Lance - Wtzky's beginner's guide to SE Heroes v1.5!

[Wtzky]

Wtzky's beginners guide to Shadow Era heroes

Finally, Rogues are a force to be reckoned with! After many versions of Rogues being the laughingstock of classes, a much needed buff to key hards has seen them rocket up the tier list to sit squarely at the top echelons.

Lance Shadowstalker



Faction: Human
Class: Rogue
Tier: 1
Utilisation: Lance is possibly the most used hero currently, and is being utilised so because of his strength.

Pros and Cons (explanations after table):

Pros:	Strong ability 1	Good unilateral draw engine2	Good item destruction3	Access to strong weapons4
Cons:	Damage output reliant on allies 5	Not versatile in terms of play styles6

¹ Lance’s current ability has always been quite strong, in that it allows you to either play for the early board and haste in a strong human 3cc ally such as a Jasmine, or it allows you to save it for a stronger ally to haste in to get board control. It works particularly well on turn 5, being able to haste in a Raven which not only will be able to exert control by instantly reducing an opposing ally to 0 base attack, but also demands that your opponent does something about her; not an easy task when she also gets Stealth and thus cannot be attacked! Jasmine also works really well as a turn 5 play, as she can also use her ability, and still hit for 3 damage that isn’t countered due to Ambush. Lance’s ability is thus very suited to both early and late game and a very nice board control move.

His ability also works quite nicely now with his card pool, in that he can afford to miss turn 4 to play an Ill Gotten Gains to give him card draw, knowing that he can haste in a strong ally the next turn and wrestle back board control. Failing to get back board control with his turn 5 ally, he can also play one of his weapons for some decent control.

² The smallest of buffs to Ill Gotten Gains has seen it now become a great card. The price drop by 1 may not seem by much, but as I said in point 1 above, the greatest thing about Ill Gotten Gains now is how easily it synergizes with Lance’s ability (and also the rest of his cards) and how it can now be dropped on turn 4 readily, knowing that on turn 5 you still have a very decent chance of getting back the board with a hasted ally or an Anklebreaker. Ill Gotten Gains allows Lance to dominate once he has some semblance of board control, as every ally or item that is removed from the opponent gives Lance extra cards, which usually only means more allies to plonk down on the board, or more board control items such as Retreat!, Stop Thief!, Assassinate and so on.

³ Stop Thief! was another great buff to the Rogue card pool, in that it’s cost is now reasonable and it works on all items (unlike Ley Line Nexus or Shriek of Vengeance for example). It also now synergizes very well with Ill Gotten Gains, whereas in the past the combo of Ill Gotten Gains + Stop Thief! was very expensive and generally not worth pulling off. Now however, one can play a turn 4 Ill Gotten Gains, and on turn 5 use Stop Thief to accelerate your resources, your card advantage (not only do you draw an extra card but you get to 5 or 6 resources without having to sac one of your cards) and destroy an all important opponent item.

⁴ Anklebreaker is specifically what I am talking about here. It has now become one of the better weapons in the game, because of how strong it’s secondary ability is. Being able to bring it in on turn 5 and immediately have an impact on the board by disabling an ally and reducing its base attack makes it a very formidable threat to opponents. In fact, it is that good of a weapon for Rogues that it has now become an auto-include times 4 in every Rogue deck, and is one of the main reasons Lance sits quite comfortably at tier 1. Without it he would probably drop down to tier 1.5. Lance still also has access to Dagger of Unmaking, which is also a great weapon and worth including as a secondary weapon if you so wish.

⁵ While Lance is very strong, his win condition is essentially secondary to allies only. His weapons are strong in their secondary abilities rather than their attack. He has no access to burn, and he can’t mill/stall very effectively. That makes him susceptible to certain tactics/heroes (eg. Moonstalker).

