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  1. #1
    Member Lots of Fnords's Avatar
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    Hi everyone!
    First a quick introduction, then we get down the the interesting part. First of all I realize that solo DC is not a new concept and that large part of the deck is basicly the same in all cases.
    This doesn't change the fact that I love the deck, I've since I started playing SE.

    My first QM was vs a player playing solo DC. I was arogant and smiled when I got him down to below 10 HP, but then it turned. Lone Wolf, Speedstrike, Rain Delay and Shadow Fonts, and a few rounds later he was up to 20 HP and I was dead. I was amazed!

    This is where this old school (30 years old now) Magic player fell in love with SE, I went directly to the merchant and got enough shadow crystals to obtain my own solo DC deck.

    Since then I have played many different decks, but I find myself always coming back to my first love. With that in mind here is my list.


    Lonely Wolf - The List
    Foundation (does rarely change)
    1x Darkclaw

    4x Speedstrike
    3x Lone Wolf
    2x Evil Ascendant
    4x Shadow Font
    2x Ley Line Nexus
    4x Bad Santa
    4x Blood Moon (new to DP, but it will never go under 4 cards, best card in SE)
    4x What Big Teeth
    2x Fangs of the Predator

    The hard part that's in constant flux - At the moment this is my choice
    3x Captured Prey
    3x Rabid Bite
    2x Ripping Fury
    2x Cresent of Doom



    Why these cards?
    Lets start with the obvious ones

    What Big Teeth
    Unlimited weapon...

    Speedstrike
    Hitting 2 times after activating hero ability, enough said, with Fangs of the Predator thats 8 damage that you dont get any return attacks on.

    Lone Wolf
    Solo DCs staple, getting 2 HP every turn is a game breaker, with this out you can ignore some minor allies and focus on the hero. Or you can withstand those pesky mages spells for a longer time.

    Shadow Font
    Without this card you're a wimpy 1+1 with return attacks gimp. With Shadow Font you're god dealing anything from 8-10 (to allies) damage per turn.

    Ley Line Nexus
    You will need this to take down freezing armor and nasty weapons. Or just to remove that armor on the last turn when you opponent thought they were safe.

    Evil Ascendant
    This card does help you out a great deal, it works even better in combination with Rain Delay. Why only 2? Well there are more important cards to include.

    The draw engine - Blood Moon & Bad Santa
    I can not stress this enough, this deck is all about draw. You always want to have at least 1 extra weapon in your hand, extra speedstrike & lone wolf as well if possible, some anti creature card (Captured Prey, Rabid Bite...), Ley Line Nexus and of course you want another draw card in you hand as well.


    The hard part - Ally control

    For me is which cards to include for ally control. Since I began to play DC I have tried lots of different ways for example:

    - 4x Rain Delay, 4x Full Moon, 2x Cresendo
    - 2x Now You're Mine, 2x Captured Prey, 2x Rabid Bite, 4x Rain Delay, 2x Cresendo
    etc etc


    Problem is that cards like Cresendo works only well enough with Rain Delay, reasoning being that you dont want to waste any cards, attacks on seperate targets when Cresendo will take care of all of them in X rounds.

    Rabid Bite is horrible vs lots of small allies. But works great when rushing for damage if used on a ally with strength 4 and above. Can also help with board control if you get lucky and get one ally hurt and the other one killed.

    Now You're Mine is okey but most allies at 3cc and less are easily ignored to be killed of when they attack or just too weak to do enough damage to worry about.

    Captured Prey is a much more all-round card, works vs everything. Only problem is the possibility of a retreat, or remove attachment card.

    Rain Delay and Full Moon are situational cards, the problem I see with them is that more or less all other cards are more useful/urgent, hence I find myself sacrificing them in favor of more urgent cards.

    So I feel a bit stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to selecting cards for creature control. I just mix and match, switch out and try different approaches.


    Now for some of the cards I find interesting in DP

    Blood Moon
    Allready mentioned - it's the bomb!

    Cresent of Doom
    Good weapon to take board control, works as a delay card. Works best when you use it to wipe out 2 T4 allies in a deck with lots of 2cc, 3cc allies.
    Does it derserve a spot in the deck?
    - I honestly don't know, right now I'm trying it out, we'll see how it goes. Not the best and not the worst so far, by far the 3rd best weapon for DC.

    Ripping Fury
    Really useful card when you don't want to waste attacks on allies. Just put it out and for 3 turns the enemy will have a very hard time attacking. Can also be used in rare cases to wipe out a high toughness ally such as Aeon Stormcaller.
    Does it deserve a spot in the deck?
    - I'm begining to think so, for 2cc it's a damn good card, works as delay as well os offense, and has a passive aspect to it because of it remaining on the board for 3 turns.

