Introduction

So, you’ve opened your first Doom Pile Structure Deck and discovered the Master Plan Ignite the Guidestones! Now what? If you’re looking for guidance on how the deck works out of the box, and what you can do to improve it, then you’ve come to the right place!

Ignite the Guidestones! is a Master Plan which reads “If you control 6+ Monument Artifices, you win.” It is most closely associated with Ancient and Monument cards, and focuses on playing a lot of Artifices, primarily of the Monument subtype. Out of the box, this deck is built as a slow control strategy, letting you work your way to playing and protecting these Artifices.

Opening Strategy

Your opening hand out of the box consists of Greedy Page-Turning, Study the Timelines, Scolding Stone, Excellent Research, and Consider the Following. On your first turn, you should play all of these cards, but notice that Study the Timelines has When Played text: You will need to increase the count of one of your other cards in countdown to play it. Typically, this is going to be Consider the Following, ticking it up to three along with Excellent Research.

On your next turn, you will draw and play Protecting Guidestone, but nothing else will resolve. It’s not until your third turn that the strategy starts to take shape. You should resolve Scolding Stone first, then resolve Greedy Page-Turning and Study the Timelines to draw four cards. This will trigger the On Field effect of Scolding Stone (Remember, conditional effects are once per turn, per copy of a card!) allowing you to tick up one of your opponents’ cards in countdown. This is the primary interaction of the deck, used to delay your opponents’ cards to help keep your scheming safe. Protecting Guidestone also resolves at this time.

After you draw for turn, the five cards in your hand will be Doomspell Procedure, Mirrored Henge, Tablet Sculptor, Employ Contingencies, and Ignition Golem. You should once again play all of these, with the only possible exception being to hang onto Employ Contingencies for a more appropriate time to disrupt an opponent.

The deck from here becomes one of the most complicated to pilot, with heavy reliance on your decision-making in-game and improvisation. Even as you draw cards such as Recollection Vial and another Scolding Stone, the order that you let things resolve, and when you choose to trigger the On Field effects of cards like Excellent Research, can greatly affect the outcome of a game. Generally, you should aim to draw in your Resolve Step as frequently as possible to delay your opponents’ cards, and recycle other interactions like Employ Contingencies to keep tempo throughout the game.

Getting up to six Monument Artifices can be an extended endeavor, so winning with this deck means taking advantage of the provided tools to prevent your opponent from achieving their Master Plan before you, rather than a strict race to the end of the world.

Matchup Considerations

Thanks to your early access to combo-stoppers like Employ Contingencies, and other ways to delay your opponent like Scolding Stone, this deck has a very good matchup against combo decks like Cast the Doomspell! or The Sacrifice Must be Paid! One of the big things you should keep in mind in the latter matchup is thwart targets—cards like Mephistopholes, Faustian Patron are incredibly dangerous when they hit the field, but thwarting it will just send it to the Discard Pile, putting them still one step closer to victory. Ticking them up is often a better option, holding it hostage in countdown.

Some of your worst matchups will be against Minion-heavy decks. With enough decently-sized ones resolving every few turns, they can inundate your opponents’ field and countdown to the point that delaying or thwarting them isn’t enough to halt them entirely. Even one large Minion on the field can begin to cripple your combos by destroying your Artifices. Playing Herald of the Guidestones early, and potentially up to two, is a good way to ward off potential attacks from aggro decks like Become the Apex!

And of course, there are plenty of Artifice-specific hate cards available to any deck that you may need to look out for. Smash with Stones can’t destroy Scolding Stone, but it can get a Protecting Guidestone out of the way and open it up for attack. Other cards like Resist Advances or Unstoppable Force are specifically geared against your deck, and may demand specific interaction, putting you on the defensive.

Lastly, as you look to start developing your own strategies and updating your deck, either with a unique list or by combining cards from other structure decks, Obstinate Mutant can prove to be a powerful Minion when used in tandem with other cards like Recollection Vial.

Conclusion

What do you think of Ignite the Guidestones!? There are plenty more ins and outs to learn about the structure deck and the cards within as you work to improve it, develop your own strategy, and aim to end the world by wielding the power of the ancient magics.

Good luck in your pursuit of world domination!