Alzorath’s Shadow Era Trials #7

Follow Alzorath in a series in which he will be post-commentating interesting matches related to a number of decks for a variety of purposes (and maybe even a rare meltdown match) – whether they be for Shadow Era Deck Techs, or for personal exploration into theories and concepts involving trends (or even anti-trends, such as disused card types). Check out more Shadow Era videos at Alzorath’s YouTube channel.

Quickmatch Spotlight: Last Week of Season 20

Hello!

Veles here to bring you latest update on players picks for ladder climbing. This time around I look up top 15 ranked players and their favorite decks before ending of Season 20.  Before we start I would just like to point out that player base is currently divided between iOS users and Android/PC users as they play on different versions (2/86 and 2.87  respectively)  so that might have slight impact on the meta. For reminder of state at the start of this season you can read Mojumbo’s Quickmatch spotlight.

 

#1 TJ Yman: 333, #2 Bobwei: 333, #3 ROK Viscuit: 325

This weeks number 1, TJ Yman, is using discard Zaladar, once again proving that Zaladar is one of strongest heroes in SF and especially dangerous in hands of good players. Sharing same rating and using similar deck is Bobwei and not far behind them is ROK Viscuit also utilizing discard Zaladar to a very good success. You can say Zaladar is really king of the ladder at this time.
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Bloodfang: Here Be Bloodfang

This deck is result of an effort to find alternative ways of playing Bloodfang. In QM and tournaments he has been mostly used as pure ally based Wulven deck with pretty straightforward strategy of swarming the board thanks to his ability and synergy between Wulven tribe allies. However if you draw a parallel between his and Baduruu’s ability you can see that in its nature Bloodfangs ability is also a tempo boost as it can save up to 8 resources per turn (Howlfang + 3cc ally for example). This lead to me believing it is also possible to make  a Bloodfang deck that would mimic Baduruu’s Resource Destruction.

Key Cards: Here Be Monsters, Crescent of Doom, Wulven Tactician

Speed: Medium

Difficulty: 4/5

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Hidden Potential In Cards: Antimatter

In Call of the Crystals Elemental class had to rely on burst draws (Bad Santa/Sac Lamb), cantrips (Here Be Monsters) and other bilateral draw sources (Bazaar, Dimension Reaper). They were only class without dedicated draw engine and it was their main weakness. My guess is the reason behind it was that power level of Zaladar (with arguably best ability in game) would be too great if he would have access to strong draw engine along the lines of Blood Frenzy or Ill Gotten Gains.

Still, lack of draw was apparent and with Dark Prophecies they filled that hole in strategy with Antimatter. If you compare it to other draw engines in game at that time it was most expensive one. Gain of one card for 3c is really expensive, and only synergy with discards had Soul Reaper and some gimmicky stuff like discarding attachments for Xar Modulator. Cost of discarding a card was real cost back then and that was the reason many deck builders were reluctant to rely on it and still went on burst draw route. Continue reading

Boris: Haste Warrior

Haste is a powerful keyword. What makes it important is fact that you are guaranteed to use ally for attack or its ability at least once. This is very good given the plethora of control and burn cards in Shadow Era able to shut down your allies before they get the chance to do anything. Even if that ally dies next turn you had at least one use out of it, which can put you ahead in tempo more often than not. Boris already used this in DP but now with SF he got some new tools.

Key Cards: Fleet-footed Messenger, The King’s Pride

Speed: Medium

Difficulty: 3/5

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Moonstalker – Whip It

With SF and new cards that support undead tribe Moonstalker has become even more annoying. With stealth and damage reduction provided by Grave Resistance Moonstalker’s normally bad match ups are now significantly mitigated making him in my opinion tier 1 hero.

Key Cards: Grave Resistance, Gromm’s Whip

Speed: Medium

Difficulty: 2/5

 

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