Aurora, Shooting Star’s ascension to Living Legend was unprecedented. Only being with us for seven months, she tore up the Classic Constructed format and cemented herself as the dominant deck for most of The Hunted season. And it shows in the numbers — she gained over 600 points from February to May, and was easily the most registered hero of 2025.
But one thing is for certain. While she is definitely powerful, she’s also generally popular and beloved. She’s the hero for new players, being the face of the First Strike decks as well as having her own Armory deck for newer players to dig into, and so it’s for sure that a lot of newer players will generally be scratching their heads now that their new hero is gone so soon.
That’s why in this article, we’re going to discuss exactly where you should go from here as an Aurora player, from the future of the hero, to other decks that you might want to consider trying out. After all, while it isn’t ideal for your hero to go this quickly, there’s still a host of other options around for you to try out — and Aurora isn’t going to be gone for long anyway.
Gone in a Flash
Aurora, Shooting Star was introduced in Rosetta, but her roots precede that for sure. She was one-half of the 1st Strike product released to get new players into the game, so her return to Rosetta was definitely welcomed by players.
But, very quickly, it became clear that she was one of the most consistent decks in the game. 0 for 4s with go again are already very strong, but Channel Lightning Valley provided lots of power in being able to create immense hands of value, and the Arc Lightning and Flicker Wisp combo represented double digits of damage that would prove difficult to deal with.
This problem was only exacerbated by the printing of Aurora’s Armory Deck and the printing of Skyward Serenade. Admittedly, a misprint according to Bryan Gottlieb himself, Skyward Serenade provides even more value and consistency to a deck that just doesn’t need it, and the Living Legend of both Zen and Enigma pushed Aurora to be the best deck in the format — hence her gaining 300 points in her last two weeks of legality (during ProQuest season).
So, it’s safe to say that it was obvious that Aurora wouldn’t be long for the format. But, the speed at which she hit Living Legend was definitely unexpected — most people expected her to at least make it to Nationals Season, or even to the end of the ProQuest season she got banned in. But, she left two weeks in, incredibly.
If you want to know more about what her ascension to Living Legend actually means for the format, check out Adam’s article!
Moving On
Now that Aurora is gone, lots of you will probably be thinking — ‘what do I do?’. After all, Flesh and Blood decks are not cheap whatsoever, and putting time and money into a deck for it to disappear instantly is suboptimal, to say the least.
But just because Aurora is gone, doesn’t mean that there aren’t options for moving on. Whether you can’t afford to spend too much on another deck, or you simply fell in love with her playstyle, there are other decks that you can move over to in the meantime as we wait for the Lightning Runeblade to return.
Cindra, Dracai of Retribution
For a lot of Aurora players, the first point of comparison will be Cindra, Dracai of Retribution. The playstyle of going wide with a lot of cheap attacks and dealing pings of random damage while making it as difficult as possible to efficiently block is still here.
Cindra can do some pretty tricky stuff with Flick Knives[/clear], which is even more difficult for opponents to deal with than arcane damage, and [card]Mask of Momentum is a pretty great value engine that plays similarly to Channel Lightning Valley.
The only downside is that her defence is much worse than Aurora’s. While they’re both pretty offensive decks, Aurora has more block in her equipment than Cindra, and Cindra pretty much has no equipment that she can block with without it causing a massive problem. On top of this, Cindra requires way more resource management to be able to ensure you can keep a dagger around at all times, making her a little trickier than Aurora to play well.
The downside to playing Cindra here is that the card pool is completely different, and so you’ll need to invest in a whole new deck once again. This might not be an option, and it may just be difficult to warrant buying another deck, especially if you feel as though Cindra might be on her way to the Living Legend list quickly.
Dash I/O
If you like 0 for 4s with go again, then Dash I/O is another deck to look at. Probably the most aggressive deck in the format right now, she utilises the Boost mechanic to send a load of attacks in one turn to keep the pressure up, leveraging Boom Grenade for more damage over the course of the game.
She’s incredibly rapid, but the only downside is that she’s very prone to fatigue, due to her having to banish cards from the top of her deck to keep the pressure on. Her defensive game is weaker than Aurora’s, but mainly due to her having to keep her whole hand on most turns to be able to play well — her equipment actually blocks decently.
There is a way to get started with D/IO very easily, which is the Dash I/O Armory Deck. It gives a pretty plug-and-play way to get into playing the hero, and even with a few cheap upgrades, you can definitely do well with it at the armory level. She is very difficult to play, though, as she has a lot going on and a lot of moving parts to manage, meaning you can expect a mental overload from time to time.
Oscilio, Constella Intelligence
If you want to use your Aurora cards some more, and don’t mind putting your time into a deck that requires your full attention and a lot of study, Oscilio, Constella Intelligence heavily shares a card pool with Aurora, with the majority of the non-Runeblade Lightning cards transferring over.
Oscilio isn’t an easy deck to master, though. A mix of aggression and combo-potential, he looks to set up huge turns in which he can bounce Sigil of Brilliance to keep drawing cards to play, and to eventually set up a huge Volzar, The Lightning Rod activation.
Playing Oscilio isn’t easy. There are not as many easy games as Aurora had, and so it is very much a labour of love to make Oscilio work, but that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily bad. Just as with any wizard, playing him will require learning lines and combos so you can ensure that you know when to go all-in.
If you love the Lightning playstyle, though, give Oscilio a spin and see if he clicks for you. He’s a very fun and unique deck.
What’s Next?
The story isn’t over for Aurora, though. Confirmed by LSS, Aurora will be returning in the first half of 2026, meaning that you won’t have to wait too long to be able to play her in some fashion, even if she differs from her Shooting Star variant.
LSS simply enjoy having Aurora in the format, and know how beloved she is, so it’s safe to assume that she won’t be gone for long at any moment. Ultimately, though, no hero is safe from Living Legend if they become good enough to secure points on the leaderboard.
And, while James White said that he’s happy to move on from the LL system if it fails, it looks like that’s not going to happen any time soon.
But, with this, LSS have said that they aim to improve the LL system and make sure that this doesn’t happen again. After all, this is a disaster for them, as losing their current flagship hero after only seven months definitely has bad optics for the game. How they change the system is yet to be seen, but expect changes.
End Phase
Aurora leaving the format so quickly was generally unexpected, but there are a host of other options that are worth giving a shot if you are an ex-Aurora player looking for a new hero to call home.
But, even if not, then it’s not too long till we’ll see her again, so hold onto those Lightning cards and get ready to see the Shooting Star in up to a year’s time.
In any case, see you on the combat chain.
