Sunday 4 January 2015

Nuada's Non-Denominational Holiday Trees




With the new AA Nuada, Faith's Flourish, I have had a burning desire to try to base a deck around her that will work well. So I asked myself, would it truly be in the holiday spirits to try to have this deck be any colors other than red and green?


Obviously the deck should start with three Nuadas as she is the centerpiece, the question is then what plants do we put with her to trigger her activated ability?

3x Nova, Grove Guardian - Drops plants in adjacent lanes for Nuada to fertilize into Christmas Treefolk, and gets pumped herself when the saplings are replaced. Also acts as a strong alternate win condition should you not be able to get strong aggressive plays.

3x Leafkin Progenitor - A quick game ender if not quickly removed from the board, if it stays alive to make it to level three it can start popping out level one versions of itself for Nuada to pump up. Often avoids level-gated removal such as the ever popular Broodqueen or Nanoswarm, with the added benefit of its replace triggers synergizing with Nova's replacement effects.

3x Stygian Lotus - Provides multiple blockers across full boards, getting extra value out of Nuada should she manage to survive for more than 1 turn.

3x Scatterspore Eidolon - Works as a strong aggressive play in rank one, or an underdrop in rank two with the added benefit of spawning small plants for Nuada to buff.

2x Grove Matriarch - As JimbozGrapes said in his UN Nuada brew, there are a lack of good plants in the game right now. However, instead of ending with Brighttusk Sower, the matriarch adds extra value of being a plant herself, in addition to dropping a seedling when she dies. Good for double blocking for a single play.

Now that roughly half of the deck is planned out through the addition of Nuada and plants, it's time to take a look at the utility effects brought to the mix by the Tempys faction.

3x Ator, Thunder Titan - With multiple strong activate effects in the form of Nuada and Leafkin, being able to activate them immediately can change the course of the battle, creating much bigger threats. The fact that Nuada is a defender and will not attack once activated allows you to reap instant value rather than having to wait a turn in hopes your opponent has no removal.

3x Borean Windweaver - You can't hit what's not there. Jumping Nuada around saves her from a combat death, protecting her longer and allowing more treefolk to be spawned.

2x Burnout - Allows for removal of imminent threats earlier in the game, and provide reach with burn to the face later on.

2x Ferocious Roar - Buff the entire team for favorable trades early on, or support your grow-wide strategy when you run out of places to drop more creatures.

1x Soothsayer Hermit - Allows you to recover if your initial draws pull all your strong win conditions at once, tutor's up removal or pump that you may need, or a windweaver to mobilize your board to trade more effectively.

2x Flex Spots - Haven't quite mastered this deck yet, and there are a few slots that are left open for individual tweaking. You can slot in extra removal, burn to the face, more Hermits more plants for Nuada's ability, or some big creatures to aggro in with Ator, Uterradon Ridgeback perhaps.

No comments:

Post a Comment