New HYPER AGGRO BEATS STEEL Meta!

Episode 58 has me very excited to unveil a new homebrew hero hyper aggro deck that I think could really make a splash at set champs!
Check it out on Dreamborn:
dreamborn.ink/...
You'll notice at the link there are some tweaks to the deck since I've done more playtesting. Let it go has been removed & bare necessities is in as an answer to be prep & dime. I've also made some small changes to the count of cards & added 4 drop Anna to bolster the steel matchup further.
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[@petewanca]

Love this. I was thinking about modifying / cloning my hyper aggro + discard and subbing emerald in for some sapphire ramp. Saving this for when I’m ready to try it out!

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@@petewanca thanks so much, hopefully you enjoy it when you do!

[@PokeMartin]

I would take out 2 pride lands, 1 medical tent, 1 perdita for 4 baloo

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@PokeMartin totally respect the Baloo crew a lot of people like him & I do think he's neat but that would increase the uninkable count by 3 putting it too high for my liking personally. I did make some tweaks that included removing 1 pride lands & 1 winter camp so I do think you're on point there. Perdita has been fantastic particularly with pride lands to keep the pressure on. Because you have very little ability to draw the option to recur characters with perdita in the mid/late game can come in pretty clutch.

[@parttimecomix]

I’ve been trying to get this to work! 💙💛

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@@parttimecomix you and me both...for a couple sets now, this is actually my first ever deck breakdown on this color combo because it's been such an uphill battle making it feel really good

[@BoosterBijuu]

I wonder if Merlin's cottage would add any value to the daisy. knowing when and when not to quest wisely? love the list!

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@BoosterBijuu maybe, the no lore is a bummer with the cottage though. Thanks so much, it's still a work in progress, got some pretty unfavorable matches with it today.

[@tannerdillingham9662]

Updated list by chance? We’ve built something similar used medal of heroes and pawpsicles hyram and baloo

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@tannerdillingham9662 the updated list is in the link but I felt like the item package just slowed me down too much in the early game.

[@derekwatson1982]

Love this idea but I found card draw to be tough. Ended up top decking a lot

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@@derekwatson1982 top decking is pretty likely going into turn 4 or 5. It's definitely pretty important to end up with Rapunzel or Perdita almost to the point that the former is worth keeping in a starting hand when possible.

[@lif3l3ssgaming]

Its funny hyper agro was all the hype going into this set then it fell off because everyone was teching for it. Now I feel at least going into The DLCs it had potential to do well vs the green steal decks that were played. Its like people stopped worrying about the hyper agro decks.

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@lif3l3ssgaming I totally agree, people aren't as teched for it these days

[@lif3l3ssgaming]

@@thenerdcaveyt Yeah and almost no one played it at least from what I can see of the decklists put out there and what i watched on stream for the dlcs. There was like 1 and it was the amber/steel agro player i forgot her name but i think she made top 32 or something in birmingham.

[@moosios8482]

I love this idea, would it be bad to add Just in Time to get out Donald or other characters quicker?

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@moosios8482 I've been tweaking the list a lot & moved away from Donald for 4 cost Anna. You can see a slightly tweaked version at the dreamborn link. I personally would avoid increasing the uninkables. The other issue is you just don't have enough card draw to support using 2 cards to play one character imo.

[@moosios8482]

@@thenerdcaveyt for sure everyone tells me that as well, I just loved using it in an Amber/Emerald aggro deck with Mufasa…but cheers to homebrews! Lol Subscribed to see more content!

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@moosios8482 thanks so much for the sub, appreciate the support. I do think just in time is great in certain deck. Check out my "Hawkins To Ya" deck video, that one used 4 Just in Time. 😀

[@KoalaF3]

Knight Anna for 4 to give other Heros more Lore?

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@@KoalaF3 so I actually discussed the list with a good buddy today for potential championship play & we did ultimately decide to remove Donald for 4 cost Anna as well as a couple other tweaks that can be seen at the link in the description. 😀

[@Allhailrich1501]

Love it, what’s a good sub for punzel? Julieta?

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@Allhailrich1501 appreciate that, I actually gave some recommendations in the video for subs when I talk about rapunzel. 😉

[@Allhailrich1501]

@@thenerdcaveyt watching again with sound lol

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@@Allhailrich1501 lol fair enough. 😆 🤣 Julieta wad one of the suggestions.

[@Allhailrich1501]

@@thenerdcaveyt what about 2 punzels and 2 julietas?

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@Allhailrich1501 I think you definitely play as many rapunzel as you can & a couple Julietta will definitely net you some value so 2 & 2 is solid. Sometimes with your back the wall you only heal for 1 with rapunzel for 1 card anyhow & in that instance julietta is just as good or better since she's cheaper. But obv when you can heal for 2 or 3 having rapunzel is gonna get you a lot more value. I have seen the rapunzel prices coming down somewhat. I think when the new set comes out they may drop enough right at set launch for it to be a good time to buy in if it's possible.

