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  1. #1
    Junior Member Bibliophile's Avatar
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    Eladwen: "I enjoy your screams"

    The Deck (41):

    1 x Eladwen Frostmire

    3 x Kristoffer Wyld
    3 x Priest of the Light
    3 x Tainted Oracle

    4 x Fireball
    4 x Lightning Strike
    3 x Supernova
    2 x Engulfing Flames
    2 x Poison Gas
    4 x Tome of Knowledge

    3 x Ley Line Nexus
    1 x Severing Ties
    3 x Snow Sapphire
    3 x Voice of Winter
    2 x Dagger of Unmaking



    The Rationale:

    There are four cards that make this deck effective. SS, VoW, and the infamous pair, Engulfing Flames and Poison Gas. The last two are absolutely critical. Never sack one unless you've already affected the opposing hero. SS and VoW have fairly good board life, and 3x is usually enough. For greater consistency, you can replace the Daggers with one more of each. I keep Daggers for Elementalis and also to make Earthen Protector look like the stupidest card in the history of TCGs.

    The idea is to stall until victory. VoW is your best friend here, but SS will also help and has the added advantage of absorbing damage. Burn cards such as Lightning Strike and Supernova pair with Eladwen's ability and the judicious use of Daggers to keep the board fairly clean. Unlike with a Death Race mage build, Fireballs do not necessarily have to be aimed at the hero. They should be, if possible, but keeping a clean board is paramount. The enemy hero will die on its own.

    I will not play a T5 VoW unless I've managed to keep the board clean up until that point. Otherwise, I prefer to spar with allies and let the opponent establish an impressive board. Then I wipe him with Supernova. If you can manage to establish your own board presence early game (not common, but not especially rare if you commit to the objective), then Vow becomes a devastating play. You get turns of free damage against the opponent while they try to get an ally to stick or waste resources killing your board. Keep in mind that allies are only of moderate importance with this build. PotL and Kris both give a 1st-turn payoff, meaning that you can afford to lose them after playing them. TO doesn't have an immediate gain, but you benefit by the enemy killing him.

    Mid- to Late-game heavy burn against the hero (think chain Fireballs or successive turn Supernovas) can finish the game. While this is an attractive option, and one you should endeavor to keep open, DO NOT neglect the board for it. You'll lose more games that way than you win, even with VoW, SS, and Eladwen's ability helping out. You must not let them stack allies unless you can take them out safely with a Supernova. This deck has little healing, and it's relatively expensive. Your hero can afford very little damage.

    Those are the basic goals, strategies, and pitfalls of the deck. I've found it to be almost perfectly effective at the 250 range. For reason of my own blinding stupidity, I have not yet had a chance to test it at a more competitive ranking. Comments, questions, and suggestions are always appreciated.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Nizaris's Avatar
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    I thought this looked alright, and then I saw Flames and Gas. And then I saw no retreat. And then I quit reading.
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  3. #3
    DP Visionary Preybird's Avatar
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    Deck feels a bit all over the place. Is it rush? Is it control? Is it solo? It's a bit of all of them and a great deal of none of them.
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  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Preybird View Post
    Deck feels a bit all over the place. Is it rush? Is it control? Is it solo? It's a bit of all of them and a great deal of none of them.
    I agree. From the looks of the cards in your current deck, I'd suggest you try a solo build with Eladwen. Replace the allies with stall cards.

  5. #5
    Junior Member Bibliophile's Avatar
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    The easiest way to see how the deck works is to see it in action. You can look up some of my recent games (bibliophile785). The games are up into the 260s and 270s, which means I occasionally see a well-crafted deck.

