KeyForge Age of Ascension Deck Box Unboxing - A Unique Breakdown

Published: July 18, 2019 1:00 PM /

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keyforge aoa deck box breakdown (1)

KeyForge's first set, Call of the Archons (CotA) was released in November 2018. This was followed up recently with the second set Age of Ascension (AoA). We've already taken at a look at the AoA Starter Set, and also some AoA Cards to Look Out For. KeyForge has an interesting concept and incredible direction for the card game market, which is currently driven by collectible/trading and living card games. KeyForge strives to change that, by making every deck unique in an attempt to make card games entry-level friendly and interesting.

The only way into KeyForge is to buy a deck. That deck will contain cards from 3 of the 7 KeyForge houses (12 cards of each). We've already gone into detail on what the different houses in KeyForge offer in our article here. There have been a lot of discussions around the viability of decks and the chances of drawing an amazing deck over a poor one. We broke down a deck box for CotA, and now we're doing the same for AoA. A deck box contains 12 KeyForge decks. It was reported that there are 104 quadrillion CotA decks possible, so our 12 wouldn't even scratch the surface of working out an "average deck box," but we wanted to give anyone looking into picking up the game an idea.

We've held off doing an official review of KeyForge, deciding that it was much more important after our First Impressions, to cover what we thought were interesting cards, and now we'll look at 12 random decks, all from the same retail display box. With a game like KeyForge, you can talk about mechanics and FFG's organized play which drives community, but if every single person on the planet bought a deck, they would all have their own experience of the game. For us, KeyForge is about finding decks that you enjoy playing.  Decks that suit you and your style of play and learning to pilot them, rather than chasing a meta, or spending huge amounts on a single card.

In this article, we're going to look at the 12 decks we opened for KeyForge AoA and talk about some of the cards and what makes the decks interesting. We won't talk too much in detail about the cards, or the rules/mechanics, those can be seen in our previous articles. The cards chosen won't always be the best cards, and we won't look at all the cards from all the decks, just a selection to show what makes them interesting and to give an idea of the power of each deck we opened.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - Llvadrown, He that Acquires the Slum

Llvadrown, He that Acquires the Slum – Dis/Logos/Sanctum

Llvadrown is an interesting deck that suffers a little with randomness.

The Sanctum cards provide a triple “Lion” Bautrem, who has the deploy ability, letting you place them anywhere in your battleline. They also give their neighboring creatures +2 power. If you get a couple of these, overlapping, then they can give quite a boost. This deck would really benefit from some armor boosting.

It does have 2 copies of Healing Blast for the longevity of your creatures, Protect the Weak to add a little armor, and a single The Grey Rider to let you ready and use a neighboring creature.

Veemos Lightbringer is a great card normally, destroying every Elusive creature when they hit the table. Unfortunately, this deck carries a couple of Elusive Creatures, so it’s not always ideal.

Replicator is a fun card though, allowing you to use the ability of a creature in play when it reaps. Either an extra use of one of your abilities or borrowing the ability of an enemy creature.

Director of Z.Y.X. lets you achieve the top card of your deck every turn. At only 3 power, they won’t be around for long. This combines well with Labwork and Sloppy Labwork, also letting you achieve a card when played. Hexpion also plays well into this, archiving itself and the top card of your deck when destroyed.

Double Pip Pip lets you stun an enemy creature whenever it reaps. At only 2 power, they’ll need boosting by Lion Bautrem to survive. Bloodshard Imp makes a reaping creatures controller sacrifice it, and isn’t limited to only your opponent, so care must be taken. And double Aember Imps also stuns creatures when they reap, and again aren’t limited to your opponents. This amount of anti-reaping would be amazing if the deck had a larger amount of Aember generation in its cards.

Library of Babble is always a solid inclusion in a deck. The CotA card artifact lets you draw a card as an action.

Dis provides some much-needed denial with Restringuntus, letting you block an opponent’s house choice. Keeping him alive with Lion Bautrem is a possibility, but more armor and taunt in the deck would have been ideal.

Neffru gives some solid Aember generation if combined with creature removal, would again be a powerful card if the Sanctum cards had more armor.

Angwish and Lash of Broken Dreams are solid Key denial cards. Angwish can be boosted by the Bautrem’s to allow them to take more damage, denying your opponent Keys for longer. Armor and taunt again would have played really well into this.

