For my first “deck”, I want to present what is really just a package embedded in (or illustrated by) a deck I have enjoyed playing. It originated with the question, “Is it possible to design a deck around the Troll Porter card?”. The basic idea is to polarize a deck to an extreme degree, populating it with very high provision golds and many 4 provision bronzes. Porter will be used to banish a handful of garbage bronzes to guarantee the high provision golds will be drawn. Snowdrop has obvious synergy with this strategy as she can be used to shuffle gold cards out of the hand before it is banished, and she is boosted by the cards Porter draws. The third essential piece to this package is Magic Compass – a card that provides tremendous flexibility and benefits from the ultrathin final deck. I generally try to only use Compass when my deck size is two or smaller – forget about its echo ability and only use it with a deck of more than two cards in an emergency, e.g., to avoid it being banished by Porter, or to compensate for unexpected clogging.
These three cards comprize the “Porter package”. Everything else is flexible provided you keep as many four-provision, banish-fodder cards as possible. Since optimal use of Compass requires eventual thinning to 2 or fewer cards in deck, it is helpful to note how many cards Porter must banish. I find it is hard to consistently banish more than 5 to 7 cards with Porter, so I try to include about 2 other thinning cards. The fewer cards you banish with Porter, the fewer points Snowdrop generates (and the less value Porter has). The more you need to banish, the harder it is to set up an appropriate hand to banish. For consistency, I like to include Oneiromancy and/or Royal Decree (never drawing Porter is extremely bad, while having both Porter and Snowdrop in round one is very helpful).
The basic playing style would vary a little depending on the actual archetype you choose to play with the Porter package, but usually you want to mulligan any initial gold cards (especially cards like Magic Compass that you never want to play round one). Ideally, you play Snowdrop and Porter round one. This combo usually gives enough tempo to either carry the round or to force significant commitment from your opponent. Be attentive to the timing of Porter so that you thin enough cards to have 0 to 2 remaining by the game end. After playing Porter, you hand should be good enough to compete in round one for as long as you feel is appropriate, but you need to beware of over-committing.
On less-than-ideal draws, there is considerable strategy in the timing of Porter. You may choose to play him round one without Snowdrop, but it might be better to wait and hope to draw her first. You also need to weigh banishing a good gold card with either playing it (and banishing fewer cards) or waiting until a later round with Porter. The big issue with delaying Porter until a later round is ensuring a future round of sufficient length (cards in hand) to thin you deck sufficiently to trigger Compass. Often this requires care in how round one is played.
The other big strategic decision is usually which card to draw with Compass. Fucusya is an obvious choice, but you might not always have good targets for Fucusya (especially if you also play Sigrdrifa’s Rite). Keep in mind that rain value can significantly compensate for raising a bronze unit. But sometimes you will want the damage of a Hemdall, Wild Boar of the Sea, or Morkvarg: Heart of Terror. Sometimes Arnaghad can deny an opponent significant points – especially in conjunction with Sukrus, or Mardroeme. (What could be better vs. Priestesses?) Sometimes Artis, Knut the Callous, or Salblod Totem are tempting. I have even used Dire Bear against thrive units that were row-stacked to achieve Sabbath.
Here, I present a version of this package which includes Ihuarraquax (which forces my top provision units to be cards I don’t mind having summoned to the melee row). I took high provision removal (Korathi Heatwave, Vigo’s Muzzle), carryover cards (Melusine, The Mushy Truffle), protection (in the form of Covenant of Steel, Sukrus), and Sigedrifa’s Rite (to replay a higher value card). I also replaced 2 four-provision cards with the five-provision Traveling Merchant (to help consistency by allowing me to “fix” my hand before banishing it).
Troll Porter decks admit an immense variety of design options. Except for Porter, Compass, and Snowdrop, every card – and even the leader -- is optional. I would be a bit careful about including cards that have unpredictable levels of thinning effect (e.g. Ring of Fortune) as that makes using Porter trickier – but I am a bit of a consistency freak. As far as I can tell, virtually any SK archetype (excluding devotion and possibly Lippy) could be combined with this Porter package. It does not mix with the discard package, but it is much more consistent. It also makes the most sense in highly polarized decks. (The more junk bronzes you have in deck, the easier it is to remove only them with Porter). I have been tempted to try a druid version with high end druids and a plan to play Gedyneith from Compass. If you try other variants, please share how they work.
You can find my deck
here.
