Hello again! Its been a while since I wrote one of these but here we go again. Just in time for the release of the next set – The War of the Suns… yes I know this is kinda late, but oh well.

Today I’ll introduce you to my pet deck of the current format: Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092)–Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058) combo. The deck aims to accelerate the resolution of End of Night (NWE-072J) and is able to do so as early as turn 2 consistently. If left uninterrupted a lot of games either end with your opponent’s death from the resolution of it or your turn 2 ending with 7 cards in hand and 5-6 stones. Most of them open for interaction on the opponent’s turn.

The deck however is very much feast or famine. If the contract resolves, Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058) is by far the best deck in the game. If it doesn’t, the deck can feel underwhelming at times. So we just have to make sure to both find and resolve the card a lot through numerous ways to stop our opponent from interacting with us.

For starters, here is the entire deck list. The choices made and different parts of the deck will be explained in more details afterwards.

Key Cards

Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps

Lets start with the beginning of my journey building this deck.

When all the cards were revealed and we started testing, it became very apparent that Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) was now the best thing to do on turn one in any strategy that could fit Child of the Ethereal Moon (TUS-025). A lot of different things happened with The Underworld of Secrets set release as well as the banlist changing in its favor. But why is this menace back into the meta game after years of her absence?

First and foremost – her intended downside is the use of mono darkness stones for her to search. This lowers your deck consistency considerably when trying for a 3 or even just 2 color strategy. But what if our mono darkness stones could still produce 3-4 different colors instead of just mono darkness? This is where the children that were introduced this cluster come in! Their ability to fix Will used to be impossible to be utilized with the prevalence of The Origin of the Seven Lands (PofA-112) revealing Dreiwing, Mechanized Wind of Destruction (GRV-040) turn 1 almost every game. But now that that is no longer the case, we can actually build a deck that somewhat relies on the children to afford some cards in the earlier stages of the game.

The second big upgrade to allow Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) to be easier included into decks is the introduction of the new dual color stones with foresee 1. Having more available options for any given dual stone means we can actually resort to playing 20 stones with only a few actual mono darkness stones to be found off of Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092). This option is also greatly improved by the existence of the moon children fixing your resources.

Last but certainly not least is the introduction of the Child of the Ethereal Moon (TUS-025). This is a way to both sacrifice your Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) at no cost while simultaneously digging deeper into your deck. It also mills an extra card into the graveyard to be used with the End of Night (NWE-072J) at a later time.

Ok, Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) is now easy to include into your deck – but why is it good?

Remember Gretel (CMF-069)? A 2-cost resonator that gives you an extra stone on summon. She’s banned for being too good! Yet Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) does something similar now, but for 1 Will instead of 2. Having access to extra stones early into the game allows the use of powerful seal effects like the one of The Witch of the Fallen Kingdom (ADW-072) much earlier into the game than intended. Or in Asuka, Gravekeeper of Tsukuyomi (NWE-058)‘s case enable her contract much earlier than it possibly was supposed to be.

The Awakening of Fiethsing (MSW-060) is just in the deck to act as an extra copy of Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092). Even spending 2 Will on her is good enough to get the deck started.

Cocoon & Children

As already briefly mentioned earlier the Child of the Ethereal Moon (TUS-025) is part of the reason Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) is good now! This card is required for the deck to function. Child of the Wind Moon (NWE-033) is the preferred choice of Children that produce wind Will. Being able to stop a free Angelic Battle Barrier (NWE-001) or a card played using Mastery is amazing.

We choose our Cocoon after resolving mulligan, therefore we can pick whichever one may suit our current needs. If we already have everything to use on “the good start” (explained later) we want to start with the Eternal, Artificial Archipelago (NWE-064) to play an extra interactive card to protect our contract. If we do not have this option yet or our opponent plays an extremely aggressive strategy, we want to start with The Great Wall of the Twelve Sacred Knights (NWE-083). Do not forget that losing it also loses access to Fiethsing, 100 Years of Wizardry (GOG-047)‘s ability for a large part of the early game. So play those out while you still have the option to do so.

The Witch and the Institute

The Witch of the Fallen Kingdom (ADW-072)‘s main purpose in this deck is to summon the remaining copies as well as a Pumpkin Witch (CMF-088) early into the game to find an option for a surprising lethal. It may however also be used as interaction with its own ability or by summoning a Witch with a Pointy Hat (ADW-060). In match-ups like Wolfgang, Guide of the Demonic World (ADW-075) // Wolfgang, Guide of the Demonic World [J-Ruler] (ADW-075J) in which the prohibition effect of The Witch of the Fallen Kingdom (ADW-072) is amazing. Here we also want to bring in the extra copies from the sideboard.

