Forest Thunder | MetaZoo Deck Tech & Strategy

Forest Thunder | MetaZoo Deck Tech & Strategy

Forest Thunder

If a Tree Falls in the Forest, and There’s No One Around to Hear it, Does Splinter Cat Still Go To Your Chapter? 

How do I play it?

Forest Thunder looks to take the best of both attributes from lightning and forest meta types to overwhelm your opponent early, but versatility to mill through mid-game and bring in bigger beasties like Bigfoot with the additional Grand National Forest buff to handle the board.  Splinter Cat has some crazy abilities and quick attack’s thanks to fleet just like Quetz who will clean up from the sky.  

Phantom Car will keep your opponent frustrated while you lean on forest’s Growth and Germinate spells to get the draw you need, ultimately letting loose the lightning storm at the perfect time with spells like Call of the Storm quickly swing momentum and lead to consistent victories.

Beastie Breakdown

Splinter Cat is the feature with as a low cost beastie, comes equipped with fleet and some pretty useful situational abilities.  With a felled tree 4th walled Splinter Cat will retreat back to your chapter after the resolution of combat which means a pretty vicious pack attack that can’t be stopped if they don’t have a few heavy hitters and you have enough aura.  Having the option to destroy a forest terra to essentially enable a Lightning in a Bottle with paralyze is a pretty crazy kicker which can swing board control. 

There’s a few Sasquatch’s included in Wood Devil of Coos Country to help with ramp, dispersed damage and Bigfoot to take down tough opposing beasties or solidify late game.

If you’ve played against or build any lightning decks yourself you’re definitely familiar with Phantom Car, Quetz, and Snipe.  These are staples in any lightning build due to Phantom Car’s amazing ability as a defender and shield while you build your board for heavy hitters like Quetz and Snipe. 

One of my favorite cards in this build is the Pin Club version of the Snipe, which only cost three aura to contract (two less than the Wilderness Base Set version), but has the ability which allows you to contract the beefier Snipe when fatigue meaning getting a really hard to handle beastie on the board in potentially 4-5 turns.

Spell & Potion Breakdown

The spells in this deck are simple, but powerful.  Any forest deck should be built benefit from the strongest draw power spells in Growth, allowing five pages to be bookmarked, and Germinate which will allow you to bookmark one and contract your next Splinter Cat or Sasquatch for one less aura which is key early game because you’re able to contract Splinter Cat for only one aura of your choice when you might not have optimal early game aura.  

This is one of the reasons this deck runs so consistently early on and with four cats and three germinates it’s something you can repeat effectively.  Cryptid Nation pairs perfectly with Quetz and Bigfoot to potentially overpower opponents early on, but the spell with potential for most power is the lightning splash.  Call of the Storm is a pretty crazy spell that has a lot of notice, but maybe deserves a little more.  

This baby is the thunder and the lightning and for four measly aura is going to let you bring out two Quetz from anywhere in your spellbook ready and swinging for 80+ thanks to their fleet ability and the fact Call of Storm also turns Lightning Storm Terra active for the rest of the turn.  The only down side is you have to kill off one of the beasties at end of turn, but by then the damage has already been done with a Quetz still to deal with.

Artifact, Aura, & Terra Breakdown

While I think this dual aura deck runs specifically smoother than others is because of Splinter Cat and the forest spells, this is predominately a lightning build.  Honestly you could swap in a few Radioactive Hornets or Metal Men of Alabama and Lightning Bolts and just run Lightning Meta, but what fun is that??  

With that being said we’ve tinkered with appropriate number of aura on each side plus the two Prism’s and think six is enough lightning to get all the Quetz and Call of the Storms out you need, while still giving you the ability to pretty consistently mill through your deck and mess this opponents while you do it thanks to Phantom Car and Splinter Cat.

Doubled down on the terra with forest and lightning storm and opted Grand National Forest to make Quetz and Bigfoot tougher to take down.

4th Wall Items

  • Felled Tree
  • Light blub
  • Bansai Tree

Weaknesses / Archive Options

This build runs consistent and if I you can get a few aura, a Cat or Car, out in the first few turn’s it’s off to the races, but sometimes you have to stall mid-game to find and mill the forest spells.  This is enough time for beastie heavy builds to spam the board and get out of control in the meantime, one of the few times it went down in flames during play testing was against a cosmic build that had aliens every before you knew it.  Depending on how resilient your beastie’s are in battle and how many times you play Call of the Storm you may find yourself short handed late game have to burn some of those lightning beasties on only one turn.

I said this last build and echo it again, Lightning in a Bottle honestly should probably be included in the main, but was sacrificed to stick to 40 cards.  Lightning in a Bottle combo’s crazy with fleet beasties which almost all are here and can get you a little more squeeze out of Call of the Storm.  I think there’s also opportunity to tweak beastie build.  Bigfoot is nice, but not necessary.  I started with running Copenhagen Devil for the dual aura but felt like everytime I was able to bring him out the game was already in hand.  I think Thunderbird’s are super viable here with Quetz and Call of Storm synergies, or maybe Metal Man of Alabama to get the all fleet squad if no one carries radios anymore.

Budget Options

This deck is pretty budget friendly since most of the core cards have common or reverse holo options which is why it got 2/5.  The priciest cards in the spellbook are the Prism Aura which aren’t completely necessary if you don’t have them and would just add one more of each aura type to compensate and might bring the consistency down a tick.  Quetz and Snipe aren’t crazy, but to grab both play sets at once might be a lot, so like I said in the archive / alternatives, I think Thunderbird is a totally viable replacement.  Other than that the core cards like Splinter Cat, Growth, Germinate, and Phantom Car are attainable for cheap with common and 2nd Edition versions.

Budget Card List (40 Cards Total)

Beasties

  • Splinter Cat x4
  • Phantom Car x3
  • Thunderbird x2
  • Quetzalcoatlus x2
  • Wood Devil of Coos Country x1
  • Bigfoot x1 

Spell / Potion

  • Powerup Red x1
  • New Beginnings x1
  • Bookmark x2
  • Cryptid Nation x1
  • Growth x1
  • Germinate x3
  • Call of the Storm x2
  • Lightning in a Bottle x2

Artifact / Aura / Terra

  • Lightning Aura x7
  • Forest Aura x5
  • Lightning Storm x1
  • Grand Nation Forest x1

 

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