Pro Tour 3 Dromai Masterclass - Google Docs

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By Ian Zhang

Disclaimer: This deck was designed for beating the more focused meta in Pro Tour and might not perform as well in local tournaments. Feel free to make changes as fits with your local meta

Introduction

This Dromai List is one I’ve been working on together with Jamie Faulkner and Noah Clark, and it ended up getting me a record of 11-3 on PT3, bubbling out on 9th (7-1 CC, 4-2 Draft).

After very randomly stumbling across Seeker’s equipment (thanks Leon), I quickly asked Jamie and he quickly pulled to action with the endless possibilities this card opened up for Dromai. He pulled us together in a group called the Dromai Cabal to sculpt the perfect deck for Pro Tour 3

For Pro Tour 3, we predicted a spread similar to this:

Lexi (25%)
Oldhim (15%)
Dromai (15%)
Azalea (10%)
Other (35%)

This prediction was… more or less correct. I probably overestimated Azalea a little bit, but most players seemed to recognize that taking Azalea to this field was not the best decision, despite her BH performance.

Anyway, less talking more results:

R1 - Bye (Thanks SCG for not holding a player meeting)

R2 - Lexi L

R3 - Dromai W

R4 - Azalea W

(R5 - R10 Draft 4-2)

R11 - Oldhim W

R12 - Oldhim W

R13 - Oldhim W

R14 - Oldhim W (Streamed)

We’ll go over the deck, and the gameplans for the matchups in the next sections

https://fabrary.net/decks/01GK235C02KCNN4N87T6JTT7VT

Main Deck

Equipments

Don’t unsleeve and flip. Only villains do that.

PT3 Dromai (9th Place)

Class: Illusionist

Hero: Dromai, Ash Artist

Weapons: Storm of Sandikai

Equipment: Crown of Providence, Flamescale Furnace, Ghostly Touch, Mage Master Boots, Nullrune Gloves, Seeker's Leggings, Wave of Reality

(3) Burn Them All (red)

(3) Command and Conquer (red)

(3) Dustup (red)

(3) Fate Foreseen (red)

(3) Invoke Azvolai (red)

(3) Invoke Cromai (red)

(1) Invoke Dominia (red)

(3) Invoke Kyloria (red)

(3) Invoke Miragai (red)

(3) Invoke Nekria (red)

(3) Invoke Ouvia (red)

(1) Invoke Tomeltai (red)

(3) Invoke Vynserakai (red)

(3) Invoke Yendurai (red)

(3) Oasis Respite (red)

(3) Rake the Embers (red)

(2) Sand Cover (red)

(3) Sigil of Solace (red)

(3) Sink Below (red)

(3) Sweeping Blow (red)

(2) Unmovable (red)

(3) Remembrance (yellow)

(2) Tome of Fyendal (yellow)

(3) Embermaw Cenipai (blue)

(3) Passing Mirage (blue)

(3) Sweeping Blow (blue)

(1) Timesnap Potion (blue)

Sideboarded out:

-1x Ghostly Touch

-1x Mage Master Boots (Arguable)

-1x Nullrune Gloves

-1x Invoke Ouvia (Arguable, on picture Sigil is sided out instead. Both are fine)

-3x Oasis Respite (Probably bad?)

-2x Unmovable

-3x Remembrance

-2x Tome of Fyendal (Arguable)

-1x Timesnap Potion

Strategy

Wincons
Win by setting up a board that Lexi cannot race
Win by fatigue
Win by Tomeltai
Going second is very strong in this matchup;
If you go first, they get to load an arrow and tend to get ahead.
If you go second, you get to generate an ash by popping Seekers, and use your first turn to already play 4 cards out to develop dragons.
The first 2 turns of the game will decide how the game unfolds.
Use Wave of Reality to block out annoying on-hits, and convert that into tempo by developing your own board, and forcing them to get deal with it.
If they got rid of it easily, consider going for the fatigue route, and wait for Tomeltai
General tips and tricks:
Play around Codexes; Banish AA’s with Burn Them All if your blues aren’t in grave, always keep an arsenal, play from arsenal.
Try and deny them from getting arsenal. It’s very hard to get rid of dragons if they can only play 4 cards.
Watch out for poppers. Passing Mirage is very often strong to develop, and makes it very safe to play strong dragons out. Ashwings very often don’t get removed and get infinite value
Don’t spend too much ash or Sand Cover might screw you over.

