Boris deck following Mewtwo/Raph's advice

[PlayAppleSE]

First off, thanks to Mewtwo for his ten-step deck building post, which helped me turn my "but I have 65 cards that I NEED" deck into this 42-card work.

As for Raph, he once said "a great deck has something unexpected, or something of unexpected quantity". This is sound advice because in the Internet age, every basic foundational deck has been posted, observed, and strategized against. Plus, if you don't make it your own, you're just playing with someone else's ideas.

That said, I am only 210 right now, but this deck has boasted a strong win percentage, and, if you get nothing from this post, at least get the idea of combining tried-and-true deck building logic (from mewtwo, Boweh "rule of six", or whatever) with individuality to see what comes out.

The Deck
Hero - Boris Bartholomew Skullcrusher III

Allies
2 Birgitte Skullborn
4 Kristoffer Wyld
2 Dirk Sabre/
2 Puwen Bloodhelm
3 Aldon the Brave
4 Yari Spearman (the unexpected twist; more on this later)
2 Erika Shadowhunter
2 Aeon Stormcaller

Abilities
2 Bad Santa
4 Retreat
4 Blood Frenzy
4 Crippling Blow
2 Smashing Blow
2 War Banner

Weapons
3 Jeweler's Dream

The Strategery

I have always preferred creature-centric decks since my days playing MtG (dating myself by saying that my most successful of such was a Sliver deck; kids, ask your parents what a Sliver is) so I have been building a deck that wins through dominating the ally board.

But of course there are dozens of ways to control the board, but, for some reason, protectors are not often used to that effect.

As evident by 40% of my allies having the effect, protection is a key to the deck. It disrupts the opponent's ability to sequentially dismantle my board presence by forcing his energy away from the critical creatures such as Aldon and Erika. Furthermore, for those unfamiliar with Yari, they are 3cc 1/4 with protector & they gain +1/+1 for every other Yari on my team, meaning 2 Yari are 2/5, 3 are 3/6, & 4 are 4/7. Now a 1/4 with protector & passive buffs is already a pain for Hero's shadow skills (1 Yari can survive Majiya & Zaladar; 2 can survive Frostmire; 3 can survive Nishaven) plus Yari neuters Crippling Blow because even if you cripple him, he gets/gives the health bonus, and he still protects the others.

But you don't have Jasmine! Your deck sucks! She's the best ally in the history of ever!

I don't like Jasmine because she has a negative effect on tempo. A roving Crippling Blow sounds good but since she's a 3cc I have to plan on using her in T3, and her effect drains my resources, and I'm trying to cast 1-3 things every turn. Plus, I'm annoyed that Wulven thought that it would add to the game to have an ally "with an @$$ so fine, it distracts her opponents". Really, guys? Really?

The other key to this deck is Blood Frenzy. Mid-late game strategy requires you to keep casting allies to A: combat tougher baddies, & B: shift from focused board control to essentially creature-burning the opposing hero (this is vital strategy; I've seen ppl lose because they cared more about a clean board than damaging the opponent). Aeon & Erika are my late-game allies to (theoretically) help me win back board control, and JD/BF helps me keep refreshing my side of the board.

Smashing Blow for hunters & lone wolfs, though Darkclaw still is tough to beat.

Finally, retreat, which someone (Boweh?) labeled the best card in the game. I have 4 because it is a veritable Swiss Army Knife. I've used it to force a recast of Plasma or Aeon, I've used it to undo the Gravebone/Sun-Blighted combo, I've used it to cure blaze/poison on my own allies. I've even cast Kris, attacked for 3 (Aldon/War Banner), retreated him, cast him again, & attacked again for a total of 6 damage for 4cc.

Feedback is welcome, but again, my main point is to express the importance of taking what people post but add your own spin or you're giving your opponent a big strategic advantage.

[Frantic]

Oh yes the old infinite sliver combo

[PlayAppleSE]

Oh yes the old infinite sliver combo

Actually, my flying, regenerating 3/3 or 4/4 Slivers usually overran the enemy before the Queen had to start making babies. Playing her was more a demoralizer.

[Jolly Breaker]

Early rush type huh? Yep might survive below 250 I guess. Priest, Mage plus FT loop can easily screw up your plan tho. IMO u should get 2 KP for late game finisher.

[Raphael Majere]

How many cards are there in the deck in the OP?

