Blitz Deck Tech: Levia, Shadow Brute

Haven't found yourself a Blitz deck yet? Understand how the Shadow Brute heroine can be used in the format, using her pact with the shadows to perform explosive turns, leading the opponent to perform unfavorable blocks

Some people like the idea of ​​playing with themed decks, and at the same time well positioned in the meta. Levia as a heroine has an incredible history, especially for lovers of Lovecraft and cosmic horror, as the Shadow Brute's card artwork also hints at her depictions of evil cosmic entities.

At the same time, in a fast format where heroes start with around 20 life for the most part, the aggressiveness of the cards in the deck always looking to attack +6 per turn and with go again for even stronger attacks is perfect for the format.

Talking a bit more about Lore, Levia, Shadowborn Abomination comes from a poor family, always destined to serve the nobles of the northern kingdoms. Doomed to servitude, Levia and her mother after her father's sudden disappearance were at the service of the Barthimont Family and their mentor Lady Barthimont, and as the nobility declined, Levia's mother discovered unimaginable horrors studied by the family (represented in Convulsions from the Bellows of Hell (1)), enough to flee the castle they inhabited in despair.

Levia, on the other hand, went on to investigate the rituals and knowledge of the dark arts, and after a ritual with a terrible and unimaginable price, she got the dark power at a single cost: free, but with a thirst to consume and devastate.

Decklist

Mechanically, our heroine allows the use of cards with Blood Debt without their life loss downside. However, as this requires +6 attack cards to be banished, one should always be aware of the blocks performed during the game, thus making the deck challenging to pilot, since the more experience with the deck, the more rewarding its plays can be.

In an average turn, it is expected to always attack with +6 attack, already in planned turns it can attack up to 19 damage. Cards like Dread Screamer (1) are the ones that allow heavy attacks and go again, but with the cost of setup turns so that they can happen.

Ravenous Meataxe is the weapon of choice for the deck. On most turns, it will represent 5 attack, as we rotate several +6 attack cards into the discard, benefiting most of our attack cards (we need to banish 3 cards from our graveyard to attack) and our own weapon.

For most of the first turns, only the weapon attack will be performed, since we need to fill our graveyard to use our attacks. When it is down to 6-8 cards, then the deck starts using the graveyard as fuel, as will be explained in the deck section.

As for equipment slots, the boots of choice are Hooves of the Shadowbeast. The effect activated as a 6+ card is banished is super common, and gaining 1 action point is also super relevant in this deck. The most common play is to break the boot in turns that we want to pressure the opponent's hand to block a big attack, thus creating the disruption of play expected by them, and more opportunity.

Another boot that can also be used and operates in the same way is Scabskin Leathers, which is actually even more powerful than the previous one. However, it is a much more expensive card and super hard to find, the former being a better entry point, and this one an upgrade.

In the arms slot we have the expected Goliath Gauntlet, great in late game turns where there are few points of damage left for the lethal, besides its effect can be used with practically all the deck's attacks. Another card used is Gambler's Gloves, to maximize Scabskin Leathers.

Now getting into the chest piece, there are multiple usable options, depending on the meta you hope to face. The main one that will always be used is Carrion Husk, a card that is the face of this deck, it is not uncommon for the deck to be pressured to block, thus losing the opportunity to attack with power on your turn, the cards are expensive; therefore, this gear protects you from losing crucial cards in key turns of the game.

As a legendary, its access is not easy, and with some loss it can be replaced by Barkbone Strapping, providing you with resources in important turns. Finally, we can also use Nullrune Robe as a tech against Wizards, since our cards don't block arcane damage, it is necessary for the equipment to do so.

Going finally to the head, we have Skullhorn, which in addition to having Arcane barrier 2, we have a cycling utility effect, useful in turns where the drawn hand was not ideal, and we still need to discard more cards to attack.

There are even more equipment possibilities, Ironhide Gauntlet for defense, the entire Nullrune equipment set, and Arcanite Skullcap against arcane damage decks like Iyslander and Chane.

To activate the hero's ability, we maximized the use of cards with 6 or more attack. 30 out of 33 attack cards in the deck attack for 6 or more, so our weapon consistently attacks with 5 when needed, and we can nullify the Blood Debt's downside. Barraging Beatdown (3) and Bloodrush Bellow are setup cards for our explosive turns, while Dread Screamer (1), Hungering Slaughterbeast (1) and Boneyard Marauder (1) are the “bread and butter” of the deck.

In an ordinary turn, we can:

- Activate our Scabskin Leathers, assuming the result is 4, we have 2 action points. With 3 cards in the graveyard, we use our pitch 2 or 3 cards to attack with Ravenous Meataxe, and later with another attack that doesn't need setup if we're in the early turns, like Shadow of Blasmophet, Nourishing Emptiness, among others.

On a turn with setup (6 or more cards in the graveyard), we can:

- Start with Scabskin Leathers, use Bloodrush Bellow giving pitch 2 or 3, discarding a card with attack 6+ and drawing two cards with go again on the card.

We continue using Barraging Beatdown (3), further increasing the power of our next attack. Then we used Writhing Beast Hulk (1) banishing another 6+ card from the discard, thus attacking with 10 attack and dominate, as Barraging Beatdown (3) grants +2 to attack if blocked for less than two cards, which is the case since the attack gains dominate.

Later, if the boot has yielded more than 1 action point, we can still attack with cards like Graveling Growl (1) that will gain +2 due to Bloodrush Bellow, totaling 19 damage in one turn!

Finally, it is a deck that was expected in the first 1-3 turns of the game to only attack with the axe if it is the only option for 5 and defend, and then in a big turn we can carry out bigger attacks.

As the deck depends on resources for attacks, it is natural that disruptive strategies are problematic matchups, especially those that discard. Therefore, I believe that Iyslander and Oldhim are difficult matchups, but on the other hand the match is favorable against Dorinthea, where at the beginning of the game you can use several cards to block your weapon, thus increasing your discard and fuel, and Prism, since phantasm cards will never reach your life points, as a result, there are more cards to use on your turn.

In addition, the deck also works well without the need for majestic or legendary, in the future I can bring a budget list!

Explaining more specific card decisions, we run Nourishing Emptiness as it will banish attacks from the discard, attacks for 6 which is what we need and still has the icing on the cake by granting +1 intellect to the hero until the end of the turn.

Soul Harvest is a powerful card to finish games where the opponent is resisting with 2-3 life, just like Writhing Beast Hulk (1). Doomsday is a great pitch for 3 that can also turn into Blasmophet, the Soul Harvester afterwards. We also use 2 Reckless Swing which are great at ending the game, and Mark of the Beast, when we need to banish a 6+ attack card in the turn, but we don't have that much resource.

That's all for today, thanks for reading!