Help me milk the stalker (v. 1.7)!

[ThorFolklore]

I've literally just started playing as Moonstalker and Darkclaw since a few days ago. I find that MS is more interesting compared to DC (first impressions) and initially I was going for a MS ally rush deck but after getting my ass handed to me by one MS control-based deck, I decided to change direction. I took away some valuable experience from that decisive game and came up with my own variant of a control deck. My apologies if it seems unoriginal - I only visited the forums after playtesting for many hours and to my horror there were already numerous similar decks floating around here, such as http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....or-all-seasons.

Anyway, please leave me some constructive criticism. Go ahead and rip my card choices to shreds if you think that they are ridiculous picks.

1x Moonstalker

4x Dark Flayer
3x Cobra Demon
3x DMT
3x Plasma Behemoth
4x Shadow Knight
2x Oggloth

3x Captured Prey
3x Now You're Mine
3x Full Moon
3x Shriek
2x LLN
3x Sac Lamb
4x Wrath of the Forest

1x Zaladar digital card sleeve

Total: 41 cards

Overarching principle: To build up and maintain board control while gaining card advantage (board, hand and resource) before steamrolling the enemy at an opportune moment with several large drops. Also, I just like the huge amount of thinking required before you use MS's ability. Lol.

Reasons for card choices:

Dark Flayer - I find it to be a rather unconventional 2cc ally in my current rating. I love having him in my hand, especially if I go second. If the opponent weeny rushes me with stuff like Kris, Blake, Fire Snake or even Flayer itself, a turn 2 Flayer will stop them dead in their tracks (or at least stall for a bit). They are forced to expend their Puwens, Bruts, etc. or even ability cards to dispose of it before it disposes of them. Moreover, I chose him over Brut since I find that I'd much rather have a Flayer compared to a Brut recycled by the SK loop (if it happens, unfortunately). Plus, Brut is mainly a meat shield and I have CD to do that for me.

Cobra Demon - This was a tough one. In all my ally-based decks, I like to try and include 1 ally of each cc so that I'm likely to have something to play during each of my turns. Again, I find this to be a quite unconventional 4cc pick in my current meta. While I appreciate that Wulven Tracker might have been the better choice, I don't really like it and I already have a reliable, consistent draw engine thanks to SK, WotF and Sac Lamb. CD, apart from being a meat shield, forces the enemy to react as well. While Tracker is 2/4, CD is 1/5 with a second source of 1 damage at the cost of 1 Shadow Energy. I find her more versatile as she can effectively damage and poison 2 targets per turn if I choose to do so. Hence, she takes the cake for me.

DMT - Great for finishing off allies with 1HP or chipping away at them. I chose him over Garg because of the sudden 1 damage when he drops. Should I include 1 or 2 Gargs though?

PB - Everyone knows how scary PB is if he sticks around and with Moonstalker protecting him, it's pretty likely that he will. I'm still experimenting with 3 and 4 copies but I think 3 is enough thanks to SK's recycling loop. Agreed?

SK - So flexible! With the help of another one of his kind, this Dark Knight Rises from the grave or he can raise other useful allies by himself! I'm also experimenting with 3 and 4 copies but this one I'm not so sure about. Thoughts?

Oggloth - At the beginning, I thought of using Brutal Minotaur or Molten Destroyer because Ogg is kind of situational. However, having Moonstalker's ability meant that playing this glutton would be less tricky to pull off. When he hits, he just devastates the board. Seriously a game changer. I like to cast a Flayer and then let it be devoured by Ogg (or use Sac Lamb on it) while WotF is on the board. Ogg becomes stronger, I gain 1 card (or 3), my opponent covers in fear and it all only comes with the tiny drawback of losing a 2cc ally that is no longer relevant by the time Ogg hits the board.

Captured Prey - The only question here is should I run 4 Captured Prey and 2 Now You're Mine or maintain them at 3/3? Alternatively, I could choose to run 4 of each if I got rid of some cards (I really don't want a deck that exceeds 41 cards; 42 at the MAX).

Now You're Mine - See Captured Prey reasoning.

Full Moon - An underrated card, IMHO. I picked FM over Bloodlust because of the stronger effect. The extra 1cc was worth it to me. Since I don't play Regeneration, this is my only means of stalling against DoT effects like Poison Gas and Engulfing Flames. Furthermore, it makes my Flayer a 4/1 with Defender for a turn, which is amazing. SK, PB and Oggloth also benefit greatly from it. Once again, I'm experimenting with 3 or 4 copies of it in my deck. Suggestions?

Shriek - Most MS decks I've seen here run 2 copies but I included 3 of it right from the very beginning. I just don't think that I'd be able to draw it when I need it if it was at 2.

LLN - In this case, 2 copies of LLN felt just right. The 5cc makes this a costly drop and I'm not very much in need of the free card draw.

