Kryptik Gaming had a lot of members in Q-Mode helping out the Rhinos. I reached out to each of them to get their favorite decks! They are here in plain text ready to be uploaded and tested!
Ejecty
Reckless fORge
name: Reckless fORge
path: journey of souls
power: infuse
3 stray panacea
4 daring trapezists
2 ruby raider
3 melpomene muse
1 the oak of dodona
2 wings of abaddon
2 magmataur
1 stairway to hades
1 gigantomachia
1 grand finale
1 seven ring ritual
4 modframe
1 dark passenger
2 xerxian recruiter
1 desertification engine
3 hand of sa'd
2 jaza'eri arquebus
1 scion of pride
1 seal of exile
1 caravan brass
2 triennial patrol
1 armageddon angel
Reckless fORge is a combination of my Reckless Default deck from before the expansion and some of the new Forge cards. It runs a bunch of new Forge cards like Ruby Raider, Modframe, Hand of Sa’d Jaza’eri Arquebus, and Brass.
The deck plays out very similar to Reckless Default where you take good trades and aim to gain value from your rush units and Journey of Souls, now however it has a better finisher. Grand Finale acts as another big finisher with the deck relying before on other cards.
The deck is still very aggressive but sits more in the midrange area with the potential to finish late.
Erobert
Poet Loops
name: Poet Loops
coverart: Nameless Poet
path: disk of circadia
power: smite
4 freki scout
3 demolition speedway
3 freki sidecar
1 bragi runesinger
1 kara mourningwives
3 blackened jotun
1 magnus thorsson
1 tyr monomund
2 anhelli
2 auspicious forecast
2 diehard dreni
3 detained
4 hopeless necromantic
3 gamayun
1 zmey hydra
4 nameless poet
2 volkov heavy
Just as Red Necromantic found ways to shape the entire necromantic scheme around maximizing the benefits of Dashing Ringmaster, this aggressive look at Blue Necromantic ensures that you can hit hard and fast while pushing the tempo with Hopeless Necromantic. Everything in this deck can fit conveniently in a Freki Sidecar, and the curve sees a lot of minions you will be happy to play at 4 and 5 to keep up pressure as opponent's deal with you cheating out a Blackened Jotun, Volkov Heavy or worse!
The continuous pressure and tempo from BG beaters is well supported by the continuous damage from Smite, and the aggressive curve pushing minions out of hand and onto the board means that by mid to late game, you will have an empty hand after playing a minion or some soft removal, meaning the flip from Night to Day is free. Diehard Dreni and Auspicious forecast can also ensure that you'll have some beefy spirits to conjure with your Nameless Poets and Necromantics, and cheaper plays to fit in alongside Disk flips. Magnus can sweep away chumps, and Anhelli can bury them, but the real standout is old, dependable Demolition Speedway.
As mentioned, every Minion in this deck can fit into Sidecar, and just like any good fighting game, you can take this time to practice your looping combinations to punish unsuspecting or even cautious opponents. With a Speedway down, you can easily play a Sidecar, then a Necromantic, which trades into a blocker, dealing Overrun damage, which pulls a Nameless Poet, which can attack, and then use its utility action to pull, Fanatical Phantom, which is now an 8/6 Warded Overrun monster which still gets Rush from Sidecar because it only costs 2 mana. The possibilities are truly exciting and fun, even without the most outlandish scenarios playing out. This resembles the kind potent offense that made Red Necromantic so fun but with a new twist!
Tempest
Sneks (it had to be)
name: Sneks (it had to be...)
path: turn of seasons
power: infuse
3 copy enchantment
1 brising necklace
4 einherjar thane
1 root of the world
1 bragi runesinger
1 kara mourningwives
1 svinn, the gatekeeper
2 thunderclap
1 magnus thorsson
2 clay effigy
4 maze of iyatiku
3 meso libre
3 serpent den
1 serpentine empress
2 wonder drug
1 model of duality
2 ollama ring
2 misanthropia
2 revelation of ximec
1 twin blanque
1 twin junah
1 sapo, the devourer
The main shenanigan of the deck is to play serpent den’s and cast copy enchantment to copy enchantment and thus copy enchantments. Creating constant threats/bodies on the board till infinity and beyond (BEYOND!) making your opponent waste value in redundancy; just like the last part of the first sentence.
