Deck Profile: Much Adil about Nothing

Here's the last one of the series! I really enjoyed going through these and received some great comments and criticisms. Just a quick reminder for all of you though:

That includes my own.

Let's get to the point regarding our 2015 North American Champion Kevin Cho's deck!

Bruce Phan ft. Gibran Super Hot Mix

Piloted by Kevin Cho.

Buddy: Ghoul Dragon Emperor, Adil Diablos

Monsters

• 3 Fourth Omni Fire Lord, Burn Nova
• 3 Armorider Dragon Emperor, Suvarious
• 4 Ghoul Dragon Emperor, Adil Diablos
• 2 Wicked Dragon of Fabrication, Demonica
• 4 Ice Dragon Emperor, Glacies
• 1 Seventh Omni Earth Lord, Count Dawn

Spells

• 4 Wrath Trigger
• 4 A Dragon Against Thousands
• 4 Makings of a Great Dragon
• 3 Brawling Dragons
• 4 Divine Dragon Creation
• 4 Dragon Emperor Legend
• 3 Rise & Fall of Dragons
• 4 Dragon Outlaw

Items

• 3 Scatter Armor, Enma

Sideboard

• 3 Battle Deity Robo, Mass Soldier
• 4 Barbed Wire
• 3 Dragon Thunder

First Thoughts

Finally. A deck built efficiently with ratios I can live with.

The first thing anybody will notice in this deck is that outside of the restricted Count Dawn and the two Demonica, everything in this deck is at 3 copies or higher. That's perfect. Even with Ancient World's superior advantage spell engine, Kevin chose to still double down on ratio consistency for reliable games. While this deck might be weaker than both Joel's Ultimate Arc and Austin's Dungeon Rush in terms of reach and maximum damage output, this deck definitely sets a consistent average. The odds of having a bad game with this deck is substantially lower than either of the runner-ups, and on average this deck performs what it needs to do.

This is because Adil Diablos is really good. Getting 2 soul for 3 gauge is always a good trade and when Diablos is on it's last life he gets even more power and damage. Playing the Diablos game means protecting that last form to the death and making the most out of 9000/3/8000 with Double Attack.

However, it's really thanks to Diablos getting a viable partner that makes this deck so strong now. Suvarious is like opposite Diablos. Instead of costing gauge (Suvarious is free), Suvarious drains your hand of spells to get the same 2 soul. What Suvarious offers is immediate 8000/3/7000 Double Attack and the ability to turn all of the spells in this deck into counterspells for 1 gauge. So the strategy of this deck is pretty straightforward: if you have a bunch of spells in hand play Suvarious and ramp gauge, when you have lots of gauge but few cards play Adil and draw cards. Each boss foils the other in terms of strategy, making the duo a tight-knit combo fit for every situation.

That being said, I think Suvarious is actually the stronger of the two. Being able to access that key 3-crit immediately makes a big difference in the fast-paced meta, and now that Dungeon World is popular again having 7000 defense is relevant. Suvarious also lends itself to more OTK situations which are an upside for this deck.

Somewhat disappointed in the lack of Omnidai. With 4 Wrath Trigger, 4 Thousands, and 4 Glacies Omnidai can be protected for days. And free Counterattack is absolutely brutal, not to mention those god stats.

Demonica and Suvarious offer the same utility, and it's sadly an utility that is not often needed nowadays. Spell negate used to be super strong since there were few good spells and stopping a key spell could swing the game. Now, most strategies are more monster-oriented and lots of good spells floating around means spell negate is considerably less impactful. Demonica should be strictly side-board material and only brought in against super specific matchups.

Instead, mainboard Item hate is a must, as powerful Items are everywhere now. Even Ancient World got its hands on one of the best Items in the game.

Last thing to note, Brawling Dragons is a spell that I was puzzling over but I think I ended up liking it. In a deck with 3 copies of Burn Nova insurance, you'll end up drawing extras so you can pitch them with Brawling Dragons for more card draw. It reduces the amount of dead cards in hand, but it also makes life a worrying resource which makes me want to add stuff like Dreams or Arcadia.

Changes

-2 Wicked Dragon of Fabrication, Demonica

-1 Ghoul Dragon Emperor, Adil Diablos
-1 Fourth Omni Fire Lord, Burn Nova
-1 Makings of a Great Dragon
-1 Rise & Fall of Dragons

+1 Armorider Dragon Emperor, Suvarious

+1 Second Omni Demon Lord, Asmodai
+2 Dragon Dreams
+2 Barbed Wire

Buddy change to Suvarious

Sideboard

-2 Barbed Wire

+1 Makings of a Great Dragon
+1 Rise & Fall of Dragons

Judgement

Verdict: Consistently strong deck.

Congratulations to Kevin on winning NA Continentals! I actually don't know Kevin personally, but I think the deck that he built showed consideration for the tournament structure and tried to minimize the chance of him getting sacked. Good work.

Look forward to Buddy Allstars stuff soon. Soon TM.

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