Re-Constructed Decks - Koji

Welcome back, Ashes players, to another installment of Re-Constructed. You ready for a little horsin’ around?

By this point, you should already know the deck building restrictions we’re working with, and with these divine and sympathy magic decks you’ll also need The Law of Lions or The Song of Soaksend accordingly. Today we’ll be exploring the treacherous realm of the spiral jungle, where Koji reigns supreme, and we’ll be doing so with...horses? In the jungle? What a twist.

The Boy Among Stallions (Re-Koji)

Re-Constructed by Andrew DiLullo

4 Natural, 6 Sympathy // Needed Sets: The Ghost Guardian, The Protector of Argaia, The King of Titans

3x Summon Indiglow Creeper

1x Summon Squall Stallion

1x Guilt Link

1x Resonance

3x Lick Wounds

2x Invigorate

1x Nature’s Wrath

3x Seeds of Aggression

1x Iron Worker

2x Hunt Master

2x Jungle Warrior

2x New Ideas

3x Raptor Herder

2x Sleeping Bear

2x Explosive Growth

1x Shatter Pulse

Koji is an awfully peculiar Phoenixborn, specifically because he has two unique cards. Yes, I know that technically he only has Lick Wounds, but I think most players would agree that Indiglow Creeper is a unit designed from the ground up for this young kid. He’s one of the few Pheonixborn with a sizable enough battlefield AND the ability to accelerate seedlings into an actual threat on the regular, and can do so without being forced into a third dice type. What’s interesting is that his precon really elucidates his intended play style and deck building focus in a way even more definitive than Maeoni with her snakes. The goal is to make Indiglow Creepers, and combine them with your many status-granting tools to feed the Luminous Seedlings left behind. Once you start hatching Brilliant Thorns, it’s possible to create loops of near continuous blossoming and completely overwhelm your opponent. To this degree, Koji’s precon is effectively made of twenty-seven support cards. For the Creepers, Join the Hunt and Hunt Master help give them the extra oomph they need to be threatening. For the Seedlings, Biters can protect them with unit guard, Invigorate and Explosive Growth can quickly fill them up with status tokens, and even Jungle Warrior can help push them over. For the Thorns, Lick Wounds and Jungle Warrior can help you double down on attacks. Outside of that, Temple Elder can help you draw into your other Creeper books at a lower dice grade (which matters a little bit since this deck has no dice fixing). At the end of the day though, Creepers are the focus, and we wouldn’t dare take that away with the re-con. However, twenty-seven support cards does let us be a little flexible, so grab yourself a vine and let’s swing across this chasm.

Right away you’ll notice some big and bizarre changes. Join the Hunt and Biters are out, Guilt Link and Squall Stallions are in, along with a single Resonance. Temple Elder is replaced with Raptor Herder, and most allies have been reduced to two copies to open up new entries like Nature’s Wrath, Iron Worker, New Ideas, and even a single Shatter Pulse. The biggest new addition is Seeds of Aggression, an amazing removal card we’ll be discussing later. On the surface, this almost seems like an entirely new deck, and yet I cannot stress enough the amount of “definition” Indiglow Creepers add just by being here. For all these changes, playing this deck should feel about the same...but now with some much needed flexibility.

While there are a lot of peculiar roots weaving in and out of this deck, I want to focus more on the foundational trees we’ve added with Summon Squall Stallion and Guilt Link. Stallions replace Biters as our second summon, and honestly I think they do wonders. The role of Biter is to protect our Seedlings, but with Squall Stallion we can mostly do the same thing by simply presenting an even more dangerous threat at roughly the same cost. Stallions are a great inclusion here as you can buff them with their own ability (tucking cards on the bottom of your deck), or with Koji’s ability, OR with Indiglow Creeper’s focus 1 ability, which might be relevant if you’re currently lacking seedlings. You’ll quickly find that these horses get big awfully fast when left unattended, meaning your opponent will need to divert even greater resources to handing a secondary threat. If you find your opponent is simply not respecting your horsepower, try slapping an Explosive Growth on one for an extra nasty surprise; you can even take it further with Lick Wounds for extra attacks. Squall Stallions also have the benefit of both drawing you more cards and cycling through your deck, thus improving your ability to assemble as many Creeper books as possible.

