Banebow's Big Bad Beatdown

[Gondorian]

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).