Introduction

Iyslander. We're back. Kind of.

A disclaimer before we begin: is this the best deck in the format? Definitely not. Is it good? Er, maybe... Is it playable? Probably. 

Basically I want to be upfront about the power level of this deck in the current SAGE format - it isn't up there with the likes of Kayo, Briar, Kano etc, and the lack of her showing in the SAGE PQ weeks speaks for itself. The recent unbanning of Amulet of Ice definitely helps the deck a fair bit, but the most recent Banned and Restricted announcement also brings with it a (likely) reduction in the number of Briars around which is one of our best matchups; and if the reduction in Briar means an increase in Kayo, well, that's not great for us either. Though I am very happy that I don't need to suffer through them discarding Sirens of Safe Harbor to my Winter's Bites.

Why play Iyslander?

So that being said, why play this hero? There are a few reasons. Firstly, she is quite agnostic of going first or second, which is appealing especially to those who dislike how some matchups in SAGE can feel die-roll dependent. For Iyslander, going first often means you get to leak some arcane damage and also set up disruption in your arsenal, while going second still retains the advantages that it always does–getting to start the game with tempo, so you're usually happy either way.

Secondly, she is incredibly fun and dynamic. There are always important decisions to be made with this hero and she rewards deep knowledge across what I consider to be the most exciting aspects of Flesh and Blood: how yours and your opponent's gameplans interact with each other, understanding the threats you have left in deck, and how life thresholds influence the gameplans and cause them to shift over the course of the game.

And finally, if you're anything like me and fusing an Aether Icevein brings a tear to your eye, then there isn't really any other choice, is there?

A preamble on ratios

The place where I always start my deck techs. This section is about the important ratios to consider when sideboarding and, in this case, it also includes a discussion on upgrades to look out for in the future.

Blues

I like 26 blues out of 40 total cards. This near-guarantees that you have at least one blue per hand, and also very importantly keeps a high chance that you see your ideal red-to-blue ratio every hand which is one red and three blues. This is your ideal hand texture because one red and three blues lets you consistently cycle through playing a blue from your arsenal on their turn, playing a red on your turn, and then refreshing your arsenal with another blue. 

A note for the math nerds out there: the ideal number of blues to have in the deck to fully maximize the chance that you hit one red and three blues every hand is 30 (which makes a lot of intuitive sense: if you want to maximize the chance of 3/4 of every hand being blue then you want to have 3/4 of your deck be blue). However, with 26 blues instead, we take a little bit of a consistency hit for power because if you draw too many all-blue hands in a game of SAGE you will simply fall over. Also, there are some reds we actually don't mind seeing alongside other reds such as Scar for a Scar and On the Horizon, so we can cheat a little on that front too.

Maybe one day we'll get the Mystic treatment and get some blues that play as reds, which would allow us to get to the ideal 30 blue count but one can only hope.

Ice cards

Here's the real sticking point of the deck in SAGE in my opinion: we are scraping the bottom of the barrel for Ice cards. The lack of Waning Moon means cards like Cold Snap and Polar Blast are no longer the solid inclusions they were in CC, which leaves us very little in the way of getting up to that critical mass of Ice blues to fuel one of our most powerful play patterns–Fuse an elemental card and then arsenal a blue Ice card that we can play on their turn. The deck is only at 14 of these all-important glue pieces, which affects her consistency a lot, and this is one of the first places I am looking for upgrades in when LSS finally dares to return to an Ice set. PEN, unfortunately, only gave us Channel Galcia's Cradle which at some point, I am ashamed to admit, I was desperate enough to try out... alongside Conquer the Icy Terrain to have the effect actually be meaningful, and... well, you can imagine how that turned out. 

Ideally we can get up to at least 18 blue Ice cards at some point, and even better if those Ice cards don't need to include Frost Spike (did you know that if you have an exposed equipment zone and your opponent doesn't, you are forced to create a Frostbite on yourself with that card? Yep it's true.)

