Newcomer’s Guide to Deckbuilding: Introduction
JUNE 12TH, 2020
Preface
I realized that there may be a lot of newcomers that are joining Gods Unchained during this period of time, so I thought it would be good to make a starter guide about deckbuilding. I’m not going to claim I’m the best at deckbuilding but I truly enjoy the process, and I’ve been known to play all the Gods and try to come up with cheap and effective decks for them. The first series I made was about Free to Play decks that could get Legendary Packs on the weekends at the highest rank with all the Gods, and second was about Only Using Welcome and Core Cards at that level. My last series was building decks with all the Tribes in the game which I thought was really fun.
I believe that there are three important aspects to winning at a card game like this: Skill, Luck, and Deck. Luck is not really something you can work on haha but the other two definitely comes with time and practice. I’m here to give you a little head start on building and modifying your own decks!
Note that this is the first part of a series, with the subsequent articles focusing on each of the Gods.
Deck Archetypes
There are 4 main types of decks that almost all trading/collectible card games have, which are: Aggro, Control, Midrange, and Combo. Just as a disclaimer though there are decks are fit in between these 4 types as it’s more of a spectrum, and some are even a combination of them.
Aggro - These aggressive decks aim to bring down your opponent as quickly as possible with direct damage and/or an early wide board of minions and buffs. You may still trade to retain early board control but you try to do as much damage to the opponent’s God before they can answer and regain control. You usually lose if you can’t finish an opponent because your cards do not provide much value or card advantage and run out of gas.
Most of the Gods in this game have decent/good Aggro options, with some specific strengths/characters such as heal/buffs for Nature and Light, Hidden for Deception, and the Slayer God Power (deal 2 damage to your opponent’s God) plus Godblitz Relics for War.
In terms of deckbuilding, most of your deck is skewed towards to the lower mana end to be able to consistently play your cards and establish a board presence. Rarely do you see 7 mana cards in an Aggro deck and usually just a couple of 6 mana ones, if any. Frequently you’ll see Aggro decks run 18+ 1- and 2-mana cards and the rest between 3-6 mana. I should mention here that a deck in Gods Unchained must be 30 cards, no more or no less. Note that the mana graphics I'm posting in these sections are just examples and you shouldn't follow them exactly.
Example of an Aggro mana curve
Control - On the other end of the spectrum, we have Control, which is a defensive type deck that seeks to control the board state as to not lose in the early/mid game, then win by either dropping down big threats or win conditions, or just by running the opponent out of cards. The board control can be achieved through a combination of efficient removal, area of effect spells/Roars, stalls (like Frontline creatures and Sleep/Order statuses), and Blitz creatures.
With the Core set, Magic and Death are good Control options. Taking into consideration all the cards that are available, Light and Deception make strong Control decks as well. Control War is also experiencing a resurgence.
For a Control deck, you will see high value/impact 7- and 8-mana cards. Sometimes you’ll see a 9-mana card as well, but due to the non-linear mana gain in this game, you may never get to use/face it. Usually the 1-mana slot is scarce, with some Magic decks not running any 1-mana cards at all.
Example of a Control mana curve
Midrange - In the middle of this deck spectrum is the Midrange deck, which basically seeks to outlast and out-value Aggro decks but win before Control takes over with their end game. Thus in the early game it tries to contain Aggro with efficient trading and removal, while doing damage and establishing value against Control. In the midgame, it should have board and value dominance over Aggro, and hopefully have won or be close to it versus Control.
Nature is probably the best starter Midrange God. Once you start getting your hands on some expansion cards, Deception and Death (Zombies) have good Midrange options as well. Light has had some great Midrange decks too and is also making a comeback.
The mana curve for a good Midrange deck has enough 1-2 drops to ensure consistent playable cards and presence, while maintaining a few higher mana cards to regain control or to close out the game, in the form of maybe 4-6 6- and 7-mana cards. A good number for the 1- and 2- mana cards are about 12-16 total, then the rest filled with 3-5 mana cards.
