The Shadow Isles Ionia deck that uses Ephemeral units as part of its game plan has been dominant in the standard meta for a long time now. After Zed was kicked out of the Standard format, Hecarim stepped up to continue carrying the torch and keeping the archetype relevant in the new meta. The deck continues to find success after its outstanding performance against the Elder Dragon infestation.
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The Hecarim Ionia deck is all about swarming the board with ephemeral units to give your opponents a real headache, hitting them with broad attacks that strike their Nexus.
Stat Gainers
Both Shadow Apprentice and Sparring Student benefit from your ability to summon many units on the board. They’ll gain more stats and start threatening powerful attacks.
To buff their stats, we have cards like Haunted Relic and Onslaught of Shadows that enable you to go wide on the board.
If you have a Soul Shepherd on the board, you’re buffing those Ephemeral units by +1|+1, making it difficult for opponents to ignore them when they go for the attack and it’s more difficult to even block them as they’ll now be risking losing their blocker.
Shark Chariot is a carry in this deck, that remains a problem for opponents throughout the whole game. Every time you attack with an Ephemeral unit, Shark Chariot will join the battle, forcing more damage onto the Nexus.
Shark Chariot also synergizes with Dragon Ambush. The Dragonlings are Ephemeral units, so when they go for the attack, Shark Chariot will accompany them, turning what should be a weak, easy-to-block attack into a wide attack that’s difficult to block.
More Pressure
Moonlit Glenkeeper’s Nightfall effect summons a Sapling, which can challenge away anything pesky you want to get rid of. Also, as long as Moonlist Glenkeeper is on the board, the Ephemeral units you summon will gain +1|0, adding the pressure plan.
As for The Stagehand, it’s an Ephemeral unit, so you’ll get to summon a Shark Chariot when you go for the attack with it. Its ability to stun one of the opponent’s units renders them useless, weakening their defensive turn and forcing more units to strike their Nexus.
More Ephemerals
We might find ourselves in need of additional resources, and The Iron Conuest and Staking Shadows offer just that. The Iron Conquest can create an Ephemeral copy of one of our units, which synergizes with our deck. As for Stalking Shadows, we’re able to draw one follower from the top 4 cards in our deck and create an Ephemeral copy of it.
Hallowed Keyword
Redeemed Prodigy is our only card that stacks the Hallowed keyword through Ghastly Band. It’s allowing us to create wider attacks and triggers Shark Chariot. We can create an Ephemeral copy of it through The Iron Conquest landmark, stacking up more Hallowed, which we can use to our advantage throughout the rest of the game.
The Carry Champion
Hecarim is a carry in this deck that works with Epehemral units. The goal is to level him up as fast as possible, allowing you to buff all Ephemeral units +3|0, adding more aggression to your attacks. The attacking Hecarim also summons 2 Spectral Riders that will trigger your Shark Chariots to join the attack. Hecarim is an Overwhelm champion, which forces opponents to find answers immediately, especially in the late game, when their Nexus is low enough for Hecarim to destroy.
A Duo Champion
Hecarim might feel lonely carrying the deck on his own. Some lists have been including Gwen and finding success with her. Her Quick Attack and synergy with the Hallowed keyword can be troublesome for most decks to deal with.
Mulligan
Soul Shepherd and Shark Chariot are key cards we want to keep.
A Sparring Student or Shadow Apprentice are alright keeps against decks that can’t ping them down on the spot. You usually don’t want to keep both since you’ll struggle to buff them up.
If there’s already an early play in hand, Hecarim can be a keep to make sure we have a late game win condition.