How to Play Turn 5 Atakhan
This deck does something special. Abominable Guardian is an 8 cost card that can be cheated out by having two yetis on the board.
This means that you can get an Abominable Guardian out by the end of turn 2 at the earliest but turns 3 and 4 are more common. Having an 8 cost card on the board so early can allow for some interesting combos.
In particular, the deck uses Ethereal Remitter which summons a random card that costs 2 more. This means that by playing this on Abominable Guardian on turn 5, you can get a 10 cost card!
Atakhan, Bringer of Ruin, and Cithiria, Lady of the Clouds are my favorite cards to pull on turn 5!
Here is the deck. It features Lissandra as the Abominable Guardians help level her up rather quickly along with Trundle’s Ice Pillars.
Deck Code: CECAKAIBBYKB6MBTAEAQKKADAQAQKDQSAEBQCBQBAMAQKHJMHIBAEAIFAEXQEAIBDUZA
[See Turn 5 Atakhan deck details]
Although Lissandra isn’t as strong as she used to be, she can still get The Watcher out in this deck and win games by obliterating the opponent’s deck as an alternate win condition.
The Watcher can even beat cheated out with Spectral Matron!
Goal of Deck
This deck is a solid control deck that also acts as a combo deck through yetis and Ethereal Emitter.
Funny enough, it can also act as a midrange deck through the tempo that Enraged Yetis give the deck. That is part of what makes this deck so fun.
Depending on your hand, your deck can act like a completely different deck in each game.
Personally, I prefer to take the turn 5 or 6 gamble of playing Ethereal Remitter on my Abominable Guardian because when it hits, the payoff is huge and you typically get some funny emote responses from your opponent.
Of course, there is the possibility of low rolling and getting Scuttlegeist which is a 5|5 with Fearsome. Generally, about half of your hits are really strong and often game-winning while the other half is not too much better than the 5|5 yeti.
However, if that isn’t coming into fruition, then I typically go for the midrange game plan of getting as many yetis out as possible and trying to beat down my opponent that way.
If that isn’t enough, then the Watcher typically does the trick. Although this deck is still a meme, it has many opportunities to win the game through several different avenues which makes it not do or die as much as a lot of other meme decks are.
You can see how the deck plays out in this video:
The Set-Up
Generally, you want to be looking for Yetis as much as possible as they give you tempo as well as allow for your combo. Yeti Yearling is a keep in most cases as it is your best chance to get an early Abominable Guardian. Speaking of which, in most cases, you will always keep Abominable Guardian as it also gives you tempo, combo, and helps level up Lissandra as well.
The dream scenario was described at the start of the article, but to rehash it a bit. You want to have gotten Abominable Guardian out by turn 5. Then you will play Ethereal Remitter onto the Abominable Guardian to summon a random 10 cost card that is hopefully an Atakhan or Cithira!
Mulligan
Against aggressive decks, you will want to keep Yeti Yearlings, Blighted Ravine, Vile Feast, and in some cases Avarosan Trapper.
Against anything other than aggro, you will want to keep Yetis and Yeti generators. In some cases, you will want to mulligan for Abominable Guardians.
Against even slower decks, you will even keep Ethereal Remitter for your combo as you will need to be proactive against decks that outvalue you by either getting an early 10 cost unit or leveling Lissandra and using The Watcher to finish the game.
On this hand, you’d keep Abominable Guardian, Tall Tales, and Trapper. Against an aggressive deck, you’d keep Vile Feast but against other decks, you’d want to toss the Vile Feast.
Matchups
This deck doesn’t have any strong matchups in particular as it is meant to meme. However, it can beat just about anything with the right cards.
Its best matchups are into slower control decks as you are able to outvalue them.
It can also do really well against midrange as you can overwhelm them with your Yetis!
Against burn aggro it can have a tough time if you don’t have your healing spells and burn makes it difficult for you to develop your Yeti gameplan.
Tech Choices
Against aggressive decks, you will want to take Entreat out of the deck as it is just a bit too slow.
You can add other low cost cards in the early game such as Avarosan Sentry that can block and draw you a card.
The Box: Can be used against wide, aggressive boards
Ice Shard: Removal against aggressive, go wide strategies
This deck is a silly, fun combo deck that can do a lot of different things and makes for some great moments! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask Silverfuse during her streams (usually daily from 2-6PM CST).
Catch Silverfuse live at www.twitch.tv/silverfuse
