Timeline Tuesday: Common Decklists Part 1

We’re back on the Common format talk this week, and as promised I have a few decklists and some interesting (and some obvious) combos you may not normally have gotten to see. If you’re looking to try out a new way to play Genesis, or want to find a use for all of that bulk sitting in the back of your LGS, let’s get to it!

I figured I’d go all the way back, to the original Alpha/Beta/Welcome to Jaelara sets to start us off, so we’re dusting off some the OG champions and breathing some fresh life into them.

Both of these classic champions are considered borderline unplayable due to their poor stats and weak abilities. Malik has no elements to boost his damage, and exerts AND hurts himself at action speed to do his big attack. Ra’Ha again has no elements to boost her damage (beyond Range which is quite difficult to boost beyond a rare card we won’t have access to), and her area attack mills your deck which is less than ideal when your main tools also mill your deck. In a common-only format though, these downsides are a lot less pronounced when most of the power cards in the game aren’t available (like Bolt Shot, Angel of Retribution, Barruk, Longma, etc).

First up is Malik, who is criminally weak in normal play, and yet in a commons only format…there is some potential to be a bit stronger. With 30 health, 80 aura, and 1 ER, we’re a bit low on resources and we’re locked into melee-range because of it (and our colour pool). Fear not, as we have the biggest health pool in the game (so far), and some of the biggest damage available built into a champion with our Heavy Attack. Our goal is to close the gap as fast as possible, line up our combo, and finish them off with a Heavy Attack, preferably in one turn.

Death Eater is an efficient Beckon that cost health to summon; Siphon Vitality, Cleansing Aura are our value-packed aura dumps; Cleave, Footstomp, Shadow Claw, Knockback and our MVP Gut Punch are all great energy based attacks, Vault and Diving Juke are your key movement pieces; Shadow Master keeps us safe from our opponent’s big attacks; rounding out the list we also have Light Net as a sneaky piece of tech to act as both a way to Ground flyers permanently, and as needed chip damage.

Here’s the list itself:

Malik – Commons
x8 Gut Punch
x5 Knock Back
x3 Shadow Master
x10 Shadow Claw
x6 Death Eater
x4 Cleansing Waters
x4 Footstomp
x3 Cleave
x3 Diving Juke
x2 Vault
x2 Siphon Vitality

Next up is the iconic Ra’Ha, the original face of Genesis. This demon-armed Marksman is a master of the bow, and even in a field of Commons, Ra’Ha has the tools to take out her enemies from a distance! With 22 Health, 95 Aura, and 1 ER, she’s somewhat kneecapped with her resources, but more than makes up for it with a cleave-awareness, and an area attack to take advantage of that. Our goal with Ra’Ha is to keep our opponent at arms length as often as possible to minimize how much damage they can do and maximize how much *we* can do.

Teleportation and Backstep are solid movement options, and Dedicated Studies is unfortunately a common so it’s likely to be an auto-include in every blue deck. Far shot, Disabling Shot, Twin Arrows for shots, Prowling Yvala and Tower Sphinx for efficient, high-damage summons. Mythic burst and Angel of Words are our Aura dumps, and Sidestep and Hiza-Guruma are our defensive options to keep our opponents away.

Here’s the list itself:

Ra’Ha: Commons

x3 Teleportation
x4 Backstep
x6 Dedicated Studies
x6 Far Shot
x3 Disabling Shot
x2 Twin Arrows
x3 Prowling Yvala
x3 Tower Sphinx
x3 Mythic Burst
x4 Angel of Words
x4 Sidestep
x4 Hiza-Guruma
x5 Quick Shot

Test out the ratios, see what works, customize it, and let us know during the Livestreams or on the Official Discord!

As always, make sure you tune in on Monday’s, now at 8PM EST for the Genesis: Battle of Champions live streams. You can check out the official Genesis Battle of Champions website for a full card library, up-to-date rules and a store locator so you can find out the nearest LGS carrying Genesis!