The Oathbreakers of Dunharrow v4.0 - Dark Prophecies Edition

[yomaster]

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

The Oathbreakers of Dunharrow 4.0 - Dark Prophecies Edition

Total Deck Size = 41 Cards + Hero.

The Bearer of Nenya:
1x Zhanna Mist

The Dúnedain:
4x Knight of the Golden Dawn

Guardians of the Dwimorberg:
2x Earthen Protector
2x Aeon Stormcaller

The Oathbreakers of Dunharrow:
4x Tainted Oracle

Shieldmaidens of Valinor:
2x Lily Rosecult
2x Elizabeth Winterborn

Oaths:
4x Book of Curses
4x Healing Touch
4x Tidal Wave
4x Focused Prayer

Situational Spells:
1x Resurrection
1x Mass Purification
2x Banish

Shards of Narsil:
2x The King's Pride
3x Ghostmaker


Version 1.0 for CotC: http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....s-of-Dunharrow
Version 2.0 and 3.0 for CotC: http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....d-for-Meta-***


Read the previous versions for commentary on how to play this deck. It is not intuitive. In CotC, this deck's advantage was the huge drawing power of the tainted oracle. Now with DP, Wulven has brought a significant number of draw engines to the competition, and a few nasty tricks that can nullify your strategy.

In DP, I have swapped my beloved Sandworms in favor of Knights of the Golden Dawn. These mosters have +2 attack vs. Sandworms, and can still survive a direct Nuke. Plus, they synergize extremely well with Healing Touch and Zhanna's ability. This is critical since healing is the name of the game here. Get comfortable with Zhanna being below 10 health, because that's when she's strongest. Feel free and try a mix of 2x Sandworm and 2x Golden Knight if you want, it also works well.

As for drawing, I have retired Wizent's staff, which was used entirely as a last-resort when you didn't draw a Tainted Oracle by turn 4. However, it really hurts this deck because you need every last point of Shadow Energy to keep Zhanna alive. Now with Elizabeth Winterborn, we have a great turn 4 alternate that serves the same purpose, with the benefit of having the possibility to attack later on in the game! Rule of thumb: if you have tainted oracle in hand by turn 4, just sac Elizabeth because you don't want her clogging up your graveyard.

Book of Curses has incread from 3x to 4x in DP because of rush risks. It is critical to get this by turn 3. Without it, you will probably lose the match.

The situational spells are to tech against specific decks:
- Ressurection to counter Zhanna and Mill decks.
- Mass Purification to counter Warriors' Blood Frenzy, Enrage, Rampage, Crippling Blow, A legend rises, and Treasured Heirloom. If you play this at the right time, it can completely turn over the game.
- Banish is added to counter Lance's Hasted Ravens, Shadow Knights, early rush Aldons, and is great for stalling while waiting for Tidals. It's basically a retreat that doesn't give your opponent cards. Totally worth the extra 2cc cost.

The deck length has increased to 41 cards due to the increased likelyhood of taking damage due to milling yourself out of cards.

Easy matchups:
- any type of rush
- Mages (don't ever sac Healing Touch against Mages)
- Elementalis
- Boris
- Darkclaw (use all four Focused Prayer on his What Big Teeth)
- and any deck if the person hasn't seen this deck. Once they've seen it, it's easier to beat.

Hard Matchups:
- Any warrior Rotham's Visage deck.
- Amber
- Zhanna mirror match (always be the last to tidal wave, and hang onto resurrection)


Ideal turns:
1 - sac
2 - sac
3 - Book of Curses
4 - Tainted Oracle
5 - Tidal Wave
6 - Ghostmaker / Focused Prayer + Healing Touch
7 - Tainted Oracle + Focused Prayer or Healing Touch.
8 - 2x Tainted Oracle
9 - Tidal Wave + Tainted Oracle
(getting the idea??)
10 - 2 fatties / Tidal + one fatty
11 - 2 more fatties / one fatty + ghostmaker