Nationals Season is in full swing, with US Nationals giving us an insight into the current metagame, and week 1 and week 2 of competitive play. With all that going on, it was easy to miss Battle Hardened Houston.
This event, while not having the prestige of Nationals, or the prize support of a Calling, gave us a good look into what can be done by top US based players in this metagame.
Battle Hardened Houston Top 8 Decks
The Top 8 featured: 2 Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X, Cindra, Dracai of Retribution, Fang, Dracai of Blades, 2 Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter, Kassai of the Golden Sand, and Verdance, Thorn of the Rose.
The presence of The Hunted heroes is deeply surprising, but given their positive matchups into Gravy Bones, it's to be expected. Absolute titans of the game, Michael Hamilton and Michael Feng were the pilots of the two Gravy Bones decks, presenting us with a deeply back and forth mirror match during the event's live stream.
5th Place Decks
Fang
Illuvial Arnett made top 8 on the first of two warriors. Fang, Dracai of Blades is well positioned due to the consistency of damage that can be aimed at Gravy Bones and all the allies on board.
The inclusion of some unique attack actions and front pumps make this version of Fang particularly interesting. hnt123-twist-and-turn-2-the-hunted-booster brings a dagger up to a break point, while offering a strong on-hit. It being Yellow works well in the deck's cost curve, and being a 3-block makes it preferable to Cut From the Same Cloth. Aside from having the best name of any card, Pursue to the Edge of Oblivion is a welcome way to gain additional Marks against your opponent. It's likely this thinking that warrants them playing Hunt to the Ends of Rathe.
The Spellvoid in Arcanite Fortress do well against the Wizards in the field, which has always been a characteristically bad matchup for most Warriors.
Kassai
Michael Ramsey's version of Kassai has all the makings of the front pumps matters version, popularised by Andrew Rothermel in Minneapolis. There are some choices in his list which show some welcome deck building innovation.
The copper generation is a little higher than usual with the inclusions of Yellow evr067-outland-skirmish-2-everfest-booster. The full rainbow of Hit and Run and the inclusion of Sharpened Senses makes the deck less reliant on gaining Go Again on an Attack Reaction.
The new card Riches of Trōpal-Dhani is a welcome and significant power boost for Kassai. Being able to stay Gold neutral, while enabling her passive, free swords gameplay loop is deeply powerful.
Some of the Instants are deeply interesting. Ramsey's decided not to run Shelter to cover up the Assassin flick effects, and is instead playing Take it on the Chin to cover up true damage. Gaining that Agility is quite powerful, and fully unlocks turns at times. Ironsong Pride is a card that may seem very innocuous in this list, or in Dorinthea, Quicksilver Prodigy in Blitz, but it can really draw the need to block from decks that may struggle to do so.
Slippy
A pair of Slippy decks made the quarter finals in Battle Hardened Houston.
Robert Ramsey registered a fairly standard and reasonably aggressive version of the Chaos Assassin. Not caring a great deal about Flick Knives synergy, it looks to pressure with the hero's passive ability.
Bonds of Attraction in the Blue base is a welcome sight to deal with the Necromancer in the format, banishing Allies from Grave if it hits and banishes a Yellow from the top.
Even with its aggressive slant, the use of Spike with Bloodrot in its reactions suite pairs well with an otherwise unloved Fyendal's Spring Tunic resource.
To round off the deck, it has a split of Rally the Coast Guard and Cut Through the Facade to be big poppers for Prism.
Slippy
The other top 8 Slippy deck is a tad more spicy, and for that I commend the pilot, Dave Cordeiro.
Schism of Chaos can utterly ruin a Pitch Stack or change the top cards that Gravy or Dash I/O were counting on.
The copies of Bonds of Attraction are here in the Red base this time. What it loses from being paired with Just a Nick, it gains from being more aggressively slanted. The two copies of Pick to Pieces also add to the decks aggression, especially into Prism - which is needed since the deck is only running Command and Conquer as a 6-power Popper.
Previous decks have been registering Mask of Perdition to get additional banishes from cards like Art of Desire: Body and Persuasive Prognosis. Instead, this version seeks to only be running Crown of Providence, as it's inarguably the strongest generic head equipment.
It also only uses Blacktek Whisperers since it's also running Surgical Extraction in its Blues, upping the possibility of creating Silver.
3rd Place Decks
Cindra
Bird Cabrera made it to top 4 with Cindra, and one of the most Blue heavy lists I've seen to make a real result.
The 20 Blue cards are all clearly either tech or sideboard options, but the majority of them can see play in more than one matchup. I expect Throw Dagger, Dragon Power, and even Concealed Blade to be welcome in nearly matchup.
hnt187-poisoned-blade-3-the-hunted-booster is the surprising inclusion. It offers a lot of extra damaging reach alongside a Blood Runs Deep or Wrath of Retribution.
Warmonger's Diplomacy is very effective against Rangers and Necromancers, while Arcane Compliance is a strong fit for all of the Wizards.
The additional Blues are all very necessary given the texture of the Reds. Being able to play Devotion Never Dies multiple times a turn necessitates a lot of resources. It's also to have a slightly higher resource base to include cards like Demonstrate Devotion and Breaking Point; and is wholly necessary to even consider running Command and Conquer as anything other than a popper.
Verdance
Niels Kornerup is all in on the arcane combo win condition for Verdance.
The inclusion of Pounamu Amulet is your fourth copy of Healing Potion to pair with Rampant Growth||Life to send a lot of arcane damage.
This version of the deck makes her particularly strong into Gravy Bones, but less so against the Draconic heroes.
A noteworthy include is the two copies of Outed. With no way to confer Mark, and a card which almost definitely comes out against any Hunted hero, this aggressive piece offers another easy Go Again attack to clear allies.
The deck runs so many natural poppers, and has access to looping Evergreen, which altogether adds up to Verdance being a very strong meta presence.
Finalist
Gravy Bones
Michael Feng, Pro Tour Baltimore winner, has since moved on from Enigma, Ledger of Ancestry to Gravy Bones.
Despite being teammates and testing partners with Michael Hamilton, the other Gravy Bones playing finalist from Battle Hardened Houston, there are some very noteworthy differences between their decks. The commentators during the live stream noted the similarities, and those similarities are apparent in the cards they are and aren't running.
Both decks have the same tech cards against given matchups. Namely one Snag for Assassin and one Throw Caution to the Wind for Wizard.
Both decks vary greatly in the numbers of certain allies and how many copies of Blood in the Water they're running.
Winner
Gravy Bones
Michael Hamilton's version includes a greater spread of utility one-offs compared to Michael Feng.
Amulet of Echoes has been showing up in more and more Gravy Bones decks. It's there to potentially punish the mirror to force a discard if they spam Golden Tipple. By contrast of Michael Feng's list, he's been able to find the space for Loot the Hold to include some valuable hand attack.
The commentators noted that neither player is running Give No Quarter. This makes sense since neither player have Wailer Humperdinck in their lists. The deck is the new hotness, and requires a great deal of consensus on how best to play it.
Wrap Up
The results from Battle Hardened Houston and the many other Nationals events gone by just prove that Gravy Bones is a deck to watch and to respect. We can only wonder how the metagame will adapt to the Necromancer going into Pro Tour Singapore.
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