Close

Page 1 of 4 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 32
  1. #1
    DP Visionary Preybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    9,044
    Tournaments Joined
    1
    Tournaments Won
    0

    Birdie's Hero Breakdown - Gravebone

    Ok, this time I'm tackling the undead mage Gravebone. Many thanks to Buqs, Fou DeLile, Ahmet476 and Xander Spitfire for their help with this one.

    ----------------------------

    Intro

    Gravebone is one of the most interesting heroes out there because his playstyle is quite unique in this game, revolving around the concept that no ally can be permanently killed. The most famous Gravebone deck of course is Killtrend’s Gravebella way back when, which took advantage of GB’s old ability (back to hand, not to play), Belladonna and Portal, which gave you recyclable threats and draw in one.

    Unfortunately Gravebone’s ability change killed that deck archetype; however he still has plenty of tricks up his undead sleeve.

    Overview

    Gravebone’s ability, like other ally centric abilities, forces you to run allies (of course). However because his ability allows you to recycle your allies, there is actually two schools of thought here. One is that you need as many as possible to provide fuel for his ability, the other is that you can go ally light because you will get unprecedented value for the allies you do have. Personally I find 14-16 allies a good number to run, and I actually only run 4 5cc or higher allies, simply because I can keep cycling them.

    Now in addition to his ability and the Shadow ally pool, Gravebone also has access to the mage pool which is as we all know is excellent, filled with direct damage and board control solutions. Of particular note are the ubiquitous Fireball, Lightning Strike and Supernova, but he has another wonderful control option in Consuming Fear, and it boosts his early game considerably (without a direct damage ability his early game is weaker than the other mages).

    He also has his standard draw option in Tome of Knowledge, and can make excellent use of Sacrificial Lamb, bringing back allies he kills with it. His main weakness is his complete lack of healing and without the board control ability of his counterpart Majiya he is particularly vulnerable to rush.

    Allies

    The backbone of any Gravebone deck and there are many to choose from. Personally I advocate a healthy mix of allies, with a good enough early game to cover Gravebone’s weaknesses in that area, and the late game win cons that never end.

    Call of the Crystals

    • Infernal Gargoyle: Gravebone needs Gargoyle’s survivability more than most, so this is generally a 4 x auto-include. His low attack is not so much of an issue in mage decks because they have many ways to supplement it. Also bringing these guys back time and time again is also troubling for some heroes (Zaladar in particular).

    • Plasma Behemoth: A big ugly threat that must be killed immediately. The problem for your opponent is that with Gravebone death is temporary, and you can just keep cycling this guy, putting a massive drain on your opponent’s resources.

    • Molten Destroyer: Another big ugly threat, the problem is that this one is much easier to deal with without killing it, thus negating Gravebone’s ability.

    • Shadow Knight: If you’re running a Portal build you put four in; it’s as simple as that. The hasted Shadow Knight loop is one of the most dreaded situations in this game. Gravebone makes the Shadow Knight loop so much more powerful because he can sort his graveyard, fixing the loop by resurrecting those allies that get in the way. It also gives you another ally on the board, and with hasted 5 damage beats coming through a Portal, you can assert dominance pretty quickly.


    Dark Prophecies

    • Ironhide Karash: Survivable allies are the order of the day with Gravebone, and this guy provides massive bang for your buck in most cases. Awesome early game power means even going second you can deal with almost anything (Karash w/ Fireball will wipe ANY 3cc drop). He’s also damn solid through Portal if you choose that route and he is a nifty form of pseudo item destruction.

    • Morbid Acolyte: This ally is quickly becoming an auto-include in all Shadow decks and with good reason, survivability second only to Gargoyle and a killer ability to boot. This guy is the preferred 3cc drop going first as you can use his ability to shut down your opponent’s allies if need be on turn 4 (think Champion of Irum and Gargoyle).

    • Sun-Blighted One: Okay, one look at this ally tells you he was designed specifically for Gravebone. Unfortunately the bilateral SE acceleration tends to harm you more than help you, giving your bad matchups (Zaladar, Banebow, Amber as an example) quicker access to their abilities, and the ping damage does little. The buffed beastie on return is nice, but as a vanilla 5/4 SBO is easy enough to remove. Still SBO does have use in a rush style strategy, allowing you to dump many threats early, and revive those that fall much quicker. The aim is of course to get enough damage in early and then switch to burn late game.

      He (she?) is also very useful in one deck type, the Voice of Winter/Snow Sapphire stall freeze deck. Combined with your DoT’s you can actually ping your opponent down very fast, and it doesn’t really matter if SBO doesn’t stick because your goal in this case is cycling them (any hits they get in are a bonus).

