Vynnset – Shadow Runeblade in Commoner
February 21, 2024 by
Daniel Yam 
Hello all and welcome back to my ongoing mini-series on Shadow Runeblade in Commoner. As I alluded to last time, I was particularly impressed by Vynnset throughout my Commoner games on Talishar, specifically how much control was available to the pilot, and the mixed damage numbers that it could output.
The Main Difference to Chane
Perhaps the biggest difference between Vynnset and Chane is in how they interact with the banished zone, with Chane being able to generate potentially massive amounts of advantage once he gets to around three Soul Shackles. On the other hand, Vynnset has the built in “downside” of a mandatory banish from hand at the start of her turn, and generating a Runechant as a tradeoff. This allows a degree of control regarding what gets banished, and can free up space to play some attack reactions and other setup-oriented cards when nothing is at risk of being randomly banished off the top of the deck.
However, Vynnset’s wording makes her extremely weak when on the back foot, effectively starting out at three intellect and forcing her to block while a few blood debt cards tick away every turn can result in some quick defeats. That’s why, in order to build a reasonable deck for her in Commoner, it has to focus on all-out aggression and taking advantage of Runechant generation and the rune gate mechanic from Dusk Till Dawn to overwhelm your opponents.
Disclaimer: I have no delusions of grandeur regarding this deck’s meta viability, and Vynnset gets easily outclassed by the top tier aggressive strategies in the format, but due to some of the unique play patterns she is able to produce, I think she is worth investigating and creating a decent shell to start makes innovating and brewing up future lists much more easier.
With that being said, let’s jump into the list!
My Cousin Vynny by Daniel Yam
Equipment
The equipment lineup I’ve opted for is largely the same as Chane’s with the main difference being the Goliath Gauntlet and Sutcliffe’s Suede Hides. Gauntlet has synergy with the rune gate attacks and helps in putting up large damage numbers, and the Suede Hides are a slight necessary evil due to almost nothing in the deck being a legal target for something like Snapdragon Scalers. Rosetta Thorn is still here because it’s still an amazing weapon in a vacuum, even though there are only two attacks with innate go again; the remaining options available to Runeblades are all slightly worse or require just about as many hoops to jump through for the best case scenario (though the Annals of Sutcliffe is weirdly attractive to me in this spot).
Notable Omissions
As I’ve stated above, Vynnset has a strange play pattern and is extremely susceptible to dying without taking a single game action if forced onto the back foot, and thus is worth leaning into being hyper aggressive with tall attacks. The one card that I’ve been the least impressed with and have seen in a few games against Vynnset is the red Bloodspill Invocation. It’s very hard to find a good spot to play the Invocation and pop it the same turn when you consider that you need to banish a card from hand at the start of turn and also have a card to pitch for the Invocation AND THEN play an attack action that they can’t block out. The fact that it doesn’t even work with weapon attacks is another strike against it, and I strongly advise playing this card as once you’ve resolved it you’re immediately forced to defend against every attack for fear of it destroying itself. The other notable omission here is Seeds of Agony, arguably one of the strongest Runeblade cards ever printed. The reality is, Vynnset wants to go tall, and that immediately narrows it down to the red being really viable, and even then, two of the rune gate attacks cost three, which can’t even trigger the Seeds. As such, I’ve not included them here, and don’t see myself adding it in the foreseeable future.
Rune Gate
The rune gate line up is pretty self-explanatory, as there aren’t that many available to begin with. They’re all big attacks, and play well when rune gate is active. However, keep in mind that you can’t actually play them from out of banish without using the rune gate effect, so don’t overload your banished zone with them early on unless you have a clear plan to start playing them every turn. Putrid Stirrings is also a card I’d like to highlight, as it’s costed in a way that makes you spend at least a whole card on pitching for it. With Vynnset’s start of turn ability, I’d suggest banishing a Stirrings on a turn you intend to set up with Runechant generation, and then follow-up afterwards by banishing the rune gate attacks and trying to play both from banish in the same turn so as to not pile up blood debt.
Unlike Chane, Vynnset likes to go tall, using rune gate as her way of cheating resources via the banished zone. Cards such as Vantom Banshee and Vantom Wraith are functionally free with rune gate online and have built-in synergy with the two-cost or greater cards like Pummel and Goliath Gauntlet that its worth building around this aspect of the hero’s card pool. To that end, there are only red Seeds of Agony in this list, as there are basically no zero- or one-cost attacks, and any that have made their way into the deck are there purely on rate, the red Meat and Greet playing well with the Runechant innately generated from Vynnset’s ability.
The ease of access to the first Runechant sets up a few different attacks very well. The aforementioned Meat and Greet gaining go again, but also Shrill of Skullform and Piercing Shadow Vise getting pumped either by the creation of an aura or dealing arcane damage make them good attacks for when you don’t have all the resources to make a large rune gate play.
Runechants
There aren’t many good ways of generating Runechants en masse in Commoner. To that end, I’ve tried to not load up on too many of the poorer choices. Read the Runes is unfortunately on rate the best option available, and the fact it doesn’t have go again makes it slot in either as the only action in a set up turn, or as a play after an attack with go again. I’m extremely wary of playing cards such as Lead the Charge to try and enable slightly better turns as there are already enough cards that block for two here, and the deck is already skimping on blues due to rune gate’s cost reduction effect that I don’t want to be adding more reds. Sutcliffe's Research Notes is quite an awkward card, but again, a necessary evil, and at least has go again to enable some amount of rune gate action. Lastly, Runic Reaping is actively a good card and helps set up the next turn’s rune gate without committing a whole card to it the following turn.
Concluding Thoughts
Overall, Vynnset might be the first hero I’ve covered with such a large glaring weakness in the form of her start-of-turn ability. However, what she does offer in terms of deckbuilding variety and the unique considerations that need to be made in figuring out her hero identity makes Vynnset a very interesting hero to brew for. There are many such heroes in this space within Commoner and I really hope to explore most, if not all of them, in the months to come. Join me next time as I wrap up the various differences between the two Shadow Runeblades, and the guiding fundamentals I’ve found when building and playing them.
Further Reading:
How to Play Vynnset in Commoner
Best Cards for Commoner in 2023
Playing Flesh and Blood on a Budget
Daniel Yam
Daniel is a competitive psychopath who has relegated himself into playing the most casual format of Commoner. Starting Magic at the onset of Shards block, he jumped into Flesh and Blood when the Ira demo decks were being given out to Australian stores and is a proud holder of a 4-digit GEM ID. In his spare time, he enjoys trying to convince his friends to play increasingly worse cards, going to museums, and playing Guild Wars.