Buqs [SF] Frankenstein's Castle (Shadow Homunculus Guide)

[Buqs]

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INTRO:


FROM SHADOWERA WIKI:

Homunculus is a tribe of allies in Shadow Era. They were introduced in Dark Prophecies, with further support in Shattered Fates. This type of ally are made up of creatures which have been artificially created by their specific faction (they have members on both the Human and Shadow sides). They seem to have a wide range of effects, some involving the graveyard, attachments, and attack/health increasing.

As I look over the tribe in general and read the wiki about what the tribe is, I can't help but think of the Frankenstein monster. Essentially the tribe is using "pieces" from your hand and "parts" from graveyards to grow your allies. So far the tribe revolves on discarding from the hand and exiling from any graveyards to manipulate the board and receive 1 or more bonuses from doing so. The decks are more than likely going to be ally heavy and very reliant on items and attachments specifically, with a splash of support abilities here and there. Due to the potential heavy use of items to fuel the tribe flavor, I can't imagine there would be extra room for weapons to accompany the builds, so I think weapon based heroes are not going to pair as effectively. Originally during my PFG theorycrafting, I though the tribe should focus more on 1-2 elemental combat types, but having access to all the different types really makes me appreciate the Frankenstein approach of the tribe much more.

Draw for the Homunculus Tribe is going to be very important. While you have the ability to play with cards both from your hand and graveyards, these spots can often become very bare very quick minimizing the potential of the tribe. The shadow side of this tribe has an overall low cost being filled with a variety of allies with costs between 1-4cc. This is good because it can help keep your resources low while still being able to combo cards. This also opens opportunities for cards with cost for drawing to be very playable (Tok, Anti-matter). This would also mean future allies could have cost abilities (like Keldore/Death Collector) and not necessarily lose out on combo play opportunities.

Tribe should have some general strength against Discard, Recursion, Rush, while being generally weak to Item D, Wulven.

Usually all of my decks are very ally heavy so I'm naturally drawn to this tribe and I'm excited to see how they will "grow" with future sets.

[Buqs]

ALLIES:

Rotling (1cc - 1/1) When Rotling is summoned, you may exile (remove from the game) target ally in a graveyard and Rotling gains +1 base attack and +1 health.
Notes: Not a super useful ally, but not a complete waste either. Has a cheap cost to potentially get a 2/2 creature but by the time this portion of his ability kicks in a 2/2 ally is not very good anymore. He is not very flexible so you really want to play him turn 1 or use him as food to grow another ally that is more than likely to survive. He could have some potential as in a haste build as he would be extremely cost effective. Also good for shutting down ally recursion decks.
Favorable Pairing: rapid ally growth

Plightbred Runt (1cc - 1/1) {ice} When Plightbred Runt is discarded from anywhere, all friendly allies gain +1 health and all friendly Homunculus allies gain +1 base attack.
Notes: Much more favorable 1cc ally than runt. while he cant boost himself being able to boost several allies is a really nice growth option for the tribe. With Mages he can be comboed with Ab Factory and Splicers Crown for max efficiency. The overall tribe growth pattern is very combo oriented and runt helps to consolidate and spread some growth to all available allies.
Favorable Pairing: Ab Factory, Living Armor, Anti-Matter, Falsblood Cultist

Rapacious Vermin (2cc - 1/5) Sustain: 1HP. When Rapacious Vermin is summoned while an opposing player controls at least 3 items and/or abilities, target item controlled by that player is destroyed and Rapacious Vermin gains +1 base attack and +1 health.
Notes: he's got great 2cc stats but the 1hp sustain is hard to swallow. This means you'll possibly want to consider using him in decks capable of healing to recoup some of the loss hp. His item D ability is nice, but typically only decks running 3+ different items/abilities are going to be Aramia, Warriors, Trap Hunters, Homunculus Decks, Ravager Decks, Solo(semi) decks
Favorable Pairing: Sac Lamb, Conversion, basically any self-ally removal, healing, Transmogrification Curse

Fatebreak Familiar [Mage] (2cc - 2/3) {fire} When an opposing player summons an ability with cost 2 or less, that ability has no effect and Fatebreak Familiar is killed.
Notes: a great alternative to using an ally vs stoneskin for your deck. Allies create food for the tribe, and the partial ability block acts like a protector to your other guys. Fatebreak can protect against cards like retreat, CB, NYRM, glimmer of hope, etc.
Favorable Pairing: none he's the complimentary piece

