Joker storyline tournament 2

Instead of a deck list I thought it would be more practical to post the strategy and combos for players that might be interested in creating their own Orothe deck.

Magi:
O'Qua
Quilla
Arosa

Key Cards:
Orlon's Ring
Karak Necklace
Karak Band
Hubdra's Cube
Sea Barl
Giant Parithan

The overall goal of the deck is to get a large number of relics out early in the game to overwhelm the opponent with the massive amount of energy gained through Orlon's Ring.

O'Qua
The game starts with O'Qua where the strategy is to draw as many cards as fast possible. Normally if given the choice, it is best to go first so you will almost always get a second turn where you can summon another Sea Barl with O'Qua's power. Otherwise if you go second you may risk losing O'Qua on the opponents next turn, causing you not have the necessary cards on Quilla. If you have a Sea Barl in your starting hand or draw into another Sea Barl it is worth playing on your first Play Creatures step and using its ability. On your second turn you have to decide whether you want to focus on card draw by summoning another Sea Barl or if the opponent is playing aggressively you might want to switch to Quilla using by summoning a Giant Parithan and using interchange. Unless you know you will be able to save the relics by interchanging it is best to save your relics for your next magi.

Quilla
Quilla' starting cards of any two relics ensures you are able to get a copy of Orlon's ring. However, if you play any relics on O'Qua and she is defeated you will be stuck getting the relics from the discard. Getting Orlon's Ring and Karak Necklace is usually a good option. Quilla is interesting since she can either act as a short term magi focusing on clearing the board with spells and then moving on to Arosa. Or she can be used to build up the relic wall early, establish board control, and go for clearing all three opposing magi. Depending how many relics are in your deck she can gain anywhere from 10 to 20 energy per turn between Orlon's Ring, her natural energize rate, and energy bonus from Karak Band. The general strategy below for Arosa can be used for Quilla, except for the Shell Game combo. If you run into a creature that can't be discarded by spells (like Greater Gargagnor) or you are unable to gain control of enough creatures/relics to trigger the bonuses from the Karak relics then you might also play a Giant Parithan from your hand to go to Arosa early.

Arosa
Arosa is the star of the deck and is able to use the relics to their full potential. The main combo is using Shell Game + Orlon's Ring. Since both effects trigger at the end of your turn you can choose what order they activate. So first you can activate Shell Game to take over any opposing creature and give the opponent a weak creature like Abaquist or Phurp. This activates Karak Necklace giving you two cards and Karak Band giving you two energy. After that, Orlon's Ring activates, forcing you to discard all your non-orothe cards from play, including the opposing creature you just gained control over and also giving you energy equal to the number of relics you have in play. This means you can discard an opposing creature every turn effectively for free (assuming it is non-Orothe). If you can get one of your creatures into a state where it can't attack from either opposing cards or your own (Gorgle's Gift/Crystalize/Burrow/Platheus/Blue Yajo/Will of Orothe/etc) you can run this combo without sacrificing your own creature. Once you start this combo there is no rush to defeat the opposing magi since you are netting more energy per turn. Even if the opponent is still on their first magi you can start to save energy to survive flips from the next two magi, sometimes hoarding over 50 energy. Another useful combo, especially when you are unable to use Shell Game, is Hubdra's Cube + Orlon's Ring. Hubdra's cube will let you gain control of an opposing relic, triggering the Karak relics, and then at the end of your turn the opposing relic will be discarded by Orlon's ring allowing you to use Hubdra's Cube the next turn. This prevents the opponent from gaining momentum with their own relics and can protect your cards against Rayje's Belt.


Counters
While the deck if fairly versatile, it has plenty of counters. Basically any deck that can effectively clear relics will shut this deck down. Cards Spell Pulse, Vaporize, Cataclysm, and Wessig do a great job at clearing relics once they are out. Magi like Chur and Halsted either prevent or highly punish putting relics in play in the first place. Or decks that just have plenty of general purpose relic removal like Beam of Light and Relics Stalker can discard enough relics to disable the main combo.

Also this deck relies on a couple turns on O'Qua to get Sea Barls for card draw. Any opponent that is able to stop her from drawing cards (like Sorreah/Rayje's Belt) or is able to get a strong creature presence early in the game can prevent this deck from being effective in the late game.

Against another Orothe deck the Shell Game and Hubdra's cube combos are far less effective.

Also any cards that efficiently remove a large amount of energy from a magi can counter energy hoarding: Giant Balder, Hubdra's Spear, T'Lok, Wasperine Stalker (+triple attack from Yaki), and Ninx. Also cards like Velouria and Nagsis' Sigil can even benefit from the opponent for keeping excess energy on the magi.