The big let-down with the deck is Wild Wormhole, which is a great card normally, but the deck contains 2 copies of Unlocked Gateway, which being an Omega card, ends your step after it’s played, and also destroys all creatures. Which can be very powerful if timed correctly, but the risk factor with Wild Wormhole drawing it randomly is less than ideal.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - Graeme of Tindermere

Graeme of Tindermere – Brobnar/Mars/Shadows

Graeme has some interesting combinations with its house options.

Shadows has some fun and games with Guard Disguise, Duskrunner and Umbra stealing Aember. Throwing Stars can be great to finish off some creatures and gain Aember as an extra benefit. Double Sucker Punch can also be great for taking out low power creatures, especially as it archive’s itself if it kills the creature it damages. Miasma gives you an Aember and forces your opponent to skip their next Key forge step.

Mars has some incredible cards, that are great in high Mars creature count decks, but this only has a few Mars creatures so isn’t able to capitalize on it fully. Red Planet Ray Gun, Exterminate! Exterminate! And Mothergun all have power based on Mars Creatures in play or in hand.

Double Mars Needs Aember makes your opponent’s damaged non-Mars creatures capture Aember from their own side, which can be great for slowing down their Key forging.

Key Abduction is a powerful card, bouncing Mars creatures to their owner's hand and letting you forge a Key, with costs modified by the number of cards in your hand.

Double Carpet Phloxem allows you to rain down some very powerful damage on all your enemies creatures if you have no creatures in play. Very powerful if you’ve just bounced all your Mars creatures back to your hand.

Gauntlet of Command lets you ready and fight with a friendly creature, letting you use some of the Mars creatures in a Brobnar turn. Granger Chieftain lets you do the same when played, so timing and positioning is good to watch out for to get the most out of them.

Ogopogo deals 2 damage to another creature when they destroy a creature. Bilgum Avalanche deals 2 damage to all enemy creatures when you forge a Key. If you can pull off a double Key forge turn, you can deal a huge amount of damage to your opponent just by having Bilgum in play.

King of the Crag reduces all enemy Brobnar creatures power by 2. Very situational, but can make a huge difference for your creatures going up against other Brobnar creatures.

Mars also brings a couple of solid creatures to the table. Collector Worm has 5 armor and archives creatures it fights in your own achieve. Zorg stuns the creature it fights and both its neighbors and the Mindworm, while only 1 power, makes the creature it fights deal their damage to both its neighbors.

Shadows has 2 cards that give you 3 Aember, but can be the only cards you play that turn. Treasure Map and Swindle both have different texts but gain you 3 Aember as long as they are the only card played that turn. It’s half a key, but it’s not always worth the loss of a turn, especially when some of the powerful creatures are on the table. Timed correctly though, they can speed up a Key and take a game.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - The Woman who Grimly Smiles upon Hope

The Woman who Grimly Smiles upon Hope - Brobnar/Dis/Mars

The Woman who Grimly Smiles upon Hope isn't a top tier deck, but it has some of my favorite thematic cards from the set. Skybooster Squadron is  4 power creature, that returns to your hand after it reaps. It's not going to make your opponent run in terror when they see it, but it's a fun little card. The mechanic of returning to your hand, in representation of their booster packs is inspired. The 3 Yurks, Yurk, Old and Ancient are also a fun card. Discarding 1, 2 and 3 cards for a 4, 5 and 6 power creature isn't great unless you've got some cards you want to discard, and they have no abilities, but the card art and flavor text is fun and it makes me smile to play them.

The rest of the deck contains some solid card additions. Ixxyxli Fixfinger gives all your other Mars creatures 1 armor, which is very handy. Double Mindworm is great for creature control. Hypnotic Command and Red Planet Ray Gun are great if you can get a few Mars creatures on the table. Uxlyx the Zookeeper is a fantastic card for removing tricky enemy creatures. With only 2 power though, it's hard to keep on the table.

Pitlord can help keep Uxlyx on the table, but when they're in play you have to choose Dis as your house, so you wouldn't be able to use them. 9 power and a 2 Aember bonus to play still makes Pitlord worthwhile.

Dis brings some other control cards with double Soulkeeper, Lash of Broken Dreams and double Binding Irons.

