1.25 Amber deck--suggestions?

[He-Man]

Hi guys,

The following is my current Amber deck:

1x Amber Rain
4x Jasmine Rosecult
4x Puwen Bloodhelm
4x Blake Windrunner
4x Aldon the Brave
2x Aeon Stormcaller
3x Smashing Blow
4x Crippling Blow
4x Blood Frenzy
4x Retreat!
3x Berserker's Edge
4x Jeweler's Dream
(41 total including hero)

I am generally having quite some success with this. Mages and other warriors are generally a breeze. Gwen can be troublesome when she goes first and races to her bows on turn 4 and 5, and Jericho can cause trouble when I get a crap opening hand. I fare well against many decks that rush to bring out allies, since I can match them early on, but get a game swinging tempo advantage when I have Blood Frenzy and a Jeweler's Dream out.

I noticed I hardly ever actually play the Aeons (since the deck is usually on the offense, and if I have to get defensive, usually the Aeons won't save me anymore either...), so I could for instance get rid of those and add 1 Smashing Blow?

I had Dual Wield for a while, but I was not impressed with it. Usually you don't need it, and the 5 resources are better spent on allies. Same holds for Enrage. Have not tried Rampage, but figured I don't need it. Perhaps Valiant Defender could be nice, as it can swing the board even quicker...

Any suggestions on further improving / things to try out?
Also interested to hear what strategy's people would follow against specific heroes (e.g., Gwen, Jericho, mirror)

Thanks!

[danae]

Looks very similar to what I'm using right now with just a few minor changes. I would definitely not get rid of Aeon as I usually find him useful when dealing with Gwen. I can usually cast him and have Gwen waste 2 durability on her Soul Seeker without gaining additional life. Also Aeon is great against shadow with their low damage allies.

You're still going to get a very tough fight with Jericho. The differences in our deck are the changes I made to give me a better chance against him. I'll give more input when I'm done with the tournament. I want to have a bit of an element of surprise for my opponents so i don't want to reveal my deck composition too much.

[superchao]

king's pride good for your low cost ally

[Morgroth]

If you're not committed into a 40 cards format, then You'll find that taking out 3 or 4 cards will improve your deck balance A LOT. Any increase over the 35 makes it actually harder to have a good answer to your opponents' moves.

Definitely keep Aeon but try:
-1 Cripping
-1 Blake
-1 Jasmine

Tried Erika + Warrior training? usually can get rid of allies' power for a little while. If you wanna stick to 40 Cards, you might wanna put it in. I'm not a world expert for Amber, but usig it for a while, I understood how some defending allies change the games.

Or just maybe, I'm an Aeon worshipper.

[He-Man]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

[He-Man]

Looks very similar to what I'm using right now with just a few minor changes. I would definitely not get rid of Aeon as I usually find him useful when dealing with Gwen. I can usually cast him and have Gwen waste 2 durability on her Soul Seeker without gaining additional life. Also Aeon is great against shadow with their low damage allies.

You're still going to get a very tough fight with Jericho. The differences in our deck are the changes I made to give me a better chance against him. I'll give more input when I'm done with the tournament. I want to have a bit of an element of surprise for my opponents so i don't want to reveal my deck composition too much.

Hmm, interested to hear what changes you made to deal with Jericho. Guess I'll have to be patient for a little bit...

[He-Man]

Tried Erika + Warrior training? usually can get rid of allies' power for a little while. If you wanna stick to 40 Cards, you might wanna put it in. I'm not a world expert for Amber, but usig it for a while, I understood how some defending allies change the games.

Or just maybe, I'm an Aeon worshipper.

I tried the Erika + Warrior Training combo for a bit, and I think it is horrible... (Not surprisingly, ) Almost everyone has an easy way to deal with it. When investing 7 resources (even though I can put the combo down on turn 5 with this deck), you want something that swings the game for you, and this doesn't. A single Aeon is a better "combo" than Erika+Training, imho.

You were dead on that the deck runs smoother with less cards. I am sticking to the 40 cards though, as I sincerely hope this will be implemented as a rule soon. Even with the small number of cards to pick from currently, I think the game is way more strategic with 40 cards...

Currently running with -1 Jasmin, -1 Aldon, +1 Smashing Blow (Gwen-hate). The deck runs well in most cases without the Aeons (and then 4 Jasmins and 4 Aldons), as you are usually the "beatdown", however in some cases (Gwen) you will run into trouble and Aeon will end saving you the game sometimes. Most of the time I just sack him if I draw him early on