But the real monster here is Guilt Link. We’ve mentioned this card in the past on several occasions, but this is one of the strongest decks for it. Guilt Link can be used to sacrifice an Indiglow Creeper or Brilliant Thorns, units that are set to die anyway due to Fade, and get some extra removal in the process. Normally the weakness is that your opponent can opt not to attack into your Phoenixborn to avoid charging it...but Koji’s ability easily gets around that problem. This means we have the advantage of being able to use Guilt Link in any matchup, including against exhaustion decks, as we have additional means to arm it. It should be noted that both Koji’s ability and Guilt Link’s trigger are side actions, so your opponent will have an entire turn with which to try beating you senseless, but that too can be advantageous as a means of baiting an early attack from your opponent. The cornerstone of these inclusions is to allow us to use Koji’s ability as more than just fertilizer for Seedlings, expanding it into some rather dangerous territory. The biggest difference between playing this re-con versus the original precon is that here, Koji’s ability need not be rushed. With proper timing, this deck can be an absolute nightmare to deal with.

One last card I want to mention is Seeds of Aggression. Indiglow Creeper tends to be a rather aggressive unit since it’s usually beneficial for it to die, which also leads to a tendency for some opponents not to want it killed. Seeds of Aggression is a wonderful card in circumstances like this, not only helping us create extra value on Creepers but also giving us a rather easy way to get it killed before the round is over. The same logic holds true of Brilliant Thorns, as killing one mid round could be important for blossoming a second one in the same round. The key with Seeds of Aggression is to use it primarily on your exhausted units in order to maximize their value.

First Five:

We’ve got an opener with a gameplan here. I usually start with Guilt Link since it might cause our opponent to second guess their attacks, which is good cause our first round is really slow. We’re going to play our Creeper book, then immediately play Resonance to focus it and also get ourselves at least one sympathy die on a power side. We’ll use that power die to play our stallion book. The goal then is to summon your stallion first, then the creeper using the focus 1 to place one status on the stallion. Play the rest of the round as needed, playing Iron Worker either at a time when it can be played safely, or if you desperately need an emergency blocker (not ideal, but it’s okay if the Iron Worker eats it). As mentioned before, use Koji’s ability when and where you most need it. If your opponent already filled your Guilt Link, then you can use it to pop your Creeper after attacking with it, then use Koji’s ability on the seedling. You can also use Koji’s ability to get your Stallion that second status token, which might be enough attack to pressure another threat on the board. Take it on a case by case basis. Iron Worker can be substituted for Hunt Master for a stronger 1st round, or Sleeping Bear for a stronger second round, though Iron Worker makes for a nice middle ground.

You’ll notice very quickly that between stallions and Iron Worker, you’re drawing a lot of extra cards. That being said, you should aim to empty your hand every round in order to better draw into your creeper books. In most cases, I’d argue the stallion’s ability to tuck cards is healthier for your deck’s longevity than meditating.

Tangled in the Vines:

Alright, let’s talk about the supplies you’ll need to make this deck work. From The King of Titans, Raptor Herder offers one of the best allies in the game for the sort of wide board states you’ll be developing, and the single Nature’s Wrath can go a long way (also can be used to clear your own Creepers). From The Protector of Argaia, we gain the invaluable Seeds of Aggression as well as some rather efficient book digging with New Ideas. Ultimately, The Ghost Guardian is the least needed pack, only offering the single copy of Resonance. To be fair, that spell acts as a glue for a lot of the first round and beyond: it accelerates our creeper loop to be active as early as round two, provides dice fixing for Summon Squall Stallion, and powers up the first stallion by one at no additional card cost. But, it’s not an essential spell, and you can make due without it. I’d recommend replacing it with another New Ideas or Explosive Growth, or possibly a Crescendo or second Shatter Pulse.

Taking it further:

Probably the best expansion I didn’t include in this deck out of budget concerns is the Demons of Darmas. Beast Warrior has excellent synergy with your swarm strategies, Adrenaline Rush lets us double down on massive stallions, and Transmute Magic is a pretty effective dice-fixing tool. Additionally, ceremonial magic is one of this deck’s best splashes, opening up Master Vampire, Dark Reaping and Psychic Vampire.

Still, even without that expansion, there are some interesting options we didn’t cover. Guilt Link is a deadly weapon with Koji, but you can switch it with a playset of Empowers to turn your status tokens into a similarly dangerous arsenal. This route usually puts more pressure on your stallions to overperform, but they can do some heavy lifting. You can also return back to Join the Hunt, which already has a lot of cross pollination with your Raptor Herders (though it may be stepping on the toes of Hunt Master a bit). Finally, I’m a big fan of Ice Trap in this deck as a solid way to address more delicate or immediate threats without hurting our dice economy too badly. Honestly, the nice thing about Indiglow Creepers is that they’re already such a solid gameplan on their own, you can generally support them with whatever makes you happy. 

That’s all we’ve got for this article. Next time, we give praise, for our savior has returned. The great Astrea will be shining her light upon us.

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.