The Brobnar cards are less about big creatures here and more about options. 2 copies of Little Rapscal forces all creatures to fight when used, stopping reaping. Champions Challenge destroys all creatures except yours and your opponent's most powerful, then you ready and fight with your creature. It's a creature board wipe if played well. Signal Fire is a sacrifice artifact that lets you use Brobnar creatures in another house's turn. It doesn't really have the creatures to capitalize on this, but it's a great card and Gauntlet of Comand lets you either use a Brobnar creature twice in 1 turn or a creature from another house that turn.

Mars also brings Key Abduction, which this deck can really capitalize on for a Key grab and Destroy Them All! which is great for a number of reasons. It lets you destroy an artifact, creature and an upgrade. AoA has some powerful artifacts, but not a lot of artifact removal. The removal of a creature and upgrade is an added bonus to the card.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - Salcharm, the Spiritcaller of Dwarves

Salcharm, the Spiritcaller of Dwarves - Logos/Shadows/Untamed

Salcharm stands out because of Timetraveller, which is a very highly rated card. Timetraveller lets you draw two cards and then as an action on a later turn, return them to your deck. Timetraveller always comes paired with Help from Future Self which lets you search your deck and discard pile for a Timetraveller, put it into your hand and then shuffle your discard pile into your deck. This combination is very powerful when a deck contains 2 Timetravellers and when combined with a fast deck that gets a boost from a discard pile refresh. While this deck only contains a single Timetraveller, they still give a great draw boost.

The deck also contains Key of Darkness, which lets you forge a key at +6 cost, which is pricey, but if your opponent has no Aember, it's reduced to +2 cost. This usually requires you to time its play, but with a few Aember stealing options in this deck like Little Niff, Umbra, Ronnie Wristclocks, and Gamgee, it really helps to get that Key of Darkness. The Logos card Pocket Universe then helps to protect your ill-gotten gains.

Eyegor is great for seeking out Timetraveller and Help from Future Self and Archimedes is handy for getting your Timetraveller into your Archive rather than your discard pile.

Double Duskwitch, while with the Omega trait, means you have to keep them alive, and with 1 power is difficult, lets your creatures enter play ready the following turn. 2 copies of Dharna gives you Aember for damaged creatures, as well as letting you heal them and Panpaca, Anga combines well with them to give all creatures to the right of Anga +2 power. 2 copies of Song of Spring let you shuffle Untamed creatures from your hand, deck, and battleline back into your deck.

Salcharm also contains 2 copies of Tantadlin, which while isn't able to capitalize on its 9 power, by being restricted to only dealing 2 damage a turn, lets you remove a random card from your opponent's archive. Archives are generally very difficult to deal with, so having this option on a creature that can survive a while is great.

Shadows have the always fun combination of Life for a Life and Bad Penny, which lets you remove an enemy creature for no drawback. Bulleteye straight up destroys flank creatures just for reaping. Dusk Chronicles, of which this deck has 2 gives you an Aember for playing and either an extra card draw or the option to achieve a card. Knuckles Bolton, while only 3 power is notoriously hard to remove outside of direct creature removal and Subtle Maul is an artifact that lets you discard a random card from your opponent's hand as an action, which if left in play, can be very oppressive.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - Nell Hulnus from the Congregant’s Hive

Nell Hulnus from the Congregant’s Hive – Dis/Sanctum/Shadows

Nell is one of my favorite decks from this deck box. Sanctum does what Sanctum does and Dis and Shadows provide some playful entertainment.

A copy of Nightforge is always welcome, especially when your deck has some Aember stealing power. Forging a key at +3 cost mid-turn can put you ahead if you can keep generating Aember. Little Niff helps you along with the stealing, just by being between some fighting creatures.

Sucker Punch and Throwing Stars are solid creature control with the added bonus of extra Aember with Throwing Stars and the archive ability of Sucker Punch.

Miasma is a solid key Forge block with a 1 Aember gain. It is only a delaying tactic but it can be great if you can steal a lot that turn.

Whistling Darts followed by a Misery Exploit the following turn is a fun combination if your opponent can’t clear the damage. Especially in high creature decks.

Lamindra giving their neighbors Elusive is great, but when you have a couple of Hazardous options with Armageddon Cloak and Rothais the Fierce, it’s much better.

Double Blinding Light helps with the creature control and Aubade the Grim and Bordan the Redeemed provide a couple of interesting Sanctum Aember stealing options, which fit in well with the Shadows cards.

