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  1. #1
    DP Visionary Shadowborn's Avatar
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    Serena, the Card Sharp+ Hey I'm back! :D

    Serena, the Card Sharp

    Here is my Serena deck, I'm rather proud of it because not only is it very different from most Serena decks, it works very well too. Back before I took my half-year break from SE I won 8 games in a row only with the "draft", untweaked version. Well, here it is.

    Serena

    ALLIES
    Nightshade x2
    Agent Rex x1
    CoI x2
    Aldon x4
    Jasmine x3
    Night Owl x3
    Lily x2
    Armored Sandworm x4

    ABILITIES
    Retreat x4
    Treasured Heirloom x3
    Stop Thief x4

    ITEMS
    Anklebreaker x4
    Fan of Blades x3

    First thing that stands out is: what no IGG and Black Garb? yep and their absence is a key point to this deck. I will explain.


    DECK OVERVIEW
    A card sharp (also spelled cardsharp, card shark or cardshark) is a person who uses skill and deception to win at poker or other card games.

    Why Card Sharp? This is because this deck is based on manipulating your less-skilled opponent to play cards in your favor. You aim to force them to play certain cards and thus indirectly giving you more card advantage (and as a result, more options). How do you do this? Not by Serena's ability but by your ally composition

    ALLIES

    Allies in this deck are primarily split into 2 kinds:

    Hard-to-kill: your stealthies, CoI and Sandworm.The stealth concept was inspired by BlanketEffect. 1 or 2 stealth allies might be easy to deal with but a whole load of them? Pretty tough. Your opponents are going to be wasting their cards on these guys, CoI and Sandworms and basically, these tough allies generate card advantage by forcing your opponent to waste cards on them by doing a 2-for-1 trade, meaning they'll need 2 abilities or 2 allies to deal with them.

    Annoying
    Your Aldons and Jasmines. These guys are threats that need to be dealt with by the opponent immediately. Aldon, if left unattended can deal lots of damage by synergising with your Hard-to-kill allies, since they're likely to survive until Aldon comes down. Jasmine is self-explanatory. Though it would be good if they could survive, they're not meant to. Rather, they're again use to generate card advantage by forcing your opponent to use cards to deal with them, if not, you've won the game

    ABILITIES

    Retreat was formerly Assassinate. However, I feel that Assassinate is more of a win-more card meaning it's useful if you already have the board. However, it doesn't help to reclaim the board. Retreat+Jasmine, however does

    ITEMS
    Right IGG, why no IGG? That's because in order for Serena to use her ability effectively, she needs to have early board control. On T4 , when you would normally play IGG, I would much rather play Heirloom or Aldon to boost my tempo. This is because you cast your 3cc ally on T3 and on T4 is when you fight for the board. Serena isn't Lance, Lance's crucial turn is on T5, when he hastes in Raven or Jasmine. Serena on the other hand, needs a T4 Aldon or Heirloom to combo up with Jasmine or Night Owl to take the board, leaving T5 free to cast Anklebreaker and beat face. Make no mistake, Serena's ability is a win-more one, it's useless if you don't have board control, if you have it... Well she's a Rogue, her specialty is to knock her opponent to the ground and continue kicking them once they've fallen. Once you've won the early board, her discard destroys your opponent of any potential responses to your Hard-to-kill allies, that means means no more Crippling Blow, Captured Prey, Supernova or any Control card. So that's why I don't run IGG, it screws up your early game, in my experience, it's a win-more card. When I have the board, I'm drawing tons of cards, when I've lost it, IGG is just a 4cc decoration, you don't even have allies, how do you kill your opponents allies and draw cards without allies? Black Garb also ruins my tempo, I'm not really against Black Garb as compared to IGG but like i said, This deck is all about tempo and the early board, I'll much rather have my 3cc slots filled with allies. I'll much rather be the aggro player, churning out threats instead of casting Black Garb to control their threats

    If you're still worried about IGG and draw power, let me just say that this deck can still manage it surprisingly well. Just make sure not to sac too much. Optimum would be 5 res, maximum 8, with Stop Thief, that's rather easy. Make sure you fill your board with cantrips like Owl, Heirloom and FoB for the draw.