    Word of the Prophet
    Solo DC is all about having the right cards at the right time, if you need a Speedstrike and you have 3 weapons you don't necessary want to sacrifice any weapons, nor can yu wait for that speedstrike to appear by it self. Word of the Prophet is a great card for these times.
    Does it deserve a spot in the deck?
    - Hard to say. The card is great, problem is, is it better then other possible cards?


    How do you play such a deck?[
    Well there are a few ways, depending on what cards you use for ally control, and of course how your inital draw looks.

    Scenario I - Optimal
    You get 1xSpeedstrike, 1x Lone Wolf, 1xWhat Big Teeth (+Blood Moon).
    Now you are set to begin, sacrifice any doubles (not weapons) and any cards that will not be useful vs the opponents deck. On turn 2 play Blood Moon in you have it, turn 3 What Big Teeth, Turn 4 depending on if you are facing a mage with focus on spells (Lone Wolf) or a ally focused deck (Speedstrike), on turn 5 you play the one you didn't play the turn before.
    You have you combo out, just keep drawing and building a back-up hand. Play Shadow Font as much as possible. Focus on hero unless you ar facing 3/1, 4/2, 5/3 allies, the kill the off before they can hurt you to much.

    Scenario II- Missing Speedstrike or Weapon
    You could be in for a hard start, but if you have some draw you will most likley be okey. Just try to preserve as much HP as possible and control the board with the cards you have in you hand. Lone Wolf will probably play a vital part in this match so get it out asap.

    Scenario III/a - Heavy Ally Deck (You have Cresendo/Rain Delay in you deck)
    You will most likely have to focus a bit more on board control, this is where a deck with Rain Delay and Cresendo can be absolutly devestating. Just kill off some allies every turn, get Cresendo out, play a Rain Delay, focus on the allies that will have a possibility to attack next turn (and take away durability from Cresendo) and when you are getting close to Cresendos boom focus on hero for a bit and see the opponets allies disapear.

    Scenario III/b - Heavy Ally Deck (You don't have Cresendo/Rain Delay in you deck)
    This is harder but should be okey, once again board control will be important, You might have to focus a bit more on the hero and let your ally control cards (Rabid Bite, Captured Prey...) handle some of the heat. Just make sure you take out dangerous allies like PB and easy targets like allies with high strength but toughness 3 and below.
    I have found that Ripping Fury can be very useful in these situations as well as Cresent of Doom in some cases, both kill allies faster and has a secondary delay function.

    Scenario IV - Ability Heavy Decks
    Tbh these ones are pretty easy, Priests are a pain because of focused prayer, so just make sure to have lots of extra weapons in your hand. Lone Wolf does wonders vs mages.

    Scenario V - Facing Ter Adun
    Hard, hard, hard. A good player playing Ter Adun is hard. Never sacrifice any Speedstrike, Lone Wolf or Weapon and you might stand a chance.

    Scenario VI - Facing Jericho Spellbane
    Just say GG and quit, you can't win. Won maybe 1 in 100 games vs this bastard.


    So how is it to play Solo DC?

    The Good
    - Fun, really fun. When you get everything going and keeping control it's great.

    - You can handle almost every deck if you play well and keep your priorities right.

    - Really nice artwork on all the cards, Blood Moon is sick, props to the artist!


    The Bad
    - Bad draws are really frustrating. Learn to work around them and find ways to minimize your disadvantage because of them.

    - Predictable damage curve. Because of the 1+1, 3+3 damage variants the enemy can easily know how much damage you will deal the next turn and plan accordingly. Learn to counter this with Fangs of the Predator for a 4+4 damage round or use Rabid Bite to try to hurt the opponent a bit extra with thier own ally.

    - Jericho Spellbane - Don't even try to fool yourself, you will be irritated with this absolute counter to Solo DC.


    Conclusion
    Hope I have been in any way helpful to those interested in Solo DC, if you haven't tried it yet do so it's a nice change of pace.
    And if you have anything to add to my predicament with ally control please do so, I welcome all input.


    Best Regards
    // Lots of Fnords
    Last edited by Lots of Fnords; 04-16-2013 at 09:59 AM.
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  2. #2
    DP Visionary Shadowborn's Avatar
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    Like you said this deck isn't new but I really like the detailed explanation. However there is a much more easier boardwipe combo now in DP though. Easier and faster to pull off. It's called Furrion Terror+ SK. Drop a Furry, use it as a meatshield, then cast SK to recurse it again. Pretty efficient plus even if your going against solo or semi-solo decks, Furrion and SK can be used as more damage output alongside your weapons
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  3. #3
    Member Lots of Fnords's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shadowborn View Post
    Like you said this deck isn't new but I really like the detailed explanation. However there is a much more easier boardwipe combo now in DP though. Easier and faster to pull off. It's called Furrion Terror+ SK. Drop a Furry, use it as a meatshield, then cast SK to recurse it again. Pretty efficient plus even if your going against solo or semi-solo decks, Furrion and SK can be used as more damage output alongside your weapons
    Thank you for your input. Tried Furrion Terror in a few games today and it ended up being very useful.