Golden Aura is a great combo card for activating another house’s creature that turn, but also for the invulnerability it provides. Library of the Damned can be used to help you build up for a large combo turn, but it can slow the deck down as well.

Not Finished With You is an awesome way to get some of the more useful creatures back into your deck without having to wait for the reshuffle. It can be very powerful late game.

2 copies of Tezmal can be extremely oppressive to your opponent, especially if you get them between a Lamindra for added protection.

Unlocked Gateway is a solid creature control card if it’s all going wrong. And Gongoozle is great for dealing 3 damage to an opponent’s large creature for the discard benefit.

Onyx Knight can be played well, but it is extremely situation dependent. A Smite is powerful following a Golden Aura for an extra attack with an invulnerable creature.

Sir Marrows, Barrister Joya and Bloodshard Imp slow down your opponent’s Aember gains through reaping, but this has to be played carefully, as you can be left with lots of dead stealing cards in hand.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - Iago F. Strongbarra, the Sixth

Iago F. Strongbarra, the Sixth – Brobnar/Mars/Shadows

Iago has a lot of doubles and even a triple in their deck for card draw consistency.

With Shadows, Iago has some control options. Lights Out gives you an Aember and returns to hand to deal with creatures to their owner’s hand. Rigged Lottery can also be a great little Aember builder for you. Both you and your opponent discard 5 cards directly from your decks, but you get an Aember for playing the card as well as a higher chance of drawing Shadows cards, as you almost certainly have some in your deck.

Double Yantzee Gang and Ronnie Wristlocks provide Aember stealing and triple Sucker Punch can mean you nearly always have 1 or 2 in your archive.

Containment Field and 2 copies of Bonerot Venom can make some opponent’s creatures short-lived, which isn’t as effective as destroying them outright but can be useful in some situations.

2 copies of both Mothership Support and Mothergun rely on Mars cards in hand and Mars creatures read on the table, but they can be used to remove some powerful creatures on your opponent’s side.

Xanthyn Harvester relies on having a Mars neighbor, but 2 Aember per reap can really speed up key forging if it survives a couple of turns. Nyzyk Resonator is useful for putting a +4 cost on your opponent’s keys, but without deploy, can be difficult to really capitalize fully on. 1 armor is useful for protection against light threats, but at only 2 power, they don’t stick around for long.

Foozle is a solid 5 power creature that gives you a bonus Aember when reaping, only if an enemy creature has been destroyed this turn, can be difficult to pull off every turn consistently, but they tend to stick around for longer than the Xanthyn Harvester.

Cowfyne is very useful for taking out smaller creatures around a larger one, possibly doing 9 damage per attack. First Blood is an Alpha card that lets you deal damage per Brobnar creature on the table. It can be powerful but is very situation dependent on your opponent having a high power creature worth taking out and you having the creatures on the table.

Lollop the Titanic is useful for taking out enemy creatures and sticking around for a few turns and Blood of Titans is a great power boost for a creature you want to keep on the table for longer. Phoenix Heart can be a great table clear, especially if you’ve only got one creature in play, which will bounce back to hand when destroyed.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - Magoth, the Mayor of Humility

Magoth, the Mayor of Humility – Brobnar/Logos/Shadows

Magoth has 2 copies of Lamindra for extra creature protection and Murkens for some random opponent’s card playing fun. I wouldn’t rely on Murkens to win any tournaments, but it can be great fun.

Mack the Knife is a fantastic creature, able to stick around for a few turns because of Elusive and can deal a constant 1 damage to a creature every turn, regardless of the house chosen. If that damage happens to kill a creature, you gain an Aember. With use every turn, this is very easy to time for the Aember gain.

2 copies of Routine Job means that it won’t gain you a huge amount of Aember, but if you happen to pull a Routine Job from your opponent’s deck with Murkens, it can be all worthwhile.

Hexpion, while a low power creature, effectively archive’s the top card of your deck every few turns if you can draw and play them, then attack a creature to sacrifice them to do it again.

Helper Bot lets you put a creature down, and offers a combo with an out of turn card play while Wild Wormhole doesn’t have any particularly horrible draws from the deck, so can be very useful.

Brain Eater is great for drawing cards by taking out low powered creatures. Your opponent will almost certainly look to take it out with a card or high powered creature before you can start to use it.

