Baby's first Declk - Lance 1.28 (Based on Rush in the Shadpws v1)

Hello folks,
I just started playing this game about 2-3 days ago. I love that you get all the good stuff with CCG, without having to worry about the bad stuff (like the smell of gamers, trying to sell your shitty cards, did I mention the smell of gamers?)

Anyway, I based a deck off of "Rush in the Shadow" (thanks for the post!)

I have been having some luck, and it is GREAT, and fun against decks that are based on allies. But effectively, it is luck alone that allows me to win against item decks, and mages SUCK to go against. I think I beat one mage, but the dude had 152 cards in his deck, and never pulled a draw engine.

Anyway... Here is my deck. I love how fast it is, is there any way to defend against mages (and items a little more) while not slowing the deck down?

Hero - Lance

Personality:
Kristoffer Wyld - 4
Puwen Bloodhelm - 2
Birgitte Skullborn - 4
Blake Windrunner - 4
Aldon the Brave - 4
Nightshade - 4


Abilities:
Assassination - 3
Reconaissance - 3
Stop Thief! - 4
Retreat! - 3
Bad Santa - 4

Card Total: 40 (Please note, I found even going to 45 cards slowed me down, so I am wary to do so... but I am open to suggestions)

Rational:

Kristopher Wyld
Fast easy damage at the beginning of the game, and gives a target that I find expendable after they are out.

Puwen Bloodhelm
I used to have 4 of them, but at the cost of 3 they were not worth it and seemed to slow my deck down a lot. So I pulled 2, left 2 for those times when I need a couple more HP to maintain board dominance.

Birgitte Skullborn
I love her, she is the core of my strategy, and when you hit her with aldon, she can do some minimal damage while keeping pressure off the rest of my cards when the opponent is Targetting instead of Attacking

Blake Windrunner
I was weary to add him because of his HPs, but with a cost of 2, and 3 damage I think of him more as a cheap "special delivery" (using lance's ability) that may stick around for a round to do it again.

Aldon the Brave
This dude IS the lynch-pin of my deck. Forget Lance, Aldon is the hero of my deck! His +1, plus some health to soak up the beats makes him so good.

Nightshade
They are the secondary Lynch-pin of my deck, with stealth, and an assassination or two used, plus not being able to be attacked (although mages pop them in a heartbeat)

Assassination
I hate Gargoyles... Gargoyles hate assassination

Reconaissance
The amount of games I have won because I saw the other dudes cards, drew a stop thief, then rolled over the hero with Black at 5 damage...

Stop Thief!
This is my only defense against Items, Other than trying to stealth past them.

Retreat!
I love these kinds of cards, in Legend of the Five Rings the Scorpion had so many cards like this that could be used on either player, and can be nifty tricky. I hope that there are more rogue abilities like this in the future.

Bad Santa
This is my only card drawing engine. I tried Ill-Gotten gains, but it's cost was too high for this deck, and it slowed me down to much in the early game... and well in the late game... If I am in the late game I have lost so there is no point.

Strategy:

I tried the "Rush in the Shadow" deck straight, and it was fine, but I could not crack 90 rating. The above deck has me floating between 170-190. I tweeked it and added cards, and beefier personalities, but it caused me to lose constantly because it slowed me down, it even with the beef it didn't have the ability to get rolling and gain board dominance. This deck can run okay off of 4 resources, well off of 5 resource, and 6 resources is the sweet spot. At 6 resources there can be a board wipe, and I can have 3-5 allies back on the field next turn.

Weakness:
Dependance on retreats (to unlock my guys from wounds, etc), BS, and Stop, Thief!: If I get a bad draw and do not have a couple of retreats/BS it will stall against warriors. Although non-item based hunters and warriors are usually easy.

Item decks: If they get items early (round 5) while locking me out from my first major wave of peons against the hero I lose.

Mages: with the low health of my allies, Mages pop 1-2 (or supernova them all) every round, and I can rarely get rolling. These are target abililties so my main defense of stealth means nothing. Effectively, I am WWII Stalingrad Russians and the mage are Maxim Machine guns.... BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA splat.