    • Kairos Doombringer: Now this guy is a beatstick. And if your opponent cannot disable him he’ll deal incalculable damage to them and their ally line when you keep cycling him. Watch out for disabling effects however, as they’ll upset his momentum.
    Extra Tough Claws - Proud Member of ETC

    Articles | Decklist | Fan Fiction

    Shadow Era Art Thread | PB @ DeviantArt

    PFG Member | I've been interviewed!

  2. #2
    DP Visionary Preybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    9,044
    Tournaments Joined
    1
    Tournaments Won
    0
    Abilities and Items

    Where much of the magic happens (geddit?). Mages have always been loved and loathed for their abilities, and despite being more ally-centric Gravebone is no exception. However while Call of the Crystals is chock full of awesome, Dark Prophecies really only adds one card to the list of mage must-haves. One general rule (care of Buqs and Fou) I find that rings particularly true with Gravebone is that the deck must include two of these for effective board control: Supernova, Portal and/or Dagger of Unmaking.

    Call of the Crystals

    • Fireball: 4 unconditional damage for 3 resources. There is little more to say. Woe betide the opponent who finds himself at 8 health vs a mage, for they shall suffer a DFFTW (Double Fireball For The Win).

    • Lightning Strike: Two hits for 3 damage, its Zaladar’s ability in a handy travel pack. Excellent for controlling the board while still pinging away at the hero. It does usually require help to kill allies however, but that’s rarely a problem for a mage.

    • Supernova: Board wipes are always fun. Gravebone can make the most use of this however, wiping the board then bringing back some monstrous threat with his ability.

    • Tome of Knowledge: Unilateral draw, and one of the best. To really make the most of it however you need lots of cheap allies, so you’ll have that 2 resources spare to be able to trigger it.

    • Portal: While not as effective as in a Majiya deck (you don’t get the extra draw to power it like she does, or the free direct damage to control the board prior), Gravebone has one advantage, he can revive allies to repair Shadow Knight loops (as mentioned earlier). This also means he can flood the board more easily than Majiya can.

    • Sacrificial Lamb: Gravebone loves this card, LOVES it I say. With his ability it’s basically a one way Santa. If your ally is crippled it’s even better, Gravebone’s ability brings it back to full effectiveness while you gain cards from it! Win win!

    • Dagger of Unmaking: A great control tool for Gravebone heading into the mid game, if your opponent drops single allies this can keep them under control without having to rely on Supernova and give you a chance to build up.


    Dark Prophecies

    • Consuming Fear: Crippling Blow for mages. This thing is a rush-breaker, and Gravebone really needs rush-breakers. It can allow him to stall until he gets a board presence, or at the very least until he can board wipe.


    Victor Fries

    (Mr. Freeze for all you non-Batman fans)

    Okay, this is going under a different heading because it’s a particular style of gameplay that Gravebone can really exploit. I wouldn’t rate it super competitive, but it is definitely interesting and very powerful when it gets going. The reason Gravebone can exploit this style is that his ability bypasses Voice of Winter, because allies brought back from the graveyard are not summoned. This means you can actually turn Voice of Winter from a bilateral to a unilateral effect with some clever play.

    Now your core cards for this playstyle are as follows:

    • Voice of Winter: The core of the deck, shuts down allies as they enter the board.

    • Snow Sapphire: Shuts down enemy heroes who decide to go down the weapon route, also refreezes those allies you don’t kill in time.

    • Engulfing Flames & Poison Gas: As the ultimate goal of this deck is to slow your opponent down, the DoT’s are very useful. Get at least one down early if you can.

    • Evil Ascendant: Pretty much every solo/semi-solo deck runs this, and it can be useful here too, even with all your burn. Evil Ascendant /w VoW means that all opponent’s allies will have taken 3 damage before they unstick.


    And here are a few allies that really come into their own in this style of deck:

    • Sun Blighted One: Ping damage, and a recyclable threat. SBO is really worth its weight in gold in this deck archetype, as it allows you to power your bypass strategy, plus gives you a big threat.

    • Frosted Urigon: Immune to your lock, so it can get swinging immediately.

    • Molten Destroyer: An interesting choice for sure, but it follows the theme of ping damage. He puts your opponent in a lose/lose scenario here, either leave him to thaw and take damage from attacks, or kill him before he does and take damage from doing so. Just don’t put him in the same deck as Evil Ascendant.

