My World Champion winning Zhanna deck

[iClipse]

Hello everyone!

Since I promised to post the deck, I have to deliver, so here it is.

First, and most important, the list:

1x Zhanna - 42 cards (Hero included)

Allies - 18
4x Jasmine Rosecult
3x Aldon the Brave
4x Tainted Oracle
4x Raven Wildheart
3x Aeon Stormcaller

Abilities - 17
4x Healing Touch
4x Tidal Wave
4x Focused Prayer
1x Resurrection

4x Retreat

Weapons/Armors - 6
4x Wizent's Staff
2x King's Pride

Question: Why did I choose this deck for the WC?
Well, I've said it in the interview that's online, but obviously not everyone heard that. The reason I chose this deck is because it has no unwinnable matchups. Of course it has difficult matchups (I'll explain below) but in every matchup it's possible to go to at least 40-50% winrate. Of course, some matchups will require some experience, some proper thinking and the right saccing. I think most other decks really have a deck, you REALLY DON'T WANT TO FACE. Think as Zaladar a Gwen deck, Gwen with Moonstalker, Moonstalker with mages, mages with Amber, and so forth. With Zhanna that isn't really there, and that's why I made that pick.

Question: Is this an easy deck to play?
No. Not at all. Be prepared to lose a lot of games with it, if you want to try this deck out. It has a lot of different matchups that require a completely different approach, and you won't know all of these from the start.

Question: Can you explain the deck a bit?
Sure! I'll explain it on a card by card basis.

Jasmine Rosecult
Really, I have no idea how many games she has won me already, but it's uncountable. Her ability alone can win games. Protect her behind an Aeon and you're golden. Once she hits the board, your opponent HAS to deal with her, or he loses the game.

Aldon the Brave
Well, he's more there to add that extra bit of damage when you need it, and to have a body on turn 3 than anything else. Still, a good ally that can do a lot, still, it's best to play him after you already have something on the field, except if you want to draw fire away from your hero, and you have nothing else to play.

Tainted Oracle
A great card! Allows draw, makes it so your hero gets hit less, can be killed by your own deck if he gets disabled. All around great ally to have, and great draw 'engine'. By having 4 of those, and 4 times Wizent's Staff it's almost guaranteed to have some form of draw on turn 4.

Raven
A completely underrated ally in the current meta. Having Raven is great vs Moonstalker (yes, you read that right). A lot of players use Sandworm nowadays, just because of the fact that it's a good ally. It's great versus Anklebreaker, immune to dots, great versus Dagger of Unmaking and so on. Well yes, that's completely true, but it's a defensive ally. Playing it on an empty board doesn't guarantee board control, while playing a Raven does. Also does more damage. Can kill 5 health allies with KP and can still survive a nova.

Aeon
Mister bad-ass. Great cards versus decks that can't just instantly kill allies. Think about Banebow, warriors, even Lance and Serena sometimes. Drop him on the board as soon as you can. Even vs Elemental decks. Having your Aeon Mind Controlled doesn't hurt more than having your Jasmine Mind Controlled. So it almost never hurts to have him on the board.

Healing Touch
Completely underrated and one of my favorite cards. It's just great in a LOT of matchups. Vs warriors it removes Crippling Blow, versus wulven it removes Captured Prey, versus mages it helps to stay alive a lot longer, same goes for Zaladar who tends to try to deathrace a lot. Negates Eladwen's ability. Removes distraction.
Ever played vs a Lance who hasted Ravens? Well that's what this card basically does. "Here, Crippling Blow, now your raven is completely useless! - Healing Touch, and Raven is immediately ready to attack."

Tidal Wave
The obvious card. Though, not as easy to use as people think. The trick is to get as most value out of the card as possible. For example, if you see your opponent has 2 allies on the board, and you have none, but he only has 4-5 damage output on the board, drop an Aeon instead and try to draw more fire to him, while at the same time try to keep your draw going. If he goes for the Aeon, good for you since it allows you to be aggressive, if he doesn't that means he committed more for the board, so now you'll get more out of your Tidal Wave.

Focused Prayer
Use this card especially to take out draw engines. Vs mages though you might want to keep one in hand at all times, because it can save your life if you get to destroy a Portal with it, or a Dagger of Unmaking, which by the way can ruin your day.

Resurrection
Well, the card isn't used a lot, so the deck is probably better without this card. Though, I added the card to my deck because of mirror matchups and Millstalker. Since I never encountered these, I never got to play this card, so it's probably best to cut this card from the deck.

Retreat
Well yes, the obvious board control card. It's especially good on later turns. Play Tidal Wave on turn 6/7, and next turn you combine a retreat with a Raven or an Aeon. That wins you games right there.

Wizent's Staff
The basic draw engine. When fighting versus death racing decks, try not to rely on it too much, since it slows down your healing and thus you won't last as long. Which is the end what you aim for, lasting long.

King's Pride
Only use this card in desperate moments OR when the attack boost allows you to take down an ally you otherwise wouldn't have been able to take out in one blow. When you have an active ally on the board, and you can play a Kings Pride, it's often good game.

