The Living Wall!

Not pretty. Powerful, but not pretty.

Let's focus on "instant kill" cards today. First up is The Living Wall (Powers, 58/100). A fearsome card in Standard Spellfire, the power of this monster champion is even greater in TAV. Why? Well, he's always excellent on defense, best played from the hand to gobble up an unfortunate attacker. In the Antigonish variant, however, he's also a brutally effective offensive threat.

Once your opponent seems low on cards (therefore a reduced chance of a surprise defender materializing), and has a pool dominated by level 6 or higher champions, simply play the Living Wall and attack. Unless he or she has a surprise up their sleeve, you'll get the spoil without a fight. In Standard, a defender can lose without the land being razed, since the attacker is forced to send another (non-Living Wall) champion forward once one of the defender's champions has been defeated. The Wall can't attack a second time.

So the appropriate strategy against this guy in Standard is to "chump block" (to borrow another phrase from Magic: The Gathering) with a useless defender, saving better defenders for the attacker's next swing.

In TAV, however, there is only one swing. You can't chump the Wall, not without losing the champion and razing the realm (and giving up a spoils!).

If you're serious about succeeding in TAV, you have to account for the Living Wall in your deck. He's just that dangerous. 

Next time: It's tough to bust *this* Ghost!