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

[Ravi Patel]

I play a Majiya burn that plays better

[Spazik]

I play a Majiya burn that plays better

actually my deck owns majiya burn, 4 bad santas neutralize her ability x_X

[irvine83]

I dun think we here to discuss which deck is better. Who can beat who.

Rather OP wish to discuss which deck unconventional.
Unconventional deck may be weaker but definitely fun to play with.

I currently play with 40+ cards lone wolf deck. Not sure if its common for darkclaw deck to have no allies.
Yes it loses quite alot. But quite fun to play unusual way: enemy allies killing each other, making enemy powerhouse ally unable to attack/defend, slowly chipping off enemy hero life points while his 6-8 allies cannot attack

[Jovai]

I bet Majiya burn is fun, I was thinking about how to work it, but it just seems Nishaven has more synergy with the burn cards. Majiya, might work better on paper because of her card drawing mechanics, I might try it. I like having a super nova on tap that doesn't hurt me though

Anyone running priest? I have one, but I always tweak it, and I only win with it sometimes. It's fun though. I can't ever seem to balance the Mill-concept with enough "need this card, now" balance.

[Calmdown]

I run a priest deck and it's currently unbeaten at 6-0, against 4 Eladwen, 1 Darkclaw and 1 Ter Adun at around 375 rating. It's a very strong deck against the current meta, but like all decks that aren't Mage, it suffers somewhat in that it has an inherently weaker non-creature pool; so you have to build it with this in mind, and don't try and force a use for priest abilities that are simply not worthy of a deck spot.

I think right now that running any creature based deck that isn't Human is substandard (not saying that it won't be competitive, but human's ally pool is so strong right now) so a Human deck inherently has some advantages over a nonhuman deck. Zhanna pretty much hoses creatureless turtle Darkclaw on her own, and she gives significant trouble to most top level Eladwen decks because Eladwen is a 'suicide deck' by nature and relies on beating you before it runs out of cards (at least, a top level one will; Zhanna would be significantly less good at lower levels where people run large decks as a matter of course, I do still see this sometimes at 375~). People are far too hung up on Priests' 'mill' ability though; the mill effect of the deck is quite simply secondary to it performing how it should perform. Bazaar is its only card draw option (Bad Santa should have been called "Bad Card" in this game) so it essentially has to run it, and a couple of resurrections mean you generally won't mill yourself; combined with Zhanna's game-prolonging ability, all you need to do is make sure you can keep your opponent from swarming you with creatures (ie, Tidal Wave).

All in all, I consider Zhanna to be the best deck in the current meta though like any deck, will still lose to going second to Eladwen and getting Sandra'd turn 4/5. I've stopped worrying about that though, since right now there is pretty much nothing you can do about it, and you also have the same option in your deck.

Edit: The Elementalis version of this deck is potentially even better, incidentally, but since it relies on the bugged graveyard reshuffling card (brain...not...working...) currently can't be played if you want rating. The reason I built the Zhanna deck was actually because the Elementalis deck was so successful.

[Jovai]

Calmdown -

Care to share your build or is that something you do not wish to reveal? Most the priest deck builds I've seen I've not been real impressed with. Not that mine is any better, I always have a hard time cutting cards because many priest abilities are useful depending on a given situation.

[TotallyImba]

Calmdown, would you mind listing your deck? I tried playing a priest deck but found it hard so I would be interested in seeing yours.

Edit: why have i got an angry face above post?

[Jovai]

I am trying something a little different, instead of going the mill route. I make no promises that it is going to hold up and compete. I did just beat a Majiya Portal Deck though.

4 x Blake Windrunner
4 x Jasmine Rosecult
4 x Aldon The Brave
3 x Aeon Stormcaller

4 x Tidal Wave
4 x Bazaar

I am still tweaking these 3 cards to find out what offers the most flexibility/versatility.
3 x Destroy Arms
3 x Resurrection
3 x Holy Shield

I am going to keep messing with it.

[Calmdown]

Sure, this is my Zhanna deck:

Zhanna
4x Puwen Bloodblade
4x Blake Windrunner
4x Jasmine Rosecult
3x Aldon the Brave
4x Sandra Trueblade
2x Aeon Stormcaller

4x Tidal Wave
2x Resurrection
4x Bazaar

=32 cards


I'll answer some specifics that are bound to come up:

32 cards, why?

This deck is built around having 4x Tidal Waves and 2x Resurrections to play throughout the game. You can almost never throw one of these to the resource pile unless you are sure it is the right move (late game or against a creatureless deck, for example). Given the need for 6 of these cards so that you have enough copies to play, playing a 30 card deck left me with a bad ratio of spells-allies once Bazaar was included also, hence the reason for making the deck a little bigger. The only slightly hurtful thing that 32 cards does to the deck is give you less consistent 'death by Sandra' wins.

Puwen Bloodblade, roflcopter

Don't pick on the little guy.

The idea of this deck is that it forces your opponent to play into it, and every ally you put on the board forces this more and more. In the mid game, you want to be playing 2 creatures a turn to force a fight, and having Blake as your only 2-cost doesn't support this. To take board control then requires your opponent to lay multiple creatures, which makes Tidal Wave better and better. Laying an ally on turn 2 in this game is a massive tempo control thing, and especially in a deck running Aldon, I think Puwen is pretty underrated. If your opponent simply blows him up the turn he comes down, then he really wasn't any different to a Blake, and he was better than an Aldon or Jasmine because he cost less. The creature lineup in this deck is designed to make sure you always have plenty of stuff to put down on the board, and simply Puwen is the best option after all of the other inclusions in this deck.

Why Zhanna?

Zhanna inherently forces your opponent to 'burst' you down, she's essentially immune to death by slow damage over time. In addition to which, decks with life-gain abilities can often prolong games against burn/pressure decks to the point where these decks run out of steam. This is why Zhanna (and also why Elementalis) is strong in the current meta; Darkclaw turtle can't kill you, Eladwen has a real fight on its hands to kill you before running out of cards. This isn't to say that it makes for an easy win against Eladwen, but quite frankly Eladwen has everything going for it right now and this deck specifically counters it whilst also being strong against many other archetypes (something which Darkclaw, which is also a magic bullet for Eladwen, can't claim). Playing against Zaladar has the same principles as Eladwen except you don't have the risks of chain Sandra. In fact, probably this deck's worst matchup is Gravebone Portal recursion, and whilst I haven't played it with this deck yet, I'd put my money on it being 50/50 at worst assuming equal skill.


I hope that ramble was what you were after - I'm in work so apologies if it could have been a bit more well constructed.

Edit: Oh, potential changes; one more Aldon, one more Aeon, not sure for what and possibly just straight additions for an increased deck size (still loath to give up free wins via Sandra though, no matter how cheese that may be). Destroy Arms has already been in and taken out as it didn't fit with the plan (great utility card, but this deck is about focus and is already super tight).

[Jovai]

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.