Deck Construction: Three Concepts for January- Bad Borg

I've already posted my thoughts on the Bad Borg deck.

The critical elements of the deck include:
Draksar Doomslayer x2
Temple Guardian x2
Skeezick Arthomancer x2
Draconic Benediction
Taint x2
Hive x2
Crypt Guardian
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization
Mason's Spire

That represents the core conceits of the deck: SL creatures allied with the FW, Hives, and a few parity-breaking spells. I'd like to further bolster these selections with some Area Damage spells (because, really, why not?) and more units which benefit from Regeneration and a defense boost. Executioners are wonderful for this, especially with a potential regenerating Avatar. Ravenwraiths are also superb, and a great target for a Shield of Darkness; I try to play them whenever I'm not running Nora Gen. The Flesh-Sewn Helm's disease aura is nasty, but Physical Resist 2 probably makes up for it, especially with Regeneration. Drakewing Swarms seem great for this, since they're resilient and, once dead, will pop back quickly. They also provide Range 1-2 on their attacks and a non-physical damage type, as well as distract. I'm back and forth between a Krikkinwing (Ranged attacks, area effects, poison immunity) and Draksar Berserker (Massive damage and quasi-range/AoE in Pounce). I go with the Berserker because he's new and I want to xp him.

Here's an initial list, then.

Drakewing Swarm x2
Draksar Berserker
Draksar Doomslayer x2
Draksar Psion x2
Skeezick Arthomancer x2
Temple Guardian x2
Warcharged Skeezick
Draconic Benediction
Firestorm
Taint
Abomination
Anthropomancer
Crypt Guardian
Dead Fairy x2
Executioner x2
Ravenwraith x2
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization
Mason's Spire
Flesh-Sewn Helm
Shield of Darkness

Deck Construction: Three Concepts for January Bonus- Weak and Powerless

This deck is a little side project, built around breaking the parity of combat by shutting off my opponent's attacks. The key spells for that are Reclaim and Sandspout. I'm also considering a Wizard theme for the K'Thir side, so I can have some teleportation (Elven Magi) and some heavy damage (Outcasts of the Flame). I'd also like to play the Wilderkin Snakedancers...I never would have under their previous incarnation, which was so utterly broken I posted about it. However, at just an Entangle they provide a useful way to keep enemies inside the radius of my attack-cancellation spells. I'm also tempted to employ at least one of those wonderful pacification crystals, plus some combination of Brambles/Carnivorous Vines/and my Thorn Collection. Recall is another critical spell, and in the event that I go with the wizard theme Thrones of the Circle. At least one Veasel Druid would also go a long way toward increasing survivability with my techier pieces.

On the Sundered Lands side, Rage Bands give my men the ability to stand inside a Brambles with no ill effects, though it won't prevent Pacifism. Draksar Doomslayers are another great piece in that they gain Fear 3 to suppress folks when he's attacking their fonts. Target Dummies provide yet another way to negate the opposition's offensive efforts. So would Temple Guards, since they also possess Bodyguard. Taint is always a favorite, especially in a deck that lacks for other healing (though I could pick up some regen eq from the K'Thir side). I might like to try the Call to War spell as well; tossing three disposable men I'm not going to be torn up about at the death of is surely handy. There's also the Benedictions and Quickenings to consider. Drakewing Swarms are entirely too asshole not to include, so my single one of those is definitely going in. Resilient Skeezicks are also excellent, since they inflict exceptionally diminishing rewards on ranged combat. Skeezick Netters are another nice, cheap ranged unit with the added benefit of grounding flyers. My Netters are boosted beyond where I imagine most folk run them, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for them. Cannoneers are another excellent ranged option, and they combine beautifully with the Rage Band. These last few choices don't necessarily play directly into the deck's proclaimed design, but they help in other ways: grounding a flying unit over a mountain, for instance, is always hilarious.

Unfortunately, the mass of spells I'm trying to run, at least in this conceptual build, really cut into the champions I could put into the deck. I cut and shuffled the list several times, especially when I found myself underwhelmed with the actual offensive capacity of the creatures in the deck. I may need to revisit the concept and use stronger creatures, banking more fully on the power of the spells; as it stands currently, I'm building the deck around resilient creatures and attack denial spells.

