Deus Ex Justice

Hi! I’m Nils Jansen and today I’m writing a little bit about my 2nd place deck for the Spezialmegaspezialcup 10.2022 in Düsseldorf. Maybe you already saw the deck in the top 8 article published last week, so I want to shed some light on choices that might seem a bit strange.

2nd Place	Nils Jansen	Falchion
Ruler: Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066) Child of the Light Moon (NWE-003) Child of the Wind Moon (NWE-033)	Magic Stone Deck: (10) 4x Magic Stone of Nature’s Beauty (VIN003-089) 2x Magic Stone of Radiant Waves (VIN003-091) 4x Misty Wind Magic Stone (VIN003-093)
Resonators: (15 of 42) 1x Warhorse (NWE-011) 4x Fiethsing, 100 Years of Wizardry (GOG-047) 3x Pricia, Seeker of Friends // Pricia’s Big Show (ROL-018) 3x Deus Ex Machina, God of Machines (DBV-093) 3x Engineer of Eternal (NWE-063) 1x Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095)	Chants: (16 of 42) 2x Alice’s Fantastic Trick (GRL-004) 3x Tea Party Before the Decisive Duel (GRL-014) 3x Justice Punch (NWE-037) 4x Daily Research (NWE-061) 4x Grandfather’s Research Project (NWE-068) // Justice (NWE-068J) Additions: (11 of 42) 1x Seal of Lenneth (AO1-015) 1x Kirik’s Training Grounds (ROL-007) 3x Justice’s Missile Pod (NWE-038) 2x Trishula (GRL-053) 1x The Origin of the Seven Lands (PofA-112) 2x Outer Space (NWE-094) 1x Typhon, Asteroid Cluster (NWE-100)	Side Deck: (15) 1x Child of the Fire Moon (NWE-013) 1x Child of the Water Moon (NWE-024) 2x Dragon of Solari (NWE-014) 1x Illusionary Flower of Sorrow (MSW-039) 2x Mechanization (GRV-029) 1x Shackles of Ice (VIN003-040) 1x Valentina, Owner of the Theater (ROL-015) 3x Dreiwing, Mechanized Wind of Destruction (GRV-040) 1x Curse of Caduceus (PofA-051) 1x Eternal, Artificial Archipelago (NWE-064) 1x The Great Wall of the Twelve Sacred Knights (NWE-083)

My ruler of choice for this deck was the new Bond Ruler Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066). He has seen quite a bit of play in the latest tournament, mostly due to being able to use moon children and his fantastic Mastery chant Daily Research (NWE-061), enabling him to directly look for any addition for free. This is of course amazing, especially in a format still using The Origin of the Seven Lands (PofA-112) + Dreiwing, Mechanized Wind of Destruction (GRV-040), since it enables Falchion to usually drop the first one, and potentially ramp 1-3 times before the opponent catches up. There are a number of very strong additions being played with him usually, with the win con mostly being a combo of Mikey, Jack of All Trades (NWE-027) + Schrödinger (PofA-105), and often also securing his life via The First Moon (RDE-090) + The Great Wall of the Twelve Sacred Knights (NWE-083). Personally I didn’t find these strategies very interesting so I wanted to try and build something more janky with him.

You will already have noticed that the most obvious departure from established lists is Deus Ex Machina, God of Machines (DBV-093). The reason I built this deck around him has a lot to do with personal bias for Machina cards, but also during the spoiler season I found more and more ways this particular incarnation of him synergizes with a lot of Falchion’s toolkit. One big reason for that is another card that doesn’t see a lot of play in competitive Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066) decks: Grandfather’s Research Project (NWE-068) // Justice (NWE-068J). There are several reasons he usually isn’t included in Falchion decks, one of them definitely being the low availability of the card, but also that he doesn’t really benefit the gameplan most Falchion players are going for. Going for Justice (NWE-068J) also imposes a lot of constraints on the deck, with having to build with enough additions for him to be able to contract as early as possible, but also having enough chants to fully utilise his 4 chant triggers per turn. So why did I decide to go for this particular combo of rarely played cards in Falchion?

For one, what immediately comes to mind is the ability of Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066) to generate a sizeable number of +100/+100 counters by utilising his chant triggers. This, together with using the Vingolf3 “Counter” Special Magic Stones (like Magic Stone of Nature’s Beauty (VIN003-089) for example) enables Deus Ex Machina, God of Machines (DBV-093) to hit the field with an ever increasing number of counters. Usually, a big Deus Ex on the field isn’t too useful immediately though as he doesn’t have Swiftness on his own, and also is quite expensive to play with a cost of 2. Again, Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066)/Justice (NWE-068J) have great ways of dealing with this: 

1. Justice’s Mastery Chant Justice Punch (NWE-037) enables your Deus Ex Machina, God of Machines (DBV-093) to use its full ATK to deal piercing damage on opponent’s J/Resonators. 
2. Deus Ex Machina, God of Machines (DBV-093) can place his counters back on Justice (NWE-068J), enabling him to swing twice per turn using his first Chant trigger.
3. The third big cornerstone of the deck, Pricia, Seeker of Friends // Pricia’s Big Show (ROL-018) enables you to bring out your Deus Ex Machina, God of Machines (DBV-093) directly from the deck, while triggering all of Justice’s triggers and ALSO bringing a free Warhorse (NWE-011) with her to immediately give Swiftness to the Deus Ex Machina, God of Machines (DBV-093).

