traded off my Priestess as a precaution against his potential lethal, but it might not have been the right decision. Unfortunately, I couldn’t draw the cards I needed to turn the game around, and I ultimately lost. Mews had too much pressure, and I couldn’t find the right cards in time.

I queued up as Anubians again, hoping to counter control, and mews played control nature. Mews had teched in two Druids of the Cycle for this matchup, but he never drew them. He cleared my board every turn as I try to wear down his life to set up a lethal LotD. With Reavers and Blight Bombs, I managed to clear two sizable threats. I wasn’t sure whether holding onto the Curse of Greeds was better than using them on the Marsh Walkers. Although Walker wasn’t a big threat, I didn’t find targets for the Curses. Ragnarok and Reaver cleared most of the board, and although Avatar of Nature was big, I had Ray of Disintegration for it. Mews found a Compost Charm and got out of lethal range, but Reach into the Black put him low. He milled the Compost Charm and couldn’t stop LotD from finishing him.

Aggro war should do well against anything the mews will field. He is playing HRD and I go second. I’ve been in the opposite seat plenty of times and know that this is going to be hard. Mews opens with a Patient Pickpocket, and I initially think it’s Control Deception. I decide to lead with Woodcutter Imp to get in some damage, but then the Switch Duelist comes down and I realize it’s actually HRD. In hindsight, leading with Valkyrie and Trial Spirit would have been better. I try to go wide on the board to win the face race, but Pietro coming down after Shade Walker is a lot of damage that I can’t stop. On turn 4, I’m unable to attack with the Imp since I would die on the crack back. Mews barrels me, and I can’t finish him off before the barrels get me, so I go out on my own terms.