Magic Spellslingers Drizzt Guide and Best Decks

Hello everyone! I have been playing a lot of Magic Spellslingers and personally been having an amazing time with the game. It’s extremely fresh and feels like it captures a lot of the good parts of old Hearthstone with very little of the negative elements. To that end, we tried out a Magic Spellslingers Tier List to see if our readers were interested in content for the game, and it seems that the answer was a resounding yes!

We’re going to keep the Spellslingers content up as we want to highlight this amazing game, and one of the best ways to do that is to share the best list I have for each walker, break it down so you understand my approach, and can take it and change it as you want. For this article, I’m going to go over the Drizzt list I used to climb to Mythic, the core cards, the flex slots, other lists to consider, and the tips you should know to pilot Dirzzt. Let’s jump right in!

Drizzt Spellslinger Details

Signature Cards

Abilities

Health: 26

Guenhwyvar’s Aid
After you attack with 1 or more legendary creatures, summon an attacking Guenhwyvar. After Guenhwyvar deals damage or dies, she retreats to her figurine.

Companions of the Hall
Your deck can have a total of 6 legendary creatures of any colors.

Drizzt Aggro Deck

Today, we may as well go over what is easily the best deck in Spellslingers right now, Drizzt Aggro.

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Drizzt is the newest planeswalker introduced to Magic Spellslingers with the D&D Icons set, and despite being by far the best one, the initial reaction was that he would be incredibly weak. Having to attack with a Legendary creature for Drizzt to do anything seemed like a tough condition, and when you have to scale up Guenhwyvar (the Cat you get when attacking with a Legendary creature) manually, Drizzt seemed quite weak. If Drizzt was just introduced by himself, he probably would’ve been a decent, but middling hero, but alongside the new cards added alongside him, he’s an absolute powerhouse.

So at his core, Drizzt is an aggressive Selesnya deck with the focus being on attacking with Legendary creatures. While you can only play 6 Legendary creatures which may make this seem like it’s an inconsistent game plan, the deck has very little issue getting it to work. Even when you can’t find a Legend early on, you’d be surprised at how effective a Selesnya Aggro deck can just be in general!

Before I dive into the card choices, lets get something out of the way?

Why Aggro Over Midrange?

While the vast majority of the Drizzt decks I see are very similar to mine, I do see some that take a slower approach and look to play a slightly longer game with more expensive legends and The Yawning Portal as your land. While I’m sure that still yields a good deck, I don’t believe this is the best direction for Drizzt. Drizzt is so powerful because of his ability to close games quickly. Between Guenhwyvar, an aggressive curve, and aggressive legends, it is extremely difficult for opponents to defend themselves adequately.

Furthermore, the most common game you’re losing as Drizzt is being raced effectively so slowing your deck down is not an effective solution. You want to go as fast as possible as that is going to give you the best chance of not letting your opponent stabilize.

The Core Cards

Like most of the planeswalkers, a lot of Drizzt’s core cards are rather set in stone if you’re going with the aggressive version. Let’s break them down starting with the Legendary creatures.

Matron Malice – One of the new Legends introduced with Drizzt, it is an obsceleny good card for this deck. A 3/1 that can’t block is a fine stat line considering we are happy playing Elite Vanguard, but having Ward on entry and being able to recur itself is the real icing. This guarantees that you can always get an attack in with Matron to start scaling Guenhwyvar which is threatening early and late, as again, she can come back when enough creatures enter the graveyard in a turn.

Pir, the Dreamer – Our second one drop legend for this deck. This is going to attack for a lot of damage as early as turn two since Guenhwyvar entering buffs Pir as well. It’s a lot less resilient than Matron Malice, but it can deal significantly more damage if not blocked.

Yeenoghu, Beast of Butchery – Yet another new Legend graces our deck, but this time it’s in the two drop slot. Having Haste on your Legends is really important as getting Guenhwyvar to attack as many times as possible is really how you win the vast majority of your games. Yeenoghu is definitely the swingiest of your Legends as it can be a 2/2, a 12/12, or a dead card as there are situations you don’t want to cast it at all. Never the less, it’s very powerful.

Inferno – The final new Legendary to come along with Drizzt as we completely skip the three drop slot and move up to four. Realistically, we play Inferno because it has Flying and Haste, and that’s all we need from it. The artifact ability is quite nice though and if you manage to scale your Inferno, you can get some really powerful artifacts alongside Guenhwyvar hits.

Zo-Zu – It’s big, it has Haste, it’s a Legend. Zo-Zu is a scary threat as it can grow out of control in just two attacks so if you manage to give it evasion or Trample, you can easily win a game you weren’t supposed to.

