Jericho Control by BP Ross

[Ross013]

Archetype: Control
Speed: Very Slow
Difficulty: Hard
Highest Rating: 326


Hero: Jericho Spellbane


Allies (13)

3 Tainted Oracle
2 Knight of Unaxio
2 Armored Sandworm
1 Aeon Stormcaller
2 Viska, The Scarlet Blade
3 Erris Fateweaver


Abilities (28)

4 Lingering Essence
4 Embers of The Just
4 Confluence of Fate
4 Focused Prayer
1 Resurrection
1 Nowhere to Hide
4 Zail's Hymn
2 Sever Ties
4 Tidal Wave

So here goes. This is the Jericho deck I managed to terrorise people with for a good while. My time in Shadow Era is spent finding the best control deck possible, but one that fits more with what I would call a 'Traditional' control theme that uses abilities more than creatures to win. When building Jericho, the first thing I noticed is that as good as Embers is, it's easily played around by a smart player, which is devastating if you can't leverage another way to win the game. A few weeks of testing led me to the idea that in order to make full use out of what now was being affectionately called 'jerry' i needed to create other ways of winning, and not lean on Embers like I was seeing so many players do. That's when I decided to flesh out my ally count a little bit.

Tainted Oracle: This card is there for 1 reason, and that is to supplement card draw.

Knight of Unaxio: Not a typical card for a Jericho deck, however, I originally ran less of the key abilities, and this led to inconsistency for the sake of not having dead cards. With the knight, dead cards can become useful, meaning I can run more of the key abilities and increase consistency, while still getting use out of the leftovers.

Armored Sandworm: Good against decks with weapons, and the Mage decks with loads of burn.

Aeon Stormcaller: Good way to protect my other more important allies, and also becomes a good resource sink in the late game.

Viska, The Scarlet Blade: Much like Sandworm, Viska is here to be able to deal with weapons and gain a board presence. The haste ability also allows you to be the aggressor in some match ups.

Erris Fateweaver: Erris is the key ally of this deck. A lot of you are probably laughing/cringing at me running 3 of such a high costed ally, but allow me to explain why. Every good control deck needs a win condition, and for this deck it is Eriss. Her ability has amazing synergy with Embers, and her stats make her a significant threat on the board. There is never a game where I don't want to play her, and so running 3 copies lets me ensure that I can get her every time.

I won't go through every single ability, because they are all really self explanatory, but here are a few components worth noting.

Embers of The Just: Overall great card, excellent for providing board control or extra damage when used in conjunction with hero ability, Eriss, or even Sever Ties.

Ressurection: This is a tech card for the control mirror. It allows you to put pressure on with your allies, and then bring them back when you are in a good position. When played at the right moment, this card allows you to just run away with the game.

Nowhere to Hide: Obvious tech for stealth heavy decks (not naming any particular one ;]) this card is entirely optional, I just like having that option should I need it.

So let's talk strategy. Being a control deck, there's not really any ideal turns, since the vast majority of your game will be spent responding to your opponents threats.

The first few turns, you will be setting up a spot for you to deploy a threat by using your abilities. Zail's Hymn and Tidal wave are important cards for this. Most important things to setup is your draw engine (Confluence of Fate), and Lingering Essence, once you have that setup, you can start stabilising the game and working towards the win. Now this deck involves patience, and lots of it. If you get greedy and get too aggressive, you will probably end up throwing the game. Once you have the board in a good state, and you're ready to close the game, you can start deploying threats. At this point in the game, you are focusing on protecting your threat, rather than going aggressive, deal with the things that are problematic to your ally staying alive unless you are not in a position to do so. Use embers to control the opposing allies before directing that extra damage to the face, and make sure the coast is clear before deciding to go for the throat. Think about your plays, and then think about them again. If you decide you are ready to win, but then your opponent does something that makes you think twice, then take a step back, and play the responsive game.

All in all, I think this type of deck is the strongest control deck we have in the game, and it will be a long time before I put this one down.

I'm not going to go into detail about certain match ups, but I will say this deck is likely to struggle against fast decks, but it can certainly still hold its own if piloted correctly.

[Ohi2222]

Good job man, really liked it. Tho it isnt to fun to play against XD so... do not copy it! (unless you like to see people rage quit)

[maxi1230]

An incredible Build! Just too easy to tech against

[Ross013]

An incredible Build! Just too easy to tech against

its just cuz you know how to hack!

[gracenough]

Thank you
Knight of Unaxio is very interesting
Other ability cards ard almost same with my deck.
Suprised.
I wonder that how to beat elementalis and praxix

[Ross013]

Elementals are tough because mind control can ruin your day. But the plan there is to use your weaker threats to try and lure out mind controls without taking too much damage, and then you can put a lot of pressure on with the bigger stuff after 2 or 3 mind controls.

[Nijjis]

You listed your deck as having 26 abilities but it shows 28

I just made some adjustments to my Jericho based off your deck. I lost to Serena we both ran out of deck, it was super close. Everything worked beautifully except that I made one mistake that ended up costing me the game. He had ALR on an ally I guess I was thinking i would remove zails hymn to put that ally on the bottom instead of removing ALR o_O. He also ripped my ressurection which was unlucky because I took extra care to have a semi full had so he had less chances of ripping my crucial cards.

My deck was:
-2 unax
-1 Eriss
-1 no where to hide
-1 lingering
-1 embers
-1 focus prayer
-1 sever ties
-1 zails

+3 robes of mending
+3 fleet footed messenger
+1 forgiveness

[Ross013]

You listed your deck as having 26 abilities but it shows 28

I just made some adjustments to my Jericho based off your deck. I lost to Serena we both ran out of deck, it was super close. Everything worked beautifully except that I made one mistake that ended up costing me the game. He had ALR on an ally I guess I was thinking i would remove zails hymn to put that ally on the bottom instead of removing ALR o_O. He also ripped my ressurection which was unlucky because I took extra care to have a semi full had so he had less chances of ripping my crucial cards.

My deck was:
-2 unax
-1 Eriss
-1 no where to hide
-1 lingering
-1 embers
-1 focus prayer
-1 sever ties
-1 zails

+3 robes of mending
+3 fleet footed messenger
+1 forgiveness

Well spotted, I made a typo! I fixed it now

How are robes of mending working out? It felt like overkill before the nerf and now they don't seem great post nerf

[Nijjis]

Yeah I only mentioned it because I when I was listing the differences between our decks the math wasn't adding up. I had to open my app and go over my deck list again because I thought I was missing something lol.

I guess I'm still on the old version because robes are +4 to health currently. The robes are Meh from my experience, hard to say. There are plenty of games you won't need them. However it sure beats blowing up your attatchments. It's there mostly for Mage matchups. Threbin, lance, and mirrors can wreck you fast and the healing would be good, but they often are packing item D. It's decent against Uruu I suppose.

[Ross013]

I see your point, probably worth switching it out when you get the new version though, it looks really bad now