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  1. #1
    Lead Developer / Designer Gondorian's Avatar
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    Banebow's Big Bad Beatdown

    This deck is 30 cards and was heavily influenced by the Zaladar Mega Rush deck. (Many thanks, Raphael, for inspiring and encouraging me!)

    My favourite thing about that Zaladar deck is that it is designed to always be able play one good card per turn (never a crap draw at any point), which means that you can establish and maintain board control, to eventually kill off a defenseless Hero.

    The other great thing I noticed was the regular pain dealt out by Zaladar's ability.

    I then wondered whether Banebow's similar but cheaper (and weaker) ability might be good for achieving quicker board dominance. My reasoning is that it kills a Blake and hurts Aldon on your turn 3 if you go second (finish Aldon with an arrow), and it can kill off a Blake and an Aldon when combined with your Gargoyle or Deathbone on your turn 4.

    The biggest hole in the deck, when you swap Zaladar for Banebow, is the lack of Mind Control. I decided to put in 4 Soul Seekers instead as they cost the same and do damage on the same turn you play them. Yes, the SS doesn't necessarily kill anyone but, when it does, it can give you some healing, which also makes up for the lack of Soul Reaper. To supplement the lack of Mind Control, I put in 4 arrows, which are cheap enough to allow you to play a creature or use Behemoth's ability if you have 5 or more to spend.

    Without further ado, here is the deck (currently 30-4 on Quick Matches):

    Banebow
    3x Deathbone (good to play early and his death hurts mages)
    3x Keldor (his self-pumping makes him tough enough to kill Aldon or Jasmine)
    4x Gargoyle (he takes at least 5 damage to kill, so tends to stay alive)
    4x Plasma Behemoth (5 HP makes him tough to kill and his built-in Fireball is fantastic)
    3x Chimera (another with 5HP, so tough to kill, and his self-pump is sometimes worthwhile)
    2x Poison Arrow (stick it on early allies or Raven and Aeon later)
    2x Flaming Arrow (see above)
    4x Shriek (save it for their best weapons and armors)
    4x Soul Seeker (mostly for healing or surprise kills)

    EDIT: For a 1.27 variant, drop 1 Shriek and 3 Deathbone and replace with 4 Death Mage. This is totally untested as of today though!

    If you search my replays (GondorianDotCom) there are some good matches there: Nitrify (40 card Majiya) and MazehMazeh (50 card Amber, with Dimension Ripper that stole my Soul Seeker and used it with Dual Wield - I staged an amazing comeback).

  2. #2
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    Draw engine? Or lack of one isn't a problem?
    Quote Originally Posted by AnAdolt View Post
    For the below response.... you have been banned.

  3. #3
    Lead Developer / Designer Gondorian's Avatar
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    It's no problem with 30 cards. I just play one good card per turn, sometimes two. Spare resources go on ally abilities. I stop at 5 or 6 resources, usually.

  4. #4
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    I'll have to watch your replays then. I'm curious about your success. I've played a variation of this build with moderate success, but not as high as yours.

    I like Banebow, as he's not nearly as predictable as Gwen is with puwen+aldon+beetle bow+soul seeker etc. Variation is essential right now as things are so stale... I wish I had access to the test server with my IPad to test decks etc.
    Quote Originally Posted by AnAdolt View Post
    For the below response.... you have been banned.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Darkloki's Avatar
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    I love me some banebow! I posted my deck in the other banebow thread. I see that you run a lot of creatures. I know u run 30 cards, do u get ur arrows early enough for that early board control. Or is it more of a monster generator type deck where u are pumping out allies every turn?

  6. #6
    Lead Developer / Designer Gondorian's Avatar
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    I play allies every turn from 3 onwards. The arrows are there like half-fireballs to do damage on bigger allies, which can be enough for a kill when combined with Banebow's ability and maybe a hit from a Gargoyle or suicidal Deathbone or PB's ability.

    BTW, this deck is now 13-1, with an 11 match winning streak. I have beaten a few Majiyas, an Amber, a couple of Gwens, a Jericho, a Darkclaw, can't remember the others. My one loss was to a Nishaven who managed to get all his best cards on the top half of his deck whereas my first Shriek was buried. I also made a very bad early mistake in that game, but I have learned my lesson and am now 11 wins in a row.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Carbon_911's Avatar
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    Had two great matches against this deck with my Boris. Any wrong moves made by me would have been a loss in both cases for sure. And like we discussed, the only ally that can be a problem for this deck is Aeon, but I believe there's an Achilles heel to all decks. He can be overcome but its very hard

    Love the deck GDC
    Gamer Mind: Carbon_911


    Go for the throat...show no mercy..

