{{www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-I1lT6Jbdo}}

Music video by Yaelokre

All illustrations by Jaider Esbell

Welcoming explorers

“A Hound scared and chased a Hare but gave up after some distance.

Asked why, the Hound cited motivation:

Hound ran for supper; Hare ran for life.”

Many Sorcery players may engage in the game exclusively by replicating others’ brews and play patterns. Alternatively, we could enjoy this whole extraordinary game and explore its multiple mechanics in whole new ways. Motivation is the willpower engine; exploration gathers tools to use it. And thus, both player and game may evolve.

This is a midrange competitive deck, highly rewarded by good decision making and extra satisfactory to win with. As an off-meta deck, this list has no autorun insta-win conditions, but despite that it has been performing very well in the competitive environment (especially against Necromancer😏), scoring 3-0 several times since Gothic release. And yet this ever-changing decklist continues to evolve overtime. In a nutshell, this brew is an ode to the off-meta gameplay.

Made to Order

This decklist is for all absurdist existential elks who seek sublimation of their awareness of Sorcery meta by illogically defiling action into honest self-expression. This brew pleases the taste of those with the following quirks:

• Midrange enjoyer: I’ve been playing midrange for years in every TCG I engaged in. This game plan pleases me the most. Harpy Hare turns on the midrange spirit inside every player and ignites it into a blissful sparkling firework.

• Off-meta fan: Those who simply refuse to replicate championship-winners lists. Handmade is always more beautiful.

• Addicted to card advantage: The main strategy of this deck is to overwhelm your opponent with resources.

• Beast archetype devotee: Water and Earth can leverage full potential of Beast subtheme. Strong minions with powerful interactions lie within this archetype.

• Versatile player and continuous builder: This list may easily be adapted to your local environment, from pre-game refinement to in-game sequencing. See the last section of this primer for a more detailed discussion regarding Maybeboard.

Going off the beaten path

Let’s talk about Harpy Hare idiosyncrasies and core strategy. This primer's content is:

Win condition > Discussion of Harpy Hare way of reaching victory

Unraveling geomancy > How to maximize leverage of [[Geomancer]]’s ability

Core strategy > How to drive Harpy Hare

Key cards and geotechnology > Individual cards and interesting interactions discussion

Collection > Dissection of choices for the Collection

On the field > Matchup dependent advices

Slow and steady > Previous tests report, currently testing cards and ideas to evolve the deck

Win condition: Card advantage suffocation

Every TCG is played based on resource management, and your resource is cards. Number of cards you have access to during a game is equal to versatility of plays, which leads to efficiency in responses. Efficient responses are those that lead to 2+ for 1 trades, capping your opponent’s resources. Sorcery CR takes resource management to an extreme level. Players are always coping with scarcity, and we must extract maximum value of each card. Harpy Hare plays exactly around that, using Geomancer to play sites while drawing spells and performing unfair trades with our Spellbook. In short, this deck ends up winning by always doing more than your opponent.

Following this mindset, there are two important stratagems to keep in mind:

First, always keep track of your opponent’s hand size, number of units in play and total mana. Your goal is to surpass most of these metrics.

Second, except when playing against hyper aggro, always choose to go second. Seer rule and drawing first help immensely this deck strategy.

Unraveling geomancy: Why and how to become a Geomancer

Geomancer’s ability generates card advantage by occasionally playing sites directly from the top of your Atlas. This allows us to develop mana simultaneously to expand spells available, essentially drawing two cards on turns that Geomancer is activated.

One may ask why to use [[Geomancer]] instead of [[Pathfinder]] as the Avatar, since both accomplish very similar roles through the game. The answer unfolds itself by simple math:

> At turn 6, [[Pathfinder]] usually played six sites while drawing exclusively spells.

> With three Earth sites on the starting hand, [[Geomancer]] can also play six sites by turn 6 while drawing exclusively spells.

This is accomplished by the following sequence, hereafter called Standard Land Uplift:

Turn 1: (E) site at home square and Rubble forward

Turn 2: Replace forward Rubble with top of Atlas

Turn 3: (E) site to the left of forward site, Rubble to left of [[Geomancer]]

Turn 4: (E) site to the right of forward site, Rubble to the right of [[Geomancer]]

Turn 5: Replace one of the Rubble with top of Atlas

Turn 6: Replace the remaining Rubble with top of Atlas

(relative sides ordering are arbitrary)

The Standard Land Uplift is easily accomplished on mono-(E) decks and reaches the same profit as Pathfinder until turn 6. However, we reached this point without any of Pathfinder’s downsides. Our Atlas isn’t singleton, so there is a lot of consistency. Moreover, we decided the order and position of three sites (those played from hand), which additionally increases consistency.

