58 Direct Damage™©®

Terrible Introduction for an Equally Terrible Person

Hey guys, it's me, resident degenerate, Werfs. You might know me for previous travesties like BG5s, and telling new players to play Yellow Rush.

I have absolutely no defense for that.

Instead, I have created yet another abomination that I'd like to share with you guys!

In this deck guide, we will cover why I picked each card, what roles they fill, and a general guide on land placement and how to pilot this deck.

Deck Overview

58 Direct Damage™©® is based on using all your cards to deal as much damage to your opponent as possible. Cards like Flame Burst, Seifer's Wrath, and Hellfire aim to chunk your opponent down over the course of the game, while you keep your faeria reserves topped up with Soul Pacts and using Flash Salmon and Khalim's Prayer as a combo play to not only keep your faeria reserves high, but also cycle through your deck as fast as possible to kill your opponent as fast as possible. Land is built in a straight line towards your opponent in order to ensure optimal Wind Soldier and Flash Salmon lines.

Card Choices

Hellfire

Don't worry, I'm just as confused as the rest of you. Why in the world is Hellfire such a strong card in this deck? Hellfire is one of the strongest cards in the deck, and when used at the start of the game, can set your opponent to 11 life. As a deck that is aiming for all damage oriented cards to hit your opponent's orb, starting the game with what is essentially a discounted Triple Flame Burst is insane. Decks that don't pack a lot of healing are simply stalling the inevitable; a slow burning death. The reason I run 3 Hellfires is because with this deck's playstyle, Hellfire is never bad. It either hits your opponent for 9 early game or it softens up their creatures for Seifer's Wrath targets in the late game.

This card is one hell of a card, amiright fellas?

Flame Burst & Seifer's Wrath

The bread and butter of any burn oriented deck. In this deck, Flame Burst is saved to deal damage to your opponent's orb, and very rarely used to try and clear the board. Seifer's Wrath, like some other cards in the deck, are made to help with dealing more damage, as well as slowing down the board state as you draw through your deck towards more damage.

Khalim's Prayer & Soul Pact

These two cards are the pieces that enable you to keep up orb damage pressure, with Prayer also contributing to a bit of draw power.

Flash Salmon & Wind Soldier

These cards are in the deck in order to activate Khalim's Prayer. To be honest with you, I'm only running Wind Soldiers because I'm not allowed to put another 3 Flame Bursts in my deck. Flash Salmon is another card that helps with card draw, allowing you to cycle through other cards in order to get easy access to more direct damage cards.

Imperial Drain, Crystal Flower, & Soul Drain

These cards are in the deck in order to slow down the game state either by stalling your opponent from collecting, removing their creatures to stunt board development, or using a combination of healing and damage in order to allow you to cycle through as many cards as possible. You want the game state to be as slow as possible since that allows you to draw more, and the more cards you draw, the more direct damage you have to kill your opponent with. Because you do not care about the board state, any faeria your opponent spends on developing their side of the board is essentially thrown away. However, since you'll likely need Wind Soldier and Flash Salmon lines, 2 Crystal Flowers and 2 Soul Drains seem to be the sweet spot, as it is essentially a 4 faeria Last Nightmare.

Also, if you've ever played Red Rush before, you know just how oppressive Imperial Drain can be to a deck that requires constant collection.

Rebel Slinger

I feel like Rebel slinger deserves its own spot because of how weird a card it is. I had originally had Oradrim Monk in order to help with face damage and card draw; however, sometimes by the time I built my desert to my opponent's orb, they have set up a very good line of defense to counter the Monk from getting through. I found it favorable to give up the card draw and instead secure the 2 damage to your opponent's orb in the form of Rebel Slinger. Rebel Slinger does not draw you a card, but guarantees 2 damage and a 2/2 body instead of the Monk's conditional 2 damage and 2/1 body left behind.

Mulligan

Must Keeps

Hellfire, Flash Salmon, Wind Soldier, Imperial Drain, Seifer's Wrath.

These cards secure early damage, and Imperial Drain is overall just a strong card to help with slowing the board until you draw into more damage.

Conditional Keeps

Khalim's Prayer = Only if you have a Flash Salmon or Wind Soldier in hand already.