Question: Can you explain how you sac your cards with this deck?
I can. But I won't. Trial and error is the way to learn. If you want to learn how this deck works, I expect people to have the time to learn and understand the deck.

Question: What are the weaknesses of this deck?
As I said, there isn't one HERO that is a weak spot, there are however deck ARCHETYPES that can be problematic. The most common and the most seen problematic deck is rush. Eladwen rush, Amber rush, Zaladar rush can all be quite problematic. The key is on trying to let your allies take some hits instead of your hero, keeping your draw up with Tainted Oracle and only Wizent's Staff if you have no other choice. Try to survive till the opponent runs out of steam (which he will if you focus down his draw engine, or high damage weapons), and then take the board with big fat allies.

Another problematic things is Dagger of Unmaking. The best ways of destroying it is by spamming your 3cc allies and using Wizent's Staff to run the durability out, or obviously just to destroy it by using Focused Prayers. Be advised though, that destroying it with Focused Prayers may mean that you won't have one for destroying possible portals or Tome of Knowledges, so keep that in mind.

Last problematic thing is Shadow Knight. If you can't break the loop, you'll lose, that's for sure. So you have to try and break that loop. Your best ways in doing so is by playing either Jasmine or Raven. Both work equally well, so keep that in mind.

For the rest, I hope you enjoyed my explanation, and if you have any questions, I'll try and answer them in the thread. But please refrain from saying that you played the deck for 5 games and lost all of them, because you'll need at THE VERY LEAST 20 games to get the hang of the deck.

P.S.: If you see any typing errors or other things that aren't correct, just say so and I'll update the OP

[Bluejet24]

great post and congrats again

[Keith☆Star]

Good deck, will going to try it in the future.

[Preybird]

Well written iClipse! Thanks for sharing!

I must say it bears some similiarities to LD's World Runner Up Zhanna from last time. Coincidence? Or was that a starting point? It also moves away from the "Zhannax" archetype deck, which is refreshing Basic and potent.

And congratulations again for the epic win!

[iClipse]

Well written iClipse! Thanks for sharing!

I must say it bears some similiarities to LD's World Runner Up Zhanna from last time. Coincidence? Or was that a starting point? It also moves away from the "Zhannax" archetype deck, which is refreshing Basic and potent.

And congratulations again for the epic win!

Well, I originally made my own deck with Sandworms and Ghostmakers, but it felt so slow, and....awkward to play. So I changed the deck up a bit, one step at a time and until I came to this deck. I think the last step of the road was removing 2x Ghostmaker and adding a 4th Raven and a 4th Healing Touch for increased consistency.

[Kross]

Great Deck and thanks for posting! Question: When you said the following...

Drop him on the board as soon as you can. Even vs Elemental decks. Having your Aeon Mind Controlled doesn't hurt more than having your Jasmine Mind Controlled. So it almost never hurts to have him on the board.

Do you think this statement is only true when using this deck or in General?

And congrats again!

[Armoek]

Great deck, I'm really surprised more people didn't identify that zhanna is pretty good vs most match ups and would be a good choice, especially because people have less experience vs priest in 1.5 I think. Jasmin/raven + retreat combo is so good.

Do you think there is a move away from running 2 cost allies(in human decks atleast)?, both you and one other player in top 4 were not using any. I have begun doing this in several of my decks as all a 2 drop seems to do is delay some damage and is generally a dead draw later on in games. The only real weakness seems to be to fast rush decks which seem less common these days.

[kentuequi]

-4 Tainted Oracle (not a good card), -3 Healing Touch (not really usefull with Zhanna's ability), -2 Raven (having 4 in a deck is just dumb), -2 Tidal Wave (you don't need 4 of them), -1 Retreat, -1 Focused pray (you have too much x4 in your deck, definitly), -1 resurection (but you already know), + 3 Bad Santa (for better unilateral draw with Santa Bomb), 3 Kris (good for Santa Bomb, and great with Aldon + KP), +3 Puwen (you need a T2 ally), +3 Inner Strenght (to boost your Kris), +3 Curse (so Firesnake won't be able to kill your Kris and take board control). Do that and your deck will be far better.

[Giskard]

In my guess to your deck it had only -1 raven +1 kings pride wrong

lol kentuequi

[Helio]

-4 Tainted Oracle (not a good card), -3 Healing Touch (not really usefull with Zhanna's ability), -2 Raven (having 4 in a deck is just dumb), -2 Tidal Wave (you don't need 4 of them), -1 Retreat, -1 Focused pray (you have too much x4 in your deck, definitly), -1 resurection (but you already know), + 3 Bad Santa (for better unilateral draw with Santa Bomb), 3 Kris (good for Santa Bomb, and great with Aldon + KP), +3 Puwen (you need a T2 ally), +3 Inner Strenght (to boost your Kris), +3 Curse (so Firesnake won't be able to kill your Kris and take board control). Do that and your deck will be far better.

It is a shame you didn't enter with this deck... everyone would have chantted "winner winner chicken dinner!"