After the sixth site is gathered, developing mana may be done more slowly, since most spells and/or multiple spells per turn can already be cast. Using our Avatar tap ability to draw sites interleaved with playing them is guaranteed extra mana overtime, while [[Pathfinder]] may find themselves stuck in positions unfavorable to playing sites.

And there is more! [[Pathfinder]] have movement shenanigans to help cope with position and keep playing sites. Equally, [[Geomancer]] has his own tools to generate new adjacent Rubble, expanding the leverage scope of his ability (I will discuss some of these tools soon).

So, while playing (E), Geomancer can deliver all advantages Pathfinder generates, but he does so without any of Pathfinder disadvantages.

Multi-Elementary Land Uplift

You may notice that I developed my thesis assuming there are three (E) sites on starting hand, which may be seen only on mono-(E) decks. Showcasing an (E)(W) deck alongside this argument may be contradictory, so let’s evolve our standardized geomancy to a Multi-Elementary Land Uplift.

I’ve been playing multi-elemental [[Geomancer]] for more than half a year and always find it to be worth the shot. Keeping non-(E) sites on your Atlas usually does not significantly hinder our usage of geomancy, and it brings a very valuable advantage: Access to more possibilities. Mono-(E) is very fun, but running a second element escalates the possibilities in a non-linear proportion, boosting our Spellbook ceiling.

Adapting the Land Uplift to a Multi-Elementary fashion also bring to light a play pattern that may look handicapped at first glance but can be interesting on its own matter. By keeping a starting hand with two (E) sites and one non-(E) site, you can change steps of Land Uplift to the following:

Turn 1: Play (E) site at home square, Rubble to the left (or right) of [[Geomancer]]

Turn 2: Play from hand defensive site forward

Turn 3-5: Play as on Standard Land Uplift

Turn 6: Draw site for the turn and play it from hand

And this pattern is super good! Choosing which site will be placed forward, and keeping a defensive one for this position, is especially important on a midrange shell. As you can see, at Turn 6 you probably will swap a draw from Spellbook to a draw from Atlas, but this is a small cost to proactively impair your opponent progress toward your domains. In this pattern, you can maximize leverage of sites such as [[Perilous Bridge]], [[Thin Ice]], [[Troll Bridge]], [[Vesuvius]], [[The Manor at Daperyll Hill]] and many others that are very good on the interface between players’ sites. And don’t forget that alongside this extra defensiveness, you now have access to a second element tactics, tremendously improving your deck.

Okay, but what if after mulligans there is not a single (E) site on starting hand? No problems! Keep performing Multi-Elementary Land Uplift as planned, but do not occupy voids adjacent to your [[Geomancer]]. Occasionally draw sites as if you were playing any other Avatar, and eventually you will find (E) sites. Playing them on any square of the Realm will create the Rubble to be replaced, generating card advantage either way. This is not ideal but is not a big concern.

And why does Harpy Hare play (W), specifically?

First, Gothic gave us a very important midrange kit on Water, discussed ahead.

Secondly, Water can do very good control-ish plays around the sites, turning our ability to respond to initial threats more effectively. Spamming [[Troll Bridge]]s and [[Thin Ice]]s over the Realm is very effective. This play style may also be accomplished by playing (A), with [[Wuthering Heights]], [[The Manor at Daperyll Hill]] and [[Bottomless Pit]]s. But I particularly think it’s more difficult to achieve necessary thresholds on that build (Manor requiring (A)(A)(A)(A) and [[Bottomles Pit]]s providing none).

Besides all that said so far, Harpy Hare Atlas is effective in finding sites to trigger [[Geomancer]]. We are not only running three copies of [[Aqueduct]], but also [[Garden of Eden]], and [[Algae Bloom]] (its Genesis splits [[Geomancer]]'s ability so that when he finally checks for (E) [[Algae Bloom]] already has it and creates a Rubble). These sites allow us to gather (W) threshold and trigger [[Geomancer]] simultaneously. Added to the pure (E) sites, most of our sites will generate Rubbles to be replaced. In short, multi-elemental geomancy increases the deck potential.

Z-Positioning Multi-Elementary Land Uplift

Both Land Uplift patterns discussed so far lead us to a landscape shape of a bold 3x2 centralized block of sites. This formation is very easy to defend, specially if our home square is occupied by [[Varmint Warrens]] (discussed later). However, positioning a Rubble to the opposite side of the site played at Step 3, creating a Z-shaped territory, is actually stronger.

[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

[ ] [ X ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ ]

[ ] [ 4 ] [ 1 ] [ ] [ ]

Playing sites in this order is a invitation for your opponent, which induces it to the error of infiltrating our territory on the X mark at the illustration. If your opponent plays a site there, it’s better for us for two reasons:

1. Your opponent does not increase number of contact points with our realm in comparison with the usual T-positioning. If we played a site on X and then your opponent placed one in front of it, they would get two points of access (X and 2). On Z-position, they still have only two points of access (4 and 2), but those are easier to defend, since a minion on top of 1 can move and defend attacks in both ways. Meanwhile, we get an enemy site far away from its Avatar, allowing us to do aggressive movements and deal damage without letting our minions get nearby a Spellcaster for free. Thus, if your opponent places a site on X, they are turning their aggression worst and ours better.

