SF concept deck - Desperate Amber

[Heidrek Rampant]

So I have been trying to find an Amber build that can compete withy some of the stronger decks out in the current meta. I've come up with a concept deck that admittedly needs a lot of work but I think may have the foundations of a competitive 2.86 Amber due to 3 things:

1. It's fast. Capable of doing large amount of damage early if not stopped.

2. It has multiple ways to deal with t2 harbinger and t3 DMT, cryptspawn or DC and maintain tempo

3. It can (and has) pull out surprise wins from 10+ life with no allies on the board and only 6-7 resources.

Working title is Desperate Amber given the utilisation of desperate tactics as a key part of the strategy.

Deck - 39 + Hero

Allies
4 twilight herald
4 yari bladedancer
4 aldon the brave
2 Lilly rosecult

Abilities
4 blood frenzy
3 bad Santa
3 desperate tactics
4 crippling blow

Items
1 reserve weapon
4 jewellers dream
3 rusty long sword
3 pithing spear

The first thing you need to know is that this deck has no brakes. It's very one dimensional and is "win fast or die" in its approach.

Strategy:
This deck plays as a fundamental rush deck in the first few turns. Ideal plays are t1 herald t2 bladedancer t3 aldon or blood frenzy. You want to rack up damage fast so you can finish them off with weapons and desperate tactics while they are still getting established. Don't worry too much about board clearing effects like zaladar ability + krygon t4 or tidal wave and a supernova actually helps you out to no end so your generally happy if a Mage plays this.

your allies are going to die. Accept this and that thier purpose is to achieve early damage and tie up your opponents plays and resources dealing with them. If you can get 10 damage out of them or they can keep your opponent occupied while you start hammering them with weapons directly then that's fine. Your main win condition is an attack + DT everything else is really just to bring them into range of this.

Key points:
This deck is equipped to deal with a t2 harbinger and t3 4 health ally. Herald + bladedancer, bladedancer or herald + rusty longsword I pumped or just a RLS pumped on T3 if you're going second can all kill the offending ally and maintain your board position. Grave resistance is a problem but can still be overcome by certain combinations.

You need cards. The resource curve of this deck is very low so it burns cards quickly. Santa is main there to fetch blood frenzy but can also help dig for a much needed weapon, crippling blow or DT for the killing blow. I am considering Glimmer of Hope instead as it's a great digger but will have to test this. Might also necessitate an extra RW or two to make use of the discard element.

Don't be affraid to hold multiple DTs in hand. I will explain why in a sec.

Card choices explained:

There are some unusual choices in here the deserve explanation.

1. Rusty long sword: frankly this card is under rated. Even without a buff it can make a good t3 play to remove enemy allies in combination with one of yours. Pumped it can do the job alone allowing your allies to swing in for critical early damage and then do 4 to the some by itself. With 3 SE and 5 resources in play you can play RLS, pump it and swing for 4 then throw it for another 5 with DT for 9 damage out of nowhere. In theory you could get a lot more, but the best I've done is 12 damage without an ally on the table to pull out the win. Pumped RLS in play and threw it with DT for 5 then played JD, pumped it and attacked for 3 then threw it with another DT for another 4. Nothing like GG'ing someone from that position - they think your acknowledging defeat!

2. Pithing spear: you need SE for this deck to work as you want to have a pumped weapon in play at all times if possible and throw them too. Pumped pithing spear isn't enough to kill a harbinger by itself but with a Herald it can. If you get 1 kill with the spear it pretty much ensures you can play another pumped weapon when it is finished. People are also hesitant to use item removal on pithing spear and RLS as they have low durability anyway. I'm on the fence about the Spear though, it could be a candidate for replacement.

Try the deck and you'll find it lightning fast and fun to play, the first time you win by double DT for a 10+ swing you'll be hooked!

Other cards I'm considering:

Aldmoor accelerator: need SE badly on this deck to get the best out of DT

Wild berserker: expensive but good removal and sticks around to occupy resources.

Glimmer of hope: instead of BS?

War flail: possibly in place of pithing spear? -3 pithing for +1 reserve weapon and +2 war flail? Would probably do this if I ran glimmer over Santa. I do love pithing spear though, something very cool about killing your opponent with a pithing spear! I can just envision amber impaling the enemy hero and hoisting them up on the air to hang there

Open to other thoughts, have also considered confluence of fate + haste + ready and able/enslave the beast etc for additional draw and damage but haven't been able to make a build like this work.

Try it out, you might get some surprising results.

Edit: tried -3 pithing spear +1 RW and +2 war flail. Seems more consistent this way. Also replaced the bad santas with glimmer of hope which seems to work pretty well. I'm still only playing opponents in the mid 200s thanks to crap rankings after tons of early losses while experimenting but I'm winning probably 3 out of 4 matches including against discard zaladar and undead GR banebow.

May not be a tier 1 deck but certainly has rogue value! It seems like people aren't sure how to play against it, and I have found that with this many weapons it's possible to play it semi-solo which is great against Victor as he has nothing to use his power on and zaladar ends up sitting with MCs and devourers in hand.

Still needs tweaking but doing pretty well at the moment. Being able to use DT to kill stealth allies or Princess Eleanor with protector in tala decks is very handy.

[Heidrek Rampant]

Ok, so I have tested this deck pretty heavily now. I'm currently ranked about 250 bit it think the deck should be more around the 270 to 280 mark. I've won 14 out of my 18 most recent matches, mainly against 270 range opponents with a few higher 300+ ones in there as well.

Current build has taken out the pithing spears and replaced bad Santa with glimmer of hope. I have a couple of retreats and added a couple of puwen to make for a more consistent start. Took the Desperate Tactics down to 2 to keep it for a finisher, but think I may need to bring it up to 3 again for more mid game punch.

I'm finding Lilly + RW a powerful combination as I tend to hold Lilly until I've played an RW and then use her to get it back. Even if your weapon gets blown up RWing it back while your SE recharges means you can keep the damage coming.

The deck still needs work, to be high level viable it really needs to have some item removal fitted in somewhere and a way to deal with the likes of moonstalker. Bottom line is that it still needs tweaking and I'd be keen for feedback from other players.

In my probably 50+ QM's over the last few days I have come across exactly 1 other amber deck so no one is really expecting to have to deal with her. There's an opportunity here if we Can capitalise on it.


Current deck list:

4 blood frenzy
2 glimmer of hope
4 crippling blow
2 retreat!
2 desperate tactics

2 Lilly rosecult
3 aldon the brave
4 twilight herald
4 yari bladedancer
2 puwen bloodhelm

3 jewellers dream
2 war flail
3 rusty long sword
2 reserve weapon

39 cards + amber

[Pat Jay]

Hey HR

Nice concept

So is your goal to find a viable amber outside the standard one with seductress and marksmen?

[Heidrek Rampant]

Hi pat

Basically yes - ideally something with an aggressive rush style which doesn't cede the early game.

What I have found so far is that in QM Amber just isn't there, and never has been in SF outside of the clunky Hamber builds that we're floating around for a while. Amber hasn't got weaker in SF but she has suffered by comparison to other heroes who gained so much. I want to bring her back, and if a more control based strategy is the best way to do that then so be it but I think other heroes do that better on general.

Amber is about taking the fight to your opponent, hitting the hard and fast and not stopping until you or they are a heap on the floor, or at least that's how she is to me!

I probably need to find room for at least 1 smashing blow in there and a spec sabre or two to deal with ALR and hero attachments to make the deck a bit more well rounded but open to whatever other suggestions you might have as well.