A Few Nights with Garth...

[Cosmic Giggle]

This deck is based off one I watched Chamthabo use a few times. I'm not sure what his exact build was. Maybe he'll see this thread and share it with us. I'm guessing it wasn't effective enough for him, but I've made a few changes and it's working pretty well for me. It immediately caught my attention because it includes 3 of my favorite cards: Outwitted, Campfire Stories and Frying Pan. No no no, just kidding.

Garth Ravensoul

.oO 15 Allies Oo.
3 Zailen Crusader
3 Guardian of Unaxio
3 Zealous Mystic
2 Templar Champion
3 Avenger of the Fallen
2 Oliver Fagin

.oO 13 Abilities Oo.
3 Stop Thief
2 Treasured Heirloom
3 Backstab
3 Coercion
2 Strength of Conviction

.oO 11 Items Oo.
4 Ill-Gotten Gains
4 Anklebreaker
3 Vozitian Orders

41 Cards Total

For realsies, my 3 favorite cards are Oliver Fagin, Coercion and Vozitian Orders. I explained a bit how I like to use them in my Oliver's Orders thread. Similar combos can be pulled off with this deck, along with a few new ones.

Although I've been able to win without Vozitian Orders in play, it makes a huge difference with one on the board. It can get rid of attachments on your allies, or return an ally that is near death. If you need to draw a couple of cards, return an ally with Treasured Heirloom. With Templar Champion in play you could return a Templar and summon it again to trigger Champion's ability. And don't forget you can use Garth's Shadow Ability before triggering Templar Champion's ability for extra damage. I also like to return Zealous Mystic so I can summon him again.

I think it's important to cast an ally on turn 2. I have Zealous Mystic and Avenger of the Fallen for that. The usefulness of Zealous Mystic has been discussed already. He can remove attachments and can be given haste. Avenger of the Fallen also comes in pretty useful late in the game. He's a 4/4 for 2 resources. Pretty dope if you ask me. And I've included Strength of Conviction to buff them up for cheap. It will also give haste to Zealous Mystic. And you may have noticed that except for Oliver, all other allies are Templars, so it can buff up any one of them.

Guardian of Unaxio has saved my butt a few times. It makes weenies almost harmless to you. With 2 Guardians on the board, you won't even feel most weapons. This also will prevent abilities from being triggered if something like Dread Wolf attacks you. Also he has good HP so he will likely last more than one turn.

Templar Champion is pretty self explanatory. I've never had both in play at the same time, but I imagine that would be pretty sick. He also has good HP. Of course Zailen Crusader gives you a discount on your attachments. She attracts a lot of attention though. But Templar Champion will as well, especially if your opponent has weenies. With both in play, your opponent will have a tough decision which to choose for their removal cards.

And I saved my most favoritest combo of all for last. Urgent Business + Rain Delay! No no no, kidding again. Coercion + Vozitian Orders! I saw Chamthabo pull off a combo I never realized before. With Vozitian Orders in play, he cast Zailen Crusader and then a discounted Coercion. After attacking with the coerced ally, he returned it to his hand. I always thought you had to cast an ally after you use Coercion, but apparently not. Brilliant. So for 6 resources you can pull this wonderful combo off. It gives you a good reason to hold a Zailen and Coercion in your hand.

So I hope to get some good suggestions by sharing this. I know I've left some things out, but it's still pretty new to me. I'm a bit clumsy with it still, but with more practice it could be very competetive. A couple of other cards I've thought of including are Justicar's Cape and Scriptures of the Righteous. Scriptures of the Righteous could completely replace Ill-Gotten Gains. I'm going to try that next.

[bobrossw]

but seriously, have you tried swapping out those Coercions for Frying pans? I mean it's so much more efficient at killing Kristoffer Wyld.

[Cosmic Giggle]

I'm trying to be for realsies here Bob. If you can't act like a mature adult, then please keep your comments to yourself.......LOL!

