Dancing Darkclaw - mixed allies and weapons deck. Very fast and deadly!

I repost my article which originally appeared as a reply in this thread:


First of all, it's not my own deck idea, I've seen it watching a QM and I really liked it and wanted to try it myself. I'm impressed, how well this works. Credits go to the original author of the idea.

Deck:

I call it "Dancing Darkclaw", because Darkclaw equipped with Speedstrike and Jeweler's dream really seems to dance in a furious fast dance and together with his allies lets his opponent's blood just splash around.

Hero:
Darkclaw

Allies:
3 Death Mage Thaddeus
4 Shadow Knight
3 Morbid Acolyte
3 Tiger Wulf

Abilities:
4 Captured Prey
2 Now You're Mine
3 Speedstrike
2 Sacrificial Lamb
2 Shriek of Vengeance
4 Blood Moon

Weapons:
4 Jeweler's Dream
3 What Big Teeth
2 Spectral Sabre


Play:
T1: Nothing
T2: Blood Moon
T3: Speedstrike
T4: Jeweler's Dream
T5: Tiger Wulf or Shadow Knight, 2* attack + DMT, CP or whatever
T6: ....

This deck really revolves around the combo of Speedstrike and Jeweler's Dream. With Speedstrike you can renew 4 resources per turn and cast your allies and abilities really fast. The Darkclaw's shadow ability on JD makes the weapon attacks able to kill fatties or damage the opponent's hero significantly. It does well in both early and late game, playing first or second.


Card Explanation:
DMT: To damage armored heroes, Ironhide Karashes, Wulven Savages etc., you know.
SK: You can loop them or recycle the Tiger Wulfs, solid strong ally.
Morbid Acolyte: To bypass Aeons and other protectors, stealh etc., really versatile ally...
Tiger Wulf: Another versatile ally, can destroy almost anything, can be looped with SK, good for Sacrifitial Lamb after use.

CP: To neutralize stronger allies you can't deal with another way.
NYM: To kill low cost allies annoying on the board.
Speedstrike: Crucial ability to maximize the use of Jeweler's Dream and the DC's shadow ability.
Sacrificial Lamb: Additional card draw, to maximize potential of Tiger Wulf, to make some use of crippled allies etc., I find myself saccing it often though.
Shriek: To get rid of Tomes, Staffs, Antimatters etc.
Blood Moon: Great main draw, useful in both early and late game.

JD: The second key card, gives the deck deadly power.
WBT: Good and unlimited substitute, when you don't have JD.
Spectral Sabre: Universal card, I use it as a weapon or attachement destruction about 50/50. The damage of 2 can really help to win the game.


Saccing: Duplicities and cards you don't need against (or already have and can't be countered by) specific opponent or in specific situation. Occasional allies, CP and weapons according to


Enjoy and don't hesitate to share your experience!

:) very nice to play this deck !!!!!!!!!!!

I've been testing a very similar list. The changes I made to the list suggested by the OP are as follows:
-1 Morbid Acolyte
-1 Death-Mage Thaddeus
-2 Sacrificial Lamb
+2 Wrath of the Forest
+2 Lightning Hunter
+1 Death Collector

Lightning hunters are good to help take back board control, and just a good aggressive creature all around. Timing them to not blow up a Blood Moon or rob a point of SE can be tricky, but I feel like they're worthwhile. I'm not entirely sure about those WotF instead of Sacrificial Lamb, because it makes me somewhat more soft to Warriors and other Wulvens, but they tend to draw a shit ton of cards, and it will generally be difficult for the opponent to wear down the armor through attacks. Death Collector is in there to shut down recursion strategies mostly, plus he can get rather large. I took out DMT for him since the unique status irks me if I draw into multiples, plus Shadow Knight gets them back pretty well once they die, although I usually save him for Tiger Wulf or another SK.

Some problems I've noticed this deck had though, are basically anything that can gain a lot of life. I played some very grindy games against Zaladar, and any time he stuck an Infinity Core or even worse, a Soul Reaper, it was hard for me to come back because I would already be at ~10 life at that point, whereby he starts zapping me to death with Shadow Fonts. No fun. I haven't run into a good Zhanna control list yet either, but I'm kind of dreading when it does happen. Seems like it would be pretty tough, since she can gain life, kill our dudes, and blow up our weapons.

As far as good matchups, it seems to me that this list pretty much slaughters weenie rush type strategies. Nothing is more fun than watching them waste their first few turns with stuff like Kris and Puwen, while you open with Blood Moon -> Speed Strike -> Jeweler's Dream, leaving them with basically an empty hand and board after you kill off their little buggers, while you should have by now a dope weapon, plenty of cards in hand, and probably a dude or two on the table.

I'm not entirely sure if 2x Now You're Mine is necessary. I'm still running them so I'm not forced into putting Captured Prey onto stupid stuff, but I wonder if some lateral thinking might be applied to these slots. I've been considering trying 2x Lone Wolf or Rabid Bite here, but neither really seems optimal.