  8. #8
    1.27 Tournament Champion Raphael Majere's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GondorianDotCom View Post
    This deck is 30 cards and was heavily influenced by the Zaladar Mega Rush deck. (Many thanks, Raphael, for inspiring and encouraging me!)

    My favourite thing about that Zaladar deck is that it is designed to always be able play one good card per turn (never a crap draw at any point), which means that you can establish and maintain board control, to eventually kill off a defenseless Hero.

    The other great thing I noticed was the regular pain dealt out by Zaladar's ability.

    I then wondered whether Banebow's similar but cheaper (and weaker) ability might be good for achieving quicker board dominance. My reasoning is that it kills a Blake and hurts Aldon on your turn 3 if you go second (finish Aldon with an arrow), and it can kill off a Blake and an Aldon when combined with your Gargoyle or Deathbone on your turn 4.

    The biggest hole in the deck, when you swap Zaladar for Banebow, is the lack of Mind Control. I decided to put in 4 Soul Seekers instead as they cost the same and do damage on the same turn you play them. Yes, the SS doesn't necessarily kill anyone but, when it does, it can give you some healing, which also makes up for the lack of Soul Reaper. To supplement the lack of Mind Control, I put in 4 arrows, which are cheap enough to allow you to play a creature or use Behemoth's ability if you have 5 or more to spend.

    Without further ado, here is the deck (currently 10-1 on Quick Matches):

    Banebow
    3x Deathbone (good to play early and his death hurts mages)
    3x Keldor (his self-pumping makes him tough enough to kill Aldon or Jasmine)
    4x Gargoyle (he takes at least 5 damage to kill, so tends to stay alive)
    4x Plasma Behemoth (5 HP makes him tough to kill and his built-in Fireball is fantastic)
    3x Chimera (another with 5HP, so tough to kill, and his self-pump is sometimes worthwhile)
    2x Poison Arrow (stick it on early allies or Raven and Aeon later)
    2x Flaming Arrow (see above)
    4x Shriek (save it for their best weapons and armors)
    4x Soul Seeker (mostly for healing or surprise kills)

    If you search my replays (GondorianDotCom) there are some good matches there: Nitrify (40 card Majiya) and MazehMazeh (50 card Amber, with Dimension Ripper that stole my Soul Seeker and used it with Dual Wield - I staged an amazing comeback).
    Thank you for the tribute.

    This deck is super in terms of concept. I will continue to test out. I included some of my tweaks.

    Firstly, the idea of establishing control earlier than Zaladar is super- esp your explanation on Blake/Aldon.

    The explanation on the lack of Mind control and the benefits of having SS is also excellent. Wow, the post is short but covered a lot of ground.

    My tweaks - I just had 1 game and I completed over-whelmed my opponent. I am still very much at the testing stage.

    I placed 4 Chimera - because I thought the deck needed more power to kill enemy allies due to lack of MC.

    I replaced 4 arrows with 4 Bella - I wanted to see if Bella's draw is any good for this deck. I may replace the Bellas with Gravebone.

    What's significantly better about Banebow over Zala? The SS.

    Just one note to new players about my use of the SS. I only use it to attack if I have to. Which is super. Zala's DR is too unpredictable.

    At one turn, I had a Plasma out, I had a bow out. I had 4 SE. Superb, WOW WOW, control of the board. (4 Dmg, 3 Dmg, 2 Dmg x 2, 2dmg x 1 (SS) ) - of which I can choose how to allocate the dmg to maximize further control - wow wow.

  9. #9
    1.27 Tournament Champion Raphael Majere's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Raphael Majere View Post
    Thank you for the tribute.

    This deck is super in terms of concept. I will continue to test out. I included some of my tweaks.

    Firstly, the idea of establishing control earlier than Zaladar is super- esp your explanation on Blake/Aldon.

    The explanation on the lack of Mind control and the benefits of having SS is also excellent. Wow, the post is short but covered a lot of ground.

    My tweaks - I just had 1 game and I completed over-whelmed my opponent. I am still very much at the testing stage.

    I placed 4 Chimera - because I thought the deck needed more power to kill enemy allies due to lack of MC.

