Team Juggernuats Presents: Apocalypse Now - Pestilence

[segalion]

Team Juggernauts Presents:

Apocalypse Now - Pestilence

(Deck Building Event)

Hello All,
This is the first deck event building that is part of the Apocalypse Now event (see http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....-Four-Horseman)
On this event we ask for the community to design a new deck based around the Pestilence theme

Having gathered enough Shadow Crystals, The Dark One took them to the highest mountain. He began whispering an enchant and the crystals began to glow. In a single burst, a beam of dark energy shot into the sky creating what appears to be a void. In the void
A hooded figure with appeared on a black horse. He is thin to the bones and wearing torn cloth. He pulls out a pair of weighing scales and the grass on the hill begins to wither despite the rider still being sealed. He said in a choking voice:

"As you travel these lands, my pupil, the crops will die wherever you walk. The meat will rot and the fruit will decay. The people of these lands will suffer the slow and agonzing pain of starvation. And when they have met their end, I will be released."

Out of the shadows of the forest, a fighter appears. His flesh is rotting and the stench has attracted hordes of flies. His apparent vulnerability is deceiving as there is a flood of dark energy coming out of him. If this champion isn't defeated, there is nothing that will stop the lands from withering and decaying.

Rules:
1. Everyone Can Participate
2. Decks should be submitted on this Thread
3. All decks are welcomed as long as they fit the theme (yes also Stall decks)
3. Decks should differ from other decks in at least 8 cards
4. Each Deck should be submitted with an explanation on how this deck fits the Theme. We at TJ will discuss and decide if this deck Does fit the requested theme.
5. Decks should be submitted until 25/2

Additional Info:
1. The Deck contest for the submitted decks will start once a new season will start
2. Prizes for the winning decks will be distributed after the Deck Contest itself will finish.
3. In case there are 16 or less submitted and approved decks, The 2 winning deck will grant both creators 200 SC each. In case there are more than 16 decks, The 2 winning deck will grant both creators 400 SC each

[BlanketEffect]

Gravebone

(1) 4x Harbinger of the Lost
(2) 4x Death Collector
(3) 3x Death Mage Thaddeus
(4) 3x Shadow Knight
(5) 2x Der'Kan, the Bone King
(6) 2x Dakrath

(7) 3x Consuming Fear
(8) 3x Mark of the Feared
(9) 3x Grave Resistance
(10) 3x Sacrificial Lamb
(11) 2x Widespread Decay

(12) 3x Contaminated Water
(13) 2x Necromancer's Cloak
(14) 4x Crystal Shards

(The Crystal Shards (14) kind of already played its role in this deck/story during the beginning outline given for the contest, everything else is exampled below.)

...

As the black-cowled herald of the plague (1) made his way across the countryside, spreading the seeds of the darkness to come, the country folk cowered in their homes, paralyzed to act on this dark prophecy. Were their worst fears (7) soon to be realized?

Deep within the heart of the Darkenfall mountains, another figure (3), gaunt as the black rider, but with a dark glow and far more sinister intent burning where once eyes had been, stepped into the dwindling light of dusk. A raspy voice scraped through the still air, as dry as the sun blasted stones of the desert, "It is time."

With his blackened staff planted firmly on the ground before him, he began chanting a long, rhythmic mantra, an unearthly and alien sound - the filing of a grindstone in imperfect, dissonant harmony with the dying screams of an infant. The summoning chants of a death mage.

All night he continued his long, unbroken recitation, and all night, a rapidly expanding black pulse emanated forth from the ground where the wizard stood invoking his dark magicks (12). As this pulse rumbled and echoed further and further from its source into the nearby settlements, the life of the land withered and began to decay in its wake, leaving behind a sickly, toxic ebony sludge where lush growth had once been rampant. Misshapen forms (2) began to grow and rise up from the tainted earth at the wizard's feet. These twisted figures slowly began to take shape, and now with their enormous skeletal bodies realized, the death mage spoke, "Now, rise my children. Rise and cleanse these killing fields, that the fire of life once held by those now dead will instead fuel the blaze of unlife within you and their souls shall be the steeds that drive your war machines. Feed, my children, feed, and devour them all!"

