Vampiric Elementalis

[Fionn Maccumhail]

Since I promised Badyuyu:

VAMPIRIC ELEMENTALIS

First saw the bloodthirsty elementalis build run by Zazzero II on the test server, Kudos to him for discovering it. Anyway, I’m not a particularly great player but this deck goes quite well so at least that is solid, although perhaps not everyone has got the right counters for it yet.

Allies (21) :

4* Iron Hide Karash
-any game you get him down turn 2 is an awful lot easier
3* Infernal Gargoyle
- The tough 3CC for mages (burn + DOU) and weapon wielders
3* Death Mage Thaddeus
- The ability damage, for rogue allies, to ignore crippling blow. Also the back up plan for killing opposing dangerous 3CC ally on T3/4
3* Morbid Acolyte
- Quite tough, ability of infinite worth against MS and rogues.
3* Xar Modulator
- Novaproof tough, leaps over snare traps and can recall bloodthirsty. Forces difficult choices for removal (that 4 attack IH or Xar).
3* Darkwood wraith
- For an infinity of uses, and also a very important ability to get the board back on T5.
2* Kairos Doombringer aka THE BIG GUY
- The big guy, extremely novaproof, banish and retreat proof. Worries any weapon users. Draws out crucial enemy counter cards.

Abilities: 19
4 Bloodthirsty- the key ingredient of the whole deck
3 Bad Santa- when you just have to draw
2 Sac lamb- unilateral draw, nice for crippled foes, very important to clear the BIG GUY off the board.
2 Antimatter- reasonably draw engine at 6resources, good at 8 resources. Backup draw. With Xar on the board it can also give you a free bloodthirsty (send to graveyard, pull it back out with Xar), draws out item destruction and reduces enemy tempo. Usually if I need AM its only for a turn or two and then don’t need to use it much if at all.
2 Infinity core- healing and very helpful ability to bring back key allies (typically THE BIG GUY against priests, MA against stealth and DW against a lot of things). If you have more IC than millstalker/solo dethclaw have shriek, you have won If you have the next item also): but it will be a LOOOONNNGGG game.
2 Morphic Armour- The great equaliser. Primarily good because it allows you to steal Blood frenzy and lone wolf. Also useful for:
-General removal of cripplers
-Sticking captured prey on a PB or other Moonstalker fatty
-Reducing damage from MC and allies in general
-stealing treasured heirloom or other nice attachment to use (Fire walker basically)
- potentially stealing superfocus. Although I think it’s a bad idea against Zal unless it will swing the board since Zal has other tools and always has more shadow energy overall.
4 Mind Control- what a lovely card it is.

Total deck size: 40 cards + Elementalis.

Matchups:

Wulven:
Millstalker/Solo darkclaw- you can heal 4 damage per turn, build to 15-20 resources and flood the board. Then keep sticking up the big guy and boosting him. If that doesn’t work, do it again :P
Moonstalker- MC, MA and DW makes this a reasonable matchup. 50/50 if they get WOTF up early (depends on what you draw), probable win if they don’t.
Allied Darkclaw- ony played it twice, lost badly both times. First time due to them going first and drawing 4 pack wolves. But a very uphill matchup regardless.

Warriors:
Shadow warriors seem to be pretty easy to beat. Boris is harder, Amber is much harder (probable loss unless you steal blood frenzy at the perfect time)

Rogues:
Against Serena, if you can get a DMT and MA (or two MA is even better) early game you have basically won. If not, you get another chance to swing the tide with DW at T5. You can card starve serena if you have the board.
Lance is much harder since he has two tools to control the board. You need the early board control completely solidified by his T6 or you are a gonner.

Hunters:
Resource denial badaruu- not really a big problem unless he goes first and gets perfect draw. Resource denial+ night prowler is a lot more dangerous. If you suspect night prowler, sack MC.
Victor- played him twice, one won, lost won. Generally not a difficult matchup though.
Gwen- night prowler is the danger. Otherwise prepare for a long game and use IC to heal and boosted allies to keep smacking Gwen. Use DW/Sac lamb to prevent her healing too much.
Banebow- quite a difficult matchup since banebow has very good early control and a decent bag of tools to smack you with. Probable loss, although I’m very poor with BB.