2. Since we are playing (E) sites from hand in this moment, besides position 2 on illustration, sites placed forward will hardly be defensive. Creating an interface with a former-Rubble site increases our chances to have more defensive (W) sites at this role. This additionally increases our defensiveness.

One may question if this does not undermine our potential total mana for the future. Remember that if your opponent plays more sites forward, they are neglecting sites sideways. Thus, we can keep developing mana by playing to the right of position 3, and then backwards. This guarantees seven mana for the game, but usually you won’t lose access neither to void to the left of 4 nor to north-east of 3. Following this pattern, it is often to gather nine total mana easily.

This positioning is not exclusive to the geomancy way. Site management is an important skill to develop independently of your Avatar and decklist.

Note: If your first site is [[Varmint Warrens]], don’t do the Z-shape. The 3x2 block of sites surrounding

[[Varmint Warrens]] is more effective if you go for [[White Hart]] interaction (discussed ahead).

Also don’t do it if you have [[Rift Valley]] on starting hand (also discussed ahead).

**Tectonic Drift: de novo Rubble management**

As said before, a Geomancer also has its ways to reposition to get access to new adjacent voids that could be filled with new Rubbles. To accomplish this, there are three key cards: [[Rift Valley]], [[Riptide]] and [[Mover of Mountains]].

[[Rift Valley]]: Ideally played from hand at turn 5. After accomplishing Steps 1-3 of Land Uplift without Z-positioning, change the Rubble with top of Atlas at turn 4. Then play Rift Valley at turn 5 on your home square, pushing Geomancer’s site to the side not occupied by anything. This movement occurs before our Avatar’s triggered ability, so the new void you are now facing can by immediately filled with a Rubble due to Rift Valley being an (E) site. The result is a new Rubble forward while there’s still a void to the side of Geomancer, ready to be filled. Be aware that this can be disturbed by your opponent if the Rubble is generated adjacent to an enemy site.

[[Riptide]]: It is very common that your Rubbles is replaced by a (W) site. This allows us to use [[Riptide]] to pull Geomancer to one of them. Getting access to a new void to be filled with Rubble. This increases [[Riptide]] versatility, since it can be also used as board management, either advancing minions offensively or pushing enemy minions into [[Troll Bridge]] or [[Thin Ice]]. Now it can also be used to essentially draw two cards, since it gives us a draw by itself and the possibility to generate a new Rubble (which in future turn will be transmuted into a draw from top of Atlas).

[[Mover of Mountains]]: This one is very versatile and will appear again later. On this current topic, you can use Mover of Mountains to swap sites adjacent to Geomancer with Rubbles generated by site destruction with Sinkhole.

Lastly, there is geomantic ultimate resource: destroying [[Roots of Yggdrasil]]. This is a free play for Geomancer, since it will cover the realm with Rubbles that can be replaced by its ability while you draw exclusively spells. If you find these two, let your opponent deploy most cards of their hand without losing life very much. When you already have card advantage, it is time for reinitialize terraforming. In a few turns you will be back to reasonable amount of mana and a hand full of spells, while your opponent probably had to draw exclusively or mostly sites to keep pace. This move can also be reached as an emergency button, when your opponent is overwhelming with board presence, even if you do not have card advantage on hand.

Core strategy: Shaping the landscape

“Your Avatar cultivates the seeds of conquest”

A useful way to understand core strategy is dividing it into the three main stereotypical phases: early, mid and late game. Let’s follow this pattern:

Early game: Seeding

Your game plan initiates with the die rolling. Except when playing against aggro, you should always choose to go second. As we want to continuously gather more resources than your opponent, drawing first will guarantee initial hand size advantage. Additionally, the Seer Rule can be applied to look at top of Atlas to manipulate the first Rubble substitution, which is specially good when performing Standard Land Uplift. Moreover, you want to play reactively, so letting your opponent play first helps you decide which play is best suited. And there is even more. Your opponent main advantage for going first is that they will usually be one mana ahead of us. But this is often true only for a few turns early on the game, since you can keep playing sites with much more frequency than your opponent. Geomancer rapidly surpasses total mana count against most of Avatars, and thus this initial advantage is usually neutralized.

And then come mulligan decisions. You must be more worried about starting sites. Two (E) sites and a highly defensive (W) site is the most appropriate hand in most cases, so you can perform Multi-Elementary Land Uplift. Some exceptions are:

• When playing against [[Archimago]], you must find our hate sites. The most effective one is [[Mismanaged Mortuary]]. I strongly recommend to hard mulligan all three sites to find [[Mismanaged Mortuary]]. [[Garden of Eden]] and [[Haystack]]s are also very good in this match.