    In effect, the game can be either control or rush (solo is not a deck type, strictly speaking. It's a deck choice, but a solo hero still has to choose to be either control or rush). It's meant to be control, but the allies provide flexibility. Kris is meant less as an ally than a cheap burn card, but VoW means he can sometimes get repeated hits in or weaken an ally for bigger burns. PotL is mostly there for heal and to absorb damage (which is almost the same thing). TO is there for draw, not as an attacking force. As mentioned above, if you can get several of these allies to stick with VoW out, then it's possible to morph the game into a pseudo-rush, stacking large damage in just a couple turns.

  6. #6
    Junior Member Bibliophile's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nizaris View Post
    I thought this looked alright, and then I saw Flames and Gas. And then I saw no retreat. And then I quit reading.
    As I said in the OP, I appreciate and enjoy people giving me input on my decks. It helps the decks to be as good as they can be. However, I do not appreciate people being rude. I understand that you were trying to emphasize your point, but if you can't take the five minutes (MAXIMUM, it's only 5 paragraphs) to read the entire post, perhaps you shouldn't take the time to comment, either. The disdain and contempt in your comment helps no one.

  7. #7
    World Champion 2012 iClipse's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nizaris View Post
    I thought this looked alright, and then I saw Flames and Gas. And then I saw no retreat. And then I quit reading.
    Retreat is by no means a necessary card in a mage deck. Also, flames and poison work pretty well if you combine them with solid board control and stall cards. No, this is probably not a deck that will make it to top 20, but that doesn't mean it's not a threadworthy deck.

    Edit: at OP: I like the deck. Though I don't think it'll be able to stand to a solid rush deck like Amber coupled with a bit of item destruction. The concept is cool, but you're lacking a bit of speed I think. I'm not really sure what coupd help though, since the current card pool doesn't allow you to really deal with a Jeweler's Dreaw for example, other than bouncing it.
    Last edited by iClipse; 11-19-2012 at 12:56 AM.
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  8. #8
    Senior Member Nizaris's Avatar
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    It wasn't rude at all, I said nothing derogatory. Deck sucks, quite game, that would have been rude. But it doesn't suck, just not as solid as I thought it was at first glance, and that is what I said. I just didn't bother to go into detail about my thoughts. It was early, and I gave an opinion in the simplest form possible. Mostly it was to bump your thread for you as it had become buried and out of view after 10 hours of posts being piled on top of it.

    If you want detail on what I said, Poison/Flames are not very valuable cards in most situations. The reasons are as follows. They are expensive, too expensive and slow to use on a ally(you have better options as a Mage). That makes them worthwhile only to target a hero. To get maximum effect from that, they need to be cast right on t4, but you most likely need to be dealing with the board by then. In regards to Retreat, it is probably one of the best options in the game. It would have very good synergy with your VoW's as well.
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  9. #9
    Junior Member Bibliophile's Avatar
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    @Nizaris: I am glad that you mentioned retreat...it would be a worthwhile card in this deck, and I'm looking into possible ways to incorporate it. I'll thank you for that input. Since you quit reading partway through this fairly short post, and then phrased your comment in such a way as to show that each supposed failing brought you closer to the conclusion that the deck wasn't even worth reading about, perhaps you can understand why it sounded like an insult. As far as poison/flames go, I usually end up getting one or the other by T4 (if you run the math, the stats will back me up there) and play it as early as possible, somewhere between turns 4-6 depending on the situation. Since this is a control game and tends to run long, it will get at least as much damage in as a fireball, and quite often 6 or 7 points. That's not considering the fact that I can stack them for 2 damage/turn.


    @iClipse: You're right. The only game I've lost so far (11 games, low ranking) has been against an Amber rush. I try to use my allies to bring down JD durability, and LLN can get rid of Reserve Weapon, but it's still hard. Against other rush decks, like Eladwen rush or Majiha, i can kill the weenies and match them burn for burn. Also, in Majiha's case, I try to limit my ally plays to make her Shadow Energy useless.

    On a separate note, it wasn't my intention to post a meta-altering top twenty deck...I just thought that this deck was worth discussing, as it has worked for me and is slightly different from the others I've seen.

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