[Gods Unchained] Deck Review: Onslaught War - Unfair But Not Broken

Hey guys, today we'll review a deck that has been around for quite some time in the Gods Unchained meta and many players, especially newer ones have been hating on the God Power it uses which is, of course, Onslaught. It can be frustrating to play against because of its reactive nature while being able to remove a huge variety of threats from hand without requiring any kind of board setup. This deck has many different lists, so let's take a look at the one I used in the last weekend event:

Core Cards:

Trojan Battlemage is an amazing card when used it Onslaught. He can be used as one of the most versatile removals for 4 mana in the game. It can be used as an anti-aggro tool, killing two smaller creatures or just remove a bigger one with up to 6 health which is 1 more damage than Whyrmbreath. The only downside is that Frontline creatures can get in the way but still an excellent card.

Petard "Elder" has pretty much the same function as Trojan Battlemage but it is a bit weaker version of it, nonetheless a strong removal tool for again, 4 mana.

Cursed Caipora is one of the reasons people hate to play against Onslaught War decks. Being able to remove even the biggest creatures for 6 mana isn't unheard of, but it also leaves a body that can do that again if your opponent doesn't have the right answer at the moment. Unlike spell removal, there is no downside versus creatures with Ward but it can't go through Protected.

Carnage Sweep, one of the few spells in the deck, a hard removal for wide and/or big boards. The only card that requires a setup, which is having a relic with at least 1 durability equipped. Just because this card exists, your opponents start playing really safe when you have a relic equipped and that can be useful by itself even if you never draw it from the deck.

Enduring Shield is the main relic of the deck. It can be useful in both aggro and control matchups. Versus aggro, it buys us more time to get to enough mana to get our bigger guys out and mainly Demogorgons the aggro showstoppers. Versus slower decks that play fewer but bigger creatures, it can deny as much as 15-20 or even more damage, which is incredible for only 2 mana.

Avatar of War, a late-game star that most of the time resets our health back to 30 with ease if we are on 9 mana or have a Bag of Tricks saved up to enable us using Onslaught. A 5/2 relic can also be used to close out games since it has Godblitz.

A Viking Bird

Odin's Whiteraven is an interesting card that has a lot of flexibility which we kinda need in this deck. Viking creature pool isn't too large so the results are reliable, the reason I used it in this list is to have a card that can be used in both matchups (aggro and control) and it ended up pretty decent. If we are looking for big value from this our prime candidates are Tyr and Odin and for that, we have almost 25% to get one. There is also a chance to get a reroll opportunity since this card is also a Viking which essentially increases our odds of finding what we need. We can also just Delve something to fix our curve if we don't draw well. Pretty cool card, I wouldn't say it something you should play over Jason but if you don't have one like me, try this bird, it won't let you down.

Clear Advantages and Disadvantages

As a highly reactive type of deck, Onslaught War has a big advantage against aggressive decks that are dropping so many targets on the board and that is when Trojan Battlemage and Petard "Elder" really thrive, making easy 2 for 1 trades and eventually exhaust the opponent's hand. Aggressive opponents usually have no choice but to just play as fast as possible, ignoring the possibility of you holding a Carnage Sweep and that can result in some "free" wins.

Being so reactive can give us a lot of disadvantage versus decks that enjoy playing it slow and generate more resources. The best example is Nature with Forage that will generate an extra card each turn it has time for doing so and this happens a lot during early to midgame. This forces us to play out our creatures aggressively and inefficiently just to present threats so that they don't generate even more resources for later.

Mulligan

Against aggressive decks, we are looking for any low mana creatures to contest the board to keep us alive long enough so we can exhaust our opponent. Once they are out of steam the game is pretty much over.

Keep in hand: Petard "Elder", Trojan Battlemaster, Skeleton Heavy, Auric Rush, Leviathan Hunter, Deuteria, Manashard Mage, Enduring Shield

Against control deck, we need good midgame plays so we need to keep creatures that are good on their own and don't need to make a trade immediately to be worth it.

Keep in hand: Skeleton Heavy, Odin's Whiteraven, Tamed Mammoth, Deuteria, Manashard Mage, keeping one Trojan or Petard is okay but more than that isn't gonna be useful most of the time.

TL DR; Pros and Cons

Pros:

• high advantage versus aggro
• versatile answers to opponent's threats
• decent sustain

Cons:

• bad against Forage
• lack of proactive plays
• hard to close out the game

On The Budget!

The average price for an Onslaught deck is pretty high I would say that this list is the cheaper one it still costs around 1 ETH ($145-ish) with current prices. As per usual I recommend for the budget replacements to swap Demogorgons for Ashen Drakes to shave off $60, also paired with swapping Avatar of War for Helian Elite makes this deck 80% than what we started with. Even though it will have a bit lower quality cards the late-game power stays almost the same so it is worth it for players on the budget.

That's it for today's deck review. This weekend we saw a rise in popularity of War decks, especially Enrage and Onslaught and since Onslaught is the favorite in this matchup we might see the trend of decks shifting towards value-generating decks. If not, Onslaught will remain near the top if not on the top of the meta.

Useful tools for Gods Unchained statistics, meta, deckbuilding, leaderboards, etc. :
https://unchainedstats.com/
https://gudecks.com/

Markets:
https://gu.cards/
https://tokentrove.io/GodsUnchainedCards
https://opensea.io/assets/gods-unchained

Custom cards generator tool:
https://www.gucustom.cards/

Thank you for reading!

,z3ll