I present the final version of this provided there are no changes to Loom of Fate and Meat Wagon. Like all the versions of this style of deck going back to C.o.t.C. it is one of the fastest and most consistent A.I. farming decks. Only kentuequi's Aramia Wisp OP deck can compete and it's major drawback for new players is the amount of gold it takes to build it.
Hero (1):
Zaladar
Great hero with a great ability.
Allies (17):
Fire Snake *2
Strong 1cc ally
Hellsteed *4
Ally that boosts first ally's attack and will be used to attack with latter.
Spark *4
Ally that grows with its fellow sparks.
Rotling *3
Ally that sometimes gets stronger, likes to eat Jasmine out of the graveyard. Flare *4
Ally with good synergy with Spark.
Abilities(3):
Nocturnal Advantage *3
Awesome ability, mostly to bypass hidden, stealth and weapons, but the +1 global amp is good too
Artifacts (9):
Shard of Power *3
Global amp.
Meat Wagon *3
Pseudo global amp.
Loom of Fate *3
Used to manipulate Meat Wagon, but the draw is nice too.
Total Cards: 29 + Hero (you only need 30 to play against the AI)
Total Cost: 4050g or 3150g + 100 SC Elemental Starter Deck
Resource Breakdown:
1cc *16 cards
2cc *4 cards
3cc *9 cards
Cost Breakdown:
19 cards at 100g
7 cards at 150g
3 cards at 300g
1 card at 200g
Alternate Version - Only if you got multiple shadow starter decks:
+2 Fire Snake
-2 Rotling
Temporary versions:
When you first start out even this deck probably looks kinda pricey. So, when you are messing around with the initial incarnations of your farming deck you might want to aim for the following build before the version above:
-3 Meat Wagon
-3 Loom of Fate
+3 Bazaar
+2 Bloodlust
+1 Nocturnal Advantage
Total Cost: 3220g or 2120g + 100 SC Elemental Starter Deck
Notice how none of the cards in the temp and final version of the deck are ones that you won't want. Good investment, huh?
When you start out you will not have the right mix of allies, just take the cheapest 17 shadow or neutral allies you have in terms of CC and go to work. I recommend that you get 4 sparks and 4 flares as soon as you can (swapping them for the most expensive CC allies you have), then set up the temporary version of the support cards, then get the missing allies, then the final version of the support cards. And then you stand as a god before the AI.
Technically, the temporary version is a DP deck. Obviously, it isn't as consistent as the final SF version, or what I was actually using during DP (comes real close), and it is better than what we were running around with during the pure CotC days and most importantly this build is insanely cheaper and can still stand up to pretty much any hero you throw at it. Essentially, the temporary version is the absolute cheapest you can make a Zaladar Farming deck, and the Final SF version is the strongest you can make it ignoring any future LL and beyond cards.
CHART to help with temp versions.
Playstyle:
The basic premise is to weenie rush and just go for the hero ignoring allies except the ones that are annoying (like Jasmine). The Fire Snakes and the Rotlings are the least useful of the allies - don't underestimate the Hellsteeds. Kinda goes without saying that you want to play Flare after a Spark is already out.
You want to aim for 3 resources, and then after that only sacrifice excess artifacts.
You want at least 3 allies out before you play a global amp.
It's preferable to use Shard of Power before the other global amps.
Try to hold on to Nocturnal Advantage until they use a weapon or Into the Forest.
Technically, you only need 3 allies to win, though chances are good you will end up with more.
You will virtually always end up with more than 3 resources since there are nine artifacts and this is handy for using Loom of Fate. Loom of Fate isn't really included for draw (which is nice) rather for its interaction with Meat Wagon. Since you have 17 out of 29 cards that are allies you have about a 60% chance or better of having an ally on top with Meat Wagon out, and if you don't Loom of Fate has the same chance of pulling one up for you. I really love the Meat Wagon + Loom of Fate synergy.