Example of a Midrange curve
Combo - Coming at you outside of the spectrum is the “combination” deck, which utilizes a few specific cards together that can win the game in one or two turns. Another name for combo decks that kill in one turn is OTK (One Turn Kill). The goal is to stall the game and/or find the pieces to your combo as quickly and efficiently as possible. Thus, against Aggro and Midrange it either uses Control’s stall tactics to manage the board/damage before it finds its combo, or can simply forego board control to quickly draw through your deck to assemble the combo pieces ASAP.
For those new to the game, Combo decks are really not present with just the Welcome and Core sets. Some of the pieces for the Magic Dralamar Combo deck are found in Core, but you still need supporting pieces from the expansions. Magic, Death, and War are the Gods with current Combo decks.
Deckbuilding in Combo decks is really dependent on the deck, though most of them will have more card draw than most other decks.
Typically, one type of deck has some advantage over the other. This paper-rocks-scissors situation differs between different games, such as Magic The Gathering and Hearthstone. I’ve never really seen one that includes all 4 types in it so here’s what I think the situation is in Gods Unchained. Of course this isn’t set in stone as certain decks have an advantage over another even if it fits into this graph, and it’s just a generalization; plus, I could just be wrong haha.
Card Sets and Rarity
I don’t want to dive too much into the different sets and card details, but I believe a quick overview is beneficial here. Everyone has all the Welcome cards as they are what the Starter decks are made out of; Core cards are what you earn when you do the tutorials and level up. During Weekend Ranked, you can also earn additional Core packs, but also the latest expansion as well, which in the current case is Mortal Judgment. All the cards that I did not mention are from previous expansions and are locked, as in they cannot be changed at all. Welcome, Core, and the latest expansion are open to nerfs, buffs, and complete re-works. The last thing I want to mention is that the latest expansion (Mortal Judgment) and the last (Divine Order) have the most supply and are usually the cheaper sets/cards to buy. You can tell which set they come from by the icon on the top right, see the graphic below:
For rarity, there are 5 levels which usually determine its scarcity/supply. From the most common to the least is: Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic. Mythics are usually ultra rare cards, only 1 copy per expansion. I said usually at the beginning because for the latest expansion, Mortal Judgment, there is actually more supply of Epics than Rares due to the team experimenting with Epic packs. For deckbuilding purposes, you may have 2 copies of each card unless it’s a Legendary or Mythic; you may only have 1 copy of those in a deck. You can tell the rarity of a card by the color of the gems beside the card’s name, as seen below:
These graphics were taken from the Gods Unchained Blog Post: https://blog.godsunchained.com/2022/02/21/gods-unchained-cards-and-sets/
Vanilla Test
As you progress through the tutorial missions and level up, you’ll begin collecting new cards, mostly from the Core set. How can you tell if a creature is good and should be included in your deck? A quick and easy way to tell if a simple creature is good is through the Vanilla Test. It’s so-named not because of ice cream but it’s referring to a creature that is Vanilla (meaning no special effects or keywords). As the mana cost of a creature increases, you would expect its stats to increase as well. A creature that has additional good effects or keywords usually has lower stats compared to a vanilla creature of the same mana cost, and the same with creatures that has higher stats; they usually have downsides to them. However, there are some creatures with higher stats and effects than usual; these minions are usually a good include! Most of the time these are God-specific minions.
You can tell from the Welcome/Core sets what the stats are for Vanilla Creatures at each mana cost. For 1-mana, you usually expect 4 stats; so a 1/3, a 2/2, or a 3/1 (interestingly, most of them have a keyword or positive effect). From 2-5 mana, you’re looking at (mana cost) * 2 + 1 stats. For example, Hunt Warden at 3-mana has no keywords or effects, and has 7 stats (3/4), which is 3 * 2+1. At 5-mana, you have Helios Battlesworn, which is 5/6 and fits the equation 5 * 2 + 1 for 11 stats.
Since mana gain in this game is not linear after 5, the same equation cannot be applied. Moreover, there aren’t any vanilla creatures at all for 8 and 9 mana in existence regardless of card set. Funny enough, there is a promo card (Atlantean Rex) which is the only vanilla 6-mana creature and it actually fits the equation with 13 stats; although it is really swayed towards strength. At 7-mana you have Burnished Bull which has 20 total stats.