3 copies of Eureka! Each gain you 3 Aember and let you Archive 2 random cards from your hand. It can be set up very well for some big gains and also clearing your hand for a full card draw at the end of the turn.

Jargogle is great because you select the card and Elusive means that they’ll get a much better chance of being destroyed on your turn, but if not, the card is still archived and not lost.

There are a few giants in the Brobnar cards to make Drummernaut very useful. And Foozle’s 2 Aember reap can be set up well with the powerful giants. Into The Fray and Drummernaut are a great combination for attacking twice and bouncing back to hand only to play again to remove the damage. Or simply to get you to use Drummernaut on the first turn played.

Blood of Titans is a handy creature boost, especially if you can get a good punch out of it with Into The Fray or Drummernaut and Bilgum Avalanche is a solid inclusion for doing a bonus 2 damage to enemy creatures when you forge a key. Tremor and 1-2 Punch are a great combination if you can draw them together. You can stun 2 creatures and destroy one outright with the 2 cards.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - Zim, Ward of the Plain Passage

Zim, Ward of the Plain Passage – Logos/Sanctum/Untamed

Zim has some fun cards. Like Grovekeeper, who if left unchecked, can continue to boost neighboring creatures each turn. They force your opponent to deal with them before creatures can get too powerful.

Persistence Hunting is a solid control card for stopping your opponent’s plans with creatures.

Nepenthe Seed is a fantastic card, it’s Omni ability letting you take any card from your discard pile to your hand. Late game, this can be incredible if you need to pull a specific card.

Niffle Grounds is useful for removing taunt or elusive (or both) but is incredibly situation-dependent and can be a dead card, but at least it gives you an Aember.

Teliga is another creature your opponent will want to deal with, as the Aember gains can spiral if they’re playing a creature heavy deck. World Tree is great for getting either Teliga or Grovekeeper back in your hand at the end of the turn, rather than having to wait for the reshuffle and can be done every turn you chose Untamed until the World Tree is removed.

Archimedes gives both its neighbors archive if destroyed protection, but without deploy, this can be difficult to set up over several turns. It’s still very useful though and can be combed well.

Eyegor is a great way to cycle through your deck, looking for a specific card and with Archimedes and World Tree, can be used and found a lot.

Pip Pip is a great way of slowing down your enemies Aember gain through reaping and Hexpion is also a deck great cycler, putting cards in your archive when destroyed to be either left there or drawn when useful.

Blinding Light is a solid creature control card.

2 copies of the Grey Rider are very useful and if you get both on the table at the same time, can be incredible. And when you play Shield of Justice, you can have an insane turn of creature removal.

Sir Marrows is useful for slowing down your opponent’s Aember gain, meaning they have to destroy him before they can reap effectively. Golden Aura is useful for using an out of house creature, or just for protecting a creature while attacking a second time.

Challe the Safeguard very much lives up to their name and really helps to protect the creatures that need it in your deck. Deploy and Taunt working incredibly well with the 2 armor on Challe. Abond the Armorsmith can take your armor to amazing levels, giving all friendly creatures +1 armor and +1 armor on a turn when you chose Sanctum and use their action to boost.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - Nadine “The Spring” Umeidrop

Nadine “The Spring” Umeidrop – Brobnar/Logos/Mars

Nadine contains Glyxl Proliferator, one of my favorite Mars cards. If Glyxl is on a flank, you can archive a Mars card from your discard pile every time you reap with him. This means that every turn, you could be playing a powerful Mars card, reaping with Glyxl to put it in your archive and then drawing it every turn. With only 3 power and no armor, keeping Glyxl alive will be difficult, but it’s well worth the effort.

A card to help is Ixxyxli Fixfinger, who gives all Martian creatures +1 armor. There’s also Mars First, which lets you ready and use a friendly Mars creature, which could be Glyxl again to get another Mars card from your discard pile to your Archive.

If the Xanthyx Harvester has a Mars creatures either side of it, it can get 2 Aember for reaping. Key Abduction can easily be won if you spend a few turns Archive Mars cards with Glyxl, who can also be used to get Key Abduction back in your hand again.

Hypnotic Command is great for slowing your opponent’s Key Forging down, but with several cards that let you stun enemy creatures for reaping, like Pip Pip, Aember Conduction Unit and Zysysyx Shockworm, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

3 copies of Professor Sutterkin and Brain Eater really help the drawing of this deck, especially to find the Mars cards you need. And Backup copy is great for putting on Glyxl so that you can get them back on the table quickly again. The Curator is a very useful card, letting friendly artifacts come into play ready. Nadine doesn’t really have the powerful artifacts to capitalize on this though.

