Critique my Boris Deck

[abazigal]

Here is my deck list. I find it fairly fun and effective, as I have the choice of mounting an early rush, or going slow like a control deck depending on how I draw. Currently, I find it does fairly well against weenie-intensive decks, amber, gravebone and to a certain extent, gwen. However, it seems quite swingy, and victory often hinges on drawing key cards at the right time. It also loses to Logan, DC or Eladwen unless they screw up somehow. Also, playing frenzy on turn2 is absolutely crucial for victory.

Basically, I would like some suggestions on how I can make it more consistent.

3 kris
4 birgitte
3 puwen
4 jasmine
3 aldon
1 aeon (currently farming for another one)

4 blood frenzy
2 enrage
2 crippling blow
2 retreat
2 war banner
2 misplaced
3 smashing blow
3 shield bash
3 valiant defender (my trump card against gwen, I cannot afford to take it out)
1 rampage (hardly gets used, will probably take it out)

2 jeweller's dream
1 king's pride

Total: 45 cards.

Any feedback is appreciated.

[pyrogene]

You yourself said T2 BF is critical so the easiest way to help with that is to cut the deck to 40 cards. Also include at least 2 Bad Santa in case you don't draw BF in your opening hand.

Aeon seems rather pointless. I would suggest Sandworm instead as he helps against all 3 heroes you mentioned having the most trouble with (Immune to DC's EA, Logan can't kill him with JD, lives through a nova.)

Agree with taking out the rampage. I would suggest taking out the shield bash too. Your ability+Jasmine should do fine. A single copy of King's Pride seems pointless too. I think it's a little dangerous to focus so strongly on Ally damage as you are very vulnerable to the board wipes. Would suggest more copies of JD and Berserker's Edge as well.

[Junk Style]

remove the 3 shield bashes, and remove the rampage (Edit: if you have one and you say you hardly use it, then you probably should remove it. Not really speaking to how good the card is). Add 2 Bad santas.

My two cents

[abazigal]

Agree with taking out the rampage. I would suggest taking out the shield bash too. Your ability+Jasmine should do fine. A single copy of King's Pride seems pointless too. I think it's a little dangerous to focus so strongly on Ally damage as you are very vulnerable to the board wipes. Would suggest more copies of JD and Berserker's Edge as well.

I find I can deal with board wipes quite okay. The trick is anticipating them and playing no more than 2 creatures on the board, relying on war banner (and king's pride later on) and perhaps aldon to beef them up. This way, their nova is much less efficient.

Still, I think I will probably look at adding more weapons, as I do sometimes face scenarios where it is hard for me to keep an ally on the table.

[Armoek]

I agree with dropping the shield bashes and the cards that you only have 1 of. If your going to use king's pride I think you need to use 2. I would also drop your valiant defender to 2 and add one smashing blow if gwen is a problem. Destroying gwens weapon will be much more game turning I would think. Also what is your reasoning for including misplace? I find that it is only really useful against a darkclaw deck so is a dead draw against most decks. Better off with the extra smashing blow I think. As for adding weapons I am not sure how well they perform with boris, however berzerker's edge is 10 damage for 5 cost if it is not destroyed, not too shabby.

[abazigal]

I agree with dropping the shield bashes and the cards that you only have 1 of. If your going to use king's pride I think you need to use 2. I would also drop your valiant defender to 2 and add one smashing blow if gwen is a problem. Destroying gwens weapon will be much more game turning I would think. Also what is your reasoning for including misplace? I find that it is only really useful against a darkclaw deck so is a dead draw against most decks. Better off with the extra smashing blow I think. As for adding weapons I am not sure how well they perform with boris, however berzerker's edge is 10 damage for 5 cost if it is not destroyed, not too shabby.