That's actually a wonderful idea since Kristoffer is this deck's biggest weakness. He completely pwns me. Especially if he's hiding behind Birgitte Skullborn. Then I'm completely screwed.

So after some more testing, I don't think Scriptures of the Righteous is going to work. It hasn't been consistent enough for me. Maybe I'll try 2 Scriptures and 2 Ill-Gotten Gains. Also, Templar Champion hasn't been very useful recently. I may have to swap him out. Probably for something to help me regain board control, such as Spirit Shuriken.

If you want to see an interesting match, watch Cosmic Giggle vs Asazal. He's a level 319 Baduruu. The ending was pretty dope...

[chamthabo]

Very glad there's someone watched my games!

FYI it's my dream to make a viable VO deck and the deck you watched me playing is the best I could do with that card.

Garth Mind Stomper

Hero: Garth Ravensoul (42 cards)

Allies (21):

4x Avenger of the Fallen
3x Night Owl
3x Zailen Crusader
3x Guardian of Unaxio
2x Lily Rosecult
4x Templar Champion
2x Oliver Fagin

Abilities (9):

3x Treasured Heirloom
4x Stop, Thief!
2x Coercion

Items (11):

2x Vozitian Orders
4x Ill-Gotten Gains
4x Anklebreaker
1x Spelleater Bands

This deck is slow but really rocks in super late game. It's like I can summon FT every turn, aka "Stomping" my opponent, pretty sick combo imo. I think templar allies is very well suited to use with VO bc most allies with on summon ability tend to be fragile so they usually don't survive for you to use VO on them, but templar allies tend to have high health and with Champion out all of them have on summon ability. Also the best part of Oliver fagin in this deck is that you can just pick an ally with impressive on summon ability (like PotL, Sword thief) and start looping it, this way you don't need to compromise your deck consistency just by having to allocate deck slots for it. Because too many VO will be dead draw so I use only 2 and have 2xLily in case it get destroyed, also good at retrieving AB and IGG. Lilly loop is pretty sick too, she is your infinite source of AB so you can keep smashing an opponent as if you're Serena and stall decks will be so much easier to deal with. Rush mages still beat this deck regularly, it might be a better MU if amulet get nerfed and they switch back to BS and TO (coercion on TO is the best use of it!). It's not very competitive but a very fun troll deck to play when you are bored.

[Cosmic Giggle]

I watch a lot of your games Chamthabo. I'm sure I'm not the only one. And if anyone can build a viable Vozitan Orders deck, I know it's you. So keep on trying!

[FDL]

I've also been on a quest for a VO deck ever since the card was playable!

This deck is slow but really rocks in super late game. It's like I can summon FT every turn, aka "Stomping" my opponent, pretty sick combo imo. I think templar allies is very well suited to use with VO bc most allies with on summon ability tend to be fragile so they usually don't survive for you to use VO on them, but templar allies tend to have high health and with Champion out all of them have on summon ability.

I'm thinking the newly non-Unique Thunderstrike Construct might be pretty good with VO.

[bobrossw]

What about Zealous Mystic and Road less Traveled...just thinking, if I put an attachment on one zealous mystic attack, play another one, steal the attachment, attack, bounce the first one, and replay it...There's lots of ways to get some mileage out of that combo, though maybe it's a bit overly complicated to use consistently.

[chamthabo]

I'm thinking the newly non-Unique Thunderstrike Construct might be pretty good with VO.

Time for homuculus Garth!

Homuculus available to Garth :
- Thunderstrike construct -> might be insane with VO
- Radiant wisp -> good synergy with Zailen
- Aetherborn wisp -> might be good as GoH helps you dig out VO (and Lily will have even more value).
- Fortified wisp -> garth always loves tough allies
- Growing bog dweller -> good synergy with Coercion and maybe with RW by killing it and reusing its backstab or silent strike to boost damage.

