Shadow Stalker (Moonstalker) [1.503]

[Keaven]

Considering how strong rogues are now I have created this hidden MS deck as a direct counter that also functions against other heroes. If you are getting frustrated with battling through the masses of Rogues that are sure to come replacing the gauntlet of Eladwen in early ranks, this deck is for you.

Current Deck (44):

1 x Moonstalker

(0 Allies)

3 x Captured Prey
2 x Speedstrike
4 x What Big Teeth
3 x Regeneration
3 x Rabid Bite
4 x Lone Wolf
3 x Shadow Font
3 x Rain Delay
4 x Master Smith
(29 Abilities)

4 x Evil Ascendant
4 x Bazaar
3 x Shadow Armour
3 x Crescendo
(14 Items)

I was only starting to refine it on the test server before it went live so I will post changes/updates here as the game evolves now it is live if I stick with it for any length of time.

Demonstration play list below.

Vs Majiya:



The latest version for my Milstalker build is currently in testing:

Current Deck (60)
1 x Moonstalker

3 x Furion Terror
2 x Tiger Wulf
(5 allies)

3 x Captured Prey
4 x Now You're Mine
2 x Speedstrike
2 x Regeneration
2 x Full Moon
4 x Lone Wolf
4 x Shadow Font
4 x Bad Santa
3 x Master Smith
4 x Full Moon
2 x Thick Hide
(34 abilities)

4 x Evil Ascendant
4 x Bazaar
4 x Arthyle's Crypt
2 x Scythe of Fate
2 x What Big Teeth
2 x Spectral Saber
2 x Crescendo
(20 items)

[Drakkon]

I'd recommend going -1 Lone Wolf +1 Speed Strike.

[Keaven]

I'd recommend going -1 Lone Wolf +1 Speed Strike.

I find that with such a fat deck healing is more important than double attacks because unlike the ally-less Darkclaw decks of old, there is no damage reduction when you may need to attack and kill allies to survive waiting for cards (other than armour which can take too long to save you), primarily against shadow heroes with Death Mage Thaddeus and Plasma Behemoth of course. If it were a 40 card deck I would go more Speedstrike for sure because it could be more aggressive and ignore allies altogether, but this works more as a deck destruction strategy.

Start by casting Shadow Armour to make them fear continuous hiding often resulting with them summoning more allies into your What Big Teeth + Evil Ascendant and hoping to bleed you when they die. When the durability runs out switch into Crescendo for deck destruction and Ley Line Nexus baiting while you are hiding.

[uptoolayte]

This deck is evil, starts out like they're going to beat you, but then it slowly dawns on them that you can outlast everything they have and the slow death causes them to leave a lot. Haven't lost yet, but only been about 5 games. Any new tips?

[Keaven]

This deck is evil, starts out like they're going to beat you, but then it slowly dawns on them that you can outlast everything they have and the slow death causes them to leave a lot. Haven't lost yet, but only been about 5 games. Any new tips?

Your first 10 cards and SE are more important than your HP (except the last of it of course). Use them wisely and try and keep your HP only above the maximum they can take in one turn if the match gets tight. It is often better to not sack early if you draw too many crucial cards too soon. The perfect start is Bazaar T2, Lone Wolf T4, all other set ups can vary and be situational, such as What Big Teeth Vs Evil Ascendant on T3.

You will start to struggle later in the ranks. I'm currently running a solo Boris deck because it is very difficult to remove cards from this deck but it is still too large to be consistent and I've tried decreasing cards without much success. As it is a slow deck it requires more patience to refine than I currently have for it. I dabbled with a few changes before trying other decks, other useful cards are:

Full Moon (I prefer rain delay because it is safer to use when Crescendo is out Vs Rogues).
Here Be Monsters (I find this card works much better in thinner decks though).
Selfishness might actually help this deck because Aeon can cause a bit of trouble if you don't get Rabid Wolf when you need it. If you can combine this card with Captured Prey Vs Aeon being unique a human is in trouble.
Acid Jet (item destruction always good)
Shriek Of Vengeance (I wouldn't use without Here Be Monsters which starts to inflate your deck more)
Sever Ties
Bad Santa

You could possibly try to exchange 2 (or more) cards for Shadow Knights, but you need to draw them late and you may need a Sacrificial Lamb or two in case one gets stranded. With Evil Ascendant destroyed or still in your deck.

Shadow Font is actually less needed in this deck than it would seem and can be reduced or removed if the support card balance is good.

Probably the biggest problem with this strategy and how important Rabid Bite is, the ally almost always attacks the Hero which is fine if it has a weapon, but without it not so useful as you need to be taking down the fat allies you are saving the card for so retaliation damage is important.

[Ramirez Delgado]

Hi Keaven,

so YOU start the new era of allyless MS? That's a challenge, somehow weird, don't you think? I think MC was a typo, correct?

But let's stay serious, you seem to really accept this challenge! Drakkon is right, your only attack is WBT and if you don't play for milling, it would make sense to bring Speedstrike rather early into game, 2 is not enough. Keep 4 LW and 4 Regeneration, this gets some sort of Anti-Mage deck, think about removing some Master Smith and 7 armours are really really defensive.

Rabid Bite is maybe a drop candidate, 4 Bazaar? Hm, put +4 BS and go for milling? 50 card deck?
I'm still not sure about this deck, you only defend and games will durate more then 30 min against you. Produce NPE?

