Banebow, 40 cards and ally-based

[weizhengjim]

I am very happy to see your opinions on Banebow. I still remember I played against your banebow in a quickgame. It surprised me so much that I began to use banebow until now. I almost have the same deck as you. Following is my 40 deck:
1x Banebow

4x Brute
4x Gargoyle
2x Medusil
2x Keldor
2x Bella
4x Plasma Behemoth

2x Poison Arrow
2x Flaming Arrow
2x Bloodlust
4x Shriek

3x Death Trap
4x Wrath of the Forest
4x Soul Seeker

Brute, Gargoyle, Plasma Behemoth, Wrath of the Forest and Soul Seeker are the key cards for this deck.

Bella can be change to chimera or Keldor. I won't cast Bella before Wrath of the Forest. I am a totally pessimist. So I always cast Wrath of the Forest on 4th turn or 3 cost ally.

Death Trap is especially for Lance. He is similar with banebow who can help allies get board control. If you can't clean the board before Lance cast his Aeon, it will be hard to win. So the death trap can delay aeon, and you have more time to clean the board.

This deck can be really stronge if you can begin with Brute – Gargoyle – Wrath of the Forest. But, if you play against Mages without Gargoyle on 3th and 4th turn, you will be hard to get board control.

Another weak point, it's hard to kill opponent's gargoyle, especially against Majiya. Using posion/flaming Arrow or Soul Seeker to kill gargoyle is not a good idea. I usaully use Keldor or Plasma. But they are hard to survive under Majiya's spell and gargoyle.

4x Shriek are for curse, portal and some high cost armor(snow sapphire, king's pride) which can make you lose board control. If your opponent don't have that kind of cards, you can sacrificed them.

[Nands]

Most of the games I don't have time to use Death Trap, while Net Trap I can use on turn 2, I prefer net for the cost.
I just play Night Prowler when the board is clear, and that is why I use Beetle Demon Bow, its because of the cost, and against some decks with low allies you can use the bow abilities. 1 bow damage for cost 4 is great. 1 bow damage + 2 damage from Banebow ability = clean the board, that is why Brutalis works great with Banebow too.
I'm stilll making some test, I will try to remove the traps, put 1 more Medusil, maybe more arrows or into the forest.

[weizhengjim]

Actually, I don't think 40 deck is suitalbe for banebow. Because bazaar seems can't do good for banebow, and bad santa is really hard to use without benifit your opponent. Wrath of forest is really good. But it's hard to draw cards you want in a 40 deck. So I usually play a 35- deck for banebow. Any idea?

[Sisyphos]

You need 4 Shriek. Sometime you don't need that much but other time I would need more then that. There is nothing like blowing a Snow Sapphire or AoA to help you finish your opponent.

4 is certainly not wrong, but with 3 i barely ever didn't have a shriek when i needed one, which is not that often really as armors and weapons can be worn down by allies and your bows.

Brute are useless. Please don't waist your ability on Puwen keep it for the next turn when they play Jasmine or Aldon or even Raven. Puwen deal not enought damage to be a threat. Anything that you play on turn 3 will kill them. There is nothing worst late game when you top deck a Brute while you would have needed more muscle.

No man, that's just not the case. Puwen becomes an incredibly nuisance if you don't take care of him - he kills Bella, wears down your equipment and adds extra damage needed to remove an ally (even Plasmas after shield bash, lightning strike, an attack by another ally, what have you). It doesn't matter where the 3 damage are coming from (ability or allies), you need to deal them, but relying on your 3 drops for that doesn't work nearly as well as assigning that task to a Brute. Say you go first and respond with a Medusil to your opponent's Puwen. If he/she now plays a Jasmine you're in trouble (after you remove Puwen, Jasmine boosted by Aldon could remove your Medusil). Boris or Eladwen can also retreat Medusil to kill'er with their ability when you bring her back. Eladwen or Nishaven can remove her with a fireball. Gwen and Amber can retreat, then use their respective 4 cost weapons. Amber or Boris have crippling blows as well. There's a multitude of things that can go wrong early into the game without a Brute down, and the examples i've given are going first plays.
And Brute itself isn't a "useless" ally either. His damage output may look lame, but with 4 hitpoints he stays and his hits accumulate. He also wears down armors and weapons and acts as an additional carrier for Bloodlust. With Wrath of the Forest in play top decking a Brute is not the worst that could happen. Even without wrath he still needs to be taken care of by the other player and can often be equated with a 4 heal for 2 cost.

Only 2 bows - Without +damage that Gwen (and even Victor) has, Banebow isn't that great with bows, ironically as that sounds. I used to have 4, but I've found that I barely use it. I subbed 2 for Surprise Attack.

I'd consider running at least 1 bad santa and maybe one less SS. There are hands when you just need cards and having 3 SS should be enough to draw one when needed and enough to play more if destroyed.

I did run less than 4 soul seekers, but when being up against heavy aggro (speedy Majiyas or a complete set of human allies) i ended up needing this bow by turn 5 and not drawing it a couple of times. Esp. human allies are shredded by it even in the hands of Banebow. Well you could play arrows instead, but i found the healing effect to be invaluable against heroes that "go for the throat" such as Amber, Gwen and Majiya.

Another weak point, it's hard to kill opponent's gargoyle, especially against Majiya. Using posion/flaming Arrow or Soul Seeker to kill gargoyle is not a good idea. I usaully use Keldor or Plasma. But they are hard to survive under Majiya's spell and gargoyle.