Maybe we have to ditch out IGG to make room for t4 FW and seek an alternative draw in CoF instead. We also don't have t2 homuculus ally, maybe some NS?
Does any one have an experience on interaction between TH and RW? Does TH return to your hand when RW die?

What about Zealous Mystic and Road less Traveled...just thinking, if I put an attachment on one zealous mystic attack, play another one, steal the attachment, attack, bounce the first one, and replay it...There's lots of ways to get some mileage out of that combo, though maybe it's a bit overly complicated to use consistently.

The problem with that combo is that you need to have RLT and some attachments in your hand which will be dead draw is you don't have any allies on board.

I love these discussions <3

[Cosmic Giggle]

What about Zealous Mystic and Road less Traveled...just thinking, if I put an attachment on one zealous mystic attack, play another one, steal the attachment, attack, bounce the first one, and replay it...There's lots of ways to get some mileage out of that combo, though maybe it's a bit overly complicated to use consistently.

I've actually pulled this off a few times, but with Vozitian Orders instead of Road Less Travelled. It's great when it works. It won me the game I mentioned above against Asazal. However as you mentioned in your Garth profile, you have to do whatever it takes to keep control of the board. So you can't always wait for all of the cards you need to trigger this combo.

Does any one have an experience on interaction between TH and RW? Does TH return to your hand when RW die?

I just tried this out twice. Treasured Heirloom does go back to your hand and you don't draw any cards.

Homunculus Garth...that sounds really interesting. I'm getting excited already!

And one last thing. I think I've found a bug. I cast Coercion on my opponents ally and then Zealous Mystic targeting the Coercion. Immediately my opponent's ally returned to him, which I expected. But then at the end of my turn, my Zealous Mystic went to him as well. That shouldn't happen, right? I did it again in a different game and got the same results.

[bobrossw]

And one last thing. I think I've found a bug. I cast Coercion on my opponents ally and then Zealous Mystic targeting the Coercion. Immediately my opponent's ally returned to him, which I expected. But then at the end of my turn, my Zealous Mystic went to him as well. That shouldn't happen, right? I did it again in a different game and got the same results.

yup I discovered this about a month ago (when playing around with variations on VO Lance) and reported it. I got the impression Gondorian was thinking it over, I would consider it a bug, but not sure if the devs do.

Regarding Homonculus - I think Garth doesn't have enough access to cheap homonculi to really go all-out in a tribal deck. I think it makes more sense to think about it in terms of specific combos. For example, just cycling two Thunderstrike constructs by itself is strong, you don't necessarily need Growing Bog Dwellers in that deck. Similarly, Coercion + Growing Bog Dweller is good, but really wouldn't need the thunderstrikes to go along with it.

Cards I think have synergy:

Growing Bog Dweller - goes with twilight allies, since they die at end of turn
Twilight allies - go with Vozitian Orders since they don't have to die at the end of turn if you bounce them
Vozitian Orders goes with Coercion + Twilight allies, because they're cheap.
Coercion goes with Growing Bog Dweller, if you've got 7 resources/Zailen and haven't found your Vozitian Orders.

Zealous Mystic goes with attachments and VO
Zealous Mystic (as attachment removal) goes with Bog Dweller
Attachments go with Zealous Mystic
Zailen Crusader goes with attachments
Zailen Crusader goes with Coercion
Coercion goes with VO

So you can see there a lot of potential 2-3 card combos using the same few cards.


____

Along the Thunderstrike Construct lines
Thunderstrike goes with VO
Thunderstrike goes with Thunderstrike
Thunderstrike goes with Fortified Wisp
Fortified Wisp goes with Garth (since Garth can help him grow).
I really think the rest of the deck should be filled out with more standard Garth cards (even possibly leaving out fortified wisp to get a better resource curve).

Although Thunderstrike doesn't directly combo with Garth's ability, it does make him have to use his ability less, and it puts Armored Sandworms in easy kill range for many allies+Garth's ability.