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55r 596 596 596 596 596 5j2 5j2 5j2 77e 77e 77e 77e 77e 77e 77f 77f 77f 7gk 7gk 7gk 7gk 7gr 7gr 7gr 7gr 7gr 7hi 7i6 7i6 8plMost of you that have been around a while need no explanation for this deck. For those who haven't this is Shipwrecker. JonathanCrazyJ used this against me twice in the Final Battle of the 9th Trial of Water, winning both games 2 and 8, the latter forcing a decisive game 9. Put simply, his use of this deck is one of the strongest decisions ever made in a Final Battle. Not only because of the contents of the deck, but because of the context surrounding it.
To break down the deck itself, it’s a variant on the SoP Wardens formula that was already popular for its heavy creature control and stallbreak potential, with a slight twist – the inclusion of a third element, Gravity, to allow for Pulverizer. These modifications are high value for a trio, given that the SoP Wardens base is relatively low-cost, and permanent control is extremely important in Water meta. This is a versatile deck with high potential in multiple stages of the game.
The details of this deck make it even more impressive. It was built with both his bans and mine in mind – he banned Discord, Earthquake, and Trident from me, so he could tweak his decks to have particular quanta balances without having to worry about those powerful quanta denial cards. This concept is especially useful for trios, as their quanta situation is often precarious.
Furthermore, he used this deck in even games, in which I banned Deflagration and Steal. I did this to have games where I could worry less about perm control, but he completely circumvented that with this deck. In addition, this deck was particularly powerful against me for another reason - I was well-known for my preference of perm-heavy domination decks, a generalized deck type Shipwrecker almost universally dismantles. His use of this deck changed the course of the entire match by forcing me to rethink my strategies and my perception of Water meta on the fly.
In the context of the match, this was near-perfect concept and execution, and an extremely strong display of his understanding of the game. There is no change he could have made to this deck to make it a better matchup against me. If you are interested in using this deck in other contexts, be aware that while it has seen success in other environments, its strength is most assured in Water meta, and you may not have success in all situations. It can be slow to set up completely, making it vulnerable to certain rushes, and it can struggle against especially high perm control. If you do experiment with it, my recommendation is to tailor the specific card counts to the meta you’re in and the opponent you’re facing, and then tweak the quanta balance to match. In particular, I advise against the lone Otyugh for most situations.
