[SF] Lance - Live and Die by the Blade III

[Daemon Rayge]

I guess you could call this the third incarnation of my Lance Deck. Decided to go back to the traditional route with IGG for a consistent draw engine and forego the previous route I had of relying solely on cantrips and burst. I also geared the Deck less on comboing with Irina and just made it more of a bonus type of thing, rather than core.

Allies:20
4 Skilled Ironmonger
3 Jasmine Rosecult
3 Zailen Crusader
2 Aeon Stormcaller
2 Aldon the Brave
2 Thunderstrike Construct
2 Irina, Guardian of the Swan
2 Eriss Fateweaver

Abilities:12
4 Backstab
3 Garth's Concoction
3 Stop, Thief!
2 The Bigger They Are

Artifacts:4
4 Ill-Gotten Gains

Weapons:4
4 Anklebreaker

Size: 40 cards + Hero

Skilled Ironmonger is there because it is Puwen - Premium Deluxe Version For Rogues only. The nice little gimmick of adding on one durability to Anklebreaker could possibly make or break a game. Although it is rare, but it could happen. The 2 attack is also nice as it adds a little more aggression in the early game compared to using Nightshade. He also has 3 HP meaning he has slightly greater survivability in certain specific scenarios.

I am using Thunderstrike Construct over Raven as Thunderstrike does have an immediate impact when summoned, even without Haste. With Lance ability, it is 5 total damage you can throw onto the board. The drawbacks to this though is it cannot deal with cards like Sandworm or SK Loop as well as Raven can. Also, it is Unique unlike Raven so you can only have out one at a time. This has only been an issue in a few very specific cases so far.

Irina because she is a total beast with Lance. Especially if you go T3 Crusader, T4 Irina to Lance Ability to Backstab.

Eriss is my endgame beater. She is also my anti-attachment Tech. She has won games for me by herself, especially against Warriors. "Crippling Blow? Nope. Enrage? Here take 10 damage. Blood Frenzy? Take this chill pill please."

Backstab because it is probably one of the best new Rogue cards from SF. +2 attack, Ambush, and a cantrip draw that can be casted for free with Crusader? What more could you ask for? This card allows you to get that little extra "oomph" you need when trying to take down an ally or going for the throat for game.

Garth's Concoction is a card I am really starting to like. It pretty much is a Fireball, dealing a total of 4 damage. 3 damage right away and 1 damage from the poison during the start of their turn. The fact that you can also use Lance's ability and then cast this afterwards is quite strong as well. Casting this to take out an ally and then Hasting in whatever to take out another allows you to keep the board under good control, once you have it.

The Bigger They Are is my substitute for Assassination. Yes, Assassination costs 1cc less, but it requires an unexhausted, un-frozen, un-disabled ally. With this, you can Summon an ally and then immediately cast it. The second aspect I am using this is because the ally does not need to be exhausted after casting. This allows for me to maintain some aggression on the board while being able to take down that beefy threat. Although you do have to time this right, as it can affect your own allies as well. However, given that I normally only use this for 6 HP or higher allies, it doesn't affect me much seeing as I only have 3 allies that are a 6HP or higher.

I am using Anklebreaker over Cutlass as I feel Lance just cannot use it effectively as Serena and Garth, seeing as he cannot buff the damage he deals with it, requiring other damage sources, and the fact his board control relies more on allies compared to Serena and Garth IMO. Although I might try Cutlass sometime soon.

Things I want to try are Gaderi Reaver, Knight of Unaxio, Midnight Sentinel, Cutlass (As previously mentioned), and maybe throw in a single Viska in there.

[segalion]

Think that you should drop zailen. You only have 4 attachments in the deck so it seems rather pointless to use her in this deck just for backstab
Also think that using thunderstrike in the build is not good since he has no other homunculus to buff
Think that knight of unaxio is better here as you can buff him very fast
You may also consider strength of conviction and the final florish. The first might replace some of your backstab. It lacks the draw but is permanent and buffs zailen to a 4/4. The latter can replace the bigger they are. Although it requires killing your ally it cost only 1 and kills any ally you want.

[Daemon Rayge]

Think that you should drop zailen. You only have 4 attachments in the deck so it seems rather pointless to use her in this deck just for backstab
Also think that using thunderstrike in the build is not good since he has no other homunculus to buff
Think that knight of unaxio is better here as you can buff him very fast
You may also consider strength of conviction and the final florish. The first might replace some of your backstab. It lacks the draw but is permanent and buffs zailen to a 4/4. The latter can replace the bigger they are. Although it requires killing your ally it cost only 1 and kills any ally you want.

People run Crusader in Victor just to combo with Gambit. So I see no issue there. I also use Thunderstrike for his on-summon effect, rather than the buffing.

Strength of Conviction, although permament, also does not provide me with Ambush and the cantrip draw, so it has far less utility than the former. With Crusader out, it acts as a free extra card which can make or break a game by allowing you to draw into a game winning crd. Also, Final Flourish only deals 3 flat damage to the ally, which I already can do with Concoction. 2cc more, but serves the same purpose.

[bobrossw]

People run Crusader in Victor just to combo with Gambit. So I see no issue there. I also use Thunderstrike for his on-summon effect, rather than the buffing.

Right, but Gambit in a victor deck is amazing, and with victor's ability, it gets recycled...so it's more like a deck with 8 attachments. Crusader is a good card, but it's only as good as the combos. Otherwise it's just a 3/3, which is actually sort of bad, by itself (not really survivable at all). If you really want to make crusader worthwhile in a thief deck, you may consider adding in coercion. If you want to make backstab worthwhile, you may consider adding zealous mystic (combo them together - so you get one ally to attack with backstab, then mystic drops and steals backstab, and you get a free hasted bonus attack). Or other things that combo with it.

regarding thunderstrike construct - I haven't done this, but it seems like it would combo pretty nicely with fortified wisp, which also goes nicely with garth, and aetherborn wisp, which also fits nicely into a garth deck (if you're using other cards to cause discard). If you're going to put it in, it may be worth it to get all of that synergy in there - which may require you take out other less-useful cards like crusader.

So you see what I'm getting at, there are different themes that you could be focusing on more strongly, that would give you more strategic options in a deck. Focusing on one or two themes, will generally make a deck stronger. Just putting in cards, or two card combos because they're good, is fine, but the best/ most fun decks have various two to three card combos that give you varied options, regardless of how lucky your draws are.

[Daemon Rayge]

Crusader is a 2/4 bro

[Rivozzz]

Eriss,is a he or a she?

[bobrossw]

Crusader is a 2/4 bro

woops,, my bad - still mediocre if you're not using the ability. It's competing with other 3cc guys and there are a lot of very solid choices for that slot.

[Daemon Rayge]

Eriss,is a he or a she?

A she. The DT probably derived her name from Eris, the Greek goddess of chaos.

[Rivozzz]

Just wanted to say Garth coconn, jut doesnt work with lance, it kills light allies but all fatties will be either resistant or will live at least 1 or 2 turns post it. and you dont wanna see a fattie live that long time, he must be killed immidate

If you have
assiassain + bigger they are that will be a killing machine