Tajic, Legion’s Edge – It’s big, it has Haste, it’s a Legend. The attack trigger to avoid burn spells on your other creatures can definitely be relevant as well against the Red strategies. I’ve dodged some Pyroclasms, Flame Coils, and even Flame Waves because of Tajic!

So with all the Legends, there’s a pretty obvious pattern here. While this is an aggro deck, I would argue that this deck can sometimes play like a combo deck as getting to attack with Guenhwyvar is really your main focus when playing. To that end, we play four Legends with Haste and a lot of ways to protect them which we’ll go over now alongside the other core cards.

Deep Forest Arena – Likely the best Land in the game, giving a creature +2/+2 and Ward is already excellent, but in Drizzt where you’re looking to protect your Legends? That’s just nuts.

Shields Up – A very cheap way to protect your creatures. This is one of the best traps in the game as it’s so hard to play around and really hard to avoid barring you have direct removal or burn.

Kalonian Tusker – One of the best two drops on stats. When you can’t do your Legends game plan, Tusker will help pressure the opponent.

Giant Growth – Yet another means to protect your Legendary creatures. Being able to eat a sizable blocker and then force the opponent to block again is a brutal situation for them that also lets Guenhwyvar scale pretty quickly.

Grudge Match – It’ll be rare that you’re playing a Green deck without Grudge Match, and considering the mirror is your most common matchup, having some interaction is pretty important.

Drizzt’s Herald – Only having access to six Legends would make this deck a lot more inconsistent without these fine class cards. A 2 mana 3/2 is whatever on stats, but making a creature Legendary lets you keep scaling Guenhwyvar.

Watchwolf – While not the best two drop in Spellslingers, it is the best two drop on stats alone as a 3/4 is a good deal better than a 4/3 since practically no one or two drop can trade with it cleanly.

Defend with Twinkle – This card is messed up. So it’s literally Bubble Shield in Selesnya, but it also gives you a second spell that gives a creature +2/+0 and stuns an enemy for a turn. That is a lot of value.

The Flex Cards

We covered the core cards which I would pretty much consider the completely non-negotiables. While I would argue that many of these cards are also core, that aren’t absolutely necessary.

Elite Vanguard – I’m not a big fan of Elite Vanguard, but in a Drizzt meta, having a one drop that has the highest chance of trading with something is important.

Elvish Infuser – Keeping your Legendary creatures alive is the name of the game, and while Infuser isn’t the most exciting card, adding two toughness to a creature can keep it alive for an additional turn.

Stoneforge Mystic – While technically not a core card, it might as well be. While a three mana 2/3 body is pretty bad, getting a spell that can size up your creature substantially, protect it, or grant evasion is too good to pass up.

Wurm’s Wake – Wake is an interesting card as it offers a simple deal – you get a 5/5, but you can’t block with it the turn it comes in. This card is slightly better than what I described as the opponent has to technically respect other Traps and they also can’t interact with it the turn it comes in, but it’s been pretty good for me. Whether it’s good pressure or a strong blocker against other Drizzt opponents, it’s a card I’m rarely unhappy to see.

Hero’s Call – I’ve been waffling with the right number of Hero’s Call in my deck, but I think one is where I want to be. It’s pretty bad in the early game so I don’t want it then, but it can provide you with a high impact Legend later so I don’t want to cut it. I can see versions with zero or two of these, but I’m happy with splitting the difference.

Armadillo Cloak – This is a nod to how I treat Drizzt almost like a combo deck. If you keep your Legendary creatures alive, the odds of you winning are very high. Armadillo Cloak is probably the best card to keep your Legends alive as it’s very easy to force the opponent to block into it to kill it the next turn just for you to heal it back up and give it Ward. While there will be some games that it’s an awkward draw, it has been good for me substantially more times than it has been bad.

Potential Inclusions

Any Legend that’s four mana or fewer – While I think the Legends I’m playing are non-negotiable, that is not to say that you can’t play Drizzt until you have all of them. You can play a good Drizzt deck as long as all six of your Legends are cheap with evasion being key here. Some Legends I play (or would have played) in Drizzt include Zndrsplt, the Clever, Regna, the Redeemer, Iymrith, Blood Queen Drana, Wulfgar, Virtus, the Veiled, Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant, and Momir Vig.

Daughter of Runes – Trying to give one of your Legends armor is tempting, but the 1/2 body is just so sad otherwise.

Champion’s Grit – My first iteration of Drizzt played one Grit as another layer of protection for my Legends, and while not bad, it was a bit slow for my liking.

Untested Rookie – I played this over Vanguard for the longest time as it blocks a 1/2 Guenhwyvar really well and works well with the Traps, but I found it very disappointing otherwise. A one drop that needs support to be good is not exactly what I’m in the market for.

