It's finally here! The week leading up to the very first Kaijudo Master Challenges! This weekend, Anaheim CA and Carrolton GA are hosting KMCs, and the biggest question on everyone's mind is, "What deck should I play?". With such a very important question on the minds of many players eyeing an invite to this summer's Kaijudo Championships in Seattle, I thought I would take this time to break down a few of the top decks that you can expect to see before 5 Mystics shakes up the meta game after the KMCs on March 8th and 9th.
Rush Variants
Gavin D - 1st Place, ARG Circuit Series - Nashville, TN
3 Blaze Belcher
3 Blinder Beetle
2 Blitzer-Mech Falkora
3 Cloudwalker Drone
3 Flame Spinner
3 Gilaflame the Assaulter
3 Jet-Thrust Darter
3 Magris the Magnetizer
2 Major Ao
3 Metal Max
2 Shaw K'Naw
3 Blinder Beetle Prime
2 Sparkblade Protector
2 Comet Missile
3 Stormspark Blast
3 Blinder Beetle
2 Blitzer-Mech Falkora
3 Cloudwalker Drone
3 Flame Spinner
3 Gilaflame the Assaulter
3 Jet-Thrust Darter
3 Magris the Magnetizer
2 Major Ao
3 Metal Max
2 Shaw K'Naw
3 Blinder Beetle Prime
2 Sparkblade Protector
2 Comet Missile
3 Stormspark Blast
Total: 40
Very straightforward strategy here, break all of your opponents shields as fast and efficiently as possible. I watched the videos of Gavin play in his top 4 match as well as the finals, and boy was I impressed. Both by the power level of the deck and its ability to overcome adversity in board states, as well as Gavin's tight play. Did I mention he's like, 12 years old?
This deck's strengths are the critical mass of fast attacking creatures in the deck, coupled with 6 turn 1 attackers and a solid curve. This deck, at times, can have almost unbeatable draws against blocker light decks, and can even win games against multiple shield blasts. However, it can also have a few very slow hands which lead to the inability to apply pressure against certain decks that you don't want getting to the late game. You'll also notice a lack of shield blasts, but usually by the time your shields are getting attacked, you're in pretty bad shape.
Gavin Rush has a pretty good match up against the slower control decks trying to get to the late game, but can struggle against some of the midrange strategies of the format. The deck's biggest enemies are cards like Andromeda of the Citadel, Herald of Infernus + Jump Jets, and the Haven + Major Ao combo that pretty much shuts off any further attacking.On top of this deck, there are of course Mono Light, Mono Red, and a number of other rush strategies that will pop up as well, but all have a similar game plan to this deck.
Dragons
Bobby Brake - 1st Place, Kaijudo Winter Championships, Irving, TX
2 Andromeda of the Citadel
3 Aqua Strider
2 Cassiopeia Starborn
3 Herald of Infernus
1 Infernus the Awakened
2 Infernus the Immolator
3 Lux
3 Lyra, the Blazing Sun
3 Nix
2 Shadeblaze the Corruptor
2 Umbra
2 Bone Blades
3 Crystal Memory
3 Jump Jets
2 Mesmerize
2 Piercing Judgment
1 Reverberate
3 Stormspark Blast
3 Terror Pit
3 Aqua Strider
2 Cassiopeia Starborn
3 Herald of Infernus
1 Infernus the Awakened
2 Infernus the Immolator
3 Lux
3 Lyra, the Blazing Sun
3 Nix
2 Shadeblaze the Corruptor
2 Umbra
2 Bone Blades
3 Crystal Memory
3 Jump Jets
2 Mesmerize
2 Piercing Judgment
1 Reverberate
3 Stormspark Blast
3 Terror Pit
Total: 46
Tom Rogers - 2nd Place, Kirwan's Gaming Store 1k, Catskill, NY
3 Andromeda of the Citadel
1 Aqua Strider
1 Bolshack Dragon
3 General Finbarr
1 General Skycrusher
3 Herald of Infernus
1 Heretic Prince Var-rakka
1 Infernus the Awakened
1 Infernus the Immolator
3 Keeper of Laws
3 Lux
3 Lyra, the Blazing Sun
3 Nix
1 Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow
1 Squillace Scourge
1 Tatsurion the Unchained
2 Umbra
3 Bone Blades
3 Jump Jets
3 Piercing Judgment
2 Stormspark Blast
3 Terror Pit
1 Aqua Strider
1 Bolshack Dragon
3 General Finbarr
1 General Skycrusher
3 Herald of Infernus
1 Heretic Prince Var-rakka
1 Infernus the Awakened
1 Infernus the Immolator
3 Keeper of Laws
3 Lux
3 Lyra, the Blazing Sun
3 Nix
1 Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow
1 Squillace Scourge
1 Tatsurion the Unchained
2 Umbra
3 Bone Blades
3 Jump Jets
3 Piercing Judgment
2 Stormspark Blast
3 Terror Pit
Total: 46
I chose to take a look at both of these decks, as they have the usual LWDF shell, but have varying strategies. You'll notice Bobby chose to omit Keeper of Laws and General Finbarr, and focusing more on Crystal Memory, Reverberate, Cassiopeia and Infernus the Immolator to win the long game. Tom's decks has the ability to "go aggro" much easier. These two different decks just show the versatility of this archetype, and both players have different play styles in which they have changed their decks around.The "Herald of Infernus plus put a huge Dragon into play" deck has been around since Dragonstrike Infernus. There isn't much new technology that has come about since Gerry T's famous words of "You guys need to be playing more Jump Jets in your Dragon decks". Cassiopeia has proved itself to be a great way to get around a field of Eternal Havens, and giving that guy or Infernus the Immolator Fast Attack is certainly an appealing option.