The Brobnar cards add some real punch to the deck. The Tremor and 1-2 Punch combo helping to remove difficult creatures.

2 War Grumpus’ and several giants in the deck can add some real power to the deck, especially if using for Aember generation in one turn. The Grumpus Tamer also helps you get a War Grumpus back in your hand, every time you reap with them.

Groke is great for removing your opponent’s Aember, especially if you can use them to take out low-level creatures over a few turns, or over a single turn if combined with the War Grumpus’. Bilgum Avalanche is also very solid, especially if you can get them on the table prior to setting up the combo with a Key Abduction returning to your hand from the archive repeatedly.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - Steele, Watching Gallery Ratcatcher

Steele, Watching Gallery Ratcatcher – Dis/Sanctum/Shadows

We discussed Scowly Caper in our AoA Cards to Watch Out For article, and here it is. This card is one of our favorite designs and very Shadows.

The Sting is another interesting card and a great way to generate a lot of Aember if timed well. It has to be early game though, as after they’ve forged 2 keys, it’s useless. The concept of the card design is fun though and it’s about a multiple turn set up return.

Gamgee is a fun card for generating 2 Aember when they reap, 1 of which comes from your opponent. Elusive also helps to keep Gamgee alive for a few turns.

Brend the Fanatic is another multiple turn return card, giving your opponent 1 Aember, that you can then steal back a couple of turns later when Brend is destroyed. If your opponent doesn’t destroy them, then you can attack with impunity because of Skirmish.

Whistling Darts and Throwing Stars have turned up in a lot of our Shadows Decks in this deck box and great for low-level creature removal.

The Sanctum cards in Steele seem to have some Shadows influence, with Bordan the Redeemed able to capture 2 Aember from an opponent as an action. Elusive means that your opponent will have to deal with them if they want that Aember back. Aubade the Grim also lets you take Aember from an opponent but gives you an option to discards it as they reap.

2 copies of Gorm of Omm give some great control, especially in AoA as there are a lot of powerful artifacts and not many ways to deal with them.

Shield of Justice gives your creatures immunity from damage for a turn and when combined with The Grey Rider, they can be used to take out some of your opponent’s larger creatures. Or the Grey Rider could just be used to get another special effect or reap out of a creature.

Not Finished with You and Exhume give you opportunities to get creatures back from your discard pile. Library of the Damned allows you to build up for a big turn, possibly keeping the control cards aside until you need them. Lash of Broken Dreams is great for keeping your opponent’s key costs high, while you steal Aember with your Shadows (and some Sanctum) cards.

Ortannu the Chained and Ortannu’s Binding are some other cards we discussed in our AoA Cards article. We love the card design behind this and really wish we had more copies of Binding. They can be combo’d with Not Finished with You and Exhume to get at Ortannu when he’s in your discard pile and Library of the Damned can be used to store the Bindings until you have Ortannu.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - Atomic Fikria of the Tower

Atomic Fikria of the Tower – Brobnar/Logos/Shadows

Key of Darkness is a great card in the right deck, and Fikria is the right deck. Keeping your opponent’s amber down is ‘key’ to the Key of Darkness, and Fikria has several ways of doing that. 2 copies of Groke, Guard Disguise, Brend the Fanatic, double Yantzee Gang and Umbra. There is nothing sweeter than spending a turn taking Aember from an opponent and then using it to forge a key in your turn.

Pip Pip and 1-2 Punch are solid creature control, especially if you’re trying to keep your opponent’s Aember down.

Life for a Life has some great situational uses. Getting rid of a friendly creature sometimes is required, and giving you one Aember and dealing 6 to an opposing creature is a bonus.

If you’re unable to keep your opponent’s Aember down, Miasma can give you another turn to steal their Aember before they spend it.

[REDACTED] puts pressure on your opponent to either remove it or win before you spend 4 turns choosing Logos as your active house. If you can keep their Aember down, it can be a game-winner.

Zoozle isn’t as effective in this deck as others but can be used for 2 Aember gains if you have removed enemy creatures.

