Card List:
(3) Rapid Shot: Yes, this card is good for softening up a target for a defiler, but the real reason for three of them is simple: Deck thinning. Getting through more of your cards before endgame helps you play fewer beefy minions, and therefore smack the curve. It also doesn’t hurt that the meta is currently flooded with Ward creatures.

(2) Midnight Snack: Prophetic guard that lets your dragons come out early. Particularly strong with Spine of Eldersblood. Turn 1 ring him out, T2 ring out a treeminder and bash this guys skull into something, T3 Ring out Eldersblood to secure an “Oh Shit” emote from your foe.

(3) Soul Tear: This is one of Skyrims better additions to CW. No longer is the deck fragile to Defiler removal, as you can always bring something back for 2+cost without a setup. Since you can run three, it gets very insane with Gortwog.

(1) The Night Mother: Creates dragonbait for your Defilers, Venomtongues, Blood Magic Lord, etc. There are two ways to play this, and NEITHER OF THEM ARE LOOKING TO WIN WITH IT. That’s right Timmy, put the card back on the shelf if you can’t play it without trying to get to the 20 creature activation. You can either: Bring it out early and flood their lanes with targets – setting up a powerful Unstoppable Rage… or my personal favorite: Hold onto it until they think they’ve stopped your Blood Magic Lord/Defiler with a strong guard and drop her to pop the mark instead.

(3) Dark Guardian: This old favorite not only brings 7 stats for 3 mana to the table, but he’s an early guard… AND lets you play through your opponents runes with reckless abandon. A definite keeper in any mid range to late game Endurance deck.

(3) Morkul Gatekeeper: I can’t believe this thing is a common. You run three of them bringing your prophetic guard count up to 6. Also they provide that last needed Oomph to a Defiler slay, beefing up prior to a Rage, or bringing a zeroed out Venomtongue back on line. Don’t pretend like it hasn’t happened to you! Curse you, Curse!

(2) Quicksilver Crossbow: It’s sad when a 3 magicka insta-kill enabler with a boost is one of your weakest cards. Plop this on a Falkreath if it gets a slay, a Venomtongue to get two kills in one attack, or just to remove cross-lane wards.

(3) Hist Grove: So here’s control’s dream. Early game ramp that turns into late game beef. Sure, they can silence it… but you already got the magicka boost from it, and now that’s one less silence to hit your Night Mothers.

(3) Tree Minder: These are expensive Magicka generators. Sure they provide a block early on… but what they REALLY do is jump you from the three magicka turn to the five. This lets you get to your midrange ramps in the Eldersblood wyrms that much faster. If you somehow got screwed with a high-cost hand, go ahead and use soul tear to bring him back. You’ll end up with plenty of them by the endgame, and they only get stronger as you use them ahyway.

(2) Archein Venomtongue: These guys are very versatile. They look scary to your opponent since they’re lethal, they have enough health to do it twice usually, and you can crossbow them into being maniacs. The whole time you’re gaining even more magicka which makes your next turn all that much more dangerous. I’ve had solid control mage and spellsword builds javelin these guys because of what they can do for swinging the tempo in your favor. And that means? That’s right. One less removal for your real threats.

(2) Earthbone Spinner: I don’t like these as much as Shadowfen Priests because they only cost one less, can’t hit support, and die to an errant sneeze. However they do have one thing going for them that the priests do not: They can tag for a very important 1 point of damage – either killing agro threats right out, or enabling later game slays.

(3) Falkreath Defiler: This guy is why we wake up in the morning. Pick a critter, any critter. Chances are it’s one they REALLY wanted dead, because it’s in your discard pile. But now it’s not anymore. So now they REALLY want it dead again. Since the army in this deck is a veritable toolbox, you might always have the right answer starting right around turn 7. Laughs: Attack with BML, get your spell, and trade into a Mantikora. Defiler brings back BML. Now you have 2 generated and you spent 0 magicka so far… with a 50/50 chance of having at least 1 Raise Dead to bring back…. A MANTIKORA!

(2) Preserver of the Root: I had three of this guy. I took one out for a Sower because the deck lacked non-Rage face damage, and the preserver isn’t anything special until 7 magicka (or turn 5-6). Having another runebreaker has been helpful. Might go back to the third 6/6 guard for 4 since you know… that stat line is BROKEN!!!!11!!!1!one!!!!pancakes!!!1!