With the crack of their ghostly whips, the skeletal giants conjured up large, spectral war galleys, the ranks of their oarsmen made up of the souls of those already collected by these wraiths. With another crack of the whip, the horrors raced off to the east, to the lands of man.

As the rot spread further and further into the nearby farming villages, the weakest among the folk were stricken down with a virulent illness. The sickness left in its passing hundreds of dead farmers, hunters, and their families. At the same time, tools and equipment throughout the villages were afflicted by a mysterious dry rot, causing a rapid and widespread decay (11) throughout all the goods in the villages. In desperation, the villagers sent riders to the inner kingdom to seek help.

Across the slime and muck that had now replaced the now ruined fields, the skeletal wraiths, drawn to the stink of decay, drew nearer, consuming the rotten corpses of the fallen before them, growing ever larger as they trudged their way further and further throughout the crippled settlements. As they reached the outskirts of one of the villages, panic amongst the folk ensued, and most abandoned their homes, some taking only what they could carry, some taking nothing at all. The few men who formed a line in defense of their villages were quickly plowed under by the huge, ghostly ships driven by the wraiths.

One lone wildsman, a frontiersman by the name of Kristoffer Wyld, made a swift cut from behind the enemy lines, smashing into the skeletal body of one of the wraiths, and shattering its rib with his mace. However, for all his fervor, Kristoffer was, in turn, cut down in one smooth strike of the wraith's ethereal sword. Without breaking stride, the corpse of the warrior was gathered up by the spectral crew of the ghost ship, with several of them focusing on chaining Kristoffer's soul to the oarsmen's bench, and still several others repurposing his corpse as a patchwork mend to the damage caused to the wraith's physical body.

As the nearby militia assembled and began to arrive on the outskirts of the besieged villages, they were quickly beset by the wraiths, who were in turn met by a volley arrow fire, which weakened the skeletal drivers, but not deter their advancement. As the wraiths entered combat with the militia, they cut huge swathes through the troop lines, sometimes killing three or more soldiers with a single strike of their blade. Despite heavy losses, a number of soldiers managed to regroup and surround one of the wraiths, isolating it from its allies. "It's only terrifying if you focus on how disgusting it is!" called out a sergeant to his men. "Look past your fear and strike it dead!" (8)

The death mage, watching the events unfold through the eyes of his minions, sensed the imminent defeat of one their number. "Just as there can there be no life without death, neither can there be progress without sacrifice." (10) With a quick gesture, the image of the badly injured wraith was conjured up, before the wizard. With another arcane word the death mage produced a small dagger from his robes and, in one motion, split the apparition of the beast in twain.

On the battle field, the form of the wraith collapsed to the ground before the soldiers' eyes. Before their spirits could be lifted, however, their joy turned to horror. From wrecked remains of the fallen wraith, another quickly rose in its place, its ship of souls howling as it made quick worked of the remaining soldiers.

Back in the Darkenfalls, the death mage's cloak (13) illuminated and shimmered an unnatural and sickly hue of indigo, and then plain again.

His chanting renewed, and fed from the energy stolen from the spirit of the sacrificed wraith, the death mage felt his master, drawing nearer. Upon completion of the summoning, the jagged, bony limbs of Der'Kan, the Bone King (4), sprang forth from the summoning portal. Seeing all that had been begun, Der'Kan praised his servant with one's silent, fiery gaze meeting the other's. "Now for my cadre, Thaddeus," he silently imparted to the death mage.

The wizard fell into a deep trance of incantation, pulling all of the energy from the surrounding defiled lands. From out of the shadows sprang forth the incorporeal forms of blackness. These roiling clouds of darkness twisted and shaped themselves until the were the severed, floating torsos of mighty warriors (5), knights of some powerful dynasty, lost from all memory, somewhere in the distant fog of time. Der'Kan's personal bodyguard, the shadow knights.

As the shadow knights took shape, still other forms commenced from the filthy earth at their feet, one being that of the wraith previously sacrificed and harvested by the death mage. "Welcome back, my child," the wizard croaked to the skeletal shipman. "Do not hesitate to rush back to the slaughter to feed, for we are stronger now even than we were only hours ago, a spell of protection (9) surrounds us now, steeling our unlife against the feeble, frail, and fleeting forces of the living."

