ZTC 3.0 - The Feedbomb Dynamo

[BlanketEffect]

I wasn't going to post this deck till after WC, but meh, it's already been sort of posted via the A1 Epic Matches between Caitlyn0 and me, so why not share and stop the speculation.

This version has been HEAVILY played / tweaked / tested / revamped / redone / reworked / broken / rebuilt. I'm not saying it can't be improved upon, but you'll be hard pressed to try many new things I haven't already tinkered with extensively. If any of the cards listed below seem unnecessary, or like they shouldn't be there (not to sound too elitist), you're probably mistaken.

I won't, however, share the tech to making it work right now, although anyone else is welcome to add their own commentary to it. That said, you're in for one hell of a ride.


I give you, Zaladar Total Control 3.0, The Feedbomb Dynamo!


Zaladar

3x Infernal Gargoyle
3x Brutalis
3x Fire Snake
3x Death Mage Thaddeus

2x Conversion
2x Soul Reaper
4x Mind Control
3x Feedback
2x Eternal Renewal
4x Shadow Font
2x Ley Line Nexus
4x Bazaar
4x Bad Santa

2x Sliver of Shadow


Enjoy!

[BlanketEffect]

Zaladar
Clearly the more powerful of the two Elemental heroes. His Energy Blast is an invaluable tool at both keeping the board clear of allies, as well as being a constant source of damage for your opponent's hero.




Ally selection - I wanted to include only very utilitarian allies in this deck; things that were quick to get out, tough to kill for their cost, and that made controlling the board easier.

Infernal Gargoyle
Tougher to kill than any (3) ally in the game; attracts attention from the enemy, and usually results in at least 2 sources of damage being directed its way. It's attack plus ZalBlast kills everything in the game but Infernal Gargoyle, Armored Sandworm, Brutal Minotaur, Aeon, Raven, and Ogloth.

Brutalis
Has the most staying power of any (2) ally, and can live through going second; adds the 1 point of damage that allows ZalBlast to kill every (3) ally (or less) in the game except Infernal Gargoyle; often gets ignored by your opponent because it its (seemingly) weak attack power.

Fire Snake
Toughest (1) ally in the game, and can trade blows with/kill all others, and Blake; a turn 1 Fire Snake sets up a turn 2 Santa Bomb, which is SUPER useful if you didn't draw a Bazaar on turn 1; Fire Snake helps to mitigate the lack of a turn 2 Brutalis.

Death Mage Thaddeus
Ping ability helps to set up ZalBlast to kill all (3) allies, except Infernal Gargoyle; direct damage ability bypasses armor that your enemy's hero may have; ability sets up ZalBlast to kill all allies in the game except those noted above under the Infernal Gargoyle entry; Death Mage is resistant to control methods that simply prevent an ally from attacking.




Life Gain - The original versions of this deck did not have any life gaining cards, and a major weakness I found was their ability to go swing-for-swing against faster-paced, heavy damage decks, especially Mages. I tried a number of alternatives, including Armor of Ages, and even some extensive tinkering with Dome of Energy. None of these did the trick, and life gain seemed to be the only solution. Originally 1x Soul Reaper and 2x Conversion, I found that drawing a Soul Reaper in my opening hand was tantamount to not having one in the deck to begin with. ZTC requires such important decision making sacrifice choices early on, that holding a Soul Reaper for 6-7 turns on the chance that it would be vital to the endgame was not a viable option. So, it went to 2. Now you can safely sacrifice one drawn early, knowing there's another in the deck to fall back on.

Conversion
Early in the game this is easy sac fodder (when very little of that exists in this deck); later in the game it can be the difference in dying next turn or living long enough to get off a game-winning Feedbomb chain; any ally you sacrifice for life to Conversion also adds another 2 life to the effect of your Soul Reaper, later; a wonderful way of benefitting one more time from a disabled ally that was already essentially dead to you.

Soul Reaper
Its primary benefit is the obvious: a huge boost in life, late in the game; its secondary benefit may not be as readily apparent: setting up Eternal Renewal to only put "power" cards back into your deck, mid to late game.




Board Control - At the heart of a deck named Total Control, is the ability to absolutely dominate the state of the board at any phase of the game. Between ZalBlast (and supporting Shadow Font), Sliver of Shadow, Death Mage ping, supporting ally damage, and Mind Control, there is absolutely no reason you should ever get overrun with this deck, even by an aggressive rush-style deck. Some have suggested Energy Discharge, but with the control measure already available in this deck, if you find yourself in need of something like Energy Discharge, either you have had a TERRIBLE draw and your opponent a good one, or you're playing the deck wrong / making poor sacrifice choices during the early stages of the game.

Mind Control
Without dispute, the most powerful unilateral ally removal ability in all of Shadow Era. For (5), you can remove ANY ally from the board, AND deal damage to your opponent. It's like a non-limited Now You're Mine! + Fireball, all for the nice, tidy sum of (5). Anything you cannot ZalBlast/attack/ping to death, you can remove with Mind Control. It's one of those cards you should never sacrifice, unless it is a VERY tough situation and doing so will make a huge difference in the game. It's just that good.

Shadow Font
When played in a Zaladar deck, Shadow Font can be viewed, effectively, as Lightning Strike. It can kill off two smaller allies, kill off one and damage your enemy's hero, or set either one or two allies up for death by attack/ping damage. It is an invaluable tool for keeping the board clear, and can be used to set up the timing for a Sliver of Shadow. Also, on a round where you don't have targets for your ZalBlast to be effective, Shadow Font is better than Lightning Strike, as you can "store" the ability this turn to use later.

