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Friends, the story I bring to you today is not a fallout, but a crescendo. How years of grassroots promotion and online influencer endorsements led to a once underground fashion brand's rise to power and entry into the hallowed halls of internet ridicule. Or, the time Supreme sold a brick for thirty dollars.
(this post contains a lot of context for what Supreme is and how it works, so if you only wanna know how and why they sold a brick, skip to the brick section)
What is Supreme?
Supreme is a skateboard and lifestyle brand founded by British-American fashion mogul James Jebbia. In an era where skate fashion was known for its eccentricity and garish presentation, Supreme stood out. It's iconic logo is made with stock typeface over a red box, which pushed the brand to the 2-billion dollar empire it is today. While the Box Logo (or the Bogo, as it's known among fans) has seen its share of ridicule (a lawsuit involving the logo could be its own entry) the brand's diehard fanbase, as well as myself, would argue the stripped-back, downright esoteric nature of Supremes' branding is exactly what pushed it to its heights.
But it's taken a long time getting here. Unless you lived in New York, you probably only heard of Supreme in the last couple of years. All in all, there are four stores in the continental United States, two on each coast. Two releases happen per year, spring/summer and fall/winter. Rather than release all merchandise at once, Supreme releases (Drops) happen one week at a time, slowly working through its seasonal inventory. This release model not only maintains interest in new releases all throughout it's season, it perpetuates interest in what will drop next, since not everything coming out is revealed at once, either. It's common to hear about cross-brand and artist collaborations mere days before they release.
All in all, everything Supreme does as a brand is on a need-to-know basis, meaning they've effectively mastered the art of FOMO. This means a diehard fanbase of skaters and fashion collectors. Half the reason a piece of Supreme clothing so cool to own is because only you and a couple hundred people (maybe a couple thousand, Supreme doesn't disclose inventory metrics either) have one. Naturally, a fandom would form.
How Supreme makes a fan.
On drop day, items generally cost what any other brand would charge, maybe a little more. Pieces are only available in store or online, both opening at 11am EST. What follows is a mad dash only Nike can claim to share. The online store operates on a first-come, first-serve basis, and the physical stores do the same, ala lining up for a game console. On a good day, you have maybe three minutes to cart your item and check out. The site does not save your cart so if you take too long, the piece you just added to your shopping cart might already be sold out by the time your payment is processed. If you've spent the past three months trying to buy a PS5, welcome to our world. We do this forty weeks a year.
You lose a lot (take an L). Seventy-percent of the things you want you will fail to get. But when you do finally check out and get your purchase at your door (take a W, a dub, recklessly spend money) the feeling is euphoric. You are now a part of a secret club because, guess what, that was the initiation process. Some people buy one item and never try again. They're few and far between. The majority of Supreme customers have been buying (copping) for years, amassing massive collections. Sooner or later, Supreme would release an item specifically for fans and nobody else. The problem is when they did.
Okay, that's cool, but why the **** did Supreme sell a thirty-dollar brick.
Good question. The best part is that there's several answers. Along with clothing and skateboard decks, Supreme sells a wide, constantly-circulating pools of accessories. These have been a mini bike, a Super Soaker, a pinball machine, a crowbar that at least one guy really wanted, and coming soon, apparently, a bob...sled? Supremes' accessory choice is as baffling as everything else they do. A common riff on the brand is that they could "put their logo on literally anything and it would sell out." These people are not wrong, but I'd argue their accessory choice is more nuanced than this. Their logo alone could sell all kinds of things, but its the things they do sell that begin to send a message. For example, a Supreme baseball bat is nothing profound, but next to a Supreme ski mask, a Supreme crowbar, a Supreme money gun, and a Supreme... brick, the street-smart, underground roots of the brand begin to take root. There's always been an underlying, illicit message to Supremes' aesthetics, coated in a minimalist exterior. This subtext what splits the speculators and the mega-fans.
Those mega-fans bring to life a second answer for why, in Fall 2016, supreme released a thirty-dollar clay brick with their logo etched in: one piece of Hypebeast lingo I've omitted until now is when an item Bricks. This is when any particular item either in-store or online sits in stock, with nobody buying it. No true-blue Supreme diehard would ever wear something anyone else could feasibly get for retail price or, god willing, below retail price. Bricks are poison to many an avid fan, which is why the brand might have thought it funny to sell to them an actual, literal brick. For thirty dollars. You get one brick. it sold out in seconds.
But where's the drama?
At the exact same time the brick was released to fans, two separate parties were growing aware of this once niche fashion label. Online influencers, and everyone else. Supreme was a mainstay among outsider artists, mainly underground New York hip-hop. The start of the 2010s saw the rise of Odd Future, whose alumni such as Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, The Creator were outspoken fans of the brand. While endorsements like these got the word out somewhat, the boom began in late 2016. Online influencers, mainly YouTubers and Instagram stars whose follower counts ballooned as lifestyle vlogs took over online content, were growing quite interested in this exclusive and expensive brand so deeply tied to underground Hip-hop, skateboarding, and having something expensive that everyone else will be totally jealous of. Notably, YouTuber RiceGum, a man with a tendency to flaunt his spending, took an acute interest to the brand around this time, making videos between 2016-2018 where he went on massive Hypebeast spending sprees. Such content includes buying a Supreme hoodie that just dropped and wearing it while walking past people currently in line to buy their own, buying mystery boxes online that just happened to have Supreme in them every time, and giving bootleg Supreme merchandise to his friends. You'll have to forgive the lack of hyperlinks here. I do not have the stomach to watch his videos.
This behavior of course spawned similar in his contemporaries. This is why you started hearing the word Flex in regards to flaunting clothes and accessories around second-graders. Influencers from all spheres, who happened to all start taking off in late 2016, were wearing Supreme. this in turn led hundreds of thousands to trying their luck at the raffle. what followed was season upon season of the online stores crashing on drop day and lines outside the store snaking for miles taking an entire day to clear (this led to a new in-store ticketing system where you pre-register and are given a random slot in line, to mixed results).
Who was mad here? Speculators who couldn't get in on the clothes their favorite LA influencer-person wears, longtime fans who now had to grapple with this unmanageable influx of new customers, and the people who had no interest in these expensive hoodies and shirts or whatever who were free to clown on this stupid, stupid brand.
ThEy SolD a BrICk???
Once the unimpressed got wind of this stupid hype brand selling their customers a thirty-dollar brick, there was no going back. The image of a fashion titan so confident in their ability to sell their mindless followers a clay slab with no utility or value was irreversible for some. One Reddit user calculated the cost of building an entire house out of these bricks, others made memes, and while a lot of these were tongue-and-cheek jokes among fans, the derision online and in-person was inescapable. The image of a Supreme wearer being an in-the-know fashion trailblazer became one of a bandwagon-following consumerist idiot. After all, they bought a brick. Suckers, right?
So what's it like now?
Well, the site still sucks. Crashes are common, especially on days a bogo drops. Lines in-person are still a sweaty, multi-hour nightmare (though, morbidly, Covid restrictions made lines this season a little more manageable) and wearing Supreme isn't impressive to anyone anymore. Maybe a sign you'd spend two-hundred dollars on a hoodie, but nothing interesting to talk about. On my first day of college, my first roommate saw my Supreme tee and the first words he spoke to me were "did you buy the f\**ing brick?"*
Is the brick solely responsible for the attitude shift towards Supreme as a brand? Well, more of a framer for a larger shift in the zeitgeist. Is it a major symptom? Major might be a strong word. Is it funny? It's hilarious. Even the fandom of today laughs about the episode in hindsight. They may be crazy, they may thoughtlessly spend thousands of dollars a month on clothes, they may consider their own worth adjacent to the net worth of their closet, but they are the ones who bought a brick for thirty dollars. This sort of power is something to be commended. Ridiculed, scorned, and commended.

Famitsu Magazine's January 2021 issue had released the results of its Genshin Impact Fan Survey that they run on their 3 platforms: Famitsu website, Famitsu mobile app, and Dengeki Online. The survey ran between Nov. 6 to Nov. 15, 2020. There were (less or more than) 1850 people who responded to the survey.
Survey Demographics: 82% Male, 18% Female. Most responses are in their 20's, followed by 30's and 10's.
Take note that this survey is mostly influenced before the Patch 1.1 update.
Original article here: 『原神』ユーザー1850人が回答したファンアンケートの結果を公開！ 好きなキャラクターやいちばん苦戦した魔物は？ - ファミ通.com (famitsu.com)
Note: Take note that I use machine translations here, so these translations are kinda bumpy. Feel free to comment if you spot any mistakes or correct some translations.

Who's your favorite character?

​ There are some who liked them because of their cuteness or coolness, but more than that, they like them because of their strength and utility. There are also people who like them because of their mobile Elemental Skills, which can be useful for exploration.
10.) Jean (85 responses)
9.) Barbara (89 responses)
8.) Noelle (101 responses)
7.) Fischl (107 responses)
6.) Mona (121 responses)
5.) Lumine/Hotaru/Traveler (Female) (131 responses)

• Her idle animations are so cute! (30's / Male)
• She can conveniently change elements and at the top of that, she's cute! (40's / Female)
• Excellent elemental skills for both combat and exploration. It's very convenient and can be incorporated into any kind of team formation! (10's / Female)

4.) Qiqi/Nana (139 responses)

• I like the feeling of 'breaking the seal' on her compelling voice when I raise her friendship level. (20's / male) (Thanks Tsumaranchan)
• I like her cute appearance, her cute personality, Yukari Tamura's pretty voice, and her ability to use both as an attacker and as a healer. All in all, I love it. (30's / female)

3.) Diluc (156 responses)

• He's so cool and has a lot of firepower. (30's / female)
• I'm attracted to a "dark knight" who protects Mondstadt behind the scenes while running a winery. (10's / male)
• His elemental skills are easy to use, and can deal a lot of damage within its reach. (10's / female)

2.) FBI bait Jean bait Klee (207 responses)

• She's so powerful you'd want to pursue (her damage) to its limit! (40's / male)
• Lolis are the best! (10's / male)
• Cute is justice! (20's / male)
• Because she's both cute and strong! (20's / male)
• I like the piquant character and because she is cute. I thought the "Fleeing Sunlight" would appropriately describe her. (30's / male)

1.) Keqing/Kokusei (238 responses)

• Consistent DPS and good for exploration due to her mobility. No other character can replace her. (30's / male)
• She's strong; doesn't have any problems dealing in melee or ranged combat. ()20's / male)
• She's easy to cause Elemental Reactions and works well with other characters. Also, she's cute! (20's / male)
• Because she's my first 5-star I pulled (10's / male)
• The fact that I can move in any direction with her Elemental Skill, I can do plunging attacks to the ground. (20's / male)
• She's cute and strong! (10's / male)
• While her Elemental Skills are useful for exploration, her powerful Charged Attack is really appealing. (10's / male)

Which female character would you like to have as your girlfriend?

​ Jean, the Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius/the West Wind (Zephyrus), takes the first place. Rather than citing her attractiveness, many people praised her perseverance.
1.) Jean (238 responses)

• I like the fact that she is rational and calm. (20's / female)
• She seems to care for the family and she would cook for me. (10's / male)
• She's sincere and honest. I would like to support on her side. (30's / male)
• She usually gives the impression of being serious, but when she "switch off," she seems to be surprisingly soft. (20's / male)

2.) Keqing/Kokusei (224 responses)

• I like the fact that she's very serious and works harder than anyone else. (20's / male)
• She seems to be able to point out on what's wrong. (30's / male)
• I want to see her embarrassed face! (10's / male)
• I like her dignified appearance (20's / male)

3.) Barbara (192 responses)

• Her looks and personality are just right (20's / male)
• She's kind and cute; and can cook too. (20's / male)
• She can heal me mentally as well. (20's / male)
• White pantyhose/tights are the best! (50's / male)
• I want to listen to her singing all the time (30's / male)

4.) Lumine/Hotaru/Traveler (Female) (176 responses)
5.) Noelle (157 responses)

Which male character would you like to have as your boyfriend?

​ Cool, strong, and wealthy, Diluc is an overwhelming favorite! Regardless of gender, many players like him.
1.) Diluc (612 responses)

• Tall, rich, strong, and handsome! (30's / male)
• After reading the official manga, I found out of his kindness, and I liked him even more! (20's / female)
• An ideal hero. I can trust him. (40's / male)
• I'd like to shoulder some justice that he bears. (20's / female)

2.) Kaeya/Gaia (173 responses)

• I'd like to be his drinking buddy and have a quiet conversation with him. (30's / female)
• I'll be having a good time with him. (30's / female)
• I would like to talk to him, because he seems to know a lot of things. (10's / male)

3.) Venti (150 responses)

• Whenever I feed sad, he'll cheer me up with his songs and ballads. It doesn't matter what troubles I have whenever I see his flippant attitude. (10's / female)
  
• He's cute, it's so unfair. (20's / female)
  

4.) Xingqiu/Yukuaki (139 responses)
5.) AetheSora/Traveler (Male) (88 responses)

Which characters do you use more often?

​ While the top three remained the same as in the favorite character ranking (but not in the same slots, sans the other one,) the fourth and fifth places are different.
​ Ones who made it in are Venti, with his powerful Elemental Burst, and Fischl, with Oz as her excellent support.
1.) Klee (225 responses)
2.) Keqing/Kokusei (217 responses)
3.) Diluc (202 responses)
4.) Venti (147 responses)
5.) Fischl (134 responses)
6.) Lumine/Hotaru/Traveler (Female) (110 responses)
7.) Noelle (107 responses)
8.) Qiqi/Nana (99 responses)
9.) Jean (87 responses)
10.) Razor (86 responses)

What's your favorite weapon type?

1.) Swords (One-handed sword) (692 responses)
2.) Claymores (Two-handed sword) (622 responses)
3.) Catalyst (TL note: Original Japanese word for catalysts are hurting my brain) (277 responses)
4.) Bow (173 responses)
5.) Polearms (86 responses)

Which weapon type do you often use?

1.) Swords (One-handed sword) (699 responses)
2.) Claymores (Two-handed sword) (546 responses)
3.) Catalyst (363 responses)
4.) Bow (222 responses)
5.) Polearms (20 responses)

Tell us which relic set you like the most in terms of design!

​ Gladiator's Finale, a relic with a gladiator motif, received more responses than second place's responses.
​ This relic is relatively easy to obtain with its excellent +18% Attack stat two-set effect. It's possible that many players voted not only by its aesthetics, but also the power it gives.
1.) Gladiator's Finale (407 responses)
2.) Berserker (176 responses)
3.) Crimson Witch of Flames (Witch of the Blazing Flames) (175 responses)
4.) Wanderer's Troupe (Wandering Troupe of the Earth) (173 responses)
5.) Maiden Beloved (155 responses)
6.) Bloodstained Chivalry (96 responses)
7.) The Exile (84 responses)
8.) Martial Artist (77 responses)
9.) Retracting Bolide (65 responses)
10.) Noblesse Oblige (56 responses)

Which enemies do you have the hardest time to deal with?

​ Oceanid (Pure Water Spirit) took the top, beating out Stormterror Dvalin and the Lupus Boreas!
​ It seems that many players had a hard time to deal with Oceanid with disappearing platforms and monsters of various forms.
1.) Oceanid (Pure Water Spirit) (497 responses)

• The disappearing platforms were hard to deal with (40's / male)
• Enemies are gradually becoming stronger and more troublesome. (10's / male)
• Simple yet fierce. The type of attack, range, and moveset are all far better than most elite monsters. (20's / male)
• It's hard to deal with those flying monsters. (40's / male)

2.) Lupus Boreas (King of the North Wind, Dominator of Wolves) (250 responses)

• Even if you're getting used to it, if you're not careful, you'll easily lose this fight because of its unpredictable attacks. (40's / male)
• Its attacks on its second phase are difficult to avoid (30's / male)

3.) Stormterror Dvalin (231 responses)

• Because its ranged attacks are so strong. (10's / male)
• I couldn't figure out the gimmick on moving between platforms. (20's / male)
• With a limited movement range, the battle's hard. (10's / male)

4.) Ruin Hunter (110 responses)
5.) Cryo Abyss Mage (Magician of the Abyss, Ice) (103 responses)
6.) Stonehide Lawachurl (Rock-Helmeted King Hilichurl) (88 responses)
7.) Geo Hypostasis (Formless Rock) (85 responses)
8.) Fatui Skirmishers (64 responses)
9.) Ruin Guards (59 responses)
10,) Electro Hypostasis (Formless Lightning/Thunder) (52 responses)

How far have you cleared the Spiral Abyss?

When they asked about Spiral Abyss clears, the most common answer was that they had already cleared up to the 3rd Floor.
As it is the end-game content, preparation is required to conquer the Abyss. For this reason, it seems not that many players have taken the challenge seriously yet.

