About Me
Hello everyone it's kishkisan, your friendly disk fanatic. I am here to introduce you to a really cool deck that I took to champion.
Deck Overview
The deck right now has two versions, my original version which is more focused on burning opponents and denying their answers, and madoka’s version which is focused on movement shenanigans and slipping in damage when opponent don’t expect it.
As with all disk decks, it is not easy to play, but can be an unstoppable deck in the hands of an experienced player. There are a lot of decisions to make at almost every turn, and I hope in this article I can walk through some of the major decisions.
Deck List
Ride till Arcadia (Original)
Fly through Arcadia (Madoka)
Jaunt till Arcadia (Pauper)
The decks are moderately budget friendly with only necessary mythics being Magnus and Kara. The article will mostly cover the original version, but will mention Madoka’s when possible.
Why Disk of Circadia
1) The slayer buff that disk provides makes it so that we are able to cross damage thresholds and deal with otherwise sturdy blockers. 2) Flipping disk while having no cards in hand allows us to skip the discard, this means that while in top deck mode, we get a free draw every other turn. Not only that we get a divination alongside it, so we can find the card we need to finish the game.
3) Since we are already running a lot of item generators, disk allows us to get more value from the items by discarding them for a card. 4) The disk pursuit is strong in comparison with other paths. Getting a free power activation allows us to set up the slayer for good trades, and later when we desire it, can give us a card.
Card Discussion
There really are two build around cards here:
Honed Edge: normally in other decks, honed edge goes 1 for 1, allowing the honed edge minion to trade twice. However, utilising the various items available in purple:healing potion (yes healing potion, you read that right), and shield wok, we can let honed edge go 2 for 1. This then allows us to bleed the opponent of resources early and carry this advantage to mid game where we want to finish the opponent off.
Juiced: Juiced is a different beast that madoka runs while I dont run, while the +1/+1 is nice, the movement action is where it shines specially with shinobi of wind which can take over the game against decks that can’t deal with it efficiently. The trade off here is having to run impel with disk which feels a little clunky but if you always have board presence (which you should unless you are losing) it is surprisingly very good specially with hotel barkeep.
Game plan
Gameplan with this deck is generally to set up a powerful board and go face, demolition speedway and thunderclap/magnus enable pushing damage through chump blockers. Our biggest concern are healing outlets such as wonder drug, serapis, and sword saint. We also need to be careful not to play into bounce effects like temptation, detained/deported, and valkyrie enforcer.
Opening Lines
1)simuzen -> honed edge on simuzen + simuzen -> heal simuzen after trade
2)scout -> honed edge on scout+ simuzen -> heal scout after trade
3)thane on off-lane -> fossegrim thane to value trade
5)barkeep on turn 3, keep the ramen for turn 4 when we want to play it to get a 6/5 ronin in play
Tips & Tricks
Position your minions while keeping in mind demolition speedway, fossegrim (and juiced if you decide to go that route)
Don’t be afraid to tempo out magnus, this deck doesnt bode well with keeping cards in till you find the perfect board state. Similarly for thunderclap, it is often enough to kill just one blocker with it, the face damage is what we emphasise.
If we need to flip disk, don’t be afraid to discard the least useful card in hand if we don’t have discard fodder.
Flipping disk with empty hand allows us to bypass the discard while using our power.
The deck doesnt need to burn beyond 5 mana, if you draw low value cards later in the game, it is often better to discard them than to shuffle them back in deck.
6)mind freak can deny misanthropia/drugs against yellow decks, and mess up burns
7)sidecar + fossegrim over a speedway can deal up to 8 face damage
8) battle chef's item can provide the little needed health for a minion to trade and survive, bonus points if it was already buffed
Match ups:
Monon-Blue Valkyries: Even. We have a lot of ways to deny their early aggression and race them effectively. However, we can often get out by ingrid if we dont have enough of board advantage.
Rainbow Rush: Favored. Make sure to kill pups early before they grow out of hand through buffs, and we are usually in a very good spot to race.
FoC decks: Favored. These decks are usually extremely greedy and have a lot of trouble to curve well, but when they do we can disrupt that using mind freak
YG/YP/YO: Not Favored. Misanthropia and wonderdrug counter our gameplan, wheras meso libre slows our tempo a lot, we can usually mind freak to give us a few more turns to secure the game. Overall, these are the toughest match ups.
Conclusion
What makes this deck truly unique is how it uses the items both as discard fodder and for actual value: healing potion, wok shield, and powerful ramen can all be used in various situations to gain an advantage. As outlined above, healing potion can lead to one of the strongest openers this deck is capable of, and wok shield takes a supportive role to enable trades maybe over a demolition speedway, while ramen is generally card draw and face damage.