Gravebone Meatgrinder

[Morpheous Unleashed]

Here's my attempt at a weenie deck. It seems to work pretty well so far, in fact some games it has handed out some downright brutal ass kickings. It's made for 40 card format, but could easily be tuned down to 30.

1 Gravebone

4 Fire Snake
4 Hellsteed
4 Dark Flayer
4 Carniboar
4 Infernal Gargoyle

4 Portal
4 Bloodlust
4 Lightning Strike
4 Bad Santa
3 Shriek of Vengeance

[Harakhte]

Here's my attempt at a weenie deck. It seems to work pretty well so far, in fact some games it has handed out some downright brutal ass kickings. It's made for 40 card format, but could easily be tuned down to 30.

1 Gravebone

4 Fire Snake
4 Hellsteed
4 Dark Flayer
4 Carniboar
4 Infernal Gargoyle

4 Portal
4 Bloodlust
4 Lightning Strike
4 Bad Santa
3 Shriek of Vengeance

A true weenie deck. I would suggest, from personal experience, two main adjustments:

-Firstly, Bad Santa doesn't need to be at 4x in 40 for GB, while for the current meta Shriek probably should be. Yes, you CAN cripple yourself resource-wise by over-use of Shriek early, but you want to have it when you do need it and in 40 cards that equals 4 copies. Bad Santa, with GB at least, often seems like overkill, especially in the true weenie format. You are guaranteed ally draw at a very quick rate (albeit from your graveyard) so you have to realize there are really only two points in a game when you want three extra cards from your deck, and those are T2 without a weenie in hand (highly unlikely) and late game when you are digging through your deck hoping for a swing draw. Otherwise, you aren't so much interested in drawing quickly as you are in setting up the recursion with a decent set of allies. Also, you are missing a key Shadow weenie that you could include very easily along with this change. So this boils down to: -2 Bad Santa, -1 Flayer, -1 Boar, +1 Shriek, +3 Brutalis.

-Secondly, you need at least one 5 drop even in a true weenie, the most simple explanation being "Boris". Also, an SK hurts a heck of a lot coming through a Portal, and is more resource:damage and resource:effect efficient than either PB or the Mino for your use. Like this: T1 Snake, T2 Brut/Flayer/Boar/Snake+Steed/2xSteed, T3 Garg/2cc+Steed/Snake+2xSteed/etc, T4 Portal, T5 SK/Garg+2cc/2cc+Bloodlust/etc, T6 Steed+2cc+Bloodlust/etc.

I could go on about the general utility of having Thaddeus and Bella as well, (-1xSnake, -1xSteed, -1x Bloodlust, -1~2x2cc, -1xGargoyle, +3 DM, +2~3xBella) on top of an SK or two, but you seem to be doing well with the paradigm you have. I will say that in higher competitive tiers, the true weenie rush can run out of gas though GB helps with that, as shown by the lack of a truly competitive Zaladar Shard deck. It is generally more prudent, and often finishes games even faster, to carry your creature curve to 5cc when you have access to Portal and Bloodlust.

Good work, and good luck. Cheers,
-Harakhte

[ertai88]

Thanks for sharing. Please share with us how are you faring with it versus other Heroes.

[Morpheous Unleashed]

A true weenie deck. I would suggest, from personal experience, two main adjustments:

-Firstly, Bad Santa doesn't need to be at 4x in 40 for GB, while for the current meta Shriek probably should be. Yes, you CAN cripple yourself resource-wise by over-use of Shriek early, but you want to have it when you do need it and in 40 cards that equals 4 copies. Bad Santa, with GB at least, often seems like overkill, especially in the true weenie format. You are guaranteed ally draw at a very quick rate (albeit from your graveyard) so you have to realize there are really only two points in a game when you want three extra cards from your deck, and those are T2 without a weenie in hand (highly unlikely) and late game when you are digging through your deck hoping for a swing draw. Otherwise, you aren't so much interested in drawing quickly as you are in setting up the recursion with a decent set of allies. Also, you are missing a key Shadow weenie that you could include very easily along with this change. So this boils down to: -2 Bad Santa, -1 Flayer, -1 Boar, +1 Shriek, +3 Brutalis.