    • Furrion Terror: “You’re insane.” I hear you shout. Quite possibly, but there’s a method to my madness. Furrion Terror’s passive text states that it instantly dies when frozen, which seems counter intuitive to the deck right? Wrong. See, you summon him and he dies due to VoW. Then you instantly revive him with Gravebone to bypass the lock, giving you another Frosted Urigon in essence. Cute? Maybe, but it works. He’s also ally control without having to rely on Supernova.



    Playstyles

    The list:

    • Aggro: Also what I refer to as beatdown. You’re the aggressor, the proactive player aiming to force responses from your opponent. You hit fast and often. This sort of playstyle generally uses a lot of allies and/or weapons/direct damage. Aggro is a style of play that relies heavily on maintaining tempo. Mess that up and chances are you can overrun an aggro deck.

    • Control: The flip side to aggro, control aims to win by being reactive, constantly having the right answer until it’s ready to produce threats of its own. Control doesn’t so much rely on the tempo play, it’s more reliant on card advantage for the majority of the game.

    • Stall/Mill: The ultimate slowdown. We all know the main culprit here (Millstalker), though there are other stall decks around of varying levels of effectiveness. While these decks claim to win by decking you out (milling) they’re actually stalling you, milling is just a by-product of that.


    Gravebone can do aggro (Buqs from ETC loves his aggro GB), though I find it’s too reliant on getting a good starting hand as he doesn’t have an ability that’ll help him along in the early game. I find he fits best into that moderate control role, contesting the board until he can wipe and start dropping heavies, which makes him the slowest of the mages to get rolling.



    Extra Tough Claws - Proud Member of ETC

    Articles | Decklist | Fan Fiction

    Shadow Era Art Thread | PB @ DeviantArt

    PFG Member | I've been interviewed!

  3. #3
    DP Visionary Preybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    9,044
    Tournaments Joined
    1
    Tournaments Won
    0
    Matchups

    Okay here we go. There are a number of ways to build for Gravebone, but I’ve put together a pretty straightforward deck example, no fancy tricks, just grind your way to victory:

    1 x Gravebone

    4 x Ironhide Karash
    4 x Infernal Gargoyle
    3 x DMT
    2 x Morbid Acolyte
    3 x Plasma Behemoth
    4 x Fireball
    4 x Lightning Strike
    3 x Supernova
    2 x Consuming Fear
    3 x Tome of Knowledge
    3 x Sacrificial Lamb
    3 x Acid Jet
    2 x Dagger of Unmaking

    40 cards + hero

    This is a modified and tuned up version of my old “Behemoth” Gravebone, with more draw and a stronger early game.

    Boris Skullcrusher
    Matchup Quality: Medium
    Tactics: Boris’ ability is basically negated by your own, so that’s good news. The bad news however is that he has access to those annoying tools that make your life a misery; Crippling Blow and Retreat! You need to keep the pressure up constantly and not let him get a foothold. Plasma Behemoths are the A-List ally here (they are against all warriors), as they are still effective when crippled.

    Amber Rain
    Matchup Quality: Very Hard
    Tactics: Like Boris, only faster. Much much faster. This is a huge problem because when Amber can give a rush Eladwen trouble, Gravebone has little chance. Your best hope is Consuming Fear to blunt the rush and trying to hold Amber’s weapons back with Shriek. If you can get a Behemoth down that isn’t retreated or instantly killed you should be in with a chance. You have to force the Amber player into a control mode, so locking down the board is paramount.

    Victor Heartstriker
    Matchup Quality: Medium
    Tactics: Victor laughs at your fat allies, but only if they come one at a time. The solution? Bring them down in pairs. Gravebone can do this like no other thanks to his ability. The goal is to be able to activate your ability right after Victor has used his, so try to store it up so you can use it twice in a row. Keep his allies under control and win him on the attrition game.

    Gwenneth Truesight
    Matchup Quality: Very Hard
    Tactics: “Beautiful and deadly. A potent combination.” – Zapp Brannigan

    Yeah, that sums her up. Solo Gwen will basically tear you up unless she gets a shocking start, and allied Gwen isn’t much better. Your best hope is distraction tactics, and Behemoths are very very good at that. Still this is far from easy and every win against Gwen should be savoured like a fine wine.

    Nishaven
    Matchup Quality: Easy/Medium
    Tactics: With so many >4 health allies Nishaven will be hard pressed to keep you down for long, unless he gets off to a great rush. So once you break his tempo you should walk away with this.

    Eladwen Frostmire
    Matchup Quality: Hard
    Tactics: That freeze is annoying, far more than the 4 damage her ability deals. Like Victor, you need to time your ability to occur just after hers, using Sac Lamb to force your allies into the graveyard so you can revive them. Karash is worth his weight in gold here because he can take out Eladwen’s early allies with little risk to himself, and Consuming Fear will also help blunt that rush. But this is still far from easy.

