A deck that is unfair and not fun to play against, a true bastion of innovation with wins that appear out of nowhere, a blast to play, and I’d classify it as Eternal Card Game’s best Combo deck: Charge Rod. Some may argue that the deck isn’t truly a combo deck, but let us not dawdle on that topic, Charge Rod is strong, and the recent nerf to Answer the Call may not actually be enough to contain the beast.
Camat0's Charge Rod
Grimfan's Charge Rod
Charge Rod cheats out large units with charge by playing Divining Rod on units with charge and hoping that the goods rest in the top four of your deck, frothing at mouth and ready to attack. Newer versions of the deck do not have great odds of hitting big and meaningful targets, so a lot of the game is spent in a grueling and grindy control match. New additions like Rizahn, Greatbow Master, Bulletshaper, and Merchants make the deck quite consistent. Replacing Heart of the Vault with Rizahn allows us to have a sigil base that isn’t completely stretched, and Bulletshaper is like a stranger on steroids.
The difference between the two decks listed is pretty significant. Camat0’s list, which is which is a bad Divining Rod deck, but probably the best Answer the Call deck, tosses aside the Alluring Embers to create a true high roll experience like no other. When you roll that Answer the Call dice you’re hoping to get an Icaria, the Liberator or Kaleb, Uncrowned Prince and land a Divining Rod on it in the process. Then, hopefully, that rod hits more charge units and you win the game in a flashy explosion. Loaded with fire units, the deck makes great use of Kaleb, and in this list you even get access to Granite Waystone for that additional chump blocker or Kaleb activator. The market here is mostly used for Answer the Call, utility like Vanquish and Harsh Rule, and there are a couple of flex spots with the Auric Runehammer and Privilege of Rank.
My list is a Divining Rod deck through and through, there’s no Answer the Call in the list. The goal of this deck is to play an Alluring Ember, and slap a rod on it, hopefully creating a cascade of charge units similar to the Answer the Call deck. With Auralian Merchant and Bulletshaper we have even more ramping potential than the other list, but it’s unlikely that we’ll be any faster. We also need more cards to pull off our combo, Answer the Call is an all in one combo package, while we need both Alluring Ember and Divining Rod. The advantage is that we started with a guaranteed 4/4 flying charge unit, and the Answer the Call deck might just hit a Bulletshaper or a Merchant.
The Card by Card
Charge Units
Alluring Ember
This is the combo activator of the Divining Rod lists without Answer the Call. Camat0 made a wise decision to remove them when trying to play Call as it really mucks up the stack pretty terribly. When the deck was playing Heart of the Vault, Alluring Ember was able to pull it out from the deck with a Divining Rod which made it even more powerful. These days, Rizahn, Greatbow Master is the six drop of choice in Divining Rod decks, but this little powerful fellow still makes the turn seven combo well worth it.
Whirling Duo
The menace of aggro decks and control decks that like to durdle, Whirling Duo is a powerhouse where it counts. Most likely one of the best overall units with Charge in the game, this card is one of the main reasons that the deck exists and does so well. You'll want to mulligan often for them as it's an important part of almost every hand's game plan. Once you have three or more spells in your void it becomes a great target for Divining Rod since it can hit a Rizahn, Greatbow Master. Before that, however, it's still an above average Divining Rod target as a 6/6 Lifesteal unit is quite powerful.
Diogo Málaga
Myria's one and only rock star, Diogo Málaga is a solid curve filler for our four drop. He evades Torch like a professional, is just weak enough to dodge Vanquish, and has an ultimate that is a big enough threat that you'll find opponents go out of their way to try and kill him. Here we use him as a road bump for aggressive decks, and an excellent harassment tool against control lists. There are viable replacements such as Venom Rider or Battleblur Centaur, but if you have Diogos this is the deck where he shines the brightest, at least for now.
Icaria, The Liberator
Who doesn't know this excellent top end finisher by now? This is our primary reason to play justice. Sure, Harsh Rule is great, and Bulletshaper is a solid dude, but there's nothing that comes close to the power of Icaria when she's on a roll. Divining Rod on Icaria makes it so that our threat tends to beat the opposing Icarias of our opponents if we go first. Divining Rod on her also hits every relevant target in the deck and is a great feel-good moment. She is not replaceable.