"Only one last thing remains before our march to victory begins," Der'Kan silently gazed to Thaddeus, "the bringing of my champion (6), the earthly avatar of Dakrath, lord of the realm of undeath. With that complete, those living within Balor's lands will know what it means to pine after a death of eternal rest, for they shall know none. I, Der'Kan, King of Bones and thrall of Dakrath, bringer of pestilence and decay, have come."

[BlanketEffect]

Can I just go ahead and have the crystals now?

[streetsahead]

I think Gravebone was a shoe-in for death. Pestilence is better suited by priest running plague, though i like the contaminated water and decay.

[SamuelJ]

I think Gravebone was a shoe-in for death. Pestilence is better suited by priest running plague, though i like the contaminated water and decay.

Agreed, but I doubt that story can be topped....

[Kip thorp]

Agreed, but I doubt that story can be topped....

+1

[segalion]

Well, this was awesome writing i must say, so Approved.
Although as i said, we shall wait to the contest itself to finish do decide if this deck is good as the narrator, i think that once distributing prizes, we would award honorary crystals for the amazing Lore we just saw

[Jao]

hold your horses BE. my entry might be fair competition to yours. to the judges, I present

Zhanna, A Prophecy of Pestilence

This is the Word of the Prophet, Zhanna Mist, high priest of the North, as read and inscribed on the Book of Curses, gleaned and predicted through the power of the Glass Chalice of Knowing:

Repent, all ye heathens or face the wrath of pestilence! Heed me! Ask for Forgiveness now. Change your evil ways, and the Lord will grant you mercy. Persist in your evil doings and the Lord will send a flood so great it will dwarf any Tidal Wave you've ever seen. An Ice Storm will rage for 40 days and 40 nights, and a Plague will descend upon the land. All manners of creatures great and small will perish. Only the holy and the faithful will be spared.
---
But these words fell on deaf ears. Evil persisted all throughout the land. Zhanna, knowing what was coming, ordered The Last Harvest to be stored and kept in the highest mountains of the land. Then, together with the faithful they all went and waited in the mountains for the worst. The Tidal Waves came first. It swept away everyone who wasn't on the mountains. Then the Ice Storm came next. It raged on for 40 days and 40 nights, just as the prophecy predicted. The plague came last. Those who survived the flood and storm were not spared by the deadly plague. The plague even reached the mountains where Zhanna and her party were hiding out. With the help of Focused Prayer and Healing Touch, Zhanna healed everyone touched by the plague. It was a Mass Purification unheard of in the history of Balor. When it was safe to come out of the mountains, Zhanna and her party went down and surveyed the land. It was Widespread Decay all across the land. It seemed as if only Zhanna and her party survived the wrath of God.

But then, there was a Glimmer of Hope! Zhanna saw the land moving in a great wave of undulation. The sands were shifting and underneath them were Sandworms! Heh! It seemed that the armor of the Sandworms were so thick even the plague did not penetrate them. God, it seems, was not as vengeful as he promised to be. Small miracles, but there it is. Perhaps Zhanna can ask for Resurrection for the humans who perished in the great Pestilence. God is forgiving and she thinks God will grant the Humans Forgiveness.

Ascetic of Aldmor x4
Sandra Trueblade x4
Priest of the Light x4
Tainted Oracle x4
Armored Sandworm x4
Paladin of Unaxio x2

Word of the Prophet x4
Forgiveness x2
Glass Chalice of Knowing x4
Glimmer of Hope x4
Healing Touch x3
Ice Storm x3
Focused Prayer x3
Tidal Wave x4
Plague x4
Book of Curses x4
The Last Harvest x1
Widespread Decay x2
Resurrection x1
Mass Purification x1

in theory, this deck is workable. a mix of stall and resource destruction. use word of the prophet and glass chalice of knowing as mulligan. glimmer of hope works as draw and to help you thin your deck faster and get to your more important cards. forgiveness is there so that you can safely sac your high costs cards and recover them later. use ice storm and tidal wave to clear the board and slow down your enemy. book of curses helps in staying alive longer. and when taking heavy damage, heal up with healing touch. throw down allies to soak up damage whenever you can. when you reach the end game, throw down resurrection.

