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  1. #1
    Junior Member DNAlx's Avatar
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    SF Zahanna PLAGUE

    EDIT: I've added a Jericho version.

    I love running unique decks that don't quite fit the current meta, and I'm really excited about this one. A viable resource destruction deck! I'm also nervous putting my deck out there, because I certainly wouldn't want to play against it.

    The key here is that Devoted Knight will replenish the resource you lose from casting Plague. Between this replenishment, and Zahanna's ability to recover health, you don't loose nearly as much momentum using Plague as before.

    I'd love your suggestions on improving this deck!

    Zahanna PLAGUE
    42 Cards + Hero

    Hero [1]
    Zahanna Mist

    Allies [21]
    4 Twilight Opportunist
    3 Champion of Irum
    4 Devoted Knight
    4 Elizabeth Winterborn
    1 Fleetfooted Messenger
    1 Armored Sandworm
    2 Aeon Stormchaser
    1 Viska, The Scarlet Blade
    1 Eriss Fateweaver
    1 Nathanias, People's Champion

    Abilities [16]
    4 Tidal Wave
    3 Focused Prayer
    4 Plague
    1 Resurrection
    1 Banish
    1 Mass Purification
    2 Zail's Hymn

    Items [4]
    4 Wizent's Staff

    The point of this deck is not to keep your opponent at 2 resources the entire game - instead, you end up limiting their resources so they can't play powerful cards (Mind control, Supernova, Soul Seeker, 6CC ally) while also making their sacrifice decisions impossibly difficult!

    Some things I find important for this deck:

    1) This deck does not rely on resource destruction to win, it just happens to be pretty good at it, so if you get a bad draw, you can still play the standard late-game focused priest deck.

    2) Sacrifice a card every turn, despite having 4 Devoted Knights in your deck. You'll use those "bonus" resources from Devoted Knight for Plague.

    3) Wait to cast Plague until your opponent has at least 4 resources - It removes 2 resources at a time, but will not shrink their resource pool below 2 resources.

    4) Late game Plagues are almost more effective than early game plagues. Your opponent may settle on 6 resources by mid-game, and by then you should have amassed 9 or 10 resources with devoted knight and constant sacrificing. Play two plagues back to back, or even on the same turn, and now they have 2 resources and you have 8! It's a huge advantage and their hand is full of cards they can't play. This means you don't need to worry if you don't get Devoted Knights/Plagues in your first hand - just use your low cost allies, Tidal Wave, and Zahanna's ability to survive to the late game, then punish their resources hard.

    6) Removing resources is essentially also forcing discards in your opponent. As you remove resources from your opponent, they need to sacrifice more cards than normal, so you really hurt their draw. Playing 4 Plagues in one game means they'd have to sacrifice an additional 8 cards than their typical game if they wanted to keep up - that's a big change in play style that gives you the advantage.

    7) The biggest challenge to this plague deck are people with powerful 2 and 3CC allies - ie Elemntals with Super Focus attached, Tala Pureheart, or Ythan Redthorn. But, in general, everyone struggles when their resources are limited. Mass Purification/Eriss will remove power-up attachments, and Zail's Hymn, Tidal Wave, and Banish deal with Pureheart and Redthron. By the late game you'll have the clear advantage. On the other hand, heroes like Baduruu and Gravebone have abilities that allow them to cast cards that cost more than their current resources. I don't find this to be an issue against this deck, however, because Tidal Wave takes care of Gravebone and Focused Prayer takes care a Baduruu.


    Jericho PLAGUE
    Jericho time! Same Plague cleverness + a fun Zail's Hymn "Banish" loop.

    Hero [1]
    Jericho Spellbane

    Allies [17]
    4 Devoted Knight
    4 Elizabeth Winterborn
    2 Tainted Oracle
    2 Mystic of the Vale
    2 Aeon Stormchaser
    1 Viska, The Scarlet Blade
    1 Eriss Fateweaver
    1 Nathanias, People's Champion

    Abilities [21]
    4 Tidal Wave
    3 Focused Prayer
    4 Plague
    1 Resurrection
    4 Zail's Hymn
    3 Lingering Essence
    2 Embers of the Just

    Items [2]
    2 Wizent's Staff

    Some Jericho specific notes:
    Mystic of the Vale + Zails Hymn = Endless Banish loop! I like to keep Zail's Hymn on an opposing ally until they cast a second ally. Remove Zail's Hymn from the first ally with Mystic of the Vale's ability - that ally is banished back into their deck and ZH is placed in your hand. Then re-cast that same Zail's Hymn on the new ally! Now you can endlessly banish your opponent's allies while keeping new ones from attacking. This works for Zahanna/Threbin as well.

    With Jericho, I use Embers of the Just on the crippled allies in the meantime for 4 damage to the hero and + 3 health.

    Lingering Essence keeps Jericho rolling It gives him great shadow energy momentum and health recovery. Paired with Embers of the Just you can kill a 5 HP enemy while gaining 3 hero health and 1 shadow energy. Very strong. There are no 2CC allies in this deck so it should be easy to cast. The health recovery helps negate fireballs and weapon damage (and is demoralizing to your opponent ). Feel free to add a fourth LE to the deck, because you can target and remove LE to gain three HP + 1SE in a pinch and just cast another LE.

    Plague and Devoted Knight work the same way in this deck as with Zahanna PLAGUE deck

    Cast resurrection after Nathania's is killed His ability summons another ally into play when he is cast, as long as the next card in your deck is an ally. Resurrection after Nathanias is killed lets you play him a second time and also ensures there's an ally behind him to summon.