    I replaced 4 arrows with 4 Bella - I wanted to see if Bella's draw is any good for this deck. I may replace the Bellas with Gravebone.

    What's significantly better about Banebow over Zala? The SS.

    Just one note to new players about my use of the SS. I only use it to attack if I have to. Which is super. Zala's DR is too unpredictable.

    At one turn, I had a Plasma out, I had a bow out. I had 4 SE. Superb, WOW WOW, control of the board. (4 Dmg, 3 Dmg, 2 Dmg x 2, 2dmg x 1 (SS) ) - of which I can choose how to allocate the dmg to maximize further control - wow wow.
    Played 14 games with my version of Godorian's deck.

    It's now officially my current fav deck - great job, godorian!

    Win/Lose - 12 Wins/2 losses. Not bad.

    As with all board control decks, the main difficult opponents are warriors with BF, becos they will summon allies faster than you can cope.

    Boris will be the toughest since there will be more allies in a Boris deck compared to a Amber deck. Carbon_911 suggest Aeon may be a problem for this deck.

    So I prayed for a ally heavy- fatties heavy Boris. Got my wish, and also got defeated. (1 of the 2 losses I had)

    But he was super lucky to have been able to kill my 2 consecutive Plasmas - had he not done so, I would have regain board control and won. What's more, this player played well and had a decent deck.

    My first plasma got killed by by a Raven, who was already in play. He played War banner and Aldon on the same turn. (Wow!) Raven buffed up to 5 dmg and killed my PB.

    I destroyed the Raven, Aldon AND War banner.

    My second PB got killed by a Aeon, who got buffed suddenly by a Kings Pride - Deju Vu. Aeon (3 + 2 = 5 dmg) killed my 2nd PB.

    Oh well, life goes on.

    What got my worried was the Lance (LANCE?!) deck that dealt me my second loss. He went first, granted but the inability to recover was a nagging thought in my mind.

    My Keldors, Plamas, Gargoyles, Chimeras got killed by the Jasmines/Aldons imbued with Lance's stealth and ambush. I need to rewatch that game and see if arrows would have changed the game.

    My current deck:

    (the card comments - I copied from Godorian's post!)

    1 Banebow

    4 x Bella
    4 x Keldor (his self-pumping makes him tough enough to kill Aldon or Jasmine)
    4x Gargoyle (he takes at least 5 damage to kill, so tends to stay alive)
    4x Plasma Behemoth (5 HP makes him tough to kill and his built-in Fireball is fantastic)
    4x Chimera (another with 5HP, so tough to kill, and his self-pump is sometimes worthwhile)
    4x Soul Seeker (mostly for healing or surprise kills)
    4 Shrieks
    1 Bloodlust

    Card comments taken from Godorian's post!

    Bloodlust is the extra card slot. Any suggestions to my tweaks?

    Why I remove arrows:

    I feel that in early game, Keldors/Gargoyles/ Banebow's ability can deal with 2cc/3cc allies easily. So hence, arrows are for mid-game/late game. In late game, IMO, arrows are too slow for Aeons, to a certain extent - Raven.

    Hence I removed them in favor for 1 more Keldor, 1 more Chimera and 4 Bellas. I figured that these allies can be summoned early and hence when Aeon comes out, it can be dealt with easily.

    One last thing about my version of this deck:

    Depending on what hero my opponent uses, I can adapt my strategy accordingly.

    For example:

    use Keldors/Bellas - vs slow decks, decks requiring allies to inflict damage. Keldors/Bellas can wipe out opponents army, coupled with timely use of Soul Seeker and Banebow's ability.

    use Gargolyes/Chimera vs Majiya/Gwen. High endurance, use chip damage to dmg opponent or dmg opponents allies. These stay around for a long time.

    Suggestions welcomed!
    Last edited by Raphael Majere; 07-17-2011 at 07:52 PM.

  10. #10
    Lead Developer / Designer Gondorian's Avatar
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    Great to see you having success with this deck, Raphael. Thanks for sharing your views and your changes.

    My concern about dropping the arrows is that Aeon and friends tend to kill off your allies as you play them, whereas the arrows can cause definite damage to Aeon, and eventually break the lock. Saying that though, I still lost to Carbon's Boris, so maybe an alternative answer is required. The only one I can think of is to never let the lock happen, which would require dealing with their allies quickly and effectively and making sure a Plasma Behemoth is on the field and ready to shoot by turn 6.

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