Endurance & Lifesteal Killers - Budget Friendly

I don't know if this deck actually counts as a Combo deck, but I'm pretty sure its at least Control.

I made this deck from a discussion on the Steam forums in response to the belief that certain cards are instant-win cards the moment they are played. The card in question was Korovyat Palace. I offered solutions on how to kill a unit with Endurance, Aegis and Berserk and while I was researching cards to use, I came across Ankle Cutter.

Wanting to test out its effectiveness, I threw together an even more budget-friendly version than this one. I had zero Bait, 4 x Wurmic Chanter, 4 x Wurmcalling, 4 x Wurmstone and zero Seek Power.

I ran the cheaper version through the Gauntlet and beat the Helpful Horns boss. I ran this current version through the Gauntlet again and beat Nikki's Grab Bag boss. The previous version was performing in Ranked about as expected with about a 50% win rate. Wanting to beef it up a little, I added Crests and Bait. This version is doing much better in Ranked and it's pretty fun to play. If you want to beef it up even further, I recommend adding Darya, Warrior Poet. Pit of Lenekta may work well here, too, but its such a high-cost card that it may be really inconsistent and take too many resources away from the main goal of the deck.

Main goal: Play Ankle Cutter then Firemane Cub, Tripwire Grenadin, Outlands Sniper, or Casualties of the Cause on a unit with Endurance or Lifesteal to remove it (I'm looking at you Vara).

Secondary goal: Control the board to make way for Amaran Stinger attacks and play as many bloody 7/7's as possible.

FUN COMBOS

* Play Viper's Bite on Tripwire Grenadin. When Tripwire dies, the 1 Entomb damage counts as Deadly damage so you can target any problematic enemy unit to kill it.

* Play Casualties of the Cause on Bait to kill an enemy unit or site and give yourself a Flying 7/7 with Overwhelm.

*And, of course, use Predator's Instinct on one of your units with Deadly and use the Killer ability to kill an enemy.

Replacements: You could probably replace two Seek Power with two Wurmstone but I found Wurmstone a little slow and it takes away from a more important draw. And, with both Bait and Wurmic Chanter in the deck, you really want to get to 5 power with double Fire/Time as soon as possible so those Seek Powers actually help.

If you don't have Casualties of the Cause, Wurmstone may be a good fit there. Keep Seek Power in this case because they will activate Wurmstone when played. Consuming Flames, Grenade, or Burn Out are good choices, too.

Don't have Bait? Probably Wurmstone or more damage like the cards I mentioned above. You're always going to want to be able to deal some damage when Ankle Cutter is around and hope your opponent plays Endurance and Lifesteal units. You can always just add more Amaran Stinger, Scorpion Wasp, Wurmcalling, and Wurmic Chanter, too, instead of replacing Bait with an entirely new card.

If you don't have Crest of Impulse, you can sub them for Praxis Banner. But seriously, invest in Crests! Crests are amazing in pretty much every deck.