Weak And Powerless: Tenative List

Elven Blademaster x2
Elven Mage
Outcast of the Flame
Wilderkin Snakedancer x2
Brambles
Carnivorous Vines
Devolve
Grimlic's Mirror
Herbal Antidote
Recall
Reclaim x2
Thorn Collection
Drakewing Swarm
Draksar Doomslayer x2
Draksar Psion x2
Dunewalker
Resilient Skeezick x2
Temple Guard x2
Sandspout x2
Scapegoat
Taint
Target Dummy

Deck Construction: Three Concepts for January- Death Bailout Build

Death. Profit Sounds like an incredible film that hits straight to DVD and stars actors from movies that made lots of money (though the actors, apparently, did not).

However, for the purposes of both this blog and my personal entertainment, the title instead evokes a particular Forsaken Wastes/Shattered Peaks deck devoted to letting your own fellows die, selling them dearly, and profiting from the result. I already have a Death Benefit deck, and this iteration represents my efforts at improving on that initial creation. The main focus of my revamp is making the deck more aggressive; Death Benefit is powerful in the long game but somewhat (or extremely) slow to hit critical mass. In the early game it relies mostly on Cyclops Nemeses, but they're a limited tempo gain since they're granting my opponent a creature. The Earthmover they grant is easier to kill than the Earth Golems which they used to, but it's also markedly quicker to find a fight and make its presence known. Even with the Nemesis rule change (wherein if your man dies so does your foe's free one, prior to which Nemeses were wretched) playing the Cyclops doesn't tend to put me as far ahead as I would like.

As mentioned in my previous article, there are some fundementaly broken elements of this deck which I do appreciate, like the interaction between Death Harvesters, Devour, and Moga Dens; or between Collections of Souls and Cyclops Battlefeinds. However, I want to find homes for Suicidal attacks and Utterdark Voidhowlers, at the very minimum. Rather than try to trim my previous deck, I'm starting from scratch, with eyes on the following runes.

CHAMPIONS
Angel of Death
Animated Blade x2
Anthropomancer x2
Archfiend x2
Arctic Beast x2
Bile Zombie
Blood Fiend x2
Bonecrusher x2
Cleric of Unrest x2
Collection of Souls x2
Corpse Golem
Crossbone x2
Crypt Guardian
Dark Messenger x2
Death Guard
Death Harvester x2
Essence Devourer
Eternal Lich
Executioner x2
Festering Corpse x2
Necromancer
Ravenwraith x2
Revenant
Skeletal Berserker x2
Utterdark Voidhowler
Vampyre
Wandering Zombie x2

SPELLS
Chain Lightning
Corpse Collection
Delay x2
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization
Necroweave x2
Reanimate
Soul Cage x2
Soulreave x2
Weaken x2

RELICS
Graveyard

EQUIPMENT
Blight Ring
Ethereal Mindshank x2
Sacrificial Dagger x2
Shield of Darkness x2


Shattered Peaks Champions

Clay Form x2
Cyclops Battlefiend x2
Cyclops Nemesis x2
Cyclops Seer x2
Cyclops Shaman
G'hern Birthmother x2
Gluttonous Overseer x2
Moga Cannon x2
Moga Sapper x2
Mogahern Destroyer x2
Parasitic Fesh
Sonic Elemental x2

Shattered Peaks Spells

Avalanche x2
Bad Blood x2
Extended Reach
Implant x2
Lightning Storm x2
Stormwrack
Suicidal Attack x2

Shattered Peaks Relics

Echo Chamber x2
G'hern Scarecrow x2
Moga Bartering Post x2
Moga Den x2

Shattered Peaks Equipment

Diamond Mace
G'hern Helm
Slaver's Whip x2

Again as mentioned in my previous post, plus added now because they make sense, the following runes are non-negotiable:
SP 2xCyclops Battlefiend, 2xImplant, 2xMoga Den, Gluttonous Overseer, Suicidal Attack x2
FW 2xEssence Drain, 2xUtterdark Voidhowler, 2xDeath Harvester, Collection of Souls, Sacrificial Dagger

It's hard to justify making a FW deck without Mobilization, so that's going in. I want to have ample AoEs to maximize the benefit of the Voidhowlers, and my Bile Zombie is both an AoE and another dying creature. I'd love to squeeze in double Echo Chambers on similar principle: it's a cheap AoE I can drop wherever I like with no threat to my own units, and in a long and sloppy game it's arguably repeatable. It also allows for +1 range font contesting, which is a tactic I think every deck should be able to take advantage of.

