A Shadow Simp's Vynnset Deck Tech

2× Eloquent Eulogy

1× Envelop in Darkness

3× Haunting Rendition

2× Mordred Tide

1× Pummel

3× Reduce to Runechant

3× Runeblood Incantation

3× Shadow Puppetry

2× Vantom Banshee

3× Vantom Wraith

3× Widespread Ruin

Yellow — 12 cards

3× Succumb to Temptation

3× Widespread Destruction

Blue — 12 cards

2× Deathly Wail

2× Invert Existence

3× Machinations of Dominion

Bloodied Oval Crown of Dichotomy Dyadic Carapace Face Purgatory Flail of Agony Fyendal's Spring Tunic Grasp of the Arknight Grimoire of the Haunt Reaping Blade Spellbound Creepers

1× Oblivion

2× Widespread Annihilation

80 cards View on FaBrary

Quirks of My List

Now that we got that stuff out of the way, we can talk about why I have certain cards in my list.

Armor

Face Purgatory

Face is hands-down one of the best head equipment in the game; being able to force your opponent to discard a card on their turn usually means that their turn will be less impactful overall. Additionally, if you time it well enough, the discarded card will be a chain ender like Maximum Velocity, Pummel, or even Codex of Frailty. There will be games where this does just become a 2-block piece of armor, but the amount of tempo you can generate from this card usually means you’re overblocking on a weaker attack to get the disruptive effect.

“Block, trigger Face, discard your Max V. Yeah, you’re pissed.”

Crown of Dichotomy

Crown of Dichotomy is a new piece of tech specifically in the list to combat Verdance. This, along with Dyadic Carapace, means you can bring AB 3 into Verdance while also bringing Reaping Blade to mitigate their life-gain. Additionally, in late game scenarios, it can set up a hail mary hand to close out the game. Verdance is an extremely horrible matchup, so this is my one and only sideboard slot for her.

Fyendal’s Spring Tunic

One of the most ubiquitous chest pieces in the game, Fyendal’s Spring Tunic makes almost every Vynnset list, and it will be played into every matchup where Dyadic Carapace’s AB 2 and 3-Block aren’t important. This card has massive synergy with Spellbound Creepers, it allows my deck to run more 1-costs (Envelop in Darkness and Runeblood Incantation), and I love that I can use it to swing Reaping Blade.

Dyadic Carapace

I don’t know why LSS gave Runeblade AB 2 and Temper 2 on a piece of equipment. This card is too good for what it does.

“As a Runeblade player, I deserve everything and more.”

Grasp of the Arknight

One of the primary differences between my Vynnset list and many more mainstream Vynnset lists is the heavy use of Grasp of the Arknight over Vexing Quillhand. While on the surface Vexing Quillhand may seem more synergistic with Vynnset’s kit and smoothing out Runeblade hands, I enjoy the fact that Grasp of the Arknight helps Vynnset in three distinct areas where Vexing Quillhand falls short:

Blocking: First, one of the primary drawbacks to Vynnset is that she requires you to keep multiple cards in hand if you want to play a non-Rune Gate card. Because of this, being able to insulate cards in hand on turns when your opponent sends on-hit effects via blocking with Grasp of the Arknight is especially good.
Setup: Second, when you start up a game as Vynnset, more often than not you will take your first turn off in order to set up both a banished Shadow card and Runechants for a future turn. Because many of your Rune Gates cost 3, if you start the game without auras or effects that can lead to you having 3 Runechants on turn two, it can result in you taking a second turn in a row off just to set up. Both Grasp of the Arknight and Vexing Quillhand can mitigate this problem, but whereas Grasp of the Arknight is a repeatable effect, Vexing Quillhand requires you to break the equipment in order to gain its Runechant generating benefit. Additionally, pitching to Grasp of the Arknight makes your turn zero/turn one plays very consistent.
Cycling: Finally, Vynnset often draws up a hand of multiple Rune Gate attacks. Other than the fact that these attack action cards can profitably block on an opponent’s turn, more than one Rune Gate card in a hand usually doesn’t amount to much in terms of maximizing the value out of your hand. Therefore, having a way to cycle allows you to convert more hands, especially when you have full tempo. Additionally, having a way to cycle means you can more reliably see the powerful non-attack actions and runechant generators in your deck.

“It’s like Vexing Quillhand, except it blocks 3!”

Spellbound Creepers

Another auto-include for Vynnset, there is no reason why she should be running any other leg piece. This card is often up for multiple turns in Vynnset when you use it, and will be used multiple times in the scenarios where it is up for more than two turns. The fact that Vynnset can use Creepers and force it to stay up by paying life to Shadow non-attack actions also makes this card insane for Vynnset. Although the ceiling of this card is very high, there are times when it will be a glorified Ironrot Legs, mostly against heroes that are more aggressive (Cindra, Dash I/O, Fang, and Oscillio).

