Narziss | Competitive Zaladar Tech: Eternal Renewal

[Narziss]

We've seen Eternal Renewal abused with Elementalis, but that led me to think, "Why not try to find a way to abuse it with Zaladar?" I discovered that the choice is between Elementalis's 5 health healing ability and running some Energy Discharges to wipe out enemy allies, and the other option is using Zaladar's 3x2 damage ability and running Mind Control to steal powerful enemy allies. I found that Zaladar's ability is more proactive for preventing damage (I think you effectively stay alive better by killing things than by healing yourself). Things that you can't kill get Mind Controlled.

Here's the deck list, and I think it is one of the more inventive decks that synthesizes the strengths of other decks.

1 Zaladar

4 Sparks

4 Bad Santa
4 Bazaar

3 Shriek of Vengeance
3 Transference
2 Feedback
4 Here Be Monsters
3 Mind Control
2 Eternal Renewal

30 cards


So first off is your hero, Zaladar. Like I said above, I think dealing 3x2 damage is a better way to prevent yourself from dying than healing 5 life (and having to sacrifice an ally).

Next is your set of Sparks. Early on, Sparks help you stall a little bit. Later on, Sparks help you end the game. This is the one part where I might change the deck, although I'm still contemplating with what. Nevertheless, I really like dropping a bunch of Sparks (3-4), later in the game. Like I said though, here is one card that I might change if I think of a more effective way to defend myself and finish off the opponent. Nevertheless, I really like the low cost of the card, makes it nice to slip in a few in the first few turns or in the same turn that you cast another card.

Next is your card drawing engine: Bazaar + Bad Santa. You're going to want to sacrifice 3 Bazaar and 0-1 Bad Santa into your resource pool. Really powerful when your opponent already has his hands full and unable to draw more.

Now let's talk about your two destructive cards: Shriek of Vengeance and Here Be Monsters. You are probably going to want to sacrifice your Shriek of Vengeances for resources, but they are there for situations when you need them early on. It is kinda useless to hit cards like Research with it.

The second destructive card is Here Be Monsters, and this is the star of this deck! You are going to want to use all of these and try not to sacrifice any. This keeps your opponent's deck from really going off and gets you ahead. In the long run, this is going to completely shut down your opponent's deck by destroying all their resources. Here is an example where I won even though my opponent went first:



As you can see, poor guy has his hands full of cards he can't even use. He played first and got off to a great start but he was only able to get me down to 7 life before I took full control of the board. In games where I play first, things aren't so pleasant for the opponent.

Next are your card stealing powers: Transference and Mind Control. You will probably end up sacrificing 1-2 Transference, since you'll be tight for resources at first, but when things start rolling, Transference is a great card to let you steal some things from your opponent, even if it is just another card to sacrifice for resources. Regarding Mind Control, I had three Energy Discharge in the deck before I replaced them with Mind Control. Mind Control is just better suited since Zaladar will already be able to kill weaker allies with its inherent ability. Mind Control also lets you steal some problematic allies that you wouldn't be able to kill with an Energy Discharge anyway.

The last two cards are Feedback and Eternal Renewal. You really don't want to sacrifice either copy of Feedback unless you are desperate. Feedback is a mid-late game card that turns your deck into a powerhouse. So many times have I dropped a ton of cards by playing, for example, pretend you have 8 resources: Here Be Monsters + Bad Santa + Feedback (refresh); Here Be Monsters + Eternal Renewal. The more resources you have at your disposal, the more ridiculous your turns get. The last card is Eternal Renewal, which effectively restarts your deck. You cannot sacrifice either one of these two Eternal Renewals. I am thinking of putting a third one in just so you can sacrifice one if you get two really early or so that you can feel safer if you are playing against an Elemental deck which might steal one and ruin your combo.



Like I said in the summary, I am thinking about swapping out the Sparks. Other cards I am considering putting in place of four Sparks are one or two Plasma Behemoths, a couple Energy Discharge, two or three Armor of Ages, another Mind Control, another Transference, another Eternal Renewal, another Feedback. Also, Shriek of Vengeance isn't seeing that much utility, so I might change it for something else as well.

I have to play the deck a lot more before I can decide how good it is, but I definitely have good feelings about it. It feels like an intelligent deck to play, you nearly die whenever you go second (which makes turn arounds really satisfying), and I have good feelings about how strong and competitive it is compared to the best decks in the current format.

