Zaladar the Glutton [1.503]

I haven't been going through the topics here yet so it's entirely possible that this deck uses a similar strategy from other players as it's not very complicated being my first attempt at a 1.503 death-race deck.

Current Deck (40 cards):
1 x Zaladar

4 x Keldor
4 x Infernal Gargoyle
4 x Brutalis
4 x Death Mage Thaddeus
2 x Ogloth the Glutton
(18 allies)

2 x Soul Reaper
4 x Mind Control
4 x Shadow Font
4 x Sacrificial Lamb
2 x Shriek of Vengeance
2 x Ley Line Nexus
(18 abilities)

3 x Dimension Ripper
(3 x items)

The deck started with a full compliment of Shadow Knights and Molten Destroyers, but these fast became my early draw auto resource, and were not working very well late game and getting in the way of better combos that were replaced by Keldor and Sacrificial Lamb. The deck can happily sit on 3/4/5 resources for a few turns with better control.

The concept is pretty simple being a death-race deck based around board control. There are a couple of strategies that are worth explaining which relies on a great synergy Zaladar has on T4 with Brutalis, Keldor, Sacrificial Lamb, Shadow Font, and Death Mage Thaddeus.

T2 Brutalis
T3 Keldor
T4 Keldor ability + Sacrificail Lamb on Keldor

This combo is particularly effective against human opponents as a buffed Keldor can kill any T3 human ally, and can draw Mind Control to keep fatties at bay. Whilst Infernal Gargoyle or Death Mage Thaddeus can be a better choice for Shadow Heroes depending on what is on the board with Brutalis. Without drawing a Sacrificial Lamb before T3 Keldor can be resourced unless no other 3 cost ally is drawn.

There are also the other usual control combinations at Zaladar's disposal.

Mind Control is never sacrificed unless the opponent's deck is identified as a solo deck. Shadow Font is another card that should be resourced very rarely.

[edit]
-3 Molten Destroyer
+1 Keldor
+2 Ogloth the Glutton

[edit]
-1 LLN
-1 Dimension Ripper
+2 Shriek of Vengeance

Demonstration play list

Vs Majiya

http://youtu.be/YTnR-DPfW40

Vs Zhanna Mist

http://youtu.be/sdmrT0PjYlY

Vs Serena Thoughtripper

http://youtu.be/jYfpdHHSqOQ

I have to admit, I love your ideas, Keaven!

But isn't it easier to just go SF t4 and kill their allies with your Brut and Garg while maintaining board presence? Then go DR t5 for the cards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Unruler

I have to admit, I love your ideas, Keaven!

But isn't it easier to just go SF t4 and kill their allies with your Brut and Garg while maintaining board presence? Then go DR t5 for the cards.

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This is a bit like the Blood Frenzy on T3? Question for warriors. Particularly for the human match up where you can still have board control after sacrificing Keldor, you will find it easy to keep board control with a hand full of cards. You can usually have several options here as well depending on whether you are player 1 or 2.

If you go first their T3 Jasmine cannot distract your T3 Keldor, and at best they will have Puwen on the board (Kristoffer or Birgette would be dealt with by Brutalis by then) which means you will be left with a Brute Vs a Puwen with 4 Shadow Energy on your next turn and 6 cards to choose from (of which you have 4 Mind Control and Shadow Font still in your deck) to combat their T4 summon. If another 4 HP ally comes out you can still clear the board, have your Brutalis alive and 4/5 resources available on your next turn to maintain control. This T5 can now also use another 3cc ally and Sacrificial Lamb eg:

T2 Brutalis
T3 Keldor
T4 Keldor's ability + Sacrificial Lamb on Keldor
T5 Keldor/DMT/IG + Sacrificial Lamb on Brutalis or 3cc ally

You will also be able to deal with any 4 HP ally they summon with Brutalis and Hero ability on T5. If a shadow Hero casts a Infernal Gargoyle then you not resource on T5 and use Shadow Font so that the next turn the IG will go down with second ability blast. On T6 you should be able to blast a Plasma Behemoth and finish off with Dimension Ripper, or Mind Control their T5 ally.

Sorry, but I simply cannot see how using sac lamb on anything but a crippled or about to die (from poison or burning) ally is a bad play. In the eg you give, you're losing 2 cards and a (2 or 4/4 ally in play, not to mention spending 5 resources for a net card gain of one. Sure its card advantage but its the perfect example of bad card advantage because you're losing board position at a critical time of the game. When you are at 4 resources, that ally in play is worth far more than 3 cards in hand. Plus, a retaliation bad Santa or even your own ripper will lose you some of that card adv because you're filling up your hand.

I've been playing a lot of zal recently, it doesn't need unilateral draw so badly that you have to resort to tricks like this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Unruler

I have to admit, I love your ideas, Keaven!

But isn't it easier to just go SF t4 and kill their allies with your Brut and Garg while maintaining board presence? Then go DR t5 for the cards.

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You've been watching too many of my games Unruler :)

I'm going to have to be very careful next time I bring Zal against you.

On topic: Cool looking deck Keaven! I do feel you could benefit from a Santa or two for those times you just don't have the board presence to sac an ally (or have no allies on board)

What if they fireballs your keldor?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by psychobabble

Sorry, but I simply cannot see how using sac lamb on anything but a crippled or about to die (from poison or burning) ally is a bad play. In the eg you give, you're losing 2 cards and a (2 or 4/4 ally in play, not to mention spending 5 resources for a net card gain of one. Sure its card advantage but its the perfect example of bad card advantage because you're losing board position at a critical time of the game. When you are at 4 resources, that ally in play is worth far more than 3 cards in hand. Plus, a retaliation bad Santa or even your own ripper will lose you some of that card adv because you're filling up your hand.