Reaping Blade

I love Reaping Blade. It is by far one of the strongest weapons for Runeblade and it’s not hard to see why: it costs 1 to attack for 3. That math is just good. It also synergizes well with Tunic and can be used to cycle cards just like Grasp. Additionally, having a consistent option to push damage against decks that want to play more fatigue-happy into you is another way you can win against those styles of decks: suddenly they are the ones giving you a card while you’re the one pitching. Finally, that relevant piece of text that says players can’t gain life if they’re at higher life feels just magnificent, especially with more players putting Sigil of Solace, Fiddler's Green, Arcane Polarity, and Sirens of Safe Harbor into their decks.

The look on an earth player’s face when they realize their Everbloom//Life does nothing: priceless.

Flail of Agony/Bloodied Oval/Grimoire of the Haunt

The strongest part about Flail of Agony, in my opinion, is the fact that it is one-handed: allowing you to use an off-hand with it. There are synergies that Flail has with your Rune Gate attacks, but unless your opponent is playing aggressively—and is not willing to block most of your attacks—I find that this weapon almost never actually connects and creates a Runechant. The only time I find Flail necessary is when dealing with Illusionists’ Spectra Auras.
Bloodied Oval is here to block physical attacks in aggro matchups, as well as be a target for T-Bone against Mechanologists. Grimoire of the Haunt is the most powerful of these three pieces of equipment. Having a convenient source of Arcane Barrier when you run into another Runeblade or Wizard is powerful, and the Eloquence-generating effect is very useful for closing out games.

“Attack for 1”

Cards in Deck

Choice of Rune Gate Attacks

Other than the typical playsets of many standard Rune Gates that go into every Vynnset list, my list contains certain Rune Gates that are 2ofs: Eloquent Eulogy, Vantom Banshee, Deathly Wail Blue, and Widespread Annihilation.

Eloquent Eulogy is powerful in the fact that if you have no Runechants, you can send this card by itself for a 1 card 5 if you block with 3 cards, and in late game scenarios, it is a boon to draw. Vynnset, however, doesn’t want to be in scenarios where she has no Runechants and is forced to bank on this card to save her. Additionally, as I have said before, Vynnset wants to be sending large attacks that have a high impact-to-card ratio. In my experience, that ratio on Eulogy just isn’t there in most games; and if the text on this card is negligible (which it often is), I’d rather run vanilla attacks that do more damage.
Vantom Banshee is strong but has the problem of not having relevant text for the work it takes to send. Getting to 3 Runechants is not always easy for Vynnset, and she would much rather take the 1 value on attack and swap it for the value of making Runechants or having a debilitating on-damage effect.
Deathly Wail is arguably the strongest Rune Gate to Vynnset, and getting the value on the red and yellow copies of this card is how she is able to reliably generate a healthy stack of Runechants turn-to-turn. The value proposition of this card becomes a lot weaker in blue, and since we are already running 6 copies in other colors, having only 2 here has felt correct.
Widespread Annihilation is the strongest disruptive Rune Gate attack, but it suffers from the opposite problem of Eloquent Eulogy: the fact that it is prohibitively hard to play because of its strong effect. If my list was running a bit more Runechant generation and support for this card, I would definitely consider running a playset. As it stands, however, I enjoy having 2 in my list.

Beseech the Demigon

Beseech the Demigon (red) is one of those cards that finds itself into a lot of Vynnset lists, usually for very good reasons. First, it is a card that allows you to convert extra cards from your hand. Second, it makes your attacks taller to do more damage. Finally, it is a Shadow non-attack action that can be used to turn on Vynnset’s ability as well as the reciprocal pain effects of many Rune Gate cards.

In addition to the reasons listed above, I have found Beseech the Demigon to be one of the most powerful innocuous-looking cards for Vynnset because of two other reasons. First, this card pairs insanely well with Succumb to Temptation: not only does it create unpreventable arcane damage for opponents so that Succumb’s instant speed playability is always online, but it also makes your attacks taller to pave the way for Succumb’s crippling on-hit ability. Secondly, this pump makes opponents less inclined to block out not only the damage of your Rune Gate attack, but also the Runechants that go along with it. There are many scenarios where you will send 3 Runechants with a Rune Gate attack, but if your opponent has a blue, more likely than not, they are covering the 3 Runechants with their blue. If you force one of the Runechants through with Vynnset’s ability, they are suddenly less incentivized to pitch their blue if they’re only getting 2 value out of preventing 2 Runechants; therefore, this card can often turn your Rune Gate attacks into guaranteed 3 arcane and plus 3 physical damage.

