Currently there are so many viable archetypes in the Epic Era of Season 5 in Axie Infinity: Origins. While you probably have a good idea of most popular archetypes such as Leafy, Topaz, Sustain, Poison, Jinx etc. There are some archetypes that are less popular but certainly worth investigating.

Here I aim to give a brief introduction to some of the less common archetypes found at the Top of the Leaderboard, and hopefully it may inspire some of you to build your teams based on these ideas.

Navaga Sustain

First we have Navaga Sustain which is currently sitting at the Top of the Leaderboard at the time of writing.

There is a lot that goes into this combo. In brief, you use Navaga on the Axie that has Pumpkin, Innocent Lamb, and Incisor and/or Mosquito so that you reduce the cost of multiple copies of Pumpkins as well as Incisor and/or Mosquito to 0. Once you have it set up, you have play multiple Pumpkins for 0 Energy, Incisor and/or Mosquito to proc the draw from Pumpkin so that you can redraw the Pumpkins and Incisor and/or Mosquito and repeat to get umlimited Shield, assuming the deck is thin enough.

Multiple copies of Tricky is to get more copies of Pumpkin from Innocent Lamb. Adaptive Program is good for getting Energy Fragments quickly to trigger the Navaga Effect. Tassels is good for damage in certain matchups. Rejuvenate is good against Poison and Debuff in general as well as getting more value from Shields.

Confused

You may remember the Swirl teams from back in the days. Now it is back with the new changes in Season 5. How the archetype works is by putting Confused (and Blackmail) cards into opponent’s draw pile to prevent them from drawing into their Axies’ cards. Nimo tails to ramp and thin out the deck. The new Energy Shard and Energy Guru make Energy Bursts even faster.

In the ideal case, the aim of the archetype is to get the 5 Energy with at least 2 of your Axies surviving, then play Pigeon Post, Confused, and Swirl to prevent opponent getting into their next deck cycle. Now that Confused is more defensive, it allows the team to survive for longer. Garish Worm is good to discard opponent’s retained card.

Sponge

Sponge Bubble Bombs teams are often seen in the Mystic Era with Heart of Ocean. With the change to Sponge now being 2 Energy, it is now easier to play and create 3 Bubble Bombs while Shielding.

The buffed Energy Shard helps with ramp together with Nimo tails and the buffed Nimo ears. With the Energy advantage, the archetype can tank the incoming damage while continue ramping and creating Bubble Bombs.

Square Teeth helps with releasing the Bubble Bombs with 0 Energy. Shorl Star can be used to finish off opponent’s Axie and has Retain. Gecko Mask provides Taunt, which can help with keeping all Axies alive in certain matchups.

Tri Spikes Poison

An aggresive Poison team with Scaly Spears, Tri Spikes, and Sidebarb. The buffed Viper’s Venom couples well with the multi-hit Attacks of Tri Spikes and Kotaro. Gecko eyes to Cleanse and proc Spikes to create Bloodspike to buff Tri Spike’s DMG. Applying Doubt on opponents with Friezard and Iguana further increases the Poison HP Loss.

Pure Damage Sturdy Fighter

The Pure Damage Sturdy Fighter archetype is effectively the same as last season but I decide to include it as it is one of the not so common archetypes that we can find at the Top.

How it works is that at a pop off turn, you put a lot of Shield on the Sturdy Fighter Axie, especially with Lumber Shields from Timber, Bumpy, and Teal Shell after playing many 0-cost cards. With Cottontail, there should be another 2 Energy to deal DMG with the Pure DMG cards like Plier, Spiky Wing, or Beetle Spike, or with Piranha where the HP Steal scales with unblocked DMG. While many components of the archetype was nerfed from last season, including Innocent Lamb and Piranha, it still has what it takes in the current meta.

Tiny Fan

The aim of the archetype is to ramp to 5 Energy as soon as possible while keeping the Tiny Fan Axie alive so that you can use Tiny Fan to one-shot an opponent’s Axie. Having said that, Tiny Fan is not the only win conditon as having an Energy advantage over your opponent means you can do more every turn compared to your opponent, allowing you to Heal, Shield, and Damage your opponent more than they can do to you.

The buffed Energy Shard with Nimo ears and tails as well as Goldfish allows for very fast Energy Bursts. The buffed Tiny Fan can now deal with high HP opponents.

Cuckoo Piranha

The Cuckoo Piranha combo is still viable despite the Piranha nerf. Again it is thanks to the buffed Energy Shard and Nimo ears that allows so many archetypes to ramp quickly and gain an Energy advantage. In this case, Cuckoo and Piranha couple together to deal extra Damage and Healing thanks to the scaling of HP Steal from Piranha. While the Piranha nerf hurts this archetype a lot, it remains viable in the current meta.

Sandal

Big buff to Sandal this season to 130 base DMG which often means 234 DMG or more with the full effect of Vulnerable or Fragile. Sandal can actually go with many different other synergies as long as it involves applying debuffs on the opponent. This particular version is a ramp version with Nimo ears and tail + Energy Shard. Babylonia, Little Peas, Sleepless, and Gero apply Vulnerable and Fragile on opponent, making Sandal’s damage even stronger. There are also Leafy teams that fit Sandals for big single target burst damage.

Perch

Perch is not a new archetype but I decide to include it as it is still somewhat viable in the current meta in the Epic Era. It is typically easier in the Mystic Era with Endless Anger, but it is still feasible now despite the nerf of Cottontail to 8 Energy Fragments.

How the Perch combo works is that you want to get to 6 or more Energy and fire off a massive Perch. With Endless Anger in the Mystic Era, it is easier to get 2 Axies to Fury to gain 2 extra energy with 1 Cottontail to get to an early 6-Energy turn. In the Epic Era, Adaptive Program allows for fast ramp to get Energy Fragments and Energy Bursts. Double Cottontail + Fury + 4 Energy can still get to a 7 Energy Perch by trying to tank damage with Shields while ramping.

Conclusion

Here are just some of the archetypes that are current near the Top of the Leaderboard. Ramp from Energy Shard + Nimo ears + Nimo tails really enables a lot of synergies to become viable with an early Energy advantage. I am sure there will be more innovations for the remaining of the Epic Era. Hopefully this post has given you some inspirations on what teams you may want to try out next.

Good luck and have fun in the Arena! If you find the post informative and would like to see more, consider hitting the subscribe button, check out my Youtube channel, and use my lunacian code: maurice for a little support!

Lunacian code: maurice