Competitive Zaladar Deck

[Lim_Dul]

I play a deck similar to this, but I can't really justify the 4x Belladonna's. I agree that it is a great card to play, because of the card draw. The only downside, which I consider a big downside is the 2 health. With a deck that revolves around board control and high damage takers, I don't feel that this card fits. I have replaced it with 4x Behemoth. I agree with the above about Chimera being a better creature, but Behemoth is a very good game ender. Behemoth has saved me on multiple occasions against Boris. Board control vs board control through creatures, so creatures are constantly dyeing. The good thing about Behemoth is that Boris can't use his ability at kill him. That to me is worth sacrificing the card draw ability.

[shannong]

@totallyimba: No sparks. Sparks are totally wrong for this deck. Chimera > Belladonna > Gargoyle/Wolf. Save your Life Infusions for the Chimera or Belladonna to keep them alive and swinging hard as long as possible. Wolf is in the deck only to help increase the probability of having a 3-cost weenie to lay down on your third turn. After that the Wolfs are for resources only if you have a Gargoyle/Bella/Chimera in hand.

You want things that are hard to kill and will last a few turns. Sparks can be killed far too easily. Basic idea is keep swinging at the other hero, and if his allies try to kill your allies they'll survive the first strike and get mauled in return.

@Lim_Dul: Bella is fine. Bella is great. Slap a Life Infusion on her and she'll last just fine. I've won many games with her.

[Narziss]

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.

I'd probably take out 2-4 cards and replace them with Shrieks. Shrieking a Research does seem pretty good. Too bad you can't Shriek a Blood Frenzy.

You're right about Shriek being useful.

[Kadun]

So do you wait to cast Belladonna on turn 6 with Life Infusion? Do you ever find yourself taking so much damage in the early game that you can't recover?

Is the ideal opening:
T3 Gargoyle
T4 Chimera
T5 Mind Control | Energy Discharge | Life Infusion -> Chimera
T6 Belladonna <- Life Infusion

If you had to choose Belladonna OR Chimera, you pick Chimera?

[Lim_Dul]

Belladonna with Life Infusion is a very nice combo, but I'm still not all about it. On turn 4 I would rather play transference than belladonna. The other player will have between 3 to 5 cards in hand and it would just cripple them more. Turn 5 would yield a mind control, gargoyle, or another transference. To me that is beneficial than getting to draw a card on turn 4, just to have her killed while defending. Now to save her you would have to wait until turn 6 to play life infusion. I would rather play chimera with life infusion at that point.

[Kadun]

Belladonna with Life Infusion is a very nice combo, but I'm still not all about it. On turn 4 I would rather play transference than belladonna. The other player will have between 3 to 5 cards in hand and it would just cripple them more. Turn 5 would yield a mind control, gargoyle, or another transference. To me that is beneficial than getting to draw a card on turn 4, just to have her killed while defending. Now to save her you would have to wait until turn 6 to play life infusion. I would rather play chimera with life infusion at that point.

Do you not run Belladonna in your version?

[Lim_Dul]

Do you not run Belladonna in your version?

No. I've replaced her with 4x Behemoth. I ended up always sacrificing her to resources. The Behemoth works very well against Boris and his 4 cost kill ability. If I draw him to early than he is always a good resource candidate just like belladonna always was. She's a great card, but I feel that she is only usefull with portal.

[kfoong81]

This is a very solid build, I adopted it and replaced Chimera with Behemoth and I never lose a match until now.. >10 matches already.. Fantastic

[Shatner's hairpiece]

I just built this deck, against my better judgement, because I absolutely hate playing against it and seeing it in every second matchup, but I wanted to experience what it was like to steal every card someone put out. I felt a mix of shame and elation playing 4 mind controls. Almost embarrassed. "Really, it's this easy?" Took all the 'elementalis' creatures, then destroyed his bazaar adding insult to injury. I kept expecting him to quit with zero on the board against the 4 creatures I stole from him, but he actually stayed until the end. No challenge, really. It's like playing Eledewan 1.23. Felt very strange to have easy wins again after playing flawed decks like Gwen, Amber, Victor, etc for the last week. Hilariously overpowered. Hope they can balance it out soon.

[pigek]

How do you counter burn decks with a set up like this? In particular, human mages seem to eat me alive with a setup almost identical to this one, especially if they go first. Vs. turn 2 blake and turn 3 aldon or even Jasmine, it's extremely hard to get early board control. And if you don't get early board control, then your opponent can easily get a good 6-10 damage on you just from allies, and from there they just need to whack you with burn after burn until you're dead...

I'm tempted to include sparks or snakes just to soak up some of that early damage, but not sure what to replace...