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Expunger

Archetype summary

Conjure an enormous blade and hack foes to bits, one at a time.

When to pivot to 'Expunger' archetype

When you find a Conjure Blade around the end of Act 1.

Star items

Conjure Blade is a slow but powerful win condition. Play it with as much energy as you can afford then repeatedly use it to deal huge damage for 1 energy. Chemical X helps make it even stronger and in some cases playable with 0 energy.

Wreath of Flame is a no-brainer on Expunger.

Keep your deck small with Smiling Mask or Peace Pipe to draw it often.

Support items

The upgrade potential from Master Reality is huge on Conjure Blade, taking Expunger from 9 damage to 15. It's not a necessary part of the combo but is a cheap way to increase your damage potential, if drawn before Conjure Blade. It has nice complimenting cards too - Deus Ex Machina for more energy and bigger Expungers, Evaluate to help you draw it repeatedly (or even draw the blade on the turn you create it, which is sometimes needed), and Deceive Reality to beef up your defences.

Wish and Fasting can be alternate sources of strength if you can find them and afford them.

Wrath obviously has its uses - Crescendo can be useful so you can access it when you need it. For the same reason, Blasphemy+ is very strong at ending single-target combats.

Talk to the Hand can provide big block on Expunge turns, but is less reliable than other sources of block. It is most useful against the Heart who cannot be one-shot and has huge heavy hitting attacks.

Meditate can help you pull your Conjure Blade again to save you needing to cycle to find it each time.

'Expunger' archetype weaknesses

The biggest downside with this archetype is it takes so long to set up and requires a big energy commitment. Conjure Blade does nothing the turn you play it, but unlike Alpha it needs other supporting pieces and repeated draw and block to repeatedly use it. The damage is single-target, making multi-target encounters much harder. The deck is also not that strong in Act 1 before you have a lot of energy so can be difficult to steer into.

Never play Conjure Blade for 0 energy (without Chemical X), because it will create a 0 damage attack.

Although Deva Form looks like a perfect pairing with Conjure Blade, it's just combining two slow strategies into an even slower strategy, opening you up to far too much return damage.