Dancing Darkclaw - mixed allies and weapons deck. Very fast and deadly!

**Snowstalker** · 05-05-2013, 08:30 PM

I repost my article which originally appeared as a reply in this thread:

First of all, it's not my own deck idea, I've seen it watching a QM and I really liked it and wanted to try it myself. I'm impressed, how well this works. Credits go to the original author of the idea.

Deck:

I call it "Dancing Darkclaw", because Darkclaw

equipped with Speedstrike

and Jeweler's dream really seems to dance in a furious fast dance and together with his allies lets his opponent's blood just splash around.

Hero:
Darkclaw

Allies:
3 Death Mage Thaddeus

4 Shadow Knight

3 Morbid Acolyte

3 Tiger Wulf

Abilities:
4 Captured Prey

2 Now You're Mine

3 Speedstrike

2 Sacrificial Lamb

2 Shriek of Vengeance

4 Blood Moon

Weapons:
4 Jeweler's Dream

3 What Big Teeth

2 Spectral Sabre

Play:
T1: Nothing
T2: Blood Moon

T3: Speedstrike

T4: Jeweler's Dream

T5: Tiger Wulf

or Shadow Knight

, 2* attack + DMT

, CP or whatever
T6: ....

This deck really revolves around the combo of Speedstrike

and Jeweler's Dream. With Speedstrike

you can renew 4 resources per turn and cast your allies and abilities really fast. The Darkclaw

's shadow ability on JD makes the weapon attacks able to kill fatties or damage the opponent's hero significantly. It does well in both early and late game, playing first or second.

Card Explanation:
DMT

: To damage armored heroes, Ironhide Karashes, Wulven Savages etc., you know.
SK: You can loop them or recycle the Tiger Wulfs, solid strong ally.
Morbid Acolyte

: To bypass Aeons and other protectors, stealh etc., really versatile ally...
Tiger Wulf

: Another versatile ally, can destroy almost anything, can be looped with SK, good for Sacrifitial Lamb after use.

CP: To neutralize stronger allies you can't deal with another way.
NYM: To kill low cost allies annoying on the board.
Speedstrike: Crucial ability to maximize the use of Jeweler's Dream

and the DC's shadow ability.
Sacrificial Lamb

: Additional card draw, to maximize potential of Tiger Wulf

, to make some use of crippled allies etc., I find myself saccing it often though.
Shriek: To get rid of Tomes, Staffs, Antimatters etc.
Blood Moon

: Great main draw, useful in both early and late game.

JD: The second key card, gives the deck deadly power.
WBT: Good and unlimited substitute, when you don't have JD.
Spectral Sabre

: Universal card, I use it as a weapon or attachement destruction about 50/50. The damage of 2 can really help to win the game.

Saccing: Duplicities and cards you don't need against (or already have and can't be countered by) specific opponent or in specific situation. Occasional allies, CP and weapons according to

Enjoy and don't hesitate to share your experience!

**williedelice** · 05-06-2013, 06:44 PM

very nice to play this deck !!!!!!!!!!!

**DukeDemonKn1ght** · 05-07-2013, 02:00 PM

I've been testing a very similar list. The changes I made to the list suggested by the OP are as follows:
-1 Morbid Acolyte

-1 Death-Mage Thaddeus

-2 Sacrificial Lamb

+2 Wrath of the Forest

+2 Lightning Hunter

+1 Death Collector

Lightning hunters are good to help take back board control, and just a good aggressive creature all around. Timing them to not blow up a Blood Moon

or rob a point of SE can be tricky, but I feel like they're worthwhile. I'm not entirely sure about those WotF instead of Sacrificial Lamb

, because it makes me somewhat more soft to Warriors and other Wulvens, but they tend to draw a shit ton of cards, and it will generally be difficult for the opponent to wear down the armor through attacks. Death Collector is in there to shut down recursion strategies mostly, plus he can get rather large. I took out DMT for him since the unique status irks me if I draw into multiples, plus Shadow Knight

gets them back pretty well once they die, although I usually save him for Tiger Wulf

or another SK.

Some problems I've noticed this deck had though, are basically anything that can gain a lot of life. I played some very grindy games against Zaladar

, and any time he stuck an Infinity Core or even worse, a Soul Reaper, it was hard for me to come back because I would already be at ~10 life at that point, whereby he starts zapping me to death with Shadow Fonts. No fun. I haven't run into a good Zhanna

control list yet either, but I'm kind of dreading when it does happen. Seems like it would be pretty tough, since she can gain life, kill our dudes, and blow up our weapons.

As far as good matchups, it seems to me that this list pretty much slaughters weenie rush type strategies. Nothing is more fun than watching them waste their first few turns with stuff like Kris and Puwen

, while you open with Blood Moon -> Speed Strike -> Jeweler's Dream

, leaving them with basically an empty hand and board after you kill off their little buggers, while you should have by now a dope weapon, plenty of cards in hand, and probably a dude or two on the table.

I'm not entirely sure if 2x Now You're Mine

is necessary. I'm still running them so I'm not forced into putting Captured Prey

onto stupid stuff, but I wonder if some lateral thinking might be applied to these slots. I've been considering trying 2x Lone Wolf or Rabid Bite

here, but neither really seems optimal.

I wish there was a source of life gain that seemed to fit this list though. Regeneration

is unimpressive, and Lone Wolf

seems sort of at odds with the beat down strategy. Even though we only run 13 dudes (14 in mine,) the general idea is to have them stick around long enough to attack a bunch, so Lone Wolf

would mostly be applied for stalling until you can reclaim board presence. Seems pretty meh.

Anyway though, I love this strategy, it's the non-burn-based beat down deck I had been looking for. I hope to take this list to around 280 or so (I'm around 220 now,) and I hope more people start testing it out and giving feedback. Cheers!

**Snowstalker** · 05-07-2013, 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by DukeDemonKn1ght