Voracious Arachnid (3cc - 1/5) {ice} When an ally is killed, Voracious Arachnid gains +1 base attack. 1SE: Target opposing ally with cost less than Voracious Arachnid's current attack is killed.
Notes: this is the most wanted for the tribe. He's the critical important turn 3 ally and only one that can be "played" onto a board. You can combo up a turn 2 ab fac, 3 VA + discard runt to make VA 3/7. As his attack grows he can begin to use his ability to target higher costing allies so rapid growth is critical to making him a threat.
Favorable Pairing: Bloodthirsty, Splicers Crown, Elementalis, Raikka, discarded Runt, permanent stat boosters, anything that kills allies

Brimstone Devourer (3cc - 2/4) {fire} When Brimstone Devourer is discarded from anywhere, the opposing hero or ally with the lowest health takes 3 fire damage.
Notes: This guy is an ally but his main purpose is to be discarded, with an emergency use of actually being used as an ally. Brimstone's discard ability is considered a pseudo spell and will not be considered a ability card for the purposes of Evolving Abomination.
Favorable Pairing: Abomination Factory, Living Armor, Falseblood Cultist (non-homunculus), Arthyles Crypt, Evolving Abomination (item discard)

Evolving Abomination [Mage] (3cc - 2/3) At the end of each of your turns, Evolving Abomination gains +1 base attack if no allies were summoned that turn and +1 health if no abilities were summoned that turn.
Notes: He will typically be summoned as a 2/4 ally early in the game, and later in the game its possible for him to only be a 2/3. Only Gravebone has the potential to put him into play as a 3/4 when revived and not playing any allies/abilities, which is generally not a optimal play. Evolving Abomination has some really good growth potential, but it is hard to control because you are still having to react to what your opponent does causing the growth pattern to be somewhat chaotic/random.
Favorable Pairing: Items, Ab Fact, Splicers Crown, discarded runt

Gravemonger (4cc - 4/4) {ice} When Gravemonger is summoned while there are at least 6 cards in your graveyard, you may exile target card in your graveyard and Gravemonger gains +2 base attack and +2 health.
Notes: he's just a beast from the hand when his ability kicks in. The problem is the tribe in general will be feeding from your own graveyard so it's possible that you push his summon advantage further and further out, especially because you have to plow through severL uses of durability on the tribe items too. Luckily as more card with discard function and advantages from being discarded are added, you can increase the odds of having your card count ready on a more consistent basis.
Favorable Pairing: Ab Fact, Runt, Devourer, Piraxix, Falseblood Cultist

Thunderstone Golem [Mage] (4cc - 3/5) {electric} Once per turn, when a hero deals electrical damage, Thunderstone Golem gains +1 base attack and +1 health. Thunderstone Golem has immunity to electrical damage.
Notes: not a bad ally ally at all, but not a lot of hero electric options to trigger ability. He will probably pair best with a discard build using shock conductor and a steady discard option. He's also a good tech card in a Zaladar heavy meta. Not a bad ally for GB to revive as he can be timed with LS or other form of electric damage
Favorable Pairing: Lightning Strike, Static Shock, Violet Thunderstorm, Shock Conductor, ally growth

ABILITIES:

N/A

ITEMS:

Abomination Factory [Mage] (2cc/3d) 1 Durability: Target ally in your hand is discarded. Target Homunculus ally gains +1 base attack and +1 health.
Notes: for Mages this is the only attack booster to the class. This can be combined with Plightbred runt for accelerated growth or brimstone devourer for growth/ability damage. As more discard abilities become available this only increases in value.
Favorable Pairing: discard plightbred runt, brimstone Devourer, growth Voracious Arachnid, Thunderstorm Golem (Mages), Evolving Abomination (Mages), Gravemongerer

ARMORS:

Splicer's Crown (2cc - 1/3) 1 Durability: Target ally in a graveyard is exiled: Target friendly Homunculus ally gains +1 base attack and +1 health.
Notes: this armor allows you to focus your growth feeding ground into your opponents graveyard. Also good because you can break up opponent Recursion decks by removing their options to Frankenstein your allies up. It's nice this is an armor, but really I wish it was just an item so opponents couldn't beat down the durability.
Favorable Pairing: allies, opponents with allies