It looks like a pretty good deck on paper.

Tidal wave will kill u though.

[PlayAppleSE]

How many cards are there in the deck in the OP?

It looks like a pretty good deck on paper.

Tidal wave will kill u though.

42 cards, & it was a stressful effort to make the cuts I did.

The deck is meant to start strong, but blood frenzy (theoretically) is supposed to maintain its momentum after something like supernova or a fatty I had to throw bodies at, or tidal wave, which I'm aware of but haven't fought against yet.

So what would I cut for King's Pride, and how does that help me if I've hit the late-gate problem of my opponent effectively eradicating my army? It would be harder for them, sure, but it's harder to take down a Molten Destroyer than a Darkbone but I can do it if I have the board. What I'm saying is I don't see KP as a more effective manner of flipping my situation. That said, I sacrifice war banner often enough to consider going with KP instead.

Also, is there a better defense from hunters & Darkclaw than Smashing Blow? It seems like ppl only cast weapons right in time with rapid fire/speedstrike & their shadow ability, & my smashing blow did nothing to stop the 6-8 damage that either crippled Boris or wiped out valuable allies.

Lone Wolf Darkclaws & Gravebone have been my biggest problem so far. I'll look into KP over WB to possibly fix that.

Thanks for the feedback, and I'm happy to see that I'm not considered abjectly crazy for choosing Yari over Jasmine.

EDIT: Upon further review, I am opting instead for Rotham's Visage over King's Pride. As I mentioned earlier, KP doesn't fit my late-game strategy, which is to transition to death race if I don't think I can reclaim board control.

Visage's haste spell potentially corrects the problem, especially against the Lone Wolf sect that won't have enough allies to quickly burst its durability. The -5 damage is evened out by the armor being 3 over KP's 2. This lets my creatures, which should still be in large supply thanks to Blood Frenzy, possibly reclaim the board and/or turn into pseudo-burn spells to (hopefully) win a death race with Truesight or Gravebone.

I'll update this post with results as to the effectiveness of the plan. I appreciate the feedback but it would've been wrong for me to blindly accept your advice and I hope you don't consider it a slight that my research yielded a different answer. I respect everyone's experience at the game, but I gotta be my own man too.

[phyaH]

alright no offense but did u rly just say kids ask ur parents what a sliver is....? id murder my parents if they could answer that, and btw sliver was auto money in the bank for soldier jund agro mage burn trip dick flip dont give a fuuuuuuuck wtf sliver>? rly? LOL

on the real -> nice boris ive seen bout 50,000 SPARTA boris decks since that thread got online, i like the yari aspect

[PlayAppleSE]

Early rush type huh? Yep might survive below 250 I guess. Priest, Mage plus FT loop can easily screw up your plan tho. IMO u should get 2 KP for late game finisher.

I've managed to defeat 2 Priests who used Tidal Wave (one had 3!), and went to overtime against 2 hunters (splitting them). The deck's been retooled a lot, and I blame the losses on forcing "good" cards in my deck that don't fit the strategy. If I get back to 220, I'll post the new deck. People need to see that King's Pride is not the only card in the game that Boris can win with. As I've said before, if I'm losing, I don't have anything to which to give those bonuses so Pride would've been pointless in all the decks.

Besides, I upset a solo-Ter who Dimension Ripped my Rotham's Visage right as I drew a Smashing Blow. I would have explicitly lost that game (and several others) if I'd stuck to conventional wisdom.

[AClDvision]

it sounds solid but because ur allies are so small well the majority so they can be wiped with nova any TW would cripple u lightning zal but i do understand thats why u have so many protectors. its just my opinion but i might do something like this

- 1 bad santa
- 1 retreat
- 1 JD
+1 Dragons tooth (maybe 2)
+2 KP

kp can really give u that win factor if they are able to keep the small allies from staying on board and dragons tooth can really save u if they have that monster and ur not holding any crippling blows. like i said its just my opinion

[AClDvision]

People need to see that King's Pride is not the only card in the game that Boris can win with.

just read that after i posted. well if u wanna play wihtout KP thats ur choice but there is a reason it is in so many boris decks. its prob the bggest game changer boris can add to his deck. i do like all the protectors though. seems like a fun strat and annoying to others. although mages zal and priests i do feel would be ur toughest matches.