[@chags3512]

How are you using the 3/1 Wendy with Ward in your updated list? Buffing characters for challenge ability primarily?

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@chags3512 yes also for closing out games with ward. She's great for pumping daisy for a trade instead of daisy questing & giving more card draw. Helps to deal with fox which was my main issue before.

[@chags3512]

@@thenerdcaveyt I will check to see how many of that card I have. Not one you see a lot of in decks lol.

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@chags3512 I totally get that, this is why we've just been slowly getting 4 of every card. You never know what you're gonna want to use haha.

[@chags3512]

@@thenerdcaveyt yeah. I just got my third and fourth grand pabbie for a certain reason haha can’t afford four of everything and some are VERY hard to find locally but should probably focus on super rares then legendaries lol

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@chags3512 we have been very fortunate to fund some of the collection via the business & youtube. It's definitely not lost on us that not everyone has so much access to cards. Hopefully the videos can help you to make the best decisions on what to play without making a lot of erroneously purchases.

[@LookAtTheBacon]

Hey there! Been quietly following your channel as a sub for a while now. Great content! :) I am really enjoying your videos big time. Glad you're tackling my trademark colour combination as well now. Amazing stuff :) Some thoughts from me to maybe improve the deck for your local Set Champs. Please take everything that follows purely as constructive criticism, not at all as a personal attack or anything akin: 1. Winter Camp is truly a terrible card. 3 Mana for 1 Lore a turn doesn't net you any pressure at all on the board. It actually loses you extreme chunks of tempo in reality, because you could play three one drops that all quest for 2 instead of it. So next turn your Winter Camp gained 1, my three one drops gained 6 lore. You see where the problem lies. Also the heal effect (which could make up for the bad lore stats in an aggro deck) is truly bad because with all your small characters that aren't named Daisy or Anna you're barely able to trigger it at all. Especially with the additional move cost (which are costs that you have to pay instead of playing minions -> also always bad in an aggro deck!). Therefore these would be 4 immediate cuts for me and I would definitely recommend you to do the same. PS: If you doubt my assessment here, get a friend online on Untap, TTS, or Webcam, tell him to only play T1 meta decks like current tournament winning Green/Steel lists etc and track the times you play Winter Camp, how often you used it's heal effect, and how often you won the games where you played it and/or used it's effect. The numbers will most probably be quite revealing. 2. Pride Lands Jungle Oasis is also extremely expensive, especially because of the move cost. T6 moving three characters there (if you still have three that haven't died to trades/nukes) loses you an entire turn, just to then be able to cheat out a character and lose 8 hp from the location. If you're not running literal 10 drops that end the game then and there, it's definitely not worth it, just as Winter Camp. But you're not even running anything over 6 mana and Perdita is not a threat. So what do you want to ramp into? It's not worth it for losing so much tempo at all. And you don't have a broken draw engine like Hiram with Pawsicles, Prince John with mass discard, or A Whole New World that you have the resources to dump everything on the board constantly with 7+ mana plus refill your hand all the time. Your only draw at all is Rapunzel and to an extent Perdita. That's not enough to keep a Pride Lands fueled. Also: If you're ever behind on board, which will be quite often - especially when being on the draw - then so manylocations (you have McDuck Manors as well) isn't great because then they just get traded for free from their board. Not really what you want, especially not as an aggro deck. 3. There are three "big" kinds of decks in Lorcana, as in most other TCGs as well: Aggro, Midrange, and Control. Of course, we also have Hyper Aggro, Tempo, Combo etc., but let's break it down in these three to keep it simplified for the sake of the argument. So when you're trying to build or play an aggro deck (as you are in this list and title it this way yourself as well), then you don't want to play cards that slow you down or make you able to play bigger threats. You rely on flooding the board with small weenies that have high quest values and then refill your hand as quickly as possible with draw effects to repeat the process. Make them have the answers, make them stop you. So far, so good. But you included 4 Mickey Mouse Detective and two 5 cost Donalds, which are true ramp cards. Cards that Control decks would play along the lines of Tipo and Quill to skip some turns to be able to play there big monster minions aka game-ending threats earlier (Tamatoa, Dime, Male Dragon, etc). We don't have these threats and we don't consistently are able to ramp into them even if they were there. We would have to change the whole deck for that and include more ramp cards (like the aforementioned examples). Therefore, both cards serves absolutely no purpose. Also your argument that you stated in the video that they let us play our threats out quicker has a flaw in that you basically accept to make a play that, in case of a Mickey Detective, basically translates to "turn 3: do nothing". And you can't do that in an aggro deck at all. He only quests for 1, has terrible stats for a 3 drop, and every other 3 drop in Amber or Sapphire would be better I fear. Especially because of the additonal fact that he is uninkable and will brick or clog up your hand more often than not. Please don't play him, believe me. He loses you games on his own in an aggro deck. You lose so much tempo on 3, it's crazy. Remember: every character that you play on turn 3 that doesn't immediately get removed also gains you lore in the additional, subsequent turns. Turn 4, turn 5, maybe even turn 6. Now play your Mickey and quest four times. You gained 4 lore. I play a Caterpillar and quest four times aka gained 12 lore. The game is immediately over right then and there. You get my point. This card is also not the best, sure, but if you get away with it even for some turns, they will never recover. 4. Three World's Greatest Criminal Mind seems a bit much. Most Steelsong lists that even include it run only two themselves (see for instance Holly's winning deck at the CCS 10k event), but many have faded away from it and don't even include it at all anymore. Therefore cutting it down to one or two copies would be good advice imho. Especially in this current meta where many people at Set Champs will just blindly copy San Zyeds winning Las Vegas list 1:1 and then discard all your songs with Ursula Deceiver. She is also run in Lemon Lime Discard, Lemon Lime Aggro, Green Purple, Green Red, etc. You get my point. Songs are weak currently and got even weaker in the meta now after Las Vegas. The same rings true for the two Let it Go's by the way, and they are even way more expensive than the WGCM, so I'd definitely cut them myself as well. But that's just me I guess. An aggro deck is usually so fast that it doesn't need removal. Have them have the answers and be quicker, lorewise. 5. If you run that many Princesses and Queens, it would be a total waste not to include 4 Hans. The card is honestly amazingly strong as well as underappreciated in Blue in general. It quests for 2, has aggressive stats as it kills something big when traded, and nets you an instant lore when played. It's like a faster Merlin Goat. Overall, with all the slow locations and hard removal plus lategame ideas plus ramp, I definitely disagree with the title of your video. It's definitely not a Hyper Aggro deck in this current build. I'd argue that it's not even an Aggro deck currently. Just because it has Daisy and Piglet doesn't make it into an Aggro deck automatically. Steelsong play these two cards as well as 4-of's and no one would consider it an Aggro deck at all. It's clearly Midrange. With the potential to combo and snowball away, yes, but not pure Aggro. If you want to go Aggro, I'd recommend the following as a Tl;Dr from me: -4 Mickey -2 Donald -3 Criminal Mind -2 Let it Go -3 Pride Lands -4 Winter Camp This gains you 18 slots. For these, I would personally put in: +4 Hans (too strong in the deck to not include it) +4 Julieta Madrigal (you need draw badly!) +3 Simba (early protection for Lilo+Queen if you don't have Donald) +3 Baloo (to close out games on the edge) +2 Miracle Candle or Queen's Sensor Core (they basically do the same and end the game for you, like Knowledge and Wisdom in Amber/Amethyst Hyper Aggro) +2 Chernabog (ends the game, big threat, mill protection) Good luck in any event fine sir :) Maybe also check out one of my videos while you're at it and if you got interested. Best, Bacon