Living Armor [Mage/Elemental] (6cc - 4/4) {electric} 0SE: Target card in your hand is discarded: Living Armor becomes a readied Homunculus ally that deals electrical combat damage, with base attack equal to its defense and health equal to its durability.
Notes: the ally with the highest haste attack power combination. It comes at a steep price of 6cc + discard, but the versatility of the card more than makes up for the cost. The armor alone is great reducing 4 combat damage. You can also time this card properly with card that want to be discarded to maximize the discard cost function.
Favorable Pairing: Runt, Devourer, ally growth

WEAPONS:

N/A

[Buqs]

Currently Homunculus are going to pair LOOSLY with the following classes/heroes. There's not quite enough Homunculus stuff to make them competitive, but show some of the foundation work and future potential:

Warriors - warriors have access to a good draw engine (BF) and have access to some good attack boosters in War Banner and KP, and some cheap control with CB. Logan's ability is not really good to build around as a fall back, but both Ter Adun and Vess have potential use for their normal ability and with Vorachid Arachnid ability as an outlet. Not very good balance with tribe at the moment but because the warrior pool is favorable to the homunculus growth there's a good chance they could pair together. Vess probably will have best opportunity in an attachment based build revolving around confluence of fate. There are tons of potential attachments available and this style will only increase as more attachments become available. Mocking Armor is also an available option to help protect your investment in allies. Spectral Saber will be a useful negative attachment removal, but Vess may opt for Shriek of Revultion.

Mages - there's clearly a focus for Mages with the homunculus tribe. theres a specific intention for the mages to revolve around Abomination Factory to be the attack booster for the tribe. This can be paired up with Plightbred Runt to speed up the growth at a very good rate, and with brimstone Devourer as an alt DD source, with both being discard options and future food while in the graveyard. While there are an abundance of allies available to the mages, there are quite a few that are generally included specifically to be discarded (runt/Devourer). Finding the balance between playing these allies vs discarding them can be quite challenging. Splicers crown adds a nice secondary growth feature to compliment abomination factory to accelerate growth, especially combined with abomination factory and Plightbred runt. Living Armor is an excellent multiple use card for mages as well, providing good armor, a discard feature and a Hasted homunculus ally option. The Mage card pool is not really favorable to the growth of the tribe, but because a lot of the allies are cheap, you can combo them in safely with use of a lot of the ability cards (fireball, LS, nova, etc), and draw frequently with Tome of Knowledge. Portal may become a future interesting option as there are a few high attack allies (Rotling/Gravemongerer), but it all depends on what becomes available to assist growing conditions of the remainder of the tribe, while not being "to much stuff". Stoneskin and Fatebreak Familiar are 2 good options to protect your grown ally investment. Consuming fear is a cheap control option reducing the damage of opposing allies while you attempt to grow your own. Wand of Izikius could be interesting in helping to keep the board. Usually if you lose the board your having to start all over again and wand can help to convert som addition threats to aid with the board and even provide an outlet for extra items. Dagger of fate can be a good option as well since there will be potentially a lot of discarding shenanigans. Raikka should pair nicely with the tribe. While her ability is nothing permanent it's quick enough put opposing allies into kill range fairly regularly, and also to help stall while growing your monsters. Majiyas got the damage and draw which is always going to be complimentary. Gravebone is tricky when I think about it. He's got tons of potential in a variety of ways. He will be able to regain a lost board the easiest with the nova + revive combo, but there just no good allies to justify using his ability on. You could argue for reviving and buffing arachnid prior to casting nova much like people did with oggy, but you make him very fragile to haste, weapon and ping damage in the process. GB could pose to use his SE ability as an alternative, maybe combo with sac lamb for draw? Or some other potential SE outlet. Additionally GB has a general weakness to playing items in lieu of allies to help keep damage off him, which is almost essential for the success of the tribe. The tribe does have access to 1cc allies and can get revived ally turn earlier with a discard so there still some potential even with items, especially abomination factory. And last, the tribe in general want to feed on ALL graveyards, which is where GBs ability is most effective, potentially you could assist filling the graveyard with Dakraths ability but there's needs to be more allies with discard abilities. There's still potential with GB though, it just depends on what becomes available to him moving forward.

