Kylt's Zaladars: Antimatter, D-Ripper, Mill Zaladars.

[Kylt]

Hi!!

I am posting 3 major archetypes for Zaladar. I hope this helps new players to understand how each deck is constructed and played.


The 3 decks are;

1. Antimatter Zaladar
2. Dimension Ripper Zaladar
3. Mill Zaladar (Aka Endurance Zal)




1. Antimatter Zaladar


See also: http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....nament-Winner)
The link above is Greymouser's Antimatter Zaladar that he won the 1st Wulven official tournament with. You can find his explanation of Antimatter Zaladar in the link.


Deck

***HERO***
Zaladar

***Allies (17)***
4x Infernal Gargoyle
4x Death Mage Thaddeus
4x Ironhide Karash
3x Morbid Acolyte
2x Furrion Terror

***Abilities (14)***
2x Soul Reaper
3x Mind Control
2x Shriek of Vengeance
2x Acid Jet
3x Shadow Font
2x Sacrificial Lamb

***Items (4)***
4x Antimatter

***Armors (1)***
1x Morphic Armor

***Weapons (3)***
3x Shadowvein

TOTAL: 39 cards + Hero

Type: Control
Resource: 6~7 (6: Activate Antimatter and 3cc ally. 7: Activate Antimatter + Shadow Font)
Speed: Mid-range


The key to play this deck is to keep playing your tough allies regardless of your board position. With unilateral draw engine and Zal's zapping power, you will eventually be able to take the board. This deck wins with 2 cards: Soul Reaper and Shadowvein.

Soul Reaper
This is the reason why you can afford to spend 3cc every turn on Antimatter. SR's massive health gain gives you a lot of time to have a better hand and gradually taking the control of the board.

Shadowvein
An absolute finisher of this game. It alone produces 8 plus 3x2 damage if not destroyed. This card is also great in a defensive use as it softens opponent allies when your hero defends, and Zaladar can use the charged SE to burn damaged allies. Also, thanks to Soul Reaper, you can still play allies even if Shadowvein helps opponents to kill your allies with SE ability.

In this deck, playing 1 ally means that you are getting rid of more than 7 damage from your hero in average. For example, playing MA means that you are diverting 5 damage to MA from your hero, and getting 2 extra heal with Soul Reaper. In other words, Soul Reaper is a massive advantage gaining card. Antimatter also helps getting rid of unnecessary allies in the deck while producing 2 points heal form SR.


Openings
t2 Karash/Antimatter
t3 Garg/MA/DMT
t4 DMT/MA/Garg/Font
t5 Antimetter and activate it


Q. Why is there only 3 Mind Control and 3 Shadow Font?

Mind control in this deck is merely an ally removal. In D-ripper Zal, you want 4 MCs because it very useful in life racing (killing 1 ally and dealing 2~5 damage for a single 5cc card is very cost efficient), but you don't really race with this deck. From that viewpoint, MC is too expensive to cast and you don't need 4 of single ally removal along with Zal's zapping power. Given that it is not a card that I have to have on t5, inclusion of only 3 is sufficient.

The idea of including only 3 Shadow Font came from Greymouser's Antimatter Zal (see the link at the beginning of this section). Adding to his original explanation, the reason why you don't need 4 is because your optimal t4 play is often not shadow font. For example, when you are going second against a human hero, your best t4 play is DMT to kill opponent allies with Zal blast. T4 2nd 3cc ally buys you time to cast and use Antimatter on t5 as well as giving you a chance to t5 Sac Lamb the damaged 3cc ally and make your mid game easier. With t5 FT covering the early game failure, you don't have to use SF in the early game.

By cutting out 1 Shadow font and 1 Mind control, this deck becomes more lean and compressed. The probability of drawing Antimatter goes up, while it also raises the chance to have crucial item destructions in time. But if you think that there are many games where you must cast 4 MCs and 4 SFs to win, feel free to add them back in.




2: Dimension Ripper Zaladar


Deck

***HERO***
Zaladar

***Allies (17)***
4x Death Mage Thaddeus
4x Ironhide Karash
4x Morbid Acolyte
2x Death Collector
3x Furrion Terror

***Abilities (16)***
4x Mind Control
2x Acid Jet
4x Shadow Font
2x Sacrificial Lamb
3x Bad Santa
1x Super Focus

***Weapons (6)***
4x Dimension Ripper
2x Shadowvein

TOTAL: 39 cards + Hero

Type: Rush
Resource: 5
Speed: Fast with weapon damage


4 MC and 4 SF The cards are selected so that it is not so hard to deal with when they are stolen. For example, MA is a lot more easier to deal with for Zal than Garg, and so is FT. Some D-Ripper deck uses Gargs and Darkwood Wraith, but Gargs are sometimes too resilient when and DW is annoying if stolen, even though it synergizes with Bad Santa and D-Ripper.

T5 is more stable than before as FT are in as 5th~7th copy of D-Ripper which provides 2 point damage when played. Shadowvein is again a game finisher in this deck.

There is no SoV because it is not needed to destroy opponent's draw engines as both you mainly draw with Bad Santa and D-Ripper.

t2 Karash/Santa if going first
t3 DC/MA/DMT
t4 Font/DMT/MA/DC
t5 D-Ripper


Well, there is not much to say really. D-Ripper Zal was very popular in CotC and it is almost the same with DP set.




