Replacement for Morbid Acolyte in BB deck

I've been using BaneBow for quite a while, tweaking my deck when I find shortcomings. Lately I noticed that Morbid Acolyte just isn't cutting it and ends up being sacrificed instead of actually hitting the board. If I do actually get him out thanks to not drawing a better T3/4 drop, he's at best a distraction/meat shield/waste of enemy weapon durability. I'm usually ranked around 200-230 (at best), and I feel like I plateaued here.

My deck looks like this:

1x Banebow

4x Plasma Behemoth
4x DMT
4x Shadow Knight
4x IK
4x Morbid Acolyte
3x Death Collector

2x Flaming Arrow
2x Acid Jet
1x Sever Ties
4x Perfect Shot
3x Bloodthirsty

4x Soul Seeker

As good as WotF may be, I prefer to use Bloodthirsty as my draw engine since I don't have to lose an ally to draw, plus the added attack is nice. I usually slap it on DMT early game, or PB mid to late.

Changes I'm considering, and my thinking behind them:
-1 DMT: He's unique, so 4 may be overkill. He's pretty meaty (vs. 2-3 cost allies) and I can usually keep him on the board for a good while between his ability, BB's ability, and Perfect Shot if I really have to burn one.

-4 Morbid Acolyte: Like I said, he's early game sac, and late game useless. I don't really find myself having an issue with ally abilities. Plus, the 2 resource I'd use on his ability can be better spent elsewhere IMO.

-1 PB and/or SK: 8 5cc allies may be too much, especially if they clog up my earlier game which happened a few times lately.

+3/4 Infernal Gargoyle: Meat shields, and durability wasters. Solid against similar cost allies like DMT and I can have more than one.

+3 Carniboar: Decent synergy with PS and BB's ability, BUT easily removed by card/abilities like Now You're Mine that kill of low cc allies. Probably not worth it, but putting it out there.

+3/4 Wulven Tracker: Another source for draw, plus I don't currently have any 4cc allies. Only negatives I see are only 2 attack, and 4 health. By the time he's on the board, something is usually on the horizon to eat him.

+1 Flaming Arrow: It's been good to me. Not sure how else to describe how many times it's helped turn the tide, whether it's zapping a gargoyle/sandworm or flaming fatty fall down with FA/BB ability/DMT.

+2/3 Poison Arrow: Has its uses for slowing things down if I start to get overwhelmed, but I've been getting by OK with just FAs.

+1/2 Magma Jackal: Nice for one-shotting bigger enemy allies... but... that's about it. Maybe scratch this one unless someone has found better ways to use him?

+? Kairos Doombringer: Not sure if I should even include him. His ability is pretty boss, plus I can slap Bloodthirsty on him for added oomph. Usually my late-game is plopping down PBs (and firing off their ability) and SK looping.

+1/2 Contaminated Water: Dropping enemy ally health is critical for me, plus making them waste SE to get rid of it is handy. Obviously useless vs. solo decks, but I don't have too much trouble with them so far, except a beastly control Zaladar I played this morning (QuickPostMaster if anyone's curious).

+2/3 Pride of the Mountain: Inverse WotF! I feel like this is a card I should be using. Are there any real shortcomings to it in a BB deck, especially since I tend to focus on killing off allies?

My play style is pretty simple: pick off allies as they come, whittle down hero health as I can. My first few turns usually play out close to this, regardless of going first or second:

T1: just sac, usually MA
T2: IK
T3: DMT/IK/Death Collector. If a particularly mean opposing ally is out, I might FA him.
T4: Same as T3. If I drop another IK and DC is out, he'll eat the ally I killed last turn.
T5: SS/PB/SK ONLY if I have a spare for looping. Otherwise I'll drop a 3cc and another IK or DC ability depending on what's out.

After that, like I said, I go after the allies with DC eating whenever I have spare resources to prevent any sort of resurrections/reshuffles.

If you're still here after all my rambling, thanks for reading, and for any suggestions you may have.