Magic Stone Research Institute (MSW-087) is the other card that does all the good stuff: Ending games early through the buff while also providing an amazing effect to stop our opponents graveyard effects from doing what they are supposed to.

Interaction

The plays enabled by our contract that we will take a look at later all sound very strong. But they rely heavily on resolving our contract. To ensure this we have a plethora of negation effects available to us. First Laurite, Seven Luminaries Astrologian (TSW-094) and Keez’s Call (ACN-069) to stop all those pesky powerful automatic abilities. Then Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092), Fiethsing, 100 Years of Wizardry (GOG-047) and opposing Laurite, Seven Luminaries Astrologian (TSW-094) trying to stop our End of Night (NWE-072J) just to name a few. Both are usable with the “mono darkness” stone Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) provides you turn 1 due to our choice of Moonchildren. The same goes for Faerur’s Spell (ACN-096) and Fiethsing, 100 Years of Wizardry (GOG-047) too. They are extremely capable options to stop our opponent from interacting with our contract. Number Thirteen, Anti-Magic (ADW-088) is just the catch all option for the mid-game. While 2 Will for a cancel is too expensive, we can enable the seal 4 effect as early as turn 2 to make the card worthwhile.

If you feel like counter spells are not as important in your local meta, don’t think they are fun or just prefer a better Moonchild compared to Child of the Wind Moon (NWE-033) or Child of the Darkness Moon (NWE-051), there are other options. These two are only the reasonable options for Moonchildren that produce green Will. A few other cards you might want to add to your deck include Angelic Battle Barrier (NWE-001), Falling Into the Cracks of Time (GRL-029), Alice’s Fantastic Trick (GRL-004) and Guinevere, Space-Time Watcher (GRL-030). While these cards may be worse than just playing cancel cards, this frees up the 2^nd Moonchild slot to be used on Child of the Light Moon (NWE-003) or whatever your local meta requires you to play.

Key plays

“The good start”

You would like all your games to start with this, but since this is still a card game you can’t always pull it off. If you can however you want to start with a Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) on turn 1. Sacrificing her to the Child of the Ethereal Moon (TUS-025) and using the stone you receive from Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) to play an interaction or cancel on the opponent’s turn.

This leaves you with 3 cards in your graveyard/field (Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092), one from Child of the Ethereal Moon (TUS-025)‘s effect and whatever you used for your interaction) to start your 2^nd turn. You now call your 3^rd Stone, play a card that gives you extra cards into the graveyard or in play.  Think Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009), Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095), another Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) … whatever you can get your hand on really. Now you are able to cast Night of the Legendary Vampire (NWE-072). You will then mill 3 cards as you control 3 stones and also target the cards you may have still in play (feel free to also blow up whatever your opponent may have played). With the destruction and mill you now have exactly 7 cards in graveyard and the 2^nd part of the contract is also activated. Summoning End of Night (NWE-072J) and using it to summon a few things. The best options are Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) + Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009). Whatever you take also think about Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095) (or multiple if you can sacrifice them with Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) before resolving their effects) and the ability to take your opponent’s cards too. You still have resources left to protect the activation of your contract too!

“The combo”

We now know what a contract is capable of, but what if we use multiple in a single turn, by destroying our End of Night (NWE-072J) using Night of the Legendary Vampire (NWE-072)? Well, we get to do very unfair things! We mill most of our deck very quickly. And if we do, we now have the option to summon Athenia, Deity of Harvest and Corruption (DBV-092), use her effect for 1 green Will to return any amount of cards in any order to the bottom of our deck. If the bottom of our deck however is also very much close to the top, we can now set up a situation where summoning Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) off of Night of the Legendary Vampire (NWE-072) draws cards we returned with Athenia, Deity of Harvest and Corruption (DBV-092) in response to Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009)‘s effect, including another contract to repeat the process with. This allows us to effectively draw every card in our deck while also producing resources doing so. Athenia, Deity of Harvest and Corruption (DBV-092) returns 3 contracts to deck for 1 Will. Summoning her off of the 2 Will contract gives us 3 Will for each contract played. The stones to do all this are gained from the repeated use of Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) on contracts as well. As specific as this sounds, you can pull it off on turn 3 or even 2 a lot of times if you draw 2x Night of the Legendary Vampire (NWE-072).

