In the current state of the meta, this deck has the potential to perform as a surprisingly confident rogue contender.
Edit: Today, we have something special for you! Pietro Desirò, known for his amazing Alters, shares his journey with the Deathspeaker!
You can see the deck in action on the MaGoose Youtube channel (in Italian of course). So sit back, relax, grab a nice espresso and enjoy!
We all have a favourite avatar, and for those who know me, mine has always been Deathspeaker. From its highest highs at the beginning of time to its lowest lows in the Arthurian era, I’ve always stuck with it.
When the Gothic spoiler season started, we began discovering intriguing new Genesis abilities, and I found myself hopeful again. Maybe even delusional, I kept telling myself it would be Deathspeaker’s time once more. I was hoping those abilities would be strong enough to overcome the issues posed by increased deck size and the cemetery hate we were seeing.
Of course, I was completely wrong.
And behold this amazing Alternate Art by Pietro himself! If you’d like a cool alter done by Pietro, he will be at SorceryFest!
The Mayor of Value Town!
Given his ability, I like to think of Deathspeaker as the mayor of Value Town, but with all that value, you still need a solid game plan. Back in the golden days of 40/20, the Nimbus combo filled that role perfectly. Unfortunately, the larger deck size made that line far too inconsistent, and more importantly, it diluted the value engine: Land Surveyor and Apprentice Wizard just won’t show up when you need them anymore.
I experimented with it for a bit, but with Askanrask Chapter III coming up, I had to set it aside and embrace the “water era,” opting for an Imposter water/air build. Imposter is undeniably fun to build and play, but I missed that feeling of overwhelming your opponent through multiple plays per turn, and that sweet recursion that Deathspeaker enables.
“After returning from Askanrask, I was fed up with the endless tide of water decks and craving something different, some sweet, sweet dry land.”
Continuing with Imposter, I took inspiration from Felix’s list and started experimenting with a fire/earth build. While browsing cards and playtesting something resurfaced from memory: a card I pulled foil at my very first limited event during the Gothic release at Siege. The moment I saw it for the first time, I thought, “This is broken!” And yet, somehow, I forgot about it during set exploration.
That card, now gaining a lot of traction, is of course Onslaught.
This beautifully convoluted creation, an intricate masterpiece of power and chaos painted by Juan Machuca, was exactly what Deathspeaker had been waiting for. Don’t get me wrong, piloting this deck isn’t easy in a midrange meta full of overpowered minions. We’re fighting monsters and demons with birds and tiny wizards. But at least now, we have a plan.
‘The Onslaught Turn”
As I kept brewing, I started viewing everything through the lens of a powerful Onslaught turn. The list runs six 2-mana minions that, when entering play, trigger their Genesis abilities to summon a second minion.
Novice Necromancer summons a skeleton token, while Highland Falconer fetches an airborne beast from your deck, usually Grain Sparrow. That means we effectively have six 2-mana drops that generate 4 damage on the board.
Since we’re aiming to cast a ridiculous number of spells per turn for maximum damage, we need mana, so the core package is back. I missed it so much; it feels like playing old school Sorcery again. Naturally, Philosopher’s Stone is included, giving us cost reduction that often enables a few extra spell
casts.
The 1-mana minions.
First, Grain Sparrow, a card I believe many Deathspeaker players have underestimated, as I rarely see it in decklists on Curiosa. It can heal you for up to 4 life, and with airborne, it’s both a versatile blocker and an excellent attacker during Onslaught turns. One of your best tools for staying afloat
over long games.
The other two 1-mana drops provide incremental damage. One-Shot Wizard can deal up to 3 damage during an Onslaught turn for just one mana. Plus, it can be a spellcaster, and with 13 spellcasters in the deck, you can be sure we’re running Pact with the Devil. One-Shot Wizard is a great target for it.
Then there’s Bitten, its damage potential for one mana is absurd. You can even take down a Lord of Lies with it for just one mana.
How the deck plays
This deck deals damage in waves. As established, most of our minions are fragile; their strength lies in numbers and recursion. You can’t expect to bring your opponent from 20 to 0 in a single turn every game, so we run Major Explosion and Gigantism for extra burst damage.
With this deck, you are constantly making tough decisions about resource management. Do you let an attack through to enable a stronger Onslaught play on the following turn, or do you block, preserve life, to then recur that minion later on?
