If you're reading my primer, let me know what you think of the deck in the comments. Would love to hear your recommendations or your experience with the cards in the deck. You can skip to the Overview section to read about the deck.

📋 News and Recent Updates

➡️ 1/12/2026

Ok, so Gothic is out and I've had some time to sit with this deck. I'm not sure it's in the same position it was before to be winning, but that has yet to be determined. The stand out cards I'm testing are: [[Key to the City]], [[Toolbox]], [[Arjaro Exorcist]], [[Paladins of Bazia]] and [[Archangel Michael]]. And for sites, I'm trying [[Twilight Bloom]] and [[Mountain Peaks]] to see if they handle the weirdness of a second element in [[Geomancer]]. As far as old cards go, I brought back [[Sir Galahad]] in order to handle some of the insane evil minions. I also switch from [[Bury]] to [[Cave-In]] to handle ward minions a little better.

I'm questioning [[Common Sense]] with the proliferation of [[Haystack]]s.

➡️ 12/112025

I have a lot of updates to write up, but here are some notes I don't want to lose:

[[Move of Mountains]] is great for breaking tri-sites, but it's also great for moving [[Rubble]], as well as sites like [[Pebbled Path]], [[Watchtower]], and [[Gnome Hollows]].

With [[Silver Bullet]] giving us access to healing, I took out the [[Daperyll Vampire]] and put in [[Archangel Michael]]. I think it's better and survives more and also removes another (A) card reducing our dependency on threshold.

➡️ 10/27/2025 (1162)

I'm going to test out a slightly different direction for the deck. I want to see how going big on mana does for me. I introduced the Field Laborers along with the higher mana Amazon Warriors and Highland Clansmen. I also went back up to 4 Scourge Zombies. I'm leaning into the Highland Clansmen due to their charge ability. I'm hoping my own Pebbled Paths doesn't screw me on this, but I think having the instant 5 damage before they get removed will be so much better for me — especially if I'm only able to single spell with an Amazon Warriors on a turn where I have more than 5 mana anyway, which happens a lot. I broke free from the 3-ofs of Daperyll Vampire and Root Spider to try to make room for some of these other cards. I am sacrificing something there for sure, but I'm hoping that more mortals and more mana will make it so I can hit a little harder instead of just being removal bait. The only thing I'm feeling right now is a desire to have more Blinks and more Cave-Ins — which I can't figure out how to make room for.

➡️ SCG Baltimore recap

Here were my matchups:

✅ Pathfinder

✅ Archimago

❌ Sorcerer

✅ Sorcerer

✅ Archimago

❌ Avatar of Air

✅ Avatar of Air

My two losses could’ve been avoided, but I think that’s the state of the game right now. A lot of people are experiencing certain aspects of the game for the first time and don’t know how to play around them properly. In my loss against Sorcerer, I made numerous mistakes about placing minions in suboptimal positions and then getting blown out. In my loss against Avatar of Air, I ignorantly placed two air sites of my own next to my opponent's Bottomless Pit and he just threw every minion I put down into it. Knowing is half the battle. I got an Earthquake to save myself, but it was too late in the game and I couldn't come back. Boulder, dead.

I found myself wanting Blink more often than I thought I would. A lot of times it was because I was stuck somewhere I shouldn’t have been, or needed to move my avatar without losing out on the Rubble I created.

The Gnome Hollows were amazing but I would constantly be an idiot and put a Dalcean Phalanx behind one and then face palm. These are just preventable things that you don’t think you’ll do in the event and then you get overwhelmed and make little mistakes like this.

I didn’t play one Druid despite seeing it all around me all day.

Earthquake and Craterize were amazing every time I drew them. And Burys never stayed in my hand. I always got to use the Lightning Bolts as well. The Grapple Shot was a lot less useful at times, but always love having it as an option for finishing games.

Amazon Warriors and Daperyll Vampires were great in that they forced a removal spell, but they rarely did damage. I’m considering the Highland Clansmen to replace the Amazon Warriors or the Dalcean Phalanxs.

As I think about more stuff from the event I’ll try to post it here.

Here are the changes I made after the event:

+1 Cave-In

+1 Dalcean Phalanx

+3 Highland Clansmen

+2 Blink

-2 Amazon Warriors

-1 Feast for Crows

-1 Daperyll Vampire

-1 Draco Corvus

-1 Root Spider

-1 Sisters of Silence

📋 Overview

The goal of this deck is to edge out card advantage using Scourge Zombies and annoy your opponent with a constant onslaught of little mortals. This deck takes full advantage of having Foot Soldiers off of the Villages. I ended up removing one of the Scourge Zombies to make room for other cards I thought I needed, but the jury is out — fighting aggro decks is tough when a well-timed Boudica or Ruler of Thul can just crush you to death's door in a single turn.

Opening Hand

Being a Geomancer deck, you’ll want to make sure you’re starting hand has 2-3 earth sites. You want to play an earth site to take advantage of the Geomancer ability to get a Rubble next to you, and then flip those into new sites. This way you can stay busy drawing spells instead. The arrangement should start with the Avatar's site, placing a rubble in front of it. Then flip that rubble into a free site. Then play an earth site top left or top right of that flipped site and place the new rubble directly next to your Avatar. This means that after you flip all of the free sites from your rubble, you'll have 6 sites off of your opening hand, which can cast almost everything in the deck except Craterize.

Card Notes

The Royal Bodyguard is in the deck for when you go to death's door. Because it is so good in this case, I usually hold them in my hand until then to ensure I have it. If it's in my opening hand, I'll mulligan them away. I don't mind putting them on the bottom of the library because I have Common Sense to shuffle.

I split the two Dispel into one Dispel one Disenchant in case someone casts Feast for Crows on us.

Shield Maidens are amazing. They prevent desert site genesis activations, Fire Bolts, Poison Nova, Colicky Dragonettes, Pit Vipers, Arcane Barrage, Magic Missiles, and most importantly, Ring of Morrigan, etc. The even survive a Vile Imp and Quarrelsome Kobolds. They do so much work in this deck. Play them carefully. You can also use Shield Maidens to allow the Ring of Morrigan to hit your minions safely to gain life.

Sites

There are two things we want to think about with sites in this deck. One is to have an opening hand of three earth sites to maximize Geomancer's ability. If your opening hand has a lot of air minions, you might want to consider holding onto an opening air site, but generally speaking, you want three earth sites. And two, you want your top 7 sites to include two air threshold. You should plan on playing all 10 sites and with two air threshold you should be able to play everything in your deck. I think I've found the sweet spot ration where that happens almost every time.

I think 12 air sites is the right number to always ensure you get 2 out of the 10 you can play.

Gnome Hollows is in this deck in order to prevent Nimbus Djinn and Battlemage finishes. It also helps tremendously against Dragonlord decks too.

Pebbled Paths are there to slow down aggro fire decks. Two Pebbled Paths in the top left and top right nearby positions to your avatar will completely shut down all charge minions.

Watchtowers are there to prevent Infiltrate. And on a small level, Morgana as well.

Relentless Mortals 🧟 Geomancer

@harryfino