-Secondly, you need at least one 5 drop even in a true weenie, the most simple explanation being "Boris". Also, an SK hurts a heck of a lot coming through a Portal, and is more resource:damage and resource:effect efficient than either PB or the Mino for your use. Like this: T1 Snake, T2 Brut/Flayer/Boar/Snake+Steed/2xSteed, T3 Garg/2cc+Steed/Snake+2xSteed/etc, T4 Portal, T5 SK/Garg+2cc/2cc+Bloodlust/etc, T6 Steed+2cc+Bloodlust/etc.

I could go on about the general utility of having Thaddeus and Bella as well, (-1xSnake, -1xSteed, -1x Bloodlust, -1~2x2cc, -1xGargoyle, +3 DM, +2~3xBella) on top of an SK or two, but you seem to be doing well with the paradigm you have. I will say that in higher competitive tiers, the true weenie rush can run out of gas though GB helps with that, as shown by the lack of a truly competitive Zaladar Shard deck. It is generally more prudent, and often finishes games even faster, to carry your creature curve to 5cc when you have access to Portal and Bloodlust.

Good work, and good luck. Cheers,
-Harakhte

Thanks for the great suggestions! Yeah I definitely went back and forth between 4 Shrieks. It would have been 4 if I wasn't such a stickler on minimum deck size (ingrained through long years of MtG). I liked having 4 Santas so I could increase the chances of a "Santa Bomb", not to mention with such low cost allies. I can cast Santa, and still drop a couple allies. Weenie decks run out of gas really quickly, and they help keep the momentum going. A loss of momentum is the biggest weakness of any weenie deck. I'll try it with 3 though and see how it goes. This deck is really just an experiment anyway, I doubt if it has the chops to be a tournament contender.

Normally in any shadow deck I play, Brutalis > all 2 cost allies. I left him out here because I wanted to hit hard and fast, and I figured survivability was less important with Gravebone's hero ability. I have come to rethink that stance though. Having too many allies that are easily killed is causing a huge loss of tempo and that is a real problem. Especially mages using Lightning Strike and Arcane Burst. So the Brutes are back in. I'll probably ditch the Carnivoars, which really suck in a Retreat! filled meta game.

I was trying to avoid using higher cc allies like Bella and SK. However, this deck really needs the SK's. They are just too good with Portal out, and give you some punch later in the game (where weenie decks typically stall). I'm more worried about Boris crippling my Flayers, than having him kill one every four turns. You don't need to sing the praises of the Death Mage to me, he's pretty much an auto 3 of in any shadow deck that I play. I should probably put him back in lol. Again, this deck was mostly just an experiment that came about while screwing around with an elemental shard deck, and wishing I had Portal. It can get some really fast wins if you get a decent draw, especially if you go first, but does tend to falter if you get a less than ideal opening hand (though this can be said of a lot of other decks too).

I appreciate the feedback! I'll tweak it a bit and see if I can make it a bit more consistent.

[Morpheous Unleashed]

Thanks for sharing. Please share with us how are you faring with it versus other Heroes.

It's really certain cards that are causing me problems more so than particular heroes. For example, I can run over a Gwen deck before she can get Rapid Fire/Soul Seeker going with a decent draw. Mages are a problem with so many ways to nuke multiple weenies at once. I tend to do pretty well against warriors and priests. I've found that warriors tend to save their Crippling Blows for things like Gargoyles and Bellas, and by the time they realize they are getting zerged it is too late. I can destroy priests if I hold a Shriek for the ubiquitous turn 4 staff, and nuke it as soon as it comes down. Cards like Voice of Winter, Snow Sapphire, Curse, etc. really hurt and need to be destroyed the second they come down. Having 4 Shrieks is a must.