Azindel Master Renewed

Hey everyone,

I'm back from a longer break and got a renewed version of my old Azindel Deck.

The old Deck was pretty slow and didnt stand a chance against Aggro, which didnt stop me from reaching Masters with it back then. But as I tried it again I failed misserably. Thats why I changed a few things, added new cards and ended up with the deck you see now which got me into masters pretty fast. I will explain the main Idea of the deck and which changes helped me to succeed this time. After that I will give my thoughts on the cards that remained in the deck, the market and at the end a few experiences about nice starting hands.

I know it might be a lot of shiftstone, I can't tell you if there is a cheaper deck with the same mechanics, but at this point in time the deck absolutely paced up to masters and I hope it does for you as well.

Main Idea

You want to play Azindel, Mastermind in turn four to play a Azindel, Revealed in turn five and get a nice ragequit by your opponent. That was the main idea of my old deck and the changes I made helped improve this idea and get a few extra-nice endings.

Changes

For anyone familiar with the old deck, or anyone who checked it, I will briefly explain the changes.

Annihilate Easy and effective against aggro. Most aggro cards are single colors and it worked out pretty well with this card.

Cull the Deck Just a cheaper way to draw cards. Pretty good as we have more important stuff to do in round 3.

Dinosaur Nest Helped a lot against aggro on my last rank in diamond. I got along until then without it, so if you dont want to buy the expansion you dont need it that much. But I wish I would have got this card earlier into the deck as it helped a lot to win the last 8 out of 10 games.

Hidden Garrote Very, very good! Such a simple and yet effective way to slow down aggro or get a midrange enemy down some life. The unblockable makes it even worth in the lategame if you have your units lined up to block the enemies.

Display of Will Nice card, I might would have crafted a second one but I didnt need it to be honest. It's pretty nice so if you got one or two copies get them in there but if not, you dont need to craft it in my opinion.

Sindain's Bracers Absolute winning-card. This card alone changed the deck imensely in its pace and win-rate. At this point in time there arent many attachment removals in decks, thats why it was overpowered in most games. If it gets removed you get slower but it doesnt lose the game.

Tocas, Waystone Harvester Nice to have, helped in some games. I would have loved to have him twice but if you dont have him you dont need to craft him to succeed.

Huntmaster Vikrum Defenitly a card that helped me in the last two Diamond-Ranks. Before that I played with
Dizo, Cabal Racketeer and its a good card if you dont want to buy the expansion, but not as good as Huntmaster.

Talir, Timeless nice to be played by Azindel and can also get you some nice cards in play by attacking

The "old" cards

Now for the cards that survived the changes.

Xenan Blueprints Pretty straight forward. Its nice to draw sigils plus you can use the relic before attacking with Talir, Timeless to play your chosen card instantly.

Acantha Ascending Got a nice mechanic to produce units early on to block. Also helps to push the maximum power as she is a cheap hero.

Exploit Nice to have, but not needed to win. It defenitly helps to weaken your enemy but if you are low on shiftstone try the deck without it, it might work!

Banish Essential card. You need to be able to remove Relics or Units and this card does it for you. If there is anything thats costs more then 5 you will probably never see it as you won by the time the enemy could play it. And if not there are some other cards to help you.

Ebon Dune Smuggler Such a great card. And in this deck it serves some really badass combos. As you will have more then 7 power pretty fast if you get a early Sindain's Bracers, you will be able to get two combos in the enemies turn that will most likely win or turn the game:
7 Power on the enemy turn: Play Ebon Dune Smuggler once the enemy attacks with their units. Then get Krull, Xumuc Occultist from your market to play a Huntmaster Vikrum from your void and take over one of the attacking units. If it got endurance you can even block with it.
8 Power on the enemy turn: Play Ebon Dune Smuggler once the enemy ends their turn and you need to start yours. Then get Krull, Xumuc Occultist from your market to play a Azindel, Mastermind from your void. You get the two cards played instantly and the enemy is unable to do anything about it.
Given you got one of the two in your void this is a pretty funny and effective way to win a game.

Express Route For every unit that costs more then 5, has a horrible entomb or revenges. Nice way to get these cards out of the game.

Vara, Vengeance-Seeker So nessecary! She can win a game on her own but also serves the purpose to trigger the removal spells of the enemy to safe your more important cards. Plus she is a hero to get your power up.

Azindel, Mastermind The deck is called after this guy he probably is important for this deck :D As mentioned above he is the main reason this whole deck started and its always nice if he survives and plays two cards for free. The units you play before him help to get the enemys removals out of the game and increase the odds that he survives. But even if he doesnt survive you can play him from the void, get one extra power if you got the relic and got the enemy down by one more removal. He helps a lot and is a pretty fun card to play!

The Speaking Circle is a nice Site to play. I feel like the draws arent as good as they used to be but its still good to choose 3 out of 9 spells to play. It helps in a lot of situations and getting The Queen of Glass wins most of the games. You can probably replace it for another site or anything else if you dont have it. If you have it though, it fits in pretty well!

Azindel, Revealed is such a great card to play. Its so much fun to win against the enemy with their own cards for much cheaper then they could have ever played them for in their own. With the help of the relic you might be able to play him in round 5 if you are lucky with the heroes and even if it takes longer he is a big reason for ragequits. Playing him for free is a lot of as well and if you remember, that is the whole reason for the deck in the first place. If you play this deck a lot you will play him for free at some point and I think you will know what I mean once this happends to you ;)

The market

Unmake is a nice card to remove attachments. Didn't need it often as Banish takes care of that as well, but if needed its good to have in the market.

Chronostorm I didn't use a single time. I wanted to test it against aggro but there was no need in my last 10 games so I can't say anything good or bad about it. Try it and give me your feedback or replace it with any card you like!

Fall to Ruin I used quite frequently. I think I never had enough units in the void to keep my units but at the points I needed to remove every enemy that wasnt important as I had nearly no units on my own left. Very good card, it helps in some tough situations.

Krull, Xumuc Occultist as mentioned before he has some nice combos with Ebon Dune Smuggler. You can also get him for any other card in the enemies or your turn but the two ways mentioned above were the most frequent I used him for.

Sol's Rest is nice to play. Its funny to have a second round with the enemy being unable to refill power or block some units. It really helped in some games, but if you dont have if you can probably reduce the shiftstone cost by not crafting it.

A nice starting hand

You want to have 3 Power, Hidden Garrote for round 2,
Sindain's Hand for round 3, Vara, Vengeance-Seker for round 4 and Azindel, Mastermind for round 5 (even round 4 if you draw power).

That would be a perfect start. But its never that perfect, thats why everything where you dont have any 6 or higher cost card is good most of the time.

You need 3 Power in your starting hand as a minimum, or two power and a Xenan Blueprints or Exploit.

A Sindain's Bracers is a good indicator for a nice starting hand as well.

If you got something to play in round two thats also a great indicator and you can never go wrong with a Vara, Vengeance-Seeker.

But to be honest: Just find it out on your own. In my experience its pretty easy to have a good starting hand with this deck and part of the fun of a new deck is to find out what works for you and what not ;)

Final words

Thanks for the feedback on my last attempt with this idea. I know it had a few flaws and wasnt perfect by any means. I hope this deck works better for you guys and you have as much fun as I had the last days playing with it!

I'm happy to get your feedback and experiences on this deck, good luck and see you ingame!

Cheers
Treshder