    The draw is different from ZahannaInstead of 4 Liz 4 Wizent's, I split Wizent's into 2 Wizent's and 2 Tained Oracles. Jericho benefits from the meat shield of TO and you'll save your SE on Embers of the Just/Lingering Essence.

    Suggestions welcome!


    EDIT: See EverKnight's reply on this page for a Threbin Plague deck
    Last edited by DNAlx; 05-19-2014 at 10:45 PM.

  2. #2
    Senior Member WrathOfCroft's Avatar
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    I like the idea, but really all the 1 of's are a bad idea. Pick on or two allies u really like and run more of them.

    The same with your control. Retreat seems like it would fit better for you than Banish. Enabling u to use your resources more to your advantage.
    IGN A1 WrathOfCroft

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  3. #3
    Junior Member DNAlx's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WrathOfCroft View Post
    I like the idea, but really all the 1 of's are a bad idea. Pick on or two allies u really like and run more of them.

    The same with your control. Retreat seems like it would fit better for you than Banish. Enabling u to use your resources more to your advantage.
    Thanks, yea, I should make them more consistent. I couldn't really decide so I picked one of everybody haha. I actually ended up liking the mix, but I think I'll incorporate another fleetfooted and take out a CoI. I'll probably drop sandworm for another nathanias.

    I tried retreat for a bit, but I didn't like giving them a card back directly to their hand, giving them another card to sac.

  4. #4
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    The deck concept is really interesting, I'll give it a few test runs after Meltdown payday. Any plans on a Threbin version?

  5. #5
    Junior Member DNAlx's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ganjamus View Post
    The deck concept is really interesting, I'll give it a few test runs after Meltdown payday. Any plans on a Threbin version?
    I think the ally choices need some work, but it's getting there.

    I'm actually working on a Jericho version right now - but a Threbin version would be cool. He has the best draw power of the priests since it's easier for him to use Scriptures of the Righteous (on top of Liz, Wizents, and Heirloom!) so it's easier for him to sac extra cards for plague - could definitely work!

  6. #6
    Member EverKnight's Avatar
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    very good deck so far the only thing I have taken out is one Elizabeth in 1 Twilight For X2 Aldon. Well done

  7. #7
    Member EverKnight's Avatar
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    Hey DNAlx! I was thinking about a Threbin deck with the plague control you're showing off in your deck, so far I've gotten positive results. I initially was going to create a new post and credit you for the idea and link to your forum post, but I figure id show people that are already interested, and please tell me what you think!!!

    Hero: Threbin the Righteous

    Allies: 20

    x2 Aldon the Brave
    x2 Aeon Stormcaller
    x3 Champion of Irum
    x4 Devoted Knight
    x2 Elizabeth Winterborn
    x1 Eriss Fateweaver
    x1 Nathanias, People's Champion
    x4 Sindarok Apprentice
    x1 Viska, The Scarlet Blade

    Abilities: 14

    x3 Tidal Wave
    x3 Focused Prayer
    x1 Resurrection
    x4 Plague
    x1 Banish
    x2 Zail's Hymm

    Artifacts: 4

    x4 Scriptures of the Righteous

    Weapons: 3

    x3 Rod of Smiting

    So far its been doing well! I'm in the 240 range right now but a big advantage of your deck and this one is that its unexpected!

    Here are a few of my thoughts about tweaking so far:

    I was thinking about replacing 2 of the Champion of Irum and leaving just 1 in the deck. I feel that I would rather be playing scriptures of the righteous on turn two anyways. and also Sindarok Apprentice is now my T3 Drop of choice seeing as that she can pump out 4 damage (2 of which is arcane, triggering the Scriptures) on turn 4 and wipe those common turn 3 3/4 drops.

    I'm just not sure who to replace them wish. maybe a Tained oracle and a Avenger of the Fallen ? or instead of both maybe x2 Spirit Warden to counters those meta Elemental decks right now.

    Tell me what you think!

  8. #8
    Member Hrinkell's Avatar
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    Hmmm... interesting take. May be some more Templars? for the damage and draw
    Last edited by Hrinkell; 05-17-2014 at 12:56 AM.

  9. #9
    Member EverKnight's Avatar
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    Yeah, the draws are hit and miss right now. And it's hard to synergize Templar effectively because right now there are just better options for allies

  10. #10
    Junior Member DNAlx's Avatar
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    Threbin Plague deck looks awesome! I find myself sacrificing Champion of Irum over any other card, so replacing them with something more useful is great. I think Sindarok Apprentice is perfect for the threbin deck to get that extra draw - it's just too bad it competes with Devoted Knight for 3CC.

    At the risk of crowding the 3CC space, I think Fleetfooted Messenger is a good replacement for COI, so that you can swap some cards to increase your chance of Tidal Wave or Plague if you need it. You might leave Threbin open to more damage without a 2CC meat shield though.

    Glad the deck is working out for you.

    I'm really trying to get a Jericho Plague deck rolling, but the technical cards he uses best (Atonement, Embers, Lingering Essence) are hard to wedge into this deck and leave room for allies and draw power. Not giving up though!

    EDIT: See original post for Jeri! There's some really great synergy between Mystic of the Vale and Zail's Hymn that I think all Priest decks try out.
    Last edited by DNAlx; 05-19-2014 at 10:50 PM.

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