Starvo's Sunset: Moving on from Bravo, Star of the Show

It’s no secret that Bravo, Star of the Show was one of the best- if not the best- hero for the short time in which he was legal in Classic Constructed. He repeatedly presented huge amounts of damage with relevant on-hit triggers for way fewer resources than you would expect. He also had access to some of the most powerful pieces of equipment: Crown of Seeds, Winter's Wail, Rampart of the Rams Head, and Stalagmite, Bastion of Isenloft.

If you’re like me, that unbridled power is what drew you to 'Starvo'. You wanted to be doing the most powerful thing in the game to maximize your chances of winning. Now that Bravo has reached Living Legend status, you may be left wondering, "Where do we go from here?" We're facing a brand new meta, defined by the departure of its 2 most impactful heroes and welcoming 3 completely unknown variables in the form of Uprising's roster. If you're looking for the next strongest hero to fill Bravo's shoes, there’s no clear choice.

Although I think this format will be more open than the previous one, I think there's a clear deck to beat, and we can use that as our starting point.

Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light is probably the strongest hero left in the game. She has consistently put up results since she was released, and proven she has what it takes to win in almost any metagame. Uprising gave her a few new tools to tackle various aggressive decks. Fog Down and That All You Got? are powerful yellow generics, which effortlessly slot into Prism's pitch curve. Semblance and Ghostly Touch have reasonable shots at slotting into traditional Prism builds as well. Transmogrify, in combination with Phatasmify and Veiled Intentions, could even open an avenue for a new aggressive archetype for her.

Even without looking at the new cards, Prism has the ability to adjust to whatever strategy may prove popular in the Uprising era. Her card pool facilitates an Aura-heavy go-wide strategy and a heavy-hitting Herald build- and when built carefully, her deck can adjust between them via strategy-shifting sideboarding. If your goal is to hit the ground running with the format's most powerful hero, Prism is a logical next step.

Trading in your hammer for a scepter is a drastic change in strategy. For a more familiar gameplay experience, there's another Guardian in the format- and he shares most of Starvo’s card pool. Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity continues to prove himself in Blitz, leaving us to question whether he might have been just as dominant in CC had Starvo not taken up his mantle. If the Uprising field proves to be full of aggressive decks, Oldhim is a perfect counter.

Oldhim is a hero that can be built very defensively, or with a slightly more disruptive game plan. The Ice-reveal half of his hero ability can mess with his opponent’s turns, while an Earth reveal insulates him against attack reactions. He gets to use Crown of Seeds, Winter's Wail, Oaken Old, and many other all-star cards from Starvo's deck, and makes up for the loss of Crippling Crush with his own devastating specialization, Endless Winter. He can take an approach of combining these big on-hits with Pummels to push them through, or he can take a more defensive approach with a lot of defense reactions.

His defensive builds also received a few nice tools from Uprising. Oasis Respite, Brothers in Arms, and That All You Got? all slot in nicely into the more controlling builds. He might also consider playing some of the new disruptive Ice cards, like Hypothermia, Channel the Bleak Expanse, Arctic Incarceration, and Cold Snap. You could even look at playing Insidious Chill with a heavy Ice fusion list. Endless Winter and Oaken Old both trigger it, and have proven to be solid inclusions in Oldhim decks.

Lexi, Livewire is a hero who's never really got her time in the sun. During the Briar metagame, her Ice builds managed some semblance of success due to their powerful disruption and high damage output; unfortunately, Briar's ability to generate several Embodiment of Earth tokens effectively mitigated both her damage output and her ability to force through on-hit triggers. During the Starvo metagame, her lack of good defensive options was a massive vulnerability in the face of his big dominated on-hit and crush abilities.

In testing for Pro Tour: New Jersey, there was a lot of uncertainty about Starvo’s legality. I personally spent a lot of time testing Lexi, and reached a point where I was happy with both my Viserai matchup and my Prism matchup. After the updated ban list did not remove Starvo from contention, I put her aside; as then, I now consider that Lexi has what it takes to compete.

Lightning Lexi's damage output is extremely high, while also presenting many impactful on-hits. If you enjoyed putting your opponents in lose-lose situations due to presenting high damage values that demand blocks, Lexi may be the hero for you. Here’s a Lightning list I played at the 10k brawl weekend.

Ice Lexi is also extremely potent. Although her damage output is marginally lower than the Lightning lists, her ability to disrupt the opponent through cards like Chilling Icevein and Blizzard Bolt is quite high. Leading with these arrows and following them up with a second arrow will put any deck that is looking to race in a tough spot. Pair these up with her ability to pump her arrows after blocks have been declared, and you've created a nightmare matchup for the aggressive decks of the format.

Iyslander Stormbind's arrival on the CC scene brings a lot of promise, but will require time and effort to get right. If you were drawn to the more controlling style of Starvo, carefully pitch stacking powerful turns while mitigating as much damage as possible in the meantime, Iyslander has a surprisingly similar playstyle. A lot of your damage mitigation will be through a combination of disruptive effects and blocking.

In my early testing, I've found two different directions you can take her. You can play either a disruptive tempo deck, or a more controlling deck with a combo kill. Iyslander also has an incredibly large pool of playable cards; most Wizard cards, Ice cards, and a surprising number of generics merit consideration.

Maybe you were drawn to the raw damage output Starvo has. How he efficiently turns 3- or 4-card hands into piles of damage. While a wide strategy for delivering damage is very different from Starvo's one-two strategy, you'll find the end result similar piloting either Briar, Warden of Thorns or Fai, Rising Rebellion. These heroes offer extremely high damage outputs for how many cards you spend.

Briar frequently plays several cheap cards followed up by a swing from Rosetta Thorn. She can easily threaten 15 damage off a 4-card hand, and also has some of the most potent turns in the game off the back of Channel Mount Heroic.

From initial testing, Fai also seems extremely strong. He wants to play long combat chains, and if he isn’t disrupted, he can consistently send 15-20 damage turn after turn, with his best hands pushing well over 20. As a Ninja, his chains regularly threaten a Mask of Momentum trigger, forcing opponents to either block his attacks or let him draw an additional card to extend his turn.

I expect Briar and Fai to both be premiere aggro decks in the new format, and every deck is going to need a plan to fight them.

Lastly, I want to remind everyone that there’s an adult Bravo that is still legal to play in Classic Constructed. Maybe he’s lost his title of 'Star of the Show', but Bravo, Showstopper is still a star in the eyes of his fans. If you were attached to Bravo as a character, or the gameplan of throwing large, powerful dominated attacks, Bravo, Showstopper plays a very similar game to Starvo. While he lacks Elemental access, he still has disruptive on-hit abilities and the option to play a more defensive game, built on the backs of Guardian’s powerful set of defense reactions.

Although the format is much more powerful than it was when Showstopper was dominating (pun intended), he can still throw some punches. At this point, I wouldn’t say he’s the best choice if your only goal is to win; but he’s a fun hero, and has a style that feels very similar to Star of the Show.

Saying farewell to Starvo hits on a different level than Chane's retirement. While Chane remains playable in Blitz and other young hero formats, as an adult hero only, Starvo is truly gone from organized play until a Living Legend format emerges. The tri-element deck, and the 'reveal 3 elements' payoff, is no longer a strategic option for consideration.

But you can still find hints of Starvo across a multitude of heroes and archetypes. I hope that this article helps you find your way to your next favorite deck!