The goal is to buy time, control the board, and set up your decisive Onslaught turn; it almost feels like a combo deck as you are constantly trying to align a play with multiple casts for maximum damage. To do that, you need to survive and stay afloat, so we have a nice package of removal. From the classic,
Poison Nova and Death Dealer, to the auras of Arthurian Legends.
The Black Plague and The Great Famine, invest in them; they give you time and quite often help you create an area free of blockers when the onslaught time comes.
Against the Current State of the Realm
As I write this article, I’m under no illusion that this is the definitive Deathspeaker list or that it belongs among the top-tier decks of the format. I consider myself a solid Sorcery player, but I’m far from being a highly competitive grinder spending endless hours on the Summit refining every matchup. I simply don’t have the patience for that, and I also struggle to fully focus while playing on TTS. My attention is often split between games and other tasks, quite often, painting.
That said, my testing process is still rigorous. Most of it comes from playing into my local meta or testing on TTS with friends, consistently facing meta decks rather than random brews. What I can say is that, in the current state of the meta, where the format is shifting, players are experimenting, and many are moving away from Water, this deck has the potential to perform as a surprisingly confident rogue contender. Even the Water matchup, while undeniably difficult, is far from unwinnable. It’s an uphill battle, but one that can absolutely be fought and won.
One of our biggest enemies is the Pied Piper of Hameln
Weaknesses
Our minions are fragile and easy to remove, but one of our biggest enemies is the Pied Piper of Hameln. As devastating as it can be, it can sometimes work in your favour. As you are searching for that removal, you are not casting most of your minions. Then, when the Piper is finally dealt with, you can unleash a massive Onslaught turn. Just kidding, it’s brutal, only once I managed to take advantage of it.
Problematic Sites
Certain sites are also problematic. Fields of Blood reduces the healing from your sparrows. Garden of Eden, and Bower of Bliss, shut you down, and the Bureau of Occult Control is not the end of the world, but is simply a nuisance.
And of course, all the countless graveyard hate that is out there!
Maybe Board
There are some cards that I’m considering and play testing that are not currently in the official list. We have Ominous Owl, a great target for the Highland Falconer. The Owl give us extra access to our Vile Inp and Quarrelsom Kobolds for more damage. It is also an air element card, so if we are casting it during an Onslaught turn with the Philosopher’s Stone, it’s a free cast for two damage, which is always nice.
It’s always weird to test a unique card, but a few came to mind. It takes a lot of game to figure out whether they are a good fit or not. The first one is Power Wish, the idea is that it can work as the Major Explosion and Gigantism as a way to close in the game after an Onslaught attack. The reality is that whenever I saw it, I used it to clean up the board.
King of the Realm seems like a great fit for the current meta and the deck itself. Salt the Earth comes to mind as a great way to resolve sites regardless of their rarity.
New opportunities with the recent Codex Change
As I was wrapping up this article, a new changelog dropped. Among all the clarifications and updates, one small yet incredibly impactful change was made specifically for Deathspeaker:
“Deathspeaker clarified that passive abilities on the summoned minion are applied momentarily, even though only Genesis abilities are referenced in the updated card text“.
Naturally, after reading this, my brewing mind immediately started racing. The change opens up a range of new viable interactions, some more practical than others, but all undeniably interesting. This gives Deathspeaker a fascinating new role as a counter to Ward and Stealth strategies.
By recurring minions such as Sister Stefania, Sister of Silence, or even burrowed Root Spider, you can remove Ward and Stealth tokens. These are only a few examples, but there are plenty of other minions with similar passive abilities that could now be exploited in creative ways. For sure, it opens a lot of possibilities for future sets.
Perhaps the most curious and unique interaction, however, involves Wicked Witch, which can now be cast from the graveyard to support other sources of damage and help finish off a minion. Whether this changelog will significantly reshape the deck, or even change how the Avatar itself is perceived, remains to be seen.
Conclusion
For now, we can only wait, test, and explore the possibilities this update has introduced, so I’d like to close with this: to all the Deathspeaker enthusiasts out there, pick up this decklist, give it a try, experiment with it, and keep refining it. It would be amazing to see his resurrection once more!
Now let’s see the deck in action!
“Let your eyes bathe in this deck showcase. Inside, you can see some beautiful pearls!”
“Gameplay footage was taken during a local tournament at Magic Maze in Prato. During that tournament with this deck during the swiss round, I went 5 – 0 to be eliminated in the first game of the top 8, a classic!”