Birds of Paradise – I played Birds for a decent amount of time as it did a few things well: it worked super well with Drizzt’s Herald and it ramped you into your four drop legends. While it felt great when you did either of those, I couldn’t do either enough to continue playing it.

Devoted Steed – Pretty much a different Elvish Infuser. I think Infuser is better as toughness is generally better than power, especially in Drizzt, but I’m not going to fault anyone for playing it.

Treetop Lookout – May be a surprisingly good tech piece, especially for the mirror. Probably too niche, but something to think about.

Tarmogoyf – I fiddled with the number of Tarmogoyf for a long time before finally settiling on cutting them. While they can be excellent considering we play a nice disparity of card types, it only excelled in the mid stages of the game, and generally speaking, you should be winning at that point. Again, this is definitely a fine card and have considered playing one of them, btu I think you don’t need to.

Path to Exile – I played one Path for the longest time as a hedge against large creatures and it was fine. Pretty bad early of course, but nice to have an out.

Ornery Owlbear – While tempting in a Drizzt meta, I think this card isn’t particularly good. You’d be better served by a Wurm’s Wake most of the time, but there will be games that this will keep scaling which is neat.

Blindside – This can be fine if you want additional removal, but generally your creatures are going to be small so this isn’t the most effective.

Drizzt Budget Deck

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It’s funny as Drizzt is simultaneously pretty easy on the budget and pretty tough. As you can see, the deck does inherently require 6 Legends which are all Epic cards, but beyond that, it’s all commons beyond the Deep Forest Arena (which is a must craft anyway). These are the best budget Legends as they’re all Epics, but realistically, you should use whatever the best 6 legends you have at your disposal.

Until you can replace them with the optimal ones, as long as they Legends are at all cheap, they will be fine substitutes. Even if you have to mix some cheap and some expensive Legends, it’ll be fine. Beyond dealing with the Legends, you have a solid low to the ground Selesnya deck that gives up very little compared to the most competitive version.

Anti-Drizzt Deck

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Thanks to Delmo for the base list! I subbed out one Hero’s Call for one Retaliate.

As I said, Drizzt is definitely the best planeswalker right now, so you’re going to face your fiar share of mirrors. The issue with the mirror match is that, with the aggro versino, whoever on the play is extremely favored to win. The issue is so endemic that out of all the mirrors I’ve played, my OTD record is roughly 3-10+, that’s how important it is. While that’s going to be really tough to solve, it isn’t impossible to mitigate. Delmo’s version looks to go slightly bigger with better defenders to have a better shot against the mirror and he’s playing many cards to help accomplish that.

Untested Rookie works very well in conjunction with Traps to become a formidable body, and even without a trap, you may be able to block Guenhwyvar when it’s still a 1/2 to grow it for free! Retaliate can take out most of their legends for two mana which is a good deal. Tarmogoyf can be a huge body that’ll make combat a nightmare for them. Finally, Ornery Owlbear is literally a Drizzt hate card as it’s a scaling 3 drop that will get more and more difficult to kill as the game drags on. With all of these together, it looks like you give up some slight speed in order to have a realistic chance of winning on the draw. Without a large sample size, it’s hard to say if this is the way to go considering how popular Drizzt is, but it’s definitely a viable route.

Tips and Tricks

• Guenhwyvar can not trigger traps so you don’t have to worry about your Shields Up or Giant Growth scaling it rather than your Legend.

• Whenever Deep-Forest Arena triggers, keep in mind that Guenhwyvar can take that buff, but it won’t keep it indefinitely. That’s not necessarily bad as it can force through more damage, but you want to be mindful of it.

• Matron Malice will come back to play if four creatures go into the graveyard during your turn, not just died. This works with milling, discarding, and Guenhwyvar going back to the totem seems to count towards this total.

• As it stands, it seems Matron Malice is bugged and can return when only three creatures go into the graveyard. I’m not sure if there’s another condition to fulfill such as it dying itself in that combat, but I’ve seen it happen a few times.

• Remember that Guenhwyvar will buff Pir, the Dreamer on entry so factor that into your combat math.

• If you’re on the draw, playing a turn one Yeenoghu can be really good, but only if the opponent can’t block it. In a similar vein, playing it on turn two after a one drop to make it a 4/4 is very powerful as it’s quite hard to kill.

• Drizzt’s Herald can make any creature Legendary, including itself.

• Remember that the whole point of your deck is to attack with Legendary creatures. Make sure you play in a way that’s conducive to that happening as often as possible. That will generally mean you never blocking with Legendary creatures unless it’s completely free or yu’re in a close race.

Thank you for reading!