Anyone care to share a little more "unconventional" deck builds?

[Calmdown]

Calmdown, you do not have any problems with Portal out pacing you in that particular set up? I have no doubt that it's probably a solid build, and I had considered Puwen for the same reasons you have said. I guess you can bank on just having more of everything . . . I'll try it out. I'm not too proud to rip someone's deck construction off if it helps me learn.

Absolutely, but Portal is an inherently broken card.

That said, lets take a look at Eladwen aggressive. Turn 2 it will lay a Blake, turn 3 it will lay an Aldon/Jasmine/Blake, turn 4 it will lay a portal, turn 5 it will lay two creatures and be low on cards. If you've been laying creatures in this time also (which you should, in a relatively balanced way given the mirror), at worst you have nothing on the board and he has pmety, but you've lost no life and built up some shadow power or at least lost very little. In a better case you'd be trading some critters for some critters and the board position would be relatively even (60/40 or 75/25 in Eladwen's favour due to her own ability). The top and bottom of this is, when you hit the early midgame (4-5 resources), as long as Eladwen hasn't completely overwhelmed you (Puwen kills Blake so he has to be dealt with, that's why he's a great roadblock) you're starting to enter Tidal Wave board reset territory where the game becomes so stalled that your mill starts to take effect. If they play into you, they lose card advantage and you continually heal up at least some of the damage. If they don't play into you, you outheal their effective 'dps'. Also remember that a typical Eladwen deck plays 6 cards with no use other than their resource pile (3 Portals and 3 Research) so your 'time to decked' is even faster - Eladwen will have to hold those cards in its hand to avoid death by draw damage, at which point you win because you still have resources.

If Eladwen doesn't play hyper aggressive - it needs to get a research down, it drops a Sandra somewhere, etc - you are also getting what you want. Eladwen will try to establish board control and then beat you down. Beating you down when you're spamming cheap roadblocks and healing 1hp/turn is, in reality, not that easy, and as soon as a Tidal Wave hits that board control is severely diminished.

What this essentially comes down to is the same thing that Darkclaw does to Eladwen; make Eladwen unable to kill you, and then kill it slowly. This deck just does it better (albeit more difficult) but can do the same to most decks rather than dying to certain matchups.

Let me just re-caveat this though; this deck will not beat Eladwen every time by any means. Eladwen is abhorrent and trying to find a perfect solution to it is simply not possible as it is just better. What this deck does do is certainly give you the tools to beat it, and give you the tools to exercise your superior skill over an Eladwen (or other) opponent.

[QuincasBorba]

My deck: 40 cards

Zanna Mist

3x Jasmine
4x Sandra
4x Blake
2x Aldon
3x Aeon

4x Healing Touch
4x Tidal Wave
4x Resurrection
4x Holy Shield

3x Bazar
4x Bad Santa

[Jovai]

Just beat a 423 rate Majiya deck with it, Calmdown. It's pretty solid it seems, I really was hoping to do something more with the priest abilities, since they have so much utility.

It has a really nice resource curve, and unless I get a funky draw you can always play something. I do hate getting in resource destroying pissing contests when it comes down to a HBM/Sandra playing war.

I dunno if you guys ever used to play MtG, I do find it laughably more annoying then land destruction decks.

Quincas, I ran almost that exact same deck + or - a card, and it found it getting way outstripped by portal Eladwen. I may not have been playing it correctly, but that's that's been my major issue. I do mean specifically, 30 card Eladwens. Their are variants that are easier with that configuration since you can outlast there heavier burn oriented decks. They're less likely to double sandra you into Portal + aeon.

[Calmdown]

Just beat a 423 rate Majiya deck with it, Calmdown. It's pretty solid it seems, I really was hoping to do something more with the priest abilities, since they have so much utility.

I think that's why people underrate priest decks; people's natural deckbuilding method is to play something because of the cards it has available, which makes them want to include those cards, rather than looking at the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that however good Priest utility may be, it will never match up to Mage, or Elemental, or even Wulven. There are simply three reasons to play Zhanna; self heal, board clearance, and recycling. These abilities in this game are incredibly synergistic but taken alone, are all relatively weak (self healing is a bad ability unless you can draw the game out to take advantage of it; board clearance for 5 resources gives your opponent tempo control; recycling only works if the game lasts long enough to recycle something).

Adding in anything else than these cards and creatures, makes the deck not work. Quincas' deck is a perfect example of how not to build a Priest deck right now (if all you care about is winning, that is - I realise that's not everyone's driving goal); you have weaker card draw than Eladwen, you have a weaker ally lineup, you don't have Portal, and you have a pile of cards that will often be dead weight (Healing Touch and Holy Shield). In addition you have like 40 cards and 16 creatures, meaning Eladwen herself (or any other removal hero) will pretty much eat anything you put down. It doesnt matter if you can resurrect them, they'll still get eaten and you just wasted another card to get them back. I could go on here, but I'll look like I'm being nasty, so suffice to say; that's a really bad priest deck.

[TotallyImba]

I will try it out Calmdown but I think I might substitute a few of the Allies for Holy Shields, looking like something like below. I feel Holy Shield is something which can really save your hero/allies.

Dropping Puwen Bloodblade down to 2 still gives me 6 cards which I can put out for 2 resource cost.

1x Zhanna
3x Jasmine Rosecult
3x Sandra Trueblade
2x Puwen Bloodblade
4x Blake Windrunner
3x Aldon the Brave
2x Aeon Stormcaller
4x Tidal Wave
2x Resurrection
4x Bazaar
4x Holy Shield

[Jovai]

Calmdown, I understand where your logic is coming from. I like the things you say, I'd wager a guess you're probably fairly experienced in the CCG arena. Some of these individuals here are not, and I am extremely rusty. I think forums like this are great because things are revealed that you may not have seen yourself when trying to make the most of a given hero, card, etc. Thanks again, man, I appreciate it.

I'll be around later to add my 2 cents to the community, I like it here. Even if it's isn't very valuable, lol. Off to the pub for lunch, have fun kids.

[QuincasBorba]

Quincas' deck is a perfect example of how not to build a Priest deck right now (if all you care about is winning, that is - I realise that's not everyone's driving goal); you have weaker card draw than Eladwen, you have a weaker ally lineup, you don't have Portal, and you have a pile of cards that will often be dead weight (Healing Touch and Holy Shield). In addition you have like 40 cards and 16 creatures, meaning Eladwen herself (or any other removal hero) will pretty much eat anything you put down. It doesnt matter if you can resurrect them, they'll still get eaten and you just wasted another card to get them back. I could go on here, but I'll look like I'm being nasty, so suffice to say; that's a really bad priest deck.

You could tell what would be a reasonable Priest deck, oh great wise man.

[Calmdown]

You could tell what would be a reasonable Priest deck, oh great wise man.

Sorry dude, but I'd be remiss in a deck strategy thread if I tried to tell you it was a work of art. Pointing out flaws is as important as pointing out good bits. Apologies that my mannerisms aren't better.

You're not forced to read or agree with what I post at all, in any case. If your deck is fun, more power to you. All I'm offering is advice on being competitive, not how to have fun or how to get the most out of cards you may like the idea of.

[Jovai]

Awww, c'mon kids can't we have both? Can we win and have fun? That's kind of how I define a good deck. Beat the meta, and be unconventional. My Nishaven burn deck works really well against a lot of things. I do not think it's as good as 30 card Eladwen. It's the fact that they think it's a Nishaven Portal deck too late that it throws people off and I pull a win.

[Kadun]

You could tell what would be a reasonable Priest deck, oh great wise man.

His deck is on page 2.