What is your strategy? Let's ask in other way: Do you have thought about a strategy?

[Keaven]

Hi Keaven,

so YOU start the new era of allyless MS? That's a challenge, somehow weird, don't you think? I think MC was a typo, correct?

But let's stay serious, you seem to really accept this challenge! Drakkon is right, your only attack is WBT and if you don't play for milling, it would make sense to bring speedstrike rather early into game, 2 is not enough. Keep 4 LW and 4 regeneration, this gets some sort of Anti-Mage deck, think about removing some Master Smith and 7 armours are really really defensive.

RB is maybe a drop candidate, 4 bazaar? Hm, put +4 BS and go for milling? 50 card deck?
I'm still not sure about this deck, you only defend and games will durate more then 30 min against you. Produce NPE?

What is your strategy? Let's ask in other way: Do you have thought about a strategy?

This is primarily a mil deck.

It needs so many of these cards to do it that the size is too large. You can't be afraid to give a resource lead if you need the cards you have drawn early for mid-late game. So much armour is needed purely because of how important they are to the strategy and the existence of Ley Line Nexus. I find the best way to describe a deck without breaking it into class specific match-ups is to talk about how to resource cards so I'll do a list of how many would be resourced (min/max) by the end of a match:

First of all what is resourced heavily depends on your opponent and how much item destruction you can expect, so only resource when you have a card in hand that needs it or to prevent draw block if you are waiting for a card.

0/2 x Captured Prey. Used for allies that reduce damage. If you have not saved Rabid Bite for Aeon you may need to use one on him to take him down and prevent ability use. Use after depleting Rabid Bites where possible.

0/1 x Speedstrike. I do not include so many copies as you only need it mid-late game when you can suffer too much damage from multiple allies. Early against weenies you can sustain the hits when healing, while thinning them out with defensive attacks and EA attrition.

1/3 x What Big Teeth. More important for defensive damage than attacking. Take out allies at all opportunities.

1/4 x Regeneration. Mainly for poison and engulfed status. Try to keep one Vs Mage and Rogues. none needed in favourable match-ups.

0/1 x Rabid Bite. A very important card in this deck. It disables an ally after use so save it for fat allies you can hit for damage after. They will not be able to use their ability, defend, and may take retaliation damage from the ally they hit. However, they will hit the Hero 90% of the time because the random generator in this game is trash so take it into consideration (wait till they have a weapon if you expect it).

1/3 x Lone Wolf. Deck cannot work without it. Keep a spare in case they have attachment removal.

0/4 x Shadow Font. Not often needed, but is a good stall card. Resource early, use drawing late. Shadow Armour may be able to get you all the SE you need later to stay hidden with rain delays to assist.

0/4 x Rain Delay. Most important Vs Heroes that cannot destroy. Can be item destruction bait mid game.

0/2 x Master Smith. Absolutely essential. Versatile for whole strategy but not all needed so can still be resourced early. This can insure you for loss of your most important cards in the deck allowing you to sacrifice copies of armour or weapons if you need by keeping track of the opponents maximum item destruction capabilities. It is better to have (used) 1 copy of each armour and not resource this card, than use/carry multiple copies of each weapon/armour. Rare to get this opportunity though.

0/3 x Evil Ascendant. Next most important card after weapons and armour. It's not often a human will include many Good Ascendant in their deck, but if they do you are in for some serious pain. Try and keep a spare, especially against humans. It's more important to keep these than weapons because they can be retrieved later and draw item destruction away from irreplaceable cards.

2/3 x Bazaar. A massive advantage when able to play turn 2. Perfect start is T2 Bazaar, T3 What Big Teeth (if they have item destruction better to a weapon before Evil Ascendant), T4 Lone Wolf.

0/2 x Shadow Armour. Perhaps the single most important card in the deck combined with Lone Wolf. Protects against retaliation damage (usually more than the damage you will take from it's ability) allowing to take down allies/durability. Can bait ally summoning and Ley Line Nexus before switching into Crescendo. Depending how your draw goes you can use all of these.

2/3 x Crescendo. Most important thing about this card is to use it's durability. With crescendo destruction so easy, the main purpose of this armour is to give pseudo (old) Darkclaw damage reduction ability and continue to take down allies. You may hide the first one or two turns only to increase it's armour value. It is better for this to hit the Graveyard before exploding than to explode with all durability. If they have one ally out when you deploy it they will not waste item destruction on it unless deploying multiple allies before it's last turn so kill the ally and make them summon more early. This card is also the litmus test of item destruction. If more allies come out after deploying it they have Ley Line Nexus, so kill the allies before it explodes if you can. If you can sill leave some alive before it explodes you can bait the Ley Line Nexus before your next Crescendo. Only a maximum of two needed per match when alternating with Shadow Armour.

[uptoolayte]

I have found that the Shadow Armor is not very useful. By the time I can cast it, I have built up my shadow points enough to negate dmg and have most of the other pieces in place. By the time I can use it also, I may be taking damage here and there, so my lone wolf is usually just keeping me at stable health at this point. I replaced them with some Now You're Mine for resources mainly.

Only problems I have with this deck so far is vs rogues when they get good card luck and I can't draw crucial cards to save my life.

[wreon]

How on earth do you survive a snow sapphire? Haha.

[Keaven]

How on earth do you survive a snow sapphire? Haha.

I didn't know Snow Sapphire's did damage now

This deck doesn't kill with teeth.