My ultimate Gravebone deck~~~~

[stevevai1983]

My ultimate Gravebone deck

Hi everyone.

When I got bored with Amber and Majiya, I read 2 GB article written by wreon
“Monster Control” and “Brutal Is Control”
http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....nster-Control)
http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....al-Is-Control)
Then I start to play GB. Currently it became my strongest hero and I feel GB is very very underplayed and underrated.


Gravebone’s biggest strength
1: fully utilize fat ally with his ability.
I think it’s the most obvious advantage of GB. Everyone who uses GB will know this.
E.g. T5 drop a PB(or any other fatties), they are likely to get killed by opponent in next turn. Then T6 you can drop another PB then use ability to retrieve your dead fattie at the same turn. This will put big pressure to your opponent.

2: The only hero who can effectively use Ogloth.
Ogloth is such a cool ally but it’s too slow / expensive for most decks and there are so many ways to remove/disable him. Only GB can make most use of Ogloth with 3 keys: ability, server ties and supernova.

3: One of the best heroes to regain board control.
Supernova + ability = profit
You can always use supernova to clear the board when you have 4SE and immediately get a fatties back
Also supernova + Ogloth creates a cool bomb effect

4: He is a MAGE
Access powerful mage only spells AKA fireball, lighting strike and supernova.
This means although GB can effectively use ally, it does not completely rely on ally.
4FB, 4LS, 4NOVA is more than enough to finish off your opponent.

Gravebone’s weakness:

1: Weak early game.
His first SE cannot help you to gain board control.
This is the biggest weakness of GB (probably why he is underused). Normally this happen when you play second (that’s about 50% games in long run )
GB’s early game is weak. That’s why in deck-building you should always try to build a relatively stronger early game rather than add more fatties!

2: rely on supernova
Games can be very hard if you have bad luck and cannot draw even 1 supernova in first 15cards
When this happen + you play second + vs human rush deck = high lose rate

Ok here is the deck list

Brut *4
Big Bad wolf *4
DMT *4
PB*3
Ogloth *2

FB *4
LS *4
Nova *4

Tome of knowledge *4
Sacrificial Lamb *2

Sever Ties *2
SOV *2
LLN *2

Pic is always better
GraveBone.jpg


I want to mainly discuss some critical choices of this deck

Issue 1: Why do you use big bad wolf instead of Infernal Gargoyle ?!!
This is probably the biggest question here and I believe this is also the essence of this deck.
This game can basically break into 2 very different situations: you play first or you play second.
When play first, bad wolf is always a better T3 drop than Gargoyle. It destroy priest of the light.
In T4 you can follow up a DMT to kill 4hp ally without using any mage spell.(huge). Even your opponent cast Gargoyle you can use LS on T4 with Wolf to kill it.
So what about you play second? Isn’t Gargoyle can actually survive? Bad wolf will get killed! OK this is the actual secret ingredient to make this deck strong: Let them kill your bad wolf!! As I mention before, GB has a weak early game. When you play second, your goal is simply do not lose too much HP. Don’t care too much about the board in first 4 turns. You can gain board control with supernova. When you use Gargoyle there is a big chance your opponent will ignore it or control it then smash your face. So in T5 you will already lose too much hp and after supernova you will lose even more 5 hp and enter the “danger zone” way early. On the other hand, Bad wolf is “easy” to kill and your opponent will most likely to kill it instead of attack you. (of course if they fail to do so, wolf has 3 attack to retaliate in next turn)

Let’s see a typical vs human opening. (assume it’s lance)
Play first:
T1: nothing
OT1: nothing(or 1cc)
T2: brut
OT2: nothing or puwen/NS
T3: Wolf
OT3: (can’t play priest of light!) Jasmine
T4: DMT + Wolf to kill Jasmine
OT4: hmm in bad situation ! if he cast IGG, he will lose a lot of hp in next turn. If he use ability then can use puwen+ally to kill bad wolf.
T5: cast any mage spell to kill his 3cc and use ability to get wolf back, use DMT+brut to kill puwen. Now you will have 3 allies and your opponent have none.
OT5: in an even worse situation! Probably cast AB (hey wolf is the anti AB ally)

What if it’s Eladwen?
OT4: ability take down bad wolf. Cast FS/FB to kill DMT as well.
T5: basically anything and use ability to get wolf back, still in lead.

NOW what if you play second?!
OT1: nothing or 1cc
T1: nothing
OT2: nothing or puwen
T2: nothing or brut
OT3: Jasmine or priest of the light
T3: wolf
OT4: Aldon and kill wolf
T4: FB or DMT to buy time
OT5: anything,. IGG, AB, another ally. And kill DMT also deal some damage to you (or kill brut as well)
T5: supernova and get wolf back
Here you successfully survived in early game without losing too much hp. If you use Gargoyle sometimes your opponent will ignore it and in T4 directly attack you.

Issue2: Use Ogloth or not?
My answer is: why not? Ogloth is very stylish and strong with GB. Sever ties, supernova and SL also combo Ogloth very well.

Issue3: 5cc ally choice
Basically MD or PB or BM?
I used to like MD but in current meta, there are increasing number of ZA. 4damage is actually a bad thing, MC really hurts! Also you will use supernova and MD will do 1 damage to yourself.
BM: not good when you nova BM hurts you more. Plus I don’t have portal to use BM effectively.

I think other card are very standard.

In the end, there are some cards are really good but I did not include them.
DOU and Freezing Grip / Clinging Webs.
I really like Freezing, It’s the card to deal with annoying sandworm. Unfortunately I am unable to fit it in. Don’t really want to pass 42cards atm. I might try +1 SL +2 Freezing to make it 45 but probably it will affect my 3cc draw rate… I don’t know yet.

That’s about it! Just keep in mind: deck building is roughly only 40%. Game play is 20%, Sac choice is 30%(hardest part to master!), luck is 10%