DCjG's "Dirty Tricks" Darkclaw Build (1.26/1.27)

[DCjG]

This build was inspired by quite a few factors:

1. A lot of people play on phones that constantly lose connectivity.
2. A lot of people play tuned 30 card Majiya builds to gain rank quickly.
3. I was in a losing streak and simply wanted to inflict pain/boredom on my fellow players.

I got tired of facing the same builds and decided to try to make a stall deck that would result in one of the following scenarios:

1. The player would lose connection eventually playing on a phone.
2. The player would run out of cards.
3. The player would rage quit.

The deck (Version 1.0):

1x Darkclaw

3x Speedstrike
4x What Big Teeth
2x Jewler's Dream

4x Lone Wolf
4x Full Moon
4x Regeneration
4x Rabid Bite
4x Captured Prey
4x Now You're Mine
4x Rain Delay
2x Shadowspawn
2x Shriek of Vengence

2x Plasma Behemoth

Total 44 cards


Dirty Trick #1: Lone Wolf
This deck follows the core tenants of the lone wolf build which aims to have a weapon, lone wolf and speed strike out at all times. As speedstrike is attached, it remains at 3x only to obtain it earlier in the random draw. While this isn't a big surprise to your oponenet usually, it's entire concept of the "lone wolf" build is sort of a "dirty" playstyle.

Dirty Trick #2: Jeweler's Dream
When playing against Wulven, most players save all of their item removal for What Big Teeth. By playing JD, you give yourself early options to play it in concert with Now You're Mine and Rain Delay. While those combos can be powerful to delay the game, the true aim of JD is to absorb at least one of their item removal cards. This is to ensure all 4 What Big Teeth are not removed as that is your ideal weapon in the middle/late game. People sometimes will remove Lone Wolf as well, which is good as that means the same sceanrio you're trying to create with JD.

Dirty Trick #3: Plasma Behemoth!
Yes, this isn't strictly an allyless build but for most of the game your opponenet will likely think you have no allies. Once you've almost exhasted your opponent of their cards, these guys can give you the punch to close the game out, especially if you've lost all your "teeth". Also, these guys can be played whenever you know they will not be killed outright in the next turn. The one caveat to playing PB is that you should NEVER PLAY THEM AGAINST A WARRIOR. Why? Because they can simply cripple them and then you have no way of removing them to benefit from Lone Wolf.

Dirty Trick #4: Full Moon
While you could play these with the PB's out, the true power of FM in this build is to buy rounds that will both heal you and bide time for rain delays. In addition, FM is well used on turns when you need to attack allies that will return serious damage to you. By playing Full Moon, any return strikes you incur will inflict zero damage. This is also very handy to chip away at Amber's weapons.

Drity Trick #5: Rabid Bite
While your opponent will expect this you can get really creative with it. This card can actually backfire on you though and play a dirty trick on you! Whatever you do, never play this card on Bridgette Skullborn. I was once fooled into playing it on her after being brought back from Earthern Protector. While this is a "bug" in the system, it's terribly important to know that this exists in the current 1.27 build and to plan around it. Very annoying. Instead, consider putting this on Aeon. Ideally, he'll hit those pesky Erikas that you have no other way of dealing with. Fortunately, people who actually play her, don't usually play more than two so Bite that Aeon to deal with them quickly. Some players like to bite the lesser allies to inflict damage on beefier allies but to ensure you have a full two rounds on your bite, be careful with that sort of play. I prefer to bite the big guys and then play "Captured Prey" on them to chip the remaining health off of them. Try to ensure your bitten prey will have at least two other allies to play. If they do not, RB cancels out and then they will actually be able to control them again in that round (which completely defeats our stall logic).

Dirty Trick #6: Regeneration
Your opponent is going to work hard to work your health down. Nothing frustrates more than using a couple of these in a single round to reverese the last two plays against you. The dirty trick here is carrying the maximum amount. A lot of players don't carry all four. This deck relies on them and you must never, ever sacrifice them.

Dirty Trick #7: Shadowspawn!
This card can be useful in a few scenarios but the single most important reason to play this card is to completely shut down Lance's ability to make his protectors invulnerable. If Lance has any protectors out and a lot of SE, use it. If he's pooling it up for use later, use it. Almost every Lance player out there uses this tactic now and it can ruin you if you're not prepared for it.

Dirty Trick #8: The dirtiest trick of all...
...use all the time you have on the clock. Remember, two win conditions you have is your opponent losing their connection or rage quitting. Nothing frustrates more than having made all your plays and then waiting out the clock. It's unforunate you'll have to do this to some of your friends but remember that you're playing this build to make a statement to all those noob tubers out there. Consider being nice and not playing as dirty if you come across 40 card decks and heros that are not typically used to excess.

Notes:

At least half of the games I've played with this build have quit on me or lost connection. That is quite significant. You will certainly make enemies and people will say nasty things about you and your mother. You should have tough skin like Darkclaw to play this sort of build.

