Font of life = +1 Swap

F / W / a Steam Mage

Elements: Fire, Water, Air

Archetype: Midrange Tempo

It's an update version of these decks:

Detroit 2024 - https://curiosa.io/decks/cm3iwz25l0018bpm7ka2yh6bq
Explorer Series Ohio - https://curiosa.io/decks/cmc4tb7bw003nkw0491vbl26g
League 8 Top 16 - https://curiosa.io/decks/cm3iwz25l0018bpm7ka2yh6bq

Event Information

I piloted this deck to 11th place in the first crossroads event at Gencon 2025. Below are game recaps as best I can recall them.

I went 5-2 at Gencon, losing to Duo (the Champ) and CJ (another 6-1 player).

Game 1: vs Druid (win) Murray - Turbo Redneck

Great first match that came down to the wire. Managed to maneuver my way into a win with a well timed shrink + grapple shot. Was against a fellow league player who was playing large charge minions. I managed to stabilize and find a good turn for door, where I moved over to shrink a Pellinore preventing my opponent from dooring me the following turn. Followed by a grapple shot to get across the map with a Cerberus in Chains in tow to door him.

Game 2: vs Archi (win) - IDK

I had a semi slow start on this game, but the Archi was attempting to burn me out instead of removing early threats. I drew into Ring cleared his few minions and doored him a turn before he could craterize.

Game 3: vs AoA (win) - Nick

Cerberus in Chains put in a lot of work this game, before getting polli'd. A very scary game where I had Grim in hand with the opponent at 12. I drew into a lighting bolt hoping my opponent would think that a cloud city was enough to get away. I doored him in those two turns while he doored my through hippogriffs. And the opponent did move onto cloud city to get out of line of sight.

Game 4: vs Druid Steam (win) Bruce - Golden Eagle

Extremely close game, where I made a huge mistake in playing a grapple that I shouldn't have been able to. Which would have been a near 20 to door play. Golden handled my mistake really well and we managed to reset the game state to where the error occurred. It was easily the most intense game of sorcery I've played in my life where every little maneuver mattered. After a decent back and forth I managed to stabilize by drawing into a ring and making odd plays like casting a grapple into nothing just to kill a minion with a ring ping.

Game 5: vs Druid Steam (lose) Nate - Duo

Very close game that in retrospect I could of won. I missed a game winning play through defenders that I'm kicking myself pretty hard about. The setup was my BM with on his forward center site, with a Cat and Adept behind. A twany to the left and an Agravaine with his Avatar, I was not aware of a rule change to Agravaine trigger where he now hits the original attack target. An embarrassing blunder since I play the card so frequently. It's hard to explain my head state during the game, but I was definitely thrown for a loop. After trinketing his Agravaine, and moving it into a space out of his next play a Mask of Mayhem I didn't have a way to not end up at door. I ended up not blocking the Twany which was the right move. But my brain went a bit haywire and kept thinking the cat could die to Agravaine. So with no mana left for my opponent I should have blocked the avatar attacking my BM with the cat in addition which would have doored my opponent on his own turn and left me with two attackers to one blocker. But alas Duo took a risk and it paid off, he played well and patiently and the better player won the game. Was a fun but disheartening game.

Also it was the game of a Twins revenge since Duos brother is the AoA I had beat in round 3.

Before the last turn I also believe I made a few other mistakes that include

Placing my third site incorrectly allowing my opponent to connect a land bridge onto my side, which allowed him to kill my first adept. I ended up drawing into the second, but if I had been able to pull the other out I would of had another card to help me fight. The misplacement of the site also led me to use my minor explosion to get rid of a 3 power charger, a card that would have been very useful against Agravaine.

Game 6: vs Druid Shapeshift (lose) CJ

Nerves got to me after my first loss and I got hyper aggressive too early with bad reads into a hand that was well suited against my deck. They were the kind of mistakes that you can't make at that level and against a player as good as CJ who won't hesitate to capitalize. Very quick game

Game 7: vs Druid (win) Seth

A scary start turned into a steam roll of a game. Starting sites were two troll bridges + a tower. For spells I had Polar explorers and Rhongomyniad. I think the winning play was moving BM to backline with polar explorers, leaving them with Rhon to throw killing a Leprechaun and Phalanx after shrinking it, while also hitting the opponent for 6. All to have the BM pick up the spear on the opponents back row to start applying real pressure. I slow played it a bit after that to get thresholds right for Morgana and drowned the opponent in card advantage.

The Game Plan:

Build an efficient and sticky early game board, win the board with efficient removal and good movement tech. Then transition to hard hitting combos and don't let up the pressure. There's also a couple of very early game doors hidden in here with the right board state.

The Deck:

A long continuation of a deck I started back when decks were still 40/20. I've brought a variation of this deck to every tournament I've gone to with some decent success. Opening hands vary quite a bit, but it has a lot of hard and fast hitting lines to find. Early minion & site placement matter a lot, and typically you'll want to play sites more defensively than you might first guess.

Packages:

Here's an outline of how I think about what roles each card fills, with some duplication entries as there are cards that fill multiple roles.

Pull package: reduced down from it's original iteration but still a strong way to build an early board and thin the deck.

