Hero Deck Archetype Tier Rankings [1.603]

**Keaven** · 07-28-2012, 02:03 PM

Based on; Soothslyr's deck archetypes described in his blog, Ways To Play; from my experience; and Wtzky's Beginners Guide to SE Heroes Tier rankings, I have made the following table for those looking to try different style builds for any Hero.

Hero Deck Archetype Tier Rankings
	Agro			Control					Combo
Hero	Rush	Burn	Suicide	Solo	Balanced	Destruction	Recursion	Mil	Lock
Boris	2	2		2	1.5		2.5	3	3
Amber	1.5	1		2	1.5		2		2.5
Victor	3	3			2.5	3	2		3
Gwenneth	1.5	1		2	1.5	3	2.5		2.5
Nishaven	2.5	2	2.5	2	2		3	3
Eladwen	1.5	1	1.5	2.5	1.5		3
Jericho	2.5	2.5			2	3	3
Zhanna	1.5	2.5			1	2.5	2	3
Lance	2	1.5			1		3		2.5
Serena	2.5	2.5			2	2.5	2.5		3
Ter Adun	3	3		3	3		3	3
Logan	3	3		3	3		3
Banebow	2	1.5		3	2	2.5	2
Baduruu	3	3		3		2.5	3	3
Majiya	2	1	1.5	2.5	2		2	3
Gravebone	2.5	2	2.5	3	2.5		2	3
Darkclaw	2	2.5		2	2.5		2.5	2.5	3
Moonstalker	3	2.5		2	1.5		2	1.5	2.5
Elementalis	2.5	2.5			2.5		2.5	3
Zaladar	1.5	1		3	2		2	3	3

**Keaven** · 07-28-2012, 02:03 PM

General and specific card pools for archetypes:

Rush:

Allies, Shadow Energy (SE) abilities, and direct damage (DD) abilities

Burn:

SE abilities, allies, DD abilities, weapons, armour

Suicide:

Shadowspawn

Supernova

Solo:

SE abilities, abilities, items

(Balanced) Control:

SE abilities, ally abilities, abilities, item abilities

Hand Destruction:

Serena Thoughtripper

Night Prowler

Resource Destruction:

Sandra Trueblade

Here Be Monsters

Plague

Cobraskin Wraps

Deck Destruction:

Transference

Gravedigger's Cloak

Dimension Ripper

Recursion:

Victor Heartstriker
Gravebone

Lily Rosecult

Earthen Protector

Shrine of Negatia

Shadow Knight

Reserve Weapon

Soul Reaper

Ghostmaker

Mill:

Healing abilities, DD abilities, hiding abilities, ally control abilities, Hero control abilities, weapons, armour, item destruction abilities, recursion cards, destruction cards, lock cards

There are quite a few cards that could function in mil strategies, however some heroes do not have enough in their card pool so I will list the most viable:

Zhanna Mist

Moonstalker

Evil Ascendant

Shadow Font

Reserve Weapon

Rampage

Poison Gas

Tidal Wave

Ice Storm

Ressurection
Holy Shield

Plague

Full Moon

Lone Wolf

Elemental Discharge
Conversion

Soul Reaper

Transference

Eternal Renewal

Rain Delay

Bazaar

Sever Ties

Bad Santa

Crescendo

Mourneblade
Berserker's Edge

Dimension Ripper

Wrath of Summer

Voice of Winter

Combo (Lock):

Draw cards/engines, hiding abilities, recursion abilities

Victor Heartstriker

Shrine of Negatia

Shadow Font

Death Trap

Lay Low

Full Moon

Rain Delay

**OgAusp** · 07-28-2012, 05:27 PM

Interesting thread and well thought through, however, I have some concerns.
Wouldn't damage from weapons be considered as beatdown and not burn?
The cards you have listed under Deck Destruction seems more suitably called Resource Destruction. I believe cards like DR and Transference

would fit that category better by the description on Sooth's blog.

**Keaven** · 07-29-2012, 04:01 AM

Originally Posted by OgAusp

Interesting thread and well thought through, however, I have some concerns.
Wouldn't damage from weapons be considered as beatdown and not burn?
The cards you have listed under Deck Destruction seems more suitably called Resource Destruction. I believe cards like DR and Transference

would fit that category better by the description on Sooth's blog.

Beatdown/Burn/Death Race are all synonymous, as not all Heroes have access to effective DD abilities and constitute the same style of gameplay. I may just rename it as death race which many people understand, however I have used the names according to Sooth's guide for an easy reference.

I have combined all forms of destruction into one category as they are complimentary and any hero having access to more than one form will combine them to focus on this archetype. I have added the resource destruction category accordingly for descriptive purposes. Thanks.

**ahmet476** · 07-29-2012, 11:16 AM

Great thread.

**painful_smile** · 07-29-2012, 11:19 AM

wtf you do with victor bro....
hes one of the best heroes.

**Keaven** · 07-29-2012, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by painful_smile

wtf you do with victor bro.... hes one of the best heroes.

	Agro			Control					Combo
Hero	Rush	Burn	Suicide	Solo	Balanced	Destruction	Recursion	Mil	Lock
Victor	3	3			2.5	3	2		3

Tier 2 isn't so bad, just hasn't got great damage output to be as effective using archetypes other than Control and Recursion.

**Ramirez Delgado** · 07-29-2012, 02:28 PM

Nice work, Keaven!
I had the same idea (showing archetypes vs. heroes) and wanted to produce some tutorial videos for beginners (you remember that I asked you for video?), but then my hard disk crashed and I lost all my work. Keep it going.

**Werlix** · 07-30-2012, 10:05 PM

Nice work! Cool to see it all laid out like this

I would however warn players to be careful with analysis like this however as it can limit players imagination and it can be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy if lots of players play the "top" decks - so they always come out on top.

Would the Zhanna

"balanced" deck have been considered tier 1 before the World champs? I don't think so - but iClipse used his brilliant deck building brain and realised how good it was despite the community's perception.

I guess the thing to remember is that this table is based on post-analysis of how decks have performed, not necessarily an exhaustive list of the inherent power of decks or potential decks.