True that, but there's really not much you can do about it. Banebow's best bet in that scenario are still Death Traps and they aren't exactly ideal either.

Actually, I don't think 40 deck is suitalbe for banebow. Because bazaar seems can't do good for banebow, and bad santa is really hard to use without benifit your opponent. Wrath of forest is really good. But it's hard to draw cards you want in a 40 deck. So I usually play a 35- deck for banebow. Any idea?

30 are definitely better. I posted it as a 40 card deck because that's the deck i'm often playing in the 40 card ladder.

[Darkloki]

Saw this thread and it thought it was awesome that Banebow finally got some attention around here! :P

Anyway, I was always trapped between 180 - 190 because whenever I would build a deck (I always use an underused hero) and saw some success, I would get bored and make another deck and lose a bunch of times until I tweaked it enough to start winning again. Rinse repeat.

I dug up my old Banebow deck and tweaked it and he turned out to be a whole lot of fun. When I started I was 185 and I have gotten to 205 in a couple of days. So I happened upon this thread and decided I would post my Banebow deck along with everyone else.

Banebow - 1

Deathbone - 3
Gargoyle - 4
Brutalis - 3
Behemoth - 4

Poison Arrow - 3
Flame Arrow - 3
Death Trap - 3

Into the Woods - 2
Bloodlust - 2
Shriek - 4

Night Prowler - 2
Wrath of the Forest - 2
Soul Seeker - 4

Plan
The idea is to get bored control as quickly as possible by destroying puwen/aldon/jasmine combos with arrows and BB's ability while getting out your creatures. The Soul Seekers are there to counteract burn and help remove creatures. Most creatures have an even number of hit points so use that to your advantage with the arrows, ability, and bows.

Cards
Brutalis - There for meat shield and extra damage... and to kick Blake in the nads.
Gargoyle - The hardest working monster in the Shadow, he's there for durability and extra damage.
PB - As always, the big daddy is there for final board control.
Deathbone - Controversial card. Not normally considered a good card but he's not there to be a "good" card. He is there for 2 reasons. 1) I run him into high hit point enemies to die. If he does not kill them outright, he will weaken them enough to be killed with BB ability or arrows. 2) For counter damage vs. burn. There's nothing cooler than having 2 or 3 deathbones out there and having a mage sac a supernova.

Fire Arrows/Poison Arrows - Kill enemy allies as soon as possible. These cards are essential and that is why I run 3 of each.

Death Trap - Alternate card. I have swapped out these cards and bloodlust for other various things to see if they worked. This deck is still in tweaking mode but these have been useful.

Bloodlust - This deck did not originally have these in there, but I there are times where crippling blow and things come into play and sometimes i can use the extra bump in damage to take out bigger enemies.

Into the Woods - There isn't a whole lot of ways to mitigate damage, so this is one of them. It is also good to play when you have Night Prowler out so you get a turn to steal stuffs.

Shrieks - 4 of these are a must for me. Mainly used on Soul Seekers and Beserker's Edge.

Nightprowlers - Played when board if clear for stealing stuffs.

Wrath of the Forest - Needed for card draw. Underrated card.

Soul Seekers - Needed for extra damage to take out monsters but mostly for healing purposes.

[qaz92zaq]

@ Darkloki I'm pretty sure I played you today (Darrkloki using a 203 banebow) it was a good game and very enjoyable but you seemed to suffer from a lack of allies I'd consider swapping 3-5 cards for chimeras bellas or some more 3 cost allies.

[Darkloki]

@ Darkloki I'm pretty sure I played you today (Darrkloki using a 203 banebow) it was a good game and very enjoyable but you seemed to suffer from a lack of allies I'd consider swapping 3-5 cards for chimeras bellas or some more 3 cost allies.

Thats me. Did i win? Lol. Anyhoo, yeah when things go bad the lack of allies can be exploited. Thats why it is so important to finesse that board contol. I will take a look and see what i can tweak. This deck is a total work in progress so tweaking is a constant thing, however and i am trying to avoid copying any else's build as well.

[qaz92zaq]

Thats me. Did i win? Lol. Anyhoo, yeah when things go bad the lack of allies can be exploited. Thats why it is so important to finesse that board contol. I will take a look and see what i can tweak. This deck is a total work in progress so tweaking is a constant thing, however and i am trying to avoid copying any else's build as well.

Search wsxxsw you'll probably remember the game since I don't know your deck it might have been a fluke (bad hand or something) but no you did not win.

[Dima]

Hmm, good deck, using it right now but changed 4 soul keepers for 4 net trap and feel very good=) Just cant understand when you guys use soul keeper? Id better use one more behemoth or ally+ trap then soul keeper, so what sense to spend 3 000 gold for the item that actually is not needed or am i not right?

[iClipse]

Hmm, good deck, using it right now but changed 4 soul keepers for 4 net trap and feel very good=) Just cant understand when you guys use soul keeper? Id better use one more behemoth or ally+ trap then soul keeper, so what sense to spend 3 000 gold for the item that actually is not needed or am i not right?

Soul seeker is one of the most powerful items in the entire game. Put it back in, NOW!

To answer your questions though: Soul seeker can add that little bit of extra damage when your opponent doesn't expect it, but more importantly: It can heal your hero. And trust me, when playing vs Majiya, you will want to have that heal. It also let's enemies take damage when they attack you, making them easier to kill when it's your turn again.