I think you need to change your play style a little. Never, and I repeat never, sac a Morbid Accolyte. I only play with human heroes and MA is probably one of the best card in any Shadow hero deck. It's a menace.
As for drawing cards, Wotf is awesome. You might wanna add a couple of Bad Santas, and drop the idea of using Pride of the Mountain, it just doesn't work with Banebow.
I might use 2 Poison Arrows instead of Flaming Arrows because of their ability to disable the ally.
I think Kairos would be a good idea. Also, try replacing PB with Furion Terror.

Pride of the Mountain only works when you kill an ally in combat. It doesn't work when you kill an ally with an ability( including Banebow's ability).

Ultimately, you'll do better with cards you feel comfortable using than cards that other people tell you to use, but there are few comments I'd like to make about your deck.

You definitely need better draw. 6-7 is about the right number of draw cards for most decks. Wrath of the Forest is good because it lets you come back from a losing position where the opponent has control over the board. With it, you can keep dropping threats and make the opponent respond to them, and everytime they do, you get your hand replenished to drop more threats. Its also harder to get rid of than allies, so it'll stick around a lot longer than someone with bloodthirsty (who will be the opponents top priority).

Morbid acolyte is a genuinely good card, and there is a chance you aren't using him effectively, but there is also a chance that the meta in your rating range doesn't tend to play the kind of threats that Morbid is so awesome at neutralizing. If you face a lot of allied moonstalker, he's amazing, as moonstalker has to prioritize getting rid of the acolyte before he can make his ability stick.

The problem with carniboar is not just that he is easy to remove, but that he is also very weak when you go second, to the point of not being able to kill most of the common T2 drops, and being able to be killed by almost all of them (exception would be something like Champion of Irum, IF he isn't followed by aldon, and IF you play something like flaming arrow to get it into kill range. Thats a lot of luck just to make a subpar opener stick for a single turn)

Magma Jackal will die to ability damage most of the time, weapon damage some of the time, and weenies the rest of the time. The games where he is actually worth anything will be rare. Wulven tracker will die or be disabled before he gets used most of the time, and when he sticks, he'll mostly just be a winmore card (but not a very good one).

Thanks for the input! I'll be trying a few things out using the second deck slot (that I just noticed existed!):

My first change will be to drop the MAs for WotFs. I know you both said that MA is a great card, but I think luminosg is right: in my current ranking range I don't get into situations where he can be fully utilized. Most of my losses come from lack of draws.

I also think I'm going to drop Bloodthirsty and put some Poison Arrows in. Like Daddy said, disabling allies will definitely come in handy.

I'm still on the fence about Kairos, I'll try with and without him and see what happens.

Once I'm in situations where I see uses for MA, I'll probably just sub out a WotF and a Poison Arrow, and Kairos if he's still lingering and I don't end up using him too much.

Thanks again for your thoughts!

I would prioritize Infernal Gargoyle over Acolyte. Acolyte is more of the beefy utility ally.

Also you need more draw. WotF and Sac Lamb are fairly standard BB fodder.

Not sure what reasoning you are using for not using Gargoyles, but they are pretty much required in the current meta, they are by far the best 3cc.

WotF is on the same case, BB without WotF falls due to lack of draw so as previous post says, pride of the mountain sucks big time in BB, so 4 wotF and 2-3 sac lambs are the main draw engine of any competitive BB deck.

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Originally Posted by GreyMouser

Not sure what reasoning you are using for not using Gargoyles, but they are pretty much required in the current meta, they are by far the best 3cc.

WotF is on the same case, BB without WotF falls due to lack of draw so as previous post says, pride of the mountain sucks big time in BB, so 4 wotF and 2-3 sac lambs are the main draw engine of any competitive BB deck.

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Now raven gambit

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rivozzz

Now raven gambit

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Yep this only applies for DP, in SF I still think that WotF is the best draw engine for BB but now you can also use Raven's Gambit and maybe drop the number of WotF to 3 or 2

Ive always only.run 3 wotf in bb. Sk helps with draw. Against some heroes you wont be able.to keep wotf up