Deck Profile: GreenGuy's Face War

I talked with GreenGuy who was rank 10 in the weekend event with their War deck. To figure out how and why their deck works. At the time of this writing the deck is 125W-69L. He calls it Face War.

About the deck

You can find the deck details and stats on Unchained Stats The deck is built around slapping the opponent in the face damaging their health as fast as possible.

When starting the match what we really want is a good 2-drop. If we get Out of Its Misery keep it. Mulligan away the rest for better 2-drops. You might consider keeping Scythes of the Harvest but at this point it seems to be a mixed bag as far as benefits go.

Everything you do is determined by the question, "Will I hit face more if I do this?" This question is a bit more complicated than just avoiding trades though, it is something you might want to do sometimes.
- GreenGuy

Our key for winning with this deck is getting a good start and keeping the pressure of well-stated creatures on the board for an eventual win. We are going to ignore trades more often than not. We do this because we need to end the game as fast as possible.

Your burst cards (Whetstone and Sharpen) are important in some cases, but you don't always need them to end games.
- GreenGuy

The Cards

Mana	Name	# of cards
1	Cardshark	2
1	Deadly Arsenal	1
1	Netherborne Binder	2
1	Out of Its Misery	2
1	Shieldbearer	2
1	Trial Spirit	2
1	Tribal Orc	2
1	Whetstone	2
2	Bonded Warrior	2
2	Master Tactician	2
2	Pyramid Warden	2
2	Sharpen	2
2	Skeleton Heavy	2
2	Wicked Fae	1
2	Wind-Up Roller	2
4	Scythes of the Harvest	2

God Power: Slayer

• Clearing the board to add pressure.
• Adding durability to already great relics like Scythes of the Harvest for even stronger bored clearing ability.

Early Game

We trade creatures here only when it sets us up for more damage in the next round. Using a 1/1 or 3/1 to prevent one of your larger creature like a 5/5 which will guarantee more damage on your next turn. Other than that we just have to keep dealing deal to face.

Mid-game

Keep the pressure on and continue taking out high value targets on the board. While smashing damage into the face. We want to finish them before we start the late game.

Endgame

So we got stalled too long, we may well be in trouble and possibly lose this match. The reason for this. Their late game is better than ours.

We still have a chance of winning if our opponent doesn't draw any taunts or lacks meaningful recovery, since our hero power is constant damage otherwise. It's best to cross our fingers and hope we pull our burst in time. Other than this, there's nothing more we can do.
- GreenGuy

Against Aggro Decks

We basically have a never ending supply of removal with our God Power. Our creatures are all high value for their cost. The goal is to run the opponent's creature in to the ground until they can't deal with our with the building attack value on our side of the board. This eventually leads you to a point where the damage you deal will just kill them.

Scythes of the Harvest can help this a lot, as 4 damage every turn tends to end the game quickly, and if you're against another aggro deck, a permanent 4 damage removal is also very useful.
-GreenGuy

Against Control Decks / Mid-range Decks

We're going to ignore trading here a bit more than normal focusing on dangerous situation or ones that can spiral out of control in a turn or two. More focus on clearing with our God Power or relic.

Many of the times I've lost against Nature is because I've focused on protecting my bigger creatures more than just hitting face, thus I end up losing to their AoN.
-GreenGuy

Combos

Sharpen & Whetstone - power up the Scythes of the Harvest for large amounts of face damage in one go. Play multiples of these can finish the game early.

Scythes of the Harvest + God Power - keep that board clearing going by adding durability

Out of Its Misery + 1 Health creature - We want to get this combo off as soon as possible during the match. There are not any bad results that can happen with the creatures in this deck but there are some greater early game helpers like Pyramid Warden being 5/9 on turn two or even three.

Cards to play around

There isn't anything this deck will play around. It is like a Silverback Gorilla, your opponent has to watch out for you. Sometimes, it makes sense to hold back for board clears. Other times pushing forward even if you know a board clear is coming is the only way to win. Sometimes you lose whether you were conservative or not.

What about cards that remove durability like: Iron-tooth Goblin, Bronze Servant, Svart Basilisk? There's no way we can play around weapon removal. So, we won't really worry about it. It doesn't hurt the deck in large ways it's just 2 less damage per turn. It is better play our relics as early as possible to be more threatening.

Last Call

I might just remove Netherborne Binder [altogether], as it's only good on turn 1; it'll often be dealing less damage than it heals for. [I'd swap out 1 or another Deadly Arsenal and the other for either another wicked Fae or maybe a copy of Reckoning (neither of which I have atm]).
- GreenGuy

Now, here is a fast paced deck that is very successful. All the Aggro players out there will enjoy this one. See you next time.