Help critique my no-frills budget Amber deck

[abazigal]

After some time with Zaladar, I felt it was time to move on to another hero. Amber, in this case, since I find that the warrior and mage playstyles appeal to me the most. From purchasing 3 human warrior starters + some grinding, I have managed to cobble together the following decklist, partly inspired by earlier threads about flexi-amber and winning the death race.

1 amber

4 kris
4 puwen
4 jasmine
3 aldon

4 blood frenzy
4 retreat
4 jeweller's dream
4 rusty longsword
4 smashing blow
2 enrage
2 war banner

It's fairly straightfoward in games, somewhat like the melee version of eladwen. I am purposely leaving bad santa because I can never seem to time it right, so I found myself saccing it for most part. It's currently hovering ~ 200; I realised it seems like eladwen-lite. Can tango with a fair part of the competition, but not quite enough to hang out with the big boys.

I haven't yet faced gwen or darkclaw (the 4 smashing blows was intended to take on 4 big teeth head on). Any general suggestions on card choices or even play-style? Also, is it better to play blood frenzy in place of an ally on turn2, or wait till turn4 to combo with jeweller's dream, and when you have a stronger ally base? Or even tips and advice would be welcome.

Thanks all in advance.

[Raphael Majere]

The famous Puwen vs BF on t2 debate.

It depend on who I face. What I have in hand, what my deck concept and direction is. In all, many many factors.

If my opponent goes first and does a t1 kris/Skullborn and does not have a t2 puwen, I would usually do a t2 puwen. If I have JD in hand, I might choose to let Kris/skullborn survive till t4 and do t4, JD/Puwen, t2 BF.

If I go first, I usually do t2 puwen first, esp if I have aldon.

[abazigal]

Ah, one of the progenitors of this deck has graced my thread!

Also, I find that I have few issues with drawing against darkclaw. I just auto-sac blood frenzy while waiting out and slowly destroying their teeth as they play it. With enrage, I have more than enough stamina to tank their jeweller's dream/predator fangs. Unless my luck is really bad and my 4th smashing blow is the last card in my library, they typically end up with no means of killing me. However, since my allies invariably die to bad ascendent, I have no ways of finishing them either, so I just wait with 7 cards in hand and no cards in library. My weapons cannot hope to outrace lone wolf.

Eventually, we settle for a draw (though some try to be funny and want to wait it out, but I point out that on a 27' imac, I have more than ample time to "waste" by letting it run in the background while I do other stuff). Are games vs darkclaw typically like this? I am starting to miss eternal renewal and shriek already...

[pyrogene]

Don't think you can easily handle DC with this. DC can do a minimum of (3+3)*4=24 dmg just with WBT assuming you destroy it straight away so all he needs is 2 other weapons like JD and Fang to have a good chance to kill you. Not to mention it's unlikely for you to destroy it straight after he plays every time. And that is only just to play for a draw. 2 X Misplaced may help but with low health allies only, it would be difficult for you to get sufficient board presence to kill him in 1 or 2 turns IMO. Usually I think you need to either run King's Pride (or Snow Sapphire XD) or high CC allies (Sandworm/Raven) to have a realistic chance to kill DC. If not you will just have to hope that he has bad luck.

TL;DR version: Difficult to beat DC consistently without quite major changes and compromising on some other matchups.

Also, once you start seeing Logan every other match, Skullborn would be worth including too.

[Junk Style]

if you are running 4 jas and two warbanners, I think you might be better served using Bridgette over kris.

[abazigal]

I am still playing this deck on and off, and am recently looking at obtaining some armour. I am stuck between snow sapphire and king's pride.

Which do you feel would be more useful? Snow sapphire can be useful when fending off hordes, king's pride buffs my allies (and I do use them quite a bit).