1.5 Banebow - 18 game win streak

[ZeroSignal]

Hi after reading a few helpful threads around here I had a crack at a Banebow deck. After some tweaking I got it working very nicely and managed to go on an 18 game win streak in quick match. Here's the deck:

http://shadowera.gondorian.com/deck1....4se185.4se167

Banebow

4 x Hellsteed
4 X Brutalis
4 x Carniboar
4 x Infernal Gargoyle
3 x Death Mage Thaddeus
2 x Medusil
3 x Molten Destroyer

4 x Poison Arrow
3 x Sacrifical Lamb
2 x Lay Line Nexus

4 x Soul Seeker
4 x Wrath of the Forest

I used the deck here: http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....-a-lot-of-work as the basis and then tweaked it to my liking.

It has very strong early board control, decent draw and a solid end game. I found that losing the fight for early board control made the game very difficult to win, so I included some more low cost allys to help with my opening hands and give me the best possible shot of getting control. Once you have control established, make sure you keep it. Focus on board control and you will naturally transition into damaging their hero.

One thing I want to try but haven't so far is Shadowspawn. Would be a great T4 card if you don't draw Wrath of the Forest (which happens about 30% of the time I've found, not sure what the exact math is) since you can trigger your ability on 3 shadow energy and then drain the opposing hero before they've had a chance to use theirs. Might drop the two medusils and a carniboar or two and throw it in, but that is running the risk of not having a T2 or T3 drop. Could probably afford to drop a sac lamb. Will tinker and see what works.

Standard opening with the right draw is:

T1 Hellsteed
T2 Carniboar / Brutalis - Carni if you're sure you can get the kill the following turn, Brutalis otherwise. Sometimes you don't have a choice in the matter tho. You can Poison Arrow a Puwen is an alternative but it's not ideal.
T3 Infernal / Thaddeus. If you went first you'll normally be in control at this point, if you went second you'll probably need to use you Shadow Energy to clear the board. Do it.
T4 Wrath of the Forest. Consider Sac Lamb if you don't have WoTF and you won't lose board control by doing it.
T5 Soul Seeker or Molten Destroyer. Depends on what you're up against. If there is a Nova or Tidal wave coming go the bow, but if a wipe isn't likely then go the Destroyer.

From there keep board control, plink away at hero and win. Toughest matchup I found to be warriors. Boris and Amber can both have very strong early game and wrest control from you. Once they have control it's very hard to get back.

[Airact]

At what level was the winstreak achieved?

I can see your deck get absolutely Destroyed by Priests(although Banebow in general has some problems against Priests), Warriors, Lance and possibly even Portal Maj. Also Mirror Banebow can give you a really hard time.

I don't have enough information to comment on your card choices, but I don't see a reason to play Hellsteed and Carniboar. I see both cards as a waste of time and deck space. I'm all for new ideas tho.

[psychobabble]

I can certainly see where the 'steeds and carniboar fit here - banebow is strongest by far in the early game, and it biggest weakness is back to back fatties from turn 5 onwards. More early game plays = more opportunity to win the game or get in an unbeatable position before that starts being a problem. Haven't tried myself so not sure it's optimal, but I can see the plan at least.

Shadowspawn seems like a potentially realy interesting card here, if it's even going to be usable it'd be in a deck like this.

I'm wondering if you could even go all out early game here by fitting in 4x HBM somehow. Steed - > brute/boar -> Garg -> HBM is going to be pretty nasty for a lot of decks to play against.

[Tyr Anasazi]

Suggestion.
-4 Carniboar +4 Fire Snake, thus almost guarantee a play on T1.
-4 Wrath of the Forest +3 Bad Santa, so that be able to jump start a bad draw on T2.
-4 Soul Seeker +3 Beetle Demon Bow, you can play it a turn earlier than Soul Seeker and then turn it into an ally.
-2 Medusil -2 LLN +4 Cobraskin Wraps, go all-out aggressive, once you have the board, you don't need resources as badly as your opponent.

Also you want to consider Here Be Monsters and Shadowspawn to keep priests and mages in lock-down longer.

[ZeroSignal]

Hey guys thanks for the replies!

My win streak was not at a particularly high level, I went from 220ish to 235 during it and played a number of sub 200 opponents. However at that level you meet a lot of Eladwen decks and Banebow owns Eladwen. I've refined the deck a little since the original post and whilst I haven't gone on any great winning streaks again it's still performing solidly and my rating is back into the mid 240s.

Airact you're spot on about the Priests. I'm about 2 from 6 against priests. My late game is poor and once they start dropping fatties after the tidal wave I have a tough time taking them out fast enough and eventually get overwhelmed. Also get draw problems against priests because they regularly destroy my wrath of the forest before the tidal wave.

I slotted in the Shadowspawn and I'm pretty happy with it. Have had some excellent T4 drops against zalandar, eladwen, lance and gravebone. It can also be very useful in mid-late game against heros like moonclaw and darkclaw who like to pool their energy and use it in consecutive turns.

I swapped the moltens out for behemoths. The moltens are better against mages but I've found I'm strong enough against mages anyhow so the behemoths are a better all round option. Crippling blow, captured prey, etc is not so devastating against them and they -will- clear the board if not dealt with immediately.

Interstingly one of the casters giving me some trouble is Elementalis. Not normally a hero to be feared but the timing on his SE ability makes it very hard to clear the board. I've found the best strategy is to death race him. Had a couple games where there has been an Ogloth on something ridiculous like 13/20 but I've managed to hold out just long enough to get the kill. Poison arrow is massive here.

Deck as it stands currently is:

4 x Fire Snake
4 x Brutalis
2 x Carniboar
4 x Infernal Gargoyle
4 x Death Mage Thaddeus
4 x Plasma Behemoth

3 x Poison Arrow
2 x Sacrificial Lamb
2 x Shadowspawn
2 x Lay Line Nexus
4 x Wrath of the Forest
4 x Soul Seeker

Got it down to 40 cards now also which is good.

Tyr that's some interesting suggestions. I think those changes would morph the deck into something completely different but it looks like it could be fun to try out. I will give it a shot and let you know how it goes