Portal to the Grave

[Geckt]

This is one of the only few write ups I ever did and for one of my favourite hero,Gravebone.
Reasons is that I think that there are already so many good write ups from really good player in SE forums already for him and that mine can only make little to no difference in any terms.
Encouraged by a few guild mates' kind words and so......
Here are some of my some few hopefully good guid lines to anyone looking to get some basic ideas of playing him.

I like to see Gravebone as a mildly efficient control hero with the only exclusive ability to manipulate the graveyard order to keep the dreaded SK cycle going where none of the other shadow heroes can do so being his best bits. Try him only if you like to take up tough challenges.
Here is one of my many Gravebone builds

http://shadowera.gondorian.com/deck1....2se144.2se160

Gravebone(40cards + 1hero)

Allies
2 xBrutal Minotaur
3 xShadow Knight
4 xInfernal Gargoyle
4 xDeath Mage Thaddeus
4 xBrutalis

Items/Abilities
2 xLey Line Nexus
2 xShriek of Vengeance
3 xSacrificial Lamb
3 xTome of Knowledge
3 xPortal
2 xSupernova
3 xLightning Strike
3 xFireball

Weapons
2 xDagger of Unmaking

Out of all the tweaks I've made I think this is one of the most reactive and simplest one that can hold up on its own well enough against most decks around.

Saccing is critical to play the deck properly. Every single card is there for a good reason.

Burn here is minimal since the main aims aren't even to win with them but to maintain board balance till you have enough resources to portal. (Again I don't know how many times have I ever succeeded in doing so but if you do get a portal finisher, it's just plain breathtakingly epic )
Nova's are autosac in the 1st 5turns unless you get a bad draw and facing a perfect rush.

Here's a mock scenario:
t1- stall
t2- Brut/ToK(ToK only against humans unless its a priest)
t3- Gargs/DMT/FB if needed when there's menace like Jas(DMT only if there's 3hp allies to pinch)
t4- Tok+draw/LS/Portal(if things are quiet on the other side of the board)
t5- Nova/BM or Sk/Revive ally to Slamb if low on cards

Normally the initial 5 turns will be crucial to how well you plan your plays, by t5 strikes if you are still not on the higher grounds the only way to survive against a rush is your burn cards so learn to treasure those cards well never spam them unless necessary. Also never be afraid to put out BM or SK since you wanna lure out all their cripples or burns if they're mages too instead of them using it against your hero.

Other allies that you may wanna try with Gravebone:

Deathbone
A 3cc ally often overlooked by many because of his size and cc as in essence he could be a very good makeshift fireball since his attack for 2 plus 2 damage dealt to target when he dies. Also when facing any opponent with mass destruction or burn cards his a perfect vice against them since if they play nova or tidal wave it deals them 2 extra damage. A nova that hits them back for 5+2damage extra for every 1 deathbone in play will make them think twice. With Gravebone's ability to revive allies, 1~2 deathbone's a nice addition here since he's useful in any stage of the game unlike other brutalis which is rather useless in mid to late games.

Medusil
Yet another one of those allies which I find that works well with gravebone for his ability to remove blocking for 1 turn, since in most cases your initial line-up of allies are weaker in attacks compared to the human factor so with medusil's ability+brutalis: 4damage, sufficient to kill Jas Aldon or any 4hp allies cept Gargs when going 1st.
With DMT, even better if you can get medusil to stick on board.

PS:I believed there is at least one or two builds here that is almost identical to mine here in the forum.
Had this build for a while since 1.503 then, haven't tweak much of it except the changes in my line-up of fatties.

[Geckt]

After sometimes of playing the game and getting a little bored out with my old gravebone list of cards here what I'm trying currently.
Nothing is really a must keep in my list of cards here except that I like DMT's a lot. For now it back to basics with a burn control tone.

http://shadowera.gondorian.com/deck1....2se160.2se150

Gravebone (40 cards + 1hero)

ALLY
4 xDeath Mage Thaddeus
3 xMolten Destroyer
3 xBad Wolf
3 xCarniboar
4 xInfernal Gargoyle
ABILITY
2 xSacrificial Lamb
2 xLey Line Nexus
2 xShriek of Vengeance
4 xTome of Knowledge
2 xSupernova
4 xLightning Strike
4 xFireball
WEAPON
3 xDagger of Unmaking

[painful_smile]

Where's Portal?

[Geckt]

Where's Portal?

That's the difference here, I'm testing with the exclusion of portals to see if it's enough to play with only my DoUs. As I tend to see myself saccing portals mostly and still being able to play the original build without much problems. Any good non portal build, PS?

[painful_smile]

I mean cause of the name of that deck
A portal to death without portal oO

[Geckt]

Lol, I would have to change the title to Unmaking Of the Dead then since now the focus is on DoUs.

EDIT: I'm bad with jokes, so excuse my slowness on receiving.

[barbzilla]

I see two issues;
1: Its Gravebone, you really need 20+ allies to make him effective (this is an opinion, and I am new so take it as that). The issue being that any turn you aren't laying down an ally is a turn you are losing board dominance. Since Gravebone's main ability is to increase board dominance by utilizing an unused resource pool (I.E. graveyard), you want to accentuate that effect. I usually save my portals as a win condition, early game they are only useful as board control. Unless you have someone putting out creatures you need to deal with asap, save your portals for when you have 7+ resources so you can plop a portal and a 3cc ally.

2: The brutalis are only useful on turn two, the rest of the time they are pure filler. Sure they might be good at eating up enemy weapons or armor, but other than that, they are resource fodder. I'd go with either Carniboar (as he can eat and grow, but still not a great choice) or more draw. Draw is important in this deck since you want to run portals. You need to have a resource sac and be able to lay down two cards at a time late game for your win condition (portal). That means once you lay down that portal you want to drop 2 SKs or BMs the next turn to finish him off (if the game runs that late). Keep two portals in your hand, just incase he manages to hide/stealth/rain delay or whatever. That way you can respond as soon as he is open for a finisher.

On the major plus side, you have enlightened me about Deathbone, and I think I may do some experimentation with him. I have been overlooking him due to his CC+AP/HP, but you may be on to something sinister with that deathbone kill combo. On the otherhand, you would eat your own damage if you are forced into using a supernova.

[Geckt]

Board presence yes, to claim board dominance not quite since he lacks a bit I find in the ally control dept.
As for a number to your ally counts I take it as personal preference, I mainly take fatties as his main focus.

I like to believe the key to gravebone is his strength in mid to late game pressure he can force in with multiple fatty bombing and recursion.

It's true bruts aren't much, but nothing can help you as much as them in terms of survivability and a perfect sac saving you from sacrificing any precious fatties if.drawn too early.

I recently also liked the inclusion of carniboars too as a portal fodder or for going first.

Deathbones are good utility allies anyway I see it in a gravebone deck just like what you may have poison arrows in a Victor deck for most players as staples and on the plus side you won't need to recast them like arrows. But they're just a tad high cc and with low toughness doesn't make them all too desirable to me.

[barbzilla]

Thanks for the response m8, everything comes down to play style I guess. I can see your points on everything except for Bruts. I Just don't like them. I think shadow needs some better 2cc allies.

[Geckt]

Thanks for the response m8, everything comes down to play style I guess. I can see your points on everything except for Bruts. I Just don't like them. I think shadow needs some better 2cc allies.

Me neither, would liked to see more offensive 2~3cc allies for shadow.