• When playing against aggro, you should be fine if you keep a [[Troll Bridge]] or [[Thin Ice]] in hand. A couple hits early game will not steal the game.

• If you see [[Roots of Yggdrasil]] on starting hand, do not mulligan it away. Blowing an Yggdrasil with [[Sinkhole]] at the right moment usually brings us the win. When keeping Yggdrasil, use Seer Rule to manipulate top of Atlas to find good threshold, not [[Sinkhole]]. You need to worry about your early plays. Usually, your first draw should be a site in this situation to correct the Land Uplift.

• [[Toolbox]] is a tricky one. The Spellbook is very good in responding generical situations, so if you are playing a typical deck, I usually prefer an actual spell. However, there is some specific Avatars that Toolbox is really good against: [[Necromancer]] and [[Waveshaper]] can be devastated by [[Old Salt Anchorman]]; [[Archimago]] and [[Deathspeaker]] suffer with [[Return to Nature]]; [[Persecutor]], [[Battlemage]], [[Ironclad]] and [[Bladedancer]] can be defeated single handed by a [[Dispel]] at the right timing.

• Don’t keep [[Assorted Animals]] and any spell with cost (5) or more, except for [[Call of the Sea]] and [[Atlantean Fate]].

After that, it’s time to choose which Land Uplift you will be performing. Choose wisely by considering your opponent’s deck and your starting sites. In this first phase, you should use your minions majorly defensively. [[Coy Nixie]], [[Abaddon Succubus]], [[Lugbog Cat]] and [[Autumn Unicorn]] are excellent in accomplishing this role.

Mid game: Cultivating

After turn 3 it is time to focus on actively bloom card advantage and dominate the Realm. As stated before, Harpy Hare Spellbook is focused on repetitively performing unfair trades. This is accomplished in three ways:

1. Recurring removal.

This is easily done with [[Troll Bridge]] and [[Thin Ice]] using [[Coy Nixie]], [[Abaddon Succubus]] and [[Riptide]], a well-known tech. [[Hyperparasite]], if not managed by opponent, can become recurring removal as well. This minion is very underused, despite being really good.

2. Minions with ward, genesis that kill or disabling effects.

These are the main components of our pivot tactic. Warded minions are here to be responded. [[Order of the White Wing]] and [[Sacred Stag]] are minions with considerable power that will stand still to block incoming attacks (ideally killing the attacker) and die either trading with a second minion or by an enemy kill spell. Both are good since it ended up being a positive balance of resources in our favor. [[Lacuna Entity]] and [[Archangel Michael]] do the same, but faster. They kill an enemy on spot and then leave a body to block, attack minions or be responded to. [[Gargantula]], [[Hyperparasite]] and [[Brobdingnag Bullfrog]] are similar, but slower. They enter disabling a minion that then must be attacked to actually be killed. But this is not a big concern, since we are buying time to do such maneuvers. Any one of these minions that ended not being adequately responded by our opponent will keep killing enemy minions and eventually progress to the final phase of the game where we will go for the win.

3. Massive kill spells.

You are looking for a big [[Call of the Sea]], [[Atlantean Fate]], [[Snowball]] or [[The Green Knight]].

The main thought while playing through this phase is that developing the board must be equal to controlling it. Minions aforementioned in point #2 are the face of the deck, behaving exactly as a midrange list want. They enter with removal effects and leave a fat body to continue pressuring the board. However, during this phase you must use your minions defensively. No need to rush damage. The main goal is to grow your dominance while hindering your opponent’s presence.

Late game: Conquering

At the point your opponent is exerted, and you have a couple minions on the Realm. It is time to go aggressive mode. If the game gone alright, hitting your opponents’ sites won’t be any problem. Swing for Death’s Door with an average of 8 damage per turn, always watching for their hand size in order to keep responses available for possible comebacks.

At this point, it is important not to deploy minions exclusively for bigger swings. Two minions dedicated to attack are usually enough, since most of them have 4 power. [[Ruler of Thul]] and [[Lilith]] are good minions to drop in this phase, but don’t go much further. Spamming all your minions on the board may allow your opponent to turn the table around with their own boardwipes.

Dealing the deathblow to finish the game is the harder part for an (E)(W) deck. Try to save a [[Snowball]] or [[Toolbox]] (fetching for [[Ice Lance]] or [[Smite]]) to this purpose. [[Swap]], [[Riptide]] and [[Coy Nixie]] may also be useful for the final strike with movement shenanigans.

This is a very simple deck to drive when you keep in mind that you are playing for late aggression. There are a bunch of support minions to fight back aggro decks, like [[Autumn Unicorn]] and [[Lugbog Cat]], and some situational resources such as [[Pied Piper of Hameln]], [[Plague of Frogs]] and [[Lifewish]]. Functionality of these satellite cards is discussed in next sections.

