I initially tried to play Earth Rite Runecraft as a tempo/midrange deck, but I had terrible results. Even with the new DE cards, it was super inconsistent. It reminded me a lot of a worse version of Dragon Priest from Hearthstone. The problem is that even if you get the perfect curve, you run out of cards quickly since the best cards are those that eat Earth Sigils. So I have found that the best way to build Earth Rune is as a control deck since it has a lot of high value cards.
So Earth Rune plays very differently from Spellboost Rune. It is a very slow, grindy deck. The main playstyle involves slowly running your opponent out of resources. Thus, it is not a very good deck for climbing the ladder since games can take quite a while. However the deck is very fun to play and is worth a shot if you want something different. Or if you just naturally enjoy control decks. From a competitive standpoint, it is definitely weaker than Spellboost Rune. However, Earth Rune has a lot of strong early game defensive tools, so it has a favored matchup against aggro decks. If you are seeing mostly aggro at your rank’s meta, it can certainly be worth playing Earth over Spellboost Rune. Unfortunately even with the new DE cards, the deck still has some consistency issues. Since we need to generate Earth Sigils first to reap their benefits later, sometimes we have hands full of sigil generators and no Earth Rite cards, or vice versa.
Here are what I feel to be the core cards of this archetype.
Core cards
3 Scrap Iron Smelter
2 Timeworn Mage Levi
3 Kaleidoscopic Glow
2 Teachings of Creation
3 Red-Hot Ritual
2 Petrification
3 Remi and Rami, Witchy Duo
3 Ancient Alchemist
2 Calamitous Curse
2 Juno’s Secret Laboratory
Scrap Iron Smelter – A 1 play point sigil that summons a 0/2 Ward. An easy 3-of since it’s a cheap Earth Sigil generator that helps slow down aggro.
Timeworn Mage Levi – 2 cost 2/2 follower who gives you a Crimson Sorcery(1 pp spell that does 3 dmg to any enemy) upon evolve. He provides great help in cleaning up the board in the mid game. He is also a great anti aggro card for the same reason, and is somewhat of a soft taunt in the early game.
Kaleidoscopic Glow – 2 cost spell that returns a 2 cost or less card to the player’s hand while drawing a card. A super flexible card which gets value in every matchup. Against aggro, it is great for bouncing back their early game followers while refilling your hand. You can also use it to bounce your own Earth Sigil generators for re-use. Most commonly used on Smelter to create more 0/2 Wards and on Red Hot Ritual for additional 2 dmg pings.
Teachings of Creation – 2 cost Earth Sigil which draws you a card as a Fanfare. Nothing too fancy here, I put 2 as the core but I have seen some people run 3. Personally I find 3 to be unnecessary because of Kaleidoscopic Glow, but run however much you feel suits you best.
Red-Hot Ritual – 2 cost Earth Sigil which deals 2 damage to an enemy follower as a Fanfare. One of the best new cards that Earth Rune got from Darkness Evolved. It is an easy 3-of since it allows us to deal with any early game threat while generating a Sigil.
Petrification – 3 cost spell that transforms an enemy follower or amulet into a Clay Golem, and banishes it instead if there is an Earth Sigil available. One of the main reasons to play Earth Rune as it is one of the strongest removal spells in the game. The fact that it works on amulets means that Earth Rune is the only deck with an efficient answer to cards like Path to Purgatory and Enstatued Seraph. I have 2 as the core, but depending on how important you think it is to deal with big amulets, it may be ok to even run 3.
Remi and Rami, Witchy Duo – 4 cost 3/4 follower who when evolved, turns into a 5/6 and summons a 3/3 Ward Guardian Golem as an Earth Rite effect. An easy 3-of, she provides insane value if you get her Earth Rite effect off. 8/9 worth of stats for 4 play points is no joke. This is the deck’s ideal Turn 4/5 play.
Ancient Alchemist – 5 cost 2/4 follower who adds 3 Conjure Guardians(2 pp spell that summons a 3/3 Ward Guardian Golem) to your hand as an Earth Rite effect. One of the main value engines of this deck. Yes, she essentially provides 11/13 worth of stats if you get her Earth Rite effect off, but that effect is not seen immediately, but rather across several turns. It is absolutely imperative that she be played with a sigil on board, because a 2/4 for 5 play points is really poor otherwise.
Calamitous Curse – 6 cost spell that banishes all enemy followers with 2 defense or less, and if an Earth Sigil is available can banish all enemy followers with 5 defense or less instead. This deck’s primary board clear, and what a strong one it is. I have 2 as the core, but some people run 3 depending on the local meta that they are experiencing.