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@LookAtTheBacon totally appreciate the support & long breakdown of some changes to make. I did ultimately makes some changes since I played this (and did well with it) & recorder the video. The changes are reflected on the dreamborn link but differ from your suggestions. Ultimately I've been really happy with mickey as he's outside the 2 damage steel cards for willpower & he helps to ink ramp & go more aggressive in the subsequent turn. He is also a hero which activates Anna to quest for 2. I did end up removing the Donald's largely for the reason you mentioned & have cut down on the locations not near as much though. I also actually went up on worlds greatest criminal mind not down. In the emerald match up it's definitely your first ink to avoid ursula & it's much harder to get value from there. I agree some more draw would be nice but I am using perdita & Jungle oasis to supplement some of that. When you're out of cards the move cost for jungle oasis isn't as bad & if you can recur perdita with it especially it can get crazy because her ability also triggers to bring in another character. Idk that the list is necessarily perfect but with the amount of early game questers for 2-3 I do think it's at least fair to call it hyper aggro. 😀

[@cstorvold]

What no Hans?

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@cstorvold nah even on revisions we ended up not going with Hans. He's good but Wendy just felt better.

[@michaelgrubb4925]

New to TCGs.. when you say “off Meta”, what do you mean. You also say “current meta” quite a bit in your videos, which I thought based on context you meant the current Lorcana set; Ursula’s Return, Shimmering Skies, etc.

[@berzerk130]

so "Meta" basically refers to whatever decks are currently winning major events. At the moment that means Emerald Steel, Ruby/sapphire, Ruby/amethyst and Steelsong, so anything that isn't described as one of those big 4 could be considered "off-meta", because they don't hwve tournament results to back up their quality

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@michaelgrubb4925 so the current meta refers to what decks are currently the most played from all legal cards (which currently is all 5 sets) but the "meta-decks" right now are Amber Steel Steelsong, Ruby Sapphire Control, Ruby Amethyst Control & Emerald Steel. Most other decks are considered outside that group or "off-meta". Because this one is specifically built to target the primary meta decks as a competitor & is not a meta deck itself it is also considered "anti-meta". Hopefully that all makes sense how I explained it! 😀

[@thenerdcaveyt]

@@berzerk130 essentially, yes.

[@michaelgrubb4925]

@@thenerdcaveyt Thank you both.