Difficulty, ranked hardest to easist:
Boris
*Amber
*Serena
Eldawen
Gwenneth
*Victor
Nishaven
Zhanna
*Lance
*Jericho
Caveat:
The heroes marked with a * are speculation, based on my experience with the C.o.t.C. and D.P. versions of this deck and some of the heroes I haven't faced since C.o.t.C. And just because they are marked as being more difficult you don't need to fear them, they just tend to take a little longer that is all (except Boris who might last a lot longer depending on how lucky the AI is). Just so you know there is only one card that beats this deck and it has to be backed up with specific cards. Yep, a single card and it isn't even carried by the hardest of heroes to go up against. The card is Ice Storm. Only priests carry it and they have to get damn lucky and back it up. T3 Ice Storm followed by T4 Wizent's Staff and then T5 Tidal Wave will possibly kill you, possibly, maybe. It will become a hard match regardless. The thing is is they need those three cards on those turns and it's not like the AI is running around with tuned priest decks, it is a rare string of plays. I don't remember losing with the current version, but I have been hit with that same combo in previous incarnations of this deck and it hurts. Without that combo priests are really easy. The other cheap AoE spells like Arcane Burst and Lightning Strike happen a turn too late (T4) to give the AI much hope. Like all the Zaladar farming decks ever posted it doesn't really matter which hero you face off against, I'd avoid Boris because he has the potential to make the match rather long.
Changes from my D.P. and S.F. beta versions:
Bad Santa was dropped in favor of Loom of Fate because they were esentially filling the same role and Loom of Fate is cheaper at 1cc and has staying power.
I dropped the Frostmares and went back to a mix of allies closer to the D.P. version because I found that it was preferable to have three more 1cc allies over 3 hasted ones because it worked more consistantly with Loom of Fate in the games where you had 4-5 resources. Ironically the hasted 2cc allies ended up slowing this deck down.
I changed the ratio of Fire Snake and Rotling to 2:3 (from 1:4) because in the starter deck you get 2 Fire Snakes and I only ever rarely got to use Rotling's ability.
You can check out the versions of this kind of deck from earlier expansions HERE.
Update:
So I've had a lot of time to test this and at first I wondered if it was slower that my DP version because of the difference between Bloodlust and Meatwagon, still can't tell after months and months of play if it is or not. It is I have noticed more consistent - virtually all matches take 5-6 turns going first or 4-5 going second depending on which Hero you are facing. Also it recovers really well against board wipes (the DP version required the lucky draw of a Bad Santa to pull it off). Loom of Fate I have found to have another purpose than what I mentioned when I originally posted - it comes in really handy if you got a bunch of bad draws. Fun thing about this deck it has has a stronger advantage going second over going first VS the AI because of Zaladar's ability. Go second and win a turn earlier, gotta love it.
Regarding farming decks:
All things considered this deck's value will decrease for you over time. Starting from the time you can afford your first starter deck till you can make a competition deck you are happy with is basically the only time when having a deck like this is the most helpful, after that it just becomes little more than a handy tool. I've recommended these kind of builds to all my friends I've introduced to this game. Only one still uses them regularly, guess who the newest player among my friends is ... and he shouldn't be using it at all because he has an extensive MtG background. I have another friend that refuses to use this deck and ONLY plays the AI. Over two years at this ... well, he is perfectly content throwing together random stuff and playing the AI. Weirdos.
So people when they start out want to know the "best" way to earn gold. This is not the best way (the other thing farming is referred to is grinding for a reason), it is the fastest way to earn gold (if you don't have the time to really compete in Meltdown) - the games are just so much quicker and you will win 99.9% of the time once you have the final build. The best way to earn gold when you start is probably Meltdown, you don't need a library and you are exposed to a huge array of cards. The catch with Meltdown is that you have to build a deck each time so the games take longer than the other formats. The most satisfying way to earn gold when you start is plain old ranked matches. Sure, at my level they are satisfying but nothing like first starting out when you say hit 200 for the first time and then every five levels over seemed like a massive accomplishment. So yeah, this deck only exists for quick and dirty farming when you need or want gold as soon as possible.
Hope this little guide helps.
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