Rust Weevil and the Weapon Heroes

[Nanock]

Greetings all! I have been playing for about 3 weeks, and have a question regarding what I see in the current meta...

The basis of my deck was the excellent Crystal Miner 3.0 by Preybird. A few modifications, trying to round it out against some of the decks I'd seen.

My rating had been hovering between 225 and 240, and for a week or so I was seeing a lot of Amber Rain, Gwenneth Truesight and Serena Thoughtripper. These heroes seem popular at my range, and toss in a random group of direct damage burn mages who may or may not have Voice of Winter, and it seemed weapons were a big problem for my deck. I used to see a lot more solo Darkclaw (also weapon dependent), but those seem to have dropped off.

Preybird mentions that his design was somewhat weak against Weapon-Heavy decks, as you have little more than Ley Line Nexus and Shriek of Vengeance to remove any weapon or heavy armors.

Looking to out Rock-Paper-Scissors the meta I'm seeing, I went looking for cards that would specifically hurt armor/weapons, but most important is to hurt weapons (as my deck is mostly control without a lot of huge allies rolling out). Rust Weevil seems ideally suited to attacking these characters, and I've been giving it a go.

Thus far, I've liked the results. Sure, they are high priority targets, but most of the non-Mage heroes can't kill them without losing their weapon. And if they have a weapon and board control, chances are I've already lost. Crippling Blow might be offset in the mid-game by Morphic Armor if I can dump it on one of their Allies.

My question to the group is, have other players used Rust Weevil at the higher ranges? I don't see many people listing this card as a part of their deck, but read constantly about a flush of Amber Rain, Gwenneth Truesight and Serena Thoughtripper decks at the higher levels. Is this accurate? Should I be expecting more weapon heroes as I go? Or is this simply a phase I'm in based on my rank, that I might 'grow out of'? How do other Zaladar decks deal with the prevalence of weapons without going 4x LLN and 4x SoV (nearly worthless if you get a non Weapon/Armor deck, while the Rust Weevil is still a 3 cost 2/4 ally)?

My current deck as follows:

Zaladar

3 x Ironhide Karash
4 x Infernal Gargoyle
2 x Morbid Acolyte
3 x Death Mage Thaddeus
2 x Darkwood Wraith
4 x Rust Weevil

4 x Mind Control
4 x Shadow Font

2 x Shriek of Vengeance
2 x Ley Line Nexus

2 x Sacrificial Lamb
4 x Antimatter
1 x Infinity Core

2 x Morphic Armor
1 x Eternal Renewal (for the odd Mill deck)

41 Cards total

[ragosonos]

i hate the fact that u miss lots of greaaat things like ' weapons ' but i adore the 1 eternal renweal u putted .... but in this case u wont need infinity core

[Nanock]

Initially, I had put in a Shadowvein at first, and expected to put more of them in later if I liked how they played. Then I found that most of the heroes I fought could use the Shadow Energy to put down my own allies or do other things I didn't like (Moonstalker comes to mind). A few times it helped me finish off a dying foe, but more often than not I didn't want to give my opponent the SE and it was always an 'early sacrifice' card.

While I see the value in cards like Bad Santa, my current philosophy is to try and avoid cards that give my opponent cards of their own (and try to limit their draw as much as I can). I don't like the trade-off, though there are certainly times when my opponent's hand is nearly full and it would be a great play. If my opponent plays a Bazaar, I'll leave it up till I have my Antimatter going, then blow it away as soon as possible.

Infinity Core has saved my rear a few times, and knowing it's in the deck plays very well against certain heroes. Especially heroes that are excellent Ally hunters but can't do a lot of direct damage to my Hero. It can also save the day against Mage burn decks as the 2 heal can counter being both poisoned and burning. Or against Evil Ascendant, allowing me to recycle my Infernal Gargoyle back into the deck. And if I'm running low on cards in my deck, I can recycle anything back in to buy me more time.

Utility card for sure... easy to sacrifice against some heroes, never get rid of it against others. Same with the Eternal Renewal, really.