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  1. #1
    Senior Member Killtrend's Avatar
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    Zaladar Adaptive Deck Thoughts/Advice?

    The return of the Zaladar Adaptive Deck. Checked and tuned for 1.26



    Card Count 30

    Hero:

    Zaladar

    Allies:

    4 - Spark
    4 - Infernal Gargoyle
    3 - Belladonna
    4 - Plasma Behemoth

    Spells:

    3 - Mind Control
    2 - Shriek of Vengeance
    4 - Life Infusion
    4 - Extra Sharp
    1 - Bad Santa



    The idea of the deck is to adapt to situations as they come, stall, annoy with sparks/extra sharp/infusion and control the board with Zaladars ability. The deck rarely uses the same turn to turn strategy, but the win condition is almost always a behemoth with life infusion. This thread is now an updated blog of sorts for me to publish unique games and keep my stats/win loss current. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask
    Last edited by Killtrend; 07-11-2011 at 06:15 PM.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Killtrend's Avatar
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    Anyone have any opinions or fixes? How will this fare in the 300-400 range?

    -edit- just got another win on my break. 12 mins to beat a Mage. I actually got 3 sparks on the field and f'd it up by ending turn without attacking and infusing. Ugh! But it worked out later. He dropped an aeon. I dropped mind control. Infused up everything he hit with lightning. Pinged a few allies he dropped and forced 2 behemoth's ability ftw.
    Last edited by Killtrend; 03-29-2011 at 07:18 PM.

  3. #3
    Senior Member Calmdown's Avatar
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    Since no one has replied, I'll do the honours!

    Your deck is probably fine for low-mid level play - where cards like Mind Control and Armour of the Ages can turn games. But at higher levels, against more tuned decks, your utility would become your downfall.

    If you want to see what a truly strong Zaladar deck looks like, take a look at Narziss' Elemental thread. But further to your own deck, I can't give you any more advice whilst still keeping in the spirit of what you've tried to do, because I don't think it's competitive.

    gl!
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  4. #4
    Senior Member Killtrend's Avatar
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    Thanks for the honesty. I look forward to creeping up through the ranks and seeing how much trouble I get into against tuned decks.

    I haven't seen a lot of Zaladar decks that focus on creature control via infusion/mind control/behemoth. Maybe behemoth can't fight the tuned decks well enough. So far people I face have quite a bit of trouble keeping my behemoths from their 7 swing. (ability+attack). Anything that got in their way so far I've kept at bay with their ability, zaladar's ability, spark/extra sharp and mind control. Rain delay is usually there so I may freely use abilities and charge up Zaladar when needed.

    Take note I haven't faced a deck yet tuned to "deck me" and keep me at low resource. I have though, beat two well made "hero attack" decks with those crazy weapons. I send in infused allies to kill the weapons durability.

    Is there really no hope for a utility deck in the 300+ range?

  5. #5
    Senior Member Calmdown's Avatar
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    bare in mind my answers are only derived from the point of view of absolute, top end competitive decks, and as such are badly coloured. Creativity can win things as much as tuning in some cases.

    In the 300-400 and up a bit, absolutely you can win, there's plenty of bad decks and bad players around there; and you sound like you know what you're doing if I may say so, so you're going to have a fine chance at the non-bad ones too. Even if I disagree with your deck composition your reasoning is 100% sound. In the mid 400s when you start to run into ultra-tuned Zaladars and Borises, and more unconventional decks, is where you'll have trouble I think. Though never underestimate the power of the fact that your opponent will not expect half of the cards you're playing

    Plasma Behemoth absolutely can compete, the deck I told you to look at is just one version of it. He just has a different play associated with him.

    Honestly after reading two of your posts I'd say ignore my initial advice and keep playing your deck, and find your own modifications/tweaks to it. If you end up with a similar deck to the cookie cutter top level styles, so be it; but you might just end up with something better, or keep your unpredictability factor as an advantage.
    Calmdown * Shadow Era Designer * Logan Stonebreaker & Brutal Minotaur Fan Club

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Calmdown View Post
    bare in mind my answers are only derived from the point of view of absolute, top end competitive decks, and as such are badly coloured. Creativity can win things as much as tuning in some cases.

    In the 300-400 and up a bit, absolutely you can win, there's plenty of bad decks and bad players around there; and you sound like you know what you're doing if I may say so, so you're going to have a fine chance at the non-bad ones too. Even if I disagree with your deck composition your reasoning is 100% sound. In the mid 400s when you start to run into ultra-tuned Zaladars and Borises, and more unconventional decks, is where you'll have trouble I think. Though never underestimate the power of the fact that your opponent will not expect half of the cards you're playing

    Plasma Behemoth absolutely can compete, the deck I told you to look at is just one version of it. He just has a different play associated with him.

