The New Deckbuilding Space of Smooth Brain Earth Animist

Sorcery: Contested Realm · by ForceofPhil · May 17, 2026

On the May 14, 2026, episode of Common Sense Sorcery, Zac shared one of the two decks he plans to play in one of the $2K tournaments at Excalibur in Pittsburgh, PA, the weekend of July 9-11, 2026.

Of course, Zac's first deck will be his beloved {Enchantress} list. The second is a blast from Gothic's past; an update to his {Animist} build—the Avatar we were both high on during the set's early release days.

Unlike his previous version that revolved around [water] and [earth], Zac has decided to clean up the threshold for a mono[earth] build that includes the best pound-for-pound minions alongside the flexible magic suite:

Zac's Mono[earth} {Animist}

DECKLIST_START

Artifacts (6)

3 {Toolbox} [2]
3 {Rolling Boulder} [4]

Minions (27)

2 {Arjaro Exorcist} [2][earth]
4 {Kettletop Leprechaun} [2][earth]
1 {Lady Iseult} [2][earth][earth]
1 {Sister Stefania} [2][earth]
3 {Autumn Unicorn} [3][earth][earth]
2 {Order of the White Wing} [3][earth][earth]
3 {Root Spider} [3][earth]
2 {Gargantula} [4][earth][earth][earth]
2 {Paladins of Bazia} [4][earth][earth][earth]
3 {Pudge Butcher} [4][earth][earth]
1 {Archangel Michael} [5][earth][earth][earth][earth]
1 {Queen of Midland} [5][earth][earth]
2 {Lord of Greed} [6][earth][earth]

Magics (27)

1 {Divine Healing} [1][earth][earth][earth]
4 {Common Sense} [2][earth]
2 {Consecrate} [2][earth][earth]
1 {Dispel} [2][earth]
1 {Exorcism} [2][earth]
2 {Bury} [3][earth]
1 {Deliverance} [3][earth][earth]
2 {Landmass} [3][earth][earth]
2 {Cave-In} [4][earth][earth]
3 {Holy Nova} [4][earth][earth]
2 {Smite} [4][earth][earth]
1 {Stone Rain} [4][earth][earth]
2 {Earthquake} [5][earth][earth]
2 {Guards!} [6][earth][earth]
1 {Craterize} [8][earth][earth]

Collection (10)

1 {Consecrated Ground} [earth]
1 {Dispel} [2][earth]
1 {Exorcism} [2][earth]
1 {Gift of the Wolf} [2][earth]
1 {Unravel} [2][earth]
1 {Border Militia} [3][earth]
1 {Bury} [3][earth]
2 {Penitent Knight} [3][earth]
1 {Rescue} [3][earth][earth]

DECKLIST_END

Zac focused much of his attention on ways to make {Lady Iseult} the haymaker of the deck. After chatting with him in the episode, I recognized a subtle feature of his build that could open up future avenues of deckbuilding.

Column Control

One of the standout interactions that Zac mentioned was {Lord of Greed} plus {Rolling Boulder}. This isn't a novel interaction at this point; players understand that the {Lord of Greed} can roll the boulder across the Realm and then snatch it back at the end of the turn. We joked that the {Lord of Greed} likes playing yo-yo.

This isn't the only minion that can command control, however, of a column or row. {Pudge Butcher} functions in a similar space.

Imagine the scenario where every column in the Realm has a {Pudge Butcher} or {Lord of Greed} with a {Rolling Boulder} in its possession. If the opponent isn't playing some absolute chunker minions or has hard removal at the ready, it's possible they are soft-locked from deploying minions safely into the Realm.

Articulating Intuition

The most intriguing part of this idea to me is that it wasn't something Zac intended, but rather stumbled into from his previous experience playing with these cards. He thought {Lord of Greed} and {Rolling Boulder} were powerful in Limited and ported them to Constructed.

Although he didn't articulate it in the episode, it wasn't absent from his process. He had the intuition for these cards, and even more so for all of them together. He maxed out the cards that offer some control of a column or row, including {Gargantula}. {Root Spider} locks out squares that might otherwise be safe from the column controllers' reaches.

While it might not be big brain to include multiple copies of Sorcery: Contested Realm's best minions in the same list, Zac admittedly calls it Smooth Brain Animist, which I think is wrong.

I don't think this build is smooth brain, which means it doesn't require much thought to come up with or pilot. I think Zac just didn't grasp how to articulate the spatial control of the Realm that his build and his intuition were leaning toward.

It makes sense after a few years of playing {Enchantress} that Zac's mind would aim to decipher how he can control larger swaths of space in the Realm. That's been {Enchantress}'s modus operandi since the beginning of the game.

Catch Yourself

The takeaway is to trust your instincts. If your gut tells you that certain cards have more glow in a particular build than another, or that some cards might pair best with each other, your instinct isn't blind; it's informed by your experience and your play-style.

Hone It

Identifying your instincts like this can have a tremendous impact on how a deck plays out. If two people sat down with Zac's {Animist} build and only one understood the concept of column control, that player is more likely to position their {Lord of Greed}s and {Pudge Butcher}s on more advantageous squares.

At the very least, they would attempt to navigate the game so that those positions are more advantageous for those minions once deployed.

Smooth Brain No More

Next time you brew up a list that seems basic or without the zest of creativity, look again. Learning more about how you naturally build decks will put you more in tune with yourself, your tendencies, and even your biases.

The better you understand yourself, the better you'll be at contesting the Realm.

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Featured image: {Lord of Greed} by Séverine Pineaux