Two colors often beat one Culdcept beginsbut only when they can share a board well. Deployment limits mean that some elements actively block each other, so the land you develop ends up locking your own creatures out of it.
The pairings below work with that limitation instead of against it, and the bottom two are the traps to spot before you spend fifty slots finding out the hard way. Pick a combo here, add your favorite neutrals and spells and so on, and you're off to a good start.
Best element combinations
- Fire and earth. Fire wins battles it cannot hold, and earth holds ground it cannot win. Pair them up and each covers the other's failure, with Fire's first striker clearing squares for Earth's walls to settle on. The designers seem to agree, as Grimalkin is the only creature in the set that supports two elements at once, and those elements are Fire and Earth.
- Water and air. Air claims territory faster than any suit, then leaves it to Water's walls of negation to keep it. Water's card draw feeds the swarm, which is important for an element that burns through cheap bodies at pace. Neither one limits the other's deployment, so your board is never fighting itself.
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Fire and air. Two aggressive colors stacked, with Attacks First on almost every body and a pace that no defensive build can match. The catch is the missing backline, which allows a grinding opponent to outlast you when your fragile attackers balance out.
- Death Miasma punishes this pairing more severely than any other in the game.
- Water and earth. The fortress, and almost unbreakable once settled. Earth's regenerative thoughts and Water's negation combine into squares that no sane person invades. Your problem is ending: land comes slowly and you win by tolls rather than by force. A bit turn based, but very effective in the right situations.
- Any color and a strong neutral splash. Neutral creatures are distributed anywhere without penalty, so they never clash with your primary element. A small deck covers the jobs your color handles poorly, but it's more than profitable to go all-in on neutral as a secondary, whether that means economy from Golden Totems or an answer to a fat Neutral anchor from Cleric. You can find great options in the Neutral selection to fit into any deck.
Combinations to avoid
- Fire and water. This is almost too obvious. Multiple fire creatures cannot be deployed on water lands, and multiple water creatures cannot be deployed on fire, so each square you develop closes out part of your book. The Kraken goes further and loses HP if you have any fire land at all.
- Earth and air. Less obvious than Fire and Water, but still pretty obvious. Same trap on the opposite shoulder, and a worse one. Air has the longest “can't be used on Earth” list in the set, so an Earth-heavy board ties your flyers in your hand while your tanks refuse the air panes.