So I'm looking at a deck of:

Champions
Cyclops Battlefiend x2
Gluttonous Overseer
Death Harvester x2
Collection of Souls
Utterdark Voidhowler x2

Spells
Avalanche
Bad Blood
Implant x2
Lightning Storm x2
Suicidal Attack x2
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization

Relics
Echo Chamber
Moga Den x2

Equipment
Sacrificial Dagger

If I added an Elsari Bazaar I'd have yet one more way to kill my own men, but if I'm truly interested in that I should probably focus on indiscriminate AoEs (like Lightning Storms). Obviously I need more men, and quick-to-die men like Blood Fiends and Skeletal Berserkers give me early beats and Battlefiend-fueling corpses in a single convenient package. The Corpse Golem provides another method of eating my Moga babies, plus proven combat ability, plus Swarm for more non-summoned expendable creatures. That caps my FW side. Doubling down on my Avalanches finishes my SP side and I have a quick and dirty 30.

Champions
Cyclops Battlefiend x2
Gluttonous Overseer
Blood Fiend x2
Corpse Golem
Death Harvester x2
Skeletal Berserker x2
Collection of Souls x2
Utterdark Voidhowler x2

Spells
Avalanche x2
Bad Blood
Implant x2
Lightning Storm x2
Suicidal Attack x2
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization

Relics
Echo Chamber
Moga Den x2

Equipment
Sacrificial Dagger

Just looking at the deck, I'm already concerned that I lack sufficient durable fighters, meaning I may switch 1 Berserker and/or Blood Fiend for Executioners. No matter how I play it, that puts a lot of damage on my Shrine. However, I lack a Tome of Hate so there's not much I can do. There's also a distinct lack ranged champs, and a dangerous absence of non-physical damage. The latter can be addressed with a single Soul Rend, and I've definitely found that when I play a FW deck without that spell I miss it. It's a shame I can't think of two spots to cut for Moga Sappers, as well, since they'd practically be cooldown 4 direct damage spells with a Battlefiend-boosting kicker.

I had also planned, earlier, to try my Essence Devourer in this deck and feed him using a combination of Necromancers and Graveyards. I could peel out a Berserker, Fiend, and Collection for that alternate build, but I'd like to try the current version to see how it plays first.

Deck Construction: Three Concepts for January- Bad Borg and Bonus

Concept the Third...Fourth? Unfortunately, at least part of what I thought I was clever in considering for Concept the Third is not working in the fashion I'd expect, so I'll be eyeing the thread.

To whit, I love the flavor (if not necessarily the synergy) of combining Sundered Lands and Forsaken Wastes. They're both bad, bad crews but seem to have a greater depth than (ironically) the Underdepths, which feels like a faction of mean dudes and sexy mean ladies. The Sundered Lands represent an almost zerg-like cultural expansion, continually welcoming new races into their collective; Draksar Berserkers and Draksar Psions being my two favorite examples, though I'm looking forward to Lonx and Yeti flavors. The Forsaken Wastes, meanwhile, have such an elegiac quality to many of their runes, and mechanically they can be brutal. The synergy doesn't always stack up, however, since the factions are on opposite poles in terms of central thesis.

Sundered Lands runes, and their faction bonus, tend to focus on longevity. High defense and regeneration keep a particular creature in the fight for at least a few rounds longer than his cost might indicate, and the brutal area spells the faction possesses allow it to win wars of attrition by simply standing after the other guy has fallen. Many of the runes are expensive, given all the defensive qualities stitched into their designs, but their ability to slog through lesser runes (especially in a full-faction) justify that.

The Forsaken Wastes, by contrast, die a lot. In fact, most of their runes were dead before you cast them. Traditionally FW runes have been relatively fragile, because the faction bonus and design of many creatures and spells is all about recovering slain runes quickly, rather than agonizing over keeping them alive. There's also a disease thread which was popular for a while, but combining disease and another faction tends to be very difficult (though one could probably do something with Ironfist Constructs and Medics) because even if your other faction isn't suffering much damage from disease effects, the stat reduction from disease is bad enough. Similarly, the good FW relics penalize non-undead creatures often as not. Luckily, I don't have any of said relics.

