Alright guys, you know I like to keep things brief and to the point, so lets get into the deck specifics. Also, I know the deck is titled “8-Gates Reva” and that it does not main deck 8-gates, but the archetype is most commonly referred to as such because earlier versions of the archetype relied on it.

General Gameplan:

The end goal/win condition of the deck is to eventually burn your opponent to death using Phoenix Fires and Thunderbombs. In order to get there, we play for the board in the early turns and look to transition from the board to out of hand damage once we find our opponent in range of lethal or a two-turn kill.

Early Game:

Look to mulligan for:

• Cryptographer (Always keep)
• Healing Mystic (Always keep)
• Crescent Spear
• Bloodtear Alchemist
• Gotatsu
• Lantern Fox (going second)(going first if you already have a two-drop)
• Battle Pando (going second)(going first if you already have a two-drop)
• Phoenix Fire
• Thunderbomb (going second)(going first if you already have a two-drop & a three drop)(Hold versus Lillithe)
• Ghost Lightning (Always keep versus Lillithe, consider holding versus Ragnora)

As you can see the deck runs a lot of cards that enable you to develop an early board, but also chip away at your opponent’s board cheaply and efficiently. Additionally, the majority of these cards are synergistic with the top half of the deck and are ideal for later turns where you are trying to generate combo pieces, draw combo pieces, and empower your combo pieces.

Mid Game:

The main goal of the mid game is to stick Geomancer on the board. This is incredibly powerful because it makes your BBS Phoenix Fire. This makes is so that you always have removal/burn at your disposal and will really help set you up for the transition from board to burn.

Aside from developing Geomancer, we should look to get value out of Lantern Fox to generate more Phoenix Fires, stick a Wildfire Tenketsu or Sworn Sister Alkyone to threaten our opponent with higher burn thresholds and aoe clears, and lastly fit in face damage using our general and minions when possible. Note that sometimes it is not wise to attack with your general even if your game plan is to burn your opponent because they may also be looking to combo you so evaluate what archetype your opponent is playing before doing so.

Late Game:

At this point in the game everything should be going face. Unless you absolutely need to clear a minion to prevent dying the following turn you should just send all burn and all minions face. Your opponent has to either kill you, or develop+heal in the same turn to avoid death. This is difficult to do for Wander, Fault, and Combo Ragnora because all three decks run limited healing. I advocate for going face over clearing because the longer the game goes the more time you give your opponent to heal, kill you, develop something you can’t deal with, etc. If you put them in a position where they go “Oh shit I better heal or I’m dead to X card next turn” they will often make a sub optimal play to avoid the potential lethal which may buy you time…or they will kill you if they’ve got the juice.

Final Comments:

This isn’t an easy deck to pilot. I recommend that you have a good grasp of the meta, what decks have what weaknesses, and the ability to discern when to go face or clear the board.

P.S. Wanderer is for nerds. If you play it you are a potato.