For example, your combo could look like this: With 3 Will available and 2 additions on field, contract with Grandfather’s Research Project (NWE-068) // Justice (NWE-068J) by putting the third required addition into the field. As you want your third Justice trigger to go off and recover two of your stones, you can use for example:

1. A free Daily Research (NWE-061) before contracting.
2. A Tea Party Before the Decisive Duel (GRL-014) / Loki Enters the Game of Gods (GOG-037) / Melfee, Traveling Sorceress (ROL-017) for a “free” chant use.
3. If one of your three additions is Justice’s Missile Pod (NWE-038), you can use its ability as a free chant as well.
4. If you don’t have any of these, you can also start your combo with Justice Punch (NWE-037) and chase the remaining parts of the combo to it.

Then, as your third trigger, with your remaining Will you use Pricia’s Big Show (ROL-018) to recover two stones and build up the X value for Pricia, Seeker of Friends ROL-018). Depending on if you already played it before, you either play it once again or immediately go for Pricia to get Deus Ex Machina, God of Machines (DBV-093) + Warhorse (NWE-011) out. Then you can swing with a big Deus Ex, and possibly punch with Justice Punch (NWE-037) as well, and also your board is pretty protected with Deus Ex having Eternal, and Justice (NWE-068J) having Eternal + Barrier.

There are several great ways this deck can protect its combos against interruption. For one, with the number of additions you usually have out, Fiethsing, 100 Years of Wizardry (GOG-047) becomes ridiculously good. Also, Justice’s fourth trigger serves as a nice way of always having the ability to cancel something, especially with cards like Pricia’s Big Show (ROL-018), Tea Party Before the Decisive Duel (GRL-014) and Justice’s Missile Pod (NWE-038), that allow you to easily build up your Chant count. Another fantastic (yes) card for this purpose is Alice’s Fantastic Trick (GRL-004). If you close your combo on this, your opponent cannot chase to the Justice (NWE-068J) trigger and you also remove something without interaction. Especially great if your opponent is waiting to cancel the end of your long combo.

The rest of the deck is filled with mostly one-cost additions to slow the opponent down and enable the contract. A fun inclusion for my Deus Ex variant here is Kirik’s Training Grounds (ROL-007), giving you more value out of your (free) resonators like Prototype Magi Trooper (NWE-095) and Engineer of Eternal (NWE-063), but also out of your Fiethsing, 100 Years of Wizardry (GOG-047), Warhorse (NWE-011), Deus Ex Machina, God of Machines (DBV-093) and Justice (NWE-068J) himself. These also become surprisingly threatening in combination with Trishula (GRL-053), which is an amazing card with The Origin of the Seven Lands (PofA-112) + Dreiwing, Mechanized Wind of Destruction (GRV-040) being available to you from the start.

Falchion, Solitary Scientist (NWE-066) decks also have the luxury of extensive side deck options due to being able to search for floodgate additions like Shackles of Ice (VIN003-040), Curse of Caduceus (PofA-051) and Illusionary Flower of Sorrow (MSW-039), which you only need to run as a one-off. Another fun side deck choice is Valentina, Owner of the Theater (ROL-015) against wide boards. You can surprise your opponent by going for your Justice (NWE-068J) + Pricia, Seeker of Friends ROL-018) combo but ending on her instead of Deus Ex Machina, God of Machines (DBV-093). That’s especially nice if you already have a Trishula (GRL-053) out, protecting your Valentina and your opponent’s resonators on your field. The rest of the side deck is filled out by Cocoons, Moon Child Rulers and Origin targets.

Talking about Moon Child Rulers, I like starting the game out with Child of the Light Moon (NWE-003) and Child of the Wind Moon (NWE-033). Due to the Vingolf 3 stone base, it can be crucial to be able to filter your will in the first 1-2 turns if you’re unlucky with the stones. Also, with all the free cards going around, an additional free cancel can be quite nice. Light Moon Child is of course the obvious choice that almost all Bond Rulers will want to play.

In my experience using this deck in the Hero 1 format, I’m usually able to establish a good board early by ramping into one or two Trishula (GRL-053) and then going off once I hit the contract. However it can be a bit frustrating in later games if your opponent knows your gameplan and packs tons of addition removal to prevent you from contracting. The deck struggles a bit with early aggression since you rely so much on the contract, but The Great Wall of the Twelve Sacred Knights (NWE-083), Child of the Light Moon (NWE-003) and Fiethsing, 100 Years of Wizardry (GOG-047) do help a lot with that, in addition to being able to use basically any specific floodgate addition easily. You can also use Angelic Battle Barrier (NWE-001) to slow your opponent down even more. Once you can contract, the game is usually in your favour due to all the value the Justice (NWE-068J) triggers provide, especially paired with Pricia, Seeker of Friends // Pricia’s Big Show (ROL-018), and it is great fun to close your games with a huge Deus Ex Machina, God of Machines (DBV-093) + Justice Punch (NWE-037).