Notes & Combos

So I was playing Branded, the deck that I had played for the past 2 seasons, all the way until Master 2, and Purrely came out that day. Then I had to adjust my deck to have a better chance against Purrely, and what I had realized was that, unlike the last 2 seasons, there aren't really any non-engine cards that are good into everything. I went a terrible 7-13 in my last 20 games with Branded, and that's when I decided I needed to play something else. So I ended up dusting this deck off.

In total I went 24-15, and coincidentally I went first exactly 24 times (although one of those was a Mikanko player choosing second). Considering my coin flip luck, barely winning over 60% of my games isn't impressive at all, but I knew this was a deck that can get it done if luck breaks my way, because after all, I'm not climbing from the start. It would be brutal if you have to make it the whole way with a 60% win rate.

This deck still bricks quite a lot, so my philosophy is to max out on consistency cards as much as possible. I think the right strategy is to try to win as much as possible going first. If you opt for more non-engine at the cost of consistency, you just don't know if they're gonna be good into the deck that you'll be facing, which is why I don't get why it isn't the consensus to play cards like Gold Sarc, Jack-In-The-Hand, and even the 2nd copy of Stri. Keep in mind that Stri + Eglen/Advent/Map all allow you to play the game.

Fossil Dyna is in line with the philosophy mentioned earlier of trying to maximize your win rate going first, but it's also neat because when you brick, Fossil Dyna + BoM is good enough to at least buy you another turn (this is why I went BoM > Eclipse). Even on its own, it can be an instant scoop vs a lot of Purrely builds.

I did go with 3 Maxx C's, it's not considered a staple in Floo because your opponent can just OTK you through it, but I still think it's worth playing because it's one of the only cards that can deter your opponent from playing when you go second. Plus, there just isn't any non-engine cards that you'd rather play instead at the moment, everything is hit or miss depending on the match up.