This was the first deck I made for the test server, and has undergone quite a few changes since. At its heart it was designed initially to put the shaft in to solo decks since I personally dislike playing against them, far preferring the to and fro of allies and board control. Rapacious vermin was the first ally that caught my eye as something that could do this, and there are other shadow tools to allow near endless recursion of the buggers to keep smacking weapons apart- enter slingblade demon and SK. Also Gwen and darkclaw can be bad matchups for mages so it seemed a nice way to reduce Majiyas weakness to certain decks. The second ally combo that impressed me was the cultist/Brimstone combo for turn 4. Typically in Maj T4 you either combo your ability wih LS to clear the board or chuck up a portal. At this point you often have 0 or 1 ally on the board and your opponent has a chance to do something nasty to stop your plans in their tracks and take the board. Cultist/Brimstone for 3 damage allows you to clear the board and chuck another ally up adding much more pressure.
The deck is named relentless assault because it allows for a continuous attack on the enemy without stopping to mess about with item destruction or setting up a draw engine just continually putting and dealing with threats on the board. It also allows retaking of the board both with the old classic portal as well as the new toy bone sabre.
Total Cards: 41 (40+hero)
Allies: 22
Items: 2
Abilities: 17
Allies:
The Weenies
Rapacious Vermin *2
Initially I had three of them which was more consistent on the item destruction front. But RV is a terrible T2 drop in most cases since it will simply kill you slowly. It is a hardy little bugger mind and so I will drop it T2 in certain circumstances (opponent dropes Twilight Herald or an Elemental starts dropping sparks. Otherwise it stays in your hand until needed
Harbinger of the Lost *3
Initially I did not have this guy in the deck and the deck was more consistent in some ways without him. However, there are so many decks in SF that set up nast combos very early that having a tough T2 drop was simply more important. Also helps a great deal against praxis, BB and Zaladar in general. Against Praxis any discarded Brimstones on his ability will hit your Harbinger instead of your later 4health allies (hits the leftmost ally when all are equal). Currently the BBs and Zaladars have mostly switched to Ravager rather than FT which also means there is less danger in stacking more allies on the board. 4 of them would be nice, but I just can't fit them in.
The 3CC Crew
Death Collector *2
Originally this was 2 gargoyles since their toughness goes a long way. The switch was made after adding in bone sabre. If you aren't running the sabre, I would go with gary.
Brimstone Devourer *3
With all the discarding currently going on in SF, its always pleasant to see your opponent wipe their own allies of the board due to a discard effect although the main reason for adding this is to go with the cultist. He is also another 3CC drop at need albeit a slightly subpar one
Grimghast *3
Probably the best new shadow ally when considered alone, he makes a massive difference to the board. Also causes massive problems for the new wulven haste ally and fortified Wisp. Finally he also means that your 2CC ally can happily damage the opposing 2CC ally without getting killed the next turn. Since he is unique, 3 is the maximum I'm happy including.
Slingblade Demon*2
His inclusion was primarily to allow quickfire use of Rapacious vermin and as to recall damaged/crippled allies (works particularly well with embers of the just and against warriors where nowadays you often don't want 3 allies on the board at the same time). As a T3 drop he is slightly subpar unless you are going first in which case you can use your harbinger to damage opposing 2CC ( and take damage) then pull it back and chuck it back up with slingblade. Also give you a chance at triggering a brimstone devourer discard (albeit small) Is also great through a portal where you can squeeze through even more damage, and also do sneaky things like pulling back your SK post attack so it doesn't get MCed
Total:10 3CC drops which is nice since I hate not having a 3CC drop.
The higher end dudes
3* Falseblood Cultist
Part of the draw engine and for the reasons noted above.
4* Shadow Knight
Hard hitting, pseudo draw that provides you with even more draw if you recall a cultist. Also another way to re-use your rapacious vermin
Abilities
3* Transmogrifying Curse
Killing Dakraths and the like and also for setting up Rapacious Vermin for enemy items. I tend to oscillate between including 3 or 4 of these.
2* Supernova- the most damaging burn spell and for board resetting.
3* Fireball
2 * Lightning Strike- With more options for killing flame resistant enemies I chose more fireballs over more LS. Especially since there are currently a lot more bog standard 4 HP allies about on SF test server than on the live server where shadow allies are much tougher.
3* Sac lamb- Great Card draw as always. Can also allow the clearing of RV or slingblade or Falseblood for retrieval and reuse by SK.
3* Portal- Because portal is still great.
Toys
Bone Sabre*2
I was painfully taught the utility of bone sabre going up against a pure undead majiya army. While portal is much better for damaging either hero or allies, Bone sabre is great for getting double use from your allies and isn't restricted to just the next two turns like portal is. Portal and Sabre are both very nice tools. A single ping of damage can also be handy regardless.
The Draw Engine
The draw engine consists of a combination of Cultist, SK, SD, SL and Majiyas own ability. The draw is fast and being entirely ally and ability based cannot be destroyed by your opponent (although SK retrievals can be messed with obviously).
Issues
As mentioned, prior to including the Harbingers the deck was more consistent and had +1 Transmogrifyin curse, +1 rapacious vermin and +1 Falseblood culties. Can't see anyway to squeeze them back in while keeping sabre and Harbinger though.
Bookmarks