Lance Shadowpwner

[blueblurr]

I have been having a lot of success on the test server with this deck, so I thought I would share it with others. Anyone else bothered that Lance has "Shadow" in his name when he is a Human hero? Anyway, the title is because Lance can "pwn" most Shadow heroes who do not have access to Retreat!


THE DECK

Hero:
1x Lance Shadowstalker

Items:
4x Ill Gotten Gains
4x Anklebreaker

Abilities:
3x Bad Santa
4x Retreat!
4x Stop, Thief!

Allies:
4x Puwen Bloodhelm
4x Jasmine Rosecult
4x Priest of the Light
2x Aldon the Brave
3x Raven Wildheart
3x Aeon Stormcaller


CARD CHOICE RATIONALE

IGG: Great to keep up the tempo; Gravebone has to think twice before using Nova and bringing his allies back.
Anklebreaker: One of the best weapons in the game and very underestimated in my opinion; stops every T5 drop but Sandworm in its tracks. A disabled ally is a useless ally.

BS: Used mainly on T2 going first for card advantage when no Puwen is in hand, or when you absolutely must draw a card to win.
Retreat!: Bump fatties back into their owner's hands and continue hitting hard; great against Sandworms that Anklebreaker cannot touch.
S,T!: Invaluable against weapons/armor and mages' Research/DoU. The extra res will keep you up to speed when you draw poorly (rarely).

Puwen: Requires a FB/LS to take him out and can do noticable damage early on.
Jas: Good on T3, good on T5 with Lance's ability.
PoTL: I have been very, very pleased (and surprised) using PotL when going first to regain SE advantage. He can also be useful later to stop a next-turn SE ability or a desperation heal.
Aldon: Mostly used on T4 when IGG is not drawn or when you need to pump a T3 Jas/PotL to kill a 4-hp human ally.
Raven: The best ally to make use of Lance's ability; a hasted Raven is no joke.
Aeon: He easily wins games against decks that do not have cheap ally removal.


REJECTED CARDS

Assassination: As much as I tried to make use of the card, I found that Retreat! and Anklebreaker just did the job better. it works better in decks with Kris and Birgette, but I found that including these allies was just an excuse to add Assassination, and I was ultimately left low on cards and options.
Reconnaissance: Another one I tried to make work. Again, works better with many small allies, and that is just not the style of this deck. I find this card tries to be a jack-of all trades by offering three abilities in one card, but ultimately is a master of none.
Mugged!: As much as I hate to admit it, I think the old Mugged served a better purpose; or at least is was more unique in what it did. There's simply no need to run this card now. Between Anklebreaker, Retreat!, Jasmine's ability, and Raven's ability, the LAST thing the deck needs is more crowd control.
Nightshade: The fact that he already has ambush and stealth means that he is never a good candidate for Lance's ability. Even at 2hp now in the mage-heavy meta, Nightshade's ability just doesn't shine.
Dagger of Unmaking: Unlike Anklebreaker, DoU gives card advantage to your opponent and does not ultimately solve the problem. Plus, the rare King's Pride + Kris combo attacking you over and over will make you want to beat your head against the wall for playing this card.


GAMEPLAY

Gameplay differs slightly depending on if you go first or second due to card advantage and preferred SE manipulation.

Going first (ordered by preference, leftmost preferred)...
T1: hold
T2: Puwen or Bad Santa
T3: PotL or Jasmine or Aldon
T4: IGG or Aldon
T5: Raven (using Lance's ability) or Anklebreaker or Jasmine (using Lance's and Jasmine's abilities)
T6: Aeon

Going second (ordered by preference, leftmost preferred)...
T1: hold
T2: Puwen or hold
T3: Jasmine or Aldon or PotL
T4: IGG or Aldon or Jasmine (using Lance's ability to regain board control)
T5: This is the most interesting part of the deck. Going second on T5, you will have to respond to your opponent's T5 drop. Against any T5 ally but Plasma Behemoth, cast Raven with Lance's ability to cripple it. For PB, cast Anklebreaker.
T6: Aeon

Remember, these are all "ideal" situations. Use Retreat! when you must; just be aware of the card advantage it gives to your opponent. I have frequently used an ally my opponent Retreated to my hand as a resource to bring out an even scarier threat.


SPECIAL NOTE ON MOONSTALKER

Because the meta is currently so mage-heavy, I have not seen many MS decks floating around. This is good news for Lance, since much like warriors he is hard-countered by MS's ability. My one word of advice against MS is to never EVER sac a Retreat. Use them wisely and only when the ability is activated. Play very smart and with a little luck, you should come out on top.


FINAL WORDS

That's it! Interested to hear feedback from others. I've been tweaking the number of copies of each card, but still very open for more tweaking. You can watch replays of me playing the deck on the test server, IGN blueblurr.

Thanks for reading!

[Larus]

As a shadow hero player I dislike it, I dislike it an awful lot!
But serious by playing mostly Moonstalker on the testserver I faced many Lance player. And when I reconsider how I beat them, or how I get beaten by them I must admit that your deck and strategy have no obvious weakspott. The 3 Bad Santa in your deck might be absolutly necessary when you opponent have a better start as you. Rouge which rely totaly on IGG gets too often overwhelmed.

Also I just must agree to you that a good managnet with Retreat is the key to success since you don't use Assasination or DoU. You allie choise might be discussable and also their number, but I think this is more a question of personal preferences. So i think this deck has a lot of potential. I hope it will get not used too often

[Preybird]

So this is the deck that took so many games off me This deck works, and works well.

Thanks for sharing Blurr!

[blueblurr]

So this is the deck that took so many games off me This deck works, and works well.

Thanks for sharing Blurr!

Haha Preybird, I do feel like you played against this deck a LOT. Thank you for testing as well as the kind words. I decided to share the deck with the hopes more people would use it and I could start to find its weaknesses.

[Montanx]

Blue, great deck here. You prob shouldn't even be posting it but great nonetheless. I like the choices and even the lack of assassinate.

One problem...loses to pedrinholol57 :P :P

[psychobabble]

This looks like a beast. One of those decks that you're going to be seeing every man and his dog netdeck and play on the live server.

[glencocoe]

....your post was misleading lol...I saw shadowspawn and thought it was a shadowspawn deck, but it's not.

But besides that, nice job...I'd take out IGG though...in a tight game, you're gonna lose tempo...black garb might help, but idk...

[Preybird]

....your post was misleading lol...I saw shadowspawn and thought it was a shadowspawn deck, but it's not.

But besides that, nice job...I'd take out IGG though...in a tight game, you're gonna lose tempo...black garb might help, but idk...

One thing Lance has few problems with is tempo. Giving any one ally haste is a HUGE advantage.

So:
Turn 4 IGG (loss of tempo)
Turn 5 Raven Hasted (Return of tempo)

[blueblurr]

I have tried the deck without IGG, and it's still good. Problem is that you WILL run out of cards and you start playing the topdeck game. I'm not saying IGG is a great draw engine (it's really not). It rewards you when you are doing well (much like King's Pride, it is a "win more" card at times). But it is the only unilateral draw engine available to rogues and it's better than no draw engine. Maybe it's just me being silly, but I feel better with 4 of them in my deck.

[blueblurr]

Blue, great deck here. You prob shouldn't even be posting it but great nonetheless. I like the choices and even the lack of assassinate.

One problem...loses to pedrinholol57 :P :P

Dude, that guy and his 58 card Eladwen played against my Boris today. I T3 Blood Frenzy, guess his T4...

He has the perfect counter every. single. time. It is redonkulous. I ragequitted