NOTE: the last-minute change and the I’m-not-sure-about-this portion is -2 singing stones in favor of brising necklace and root of the world. The memer inside us all want better sneks, but this seems much more reliable.
Considering the deck, without mass sneks, it still stands as a solid one. We have early, mid and late game. Board clears for days, healing for all those with a healing addiction and a card draw. A new (not really) revelation in placing sneks on root to draw with the root of your card draw in ximec.
Deck matchups:
Most of the matchups are winnable/manageable. The two types that represent the most issue would be a super-late-greed deck, but sneks can help in that. The potential of the deck to create mid-game aggression can aid if you manage to set it up.
The worst would be big reanimators in which you have some options
1) Cry
2) Concede
3) Cry and concede
4) Ignore the game and try to postpone it as much as possible until some misanthropia/deadly/sapo answer. Drugs help in dealing with that also wonder drugs help in mitigating health loss.
Riss
PG Spirit Artifacts
name: PG Spirit Artifacts
coverart: Gloombringer
path: fires of creation
power: impel
1 anhelli
2 auspicious forecast
3 diehard dreni
3 media autocam
1 wake the bones
3 detained
1 spirit stones
4 hopeless necromantic
1 shroud of the pit
1 traitorous murmur
1 chort stag
1 iku-turso
4 racer in shadow
1 corrupt prayer wheel
2 imperative bell
3 gloombringer
1 misfortune
2 shinobi of smoke
1 nine-tailed vixen
1 pentacle of flavors
2 spirit away
1 perfect grade
This deck was inspired by my excitement over the addition of spirit synergy and my disappointment that a spells based path was not added to the game. Boasting 18 spirits, 12 spells, and 10 artifacts, this ghostly creation can be awkward to play; It relies heavily on Media Autocam and Gloombringer for card draw. Without Auspicious Forecast and Diehard Dreni, your boneyard will be empty, as forgelings and spells do not complement Hopeless Necromantic. The purple green archetype relies on its bombs to win, and as you can see, we are missing a few of them here. Who are we kidding, might as well change the name of this deck to Racer Cycler. Racer in the Shadow, arguably the best purple card, coupled with Misfortune or Spirit Stones, will often be your best play.
The name of the game is recursion. You will slowly drain the life out of your opponent as a never ending stream of ghastly ghouls and apparitions make their way from the field to the boneyard and back. All players involved will question their sanity as Racer “leaves it all on the track” for the 20th time. While I cannot recommend using hard earned wild cards to craft Spirit Stones, Corrupt Prayer Wheel, Misfortune, or Auspicious Forecast, I encourage anyone with a sizable collection to give this deck try. The results may haunt ... or surprise you.
CircleVIII
YO Rainbow
Name: YO Rainbow
path: rainbow's end
power: infuse
3 maze of iyatiku
3 serpent den
3 coruscant axolotl
2 misanthropia
1 twin blanque
1 twin junah
1 sapo, the devourer
2 modframe
3 thieves bazaar
2 ghul
3 hammam retreat
1 lamp of wonders
2 wry trickster
1 desertification engine
3 serendipity ifreet
1 raziel, keeper of secrets
1 scion of pride
1 seal of exile
2 guardian plateau
1 to heaven and back
1 armageddon angel
2 energetic broxa
I don't normally play much of yellow orange but this deck was just too much fun. The big gimmick here is Hamman Retreat stops your own minions from dying to your own (and opponent's) Misanthropias. Though this can be weak to Magmataurs and Perfect Grade because of the fact that you are going to be grouping minions on your Hammam Retreats, it fares pretty well against lots of other things. I guess the only other real “hard-counters” to this strategy are a Rewind Hex or a Merciless Koxinga, but those are very rarely played so I hardly consider it. Needless to say, however, and as gimmicky as it is, being able to play Misanthropia with very little-to no downside is of huge benefit to your victory chances. Another great thing this deck has going on is the Guardian Plateau and Armageddon Angel synergy. If you play Armageddon Angel on a Guardian Plateau, you will not kill off the units generated from the enchantment before wiping the board. This means that your Angel is even more powerful than usual in this deck (or with this card in general) and makes for a gigantic swing in tempo in even some of the most dire of circumstances. On top of that this deck also runs a few Warded minions which means that your Armageddon Angel is probably going to be