    GAMEPLAY

    I apologize for my match history, it's rather messed up because I like to play different heroes according to my mood but I'll list out my current Serena games

    AA1 ShadowBeast vs BP Jadeye

    We played twice, very interesting matches. First game he got off to a good start as Rush Elad. However I took back the board and constantly beat face. He finally won with 1 hp left when he drew a lucky Fireball. Second game was more straight forward. I got off to a better start, held the board and kept kicking him down and won

    AA1 ShadowBeast vs AA1 Samyou2death

    Hehe I seem to be covering all the hated archetypes this one was against Millstalker. Millstalker isn't as NPE as you think. Serena can actually take the fight to Millstalker effectively. Stole his Arthyle's Crypt and Stop Thief his other Crypt and his EAs. Yup, those are you targets against stall decks, without ally recursion, Millstalker isn't as scary. Always make sure you discard when he ends his Stealth chain, if you're lucky, you'll hit a Rain Delay or Full Moon. Make sure you keep your hand full when your deck goes to single digit to prevent mill. Sadly SE crashed before we could finish the game. I had 2 Anklebreakers, a FoB and Lily in hand so I could have discarded him indefinitely and I was certain of winning.

    AA1 ShadowBeast vs Hirototree
    Typical steamroll game, hold the board in a vice grip and then keep kicking, and then kick more. Snow Sapphire? No need for Stop Thief, just roll over it with your ally wave.( I sacced my early Stop Thiefs because I expected a Elad Rush). Supernova? Didn't give a shit, just kept spamming, when you're ahead, Nova just hurts her more than you


    Will try to post more games in the future.


    TL: DR
    Your allies are big threats. Constantly churn them out and force your opponent to lose BOTH tempo and card advantage to deal with them. Contest the early board as much as you can. If you've won the board, keep kicking them down with your discard. Show no mercy, against decks with no wipes, spam allies, against board wipe classes, Amklebreaker and Jasmines are sufficient in holding the board

    Thank you for reading my wall of text . If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask, I will actively answer them

    Credits to BlanketEffect's Serena Superdraw v2.0 and Blanket of Night decks for inspiration on the IGGless and stealth idea
    Last edited by Shadowborn; 11-08-2013 at 01:33 PM.
    IGN: A1 ShadowBeast

    I'm interested in seeing how you plan to kill a shadow

    MY COTC DECKS
    Nishaven Hybrid

    MY DP DECKS
    FT Trollers #1 Baduruu Shutdown

    Ter Stripper

    Serena the Card Sharp

    A1:Evolution in Theory

  2. #2
    DP Visionary Shadowborn's Avatar
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    CHANGELOG

    Games with -2 Lily, +2 TO

    AA1 ShadowBeast vs Karjala(Lance)
    Close win. Rider of Ellos isn't really that tough against Serena since her AB still disables him. Always save Stop Thiefs for IGG and don't forget to kill the Night Owl first before summoning an ally. A bit of nifty trick here is to Retreat an ally and to discard it as a removal.

    AA1 ShadowBeast vs 4sail
    Made the Night Owl mistake again. Also a classic case of why you should always destroy the IGG, he really steamrolled me with His superior draw

    AA1 ShadowBeast vs LaPietra(Gravebone)
    Serena is a hard counter to GB. Retreat and AB controls his allies without actually putting them into the graveyard. Save ST for ToK. If he can't put cards in his hand, he can't put them in the graveyard

    Had games vs Jericho, Victor and Darkclaw but they were easy wins so I guess that they had bad draws
    Last edited by Shadowborn; 11-18-2013 at 01:32 PM.
    IGN: A1 ShadowBeast

    I'm interested in seeing how you plan to kill a shadow

    MY COTC DECKS
    Nishaven Hybrid

    MY DP DECKS
    FT Trollers #1 Baduruu Shutdown

    Ter Stripper

    Serena the Card Sharp

    A1:Evolution in Theory

  3. #3
    Senior Member Pat Jay's Avatar
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    nice take on serena! i like it!

    have you considered tainted oracle? instead of lily?

    and i noticed no assasinate... do you normally just retreat enemy sandworms then?