(1) Sower of Revenge: This card has little to no synergy with the deck aside from coming back out… but I’ve found it helpful to close out close games, or to go phishing for card advantage with a Dark Guardian in play (5 to the dome). He also helps smooth out the Treeminder turn by giving you a very tempo oriented 5 drop. He is the weakest link for your flavoring needs.

(2) Shadowfen Priest: This card should not have been printed. It might as well read (5 Magicka, put a 4/4 crittter into a lane and then choose a card your opponent controls. Rip it to tiny little bits and then soak the confetti in their oh-so-tasty tears). I’d run three of these if agro starts to get back to within a normal level of representation in the meta, replacing the Sower or an Earthbone.

(1) Gortwog gro-Nagorm: Drop this guy first. What I mean is, if ever he is in your hand, and you can generate 6 magicka… you’re doing it wrong. He should be in the shadow lane. If they can answer him they have to, and if they can’t they might as well rage quit. In the very very likely scenario that they do away with him you have a plethora of ways to bring him back and make them try again. If they silence him, beat them in the face with him until he crumbles to dust and then bring him back out again to do it all over.

(1) Night Shadow: Yes, he’s one of your win conditions but you really only need one. Agro sputters before he comes online, and control will remove him time and time again – therefore you keep him in hand until you have rage and 13 magicka. While waiting on that, you don’t want to be drawing another one – so one or possibly 2 is the right number. You CAN go three if you just want to make a purist Vamp Rage build, but then you either lose early survivability by having too many later game cards, or you lose to control for not having a versatile enough toolbox.

(3) Spine of Eldersblood: BROHHHHHHH-KEN! “But Jester, he’s only a 6/6 treeminder without guard!” And you’re just a newb to CCGs. Ever since M:TG started the whole ramp build concept there has been a very very important rule that you follow in the design stage: Ramp must be put in check by a cost other than what it ramps. Take for instance Hearthstone’s Astral Communion: You get tons of mana, but you drop your hand leaving you vulnerable to card advantage and agro. Or how about M:TG where ramp either costs you life, CA, or Tempo? Eldersblood gives you ramp in the midgame with a 6/6 body… for 6. In a ramp build, that usually means your opponent is at 3-5 magicka at the time. And you’re dropping 6/6s that continue it’s ramping propogation to push even further? I’ll take 3 please.

(2) Belligerent Giant: Ever find a tool so useful you wished you could use one in each hand? Like… oh I don’t know… sledgehammers? Post-hole diggers? Chainsaws? I found a spot for two of these guys… one for each hand – I mean lane. And they eat chainsaws.

(3) Unstoppable Rage: Brings the swing. Life swing with Night Shadow, tempo swing with Falkreath, magicka swing with Venomtonuge, card advantage with BML… every aspect to a CCG can be switched from you being down to you being in the lead using this card and the right tool in your hand. Get your mind out of the gutter. The right tool in your box. Okay, get my mind out of the gutter. Anyways, three of them. For you magic the gathering players, this card reminds me of Cruel Ultimatum.

(1) Skeletal Dragon: Just another tool. Only one of them because he always seems to put the wrong critter in your hand, and he’s only a 5/5 guard for 8. He’s like reaching into the toolbox when you need a hammer, and pulling out a power drill. You really wanted that hammer, you could probably make the drill work somehow, or you could just forget what you were doing and go make some holes instead. Both usually are viable options.

(1) Blood Magic Lord: One mistake of reanimator builds is playing too high on the curve. When the toolbox is setup correctly, you really only need a singleton of the high cost answers. Who has two thumbs and turns your hand into a toolbox of spells instead of creatures? This guy.

(1) Odahviing: Before writing this guide I won three out of seven control matchups in ranked play while holding an Odahviing I didn’t plan on using. THAT is a powerful deck. To have an answer that you know your opponent hopes you don’t have, and not even have to show him before game’s over.

(1) Paarthurnax: If Odahviing is your left wingman, Paarthurnax is your right. See what I did there? Odah will kill things that are there, and Paarth will fill your hand with answers for things yet to come. Paarth giving you one or two Soul Tears is kinda silly too . And then you bring him out with a Soul tear, or a Falkreath

WHY DON’T YOU USE?!?
Tell me all about how your cousin Spiffy’s deck is so much better and this one is trash because I don’t run Adoring Fan or whatever in the comments below. Or you could ask me why I run the way I run. Or you could just thumbs down the whole mess and continue banging your head into a wall with Control Monk while wondering why the deck is broken because it couldn’t possibly be the way you’re playing it. I didn’t do that last one, honest.