Re-Constructed Decks - Coal

Welcome back, Ashes players, to another installment of Re-Constructed. We’ve got some tough work ahead of us, starting with an apology. You may have noticed that Namine’s deck went up last week instead of Coal’s, which probably seems weird since that’s very much out of order. The mix up happened because I submitted these articles a couple weeks in advance to build up a healthy backlog, but that left a window for miscommunication to happen. We can’t change the past (I’m not Jericho), so we’re just going to learn and move forward.

By this point, you should already know the deck building restrictions we’re working with. If you do need a refresher, you should check out our many previous articles in the Re-Constructed series. This will be the last Rise of the Phoenixborn re-con, but don’t you worry. We’re going all the way to the end of divine and sympathy magic with these decks. And besides, as Coal’s deck is going to teach us, nothing lasts forever (and that’s okay).

The Iron Shapers (Re-Coal)

Re-constructed by Andrew DiLullo

6 Ceremonial, 4 Natural // Needed Sets: The Children of Blackcloud, The Grave King, The Frostdale Giants

3x Chant of Worship

3x Strengthen

1x Summon Frostback Bear

3x Summon Fallen

3x One Hundred Blades

1x Choke

1x Close Combat

1x Expand Energy

2x Fester

3x Anchornaut

1x Crimson Bomber

1x Fire Archer

2x Iron Worker

2x Hammer Knight

1x Cover

1x Ice Trap

1x Sleeping Widows

I feel that we can’t really talk about Coal without talking about Slash, one of the most iconic Phoenixborn abilities in the game...and perhaps one of the most polarizing. 

Coal has the ability to spend a side action to deal 1 damage to an opponent’s unit, or even 1 damage to the opponent directly if they’re out of units, but at the cost of discarding a card from his hand. Unlike many other PB abilities, Slash doesn’t exhaust Coal, making it repeatable ad infinitum so long as you have enough side actions and cards. It’s a powerful ability to be sure, but for many players the cost is fairly stressful. I mean, the game is asking you to toss your precious cards instead of playing them, all for just 1 damage a pop. I want to assure you that Slash is a worthwhile ability, and that it doesn’t always have to be a difficult choice, and as such I’ve designed this re-con to help impart that...mostly by filling it with garbage. More on that later.

Coal’s pre-con is fairly thick and powerful, in the way that natural magic-fueled decks tend to be. It features a frankly absurd quality of allies with the bulldozing Hammer Knight and amazingly versatile Anchornaut and Iron Worker, one murderous finisher with Iron Rhino, as well as a powerful spellboard closer with Chant of Revenge. Cards like Strengthen and Close Combat give you ways to directly address threats on the board, Expand Energy keeps you fueled up, and One Hundred Blades does a little of both. Finally, Cover allows you to maintain your board integrity with Phoenixborn guards without needing to sacrifice Coal’s extremely fragile face. Ultimately, this re-con maintains that same energy and thought process, but the cards we’re using to accomplish that play style are significantly different.

First of all, we’re actually packing a more reliable summon this time with Frostback Bear. Iron Rhino is great and all, but conjuring one on the first round requires seven dice. Bear is a very cost-effective unit that guarantees that we’ll always have the means to both conjure a unit and drop some allies every round. Second of all, Chant of Revenge is powerful, but I think Chant of Worship is a stronger option for Coal specifically; the trigger is the same, but Chant of Worship draws you a card, helping you find more threats and options, and if the card doesn’t pan out you can always Slash it for 1 damage anyway. Because we’re also relying on a certain degree of ally death triggers, we’ve also added a late game power play with Fallen. If you get far enough and need a way to brute force a victory, I think you’ll find that Fallen with Strengthen can usually overwhelm your opponent. (To make things even more brutal, we can always force ally death triggers by playing an Anchornaut, targeting another Anchornaut you control.)

Finally, we’ve packed the deck with a bunch of garbage, by which I mean we’ve loaded up on seemingly random niche singles. There will be times when cards like Choke, Ice Trap, or even Sleeping Widows might be super strong, but also many times where they just don’t have any real impact. However, unlike many other Phoenixborn for whom these situational cards end up looking like trash, Coal is the king of recycling. Is that Cover not doing much this game? Throw away that shield for 1 damage. Are your opponent’s units too big to Ice Trap? Toss it in their face. Is your battlefield too full for Widows? Spider cannon. Part of the goal with this deck is to train you to find cards that don't have much use in your current match, and learn how to Slash them without feeling bad. Not every card is going to be a winner every game, but that's true with any deck you play. At least Coal can do something about it. It’s okay to throw away a card for 1 damage if realistically that card isn’t really accomplishing much more (or if you just can’t spare the dice for it).