Resourcing can be hard. If you sense you opponenet doesn't have a lot of weenies, consider sacrificing Now You're Mine. If the reverse is true and they're a rush deck, consider sacrificing a Captured Prey or two. Try to hold onto some though. Resourcing typically stops around 6 cards as that allows you to play two 3cc cards in one shot later on. It's very important to hold to this as you have zero draw engines. Fortunately, just about every card is going to be useful to you as a counter measure.

Consider shrieking anything that helps your opponent draw more cards. You're playing a slow and methodical build and your goal is to hold your opponent to that. For that reason, you will almost never shriek armor and weapons usless they pose an immediate threat. Nothing makes me happier than seeing someone play AoA as there is absolutly no benefit to the opponent in this match up.

This build will suffer to large decks but of the opponents out there, most run between 30 and 40 cards. Tougher opponents will likely be Gravebone (magic damange plus ally recursion) and anyone that has the ability to heal consistantly like Zhanna.

I pondered whether or not to post this build due to it's controversial approach to the game but figured out most people would quickly tire of it if they actually started playig it. I did after a day! This deck is quite beatable but many simply don't have the patience for the long haul.

To appease those who will groan that I'm posting this to the masses, I will also post the most effective counter approach to this deck. That approach is simply to build resources and deploy them "en mass" to overwhelm Darkclaw's pitiful damage. This shouldn't come as a big surprise to many experienced players but I've found it's still the most effective counter measure.

I don't actively play this build anymore but it's still effective so if any of you experiment with it, I'd love to hear your stories or modifications to the build.

[thunderdome]

Just the other day i built a deck like this after playing against someone using it against me lol. It is a VERY frustrating deck to play against lol. But i do like the idea of this deck, just to tick some people off haha.

[DCjG]

I was playing it a couple days ago for a bit... could have been me. Not many people play this but almost all variations center around the core "Lone Wolf" build.

[CodeDomination]

Moonstalker would be a better hero for this.

[thunderdome]

Moonstalker would be a better hero for this.

yeah he is better. The guy i played used moonstalker, so it couldnt of been you DCJG.

[DCjG]

The problem with moon stalker is that he'll take full damage when he's not hidden allowing for full spike damage which is EXACTLY WHAT YOUR OPPONENT SHOULD BE AIMING FOR IN BOTH CASES. Your strength with Moonstalker is also your weakness.

If Darkclaw doesn't have full moon or some other delay up (which is common), he can take it. If your opponent has 30 damage incoming and you have to take it, goodbye Moonstalker. 15 damage, by comparison is manageable on Darkclaw's end.

This build has practically zero allies so you're going to take hits and you're going to take a LOT of them. If you opponent has KP and an army up against you and you have a round you have to take hits... you're going to appreciate Darkclaw over Moonstalker.

Especially considering the current weenie rush fetish, Darkclaw holds his own. I challenge anyone to play the same build with Moonstalker and tell me it's got staying power equivalent to this.

For this type of build, I honestly think Moonstalker is inferior and the reason I chose him. Try it out for yourself if you can stand these types of games...

[DCjG]

I should also add that only doing damage with your teeth, you're going to have to accept some return hits. Moonstalker will shy away from doing chip damage on some opponents. With Darkclaw, unless they're doing 5-6 damage, you don't think twice about attacking them which allows you to be much more aggressive in killing allies which is crucial in containing your opponent.

It's a different play style and this build does not "bet the bank" on making them run out of cards... its simply one of the win conditions. Perhaps Moonstalker does better on the 30 card decks due to "decking" but you're going to face a lot of bigger decks as well and this has just as much staying power with those as it does with the 30 card decks.

I've served deck damage to an Elementalis mill deck after he renewed twice once... I think Darkclaw can hang with the best of them.

Unfortunately putting one against the other is just an awful idea otherwise I'd directly challenge the "Moonstalker is better" case.

People say Shadowstrike sucks too but I challenge those people to play it against Lance and tell me the same line. People used to say Logan sucked too and that Boris was superior in every way. Guess who's making a comeback there?

Darkclaw is just as viable, if not more, in a stall deck. One takes full damage half the time, the other, half damage all the time. What's certain is that you will take damage so who is better to take that when it does happen?

The counter to this entire strategy is spike damage. Keep that in mind when you choose your hero.

[Plague]

I don't agree with your statement that you should never play Plasma Behemoth against a warrior. Sure he can cripple the Plasma Behemoth, but unlike Captured Prey, Crippling Blow doesn't disable activated abilities so you can still use Plasma Behemoth's ability to deliver 4 damage each turn which will force your opponent to deal with Plasma Behemoth and that is precisely the reason why Plasma Behemoth and only him should be played in a Lone Wolf deck. Use any other ally instead of him and your opponent will just cripple and ignore him.

[bicin]

you really posted this deck! lol

in full detail

definitely going to try this

[CodeDomination]

Ok, so here is why moonstalker is better. You can stall for much longer with moonstalker. You should have to take burst hits. Early game you can rabid/crippling/number. When aeon hits the board is when I start stalling. Moonstalker lets u stall that much longer.