Gameplans

At the heart of it, Iyslander's gameplan in SAGE mimics the one she had in CC - play decent value turn cycles, make up for some of your lower-value plays with disruption, and then finish off the game with arcane on their turn. This translates directly to your arsenal priority as the game progresses–earlier in the game it is much more valuable to arsenal your disruptives pieces (Winter's Bite, Arctic Incarceration) and as your opponent's health total drops you can start to arsenal your tall arcane spells (Emeritus Scolding, Voltic Bolt). There is an exception here when it comes to the pure fatigue matchup (think AB5 Oldhim) which we'll get into in that section.

A note on arsenaling: you don't always have to arsenal blues. This was true for Iyslander in CC but it is even more true in SAGE because there is no Waning Moon that you are repeatedly trying to activate on your opponent’s turn every cycle. So, there are many times where blocking with your blue Frosting is preferable to getting that in arsenal (block for 3 generally outweighs deal 1 + 1 Frostbite, unless you're against an extremely redline deck like Briar where the Frostbite effectively 'blocks' by making them pitch an extra card). And instead, if you put a Wounded Bull in there, sure you give them one turn cycle where they didn't need to pay extra (though good players typically plan around getting a Frostbite anyway so you get some implicit value there), but it gives you the life buffer you need to resolve your high-value plays.

Against redline aggro

This is where we are at our most comfortable. Against a deck like Briar where their cards are almost entirely red, you can view each Frostbite as blocking 3-4 damage since it costs them a whole extra card to continue their turn. Briar specifically is even more generous to us than other redline aggro decks because of the Embodiments of Earth that they generate - remember that these will trigger at the beginning of their action phase, giving you a priority window to bestow upon them a Frostbite or two, which means disrupting them before they even get a chance to play a card. For this reason, make sure you remind your opponent to create an Embodiment of Earth when they land a hit on you (it is not an optional trigger).

Arsenal priority: Winter's Bite, Arctic Incarceration, Brain Freeze, any Ice card

The arsenal priority here is fairly straightforward: keep cycling disruptive pieces in there until they get low enough for you to finish them off with a tall spell. This is the only gameplan where putting something like a blue Frosting in arsenal can actually be correct because of how important a single Frostbite can be. I've often thought of an Ice card in arsenal effectively being a pseudo-defense reaction in these matchups because of how much damage I effectively 'block' by making them pitch an extra card to the Frostbite. 

Against midrange

A note on the midrange plan before we begin here: two Arcane Polarities and AB3 is not enough to fatigue you. As long as you are able to keep in mind a sense of how much threat you have remaining and are able to recognize early enough if your opponent starts to pivot to fatigue, you do not actually need to board in the full combo package to overcome this. This is especially true now with Amulet of Ice returning to the deck, allowing us to set up turns with greater offensive overlap than the midrange deck can effectively block.

So with that, you don't need to bring in the Energy Potions or Isenhowl Weathervanes for these matchups. If you want to hedge a little, I've often found it useful to bring in one red Arctic Incarceration just to combo with an Ice Eternal in second cycle for that little bit of extra push to finish off the game, but with the midrange decks also losing access to the incidental lifegain provided by Sirens of Safe Harbor, I doubt that even this is necessary anymore. Only do this if you are certain they are on some extra hate for you like Oasis Respite.

Arsenal priority: Winter's Bite, Amulet of Ice, Scar for a Scar, tall arcane spells

The arsenal priority here focuses on one thing in particular: Go Again. Having consistent Go Again is what ensures that you are constantly leaking damage into them, because simply sending one Wounded Bull or Fyendal's Fighting Spirit a turn is something a midrange deck is happy to put two cards and a piece of armor in front of and then retort back. This playstyle feeds into what midrange actively wants to be doing. Plays like Winter's Bite or Scar for a Scar into another threat are what ensure you are constantly reducing their life total and getting them into kill range as soon as possible. Tall arcane spells help a lot here too, and are often the best thing to put in arsenal after one of your "go wide" turns, i.e. something like Scar -> Bull -> arsenal Emeritus for 5 extra damage on their turn. This is also the gameplan where I arsenal reds the most, because something like a red Ice Bolt is guaranteed to leak damage whereas giving them a Frostbite often doesn't do enough, either because they have some resources to spare anyway or because they're not going wide enough for the Frostbite to matter (think a Decimator Great Axe deck just swinging the axe at you).

