The Amazing Spider-Tank Gaming Blog: Epic Deck Tech Theory (Demonic Rising Human Tokens)

Here is my 2nd attempt at a creative deck based off of card, strategy, or concept. Today's attempt is to make use of Demonic Rising.

I have never ranked Demonic Rising very highly. There are so many other better board sweepers out there, and it seemed that this card as a combo or "cheese" card would be difficult to pull off. Nevertheless, I was determined to try and figure something out to make this work.

I have always enjoyed a human token deck in theory. It is just so much thematic fun and there are few combos that can end a game more quickly. It has never been very highly regarded, however, since it falls prey to a number of hard counters that are useful in a variety of decks (Wither, board sweepers, Ceasefire, Flash Fire, etc). But, for the sake of theory and Epic itself, I thought that Demonic Rising could possibly tie in with a human token deck in order to add yet another combo and see if it could work.

First, I'm going to start with 3 Demonic Risings. I can't really justify writing an article trying to fit this card in there without including 3 copies. This will hopefully be used as a game finisher. In theory I shall attack with several human tokens, hopefully even boosted through various effects, and then I'll play this to get a second attack in with as many demon tokens and hopefully that will pull off the win.

I am actually going to stay clear of almost all the other Evil cards in favor of human tokens since I want more bodies on the board than my opponent when I play DR, and nobody puts out bodies like human tokens.

First go in a few human token staples: Secret Legion, Revolt, Courageous Soul, Paros, Rabble Rouser, Standard Bearer, Gladius, and Insurgency provide me with bodies, boosting of said bodies, or even Blitz. The triple Bs (trademark pending).

These cards alone can win you a game. On a good draw with you going second you can Ambush in a Courageous Soul and Standard Bearer, and then on your turn play Paros and Secret Legion and/or Insurgency for the win right there! Heck, you don't even need all of that if your opponent mulliganed too hard or doesn't have the blockers out.

This is also a good opportunity to try out some other cards from Uprising that could fit in the human token deck with Gladius, the Defender. He's a giant guy that passively boosts all my stuff for 3 attack, which is pretty significant. His Unbanishable could actually come in handy because of the board wipes I shall soon include as well. Meanwhile, he just sits back and spawns more tokens until he is removed.

Another Uprising card I wanted to try in a token deck is Justice Prevails. This has the chance to really bring one back into the game from the brink of death, if not cause an outright win. I really like it can also replace itself. Putting this into an aggressive Kark deck would be fun but I just have to try it in a token deck first.

Noble Martyr is in there not to be played, but to be hopefully discarded and then banished while using his ability. Getting 5 human tokens off a loyalty trigger is just too good to pass up. This is one of the cards closest to the chopping block for me but I want to test it out, especially against control decks that use Thought Plucker and the like.

Rabble Rouser is in a similar position. He's not an amazing card otherwise but if you can bring him in while you have a bunch of tokens out he can exponentially increase your opponent's problems.

Noble Unicorn because we need lots of card draw. Urgent Messengers for the same as well as a little token generation.

I love Bodyguard in a Kark deck, it is so annoying. In this deck it can do everything! Give me another body for attacking or blocking, as well as keep coming back every turn. It should be great.

Faithful Pegasus and Blind Faith are put in mainly for the Recycle triggers, as I need to make sure I keep my hand size up. However, FP can help one of my guys fly overhead which could be enough in a pinch, and BF is such an awesome card for defense that always seems to save my butt.

A big thing about token decks is that they can run out of steam fast. My solution, besides having some Recycle triggers and a random draw 2, is to have a bunch of board sweepers that also draw 2. While I am building up the combo to attempt the win, I will just keep clearing the board or drawing cards to give me time. I will try the combo, and then rinse and repeat. It's a similar tactic done by Kark decks to stall, so I figured why not? Divine Judgement, Inheritance of the Meek, and Quell are all 3 ofs.

Because I'm a slave to maximizing 0-cost cards, I actually have to add 1 more Evil card in order to fit 2 Evil 0 costs. I went for Apocalypse as a board sweeper draw 2 for the same reasons as above. For my 0 cost, I think it could be very flexible. I chose Heinous Feast in order to have just the tiniest bit of discard pile removal, as I think that is more important than direct removal from Raxxa's Curse, or healthgain from Unquenchable Thirst, or whatever.

So that, I believe, is everything. We have an updated human token deck, with Demonic Rising for an added combo card win condition. Just think of the human army as putting on the facade of truth and justice, only to reveal at the end that they were being manipulated by demons the while time. Don't forget to cackle maniacally if you ever happen to win.

Here is the deck list courtesy of Epic Foundry:

Deck: 60 cards

Packs: Set One (3), Tyrants (3), Uprising (3)