Dragons have been historically weak to the Haven-based control decks, but have mostly been evolving in order to try and shore up those match ups. Most tempo strategies have struggled playing against the Herald of Infernus plan, especially with little to no way to interact with their early birds. With the ability to dump out cards like Andromeda and Infernus the Awakened quicker than any deck in the format, aggressive strategies also tend to be a good match up for Dragons.
There are also LWF variants of Dragons that have seem to have fallen out of favor that play 40 cards, but the lists including a darkness section have been putting up more consistent results.
General Finbarr Tempo
Carl Miciotto - 2nd Place, Kaijudo Winter Championship - Irving, TX
2 Aqua Seneschal
1 Aqua Strider
2 Cyber Scamp
3 General Finbarr
3 Humonculon the Blaster
3 Keeper of Laws
3 Lyra, the Blazing Sun
3 Manapod Beetle
3 Rain-Cloud Kraken
3 Rusalka, Aqua Chaser
3 Sword Horned
2 Tricky Turnip
3 Blinder Beetle Prime
3 Oathsworn Call
3 Piercing Judgment
1 Aqua Strider
2 Cyber Scamp
3 General Finbarr
3 Humonculon the Blaster
3 Keeper of Laws
3 Lyra, the Blazing Sun
3 Manapod Beetle
3 Rain-Cloud Kraken
3 Rusalka, Aqua Chaser
3 Sword Horned
2 Tricky Turnip
3 Blinder Beetle Prime
3 Oathsworn Call
3 Piercing Judgment
Total: 40
Noah Koessel - 4th Place, Kaijudo Winter Championship - Irving, TX
2 Andromeda of the Citadel
3 Aqua Strider
3 Cyber Scamp
3 General Finbarr
3 Keeper of Laws
2 King Neptas
3 Lost Patrol
3 Lyra, the Blazing Sun
2 Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow
2 Screeching Scaradorable
2 Squillace Scourge
3 Bone Blades
2 Logos Scan
3 Piercing Judgment
1 Snake Trap
3 Terror Pit
3 Aqua Strider
3 Cyber Scamp
3 General Finbarr
3 Keeper of Laws
2 King Neptas
3 Lost Patrol
3 Lyra, the Blazing Sun
2 Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow
2 Screeching Scaradorable
2 Squillace Scourge
3 Bone Blades
2 Logos Scan
3 Piercing Judgment
1 Snake Trap
3 Terror Pit
Total: 40
The LW(x) tempo decks starring General Finbarr and friends have been a thriving strategy in the Invasion Earth metagame. You'll notice a number of overlapping cards in both Carl and Noah's decks from Champs in November. Still being arguably the best card in the game (certainly the best dragon), General Finbarr ties the whole strategy together and is the reason to play LW(x) tempo. These decks have strong progressions combined with cards like Cyber Scamp and Keeper of Laws to keep the control decks in check, or keep up with the number of spells they are playing.Decks that only play 40 cards are very appealing due to their consistency, but I would definitely want to be playing 1 or 2 less multi-civ cards than these above lists in order to maintain that consistency. There are probably 4 or so other versions of the above strategies that have been popping up here or there, but the general game plan for all of them is the same.