Elementals - the Elementals have a good card pool for the homunculus tribe being filled with attack boosters, attachments, attachment manipulation, ally protection, discard, recycling and board wipe options. Anti-Matter is a great draw engine for this tribe, providing draw and discard function. Shard of Power is a nice attack booster for the tribe, but without haste access the health reduction to 1 max is hard to get around. Superfocus is another good option. Its a nice temporary solution to helps to get around negative attachments, which will problematic for the tribe, while giving a nice boost to attack, and helping maintain the board. Living Armor is a great card for its multi-use options, armor, discard and hasted (only tribe option) ally. In addition to being able to fill the graveyard for use, the tribe has lots off access to recycling potential to accompany any mass discarding (mimic, infinity core, Ghostmaker). Breast of vitality and breastplate armor could make an appearance in some decks. While they dont increase attack, the additional HP can be enough to help allies survive a turn. Elementalis usually is an ally heavy build and his ability has a quick charge and helps to grow the allies at an accelerated pace compared to other heroes. He typically will focus on the growth aspect of the tribe which will probably minimize the discard function of the tribe. He can be used in a item, attachment or possibly combined theme as they can all have favorable outcomes. He would be the most likely (not necessarily) elemental hero to use cards such as morphic armor, mocking armor, stardust amplifier and conversion. Exaltation could be interesting, the cost is high but the many low cost allies can make this combo a bit easier to pull off. Energy discharge could be a really good card. Often grown allies will become targets for negative attachments, but also the low cost of the tribe make pulling this combo off fairly cost effective. Piraxix has a discard focused ability so naturally having a few discard options in the deck are going to play favorably for him. What will be unfavorable is losing an ally like Arachnid or Gravemongerer to the discard when you wanted to play them on the board, and then pulling the discard allies to your hand instead. Taking advantage of the discard portion of his ability you can gain some additional benefits from cards like Dagger of Fate, Shock Conductor, Prismatic Field, and non-tribal card Reactorary. Metamorphic Vest could help compliment both Dagger of Fate as well as Splicers Crown in some cases. Since Piraxix and the tribe both have discard focuses Reverberate could also make some appearances. Zaladar is pretty good at everything. For him I think it's more about cutting the options down and finding the desired focus.


**NOTE: I dont think that current set dictates what the future holds, but I think the following will not be likely pairing with Homunculus moving forward without some real focus.**

Logan - see warriors above.

Rothem - His ability works with allies but I think having to include weapons reduces chances of effectiveness.

Hunter - The general lack of attack boost makes this an unfavorable pairing. There's nothing specific to this tribe that would help the homunculus tribe excel. There's still potential with the class, specifically Banebow and Skervox as their abilities help with keeping the board under control, and there's still a lot available to the shadow faction to build around. The class really only has surprise attack attachment and potentially guilders double. Baduruu sounds interesting in a Res D ally growth build, but I think it involves too much stuff to actually work. Keep in mind Mages didn't have a lot to offer either before Abomination Factory was added.

Wulven - like warriors there's some attack modifiers and control tool available to the class, though in limited quantities as most are geared toward the Wulven tribe. Captured Prey, NYRM and Spectral Saber are the useful class cards, but I think mostly they end up in similar boat to Hunter in that they currently have to rely on Shadow Faction cards to fill a deck. Moonstalker has the best opportunity to shine from this class as his ability can help protect the allies while building the momentum. Keep in mind Mages didn't have a lot to offer either before Abomination Factory was added.

[Buqs]

SHADOW HOMUNCULUS OPTIONS

Here be Monsters - names says it all, but could be good supplemental draw combo card. Allies are cheap and you can typically say fairly low on resources.

Bloodlust - this is only a temp boost to attack but it's very cost effective and you may find you have several allies on the board since they are in general low in cost.

Bloodstone Altar - since the tribe is stat growth related, it will not be unusual for your allies to require multiple hits to be taken down

Melt Down - good for item based deck. Usually if you lose a board, you may be hand starved and can convert now useless items into card advantage.

Nocturnal Advantage - this can be good to help assist with stealth deck. Currently no ability damage available to the tribe other than brimstone Devourer and he can be hard to time properly.