Against fatigue

We don't have Frost Hex or Insidious Chill in SAGE, so how do we overcome the terrorists who present AB5, two Arcane Polarities, two Oasis Respites, and just block everything we do while just swinging a weapon at us when they get space (looking at you Oldhim)?

The answer is a combination of what was outlined in the midrange plan above + setting up a large Ice Eternal combo; yep, we're pitch stacking in 2026. One note here: the combo itself is not enough, you must be leaking damage throughout the first cycle via the plays mentioned above: Scar for a Scar/Winter's Bite -> red threat -> arsenal a blue spell. Make sure that you aren't wasting your precious Go Again cards on weak turn cycles that don't leak damage and, to that end, it is perfectly acceptable sometimes to just block their weapon with some dud cards and IP your Go Again card. They usually still bring in their 4-block cards in this matchup and also have a bunch of other defensive pieces in the deck so giving them full tempo is usually not an issue.

Also remember: you can always pitch to Crucible of Aetherweave to set up the reds you need in second cycle easily, and you likely will have to in order to make sure the Weathervanes end up where you need them to be. So, what is the combo? It involves setting up two Energy Potions in first cycle and having a pitch stack consisting of:

Two Isenhowl Weathervane 

Two Ice Eternal 

and any Ice card 

To properly execute this, you must make sure that once you pitch the first piece of the combo, you only pitch combo pieces and blue cards from then on–having reds in the stack can absolutely mess up the amount of damage you get to present. I know this sounds like "oh, so you need to see those pieces in the correct order in the first cycle to begin with" but that's where the overblocking their weapon with dud cards comes in and is extremely relevant, you can't risk polluting the pitch stack once you've started setting it up.

The combo itself involves using both Energy Potions and both Weathervanes to play one Fused Ice Eternal on your turn and then arsenaling the second Ice Eternal and playing it on their turn–effectively double-dipping on the Frostbites you created on your turn. Small note on Frost Spike here: if Frost Spike is the card you Fuse your Ice Eternal with (which comes up quite often since you're never playing that card in these matchups), you can respond after fusing to play the Frost Spike for +1 damage since it will create the Frostbite (from Iyslander's hero ability) and then when the Ice Eternal resolves it sees the additional Frostbite.

In practice though, I've found that I've rarely needed the full combo. The fatigue player typically realizes at some point that they will not survive if we get to second cycle and starts trying to pivot to applying pressure on you. Here's where you need to be aware of the reverse of what was discussed in the midrange section–there, you had to be mindful of the midrange opponent pivoting to fatigue, but here you have to be aware of the fatigue player pivoting to midrange/aggro. This typically involves them leaking damage to send back something big (like a Glacial Footsteps) and when you notice them doing this you might need to react accordingly; this can involve making plays like using the Energy Potions you set up earlier for tempo rather than saving them for a combo you might not need.

Arsenal priority: Truly dynamic; on the turn cycles where you are going wide you want to arsenal blue spells, and on setup turns you want to arsenal E-pots/Amulets for the combo, and on the combo turn you want to arsenal Ice Eternal.

Notable inclusions

Succumb to Winter + Glacial Horns

The synergy here is to activate Glacial Horns to freeze their arsenal and then play a Fused Succumb to Winter to blow up their arsenal (note that the arsenal destruction happens regardless of whether the Succumb deals damage). This is particularly effective in the fatigue MUs where the only cards they arsenal are Arcane Polarity or Oasis Respite, and we don't need the extra life buffer from more armor anyway.

To be painfully honest, this is just my pet synergy duo that makes me happy. You absolutely can cut these for more 'standard' value cards like swapping the helmet for Blade Beckoner and the Succumb for red Voltic Bolt or a big red attack. Indeed, for faster MUs where you might not see the Succumb early enough that would probably be the right call.