I wish there was a source of life gain that seemed to fit this list though. Regeneration is unimpressive, and Lone Wolf seems sort of at odds with the beat down strategy. Even though we only run 13 dudes (14 in mine,) the general idea is to have them stick around long enough to attack a bunch, so Lone Wolf would mostly be applied for stalling until you can reclaim board presence. Seems pretty meh.

Anyway though, I love this strategy, it's the non-burn-based beat down deck I had been looking for. I hope to take this list to around 280 or so (I'm around 220 now,) and I hope more people start testing it out and giving feedback. Cheers!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DukeDemonKn1ght

I've been testing a very similar list. The changes I made to the list suggested by the OP are as follows:
-1 Morbid Acolyte
-1 Death-Mage Thaddeus
-2 Sacrificial Lamb
+2 Wrath of the Forest
+2 Lightning Hunter
+1 Death Collector

Lightning hunters are good to help take back board control, and just a good aggressive creature all around. Timing them to not blow up a Blood Moon or rob a point of SE can be tricky, but I feel like they're worthwhile. I'm not entirely sure about those WotF instead of Sacrificial Lamb, because it makes me somewhat more soft to Warriors and other Wulvens, but they tend to draw a shit ton of cards, and it will generally be difficult for the opponent to wear down the armor through attacks. Death Collector is in there to shut down recursion strategies mostly, plus he can get rather large. I took out DMT for him since the unique status irks me if I draw into multiples, plus Shadow Knight gets them back pretty well once they die, although I usually save him for Tiger Wulf or another SK.

Some problems I've noticed this deck had though, are basically anything that can gain a lot of life. I played some very grindy games against Zaladar, and any time he stuck an Infinity Core or even worse, a Soul Reaper, it was hard for me to come back because I would already be at ~10 life at that point, whereby he starts zapping me to death with Shadow Fonts. No fun. I haven't run into a good Zhanna control list yet either, but I'm kind of dreading when it does happen. Seems like it would be pretty tough, since she can gain life, kill our dudes, and blow up our weapons.

As far as good matchups, it seems to me that this list pretty much slaughters weenie rush type strategies. Nothing is more fun than watching them waste their first few turns with stuff like Kris and Puwen, while you open with Blood Moon -> Speed Strike -> Jeweler's Dream, leaving them with basically an empty hand and board after you kill off their little buggers, while you should have by now a dope weapon, plenty of cards in hand, and probably a dude or two on the table.

I'm not entirely sure if 2x Now You're Mine is necessary. I'm still running them so I'm not forced into putting Captured Prey onto stupid stuff, but I wonder if some lateral thinking might be applied to these slots. I've been considering trying 2x Lone Wolf or Rabid Bite here, but neither really seems optimal.

I wish there was a source of life gain that seemed to fit this list though. Regeneration is unimpressive, and Lone Wolf seems sort of at odds with the beat down strategy. Even though we only run 13 dudes (14 in mine,) the general idea is to have them stick around long enough to attack a bunch, so Lone Wolf would mostly be applied for stalling until you can reclaim board presence. Seems pretty meh.

Anyway though, I love this strategy, it's the non-burn-based beat down deck I had been looking for. I hope to take this list to around 280 or so (I'm around 220 now,) and I hope more people start testing it out and giving feedback. Cheers!

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This is great post, thaks for sharing!

I'm making around 280 rating with this deck. I believe it could be even more after some tweaking, but i had rather bad luck today and lost a lot of games when I wasn't able to draw a single Blood Moon etc.

I tried to experiment with some Lightning Hunters too, but although they definitely aren't bad I removed them eventualy exactly because of tricky timing with BM and SE. However, I'm not sure of them yet.

Considering Death Collector - I don't think there is a point in running just 1 copy of an ally (save perhaps 5+ cc unique fatties) and he could be the right fellow to experiment with...

NYM - Still running them for the same reason like you, but I wouldn't really miss them probably. A low cost ally (perhaps Ironhide Kadash) or eventually the Lightning Hunter could be good substitution...

Dont underestimate regeneration. It can ve very useful and adding a FT or two to help with a b oard wipe if u need to gain control back isnt bad.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Snowstalker

I repost my article which originally appeared as a reply in this thread:


First of all, it's not my own deck idea, I've seen it watching a QM and I really liked it and wanted to try it myself. I'm impressed, how well this works. Credits go to the original author of the idea.

Deck:

I call it "Dancing Darkclaw", because Darkclaw equipped with Speedstrike and Jeweler's dream really seems to dance in a furious fast dance and together with his allies lets his opponent's blood just splash around.
.
.
.
Enjoy and don't hesitate to share your experience!