The tempo decks tend to struggle a bit against Dragons, like I mentioned above, but have strong match ups against the slow control decks that are just trying to accelerate into the late game. The LWN deck most likely has a bit of the edge in the head-to-head match up, as cards like Blinder Beetle Prime are tough for LWD to deal with, but the LWD version has a better time against aggressive decks, and has a slightly easier time with Dragons.
Kalima Variants
Dave Pendergrass - 6th place, Kaijudo Winter Championship, Irving, TX
3 Andromeda of the Citadel
3 Grudge Weaver
2 Lyra, the Blazing Sun
1 Mad Watcher
3 Megaria, the Deceiver
3 Queen Kalima
3 Ripper Reaper
2 Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow
2 Screeching Scaradorable
2 Serpens, the Spirit Shifter
3 Spire Puppet
2 Stingwing
3 Bone Blades
1 Dark Return
3 Mark of Kalima
3 Mesmerize
2 Panic and Disorder
2 Snake Trap
3 Terror Pit
2 Toxic Fog
3 Grudge Weaver
2 Lyra, the Blazing Sun
1 Mad Watcher
3 Megaria, the Deceiver
3 Queen Kalima
3 Ripper Reaper
2 Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow
2 Screeching Scaradorable
2 Serpens, the Spirit Shifter
3 Spire Puppet
2 Stingwing
3 Bone Blades
1 Dark Return
3 Mark of Kalima
3 Mesmerize
2 Panic and Disorder
2 Snake Trap
3 Terror Pit
2 Toxic Fog
Total: 48
The Kalima-based strategies have been having a tough time surviving since the printing of Reverberate, so I'm not entirely certain of their viability going into the Invasion Earth meta game section of the KMC season. I felt posting a list and mentioning the deck was worth it, as I know people will continue to play this deck in some variety. I highly doubt it will be as highly played as it was at Champs. but I would still have the deck in consideration for the KMC season.
You can check out Bobby Brake's article talking about how he feels about Kalima decks currently here on ARG, posted earlier this week.
Haven Control Variants
Tyler Hine - 1st place, Kirwan's Game Store 1k, Catskill, NY
3 Andromeda of the Citadel
3 Aqua Strider
1 Cassiopeia Starborn
2 Cyber Walker Kaylee
3 Eternal Haven
3 Fullmetal Lemon
2 General Skycrusher
1 Heretic Prince Var-rakka
2 Lyra, the Blazing Sun
3 Major Ao
1 Squillace Scourge
1 Wildstrider Ramnoth
3 Bone Blades
3 Crystal Memory
3 Drill Storm
2 Mana Storm
3 Mesmerize
1 Reverberate
2 Skull Shatter
3 Sprout
2 Stormspark Blast
3 Tendril Grasp
3 Terror Pit
Total: 53
The current "boogey man" of the format, the 5 color Haven-Ao turbo... pile... control... whatever it is being called this week. Literally a "pile" of all of the strongest cards in the game put into matching sleeves and shuffled up to be played. Well, a bit more thought has gone into this list than that, but that's sort of the general idea. I know in the last few weeks we've discussed at pretty decent length this deck, so I won't go too crazy about it.I expect a number of different iterations of this deck to pop up, some with all 5 civs, some without Fire, some without Darkness, some without Nature. The strength of this deck is being able to change around what cards you play to the expected meta game that you will face for a specific tournament. These decks are inherently strong against Dragons strategies, most variants are inherently weak to tempo strategies, but for the most part are sporting an "about 50/50" match up against most decks in the format.
Those are the top 5 decks on my radar going into the KMC season before the release of 5 Mystics. The above will be the majority of decks you will likely see at the top tables and taking down tournaments, but I'm hoping to see some more innovation! Best of luck to everyone competing in KMCs in the coming weekends, and be on the lookout for more strategy articles about this KMC season right here on ARG!
Shout out to www.kaijudochannel.com for making looking up all of these decklists SUPER easy and well-organized. This website is a great tool for any players looking to do some research of decks and the meta game. I strongly consider you visit this website on a regular basis if you are looking for the most up-to-date information of what is going on in the game.
Corey Gaudreau is a former Magic player turned Kaijudo player, and a member of Team PEACH. He competed in the first Winter Kaijudo Championships in 2013, and is known for his deckbuilding prowess.
Latest posts by Corey Gaudreau (see all)
- Primer for Pre-5 Mystics KMCs - February 12, 2014
- Major Ao and Playing Every Color - February 3, 2014
- A Guide For Successful Deck Building - December 19, 2013
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