Flamethrower as an action can let you deal 3 damage across 3 creatures every turn you chose Brobnar, which can be problematic for your opponent. The Warchest can be incredible in the right deck. Fikria doesn’t have the power that some Brobnar decks have, but it can be used to get that extra Aember needed.

Logos provides great drawing and archive capability with Library of Babble, Titan Librarian, Professor Sutterkin, Brain Eater, Fila the Researcher, Director of Z.Y.X. and Z.Y.X. Researcher.

Backup copy provides a little protection for your Aember stealing creatures.

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KeyForge AoA Deck - Humboldt the Compulsively Feckless

Humboldt the Compulsively Feckless – Dis/Logos/Untamed

Nature’s Call is a very powerful card. Either getting rid of your opponent’s creatures for a turn, or returning your own creatures to your hand to remove damage, or simply to get their play effects again. Glimmer is a great example, as its play effect lets you return a card from your discard pile to your hand.

Mimicry was a card we played around with a lot in CotA and we’re happy to find it in one of our decks here. It’s very situational, but can be incredible if used on a key cheat card.

Untamed bring their usual great creatures. 2 copies of Knoxx, who is boosted by having neighbors. Mighty Tiger deals 4 damage to an enemy creature when played, and can be used again through Nature’s Call. Fanghouse does damage before it’s attacked or attacks, so it can take out a power 6 creature on attack, and it needs an attacking power 6 creature to take it out in one go.

Panpaca, Jaga can give you a very powerful turn of attacking and not taking damage back. Only 3 power makes it difficult to keep them alive though.

Curiosity is an awesome theme card. You get to destroy each scientist creature. It’s very situation-dependent in terms of use, but the artwork makes up for it.

Teliga can be a great Aember earner if your opponent can’t remove them, but you’ll find they quickly become a target.

2 copies of Hexpion can be a real nuisance for your opponent, especially if you can get them working in tandem or simultaneously.  And they work extremely well with the drawing and archive capacity of Library of Babble, Titan Librarian, Jargogle and Memory Chip.

Remote Access is great if your opponent has a useful artifact in play, situation-dependent though. Crazy Killing Machine, while a complete lottery, is always fun and can lead to some dramatic moments.

Transposition Sandals is a very useful card for activating out of house creatures.

Dis provide their usual solid control cards with Banish to remove a creature quickly if you can’t remove it with damage. 2 copies of Binding Irons to keep their card draws down.

Gub has to be surrounded by neighbors to be any use but provides a solid 6 power if they are.

Library of the Damned plays well with the Logos archiving ability, letting you build up across 2 houses for some big turns.

We mention Silver Key Imp here because we picked it up in the AoA Cards article. It’s extremely situation-dependent and needs to survive for it to be of use. But if you can get it down after you forged your second key before your opponent and key it alive, it can be game winning. Of course, if you haven’t forged your second key yet, or they’ve already forged their second key, it’s a dead card. But you can always achieve it.


The houses from our KeyForge AoA Deck Box breakdown look like this:

  • Brobnar - 6
  • Dis - 5
  • Logos - 7
  • Mars - 4
  • Sanctum - 4
  • Shadows - 7
  • Untamed - 3
It's a little bit more evenly spread than our CotA Deck Box, with the majority being Logos and Shadows.

All of the decks in this box are playable, but only a couple really stand out as competitive, but then not as competitive as some of the CotA decks we have. There still feels like AoA decks aren't as strong as CotA in general, but this could be a great thing for balancing overall.

We didn't get any Legacy cards in our decks, or Shards and we were hoping to get a Plague Rat deck to try out. But that's the luck of the draw with CCGs.

We did get 9 copies of Sucker Punch across our 12 decks and with only 7 Shadows decks, that's a solid turn out for that card.

A lot of our decks contain some fun cards and some of the mechanics in AoA far outstrip those in CotA. we hope that KeyForge continues to add fun, interesting and thematic mechanical cards.

 

The KeyForge AoA deck box used in this article was provided by Asmodee UK.

Have you been playing KeyForge? What do you think of our decks? Which is your favorite? Which is your favorite of your own decks? Have you found our Deck Box breakdowns interesting? Let us know in the comments below.

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


A Potts TechRaptor
| Senior Tabletop Writer

Adam is a Tabletop Specialist for TechRaptor. He started writing for TechRaptor in 2017 and took over as Tabletop Editor in 2019 and has since stood down… More about Adam