    Jericho Spellbane
    Matchup Quality: Medium
    Tactics: Priests are slow, which means you can get the jump on them. They also have to kill allies to deal with them, which plays right into Gravebone’s bony hands. Without heal and with an ability that isn’t very effective against you, Jericho will struggle a bit. Always keep your ability ready for when those Tidal Waves come. However Priests have a fantastic new tool to annoy the crap out of you, Banish, so be prepared.

    Zhanna Mist
    Matchup Quality: Medium/Hard
    Tactics: Harder because of the heal, but I find Gravebone does a decent job of keeping up with Zhanna’s late game provided you can keep King’s Pride out of the picture. Keep her down and keep bringing back those threats. Watch for Retreat and have lots of burn ready. Once you get an unanswered Behemoth down it’s usually all over red rover.

    Lance Shadowstalker
    Matchup Quality: Hard
    Tactics: Lance is a hard matchup because he has many ways to shut your allies down without actually killing them, building up until such time as he has an unstoppable board presence. Use Karash to beat into his Anklebreakers, DO NOT attack Lance with any other ally, that’s what he wants you to do as it means he’s disabling many allies in one turn. Use your other allies to concentrate on his. Burn for the hasted and stealthed allies and keep him under control.

    Serena Thoughtripper
    Matchup Quality: Hard
    Tactics: Easier because she doesn’t have the hasted Ravens, harder because her weapons hurt A LOT more. Focus on the weapons and try and keep your hand as full as possible. Should she discard an ally with her ability you can bring it back, but make sure you drop other threats as well, or she will just disable your new found friend and keep you on the back foot.
    Last edited by Preybird; 05-23-2013 at 09:29 PM.
    Extra Tough Claws - Proud Member of ETC

    Articles | Decklist | Fan Fiction

    Shadow Era Art Thread | PB @ DeviantArt

    PFG Member | I've been interviewed!

  4. #4
    DP Visionary Preybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    9,044
    Tournaments Joined
    1
    Tournaments Won
    0
    Ter Adun
    Matchup Quality: Easy
    Tactics: As you have very few items and no Portals, you can take this without too much trouble. Get those Behemoths out and keep cycling them until they stick. Ter can’t rush effectively, so he’s not going to outpace you.

    Logan Stonebreaker
    Matchup Quality: Easy/Medium
    Tactics: Logan is harder than Ter because his ability is actually useful against you. Like Victor and Eladwen, time your ability to fire AFTER his, bringing back the ally he’s just killed. He’s going to be forced to use it on Behemoths, which means your other allies are free to beat down weapons and his allies.

    Banebow
    Matchup Quality: Hard/Very Hard
    Tactics: Banebow will outpace you in the early game, it’s a given. He will heal off your allies, another given. You need to shut down his draw and try and starve him. Karash is borderline useless in this matchup besides being a meatshield. You have one advantage; that Bane isn’t the quickest in the mid/late game, whereas you can keep bringing back big thumping threats. If you can fatty roll him you will take this. IF.

    Baduruu
    Matchup Quality: Medium
    Tactics: Baduruu is interesting, resource destruction Baduruu will suffer due to your ability, whereas the conventional Baduruu is actually much harder. Ally flood is the order of the day, forcing him to use up his responses on your never ending tide of threats. Lots of cheap allies are actually really good here, and you have some toughies in Gargoyle and Acolyte. Deal with his draw as soon as possible however, particularly if he’s using Pride of the Mountain.

    Majiya
    Matchup Quality: Medium/Hard
    Tactics: Majiya is faster than you and better looking too, so this is a tricky matchup. Your board control isn’t close to hers, so you’ll be relying on Morbid a lot to help with Karash and Gargoyle. Shriek those Portals to slow her down. A good tip with Majiya, always have 2 allies out, it makes it difficult for her to deal with using Portals alone. Many Portal Majiya decks do not run Supernova so you can flood them. Just be careful they don’t pull a nasty surprise, though you do have a backup in Gravebone’s ability.

    Gravebone
    Matchup Quality: Medium
    Tactics: Who can get the biggest ugliest guy to stick first? That’s the goal here. There is a lot of back and forth in a mirror match, and they’re always a good battle. If you can assert total board dominance you will win. Failing that if you get a really strong start and can swarm early you can generally take it.