Nonetheless, I think careful rune selection can yield a very profitable balance between the two factions. Besides obvious inclusions like the Draksar Doomslayer (which has Ally: FW trainable) and the Temple Guardian (same, plus bodyguard to hedge somewhat on FW fragility) the main rune I'm interested in combining with FW is the Arthomancer, since his Hive laying ability dovetails wonderfully with the Mason's Spire. Or would, if it was working correctly. Working correctly, the Spire would boost each lain Hive's hp by 10, counteracting the 1/2 hp limit on lain Hives almost entirely. It would also provide a nora refund for the Hive, which turns Arthomancers into limited nora generation engines not far below a Deepcave Extractor or Elvish Artisan. The Hives themselves do minimal damage to the FW creatures in the deck, since creatures with Boon of the Undead have significant poison resistance.

There are also spells in each faction which grant favored race to any target creature, so I could be turning my Draksar/Skeezick into undead (to grant them disease immunity) and my undead into Draksar for Draconic Force and Hive immunity. With 2 Arthomancers and 2 maindeck Hives, plus Mason's Spire and Crypt Guardian, there'd be a lot of battlefield control at a relatively cheap price. The Doomslayers provide excellent font contesting, particularly backed up by Essence Drains to clear defenders. Both factions have powerful rare-level spells that grant extra attacks (Quickening and Mobilization/Draconic Benediction, natch) as well, meaning that the deck could provide both stable attrition and extremely swingy rounds.

Finally, if I hew Sundered Lands for my Shrine I get a regenerating Avatar, which should help to counteract the shrine life loss of Skeletal Berserkers, Executioners, and/or Blood fiends. With a toolbox of creatures and damage types available on both sides of the fence, this deck would be highly technical to build but quite likely resilient and abusive on the field.

Bonus! I'd also like to put something together abusing the Sundered Lands spell Sandspout and the K'thir Forest spell Reclaim. I'm not sure I've ever combined those two factions before, and Garu/Skeezick springs to mind as a resilient, melee-focused team that would greatly benefit from enemies being incapable of making attacks for a dozen or so turns a game.

Deck Construction: Three Concepts for January- Death Bailout

Concept the Second Concept the Second is an update on my current Death Profit deck. As built, the deck is FW/SP, with a brace of Death Harvesters but no Tolltakers (I don't have any). It abuses Moga Dens to feed either Cyclops Battlefiends or G'hern Gluttons, with the goal being to both profit (or rather break even) due to the Harvesters and bring the Battlefiends online in stupid-swift time. I also run a single Collection of Souls at present, since they interact wonderfully with the Battlefiends- a fiend devours a moga and gains a +1 to damage, bumping the Collection's damage by 1. The Collection then Imparts that damage back to the fiend. The Collection can bump the fiend every turn, and there's a double bump at least every other turn, depending on the number and disposition of Moga Dens on the board. The nice thing is that Gluttons can sit at home with the Dens while the Battlefiends go running into battle, trusting in their ridiculous initial Defense and Health to keep them going. Once the Battlefiend procs, equipping them with a Sacrifical Dagger tends to keep them in the fight until there's nothing left to fight. Implants provide another quick source of Battlefiend/Collection pumping, though it's not as great now that they can't target Crested Feshes.

I really enjoy this deck, as it's one of the first examples I have of taking a thematic concept and successfully putting it into practice. However, the current build is slow. There are a number of exciting new runes, most significantly Utterdark Voidhowlers and Revenants, which I would like to try in this archetype. The inclusion of more martial creatures, in turn, suggests I also bring a pair of Suicidal Attacks online. The biggest challenge with this deck is ascertaining what to cut, so I think it might be best to burn the entire deck down and start from scratch. That's the real challenge, as looking at my original list I'm not sure what I even could do without.

I figure the core is double Battlefiend, double Death Harvester, double Implant, double Voidhowler, double Essence Drain, and one to two Soul Collections. This more aggressive build would do well to run other short-lived creatures besides the spellbought Feshes, so two of either the Bloodfiend or the Skeletal Berserker will probably make the cut (or both, or one of each?). Beyond that, though, this deck requires a fair amount of tinkering and I'll probably have to lose at least one of the Gluttons. I also enjoy the idea of bringing in more death nova creatures like Festering Corpses, since the new Suicidal Attack grants Pounce to at least marginally counteract Lumbering, then provides a sure kill at the end of the turn. Combining Suicidal Attack with the Voidhowler is the idea at the core of this deck; that, in turn, encourages me to have as many AoEs as possible to keep enemy health within Voidhowl range.

This, then, is Concept the Second: improving my current death benefit deck into something more aggressive, which advances with expendable creatures begging to die while holding the line with the ever-worsening Battlefiends and Collections of Souls.

