Opinions on my 1.5 Boris Deck

[Speeddevil42]

Hey everyone,

I read some articles on "The Gondorian" which rocketed my score from 180 in v1.29 to 294 in v1.5. I want to get to at least 360. If you guys (or gals) could pick apart my deck and help me streamline it, that'd be great. The specs for my deck are below:

Deck size: 45 Playable cards
Avg. Ally cost (Weighted): 3.4
Avg Support/item/ally cost(Weighted): 2.8
Ally count: 25
Support/Item/Ability count: 20

Allies:

4x Blake Windrunner
4x Pewun Bloodhelm
4x Aeon Stormcaller
4x Aldon the Brave
3x Kurt Windhelm
3x Jasmine Rosecult
2x Raven Wildheart
1x Kristopher Wyld

Abilities/Items/Support:

4x Smashing Blow
4x Crippling Blow
4x Blood Frenzy
3x Retreat!
3x Jewler's Dream
2x Plate Armor

My Strategy:

I run an attrition or control through numbers deck. I set up my field in tandems or triplets. I believe any two of my low cost allies can defeat a single high cost ally. Some of my allies, like Jasmine Rosecult, use their ability to make a high cost ally irrelevent Any three allies can eliminate and two mid-level allies. I have 8 allies usable by turn 2 and 16 allies usable by turn 3 to set up early number control. Kurt Windhelm, my only 4 cost card, is very useful in a triplet. Because my deck relies on having 2-3 allies on the field, Kurt Windhelm is almost a 4/4 card for me. His effectiveness is even greater when one of the triplets is Aldon or Aeon.

Jasmine Rosecult, Raven Wildheart, Crippling Blow, and Retreat! are my board control cards. Jasmine Rosecult and Raven Wildheart double as damage dealers. With 4x Crippling Blow and 3x Retreat! (Soon to be 4x) I have the maximum creature control abilities. Raven Wildheart works as an extended Crippling Blow for the most part. Jewler's Dream and Blood Frenzy's usefulness in a Boris deck goes without saying

Aeon Stormcaller and Plate armor are used to give my allies a pseudo-protector status. A dangerous ally will draw as much attention as Aeon draws. Most players get nervous about any card with more than 5 health.


Weak Points:

- Curiously, my deck doesn't work well against ally-less decks. I don't pack enough high cost cards to get past Eldawen or Darkclaw.
- Heroes with multiple attacks while away at my creatures, who aren't stoning enough to handle allies and weapons
- Mages: Fireball and/or Lightning Strike can kill off most of my creatures.


End notes:

Anything you guys can do to help me out would be great. Thanks!

PS (PiercingSerenity)

[stevevai1983]

first, don't use Blake Windrunner. He is not good at all.

Aeno*4 seems overkill, 3 is enough.

Add 1 more Jasmine Rosecult. She is the core ally in human race

I suggest add some TO to boost draw ability, because only 4BF is not consistent at all. In many games you won't have BF in first 4~7turns and that really hurts. TO can be extremely helpful (you can sacrifice TO when you have a good hand)

[Speeddevil42]

first, don't use Blake Windrunner. He is not good at all.

Aeno*4 seems overkill, 3 is enough.

Add 1 more Jasmine Rosecult. She is the core ally in human race

I suggest add some TO to boost draw ability, because only 4BF is not consistent at all. In many games you won't have BF in first 4~7turns and that really hurts. TO can be extremely helpful (you can sacrifice TO when you have a good hand)

Can you explain why Blake Windrunner isn't worth it/who I should swap him for? Without any Blakes
I'll only have 4x 2 cost allies. I need them for early board control. I also see the benefit of TO, but a 2/2 for 4 resources is risky. His only usefulness is being killed, losing me board control. If he's hit with any disabling ability, he's also a bigger waste than a Blake Windrunner

Thanks for the quick response!
PS (PiercingSerenity)

[stevevai1983]

Blake Windrunner is just too squish. Hard counters like Kristoffer Wyld,Brutalis and Death Mage Thaddeus are very common cards and they are included in most decks. Also if you play second, Blake is so useless...
4 Pewun Bloodhelm is definitely enough. If you really want more turn1-2 cards, add Kristoffer*4 (Dirk Saber is 2cc as well, despite i don't like Dirk either,i still he is still better than Blake)

Since you already have a large number of Aeon, i think it's good to add 2 copies of Earthen Protector.
It's quite hard to for some decks to break Aeon+EP combo. It's a deadly and very realist combo.

[Speeddevil42]

So I took your advice and took out 4x Blake Windrunner and one Aeon Stormcaller and added two more Kristoffer Wyld (for a total of three) and one more Jasmine Rosecult (for a total of four). I also added 2-3 more Tainted Oracle. Now I see Blakes' true weakness. If I put in two EP's (Earthern Protector), I'll have to sacrifice some more low level cards (unless I get rid of Raven Wildheart). I feel like I'm really pushing low level cards. I could add the EP's without taking out cards for a total of 47 cards, but I don't think my deck should be that big. Thanks for the responses.

PS (PiercingSerenity)

[FDL]

I want to get to at least 360.

You know the top player currently has 364?
http://www.shadowera.com/rankings.php

On topic, I like the inclusion of Plate Armor in Boris. I hadn't thought of it as a SE outlet in case your ability is useless.

But having only 2 is a little inconsistent. Unless you plan on only playing it late game, but even then, considering your build, I would remove them and +1 Jeweler's Dream and +1 Raven.

Being able to play a JD on turn 4 + Retreat/Crippling blow or turn 5 + Blood Frenzy will set you up in a nice way. Putting a 4th copy in will enable you to get it by turn 4 70% of games instead of 60%. (75% vs 65% on turn 5, or turn 4 if going second)

Also, Tainted Oracle can be a great 2 for 1 that allows you to dig for your key cards plus deal or save some damage, but even if he gets crippled, he's a 1 for 1, which is like most abilities (i.e. Crippling Blow). And running at least 6 draw cards is generally advised.

[stevevai1983]

47cards is already too much. You should really try to reduce it to 40~42.
Plate Armor can be removed, Smashing Blow only need 3.

[FDL]

Oh yeah. Did not notice you had over 40 cards. >40 cards with only 4 draw engines is a big no-no. Even over 40 in general isn't recommended.

You might not need Retreat! with Crippling Blow and your ability.

[Speeddevil42]

Thanks for the responses Fou DeLile and stevevai1983. Okay. If I take out all my Retreats, all my plate armors and one smashing blow, and add a Jewlers dream and Raven Wildheart I have 26 allies and 14 abilities. That makes an even 40. Do you guys think that I'll have enough ability support if I have a sporadic hand early on? Right now, Retreat lets me force players to waste resources by replaying the same card thy played last turn while also helping me maintain board control. I've added all the changes you guys have suggested. I no longer run Blake, I have four Jasmine's, two EP's and two TO's. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

PS (PiercingSerenity)

[FDL]

To be honest, I haven't played Boris a lot, just going on general experience.

Let us know how it goes.