Juno’s Secret Laboratory – A 7 cost countdown amulet of 3 that summons a 3/3 Ward Guardian Golem at the end of your return, and also summons a Guardian Golem right away as its Earth Rite effect. Along with Ancient Alchemist, this is the other piece of this deck’s value engine. Essentially provides 12/12 worth of defensive stats across several turns if you get the Earth Rite effect off.
Supplemental cards
As you can see above, there are only 24 cards that are core in Earth Rite Runecraft. Unlike DShift Rune where a majority of the cards are set in stone, we get a LOT of choices over how to build this deck. In no particular order:
Crafty Warlock – 2 cost 2/1 follower who creates an Earth Sigil as a Last Words effect. Very useful since he is a body that can fight for the board while also providing you with a sigil. 1 health means that he dies to just about everything though, which is a problem against Forest. I like to run 2 in my deck.
Apprentice Alchemist – 2 cost 2/2 follower who adds a Conjure Guardian to your hand as an Earth Rite. Provides some great value if you are able to play her on curve and get the Earth Rite effect.
Magic Missile – 2 cost spell that deals 1 damage to any enemy and draws a card. Most commonly run in Spellboost Rune, but can be worth running here because being able to ping any enemy is always useful. And the card cycles itself.
Runic Guardian – 3 cost 2/3 follower who gains +1/+1 and Ward as an Earth Rite. She is quite strong if you are able to get her Earth Rite effect on curve, as a 3/4 for 3 is no joke. However she does use up an earth sigil which might mess up your Remi Rami turn. She can be worth running if you want to try playing as a tempo/midrange deck.
Witchbolt – 3 cost spell that deals 4 damage to an enemy follower, and draws a card if you have an evolved allied follower on board. The damage dealt to play point ratio is respectable, and activating the card draw effect is actually feasible in an Earth Rite deck because of Remi Rami. Later in the game, you can also start hiding evolved followers behind Guardian Golems.
Elementary Alchemy – 3 cost Earth Sigil that summons a 2/2 Clay Golem as Fanfare. A 2/2 is below the vanilla statline of a 3 drop, but it does provides a sigil on top of that. Mainly worth running in a tempo style Earth Rite deck.
Price of Magic – 3 cost Earth Sigil that banishes an enemy follower with 2 defense or less. Pretty much a weaker version of Havencraft’s Blackened Scripture, but gives you a sigil as an extra effect. Pretty decent card, as it gets value in most matchups especially the aggro ones.
Demonflame Mage – 4 cost 3/4 follower who when evolved, turns into a 4/5 and deals 1 damage to all enemy followers. I like this card a lot in Earth Rune, since we don’t always have a sigil on 4 to be used with Remi Rami. And even then, playing Remi on curve is bad if going first. The evolve effect also gets great value in the current meta since Forest is by far the most played class. It is also quite strong against banner Sword and aggro Blood.
Veteran Alchemist – 4 cost 2/5 follower who restores 5 health to your leader as an Earth Rite effect. Almost like Runecraft’s version of Righteous Devil. It is easier to activate her healing effect, but she does not threaten repeated healing and free minion kills like Righteous Devil does. A decent defensive card, but she is quite poor for contesting the board. 2 attack trades into very little at that point in the game.
Fissure Bomb – 4 cost spell that deals 5 damage to an enemy follower, and adds a Conjure Guardian spell to your hand as an Earth Rite. Was run in the pre-DE version of Earth Rune, but fallen out of favor in the current meta. The reason is that Earth Rune already has cheaper, more efficient removal available and the Earth Sigils need to be saved for more important cards like Ancient Alchemist and Juno’s.
Alchemist’s Workshop – 4 cost Earth Sigil that summons a 3/3 Ward Guardian Golem as a Fanfare. The stats are below the curve for that cost, but it is a decent defensive card since it has ward. Would only recommend playing this in a tempo style deck.
Grand Gargoyle – 5 cost 4/5 follower who generates an Earth Sigil as a Last Words effect. 4/5 is the vanilla statline for a 5 drop so he is quite good as an on-curve play. However he does not really do enough at that point in the game, so he does not fit into a control style Earth deck. Much better suited for a tempo styled deck.
Sun Oracle Pascale – 5 cost 4/5 follower who doubles all of your other followers’ attack and defense at the end of turn as an Earth Rite. The new legendary that Runecraft received in DE, she has an effect that is absolutely insane but very difficult to pull off. Very rarely does Earth Rune have a decent board going into Turn 5. However her 4/5 statline is perfectly acceptable for a 5 drop, so it is ok to drop her on curve if you run multiple Pascales. The other problem is that her Earth Rite effect is strong, but is slow since it only triggers at the end of turn. Imagine how much better she would be if it triggered instantly. If you do run her, you will most likely be dropping her very late in the game once you have grinded your opponent out of resources, since that is the only time you will be able to set up any kind of board.