Snap 3-of.

Runeblood Incantation

As stated previously, having Runechant generation is crucial to Vynnset’s gameplan. Runeblood Incantation can fill the role of having another source of purple circles, and I almost always include it in a matchup where I will be running Tunic. Additionally, it has a unique synergy with Deadwood Dirge. Because Incantation will stay around for one extra turn after it has depleted all its counters, you can Deadwood Dirge an empty Runeblood Incantation for full value from the Dirge, instead of netting only 2 Runechants when you target a Runechant with it. Do be wary that, unlike Vynnset’s hero ability, Runeblood Incantation triggers at the start of your action phase, meaning your opponent can respond with a Ripple Away, Chum activation, or Arc Light Sentinel.

More purple circle = good = we run 3 of these

Haunting Rendition/Reduce to Runechant

Both Haunting Rendition and Reduce to Runechant are defensive tools that can generate Runechants. If I find myself in a matchup where I will need to be somewhat defensive, Reduce to Runechant is usually the first card I add to the list to shore up my defenses. Haunting Rendition will come in when I really need to batten down the hatches or when I see a Flick Knives abuser.

This make purple circle too and block 4? 3 of for each!

Envelop in Darkness

I will be completely honest, Envelop in Darkness is a card I deeply love, and is a card that I will keep in my list for as long as I can. For the functionality side of things, it is a great card that can fulfill many of the same roles as Beseech the Demigon, but it is simply outclassed by the fact that it costs 1. Your hero already starts at basically 3 intellect, paying for cards is not something Vynnset likes to do, so unless the Envelop can line up perfectly with Tunic, it is a glorified 2-block.

Now if it said your next attack gets Go Again, we would be so up, alas our boy is by himself at 1 copy in red…

meme of Wolverine looking longingly at a picture of yellow Envelop in Darkness

Mauvrion Skies (Red/Blue)

Mauvrion Skies is another Go Again enabler in the list, and is quite powerful versus Gravy Bones. Because I am running Grasp of the Arknight, I find myself boarding in the blues into many matchups because the flexibility of being able to pitch it as well as play it is invaluable to my build. Additionally, most opponents will respect the on-hit of even a blue Mauvrion Skies, buying you cards from their hand. Finally, against opponents that don’t like to block you––Cindra, Fai, Oscillio, Dash––the red Mauvrions are worth running to slow them down if they respect you, or generate you 3 free Runechants if they don’t.

This maybe make more purple circle? 2-of seems fair for each.

Mordred Tide

Mordred Tide is my go-to card versus fatigue/defensive decks. It pairs very well with our Malefic Incantations, as it makes each verse counter generate 2 Runechants instead of 1 for the turn. Additionally, it can make Deathly Wail generate 3 Runechants, which makes each Deathly Wail combo into the next. Usually into defensive decks, you will want to arsenal this card, stick a few Malefic Incantations on board without playing Rune Gates and stack your banished zone. Then, when you have 3 Rune Gates and sufficient Go Again sources to attack, you pop this to make a big-damage spike turn to get over their hand of blues and d-reacts.

We run 2

“It’s Mordred Time baby!”

Pummel (Peak!)

Pummel is a newer inclusion that hasn’t seen super serious play in Vynnset since the pre-Rosetta days. I really enjoy it for the surprise factor it can create, especially against any defensive deck that will not respect Pummel. This is yet another card that has found a home in the Verdance matchup, but I have also killed a few Kassais with this devious attack reaction. If you are lucky enough to resolve both Pummel and Succumb to Temptation on the same attack, make sure to resolve Pummel’s discard trigger first, allowing you to make a decision based on the two or three cards they end up keeping.

E.g. Your Verdance opponent’s hand is Blue Autumn's touch, Mental Block, Felling of the Crown, and Light up the Leaves. If you were to resolve Succumb to Temptation’s discard trigger first, no matter what card you picked from their hand, they could still either send Light up the Leaves or Felling of the Crown by choosing to discard a blue if you made them discard a red or choose to discard a red if you made them discard a blue. If you instead make them first discard a card with the trigger from pummel, then take a look at their hand with Succumb, you can always brick their turn by forcing them to discard the same color card that they already chose to discard.