Sac Lamb - For this, I think 3 copies is just nice. I usually end up sacrificing the 4th if I get it anyway. SK and WotF will also ensure that my hand is constantly filled. Feel free to opine otherwise about the optimal card count.

WotF - The heart of the draw engine. I think it's definitely required at 4. I've tried running it at 3 before with Sac Lamb at 4 but eventually I just reversed the order. I have 19 allies so getting it out ASAP would be more beneficial to me. Sac Lamb takes the place of Bad Santa in this deck - a speed burst to get to WotF quicker.

Really, the main issue that I have is balancing the card counts. Some cards I'd like more of, some I can make do with less. Are there any important cards that I've left out? I made my deck without referring to the forums and with zero experience playing as Wulven. Cheers.

P.S.: Don't ask me to play Millstalker!

[ThorFolklore]

*bump* What, no one's willing to help me with some input? Happy New Year to you guys, btw.

[Mew Two]

All right, I'll give some feedback The most obvious problem is that you don't have nearly enough 3cc allies. There bare minimum I would say is 7, but most decks use 8-10. To add in those extra allies, I would take out oggloth and cobra demon. You don't need oggy because you already have 7 other fatties, and you want to save all of you shadow energy for moonstalker's ability, rather than spending it on cobra demon's ability. In most cases, a 3cc ally will be a better play on t4 than cobra demon anyway. Also, although dark flayer is good against human rushes, I think pack wolf is a better overall ally, so I would switch those (although I like to have more 2cc allies than most people do, so I would keep 1 flayer). So for the allies, I would go:
-3 Dark Flayer
-3 Cobra Demon
-2 Oggloth
+4 Pack wolf
+4 Infernal gargoyle
Now for the abilities... Most of it looks quite good, but I would suggest adding shadow font, as it can be devastating when you have fatties on the board. I don't think you need quite that much item destruction, so take out some of that. Some people love full moon, but I'm not a fan... I suggest:
-3 full moon
-1 shriek
+4 shadow font

I made a lot of changes, so you definitly don't need to follow everything I said, but if you do, I think you'll be able to win a lot more games. I hope that helped

[Ramirez Delgado]

You have made some unconventional choices: DF > PW, CD > IG, Ogg, FM, no SF.

My first thought was like MenTwo by giving you the feedback to optimize your deck as explained by him (but then you can also take one of the published decks as from Larus and they are already tuned and good). On the other hand maybe you find some new ways, but then I would concentrate upon small changes to the standard.

1) I personally like the idea of DF + FM as Df could be "safe" for a turn. But playing FM makes sense if you have more allies out, getting a multiple attack boost. For this strategy I would think about playing with more smaller allies (IG is must, but also PW, Brut...), integrating some JD, a kind MS rush?

2) Maybe you can create a deck around Oggloth, but then you will also need ST against CB and SF to prepare some turns (e.g. against Retreat).

3) I'm not sure if CD will ever get ever into decks. Maybe he could be working somehow with an control deck (SF, Rain Delay, ...), poisning allies and waiting until they die.

It is a challenge to get one of this idea working, but no way all in one deck. Good luck!

[ThorFolklore]

Thanks, guys! I've noted your comments and the first thing I'll do is remove Cobra Demon. Oggy will be the next to go, though I might keep 1 of him because I really find him a gamebreaker. This deck had quite a lot of unconventional choices, which is why I posted it up here in the first place.

About Full Moon, I'm a fan of it, so I think I'll let them stay and add some low cc allies to use it to its full potential. I may add Pack Wolf, but I still prefer Dark Flayer.

Will post back with a new deck when I've tinkered about with it for a bit but right now, I'm still having a lot of fun with the original deck. It may not win every game, but I enjoy every game I play (when people don't quit)!

[SpeakerOfTruth]

but then you can also take one of the published decks as from Larus and they are already tuned and good

Larus' discussion of Moonstalker is here should you need it. He was already a MS specialist then :P

EDIT: Did not see that the OP had the link already! Ah but still, brings back memories haha

[Larus]

I'm glad that my old deck could help you to get an idea who to build a Moonstalker deck. There are many ways to play Moonstalker and mine is of course not the only or even best one for a ever changing meta. In additon are there probably an awful lot of typos in my thread, my English improved since them and I might need to do some patchwork to not insult new player with my poor grammar

Anyway, I would suggest you beare in mind that even some minor changes can change the dynamic of your deck dramatic which can restult in different recourse curves, sac. choises and playstile in gerneral. And you might think at first that some cards are unreplaceable because you are used to them and builded your strategy around them like CP, FM, JD, SK, SF etc. but they are all in fact replaceable with a different playstile and slighty different decks.

So feel to ask further question and share further Moonstalker decks. There are many decent MS player around who can help you and answer any question whatsoever.