Casino Invoker

Do you wish to place your fate in the hands of the fortune while chasing the highest of high rolls? Do you want to possibly destroy your opponents on the second turn of the game, dealing over 40 damage in a single blow? Then oh do I have the deck for you.

The "Casino Invoker" is definitely the funniest and wackiest deck I've created so far. This deck is highly luck reliant as one might guess from the name, but still works out with surprising consistency! Combining the three powerful cards Raze, Apotheosis and Inferno, this deck has the potential to wipe an unwary contender out of the game in an instant. Having multiple possible game winning combos helps you stay in the match even if one of them gets countered. However, against heavier control decks, it is definitely possible to run out of options and for the match to become unwinnable.

Feats and Invoker cards

Ponder not only helps dig for the right cards you need in this combo reliant deck, but also allows moments where you know exactly what is on top of your deck to help make the correct decisions when you have Apotheosis out. It also simply provides a steady stream of power generation, which can be really crucial at times.

Prodigy easens up the early game where you might have a bad starting hand with its 2 free power. Increased maximum power cap also allows for Infernos to be even more devastating.

Inferno and Apotheosis are the central combo pieces of the deck. Inferno uses up all the expensive cards for absurd damage, while Apotheosis makes sure we can actually afford to place those cards in the deck. Pyre helps you to play all of these fancy expensive cards, while also providing crucial fuel for the Inferno's unleash trigger.

For some utility, we take Flashburn and Firepower. Firepower's ability to generate more power makes it the best card destruction card to choose from the pool of cards available for the deck, while Flashburn provides silence which hopefully stops counters aimed at your your big attacks or saves Apotheosis from card destruction.

Giant and Wizard cards

The big bad Raze is the third key combo card to the deck. In many matches, landing a single Raze places your opponent in a position they cannot recover from. And this deck lets you play them for free with Apotheosis! And of course it can also provide incredible 8 points of damage for Inferno.

However, Raze and Inferno isn't quite enough damage yet to make the deck consistent. Continuing with the theme of big attacks with high costs, the deck also has three Smash, three Cosmic Blast, two Comet and one Clobber. Smash simply provides great value, and so does Cosmic Blast as it gives us more inferno power without taking up your power with the Cantrip. One copy of Clobber is included to add a tiny bit of more damage that was missing after playtests. Lastly Comet is another value card for Inferno but will also keep your opponents on their toes since you mostly fight at range one, yet it can reach range four to finish them off!

As a combo deck, drawing the cards you need is of utmost importance. So we have two copies of Eureka which again provides Inferno value while not necessarily costing power and a full set of Thinking Time. Manafold is also included as 3 of and can be used for either card draw or a move, and also generates the much needed power.

To not let the opponent mess up our plans, the deck has Telekinesis, Flux and Befuddle. These can all slow your opponent, which in most cases shuts down all control and lets you unleash your combos in peace. The movement aspect of Telekinesis is also very helpful at times, as most of your cards are at range one.

Lastly, we have Arcane Lock and Giantskin. Arcane Lock is a handy card to protect the very expensive Apotheosis. However, since Apotheosis is the only expensive card to use it for, two copies is well enough. Giantskin is a nice early play that keeps giving power which is needed a plenty. It is up to you to choose would you prefer more copies of Flux or Giantskin, but so far I've felt the need of power to be the greater flaw to address.

Strategy

Your goal is to hit your opponent with as much damage as possible without giving them time to recover. The gameplan will depend a lot on what you draw at the start of the game and of course what your opponent is playing.

In the early game, you will hopefully find and play your card draw and utility cards, building up your power. This power then goes to either an Apotheosis play or Inferno play. For both of these, you need to be certain your resources will not go wasted. In an ideal situation, you will slow your opponent with Befuddle or Telekinesis before playing the big cards. If you think your opponent has counters available and you can't slow them or force them out, you might need to wait longer before going for a combo.

For Inferno, the ideal situation is going to the improved maximum of seven power thanks to Prodigy, and then playing a Pyre. Or two. And then going for the Inferno! My best Inferno so far was 48 damage on turn two of the game, immediately ending the game with no second winds allowed.

For Apotheosis, you must make sure it will provide value at least once before being destroyed. Otherwise, you risk losing all the tempo in the match. So either make sure you have counters ready if they don't let it resolve, or play it our of their range and use Arcane Lock. The best situation is if you know the opponent can't react and can get within range one of them on the same turn, in case you find a Raze from the trigger.

When things don't go your way and you're not finding your combo cards, you are going to face some difficult choices. In such cases keep digging with your Ponder while keeping a high resource pool available so that when you find your combo pieces you are able to act as soon as possible. Don't be afraid to overdraw cards from your deck and end up discarding some. If the expensive cards end up being in your hand, you most likely won't end up playing them either way.

The biggest concern overall are enemies with a lot of instants, especially if they have access to heroic ones that you cannot force out of them. Against such matchups, your best hope is to try to protect your Apotheosis at all costs to try to force them out of instants eventually. And hope your deck won't run out before that!

Manifest Variant

Originally, this deck was made with Manifest instead of Wizard. If you choose that class you will get access to Projection and True Focus which bring their own gimmicks, but at the cost of the Cantrip efficiency and a lot of the utility tricks at your disposal. Instead of Ponder, you can use Crystal Focus, although in the current version of reworked Winterstorm cards it is no longer as fitting and one more reason I think the Wizard variant is the superior choice. Other than those cards, the rest would be utility focused manifest cards of your choice like Unison and Realization.

Closing words

Now you are ready to scorch and blast your opponents to a million pieces! Playing this deck is always such a blast, and I cannot wait to make it with the actual physical cards later this year. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and may the luck be on your side for the precious combo cards to not be in the... middle of the deck? Thanks, Ponder.