Ascendant of the Horde - lots of low cost allies can be protected like gargoyles

Arthyle's Crypt - can be combined with loom of fate and specific discard (ab factory) for a pretty good recycled use. The tribe has ways to manipulate the graveyard, so buried loops can be reinserted for consistency. Also works well with meat wagon to put ally on top of graveyard so you can gain attack bonus

Scythe of Fate - as more discard options become available to the tribe this could get an increase in value

Shriek of Revulsion - you'll be wanting to protect your growth investment on your allies so sac lambing them will be less favorable than removing negative attachments.

The Harder They Fall - low cost low base attack allies are plentiful to the tribe

Meat Wagon - tribe will probably be ally heavy based so this can be very useful. If your playing with AC this gets a good boost

Loom of Fate - low cost item and draw so can combo fairly easily

Crystal Shards - draw + discard, increased value with more discard options

Overwhelm - lots of cheap allies available to tribe

Gold Laced Shield - not likely to be used, but has potential

---

Confluence of Fate - there's actually a pretty decent amount of good attachments to make an attachment based homonculous tribe deck from, so COF gets a boost anytime these type of attachments get added.

Mindless Ferocity - nice +2 attack boost. Some of the allies abilities are on summon only so they don't lose anything after in play.

Bloodthirsty - growing attack + draw is perfect for this tribe

Aura of Retribution - allies can get high in health so it's likely to be able to trigger effects from aura. Still this pairs more favorably with Ambush which is not readily available to shadow

Flesh Infusion - this is rapid growth for attachment based decks. You'll need to play with CoF to gain drawing since you'll be investing a lot into 1 ally

Blackened Heart - a way to protect your grown ally investment from SE

Assumed Command - a way to protect your (and other) allies from cards like retreat, DoU, DWraith, synchronicity, etc

Mark of the Feared - dual use for the tribe, either to weaken opposing allies for kills or to strengthen your friendlies


SHADOW NON-HOMUNCULUS ALLY OPTIONS

Carniboar, Death Collector, Io Void Leviathan, Olgoth - all would be great homunculus allies since they all have growth feature abilities. They can certainly make some appearances in any homunculus deck.

Rampant Krygon - his ability can be used on friendly allies to Frankenstein them up. Trade health for attack, no problem

Falseblood Cultist - discard + draw and even get a body on the board. Used properly can be very advantageous

Dakrath - king of the undead??, well his built in discard feature could translate to a plethora of discarded advantage to you. His cost makes this very unlikely, but GB and possibly Elemental Ghostmaker decks could find a way make him useful

Dark Flayer, Cobra Demon - defender is a good ability to have for the homunculus tribe. If you can translate accelerated attack growth (and hp for DF) with defender, your opponent will have to look to abilities to be able to remove your allies.

Chimera - anything helping to raise his stats, especially quickly, puts him in favorable territory

[Shadows R Us]

Wow. A lot to read, I'm going to have to go back a couple of times.

Thanks for putting this together.

[Buqs]

And just for fun here my GB homunculus deck I used for testing. Probably better with out thrunder golem (fireball for LS) but no real alternatives for fatty for testing.


Gravebone x1

Plightbred Runt x4
Fatebreak Familiar x4
Voracious Arachnid x4
Evolving Abomination x4
Thunderstorm Golem x4
Falseblood Cultist x4

Lightning Strike x4
Bloodthirsty x2
Tome of Knowledge x4
Abomination Factory x4
Splicers Crown x2

Surprisingly this tribe is actually currently playable with Gravebone. Basically you want to grow Voracious Arachnid and Evolving Abomination as fast as possible. Runt is food (growth accelerant) not an ally.

Again this was only lightly test and just so I had a basis to talk from for the guide. But it's still fun and interesting way to play

[Veles]

Woot, another epic buqs guide!

[Buqs]

Thanks veles

Just so everyone knows....I've no plans to do the humans (any tribe). I just don't use them so...

Next up is Wulven tribe

[ipoop245]

I think Evolving Abomination is the most mediocre 3cc Homunculus ally , it cannot grow as fast as AW , even when it's grown to a reasonable stat , VA out preform it with the instant kill ability . The only advantage it has is that your opponent has to think twice before crippling blow/captured prey it as a Sever Ties can mean a lot of damage to the face , but that's it .

I believe giving EA a small boost on base stat will make it competitble with other 3cc Homunculus

[rogue117]

Would you continue to write the guide with Human faction?