Yes, at the time of typing my post, I was also thinking of dropping misplaced. It was a holdover from my previous eladwen deck (which ran 4 misplaced to counter darkclaw's full moon). However, I find I am increasingly having lesser patience to take on darkclaw decks, and usually just auto-quit vs them now (sucking up the ratings drop; I have better things to spend my time on). I will likely be taking them out as well. For King's pride, it is more of a "nice to have in the late game" kind of card (I have no qualms about saccing it in the first round). I don't expect to have to rely on it to win, but it is nice to play all the same, so I think I will keep it at one.

As for valiant defender vs smashing blow...

I typically aim to play valiant defender on turn 4 or 5, right before the gwen player drops rapidfire and/or soul-seeker. The reason is that on the turn he does so, he is able to buff his bow and possibly attack twice for 4 damage each, usually killing off 2 of my allies and healing 6 life in the process, before I am able to respond with smashing blow on my turn. I find this turnaround of events quite hard to swallow, even if I am able to answer with smashing blow on my next turn.

Valiant defender prevents this because gwen cannot target my allies and heal, my Boris can easily soak up 8 damage for a turn or 2 while I wait to draw and/or respond with smashing blow. It's a combo that has never failed to grant me victory vs Gwen so far when I am able to play both cards in that order. I am thinking of running 4 smashing blows though, as I would like to be able to draw them more consistently.

Hope that answers your query.

[Junk Style]

keeping misplaced is still useful for DC and similar decks. You should be looking to have your boris deck have around 43 cards. No more than that.

I would personally also decide on 4 retreat or 4 CP. I personally like to have 4 of one so i can rely on a higher probability of seeing one card vs 2 of each and not being as confident of pulling one vs the other. However both are excellent with Boris, and it can be hard to decide which to use, so i understand splitting between the two.

[Armoek]

As for valiant defender vs smashing blow...

I typically aim to play valiant defender on turn 4 or 5, right before the gwen player drops rapidfire and/or soul-seeker. The reason is that on the turn he does so, he is able to buff his bow and possibly attack twice for 4 damage each, usually killing off 2 of my allies and healing 6 life in the process, before I am able to respond with smashing blow on my turn. I find this turnaround of events quite hard to swallow, even if I am able to answer with smashing blow on my next turn.

Valiant defender prevents this because gwen cannot target my allies and heal, my Boris can easily soak up 8 damage for a turn or 2 while I wait to draw and/or respond with smashing blow. It's a combo that has never failed to grant me victory vs Gwen so far when I am able to play both cards in that order. I am thinking of running 4 smashing blows though, as I would like to be able to draw them more consistently.

Hope that answers your query.

Thanks for the the insight into playing boris vs gwen. I have been recently playing some moonstalker and was thinking a valiant defender based deck could be good. Do you find the card useful against other heroes? I think in 1.3 might be quite powerful with less supernovas and more item destruction around.

[abazigal]

Thanks for the the insight into playing boris vs gwen. I have been recently playing some moonstalker and was thinking a valiant defender based deck could be good. Do you find the card useful against other heroes? I think in 1.3 might be quite powerful with less supernovas and more item destruction around.

It's
Valiant defender also sees some use against logan, who needs to attack your heroes to 1-shot them. It doesn't really work against plasma behemoth though, which I find is one of my deck's biggest weaknesses. Else, it is a rather context-specific card, useful only under a narrow subset of situations.

Some examples of when I have used valiant defender.

1) Enemy is running portal. I use it to prevent his hasted creatures from attacking and killing my allies. It basically turns Boris into a hero defender.
2) I am behind in the ally count. I may cast it to buy myself 1-2 rounds to summon more allies without fear of them being killed by my opponent's allies.
2) Enemy darkclaw goes invincible, I cast it to protect my own allies from his speedstriked teeth.

With enrage, I am fairly confident of soaking up a few rounds of attacks while building up my forces. I find that with Boris, you have to be prepared to take a beating early on and be comfortable with sitting at 1/2 or fewer life before you can establish board control. I don't find it that useful that I see myself running 4 copies of valiant defender though.