Key cards and geotechnology

Now that you are properly initialized in geomantic arts, let’s dive into some specificities this particular decklist can provide. These are some combinations and standalones key cards that stand out.

Key cards

[[Assorted Animals]], [[Algor Omphalos]] and [[Captain Baldassare]]: Besides a whole deck dedicated to developing our board while diminishing our opponents’, these are our main ways to get additional card advantage. These extra supplies can dodge Garden of Eden and are very effective when used with wisdom. Here are some tips:

• [[Algor Omphalos]]: Positioning is key. Calculate a location that doesn’t freely put it in range for Dispel/Disenchant. If playing against mono Water, always play it on a land site to dodge Drown. Otherwise, always play on a water site to be able to cast Lugbog Cat. Also, if Garden of Eden is on the Realm, consider drawing sites as the draw for the turn to use Omphalos’ effect to draw spell. This is not ideal but it is a possible strategy to play around Garden.

• [[Captain Baldassare]]: Be patient to play this one. He generates a bunch of card advantage as he essentially draws us three spells per attack. This usually leads to him being instantly removed, so it is usually better to play him when your opponent’s is already in a tough situation. If Baldassare ends up being killed in this situation, you at least protected other pieces. Avoid playing him nearby other pieces, which would be an invite for mass removal.

• [[Assorted Animals]]: One of my favorite cards on the game and on this deck. Always play it for 6 or more, as our Beasts cost at least (3) and you want to fetch at least two of them. This card is usually played at the final moments of Cultivating Phase but can also be played to help cope with enemy threats during it. Here are some good combinations:

> (6): [[Brobdingnag Bullfrog]] + [[White Hart]] if still at Cultivating Phase; [[Brobdingnag Bullfrog]] + [[Autumn Unicorn]]/[[Lugbog Cat]] if transitioning to Conquering Phase; [[Autumn Unicorn]] + [[Lugbog Cat]] if at Conquering Phase.

> (7): This is the best number. Usually go for [[Brobdingnag Bullfrog]] + [[Gargantula]] independently of the situation due to its effectiveness in devastating your opponents’ expectations to win the game. Two removals in form of bodies sitting on hand is really impactful. A more aggressive combination is [[Autumn Unicorn]]/[[Lugbog Cat]] + [[Sacred Stag]], but rarely is the best option.

> (8): This one is odd. To use all 8 mana you can only get [[Sacred Stag]] and [[Gargantula]], which is not as good as playing for 7.

> (9): The most recurring casting cost for me. At nine mana you probably are at Conquering Phase, so fetch for [[Brobdingnag Bullfrog]] + [[Lugbog Cat]] + [[Autumn Unicorn]]. Three cards out of one and very powerful minions for this stage.

[[Mover of Mountains]]: The card a like the most on Gothic set. Mover of Mountains is the most versatile card on the deck. It can be used for:

> Position correction of randomly played sites due to [[Geomancer]] ability;

> Repositioning of [[Sinkhole]] to properly destroy sites of interests (enemy sites or Roots of Yggdrasil) and Floodplain to flood sites of interests (e.g. killing enemy Root Spider);

> Repositioning newly generated Rubbles due to site destruction to get adjacent to [[Geomancer]];

> Dodging enemy defensive sites or exposing sites (I see you [[City of Glass]]) to more efficiently attack it;

And probably there are even more plays with Mover of Mountains that I don’t see right now. If you know any, please leave a comment to share information 😊

[[Snowball]] and [[Toolbox]]: (E)(W) really struggles on finishing the game and these are our main finishers. Try to save one of those to perform the deathblow more easily.

[[Order of the White Wing]] and [[Garden of Eden]]: Cooperating with our game plan to generate abuse amounts of card advantage, these pieces impair our opponent’s ability to use additional draws. [[Garden of Eden]] straight up cut any additional spell draw for each turn. [[Order of the White Wing]] impairs the use of pieces like [[Morgana le Fay]], Omphali, and [[Deathspeaker]], since minions can only be summoned from hand nearby it. Order is also a big deal for [[Necromancer]], as it stops tokens from being summoned. Same goes for [[Raise Militia]], [[Border Militia]], [[Guards!]], [[Undead Ambush]], [[Plague of Frogs]] and so on (watch out for your own non-casting summons).

[[Lifewish]]: This card plays really well on this deck. Often a stabilized board state in our favor is reached, but playing against very aggro decks it may occur at very low life count. [[Lifewish]] comes in hand when you stabilize in this situation and can recover your full life. This play simply devastates any aggro-based game plan, dodging sneaky damages that could put you on Death’s Door.