    Elementalis
    Matchup Quality: Hard
    Tactics: Without Retreat this is a tough matchup, so if you’re coming up against a lot of Elementalis’ you need Darkwood Wraith. End of story. Consuming Fear will annoy him, but it’s hardly a permanent solution. Go for the face and use lots of cheap allies (never forget about Mind Control). Just don’t flood the board, Elementalis likes Energy Discharge.

    Zaladar
    Matchup Quality: Medium/Hard
    Tactics: The bane of mages everywhere. This guy is problematic because he shuts down your fatty roll strategy (Mind Control again), so you have to improvise. Zal players tend not to use Energy Discharge because their ability does a fine job of keeping the board under control most of the time. Gargoyles are the trick here, lots of them. They are your number one target for your ability too. Just ensure there are no Acolytes on the Zal player’s side.

    Darkclaw
    Matchup Quality: Very Hard
    Tactics: Ugh. Darkclaw. You have no heal and he has endless weapons and a lot of stall power. This is basically an auto loss unless you can drop so much damage potential that he is forced to play the control game (which is hard because he’ll just drop Full Moon and keep beating face). Shriek is your ace in the hole here, not for weapons, but for Full Moon, Rain Delay and draw engines. Also Sever Ties is a must have if you know DC is coming.

    Should you win this you should immediately buy a lottery ticket.

    Moonstalker
    Matchup Quality: Easy
    Tactics: If there’s one hero I can truly rely on to bring the hurt to Moonstalker, it’s Gravebone. Endless Behemoths and a crapton of burn mean that nothing he uses will stick, and it renders his ability near useless. Captured Prey does little as well, because you Sac Lamb allies and return them over and over again. Even the dreaded Millstalker will have no end of trouble with GB as he can’t keep threats down. It’s going to be a long battle, but rest assured inevitability is on your side, and Moon knows it.


    Conclusion

    Honestly I would say Gravebone is one of the stronger control heroes in the game, however his lack of heal really lets him down in this regard and does prevent him from going down the complete control path like say Zhanna. So as a result I feel he’s a hero that hasn’t quite lived up to his potential in this game so far, though he is a lot of fun to play.
    Extra Tough Claws - Proud Member of ETC

    Articles | Decklist | Fan Fiction

    Shadow Era Art Thread | PB @ DeviantArt

    PFG Member | I've been interviewed!

  5. #5
    Senior Member Buqs's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Georgia, USA (GMT-5)
    Posts
    2,308
    Tournaments Joined
    3
    Tournaments Won
    0
    I've already seen it...but it's still awesome

    The FT / VoW trick .....that's just beautiful man..not eveni would thought of that one
    Last edited by Buqs; 05-23-2013 at 01:28 AM.
    EveryThing Changes

    "The difference between the possible and the impossible lies within a persons determination" -- Tommy Lasorda

    Check out my decks and others at Shadowera.net. Shadowera's #1 Super Fan Site!



  6. #6
    DP Visionary Shadowborn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    conquering Balor right now
    Posts
    451
    Tournaments Joined
    2
    Tournaments Won
    0
    Gravebone deserves the love hopefully because of your guide we'll see more GB players in the high ranks. Haven't seen one for a long long time
    IGN: A1 ShadowBeast

    I'm interested in seeing how you plan to kill a shadow

    MY COTC DECKS
    Nishaven Hybrid

    MY DP DECKS
    FT Trollers #1 Baduruu Shutdown

    Ter Stripper

    Serena the Card Sharp

    A1:Evolution in Theory

  7. #7
    Chat Mod SamuelJ's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    PA, USA (GMT -4)
    Posts
    5,381
    Tournaments Joined
    25
    Tournaments Won
    2
    Such an amazing write up. I think I'll build one tomorrow

  8. #8
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Posts
    131
    Tournaments Joined
    0
    Tournaments Won
    0
    I think ill try my hand at a GB deck now..

  9. #9
    DP Visionary FDL's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Posts
    4,188
    Tournaments Joined
    3
    Tournaments Won
    0
    Preybird: 4SE: Put target Hero back on the map.
    FDL TV!

    Channel | Thread | Twitter
    Deck Techs, Game Commentary, Replay Analysis and more!

    FDL Tips: The Metagame, Balance and You || Empty Hands
    LL Decklists: Serena || Elementalis

  10. #10
    DP Visionary Preybird's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    9,044
    Tournaments Joined
    1
    Tournaments Won
    0
    Quote Originally Posted by Fou DeLile View Post
    Preybird: 4SE: Put target Hero back on the map.
    I'm keeping this one
    Extra Tough Claws - Proud Member of ETC

    Articles | Decklist | Fan Fiction

    Shadow Era Art Thread | PB @ DeviantArt

    PFG Member | I've been interviewed!

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •