[Guild] Charismatic Wall-Breakers

Discussion in 'Guilds' started by Lucky Dice, Nov 29, 2015.

  1. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    Or CWB. Or Cardhuntrians with BALLS.

    The guild's goal is to look at the current meta and TEAR A NEW HOLE IN IT. To look at these Bejeweled Shortswords, Searing Pains, Vampire's Blades and other things and say "Nah, I don't need to use ya every time" or "Now your role is different!". To reach for the most situational, most awkward, most dusted cards and give them a new life.

    And of course to find every single 4th wall broken in this universe!

    Okay! How do I join?!

    You get a seat in the guild by beating me (In-game nick: Voltaumento). And since you're in to fight the meta, you're going to face the most annoying of the annoying decks, BlessCano with Accel Time. Unless I change that for some reason, one day. So basically contact me however, PMs work the best, as I can reply to these even from my phone... on the rare occasions I get to use my internet there.
    In case you're wondering, look for the "Initiation" section HERE!

    The rules?
    1. Kick the wall created by the meta - see these cults of Bejeweled, Double-Edged Swords, burffft, vampires, step warriors? Don't try embracing them for easy wins. Unless you want for some other wall to crush you.
    2. Don't w8. Cre8! Create as much as you can. Find the synergies hidden amongst the world of Cardhuntria. Creativity is the key! Awards for these, who start climbing high with a non-meta deck! And... by awards I mean titles, because I can't give much more than that.
    3. Although we do want to explore the boundaries this game's yet to see, we also try to win! Although it's not as important, so you don't need to worry about being punished for losing. Trial and Error, ladies and gents.
    4.
    We da gang, if one of our homies need help, we try to help 'em! So long as it doesn't mean being iced by them in a fight! Loot Fairy ain't a problem to us!
    5. Overall being nice is great, helps both you and your surrounding! If someone's stubborn, just block him or ignore him!
    6. Energy drinks.
    7. Cats.
    8. idk, do whatever you find fit that doesn't break the rules mentioned above.

    Walls, prepare thyself to be broken!
    We'll use every method known to a human being to break the wall down!
    Such as this one:
     
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2015
    visak13, Wandere, CT5 and 1 other person like this.
  2. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    I'm proud to welcome a new member, CapnSnuggles! You've beaten the volcano deck by locking a Priest in a room without any exit! Hopefully you'll be locking these meta-abusing folks without any option too.
     
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  3. Sir Veza

    Sir Veza Farming Deity

    As guild principal, are there any recipes you recommend for either?
     
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  4. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    Drink
    Pet
    Sleep with
    Repeat
     
  5. gulo gulo

    gulo gulo Guild Leader

    Some of these rules sound familiar....

    (good luck.)
     
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  6. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    I swear I hadn't looked into any guild thread, it was spontaneous.
     
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  7. Sir Veza

    Sir Veza Farming Deity

    And some walls are better left in place.
     
    gulo gulo likes this.
  8. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    Gladly welcoming the newest addition to the guild, ShadowStalker! Despite having his Warrior WWE'd to the closed 3x3 room, he pulled it off and won! Can't say more but to wish more luck in the future, more than that RNG curse from the Whirlwind for sure.
     
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  9. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    Against the meta

    If you have some sort of hipsterness in your genes, to the point where you can't play things other people play, you want to utilize things nobody utilizes, or if you're just sick and tired of having step warriors or burffft mages wiping out your teams... well, I'll try to write something that would help you fight against all of these.

    The guide will be divided... still no clue about how many parts will it have, but into some parts... Yeah, but let's move on.

    1. Understanding the meta.

    Meta is... basically, flavor of the... update? Most used stuff under our current circumstances. For example, right now movement is important, therefore some really good items consist of things that either add to your mobility or allow you to substract from your opponent's mobility. And while we have some original decks, absolutely genius ideas, some... you know, "rogue" decks, there are some things you'll see for the majority of the ranked ladder. So this section's about them. The most of the most used.

    1.0. Overall view on the current meta.

    Some people say that "Movement cards are the king" or "Cycling your deck is important". And both of these are correct. Your positioning is incredibly important throughout the game. The best out of the best can utilize the movement to constantly harass their opponents without being in the danger zone. Just as your movement is important, moving your opponent is also crucial. This is mostly Wizards territory, but not necessarily. You can use Bashes of all sorts or you can use some blocks that result in them changing direction or... moving.

    So what's there for you to do after moving, either yourself or your opponent? Dealing damage to your enemies, that's what. Therefore strong attacks or multiple attacks in quick succession are sought. That's also the reason why most of the major tokens on warriors goes towards weapons - huge damage means less time spent on killing things. The most efficient way for your spellcaster to abuse the positioning game is to attack multiple targets. Of course if there are buffs that further increase your damage, you are a happy man, as you, again, save both time and cards. Any source of additional cards that don't take up your buff slots (preferably) along with the previous things, make you an absurdly dangerous threat...

