Fiona’s Wraiths

Hey everyone! Jesse here back with a new deck tech. The Fiona’s Wraiths decklist is a combo that could potentially win you the game as early as round 2. Usually, I prefer to do deck techs over video. But with so much content hitting our Youtube page, I wanted to find an outlet for decks that may not hit on all competitive levels but offer a gratifying play experience. Today’s deck is exactly that. You can also directly look at the deck on Ashes.Live.

Keys of the Deck

The decklist’s name provides us with a critical hint on what we are trying to accomplish. Fiona is the Pheonixborn of choice for this deck. Her Ingenuity ability is unique, and I do think that it could be potentially competitive. Fiona has the issue of a low health value at 15. With a Battlefield of 6 and a Spellboard of 5, she has plenty of options to put out there. Spellboard of 5 seems to indicate the use of a lot of summon books. I believe this strategy was viable in Ashes 1.0. In Reborn powerful allies have left their mark on the meta. Fiona has been left on the outside looking in during Reborn. Nonetheless, some unique synergies exist with Fiona and her ability to reuse any ready spell each round. 

No Maze Today

Fiona’s loyalty card Mind Maze is an excellent control card, but this deck is not about controlling your opponent. It’s about leveraging Dread Wraiths. As such, we couldn’t find a home for Mind Maze in this deck. Summon Dreadwraith is an expensive three ceremonial class dice to summon. What do we get for this investment? A 1/6 body? Really? Why? 

I’m Raging Bro

We are building this deck to leverage the Rage 1 ability found on Dread Wraith. The deck is vulnerable to a couple of powerful meta cards. Sword of Virtue, Fester, Purify, To Shadows, and Fade Away will all make short work of your Dread Wraiths. Cards such as Riverskald and any direct damage kill spells have a much more difficult time against the Wraith. If your opponent is playing Harold, they can mark the Wraith and make six health more manageable. 

Say it with me, Meteor.

The first five Meteor plays are a staple of competitive play as they can reset the board. Both players can suffer the wrath (pun intended for your MTG fans) of the Meteor. With Dread Wraith, they have the potential to survive and get powered up. Powered-up Wraiths become a real threat to your opponent, and with Ingenuity, you will have two of them on the Battlefield post Meteor.

Don’t go HAM!

Before you go out and take a bunch of turns with this deck, you have to know a few keys to beat your opponent. Here is the first five:

Summon Butterfly Monk, Fire Archer, Summon Dread Wraith, Frostbite, Meteor. 

First, it’s essential to use your actions to maximum efficiency and essentially “slow” play your opponent. I’m not talking about you eating a ham sandwich while you play, but I’m talking about maximizing your main actions each round as much as possible through the supporting cast of your first five cards. The deck does not leave you with any flex spot in your first five, but we are on a very linear plan. Either your opponent can answer your setup, or they can’t.

Second, you should plan to play your slower cards first. I typically play Frostbite, to Summon Butterfly Monk, to play the Monk, to Attack with the Monk. Because Butterfly Monk’s Mend 1 is inexhaustible, you will get to trigger its ability when you Meteor. Our 3rd card played is the Dread Wraith Summon. 

Due to our conjuration count, savvy opponents will be worried that your last card is Summon Sleeping Widows. Because of this, do not telegraph your Meteor until as late as possible. You do need both of your divine dice to be on the Divine Power side eventually. 

Here is where you have to figure out how many actions your opponent has left. You can use main action Frostbite an opponent’s PB or a pesky unit if you want, but I recommend the PB as your Meteor will clear most of your opponent’s units. If they play a four health unit, I will use the Frostbite to put the unit in the range of Meteor. 

The goal is to try and have your opponent out of cards in hand. Additionally, you want to try and have them unable to spend dice on their summon books. After you summon your first Dread Wraith, you will activate Fiona’s ability as a side action and discard your Fire Archer. If successful, the Meteor will hopefully sweep away their entire board and leave you with two four attack dread wraiths. With only the Wraiths left, you should be able to push eight damage to their face. 

Go First? Or Go Second?

To set up the opening sequence, the best way to ensure you get in front of your opponent’s actions is to have them go first, plus it gives the added value of potentially swinging the top of round 2 with buffed Dread Wraiths for another eight damage. Combined with the potential of one damage from Frostbite in round one and you’ve done 17 damage to the opposing PB. 17 damage is a potential win-con against many PB’s. 

Don’t be afraid to use Fiona’s Health.

Fiona’s health pool is one resource in your eventual victory. If your opponent tries to commit attacks to one of your Wraith’s, make sure Fiona is setup to tank the hardest hit. The Wraith can take up to two damage and still live through your super-powered Meteor play. 

Aggressively Meditate

In the first turn of the game, you should aggressively meditate from the top of your deck to set up the whole turn, minus showing the Meteor play. Make sure you get your ceremonial on the right sides, and power sides are perfect for this. The power sides on the dice bluff several plays, and since your opponent hasn’t seen the Wraith yet, they are left guessing. The two divine dice that went unmeditated will have them tend to believe you are on Winged Lioness or some other plan with Divine. 

The Rest of the Deck

There are a variety of decks that make it hard for the Wraiths to do mighty things. Before you play Wraith’s book, identifying whether the combo will work allows you to pivot even before you Meteor. The remaining cards are supported to help you close the game out. You will find many of these cards in our competitive primer.

Summon Sleeping Widows are a tremendous explosive play for reaction to a Butterfly Monk or even a Wraith in Round 2+. Ideally, you can play the spiders after your opponent is out of side actions, making them impossible to be pinged away by natural magic. Don’t be afraid to trade one Monk for One spider, though. 

Usually, in Round 2, a Wraith will die, and it’s an opportunity only to need to spend three dice to get a new Wraith on board and keep up the pressure. Risen Horde is more card advantage. 

Adrenaline Rush is a great Action Spell to use as a side action on an exhausted Wraith to pump it up and get a surprise attack on an unsuspecting unit or Pheonixborn. Sometimes Wraiths can only attack for one, and an opponent will counter to damage the Wraith. Adrenaline Rush provides that Wraith with the ability to stand up after an attack as well. Finally, Wraith’s one-point attacks can turn on your Fester, but usually, Frostbite will be your ideal play for Fester or just a Natural Ping.

The deck has three Final Cry and three Molten Gold for closing out games. These spells give us 15 direct damage, which is more than enough if we can land a few buffed Wraith hits. There is a singular ice trap in the deck for pesky low health units like Raptor Herder outside Round 1. Finally, we have 3 Fire Archers, one in the bin, which means if you get down to needing to make a single point of damage to win, you can use Ceremonial power into Archer for victory. Choke is for more damage on PB’s, and sometimes it can blow out opponents, and it can be considered for your first five if you are up against Harold.