3. Mill Zaladar

As far as I know, fist solid mill Zaladar deck was posted by Flynn here:
http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....CotC-Mill-Deck

The deck below is heavily influenced by his Zaladar.


Deck

***HERO***
Zaladar

***Allies (8)***
2x Ogloth the Glutton
4x Furrion Terror
2x Kairos Doombringer

***Abilities (18)***
3x Conversion
4x Mind Control
1x Eternal Renewal
4x Shadow Font
3x Bad Santa
4x Word of the Prophet

***Items (11)***
4x Evil Ascendant
4x Bazaar
3x Infinity Core

***Armors (4)***
4x Armor of Ages

TOTAL: 43 cards + Hero

Type: Control
Resource: 10~12
Speed: Slow

As it is said in Flynn's thread the key to win with this deck is to play something every turn no matter what. Use 4x Word of the Prophet to reach better cards. AoA buys so much time, while SE ability, EA and Furrion Terror kill opponent's weenies. Conversion is there to gain extra healing along with Infinity Core, and it is the only way to capitalize your allies with CB/CP/CF or negative effects. Never sac Eternal Renewal, but 1 copy is enough since you can put it back into the deck with WotP and you only use it once in a game.

The reason why I introduce this archetype along with Antimatter and D-Ripper Zal is because people I know have used this deck and had a very good result in both popups and QM. The fact that this deck requires you to have certain cards/strategy to counter makes this Zaladar very competitive as long as it stays outside of the meta.

Basically, this zaladar has so many items that opponents need to destroy. A standard shadow deck with 2 SoV cannot simply deal with 4 EA, 4 Bazaar and 3 Infinity Core. Unless your deck has a way to deal damage over Armor of Ages, you cannot finish the game before this zaladar start dropping 2 fatties in a turn.

I excluded from the list, but Interference might be a good addition since you play almost no allies until t5 or 6 but you will have to use your SE ability to delay your opponent. Though, I am not sure if it will still be useful in the late game.





So these are the 3 competitive Zaladars I know. I'm sure there are more competitive ones though (maybe HBM zaladar, or other creative ones).

[seedog]

I just realised Breastplate of Vitality is very good with zalader, turning Garg and MA almost unbeatable, also combo woth Conversion well.

Have tested it out DR Zalader... it helps the weenie troop to last for a few more turns and kill the opponent hero

[BP JinT]

Epic summery. I'd like to throw Preybirds break down as well.

http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....wn-%96-Zaladar

Incredible resource

[abazigal]

Cool. Will we be seeing similar love for elementalis?

[Pritbor]

Great thread! Very nice decks!

[Preybird]

Solid decks Kylt and great explanation.

[Wes Davis]

Deck

***HERO***
Zaladar

***Allies (8)***
2x Ogloth the Glutton
4x Furrion Terror
2x Kairos Doombringer

***Abilities (18)***
3x Conversion
4x Mind Control
1x Eternal Renewal
4x Shadow Font
3x Bad Santa
4x Word of the Prophet

***Items (11)***
4x Evil Ascendant
4x Bazaar
3x Infinity Core

***Armors (4)***
4x Armor of Ages

TOTAL: 43 cards + Hero

I'm building this deck. I can't believe how long I'm having to grind to get these cards. I hope the payoff is worth it.

[qaz92zaq]

3 nice decks that really explain the archtypes thanks for posting.

I'm building this deck. I can't believe how long I'm having to grind to get these cards. I hope the payoff is worth it.

If you want to try out Milladar in the mean time before you finish all the grinding there are a number of cheaper versions out there. I do not know if they will be as effective but they can let you get a taste of the arch type before you invest in every card on the list. For example Ogloth, Kairos, Word of the Prophet and the 4th AoA are not strictly needed for milladar as there are other good ones with those things and have a total cost of about 5,500 gold (though it is less once you take into account buying their replacements instead). Nothing against Kylt's deck but I would recommend starting with a cheaer version first if you want to test out the archtype and currently do not have all the needed cards or funds.

[Wes Davis]

Well, I allready grinded for the 4 AoA, 2 Kairos, and 2 Olgoth. And a 4th Shadow font, 4th Mind Control and 4th Furion Terror.

I just started on the Word of the Prophets. And they are 500!!! Holy crap. I was hoping for 100. I would have never guessed over 200. But, with his deck being a bit large and those seeming to be more luxury than necessity maybe I could run without them.

I originally thought I'd run with 4 Transference and 2 or 3 Temporal disturbance. I have never used Temporal Disturbance so no idea how that'll work, and my dealings with Transference have been less than stellar. And those are the reasons I thought I'd just try out the listed deck.

If there is a thread/topic/website dealing with this deck type I'd love a link as I'd like to give it a good try.

Any advice appreciated.

[qaz92zaq]

Hmm at that point I don't know. One should be somewhst careful of simply removing cards from a deck as they are often there for a good reason. Only thought on possible sub would be 2 Antimatter instead but it would be best to wait for Kylt to weigh in as you are quite close to having the finished product anyway.