    ...That is unless you have means to nullify damage. Blocks that have a high chance to proc, some of the armors and buffs that grant you invincibility - all these things are lifesavers, letting you survive the opponent's onslaught or delay it until you'll definitely feel like you can fight. Unless your enemy can remove all of your life insurance earlier than you want.

    There are also wanna-be geomancers spewing lava and stuff, thinking they are cool.

    And I think this is how people look at things. You either want to move from place to place, attacking everybody and everything with the help of Elven Maneuvers and/or step attacks, stay back, make your opponent stay back and Fireball or just have your attacks affect multiple enemies or go ham at your opponent, healing whatever damage they manage to deal to you with your Talented Healer. Or you're just a heartless human being without morals and you use Volcano. In the next few paragraphs I'm going to talk about these most commonly seen things.

    1.1. Step attacking Elven Warriors.

    Thanks to some weapons Stepping Elves aren't uncommon. Why is that so? Not just because, you know, tons of people wrote stuff about them, but because they are the easiest to make. For a working nuisance of an Elf like this one to exist, you need some of the commons and uncommons. Additionally, they require the least thinking to win with, mostly on 1k-1,2ks. Later you need to hone your positioning a bit if you want to be higher.

    What makes the Elf a Stepping Elf then?

    - Cautious Mobility - It's an elven skill. This is literally the most important part of the build to work. Elven Maneuvers allow you to check out first 6 cards off the top of that hero's deck. If there's a movement card in these 6 cards, you draw it. Else, you just went through 6 cards of your deck. This item is bound to get nerfed anytime soon, but for now it's a serious threat for multiple reasons.
    • It's tokenless. Meaning you don't have to use up anything for that Elven Skill.
    • It has two 3-round-long traits. That adds up to the cycling.
    • It has a potential for giving you new cards for getting hurt, which is something that will happen regardless of whether you want it or not.
    • Packs in a Scouting Run, card that can warn you what does the target have AND move you.
    And "Movement card" is a very liberal term. Everything that's a hybrid of a movement card and anything else counts. You can draw Surging Shield Block, Dynamic Armor... if we had a Forced Rotate on an item, you could draw it too. But you already know what it's most used for. So, without further ado, worst offenders containing Step attacks:

    - Vibrant Pain - I decided to include a Legendary weapon first because... it's all step attacks. Literally. Not only that, Nimble Strike is one of the best steps in that it's a fusion of Dancing Cut and Leap. Just because of the fact it has Fly it's three times as versatile as all the other step attacks.

    The roles it can fulfill are:
    • Step attack. Duh.
    • Block dodger. You can run around any wizard, warrior, whatever has a block. Thanks to the fact Fly doesn't care that you're next to an opponent - it even allows you to move through them.
    • Escape mechanism. Cutting the chase with difficult terrain, thanks to Fly, is an option available when you're incredibly low HP.
    The drawback is, naturally, damage. Can be fixed with Blind Rage, Mass Frenzy, especially Frenzy Aura.

    - Bejeweled Shortsword - It would be dishonorable to not have this at the second place. It's one of the most killer options for a weapon there are. This weapon has huge damage written all over it. Vicious Thrust is one of the most powerful steps, being second only to Laser Thrust in 1/2 cases. Everything else is the cheapest 10+ single-target damage card in two variations. The only reason this thing has only one Powerful Bludgeon is Focused Crushing would make it even more OP than it currently is. IMHO this is THE BEST Common item in game currently.

    - Rageblood Dagger - This is the sidekick of all 2-major token weapons. If your hero needs more steps without wanting to spend another set of major tokens, this is a great option. The worst part about it is Raging Strike, which can seriously hurt you. So can Blind Rage, but it can benefit you as well at least. Other than that, 4 great step attacks.

    - Double-Edged Sword - Now for the more all-round version of Bejeweled Shortsword, his cheaper to equip cousin. Packing 3 powerful range 2 attacks, two of them laughing at your armor, as well as two Dancing Cuts. The sad part about it is Backbiting Strike which honestly isn't all that bad when you realize you can neutralize the damage on you with stuff like Reliable Mail.

