The Light Returns to Everfest: Early Development in Aura Prism

While Runeblades have achieved stunning spikes in power and tournament presence throughout 2021, Prism, Sculptor of Light was a consistent threat, a gatekeeper that all decks had to prepare for to even be considered viable. Prism was able to challenge Chane in the Monarch meta, but eventually found herself held down by the force that was Briar. After some dark days, the Light Illusionist sees a new day break with Everfest. I believe Prism is ready to contend again for a few big reasons.

The bans to Plunder Run and Ball Lightning were just what the doctor ordered for Prism (and specifically Aura Prism), creating space for her to come back into the meta. Among Prism’s worst matchups were Briar, Katsu, and Chane; all three of these decks took a big hit with the removal of Plunder Run from Classic Constructed.

But Prism isn't the only one who found opportunity in the bans. And fortunately, the other classes who rushed in were all good matches for Prism. The meta is re-configuring in her favor.

It's still early to know how the Everfest meta will be defined, but what we do know at this point is that Guardian will continue to be a part of it. This past Pro Quest saw Bravo, Star of the Show dominate the competition (literally). This deck has shown it can race the aura plan quite effectively by sending dominated, go again attacks every turn. My earlier deck development wasn't sufficient for dealing with the Elemental Bravo, but Prism had room to adjust for it.

The current 'Starvo' decks are vulnerable to hand disruption and might have trouble racing. This led me to the new Majestic attack action cards and Phantasmaclasm as a way to defeat this menace. Therefore we have a main aura deck with two plans, depending on what deck we play against.

The main construction of the aura deck is simple to get your head around: play all 27 auras in your list. This heavy focus on auras sets your opponent up for two responses: either they will try to slow your auras down by attacking them, or they will try to race your aura plan by going for your face. Knowing when to keep aura stacking and when to block is key to playing any aura list.

At this point, we should probably pause to discuss aura stacking. This is a unique skill developed for this style of Illusionist deck. The basics of Aura stacking are simple: you want to play as many auras as possible- and in order to do so, you need to find opportune moments to play them.

You will notice that the auras from Monarch are all instants- but the new Everfest Auras are 'non-attack' actions. Despite being able to be cast at instant speed, most of the time you will play your auras on your turn. Prism is hungry for yellow cards in the pitch zone, so unless there is a good reason to play an aura at instant speed, you shouldn’t. 

Take the following example: You have the Great Library of Solana and Genesis in play, and 2 yellow cards in hand. This is an obvious example of when you should forego your Genesis proc (to get one Spectral Shield) to make sure you can get two yellows in your pitch for an extra card.

Outside of timing your auras, you should also stack the right auras. You will often have the opportunity to choose between auras to play. Identify before the match begins which type of auras will be effective. Haze Bending is going to be excellent against decks that will try to wipe your auras, but ineffective vs. decks that will try to race you. Parable of Humility is useless vs. Dorinthea, but very good vs. Rhinar. It is important to get a good feel for which Auras are good in which matchups to increase your win rate.

Prism received no less than 7 playable cards in Everfest- and it could be more. We start with the four non-instant auras, which are going to be the biggest addition to any aura prism build going forward.

One of my biggest gripes with Aura Prism in the past has been that there are only 15 auras- and Parable of Humility was very weak, causing many players to only play 12. This makes aura stacking (the ability to keep auras on the board through your opponent's attacks) very difficult. We now have access to 27 auras total, which is almost half the deck. If we play all of them, this makes the odds of drawing at least one aura slightly over 90%- which is a huge improvement for any player trying to play an aura each turn. What’s more, the odds that we will draw 2 or more auras is over 60%, which means half of our hands have the ability to play 2 auras in a turn.

Fractal Replication is absolutely the real deal. If you have yet to see the card in play, may I introduce you to Phatasmaclasm + Fractal Replication for 18 damage and two looks at the hand to try and tear it apart. While other decks are trying to fit as many zero-for-fours into their deck as possible, Prism is trying to make a zero-for-nine. Miraging Metamorph also helps our aggro plan. Seven for one is way above rate, and with the threat of making an aura, no one wants to exploit its phantasm. These two cards make racing a real possibility, even against the most aggressive of decks.

The last Everfest addition I want to cover is Crown of Reflection. While the other majestics and the auras are obvious shoo-ins to different strategies, Crown of Reflection is competing with Halo of Illumination and Arcanite Skullcap. To spot the value of Crown, imagine having one Haze Bending and one Merciful Retribution on the battlefield. Crown of Reflection is already threatening to do one arcane damage (from Merciful Retribution), create one Spectral Shield (from Haze Bending), and possibly put a card into your soul (if it is a light card). With more advanced setups, the card can threaten even more. Is this worth blocking for 3 from Skullcap? Or guaranteeing a Tome of Divinity turn with Halo? I think it will definitely find a home- especially with Arcane Barrier 1- but the card is very hard to evaluate at the moment, given it revolves around your board state.

If this hasn't jumped out at you yet, let me state it clearly: the new Illusionist cards are not Light cards. This makes Vestige of Sol very hard to proc, and as a result Tome of Divinity is not as potent as it once was. These cards have been cut from the deck in order to make it run more efficiently and block better.

1. Always go first as Aura Prism. Stacking two auras on turn one can be game-breaking by itself.
2. Know when to go on the offensive. Sometimes you need to be attacking with Heralds to race, ending your turn by sliding a blue aura into play here and there. Knowing where you are at in a given matchup will raise your win rate dramatically.
3. While Prism has historically had plenty of fuel for her soul, this build is not as good at doing that. It is important to leave at least one card in your soul whenever you can, to make sure you have an outlet for pitching yellow to give your Illusionist Aura attacks go again via Luminaris.
4. Prism's strategies are fairly robust vs. discard strategies because of the instant speed abilities to empty the hand.

1. Keeping cards in soul is paramount to keeping damage pressure on and winning games.

1. Arc Light Sentinel is a tricky card to play, but if played at the right time can be lights out. Try to view Arc Light Sentinel as a card that takes resources away from your opponent, instead of a stalling tactic, and you will be on the right track.

1. Spectra and Phantasm can be responded to.

While it remains early to make informed calls about the Everfest meta, I can already share a few thoughts and tips for facing down the threats we know.

Vs. Katsu, Briar, and Bravo, Star of the Show

We want to pour on the damage. Try setting up big turns by landing some Light attacks, or landing an important aura and putting Fractal Replication, Phantasmaclasm, or Miraging Metamorph into your arsenal to set up a 20+ damage turn.

Vs. Rhinar, Levia, Oldhim, and (talentless) Bravo

Our aura plan will absolutely destroy defensive Guardians. We use the defense reactions to protect our spectral shields if needed. Stack as many auras/spectral shields as possible. The idea is that even if three cards are stripped from hand, we can use a yellow to pitch to the Prism ability to attack with all of our auras for more than they can attack over time.

Vs. Chane

I haven’t figured out if racing Chane is a possibility yet, but blocking Chane out is so easy these days I ask "why even try?" Use Arc Light Sentinel to buy tempo to block better, or to eat some of their non-attack cards to reduce the amount of cards you have left. Think about this matchup in terms of how many cards you have left to block. Do not give into the temptation to attack unless it is a sure thing you will win that way.

Aura Prism is extremely nuanced and takes a long time to master. There are also a few matchups I still need to figure out, and I do not think the deck is in its final iteration by any means. But building Aura Prism will give you game against every deck, and perhaps even win you the next Calling. Until next time!