Master Alchemist – 6 cost 5/6 follower who adds a Conjure Guardian spell to your hand as an Earth Rite effect. She has the vanilla statline for a 6 drop, but generally does not do enough at that point in the game. Would only recommend playing in a tempo style deck.
Arch Summoner Erasmus – 8 cost 5/6 follower who deals 5 damage to a random enemy follower at the end of your turn, and if evolved does 7 damage instead. His effect is quite strong and he is a good Turn 8 play if you are playing a tempo style Earth deck. The issue is that tempo Rune is quite bad at the moment, but if it gets enough support in future expansions, you can be sure Erasmus will be run in it.
Unicorn Dancer Unica – 2 cost 2/2 follower who heals you for 2 at the start of your turn. One of the best anti aggro cards introduced in DE, she is basically a soft taunt because of the threat of repeated healing. Definitely worth considering if you are playing a control style deck.
Path to Purgatory – 4 cost amulet that deals 6 damage to all enemies if you have 30 shadows at the end of your turn. Surprisingly, PtP is quite feasible in Earth Rite Runecraft because there are a number of cards that generate multiple shadows. Ancient Alchemist basically provides 8(1 from the body, 1 from eating the Earth Sigil, 3 from the Conjure Guardian spells, and 3 more from the Guardian Golems dying) and Juno’s Secret Laboratory provides 6 if you get the Earth Rite effect. All of the other cards that create or eat Earth Sigils give 2 shadows each as well. However, Earth Rune does not have Forest’s ability to cheaply generate a ton of cards in hand, so Altered Fate is not a good fit. Since we can’t explosively generate shadows, it is best to run Purgatory as a 1-of if you decide to go that route.
Goblinmount Demon – 5 cost 3/7 Ward follower who deals 3 damage to all friendly followers as a Fanfare. His stats are above the power curve for a 5 drop, but he has a negative Fanfare to compensate. A really strong defensive card, and quite good for Earth Rune since we often do not have any kind of board going into Turn 5.
Lucifer – 8 cost 6/7 who heals you for 4 at the end of your turn, but if evolved turns into a 9/8 and deals 4 face damage to the opponent at the end of your turn. A great card for both tempo and control style decks since he can be used offensively and defensively. Is great in Earth Rune especially as a followup to Juno’s, since you can hide him behind a wall of Guardian Golems.
Dark Angel Olivia – 9 cost 4/4 who restores your evolution orbs to 3 as a Fanfare. Like Lucifer, she is another control deck staple. She gets extra value in Earth Rune since we have important cards with strong evolution effects like Levi and Remi Rami.
Prince of Darkness – 10 cost 6/6 who replaces your deck with the 10 card Apocalypse Deck. Was once considered to be a control deck staple, but has fallen out of favor in the current meta. He is a very slow card, and the value he provides is not instant, but is rather given through future turns. Can be good as a finisher in control style Earth Rite decks, since you can drop him after you have grinded your opponent into the late game.
Variants
Mill’s deck
GameAI link
Shadowverse portal link
The most successful version of Earth Rite Runecraft that I have found was made by Masters level player Mill. I mentioned earlier that Earth Rune has consistency issues, and the main reason this happens is that the deck does not have a lot of draw. So his variant has an interesting way of solving this problem by running one Merlin along with 3 copies of Fate’s Hand as the only spellboost cards. So if you play and evolve Merlin, she is guaranteed to draw 2 Fate’s Hands. It might seem difficult to boost the Fate’s Hands since at first glance this deck does not have that many spells. But you have to remember that Ancient Alchemist generates 3 spells for you as an Earth Rite effect.
He also has some interesting card choices like running 3(!) copies of Pascale for the end game and 1 copy of Path to Purgatory as an alternate win condition.
My deck – Bible Black Runecraft
Shadowverse portal link
I don’t use Pascale and instead opt for Lucifer, Olivia, and Satan as late game bombs in my version of the deck. I also run Demonflame Mages to improve the Forestcraft matchup, which is still quite tough even with them in the deck. I tried Angelic Barrages for a while but found that they were worse since we have no Spellboost cards. I used to run 2 copies of Goblinmount Demon in this deck, but I have found that it is a lot weaker than it was pre-expansion. It used to force aggro decks to trade their entire board into it, but nowadays they all run Dance of Death. Even some non-aggro decks run DoD, so I find Goblinmount’s value to be too inconsistent in the current meta. So I replaced him with Unica, taking inspiration from Mill’s list.
So why Bible Black? Well, bear with me here. This deck is basically witchcraft. We are creating magic seals so that our secret rituals can power up followers. The ultimate goal of these rituals is to summon a demon to obtain great power, and we are aided by fallen angels like Lucifer and Olivia. It’s too perfect, right? Isabelle looks like she would fit in with franchise too.
Lovers Arcana Yamada Lvl99 