[[Pied Piper of Hameln]]: Sometimes off-meta isn’t enough and we need to go anti-meta style. Piper’s groove reaches for every [[Necromancer]]’s skeletons, heavy water deck’s frogs, and foot soldiers from our old fashioned [[Archimago]]’s [[Border Militia]] and [[Guards!]]

[[Crown of the Victor]]: This card may look like a little odd, but it is actually amazing. During Conquering Phase it is very common to exert our Avatar ability to generate card advantage, so going with him to enemy territory as an additional aggressor is usually the way. Crown may help with that and kill credit is easily obtained with [[Call of the Sea]], [[Snowball]], [[Atlantean Fate]] and [[Toolbox]], or even attacking a [[Pollimorph]]ed enemy minion.

[[Lilith]]: She is incredible at Conquering Phase, helping either expanding domain on the board by freely deploying extra minions or turning more difficult for your opponent to find but responses by sending to bottom of Spellbook magics as [[Earthquake]] or [[Call of the Sea]]. Wait to deploy her when board is estable to almost guarantee the win.

Interesting interactions

[[White Hart]] + [[Varmint Warrens]]: If your [[White Hart]] stands still on top of [[Varmint Warrens]], all nearby locations and minions are permanently safe. That is because [[Varmint Warrens]] prevents [[White Hart]] from being attacked and spotted removed. This is specifically good when you perform Standard Land Uplift with [[Varmint Warrens]] at your home square. Keep in mind that your Avatar can still be attacked (and attackers can still be defended) and that you also won’t be able to attack enemy minions on nearby locations, but usually it is worth it.

[[Snowball]] + [[Plague of Frogs]]: This can be a very powerful combination to hit for a surprise Death’s Door. Through any number of frogs on your opponent’s face alongside any enemy minion standing on the way for a simultaneous removal and big damage turn.

[[Coy Nixie]]/[[Riptide]]/[[Abaddon Succubus]] + [[Hyperparasite]]/[[Brobdingnag Bullfrog]]: Force movement of despiteful enemy minions to the summoning location of [[Hyperparasite]] or [[Brobdingnag Bullfrog]] to pick up and disable them on spot.

[[Geomancer]] + [[Riptide]]/[[Rift Valley]]: As stated before, [[Riptide]] and [[Rift Valley]] may move [[Geomancer]] to get adjacent to new void and spawn de novo Rubbles. [[Riptide]] accomplishing this purpose may be compared with [[Landmass]], except it is way better because it costs less mana, is a more versatile card and may draw a spell by itself.

[[Ruler of Thul]] + [[Aino]]: This is currently cut from the deck, but may be included again depending on local meta. If you find this combination, your game course may change significantly. Protect [[Ruler of Thul]] to hit for 4 damage every turn with a stealth [[Aino]]. With these two, you become better [[Witch]]. Play for tempo to steal the game.

[[Coy Nixie]]/[[Abaddon Succubus]]/[[Riptide]] + [[Thin Ice]]/[[Troll Bridge]]: This is well known interaction. Force movement of enemy minions to sites that kill them.

[[Sacred Stag]] + [[Roots of Yggdrasil]]: If your [[Sacred Stag]] dies early in an allied site, make sure to ward it. Besides protecting the location from a future attack, it can be a turn skip on rebuilding process after an Yggdrasil blown up.

Collection

Let’s talk briefly about Harpy Hare Collection. Here are some glimpses:

• [[Dispel]], [[Bury]] and [[Drown]]: Generic removal for adversities. Very straightforward.

• [[Riptide]]: Selected ordinary spell on the deck. Very versatile as discussed early, so I put one on the Collection to enhance accessibility.

• [[Return to Nature]]: Dedicated card for [[Deathspeaker]] and [[Archimago]]. We have some hate sites on the deck ([[Pillar of Zeiros]] and [[Mismanaged Mortuary]] being the most effective, respectively), but when we don’t find them, [[Return to Nature]] may come in hand to remove special targets.

• [[Old Salt Anchorman]]: Protect your minions from movement shenanigans on (W) and from mass removal as [[Earthquake]], [[Call of the Sea]] and [[Atlantean Fate]]. Play this minion as fast as possible if you find a [[Toolbox]] against mono-(W) and heavy (E) decks.

• [[Scent Hounds]]: Counter [[Infiltrate]] and facilitate responses against [[Morgana le Fay]], [[Questing Beas]] and [[Aino]]. Very good boy 🐶🦴

• [[Ice Lance]] and [[Smite]]: Our finishers in the Collection. Avoid using them as removals, but, if necessary, it can be done.

• [[Makeshift Barricade]]: If you get on Death’s Door, deploy this monument on your Avatar to avoid easy finishers like [[Zap]].

