The release of Mythgard's first expansion brought with it a new Path: Coliseum of Strife. Coliseum was immediately accepted as a powerful option for minion focused decks and saw widespread play upon release, both supplanting other Paths in existing decks and spawning new ones. A slight nerf to the pursuit has reduced its ability to dominate the early game as the second player and what remains is a Path of viable, but variable, power level with some notable shortcomings. In the continuation of my deckbuilding series I'll closely examine Coliseum, its pros and cons, and how to play with or against it. To the victor go the spoils.
What are the requirements?
Coliseum is a minion focused path. But not any minions will do. You need minions that will be attacking early and often and winning combat to fuel your draws. You also need minions that are threatening enough that they can't be ignored.
What makes it good?
The path has the ability to "snowball", or accumulate advantages into an unstoppable force, like a snowball rolling down a hill. Winning combat allows you to draw more cards. Minions you draw are buffed, allowing you to win more combat, and so on.
Coliseum rewards aggressive decks for doing what they want to be doing: attacking. Aggressive minions also benefit greatly from the increased stats, while Doper or other two health 1-drops see a huge bonus from the pursuit. Minions with swift are also incredibly valuable as they control more of the board making it easier to dictate combat.
What makes it bad?
As good as Coliseum is when you are ahead, it is equally bad when you are behind. Once you lose the ability to dictate combat it can become nearly impossible to draw cards, which leads to you falling further and further behind.
Coliseum also gives your opponent far more agency than other paths. They get to choose whether to contest your minions and can often prevent the ability to draw over the most critical turns of the game.
What archetypes?
Aggro decks and minion focused, low to the ground midrange decks make the best use of Coliseum. Decks with a high minion count and units that benefit from the Path's stat bonuses, from both pursuit and draw, are primed to make the best use of the path.
What Powers?
Coliseum gains the most benefit from powers that will either allow you to win combat or keep minions on the board. Infuse, Protect, or Mend are the best choices. With Impel now costing 3-mana it is a large resource commitment and it is difficult to use it and still deploy relevant threats in the same turn. However, it might still be good enough for some of the midrange variants.
Playing with Coliseum of Strife
For Coliseum to be effective you must maintain board presence. It does not have an easy way to pull you back into a game once it starts slipping away. With Coliseum your draw happens at the end of your turn, so even if you reach the threshold on your opponent's turn, you still have to wait a whole turn to use the card...and that's if your opponent doesn't interfere. If you have the opportunity to hit your third energy, take it, because you never know when you'll have the chance again.
Playing against Coliseum of Strife
Watch their energy closely. You can trade minions and give them the first energy freely. Be more stingy with the second energy, force them to commit resources to get the charge. Avoid giving them the third energy. Often it is correct to take some extra damage in order to deny them a draw. Your life is a resource like any other. This is especially true in the middle turns were their resources are starting to dwindle and they are left with few options and difficult burn decisions. It is easier to gain advantage of the board when you have a resource advantage, and once you've gained the board it is very difficult for Coliseum to recover.
Don't play easy to kill minions that just feed your opponent energy, Serpent Den is the worst offender, but be careful with cards like Academy Recruits, Maze of Iyatiku, Stray Panacea, Reconstruct, etc. Factor in that you are also helping your opponent draw when you are considering your plays.
Problems with the Path
Coliseum has one major flaw, its ability to draw cards is dependent on the deck composition of the opponent. If they don't play minions, you can't draw cards. And while Mythgard decks are rarely completely devoid of minions, there are some decks that play significantly less. To compound on this, your opponent has too much control over whether you are able to draw cards.
The only other path that is remotely comparable in this regard is Journey of Souls, but there is one key difference. They deny you Journey of Souls energy by keeping your minions alive, which is good for you! The deny you Coliseum of Strife energy by keeping their minions alive, which is bad for you! Your opponent can doubly punish you by avoiding combat.
Winning the Battle
Personally, I don't like Coliseum as it does not fit my playstyle. It is relegated to my bench, outside of Limited, where minion combat is basically unavoidable. However, that doesn't mean the path is completely without merit. For it to be successful, you really have to force your opponent to contest your minions. Valks, Canines, and YP Aggro can all do this, and Coliseum is a good choice for those style of decks. These decks all struggle when they lose board anyway, so they might as well double down and push the advantage. Go big, or go home.