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Spiritforged is still in its alpha days, with only Best-Of-One tournaments being played so far. Yet, there is one thing I like about these events : Everyone is forced to build proactively. Indeed, you can't pick a counter deck this early in an expansion. We still don't know what is worth countering and plenty of players are picking a legend to test it out rather than for its certain powerlevel.
In that context, most lists are built to develop proactively and force the opponent into a reactive stance, ideal to check out which packages of cards create the most pressure.
In this article, I've rounded out multiples synergies from tournament decks I feel have some potential going forward. Most of them will require two domains, meaning they will often be limited to specific legends.
However, once we understand the mechanics behind a pattern, we can look for cards able to reciprocate it in other domains.
Mech Summoning Fiesta
This synergy will require more mechs to function, as some need some to be in our trash to be summoned. Yet, we have SFD-021, OGN-016 or OGN-020 in the Fury domain, alongside plenty more in Mind.
We also need another friendly unit alongside SFD-026 to serve as a sacrifice to summon a mech from our Trash. That can either be our turn one play which we kept alive, or a unit we will play early on turn three, before moving SFD-026 to conquer a battlefield.
Once we have that balance figured out, and if our deck still has some free slots, we could take it one step further, and consider OGN-036, OGN-112 or OGN-109 as other cards interacting with our Trash.
During reveals, this looked like the go-to synergy for SFD-181, but OGN-247 stole the idea early on in Spiritforged.
Early Equip
Play OGN-052 on turn one. On turn two, conquer SFD-208 with it and play SFD-115. Tap your legend to pay for the equip cost, and craft a 4-might OGN-052 outside of showdowns, up to 7-might when defending alone. Plus, you score an extra point as long as it holds SFD-208.
This is quite a simple synergy, which can be done with any 2-cost unit plus an equipment really. OGS-019 and SFD-115 work really well together as they share a hold reward, while the legend doesn't need to be tapped for its ability.
SFD-167 plus SFD-161 are another worthy duo in the Order domain, growing the 2-cost to become Mighty and draw two with its deathknell. For possible legends, OGN-261 and OGS-021 don't require to be tapped in that domain. OGS-021 could even double down on that opening pattern, with SFD-086 representing another strong equipment to use early on, although this one won't synergize with SFD-167.
Early Vanguard Armory
A OGN-265 managed to reach second place in a tournament recently, with a build designed to get SFD-168 out as early as possible.
To do so, the deck needs to create a SFD-T03 on turn two, which can be done with SFD-069 when first, or SFD-070 if second through taking out the opposing early unit when they attempt to conquer. SFD-155 could also work when going second, as long as one accepts to send it into the opponent's 2-cost unit for a tie.
SFD-221 was also in the mix, allowing to ready SFD-168 to generate even more tokens.
In a Best-of-1 setting, I would assume this synergy has a lot of gas, as this type of events reward mostly raw power. However, when Best-Of-Three tournaments come around, side decks might pack too many gear removal for this to be a reliable strategy to build a deck around.
SFD-213 is another helpful card to get SFD-168 out. If you control the battlefield, your gear now is a 6-cost, meaning you can play it on turn three if you haven't recyled any runes.
Unless the opponent challenges that battlefield on turn two, this isn't far fetched to consider you will be in control of SFD-213 at the start of your third turn as the first player.
Move and Profit
These two cards have the same condition to rip their rewards, meaning Chaos-Calm legends, specifically SFD-195 so far, have been building around them.
We have plenty of cards in the Chaos domain to move our units : OGS-011, OGN-168, OGN-184 or OGN-199 to name a few.
The goal is to keep our runes until we reach eight total. With that amount, we can play the likes of OGN-192, OGN-082 or OGN-203. From there, we have our big unit on the board, and don't care about keeping our runes as much. Thus, we can use SFD-195's ability agressively to win the match.
In that strategy, SFD-130 and SFD-048 act as facilitators, allowing to not pay for power cost, or draw to find our important cards in time. Combined, they make sure we get to our large unit on turn four, and even alleviate the cost of those cards, so we still have plenty of runes available for SFD-195 ability.
SFD-185 has also been using SFD-130 extensively, opening the way for OGN-172 or SFD-145 to be played without their power being an issue. Arguably, the 2-cost is the most important card in the pair, while most cards able to move our units are also in the Chaos domain. Then, this idea to get our big cards out on curve probably is more suited for Chaos legends.
Ornn made its own Deadbloom Predator
Hold oriented decks built upon large units tend to struggle with flexibility, especially when it comes to moving those units around the battlefields. In the Origins metagame, the way to prevent the opponent from holding a battlefield for the win was to use OGN-161, hence the domination of OGS-019 among Hold oriented strategies.
In this new set, SFD-189 emerged as another legend many pictured as a great Holder. Arguably, once SFD-085 is set on a battlefield, supported by both Calm and Mind cards, there is little the opponent can do to move it away.
Unfortunately, a good hold deck needs to be capable of conquering the other battlefield every turn, and OGN-161 is a Body card.
To solve that problem, SFD-189 is using SFD-050. The idea is to switch place with SFD-085 so it is now in our base, ready to move to the second battlefield.
The other common way is to use OGN-116 to conquer. Ironically, it costs the same as OGN-161 once we paid for the accelerate.
Annie Loves Ravenbloom Conservatory
OGS-017 isn't a dominant force in Spiritforged Chinese tournaments so far. However, her synergy with SFD-215 is one other Chaos decks with many spells might want to consider.
When going first, you can simply play a 2-cost unit and conquer SFD-215 on your second turn. From there, either your opponent sends their unit to contest, and you get to trigger the battlefield, or they let you score another point.
This seems like a terrible battlefield to pick when going second, as you would expect the opponent to do exactly what we described when going first. Yet, because OGS-017 plays OGN-176, she can get to SFD-215 first even when playing second.
At the moment, none of the new Chaos legends have used the 3-cost, hence SFD-215 being tied to OGS-017 specifically. However, other legends with a lot of spells in their arsenal, such as SFD-199 could use this idea.
In best-of-three matches especially, one can simply have OGN-176 in their side deck, using them only for that game when you are second and want to use SFD-215 as your battlefield.
I'm sure there are plenty more synergies to use as the foundation of a deck, but these ones have been used in tournament so far with some success. Granted, they were low stakes Best-of-one tournaments, but we have to start somewhere.
Soon enough, more competitive events, such as the City Challenges will start to shape the future metagame, and give us more refined builds to look at. Until then, I hope everyone is having fun testing new ideas !
