Raph’s SUPPOSED WC Finals 2013 deck: “Zhanna the Matron” (Ultimate Control)

[Raphael Majere]

Raph’s SUPPOSED WC 2013 deck: “Zhanna the Matron” (Ultimate Control)

Despite what most people think, I am actually one hell of a kick-ass Zhanna player.

I was supposed to bring Zhanna to WC 2013 Finals. I have played Zhanna from the start of DP and I trained a lot with her in my preparation for WC finals. This thread also shows my path on how I tweaked my deck into the final deck; hoping providing insights on how I build some of my decks.

BTW, the reason why I did not bring this deck to WC finals is due to the high likelihood of players bringing the Control-type Elads which won the last 2 LCQ WC Qualifiers. Zhanna will not do well vs Elads with BSs and TOs.

I started with a “Core” deck at the start of DP and also involved my BP mates into discussing and building the best control-type Zhanna.

Theorycrafting before the actual building of the deck:

Exploring the concept and premise of the deck: is it possible to build a deck that stalls the early and mid game, and win in the very late game due to superior draw, outlasting the opponent and employing the game mechanic that resources are renewed every turn (i.e 8 to 10 resources)?

For new players learning Zhanna for the first time: this is a key concept: It does not matter how much low your life is at the end of the game; as long as it’s 1 more than my opponent’s 0 health.

Deck 1:

Zhanna Mist

4x Jasmine Rosecult
3x Raven Wildheart
1x Aldon the Brave
2x Aeon Stormcaller
4x Champion of Irum
3x Layarian Seductress
4x Elizabeth Winterborn
4x Tidal Wave
4x Focused Prayer
4x Banish
2x Mass Purification
2x The King's Pride
4x Wizent's Staff

TOTAL: 42 cards + Hero

Deck 1 Discussion

I needed to know and confirm a few things about zhanna at the start of DP.

1. How strong is Irum?
2. Liz + Aeon + KP = killer combo. Can I make the combo stick? Can I afford to use Zhanna’s heal on Liz.
3. How good is banish as compared to retreat? Can Zhanna afford the high cost of banish? (Do note that every decision and card choice in SE is based on the meta: What decks/cards are the other players’ playing? How fast/slow are their decks?)
4. Is 2 Mass P enough to counter warriors? In short, can zhanna stall/wait/draw enough to use Mass P to clear 2 or more attachments, especially a t3 BF?

The results:

Irum is great; 4 is over-kill due to his unique. 2. Yes, I can afford to heal Liz and Liz is very good in zhanna. 5 life makes her hard to kill. However, she is a unique. Banish is good but the cost is great. And yes, 2 mass P is enough and I can beat warriors fairly well with Zhanna.

A deeper look into Banish vs Retreat:

1.Retreat and Banish does 1 main thing: remove an ally from the board. Both cards can be used on Zhanna’s own allies as well. Banish is costly, retreat is cheaper, HOWEVER, what retreat does is this: it returns your opponent’s ally back to hand, which means that: yes, your opponent lost tempo and wasted probably more resources to summon the said ally as compared to the 2 cc retreat. BUT, your opponent also regained the card back in hand. Adding cards to your opponent’s hand is not good: because he can resummon it on his incoming turn OR use it as a resource. In short, I will always prefer NOT to add cards to my opponent’s hand. Lastly, retreating a FT/SK/Sedu/Lily is really painful.

2.Banish removes the ally cleanly from the board, HOWEVER, if my opponent is drawing 2 cards per turn and if I am only drawing 1 card turn, EVENTUALLY the same ally (regardless if it was powerful or not) will come back to haunt me. So, in deciding whether retreat or banish was better in Zhanna, it also involved me looking into the RELATIVE draw power of Zhanna: whether she was able to draw more than her opponent’s hero = whether Zhanna can destroy her opponent’s draw AND keep her draw engines in play.
The conclusion was that Banish is good for me. Because Zhanna’s heal (remember that everything in SE is relative) is sufficient for me to stall. I was also determined not to put in more than 8 ally control cards (4 TW a must, 4 slots left for Banish/Ice storm/retreat)

With these in mind, Deck 2 was created.

Deck 2

Zhanna Mist

4x Jasmine Rosecult
3x Raven Wildheart
2x Aldon the Brave
1x Tainted Oracle
2x Aeon Stormcaller
3x Champion of Irum
3x Layarian Seductress
3x Elizabeth Winterborn
4x Tidal Wave
4x Focused Prayer
4x Banish
2x Mass Purification
1x The King's Pride
4x Wizent's Staff

TOTAL: 40 cards + Hero

Deck 2 Discussion

I cut the KP to one. While KP is good for Zhanna, i.e. she can lose the board, cast the KP and then cast more allies in later turns to recover from a losing position, I was also concerned about the number of cards. I was determined to stay at 41 cards, no more. And cutting the second KP was my choice. I also wanted to keep my draw cards at 8. Liz became 3, the 4th Liz became a TO. Aldon is too good to just have 1; hence the 4th COI became Aldon. With this deck, I won a ton of games but it still had issues.