getting a lot more value regardless of whether or not you have a Guardian Plateau in play. Overall this deck just tries to stall the early game out with powerful Modframes and drawing off of Maze of Iyatikus, playing Serpent Dens and playing tricks on your opponents with Wry Trickster until it can get to its value cards. Coruscant Axolotls make for great in-between cards, serving as a much needed strong four drop in these colors, since after they are Forged they can be quite difficult to get rid of. Once you get to turn five, six and seven, you can really slam your value minions home and hope to make them stick using Hamman Retreat and Misanthropia. It must be said that often it is worth foreboding a free draw by selecting an enchantment on a Divination than it is to grab a Misanthropia if you already have Hammam Retreats in play or in your hand. The fact is that a couple of Twins hitting face freely while you wipe the board of everything else on turn 6 is a much more powerful tool than is one free draw of an enchantment. This is essentially (though not necessarily the only) win condition in the deck and can be quite terrible to oppose without a proper implemented strategy. Another highlight of the deck is that Energetic Broxa is a great counter to any minion with Lifetap as well as the Turn of Seasons Path. If you can play this minion and have it stick on the board while your opponent is entering Spring or simply has many (or even just one) Lifetap minion on the board, then your Broxa is apt to grow out of control. While it won't usually take over a game completely, the fact that it scales off of your opponent gaining life means that it is always going to be risky business for your opponent to opt into trying to race with you with any sort of healing. In the end this deck does very simple but powerful things and I am sure that this sort of strategy will be refined in the weeks to come after the expansion release. How strong it will be, only time can tell, but I am quite confident that it will be annoying for many a deck to face. Given that Aztlan has had so many so many more Blight tools added with Rings of Immortality, this kind of deck will serve as a direct counter to the faction and its strategies as a whole. Hopefully you will all have as much fun with it as I have! Good luck and happy deck-building!
Rune
Fourge
name: Fourge
path: coliseum of strife
power: infuse
4 vulcan bladegorger
2 ruby raider
2 gorgon elly
1 grand finale
3 k-nine handler
1 shroud of the pit
4 modframe
2 xerxian recruiter
3 hand of sa'd
2 jaza'eri arquebus
1 scion of pride
1 seal of exile
1 caravan brass
3 triennial patrol
1 kushiel the unforgiving
1 armageddon angel
4 forge smith
2 cold-blooded killer
2 risen from the deep
I’m a big fan of the new path, Coliseum of Strife. And I believe it synergizes quite well with the new forge mechanic. The path enables you to draw your forged cards quicker. And a number of forged cards obtain buffs or spawn multiple cards. Both are advantageous for minion trades.
This deck runs 33 cards from the new set. All of them revolve around the forge mechanic. The one drops are both really good early and are also cards you do not mind bringing back late. Dropping a bladegorger with multiple modframes is a nice finisher.
The deck also runs a number of minions that deal damage upon death. This is another way of dealing indirect damage to close out the game. 4 colors may seem like overkill but k-nine handler makes splashing green so much easier. It’s surprisingly consistent for a 4 color deck. I hope y’all enjoy it!
Tritros
Podium of Pride
name: Podium of Pride
path: fires of creation
power: foresight
1 victorious podium
1 brising necklace
1 draupnir band
1 norn datacore
1 hall of matrimony
2 clay effigy
3 garland arbor
2 gemcutter spider
3 serpent den
1 annulus fabricator
1 model of duality
2 ollama ring
2 barbed bolts
1 terror of ker
2 wings of abaddon
2 born-again
2 mavka
1 unforgivable crossing
1 adorner of fertility
1 lamp of wonders
2 imperfect copy
1 scion of pride
2 imperative bell
1 gama sennin
1 herald of pestilence
1 kenta fire tigon
1 pseudonomicon
With the expansion there is a new type of six color deck which is the victorious podium deck. This deck is based around getting the ring from each of the six colors to summon the champion of the contest. This deck is a meme deck so do not expect to win a lot of games with it. If you are interested in trying to pull it off this is a good deck to try. I will go over the basic strategy of the deck to help you with the plan of accomplishing summoning the champion.