Kaleb, Uncrowned Prince
Playing a Kaleb is anything but princely. That dirty feeling when you flip the Lifesteal weapons on your units that you need to survive, or a Cirso's Cleaver just in time to take care of a big threat. The only truly random card in the deck, and often time's you'll come down to a turn where Kaleb is your only out. Don't lean too heavily on this bad boy though, or you'll find yourself playing with fire. Regardless of what he says, it's a dangerous thing to do. This is the target you want in almost every Diving Rod stack. Icaria is great, but Kaleb is often much better. He is not replaceable.
Power/Ramp
Bulletshaper
Not my favorite addition to Charge Rod, but probably the most powerful. Both lists play this powerful two drop hoping to ramp into more powerful cards, or discarding Privilege of Rank to smooth out power drops and to be able to play on curve. In a pinch Bulletshaper can block, or make your turn three powerful by playing the Bulletshaper and then discarding a spell to play a Whirling Duo, putting a large roadblock down against aggro decks. I'd probably not replace this card, it's very powerful, if I had to I'd look into Learned Herbalist, but they are worlds apart in power level.
Privilege of Rank
According to Camat0, "Privilege of Rank is the best card in the deck" and after playing the deck a lot I'm inclined to agree. There are a lot of free discard effects in the deck between Answer the Call, Bulletshaper, and Divining Rod. Often times it's just correct to play the card on turn three just to make sure you reach the power for Harsh Rule or your later cards. One could consider replacing this with Find the Way, but at that point it's not even the same deck really. This is also the main reason that this deck has tossed out the Heart of the Vaults.
Removal/Crests
Torch
The premium fire removal spell, putting this card in your deck should take a lot of weight off of your shoulders. Teacher of Humility decks and Skycrag Aggro decks are your main reason to run the card but there's really no arguing against the card's utility. I wouldn't leave home without them.
Harsh Rule
Harsh Rule is another important card to the deck. Often games come down to a board stall and you'll have to break it by clearing the board and then using the combo the following turn to hopefully kill your opponent. It also gives you some much needed card advantage. Finally, it's a necessary evil against the aggressive decks, letting you catch up and get ahead. You could look into something like End of the Story but really Harsh Rule does the job for cheaper, which is important, as you'll often have to cast it as soon as you draw it.
Rizahn, Greatbow Master
Rizahn takes the place of Heart of the Vault. Listed under removal, but Rizahn pulls his weight in this deck. He's removal, he's life gain, he flips boards, and he is a great hit off of our Divining Rods. It can be difficult to activate the Lifesteal part of this card in the deck however, and often times the first Rizahn you play will not have that battle skill. One of the main reasons that it was decided to move to this card though is that it has much better influence requirements than Heart. This lets us play both Privilege of Rank and in the case of the Answer the Call version, it lets you play Granite Waystone. Heart of the Vault is Rizahns only real replacement, although some lists with Soulfire Drake have popped up. If you do replace the Rizahns with Heart of the Vault, the power base will need some work.
Crests
Finally, crests get a special place here because we're playing a full set of twelve crests. That's a lot of depleted power, but because the deck requires you to draw specific cards, and we run no actual card draw, this kind of effect is important. I wouldn't go lower than twelve, a crest can be a viable market card as well, but Find the Way does a good job if you're in time and Privilege of Rank does a great job if you're in Justice.
The Market
Winchest Merchant
In the Justice market we're packing Vanquish, Privilege of Rank, Harsh Rule, Auric Runehammer, and Answer the Call. Tucking an Answer the Call in the market is a no brainer, and having access to our best card in the deck is perfect. Vanquish is an important tempo tool, allowing us to kill something large and play a merchant on turn five, or in anticipation of killing something large later. Sandstorm Titan is easily one of the most frustrating cards for the deck to fight against, so this lets us take care of that problem proactively. Privilege of Rank gives us a source of power in the market, and once we've gotten to three power and can cast the merchant, that means we can cast the sigil searcher as well. Harsh Rule is also a pretty easy include, there for the reasons Harsh Rule is also in the main deck, whilst merchants let us run more without having to worry about having to cut more cards, or playing inferior board sweepers. Finally, Auric Runehammer gives us something to play against the aegis unit decks, however often times it can be too slow. This isn't a bad finisher either against a control deck in a board stall. It's not recommended to look too deep for more justice cards, but it's possible that End of the Story could be decent here instead of the Runehammer, however, that's quite unlikely.