Make sure to let your opponent know that your Guardian friends also send their regards when you Pummel them with the 1of:

Marcus Brown signed Pummel that says "You've been taken to Brown Town"

Invert Existence

Another card for Gravy Bones, Invert Existence is surprisingly useful in a lot more scenarios than just banishing those scurvy dogs. Let me be clear that this card is only here because Gravy exists, and you should probably hide this card in your arsenal versus him, but I also find use for it in Verdance and Cindra. For Cindra, it is pretty straightforward: they flick daggers, then you banish their daggers when she uses her hero power to retrieve them. For Verdance, it is a bit of a weirder tech card. If you draw Invert early into Verdance you can deny a Decompose trigger. If you draw it in the mid-game, it’s not bad as a blue to pitch to Arcane Barrier. And in the late game, you can sometimes snipe Verdance when she tries to kill you in order to steal a game. I will say that Invert should not be a card you hold in the matchup into Verdance, but as I have said, the matchup is so miserable that any weird card you put in is probably good just to marginally increase your win percentage.

2 copies is fine.

“He inverted my daggers on turn 2!”

Oblivion

Ah Nasreth, I wish I could summon you in every game. Something about Oblivion just seems so cinematic and cool. I do want to point out that you need exactly 6 Runechants to play the card, but this can be navigated through attacks: because each Runechant triggers separately, you can attack with more than 6 Runechants and wait until you have only 6 that have not triggered yet before resolving Oblivion and summoning Nasreth. Additionally, Malefic Incantations trigger during the same window that Runechants trigger, so if you find that you have only 4 Runechants but you have 2 Malefic Incantations, you can stack the triggers on an attack to generate 2 Runechants from the Malefics, play Oblivion, then trigger your 4 Runechants to deal arcane damage. Oblivion only comes into games where you are also bringing in Tunic because you will need time in order to set up an Oblivion. Additionally, one of the skills of playing with Oblivion is setting up suitable disruption around Nasreth so that your opponent can’t just kill your demon friend on their following turn. I personally like to make sure I have either a Cull in banish with my Rune Gate attack or a Widespread Annihilation to pair with Oblivion.

Don’t cheat, you can only run 1.

“You never know when you might have 6 Runechants lying around ya know?”

Cards NOT in Deck

Now that we got past the more intellectual part of the deck tech, I get the privilege of telling you why some cards are trash.

Painful Passage

Painful Passage is bait. It's the newest Vynnset card on the block and it seems appealing at first glance: it banishes cards to allow you to play, it can give Go Again or buff an attack, it’s a Shadow non-attack action, and it blocks for 3. For a player that understands all the things that Vynnset does, this card seems insane and should be a 3of in the deck. Why this isn’t included in the deck at all is simply because Vynnset’s first line in her hero ability already exists along with the fact that there are not enough non-attack actions in the cardpool to support such a greedy card. Let’s break it down:

You want to play Painful Passage, ok. What’s the best hand for Painful Passage to exist in?

When I have 2 Rune Gate cards in hand along with my Painful Passage.
Hopefully one of the Rune Gate cards is Deathly Wail and the other is a 2 cost Rune Gate card so I can play Painful Passage, give Go Again and attack again.

What if you don’t have 2 Rune Gate cards in hand to begin with?

Having a 3 block isn’t bad, but this card probably replaced another Go Again enabler or pump that you could play instead to swing your weapon.

What if you do have 2 Rune Gate attacks but don’t have a Deathly Wail in hand?

You will have to find a way to make Runechants if you want to benefit off of the banish Painful Passage gives you. Otherwise Painful Passage, on the turn you play it, becomes +3 attack, lose 1 life. Additionally, if you cut more Go Again enablers in your deck, you might have trouble finding a way to convert the extra Rune Gate cards in banish, and Painful Passage could easily lose you another 2 to 3 life depending on how many turns the extra card stays in banish.

What if I already have Malefic Incantations/ways to make Runechants already on board so I can benefit off of the Go Again?

Sounds great! You will still need to have 2 Rune Gate attacks in hand, and you won’t have Runechants to start your next turn with.

To even play Painful Passage profitably you have to keep extra Rune Gate attacks in your hand. That means that we will be forced to block with other non-attack actions (the majority of which block for 2 in this deck), and if we don’t block with them, we will need to find a way to convert them in a turn where Painful Passage is our main focus. Additionally, even when the conditions for Painful Passage are perfect, we will still be forced to start our next turn without Runechants unless we have two or more Malefic Incantations on board to go along with the Deathly Wail and 2 cost Rune Gate card in hand.

Now is this card actually trash? No. This card can be great for finishing games and finding a spike turn, and I would even recommend this card for a lower-life format like Blitz. In CC, however, the card pool isn’t set up in such a way to support this card. If we get more attacks that can be played from banish while making Runechants (like a Spellblade Assault from banish), more non-attack actions that can be played from banish or want to be played from banish, or more Go Again enablers/Runechant generating non-attack actions that block for 3, this card can be strong.

