How to play : Ornn Fire Below the Mountain

Power is the scarce resource in this deck, and the legend is how you get more. Normally, every power you pay means recycling a rune off the board; the power from the legend and from each Seal of Focus costs you no rune at all. Sterak’s Gage shows the difference: it costs three energy and two Calm power, but with the legend and a Seal ready, your runes only pay the three energy. The legend can pay a gear’s own power cost (Seal of Focus, Poro Snax, Sprite Fountain, Sterak’s Gage) or the Equip cost that attaches an Equipment to a unit, and since its ability is a Reaction, it works on the opponent’s turn too.

The Equipment is how the deck wins fights. Sterak’s Gage gives +3 might and, thanks to Quick-Draw, can be played as a Reaction that attaches straight to a unit in the middle of a combat. Brutalizer gives +1, and +3 on the turn it is attached. Guardian Angel gives +1 and saves its unit once. None of it needs a big body underneath: a Clockwork Keeper carrying a Sterak’s Gage fights like a 5-might unit. Ornn, Blacksmith starts in the Champion Zone, so it is always available for five energy and a Calm power, and every time you play it or it holds a battlefield, it looks at your top four cards for another gear.

You draw four and may replace up to two. Keep the cheap cards: Seal of Focus, Clockwork Keeper, Scuttle Crab, Poro Snax and Sprite Fountain. The opener we want is a Seal of Focus with a two-energy unit, Clockwork Keeper best of all: the Seal costs no energy and the legend pays its Calm power, so it lands for free; from then on it pays Clockwork Keeper’s extra Calm power, and the Keeper draws its card without recycling a rune.

Never mulligan to find Ornn, Blacksmith: it starts in the Champion Zone. What does deserve a mulligan is a hand of Equipment with no unit to carry it: Brutalizer, Guardian Angel and Sterak’s Gage do nothing until a unit is there to wear them, so send two back and look for units. Patched Porobot is a fine early unit, but it only draws once you control three other gear, so do not count it as card draw in the first turns.

Units enter exhausted, and Pit Crew is the exception you build yourself: every gear you play readies it. Play Pit Crew first, then any gear, even a Seal of Focus paid by the legend, and Pit Crew walks to a battlefield the turn it lands. Poro Snax is another early gear that earns its slot: it costs one energy and a Calm power the legend can pay, draws a card as it lands, and draws another later when you pay one energy and a Calm power, exhaust it and kill it.

Sprite Fountain is two energy and a Mind power for two units. It plays a ready 3-might Sprite token to your base, so the Sprite can walk onto an empty battlefield and conquer it right away. At the start of your next turn, Temporary kills the Fountain before scoring, and its Deathknell plays a second ready Sprite. Neither Sprite lives to score a hold, since Temporary kills them before scoring as well, so send them to conquer. In a best of three you choose your battlefield: Ornn’s Forge makes your first gear each turn cost one energy less while you control it, and conquering Seat of Power while you already control the other battlefield draws you a card.

The legend readies only at the start of your turn, so every use has to count: decide where its power goes before you spend anything. On your own turn, put it into the gear you are playing. If you plan to answer an attack with Sterak’s Gage, end your turn with three runes, the legend and a Seal of Focus untouched: that pays the whole cost without recycling a rune. When you control Ornn’s Forge, make your first gear of the turn one that costs energy, because a Seal of Focus played first takes the discount and saves nothing.

Order matters inside the turn too. Equip Brutalizer onto the unit that is about to attack, not a turn early: its extra +2 only counts on the turn it was attached. Play Patched Porobot after your gear, since it only draws if you already control three other gear, Seals and attached Equipment included. Aspiring Engineer comes later still: wait until a Sprite Fountain has died, a Poro Snax has been spent or a Guardian Angel has saved a unit, and it brings that gear back to your hand.

Most of our tricks are gear, and a card that only counters spells, such as Defy, cannot touch them. Sterak’s Gage and Cloth Armor both have Quick-Draw: played as a Reaction, they attach the moment they land. Cloth Armor costs one energy and gives Shield 2, so +2 might while that unit defends. Guardian Angel works differently: when its unit would die, Guardian Angel is killed instead, and the unit is healed, exhausted and recalled to base. It survives but leaves the battlefield, so plan who holds it next, and remember that Aspiring Engineer can bring Guardian Angel back.

Our own answers are few, so spend them well. Defy, for one energy and a Calm power, counters a spell that costs no more than four energy and one power, and a Seal of Focus left ready pays its power on their turn. Charm, also one energy and a Calm power, moves an enemy unit, but it has neither Action nor Reaction, so play it on your own turn to clear the battlefield you are about to attack. Mask of Foresight gives +1 might to a unit that attacks or defends alone, while Lecturing Yordle’s Tank makes it take combat damage first when it fights next to your Equipment carrier: choose one plan per battlefield. And when Scuttle Crab dies, its Deathknell makes the opponent reveal their hand, and you can look at their facedown cards this turn.