Artifact Deck Guide:
Swim's 43-card monoblue + GUIDE (Winning Deck of MWC) (UPDATED)

Check out the video guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QICA5sJQ9XM


Hey guys, Swim here with probably the best deck in the game right now, currently the most optimized version of mono blue.


Why the 44 cards?
In Artifact, unlike other card games, sometimes you want to run more than 40 cards if the signature cards cost too much mana on average. Hoej's aggro deck for example is currently running 43 cards to curve lower, due to having the 6-mana signatures in Phantom Assassin and Axe. In this deck, there's far too many important earlygame tools we want, and the most common way this deck loses is drawing too many of its expensive signatures in the early turns, so the extra cards are important to run.

General Guide:

-Try to play important spells from the Ogre lane as often as possible, even as early as turn 1.

-In the earlygame, don't be in a hurry to cycle your cunning plans and compels. Use them carefully, either on the ogre lane, or to save important heroes.

-Against time of triumph decks, be a bit more careful about using your annihilations too early; you often need to save them a bit longer than otherwise.

-Save eclipse for later if possible; use Mystic Flare and Annihilate in mana 6-7, and eclipse in mana 8-10.

-Save your Arcane Assaults! Don't cycle these, they're important for the lategame. Use them after clearing the board to steal initiative for the next lane.

-If the opponent has no blue or no tinker, try to set up a prey on the weak to win the game, think ahead with this card, and play it for 5+ dogs. It's OK to wait a turn before playing this if it summons 2 more dogs next turn!

-Keep in mind if you blink luna, you gain more eclipse charges, especially if you blink her to the next active lane. She's usually the blink dagger target of choice.

-Aghanim's Sanctum is really important, because it allows you to wipe your opponent's board, and then steal initiative back at the same time, or use double Thundergod's Wrath. Play the first Sanctum on the left lane, the second sanctum on the right lane, and if you have all 3, you can play the last one on the middle lane.

-Let your heroes die if the timing is right! Seriously! Luna is important to keep alive, but letting 1 hero die every turn can be a good idea, especially on turn 2 of the game. You constantly want 1 hero respawning on each turn, because this deck can lose if all heroes die at the same turn, and this protects against that. A hero dying on turn 2 of the game means they come back to whatever lane they want on mana 6, which is very important for stabilizing the board with annihilation or mystic flare.

-When you use At Any Cost with Zeus, if Zeus survives it, surviving units will slide together BEFORE static field checks zeus' adjacent neighbors. Use this to your advantage.

-Against the mirror match: save ignite until you see where the kanna goes, just play for maximum longterm value. Start killing heroes on mana turn 5-6, and never give up the board once you take it. Early kills are important due to getting stonehall cloaks online; these are key in this matchup. Don't give your opponent too good of an At Any Cost; use your Dimensional Portal and Prey on the Weak on boards where your opponent can't clear you yet, or where your opponent has more units than you.