Written by Ohoolahan TCG

The SCGCon Richmond 2026 Top 8 decklists continue to roll in. While -based Necromancer continued its streak atop the podium, we should rejoice in the Avatar diversity reaching the top tables. An Archimago deck finished in seventh, Deathspeaker ranked eighth, and a Savior build was the overall runner-up.

Winning at Death's Door recently started their YouTube channel and breaks down his silver-medal Savior decklist in the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uegnxrwsKPw

"Tufted Turtle is the whole reason I built this deck."

SCGCon Richmond 2026 | 2nd Place
Savior by Ohoolahan TCG

Aura (3)

• 2 Acid Rain
• 1 Atlantean Fate

Artifacts (11)

• 1 Aquamarine Core
• 1 Philosopher Stone
• 1 Ring of Morrigan
• 1 Ruby Core
• 1 Torshammar Trinket
• 1 Pnakotic Manuscript
• 3 Toolbox
• 1 The Pallid Bust
• 1 Book of the Dead

Minions (38)

• 4 Porcupine Pufferfish
• 2 Adept Illusionist
• 1 Pied Piper of Hameln
• 3 War Horse
• 3 Coy Nixie
• 3 Lugbog Cat
• 1 Morgana le Fey
• 2 Order of the Sacred Oak
• 3 Redcap Powries
• 1 Sir Agravaine
• 4 Tufted Turtles
• 1 Boudicca
• 1 Captain Baldassare
• 3 Saracen Raiders
• 1 Sir Gaheris
• 2 Panorama Manticore
• 1 Balor of the Evil Eye
• 2 Lord of Lies

Magics (8)

• 1 Plague of Frogs
• 2 Gift of the Serpent
• 1 Blaze of Glory
• 3 Swap
• 1 Infiltrate

Sites (30)

• 3 Active Volcano
• 1 Caerleon-Upon-Usk
• 2 Funeral Pyre
• 1 Innsmouth Dock
• 1 Joyous Garde
• 1 Mismanaged Mortuary
• 3 Oasis
• 2 River Rapids
• 2 River of Blood
• 1 River of Flame
• 3 Thin Ice
• 3 Troll Bridge
• 2 Valley of Delight
• 1 Vesuvius
• 1 Vindictive Nation
• 1 Watery Grave
• 2 Wuthering Heights

Collection (10)

• 1 Zap!
• 1 Disenchant
• 1 Fire Harpoons!
• 1 Firebolts
• 1 Old Salt Anchorman
• 1 Riptide
• 1 Boil
• 1 Grapple Shot
• 1 Spin Attack
• 1 Angry Mob

Porcupine Pufferfish with Savior reads , 1-Power, Ward, Lethal. That's a really potent way to contend with any aggressive starts from the opponent trying to engage in your territory early on. Spending two mana for a possible double removal spell is really powerful, as is turning off the downside of opposing nearby deserts.

Aggressive starts with Lugbog Cat before Gothic involved summoning it on the cheap with Pond. While the power was in the discount, potentially paying for a Warded Lugbog Cat would likely dominate the transition into the mid-game.

With Porcupine Pufferish and Lugbog cat holding down the early-game, how any strategy without sweepers like Call of the Sea or Wrath of the Sea contest a Warded Panorama Manticore presumably either has to go even bigger. Since Necromancer inherently has plentiful skeleton tokens to suicide off Wards, it makes sense that it is the Avatar that has risen to the top.

The idea of playing Pond on turn one so Porcupine Pufferfish is free and, therefore, can be Warded immediately sounds awesome. Ponds, however, are nowhere to be found on this list, albeit for good reason.

The most compelling aspect of this list that has not yet risen to the level of consistency likely expected from Gothic's spoiler season is how good River Rapids can be when dipped with . In , the scry Rivers are how to add additional leverage to River Rapids, but offers some juicier ammunition.

River of Flame and River of Blood are rivers for River Rapids. Having access to five rivers that would be included in the Atlas, even if the synergy didn't exist, is a huge amount of additional forced movement that is challenging for the opponent to navigate.

Wuthering Heights has been shown to be as powerful as any of the staple sites across archetypes, regardless of elements. While is absent from the Spellbook, the desire for Wuthering Heights opens up potency in the Collection in Disenchant, Grapple Shot, and Zap!

Zap!

It's unclear whether Erik's Curiosa intended for Toolbox plus Zap! to effectively obsolete Death's Door as a game mechanic. Of course, there are cards that can remove opposing Toolboxes and, in , Legion of Gall can lobotomy the Zap! from the Collection, but more often than not, Toolbox has an unwritten text that reads "Kill an opponent at Death's Door."

If this pattern was intended, then it is a great success. If it was not intended, then it's possible that there might need to be ways to reinforce Death's Door or more ways to casually interact with the Collection in the future. Aside from Ironclad, no Avatar is safe from getting Zapped! at Death's Door.

Updated Savior

Here is the updated decklist Ohoolahan TCG would play in their next event:

Auras (3) — no changes

• 2 Acid Rain
• 1 Atlantean Fate

Artifacts (11) — no changes

• 1 Aquamarine Core
• 1 Philosopher Stone
• 1 Ring of Morrigan
• 1 Ruby Core
• 1 Torshammar Trinket
• 1 Pnakotic Manuscript
• 3 Toolbox
• 1 The Pallid Bust
• 1 Book of the Dead

Minions (37)

• 4 Porcupine Pufferfish
• 2 Adept Illusionist
• 1 Pied Piper of Hameln
• 3 War Horse
• 3 Coy Nixie
• 3 Lugbog Cat
• 1 Morgana le Fey
• 2 Order of the Sacred Oak
• 2 Redcap Powries
• 1 Sir Agravaine
• 4 Tufted Turtles
• 1 Boudicca
• 1 Captain Baldassare
• 2 Monstrous Lion
• 1 Ruler of Thul
• 1 Sir Gaheris
• 2 Panorama Manticore
• 1 Balor of the Evil Eye
• 2 Lord of Lies

Changes

• -1 Recap Powries
• -3 Saracen Raiders
• +2 Monstrous Lion
• +1 Ruler of Thul

Magics (9)

• 1 Plague of Frogs
• 2 Gift of the Serpent
• 1 Blaze of Glory
• 3 Swap
• 2 Infiltrate

Changes

• +1 Infiltrate

Sites (30)

• 3 Active Volcano
• 1 Fields of Camlann
• 1 Caerleon-Upon-Usk
• 3 Funeral Pyre
• 1 Innsmouth Dock
• 1 Joyous Garde
• 2 Mismanaged Mortuary
• 3 Oasis
• 2 River Rapids
• 2 River of Blood
• 3 Thin Ice
• 3 Troll Bridge
• 2 Valley of Delight
• 1 Vesuvius
• 2 Wuthering Heights

Changes

• +1 Funeral Pyre
• +1 Fields of Camlann
• +1 Mismanaged Mortuary
• -1 Vindictive Nation
• -1 Watery Grave
• -1 River of Flame

Collection (10) — no changes

• 1 Zap!
• 1 Disenchant
• 1 Fire Harpoons!
• 1 Firebolts
• 1 Old Salt Anchorman
• 1 Riptide
• 1 Boil
• 1 Grapple Shot
• 1 Spin Attack
• 1 Angry Mob

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Featured image: Porcupine Pufferfish by Brian Smith