    Honestly after reading two of your posts I'd say ignore my initial advice and keep playing your deck, and find your own modifications/tweaks to it. If you end up with a similar deck to the cookie cutter top level styles, so be it; but you might just end up with something better, or keep your unpredictability factor as an advantage.
    Calmdown makes some very relevant points here. Killtrend I play all kinds of stuff... hell I play Ter Adun, Banebow, and I futz around with different deck archetypes all the time. What is true is this, sometimes you win just by throwing wrenches at cookie cutter builds. They lose, not because your deck is better, but because they have no idea wtf is going on. That to me is more fun sometimes. Keep on tuning man, and if you're super competitive there's nothing wrong with caving in and looking at a Narziss post
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  7. #7
    Senior Member Killtrend's Avatar
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    I'm a long time MTG player. Had a tuned solid Blue control deck that focused on creature control and return. 4 kiega the tide star and 4 fog banks were my only creatures. 4 control magic and 4 bribery rounding out my win conditions with isochron scepter with counterspell/snap/boomerang combos to keep the board the way I liked it.

    As this game evolves, I hope to do some of the same things. But for now I cherrish the higher level players' advice. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I'll keep you guys posted as I try to climb the ranks and maybe even add to my current undefeated streak. 5 wins 0 losses so far. Obviously leaps and bounds less then the average tuned deck total games.

    Trust me, I have plenty of wrenches to throw.
    Last edited by Killtrend; 03-29-2011 at 11:09 PM.

  8. #8
    Senior Member Killtrend's Avatar
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    New rating: 242

    7-0 not counting people who quit early. (I've had about 5 early quits. Last one quit when I dropped my 3rd spark on 2nd turn... Lol)

    Just played my first elementalis resource destruction deck. Kept me at 3 resource so I used sparks with shard of power/extra sharp and Zaladar ftw. I am having a lot of fun with this deck. I can't see how even good (not epic) resource destruction can stop a deck capable of winning relatively easily with only 3 resource.

    -edit- 8-0 a amber rain deck with Sandra and aeon. He ended up using 3 sandra's this game. I had to abandon all my high cost cards, including behemoth and mind control. I ended up casting a bazaar to keep resource flow and they took advantage with a draw 1 lose 1 life card on top. Then he gained 10 life and deopped an aeon. I had to use everything from my extra sharp, to a 0-6 spark to pump and save me. I ruined his weapon with my attacks and jumped aeon with a power sharded army ftw. He ended with one health after I killed aeon and swung. His draw card killed him. Epic win?
    Last edited by Killtrend; 03-30-2011 at 04:49 PM.
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  9. #9
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    I would drop the 4 x Extra Sharp for 4 x Bloodlust ASAP. It's just a strictly better card.

    Rain Delay is very situational in this deck, as you said, you use it to stall so you can do some removal. Why not throw a couple Energy Discharges in instead?

    No Transference? I think it's one of the best cards in the game, any Elemental deck should run four of them.

    Keldor is very "meh" IMO. I prefer Infernal Gargoyle or Bad Wolf as a 3 cost ally.

    Also, if you're running the Life Infusions anyway, a few forumites have recently come to the conclusion that Chimera is a better/more efficient play than Plasma Behemoth.

    I hope that helps.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Killtrend's Avatar
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    I have to disagree on everything but the transference and blood lust. But only partially on blood lust. The reason this deck fairs well is it's low cost adaptive cards. 1 resource may not seem like much, but on second turn to keep a spark from being attacked next? Definitely.

    Rain delay is not only for removal, but damaging my opponent. It's also much cheaper and doesn't give me 5 dmg. Very rarely do I need to kill 3 or more allies. 1-2 behemoths is 8-16 direct dmg that's more then enough inside a delay. Which is also why chimera is inferior in my application. Not only does it open itself up for attack when pumped, but it cannot attack through rain delay and it does 1 less total dmg without. At the cost of 3 defense too.

    Bad wolf and gargoyle are ok. I just find more personal use in Keldor.

    Transference is a great card. I just can't seem to wrap my head around rolling the dice on my game. Rather go with a card of my own to cause trouble.

    Thanks for the tips though. I'm still considering bad wolf and transference. Probably not the rest.
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