• Abyssal Corridor Floors:
  • Uncleared 1st Floor : 174 responses
  • 1st Floor: 80 responses
  • 2nd Floor: 151 responses
  • 3rd Floor: 448 responses
  • 4th Floor: 274 responses
  • 5th Floor: 192 responses
  • 6th Floor: 206 responses
  • 7th Floor: 91 responses
  • 8th Floor: 106 responses
• Abyssal Moon Spire Floors:
  • 9th Floor: 43 responses
  • 10th Floor: 32 responses
  • 11th Floor: 25 responses
  • 12th Floor: 28 responses

What are some of the dishes in Genshin Impact that you would actually like to try?

​ There are so many delicious-looking dishes in this game that you can almost drool over them. One of the most popular dish is the Sticky Honey Roast (Honey Sautéed Carrots and Meat,) which can be created with beast meat, carrots, and sugar.
The thick meat of the beast and the generous amount of sweet sauce stimulated the appetite and won the hearts of many players.
1.) Sticky Honey Roast (Honey Sautéed Carrots and Meat): 204 responses
2.) Sweet Madame (Baked Chicken with Sweet Flower): 196 responses
3.) Jade Parcels (Jade Lucky Bag): 159 responses
4.) Mondstadt Hash Brown (Mondo-style hashed potatoes): 155 responses
5.) Adeptus' Temptation (Calypso Orchid/Fairy Slipper): 144 responses

How many characters did you train as your main?

​ Most of the players answered that they train 4 characters as their main characters.
In this game, there are a lot of materials required for training, and in some cases, you need to use Resin to obtain them, so it takes a lot of time to train them. This result reflects the reality of the scenario.

• 1: 3%
• 2: 12%
• 3: 14%
• 4: 28%
• 5: 18%
• 6: 14%
• 7: 4%
• 8: 4%
• More than 8: 3%

Do you do Co-op/Multiplayer on a daily basis?

Yes: 31%, No: 69%
What do you think of their survey? Do you agree or not? What do you think of their choices as well?
I left out some questions and results as I'm getting lazy.
Happy Holidays everyone!
EDIT: Formatting and minor edits.
EDIT 2: Edited one of Qiqi's comments with translation provided by Tsumaranchan.

Note: Many of the links are to the Amity Arena Library, a website devoted to the game which includes tracking the history of it through patchnotes and a running history of what cards entered and left the meta. Their website was a valuable resource for this post.

Mobile gaming has taken off like a wildfire since the advent of the smartphone boosted the average processing power a phone could carry. Initially it took the form of crossing over older, more easily runnable games onto the mobile market to... mixed success, but in recent years we've seen both the West and East use mobile gaming to replace the old fashioned movie tie in game. It's easily accessable, has a much wider reach than consoles or PC, you can take it on the go and standards are inherently lower for mobile games than they are a full 60 dollar game.
Since the 2010s, mobile gaming has shifted to what's called the "Freemium" module. The game itself is free to download and start playing, but is insideously designed with obnoxious paywalls or artificial limiters put in place to limit how much you can play each day. If the game is part of a pre-existing franchise, additional money can be made through a premium currency or a chance to obtain high-powered units by rolling a slot machine random chance mechanic. And thus, gacha gaming was born. This sub has had several threads in the past on high profile gacha games, such as the monolithic Fate Grand/Order, Pokemon Go or Genshin Impact. One of the more popular things to roll for in gachas as a consequence is wallpapers for your homescreen, especially for high-grade units as they're usually animated to move a little bit on the homescreen. Today we're looking a low to mid-tier gacha game that rose and fell with the advent of one catgirl. Let's talk RWBY.
RWBY is an online web anime made by Rooster Teeth focusing on four prospective monster hunters who get embroiled in a world-spanning shadow war. It's of debatable quality in matters of animation, combat, voice acting, story, worldbuilding, romance, and it's kind of a little racist if I'm being honest, but one of the major positives of RWBY is that the series tends to have good character design. Series creator Monty Oum set in the guidelines for the show while making it that most if not every design should be made to be cosplay friendly, hence why most of the outfits have things most costume designers haven't heard of like... pockets. And Rooster Teeth, above all else, likes making money. So they know people like RWBY's character designs, enough so that in 2017 plans were made to release a gacha game themed around RWBY called Amity Arena, which would be developed by Korean company NHN Entertainment.
Amity Arena is a PvP tower defense game. Each player controls two turrets and a tower and has three minutes to use units themed from the show to destroy the other player's structures. Whoever took out more wins, destroying a tower is an instant victory. When the game launched, it had three tiers for units- Common (generally held for mooks or low-tier characters in the show), Rare (roughly protagonist-level or elite mooks go here) and Epic (High tier characters usually with an active ability that did lots of damage or stopped enemies in their tracks). The game launched in October 2018 to generally positive reviews from both mobile game players and RWBY fans alike. Fans were happy to get a lot of new official art for the characters in the game and the base gameplay loop was fun. Criticism at the time was largely themed around the lack of content besides PVP matches and some issues with the meta but overall, the launch went well. Each month, the developers would add new units, including popular characters like Neopolitian, Cinder Fall, Zwei the dog, and more.
But everything changed with February 20th 2019, which introduced Neon Katt, the titular catgirl (RWBY characters are themed around fairytales, except for Neon, who is themed around Nyan Cat, and her partner Flynt Coal, who is themed off a potentially racist joke made by Rooster Teeth).
Neon is a character from RWBY Volume 3 who's part of a team that RWBY face during a tournament arc. Her partner, Flynt Coal, was part of the game at launch, and Neon would join him a few months later. Neon in the show is a cocky fighter who taunts the heroes and zips around on rollarskates, which in-game is represented by Neon skating towards the nearest enemy structure to her and hitting it, while all units within a radius of Neon are taunted and provoked into attacking her above all other targets unless they-selves are coded to hit structures. On its own, not a bad idea for a unit, but Neon came with four big caveats:

• Neon was the fourth corner of the square that became known as the Artillery Arena meta, which saw Neon, Cinder (who had an AOE ability she could use which was wide enough to hit a turret and tower and single-handedly killed the entire launch meta of using fragile swarm units), Zwei (an on-summon high damage AOE on any part of the map) and Penny (another AOE ability that instead did chip damage and locked a location down) turn the game's meta into a chip game. Every player ran at least one of the above cards, if only to counter the others. Neon was the universal counter in being anti-swarm and the hardest to stop, especially at launch where her taunt range was so large, it could grab units from the other lane.
  
• Neon launched with a unit weight of "Heavy", which meant that if she was behind a unit she could push it on her way to the turret. This launched a sub-meta where Neon was placed behind a larger unit such as the Ursa (which like Neon was a unit that focused on structures but was made slow to cover its tankiness), to push them towards the turret faster. This was called Disco Bear. They eventually patched this so Neon phased through units by making her a lightweight.
  
• Neon couldn't die. She was invincible until she hit a structure, which combined with her taunt meant that Neon was very annoying to fight and could lock down an entire lane of the battlefield by being placed well and taunting enemies to let you prepare a counter.
  
• Neon was a very cheap unit to summon. Amity Arena uses a mechanic called "Aura" where all units cost a certain amount and it recharges over the match- for instance, protagonist Ruby Rose has a Rare card that costs four Aura to summon, while Weiss Schnee has two rares that cost three and five. Neo only cost two Aura, which made her one of the cheapest units of the game and thus disproportionately powerful for her cost and easy to cycle through your deck so you could spam her.
  

From the word go, Neon is an unpopular unit; she's clearly overbalanced and elements such as the Disco Bear glitch have players thinking she'll have to get knocked down in a nerf- she'll either be made slower, more expensive, or able to die pre-hitting a structure, right?
Neon doesn't show up in the next patch. Instead, before she's fixed, an entire new class of units called Legendaries are introduced, and this is where the game goes full gacha. Legendaries were meant to represent the highest tier characters in the game, the ones who were either the most popular characters or the highest-tier fighters in the show. Or in some cases, the popular ships such as combo cards for White Rose (Ruby/Weiss), Bumblebee (Blake/Yang) and Flower Power (Ren/Nora). Legendaries, representing their value, were impossibly rare and had an infinitely small chance of actually appearing (The most reliable method was to buy the premium chests and hope you'd roll a Legendary, which often cost tons of money), and if you did get one, there was no way to guess which Legendary you'd actually get. Some such as White Rose and Adam were high tier units, others like Hazel or Checkmate were... kinda broken at launch. The playerbase isn't happy at this, especially as free to play players are left out in the cold and reliant on the game giving them high tier units effectively out of pity.
Neon would get a small nerf in the April patch which lessened her taunt range and killed the Disco Bear meta, but her invincibility would be left untouched, even as players submitted feedback regarding how to make it more efficient. The official Amity Arena discord has a weekly feedback section on Tuesdays where players could submit up to four suggestions on how to nerf/buff units and general requests for quality of life such as "Can this character get a new skin from this part of the show," or "Can we have an option to lower music volume that's not just muting all music?" (they never did add that second request) Neon would then remain in this state until the November patch, despite constant weekly requests for a Neon rework, and all it would do is make Neon functionally mortal, in that she had a flat shield bar of 20 that would be lowered by one for each attack before the next hit would kill her. Neon could now die... but your chances of actually doing enough damage to stop her were slim, and regardless, you were now at a serious Aura defecit.
It took seven months for this one unit to get a substantial nerf, all while the game added new units every week and the number of units being affected by patches each month began to gradually sink. To round up some of the major issues people had with Amity that developed throughout 2019 alongside Neon's general existance making life hell:

• Common units were meant to be chump fodder, but could level up the most amount of times with a level cap at 13. This meant longer-term units that had a long time to level such as the Xiong Family card, the AK-130s the Beowolf Pack, or the White Fang gunners, could become shockingly strong if players grinded the money up to reach max level.
  
• A pre-existing divide between free players and players willing to burn money IRL to get access to premium currencies led to a huge disparity in play. Free players have long complained about how hard it is to scrounge money together to level up units at higher costs as even the basic currency of Lien is hard to get large quantities of (you get a certain amount every match win but otherwise you need to burn the Schnee Premium Dust currency for the highest payouts, but SPD is also needed for shop resets, buying crates or unlocking cosmetics). The developers used to do frequent double weekends where all gains were doubled for a weekend, but these became less and less frequent as time went on. Legendaries only added to the divide, as their rarity was bad enough for players willing to spend money (one player, known as one of the largest whales in the community, in trying to get Sienna Khan, reported burning nearly nine hundred dollars on her, while taking nearly six hundred to get the Ice Flower card).
  
• One actual counter was born to fight Neon in the Argus Shield, a stationary unit that existed solely to stall units and take damage. At 2 Aura, it was the first structure to counter Neon, which allevated one of the primary problems with Neon in that no way to counter her was cost-efficient for an enemy player. They buffed the Wall to 3 Aura eventually which killed that hope, and all this happened before Neon's November nerf.
  
• The Summer of 2019 saw a large number of defensive units released; alongside the Argus Shield, several different units were released themed around turrets for the technological kingdom of Atlas, such as the Beam Turret. The Atlesian Burrow Gun was the straw that broke the camel's back and made for a miserable meta as the Burrow Gun would only appear (and be available to take damage) when a unit entered its range. These three units together were all very overpowered on launch and led to a large exodus of players sick of defensive and chip-based metas, especially as what few offensive units that were good enough to counter these metas (such as Professor Port and Adam Taurus) were often nerfed into the ground within a month of release.
  
• Also around this time it became apparent that the developers were unable to meet the quotas that Rooster Teeth was forcing on them. The social media team admitted that a certain number of units needed to be in the game in time for Winter 2019 when Volume 7 was set to start, and as the year went on more and more game-breaking bugs were being found in units, or they were at best horrifically undertuned or overpowered. The Apathy was perhaps the largest case of this, as an unfound bug pre-release meant that the Apathy (who have a passive ability that let them self-duplicate) had no cap on their power, meaning that they could immediately overwhelm defenses and in the case of some phones, be such a resource hog the phone would crash. Many Legendary units were especially guilty of being under-tuned due to low Legendary availability meaning they were simply weren't powerful enough to compare with high-levelled units. Checkmate's ability simply didn't work at launch, and Neon made several more such as Hazel Rainart a joke. May Marigold's invisibility bubble would have been an interesting game changer... were it not for a bug that made it that units placed in the bubble still played their sound lines, meaning players knew what to expect. Things were so bad that when Flower Power launched and wasn't broken or needed an emergency patch, the playerbase were shocked.
  

Unfortunately, the Novemember patch did little to stop the problems with Neon, and a new problem would rear its head for Christmas: Jinn. This unit embodied many of the problems players had: She was a Legendary so it would be hard for free players to get her, and only added to the sheer number of Legendaries that were out there. She was another structure card, and she was horrifically broken. Stopping time for seven seconds in an area around any friendly units, Jinn broke the game overnight, with players horrified at how little playtesting she'd clearly had. Most chip units now couldn't damage structures as Jinn simply could stop time and freeze the turret for the duration of the attack. And to make matters worse? She cost two Aura, meaning it was very easy to cycle a deck and start Jinn spamming.
And yet at two aura she was still one of the only cost-efficient Neon counters... until they patched her to be worth three Aura instead. Talking of the feline menace, January saw Neon get a HP nerf that set her shield at 14. Finally, Neon could be realistically be taken out, still at an Aura defecit but at least it can be countered and now they just have to raise her Aura- why are you buffing her game?
Less than a month later, Neon got, of all things, a buff. Her HP shield was set at 20, and her attacks now did double damage. This is around the point where a lot of players begin to suspect the developers aren't listening to feedback and more long-term players dip out or drop the game. Neon got touched one more time in April, which slowed her down (which itself was a problem as Neon's lessened speed on spawn simply made her better at generating aggro), she dealt 10% less damage and made it somewhat easier to hit her enough to kill her, but a new problem was on the horizon. Because Neon was now no longer the game's White Whale for patches.
Meet the White Fang Gunner Barracks. Added in September 2019, the Barracks fell under many player's radar simply because they were horrifically undertuned. Their gimmick was that every few seconds, a White Fang Gunner would spawn, with three spawning on death. In April, as Neon got her last appearance in the patches, the Barracks got a huge buff and became the centerpiece of the meta; they now spawned two Gunners, which made them immensely valuable for just five Aura. You could overwhelm many anti-swarm units before they had a chance, and shred your way through turrets.
The Barracks would then go six months before this overtuning was rectified, barring one nerf in August that lowered their health to try and stem the tide of units. To sum up every other thing that went wrong during the year meta-wise:

• The playercount was getting so low that players were able to make lists of the AI bots the developers had in place so lower-level players had a challenge (Amity breaks up players by a trophy system where you gain trophies with every win, and by this point most of the active players were in the 2500 to 3500 range. This also meant new players steamrolled through the lower levels only to hit a brick wall in the 3000 range, with the only reliable solution being to willingly lose matches until you were in your optimal range and grind victories until you reached a certain level.
  
• The patches became more and more threadbare, going from 8+ units getting changed each month in early 2019 to three units at most getting changed in 2020 patches outside of the anniversary patch going back to the golden days of eight. The only area where they didn't get more threadbare was in the cosmetics and emotes that the developers were cranking out, all of which were only available through hours of grinding or premium currencies. This was despite the fact that the units were being released slower, going from once a week to once a fortnite.
  
• The majority of units added in 2020 were Epic or Legendary tier, which were the hardest to get for free players unless they got lucky and they were added to the store (and if they had the lien as a Legendary in the store costs a flat 40,000 Lien). One Common and four Epics were released compared to twelve Epics and seven Legendaries. The release of Moonslice Adam especially was annoying for this regard, as Adam already had a Legendary released (at least for Team RWBY, each of them headlined a Legendary when it came to the team attack cards), and this was clearly done to pander to Adam's fans again as his first unit saw a spike in interest in the game. The math was done and showed how artifically scarce Legendaries were made.
  
• The undeovertuning was still in play. Colossus is seen as one of the worst cards in the entire game because of its gimmick. I have literally never seen anyone play it. Flynt became overtuned and now he's a staple thanks to his trumpet's AOE attack being able to hurt turrets and shred most units. Launcher Nora was an especially overtuned unit thanks to her high-damage constant AOE barrage and long range meaning she could annhilate most anything if given enough cover. Even after patches she's still dangerous. September saw the White Fang Dropship Formation added, which was widely seen as a terrible unit and done as an emergency addition because the planned unit for September in the Grimm Seer had to be cut last minute for technical reasons.
  