Admittedly, slash can be a difficult ability to get in the habit of using, as it generally feels bad throwing your cards away, but a diceless 1-damage side action can potentially turn entire games around if wielded responsibly. A lot of this deck's inclusions were made to help you internalize those decisions and better understand their value. For example, you could play an Anchornaut for 1 damage and keep the body for 1 basic, or you can slash the 'naut for the same damage even faster (side action), and for 1 fewer die, but you won’t get to keep the body. Which is more valuable? Well, you'll have to evaluate the battlefield, the accessibility of your spellboard (especially cards like Strengthen), and your opponent’s ability to disrupt you to determine how much more valuable that body is than 1 die.

Of course, that’s not the only use for Slash. The other is speed. Much of playing this tempo-driven deck will require you to go a little slower or much faster than your opponent. Going slower means trying to steadily grind out a battle of attrition until cards like Chant of Worship, Fallen, and Strengthen (often with Frostbacks) can start shoving you closer to victory. Going faster means aggressively paring down your opponent’s units while forcing lots of damage early and hoping to win with dangerous amounts of slashing. What’s worth noting is that many of the cards in this deck are pretty decent for going slower, but you can instantly change the speed of any card and your gameplan by slashing it. This definitely isn’t the easiest re-con, but I attribute the experience to hammering metal at the forge. It’s hard work, but you always walk away with a well-made craft or a well-learned lesson.

First Five:

This deck’s first five is a lot like its construction: awfully situational. You definitely want Frostback Bear, Anchornaut and probably Hammer Knight every game, as well as at least 1 spellboard card (possibly 2). I think there’s equal arguments for Chant and Strengthen, but your predicted matchup should be the primary determining factor here. I usually run both since Strengthen gives my Anchornaut the ability to attack (going from 0 attack to 2 makes quite a difference), while Worship gives me a way to dig through more of my deck either for more tools or slash fodder. Against an opponent that might be packing swarms of units (Noah and Aradel come to mind), I might start with Summon Fallen, but more likely I’ll be packing One Hundred Blades. If I’m expecting a massive unit, Fester starts looking extra spicy (Anchornaut and Slash make for amazing Fester enablers). Choke can deal with particularly nasty Phoenixborn abilities like Jessa or Odette, Ice Trap is decent against bird exhaustion decks, and Iron Worker can do quite a bit in slower matchups. The beauty of having so many various singletons with Ashes’ first five system means you can effectively prepare for anything right off the bat, making this arguably the most versatile re-con in the bunch. And hey, if you guess wrong, you’ve always got slash.

New and Improved?

This might be the only time where, yes, I actually think all these expansions are pretty crucial. We want Icedale because Frostback Bear is the best choice for a mid-range attacking summon in our dice types; everything else is too small, defensive or expensive. We also want Blackcloud for Chant of Worship, Fester, and a plethora of other useful tech cards. The Grave King is probably the most replaceable; even though Fallen is a great way to close out the game, you can achieve a roughly similar effect with Chant of Revenge, or even by replacing some of the various tech cards with harder direct damage via Final Cry or Molten Gold. However, I tend to prefer Fallen since they can also be used on defense in a pinch, and their summon activation is a main action instead of a side which gives you more opportunities to Slash.

Taking it Further:

Coal LOVES drawing cards because it gives him more fuel for Slash, so I highly recommend splashing Illusion magic to give you more useful card draw effects. Cards like Hidden Power, Abundance, Mist Typhoon, and even Sleight of Hand can seriously blow your opponents out with insane slash value. Transitioning into Sympathy is also not bad, with Nightsong Crickets, New Ideas and Changing Winds all providing nutty amounts of draw themselves. Personally, I prefer the Illusion route, but each is good (maybe try both?). However, you still need to evaluate your matchups carefully; if you burn out too quickly (often by over-slashing), you’re as good as dead.

Another problem you might run into is burn and direct damage; Coal's measly 15 health poses a problem here. But two can play at that game, and cards like Butterfly Monk, Reclaim Soul, and Blood Shaman can provide you solid battlefield options while keeping you healthy enough to finish the game. Finally, while I don’t personally recommend it, Iron Rhino can work as a limited finisher assuming you’re okay slashing more cards to cut down on dice costs.

That’s all we’ve got for this article. We’ve now covered every deck that utilizes one of the 4 classic dice types, but there are still magics out there we’ve largely ignored until now. We posted Namine a little early (again, our bad), so we’re going straight to Odette to lay down the law, and hopefully follow it this time.

Andrew DiLullo is an animator, a game designer, and luckily also a writer. Having first discovered Ashes at the tail end of the first round of expansions in 2016, he’s been playing ever since and currently heads the Bay Area Ashes group in California. He was especially active in several community projects after Ashes was canceled the first time, and now puts his attention to Reborn as the game starts anew. He’s currently designing a board game in his spare time, and occasionally writes on his online journal: The Lighthouse Library.