Priests:
Take the early board, force them to TW at T5. Try and force another one soon after, then play THE BIG GUY. Jericho is as usual easier (its not the end of the world if he removes a blood frenzy). DW wraith for getting rid of a T6 retreat + jasmine. Ignore a sandworm until you have and MA in play or they have dropped KP. Aeon should be MCed. I have a fairly decent win rate against priests.


Mages:
Deathbone- typically pretty easy. He doesn’t have the killing tools needed to stop any of your early uber creatures early and you have novaproof stuff. As long as you have an MC in hand when he goes for the double fatty manouver you should be fine.
Majiya- I’d give elementalis the edge here, your allies are better and quite difficult to kill with burn. Portal is problematic, but also gives nice MC fodder.
Eldawen- Quite annoying as the early rush does a lot of damage, and perfect human rush with eldawen going first will mean a dead Ironhide and a difficult proposition. Her ability is also a big annoyance in the early game. Never sac IC- when she switches to burn it will keep you alive. Probably loss, but it all depends on her early draw.
Nishhaven- Weaker than Eldawen generally since his ability regenerates more slowly and doesn’t guarantee taking your ally out of action. Nishhaven with voltars ring is on par with Eldawen for difficulty, maybe higher. I was quite confident playing with my voltars nish against this kind of deck on the test server.
For all mages, consuming fear increases the difficulty.

Elementals:
Zaladar: seems 50/50, but there are so many Zaladar builds it is difficult to say. As I mentioned earlier, superfocus isn’t something you necessarily want to steal from him when you have the board since its basically +2 damage for your MCs and your energy may well be better spent keeping allies from being electrocuted. Eng game FT recursion is very hard to beat though…
For Elementalis, if not running attachments I reckon this deck has the advantage. If they are also playing attachments (BT or MF or AOR) whoever goes first will probably win.

Changes from the original deck:
Zazzero’s deck ran PBs (3 I guess) and a mix of FT and DW (2 of each maybe) and tended to go down hard to priests and rogues. It also had Acid ject (2 or more) and shriek I believe. The above^ is partially tailored for priest and rogue matches (although 4 MA and two IG might be better). Acid jets are potentially very handy against rogues as well but hey-ho.

For a long time I ran 2 LLN. Then dropped to 1- the anti kings pride nexus. Was also handy if you drew it early against rogues or badaruu but not essential.

I also ran 1-2 energy discharge mostly for late game warrior/priest board flood and I do miss this occasionally. Was also a handy card against moonstalker and any time things start to go badly.

Stuff I miss:
PB- very handy against warriors and rogues. Potentially insane draw and attack with loodthirsty. Just can’t fit 2 in and 1 is pointless.
Stuff I sometimes add back in:
1-2 Brutalis, because a t2 ally makes a huge difference. Also can defeat human rush when going second. Carniboard is tempting as well but either overkill or useless going second.
3rd infinity core- because usually DC/MS run 0-2 shriek, a third is a good option.

Other stuff I’ve seen in similar decks:
Furion Terror- because with tough things in your deck his board damage is nice. I’ve been tempted to add him a few times. Boosted he is 5/6 ally and a pain in the neck for mages (as long as eldawens ablity has been exhausted OFC. End game furion recursion is (as I’m mentioned) pretty powerful as well.
Wulven Savage- Gives badaruu massive headache (probable autowin), ditto for gwen. They need perfect shot+poison arrow together to take him down. Useful against weapons in general, including rogues which this deck is average against and Amber- the hardest of the warrior class.

Any comments/suggestions for improvements and changes are more than welcome.