• The game has barely had significant content added since launch, with the primary gameplay still just being PVP. Barring Battle of Beacon (a mode where you can play as Ruby and Weiss and fend off Grimm which most players just use to grind chests, and no, they still haven't added Blake or Yang) and Plaza (a lobby where you can dress up as a character and run around Beacon), the game has added no new features and quality of life content players have requested since launch (rerolling in the shop, Superior Crates having guaranteed Legendary spawn rates) have been released at a snail's pace (you still can't reroll Legendaries if you're looking for a specific unit). Academies where players can unite to trade units and chat still lacks features that have been requested for years such as the ability to delete messages. And Plaza immediately went to hell because players were doing erotic role play in the chats and after people came forward with proof that minors were being sexually harassed in the Plaza or being coerced into side-channels, the dev response was to... just turn off the chat entirely instead of banning the accounts or implementing moderation. This also removed the chatlog which deleted a lot of the evidence of said harassment.
  

As OctobeNovember comes in, the players are getting more and more furious. The weekly feedback includes a near constant demand for an acknowledgement from the developers given how often it feels like the feedback is being ignored. The social media team get caught several times hyping up how the coming patch would address player concerns, only for said patch to lack those units. The meta has been locked down to the Xiong Family, Flynt, Launcher Nora, Spider-Mines and the hell-cat herself in Neon. Everyone runs at least one of these, people run meta decks not because they want to, but because it's the only way to have a chance of victory.
And then in December, things implode. The patch for the month was set to launch on December 10th with the monthly event missions. But when the clock rolls around, the event missions (which usually take about two weeks to do if you're doing as many as you can a day)... has a six day timer. And the update doesn't come out. The art team doesn't release new unit art. The shop has no special timed bundles. There's no patch notes. And then the Twitter team who've been hard carrying the game through... actually talking to the players and acknowledging the grievances they have... admitted that they don't know what's going on either. The best guess is that the devs have come down with Covid, but no statements to confirm or deny this leave it as guesswork. The timer eventually got reset and people could do the event, but then on Christmas itself, another issue.
Ruby has appeared in the plaza on Halloween (her canonical birthday) and Christmas, and if you go talk to her you get free stuff. But on Christmas people, people discovered that Ruby was talking as if you'd already talked to her. Because they hadn't updated Ruby yet for 2020. She still thought it was 2019 so if you'd talked to her then for goodies, she had none now. They patched it eventually but a lot of people didn't see this fix before the timer ran out to get the free stuff.
Some have resorted to memes to cope with the fact that the game just seems to have died out of the blue. Others have been trying to desperately rally the players and find a way to save it. Some resorted to friendly mockery of the whales who'd spent thousands on a game that seems to be dying (seriously though gacha games need to curb this shit but they won't because whales are godsends for their bank balances).
If the game doesn't get an update in January then two months without new content will mark the end, and the already significant playercount drops will only increase. And it's hard to say if any one thing could have turned Amity Arena's fate around beyond just "Have a better balancing team who can respond better to feedback." Neon began the time of death, but by the time December rolled around the meta was in a horrifically toxic place where if you wanted to make any progession, you had to get down and dirty with the pigs. The team just constantly failed to balance problem units outside of their emergency hotfixes of Jinn, and more often then not they went after units and buffed or nerfed them at random going off playcounts to determine what needed fixing instead of the actual written feedback they were getting. It's clear from the references to the show and some of the attempts to reach out to the community that at least one person in the team genuinely wanted to make the good appealing to RWBY fans, but somewhere during the game's lifespan, they lost their way. Less focus needed to be put on how to milk the players, and instead focusing on making a game sustainable and enjoyable enough to warrant the cosmetics and emotes. The game's failure ultimately isn't on the playerbase. It's on the people who were actually making the game who chose to slack off because they thought it acceptable to do so.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: HOT OFF THE PRESSES, I JUMPED THE GUN
Had I waited one more day, my story would have had a far more sudden ending, as the game just announced its shutdown for January.
RIP.

i'm starting to feel like modern Yugioh is a clown car, and every time the banlist apprehends the first few clowns that lead the format, 4-5 more step out to take their place. we didn't even have Linkross in handcuffs yet before VFD took the wheel and Vanity's Ruler got into the passenger seat. happy new year
 
This post will give recommendations for decks that can generally do well while generally remaining in the $50 to $150 price range.

• Estimated pricing includes a sample completed main deck and some or all of an extra deck, but no side.
• Pricing is based mainly on singles and you can easily save a lot of money by buying cores for most of these lists all at once.
• Decks were chosen usually based on having some degree of success in recent TCG formats.
  • These deck choices and rankings are heavily based on online tournaments such as Konami's Remote Duel Invitationals, LCS, and other assorted online events.
  • Performance on DuelingBook's ranked ladder also slightly factors in to the placement of these decks, with data taken from Ygoscope.
• Many decklists will include some middle-range power cards that might drive the price point up, which can be cut for players on an extreme budget. For instance, a set of Ash is $25-30 currently, but Ash is included in many of these lists as a generic staple that players might already own.
• Conversely, decklists are oftentimes easily upgraded by adding power cards such as Forbidden Droplet and Triple Tactics Talent.

Decks are grouped into four "tiers" and listed alphabetically by tier. Decklists are built prioritizing simplicity and effectiveness on a budget. Not all of them are perfect, but this post is not an F. Unless there is a particularly offensive deckbuilding error that you want to point out, please don't use this thread to nitpick at the sample decklists. Don't feel obligated to stick to the sample lists either; you should experiment and play cards that feel comfortable and/or optimal to you.
Feel free to leave suggestions for budget players, whether it's a budget tech choice for one of the decks on this list or whether it's a different deck that you think can compete in the coming months.
[Last updated: 23 Jan 2021]
Previous version: October 2020 Post
 

S Tier

The best bang for your buck. Decks in this category have the capacity to top premier events, though they're almost always supplemented with expensive power cards.
 

Drytron

Price: $100 Imgur | DuelingBook

• New Ritual-based combo deck from Genesis Impact that has a lot of recursion from the Graveyard, boasting a strong grind game as well as potent turn 1 boards that can win the game outright.
• The level 1 Drytron cards tribute other Drytron cards or Ritual cards in hand/field, so this deck abuses Cyber Angel Benten's lack of a once per turn clause to gain a ton of resources and search a lot of power LIGHT Fairy cards, such as Herald of Orange Light and Vanity's Ruler.
• Drytron Nova is an automatic 3-of inclusion in every competitive version of this deck, but also currently sits at around $40 each in NA. Novas are a massive boost in consistency, though the deck is honestly still playable without it, and is quite cheap otherwise. With even one copy of Nova, you should look to also include three copies of Drytron Fafnir (their Field Spell) which can search Nova as well.
• The absence of Nova + Fafnir from the main leaves a lot of space to be filled. There are many ways you can go about this.
  • The sample list plays a small Pre-Prep engine with Herald of Perfection. It's very simple to play, especially if you're unfamiliar with the deck, and helps raise your overall ceiling - athough optimized competitive builds have generally moved away from Pre-Prep.
  • Another viable Ritual engine is the Megalith engine, which provides numerous options. These variants generally also suffer from consistency issues, made worse by the lack of Novas in the budget version. Less consistent access to Alpha means less consistent usage of extra Ritual monsters.
  • You could play cards that search Drytron monsters in an attempt to patch up consistency. Examples include Where Arf Thou, or normal summons that fetch Drytrons such as Cyber Dragon Core (getting Emergency) and Mathematician. Also viable is Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin, which is an interesting tech in Drytron that helps you beat handtraps like Droll & Lock Bird.
  • Finally, you can always just play more handtraps or generic power cards.
• This deck is a relatively new deck, and is getting support in Lightning Overdrive, which might indicate that it's relatively safe from the next banlist. However, there's no telling what Konami will do, so don't take my word as gospel.

 

Virtual World

Price: $150 Imgur | DuelingBook

• Combo deck with an extra deck toolbox, using Synchro and Xyz monsters to break boards or to win the game with True King of All Calamities and their recurring boss monster, Shenshen. The Virtual World monsters have a shared restriction which means that Link monsters are usually not played in this deck at all.
• Most of the main deck VW monsters can dump other VW cards from Deck to GY, and their continuous spell Qinglong is a searcher in the GY. Combined with Virtual World Mai-Hime - Lulu's ability to search for VW cards as well, the deck is consistent at doing the same combos and executing its gameplan almost every game, as most combinations of 2 Virtual World cards result in some type of combo.
• Despite being one of the top decks in the format, this deck is also quite cheap. Staples aside, the most pricey card in the main is Lulu at around $18-20 each. Can you get away with fewer copies of her? Probably, but you really want to get 3 due to Desires, and her being one of the best cards in your deck.
• Saw success immediately after PHRA release, even in the previous combo-infested format where Virtual World took the most representation and top cut spots at LCS 8, eventually winning the entire tournament. Post-banlist, they also took the most top cut spots and then won LCS 9, versus an entirely different playing field full of Zoodiac, Drytron, and Eldlich variants.
• Recent combos using Chaofeng, Phantom of the Yang Zing to search either one of the Virtual World tuners (Lulu or Laolao) have opened up some new combo routes that make Foolish Burial Goods a lot more forgiving to play, allowing you to still end on impressive boards despite using Qinglong somewhat suboptimally. On the other hand, Chaofeng's price also spiked quite heavily after LCS 9, so you may not want to play it.
• Non-budget players will first and foremost want to add Zeus to the Extra Deck, as it helps greatly with going second and also dealing with threats like Dragoon. Another common inclusion is Triple Tactics Talents, though this card is by no means mandatory in the deck, and has also seen a decline in popularity lately.

 

A Tier

Strong decks, but limited either by a lack of access to powerful staples or by the natural ceiling of the deck. You could still top a regional with one of these decks on a good day.
 

Altergeist

Price: $75+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Control + backrow deck with incredible recursion and the ability to come back from almost no resources
• Altergeist have seen sparse success ever since FLOD, and are a respectable budget contender. They've have had a fairly modest showing online, and saw recent success with a top 8 finish at LCS 9. That deck was a Dogmatika variant piloted by Lars Junginger, playing the recently released Artemis, the Magistus Moon Maiden to make it slightly easier to summon Ecclesia in some hands.
• The Dogmatika engine is viable even on a modest budget. It's possible to simply play Dogmatika Punishment as a powerful trap capable of utilizing your extra deck, and even a single copy of Ecclesia (around $20 each right now) goes a long way for improving the power of this package. Of course, the deck is also perfectly playable as pure Altergeist.
• Budget players are most hurt by a lack of Pot of Extravagance, Infinite Impermanence, and Evenly Matched. The first three of these cards have reprints, but none are quite cheap enough yet to be easily accessible on a budget.
• The extra deck is extremely flexible (as Altergeist are typically played with Extravagance, anyway) and several options are simply tech cards, such as Elder Entity N'tss.
• Main deck trap choices are also extremely flexible. Torrential is quite powerful against Virtual World, but this could easily be swapped out for many other cards depending on your budget, available card pool, and locals demographics.
• The release of Blazing Vortex in early February also brings along an incredibly powerful staple card in Pot of Prosperity. Altergeist, along with virtually every other deck that enjoys running Pot of Extravagance currently, will appreciate Prosperity as well. Many OCG decks are choosing to play both Extrav + Prosperity in their decklists. Of course, Prosperity is also a Secret Rare, and is virtually guaranteed to be around $100, so this is not applicable on a budget.

 

Prank-Kids

Price: $150 Imgur | DuelingBook

• Floaty combo/control deck with 4 maindeck Prank-Kids that all float into any other Prank-Kid when used for a Link or Fusion summon
• Got a great boost in Phantom Rage with Prank-Kids Meow-Meow-Mu, a Link 1 Prank-Kid monster that makes this deck incredibly consistent and turns any single Prank monster into full combo.
• Prank-Kids Place is a little pricey, currently sitting at around $17 per copy in NA. While it contributes to your overall consistency (as it's equivalent to any Prank name), you can definitely get away with cutting copies of Place if your budget is tight.
• Notably took 1st place at the Canadian Remote Duel Invitational in mid-January, piloted by Hanko Chow.
• This deck appreciates the inclusion of Predaplant Verte Anaconda (currently over $30 apiece in NA) which can dump Thunder Dragon Fusion to help field Battle Butler, your main win condition. It was dropped from the provided list for budget reasons, but it's a great inclusion if you have a copy already. In conjunction with cards like Link Spider, it also improves your ability to play through disruption and through Nibiru.
• This deck has many characteristics of a great deck, but suffers from similar problems as Zoodiac in that it struggles to play through disruption on your normal summon, or cards like Ash negating your first Prank-Kid effect. The inclusion of Polymerization in the main deck helps to combat this, but also popular are builds that don't play Poly at all and instead just load the main deck with handtraps and powerful staples like Forbidden Droplet.
• Pot of Desires is included in this example main deck to help boost consistency and overall power, but some players opt not to run it.

 

Salamangreat

Price: $50+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Link-based midrange deck with a lot of recursion and a special in-archetype technique, where 1 Link Monster is used as the entire Link material to summon another copy of that monster, granting bonus effects
• The deck is somewhat halfway between control and combo, establishing respectable boards turn 1 with a fairly compact engine, allowing many handtraps to be played. Their real strength comes in turn 3 and beyond, where their arsenal of free summons from the GY, coupled with their stellar resource recycling, easily overwhelm the opponent.
• The majority of the deck is dirt cheap and is mostly able to be built with commons from SOFU+SAST supplementing 3 copies of Structure Deck: Soulburner.
• Accesscode Talker is a huge part of this deck's success, able to steal games easily with the help of Update Jammer. Accesscode is not at all affordable on a budget, so the sample list plays Zeroboros instead. Owning one copy of Accesscode is a tremendous improvement to this deck's strength.
• Salamangreat has found little competitive success in bigger online tournaments this format, but still regularly performs well in smaller events, remote duel locals, and the like. It's also a fairly safe choice, as it's somewhat unlikely we see further Salamangreat hits on the next banlist.
• The provided list plays Rivalry + Strike, a potent option allowing you to sometimes win games even into established boards. Strike is quite solid in the current format, as even the combo decks don't usually end on ways to punish a lot of set backrow.
• Parallel eXceed is an optional card, and can be cut in favor of more backrow or handtraps. On one hand, it allows you to more easily link climb when going second, and can easily add a Dweller or Bagooska to your board going first (Dweller is very good right now, as well). On the other hand, players may prefer to run more defensive cards instead of eXceed.

 

Subterror

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Subterrors are a control deck with a focus on flipping monsters face-down and generating constant advantage with Subterror Guru.
• Pure Guru control is the most played variant, and is more or less a stun deck that tries to abuse Guru as much as possible. While most Guru lists online are Numeron and/or Dragoon hybrids, the pure version saw some success earlier this format at the Benelux Remote Duel Extravaganza, finishing top 4. You can watch that deck profile here, and the sample list is generally based off of that list.
  • While Dragoon isn't budget-friendly, the Numeron engine is very accessible for little cost, and is a viable variant of this deck as well. Numeron cards aim to make Number S0: Utopic ZEXAL going first or simply OTK going second. S0 is an extremely powerful card that can prevent the opponent from playing the game entirely if it resolves. If you are interested in this version, you can check the Subterror list on the previous budget post.
• The sample list doesn't have a complete extra deck, mainly because it doesn't play Extravagance and you barely go into the Extra Deck to begin with. Relinquished Anima is a decent option if you can shell out the $7-8 for it, since sometimes you can turn Fiendess into Anima. Apart from that, provided Extra Deck options include anti-Maximus cards for the Dogmatika matchup, and Aussa + Zoodiac Drident in case you face a Zoodiac player. Taking their Zoo monster and then slapping your Drident on top can be potent.
• This deck usually plays Extravagance over Desires, but Desires is quite a serviceable replacement. Similarly to Altergeist, this deck also enjoys Pot of Prosperity post-BLVO.

 

B Tier

Like the above category, but generally weaker, less consistent, and/or impacted harder by a lack of access to a certain card(s).
 

Dinosaurs

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Dinosaurs are an aggressive deck with consistent access to Evolzar Laggia/Dolkka and Ultimate Conductor Tyranno, a formidable boss monster with incredible OTK power and disruption.
• Dinosaur's strength tends to be largely meta-dependent, particularly how well it can counter the existing top decks. During the previous two combo-infested formats with decks like Dragon Link and Adamancipator running around, Dinos had several extremely impressive showing at events, such as TeamSamuraiX1's win at the first NA Remote Duel Invitational, as well as all three first-place players at LCS 7 (a 3v3 event) playing Dino.
• In the current format, Dinosaurs are struggling. The Virtual World matchup is difficult, and it's hard for Dinosaur to build to beat all of VW, Drytron, Eldlich variants, and the plethora of rogue decks running around. Additionally, Mystic Mine is not very potent this format as both Virtual World and Eldlich have in-engine outs to the card, which is another blow to the Dinosaur strategy. Finally, the popularity of handtraps like Skull Meister and Artifact Lancea in the side or even the main deck are also reasons this deck has declined.
• The provided variant still plays Mine, as it has utility breaking boards. Deckout is a much less reliable strategy against VW and Eldlich, but you can still stall for some turns until you can make a push for game. The addition of Cosmic Cyclone is also an attempt at neutering cards like Chuche and Conquistador.
• If you wanted to build this deck without Mines, you would have to find replacements for quite a few cards (and frankly, Dinosaur does not have very many good ones). Most power staples are not budget, such as Lightning Storm, Talents, Droplet, etc. This deck also really appreciates Pot of Extravagance, which still sits barely out of budget range at around $25 each in NA.
• Budget Dino must also deal with the lack of Animadorned Archosaur, an extremely powerful addition to the deck that opens up many new combos. However, sitting at around $60 per copy, the card is inaccessible on a budget.
• The provided list plays the Simorgh combo, bringing out the WIND barrier statue on turn 1 to steal games. Though a full extra deck is provided, very few cards are actually needed, as the deck typically plays Extravagance anyway.

