A fresh take on this classic gauntlet grinding archetype, focusing heavily on the berserk keyword and some of the excellent weapons that Hooru has access to.
This deck relies on 3 key concepts:
a) The AI rarely plays
Sandstorm Titan or other flier-hate cards, so flying is a highly valuable keyword in gauntlet.
b) You often wind up behind early and scrambling to stabilize versus faster decks (especially the new Oni-focused deck), so lifesteal is a highly valuable keyword in the gauntlet.
c) Finally, the AI seems to greatly undervalue the new berserk keyword and doesn't seem to understand that a 5-damage berserk flying crow means 10 damage to face...or 13 damage if unseen commando is on the board! These surprise lethals make berserk even more valuable in gauntlet than on ladder.
This deck is the result of focusing on these 3 areas. Trust in your crows, your commandoes, and your shelterwings in addition to saving your berserk until you can really pump these units with
Finest Hour,
Cloudsnake Saddle, etc before swinging. Play aggressively but don't over-commit, aiming to win by turn 6.
Market Choices:
-
Hooru Banner to help remedy powerscrew and get out
Shelterwing Rider more reliably.
-
Linebreaker's Shield pulls double duty since it handle annoying stuns like
Permafrost on demand, while simultaneously giving our more aggresive units a weapon on demand. Crow with a shield!
-
Vanquish to handle "big removal" on demand.
-
Svetya, Orene of Kosul as a fallback for the few gauntlet decks that run annoying spells/weapons like
Harsh Rule,
Crystallize, and
Divining Rod. Pull her from the market asap but save her until you need her.
-
Eilyn, Clan Mother pulls double duty in that she handles stalemates with her silence and ultimate, plus she's also a big scary unit with flying and endurance (and, if you have a
Dusk Raider out when you pull her from market, berserk too!)
Replacements:
-
Geomar, the Steel Tempest I'm currently testing out and really liking as a 2 of. He can grow really quickly in size with a few Finest Hours or other 1 cost spells from our Crows thrown out. Plus he means more lifesteal and he cannot be frozen. If you don't have 2, look into
Svetya, Orene of Kosul or
Windshaper as 4 power replacements for the same curve. If you want to curve out more aggressively, consider
Wild Cloudsnake which can also grow really large if it isn't countered early.
-
Eilyn, Clan Mother, as stated above, is our answer for stalemates and when we need a large body on the board.
Rolant's Honor Guard fits the "big body" part but isn't really a stalemate-breaker...if you switch to
Jennev Merchant you can instead consider
Thunderstrike Dragon for a pair of big bodies on demand or the all powerful
Crystallize for a very nice stalemate breaking spell.
GLHF!
How about if I have a power for next turn?
3 power in hand, turn two I have an owl and a 3 drop and finest hour?
Basically when is it worth the tempo loss of not playing a unit (when you suspect it'll be killed immediately) to play one more power and protect it?
4 Finest Hour (Set1 #130)
2 Permafrost (Set1 #193)
2 Seek Power (Set1 #408)
4 Cloudsnake Saddle (Set1 #199)
4 Eager Owlet (Set1 #144)
4 Honored Skyguard (Set4 #155)
4 Kothon, the Far-Watcher (Set2 #218)
2 Vanquish (Set1 #143)
4 Acquisitive Crow (Set4 #164)
4 Privilege of Rank (Set1 #157)
4 Unseen Commando (Set3 #122)
4 Valkyrie Enforcer (Set1 #151)
4 Winchest Merchant (Set4 #126)
4 Geomar, the Steel Tempest (Set4 #128)
7 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)
6 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)
4 Hooru Banner (Set2 #216)
4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)
4 Diplomatic Seal (Set1 #425)
--------------MARKET---------------
1 Bring Down (Set2 #217)
1 Vision of Austerity (Set1002 #17)
1 Eilyn's Choice (Set2 #220)
1 Auric Runehammer (Set1 #166)
1 Sword of the Sky King (Set1 #186)
I'm not keen on the Honored Skyguard combo since it's slow and honestly just looks clunky to me. All power to you if it's consistently working out for you I guess though, but it seems like the wrong call to me personally.
Finally, the powerbase here could definitely use some tweaking to avoid early depleted power. I'm on the fence about the Diplomatic Seals if you're still running Seats, and I'd keep at least 2xCrest of Order just for the sake of card cycle personally. I'm thinking about dropping to 2 crests and 2 crownwatch standard then doing a bunch of sigils to handle any early depletion. If it works it works though!
Anyone tested this list lately - I mean this month ?
I think it's in a fine place for what it is. Personally I've been preferring decks with more lifesteal/lifegain in them these days however.
3 Levitate (Set1 #190)
4 Permafrost (Set1 #193)
3 Bring Down (Set2 #217)
4 Eager Owlet (Set1 #144)
4 Icaria, Valkyrie Captain (Set1003 #7)
4 Strategize (Set3 #165)
4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)
3 Aerialist Trainer (Set2 #219)
4 Hooru Pacifier (Set1003 #23)
3 Unseen Commando (Set3 #122)
3 Valkyrie Enforcer (Set1 #151)
3 Shelterwing Rider (Set2 #223)
3 Windshaper (Set1 #230)
11 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)
6 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)
2 Cobalt Monument (Set1 #418)
3 Cobalt Waystone (Set3 #151)
4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)
4 Common Cause (Set3 #279)
What I'm much less keen on, however, is dropping any Shelterwing Riders from this deck since it's a fantastic card. It makes sense to toss in some additional power cards for the influence requirements, but I'd rather keep the shelterwings too. I'll have to fiddle with this a little further and will be posting an update here hopefully soon!