Back in Armory's heyday, Sir Rhino came up with a little deck known as Feln Tempo which he used to take down a tournament. The deck tore it up on ladder for a few weeks, but after some adjustments and a nerf to Rapid Shot, eventually faded to the background.
Well, no longer! With the help of some new cards from Defiance, I am happy to report that Feln Tempo is back, and hopefully here to stay! This deck is fun and challenging to play, and there are plenty of tough decisions from game to game.
The basic gameplan of the deck is to get ahead and stay ahead by putting some cheap units on the board and protecting them with mana efficient spells - or, tempo: use your cards more efficiently than your opponent. A 2/2 flier can deal a surprising amount of damage if left unchecked!
The most important new tool from Defiance is the card
Parry. This innocuous little card is surprisingly good: Against Torch it acts as a counter spell; against many decks it acts as a 2 for one, messing up their combat math; and most importantly, truly shines when combined with a deadly unit like
Ripknife Assassin or
Kerendon Merchant: the deadly damage kills any unit! No more deciding between
Annihilate or
Rindra's Choice; just kill their blockers with a deadly
Parry.
I won't go over every card in the deck, but the basic idea is to keep the power curve low so we can keep playing cards more efficiently than the opponent.
Cabal Countess also helps a great deal by allowing you to do something on the opponent's turn if they didn't play something to counter with
Unseal.
Also, a word about
Shakedown and
Dusk Raider: This deck actually appreciates the nightfall trigger very much. Generally the low power curve means we can use more of those extra cards quicker than the opponent can, and the extra damage has finished off several opponents for me.
I hope you enjoy this take on Feln Tempo. Please leave feedback in the comments!
1. it costs 4, a little high for this deck
2. It gets killed by Display of Ambition. That card is mostly a blank against our deck otherwise.
• fast speed
• can hit a single target for half the cost
• if a game goes long, you have the option to stun three or more units
Pros of Vines over Wave:
• warp
• better against exactly two units
Ultimately I'd say it boils down to preference and the kind of decks you're up against; there are certainly scenarios where you'd rather have Vines in the deck.