  4. #4
    DP Visionary Shadowborn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pat Jay View Post
    nice take on serena! i like it!

    have you considered tainted oracle? instead of lily?

    and i noticed no assasinate... do you normally just retreat enemy sandworms then?
    Hmmm good point, I always thought that Lily was a must in weapon decks but with 7 weapons I noticed that I rarely use her. I will try. Thanks! And yep just Retreat or Jas ability on Sandworm though normally I wouldn't even really view it as a threat unless coupled with Aldons. This functions a lot like a rush deck so I usually just ignore or Retreat them. Also I find that Retreat is really useful in blunting Elad Rush. If you respond their T2 Puwen with Retreat, that's a potential 3 damage gone when they drop Aldon on T3
    IGN: A1 ShadowBeast

    I'm interested in seeing how you plan to kill a shadow

    MY COTC DECKS
    Nishaven Hybrid

    MY DP DECKS
    FT Trollers #1 Baduruu Shutdown

    Ter Stripper

    Serena the Card Sharp

    A1:Evolution in Theory

  5. #5
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    very interesting。I've also always been uncomfortable with 4th turn IGG/or WoTF for hunters, as I always feared to lose the board. What I fear for this deck though is if one or two of your heairlooms get CBed/NYMed etc then you would lack cards to get you through the rest of the game. May I ask what rank you stand with this deck?

  6. #6
    DP Visionary Shadowborn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by oijjio View Post
    very interesting。I've also always been uncomfortable with 4th turn IGG/or WoTF for hunters, as I always feared to lose the board. What I fear for this deck though is if one or two of your heairlooms get CBed/NYMed etc then you would lack cards to get you through the rest of the game. May I ask what rank you stand with this deck?
    As of your post, my rating was around 250, but that's mainly because I rarely play now, just waiting for Shattered Fates. This deck's potential is higher than 250 however and I just logged 8 games today to show it, rating 258 now. Won the 7 out of 8. With my loss being against Lance due to an early game mistake where I cast TO before killing their Night Owl. As for disabling attachments, if you feel it to be worth it, you can Retreat your own ally(that's the reason why I chose Retreat over Assassination, it's too flexible). If the board is relatively safe or you really need the card draw, you can Retreat your disabled ally. Gonna post the highlights of the 8 games in my #1 post
    Last edited by Shadowborn; 11-18-2013 at 04:20 PM.
    IGN: A1 ShadowBeast

    I'm interested in seeing how you plan to kill a shadow

    MY COTC DECKS
    Nishaven Hybrid

    MY DP DECKS
    FT Trollers #1 Baduruu Shutdown

    Ter Stripper

    Serena the Card Sharp

    A1:Evolution in Theory

  7. #7
    Member Alucardd's Avatar
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    My deck has almost the same build which is a modified version of Caitlyn0's "Arya Stark". So far my biggest problem is Moonstalker mill which I try to counter with Aeon + Lyra Blackrose

  8. #8
    DP Visionary Shadowborn's Avatar
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    For Millstalker it actually depends on his starting setup, whether he gets his early EA and Arthyles. Just try to Stop Thief as much as possible to save yourself from saccing. Never actually seen Millstalker in QM lately is he common in your rating range?
    Last edited by Shadowborn; 11-20-2013 at 03:59 PM.
    IGN: A1 ShadowBeast

    I'm interested in seeing how you plan to kill a shadow

    MY COTC DECKS
    Nishaven Hybrid

    MY DP DECKS
    FT Trollers #1 Baduruu Shutdown

    Ter Stripper

    Serena the Card Sharp

    A1:Evolution in Theory

  9. #9
    Junior Member
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    I tried this deck and went 1-2 in my first three games which I attribute to poor draw coupled with my relative inexperience (only been playing for two weeks). After that though I went on a 6 game run and am up to 199. Not bad for someone who is level 13 and just last night put his first $5 into the game.

  10. #10
    Junior Member Himeko Inaba's Avatar
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    OMG. I love this deck. Thank you so much
    Sometimes I want to be alone, to be able to appreciate silence and life itself.

    IGN : TJ Himeko

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