On the field: Matchup logging

I’ve been playing this deck for a fair amount of time and here is some advice regarding matchups:

Against aggro

When playing against aggro, you may also think about early plays. [[Lugbog Cat]] and [[Autumn Unicorn]] accomplish this role as good defenders, but the most effective are combinations of [[Coy Nixie]] with [[Thin Ice]] or [[Troll Bridge]]. [[Abaddon Succubus]] also plays well. However, [[Pebbled Paths]] is the most important site, as you can properly respond on time the aggression. Early interaction is key.

[[Garden of Eden]] is a really good site as well. Do not mulligan it way against aggro, since the main way to recover from our stabilization is [[Morgana le Fay]] and [[Searing Truth]] draws. [[Garden of Eden]] locks aggro players on minimum draw.

An important step is to identify what type of aggro player your opponent is. I think it is useful to classify them in four categories:

1. Hyperaggro: These are analogous to the previous thankfully dead mono-(F) [[Druid]]. [[Sorcerer]] Fury Road and [[Witch]] Furious Road enter this category. They are extreme aggro that lose fuel rapidly but can win the games in 4 turns. That is our worst matchup, since we start to respond adequately after turn 3, which can be too late. [[Lugbog Cat]], [[Autumn Unicorn]] and [[Atlantean Fate]] are necessary in this matchup and [[Lifewish]] may be gamechanger. But to be fair I need good advice to play against Hyperaggro decks since my performance is not very good.

2. Typical Aggro: The main way of playing aggro, with top of curve on three mana cost. Here we are looking at [[Pathfinder]], [[Avatar of Air]], [[Interrogator]], [[Persecutor]], and [[Harbinger]]. This matchup is okay, the deck is very prepared for this, but oftenly your life total gets very low when you finally reach Conquering Phase. In this scenario, use [[Lifewish]] or always play with backup blockers and removal to avoid getting on Death’s Door out of nowhere thanks to charging minions.

3. Cadenced Aggro: Decks that play for the damage but do so in a rhythmic way similarly to Tempo deck, not necessarily rushing damage all at once. Examples are [[Savior]] and mono-(E) [[Geomancer]]. These can be sketchy and lead to very interesting games. Use [[Coy Nixie]] and [[Abaddon Succubus]] to break wards and cast mass removal with wisdom. A good [[Call of the Sea]] or [[Atlantean Fate]] can be decisive on this matchup. [[Gargantula]] is also good against [[Savior]]'s wards because its disabling effect does not target, overriding the ward protection.

4. Voltron: Talking about [[Battlemage]], [[Persecutor]] and [[Bladedancer]]. [[Toolbox]] for [[Dispel]] wins the game. Wait for your opponent to gather a bunch of Relics and Weapons, accept some early damage and then hit it for your best [[Dispel]]. If you don’t find [[Toolbox]], play for your big minions as blockers. Don’t attack, just block. Since we use high power minions, damage comes naturally on this matchup.

Against midrange

Overall midrange can be understood by a stereotypical game plan: stabilize the board with light but efficient control pieces and continuously deal damage using few sticky and/or high-quality minions. This can also be split into a couple categories, according to course of action:

1. Decks that deploy sticky minions and use accessories magic to turn them into value and pressure: Here Harpy Hare is on the lead. This kind of midrange is typically represented by [[Necromancer]] nowadays, specially (A)(W) version of it, and our strategy is a good counter to theirs. (E)(A) decks have high potential in conquering this space as well, but I think Harpy Hare are also capable of overpowering it. The signature magic for this category is [[Whirling Blade]], but Harpy Hare have two advantages over it: High power minion and constant removal.

2. Decks that stabilize the board first with efficient early interaction, then use high-quality costly minions to apply pressure: This is our own category. The most difficult matchup in this category is (E)(F) midrange decks. Since they rely on heavy removal lists efficient in killing high power minions, this combination can turn around our own strategy. Here our extra card advantage pieces are fundamentals ([[Assorted Animals]], [[Algor Omphalos]] and [[Captain Baldassare]]). Also play similarly to a matchup against Cadenced Aggro, relying on a good and decisive mass removal spell. Try to keep your minions away from land sites to avoid [[Earthquake]] and don't gather all of them nearby to avoid an excessively efficient [[Poison Nova]]. Most efficient course of action here is to gather mana and use minimun number of minions needed to stop few early aggro. Once you get to late Cultivating Phase with high life total, you will be fine. These decks will typically play for high quality minions, which we will continuously remove with our core strategy, so just perform as intended.

Against control

Tough but playable. Here we mostly think about [[Archimago]]. This matchup is winnable with the sites. Hard mulligan to find [[Mismanaged Mortuary]]. If you deploy this site, you are already in really good position. [[Haystack]] and [[Garden of Eden]] are also good in this matchup. Without [[Mismanaged Mortuary]], [[Archimago]] have the advantage against us.