Polar Cap

I've been referring to this as copies 3-4 of red Aether Icevein. Since we only have Crucible as our weapon, the cost curve works out where this card comes in for 5 (just like red Aether Icevein) and, depending on the matchup, often makes your opponent spend an extra card to make their play (think against a redline aggro deck or even against a Decimator Greataxe). This is one of those cards that seems questionable on paper but feels a lot stronger when you resolve it.

That being said, cutting these for yellow Aether Icevein instead is definitely an option if you'd rather go that route. This would sacrifice a little bit of power (yellow Icevein is typically only going to come in for 4 while Polar Cap typically comes in for 5) but the resource base gets improved slightly which can be relevant.

Notable exclusions

Absorb in Aether

Please don't play this card. There are several reasons why.

1. Putting this in arsenal feels terrible since there's no way for you to make use of the effect once it's in arsenal. That effectively makes this a block card instead of a defense reaction, and a block card that costs 1 to boot. It could be argued that you commit your Spellfire Cloak to pay for this, but note that in most matchups we actually bring in Blade Beckoner Plating instead of Spellfire Cloak, which means now you've given up armor to try and resolve this card and it ends up being a wash.

2. We are very rarely incentivized to put damaging spells in our arsenal. Our arsenal priority is typically disruption against aggro decks (so cards like Winter's Bite and Arctic Incarceration), Go Again pieces against midrange decks (Winter's Bite, Scar for a Scar), or combo pieces against fatigue decks (Energy Potion, Amulet of Ice). None of these in arsenal play nicely with Absorb in Aether, making the number of times this card actually does something very very rare. The times where we are arsenaling spells are usually when we are executing the go wide on our turn -> spell on their turn cycle, but in most of those cases the opponent is not attacking us so we cannot leverage the defense reaction anyway. You feel very foolish drawing this when the Oldhim spends 3 cards blocking your go wide turn and then just holds 1 card and says pass on their turn.

Potential considerations

Yellow Aether Icevein

Mentioned in the Polar Cap section. Totally reasonable replacement if you'd prefer the slightly higher resource base (2 yellows coming in for 2 reds) and the disruption that about half the time is more meaningful (a midrange deck with many blues being forced into giving you an extra card on your turn is much better than them needing to pitch an extra blue on their turn to pay through a Frostbite), at the cost of a bit of damage.

Yellow Winter's Bite

You will note that your strongest turn cycles often involve Winter's Bite. Indeed, before the Amulet of Ice unbanning my list had 2 yellow Winter's Bites instead. I've taken them out now that we have Amulet back but it is totally reasonable to find another cut in the list for these - it is that strong.

Snapback

The much better alternative to Absorb in Aether in my opinion. If you really like the play pattern of sending more arcane on your opponent's turn than they are expecting, I would lean towards Snapback first before going anywhere near Absorb in Aether. Snapback does not require your opponent to attack you (you just need a spell in arsenal) and also has the floor of letting you block 3 with it, no questions asked. It still has the big problem of being a bad arsenal target (just like Absorb) and it’s anti-synergistic with the cards we typically want to arsenal (you cannot Snapback at instant speed after playing Arctic Incarceration on their turn for example) so that's why it didn't end up making my final list, but there are definitely spots where it shines and can win you a game out of nowhere.

Blade Beckoner Helm

Mentioned in the Succumb to Winter section. A very reasonable and arguably better alternative to the admittedly kinda cute Succumb + Glacial Horns combo. Ideally the list fits Blade Beckoner Helm alongside the Succumb combo because of how relevant blowing up opponents’ arsenals can be in the fatigue MUs (you will be surprised how often that play snipes an Oasis Respite or Arcane Polarity), but in the aggro MUs it can be a little too delicate and there have definitely been times I would have preferred to have this instead of Glacial Horns.

Conclusion

While we wait for LSS to give us our beloved Ice queen back in CC, SAGE is where we will be relegated to enjoying her majesty for now. No promises on her power level and place in the meta, but I can say that she offers a similar level of depth in terms of gameplay as she did in CC, and fusing Aether Iceveins still never gets old. I have had an extremely enjoyable experience playing this deck and I hope you do too!