Wanderer Deck Tech: “Dark Olympian”

Hi there Rulers,

I’m Raphaël, from the Top Duck team. I’m going to talk about my “Dark Olympian” deck that I played during the Poissy GP in France, on May 6th, 2023.

DECKLIST

Why did I play Yggdrasil, Malefic Verdant Tree (ENW-068), and The Twelve Olympians?

I was looking for a deck that I could afford (I hadn’t bought anything from H1 and H2 so it was difficult for me to build a meta deck like Viga, Steadfast Steward (NWE-085), Hyde, Solitary Assassin (TUS-068) or Eins (NWE-090) …). So I looked at old rulers, but with the recent banlists, I couldn’t play Carlina (TST-075), Belial (TST-073), or Fiethsing (MSW-053) … not even Zeus, the First Olympian (GRV-087). I had to go back way further.

When I started looking into the meta (with help from Antoine and Tuän, mostly), no matter the deck, every one of them shared something in common: the OTK. I had to find a deck that could survive an OTK while still being able to counterattack quickly. That’s when I decided to play the perfect combination: Yggdrasil, Malefic Verdant Tree (ENW-068), and The Twelve Olympians.

Now that I had my basic idea, I needed to build the deck. After a few prototypes, the deck appeared to have feet of clay. Very sturdy, capable of taking the OTK wave, and retaliating, but … there was a huge flaw: the passivity of the deck.

It relied on being attacked too much. With that in mind, a good player will understand quickly that they just have to set up while dealing with the few counters of the deck to build a huge attack to blow the deck in an OTK, while also keeping some sort of direct damage to counter the Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045) loop.

To become more active and less reliant on my opponent to get Union 7, I came up with the idea of including:

Intimidation (PofA-001), to manage the number of damages I could take in a turn in order to reveal Union 7.

Tisiphone, Avenging Fury (TST-062) is a card with several advantages. It is able to hit me with enough damage so that I can reveal Union 7, while also putting a huge threat on the board. While playing this card, I took the bet that my opponent would let the reso stick to the board because they would want to counter the automatic ability to prevent me from revealing Union 7. Less experimented players, who wouldn’t know Yggdrasil, Malefic Verdant Tree (ENW-068) would let the ability resolve, keeping Will up for removal, which would be a mistake. The rest of the deck is a standard Yggdrasil, Malefic Verdant Tree (ENW-068) with:

Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045), Light of Raze and Revive (AO1-059), Improved Healing Robot (ADW-037) and Horn of Sacred Beasts (SKL-099).

HOW THE DECK WORKS

Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045) loop

This loop cannot make you win, BUT it allows you to not lose to deck out since Yggdrasil, Malefic Verdant Tree (ENW-068)‘s ability makes you RFG cards from the top of your deck when you should take damage, and prevent that damage.

So, what happens if I don’t have cards left in my deck but I should take damage? Nothing, damage is still prevented, you just can’t mill more cards. According to the rules, you should lose the game, while attempting to draw from an empty deck during your draw step.

When should you play Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045)?

Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045) has an ability that has a cost of 0 will AND reveal the card from your hand, which can put it back on top of the deck just before drawing it again. You can loop it indefinitely to not die.

What happens if you cancel Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045)‘s activated ability?

The cost of the ability is to pay 0 and reveal it. The card is basically not counterable (it goes back to hand if it’s countered and you can use it again). That’s what makes this loop really difficult to stop.

Is there a flaw?

Yes, your opponent just has to use direct damage once Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045) is put back on top before you draw it again.

Poseidon, the Second Olympian (GRV-032) loop

Once again, this loop doesn’t make you win by itself, but it lets you draw your entire deck and put an Olympian into play, killing with either Athena, the Seventh Olympian (GRV-076), or Magna and Lenneth, the Twelfth Olympians (GRV-081).

How does it work?

Poseidon, the Second Olympian (GRV-032) has an enter ability that lets you bounce an entity you control to your hand. He also has a second enter effect under U7, which lets you draw 3 and put an Olympian from your hand into play. When it enters with U7, you choose in which order the abilities go onto the stack. We will choose to put the draw 3/put an Olympian first onto the stack and the bounce afterward. When resolving, we bounce Poseidon back to our hand, then draw 3 and put Poseidon, the Second Olympian (GRV-032) into play again. This triggers its two enters effect again, which lets you loop it to draw until you find a kill or sculpt a perfect hand. We can play a Horn of Sacred Beasts (SKL-099) for free and when we need to discard to hand size, use Horn of Sacred Beasts (SKL-099) to shuffle our grave into our deck.