I love the tricks, that is why I like Rogues, because you have to play smart. So a solution of bigger allies is kinda against that philosophy. Can you think of anything that I could do to keep the speed of this deck while somehow defending against target abilities?

Mages usually win games by beating you in a death race, they kill you before you kill them. They mostly use burn spells like Fireball instead of a lot of allies. Although their spells are devastating and the damage form them is unpreventable at the moment there is a major downside. Unlike allies who can constantly swing at you for damage burn spells are only a one shot deal, so there is a set amount of damage that they can do with the spells in their deck. Along with limited spell damage mages also have almost no way to gain life. With this in mind the best way to beat a mage in their death race is to constantly gain a good amount of life. Unfortunately as rogues we don't have any good life gain besides Crimson Vest and since mages don't usually play many creatures it's not very reliable, also it won't prevent any damage from spells. As for board wipes like Supernova just remember that the allies in your hand won't be affected by it so just remember not to overextend if you suspect that one is coming.

My suggestion:
-4 nightshade
+3 Marshland sentential
+1 assassination
-3 reconnaissance
+3 Jasmine

edit: also assassinate will get you out of many sticky spots be sure to use it in combination with Kristoffer for an instant ally removal for 4cc.

Looks good....
I'll try it,It is very fast as compared to other rogue decks,Remind me of the 30 Cards version I use to play in v1.27
I haven't played Rogue from very long time,Maybe it's time to switch back to Lance.... ;-)

Look up "Namok" in challenge to see a very good rogue deck in action. I've only seen him using his Lance deck and wins much more often in the 300+ ratings than he loses. I've watched several games and he consistently beats popular heroes like Eladwen, Logan, and Darkclaw. That alone should give you a good handle on how to build and play a competitive Rogue deck. (Or Lance deck at least. Serena blows...)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by legacy14

Look up "Namok" in challenge to see a very good rogue deck in action. I've only seen him using his Lance deck and wins much more often in the 300+ ratings than he loses. I've watched several games and he consistently beats popular heroes like Eladwen, Logan, and Darkclaw. That alone should give you a good handle on how to build and play a competitive Rogue deck. (Or Lance deck at least. Serena blows...)

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I saw his games. Looks good and he uses Mugged!

So, I tried the cards that got suggested at the top. I just have a hard time with the sentinels, at a cost of 4 they are slow to bring out, and in 10 games I never got a chance to use their ability once. But I made the other changes, while keeping the shades... Oh and I added dirk for his attack ability and higher health. Have not tested it yet on anything but tht AI

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brinan

So, I tried the cards that got suggested at the top. I just have a hard time with the sentinels, at a cost of 4 they are slow to bring out, and in 10 games I never got a chance to use their ability once. But I made the other changes, while keeping the shades... Oh and I added dirk for his attack ability and higher health. Have not tested it yet on anything but tht AI

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Your own deck is good....

Well except it still has that issue of dying against mages.

Okay, here is what my deck looks like now. I have added the 3XJasmine, and pulled Puwen It seems to give me just enough health to be able to survive (I just won 6 games in a row, two of which were item decks). Now I have been playing with strategy against Mages. Trying to make a "fake" first wave that they nuke, and while they are generating SE I hit them with the "real" Adlan wave. Still open to suggestions.

Hero - Lance

Personality:
Kristoffer Wyld - 4
Jasmine Rosecult - 3
Birgitte Skullborn - 4
Blake Windrunner - 4
Aldon the Brave - 4
Nightshade - 4


Abilities:
Assassination - 4
Reconaissance - 2
Stop Thief! - 4
Retreat! - 3
Bad Santa - 4

Card Total: 41

WOOO! I beat a Gwenneth deck. I only drew one "Stop, Thief!" but was able to power through with stealth and just taking it with the higher health dudes. I actually don't think my hero got hit at all or if he did, only once or twice... but damn my personalities died.