Cards to Look Out For in SW Deckbuilding

Blacksaber - As a mercenary, this is one card that’ll be brand new to you if you haven’t dipped your toes into deckbuilding yet. This pirate is nuts! At just one cost, she can almost always be played and expected to have an impact. If placed well, she won’t be worth paying two magic to steal, and is almost always going to soak up some decent attacks or synergize well with other cards on this list. I expect her to be a regular in lots of lists.

Brub - November ‘22 to March ‘23 was a period I call “Brub Winter” because of the deck I helped popularize. If your Tundra Orc opponent is at 5 magic, watch out! He can and likely will murder just about everything down a lane.

Boldo - He can be used very effectively on offense or defense, often in the same turn! Any custom Cunning deck may be packing him, in which case you need to figure out a way to send him 6-packing home quickly or he will take over the game.

Silts - Being able to swap spaces is an ability to always watch out for, which can take over or end a game.

Maldar - Although his stats are good enough to make him a beat stick, this boost battery has a myriad of uses in any deck that can run him.

Horde Slinger - Extra attack activations are always useful, breaking a fundamental limit to how the game plays. This allows you to deal with other swarms or focus fire in ways previously unheard of for a lot of decks.

Undead Warrior - A great unit that can absolutely wreck faces when paired with other methods of generating boosts, for example with Blood Shaman which is in the same symbol.

Sand Scavenger - This little guy creates an entirely new structure recursion archetype. In his Logic symbol there’s access to both Ice Golem and Parapet, and there are other structures elsewhere.

Wayward Rogue - The diagonal attack and zero cost mean that no one is truly safe and a lot of defensive abilities can be worked around.

Mind Witch - With all of these great abilities running around, having a unit that can copy them is excellent. This card will only continue to get better as the game develops.

Blood Summon - This just might be the most powerful event in the game. It can provide so much explosiveness and reach, especially with methods to increase your hand size. Honorable mention goes to Renewed Hope, which can do similar things but without a magic discount.

Vine Gate - Lots of games will revolve around how soon you’re able to draw your first gate, so that alone is handy. But passing out free boosts for turn after turn is icing on the cake and adds new functionality to a host of units such as Ice Smith, Jarmund, Border Archer and more.

Chant of Entangling - Being able to copy abilities is great, and Border Archer in the same symbol is one of the best targets for this. Like Mind Witch, this is a card that will only continue to get better.

Demand - This card demands your attention. Sure, it requires killing one's own common to get that extra attack in, but that extra attack (often from a boosted Undead Warrior or some common equipped with Hellforged Weapon) will quickly end even the largest Champions if not a Summoner.

Hellforged Axe - An above average card which becomes bonkers in deckbuilding with anything that allows for additional attacks. Cave Goblins are the prime culprit, but others can and will make use of this over time.

Kuldak - He has the best boost generation of anything in the game. Any units that like being boosted like being snuggled up close to this mushroom king. Even his Epic Event improves with access to more Carriers through deckbuilding.

Selundar - Again, he can generate a ton of boosts and value over the course of a game, especially a long one. His symbols also give him access to a bunch of powerful tricks, and his Epic Event is nice and flexible.

Vlox - His ability means that he’ll likely be an absolute menace in any deckbuilding format. Any new unit (or upgrades on them) in his symbols is something that can be abused twice per turn.

Grognack - There was a built-in limiter to his ability to make it generally only usable once per turn in stock decks, but with Oath Sworn and Willpower around to give him additional boosts, he goes from being the “gambling” faction to the “inevitable game-winning-combo” deck. His Epic Event also synergizes with any common unit.

Sneeks - His life total is kind of low, but he makes up for that with a great ability and an Epic Event that just gets better as more zero cost units get added to the game. Stopping his aggressive potential almost feels hopeless at times. AaronVW took season 1 DB top spot using almost exclusively Sneeks.