[pyrogene]

Nice deck and good write-up. You probably want to scrap the Anti-matter if you don't find yourself using it much and include a few copies of Energy Discharge. Right now, you have very limited ways of regaining board once you lose it since Mind Control is expensive and Darkwood only bounces weenies.

Also highly recommend Savage.

[Jolly Breaker]

Nice post bro +1

[Fionn Maccumhail]

Thanks for the comments. And I saw wolven savage in the brief period you were running elementalis and I was watching your matches :P. I can see his value against badaruu, but seems an auto sack against mages. I may well stick an energy discharge back in, its finding stuff to take out thats the problem. The utility of a T2 Karash means I don't want to increase the deck size at all. Hmm, food for thought.

[Badyuyu]

You actually did it. Awesome : )

I love the idea. Been hit or miss with my Elementalis Version and I'm always looking for new Inspiration : )

My question is can you really deal with roughe without any item controll? That would in fact blow my mind ^.^

I'll send you the gist of my deck as soon as I'm done with work

[Fionn Maccumhail]

You'll have to trawl through my games mate. Serena is a lot easier. Last Lance I won, the one before that I lost. Last one was fionn maccumhail vs. asidugak air. Although that one is a bit biased- he had no T2 drop and I got a DMT and Morbid up. He does a good comeback, and I miss the opportunity to go for the throat and almost leave it too late.

Versus boyz19 is a solo darkclaw. He got (and not unfairly even if it was a misunderstanding) a bit annoyed when he thought I was simply refusing to acknowledge a draw when in fact I still had a plan to win. I also made two very big mistakes in that match which I could have been punished for.

[JeetKuneDo]

I played a deck quite similar to this on test server. Its REALLY fun getting snowballed, ridiculously fat creatures on the board early.

The problem is it won't ever be competitive. It just has too many bad matchups. ESPECIALLY since you aren't running superfocus. I'd highly recommend it, or else have fun getting worked over by warriors. Wulven savage is also a good choice. You can almost feel your opponent crying when you're rolling over them with an 10+/8 immune to combat damage immune to attachments monster.

Also needs item destruction, obviously.

[pyrogene]

The problem is it won't ever be competitive. It just has too many bad matchups. ESPECIALLY since you aren't running superfocus. I'd highly recommend it, or else have fun getting worked over by warriors.

That couldn't be further away from the truth. Over-reliance on Super Focus is what will get you killed. Elementalis needs to swarm the board and keep playing out threats. A single ally, no matter how fat, is still vulnerable to so much removal. Besides, you already have Morphic Armour and Sac Lamb (maybe Discharge) so you already have ways to handle negative attachments.

[JeetKuneDo]

That couldn't be further away from the truth. Over-reliance on Super Focus is what will get you killed. Elementalis needs to swarm the board and keep playing out threats. A single ally, no matter how fat, is still vulnerable to so much removal. Besides, you already have Morphic Armour and Sac Lamb (maybe Discharge) so you already have ways to handle negative attachments.

What you said is true, and it would be true for a normal elementalis deck, but that isn't what this is. This deck works on getting a buffed ally with bloodthirsty on it and going to town. You don't RELY on super focus. You don't TRY to have just one ally on the board, but it happens. Sac lamb and discharge actually make SF that much better.

[pyrogene]

What you said is true, and it would be true for a normal elementalis deck, but that isn't what this is. This deck works on getting a buffed ally with bloodthirsty on it and going to town. You don't RELY on super focus. You don't TRY to have just one ally on the board, but it happens. Sac lamb and discharge actually make SF that much better.

I'm not sure what you think is a "normal elementalis" deck but this is pretty much a standard elementalis deck (other than the lack of ED really). Most Elementalis at higher ratings run Bloodthirsty not for the sole purpose of buffing up an ally but because it offers a lot of early board control together with Karash and Elementalis's cheap 3se ability, basically beating a good percentage of heroes T3-4 going both first and second. And also that it will at least cantrip if you use it well. Super focus is no doubt helpful at times but it is by no means a core card like what you are implying in your first post.