[segalion]

hold your horses BE. my entry might be fair competition to yours. to the judges, I present

Zhanna, A Prophecy of Pestilence

This is the Word of the Prophet, Zhanna Mist, high priest of the North, as read and inscribed on the Book of Curses, gleaned and predicted through the power of the Glass Chalice of Knowing:

Repent, all ye heathens or face the wrath of pestilence! Heed me! Ask for Forgiveness now. Change your evil ways, and the Lord will grant you mercy. Persist in your evil doings and the Lord will send a flood so great it will dwarf any Tidal Wave you've ever seen. An Ice Storm will rage for 40 days and 40 nights, and a Plague will descend upon the land. All manners of creatures great and small will perish. Only the holy and the faithful will be spared.
---
But these words fell on deaf ears. Evil persisted all throughout the land. Zhanna, knowing what was coming, ordered The Last Harvest to be stored and kept in the highest mountains of the land. Then, together with the faithful they all went and waited in the mountains for the worst. The Tidal Waves came first. It swept away everyone who wasn't on the mountains. Then the Ice Storm came next. It raged on for 40 days and 40 nights, just as the prophecy predicted. The plague came last. Those who survived the flood and storm were not spared by the deadly plague. The plague even reached the mountains where Zhanna and her party were hiding out. With the help of Focused Prayer and Healing Touch, Zhanna healed everyone touched by the plague. It was a Mass Purification unheard of in the history of Balor. When it was safe to come out of the mountains, Zhanna and her party went down and surveyed the land. It was Widespread Decay all across the land. It seemed as if only Zhanna and her party survived the wrath of God.

But then, there was a Glimmer of Hope! Zhanna saw the land moving in a great wave of undulation. The sands were shifting and underneath them were Sandworms! Heh! It seemed that the armor of the Sandworms were so thick even the plague did not penetrate them. God, it seems, was not as vengeful as he promised to be. Small miracles, but there it is. Perhaps Zhanna can ask for Resurrection for the humans who perished in the great Pestilence. God is forgiving and she thinks God will grant the Humans Forgiveness.

Ascetic of Aldmor x4
Sandra Trueblade x4
Priest of the Light x4
Tainted Oracle x4
Armored Sandworm x4
Paladin of Unaxio x2

Word of the Prophet x4
Forgiveness x2
Glass Chalice of Knowing x4
Glimmer of Hope x4
Healing Touch x3
Ice Storm x3
Focused Prayer x3
Tidal Wave x4
Plague x4
Book of Curses x4
The Last Harvest x1
Widespread Decay x2
Resurrection x1
Mass Purification x1

in theory, this deck is workable. a mix of stall and resource destruction. use word of the prophet and glass chalice of knowing as mulligan. glimmer of hope works as draw and to help you thin your deck faster and get to your more important cards. forgiveness is there so that you can safely sac your high costs cards and recover them later. use ice storm and tidal wave to clear the board and slow down your enemy. book of curses helps in staying alive longer. and when taking heavy damage, heal up with healing touch. throw down allies to soak up damage whenever you can. when you reach the end game, throw down resurrection.

Approved

[Kip thorp]

And another sucker throw his hat in the ring.


The Unlikey.
"A Reason to Care"

You would never guess it to see him, if you see him at all, few have and lived to tell of him. And that's exactly how he likes it. He walks alone in black garb, shadows are his friends, laying low his enemies before they realize he was there. He's a thief in the night, a bringer of retribution , a man between shadow and light.

But as I said, you would never guess it if you saw him, but this man was once a boy.

In a hovel far west in Balor , he was raised, a village of no account and forgotten name he knew the only love and happiness of his life. It's a memory he holds dear , a fire, a father, a mother and dreams of the the summer with the girl from Layaria. But that was not to last, for in his thirteenth year all was ripped away from him.

The girl was gone back to her home, and that very autumn a pestilence took the town. The villagers died in droves, the water was poisen, the land decayed. He begged at the home of the local lord for his suffering parents and was turned away, with nothing.

