Competitive Zaladar Deck

[Narziss]

Replying to as much as I can:

I like to keep tight, 30 card deck lists.

Chimera > Plasma Behemoth, because you get a 5/7 on turn 5 (if you drop a Chimera on turn 4 and then Life Infusion on t5). I just think Chimera is more viable because it does more damage for less resources and can come out sooner. Supermof gave me a similar explanation that convinced me, especially after testing it out. Plus you need 6 resources for Chimera + Life Infusion, 7 for Plasma + LI. Hrm.... It is a noticeable difference. Plus Plasma Behemoth really slows you down, as you try to save 3 resources for its ability, unlike Chimera does 3 less damage but cheaper and sooner.

I don't really understand why anyone would use Bad Santa unless they were packing a bunch of one cost cards, like Fire Snake and Sparks (which I don't think are very good for Zaladar, they all belong in Elementalis). Also, no, you wouldn't play Eternal Renewal in this; again, that is for Elementalis.

Atm, Armor of Ages seems a little slow, but I might reconsider when its cost gets fixed. It is definitely tempting.

Shriek of Vengeance looks like severe card disadvantage to me. It would be more appropriate in a deck that has massive card drawing capabilities (Blood Frenzy, Bad Santa, Research). However, in Zaladar, it is only going to mess you up, since you need lots of resources available. Again, HBM belongs in a different type of deck for similar reasons: this deck is about card advantage through slow but powerful cards. HBM is about tempo. This deck doesn't have anything cheap to slip in during turns 1 and 2 before casting HBM on turn 3.

[Sardokan]

Plasma behemot can do 7 damages, (10 with Zaladar's abillity) if you need, can kill this stupid human alli you cannot attack, can choose target with aeon in play, can shot a lone wolf, survives boris...

i was playing 4 behemot and chimera at begining, now i only have 1 chimera, cause i find behemot way more powerful.
And i usually wait, so dont use all my ressources all turn.

i wasn't playing bad santa befor, but i play strong slow deck, and sometime, when facing boris with blood frenzy, or deck that draw much, you are happy to have the power of drowing, or milling them

and when you begin, you can recharge your hand, othervise, it goes for ressource.

HBM is crap in my opinion too

[Calmdown]

Replying to as much as I can:

I like to keep tight, 30 card deck lists.

Chimera > Plasma Behemoth, because you get a 5/7 on turn 5 (if you drop a Chimera on turn 4 and then Life Infusion on t5). I just think Chimera is more viable because it does more damage for less resources and can come out sooner. Supermof gave me a similar explanation that convinced me, especially after testing it out. Plus you need 6 resources for Chimera + Life Infusion, 7 for Plasma + LI. Hrm.... It is a noticeable difference. Plus Plasma Behemoth really slows you down, as you try to save 3 resources for its ability, unlike Chimera does 3 less damage but cheaper and sooner.

I don't really understand why anyone would use Bad Santa unless they were packing a bunch of one cost cards, like Fire Snake and Sparks (which I don't think are very good for Zaladar, they all belong in Elementalis). Also, no, you wouldn't play Eternal Renewal in this; again, that is for Elementalis.

Atm, Armor of Ages seems a little slow, but I might reconsider when its cost gets fixed. It is definitely tempting.

Shriek of Vengeance looks like severe card disadvantage to me. It would be more appropriate in a deck that has massive card drawing capabilities (Blood Frenzy, Bad Santa, Research). However, in Zaladar, it is only going to mess you up, since you need lots of resources available. Again, HBM belongs in a different type of deck for similar reasons: this deck is about card advantage through slow but powerful cards. HBM is about tempo. This deck doesn't have anything cheap to slip in during turns 1 and 2 before casting HBM on turn 3.

I agree with you on Chimera vs Behemoth. Behemoth is a game ender, and his true resource cost is much higher than 5; he's too often played like just another creature, and for a 5 cost he's incredibly easy to remove.

I disagree on Shriek though. Although it is quite a heavy card to play, there are a pile of cards in the current environment that can completely ruin this deck. Soul Seeker with good timing will swing a game right around. A mirror match with an Armour of Ages laid can be tough (I dont run Armour - too slow and has no deck synergy - but others do). Burn decks are incredibly competitive if they're allowed to keep a Voice of Winter on the table, but without it they are facerolled. Not to mention all of the utility that blanket item destruction brings - Bazaar, Research, Portal, Rain Delay, Valiant Defender, etc. Fitting 2 Shriek into a 30 card deck isn't hard and is all you really need, and you could legitimately run with 1 for just make or break moments. Everything in the deck is amazing and you can always resource it if your resource/tempo situation doesnt allow you to play it.

Let me also use this post as an excuse to say "Bad Santa? More like Bad Card!" one more time. It's even worse than Bazaar.

[andrewbenw]

Any tips on how to play against a Zaladar mirror? I'm fairly new to playing a Zaladar based deck.

[TotallyImba]

I am going to switch from Boris to Zaladar as I am seeing more and more of these decks and I am having a hard time beating them due to Mind Control and Transference.

Thinking about changing Belladonna for 4 x Sparks to give me a bit more support early.

Going for

1 Zaladar

4 Infernal Gargoyle
4 Belladonna
3 Bad Wolf
3 Behemoth

4 Life Infusion
4 Transference
4 Mind Control
2 Energy Discharge
1 Armor of Ages

[TotallyImba]

I wasn't going to post this, but I saw several Zaladar decklists that were making me shake my head. A lot of the credit for this deck goes to Supermof and his reasoning behind many of the card choices. My deck is only slightly different than his. Here is my version:

1 Zaladar

4 Infernal Gargoyle
2 Bad Wolf
4 Chimera
4 Belladonna

4 Life Infusion
4 Transference
3 Energy Discharge
4 Mind Control

This deck is good.. its really good, though I think it might need a cheaper casting unit like Sparks as I find myself getting swarmed early on. And what about 1 x Eternal Renewal?

[Jovai]

The bones are there TotallyImba. If you think you can make it work better for you, go for it. Hope that didn't come out wrong, I wasn't saying that to be a smartass at all. What I mean is Narziss broke down a solid Zaladar deck for people to discuss, I'm sure he even tweaks his decks on occassion. So if you got a way to make it work for you

[TotallyImba]

Didnt come out wrong at all

I completely understand. I am currently trying the below, after finding I had nothing to defend against t2 I added Sparks to buy me time. Still dont know if Chimera is better than Behemoth, its a tough one due to the ability of the Behemoth being great but the cost of Chimera being lower.

1 Zaladar

4 Infernal Gargoyle
4 Spark
3 Behemoth
3 Belladonna

4 Life Infusion
4 Transference
3 Energy Discharge
4 Mind Control

[Jovai]

See I wouldn't do any of those. I just don't play Elemental, haha. Actually I did play Elementalis for about 5-10 games or so when the patch came out for testing purposes.

Elemental is the only thing that's really interesting control SE has, it's cool and all. Just not running them.

[TotallyImba]

Just read Narziss explaination above and can see why he uses Chimera over Behemoth, it does give you more options. He also is right about not using Eternal Renewal, it just isnt needed in this deck and would just get sacrifised.

Just can't decide whether to bother with Sparks or not. Anyone have any experience playing Sparks in this kind of Zaladar deck?