Sideboarded out:

-1x Nullrune Gloves

-1x Seeker's Leggings

-1x Wave of Reality

-3x Command and Conquer

-3x Dustup

-2x Tome of Fyendal

Strategy

Wincons
Win by running them out of poppers and overwhelming board
Win by leaking damage and finishing with Ghostly Touch
Going first vs going second is very similar. Go first if you have the choice.
Core pieces. Prefer not blocking with these;
Cromai
Miragai
Ouvia
Rake
Tomeltai
Passing Mirage
Burn Them All
Gauge what your opponent is playing:
Anothos Vambrace
Very aggressive lineup.
Don’t be afraid to gain tempo by baiting them into attacking Miragai, Cromai, Passing or Ouvia. You have 3 Remembrances for a reason.
Don’t be afraid to block with everything that’s not a core piece for your gameplan.
Try and set up a deck state where every turn becomes too threatening for them to go face.
Block out with “bad” cards, play out and shuffle back Miragais with Remembrances
Sledge
Similar to Anothos Vambrace, but less efficient. Try and strip their hand to 1 card if Tunic isn’t up.
Titans Fist
Can mix up between Aggressive and Defensive, so watch out.
Try not to arsenal DReacts, or you might get trapped into a strategy pivot.
Ouvia is ridiculous vs Titans Fist. They need to play a popper to get rid of it usually.
Make sure to pivot strategies along with them.
Healing Balm Fatigue
Can basically only go Fatigue
Make sure to be as efficient with your dragons as possible. Develop multiple at once, get full value out of Ouvia, Cromai and Miragai by playing them as double threat
General gameflow:
Step 1: Go wide with Rake the Embers / Ouvia.
Step 2: Find Tomeltai and take Crown of Seeds
Step 3: Remembrance back copies of Rake, Ouvia, Miragai or Tomeltai
Step 4: Find and set up Burn them all, while staying wide
Step 5: Keep pressuring them with double threats while accruing Ghostly Touch counters
Step 6: Remembrance back more and pressure more
Step 7: Remembrance back finishers
Step 8: Set up timesnaps one day
Step 9: Finish them with Mage Master Boots Passing Ghostly Touch
Step 10: Finish them again with Timesnap Passing Ghostly Touch
General tips and tricks:
Miragai combos well with a lot of cards, which makes it a prime arsenal target.
Yendurai, Nekria, Vynserakai, Kyloria and Azvolai are generally not important for the gameplan and are completely fine to block with and often not worth taking damage for developing.
Playing out Cromai without attacking them is a good way to buy tempo
Remembrance targets:
First Remembrance: Ouvia / Rake, Miragai, Tomeltai
Second Remembrance: Ouvia / Rake, Miragai, Cromai, Passing
Third Remembrance: Passing, Miragai, Cromai
There’s a lot of ins and outs in this matchup that I probably missed. Play it a bunch and you’ll find out

Sideboarded out:

-1x Ghostly Touch

-1x Nullrune Gloves

-1x Seeker's Leggings (Arguable. Maybe Seekers going second?)

-3x Fate Foreseen

-3x Oasis Respite

-2x Sand Cover

-2x Unmovable

-1x Timesnap Potion

(I should probably cut 1 Passing to go down to 60)

Strategy

Wincons
Win by overwhelming the board
Win by running the opponent out of Ash
Going first vs going second feels similar. Probably go first if you can choose?
General gameplan:
First few turns develop ash, and hold back on making ash negative plays
Prepare a boardclear (Rake / Azvolai) in your arsenal to clear an opposing Rake.
Either go in when you’re in a big Ash advantage, or wait until the opponent goes in and develop your board to clear theirs.
Keep clearing eachothers boards, until you outvalue them with your 3 Remembrances while they hopefully play less.
General tips and tricks:
Don’t sit on poppers for too long, your opponent won’t go face most of the times.
Don’t take the greedy play by ignoring board. Even though it’s a tempting Tomeltai that’s waiting to kill Furnace
Don’t be afraid to use Tome of Fyendal from hand. Most games won’t be decided by the life totals.
Play around poppers. Getting your dragons popped before clearing their entire board is gamelosing.

WIP

Sideboarded out:

-1x Ghostly Touch

-1x Mage Master Boots

-1x Nullrune Gloves

-3x Command and Conquer

-3x Dustup

-3x Remembrance

-2x Tome of Fyendal

-1x Timesnap Potion

Strategy

Wincons
Win by running them out of buffs
Win by overwhelming the board
Going first vs going second feels similar. Probably go second if you can choose
General gameplan:
Develop dragons for cheap, and block out as much as you can.
Arsenal mostly DReacts
General tips and tricks:
Play around poppers, develop Passing if you get the chance.
Matchup should be pretty heavily favored, since they can’t clear board efficiently, just make sure you don’t die.