And that's when they came.....

An army unlike any in the living world, monsters, demons and Knights in black armor attacked and raized what little was left to the ground! He watching in horror as his home was entered by corpses with weapons , gargoyles that walked and brutal beasts with clubs. He heard the screams, watched his parents dragged away , watched the fire that kept him so warm, ...consume all he loved.
A procession of of Mages, minators, and unholy priests preformed unspeakable rites and spells on their captured prey. Turning the towns folk from human to unholy beasts and creatures that seemed built for nothing more than to ravage the lands of men. He heard their tortured cries, all howling as one , "Dakrath, Dakrath" they screamed into the night.

For two days he hides in the shadows terrified starving, hoping, but what was a frightened boy of 13 to do, no help from their greedy Lord, now assuredly dead, no armies from the east to aid, nobody came, nobody cared. From that night on he wouldn't care either.

Fast forward to the present , elicit information has reached his ears , that very same pestilence has come again, towns destroyed, homes ripped apart, the very soul of Balor seemed to be draining away. But why should he care? He's money aplenty, ladies when he wishes, work is never slow, and owes alligence to no man. Why should he care? But for the first time , that he can recall , he does.

Then one night at a tavern called "The Road Less Traveled" and a drink called "Socerers Poisen", that feeling cannot be ignored anymore. He must do something not for himself as was his creed but for others or maybe for a sweet memory. With a slam of his brew on the the table, a decision was made, and actions followed.

Traveling quickly and quietly, unseen by any, he contacted Oliver, a very persuasive and powerful friend. Together they would convince many to join their cause. Rouges, and warriors brave, men with no faces who dressed as if shades of night. These and more would be coerced to his cause for they all knew the price if they refused.
All that was left was to fill these hand he had gathered with weapons, and the highly skilled ironmongers of Braxoria had all he needed, exotic Shuriken, mighty swords and bone breakers. Weapons so beautiful and terrible they ripped the thoughts from your mind! But he required more, for this was no force of men, this was an evil an outrage and blind putrefied pain that walked the lands.

One last job he would do himself, for himself, for his memories and his past.

To the west was a sacred shrine, dappled in radiant sunlight , the Priests of light kept many a dark secret and powerful artifacts. It is said they do this to keep them from the powers of darkness and offered no aid or donation. This did not stop our thief, this only put his skills to the test. As always, in the darkness, he acquired what was needed, gauntlets that blocked evil spells, concoctions most vile, blinding smoke, that caused whole armies to halt. He was satisfied with his ill gotten gains, he was ready.

So now to plan and plot, our boy.........our poor orphaned child , will lead this army. With slight of hand and hidden blows he will seek revenge, he will strike back and steal what was taken from him. The reason he's lived alone and cared for none. The evil that took it all, from him. He had learned to steal, he had learned Indifference , he had learned hardship, loneliness, pain and not to care.

As the vision of the beasts killing memories, warping his mind, crushing his soul, returned once again, screaming," Dakrath, Dakrath!"
He thought, "Let them scream", for as they chant around the shadows of their tainted fires, "I shall be a shadow and whisper unto them as I take my revenge."

"Tell your master I care again and I am Garth"

----------------------------------------

Garth

4 Nightshade
4 Skilled Ironmonger
4 Sword Thief
3 Aldon the Brave
3 Night Owl
3 Priest of Light
3 Layarian Seductruss
2 Braxorian Soldiers
2 Oliver Fagin

4 Stop Thief
3 Spellbeaters Bands
3 Black Garb
3 A Road less Traveled
3 I'll Gotten Gains
3 Backstab
2 Smoke Screen
2 Garths Concoction
4 AnkleBreaker
2 Shuriken
2 Thoughtrippers Cutlass


All cards are mentioned in one way or another and a ton more, you gotta have a solution or at least somebody willing to fight the "Pestilence"
The deck should preform fine, if I'm incredibly lucky and maybe somebody with skill was running it.
I hope I got this at least half right, if not its all SamuelJs fault!
And another thing , why can't I get paragraph returns on this stupid thing?