Notes & Combos

Early M1 - Dinomorphia Kashtira Labrynth

While other versions of Lab were clearly playable, coming into season 34 it felt like if you weren't playing a variant that dived deeper into the control spectrum than usual, you were handicapping yourself against the expected field - and thus, I went with a shell that played to that consideration rather effectively.

Dinomorphia Kashtira Labrynth has a bunch of tools that you could wish for in a heavier control outfit for Lab: flexible, efficient interaction, high-quality avenues to stabilize, clean, pressure-based threats, and a spread of value engines that are plenty comfortable if the game runs long. In addition to that, the build utilizes some of the best defensive cards in the environment very well (Goat, Mistake, Daruma, Di-Fi, etc) without having to really peel back on its own ceiling and consistency to do so; A luxury decks around its weight class often can't accomplish or as smoothly afford as they generally would have to make heavier concessions between their overall power, ways to plateau the game and cards to actually lock it down once they do.

One of the bigger appeals of being on this particular shell for Lab is that it allows for an interaction suite and threat base, that on top of synching well with some of the best defensive options in the environment, to be notably multifaceted. A lot of the deck's key beats tend to act as either a value engine, a way to compress the game or methods to equalize on a dime and often combinations of two of the three (and even at times, all three at once). With that said, that level of dexterity lends the deck enough athleticism to keep up with the more mild-paced midrange decks without having to give up its potency in neutralizing the game when facing the aggressive combo piles.

All in all, this was a blend of choices that were particularly well positioned for October’s anticipated meta and effective enough to complete ranked early into the season without any glaring friction. For further information on the actual engines and tech you can continue to read the notes below if you're interested.

Notes

On Dinomorphia

“Why Dinomorphia” is one of the most immediate questions that pop up when others see this deck. While there's a few different perks to being on the engine right now (its ability to operate effectively under the choice of continuous cards here being higher on that list) the headline is that Frenzy is flat out one of the most powerful normal traps Lab has access to currently.

Frenzy often ends up CA positive, represents a strong flood, is a starter and let's you close games much quicker by putting a ton of pressure on board out of nowhere, all with little operational hoops to jump through on your end to pull it off and while still retaining the usual benefits of being a normal trap in Lab in the first place. In short, the return on investment from resolving Frenzy was quite good when looking at the raw outcome.

It representing both effect negation at scale and a starter simultaneously is particularly critical not only for the obvious boost in overall consistency it gives the deck, but in drastically upping the likelihood a conjunction of game warping static effects are seen in the opening hand - which is a much greater probability than other control variants and way weightier on the results of the game falling in your favor if you are able to achieve it.

Despite all the positives though, Rexterm and Kentregina aren't really too good in a vacuum and can be rather fragile at a glance in relation to the rest of the meta - the top tier decks don't have too much trouble dealing with them. However, situating them in a way where they're just another layer to compound and muddy up game-states like they are here (rather than the focal point of an endboard / the heart of the game plan like they are traditionally in their actual deck), made them much more troublesome and sticker for the meta to deal with. There's multiple combinations of Rexterm + non-engine piece(s) or certain engine pieces too in the list that severely tilt the game towards you and can even just straight up run away with it all on its own - an upside that was quite nice to have during the climb.

Lastly, it's worth noting that the requirements to bring on this engine are pretty economical - every card is a starter and at its leanest, only takes 5 main deck slots. The ED commitment can be as low as 4 slots with 1 Rexterm, 1 Kentregina and 2 Stealthbergia.

On Kashtira

Kashtira is opted for yet again as a complementary engine. However, splashing for Kash shouldn't come as any surprise at this point, especially for those who have clicked on a list from me before. Not only do they give Lab, an otherwise heavily reactive deck, a desirable level of proactivity to immediately push back against boards and have higher agency over the game’s pace and flow, but their toolkit is well aligned against the meta at the moment for very apparent reasons that I don't believe need real elaboration. Arise-Heart is still a premium threat that can take over games by itself and still carries nice incidental synergy with Lab’s typical defensive options. Furthermore, much like noted with Rex previously, Arise also offers yet another low-hassle opportunity for the deck to line up multiple ways to compound a game-state into a winning one.

If there's anything worth a bit of unpacking is that the Kash engine here is deeper than what other decks usually splash for. I'm notably opting for the extra names in Ogre and the value associated with it, but more importantly, going with the copy of Theosis and Riseheart. The risk-reward of bringing them on was favorable; Having Unicorn being able to threaten a real 1cc and not just the usual Birth was an escalation in power and ceiling that was worthwhile given the bottom line it leads to. The trade-off of potentially bricking on them was mathematically acceptable for me as well. Besides being on the extra Kash names in Ogre to make this less likely than it would be in the more typical Kash package, the deck is functionally on 6 copies of Wraitsoth too, which helps diminish the odds even further. At the end of the day, this worked out well.

On Non-Engine / Interaction

The noteworthy point this time around is more what's not here than what is. I'm not on any of the usual removal traps for Lab largely because of how much of a middling clump they are in the current climate, with most carrying distinct hangups in some form or fashion. Targeting is iffy with Kirin around every other corner and compacted with Voice being pretty popular in general, and monster destruction is very low value given the nature of the leading decks. Cards like IDP are hit and miss, shining in some matchups but being rather underwhelming elsewhere, and while something like Overroot felt like the best of this bunch - having the most pristine intersection of applicability, rate, and utility - ultimately going with more preventive options that had wider duration across the game was better in play.

Metaverse makes an appearance here and is my pick for the “slept on normal trap relative to impact” highlight of this section of the notes. Its applications offer a nice tweener situation, acting as another powerful flood when desired or neatly being engine specifically here as needed. “Quick speed Necrovalley” is the exact type of ignorance and power we're in the market for if we're going to be competing against a bunch of Yubels, FKs and Tear decks, all while our goal is just trying to get our gems out of ranked and get it done with. Needless to say this card was strong during this season’s run into those listed top decks and got the job done.