VS Levia (Updated)

There are two ways to play this match up. One is a more defensive oriented game plan which I will have outlined below in my guide from the DTD meta. The second is a more proactive gameplan. Currently I like the more proactive style as Levia players have adjusted their game plans into Dromai expecting the more defensive one. When taking the defensive approach they will have infinite time to set up and kill us. The core of the proactive gameplan revolves around using the early turns to establish a board when Levia doesn’t have her grave set up yet. Then put pressure on her engine by asking her every turn if she can both pop our dragon and turn off Blood Debt.

I like to go royal with this game plan as it speeds up our ability to establish a board. Use your early turns to make ash and play dragons. If possible do not attack and give the Levia player an opportunity to block as this will give her a chance to put cards in her grave. Levia’s early turns when she doesn’t have a graveyard yet suck. Outside of a couple cards like Swing Big and Blood Rush Bellow there aren't many meaningful things she can do on early turns. Continue to block and establish dragons ideally until Levia finally banishes a card with Blood debt, now you can start playing the game. Now that the Blood Debt has been started they will have to try and turn off Blood Debt every turn which will usually create more Blood Debt. Start attacking them and asking the question can they turn off Blood Debt and pop you every turn. A lot of Levia’s hands won’t be able to do this either because she doesn’t have a popper, her only popper is the card she needs to turn off blood debt, or she doesn’t have a way to turn off blood debt at all. One turn of Levia missing on this can lead to the game spiraling out of control. Keep pressuring her engine and the cracks will start to show. Ideally we should be fishing for poppers with ashwings so we don’t throw away real dragons. As always Miragai, Passing, and Cromai are great here as they will have to spend time clearing them and can’t afford to leave them on the board.

The game changes quite a bit once Levia flips into Consumed. If possible try to have an arsenal before Levia flips that will let you push really hard on the turn before and/or after she flips. If you can push really hard the turn before she flips you might be able to deny it all together, arcane damage is great at doing this. Usually Levia will save her armor for this turn so she can manipulate her life total, but if you managed to get her armor earlier in the game then you should be able to deny the flip. Even if you can’t deny it you can usually make sure that the turn she flips will be a really mid turn where she just throws one attack and flips or just passes and flips meaning you won’t be under much pressure and can once again push really hard. The push after she flips will be to try and make her first flip turn be for one attack since you will be stripping a couple cards on blocks. You don’t want to let Levia flip and be able to throw multiple attacks from banish, the game will slip away from how much value she gets off this.

If you aren’t able to pressure Levia around her flip and she is able to do this uncontested we need to evaluate some things as how we play the game from here changes depending on a number of factors. The first factor is what our life total is like, if we are low then it's going to be hard to be proactive from here. Next is what Levia has in banish. Check the banish for some key cards like how many Dread Screamers, Endless Maws, and Writhing Beat Hulks she has. Understand what you are playing around and how many threats she has that you need to play though. If there aren’t many Screamers then you can probably just block out those  turns and then go back to playing the game since she might not be able to throw two attacks a turn anymore. If Levia has a ton of Blood Debt, then consider how many cards are left in her deck and what your life total is like, you might be able to just block out for the rest of the game and fatigue her. I can’t give you a heuristic for how to play the game every time after she flips, you’ll need to just use your judgment on where the game is at and what she has in banish.

Lastly, a couple reminders. Try to keep a Defense Reaction in arsenal to play around Pulping and Barraging Beat Down. If you go to 2 or less and don’t have a Sigil of Solace don’t attack with an Attack Action card or you might die to Reckless Swing. Lastly, always consider how Scowling Fleshbag will affect your next turn when you are blocking since it might mean you should block with additional cards so you don’t get bagged. It might be worth trying to bait out the Fleshbag earlier in the game so you don’t have to deal with it on that big push turn around her flip.

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Levia has very efficient damage and high damage rounds. I typically block a lot to preserve my life total. You will end up taking a lot of damage on their big Blood Rush Bellow rounds so keeping your life total high so they can’t push you down to a life total where a dominate attack could kill you is important. I will usually try playing distraction dragons almost as soon as I see them because I want to pressure Levia into starting to banish cards. Keep an eye on how many cards they actually have in the grave as sometimes it will be correct not to attack them because they really need to block for grave fill. If they are playing Scabskins they will usually start rolling when you leave them with a big hand. Just block on turns they do this since it's really hard for Levia to actually push damage outside of her big rounds and they will eventually roll snake eyes and give you space to play the game. Try to set a defense reaction if you can so you can block a Pulping but if you have dragons in play they can always get the go again by attacking the dragon. If you see them getting close to 13 you can either try pushing really hard on that turn so they can’t flip or let them flip if you are healthy enough and try to fatigue them since they will mill their entire deck. I can’t stress this enough, preserving your life is the key to how the end game plays out.