 

Dragon Link

Price: $100-150+ (depending on Extra Deck) Imgur | DuelingBook

• Dragon Link is a Link-centric combo deck that was a dominant force in the meta for about half a year, but lost a lot of resilience and power with the recent bans to Linkross and Dragon Buster Destruction Sword.
• The provided budget version of this deck actually has a ton of extra deck flexibility due to not needing to play Synchro/Link cards related to the Halq/Kross package, meaning that you can play Knightmares, anti-Dogmatika cards, etc. This also means that the budget version doesn't actually care about the Linkross ban at all.
• This deck has seen a great deal of variation online, playing a variety of different engines and tech cards. A few of these include Vylon Cube + Smoke Grenade, the Rose Dragons, several different Dragonmaid cards, and even an FTK variant involving Earthbound Immortal Aslla piscu. However, few of these are viable for budget players, especially if you do not own a copy of Halqifibrax.
• An interesting option the deck has is to use Union Carrier to equip handtraps such as Artifact Lancea. On the opponent's turn, Hieratic Seal can be used to return the handtrap to your hand, making it live immediately. This is something you may want to consider in the main deck if you frequently have to deal with decks like Virtual World and Dinosaur. Another option is to equip Ally of Justice Cycle Reader to Carrier (they're both machines) and then bounce it to hand, as a weapon against Drytron. Carrier isn't in the example list, but this is a really interesting option to consider.
• With Linkross out of the picture, playing Fibrax alone is an option if you either already own a copy or can afford the $20 needed to obtain one. You may have to retool your combos to incorporate Fiber, but the card can definitely add flexibility and resilience to your deck if you use it well.

 

Paleozoic Frogs

Price: $50+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Backrow-heavy control deck that summons its Traps to the field as monsters and pressures the opponent with Toadally Awesome
• After being absent from the budget post for about a year, Paleo makes its triumphant return as its boss monster, Toad, returns to 3. Toad's reprint in Maximum Gold also brought this card down from $20 each to just a few bucks, making the entire deck extremely cheap.
• As a control deck, Paleo suffers from more weaknesses compared to Eldlich, Altergeist, and Subterror. Notably, the engine tends to bleed advantage unless you've managed to maintain access to Swap Frog, and you can be quickly outpaced by stronger decks. However, in games where you can establish a Toad early, or where you can maintain control with your backrow, you can do quite well.
• Paleo saw a surprising amount of success in various remote duel events this format, though some of that success is likely due to the format being unexplored and some sort of "new toy syndrome" as Toad recently went from 2 to 3.
• Paleo struggles to out Dragoon, especially without access to Ice Dragon's Prison, a $40 card. An interesting option catching on in the meta lately is the use of Mirror Force cards, particularly Quaking and Storming, as they both pressure Dragoon. Still, the card puts quite a lot of pressure on this deck.
• Speaking of Dragoon, some Paleo players opt to play that package in this deck as well. Swap Frog is a one card Dragoon as you can simply dump Ronin, turn Swap into Almiraj, and then revive Ronin to make Verte from there.
• Fiend Griefing is presented as an interesting option which is very decent in the current meta, particularly vs Drytron. Combining it with Absolute King Back Jack is a classic combo that Paleo played a long time ago in 2017, during early Zoo formats.

 

Shaddoll (Magistus)

Price: $100+, can be closer to $50 with fewer copies of Schism Imgur | DuelingBook

• Classic Fusion-based archetype from 2014, debuting in Duelist Alliance. Somewhat of a midrange combo deck that can slow the game down with El Shaddoll Winda or be very aggressive with El Shaddoll Construct
• Winda is a troublesome floodgate that many decks struggle to out, especially combo decks such as Drytron. Shaddoll cards are currently played in several Dogmatika variants due to the sheer power of Winda and the utility of Shaddoll Schism.
• The current meta is favorable for Shaddoll not only due to Winda being effective vs Drytron, but also due to Ariel being very strong against a large chunk of the format, including Eldlich variants. Her ability to banish 3 cards from the GY is so strong that some decks are splashing in Sinister Shadow Games + Ariel just for that option, which we saw played in some of the 60-card Eldlich decks at LCS 9.
  • The growing popularity of Shaddoll cards has also caused Shaddoll Schism to go up in price substantially. Currently, it's around $17, but it may continue to rise.
• The deck's biggest problem has always been its inability to consistently resolve a fusion spell on turn 1. Invoked Shaddoll was a popular hybrid in earlier formats, but with the release of the Magistus archetype in GEIM, Shaddolls got access to Rilliona and Magistus Invocation. This is an improvement since Magistus Invocation can fuse from hand and field whereas the regular Invocation can only fuse from hand when summoning Shaddolls. Additionally, Artemis provides a super convenient way for the deck to turn any Shaddoll into a LIGHT monster, which is important for summoning Construct.
• While the full Dogmatika package is very expensive due to Nadir Servant being a $75 card, one option is to play just one copy of Ecclesia (around $20) along with Maximus and a playset of Dogmatika Punishment. Maximus and Punishment have a ton of synergy in the Shaddoll deck in conjunction with Apkallone's GY effect, and this combination is deadly even on a budget.
• Other normal summons such as Mathematician and even Gale Dogra are potent on this deck, and can be played in addition to Rilliona or as a replacement for her. Yet another option is to run 1 copy of the now-cheap Eldlich the Golden Lord as a LIGHT monster for Shaddoll Fusion that can easily revive itself.
• Another popular variant is a very trap-heavy list, sometimes cutting the Magistus cards entirely. PAK and SirEmanon's YouTube channels both have their own takes on this, if you're interested.

 

Unchained

Price: $50+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Floaty destruction-based archetype that generates advantage when its cards are destroyed, enabling its gimmick of using your opponent's monsters to Link Summon.
• Can be built to go first or to go second quite effectively. Since going second is very difficult this format, the provided list aims to go first, playing a bunch of trap cards.
• Fairly modest online performance, doing alright at smaller events and more recently finishing top 8 at the second YuGiJoe online series as well as occasional Luxury events. After the December banlist, Unchained has rapidly gained popularity in online remote duel events, and is one of the more prominent rogue decks this format. This success could be because the format is generally slower compared to previous ones, and many destruction-based cards such as Torrential Tribute are very popular currently, which this deck enjoys.
• Mega-Tin reprints of Abomination's Prison as well as their Link 2 have helped make this deck a great deal more affordable. I:P Masquerena being more affordable is also a nice boost, though it's by no means essential in this deck.
• This deck's best weapon is its opponents being unprepared for it. Playing improperly into backrow or Unchained floats can very quickly be fatal. It also matches up decently into some backrow decks as well as Dogmatika variants, which rely on destruction-based removal from Dogmatika Punishment and Elder Entity N'tss.

 

C Tier

Decks in this category have the capability to be just as good as the ones above at times, but often tend to suffer from multiple problems including consistency and power.
 

Burning Abyss

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Versatile control-based Graveyard toolbox deck that has been swinging in and out of meta relevance since its release way back in 2014.
• Gradually got more and more cards back from the banlist, with Cir and Graff being unlimited on the December 2020 list. The deck is now more or less "full power" with the exception of Beatrice, who is still limited.
• The deck aims to establish Beatrice on turn 1 backed up with trap cards. The BA cards as well as Beatrice are extremely floaty, so this deck can put up quite a fight in grind games. Fiend Griefing is a solid card in the current meta, and is excellent in the Burning Abyss deck as you can send Farfa for further disruption, Graff/Scarm for followup, or Back Jack for more traps.
• This deck was frequently mixed with Phantom Knight cards back in 2016 (often called PK Fire). Nowadays, Phantom Knight decks are typically either built pure or with an extremely compact BA engine. While it's possible to play a more dedicated hybrid build, the release of PK Torn Scales combined with most key BA cards being unlimited means that it's just better to focus on one or the other.
• Many other options are playable - Desires for draw power, playing more traps, more handtraps, etc. Consider Needle Ceiling over Torrential as it can be harder to pull off, but combos better with Trap Trick. Players with access to Ice Dragon's Prison should play it, and adventurous duelists can even opt to play Fire Lake of the Burning Abyss.
• As a deck easily capable of churning out Rank 3 Xyzs, you also have easy access to Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS Sky Thunder, one of the most powerful extra deck cards in the format. If this is an accessible option, it should be played.

 

Sky Striker

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Spell-heavy control deck that usually maintains only one monster on the field at a time, in the extra monster zone.
• Formerly an extremely dominant control deck, modern-day Striker no longer accrues infinite resources through resolving Engage multiple times, but instead is easily able to kill you with an Accesscode Talker push after whittling down your LP and resources for a turn or two. The standard combo involves laddering from Halqifibrax -> Selene -> Accesscode and then dismantling your opponent's board before swinging for game.
• You may have noticed a problem: if you're on a budget, you can't use Accesscode. This is a pretty big blow to the deck's overall strength. Some players opt for alternatives such as the Utopia Double package, which Zoé Weber played in the second EU Remote Duel Invitational last format. Another option is to simply not run it at all, and close games the old-fashioned way.
• In previous formats, this deck was oftentimes played like an anti-meta going second deck, packing tons of removal cards and usually 3 copies of Mystic Mine in the main deck. In the current format, this strategy is a lot more difficult due to several factors - it's very hard to go second this format in general, and Mine is a lot less effective vs the top decks right now.
• Instead, the sample list plays a going-first strategy with powerful trap cards like There Can Be Only One and Solemn Strike. It's possible to build this deck to go second, but you'd probably want to play board breakers instead of trap cards, and potentially also maindeck PSY-Framegear Gamma.
• Yet another way to play this deck involves (surprise) Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon and multiple copies of Red-Eyes Fusion. Instead of using cards like Widow Anchor and Afterburners to muscle through disruption and stick a Mystic Mine on the field, you use them to get to your Dragoon and either win the game immediately or put yourself in a position where your opponent can't play through the Dragoon disrupt.
• Roze is the most expensive card in this list. If your budget is tight, you can definitely cut her down to 1.

 

Zoodiac

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Xyz-focused deck with a gimmick allowing you to use any one Zoodiac as the entire Xyz material requirement for another Zoodiac. This lets you stack Zoo Xyz monsters on top of each other, making use of their effects.
• Plays a compact engine combined with around 20 slots dedicated to handtraps, traps, and draw power. This deck is also commonly played as a hybrid deck, oftentimes with Eldlich and sometimes with Dogmatika cards. Both of these options are quite expensive, so they are not shown.
• The deck's strength in competitive play comes almost entirely from Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS Sky Thunder, an extremely powerful Xyz monster that Zoodiac can effortlessly make due to Zoodiac Boarbow. Zoo is also easily able to summon Zeus with many materials, allowing it to repeatedly nuke the board.
• Budget Zoo without Zeus is extremely weak by comparison. Relying solely on Drident + handtraps is not a reliable win condition, so cards like Parallel eXceed and Pot of Avarice are included in the sample list to give this deck a boost. While Megaclops is a troublesome boss monster in some matchups, the big three decks (Drytron, Virtual World, and Eldlich) generally don't have much trouble dealing with it.
• Even with Zeus, the deck has been struggling in the current competitive meta. Noteworthy is its performance at LCS 9, where out of a whopping 51 Zoodiac variants that entered the tournament, only 1 survived until top 16.

 

Up-And-Coming

Decks to watch out for, oftentimes due to recent online success or new support being announced. Some might also be decks that could potentially be on the main body of the post, but need a little more time to prove themselves.
 

Tri-Brigade

Price: $100 (for now) Imgur | DuelingBook

• Link-focused deck that plays a variety of Beast, Beast-Warrior, and Winged Beast monsters. The maindeck Tri-Brigades cheat out powerful Link monsters, provided your GY is set up. This deck also trivially access the Simorgh link, which can sometimes seal games on its own through the WIND Barrier Statue.
• In the current format, Tri-Brigade has seen fairly sparse success, usually mixed with Zoodiac. However, BLVO gives us Tri-Brigade Kitt, a great boost to this deck and a fantastic combo piece.
• Further support in LIOV and beyond is also very promising, making this deck a potentially solid investment for the future.
• The Tri-Brigade core is currently quite cheap, but this could change in the future depending on hype and the market.
• owo

 

Traptrix

Price: $100-150 Imgur | DuelingBook

• Control deck with an extremely powerful Link 1 monster, Traptrix Sera, that pumps out constant advantage.
• The sample list incorporates a very small Dogmatika engine. Dogmatika Punishment itself is very cheap, and is one of the best generic traps in the game right now. Just 1 copy of Ecclesia (around $20) provides a substantial power boost to this mini-engine, as dumping one copy of Titaniklad with Punishment and grabbing an Ecclesia for next turn is extremely powerful. Another option is to dump El Shaddoll Apkallone, then adding and discarding Ariel in order to trigger her effect and banish 3 cards, which is insane value.
• If you can't get Ecclesia, you could simply play just Punishment as a generic trap. Another option is to play pure Traptrix, incorporating more power traps/handtraps, and quite frequently the Utopia Double package as well.
• This deck is definitely still getting support, as LIOV brings a new Link 2 and main deck monster.

 

Plunder Patroll

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Pirate archetype with ridiculous recursion and a unique tag-out and equip mechanic based on Attributes being used in the game.
• The pirates become equips for one of (currently) three Patrollships, extra deck monsters that can all discard Plunder Patroll cards in hand to fuel powerful effects. The ships become stronger when manned (equipped with) a Plunder card, with bonuses such as ignition effects becoming quick effects, or being able to replace the discarded card with a new one from the deck.
• Many Plunder lists play Forbidden Droplet, as it has great synergy with the cards. Without Droplet, you could fill the space with several different options. This deck chooses to play the Undine package, but you can also go for cards like Foolish Burial Goods, Salvage, Silent Angler, Tenyi Spirit - Shthana, Toadally Awesome + Bahamut Shark, or just more generic staples.
• This deck is getting at least one more support card in LIOV, that being Ravenwing. Many people speculate that they'll also get another Patrollship of a new attribute, which would be a huge buff to the deck.

 

Honorable Mentions

• Megalith, Madolche, Pendulum decks, Cyber Dragon, Orcust, Mermail Atlantean, Magical Musketeers, Crusadia (Guardragon), ABC, D/D, Generaider, and more - Decks that are fairly decent but have been left off of the post to make room for other decks that have seen more recent success or have fewer budget resources online.
• Dragonmaid, Eldlich, Infernoid, Invoked variants, HERO, etc - Decks that are pretty good but are sorta in limbo due to some expensive individual cards, such as Chamber Dragonmaid, Cursed Eldland, Invocation, etc.
• Cubics, Phantasm, Chain Burn, Evilswarm, Yosenju, Dinomist, and much, much more - Unfortunately, there is not enough room to cover every single decent, super-cheap deck.

 
 
I hope to keep this post updated for the foreseeable future. Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions.

Waaaassuupp my just start beauties?
Hope everyone is good. I am currently sitting in awe watching the stock price of GameStop & have a little bit of my own money in it. It's literally like gambling. I used to love gambling so I'm having a whirlwind of a time rn haha! (dw it's money i can lose)
Anyway!!! On with the case study. As always here are last months ones:
Month 12
Month 13
Month 14
Anyways here are the stats:

Mth	Articles (total)	Pageviews	No of Words	Affiliate Income (£)	Ezoic Income ($)	Avg EPMV ($)	Total (£)
Oct 2020	45	8475	99,603	316.68	0	0	307.29
Nov 2020	54	40,724	124,284	3865	145.80	9.99	4018.17
Dec 2020	62	20,968	145,215	799.35	112.93	18.54	911.11
Jan 2021	70	21, 743	152,633	746.34	106.79	16.66	824.22

For those of you who dont wanna read, I just started a YouTube where I'll be doing these on camera plus sharing my keyword research methods + anything you want to know.

