Calmdown's HOW TO: Play Darkclaw... and win!

[Calmdown]

So as a bit of a side project this morning I put together a Darkclaw deck. I've had it in mind to do this for a few days because whilst he isn't top level competitive, he does have access to what I consider to be some of the best removal/control cards in the game; Wulven are really only let down by their ally pool and their hero abilities (and notable lack of card draw). Also I fancied levelling up my alt using something interesting instead of bashing people with Zaladar or Boris

Let me reiterate that this is not a deck for true top level play, but it can easily beat most decks played in the 300-400 range and maybe even a little higher if you know what you're doing and practice with it. I know a lot of people out there are fans of particular heroes too, so if you like Wulven but don't really like/enjoy building decks, this one's for you :P


Darkclaw

4x Keldor
4x Infernal Gargoyle
4x Chimera
3x Bad Wolf

4x Captured Prey
4x Now You're Mine
4x Rabid Bite
2x Shriek of Vengeance


Play Tips:

The idea of this deck is to make the resource curve work with the allies and cards that you have. So here's what your turns may look like...

Turn 2 - Now You're Mine eats Blake and others for breakfast.

Turn 3 - Plenty of Allies to play, most notably the amazing Infernal Gargoyle. Turn 3 Gargoyles can often give Shadow control of the board against a human who went first, unless they played Blake and then Turn 3 Aldon. But, if you ate their Blake with NyM, when you drop a Gargoyle on turn 3 it's very tough to answer. Bad Wolf is his slightly less-good counterpart but still good to follow up a NyM with.

Turn 4 - Rabid Bite! Chimera!

Alternate Turns 3+4: This is more likely when you are going first: you lay a turn 3 Keldor. On turn 4, that Keldor can pump to 4 to take out a Jasmine/Aldon/etc or to hit their hero, and you still have enough resources to play a NyM.


Cards Explained:

Now You're Mine!: One of my favourite cards in Shadow Era. 2 cost to remove anything up to 4 cost. In a deck that doesn't have anything else to do on turn 2 to boot. Awesome. Also it's sp cheap you have the opportunity to play it+an ally on turn 5, which is not something most decks in SE can boast about on turn 5; card-based removal and an ally in the same turn.

Captured Prey: is great removal. Really good. Probably the best all round removal card in the game after Mind Control; 3 to basically take any creature out of the fight barring some on-card abilities.

Rabid Bite causes havoc for any deck, particularly if they have some allies out. It's an amazing card; at absolute worst, it damages their allies and makes one of them exhausted for two turns. At best it can kill two of their allies AND exhaust one for two turns. You normally get somewhere in between. This card can really lock the board up in your favour and is one of the best cards around, it's just not played because Wulven isn't played.

Captured Prey, NyM, Rabid Bite in the same deck: Almost no one gets to run that much removal that cheaply. This is your deck's main advantage!

Darkclaw: He's not great. BUT, he does mean that you can afford to go second and play the slower Shadow allies, and put your removal to work, whilst not getting eaten alive by an early Blake/Aldon and so on. In most games he works out to having something like 40-45hp, which isn't as terrible as he looks on paper even if he isn't as hard to kill as he used to be.


Cards I left out:

What Big Teeth: This card is the reason people are building Darkclaw decks and failing. It's a bad card, period. It's too slow and doesn't do enough to be worth having, plus since the metagame is full of item removal now, items are an 'all or nothing' thing. So we leave it out and make more room for the juicy Wulven removal cards.

Lone Wolf: The other reason people are losing with Darkclaw. This card was a 1.23 answer to Eladwen. Now, it's terrible. Darkclaw needs allies to win the game (as do almost all heroes in 1.24)

Plasma Behemoth: Potentially playable actually, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone plays this deck more than me and ends up running it. You can afford to build a bit slowly with Darkclaw as long as you don't lose control of the board (keep on eating their allies!) and Big B plays right along with that. Bad Wolf could maybe drop for him, but watch out for Zaladar decks.

Jeweler's Dream: Also could go in, it's a decent card. But, only one card in your deck (discounting Shriek) would get you a free-play on turn 4 (NyM) plus, as I said before, playing just a few items is simply asking for them to get blown up. Also turn 4 you have such great options (early Chimera, Rabid Bite) for board control it's a shame to waste it on a 1 damage weapon. Again, wouldn't be surprised if someone decides to run this at some point but I don't think it's worth it.

