Vermin Combo

IF YOU WANT TO SKIP INTRO AND DECKLIST SKIP TO HEADING "VERMIN COMBO"

Introduction

Greetings, I am PyroManiacYT, the self-proclaimed progenitor of this monstrosity. During the few months that followed the release of the Resurgence DLC, a card came to my attention, Barrensky Vermin with the megameme Gift text of "Fight Your Opponent." It was first seen as useless and eventually found it's way into GY Sac because of Spirit of Rebirth. However, no one was gonna lose a fight to a lowly 5/5 or even 10/10 Vermin, that takes too much RNG luck anyways. Thus I began my quest to get Barrensky Vermin to actually win a fight. It took me a month and a half of testing various cards, adding and removing things such as Aurora's Creation, Rapala, Soul Pact, Ruunin's Shrine, I even tried Failed Experiment Stormspawn. And now a few months after the creation of the deck, I have finally exited Werfs' Cave to introduce to you, Pyro's VERMIN COMBO.

Combo Pieces

1 Long-Horned Yak

3 Shamanic Dance

1 Elderwood Embrace

1 Gabrian Enchantment

1 Gagana

1 Feed The Forest

1 Dream Keeper

1 Barrensky Vermin

Draw Cards

3 Storyteller

2 Wisdom

3 Lore Thief

1 Gabrian Enchantment

2 Shifting Tide

1 Rapala

Combo Accelerator

3 Windfall

3 Ruunin's Shrine

2 Dream Keeper

Vermin Combo

This deck is not a good deck, it's an interesting deck to play but is not even close to being as viable as something like Ruby Yak OTK. That does not mean the deck cannot win certain matchups however and below will be a guide on how to maximize your chance of pulling off the 10 card combo. The deck is less RNG-dependent than you think but more RNG-dependent than I had hoped.

Before we start though let me say one thing, if your opponent plays Divine Guardian, Surrender immediately.

The Combo

First starting with the easiest part, the 10 card OTK combo. These 10 cards should almost always be the last 10 cards you play although sometimes a few events can be left in the hand however, that is extremely risky and RNG may ruin the combo. NO CREATURES OTHER THAN VERMIN SHOULD REMAIN IN DECK OR IN HAND WHEN YOU FEED THE FOREST AND CAST DREAM KEEPER.

NOTE: Gagana can be played at any point prior to casting Feed the Forest.

1. Play Long-Horned Yak

2. Buff Long-Horned Yak with 3 Shamanic Dance and 1 Elderwood Embrace. It should now be a 4/19

3. Cast Gabrian Enchantment on Long-Horned Yak. It should now be a 19/19

4. Play Gagana if you have not done so already.

5. Cast Feed the Forest on Long-Horned Yak.

6. Cast Dream Keeper to shuffle Barrensky Vermin into your empty deck and draw it as a 20/1

7. Play Barrensky Vermin.

Playing The Other 20 Cards

There is a ton of things to keep in mind while setting up for the combo. Any minor mistakes may jeopardize your chances of winning.

Mulligan

Mulligan any cards that are supposed to be part of the combo away with the exception of Dream Keeper because 2 of those will be used to speed up your combo. Your ideal hand to start the game would include 1 Dream Keeper and at least 1 of either Lore Thief or Storyteller. Wisdom is fine also but not as good.

Lands

My tips for land placement is a Lake on both sides of orb. Then place a Prairie next to each Faerie Well. Next place a Forest in front of each Lake. Finally place a Mountain in front of orb, and fill in the last spot in front of the Moutain with a Praire, after forming this diamond of lands, lands can go anywhere. These 5 colored lands are the only ones you need, exactly 5 lands are needed to cast Feed the Forest.

Where to Play What?

The Ruunin's Shrines should be played on top of the Forests and in front of the Mountains, Dream Keeper should be played on the Mountain and Island, and Storytellers and Lore Thiefs should be collecting next to Faerie Wells. Ruunin's Shrines provides a barrier of bodies to slow down your opponent's progress to your orb. Furthermore, the 2/4 Taunt body of Dream Keeper can slow down your opponent even further.

Ten Million Tips to Keep in Mind

1. Try not to mill any cards.

2. Never mulligan away a Dream Keeper

3. Try not to fill up your hand when you do not have a Dream Keeper in your hand.

4. When you do have a Dream Keeper in your hand, try to fill your hand before playing Dream Keeper.

5. Rapala and Storytellers can be played together to burn up to 7 of your opponent's cards.

6. Sometimes Lore Thieves and Shifting Tides need to be played for their non-card-drawing effects to prevent self-mill.

7. The Combo is 10 cards, your hand limit is 9, if there are only 10 cards left in the game and your hand is full, either one or both Gagana and Long-Horned Yak is in your hand 100% of the time, thus you can play at least 1 of them to prevent milling the last card.

8. Keep in mind Gagana adds a card to your hand, you must play that card before you cast Dream Keeper.

9. Make sure you have enough draws to draw out the last cards in your deck on the combo turn.

10. Make sure there is at least 4 cleared lands when you begin your 10 card combo, 1 for Gagana, 1 for Vermin, 1 for whatever card Gagana gives you, and 1 for Dream Keeper.

11. Cast Windfall whenever you can or you might draw into 3 of them while you have less than 10 Faerie and be forced to self-mill.

12. The most expensive Dream Keeper should be played last, for example, you have a 3 cost Dream Keeper (because Dream Keeper) and a 4 cost Dream Keeper, play the 3 cost first. The last Dream Keeper is always played after Feed the Forest, you should have plenty of Faerie while before Feed the Forest, every discounted card counts.

13. If you absolutely must, you can combo with a few creatures and Vermin in hand or deck, just know that it's now a decreasing percent chance of winning for every additional creature.

Final Notes

The Tips above are all that I can give you, in terms of piloting the deck there is no straight forward way, holding your draw cards or not is dependent on what your hand looks like.

Again I did say this deck is more RNG dependent then I had hoped, meaning sometimes you'll draw 6 combo pieces and 3 Storytellers. Or sometimes all 3 of your Dream Keepers will be in the bottom 10 cards of your deck. Sometimes you gotta yolo and pray you don't mill your combo pieces and squeeze a win through.

The deck is designed to get Vermin to win a fistfight with your opponent but it doesn't do well at winning if at the start of the first turn your opponent played 2 Prairies towards your orb ( that is known as a Rush opening and I hate it TwT ). Basically try to win, but have fun too, and still have fun if you don't win.

The deck actually has a much lower Faerie average because Ruunin's Shrine and Windfall logically have a Faerie cost of negative 2. Dream Keepers can have a cost of negative 4 if cast with a full hand of 9 cards. After turn 7 you might be able to combo and by turn 9 you should definitely be able to combo.

You don't need to wait until you have 10 cards left to combo, you can start early as long as you know for sure you have enough card draws to be able to combo, so the number of cards you are casting in your combo turn can be closer to 14-16 cards. This deck will challenge your ability to play fast as sometimes you'll be dead the next turn if you don't finish your combo.

This Guide is now longer than a second year University essay, alright I'm out. (PS: I will update the list of tips with any additional tips I can think of.)