As it stands however…

popular "The Office" meme of Pam showing two things that are identical but asking someone else to tell the difference: the two pictures are of a "Bait" token and Painful Passage

Funeral Moon

I loathe Funeral Moon with a burning passion. It sucks. You cannot convince me that a card that only makes 1 Runechant in red is good. I would much rather run yellow Deadwood Dirge than this card.

“I don’t believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, or Funeral Moon.”

Blessing of Occult

Just run Read the Runes.

"Oh yeah huh"

Read the Runes

Don’t run this card.

Ok, ok. Jokes aside, could definitely become more playable depending on meta and new cards in PEN.

Arcane Cussing

If a good amount of the deck was Shadow non-attack actions, Arcane Cussing would be fairly strong. The fact that we cannot always create a scenario where Cussing is guaranteed to activate through Vynnset’s ability means that, although it is a card that generates multiple Runechants and has Go Again, it unfortunately does not make the cut. Additionally, if there was a world where Vynnset wanted to pitch every turn, this card would be playable.

Just run Runeblood Incantation lol.

Ebon Fold

Ebon Fold is a sick card and I truly wish it was more playable. As it stands, the opportunity cost of not having Face Purgatory makes this card infinitely worse. Additionally, since the LL of Kano, I don’t feel a need to have Spellvoid 2.

Revel in Runeblood

Revel in Runeblood is an exceptional card. Whenever you can resolve Revel in Runeblood, it is by far the best card you can be playing to generate sufficient Runechants for a Rune Gate attack. My list, however, is not built to maximize Revel in Runeblood’s value because it is not running all three copies of Widespread Annihilation and Vantom Banshee. Additionally, I have 8 copies of Deathly Wail that don’t often like to be paired with a card like Revel. If we get more high cost Rune Gate cards that don’t make Runechants (hint hint) or if I no longer feel the need to run 8 copies of Deathly Wail, it will definitely make a comeback.

Sonata Galaxia

I have been on the fence many times about Sonata Galaxia. There are many pros and cons I could espouse about this card and create a mini-debate here, but I think the main reason why Sonata Galaxia doesn’t make the list boils down to the fact that I am on Grasp of the Arknight mainboard and not Vexing Quillhand. Popping Quillhand for 2 Runechants makes this card cost 1 if you want the Go Again clause of the card to be active (because you will be on 3 Runechants with Quillhand and the start of turn banish to Vynnset), and this card is outstanding if it consistently has Go Again.

Matchups

VYNNSET PSA: IF YOU WIN THE DIE ROLL, ALWAYS CHOOSE TO GO FIRST!!!

Time to move onto what happens when you sit down to play a game. Vynnset, especially with my list, will play very differently when paired against different heroes. Unlike with other classes or heroes who can always enact their gameplan, Vynnset needs to be played in a rather reactionary manner, and understanding your opponent is most imperative.

In this vein, Vynnset has two distinct playstyles that will change how you play the game, and what decisions/cards you value.

The first playstyle is something I like to call midrange/trade-happy. This is characterized by the Vynnset player consistently sending one Rune Gate attack every turn and blocking with the majority of the cards in hand. This style of play is very suitable if you find your opponent is not blocking that much and you can utilize the fact that you have one-card-9 damage effects in your deck.
The second playstyle is more setup-focused/turtle-burst in practice. This is characterized by the Vynnset player taking off-turns to set up multiple auras and leaking damage to Blood Debt in order to keep cards in banish. This style of play is more suitable if you find your opponent blocking a lot and not sending a lot of damage.

Over the course of a game, you can often find yourself switching between these playstyles, especially as your opponents’ gameplay changes in accordance to what they believe to be their win condition. The matchups that are easiest to navigate are those that you can focus on only one of these gameplans, but to win with Vynnset you must go confidently into the hard-to-navigate matchups and recognize when to switch between playstyles and adapt to conditions.

vynnset 0.1

Vynnset, Iron Maiden · Classic Constructed

Arena

Red — 46 cards

3× Beseech the Demigon

3× Cull

3× Deadwood Dirge

3× Deathly Delight

2× Eloquent Eulogy

1× Envelop in Darkness

3× Haunting Rendition

2× Mordred Tide

1× Pummel

3× Reduce to Runechant

3× Runeblood Incantation

3× Shadow Puppetry

2× Vantom Banshee

3× Vantom Wraith

3× Widespread Ruin

Yellow — 12 cards

3× Succumb to Temptation

3× Widespread Destruction

Blue — 12 cards

2× Deathly Wail

2× Invert Existence

3× Machinations of Dominion