Deck Construction: Three Concepts for January- Savage Tundra

At the moment I'm interested in putting together a new deck, and there are three concepts I'm tossing around:

Concept the First: Concept the first is simply a question of putting together a deck in the Savage Tundra. I managed to draw my vivacious and wonderful girlfriend into the game over Thanksgiving, and she immediately took to the Tundra. She bought the precon (well, I bought her the precon as a Finals present) and has modded it up a bit, and I've shuffled most of my spare Tundra her way to that end. Since the deck is spell-heavy, and the spells are frost-heavy, I've also moved away from actively playing the Tundra. The first few times we played games where her spells, and attacks, rebounded off of my characters were very frustrating for her. Since I'm more interested in helping her to step her game up a level, and am continually amazed and impressed by her talent for the game, it's been no skin off my nose to abandon the Tundra for a while. I never played it overmuch anyway.

Still, there are some Tundra units I think are awesome. I finally have two Jakei Footstrikers with Nokhan Do 2, and believe I can get my second Jakei Shadowstriker to the same spot. I've also got two Jakei Climbers and a Jakei Snowwhisper, and these are all great runes. The Yeti rush coincided with my getting another friend into the game (who also went Tundra) so I've traded off most of my new Yeti, but I did just pull a Yeti Ambusher. I also picked up a brace of Lonx Hurlers, and I enjoy the mechanic there quite a bit (mostly the value of having Power attack available as both a ranged and melee option, which makes them markedly cheaper than they would have been if they had to upgrade Power Attack and Piercing Shot separately).

My primary problems facing the Tundra are the absence of particularly impressive rares/exotics and my complete lack of damaging spells outside of an Icequake and Frostbite. Since the Tundra tends to trade heavily on its spells, lacking these makes it tough to pull a win. I have a couple of the excellent summon spells, however, and Ancestral Focus trades nicely with other factions when it comes to spells, although it also throws the bone at my opponents. If I were to run a Tundra deck I would almost certainly have to step into another faction; my first inclination is to go Ironfist and simply pick up 2 Hammer Strikes, an Earthquake, an Impervious, 2 Righteous Deflections, and some healers. L'usura's Staff is great in mixed faction decks, and that Spellswallower combined with my W/E Groble presents a way to recover from my opponent getting their spells back faster at the same time I am. I imagine I'd forgo adding many champs from the Ironfist, but I still have to decide if I'd want to go Dwarf or Barbarian (or Construct, but then I don't get much healing). Repair on an Ice Golem would also be fun times (Fun times but impossible, since it turns out they're a golem who just has Elemental--ed. ). Plus nora gen from Nora Mines would help me keep churning out spells.

So that's the first concept: a spell-slinging, survivalist Savage Tundra deck. All the No Can Do characters provide great tempo shifts, especially with stun heavy support from the Stronghold.

New Year, New Post!

I finally have my first Draksar Berserker. This means I can begin phasing a single Draksar Hunter out of all the decks which use them, and hunting a second Berserker to replace the 2nd Draksar Hunter. I like to double up on Hunters as they're unbelievably cheap, with 12 Attack and Defense, 9 Speed, 12 Damage, 44 Health, Regen 2, Draconic Force, and a powerful counter to Skeezick decks for 68 nora. Combined with Taint they're a good way to also boost other creature's damage via Draconic Force. With a regen that feels almost free, as well, they make an easy way to expunge some Nora on a turn where I'm sitting on a spell or equipment or trying for a quick stabilization against a very fast opponent (especially in single-player campaigns).

By contrast, an un-pumped Draksar Berserker, at 65 Nora, has 18 Attack (19 with Berserker), 14 Defense, 8 Speed (9 with Berserker), 13 Damage (14 with Berserker) and 47 Health, as well as Berserker 1 (obviously), Enrage 1, Pounce 2 and Violent. Rares are better, folks. As much as I love pauper decks, as much as I love commons and uncommons, and as much as I cherish wins against Exotic-heavy battlegroups using my rare-lite offerings...rares are better. Even if I never improved the Berserker in any way, shape, or form, he'd still be superior to my Hunters in every fashion except for his inability to retain AP. However, I often stick my Hunters with Rage Bands anyway (granting 3 levels of Berserker and Unstoppable, so they never lose AP). Sticking one of these assholes with a Rage Band is utterly disgusting.