That’s it for the theory, now let’s play:

Poissy’s GP tournament report

Round 1 : DarkOlympian VS Hyde, Solitary Assassin (TUS-068) 0/1/0

I face off against a French player from the Marseille community. I’ve already faced off against Antoine’s Hyde before, I know what it is capable of. And I know my opponent is aware of what Ygg 2 does with Olympians, but will he be able to adapt to my version? I win the first game, it’s not easy or difficult. I need to keep my attention up. The second game is more difficult because he sides in more counterspells and he’s able to remove all of my Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045) from the game, with continuous attacks, before I can draw into them.

This first round ends in a draw.

Round 2 : DarkOlympian VS Typhon, the Infinite Monster (GRV-085) 1/1/0

Another French player … who is a friend of mine from the Parisian community. Though match, because he plays Mechanized Fenrir (GRV-030) and he has 104 cards in his deck. I have to try and kill him before Mechanized Fenrir (GRV-030) hits the table, but I manage to get all 4 copies of my Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045) in hand, and since he doesn’t have enough direct damage to make me discard all 4 during my draw step, I win the first game. On the second one, he quickly discards my hand, and I struggle to keep an Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045). Eventually, he sacrifices his Mechanized Fenrir (GRV-030) to order another resonator. I use my Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045) to get my Improved Healing Robot (ADW-037) from the RFG, putting a lot of cards in my grave (while keeping U7 in RFG) and shuffle it all with Horn of Sacred Beasts (SKL-099). I play Poseidon, the Second Olympian (GRV-032) and get back my 3 Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045). My opponent understands that he won’t be able to kill me and concedes.

Round 3 : DarkOlympian VS Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066) (François-Joseph Billaud, Top8) 1/1/1

Another French player, and a very very good one, I need to be careful. His deck can either be an ultra aggro or a control deck. For the first game, he plays ultra aggro, trying to kill me on turn 2 with Phantasmal Ascendant (GOG-026) into Magic Stone Research Institute (MSW-087) … I let him attack me to reveal U7 to stop the OTK with Intimidation (PofA-001). Then, during my turn, I play Athena, the Seventh Olympian (GRV-076), and win the first game.

François wins the second one, doing his OTK again without me having Intimidation (PofA-001) nor Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045) to answer.

The third game goes the same way even though I have two Intimidation (PofA-001) in hand, he has three 1-Will cancels.

Round 4 : DarkOlympian VS Nyarlathotep, Game Master (GOG-081) 2/1/1

Still facing French players, another Parisian. He knows my deck and that it’s a tough matchup for him. I manage to contain his swarm of Cthulu, created by Rebirth of Flaming Disaster (GOG-027). By being careful and playing lots of Intimidation (PofA-001), I succeed in winning this match.

Round 5 : DarkOlympian VS Control Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066) 3/1/1

I face off against Nils, a German player. At first, I was getting worried to face the same version as François. After a few turns of observation, I realize he plays a very controllish version. Nothing that I try to do goes through. He ends up playing the Witch train, which is The Witch of the Fallen Kingdom (ADW-072) x4 + Pumpkin Witch (CMF-088). He empties my deck but I have Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045) in hand. Apparently, he didn’t know the Yggdrasil, Malefic Verdant Tree (ENW-068) + Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045) combo. After one or two turns, he spams Pricia, Seeker of Friends // Pricia’s Big Show (ROL-018) to look at the rest of his deck but realizes that he cannot win and concedes.

In the second game, I mulligan my 5 to try and get Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045) in hand. There’s little time left, I play a Faria’s Summon (LEL-055) to go search for a second Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045), but he cancels it. I think that at that moment, he must know that I don’t have it in my hand, since I’m trying to search for it. He quickly realizes his mistake when he sees that I go in no battle (all my turns are just drawing and passing back). He asks me if I have it in hand, I show it to him and he concedes.

I end up at eleventh place with a total of 11 points and bitter to not make it to top 8.

What did I lack to make it to top 8?

My biggest mistake is that I wanted to play my deck. It’s weirdly put that way, but I’ve tried too hard to win with U7 with Magna and Lenneth, the Twelfth Olympians (GRV-081), and Athena, the Seventh Olympian (GRV-076), while the base game plan was to play Yggdrasil, Malefic Verdant Tree (ENW-068) + Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045). I should have secured my games with that in hand before trying to win with U7 and the Olympians.

It was difficult to balance the deck between Olympians and utility stuff. But I think playing Faria’s Summon (LEL-055) main deck, rather than Improved Healing Robot (ADW-037) + Horn of Sacred Beasts (SKL-099) could provide more security to the build.

And for the future?

I’m already working on a new version of the deck. Something innovative, something that nobody would have tried with Yggdrasil, Malefic Verdant Tree (ENW-068). Something is certain: Yggdrasil, Malefic Verdant Tree (ENW-068) + Alisaris, the Invader of God’s City (AO1-045), is a solid core that is really difficult to change.