    As for SK/Furrion combo, I can see how it could be useful but I don't like the idea of including to many allies in the deck. It's called Solo DC for a reason.

    Will experiment with Furrion some more tho and see what I come up with.

  4. #4
    DP Visionary Shadowborn's Avatar
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    Just my opinion. You don't even have to see them as allies. FT substitutes your Crescendo boardwipe while them being used as a meatshield substitutes the armor. But again I'm not really a Darkclaw expert. Maybe Caitlyn or Drakkon can help
    IGN: A1 ShadowBeast

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  5. #5
    DP Visionary Jets's Avatar
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    captured prey and rabid bite don't go well together. choose one or the other.
    Last edited by Jets; 04-16-2013 at 03:24 PM.

  6. #6
    Member Lots of Fnords's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jets View Post
    captured prey and rabid bite don't go well together. choose one or the other.
    Could you please elaborate.

    I can see that they both are aimed at larger allies, hence competing about the same target.

    edit: I can see what you are saying. If you have Captured Prey on one target and play Rabid Bite on another, there's a big chance that it will attack the allready disabled target, making it a 4cc 1 turn disable.

    Good point, thank you very much.
    Last edited by Lots of Fnords; 04-17-2013 at 04:44 AM.
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  7. #7
    Member Lots of Fnords's Avatar
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    My first post was to long so I can't add anything. So I'll just add the rest here.

    New list after the advice I got from fellow board members, and I must say seeing some minor improvement in flow.

    Lonely Wolf - The List v2
    Foundation
    1x Darkclaw

    4x Speedstrike
    3x Lone Wolf
    2x Evil Ascendant
    4x Shadow Font
    2x Ley Line Nexus
    4x Bad Santa
    4x Blood Moon
    4x What Big Teeth
    2x Fangs of the Predator

    The hard part that's in constant flux - At the moment this is my choice
    3x Captured Prey
    3x Now You're Mine
    2x Ripping Fury
    2x Furrion Terror



    Here comes a small addition about Furrion Terror:

    Furrion Terror
    Solo DC with an ally, what gives? Well Shadowborn on the forum pointed out that Furrion Terror works great as a board control card, and he was right, you shouldn't even consider it an ally, just as a control card not to be played until you need that damage on oppsing allies.
    Does it deserve a spot in the deck?
    - Yes I really think so, helps tons vs human players, and really helps out with those ally heavy decks that Solo DC have such hard times with.
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  8. #8
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    My Darkclaw-loving friend, unless you are really hardcore on the meaning of "Solo", I strongly suggest your considering the inclusion of a couple of Furrion Terror and Lighting Hunter.

    Without them, Darkclaw is going to have very hard time against certain builds, almost auto-lose, I would say.
    Last edited by Dylan Hunt; 04-17-2013 at 02:45 PM.
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  9. #9
    Member Lots of Fnords's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dylan Hunt View Post
    My Darkclaw-loving friend, unless you are really hardcore on the meaning of "Solo", I strongly suggest your considering the inclusion of a couple of Furrion Terror and Lighting Hunter.

    Without them, Darkclaw is going to have very hard time against certain builds, almost auto-lose, I would say.
    Furrion Terror I can understand but Lighting Hunter looks like a horrible card for "Solo" DC. It's support abilities are so useful and the deck needs shadow energy like crazy.

    I can see it's use at the last turn to get that final damage but that's it.

    Why do you find it so useful in DC deck?
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lots of Fnords View Post
    Furrion Terror I can understand but Lighting Hunter looks like a horrible card for "Solo" DC. It's support abilities are so useful and the deck needs shadow energy like crazy.

    I can see it's use at the last turn to get that final damage but that's it.

    Why do you find it so useful in DC deck?
    Darkclaw usually has 3-4 SF at his disposal, so -1 SE is not a big deal. Destroying Blood Moon is annoying, you probably want to plan the timing a little more carefully.

    It will save your ass once in a while, when you desperately need 3 damage to finish off Zhanna with 2SE or a near death Aeon/Kairos/PB in play. Also it is practically a Regeneration if opponent has to put 4 damage away from Darkclaw to kill it.
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