*** UPDATED FOR META ***
I've updated Oathbreakers for the new meta. I have carefully analyzed this deck and refined it for over a month of solid playing and it's seriously kick-ass. The synergy of each and every card is totally maximized. Not a single card has gone to waste, so the opportunity for combos is extremely high, leading to some really fun and creative play. This deck requires you known your opponents card pool by heart, so it is not for beginners. If you are tired of getting pounded by amber, eladwen, lance, and banebow, then take this one out for a spin. Just be prepared to get comfortable when your health is < 10 because that's when the fun is just getting started.
Cards:
Zhanna Mist - Same as before. You need her S.E. to stay alive as long as possible. This is made even easier now with the inclusion of Healing Touch. Never use her ability unless she is below 15 health. Save it for your allies in the late game. Be comfortable with having really low health the whole game. Many games I end up with <8 health and still easily win by outdrawing my opponent.
Armored Sandworm - Such a great card in this meta. Virtually unstoppable against mages and warriors. Now with healing touch, there is even more synergy against crippling blow, ankle breaker, and Eladwen's freeze. Also remember a ghost-maker sandworm has 1 health but still requires 3 hits to die, making it stick on the board longer. The real fun is when Kings Pride comes out. Early game, sac this card, but try to keep 3 in play for mages.
Synergies:
- Curse: nullifies enemy ravens against your sandworm!
- Ghostmaker: not ideal use for ghost maker, but sandworms are extremely hard to kill even with 1 health.
Earthen Protector - I used to use this card for additional synergy with tainted oracle, but I've found this causes you to draw TOO MANY cards. Yes, it's actually possible to draw too fast. Since this deck doesn't have any low CC allies, I find earthen less useful for this purpose. Instead, he is 100% dedicated to the winning condition of Earthen Protector + Aeon. Aim for an Aeon + EP drop on turn 11 to seal the game. You may not think you'll live that long, but with King's Pride to soak up damage, curse, smite, and healing touch, you'll be fine. Sac in early game. You really only need 1 in play per game. Don't be afaid to kill him off early either as a ghostmaker EP is so incredibly awesome if you put down an Aeon on top of it.
Synergies:
- Aeon: If you can get aeon and Earthen Protector on the board at the same time, you just won the game.
- Ghostmaker: awesome combo: attack with Earthen, suicide a tainted or aeon against a fatty, then bring earthen back to life with ghost maker.
Aeon Stormcaller - Last paragraph sums it up. Don't use ghost maker on him. Instead, let him soak damage, crippling blows, freeze, etc, and throw down an EP behind him. Don't be afraid to use healing touch on him to keep your other allies protected.
Synergies:
- Earthen Protector: If you can get aeon and Earthen Protector on the board at the same time, you just won the game.
Tainted oracle - aim to drop this on turn 4. If your opening hand has more than 1, sac it right away. If your opening hand has tainted and wizents, sac wizents staff. Never heal tainted oracle. It's only purpose is to draw cards, so kill him ASAP. The key to making this work is to be sure you play a card on turn 3 (curse, smite) so when you play tainted you have only 4 cards left in your hand. If you have 5, you'll actually lose 1 card draw if tainted dies! Better to waste a smite early. Resurect him with ghost-maker as many times as you can. Seriously amazing draw. 100% better than wizents staff, and become a very sizeable threat once king's pride drops.
Synergies:
- Ghostmaker: Shadow Era's most powerful drawing engine.
- King's Pride: becomes a solid 4/3 ally for late game damage and if he dies, even better!
Healing Touch - key card against the mage-heavy meta, and heavily undervalued. Most people don't realize that healing touch can be used to negate any negative effects!! Dominates Eladwen's freeze, Lance's anklebreaker, jasmine's ability, crippling blow, poison, flame, and great to keep Zhanna alive. It's really just as good as a fireball, if not better. It's 4 health to you, which is the same as -4 health to your opponent, plus it can be a game changer to bring back a crippled sandworm that was left on the board. Think twice before sacing this card. I would choose to sac smite or king's pride, or even a sandworm over this card.
Synergies:
- Nullifies any status ailment.
- Ghostmaker: Can heal a freshly resurrected sandworm or earthen protector.
Tidal Wave - THE key card in the priest deck. Against mages, you'll probably only need 1-2 to kil the early weenie rush. Wait until your opponent has at least 5 points of attack on their ally board before using it. If less than 5, just keep throwing down tainted oracles and smites to soak up damage until they drop their fatty. The goal of this card is not to destroy the enemy's ally line. (Although that's a nice side-effect). The main goal is to starve your enemy's card supply. Has awesome synergy with a crippled or stunned tainted oracle. Against blood frenzy, you may need all 4 so do not hesitate to sac a healing touch or smite or king's pride to keep these around.
Synergies:
- Tainted Oracle: Smack hero for 2, then suicide this poor guy. Even better if he's been crippled.
Focused Prayer - Use this to destroy drawing engines and enemy armor. Your biggest threats are Wrath of the Forest (!), Research, and the super annoying Dimension Ripper. All armors block your drawing engine, so they need to be removed ASAP. Everything comes down to this: You must not allow your opponents to draw cards, and you must kill as many of your tainted oracles as possible. They need to be top-decking and capped at <8 resources. Meanwhile you will be at 11-12 with a full deck of allies, and probably <10 health, but that's ok because you are zhanna and have a massive 16 points of healing touch available to you!
Smite - Great surprise card. Use these against early weenie rush puwen, priest of the light, nightshade, erika. In mid game, sac these in favor of tidal wave. In late game they can be great to squeeze out those few extra hit points against that pesky mage who just nuked you twice and is now <5 health also. You will find yourself having to choose whether to play this or curse on turn 3. Always play curse, but if none is available, ALWAYS play a turn 3 card, esepcially if you go second, or you'll end up with a full deck and blocked draw come turn 4, 5, which is bad bad bad.
Synergies:
- Wizent's staff: Use wizent's staff as a 4th hit point to finish off any 4 health ally like aldon, bad wolf, death mage thaddeus.
- Smite: Synergy with itself for a surpise mini-rush on the hero near the end of the game!
Curse - A killer card and the ideal turn 3 drop. Tip: Known your opponent's item destruction! Against human mages and warriors, they can not destroy this card since it's immune to ley line nexus, so if you have duplicates, sac them! Shadow folk can use Shriek, so keep a spare. (I actually like when they shriek it because it does them more harm than good. They just don't realize it yet). This card is key to surviving mage early rushes. Add up how much health this card saves you over the entire game and it will usually amount to >10 extra hit points! Since this is a control deck, the longer you last, the more value this card has!
Synergies:
- Healing Touch: Use healing touch + curse to keep Zhanna alive for as long as you need while you wait for the tidal wave.
- King's Pride: You don't have a lot of allies, so curse + King's pride makes your enemies worth a lot more than your oppoent, so you don't need the increased quantity that they require.
