If you haven’t checked out the base set Wild analysis, do that now!

Unlike some other alignments, Wild is actually capable of not only fitting in other decks but being pure by itself and still holding up. A pure Wild deck can in fact compete with a unique strategy that’s difficult to pull off with any other type. By sitting behind very large and threatening bodies, then lobbing burn damage directly to the opponent’s face, it can essentially create one of the safest win conditions. The general idea is there, though some of the specifics are slightly different. Packing cards like Lash or Rage helps to surprise damage someone who decided to throw a blocker under the bus.

The logic goes as follows: drop a threat, usually one which also doubles as a flash, then on the opponent’s turn, simply lob fireballs and lightning at them. The threat exists to draw removal from their hand, preventing the opponent from drawing 2 off an event (one of the worst things you can let an opponent do). This keeps the opponent’s hand size dwindling instead of increasing and frees up your gold to deal direct damage. You never really run out of threats so the moment they run out of removal, you’ve essentially got an easy game. Use any living or blitzing attackers with Lash and Rage to cause massive damage on the sly. Bonus points: use Mighty Blow after declaring Lash/Rage for +14 Unbreakable Breakthrough. This is usually a game ender and Mighty Blow is therefore an Ace.

If you’re drawing on schedule, you should be able to see 0.3 burn cards per card, which is 4 burns in about 13 cards. Thirteen cards are easy to draw (you start with 6 unless you went first, simply play two cards that draw 2 and wait three turns). Since the average burn damage in this deck is slightly under 6 damage per each (counting the permanents like Fire Shaman twice each), this means you’d only need 5 burns to win the game on average. If you can pull off a surprise Breakthrough, you might need anywhere from 3-4 burns to win. Herein lies why you only need to dig through 13 cards for 4 burns. Adjust that strategy within the game as you go based on how much total burn you can rack up after about your 8th card. You may have to rely more or less on your offense champions. Make sure you’re using primary drawing techniques like Raging T-Rex since he can go through 2 cards while also setting up a threat. The same goes for Triceratops to a different degree, as he has his “Lash/Rage” built in but at a lower draw amount.

Your basic weaknesses are freeze and airborne, with a lot of spot-removal. This means Wild has a really tough matchup against vanilla Sage. It can really suck when you plop down all these huge bodies and the opponent just ignores them with airborne. The good news is that unless they both have ground blockers and you don’t have the ability to get Breakthrough, you can still out-damage them if they try to race you. The bad news is that when they combine spot-removal with airborne, it’s very difficult for you to win out, especially if you’re coming up dry on burn. Not as common but a player that can block with a lot of champions to break yours while drawing a lot of cards can outpace you without any downside. That’s where you would need to use your surprise cards.

Legend for deck keypoints:

• OPP – Counts as playable on the opponent’s turn. This is essential to keeping good rhythm and affecting game play every single turn. Doesn’t count re-usable.
• DRW – Draws at least 2 cards, or is a draw engine. Required to keep playing cards every turn including on the opponent’s turn, especially if you’re board wiping.
• OFF – Anything with a body above the Wild average of 9/9 OR above a 4/5 airborne. Counts for cards that can lend huge things breakthrough or huge power.
• BRN – Fling directly at face.
• MVP – Don’t squander these as they’re your best cards. (ACE for Events)

 

 

Key Point stats

Keypoint totals:

• OPP – 11 unique, 33 total cards. 55% of the deck works well on the opponent’s turn.
• OFF – 11 unique, 33 total cards. 55% of the deck is used to attack or present a large body.
• DRW – 9 unique, 27 total cards. 45% of the deck can give net hand advantage after it’s played.
• BRN – 6 unique, 18 total cards. 30% of the deck can directly damage.

Intersection – 185% total, spillover (intersection) of 85%. Cards, on average have 1.8 of the deck’s key points on each card. Therefore each draw in this deck has a quality rating of 1.8.

Draw quality (+10). Reminder this is extra over the normal 100%.

Please note that card quality does not mean anything objective. It’s a subjective self-measure of how well the deck does what it says it wants to. It measures synergy.

As mono-color decks go, pure Wild works out quite well. Any given card is going to have a lot of quality to do what it needs to do. Complete with lots of poptarts, burn and offense, Wild is tough to beat. It takes a lot of airborne, removal and freeze. Though most alignments are also weak to the last two. It does suffer from a great lack of pure removal, relying only on its burn in dire situations, which is still often not enough. Despite that, the strategy of sitting behind big (card drawing or otherwise) threats while lobbing fire overhead is very “power overhwelming” indeed. The greatest strength of this deck is the not-so-apparent moments it can go for game. I find myself often being able to win while the opponent is at 11 or less just by having Fireball and Flame Strike in hand, neither to which an opponent can respond.

There’s this sort of life threshold the opponent approaches somewhere around 15 remaining to 8 remaining (a huge range) where they are in danger of immediately losing. This is especially powerful when combined with an opponent who takes a mulligan. Any opponent daring to mull 3 against this deck will find itself dying at 18 life to 11 life, usually without a way to stop it reliably. The most powerful combination you can try in this deck is Mighty Blow + Lash/Rage/Breakthrough + 10+ Power champion. Even if blocked, it can easily do around 15 damage. In combination with a blitzkrieg approach and lots of draw, while forcing the opponent to not draw, I have to say this deck is extremely difficult to deal with.