[[Adept Illusionist]] -> [[Adept Illusionist]]
[[Highland Falconer]] -> [[Palliburrie Bats]]

I choose bats over scarabs for a couple of reasons, bats having 2 power makes a huge difference. Especially with the prevalence of druid. The bugs might be better against Vamps, but bats feel stickier because they have burrow and don't immediately die to a desert.

First Strike:

Forges
Rhongomyniad

Heavy Hitters - Well statted minions

[[Lugbog Cat]]: A 4 for 3 that can be placed on top of a enemy water site, which I would highly recommend is possible.
[[Cerberus in Chains]]: 5 power for 3 that can produce extra pressure or extra defense. Don't forget that this can move with forced movement like grapple shot. Typically better in games you want to be offensive in

Finishers - Get them to door

[[Ruler of Thul]]: Skip the road blocks if any and add extra damage the turn you play him, turning the pull package into real threats.
[[Sir Agravaine]]: Get him into a position where he can at least be near the enemy avatar on the next turn, then swing as many dorks directly into their avatar as you can stacking extra 3 damage for each. I've had a turn five 20 to door (sorry Glenn).
[[Cerberus in Chains]] + [[Grapple Shot]]

Ramp - Get more mana make things cheaper

[[Ruby Core]]: Early ramp, easier to hit that third fire threshold
[[Philosopher's Stone]]: Don't be afraid to hold this back if drawn later for a huge swing turn, and try to play knights second so they don't take up 2 color slots.

Equipment Package - Turn your avatar into a direct threat

Increase power: [[Torshammar Trinket]]
[[Rhongomyniad]]: Permanent first strike on your battle mage, making it easier to use your avatar as removal + card draw

Removal - Deal with minions to save your life total

[[Shrink]]: Best on big minions but can also turn the tides against aggro
[[Pollimorph]]: Best single target removal in the game currently for [[Battlemage]]
[[Grapple Shot]]: Can remove larger minions by following up with an attack. Also useful to remove a flying unit if you don't have a [[firebolts]] or [[lightning bolt]]

Sites:

Sites are almost completely focused around hitting threshold requirements while drawing the least amount of sites possible. You want 3-5 mana depending on your opening hand and subsequent draws with a real cap at 6. If you have a stone or a core in your opening hand it's usually safer to mulligan less sites and keep a lower count before putting on pressure. If going up to 5 or 6 it's often weaved into a turn after moving onto the opponents side.

In the end 3 Fire, 2 Water, 1 Air is what you're looking for. Theres are two triple fire threshold in [[Morgana le Fay]] & [[Immolation]]. This means if you have 3f, 2w, 1a in your opening hand you're golden on sites. A good opening hand typically has 2f, 2w, 1a. I've done quite a few pulls, if you don't hit 2f, 2w, 1a by site 5 that's typically rare. By 6 you should commonly see all your thresholds, but at 5 sites total pretty consistently.

Sites that produce Fire & Water are the best, sites that produce multiple threshold are good, and usually more water sites will keep your minions safer until you decide to move out since they can't be buried and drowning effects seem less meta.

Mulligans:

Mulligans for spells

The deck shuffles a decent amount so don't be too discouraged if you have to pitch a higher cost card that might be great later in the game, it might not stay at the bottom of the deck for long!

I feel like Mulligans in this deck require a decent understanding of how it needs to play against different avatars in different ways. Mixed with watching your thresholds and finding lines to consistently win the board in the early game, which can vary greatly. There are cards that are good against Archi, that will do less against Druid and vice versa. There are site placements you really want to hit against Druid that don't matter in other matchups.

An example to look at is sinkhole vs troll bridge. Sinkhole CAN be good against druid, but you won't always know what you're sitting across from before starting the game. Sinkhole is however amazing against Archi, even if you're going second. It delays their mass removal by an extra turn, allowing you to push their life lower earlier and possibly unexpectedly by removing their center forward defensive site. Troll bridge, doesn't usually do a lot against Archi, but a center forward site against a druid allows you to funnel their twany and other charge minions into a meat grinder.

Mulligans for sites

If you see 3f 2w 1a, you're golden and it's usually not worth pitching sites. If you see 2f, 2w, 1a you likely still want to keep that hand 90% of the time.

Match Ups

Aggro: You want forges some early minions. You often still want to get to 3-4 lands so early minions are more important than equipment. If you survive to the mid to late game [[Rhongomyniad]] can put in work, but you need early minions to get there.

Control: If it seems like it's a non-minion based deck it's ok to hang some creatures back and wait for something that will give a big burst of damage. Especially if you're going second! You can build a board on the back line waiting for the right timing of [[Polar Explorers]], [[Ruler of Thul]]. This is of course contingent on them hitting their defensive sites at the right times.

Some interesting hands I've seen.

The Big Doggy

[[Ruby Core]], [[Cerberus in Chains]], [[Grapple Shot]], [[Ruins]], [[Sinkhole]]. These five cards allow you to play out Cerberus on turn two followed up by grappling him into their face. The last site doesn't even matter that much. The hardest question you'll have to ask yourself is if you grapple shot the BM or the Cerberus.

[[Adept Illusionist]] can pair really well with troll bridge. It can sometimes work well with forge depending on your opponents hand.

GenCon 11th - F/W/A Sirprise it's Aggrovaine

@nattu