I should also take the time to mention here that Lance’s card pool is now very strong mainly because of a few of the key cards – Ill Gotten Gains, Stop Thief! and Anklebreaker (with Black Garb also being a very nice card). Some of his other cards are still lacking in their effectiveness (although the intent is there); including Mugged, Reconnaissance and Assasin’s Cloak (they are basically not worth the price effects). I personally also am not a fan of Assassinate in my Rogue decks, preferring to utilise Retreat! (which is cheaper and has no condition requiring its use) and Black Garb (which I find is effective at preventing damage to your hero and as a tempting target for item destruction). Having said that, that is my personal preference and I have seen many great decks utilise Assassinate quite well. Lay Low and Throwing knife are also cards that are not seen very often because their effects are not worth including in most Rogue decks (although Throwing Knife may be more useful in a Serena deck).
⁶ I’ve touched on this above, but basically a strong Lance is very predictable. It will include 4 of the following: Ill Gotten Gains, Anklebreaker, Stop Thief! (or at least 3) and Retreat!. It will also have; several Raven’s, either Black Garb or Assassinate and plenty of allies.

What that amounts to is a strong mid to late game control play style. That’s basically Lance’s party trick, and basically the only way to play a good Lance. He is not versatile in that you could never use burn to kill your opponent, you could never stall/mill an opponent (or at least not very effectively) and a rush Lance deck would work, but just not as effectively as other decks and won’t be as strong as a control Lance.

The predictable nature of strong Lance decks makes them easy to counter – IF you are expecting him. It also means that players who are looking for versatile heroes that they can build in many different styles of play, should probably look elsewhere.

[Wtzky]

Ease of play for beginners - On a scale of 1-10 where 1 is hardest hero pick up and 10 is easiest hero to pick up:

10

Pretty easy to use really. Follow the formula of adding; Ill Gotten Gains, Anklebreaker, Stop Thief!, Retreat!, Raven and Black Garb or Assassinate. Fill the rest with your allies of preference (suggest Jasmine, Nightshade, Aldon and a Lily or two as a good start. Throw in some fatties such as Aeon or Sandworm or Earthern Protector for the late game) and you will have a very solid deck that can climb up the rankings and do well in tournament play.

Good match ups:

Basically, his match ups are all going to be favourable (or at least equivocal) apart from his bad match ups. Some heroes can also tech well against him, but often you won’t find that on quick match as decks teched specifically against Lance will not be as effective against other heroes.


Bad match ups:

Lance currently doesn’t have a whole lot of bad match ups, and can dish it out with at least a 50% win rate with almost everybody. The heroes that Lance really struggles against however include:

- Zaladar (his ability and Mind Control both bypass Lance’s ability and his fatties can really hurt)
- Moonstalker (no good having Ambush if you can’t attack!)
- Portal Majiya (Stop Thief! doesn't work on Portal)

Best suited style of play:

Mid-to-late game control style. Build up your board control and your card draw and expect to do your damage in the late game.

Cost of creating a good deck:

Moderate to expensive. You will need four Anklebreakers, which will cost you some money. You will also need some more expensive allies such as Raven or Aeon in your deck. A few starter Rogue packs will not be enough to make a good Lance deck.

Combos:

Here I will include some interesting/fun/good plays or combos.

Kris + Assassinate – the best time to use Assassinate as it allows for you to take out an ally even without someone on the board. Otherwise you would have to play an ally, watch it get killed on your opponents turn and watch your Assassinate sit in your hand collecting dust, or if really desperate you would have to haste in an ally as below.

Nightshade + Assassinate – Nightshade’s survivability makes him a pretty good turn 2 ally to play, as he can hang around long enough to allow Assassinate to be played.

Assassinate + Ally + Lance ability – expensive as it will cost you at least 4 resources (assuming the ally is not Kris of course) AND 4 shadow energy, but the combo is there for emergencies.

Weapon + Sorcerer’s Poison – obvious, I know.

Retreat! + Jasmine + Lance Ability – This is the best way for Lance to get clear board control on turn 5. Jasmine gets a free hit at whatever is left after the Retreat! and next turn you can use her ability if multiple allies are played by your opponent (or if they are hidden behind a Valiant Defender, or Moonstalker ability etc).

Lance ability + Skullborn/Aeon – as mentioned previously, protect your allies on the board from any attacks. Useful against Logan so that your Aeon survives an extra turn (for what it’s worth)

Raven Wildheart + Lance ability – another good ally to use your ability on to allow you to take your opposing ally’s ability to attack away.