The Google Update Did Rip My Anus (I Thought I'd Escaped)

So like last month we've seen growth!!
And that may seem just a little ecstatic, but it's because I've had to eat my own words after saying "The Google Update Didn't Rip My Anus (Hooray!)" in the last update. This time around, Google did infact rip my anus.
But it recovered in about 2 weeks to even better positions... I know these are all horrible innuendos and I'm not sorry.
Every part of me wanted to scramble to 'fix' it as best I could those 2 weeks, but I left it alone, stuck to the plan & thanked the affiliate marketing gods it was saved from the burning pits of below top 10 rankings.

My Niche is Profitable But Not Incredibly Profitable

I've learned that the niche I'm currently in is actually pretty hard to earn from. The avg RPM on YouTube is $6/1000 & the affiliate sales aren't as frequent or high in value as say the finance niche or others.
It seems I've put an incredible amount of work into this, but if I'd have chosen a different niche that work would have = more value by now (in my opinion).
So I've basically decided to pretty much outsource all of the content and start a affiliate blogging or finance niche page. Stuff about how you can make money from blogging, stock trading etc. Maybe I'll do this as a YouTube as well, but I'm unsure which I'd rather as of yet.
I quite like just having a site and not having to really show my face. I could outsource the content and put it under my name & no one would know, whereas with YouTube, it always has to be me.

What Changed This Month?

Ezoic Money Machine Didn't Brrr:
I've heard this is pretty normal for most blogs around Jan, but yeah Ezoic dropped heavily for me. Alongside the Google update, it really fucked my chances of getting to my goal of 1000 beautiful Queenie pounds (GBP).
Oh well, next month I think I'm definitely gonna see it get to 1k or at least high 900.
I'm getting about 700-850 visits a day now which is wicked.
Google update, then #1:
Google was a little cunt & threw all his toys out the pram & then tidied them all back up in different positions.
I am grateful for this because, although I didn't see it at the time, I've come back stronger than ever before. I've taken lots of #1 slots for affiliate terms so alllllll good.
It's been interesting to see the shift in amount of money made in each affiliate completely turn on its head. The one I made 90% of my income from most months is now projected to be among the lowest.
Christmas Period Traffic Drop:
So finally the Christmas period traffic has fully gone & I've seen a hit in affiliate earnings on the one I pretty much earned 90% of my income from last month.
It has gone back to its regular 1-5 sales/day, but the commissions I'm getting for these sales are much lower. I am ranking number 1 for quite a few positions containing links to this affiliate, but I guess I'm either not converting for some reason - or the buyer intent isn't really there.
It's a listicle and showcases the best 50 x products - maybe there's too much choice for the buyer? I'm not sure how I'd continue to hold top slot if I cut it down though. I would really appreciate some thoughts here.
I'm trying to rank for a better buyer intent keyword rn with 1k search vol. There's not a lot of competition so I think I can easily take the 3rd slot.
Work Focus Shift:
This month has looked a little different for me work wise. I've now said to myself that I have enough to start outsourcing most of the content on the site, & to step away from it a little bit to start building out other things and diversifying.
If there's one thing I know now - it's that Google's scythe is remorseless. And it can make you wanna be a Chad and punch multiple holes in your dry wall at the flick of a switch. This game is a rollercoaster both rankings and emotion wise lmao.
To combat this I've been focussing a lot on YouTube, & other social media like instagram. I've put out 14 videos this month. And fuck me does video editing suck so much more than writing?!
On Instagram, I've been posting up to 9 times a day, using reels a lot and also posting around 2-3 times on TikTok.
I've grown a lot on IG doing this. I went from 100 - 300 followers this month & only really started 2 weeks ago. I also had a video go viral on TikTok which was good.
Another thing I've done is set up an Etsy shop for one of my IG accounts. I'm happy to share this niche with you bc it's more of an experiment than anything. It's dogs; Labradors to be specific & I'm selling custom shirts to the Instagram followers. I have around 1.15k on there so far & have been growing fairly rapidly.
People love dogs more than people & it's quite crazy the amount of engagement it gets. I can see it being pretty profitable in the future.
New Investment Plans:
The money I make from the site will all go back into content & feeding me. I have plans to get my writer on YouTube with me at the early stages of this channel. I feel like if I involve him at a later date, people will feel cheated. But, if it's 2 people from the start, it will have always been that way.
Maybe that's just me thinking too much, but I sure as hell stopped watching =3 when Ray William Johnson was no longer the main dude. It was shit before, but fuck me did it get shit after he left.
I've also been trading on a Forex demo account for 2 years now & have gotten pretty good at it. I feel like this is another way to expand my income from earning online.
I'm going to get into crypto & forex with some money I won in a competition. I have around $300 to play with, so I'm hoping to get it to $1k investing in DOGE or XRP, & then move that 1k into the more stable currency markets.
Anyway me old fruit...
Hope you enjoyed reading; thanks for reading; and see you in the next episode-sode-sode-sode
*dr dre plays*
Bye!

As of today, it has now been 3 full years since I’ve gotten my Switch. So, like the past 2 years, I wanted to post my top 10 games I played throughout the last year with some quick little reviews on why I enjoyed them. To avoid confusion this list is not a list of my top 10 games of 2020, it is a top 10 of the games I have played in the last year. Some of the games this year surprised the hell out of me, and others were extremely welcome due to old memories. Each game here I include my playtime (according to the Switch, anyways) and my completion percentage. Since it was asked a lot in the comments last year, I will be including a link to a Google Docs sheet that includes a link to a duplicate version of my sheet (with some things unimportant to anyone but me removed or edited) that I use to track completion percentages as well as information on how to use the sheet.
Currently playing: -
Backlog: Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection, BioShock: The Collection, DOOM 64, Hollow Knight, Trials of Mana, Ys Origin
Games from this year that didn’t make the top 10:
· DOOM II (5+ hours, 100.00%)
· DOOM (1993) (5+ hours, 100.00%)
· Assassin’s Creed III Remastered (25+ hours, 39.78%)
· DOOM 3 (10+ hours, 75.00%)
· Darksiders Genesis (15+ hours, 63.60%)
· Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition (45+ hours, 85.75%)
· Super Mario 3D All-Stars (50+ hours, 84.59%)
· Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition (90+ hours, 92.38%)
10) Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout (40+ hours, 94.95%)
Yea, yea. Look at those thicc thighs! Now that that’s out of the way… I really enjoyed my time with Ryza. The alchemy system is what got me interested in the game, gathering materials to fuse together into more powerful items. As you learn more about the system and get access to better items everything begins to make more sense. You might find yourself just slotting things in at first, but eventually once you gain a better understanding you can figure out exactly what the system is getting you to do. Crafting endgame items with crazy stats and really showing off your skills as an alchemist is extremely fulfilling and from what I can tell the series has really improved on itself from past iterations. The story of Ryza is fairly grounded and tame for the most part, but it does still have some “save the world” aspect towards the end. You play as Ryza who wants to adventure with her friends and learn alchemy and… that’s pretty much the main focus for the first half or more. It was kind of a nice break and really helped it to stand out a bit more in my mind. The main point of the story really is just Ryza wanting to adventure after being stuck on a lonely, plain little island for her whole life. Once she is exposed to alchemy, she makes it her mission to improve her alchemy skills. The combat is an ATB system which was my biggest holdback of the game going in but in reality it was very quick and simple to get into and really didn’t require a lot of work to figure out. The one thing is that if you do not keep up on your alchemy skills you will struggle in battles. Constantly looking for ways to improve your gear is very important and you can easily find yourself running at a wall if you ignore it for long periods of time. It is definitely an interesting game to play and I really recommend looking into it for those of you interested in JRPGs. With the sequel coming out in just a month, and it being the first time in the series’ history (from what I know) that a protagonist has returned for a sequel, it is the perfect time to hop in.
9) Astral Chain (40+ hours, 84.20%)
I expected this game to be on par with or worse than Bayonetta 2. Then I actually played it and, well, I loved it significantly more. This game features a rating system very similar to the Bayonetta series, but the system is also significantly more lenient. Instead of judging you on how perfectly you can complete a level (not being hit, time, not using items, etc.) you are judged on how well you use your resources. You get bonuses for using different techniques, weapons, and legions. At first I still got low scores and did overall poorly, however because the rating system was so much more lenient and focused more on how well you are using the combat system it was a really good way to learn what was the best way to go about combat. This led to later files getting better scores and really making the whole game feel even more entertaining. The story is pretty straight forward; you’re a cop who ends up working for a branch of cops that use legions, basically enemies turned into allies, that are attached to a chain and fight against those same enemies. These legions are controlled alongside yourself, which seems a lot more daunting than it really is. While I am by no means a pro at the game, I do think it was fairly easy to get used to controlling multiple characters even with all the action going on. As far as weak points, there was only one major thing that bothered me and it was the same as Dragon Quest XI. I don’t like this game’s use of a silent protagonist. I felt that it robbed a lot of story moments of any impact because your character feels completely disconnected from a plot that they are supposed to be at the center of. Your character even has a voice actor, but they are only used when you are playing as the other gender. It wasn’t something that drastically impacts the game for me, but it still bothered me enough to mention. Overall, the rest of the game is a lot of fun and works really well. The whole thing is like its own anime and it even has an anime-style intro sequence, which by the way the music is top notch. Which is pretty important if you’re going to have an action game that you’ll want music to hype you up.. So if you’d like to play Anime Cops vs Cyber Demons ft. Litterbugs, then this is the game for you.
8) Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (10+ hours, 98.58%)
It had been a long time since I played a Metroidvania, so this game was a welcome return for me. The movement available to you from the start is fairly limited, but you keep picking up skills over time until eventually it becomes incredibly smooth to dash around the world. The story is mostly told through a couple of momentary scenes, so there aren’t a lot of cutscenes besides the opening. I believe despite how brief the story is, the story of Kuro and the opening act are both amazing moments in not just this game but out of all games I have played. The soundtrack is beautiful and I found myself just hanging around to listen to it a few times. On top of all these elements, it also runs beautifully and never gave me a single problem. I may not have been a professional at the game, I believe I ended my playthrough with just under 500 deaths, but I never became frustrated with it. Besides completing the areas, you don’t have too much to focus on for collectibles. All you really have is life containers, energy containers, and spirit containers. Life and energy containers obviously improve your life and your energy, but spirit containers is used to build up your spirit gauge and act as skill points. These skill points can be used to unlock movement options like dashing and triple jumps as well as power boosts. It’s a fun system and I’m glad that there isn’t as much to really need to worry about while you’re exploring. The game is a constant rush to get better and improve your movement. It was a pure experience the entire way through. The entire game just radiates charm and despite it being a short game I feel like it will stick with me for a long time.
7) Ori and the Will of the Wisps (15+ hours, 96.46%)
This game was an absolute gem to play… mostly. There were some minor bugs involving moving between areas if I went through too fast or falling through the ground once or twice, and I did need to redo about an hour of work because of a glitch once, but besides that the game played beautifully. Movement in this game felt so much more rewarding much earlier than the original because most of the tools are unlocked early. This lets you get more practice in earlier instead of having things feel like they didn’t get a lot of time. I also like how things like Dash were actually built into the level design because it wasn’t attached to the skill tree this time. With more tools to use and design levels around, it made the game feel a lot more interesting to play around with. Speaking of levels, the world is amazing. The levels are all much more expansive and the world itself feels more natural. With extra movement options, the ability to move from one part of the map to another feels significantly quicker as well. The music in the game is just as incredible as the original, so no complaints there as well. It also includes more content through things like side quests, races, and projects to clean up a base camp of sorts. The story is more involved this time instead of being relegated mostly to a handful of cutscenes, although once you get past the first dungeon of the game it isn’t all that present. The basic premise is that Ori gets stuck in a new area and has to help remove the dark influence. I don’t think Shriek is as compelling of a character as Kuro, but that’s mostly because I really enjoyed Kuro’s role in the story. Combat is the big change from the original compared to everything else. Combat in the Blind Forest was basically relegated to telling Sein to fire at enemies and was more of an afterthought that an actual use. This is reflected in the fact that there are no boss fights in the original, only escape sequences. While Will of the Wisps does still have a handful of escape sequences, there are also boss fights. You have access to multiple weapons if you choose to unlock them, but your main weapon will be a sword. You can find Spirit Shards to equip to power up various aspects or grant different abilities like triple jump. Overall, it was a very nice improvement over the original and I think that if you enjoyed the Blind Forest at all then it is definitely worth buying this game.
6) Animal Crossing: New Horizons (370+ hours, 92.10%)
Here’s the game that I, like many others, always had one question in mind whenever I heard people talk about it. “What do you even do?”. I spent a majority of my time in the early days in a completionist mindset for the game which I think is why I was mostly burned out on it for a month or two once I had gotten the K.K. Slider concert for the first time. However, once I went into this game and started really working on the layout of my island I got legitimately interested. When things were no longer a checklist or a set of chores, it was just fun. While I look online at all the amazing islands that people have made and I can’t even dream of coming close to them, I’m proud of my little island. I decided to not do any terraforming (with a couple of small exceptions like cutting out a few squares for stairs or pushing a waterfall back by 1 so it was visible behind a bridge). By doing this it really feels like I’ve turned a barren island into a home. This game definitely isn’t for everyone though. The question of “What do you really do?” is a very real question, and something you need to figure out if you would enjoy essentially doing things with no reward except making a new home for yourself. You also need to accept that you can’t really play this in the same way as other games, as I learned when I was trying to just do everything. This game works best in short bursts or by having a preset goal in mind of what you want to accomplish in that play session. While Animal Crossing doesn’t really have a story, character development, or even that amazing of a soundtrack (which is still good and works extremely well for the game but is not extremely memorable) like most of my other favorite games as of late it is definitely a game I have found myself going back to continuously. The only thing I wish is that the villagers had more personality. I look at past games in the series and see the villagers I have on my island with distinct personalities that really make them into their own characters. With 8 personality types that give each villager the same set of lines, and 10 available houses for them, you’re going to end up with repeats and it really kills the immersion when you talk to 2 villagers in a row and hear the same thing. Besides that, I really enjoy the decoration aspect of things, especially some of the more natural areas of my island where I really got a forest-y feel out of it. I really enjoy watching things come together. When you wind up with a finished (or at least mostly finished) island and can walk through and look at all the progress you’ve made you really get a sense of accomplishment.
5) Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (55+ hours, 85.58%)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is my favorite spinoff franchise by a landslide. Taking the world of Pokemon and inserting it into a roguelike genre with a story and characters beyond anything across the mainline games combined. Unfortunately, based on critic scores and sales throughout the years, most Pokemon fans don’t share that sentiment. That being said, PMD is also much more difficult in comparison to the mainline games, especially in the postgame, which may be what pushes most people away. The main story of PMD involves you, a human, becoming a Pokemon and losing your memory. You form a rescue team with another Pokemon (you determine both your Pokemon and your partner in the beginning, with a personality test determining yours unless you want to choose it yourself) and aim to figure out what happened to make you transform while also helping Pokemon across the world. The story can get extremely dark for a Pokemon game and it is really good at keeping you wanting to see more. The postgame in PMD games is typically some of the best that I have come across. If you go through everything, the postgame can be just as long as the main story with much more challenging encounters. The gameplay revolves around taking missions and going into randomly-generated dungeons in order to rescue stranded Pokemon. Being a roguelike, you move tile by tile and your enemies only move when you do. It works well for the turn-based combat that Pokemon uses. I believe there is still a demo on the eshop that goes through the first couple of dungeons, so I definitely recommend trying the game out. I’m desperately hoping that we get to see more of the PMD franchise on Switch, with my personal hope being a new game and maybe even later on a remake of the Explorers games.
4) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition (140+ hours, 86.76%)
Witcher 3 definitely gets the “Most Improved” award in terms of my initial thoughts of a game compared to the end. Due to the praise that Witcher 3 always got, I decided to give it a shot. Right from the beginning, it was overall pretty mixed. Combat especially took me a little bit to get used to, with the initial fight against the Griffin taking a lot to pull off. However, once I left White Orchard and got to Velen (and by extension began to understand the combat more thoroughly) the doubt slowly started disappearing. One of the things that I, and of course many others, found best about playing Witcher were the side quests. Side quests are typically very standard. “Save my cat”. “Kill 5 of that monster”. The side quests in Witcher 3 are much more fleshed out and multiple times I found myself having to stop and think about my decisions in them. Without going too much into spoilers, one of my favorite decisions I had to make for a quest came with handling the aftermath of a slaughtered village, leaving behind a lone child, and how you handle those responsible. While some decisions might seem simple to make based on your own moral compass, I always strived to make the decisions I believed Geralt would make. It’s the first time that I can say a game really made me stop and make myself into the character. Putting the “role play” into RPG. While Witcher has its fair few “Kill that monster” quests (a specific type of quest, Contracts), these are more acceptable since even these have story built around them and usually involve some level of investigation and build-up. You’re not going to have to go hunt down 10 Nekkers and then come back to some generic villager conversation. While the side quests are an amazing part of the game, they don’t completely overshadow the main story. You’re hunting down Ciri, your adopted daughter, and so you have to go to various locations throughout the world to follow leads on where she has been recently. Each of these areas have their own stories that explode out in a hundred different directions and lead to tons of time to spend in each area. Between side quests and exploration, I didn’t complete the story until 105+ hours into the game. I probably could have finished it sooner, but the side quests and the world around was way too interesting to just skip over. However there is still the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions to go through which add even more playtime. Both of these stories are really well done and deal with some amazing character moments and decisions. The characters are always an important part to get right in a story this large, and they are done excellently. Some of the standouts from my playthrough are Yennefer, the Baron, Gaunter O’Dimm, and Regis. They all play their roles in the story without feeling like just some key to get from point A to point B. While you’re in the mind of Geralt, you really start to get an understanding of them. Who they are, what they might do, what they like. Your conversations will always highlight which choice will continue you along the story, but skipping over the other dialogue options leaves you missing out on the world that has been crafted. Overall, the game definitely deserves the praise it gets. The beginning is slow, and the combat/movement can be a bit clunky and unintuitive, but the world on display is something I can’t ignore when it comes to being an amazing game.
3) AI: The Somnium Files (30+ hours, 100.00%)
Where to even begin with this game? This is by far the strangest game I’ve ever played… but I love it for that. In this game you are a detective, Kaname Date, who is investigating a series of murders where the victim has their left eye removed. Date has an AI companion in his eyeball named Aiba, who by the way has probably made her way into my top 10 game characters of all time. The game is a visual novel for most of the gameplay. You will visit various sites and look around the room and examine the background looking for things as well as asking questions of people around you. In the case of background items these will not always be related to the case and a lot of the time it is just humor, but I still recommend checking everything just because it is a lot of fun to hear the character interactions. The humor in the game is pretty sexual for the earlier parts but that tends to get toned down further into the different routes. The other part of the gameplay is very different in structure. Date is not a normal detective, he is instead part of a secret division called ABIS which goes into dreams, called Somnium, in order to find out more about a case. When you are in a Somnium you can move around freely, however there is a 6-minute time limit. When you are moving this time limit will continue as normal, but it will slow down drastically when you do not move. You examine various items in order to progress through the puzzle and get to the end to figure out where you’re going. Sometimes these Somnium will have a branching path that will send you down a different route in the game. There are 5 different routes to complete, and you will want to complete them all otherwise the game is ridiculously short and you basically don’t even get any answers to what is going on. It is really easy to go back and complete other routes however. You have access to a flowchart that you can select various sections and go to an individual section of a day or just play through the area as a whole. So you are able to just select a Somnium with a branching path and go from there. These routes all have the same basic concepts but small changes and focuses on different characters will lead you to a different end and give you new details about the case overall. Every time you think you have come up with a conclusion about what is going on the game throws another wrench until just at the end where it starts giving you the final pieces of the puzzle and you just start throwing them together in your head and watch it unfold. The final ending of the game is one of the few games I can say has actually gotten tears out of me and it was an amazing experience all around. I definitely recommend looking into the game as it was a lot of fun to play through and the constant twists and turns of the story are an amazing experience.
2) Fire Emblem: Three Houses (245+ hours, 97.39%)
Let me just say that when I finally got this game for Christmas last year, I didn’t put it down until I had finished it. I fell in love with the characters and teaching them to become ruthless killing machines. The different experiences and points of view that you could take on different paths was amazing, finding small details in one path that add connections to other paths. While my first and favorite path will always be the Black Eagle route, the other routes all add various details that you can’t get through just one story. To understand everything going on in the game, you need to play it all. No one path contains all the information in the game, and by playing through them all you gain a deeper understanding for character motivations and how the world is. The combat was simple enough for beginners to the strategy genre but also allows for more difficult experiences with things like Maddening (not my type of playstyle). The Divine Pulse mechanic, giving you the ability to rewind to a specific action in the battle in order to undo a mistake and/or death, is a crutch that I mostly relied on early in the game before eventually outgrowing it and learning how to handle the battlefield better with more strategy and better units in subsequent playthroughs. While I originally played on Casual Mode, I switched to Classic for my other playthroughs and found myself thrilled by the challenge that permadeath provided. By the end of my Classic playthroughs I had always managed to keep my characters safe, never losing a single one (Divine Pulse excluded). There’s something so much more thrilling about the battles when the game is less about who you can sacrifice and more about how to safely fight your way through. On top of the combat, I of course have to talk about the music. Another one of my favorite soundtracks (I feel like I’m saying that about just about every JRPG I play) and one I’m always happy to hear come on in my playlist. It's amazing to me that I was so worried about my interest in the game and that a franchise I had brushed off in the past would overtake Breath of the Wild in my favorite Switch games. While this game is fantastic and would have absolutely stolen the show if I had played it for last year… because I waited it unfortunately had to place after a game that I knew straight from the reveal would be in my top 2 Switch games, top 2 games period at that, of all time.
1) Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (280+ hours, 99.40%)
This is going to be a long one, but it’s the #1 spot so I don’t really care. This first paragraph is going to be more rambly backstory than anything else, so if you don’t care about my life story feel free to skip ahead. Far and away my favorite game of the year, which is unfortunate because Three Houses would have also won in a landslide if I had played it last year when it released instead. I talked about it a little bit in my first yearly top 10 list with Xenoblade 2, but my history with Xenoblade is something I find interesting. I watched chuggaaconroy’s LP of Xenoblade as it was coming out back in 2014-2015. Despite enjoying the hell out of what I was seeing, eagerly waiting for 5pm to roll around for the next video directly from Episode 1 (something that despite enjoying chuggaaconroy before, during, and since his Xenoblade LP I was never and have never been as attached to one game), I never bought the game. At the time I was pretty much solely playing Zelda, Mario, Pokemon, Metroid, and Smash for games with the occasional random game in the mix. I had the game in my hands a couple times over the years but never followed through with it. Simple reasons like not wanting to pull out a Wii or just not wanting to pull the trigger on JRPGs. The release of Xenoblade 2 on Switch is one of the things that made me want my Switch (with the double punch of Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon at E3 2017 being the nail in the coffin). I knew I wanted to broaden my horizons on game genres and franchises, so why not start with the sequel to a game I desperately wanted to play? Obviously, I fell in love with Xenoblade 2 and it kickstarted my love for JRPGs in general. Alongside the build-up to Xenoblade 2, I couldn’t stop wondering what it would be like to get an HD remake or remaster of the original. Fixing the only flaw that it had in the eyes of many people. Every single Direct throughout 2018 and 2019 I kept waiting for that magical announcement. I put “Xenoblade HD” on every single Direct Bingo card despite never actually expecting it. So of course when that September 2019 Direct rolled around, with plenty of evidence in the weeks before that something was happening from MonolithSoft, my hype was at an all-time high… and the reveal had me in tears.
Xenoblade Chronicles is an amazing game, an amazing franchise, built around story, characters, combat, and large, open(ish?) worlds to explore. The original game on the Wii is exceptional in every category except for graphics, which the Definitive Edition has drastically improved. The characters are able to emote in ways that they could only attempt before and it gives a lot more depth to various cutscenes throughout the game. As far as the various categories, the game is just as amazing as I remembered it. The characters all fall into your typical stereotypes, but they are not defined by their stereotypes. They are all people and you are able to connect to them because of it. Characters like Reyn may fall into the childhood friend/brawn-before-brains stereotypes, but he also has plenty of moments where it is clear he is more than that. While some of the characters may not carry the same level of significance throughout the story or into the final chapters, they are all great characters. This is where the idea of European accents for Xenoblade 2 came from, as the original is full of them. If anyone played Xenoblade 2 and was put off by the dub, please give this dub a shot. Characters like Shulk bring chills with their delivery in scenes and I honestly believe that even if you absolutely hated every other voice actor in the game that Adam Howden’s work as Shulk still makes the dub the best way to experience it. The story is amazing with constant twists and turns and is something that I wish everyone would experience once in their lives. At roughly 50-70 hours long it is also plenty long enough with enough content to stretch you easily over the 100 hour mark if you choose to. The game has an action combat system based around various things depending on the character. Characters like Shulk combine an offensive and supportive role by positioning himself around enemies to gain additional effects on his Arts while also healing and defending the rest of the party. Reyn is your typical aggro-drawing tank character to let Shulk get in some big hits without drawing attention to himself. Others are based on summoning elementals to buff the party’s stats and dealing heavy damage. The party all have their unique playstyles that can lead to you finding your favorite out of them no matter how you like to play. Make sure to switch your party around and experiment with the other members, don’t just stick with the first 3. Another thing that MonolithSoft is amazing at; the world is beautiful. There are plenty of different environments including lush fields, dark caves, murky-turned-breathtaking swamps, and icy mountains. Moving around on the surface of the Bionis makes you really feel small. Of course the world isn’t the same if you don’t have the music to back it up, and Xenoblade’s soundtrack is nearly unrivaled (in my opinion). With a huge amount of tracks for various emotions and types of scenes, it’s a soundtrack that I have been listening to for about 5 or 6 years now.
In the end, Xenoblade DE is still only my #2 favorite game on Switch. Still beaten out by Xenoblade 2. There are a couple of reasons for that. I believe the one reason that beats them all out is that Xenoblade 2 will always be the game that introduced me to an entire genre, to my favorite genre, and likely what convinced me that broadening my horizons for games was a good idea in general. However I do also prefer the characters of Xenoblade 2 and find them to boost the game up just enough. While I also prefer the story of XC1 to XC2, I do not believe XC2 to be a weak story like so many others believe. Xenoblade DE is a game that I can’t stop recommending to anyone who listens. My friends across Discord and real life know that I don’t shut up about it, to the point that I’ve been successful in luring multiple people in and getting them hooked. If you’re a fan of amazing stories, characters, soundtracks, and breathtaking views, do yourself a favor and buy this game. It’s an experience unlike any other.
15. Ori and the Will of the Wisps (15+ hours, 96.46%)
14. Octopath Traveler (200+ hours, 100.00%)
13. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (370+ hours, 92.10%)
12. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (55+ hours, 85.58%)
11. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (125+ hours, 95.87%)
10. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition (140+ hours, 86.76%)
9. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (45+ hours, 90.37%)
8. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition (135+ hours, 88.34%)
7. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country (55+ hours, 100.00%)
6. AI: The Somnium Files (30+ hours, 100.00%)
5. Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (240+ hours, 98.85%)
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (235+ hours, 93.43%)
3. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (245+ hours, 97.23%)
2. Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (280+ hours, 99.40%)
1. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (935+ hours, 99.86%)
So there is my list for this year! I’d love to know what games you all played this year and what your favorites were. I think it’s a lot of fun to find out what games people enjoyed even if they didn’t release this year since maybe I find a new game to play out of it!

