Test Driving: The Prodigious Pile
Hazy and Yondy take Prodigy's Pile 1.0 for a spin!
Alright, so here's an experiment! =)
If these was a movie, the pitch would be:
Two brave test-pilots (Hazy and Yondy) jump into Normals to take an untested, unrefined brew – that a top player shares on Twitter – for a spin.
And tell the tale afterwards, of course! =)
Caveats:
This is very much an ongoing experiment, as we tweak how we approach these articles – feedback most welcome!
This is in no way, shape or form (like: not even the slightest resemblance of anything even remotely close to) an attempt to criticize the test-piloted deck and/or its creator; it's very much a light-hearted, for-fun experiment, hopefully sharing a novel concept with our readers! =)
That being said…
Behold the Prodigious Pile 1.0
Our brave test-pilots took for a spin the first draft of last AM Seasonal Champ's Brew:
Parameters
Both our pilots:
Tested this brew in Normals,
Played between 7 and 9 games,
Came out ahead (ie won more than they lost)
Hazy Says
I like tempo decks like this one, where you try to outvalue the opponent while building a board. The early turns felt a bit weak – I think that's why Zoe is included, to stabilize – but pretty cool overall, and the combo Revna, the Lorekeeper plus The Winding Light is pretty cool.
The deck may seem off at first, but after taking it for a spin, you can get the synergies clearly – the idea is to boost your Revna or other key units, with Winding Light as one of your wincons.
I think I would like a higher Invoke count though, but it's fine – the deck doesn't brick as much as I would have guessed, it has a nice curve. Still a weird one! =)
As for card choices:
Just one copy of Avarosan Sentry feels weird, I'd maybe cut it,
Babbling Bjerg feels odd – we use him to draw Winding Light, but I found I almost never use him,
I feel like I would like to add some Troll Chants, add some Invoke cards by cutting Lunari Duskbringers,
Perhaps we're using too many one-drops? I am not too sure, we do need early drops to make a field.
I feel like we get out-valued by big threats like Viego Noxus, Thralls and Heimer Jayce, or by swarm decks, but it looks like we may have nice ratios against control and some midrange decks.
Yondy Says
This is a very low-curve brew – it's surprisingly reliable to go for the leveled Zoe win condition, which is always a fun way to win.
What felt a bit off is that, since this deck wants to fill a board really quickly with Revna-buffed cheap units, it doesn't have a lot of staying power early on when most of your board is unbuffed, low quality, cheap units. And by round six, you've either gotten enough units and good trades to stay in the game – so Revna and Winding Light don't matter at that point – or you've lost too much tempo and it's probably too late to get it back with Revna-buffed units.
I could see this deck either going for the unit-buffing route with Bard and the Chime package (and thus losing Targon in the process), or going more consistently for the Zoe win condition and packing some more tools to protect her.
About specific card choices:
Tusk Speaker seems like a good idea once Revna has hit the board, or as a Gnar enabler, but with three copies you find yourself drawing it way more often than you actually need too. I'd cut to one or two copies,
Also, I don't think I've played The Winding Light once if the game wasn't already decided in my favor, but I've found myself having two copies of it sitting in hand doing nothing. I'd probably cut one or two copies,
If I had to tweak cards while still preserving the core of the deck, I'd probably look at cutting Omen Hawk, Lunari Duskbringer or Spacey Sketcher (maybe even two of the three), as they clutter your mid-game (that awkward spot between you having played a bunch of one-cost units and your Revna turn). I could see myself trying The Flight instead,
One thing that came to mind when thinking about ways to improve the deck was that maybe protecting Zoe with spells was the way to go. If we went this way, it would make a lot of sense to add three copies of Starlit Seer, as it synergizes well with the deck's core plan of Revn-ing up our units.
Closing Words
"This was a fun experiment and a good metagame lesson," Yondy says. "There's always room for creativity and there's always a good deck idea out there that's worth exploring. As for this particular deck, I'll definitely come back to Revna and her gang because I've realized there's a lot of potential to her and we've just scratched the surface."
We hope you've enjoyed this brief test-run. As noted above, it's in no way, shape or form an attempt of criticism to the brewer or the deck – just hopefully encouraging folks to give radically new decks a try! =)
If you have any feedback for future test-runs, please let us know…
… and if you take this deck for a spin, best of luck! =)… and good luck out there! =)
