Zhanna and Bazaar

[Kohenet]

My username is Kohenet; here's my deck...hope this posts correctly.

http://shadowera.gondorian.com/deck1....2se193.3se155


I'm relatively new and not very good yet (210 rating) and I love that this forum exists. Two questions:

1. When I view this site at work, the strategy forum is sorted by card class. That doesn't happen on my home browser. How do I change that?

2. I find that, mage battles excepted, not getting the cards I need is a far bigger problem than having my opponent get too many cards. Bazaar is obviously frowned on by most designers of Priest decks. Please help me understand why using Bazaar and Wizend's Staff situationally is not preferable to dropping Bazaar altogether.

Thanks in advance. Looking forward to playing my first tourney soon.

[Warr Byrd]

1) This is a problem that seems to be related to internet browsers; it appears that the sub forums show up if you are using IE, but not any other browser.

2) Bazaar is generally a poor card because your opponent gets as much benefit from it as you do. Although this is somewhat less of an issue for priests due to the strength of the priest class, it is still a major detriment because your opponent generally benefits first, and you lost space for your Bazaars that could have been used for better cards or making your deck smaller to improve your card draw. Wizent's Staff, on the other hand, allows for unilateral card draw, allowing you to stay one card ahead of your opponent, allows you to only draw cards when you need them, and also has the benefit of being a weapon.

For a better info about card draw, take a quick look at this thread.

[Kohenet]

I appreciate the reply. I do understand the inherent weakness of arming your opponent, but let me play devil's advocate a bit. First of all, my opponents tend to have some sort of unilateral draw as well, and bazaar mitigates some of the threat of their drawing while I am not. Second, because I'm using Marshland Sentinel, I have another card that's drawing Shadow energy, and if that's the case I feel I'm undermining some of my advantage as a healer -- particularly when I can't get my Good Ascendant out quickly enough. That may speak to a greater deck construction issue -- certainly the most recent champ provides a template for a deck that worked quite well without Bazaar -- but I am interested to see if other Priests have found that Bazaar can still be useful. I'm obviously not committed to the strategy (hence the post) and I appreciate the input.

[Demnchi]

@Warr: I don't know if thats entirely true. I use FireFox and can view them just fine.

If you're planning on making use of Marshland Sentinel, I can see why Wizent's Staff isn't an attractive option for you. It's not that Bazaar can't be useful, its that its currently there as a draw method when there isn't much other choice. However Priests have access to human allies which contains the very useful card called Tainted Oracle. Having x4 TO and maybe x2 Bad Santa could have a positive impact. If that doesn't seem to work for your strategy, then Bazaar might be the way to go.

The reason its looked down apon, btw, is because your opponents get benefit from it too and priests have options available (most noticalby Wizent's Staff) that would much be preferred over Bazaar.

I appreciate that you want to keep your options open though, if you keep that up you can discover some unique strategies.

[Preybird]

I agree that Bazaar is a bad idea for a Priest deck, and I think it's a bigger issue for them because a Bazaar benefits their worst matchup greatly: rush decks. Any rush-style player that sees you drop a T2 Bazaar will be rubbing their hands together with glee. A Priest's goal is to slow down the game and take control steadily, and Bazaar just doesn't enable that.

Demnchi's suggestion of 4 x TO and 2 x BS will help you out. However I would consider Ghostmaker if you go that way, as it can turn a one-shot draw TO into a proper draw engine if used properly. However that is an advanced style of deck.

[Kohenet]

Thanks again for the thoughtful input. I'm certainly going to play around with options. I tried Ghostmaker for a bit, and found that it only works well if:

A) The opponent has no armor, and
B) If I have an Aeon out or have a general creature advantage, which my deck does not since I'm low on weenies.

I also found that I run into a problem if I happen to have an Aeon in my graveyard...

[danae]

I think Preybird's suggestion on the use of Ghostmaker was more in conjunction with Tainted Oracle. You get 2 cards when they die and then you resurrect them again for another 2 cards when they die again. Using Ghostmaker on them not necessarily to have board presence but more for drawing power.

[elsestar]

hi Kohenet
Im here mostly to offer a solution for your first issue:
1. When I view this site at work, the strategy forum is sorted by card class. That doesn't happen on my home browser. How do I change that?

I use Chrome and same thing happens to me, when I go to Strategy forum I cant see the individual class subforums. This is what I do, hopefully works for you too: You see where it says Forum > Gameplay > Strategy? Just click on Gameplay and magically all subforums appear, class included. let me know if it works for you

I dont have much experience yet in SE but I think Bazaar is a bad idea not only because it gives your opponent the same benefits, but he also goes first. Also in many cases (or basically all of them) other classes need to sacrifice something in order to get a good card drawing: warriors get BF but lose 1 hp every turn, mages use TOK but then have to spend 2res every turn to get an additional card... If you use bazaar they dont need any of that anymore. as a warrior whenever I see a bazaar played on second turn I rub my hands and start saccing all my BF.
anyways Im still learning too so you should probably listen to the other guys here )
cheers and good luck!

[Kohenet]

Elsestar, that forum sorting tip worked like a charm. Thank you very much.

I've replaced a couple Bazaars with Bad Santas, and I will try again to work with a TO. We'll see how it goes. Thanks again.