How thee do, fellow Archons?
We hope you enjoyed and learned well from our last piece, talking about the houses and what they offer as main and support players in Call of the Archons. Today, let’s do the same for Age of Ascension (AoA)!
As a quick aside before we go into detail, AoA is touted as an overall weaker set, compared to Call of the Archons. The strategies involved in the winning tactics employed by the houses in AoA require more interactions and are quite slower than in the first set. With that being said, we believe that the basement for AoA decks are lower while the ceiling for success is immensely high. Amazing combos abound, let’s get right into it!
Back at it again with Brobnar! As a main house, the giants have doubled down on their large creatures, fighting and ways to spread non-combat damage. This allows them to stay on board, build advantage and reap out. You can also find interesting combos in AoA such as Drummernaut plus Ganger Chieftain. When found as a support, Brobnar has gained a lot of key and aember control tools. Watch out for the Grump Buggy train!
Dis in AoA isn’t very different from their first outing - meaning they’re still very very good. They kept a lot of the tools they have as a main, but gained a bit more in terms of reanimation, that is getting creatures back from the discard pile, and destruction shenanigans. Exhume is an all-star card anyone is happy to open in a Dis deck. As a support, they gained a few more ways to wipe the board and control keys. See Unlocked Gateway and Angwish.
One of the big winners, as we see it at least, in AoA is Logos. Despite the nerf on Library Access from CotA, Logos as a main in AoA gained a lot of ways to make aember and get to the cards to make it all happen! Watch out for combos like Binate Rupture plus Interdimensional Graft (BRIG) and of course the almost infinite amount of archiving cards like Eureka! Can bring. As a support, Logos picked up a few ways to control the board - whether it be on the offense or defense. See Standardized Testing and Archimedes!
The Age of Ascension for the house of Mars wasn’t that significant a change. As a main house, they excel in the same way - stick a board of some kind and go from there. They have a new way to cheat a key out in the sick Martian Generosity plus Key Abduction combo! As a support house, Mars picked up a few more ways to stun opponents and stop them from reaping. They’re still one of the more wacky houses - their absence in the next set Worlds Collide will be a bummer. Best play them a lot now before the dinosaurs and space people come!
The other Worlds Collide absentee, Sanctum is also quite a winner in AoA. Benefiting greatly from the Bait and Switch nerf from CotA, Sanctum is now one of the few houses that can truly deal with aember rush - both as a main and a support house. If you want to push hard in blue, their aember generation is off the charts in this set with cards like Free Market making the rounds. As a support, their aember control via capture and board presence is unmatched! It’s best to watch out for Proclamation 346E as well, an amazing card for passive key control.
As mentioned earlier, Shadows lost big in the recent nerf to Bait and Switch. But that doesn’t stop them from being one of the best houses, still, in AoA. From big aember swings, Shadows now switches it up to smaller chunks of theft as a main. Cards like Ronnie Wristclocks and Gamgee are often used to punish greedy opponents. As a support, they seemed to have picked up a lot of Area of Effect (AoE) damage tools and ways to attach aember gain - as found in Throwing Stars!
As it did in the last set, Untamed goes under the radar as one of the stronger houses that really didn’t lose much in the changing of ages in AoA. Untamed as a main house now has a focus on board presence in the form of power manipulation. Cards like Grovekeeper spread out power and evolve your board to dominate your opponent. As a supporting house, Untamed has access to additional recycling tools in the form of Song of Spring, among the new cards. The return of Nepenthe Seed doesn’t hurt, either!
Have you been playing a lot of Age of Ascension? What other strategies from the houses did we miss out on?
Now knowing what each house brings to the table, we hope you are better equipped in determining which deck to bring and how to play against your opponents in the next big tournament!