I grew up in a small mountain town named Eureka. It was founded in the late 1800s during the gold rush, but after the mines dried up the town began its slow descent into decay. Half the houses are empty or abandoned now.
You can see a picture of the kind of houses here in Eureka:
First house
Second house
When a massive construction project began nearby, it was the talk of the town for weeks. Why would they build something in a sleepy dying town like Eureka? It wasn’t until my sister Selene talked to a few construction workers that we discovered they were building a casino.
A casino up in the mountains, over two hours away from Denver. None of us could understand why they’d chosen here of all places. After a few months of work, the casino was done.
I took a picture of the town with the completed casino in the background to the right. The ten-story-structure sticks out like a sore thumb off in the distance.
Town+Casino
After the casino opened, they hired a few dozen members of the town, offering high paying jobs to work as dealers or cleaning staff. I was already employed as a firefighter, but my sister Selene got a job as a blackjack dealer. She’s a widow with two young kids, so the paycheck was a real lifesaver.
Still, something about the situation seemed too good to be true. The jobs over there paid far too well, and the management was far too accommodating. The fire station where I work is located high on a hill overlooking the town, so I began watching the casino from a distance each day.
I had initially thought that the casino was located in a terrible location, but I was apparently wrong. True, Eureka was hours from any major city, but despite that, a bus full of people arrived every morning and left every evening.
One night I was over at my parent’s house and had dinner with Selene and her kids. I asked her about her experience as a dealer.
“It’s Ok,” she said. “Just a little boring I guess.”
“Boring?” I asked. “I’m surprised you don’t have your hands full.”
“Why’s that?” she asked. “It’s like you said, Eureka’s too small. I never have people playing cards. The casino is almost always completely empty.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of that. If the place was always empty, what happened to the people who I’d seen arriving on buses? “I’ve been keeping an eye on the building,” I said. “A bus full of people typically arrives around 9 AM every day.”
“Really?” she asked, looking confused. “If that’s true, I’ve never seen them.
“I can see it from the fire station,” I said. “If you head out for a smoke break at 9 AM, you’ll probably see them arriving.”
“Interesting,” she said. “I’ll do that. If they’re being processed for their organs or something, I’ll let you know.” She laughed.
“Har har,” I said sarcastically.
The next night she sent me a text calling me over. When I arrived, she was nearly breathless with excitement.
“Orin, You were right,” she said. “A big group of people did arrive, but they didn’t walk into my part of the casino. Instead, they all walked into an elevator at the back of the building. I’m not sure where that goes.” She looked thoughtful. “It was weird. They looked… How can I say it? Desperate? Something about the whole situation was very off. I’m gonna check out the elevator tomorrow.”
I told her to be careful, though, to be honest, I was excited to hear about what she discovered. When I visited my parent’s house the next night, I found her two kids there alone. They told me that Selene had never returned from work.
I called all her friends, then all our neighbors, but no one had seen her since she left for work that morning. Our conversations regarding the casino flooded my mind, then a plan began to form.
Early the next morning I walked across town in my nicest pair of jeans and a button-up shirt. I pushed through the door to the casino and saw that Selene wasn’t lying. The place was all but deserted. Three dozen slot machines crowded the walls surrounding a few tables interspersed throughout the floor of the casino. The only players in the whole building were Bob and Donald, two locals.
I walked up to a nearby table where Bridget, a girl I’d gone to high school with, was shuffling cards. She broke into a grin when she saw me. “Hey Orin, you here for a few rounds of blackjack?”
“I wish,” I said. “No, I’m here to ask about Selene. She never made it home last night.”
Bridget’s expression darkened. “Really? Have you asked around?”
“I already called around. Have you seen her?”
She shook her head. “No, our schedules rarely line up. I’ll be sure to let you know if I--” Her eyes focused on something behind me, and she cut herself off.
I turned around to see the casino’s pit boss watching us both. He was a tall thin man in an impeccably clean black suit. When I turned back towards Bridget, she was looking down at the table and shuffling cards absent-mindedly.
“Well, if you hear anything, let me know,” I said.
She nodded, so I turned around and headed for the pit boss. I stuck out my hand. The temperature of his hand was so hot that I had to pull my hand away after a few seconds.
“Have… have you seen my sister Selene?” I asked. “She hasn’t been seen since her shift here yesterday.”
He smiled. “Sir, this floor is for players. You’re more than welcome to head to the tellers for chips, but barring that I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
I stared at him for a long second before stalking towards the door. When I looked back, he was talking with Bridget.
I checked my watch. 8:55 AM, just as I’d planned. I walked around the back of the building and waited as the morning bus pulled around the building. I waited for the telltale hiss of the opening doors and the sound of people descending before I rounded the corner and joined the crowd. None of them paid any particular attention to me as I walked with them into the casino.
The crowd walked through a side door down a hallway to an elevator. Small groups of people entered the elevator as the rest of us waited for our turn. I shot a glance at the casino patrons, surprised at their diversity. There seemed to be people from all different countries and ethnicities. I heard one speaking Japanese and another speaking what sounded like an African language.
My turn came along with a few other patrons in the elevator. A sickly woman hobbled into the elevator beside me carrying an IV that was still connected to one of her veins. We piled in and rode up to the top.
The elevator rose for a few long seconds. I wasn’t sure what I would find, but I steeled myself for something horrible. The elevator’s speaker let out a TING, then the doors opened.
We all walked out onto what looked like a standard casino. Another few dozen slot machines ringed the walls, but on this floor, they were almost all occupied by customers. I took in the scene, confused at why they’d have a ground floor that was almost completely empty when this place was almost--
Selene was dealing cards at a nearby table.
I jogged over and sat down at an open seat. None of the players around me paid me much attention.
“Selene!” I said. “Are you OK? Did you spend the night here last night?”
Her eyes were glassy and confused. She looked up at me with a dumb expression and didn’t respond to my question.
“Selene?” I asked.
“What’s your bet?” she asked me. “This table is for blackjack players only.”
“I…” I trailed off, looking at the players around me. None of them were betting with chips of any kind. “What’s the minimum bet?” I asked.
“Three years,” she responded.
“Three years then,” I said, not knowing what that referred to.
Selene nodded, then began dealing cards. I shot a look down at my hand. King and a 9. Selene dealt out cards for herself, showing a 9. I stood, then leaned forward again. “Should I call the police? Are you--”
“Congratulations,” she said tonelessly.
An almost impossibly warm hand grabbed my shoulder. I spun to see the pit boss I’d spoken to earlier. He gave an impressed smile. “Orin, was it? I’m impressed, truly. Would you mind if I had a word with you?”
I shot a look back at Selene who was dealing the next round of cards. Then I got to my feet, balling my hands into fists. “What did you do to her?”
The pit boss clasped his hands behind his back. “Nothing more, and nothing less than what I’m going to do to you. That is, offer you the chance to play.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
The pit boss nodded his head towards a nearby slot machine. A woman in a wheelchair pulled a lever and watched the flashing numbers spin. They exploded in a cacophony of sirens and flashing lights. “WINNER WINNER WINNER!” The machine screeched.
The woman in the wheelchair put her feet on the ground and stood up on a pair of wobbly legs that had clearly never been used before.
“As in any other casino,” the pit boss said, “you must wager for the chance to win.”
“She... won the use of her legs?” I asked, feeling light-headed. “Wait,” I said. “I played blackjack just now. ‘Three years,’ Selene told me. What does ‘three years’ mean?” I asked.
“Three years of life, of course. Did you win?”
My mouth felt dry. “I-- Yes, I won.”
He smiled warmly. “Congratulations. I hope you enjoy them. I can tell you from personal experience that watching the decades pass is a bore. Give it some time and you’ll be back to spend them.”
I watched the pit boss’s face. He couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me, and I was in my early thirties. I looked around at the casino. No one was playing with chips of any kind. “So what?” I asked. “I won years of life. That woman won the use of her legs. What else can a person win here?”
“Oh, almost anything. They can win almost anything you can imagine.”
A cold feeling settled in my stomach. “And what do they wager?”
His eyes flashed with greed. “Almost anything. They can wager almost anything you can possibly imagine. Anything equal in value to the item they want in return.” He nodded towards a nearby roulette table.
A man stood by the table, cradling his hands. “Another finger,” he called out. He only had three fingers remaining on his left hand. As I watched, the ball came to a stop, and another finger disappeared from his left hand.
The pit boss extended his hands. “Feel free to try any of our games. Bet and win whatever you’d like.” He reached out and snatched my hand. A feeling of intense warmth passed up my arm to my chest. “There,” he said. “I’ve even given you some house money to get you started. An extra decade of life, on me.”
I ripped my hand away, staring at him in horror. Then I looked back at Selene. Something clicked in my mind. “You offered her the chance to play. What did she want?” I asked.
“Her husband,” the pit boss said. “Quite the sad story. He died two years ago. She wanted him brought back to her.”
“What did she wager?” I asked.
“She wanted the chance to win a soul, the most valuable object in existence. I’m sure you can imagine what she needed to wager for the chance to win it. What she wagered is unimportant. The important question is: What do you want, Orin?”
I stared at Selene with a flat expression. “I’m sure you can imagine.”
His eyes flashed with greed again. “How wonderful. The casino could always make use of another dealer. Feel free to make your wager at any one of our games; I’ll be eagerly awaiting the results of your night. Oh, and do take advantage of our waitresses. We always supply food and drink for ‘high rollers’.” He walked away.
I spent the next few hours trying to decide which game to play. I was going to be wagering my soul, so I wanted the highest chance possible. Slots and roulette were out. I’d done some reading online about counting cards, so I figured that blackjack gave me the best odds.
I walked up to Selene’s table and sat down. “Bet?” she asked with that same toneless voice. “Three years,” I said.
I spent the next hour or so doing my best to remember how to count cards. I knew that low cards added one to my count and high cards decreased it by one, but the casino used three decks. I had read something about how that was supposed to change my calculation, but I couldn’t quite remember how.
Every time I won a hand, I cursed myself for not putting everything on the line. Every time I lost, I breathed a prayer of thanks that I’d waited. And all the while, I kept track of the count.
I had lost fifteen years of life when the count finally reached +5.
“Bet?” Selene asked.
“I wager my soul so you can be free,” I said.
The table around me fell silent. Selene’s eyes flickered, but she showed no other emotion as she dealt the cards. I watched my first card, punching the air in excitement when I saw a Jack. My excitement turned to ash when my second card was a four. Fourteen.
I looked at her hand. One card was facedown, but the faceup card was a King. I swore loudly, staring down at my hands.
“Hit?” she asked. The entire table was silently watching me.
“Hit,” I said, not looking down. The table erupted in cheers. I looked down to see a 7 atop my two other cards. 21. Blackjack.
I looked at Selene who flipped over her facedown card to reveal a 9. 19. I won.
The glassy look left her eyes immediately. She looked around in surprise, then her eyes locked on mine. “Orin?” she asked, then almost immediately began to cry. The entire casino broke out in cheers.
I grabbed her hand and headed for the elevator. The doors had begun to close when the pit boss reached out with a hand to stop them.
“Congratulations,” he said, beaming. He seemed to be honestly excited.
“Shouldn’t you be upset?” I asked.
“Not at all. Casinos love it when we have big winners. It inspires the other players to make larger bets. I imagine I’ll gain two or three dealers before the night is through from your performance.”
“Great,” I said flatly. “Now let us go.”
“Not yet,” he said. “You didn’t just win, Orin. You got a blackjack. And blackjack pays out 1.5 times your bet. You won your sister’s soul and more.”
I stared, not sure what to say. “What are you saying? I won half a soul extra?”
The pit boss grinned wildly. “Just remember what I said. You’ll find living for decades and decades to be a boring experience. After a few centuries, you’ll be back to gamble that half a soul away. Congratulations!”
He removed his hand, and the elevator doors slammed shut.
I helped Selene back to her house. Her children were relieved. I watched them cry, then moved into the kitchen to start making dinner.
It’s been a few days since that experience. The casino is still out there, and buses full of people still arrive. I… I cut my hand pretty bad a few days later. When I checked it an hour later, it had already healed, no scar or anything. I’m not sure exactly what I won at that casino, but there’s no way I’m ever going back.
X