Auralian Merchant
The body of this merchant is quite relevant, a 1/4 that ramps us provides a lot of synergy to the deck, and it gives us another great blocker for the early game. In the time market we have access to Find the Way, Alluring Ember, Divining Rod, Desert Marshal, and Disjunction. A time market has a lot more flexibility than a justice one. Here we could look at Passage of Eons, Purify, Crest of Impulse, Mystic Ascendant, and many others. The reason there's so much flexibility is that we're not looking at a lot of removal or anything here but more utility. We pack the combo in there so we can run less cards main deck, and also have more ready access to them. Disjunction is for the match-ups with Xenan Obelisk, but there's a lot to be said for Passage of Eons in that type of match-up as well. Disjunction is just much cheaper, and better if you're hit by a Teacher of Humility. Desert Marshal is a true flex spot, but I like it against Skycrag Aggro, Alessi Combrei, and a few other match-ups where the silence and body can have a lot of impact. Finally it comes down to Find the Way versus Crest of Impulse. The crest is something that I've been playing with in the market for a long time, but Find the Way has been slowly growing on me. It's a lot slower but it's more overall power, so it's probably better. The verdict is still out on that choice. Do not try to cheat, put power in the market.
To Answer the Call or Not?
Now that we know what a Charge Rod deck is, and what makes it interesting and special, it’s time to figure out if Answer the Call is the right fit for the deck or not. I haven’t seen a lot of Answer the Call since it was nerfed, but I honestly believe it’s still quite a powerful card and I haven’t let mine go quite yet. Determining what we gain by playing Answer the Call, and what we lose by throwing away the Alluring Embers is part of the process of deciding which list to play.
Both lists are quite strong, but I’ve found that I prefer my list over the list with Answer the Call. It is more consistent, and I feel that it’s less all-in. Often times with an Answer the Call stack you have to choose between large targets like Icaria and Kaleb, and you have no vision if there’s even a Divining Rod sitting in the pile. Because of that it’s difficult to figure out what the correct choice is, often times it can be a mistake choosing one over the other. The guarantee of having a 4/4 flying charger, is quite powerful, and often times can win games with a little extra support or a follow up rod. Once you’ve exhausted your resources in the Answer the Call deck, it’s very difficult to make a comeback, a whiff with that card is often the end of the game.
Viability of Charge Rod
Charge Rod is a decent tournament deck and knowing what your opponent plays is a very important part of knowing what kind of hand you can get away with. Looking for hands that are proactive is always a good idea. Whirling Duo and Diogo make it a lot easier to accomplish this task. Against aggressive decks though you often need to mulligan for Torch, Bulletshaper, or Whirling Duo. Luckily, aggressive lists are uncommon in a tournament setting, and this deck tends to do better when it’s in a setting where a lot of decks are trying to out-big eachother.
Ladder tells a different tale though I’m afraid. On ladder it’s best to play decks that can draw consistent hands that are good against a wide variety of decks. It’s possible to still find a pocket metagame where the deck soars like no other, and on those days it’s a great time. Look for a metagame that is filled with Armory, Icaria Blue, Praxis Midrange, Xenan Killers, and other decks that tend to take a while to get going and are vulnerable to Harsh Rule. However, an environment full of aggressive decks, such as Skycrag Aggro, Praxis Tokens, or even Shimmerpack, can be a true hassle to wade through. Also keep an eye out for Combrei decks packing a full set of eight Stand Togethers, whilst it’s possible to beat these decks if they do not draw their hallmark card, if you don’t end the game in a timely fashion however they can definitely out grind you.
The list with Divining Rod definitely has the edge on ladder. It has more consistency with the combo even if the sigil base is a little less consistent. As for tournament play, if you’re facing a lot of other Answer the Call decks then the version with Answer the Call could be better. The metagame would have to lean very heavily in that direction before moving in that direction though.
Overall, I'd say Charge Rod is a tier 2 deck, which is viable and depending on the meta it can be the best deck in the field. It's very viable, and it's a lot better than normal TJF control piles or other mid-range variants on that deck. It's definitely a contender, and it's here to stay.