I've been playing a lot of zal recently, it doesn't need unilateral draw so badly that you have to resort to tricks like this.

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You can do enough damage with Shadow Font, and Mind Control and your opponent still feels they are at an advantage. Holding Soul Reaper for the right time clinches the win. You probably wouldn't see how it could work unless you try it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Preybird

...
On topic: Cool looking deck Keaven! I do feel you could benefit from a Santa or two for those times you just don't have the board presence to sac an ally (or have no allies on board)

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I have found a better alternative is replacing Molten Destroyer/LLN with Wulven Tracker.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bobwei

What if they fireballs your keldor?

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Then you don't sac next turn and play another 3cc ally, all the while increasing your Soul Reaper healing potential and avoiding 4 damage to your hero.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bobwei

What if they fireballs your keldor?

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t3 drops love firebawls :D I see your point Keaven. The deck looks great.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ahmet476

t3 drops love firebawls :D I see your point Keaven. The deck looks great.

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Yeah. It's actually great when they waste burn on one of 18 potential allies.

I've been playing with the idea of SacLamb in Zaladar, as other draw options (Bazaar, BS) aren't unilateral. This is a different take than I had and is certainly worth some thought.

Well done, mate.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harakhte

I've been playing with the idea of SacLamb in Zaladar, as other draw options (Bazaar, BS) aren't unilateral. This is a different take than I had and is certainly worth some thought.

Well done, mate.

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Feel free to post any variations you like.

Ok, I've been giving this a bit of thought:

If you were to remove the Soul Reapers and replace them with Eternal Renewal, or otherwise fit Eternal Renewal in additionally, you could aim to accelerate through your ally pool/SFs while holding your MCs and other key abilities.

The only issue with this approach is it needs more draw, either Bazaar or BS, to be consistently looped, and you would need a higher resource count a bit sooner.

This has been my main issue with SacLamb in Zaladar, and why I thought your approach to using it was quite good. It isn't quite the same massively accelerated deck-loop I am attempting to achieve, but it shows that the concept is certainly workable.

Cheers,
-Harakhte

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harakhte

Ok, I've been giving this a bit of thought:

If you were to remove the Soul Reapers and replace them with Eternal Renewal, or otherwise fit Eternal Renewal in additionally, you could aim to accelerate through your ally pool/SFs while holding your MCs and other key abilities.

The only issue with this approach is it needs more draw, either Bazaar or BS, to be consistently looped, and you would need a higher resource count a bit sooner.

This has been my main issue with SacLamb in Zaladar, and why I thought your approach to using it was quite good. It isn't quite the same massively accelerated deck-loop I am attempting to achieve, but it shows that the concept is certainly workable.

Cheers,
-Harakhte

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The deck isn't really geared to use Eternal Renewal as there are too many allies. Blanket's ZTC is where it's at for deck looping. Without Soul Reaper you will also lose many more games. Without Feedback deck minimums are just too high as well to be able to rely on cycling your deck.

This is perfectly true, but only until some enterprising individual manages to make it work,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harakhte

This is perfectly true, but only until some enterprising individual manages to make it work,

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Eternal Renewal and Sacrificial Lamb you mean?

It looks like you could sub Conversion for Sacrificial Lamb it in ZTC, but for that reason I'm sure Blanket has tried it meaning it doesn't work well enough.

He also runs less allies, and is going for a slightly different result. I'm basically trying to bridge the gap between the two somehow.

It's just an idea, no guarantee it can work in 1.25, but it's interesting to try. Maybe the expansion will open new paths, who knows?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harakhte

He also runs less allies, and is going for a slightly different result. I'm basically trying to bridge the gap between the two somehow.

It's just an idea, no guarantee it can work in 1.25, but it's interesting to try. Maybe the expansion will open new paths, who knows?

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Actually it worked best in 1.25, 1.503 not so much ;)

I think the ally count is pretty good to run Sac Lamb for that deck. The hard part will be when to use your Soul Reaper as you will probably want to use an Eternal Renewal first, but may not have the HP to survive long enough.

I've cracked this deck out and am currently on a 12 game win streak in QMs if anyone wants to check it out in action. IGN: Borlaug.

-3 Molten Destroyer

+1 Keldor
+2 Ogloth the Glutton

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harakhte

This is perfectly true, but only until some enterprising individual manages to make it work,

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I've been thinking about this more and am trying to find a way to include one or two Eternal Renewal without the intention of deck cycling. It would free up some early drawn resource slots for Shadow Font and/or Mind Control instead of allies by playing Soul Reaper pre Eternal Renewal mid-late game. If duplicates of MC and SF are sacked early by renewing the deck before bottoming out after Soul Reaper you will be returning SL, MC, SR, LLN, and SFs into your deck to be used again. I'm not sure if the deck can withstand the tempo loss of 5cc to cast Eternal Renewal though.

Finally updated OP with match videos.

I just would remove Dimension Ripper...i need to use it only to take down some badly ally and in extreme cases or just like a weap..?.Because lets say

With a Nishaven around 12hp each

Me: Ogghy+DR (of course he gets Mind Control)
He: Kristoffer+MD on Ogghy + fireball (gets soul reaper)
Me: s**t
He: supernova
Me: burned!


But seriously when i should use DR?


Ps: with this deck u can lose only if u want... Great one tnx!

In some cases it wont matter if they get a Soul Reaper. I've given them away plenty and still won. However, the general rule of thumb is to either sacrifice or hold Dimension Ripper until you draw at least one Soul Reaper (if you think you will need it Vs mage etc). It's easier than it may seem as you do not need to run a resource race. Just sacrifice as you need.

Mah....Soul Reaper is last of my problems when he gets MC

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Queen of Asgard

Mah....Soul Reaper is last of my problems when he gets MC

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Not many high attack cards to really worry about opponent using MC.