An example of a combo turn could be as follows:

We start going into turn 3 with 4 stones, as we had Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) on turn 1. Our opponent has 2 Will open for 2 interactions. We also have a recovered Eternal, Artificial Archipelago (NWE-064) to be spent on a chant. We also have the 2 interactions as well as 2 Night of the Legendary Vampire (NWE-072) in hand. We use a stone and Eternal, Artificial Archipelago (NWE-064) to cast Night of the Legendary Vampire (NWE-072) and 2 stones to play our interactions to stop their interactions. This leaves us with 1 stone. The Night of the Legendary Vampire (NWE-072) mills 4 cards, then turns into End of Night (NWE-072J) summoning any amount of Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) and Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) as well as at least 1 Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095). We may even summon extra copies of Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095) if we also have the extra Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) to sacrifice them before resolving their enter effects. At this point every turn will deviate heavily based on what you draw and mill but the basic play still remains the same. Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092)‘s effect resolves and finds an extra darkness magic stone. We now use the last stone and the new one to cast the 2^nd copy of Night of the Legendary Vampire (NWE-072). It’s important to clear the remaining cards we want to re-summon but most importantly the End of Night (NWE-072J) we already control. We also mill another 5 cards as well as some we may have discarded off of Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) already. We also drew a lot of extra cards with those same Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) and Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095). Maybe we found another contract or we just found a few more interactions with a 2^nd Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) milled to get us to 7 stones. This would enable free activations of Number Thirteen, Anti-Magic (ADW-088). If we however found another contract in our extra draws we can also play this. With a reasonable amount of extra draws and the milled cards we are now through most of our deck.

The following steps make up the loop that allows us to play any card from our deck:

The 3^rd End of Night (NWE-072J) summons quite a few Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) and Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095) to draw more than the few cards remaining in our deck as well as Athenia, Deity of Harvest and Corruption (DBV-092) we either drew and discarded using Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) or just milled.

If we now stack the chase correctly, we can play an infinite amount of contracts! First we activate all our Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095), then all our Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) and finally use the effect of Athenia, Deity of Harvest and Corruption (DBV-092) to recover 3 magic stones. We now, still in response to drawing the extra cards, spent 1 of the 3 Will to return the other contracts to the bottom of our deck. With only a few cards left in our deck, the “bottom” is actually about 5 cards away from the top. Now all our Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009) will draw cards and sacrifice every copy of Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095) we summoned. Now all our Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095) will resolve their effects, trying to draw a card unless we control another Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095)… we just got rid of all of them so the condition is fulfilled for each of the Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095)‘s effects! We now draw all the contracts from the bottom of our deck. We can now use another contract to again clear our board and re-summon the very same Athenia, Deity of Harvest and Corruption (DBV-092) and then to do it all over again until we reach the last contract. This one will once again start at the beginning of the loop. Except the copies used in between gain us an extra Will as Athenia, Deity of Harvest and Corruption (DBV-092) recovers 3 magic stones. But the contract to summon her only cost us 2. And as we draw about 10 cards if we summon all our Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095) and Dark Alice, Rabbit Princess (DBV-009), we now have access to any card in our deck. This way we may now play Magic Stone Research Institute (MSW-087) and The Witch of the Fallen Kingdom (ADW-072) which will in return summon Pumpkin Witch (CMF-088) from our side deck to end the game.

Most games end with a big combo turn or just the summoning of The Witch of the Fallen Kingdom (ADW-072) while having an activated seal 5 to summon Pumpkin Witch (CMF-088). Both are possible as early as Turn 2.

Conclusion

The deck is incredibly fun to play and allows for even bigger and better plays the more you learn about it. At first it feels like a stupid combo deck, then it’s a midrange pile and at the end you have a big realisation: It does it all. That is if you can draw and play the contract. The deck is very much feast or famine. Unless it draws and resolves the contract, the deck is not very good. Child of the Light Moon (NWE-003) is also a massive issue for the deck as End of Night (NWE-072J) allows you to play the cards for free, not put them into the field. Unless you have Fiethsing, 100 Years of Wizardry (GOG-047) or Laurite, Seven Luminaries Astrologian (TSW-094) you might as well not cast Night of the Legendary Vampire (NWE-072) if their Child of the Light Moon (NWE-003) is yet to be used. On the other hand, the highs of this deck feel rewarding and are nearly unmatched by anything currently available. Its great fun and I would recommend this to anyone, unless you hate Lailah, Maiden of the Swamps (AOA-092) of course.