If anyone else tries this, I'd be curious to hear what you think. I was thinking of keeping this deck secret for a bit longer, but I am terrible at keeping secrets, and I realize that my favorite part of ccgs is deck building, discussion and strategizing.

[Kadun]

LOL, I watched a couple of your games with this deck. I felt bad for your opponents.

[arebelspy]

hot.

all you said about shriek was: "You are probably going to want to sacrifice your Shriek of Vengeances for resources, but they are there for situations when you need them early on. "

examples?

shriek is for some weapons that may do too much damage to you, i'm guessing? i.e. save 1-2 vs gwen and amber, otherwise ditch them?

hard to keep this deck tight at 30, cause an energy discharge could be awesome, ditto extras of the good cards (renewal, transference, etc).. i do think 1x armor of ages squeezed in could be huge.. it basically gives you 6 hits of 0 damage, huge if you go 2nd and they get you low but you get to 6-7 resources.. you can pop that out and stay alive while building up zal's energy, looking for a mind control, etc.

[Fry]

do you not find yourself having problems vs decks with lots of 4+ health allies?

[arebelspy]

i tried to test this, but i get lots of multiplayer sync errors with and against zaladar.. their characters like to attack themselves and die on their turn, then their next turn (when they try to attack with them, i presume, cause they're still showing normal on their screen but dead on mine) the sync error pops up.

bleh

[andrewbenw]

Wow. This a great deck. Also must be supremely frustrating to play against.

[Narziss]

hot.

all you said about shriek was: "You are probably going to want to sacrifice your Shriek of Vengeances for resources, but they are there for situations when you need them early on. "

examples?

shriek is for some weapons that may do too much damage to you, i'm guessing? i.e. save 1-2 vs gwen and amber, otherwise ditch them?

hard to keep this deck tight at 30, cause an energy discharge could be awesome, ditto extras of the good cards (renewal, transference, etc).. i do think 1x armor of ages squeezed in could be huge.. it basically gives you 6 hits of 0 damage, huge if you go 2nd and they get you low but you get to 6-7 resources.. you can pop that out and stay alive while building up zal's energy, looking for a mind control, etc.

You're right in questioning me about Shriek of Vengeance. I only found it moderately useful for destroying a War Banner. I was thinking about using it against early items that hurt me in some way, but I'm no longer sure.

Hmm...I really hope Armor of Ages gets its cost fixed. It would be nice to have several of them in order to help the deck get off the ground. But once you get things going (clear the board of threats and start reducing their resources), it doesn't seem as useful. I could imagine an alternate decklist looking like:

1 Zaladar

4 Bad Santa
4 Bazaar

0-1 Plasma Behemoth

2-4 Armor of Ages

3-4 Transference
2-3 Feedback
4 Here Be Monsters
3-4 Mind Control
0-2 Energy Discharge
2-3 Eternal Renewal


This variant would be even more frustrating for your opponent since you could only win by stealing cards from them, via Transference, and killing them with their own allies/spells.

But the main goal would be to first establish board control by reducing them down to 0 resources, and then transferring an ally or two to kill them, or transferring a direct damage card which you can recycle with Eternal Renewal, or just transferring all the cards left in their hand/deck.

The above deck list might be a more evil version (killing them with their own cards) if it works, haha. Once you get them down to 0 resources, however, you will probably just win via their leaving the game.


I'd probably settle with:

1 Zaladar

4 Bad Santa
4 Bazaar

4 Armor of Ages

3 Transference
3 Feedback
4 Here Be Monsters
4 Mind Control
3 Eternal Renewal

[TotallyImba]

Not sure I like to play a deck like this, seems a bit cheesy and boring :P

I think I will stick to the deck you posted in the other forum Narziss.

[Calmdown]

I ran 2 Eternal Renewal for the majority of the time I was playing recursion. But with the current proliferation of Elemental and hence Transference, I'd run 3. And even at 3 things can go horribly wrong.

[Narziss]

Not sure I like to play a deck like this, seems a bit cheesy and boring.

A part of me agrees, but a larger part of me disagrees. Why did people play Darkclaw in 1.23? Well, because it was interesting and different, even though the games took forever and were sometimes unpleasant for the opponent.

This deck is definitely interesting and different. I think it is very, very interesting. In fact, if I had never seen this deck before, and I suddenly faced it and was annihilated by it, I'd be so awestruck that I'd actually get really excited and really enjoy the defeat! haha