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At the beginning, Snowstalker, I am appreciated your article and it really helps a lot. As a similar experience, I was quite impressed by new v2.0 Darkclaw deck. Even I like Welven deck before. It's just not strong enough to compete high rank Mage/Banebow before v2.0.
After a long leaving, I am back for v2.0 and only climbed my rank up to 260. Also I got very good experiences from the fantastic Darkclaw deck.
Here is the link of my Darkclaw deck and there are some modifications. -- http://tools.shadowera.net/deck/show...g2c1i455534d25
From my experiences, I found that about 60% chance that I'll go second while quick matching(Well, don't question this since it's from statistics after I falled in love with the Darkclaw deck). Since that happens to me, I tried to find out a route that Darkclaw deck can go second and can tied up rush deck (or at least, not too far behind in board position). As a result, I came up with the deck I have now. I get some explanations and experiences to share and hope can help all the Darkclaw players.

I came up with 42+Hero deck. Analysing a deck by its resource curve, I will go from 2cc to 5 cc and everything will be clear.
2CC (Casting Cost)
Now You're Mine X3
Blood Moon X4
Sacrificial Lamb X1

We all know that v2.0 Blood Moon could be the best 2CC ability they made and I agree with that. In most of the cases, this stands truth. Against rush deck, Now You're Mine is almost must-have to use in 2nd turn or you will lose to burn spells/Multiple Mind Control Spells no matter how good your hand is. Sacrificial Lamb is utility card which you never cast at turn 2.

3CC
Death Mage Thaddeus X2
Morbid Acolyte X2
Regeneration X1
What a Big Teeth X3
Capture Prey X4
SpeedStrike X3

The last 3 kinds of cards are nothing to say. The reasons of reducing number on 3cc creatures are 1.They are not my most want at my 3rd turn. 2.Capture Prey stands out the best against rushing and Teeth is also more threaten. Even SpeedStrike frightens more with our best burst route (Discuss later). Regeneration is my personal favor and still testing so let's skip this one.

4CC
Lightning Hunter X3
Jeweler's Dream X4
Spectral Sabre X2

4CC weapons are no better things to say.(Everyone knows how good they are.) Lightning Hunter is the card discussed a lot and I think this welven having the best burst at turn 4. Route: Turn3 Speedstrike and turn 4 Jeweler's Dream + Lightning Hunter. It may be the best burst route while going first.
Note: With 5 resources, you cast Jeweler's Dream + attack and ,then, Speedstrike which can't get you the second attack. What a pitty. I wish this is program bug.:eek:

5CC
Shadow Knight X3
Plasma Behemoth X2
Tiger Wolf X3

I found out the only 5CC creature which will make Priest/Mage wipe the board is Behemoth. 7 Damages + 2 from teeth is not endurable by any hero ~~plus 4 ability damages are useful for any stealth creature.~~ Reducing Knight counts is because I don't want to have it before the other 5CC creatures dead. :D

Now the routes I plan to run. Go first(Of course easier) and Go Second. I make the best route at the top and the level decays.
From 2nd to 5th turn,
Go First:
1. Blood Moon --Speedstrike --Jeweler's Dream + Lightning Hunter --Plasma Behemoth/Tiger Wolf + 4 or less cards(What a Big Teeth/Capture Prey/Blood Moon + Now You're Mine)

2. Now You're Mine --Death Mage Thaddeus/Morbid Acolyte/What a Big Teeth -- Jeweler's Dream + Blood Moon/Lightning Hunter/Speedstrike(3x2 damage to clean the board)/Capture Prey --Plasma Behemoth/Tiger Wolf

Most important part of this article~~Go Second~~
1. Now You're Mine --Capture Prey -- Jeweler's Dream + Now You're Mine --Speedstrike(w/+2 Attack Twice) + Capture Prey/Lightning Hunter

2. Blood Moon --Capture Prey/Now You're Mine --Jeweler's Dream + Now You're Mine(better) -- Speedstrike (twice +3 attack) + best up to 9 resources used, for instances Speedstrike+Capture Prey+3CC creature.

3. Blood Moon --Speedstrike -- Jeweler's Dream(w/+2 Attack Twice) + Lightning Hunter -- 2 removals.

If you are still awake, I believe that you are the same Darkclaw lover as me. I am greatly thankful for your reading and hope this can help us beating diabolical Priest/Mage.

Final Note: Against Priest go second is not so much pressure. You may not need the best route to win. Use teeth(w/Speedstrike) to break their Wizent's Staff and save backup weapons. Use board position to make them Tide Wave. Remember that retreat can't deal with weapon/Lightning Hunter If you can catch Aeon Stormcaller/Armored Sandworms with Capture Prey/Tiger Wolf you will be fine.

Peace out.
From vampireyu (Shadow Era ID)

Nice post vampireyu !!! I love it and got a 5 win streak with almost same as ur deck at around 240 rank lol. I think the main core is Lightning Hunter and Dark Mage Thadeus , their damage ping works damn well with Darkclaw's damage output .

I have tweak abit though ,make it 3 Dmt 3 Lightning Hunter 2 Shadow Font and 2 Shriek for item destruction :)

Interesting deck! Was having fun against AI on test server. Just gotta build up $$$ to buy the cards on game server now!

T3: Speedstrike
I doubt this a little bit as you only include it 3 pieces, can you always have it on T3?
Thanks!

Nice explaination, I may test this one :