My Lance Deck

[echoenduring]

You know what's ridiculous? I was SO focused on item destruction that I was actually overlooking the fact that Stop, Thief actually adds to your resource pool too. How dumb is that?

Fortunately, I did not remove the cards. I did try a few games with Agent Rex. Was somewhat underwhelming. Got him out a couple times, but there was never any opposing artifacts that I wanted to spend 3 resources to steal. Spending 4 resources to destroy it and get the extra resource made more sense (I had figured out the above oversight by then). So Agent Rex is outsted, which slims my deck down to 43 + Hero.

I still have some concerns about deck size. I've played quite a few games where opponents mill down my deck before I'm able to take them down, leaving me pretty vulnerable. One particular Praxix deck used shadow fonts and the hero ability to mill me down. I think I lost 18 cards that way in that game, and by the end he had an Infinity Core out and ground me to dust while healing himself up with all his discarded allies. I think part of this is just luck. I don't think he lost a single Shadow Font to Praxix' ability, which meant he had an abundance of Shadow Energy that he might not otherwise have had if the discard had happened differently (ie if he had discarded is Shadow Fonts). Still, I'm wondering if a slightly larger deck more in the 45-48 size is advisable.

I know this goes against general deck construction rules, but as Praxix gains popularity, does this thinking change?

[FDL]

No. IMO the best defence against Praxis is to get your draw engine going and play as many threats as possible. He has terrible control so some of your allies are bound to survive.

Praxix might become a bit more troublesome since he'll have a win condition with the buffed All Hope is Lost in 2.83 but I don't think increasing deck size will just for that matchup will ever be worth it.

[echoenduring]

What about Priest of the Light in this deck? To help slow down their accumulation of Shadow Energy? Does this work in a Lance Deck? PoL still has decent stats at 3/3 too

[echoenduring]

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this deck! I've made a few more minor tweaks so that I'm currently playing this incarnation:

***HERO***
Lance Shadowstalker (alternate card)

***Allies (22)***
3x Jasmine Rosecult
3x Raven Wildheart
4x Aldon the Brave
3x Priest of the Light
2x Aeon Stormcaller
2x Nightshade
2x Champion of Irum
3x Sword Thief

***Abilities (12)***
3x Assassination
4x Stop, Thief!
3x Backstab
2x Road Less Traveled

***Items (4)***
4x Ill-Gotten Gains

***Armors (2)***
2x Spelleater Bands

***Weapons (4)***
4x Anklebreaker

TOTAL: 44 cards + Hero

Seems to be working pretty well, but for some reason I'm coming up against a stream of priest decks. Still, the addition of Priest of the Light had been solid. Gives me a ton of ally options on T3, and his ability can help slow down the opponents with Shadow Energy. I guess the 1 point of healing is okay, but it hasn't done much for me. I suppose every once in a while that could turn the course of a game.

Of course, thoughts are always welcome!

[segalion]

POL is very good T3 drop but IMO it does not work well with Lance. Although POL adds one health point the more important ability is reducing shadow energy
Since Lance can control board and take the board when he is behind and he excels in both things, think that he has less need in interupting with villan shadow energy. When you will look at the meta (always think on the most popular heroes and builds you encounter and not the one matchup you struggeled) i think that you will see that the lost of one shadow energy mostly does not does not interrupt with most heroes game plan. I think actually that the hero that suffers the most from this is Lance and Zal since both has trouble start and uses thier ability to regain the board (all said in the DP meta)
when using a Lance deck that is more set to control (like you have with the 3 ST), i think i will prefer the Night owl instead if POL. When you look at thier stats both is killed easily by direct damage but night owl has stealth in most cases so he can help us versus all other heroes except Zal/Mages (and against them i don't think POL can help us better)
I would also consider using Rider of the ellos. They synerge well with Lance (when going second they can T4 hasted and kill most of the 4HP allies) and help us against weapon decks (gwen, amber, solo darklaw, Budaruu)

[Pat Jay]

Nice deck there echo!

I would say you could cut your deck down to 40 simply by

-1 Aldon
-3 pol

This will dramatically help you become more consistent in getting that T4 IGG which is crucial

Good luck!