The burns of this deck is pretty simple compared to heralds. You need one of each gem and two yellow gems to be able to cast anything in the deck so you are not forced to not burn if you don't have the right gem. I would advise burning at least 2 orange so you can cast either scion with his spell or vessel and his minion on the same turn. The main thing is to remember to be able to burn your yellow omen card to fulfill its condition. I will now go over each of the omens and their conditions.
The blue omen hall of matrimony is easy to achieve since all you have to do is occupy both parts of the enchantment which means leaving 2 unenchanted lanes next to each other to play it which means don't put your serpent dens on 2,4,6 because you need space for it. The yellow omen condition is just to forge it so remember to leave space in your mana bar for it. The red omen is just use its ability on itself which means immediately sacrificing after playing it so have the extra mana when you summon it, otherwise the opponent can kill it and stop the champion from coming out. The green omen is the easiest to fulfill since all you have to do is play the card which is hard to mess up. This is also the same condition for the orange one which is a one mana minion. The final one the purple one is to banish the minion, which relies on either your opponent doing it or you using scion of pride’s spell so remember to save it unless it means lethal on your opponent. If you manage to complete all of these objectives in a game and keep all the rings in your hand, you get to summon the legendary champion of the contests to your field which is almost a guaranteed lethal. Happy hunting with this deck and hopefully you manage to pull it off.
Merlin
2 Decks for 2v2:
Morbid Fatigue & Rack and Ruin
name: Morbid Fatigue
coverart: Morbid Centrifuge
path: fires of creation
power: reconstruct
2 clay effigy
2 morbid centrifuge
4 venomfang mutant
1 orbital jamming satellite
1 xelhua the builder
1 contagionoma
1 model of duality
2 ollama ring
1 bob "banzai" vaquero
2 misanthropia
1 zolea, the unclean
2 miasma catalyst
1 xiomara, earthshaper
1 sapo, the devourer
1 adorner of fertility
3 eager recruit
2 dark passenger
1 lamp of wonders
2 quicksand hourglass
2 wry trickster
2 xerxian recruiter
1 doubling dice
1 scion of pride
1 treasury of petra
1 armageddon angel
1 herald of pestilence
name: Rack and Ruin
coverart: Annulus Fabricator
path: fires of creation
power: reconstruct
3 garland arbor
2 morbid centrifuge
4 venomfang mutant
1 orbital jamming satellite
3 serpent den
1 annulus fabricator
2 misanthropia
1 scourge of serpents
1 zolea, the unclean
2 miasma catalyst
1 xiomara, earthshaper
1 sapo, the devourer
2 extract life
3 stray panacea
3 daring trapezists
2 dragon's teeth
1 terror of ker
2 the stretcher
1 the oak of dodona
2 magmataur
1 serapis, false apostle
1 gigantomachia
These decks play a classic fatigue strategy, looking to draw out a game and find victory in a war of attrition. YO and YR are both classic color combinations for Fatigue control, and in this combination they each use separate strengths to aid an inexorable march of domination. The early game for both is similar: create chumps, make good trades, and survive long enough to start developing your artifact win conditions.
Both decks run a brand new artifact which is the star of this control strategy: Morbid Centrifuge. As soon as this guy gets pumping, your opponent's deck starts getting stuffed with virulent strains, which serve a dual (and in some cases triple) purpose: they deal damage (or negate draw; either is worthwhile), and they weaken minions they draw with blight, allowing for easier board control. For YO ("ruin"), they also become a statistical edge for Doubling Dice, increasing the overall likelihood your opponent has an even-numbered card to choose in hand. For YR ("rack"), they help reduce the value of extra cards drawn by dragon's teeth, and increase the efficacy of stretcher by adding another, even worse instance of draw to your opponent's turn.
The closer with these can be slow, but is inescapable. Once all the artifacts are firing, both you and your opponents are taking extra draws, but theirs are peppered with virulent strains while yours allow you to control the board, always having a solid sweep between the two of you.
Conclusion
We at Kryptik Gaming look forward to your thoughts on the expansion and the decks here! Let us know what you all thinking and good luck in The Rings of Immortality.