I started playing 3 weeks ago and just hit legend this season. Update: Now in top 100 with no changes to the deck.

I’m by no means an experienced player, and am still learning. Nevertheless this is the deck that took me to legend from rank 2. I haven’t used a net deck before so the picks I made are unique to other scout ramps, and no doubt lack the intuition that more advanced legendary players have. Nevertheless I will explain a few notable picks –

Replacing a Murkwater Witch for Adoring Fan. Obviously this seems like a joke, however I turned the focus of this deck from midrange to a late-game ramp as I found going-face to be detrimental most of the time unless against a control. I omitted all Finish Off’s and only kept one leaflurker, and instead put in two Werebats and two Giant Snakes.

My goal changed entirely from mid-range to delaying the game into the late game. I found the Finish Offs and Leaflurkers to be far too conditional on drawing Murkwater Witches. With no other AoE ping damage, stopping the opponent in their tracks with Snakes and Red Bramman just simply worked better in my experience than the conditional Finish Offs/LeafLurkers. One LeafLurker is retained however which does prove useful most of the time it’s drawn.

Once the other Leaflurkers were replaced with Snakes, the third Murkwater witch felt out of place and made little impact. I tried running an Adoring Fan for the final Rank 1 push which I was stuck at for several days, and it made a breakthrough. Whilst you could probably replace this card with any other low cost-guard of your choosing, it can provide a consistent guard in the most dire of situations when you really need one, without costing any mana (it is resurrected for free every 1-3 turns). I survived many lethals when Adoring Fan returned at the right time in the late-game. If you add up the damage he absorbs from being played just 3 times, I find it actually quite a good card for 3 mana, and to provide outstanding value as the game carries over to turn 10+. I’ve only ever heard jokes or negative things about this card, but all I can say is this minor change made a big and consistent difference for me. It’s a great back-up card for turn 3 in case you fail to play a ramp card by then, and more than makes up for its value if the game lasts until turn 10 or beyond.

Another notable replacement are 2 Blood Magic Lords for 1 Night Talon Lord and 1 Blood Magic Lord. I realise this creates inconsistency, but sometimes you will draw both, and having the option of a Drain and resurrect from NTL is often a better play than being forced to put down a BML only. I must say there is a bug currently with NTL where sometimes he will not resurrect enemies if he dies whilst attacking. This occurs about 50% of the time and I hope it is addressed by the developers soon.

Lastly, there are no House Kinsman for the same reason there are no Mammoths. Both of these cards will deal damage to the enemy face (Last Gasp or Breakthrough) which creates a risk in breaking runes you don’t want to break. Restless Templar’s in my experience were much more useful since they can act as a 5 damage removal and a healing potion combined together, or at the very least trade equally for a card (from a firebolt usually) and give you 5 health. They provide much needed healing without the risk that Drain creatures have, and also without the risk of breaking enemy runes.

The Quinrawl Burglars synergise well with the Werebats if played properly. Ideally you want to play a Werebat first to draw out a Lightning Bolt/Removal, then play a Quinrawl. I include 2 because the first one is usually removed. However if you have played your Werebats and an earlier Quinrawl, and you manage to then play the 2nd in the shadow lane, most of the time the enemy won’t have an immediate answer. This can usually get you 2 drain face hits for 12 health, and if they don’t have an immediate answer to that, will win you the game when it bumps up to 12/12. A lot of the games were won from the second Quinrawl after the first was removed.

The 2 Territorial Vipers are great removals for guards in general, especially guards that are placed in the way of Quinrawl. Always remember however to draw out their removals with Werebats first. If you’re against a heavy board on turn 6, do not ever play Quin’rawl, you will lose. It’s more of a late game card to play after the opponent has wasted some of their removal spells. Don’t consider it a turn 6 play unless you have no other option available.

The most important thing is how you break the enemy runes. You don’t want to break any runes unless you’re against an even heavier control deck and you have solid board presence. If you can do lethal in 2 turns, and the enemy has no board presence, I’d consider going face only in that circumstance. Otherwise you want to wait until you have triggered your Hist Grove, and set everything up for a 1 turn kill.

Werebat, Quin’rawl and NTL are the only creatures you will be using to face most of the time.

All other cards I consider essential and self-explanatory. I didn’t include Thieves Guild Recruit because of the inconsistency. It has a less than 20% chance of drawing a 7 cost card, and a 2 mana play is often better spent elsewhere on survival. There is also a lack of 2 mana card. This is because you want to stabilise by the mid-game, not the early game. Your early game should be spent mulliganing hard for ramp cards so you can begin to respond to the board and build up a presence by turn 3/4.

Even though cards like TGR and Shadow Shift provide great cycling, I just found that I was wasting mana on them to draw cards and then lacking mana for crucial plays.

Again, this is just my experience with what worked in reaching Legendary, and I’m sure more advanced players will think differently about it and notice numerous mistakes. I’m still learning and my views on what works may change in the future.

However if you are stuck and want to try something a little different and unpredictable, especially with the Giant Snakes and 2x Werebat/2x Quin’rawl combo, give this a try. I find the meta often lacks the removal for 4 of these cards combined with whatever else you are playing.

At the very least it’s a fun deck to play, especially with Adoring Fan.