Hey all! I’m Kay and I’ve been a burgle rogue aficionado since Witchwood. Being home for the holidays this month has finally given me the time to push to legend for the first time ever with this Wild homebrew Cutlass deck. I think this deck has the chops to hit high legend if a better player with more time was able to pilot it. I had a lot of fun playing this list and got to learn it fairly well. I would love to see more Burgle Rogues in Hearthstone, and am writing this guide to hopefully inspire some of you to give it a whirl.
While I play on mobile without a deck tracker, here is my proof of Legend.
The Deck:
Margaret Thatcher
Class: Rogue
Format: Wild
# 2x (1) Deadly Poison
# 2x (1) Dragon's Hoard
# 1x (1) Patches the Pirate
# 2x (1) Secret Passage
# 2x (1) Swashburglar
# 2x (1) Wand Thief
# 2x (2) Cavern Shinyfinder
# 2x (2) Clever Disguise
# 2x (2) Sap
# 1x (2) Swindle
# 2x (2) Underbelly Fence
# 1x (3) Beneath the Grounds
# 2x (4) Spectral Cutlass
# 2x (4) Tinker's Sharpsword Oil
# 2x (4) Vendetta
# 2x (5) Cutting Class
# 1x (6) Vanish
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Why is a burgle rogue deck called Margret Thatcher?
My first Burgle Rogue deck ever was named “I will steal your shit.” Then I listened to Robin WIlliams last standup album, and it included this bit about the Falklands War. “I will sink your shit” sounded similar to “I will steal your shit” and thus Margret Thatcher has been the name of all of my burgle rogue decks since.
It makes sense in my head, I promise.
Why Cutlass Rogue?
I love playing Burgle Rogue and finally decided to put my time towards making a truly viable list and hitting legend. Playing Burgle Rogue gives you three paths. You can play it with the quest, which simply delays your demise against aggro decks (Rogue lacks both taunts and ways to heal) and doesn’t put combo or control decks on any kind of timer. If there were a hardcore midrange meta for some reason, the quest might be worth a look. But until then it’s on the back burner. Another tack you can take is a deck I affectionately refer to as Cheese Rogue. Put your normal burgles, Academic Espionage, Tess Graymane, both Yoggs, and anything that helps you not die, and you have a deck that will either pull out glorious wins out of nothing or draw three Totemic Mights in a row and sputter. The other problem is that when you run an Tesspionage based list, you’re totally punting aggro matchups. While a phenomenally fun deck, Tesspionage Rogue suffers from the simple problem of being very bad (it’s hovering around a 30% winrate on HSReplay) which makes it a poor choice to actually win games with.
Cutlass Rogue instead plays more like Kingsbane Rogue on mushrooms. You’re still trying to build an enormous weapon with lifesteal that lets you outheal aggro and chip decks as well as put slow decks on a clock with heavy damage every turn, but instead of doing it with normal cards, we do it by thieving random things from other classes.
How We Win:
By getting a Spectral Cutlass with 6+ Attack and using burgled cards to disrupt our opponent’s gameplan and pump up our weapon’s durability. Occasionally, we also pull off wins with hilariously bullshit burgle synergies.
Our ideal line of early play is something along the lines of:
T1: Swashburglar (and Patches)
T2: Cavern Shinyfinder or Underbelly Fence
T3: Shinyfinder or Fence with a 1 mana burgle card, or just coin Cutlass
T4: Cutlass or a barrage of burgling
T5: Deadly Poison and Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil
T6+: Imagination and RNG!
Strengths and Weaknesses of This List:
This deck outputs ridiculous amounts of healing. Once your weapon is at ten plus attack, you will eventually escape the range of any deck trying to burn you down. The weapon also gives us decent single-target board control, essentially allowing us to take out any must-kill minion while still gaining health. Fence and Vendetta give us efficient small removal. Value is easy to find despite the low curve of the deck, with burgles adding lots of stuff to your hand and Secret Passage and Cutting Class allowing you to find more cards whenever you’d like. Sap is a phenomenal card against the meta right now and will singlehandedly win you games.
This deck heavily struggles to clear wide boards. Occasionally your burgles will help you out a bit here, but the Odd Paladins and Even Shamans of the world will simply build another one and another one and another one until you can’t clear it. Weapon hate cards also give us fits, including Zephyrs the Great who is the single biggest reason that you’ll rage at your screen. It’s also a fairly draw-dependant deck. You need your weapon, your buffs, and your burgles. If you don’t find one of these, you will lose the game. I found myself doing okay on this front (thank God for Secret Passage) but sometimes both Shinyfinders and both Cutlasses will be the bottom four cards of your deck and you will lose.
Card Choices:
Weapon Package:
(2x) Deadly Poison
(2x) Cavern Shinyfinder
(2x) Spectral Cutlass
(2x) Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil
(2x) Cutting Class
The two Shinyfinders (and to a lesser extent Secret Passage) help us hit our win condition of Cutlass as soon as possible. Once we have a cutlass equipped, Deadly Poison and Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil give the weapon enough attack to kill any threat, put our opponent on a clock, and restore massive amounts of health at the same time. Because we’re aiming to equip a big weapon every game, Cutting Class is nearly always a 0 mana draw 2 in the mid to late game which is obviously phenomenal.
Burgle Package:
(2x) Dragon’s Hoard
(1x) Patches the Pirate
(2x) Swashburglar
(2x) Wand Thief
(2x) Clever Disguise
(2x) Underbelly Fence
(2x) Vendetta
Swashburglar is the only one mana burgle card with a body in the game. It thus gives us a free card that activates our synergies while also contesting the board on turn one. The inclusion of Patches thins the deck and allows us to play on even footing early with even board-centric aggro decks. An important note is if you’re against another rogue (I saw very few during my climb) Swashburglar will take a random rogue card, which won’t activate your Underbelly Fence or Vendetta, nor will it add durability to your cutlass.
I originally included only one Wand Thief but it turns out Mage has some very good tools for our purposes. The wide variety of AOE effects, card draw, and freezes were nice, but the strongest part of Wand Thief is that Mage has so much shit that costs 0, 1, or 2 mana. While burgling Flamestrike is fun and can be the correct choice in some matchups, most of the time I’ll find that I’d much rather have a Freezing Potion that I can squeeze on top of other cards than a big spell that will take up my whole turn. While Mage does have some dud spells (Glacial Mysteries anyone?), the discover aspect means that you can almost always find something that will serve your purposes. This deck generally wants spells over minions because spells tend to have initiative and we rarely need to build a board to win the game. All of these aspects raised Wand Thief from a fringe inclusion to one of the strongest cards in the deck. Beware of picking Brain Freeze or Potion of Illusion as dual-class cards will NOT activate your burgle synergies or add durability to your Cutlass.
Dragon’s Hoard was another card that I didn’t originally include two of. In fact, I didn’t have it at all in the deck’s first iteration. On the surface, it doesn’t make much sense. Hoard doesn’t help fight for board and gives us a minion not a spell. And not only a minion which might not have initiative, but legendary minions tend to be more expensive than average. So what was I thinking? Turns out legendary minions are powerful enough to justify the card. From Inara Stormcrash to Archmage Antonidas to Lucentbark, Dragon’s Hoard can simply win you the game off of one highroll. Just like with Wand Thief, there are plenty of terrible legendaries, but the discover aspect tends to offer at least one decent choice. Also, the card is damn fun and slamming down a King Krush for lethal as a rogue will never get old.
Clever Disguise is simply a volume burgle. You need enough cards from other classes to pump your Cutlass up with enough durability to kill your opponent, and Disguise gets you two of them for two mana. I don’t love this card but it’s sheer efficiency makes it impossible to drop.
Along with Cutlass, we use shockingly efficient removal tools Vendetta and Underbelly Fence as our burgle payoffs. Against board-centric decks like aggro druid, and decks with must-remove threats like Big Priest, these cards make a load of difference. Vendetta being zero mana nearly always gives it more flexibility as a combo activator for Wand Thief and Tinker’s. Fence is also a phenomenal play with Tinker’s - the six attack Rush minion will clear midgame threats while allowing your buffed weapon to swing face.
Other Stuff:
(2x) Secret Passage
(2x) Sap
(1x) Swindle
(1x) Beneath The Grounds
(1x) Vanish
Secret Passage is broken and should be in every rogue deck ever. In a draw-centric deck like this, it’s even better. Can't find Cutlass? Secret Passage got you. Don’t have weapon buffs? Secret Passage got you. Don’t have enough burgles? Secret Passage got you. Need Vanish immediately? Secret Passage has motherfucking got you.
Sap is our carry against Big Priest and any other deck that cheats out massive threats. Not killing the Blood of Ghuun, Walking Fountain, or Voidlord means that it can’t be rezzed and your opponent has to play it when they reach the appropriate turn. By which point, we hope that they’re dead. Sap also makes us one of the few classes that can deal with an early Edwin.
Swindle is a true 30th card. When I cut Fan of Knives (More on that below) I needed one more card to fill the deck, and Swindle felt like a generic good rogue card that would make my draws marginally more consistent.
Beneath The Grounds is my middle finger to highlander decks, especially Zephyrs the Great who gets his own section later. If you’re against a Reno Warlock or Machine Gun Priest, having this card will likely win you the game. If you aren’t, it’s probably a dead card unless you’re floating three mana for some reason. It says something about the Wild meta that I felt like this was a very worthy tradeoff and seriously considering putting two in.
Vanish is a last hail mary against a deck that does manage to build a board against you. It pulls its weight especially against Big Priest, Evolve Shaman, and any kind of Deathrattle deck that tries to build an impenetrable board. But it also costs six mana, which makes it a very expensive and very dead card a lot of the time. I’ve had one copy since the beginning and it feels like the perfect number. A thing to note is that Vanish can bounce your own cards too - make sure to play your Swashburglars and Wand Thieves before Vanishing if you have hand space and mana to do so. Another point to remember is that if your opponent has more minions than they have hand space, Vanish will return the cards to your opponent’s hand in the order they were played. When your opponent hits ten cards, any remaining minions will be destroyed and their deathrattles WILL be activated. This is especially important for Scrapyard Colossus and Voidlord, who deathrattle into more taunts which block your weapon swing into the face of your opponent. Either destroy the original bodies so Vanish kills the deathrattle spawns or kill enough minions played before that the deathrattle taunts are safely returned to your opponent’s hand.
Didn’t Make The Cut:
I included two copies of Fan of Knives once I realized how terribly I was doing against Aggro Druid and Odd Paladin. For a while, they felt decent. A boardwide ping is nice, and Fan also cycles itself so it doesn’t even take up a valuable card slot. But then I realized two things about these decks. Odd Paladin has infinite minion generation potential with their hero power. Killing a board of 1/1’s might delay their buffs a turn, but doesn’t run them out of board refills because they can generate dudes without using cards. And aggro druid would either have a board buffed out of Fan range by turn three (and I would be dead) or they would run out of steam and awkwardly flop. In neither case was Fan drastically changing the game, even if it felt nice to kill a board of dudes. So out the door they went. Replaced with BTG because I was facing Reno Priest every game and Swindle because it just seemed good.
It really hurt to cut Tess Graymane. She’s one of the most fun cards ever printed and slamming down waves of burgled shit never gets old. But as I transitioned to a spell-centric burgle deck, her random nature became more and more annoying. When Tess is slamming 8/8’s and 12/12’s, she’s phenomenal. When she Ice Lances your face, Fireballs herself, and gives your opponent’s minion a Blessing of Authority, she’s much less useful. Her cost of 8 mana simply made her far too expensive for the minimal number of times she was remotely useful.
One thing I was consistently wanting in this deck was more weapon buffs. I experimented with Goblin Auto-Barber and Vulpera Toxinblade but neither ended up making the cut. Auto-Barber was too minimal a buff to feel particularly useful, and Toxinblade’s temporary status made her not worth the slot. This deck doesn’t exactly run minion threats, so Toxinblade was always eating my opponent’s removal and never really surviving more than a turn, which she needed to in order to be a strong inclusion.
Of the other Burgle options, Hallucination and Blink Fox are the other ones that are even vaguely worth running. Hallucination would be a reasonable choice to experiment more with (potentially two over the Dragon’s Hoards) but I found them underwhelming due to the sheer number of dud or synergy-dependant cards in many classes. Oftentimes, I would have only one decent pick off a Hallucination with an expensive spell and an understated minion taking up the other two discover options. Blink Fox was too expensive for a Swashburglar effect and a 3/3 on turn 3 doesn’t cut it as a body in Wild. Both also suffer from the Swashburglar problem of being utterly cucked against Rogues.
I also briefly considered replacing Beneath the Grounds with Bad Luck Albatross in order to mess Big Priest up. However, I wasn’t having a huge Big Priest problem, and the only way to kill Albatross in the deck is with Vendetta, which is often better used to kill the minions the priest is cheating.
The Zeph Rules
Zephyrs The Great is a phenomenally powerful card and a staple in two of the best decks in Wild - Reno Priest and Renolock. It also utterly destroys this deck by generating an Acidic Swamp Ooze on command to send your weapon to an ignominious and oozy demise. While there’s no denying that Zeph really sucks for this deck, there’s a couple of things we can try.
Tactic 1: The Great Zeph Bait.
If you’re able to draw into both cutlasses fairly early (not an uncommon occurrence), you can go for this strategy. Play a cutlass, drop a Tinker’s or a Deadly Poison, and potentially play a Burgled card or two. If I’m trying to force Zeph specifically, I will usually follow this by skipping my next swing. Essentially, you’re trying to make your weapon look as threatening as possible without committing many resources to it. When your opponent plays Zeph and subsequently Ooze, you can play your second Cutlass and fearlessly toss all of your buffs on it. If you go for the Great Zeph Bait, make sure to kill both minions before developing your second weapon, as a fair number of Reno decks run either bounce or copy effects. If they’re simply able to add another ooze to their hand and save it for your second weapon, you will be sad.
Tactic 2: Make Zeph Whiff.
Zephyrs is a phenomenal card, but his inability to understand card text can be his downfall. While he understands that Spectral Cutlass is a big weapon, he doesn’t realize that it can gain infinite durability. He doesn’t generally seem to value Lifesteal as highly as he should either. He also can’t look at decks, so he doesn’t realize that our only win condition is to buff the weapon. My point is that while Zeph is strong, he doesn’t value killing Spectral Cutlass nearly as highly as he should (a priority above all else except avoiding direct lethal). But because Zeph is still a discover and offers three cards, it isn’t easy to get him to not offer weapon hate at all. Essentially, you have get Zeph to value three other things more highly than destroying your weapon. If you can do this, he will not offer Ooze, even when a cutlass is active on your side. Many opponents don’t recognize these whiff factors, and won’t take measures to maximize their likelihood of hitting an Ooze (like playing Zeph with exactly two mana remaining).
There are a few things you can do to maximize your chances of Zeph whiffing. These tips are roughly in order of effectiveness.

