Well, I missed my 4000th post (shame on me!) So I figured I should do something big and special for my 5000th. So I’ve got a very special deck that’s close to my heart and some interesting trivia that could net you some SC for the expansion!
But before I continue, I’d like to start things off with a story (See Darkness Rising for the full lead up to this point):
Not Dead Yet
The Shadow Crystal flickered.
The chest began to move.
The corpse sat up.
Ter Adun smiled as he surveyed his surroundings. The Shadow Crystal embedded in his chest had done its job, keeping his body alive long after it should have died from his wounds. It had been an insurance policy against betrayal, a present from a wicked mage he’d helped long ago. But now the Crystal was spent and that mage long dead, so this second chance at life was the only one he’d get.
His body had been dumped in a forest, presumably for the scavengers to deal with it. He was grateful his army didn’t bother to bury him, digging himself out of a hole was not an ideal situation. Standing up, his bones creaked and his muscles hurt as they once again got used to movement and life. He didn’t know how long he had been dead, but he did know that whatever army he had now belonged to that traitor Kairos. This meant he was going to have to go it alone and slowly build up his forces. He had some loyal troops that he had held in reserve as a contingency plan. It wasn’t much, but enough for him to rebuild.
Ter set off without further delay, his unholy fusion of heart and magic burning with a desire for revenge.
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Now, this is the first Dark Prophecies deck I've posted and I have to give a major shout out to ETC’s own Fou DeLile, who took my deck concept, ran with it and tested the hell out of it. With his help, it’s been refined to its current state.
Ter Adun – The Gladiator (Spartan 2.0)
3 x Shadow Knight
4 x Furrion Terror
2 x Braxnorian Veteran
3 x Reserve Weapon
2 x Enrage
4 x Crippling Blow
4 x Rampage
4 x Evil Ascendant
4 x Bad Santa
2 x Aldmor Conduit
3 x Snow Sapphire
4 x Berzerkers Edge
2 x Dragon's Tooth
41 cards + hero
“You’re evil Preybird” – Soothslyr
That pretty much describes this deck.
Why is this deck evil?
Where to begin? This deck is full of nasty tricks and synergies that confuse, delay, annoy and ultimately defeat your opponent. At first glance it looks like a Solo Ter, and we all know that while annoying, they usually weren’t that effective. However the new Dark Prophecies cards, you can fill in the weaknesses and boost the style to an effective and dangerous strategy. Let’s go through
New additions
Here is a list of the new additions and what they do for the deck:
- Furrion Terror: This card will win you games in conjunction with Evil Ascendant. It speeds up Evil Ascendant and allows you to board wipe. Combined with Rampage you will gain more life than you know what to do with. I have gained 8-10 life in a single turn due to this card. Note: This card has a great interaction with Snow Sapphire. If it’s Mind Controlled and you have SS out, it’ll freeze (and thus die) before retaliation happens, preserving your weapon’s durability!
- Braxnorian Veteran: This card allows you to recycle Crippling Blows, and recover any Rampages that are destroyed. Quite often you’ll use Crippling Blow early to mitigate rush. That used to be a problem, because once EA killed those crippled allies, those cards were lost and when the fat allies came out, you had no response. No longer. Play Brax after a crippled ally hits the graveyard and you’re ready to shut down another ally.
- Dragon’s Tooth: This addresses probably the biggest problem with Solo Ter, how to deal with Aeon/big allies. One swing with this and they’re no problem at all. Plus it’s great with Rampage. Note: Due to the wording of Dragon’s Tooth (attacks an ally, not damages an ally), this will kill Sandworm.
- Aldmor Conduit: Blood Frenzy is bad in this deck as it pings you down. Bazaar allows your opponent to produce too many threats, and Bad Santa alone isn’t enough. Enter Aldmor. It acts as supplemental draw, and gives you an SE sink should your opponent not be using many items/support abilities. Also, as your opponent will want their SE to deal with the allies that you do have, they won’t be triggering for draw all the time (plus they may have draw engines of their own). Also, once you get your weapon/attachment/ally cycling going, you can destroy it yourself if your opponent is gaining too much benefit.
The Cycle of Death
This deck cycles everything. Weapons, allies, attachments can all be brought around for another pass, and almost nothing in your graveyard is truly out of the fight. This puts huge strain on your opponent, because they have to spend so much removal to deal with your three pronged assault, only to have it come back time and time again.
- Weapons: Reserve Weapon is your cycler here, and the tactic is unchanged from 1.5. Reserve Weapon/Berzerker’s Edge/Reserve Weapon. The best part is now that with added removal and allies for meatshields, your weapons live longer and you get more hero hits with them. At a pinch, you can resurrect a Dragon’s Tooth, but it will not get an attack bonus due to its wording.
- Allies: Shadow Knight is your friend here. But you are not aiming to SK loop (though that is viable), you are aiming to bring back your board wipe mechanism, Furrion Terror. Once you’ve dropped Furrion Terror five or so times in a game, chances are your opponent will have no allies left in their deck, which means in most cases it’s game over. And if you face a solo deck, well, you’ve got a proper two pronged assault.
- Attachments: Braxnorian Veteran, see above
Other options
Here are some other options that didn’t make it into the deck as-is, but are definitely viable alternatives or candidates for further testing.
Note: Any of the allies would probably replace Braxnorian Veteran. Shadow Knight and Furrion Terror are too critical to let go.
- Darkwood Wraith: Definitely an option to deal with lots of allies, however it does negatively affect your life gain (because it tends not to kill things), which is why it’s not in here. Still, a very good control mechanism for delaying until you get your EA up and running.
- Wild Berzerker: Ally killer, however can only target one at a time. Though it is hasted when your opponent has more out than you (usual situation), and it can deal a quick 2 damage to your opponent’s hero at a pinch.
- Stalwart Battleguard: While he doesn’t do anything, it’s not often you have more than one ally out, so this’ll be a 5/6 for 4 resources. Not too shabby.
- Rothem’s Visage: In essence it could be an eternal armour with its durability gain, as you can shut down a lot of attacks, plus it’s a great SE sink late game for a quick finish (haste in 2 Shadow Knights for example.). Still, I do like the stall element of Snow Sapphire, it’s saved me a great deal of damage.
Conclusion
This is probably my most creative deck so far. I really love it and it’s not boring for either player, even though the games are long. And despite the fact it’s a powerful staller, I’ve actually gotten compliments about it in game (but mostly hate ).
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