Sliver of Shadow
This is an excellent adjunct to ZalBlast, and should, in most cases, be played immediately following one, so as to not actually cost any Shadow Energy. It allows an extra, sudden 2 damage to kill an ally, or to kill off the enemy hero.

Ley Line Nexus
Originally, the deck had no item destruction in it, but after facing Spelleater Bands one time, I realized the inherent flaw in this philosophy. Spelleater Bands is not a commonly faced armor, but when you do, it can absolutely ruin this deck. Also, other notable armors such as Snow Sapphire and Crescendo can pose problems, as well as weapons such as Anklebreaker and Soul Seeker, make the inclusion of Ley Line Nexus a vital choice. If I am teching against specific decks, this may go up to as many as 4x copies, to ensure I can sacrifice one drawn in my opening hand.




Acceleration - These cards contribute to the core of the deck, Feedbombing. See my post made 06-06-2012 for more details on Feedbombing effectively.

Feedback
This card is primarily to fuel Feedbombs; however, it is very useful as a simple accelerator from turns 5-7, where it can be used to play an ally as well as a power card, such as Mind Control. For example, on turn 6, you can use a ZalBlast on Aldon and Puwen, killing Puwen and weakening Aldon; then play a Death Mage to finish off Aldon, play Feedback, and use the subsequent resources to play Mind Control on your opponent't Jasmine - a very powerful swing of the board for turn 6. It is highly advisable to never sacrifice one of these. Important point to keep in your mind as you do calculations for playing this card. Operate under the assumption that you have your number of resources MINUS (3), as you'll need that final three to play the Feedback, regardless of what you do afterwards. So, if you have 7 resources, and plan on using Feedback during your turn, your pre-Feedback plays must be limited to (4) or less cost(s). It is very frustrating to have 7 resources, Feedback, Mind Control, and other assorted cards in hand, and play the Mind Control at the beginning of your turn, thinking you'll be able to free up the rest of your hand with the Feedback. Whereas, if you'd done it in the correct order (ie Fire Snake, Gargoyle, Feedback, Mind Control, then Brutalis) you could have played out your entire hand, insteady of Mind Control and Brutalis being your turn.

Eternal Renewal
There are 2x of this card to mitigate the problems with only 1 copy, such as drawing it on your opening hand, despite its general lack of usefulness until much later in the game. In addition to simply keeping you from running out of cards, all of the "power" cards you've played thusfar are put back into your deck, increasing its potency, and the overall chances of pulling off an enormous Feedbomb chain soon thereafter. If you can play Soul Reaper immediately before Eternal Renewal, this only amplifies the above point.

Bazaar
Since Elementals lack unilater drawing power, the need to feed this monster falls on Bazaar as its primary source of steady card drawing. Against any hero/faction with the common ability to destroy Bazaar, you should not sacrifice any if at all possible, even once you already have one in play. You will find, over time, that games you do not not draw a Bazaar fairly early, or that you are consistently left without one due to their destruction, are games which are a difficult, uphill battle. Most games you will lose will be tied to a lack of drawing power. Normally, Bazaar is not seen as an effective draw engine, because it benefits your opponent as much, if not slightly more, than you. With ZTC, however, this is not the case. Early in the game, the 2 cards per turn are invaluable for making your sacrifice choices manageable. Later in the game, the constant flow of cards ensures you keep a handful of your "power" cards, which, pound for pound, are almost always stronger than those that your opponent will be drawing from Bazaar. Add in the element of the Feedbomb, and it doesn't matter than your opponent draws extra cards, as you'll be able to do far more with your cards/resources than they will.

Bad Santa
Its primary purpose is to fuel Feedbombs (Feedbomb being a portmanteau of Feedback and Santa Bomb). It can be used on turn 2, following a Fire Snake, if you did not get a Bazaar in your opening hand. This will help you draw a Bazaar to have for the following turn 3 or 4, depending on what other (3) cards you have in your hand. While sacrificing one of these, early on, is probably okay, it is not the first choice, and is usually detrimental to the overall flow of the deck to do so. The more of these you can get into your graveyard, and not your resource pile, the more will come back to your deck when you play an Eternal Renewal later on.

[feyd]

look like a very good deck, whit many options but very hard to master

good work

[Keaven]

Awesome.

[Gondorian]

I'll try it out!

[Harakhte]

@BlanketEffect: Heh, after you encouraged me to build this Zal, I am happy that I ended up with only a 2 card difference from your actual list (+1 Sliver, -1 ER). Still working on that one problem we discussed, but no luck yet despite a number of ideas.

Cheers,
-Harakhte

[BlanketEffect]

Yeah, and I have used that exact setup as well, Egypt man. However, I found that HAVING to not sacrifice your ER on opening hand can be problematic, so I added the second one to ensure I could safely sac one if drawn very early in the game. It just happened to be Sliver that I took out to make the room, and it stuck like that.

[ahmet476]

I won't, however, share the tech to making it work right now

Do you mean how to play it? Sharing the deck was generous enough imo I'll try this interesting deck.

[BlanketEffect]

Yeah, that's what I meant, Ahmet. It's not a REALLY hard deck to learn, but the early sac choices and timing of the Feedbombs can take some practice to get the most "bang for your buck" out of them.

[BDK16]

Cool deck Blancket!

Will definitely try it out.