OUTDATED PRIMER - to-be-updated

Storytime

Aggro: contesting the realm by turn two

For a long time, I've been using [[Spectral Stalker]] as a solid aggro minion that can be summoned turn 1 thanks to Towers' temporary mana boost. It's thus the only 1-drop, 2-power unit that can attack as soon turn two. It's great that we can run 4x copies of it, but when you're also looking for other synergistic cards, 4x copies might not be as reliable as we'd want. Not only that, due to Towers' nerf, the classic turn one Spectral Stalker, turn two Headless Haunt/Phantasmal Shade is a little more unreliable. And with Phantasmal Shade's new ability that makes it extremely vulnerable to any blockers, you really need another allied unit to clear the way. Unfortunately, our Spectral Stalker package just isn't reliable enough.

I started thinking about what direction I should take to brew a solid aggro deck. That's when a card came to mind: [[Polar Bears]]. I used to run it in a mono-Water tempo deck way back, and they used to be quite powerful with their 3-power body (2-cost but double Water threshold then). They dropped one threshold symbol but also lost 1 power in the power adjustment update we had. And that's when a thought came to mind: Polar Bears are just like Spectral Stalker - they are the only two 2-cost, 2-power minions that can ignore the starting void gap entirely. Being a Water minion, however, Polar Bears can't be dropped turn one like our Stalking friend, where they'd shine most. Unless...

An Avatar of wonder and awe

[[Elementalist]]'s threshold-giving ability was the missing piece of the puzzle that would allow me to consistently start applying pressure turn two with my Spectral Bears strategy. Not only that, but it also opens up so many possibilities in terms of deckbuilding, as you can easily splash some amazing cards without any atlas-building cost.

Deck Guide

Strengths & Weaknesses

(+) super fast deck that can apply a lot of pressure from the get-go

(+) able to attack from multiple angles

(+) great at taking the opponent down to zero and delivering the final death blow

(−) falls a lot in the mid to late game

(−) can struggle against some midrange strategies if you don't find the right answers, especially Fey Changeling and Bury

(−) enemy Vile Imps

The Basics

You should almost never draw from atlas on your draw step. There are very few situations where drawing from atlas might be better to keep applying pressure and not lose tempo. That's especially true in games where you sacrifice one of your Sinkholes.

Spread your minions as much as possible to make your opponent's life miserable. Polar Bears and Spectral Stalker excel in attacking from different angles, but you should always keep that in mind with all your minions. Be mindful of some of the key removals being played and play around them as much as possible, especially Poison Nova. Sometimes you'll want to keep a Highland Falconer alongside your 2 and 3-power minions in order to make it harder for the opponent to Lightning Bolt them.

Make good use of your resources, sites included.

This deck isn't great at fighting from behind and can't simply waste resources. Manage your resources and try to be very efficient with your cards and mana. Sometimes if you have a new Tower in hand but if you play it this turn you'd be wasting 2 mana, you might want to tap your Avatar to draw a site instead.

All-Stars

[[Spectral Stalker]] / [[Polar Bears]] - key units. Great for clearing the way (Foot Soldiers and Apprentices Wizards), and great delivery system for Bells.

[[Maddening Bells]] - a meta-defining card that can pretty much end games when played turn 3 off Tower.

[[Browse]] - great topdeck that can help you find Bells or a finisher like Grapple Shot or Lightning Bolt.

[[Bury]] / [[Fey Changeling]] - Extremely powerful against Mix strategies, and essential against decks running Daperyll Vampire. You might want to keep one of these in hand for those matchups. Phalanx, Unicorn, or Shade + Grapple Shot can also do the trick.

[[Sinkhole]] - We don't need much mana, but our Avatar doesn't have an ability that scales well. So Sinkhole is a way to either mess up an opponent's greedy mana base or to simply force them to draw and play more sites. This is not a site that we usually keep in hand, but it's a great site to draw off the top as you get into the midgame. Be careful not to get yourself in a situation where you can't attack their sites or to place your sites aggressively because of it. Ideally you want to have a site to replace the leftover Rubble with.

Advanced

On the play

While on the play, we have the best opportunity to apply pressure and be ahead tempo-wise.

Turn 1: Tower + Spectral Stalker or Polar Bears

Turn 2a: Cloud City or Village (don't pay 1) + 2-drop (preferably Bosk Troll or Men of Leng) -

*Turn 2b: Tower (different) + Phantasmal Shade

Turn 3a: Tower + Maddening Bells or two 2-drops or 4-drop

*Turn 3b: Village + 2-drop (preferably Bosk Troll or Men of Leng)

Turn 4: Tap to draw a site + 3-drop

Mulligan

Mulligan away Browse & Queen of Midland & Pnakotic Manuscript. These cards are extremely powerful, but they are not your path to victory. These cards are great top decks when you need more gas or the right threat or answer, but they hurt your early game tempo and your options, and thus your ability to apply pressure. Remember, you want to find your key cards: Stalker, Bears, and Bells.

Keep Spectral Stalker/Polar Bears, Maddening Bells.

On the draw

On the draw

Turn 1: Village (pay 1)

Turn 2: Tower + 3-drop

Turn 3: Village + 2-drop

*Turn 3b: Tap to draw a site + 2-drop

Mulligan

Mulligan away Spectral Stalker, Polar Bears, and Bells (worth keeping in some matchups - Check Matchups section). Here we want to starve our opponent out of resources and go for a grindy go-wide strategy. We want to apply pressure from different angles while investing just as much as needed. Foot Soldiers are a fundamental part of this strategy, and we also want our 4-power minions that can survive some of the most common answers in Lightning Bolt/Thunderstorm and Firebolts/Minor Explosion. Polar Bears and Spectral Stalkers are still great tools to attack from different angles, but we don't want to draw way too many as they aren't our best threats in terms of cost-power ratio or their abilities, reason why we mulligan them away. Men of Leng, Bosk Troll, and Swiven Scout are all better drop 2s when on the draw. Remember, we are not trying to rush down the opponent's hp. We are trying to slowly chip their life away and making it rough for them to answer our multiple threats.

Matchups

Spectral Bears

@Emberleaf