Planning a Boris deck (beginner)

[Sulaco]

I've worked on this deck quite a bit after receiving plenty of advice, especially thanks to tman507, JUSTICAR, Flamebringer, and everyone else. Here's where I'm at now.

Boris Skullcrusher
Total: 47 cards + Boris (deck)

Allies: 25
3x Champion of Irum
3x Jasmine Rosecult
3x Aldon the Brave
3x Priest of the Light
3x Fleet-footed Messenger
4x Yari Spearman
2x Armored Sandworm
3x Braxnorian Soldier
1x Gunther, General of Balor

Abilities/Items: 18
4x Crippling Blow
4x Blood Frenzy
4x Retreat!
3x Smashing Blow
4x Blood Frenzy
1x Enrage
2x The Last Harvest

Weapons/Armors: 4
2x The King's Pride
2x Dragon's Tooth

Subtracted: - 3x Puwen Bloodhelm, -1x Armored Sandworm, -1x The Last Harvest. -1x Enrage.
Added: +3x Fleet-footed Messenger, +3x Champion of Irum, +4x Yari Spearman, +2x Retreat!, +2x Crippling Blow, +2x Smashing Blow, +2x Dragon's Tooth and +1x Gunther, General of Balor (a reward card, why not!).

BF and FFM help Draw; JR, PotL; SB, CB, and R! help control the board; CoI gives me an early Ally that can be a threat mid/late game with buffs; Spearman gives me protection to build behind if/when I lose board control; AtB, LH and KP provide multiple buffs; LH gives me options if I don't have an ally to cast; and DT and Boris's ability allow me to deal with any ally in the game. By turn 3 I can cast 19 of my allies and use nearly all of my Abilities or Items, with 6 big Allies and 4 Weapons/Armors for mid/late game.

This isn't a slim deck and while I wanted to keep it under 40 originally, in QM (where I play mostly) I'm facing decks around 50-60 cards regularly, if not more (stupid towers!), and realistically I'm not going into any tournaments. My draw could be better, I don't have Allies that are too scary on their own, and there aren't any crazy combos that provide an instant win, but for the most part, I have fun playing with it, and it gives me at least a chance to win most of the time. Obviously I think this is an improvement from the last version.

A few tweaks I've thought about: Adding Bad Santa or Tainted Oracle for draw; Adding Killing Spree (to use with DT); Swapping an Aeon Stormcaller for 1x Yari Spearman; Swapping Viska, The Scarlet Blade for Armored Sandworm.

Any thoughts on those changes, or any other recommendations for improving draw or improving the deck overall? Thanks in advance.

[oggtheman]

Heya! You need 40 cards to play against real players! If you are AI grinding_ I recommended,
1x zaldadar
4x fire snake
4x hellsteed
4x spark
4x flare
4x bloodlust
4x shard of power
4x rotling
1x sliver of shadow

[oggtheman]

Jewelers dream is great! You have spotted many good cards and added them, so well done! I would add 2x tainted oracle and 3x jewelers dream so you can play qm. A decent, solid deck IMO! Well done and welcome to forums!

[tman507]

Interesting that aside from The Last Harvest there are no Shattered Fates cards in here. Main one that I would put in would be Yari Bladedancer instead of Puwen, same stats but with an awesome ability, Puwen has gotten replaced from a couple of classes in SF. Bladedancer can also help in your theme of buffing up allies.

Tainted Oracle would be a good addition, the generally accepted theory is to use 6-8 draw cards, right now you just have 4 with Blood Frenzy, and if you don't draw that you can be in trouble, so TO is a good addition I'd say (provides another body too).

I tend to find that Enrage is fine at 1, 2 just sometimes winds up as a dead draw, many times it's just a "win more" kind of card.

+2 Crippling Blow is pretty important, also these can combo well with another SF ally you could try in Yari Marksman for more control.

As for weapons, Dragon's Tooth is a handy one for Boris, as it helps him kill off those pesky high cost allies (Marksman can also help a bit in this). Spectral Sabre can also be handy if you find yourself having problems with attachments.

Some of these additions would probably cause it to go a bit more over 40 cards than you'd like though, so just try different things and see what you like best.

Overall looks relatively solid though.

[Sulaco]

@ oggtheman, Yeah, I know I need at least 40. Since this is my first go with Boris (and only my 2nd deck at all) I decided to just play with the starter deck and grind and see how I liked it, which has so far been a success. I agree that Tainted Oracle would be beneficial, I also like Jewelers Dream, so I may look to add that as well. What is the "QM" you're referring to?

@ tman507, Yeah, there are a few cards I like, Gaderi Reaver, Aetherborn Wisp, and Nathanias, but I feel like there's more "give and take" with those cards, perfect example is Twilight Ritualist, good card but it's ability kills it, and a number of cards seem to be "theme" based, so the benefit is in using many Yari or Twilight cards to gain the most advantage, at least that's my impression. I did spend time to look at all the available cards, so the one's that I picked both stood out, and made sense as a group to me.

I do agree that the Yari Bladedancer is a better card than Puwen, but it also cost 3 times as much, so I may start with Puwen and upgrade when I'm able to afford it.

The only reason I'd have more than 1x Enrage is just to make it more likely to draw, but I do see your point.

