Wtzky's beginners guide to Shadow Era heroes
Zaladar has always hung around about the top tier mark in almost every version. His ability has stayed consistent (ly good) and his card pool remains amongst the strongest in the game.
Zaladar
Faction: Shadow
Class: Elemental
Tier: 1
Utilisation: Seen quite often in competitive play because of his versatility and all round general strength, Zaladar is used to his potential. His strength is not so much that he has lots of good match ups, more that he really doesn’t have many bad match ups.
Pros and Cons (explanations after table):
Pros: Strong ability 1 Access to one of the best card pools2 Access to one of the best single ally control cards3 Consistent4 Very versatile 4 Cons: Sparks are great – if you get them all early5
1 Zaladar has one of the better abilities out there. It is basically a free Lightning Strike, and just like Lightning Strike it can be used either for board control (defensively) or hero damage (offensively). The middle game control you get from this card can be game turning and allow you to play some of your bigger allies safely. The late game damage it gives can turn a close game to your advantage or be used to finish off a hero (if you combo this with a Plasma Behemoth for example you can do 10 damage in a turn for 3 resources – ability + Plasma Behemoth ability + Plasma Behemoth attack). There’s not much else to say about this ability really. It’s good. Trust me!
2 Elementals do a lot well. Their card pool doesn’t lack much. Let’s examine the potential:
- Board wipe: Not only a board wipe, but one that allows your allies to live. This gives you a great board advantage if you find yourself flooded by allies that you need to get rid of but want to keep your allies at hand (unlike Tidal Wave or Supernova). The other handy thing is that, unlike Supernova, it definitely kills all enemy allies
- Heal: two cards dedicated to heal, which allows for varied tactics
- Resource acceleration: apart from Jeweler’s dream and Stop Thief!, Feedback is the only other resource acceleration card available. It allows for a lot of good plays; on turn 5 you can play a 2cc ally and 5cc card (mind control or ally for example or multiples of). On turn 6 you can play a 3cc card + 5cc card (or multiples of). You get the picture; it speeds up your game as opposed to your opponent.
- Access to card modifiers: Zaladar can use Bloodlust for great damage amplification, Life Infusion for added ally defence (and potentially a combo with conversion for added heal) and Shard of Power which combos well with Bloodlust. The only thing Zaladar is missing is protection for his allies, but with strong board control he doesn’t desperately need it.
- Access to weapons/armours: Zaladar has some pretty good choices here. Armour of Ages has the best protection of all the armours, and unlike Warriors Zaladar is not so weapon reliant and so can make good use of this armour. He also has access to Dimension Ripper, which together with Mind Control and Transference adds extra “steal” to your deck
- Access to good shadow energy modifiers: Shadow Font and Shadowspawn. I know that all shadow heroes have access to these cards, but they just add a lot of extra strength to Zaladar. You can either use Shadow Font for extra “Lightning Strike” (same cost as a Lightning Strike with same effect) or use Shadowspawn which works especially well going second where you get to play your ability then use Shadowspawn to deny your opponent his/her ability (great against Eladwen for example).
Of course, you also have plenty of choices now for item destruction in Shadow decks (Shriek, Ley Line Nexus and Acid Jet) and Zaladar can really make good use of Sacrificial Lamb for some decent unilateral draw.
3 Mind Control used to be a very overpowered card, but recent changes have balanced it out a lot more. It now works to not only destroy any ally out there but gives you damage to the opposing hero, which makes it a great single ally control card. Arguably the best in the game at controlling single opposing allies, it also works great as a deterrent, as people tend to hold off from playing their best allies when they think you have a Mind Control in your hand! Some people even change the way they play specifically for this card and sac their better allies more readily than they normally would. Bonus!
4It is hard to pick which cards to add/exclude from a Zaladar as there are so many options. Zaladar has such a great card pool that he can be played in a number of ways. With creative deck building Zaladar is very versatile. He can be played as a weenie rush deck utilising shard/bloodlust. He can be played as a stall deck using eternal renewal. He can be played as a control deck using his ability and tougher allies. He can have a mix of strategies quite effectively. He can be played as a thief deck with transference/dimension ripper (see combo’s for an advanced thief tactic). He can make full use of feedback loops, to be played as a great quasi mill/control style. You get the point, he is very versatile and is suitable to a creative mind.
The other thing that he is, is consistent. He basically is a great all-rounder and can tough it out against all other classes, and more importantly, play styles. What I mean by that is that he is a tough match up for rush decks as much as he is a tough match up for control decks and so on. Built right, Zaladar will give you a good chance of winning against any deck, without being in a situation where he will autowin against some heroes and automatically lose against others.
5Honestly, there aren’t a whole lot of downsides to playing Zaladar. He doesn’t have any glaring faults, which is one of the reasons he is such a consistent all rounder. It really isn’t a con, but I will point out that sparks are not as great in 40 card minimum as they used to be as their strength really lies on being able to be used together. Back when the minimum deck size was 30 cards, sparks used to be fantastic (especially with Shard of Power/Bloodlust). Now though Sparks have lost a lot of their power and there are much better 1 card drops now (Kris, Brigitte Skullborn and Firesnake).
Bookmarks