Earthern Protector + Aeon – a very strong combo here, as you can haste in a turn 5 Earthern Protector, allowing it to do 4 damage instantly and be protected from attack (meaning that the only thing able to kill him will be burn or Mind Control, as crippling him won’t do any good). On turn 6 you can then bring in an Aeon. This will not only protect your Earthern Protector and any other allies down on the board allowing them to dish out some damage, but if your opponent IS able to kill Aeon, he will come back as a 5/10 ally with protector. Ouch!

Ill Gotten Gains + Stop Thief – Great card advantage as you not only draw a card when you destroy an item, you also gain a resource which means you don’t have to sac another card later on.

Erika + Assassin’s Cloak – Give Erika stealth and ambush so that she turns into a hard hitting Nightshade (probably just easier to use Aeon’s ability on a Nightshade though to be honest)

Crimson Vest + Ill Gotten Gains – Heal and Card draw every time you kill an ally.

Lance in the future:

I still think there is room for improvement on the Rogue card pool over all. The risk, in my opinion, with Rogues are that as more new cards are implemented for other classes, Rogues may get slightly weaker cards given that Lance is a top hero, which may hurt them in the long run. It’s all speculation but for the near future at least, Lance is pretty safe as a top hero.

Good decks to check out on the forum:

The following threads are recommended reading for anyone looking to build a Lance deck

http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....ce-Shadowpwner – a very solid top level deck with some really good rationale behind card choices which have been explained well in the thread. Blueburr also gives you some nice ideas as to ideal plays. The posts after it are worth reading too.

http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....trategy-help!! – A general discussion on tactics to defeat Mage heroes with Rogues.

http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....-in-Lance-Deck – Another general discussion as to whether to include Raven or Earthern Protector in a Lance deck. Personally, I think there is space for both, but that really depends on how you build your deck.

Overall Recommendation:

Lance is definitely recommended for beginners. He is quite easy to use, and so is a good place to start to get to know the game. He is also quite strong, and beginners will find it won’t be too difficult to start getting wins with the right build. He is also recommended for more experienced players, or those looking to climb the rankings.

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[Nickey293]

Nice write up wtzky!

[Armoek]

Lance he is so strong you didn't even need to mention that he can run a retardedly good weenie rush with POTL nullifying an opponents ability to retake the board with their ability. It's probably one of the best weenie rushes there is. I struggle against lance with the majority of decks I run, only deck that has advantage seems to be amber with a good number of retreat/cripple/valiant defender. Going to go build moonstalker deck now.

[Wtzky]

Yes, he can do weenie rush, but that would suffer more against Mages than a control.

Do try Moonstalker, he seems to be underrated for some reason in this meta but he can most definitely hold his own

[Bayfighter]

I wouldn't say you could never use burn to kill your opponent (Special Delivery)...

Nitpicking aside, excellent write-up as always, thanks for giving back to the community!

[Wtzky]

I would love to see someone pull off a win with a deck centered around special delivery lol

[Algork]

Thanks for these great articles.

With all the mage decks in quick matchs, Spelleater bands is a must play imo. If you control the board to win they must destroy it. And to destroy it they can only use Leyline Nexus, or weapon attacks/kris which are not efficient.

I am surprised you don't talk about it.

[Junk Style]

you should mention that at t7, if you played a stop theif, you can have 8 resources. This will allow you to play aeon t6, and then play EP t7 and buff Ep with aeon ability to 5/6 in the same turn. This prevents nova from killing EP.

Also, mages can be bad match ups for Lance depending on what lance has. obviously if you run spell eater bands it will be easier.... But a good portal maj or eladawen can kick lance's ass

[Harakhte]

Honestly, I see no point for Bands in Lance, there isn't room really. Between 4xIGG, 4xStop, Thief!, 4xAB, 4xRetreat, and then room for a decent ally spread (usually at least 4xShade, 4xJas/PotL, 2-3xRaven, 2-3xAeon, etc.) you have maybe 4-6x spots left in 39 cards + Lance. Between Assassinate, Bad Santa and Honored Dead, I have a hard time saying I can just give up some of those premium spots for 2x Bands that might be useful, when the already listed cards are always useful.