Some of you may have seen my recent post on my own blog with respect to a tall Dorinthea deck that I have been testing and playing recently. This deck has been designed in order to combat the “Blitz menace” known as Ira. In nine Skirmish events that I have competed in with some variation of this deck, I have made the top eight all nine times and went on to win three of those events. I have won a large majority of my games against Ira.

Ira builds were popularized by Chris Gehring’s successful build from the Blitz-a-Thon event in October. The meta before Blitz-a-Thon was generally more aggressive. Ira fundamentally changed that. The “post- Blitz-a-Thon” Ira decks are defined by:

1. Maximum copies of Flic Flak.
2. Many zero-cost blue combo cards, mostly without the other pieces of their combo- these are used both to ensure you can do two Harmonized Kodachi swings in a turn and also to put up a strong defense when paired with Flic Flak.
3. Various attacks that can be used effectively with Ira’s ability (like Command and Conquer) or after two weapon swings (like red Torrent of Tempo).

These tactics come together into a fairly effective combination. An Ira deck can pitch blue, swing two Harmonized Kodachi (or one Harmonized Kodachi and then a Zephyr Needle in some matchups), then use the last energy for an attack like Torrent of Tempo (red) or Pounding Gale. If all three of these attacks hit, Ira will be able to draw with Mask of Momentum. That’s quite a bit of threat for just two cards!

On defense, Ira is even better! This style of Ira deck has a lot of blue, which can fuel a lot of Arcane Barrier defense against Wizard or Runeblade. Further, these Ira decks typically run maximum copies of Flic Flak, which can get huge value in the right situation- not only are these useful in their own right as defense reactions, but they often buff up your next block when combined with all the combo cards, making it difficult to use multiple attacks effectively against Ira’s defense.