1.I sometimes miss having retreats. Retreat + Jas/Raven is very sweet and it’s much harder to pull it off with with the 4 cc Banish.
2.Sometimes I wished I drew something better; rather than another Liz, when I already have a Liz in play. The same issue with COI, especially a crippled COI.

Deck 3 (The WC 2013 deck)

Zhanna Mist

4x Jasmine Rosecult
3x Raven Wildheart
2x Aldon the Brave
2x Tainted Oracle
2x Aeon Stormcaller
1x Fleet-footed Messenger
2x Champion of Irum
3x Layarian Seductress
2x Elizabeth Winterborn
4x Tidal Wave
4x Focused Prayer
2x Retreat!
2x Banish
2x Mass Purification
1x The King's Pride
4x Wizent's Staff

TOTAL: 40 cards + Hero

Deck 3 Discussion

Firstly, do note that decks in WC finals are usually very control-type, slow, reactive decks that win in late or very late game. Players usually do not bring a rush deck to WC finals, especially in a non-teched environment.

The changes: - 1 liz, + 1 TO, - 1 COI, + 1 FFM, - 2 Banish, + 2 retreats.

These changes are due to the unique qualities of COI and Liz. I do not want to sit with ‘dead’ cards in hand; especially in a WC finals meta. This would also mean that I need to play better; mitigate the loss of consistency with better playing and saccing.

Swapped out 2 banish for 2 retreats; it was a hard decision. As mentioned, both cards have their own advantages. I have also tested the ‘3-1’ ratios. A retreat also allows me to retreat a low-health raven/aeon and resummon it on the same turn.

A brief mention on FFM: it’s one of my fav DP cards. If I am winning or losing with zhanna, FFM can be a good card. And since I have retreats now, I have the possibility of doing the FFM + retreat + KP combo.

That’s it! Those who have not tried Zhanna in DP, please do! She’s very enjoyable!

Appendix

Sideboard cards for WC 2013 finals – 10 cards (Day 2)

1x Tainted Oracle
3x Fleet-footed Messenger
1x Layarian Seductress
1x Resurrection
1x Sever Ties
1x Book of Curses
2x The King's Pride

The 2 KPs and 3 FFMs are for “going first” games; Haste Zhanna version (Thanks to BP Vyz). If I am going first, a t3 Jas, t4 Aldon or FFM is very strong. Combined with insane draw power of Wiz staff and Liz and TOs, I can draw a lot and use the FFM/KP/Retreat combo. Also, the famous Ressurection/FFM/KP combo. Curse and Sedu for for “going second” games and stemming semi-rush decks. Sever ties to kill warriors. Resurrection is absolutely critical vs mirror zhanna decks in a tech tourney; never sac it.

[seedog]

Ur posting too many decks

Are you trying to change the meta?

[Raphael Majere]

Ur posting too many decks

Are you trying to change the meta?

U missed this post: http://www.shadowera.com/showpost.php?p=449562

[seedog]

Oh no, u cant leave!

[bobwei]

Why sever ties when there is mass purification instead?

[Palestitch]

on the play they get 2 activations of BF and even on the play they get one, additionally you can't Wave on that turn either.

[Raphael Majere]

Why sever ties when there is mass purification instead?

Yeah, pretty much as palestitch said.

ESP when going first, I can do a t4 sever ties on a warrior - the warrior will draw 0 from bf - which is exactly what LD did to me boris on day 1 on both games. :/

Vs warriors, for the sideboard tourney, I would have 2 mass p + sever ties, total 3.

[Yvan Antoine]

Raph, you don't feel that healing touch can be good for healing or removing attachments from your allies. Just wondering the reasoning.

[Raphael Majere]

Update: had a 11 game win streak with this deck. Ign: raphael majere

The streak ended with a loss to a elad control deck, precisely what I mentioned in the OP. I did get 1 win vs him though, earlier in the day.

Raph, you don't feel that healing touch can be good for healing or removing attachments from your allies. Just wondering the reasoning.

Agreed. I have mass p and zhanna's own healing, so I don't wanna over do things.

If I have 1 more card slot, I would want to add 1 more COI or KP. So healing touch is lower on that list.