Mewtwo's 10 step guide to deck building
Hello everyone! This is a 10 step guide to deckbuilding aimed at new players who want to learn how to build competitive decks. It may also be an interesting read for more experienced players who want to hear my tips. Allright, let's begin!
Step 1 How do you want to win? This is the most basic question to start with when building a deck. Do you want to win through a slow and steady reliable path to victory (control deck)? An ultra-fast storm of destruction (rush deck)? A combination of the two, winning board control, and burning your opponent down quickly at the same tim (burn deck)? Do you want to use weapons for damage? Allies? or just defend yourself until your opponent runs out of cards? I would highly suggest beginning with one of the first three deck types, Control, Rush, or Burn. Those three are both the most common and the strongest deck archetypes at the moment. For more information on the subject, try looking at Soothslyr's article http://www.shadowera.com/entry.php?742-Ways-to-Play. Once you have decided how you want to play, move on to step 2.
Step 2 Choose your hero! Your decision is very important at this point. Will you choose the hunters, the mages, the warriors, the wulven, the elementals, the priests, or the rogues? Initially, your decision can be slightly narrowed by the amount of gold/crystals you have. Human heros are, in general, much more expensive to build decks for than shadow heros. If money is an issue, I suggest shadow. If not, your options are wide open. Take a looks at this chart made by Keaven http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....Rankings-1-603. If you chose to play a rush deck, look under the column that says rush, and choose a hero that is rated 1 or 1.5. Do likewise in the burn column if you chose burn. For control decks, look under the column that say "balanced". Although hero's that are not 1 or 1.5 can still win games, they are not as easy to play or as consistent (tier 2 hero's can really compete just fine although they are harder to use... for example monomax's nishaven deck just won one of the regional qualifiers for the world championship). After seeing which heros of your chosen type are ranked 1 or 1.5, it's up to you to choose. If you need more help deciding which hero to use, try looking at this comprehensive hero guide made by Wtzky http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....erence-Thread). Now that you've made your choice, move on to step 3.
Step 3 Open up the deck builder. This is the easiest step... just upen up this link in a tab or new page http://shadowera.gondorian.com/deck1.5/edit.html on thata page, you can design your deck before you make the deck in-game. Time for step 4 :)
Step 4 Establish card draw. The ability to draw extra cards is essential for every deck. Since you only draw once card per turn, and you will usually be sacrificing one card as well as playing another, you will run out very fast. Most classes have a specific "draw engine" that only their hero type can use. You will want to include 4 copies of that card in your deck (go to your deck builder page, select your hero, find their draw card, and click on that card 4 times). The class draw engines are
-blood frenzy for warriors
-tome of knowledge for mages
-wrath of the forest for hunters (surprise attack is also a class specific draw card, but is not very powerful)
-ill gotten gains for rogues
-wizent's staff for priests
-wrath of the forest for wulven
-nothing for elementals :(
After adding those 4 cards, look at your other options. All classes have access to bad santa and bazar. Bad santa is a good choice for rush decks, bazar is almost never used. Humans have access to both tainted oracle and honored dead. I would recommend tainted oracle for burn or control decks. Shadow has sacrificial lamb, which is good in burn and control decks. For elementals, as they have no class draw engine, I suggest including both bad santa and sac lamb. Dimension ripper can also draw cards (although they come from the other player's deck). Your deck should include 6-8 (8 is optimal in my opinion) draw cards, chosen from the options above. Add those cards to your deck, then proceed to step 5.
Step 5 Add "power cards"! "Power cards" are the cards that some people claim are overpowered or "broken". This is not the case. All classes have one or more of cards that are very strong, and should be included in almost all of their decks. you will want 4 copies of your hero's power card(s) in you deck. Here is a list (some other cards could be added to this list, but are not as definite as these).
-Boris-Jeweler's dream, Crippling blow
-Amber-Jeweler's dream, Crippling blow
-Victor-Soulseeker, Poison arrow
-Gwen-Soulseeker, Rapid fire
-Nishaven-Fireball, Lightning Strike, sometimes portal
-Eladwen-Fireball, lightning strike
-Jericho-Tidal Wave, Focused Prayer
-Zhanna-Tidal Wave, Focused Prayer
-Lance-Anklebreaker, Stop Thief
-Serena-Anklebreaker, Stop Thief
-Ter adun-Jeweler's dream, Crippling Blow
-Logan-Berserker's Edge, Jeweler's Dream (no not add 4 copies of both weapons), Crippling blow
-Banebow-Soulseeker, Poison arrow
-Baduruu-Soulseeker, rapid fire
-Majiya-Fireball, Lightning Strike, sometimes portal
-Gravebone-Fireball, Lightning strike
-Darkclaw-What Big Teeth (although some decks use JD and fangs of the predator), Speedstrike, Captured prey
-Moonstalker-Shadow Font, Captured Prey
-Elementalis-Mind control
-Zaladar-Mind control, shadow font
After adding your power cards to the deck, proceed to step 6.