Soul Pact = Only if you have Hellfire in hand. Soul Pact allows you to effortlessly refill your faeria reserves after Hellfiring.

Never keeps

Literally everything else I didn't mention. Those cards are cards you want to cycle into over the course of the game, not have in your starting hand.

Land Placement

If you've played Red Rush before, you'll be very familiar with the turn 1 double neutral followed quickly by a turn 2 double neutral into Queen's Guard.

This deck is absolutely nothing like that.

What this deck has is finesse.

We are not brutes.

Anyway, 99% of the time, this will be what your first few turns look like (using this as a point of reference):

You as Player One

Turn 1: Mountain on D1

Turn 2: Mountain on D2

Turn 3: Desert on D3

Turn 4: Desert on C4, D4, or E4 (depending on which line allows you the easiest path to face with Flash Salmon)

Turn 5 onwards: Draw cards or make maximum one more Desert on one other tile you didn't choose (I usually go with C4 and E4 since Wind Soldier and Flash Salmon both have Charge)

You as Player Two

Turn 1: Mountain on D1

Turn 2: Mountain on D2

Turn 3: Explore on D3 + Desert on D4

Turn 4: Desert on C5 or E5

Against rush, you will want to Desert on turn 2 on tile D2, so you guarantee a Wind Soldier line later on.

Playstyle

If you've ever played Red Rush before, you're a bad person and you should feel bad. However, this deck does not make you retroactively wish you were never born. Instead, this deck helps you embrace life as a whole. This deck will help you get rich quick, solve all your self confidence problems, get you a life partner, and most of all, help you ACEND past beyond our plane of mortality.

You will want to keep all your cards to go to your opponent's orb. Hellfires are best used as early in the game as possible, before they turn lukewarm. In a deck where you aim to have everything hit face, 7f deal 9 to your opponent is a godsend. Many opponents will emote after a turn 2 or 3 Hellfire, but little do they know, it is all a part of your devious plan. You will also want Wind Soldiers and Flash Salmons as early as possible, since the longer the game goes on, the more time your opponent has to collect resources and start land blocking you. Flame Burst should only be used on a creature if you are desperate. Otherwise, play it cool, and start drawing every turn after you've set up your double mountains and double deserts.

This deck packs a lot of damage, so make sure to check for lethal almost every single turn; Soul Pacts and Khalim's Prayer allows for some really nasty turns where you can throw up to 12 damage to your opponent's orb with your hand. Since your entire deck is filled with direct damage, there is no such thing as a "bad draw" with this deck.

I'm not sure what else more to write for this section, other than to remind you to keep all your direct damage cards in hand and not throw them out willy nilly. At the end of the day, this deck is still a combo rush deck, and you will still need to conserve your resources.

Skill Tips for Noobs

Crystal Flower

You can guarantee a lot of orb damage with Hellfire if you can combo it with a Crystal Flower. Imagine your opponent has a 5/8 Grim Guard on the board. Under normal circumstances, Hellfire would be a terrible card to cast at this moment; however, Crystal Flower instantly takes 8HP out of the equation, allowing you higher possibilities to deal more damage to your opponent.

Wind Soldier

Just remember that Wind Soldiers are essentially Yellow's Flame Bursts, and should be used as such in this deck; to go directly to face all the time. Sometimes, you don't need to have Khalim's Prayer in hand to just throw a Wind Soldier at your opponent, especially if you know they will have the resources to set up a Taunt creature next turn.

Khalim's Prayer

Remember, you only have 6 Prayer activators in the entire deck, so make sure you save some Haste creatures (preferably Wind Soldier) to combo with Khalim's Prayer.

Soul Pact + Soul Drain

0f Deal 2 damage to a Unit. Not only that, this little combo of Soul Pact Soul Drain also takes 2HP off the board to further help more consistent Hellfires.

Conclusion

I'd like to extend my sincere condolences to anyone playing against this travesty of a deck. My small pea-sized brain is incapable of creating a deck that is not a rush archetype deck. Remember to always focus on SMOrc and you should win most, if not all, your games! This deck is somewhat weak to strong healing like Ruunin's Guidance or Emperor's Command, but against any slow deck that does not pack healing, this deck itself is an auto-win.

Good luck out there, I'm going to go take my medication so I don't end up planning a bank heist.