As for weapons, I thought about Dragon's Tooth but don't like it's high cost, but will definitely consider Spectral Sabre and Jewelers Dream. I've looked this up, and obviously there's no concrete answer, but how many Weapon cards would you recommend? Would 4 be overkill (maybe 2x JD and 2x SS)?

[oggtheman]

@sulaco
QM is the name given to quick match, which is available to play under challenge in the menu. This is a ladder, which, upon being good enough, you can try to win!

[tman507]

^Yes, QM is quick match, where you go up against other players, for that you need at least 39 cards + hero.

And yes, merchant cost of Bladedancer would definitely be the one downside of him for you at the moment. However, when it comes to "themes", Bladedancer and Marksman are two Yaris that don't actually need other Yaris, so they can fit right in in any warrior. But Puwen is definitely still fine if you want to save up that gold.

[Sulaco]

Ahh, yeah I've done quite a few of those actually (at least when there are people playing). I do like that Marksman... not sure what I'd remove to add them though. This is what I've been able to put together so far:

Boris Skullcrusher

Allies: 18
2x Kristoffer Wyld
3x Puwen Bloodhelm
3x Jasmine Rosecult
3x Priest of the Light
2x Kurt Whitehelm
3x Braxnorian Soldier
2x Armored Sandworm

Abilities/Items: 19
3x The Last Harvest
2x Crippling Blow
2x Valiant Defender
2x Retreat!
2x War Banner
4x Blood Frenzy
2x Smashing Blow
2x Enrage

Weapons/Armors: 4
2x Rusty Longsword
2x The King's Pride

Total: 41 + Boris
http://db.deckmill.com/#f01i59hia9ki...9XrKb0bxbUl4pJ

Eventually, I'll be swapping some cards out, like Puwen, Kurt, and Rusty Longsword for Aldon, Yari Bladedancer, Tainted Oracle, and Jeweler's Dream. For now it works pretty well, and the principal is the same. I've been able to get Kris up to a 5/5, and if I play my cards right (zing!) I can have several 7/7 cards.

The only issue I've had is that it's a little bit slower to develop, and if I'm not pulling decent cards, I could end up stuck in situations where the other player has developed cards and my Allies are killed right after I cast them. I'm looking for a card to perhaps counter that, similar to a Supernova or Lightning Strike. Does anything like that exist for Warriors? I know Shield Bash deals damage but that's not quite right.

[Flamebringer]

Warriors don't have any board wiping cards (Stuff like Tidal Wave or Supernova), nor any good direct damage cards (Mostly mage territory - like Fireball and Lightning Strike) if that's what you're asking.
Special Delivery can be used by any human (IIRC) - does direct damage, but it's not a great card TBH.

Warriors don't really do direct damage - Weapons and allies are what you want to focus on. As Boris in particular, I would say mostly allies. Maybe Dragon's Tooth or Spectral Sabre for weapons? The Tooth with Boris' ability means you can instakill absolutely anything. Which is great. Spectral Sabre is good if you're running into a lot of attachment using enemies - Playing as a warrior for a while should show you how painful losing a Blood Frenzy (for example) can be. Or if it's used on the right ally who's crippled (or boosted...) it can change the match. And of course, it can be used to do a bit of fast damage to save yourself or finish the enemy.


Sounds like you might be having trouble with direct damage... One thing that helps are fairly tough 3-CC allies. There are a few with 5 health out there - Based on a quick scan of my cards, Spirit Warden, Twilight Ritualist, Yari Shieldbearer and Midnight Sentinel all do. That 1 extra HP means a single fireball can't take them out, which has helped me more than a few times. Even if it just makes the enemy use two spells instead of one, that helps a lot.

The first three have the same stats, so (cost aside, I'm not sure what they go for :|) you have a choice of abilities if you want to do that. Shieldbearer's won't be a lot of use if you don't use a lot of other Yari, for example, while the other two might be useful in a number of decks against a number of opponents.

[JUSTICAR]

I suggest you add the following...

2x - Crippling Blow (great control card with low cost)
2x - Dragons Tooth (dont be discouraged with the high cost coz with this you could kill allies that Boris' ability couldnt reach)
3x - Aldon the Brave (so your turn 2 puwen could kill an opposing 3hp ally by turn 3... much better than last harvest or war banner as both the latter needs allies to be useful)
3x-4x - Yari Marksman (to help you with controlling the board)
2x - Aeon Stormcaller (one of the best 6cc ally... protector / ability / staying power)
2x - Viska, the Scarlet Blade (anti weapon plus haste is great)

Replace the following...

Kurt Whitehelm - not worth it for the 4cc
Kristoffer Wyld - you dont need it with your deck build
Valiant Defender - you dont need this if you keep opponents board in check by Boris' ability, Marksman and Dragons Tooth
The Last Harvest - just a bad card imo... its always better to play an ally instead of such
War Banner - same as The Last Harvest
Rusty Longsword - not needed
1x Enrage - you need just one

I also dont think you'll need Jewelers Dream... not worth the deckslot.
Boris having no access to board wipes need to control via allies and abilities... you need to keep pressure on the opponent and try to cast an ally every turn to keep the pressure up. You cant afford to play things like Last Harvest and War Banner which will only make you lose tempo and useless if you dont have allies on board.