Here are some examples of minions from the Core set that not only pass the Vanilla test but surpasses it:
-Marsh Walker: a 1-mana with 5 stats PLUS Regen??? There’s a reason why this is a staple in a lot of Nature decks even at the highest levels
-Warmonger Smith: Not only does it have 6 stats which is higher than usual for a 2-mana creature, it also comes with a beneficial (but conditional) roar!
-Tomb Carver: Has 9 stats for a 4-mana passing the vanilla test with a healing afterlife
Here are some more examples from other expansion sets: Underbrush Boar, Cruel Overseer, Planetar Sage, and Deathwatch Curate. Do note that as you get to higher ranks, there are more important effects and synergies with cards that will take precedence over just the Vanilla Test (although some of the cards listed here are still used for high-level play), but it’s a good start for beginners!
2 Is Better Than 1
When you’re building a deck, a general rule is that if a card is good enough to include in your deck, it’s most likely worth it to include 2 copies (which is the max copies you can include of a card, unless it’s a Legendary in which case it’s 1). This not only gives you a greater chance of drawing it during a game and thus improving consistency, but it also helps your mulligan process; if you send a copy of a card back during the mulligan, the other copy of that card cannot be drawn during your mulligan. Personally, the only single copies I put in a deck other than Legendaries are usually tech cards (cards used to counter a certain deck/card type, such as void removal or relic removal) or a higher mana cost buff in an Aggro deck.
Neutral Creature Recommendations
In this last section I wanted to cover some Neutral Creatures that can be used with all Gods, which provides flexibility before you decide to go all-in with one God or just gives you more bang for your buck; in subsequent posts of this series I will delve into God-specific creatures so this is a good place to discuss the Neutrals. I’m not going to cover Legendary creatures here as the Core ones are not that great, and the good expansion ones are not that cheap/accessible for beginners.
You’ll notice these Welcome Neutral creatures are in every single Starter deck; that is because they pass the Vanilla test and are decent all the way through middle to upper ranks (Axewoman is used in Aggro War and Light decks in Mythic, while Hogs are sometimes used in Wild Nature). I would definitely keep them in your decks until you have better options. If you see the Meteorite or higher versions of these cards in the Star Store, buy them!
But PhoeniX, those first 3 cards don’t pass the Vanilla Test! Why how observant of you! The reason why they’re good especially on lower ranks is because they impact the game with their Roars (some call these reactive cards). Svart Basilisk is a double tech card in that it can remove a relic and/or Sleep on one of your creatures, although Sleep is probably not that big of an issue in lower ranks. Feral Shapeshifter and Ogre Archer both do damage to an enemy creature, with the former gaining hidden for better trading or buffing, and the latter doing a large amount of damage which is useful in lower ranks. Lastly, Helian Elite is a pretty high mana card that you’d only play if you’re playing a Control Deck, but dang is it useful. Very high stats along with Frontline to protect your face and Protected to protect itself. Just 3 turns of it hitting your opponent in the face is enough to end the game! Out of these cards, Feral Shapeshifter and Helian Elite are the ones that can be found all the way up top in Mythic rank decks.
I listed some good neutral minions from the latest 2 expansions here because they have the most supply and are decently cheap, in case you gained some GODS to spend either through the Daily Play and Earn or through forging and selling Core cards and want to invest in some cards. Skeletal Hoplite (~0.5 GODS) is a sticky 1-drop that can be used in buff heavy decks like Aggro Light or in Zombie decks, while City Planner (~4 GODS) is used in Control decks like Magic and Deception. Encumbered Looter (~5 GODS) is sometimes used in Aggro Deception and some Combo and Control decks, as it can deal 2 damage to a target of your choosing usually (with Hidden) and draws you a card when it dies. However, the most versatile card here is Guild Enforcer (~2 GODS). If you are just starting to buy a couple of cards this is the first card I’d suggest. It’s a 5 mana creature with armor and frontline that can stop a lot of lower rank Aggro decks in its tracks, stays a threat and provides a good buff target, and still sees play in higher ranks. It fits in most decks from Aggro to Mid to Control for all the Gods, and will really help you climb the ranks.
Conclusion
That was a lot! Feel free to ask me any questions. Here we went over a lot of general concepts and individual neutral cards; the next parts of the series will explore each God and give examples of different beginner decks for them, as well as discuss their Gods Powers and some useful God-specific cards.
By PhoeniX-Skye[P2W]