Wrath of the Forest: This card needs to say "any ally" or cost less and then it would be playable. The number of allies that get destroyed after turn 6, and get destroyed in enough time for the cards they grant to be useful, isn't very many. I will say I haven't even tried it because I'm sure it won't work, so if someone does, let me know how you get on with it!


Happy Howling!

[Jovai]

LMAO@Kris Kristofferson . . . also, I was going pick your brain about this very thing. Now, I am just going to laugh instead.

[Calmdown]

Kristofferson never gets old.

[Fry]

What Big Teeth is still perfectly fine for its cost, you just can't afford to go all-in on the Lone Wolf plan anymore. Speedstrike might even still be playable, to help get opposing allies low enough for your Infernal Gargoyles to finish, though again, you don't want to go all in. Plasma Behemoth is still a pretty good man, too.

I definitely agree that Now You're Mine, Captured Prey, and especially Rabid Bite are great, though.

[Jovai]

I can't see Speedstrike and What Big Teeth being valid in the current meta. Especially in a tuned deck in your 3 cost slot... I could be wrong. If you can make it work for you. . .

[Calmdown]

What Big Teeth is still perfectly fine for its cost, you just can't afford to go all-in on the Lone Wolf plan anymore. Speedstrike might even still be playable, to help get opposing allies low enough for your Infernal Gargoyles to finish, though again, you don't want to go all in. Plasma Behemoth is still a pretty good man, too.

It's biggest use is, definitely, adding +1 to the damage your creatures can do and killing allies. The problem is, it's mostly of use early, and you can't afford to drop it until mid-late game because it doesn't do enough alone. Combined with the fact that playing no items generally invalidates a few cards in most decks now being a valid reason to play 0 items alone (especially as Wulven - people will hold item destruction waiting for your WBT) mean all the more reason not to run it. Speedstrike (and cards like Aimed Shot) is even worse with the amount of item destruction in the meta; you basically give them card and resource advantage if they destroy your item, instead of just a 1-1 trade.

Plasma Behemoth is great, especially in a slow play deck running lots of removal. When I play this deck more he'll be the first thing that has room made for him, but I don't like posting decks I've not actually tried at all. Probably Bad Wolf will drop.

[Grint]

With all these low cost cards, I could see adding Bazaar. It wouldn't benefit the opponent as much simply because you will much more quickly get to the point where you are dropping two allies a turn than most other decks would.

Also, on Jeweler's Dream. I don't think of it as a turn 4 play for this deck. Think of it as turn 5. Drop it, attack, drop Keldor, Gargoyle, or Bad Wolf. That's a pretty good turn 5. Also, if you do have a situation where you dropped Keldor on turn 3, you can use Jeweler's dream and still pump him up on turn 4. That's good too. I agree that you could still leave the card out, but it's probably worth trying.

[Jovai]

I think the problem is making room for it in a 30 card tuned deck. . .
I like where this is going. Yes@meta wrenches!

[Calmdown]

Suggesting why some cards may be good is fine: I don't disagree with why they may be good.

But this is a deckbuilding thread. Suggest what you would take out for cards you mention; find something that WBT or Jeweler's Dream is better than, in the 30 cards I posted. I'll probably disagree with you, since clearly from the list I've already considered the possibility and discarded it in favour of something else, but it would be nice to explain your opinion rather than redundantly talking about random possible plays for a card :P

imho; a turn 4 1-damage attack and pumping Keldor is not a particularly strong turn 4, and that's my problem with JD. Sure it gives resources back, but I'm not even sure a 2-cost, 1dmg weapon would see play. And turn 4 is often a gamebreaking turn. It's when you have to deal with Blake/Aldon, when you have to do something about an Infernal Gargoyle that just landed, or when you just got Sandra'd or are about to get Sandra'd and need to fortify yourself. By turn 5 it can be too late to do anything about the board your opponent now has control of.

[Fry]

I'm not even sure a 2-cost, 1dmg weapon would see play.

I would absolutely play this card (mostly as a turn 2 play going second). Jeweller's Dream is certainly not that card. JD is actually completely amazing in Warrior decks, but I don't think he's what you want for this style of Wulven deck.