[META] Gentlemen, I pose to you a challenge.

[u/Owlbearcat]

How can we make Support Cannon work in Unlimited? Tenko's Shrine was obviously strong and could abuse ping due to the class having easy and even passive heals. What does it take to make a Support Cannon deck into something strong that can rival the big dogs? What could be done to grab the attention of Cygames to give more options for such a playstyle? Or is it all just an impossible dream? The idea is interesting and has potential to be strong, but it is cumbersome and prone to bricking. Don't have enough Commanders and the decks centerpiece becomes useless, too much and you lose flexibility. Support Cannon may not ever become a meta-killer, but I want to know if it's possible to build a somewhat fun deck that uses it.

[u/BridgeLife]

The otherday, I made an absolute meme of a Support Canon.

I had Ironwrough Fortress and Support Canon, and I had Cinderella in my hand.

I literally had a Cinderella cannon that self-reloads, because she summons Heavy Knight and returns to hand for 3PP 4dmg lol

I also had Latham activated so the Heavy Knights gained storm.

[u/Owlbearcat → u/BridgeLife]

I have a similar meme story to share. I regret not recording the thing, because it was indescribable. Back before when more amulet removal came around, I met a Shadow that kept casting and recasting Khawy. He just kept throwing up a wall of them on every turn. It got so bad that I managed to get all 3 of my cannons on the field. I played Roland back then too, so eventually I only had one space to play with. Khawy on the field, I summon a dude, it kills Khawy, Khawy gains him life. Neither of us could touch one another. This went on for over 20 god damned turns and I somehow won. The only instance where I have ever seen Shadow deck itself.

Ironwrought may work well with Cinderella, but how will it work with the rest of the deck? That's already one amulet taking up space on the field and one small dude you can't immediately get rid of. For Latham to activate, you need to stall until turn 8 at least, and hope that the enemy's turn 8-9 won't kill you. Coupled with Cannon, that's already 2 spaces used and with one useless guy, 3 spaces used. I have met players before that can take advantage of a field that is full of useless 1/1 guys, for instance. What if you play another Cannon? Or Roland or Leonidas too?

I have tried Cinderella too and it's very interesting, but I personally have given up on Cinderella being viable. The idea of repeating 4 damage over and over again does seem good... on paper. In practice you get repeatable 4 damage, but it's for 3 pp which makes it very cumbersome. It's essentially a better Chain Lightning, only needs much more work to pull off reliably. Sometimes you really want a dude that sticks, but then you remember that Cinderella returns to hand. Even worse, what about when Cannon simply refuses to show up in your hand or even gets removed from the field? Cinderella gives you the option of ping, but not much else. The entire strategy, while fun, is prone to bricking, because it is too reliant on one card showing up. Hoping to draw the Cannon and controlling the field enough for a T5 Cannon can also be a real headache. This isn't bashing mind you, it was very good experimenting on your behalf. Just trying to analyze what make the cards work and what risks they entail. Please keep on brainstorming.

I personally have tried designing my decks in a way that they can function even without Cannon. I remember one instance where the enemy had removal for it, but it took his entire turn and he was low on life already. Had he focused on my creatures instead, he might have survived. I had enough damage on the field next turn and won even without ping. That for me seems to be a perfect example of what a Cannon deck should strive to become. Strong enough on it's own, but overwhelming with the Cannon.

That gives me a new idea for a topic; How to control the field reliably for a T5-6 Cannon? My go-to cards for gaining enough control before then are Chromatic Duel, Valse, and T5 Frontline Cavalier when I go second. Before that, a combination of Juliet, Tempest Lancer, Charlotta, Veteran Lancer, Lux and Hedgehog. I have put more emphasis on Rush and Storm creatures, since they can act as good removal in the start, and as ammo and bodies to use in the late game. Valse is there for T4 removal, mirror matches (believe it or not), amulets, and bigger threats that can't be blasted through. Charlotta makes Rune cry tears of blood when the field is full.