Reaaaaaally strong and consistent deck right now. The recent additions of
Blightmoth,
Dizo, Cabal Racketeer and
Icaria, First Reaper have filled out every spot in the curve with VERY powerful units. The idea of the deck is to 2 for 1, 3 for 1 or even 4 for 1 with each and every unit of the deck. Let me explain:
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Avoid Death is a great scouting card, allowing you to remove a threat before it is even a threat and giving you key information on the opponent's next turns. It almost always hits something and it can even make your
Dreamsnatcher grow.
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Annihilate is self-explanatory. Try to abuse the fact that it is a fast spell by playing it mid combat to get a 2 for 1, and always remove an enemy unit with it on your opponent's turn (because, quite often, they will play a weapon or a spell on the unit, netting you a 2 for 1).
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Cull the Deck is here for consistency. These two copies used to be the fourth
Veteran Mercenary and
Icaria, First Reaper, but I think this way the deck is more reliable.
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Dreamsnatcher is a unit with a solid statline, with very useful lifesteal, and that can grow when you discard opponent's cards. There's more than one way to accomplish this in the deck, namely
Avoid Death,
Unseen Longbow or using the ultimate of the card. BTW it has a very useful interaction with
Tavrod, Auric Broker.
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Ripknife Assassin is a great, cheap board staller. The warcry on it is occasionally useful. But it is there mainly because it stops those huge time units dead on their tracks.
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Blightmoth is the MVP of the deck, IMO. Solid 2 drop, bane of all go wide decks. Very often wll you get a 3 for 1 with this card, and, worst case scenario, it at least buys you two turns by blocking. Keep in mind that its summon effect will not spread if you apply it to a unit with aegis, but you can use it on non-aegis units to pop aegis off the rest of the units that share the type.
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Dizo, Cabal Racketeer is an awesome 3 drop, that is more often than not a 4, 5 o 6+ cost unit. Stealing a unit is very powerful, allowing free atacks, and occasionally delivering back breaking blows to the opponent (like stealing and attacking with a
Direwood Beastcaller). The unblockable stat is also great paired with
Unseen Longbow. It is both interesting and useful that the A.I. rates this card very highly on the to-kill list (even above
Incarnus, Makkar's Listener)
Unseen Longbow works more often than not as an extra power (you want to make sure you get to 4 power). Later in the game, it can deprive the opponent of two high cost cards, and can get you the extra power needed to play multiple cards in your turn.
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Kerendon Merchant gets you access to extra removal or the site. Big vara is a flex spot. Being deadly makes it quite useful, for the same reasons already mentioned for
Ripknife Assassin.
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In Cold Blood is extra catch all removal, that may or may not make
Dreamsnatcher grow.
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Incarnus, Makkar's Listener gives you up to two extra cards, and reach. Also great paired with
Unseen Longbow.
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Veteran Mercenary also replaces itself, and has a reasonable statline. The 4th copy was tossed after I realized that the Gauntlet boss that gives you a lot of different coloured influences shuts that effect down.
-Finally,
Icaria, First Reaper is a game ender. automatic 2 for 1. It is very hard to reach the influence requirement to play it on curve (so we only have 3 copies in the deck), but that does not hurt the deck much. Discarding 4 spells out of the opponent's hand is also really satisfying.
The deck is rather reactive. In general, you will want to play your units after the opponent has played theirs, Always try to gain an advantage with your cards (postpone
Blightmoth or
Dizo, Cabal Racketeer so the summon is not wasted, or to make the most out of it). The deck will naturally outvalue all AI decks, so play it cool. Having said that, the deck is by not means slow, and will reach the Gauntlet boss almost 100% of the times.
Pro (cough cough) tip: WAIT BEFORE YOU PLAY YOUR POWER, as I have missed MANY MANY times the opportunity to play a warped
Seal of Devotion
Try it out and leave your suggestions in the comments.This deck was based on a deck that Locopojo brewed, I just tweaked it for gauntlet a bit.
You're probably right about vara being more consistent though, but I like having random cards :) (I DO think it's quite valuable to get an extra card, either because you get something useful, or because you get something to throw in the market. Baby vara may be a replacement for big Vara in market, I almost never take her over the site, I may try her there later, currently I'm testing waylay).
I will try the 3/4 flyer, haven't done that yet.
With a deck this influence hungry, I think Seal of Devotion is prob more trouble than it's worth, though I do see the need for card draw. Any thoughts?
With flooding in a Shadow deck, I usually put a The End is Near in the market to stop the flooding end game if needed.