1. Keep your weapon as small as possible, both in Attack and Durability. Decreases the likelihood that Zeph will value weapon removal.
2. Build a board of minions. Increases the likelihood that Zeph will value AoE spells.
3. Play a Secret or two. Increases the likelihood that Zeph will offer Flare.
4. Play one large/must-kill minion. Increases the likelihood that Zeph will value removal.
5. Lower your opponent’s health. Increases the likelihood that Zeph will value healing.
6. Keep your opponent low on cards. Increases the likelihood that Zeph will offer draw. Careful about doing this if your weapon durability is more than one at 7+ mana as Zeph is more likely to offer Harrison Jones.
7. Niche cases. Keep an eye out for any conditions in the game that synergize perfectly with a basic/classic card that Zeph can offer. For example, if your opponent has a 1/10 minion, keep it alive as Zeph is more likely to offer Inner Fire. If they have three murlocs, Zeph is more likely to offer Coldlight Seer.

If you can create a game state where Zeph simply doesn’t offer ooze, you will be treated to a beautiful sight. Sex is great and all but a baffled opponent slowly mousing over each discover option before emoting and conceding is arguably the best feeling in the world.
Tactic 3: Fuck it.
Go balls to the wall and play like they don’t have Zeph. Throw all of your buffs on the weapon and come to terms with the fact that if they have him, you will lose. I will sometimes opt for this strategy if any of the following conditions are met.

1. At least two Beneath the Grounds Ambushes are still in the deck.
2. I have tried to bait Zeph and my opponent didn’t play him.
3. My opponent has played Lorekeeper Polkelt.
4. My opponent has very few cards or is topdecking.
5. If I don’t commit to the weapon now, I will definitely lose.

Zephyrs The Great is going to lose you a fair amount of games. But if you can pull off any of these strategies, you might sneak by him with some wins.
Matchups:
Odd Demon Hunter:
This deck is weird. The best builds seem to be made up of a glut of the best-statted one-cost minions, Stiltsteppers, Acrobatics, Leeroy, and Baku. Our early game generally lines up well against these minions, and Odd DH generally lacks the burst to power through our healing once Cutlass gets to a threatening size. However, if we don’t draw into our early answers or fail to burgle fairly well, Odd DH is a phenomenally consistent deck and will always run us over if they get any room to do so. Even matchup.
Soul DH:
This deck seemed to be mostly piloted by standard players trying to climb in Wild. The burst of a Soul DH that hits all of its pieces can be impressive. But these combos often come online late enough that our cutlass is healing us for 8+ health every turn. Find something to deal with a full Soulciologist board, look to burgle taunts and freezes to stop the huge attacks from going face, and you’re cruising. Favored matchup.
Aggro Druid:
By cutting Fan of Knives I was essentially conceding the matchup if the Druid drew well. This has held true - if Aggro Druid has an explosive opener, you will lose the game. If they don’t, the deck is fairly easy to run out of resources. Voracious Readers can refill once or twice, but if I’m not dead by turn four I can frequently use removals efficiently and prevent them from ever building a threatening board. A card that deserves special mention is Bloodsail Corsair. If you’re careless against Aggro Druid and leave your weapon at one durability, a well-timed Corsair can snipe it and lose you the game on the spot. Unfavored matchup.
Combo/Maly Druid:
They can’t really do anything about us loading our weapon up and killing them. I only faced a couple of druids that weren’t aggressive and none of them put up much of a fight. Favored matchup, not much to say here.
Hunter:
I think I faced fewer than five hunters my entire climb, and they were all hyper aggro or janky deathrattle decks. We can generally prevent aggro Hunter from building a board, and their hero powers, Kill Commands, and such generally aren’t enough burst to beat through our healing. Deathrattle Hunter with plenty of taunts could potentially be a problem but it’s rezzes are much slower than Big Priest and it gets arguably even more destroyed by a well-timed Sap or Vanish. It’s a good idea to play around Zephyrs in this matchup until you know you’re not facing a Reno Hunter. I honestly didn’t find enough hunters to even say what might be favorable or not. Poor Rexxar.
Quest Mage:
Quest Mage is an annoying matchup for one reason and one reason only. They can generate a lot of freezes, which keep us from swinging our weapon for a turn. The amount of Freezing Potions, Ice Lances, and Frostbolts that seem to come out of Evocation, Magic Trick, and Mana Cyclone makes me want to tear my hair out. Our healing is rarely relevant against the OTK potential this deck brings. Otherwise, save Vendetta or another removal for your opponent’s Flamewankers and bring them down to low health as quickly as possible. Quick note on this matchup - Hitting your opponent in the face for lethal damage while they have Ice Block active will NOT heal you for any health. This interaction is consistent with other Lifesteal effects but still annoying and you will sometimes have to choose between setting off Ice Block and healing for 12. Even matchup.
Secret Mage:
I think before this expansion, Secret Mage would’ve been a much worse matchup for us. The switch to Rigged Faire Game as a main draw engine has a serious downside against a deck that is able to hit your face with an infinite weapon every turn. I won a significant amount of games by chipping away at my opponent every turn and denying them the all-important three cards. Play around Counterspell and Explosive Runes whenever possible as most decks run two copies and cheat them early. If we can get our weapon big enough, or run them out of face damage, we can safely heal out of the deck’s damage range. However, a Secret Mage firing on all cylinders is one of the best decks in the game and will win with a combination of well-statted minions, free secrets, and burn. Slightly unfavorable matchup.
Odd Paladin:
We struggle the most against decks that can build wide boards without committing many resources. Odd Pally is the unquestioned king of this strategy and thus tailor-made to bork us. I was able to win against this deck a couple of times when they filled up their board with 1/1’s and had no way to buff them, which was funny but not a particularly consistent win-con. Play around Oh My Yogg and Never Surrender, try to burgle AoEs, and accept that this is probably a 20-80 matchup or worse for us. Very heavily unfavored, and the bogeyman of climbing ladder with this deck.
Not Odd Paladin:
I ran into a couple of Even Paladins here and there which seemed like Odd Pally but slightly worse, a few Pure Paladins which got defeated by timely saps, and a single Mech Paladin who blew me out on turn four. They were so drowned out by the sea of Odd Pally however that I can’t write about them in extreme detail.
Reno Priest:
Beneath The Grounds carries another matchup. If they are able to get Raza and Anduin online, your main priority becomes keeping Anduin’s health below half to ward off Spawn of Shadows burst turns. As long as you can do that, we can mostly heal through their turns of chip damage with the hero power and eventually beat them down. Developing any minions we can will help with this plan because the low-health Anduin will be forced to waste hero powers clearing the minions, buying us more time. Favored matchup.
Big Priest:
Sometimes when you’re playing against Big Priest, they cheat out a Vargoth and a Blood of Ghuun on turn 4 and you just lose. Sometimes, they do nothing for nine turns and you win. It’s the matches in between these extremes that we focus on. Keep your Saps and plan your Vanish turn wisely. Most Big Priests nowadays don’t run Obsidian Statue, but place the highest priority on sapping it if they do. The combination of lifesteal and taunt means that we essentially lose the game if it ends up in the rez pool. Even or slightly favored matchup.
Rogues:
I faced a hodgepodge of Rogue decks, none of which really felt like a complete list. Combo-style rogues lack taunts and healing and get subsequently demolished by our weapon before they can do anything interesting. Kingsbane Rogue does what we do, but slower and without Lifesteal on every turn. VS says Odd Rogue is a decent deck, but I only saw one on my climb which wasn’t able to do enough damage to burst through the Cutlass healing. Mill Rogue is cute but terrible. I also ran into another Burgle Rogue but he was playing a version with Blink Foxes and Hallucinations which performs very poorly against other rogues. Favored matchup against the entire class I suppose?
Even Shaman:
I barely faced any of these on my climb, but I think I lost every time I did. We can’t really clean up their wide and efficient boards, and Sea Giant and Thing From Below aren’t bothered by Sap. Unfavored matchup.
Big Shaman:
Sap is phenomenal in this matchup. Like any Big deck, there will be some games where you don’t draw what you need and get blown out on turn four. But much more often, you’ll find games where the deck puts out a big threat, it gets sapped, and they sputter for a couple turns while you make a giant weapon and start whacking them. Try to avoid playing minions in the mid-late game while pushing for lethal because Walking Fountain or Tidal Wave will allow them to find critical heals. Favored matchup.
Aggro Warlock (Pain/Zoo/Discolock):
We like this matchup because if your opponents lower their health total quickly enough, we can often start to threaten lethal with our weapon as soon as turn six. Our cheap and flexible removal generally lets us get priority targets like Darkglare, Malchezar’s Imp and Tiny Knight of Evil off the field before they kill us. Discolock doesn’t have the consistent board floods of the decks that really fuck us and Fence and Vendetta line up well against their threats. But at the end of the day, they are an aggro deck and will win if we whiff our draws at all. I faced few Pain and Zoolocks, but Discolock was one of my favorite matchups to play with this list and I felt like it was at worst even and potentially even slightly us-favored.
Cubelock:
A problem matchup. We simply aren’t able to kill waves of big demons. Vanish and Sap let us delay the threats but once we run out of stalling power Voidlord very effectively prevents us from swinging our weapon to face. Fortunately, Cubelock has an abysmal matchup against Priest and has thus fallen a bit out of the meta. I only saw a few on my climb, but if they start cheating Voidlords before we have them to sub-15 health, we are in huge trouble. Slightly unfavored matchup.
Renolock:
We stan Beneath The Grounds. Renolocks will generally play defensively and take damage fairly freely in the early game. Generally don’t play BTG on turn three because renolocks draw so much that they’re fairly likely to hit at least two ambushes if you give them enough time. If I have it in hand, I’ll hold it until I start buffing my weapon or until they’re sub fifteen health and might be feeling pressured enough to use Reno. If you don’t find BTG, follow the Zeph Rules and pray to God that you draw it quickly. Tickatus is rarely particularly relevant because if they find the time to corrupt and play it multiple times the game was lost a long time ago. Renolock will often have big taunt Demons also, but they come in more manageable waves than Cubelock. With BTG, this is a favored matchup.
Odd/Control Warrior:
This matchup is pretty simple. Make your weapon as big as possible as quickly as possible in order to chip through their armor. If they run weapon hate and are able to draw it, you will lose. If they don’t, you will eventually win - they don’t have much to stop you smacking them for 10+ damage every turn. I only ran into three of these decks on my climb and got Stickyfingered twice, so my gut says that it’s unfavorable.
Pirate Warrior:
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Pirate Warrior simply feels weaker than other aggro decks and its lack of boardwide buffs makes its minions much less threatening. Their highrolls are as scary as ever, but kill Ship’s Cannon and Skybarge on sight and be wary of burst coming in the form of Leeroy or Kragg, and the healing from your built-up weapon will generally outpace their damage. Their biggest strength (efficient trading with minion boards) isn’t particularly relevant against us. Slightly favored - one of our best aggro matchups. Beware of Bloodsail Corsair!
My Favorite Wins:
Playing a deck that runs on adding random cards to your hand will occasionally lead to hilarious victories with cards your opponent never expected to need to play around. There were too many to write about, but here were some highlights.

1. I played a Hunter and hit a terrible Dragon’s Hoard on turn one where my best option was a Knuckles. I reluctantly picked it and it sat in my hand until later in the game, where I pulled Houndmasters off both of my Swashburglars. Three houndmaster buffs (one got returned to my hand via Freezing Trap) and a Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil later, I beat my opponent into submission with an unkillable 12/13 Knuckles. I find it possible that it’s the only time Knuckles has actually won someone a game.
2. I found a Cloning Device off of a Clever Disguise and yoinked my Shaman opponent’s Shudderwock, followed by two Dragon’s Hoards that gave me Dinotamer Brann and a second Shudderwock. I waited until my deck was low enough that no duplicates remained, and played Brann, Shudderwock, second Shudderwock, and thwacked him with four large stompy dinos over three turns.
3. I burgled a Totem Goliath off Swashburglar, Totemic Might off Clever Disguise, and a Grand Totem Eys’or from Dragon’s Hoard. My poor Shaman opponent was beaten to death by a rogue’s board of basic totems.
4. While playing a Big Priest I got a Lucentbark off Dragon’s Hoard and a Seance and Power Word: Replicate off Clever Disguise. Turns out three 4/8 taunts that resurrect every turn will win you the game, even against Big Priest with a full rez pool.
5. A Pirate Warrior wrested board from me, beat me to two health with two cards in hand and one durability on my weapon, and began emoting aggressively. Fortunately, one of those two cards was an Inara Stormcrash which allowed me to deal 26 damage (and kill him) on turn 8.

This deck is by far the most fun I’ve ever had playing Hearthstone, and this list is viable at Legend ranks. I encourage everyone to give it a try. Thanks for making it to the end and please comment with questions!
Happy thieving!