Also, [[Mover of Mountains]], [[Sinkhole]] and [[Rift Valley]] will be used mainly to dodge defensive sites. You must take the aggro role. Warded minions are the best ones for this situation and try to play two minions at the same time, very far away from each other, but do not gather too many minions at the same time, so they don’t all die at once for a single Poison Nova or Earthquake

Our only counterplay against healing is playing [[Atlantean Fate]] on multiple (E) sites to impair opponent’s ability to play [[Divine Healing]], which is not very reliable. So, accept you will have to deal from 34 to 41 damage (or even more) to get your opponent on Death’s Door. The deck can do so, but it is needed to use your minions efficiently. Save [[Swap]] and [[Dispel]] for [[Angel’s Egg]].

[[Archimago]]’s main way to win the game is using big damage-gridwide magics like [[Craterize]] and [[Major Explosion]]. A natural way to counterplay it is to walk your Avatar to the same location as [[Archimago]]. Stay near it and winning will be harder for them since their own magics will start hurting themselves.

If you get on Death’s Door, usually [[Makeshift Barricade]] is enough to buy us a turn, since the big finishers consume [[Archimago]]’s whole mana just to break the barricade. Keep it in mind.

Slow and steady: The Darwinian way

Since the birth of this idea, the list of Harpy Hare has changed very much. But all changes came slowly, bit by bit. Upon losing to the Tortoise, the Hare learns its ways. I’ve tested multiples cards and have some ideas of other to test as well, and I would like to discuss some of my findings. I think multiple changes made by me overtime are reversible according to local meta. I usually carry with me a binder containing almost every card from Maybeboard, to test new ideas and possible adaptations. Here are some insights:

• Deeper Beast interactions: Harpy Hare runs a lot of Beasts and initially had many more interactions with this archetype, but sadly they showed not to be very effective for me. Here is why:

> [[Sylvan Splendor]]: The high mana cost for a potential draw dependent on having another Beast (costing at least (3)) turn it a very slow card, unrealistic to play around. Also, this card is destroyed by [[Garden of Eden]]. However, if your local meta is heavily control, I definitely would run this card.

> [[Sir Yvain]]: This is a good card, but usually finds itself in a win-more situation. Paying (5) to increase your board damage in 7 is great, but unnecessary according to our game plan.

> [[Pond]]: Very good site, but not as good as the other sites that made it into the Atlas. Harpy Hare Atlas must concern about elements affinity with special care, since our Avatar’s effect depends on it. Mono (W) sites must be exceptionally good to stay on.

• [[Earthquake]]: In the current heavy (W) Sorcery meta, [[Earthquake]] lost lots of its power. Besides not being able to kill minions at most of our opponent’s site (because they are usually playing (W)), we ourselves are also playing water, what protects enemy minions on our territory from this magic. Changed for [[Snowball]] and it worked exceptionally well in this role and also as potential finisher.

• [[Queen of Midland]]: On our current slower meta, [[Queen of Midland]] is much more playable than before. However, the whole deck is played in order to generate card advantage, usually keeping us with higher hand size. Thus, [[Queen of Midland]] usually doesn’t trigger.

• [[Dome of Osiros]]: For this deck, this may be either a extremely defensive site or a worst version of [[Varmint Warrens]] when played alongside [[White Hart]], but ended being cut due to threshold balance.

• [[Accursed Albatross]]: This is an incredible minion with very potential for controlling the board. [[Accursed Albatross]] was specially good at dark times of mono-(F) Druid, against its flipped face ongoing effect. However, (W) is very present on meta right now and [[Pied Piper of Hameln]] is almost omnipresent. Removed this from the deck after I had two Albatrosses stolen by the Piper.

• [[Root Spider]]: Besides being a very powerful minion and also a (3) cost Beast, [[Root Spider]] performance is extremely unstable when playing (E)(W). There is little room to walk it while still on subsurface, and enemy minions can sit on our water sites do keep attacking and avoid it. Can be more playable if the deck switch to a most-(E) build.

Please, if you have any suggestions and thoughts about Harpy Hare, leave a comment so we can continuously evolve this list.

This primer was made as part of a trend on Brazilian Sorcery community. We are trying to develop highly explicative documents with our disruptive lists, collaborating to evolve the game and avoiding meta stagnation. Check out other primers from brazilian players:

Archimago: Archimago 🤌🍝 - Gothic Update /// by: gcampopz0r

Savior: 🇧🇷 Savior Steampunk - Aggro Tempo 🐎🐈🐦/// by: RaphaelFernandes

Battlemage: 🇧🇷 Smoke Battlemage 🗡️🤚🔥 /// by: Lentilha

Pathfinder: 🇧🇷These Boots Are Made for Walkin'👢👢 /// by: Sgamba

Harbinger: 🇧🇷 I G N I S D O O M † :: Harbinger Smoke Competitive /// by: Machinagro

🇧🇷 Harpy Hare - Competitive Geomancer

@Antílope Áureo