    - Nova Axe - Hello, Bejeweled Shortsword from the future! This baby packs a smaller punch, but a punch nevertheless. It fuses what's the best in Double-Edged Sword and Bejeweled Shortsword - Two powerful step attacks that are PENETRATING. The fact it's MAJOR ERRATIC means that if you roll 6, you deal 6 more damage. This thing with All-Out Attack can wreck almost everything very quick. There's also Obliterating Chop which is honestly a very nice card, although you'll rarely be able to use it for chopping two folks at once. Violent Spin lets you control your opponent as you see fit (which is, you know, good) and Purging Strike lets you deal easily with Nimbuses or Force Fields. This thing has little to no drawbacks in my opinion.

    Notable, honorable mentions, both as supporting weapons and... just alternatives, are Blocking Mace for adding a few useful Parries, Strongarm and Blazing Shortsword for additional power after you finish with your steps, Slice And Dice and Lunginator for being so different they are actually cool and free of the meta chains.

    So what could possibly counter your almost infinitely moving elves? There has to be something, right?

    • Entangling Roots - Kinda tricky, because you still need to be careful - just because you pinned him to the ground doesn't mean somebody else can't move him. Range 4 also means you need to prepare for that and lead with the priest, which in itself is a dangerous thing.
    • Encumber - While it hurts your Vibrant Pain users the most, it also causes problems to everything else, because they can't jump all over the map, wherever they wish. The best Encumber-inducing card has to be Cone Of Cold because of its ability to target multiple targets and low damage, meaning no draw for them most of the times.
    • Hypnotic Beacon - I'm still wondering why people aren't using this more. This screws step attackers to a whole new level. It's actually meant to screw them, that's how much of a dedicated screwer it is... eh. Yeah, randomizing movement of these jumping fellas is huge. Best used on maps with lots of difficult terrain between you and your opponent.
    • Telekinesis - No damage inflicted, so they don't get a draw, AND you're able to move them through the wall? Maps with tight corridors are the best way of abusing Telekinesis.
    • Armor Removal - Most Elves just go in because they know they can tank some hits, either with Cushions, Reliable Mails or other armors (or all of them). But when you take that away from them and then move in for the kill, they suddenly want to run away like little rats.
    • PURGE. All kinds of purge to wipe out their buffs and, most importantly, their Elven Maneuvers.

    In-depth counters will be described later on, in future parts. But for now I have to end it here. My time is kind of limited, due to real-life complications. So... thanks for reading all that.
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2015
  10. Han Lee

    Han Lee Guild Leader

    There seem to be two builds prominent in the current meta:

    Triple warriors with bejeweled sword-vibrant pain. Counter options:
    1) control - great when you draw them, but can be countered hard by immovable
    2) lots of blocks - can be subverted most often than not by vibrant pain, multiple 11 strike attacks. Hard countered by war cry
    3) hypno beacon - countered by team moves
    4) cold - great but lacks damage, so these warriors can most often just camp the vp

    Bursty wizards and priests with their searing pains and cursed radcannons and skulls of savage iljin.
    1) best counter is honestly just stacking armor and team heals/inspire presence. This allows you to camp vp. If they move in to attack, you have the advantage.
    2) smoke bomb is also a great counter.
    3) illusory barrier is easily subverted by movement and the fact that it's burst 2 you"re dealing with

    The main problem with the existence of these two builds is that it's almost impossible to deal with both at the same time. One is extremely close range, and the other is extremely long range. I challenge your guild to figure out how to counter both at the same time. Best of luck, you mad scientists.
     
  11. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    So... due to me asking to change my nickname, I kind of disappeared. After that name change I'm not a leader, my rank's lost, etc. What can I do folks?

    As for the guide/sth... Expect it more after Christmas. 3 weeks of free time BABY~!
     
  12. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    1.1.1. Overmobile Dwarven Warriors.

    I decided to place that just under Elves, because that's as much of a nuisance as they are, except... these things are less annoying, but more hard-hitting. Instead of getting a move almost every time they suffer from something, they have a wide array of different racial skills for different things.
    • Raging Battler/Apprentice Ferocity/Raging Rock/Ferocity/... you get the point. - Basically a 2-turn frenzy, that punishes you for holding on to attacks with a whopping three damage per card. But other than the suffering part, it's still a Frenzy. Additional 2 damage is incredibly potent no matter what you equip. The most problematic one of all the items listed is definitely the first one. Not only do you get to be more powerful, you also get to be more tanky. Frankly, it's one of the cases where a legendary version of an epic is well worth the price tag. Reliable Mail is no joke. If you want to go for a less powerful armor in terms of absorbing damage, you can. If you want to use Cushioning Armor, you can. You'll probably stay with 2 of Vibrant Pain, but Raging Battler gives you countless new options basically.
    • Perfect Ferocity - If you're using a full dwarf party, this item is no joke. It's the only racial with a Frenzy Aura, and, on top of that, you get Dwarven Cry (so, basically, a draw that has a potential to support just you, depending on who are you facing) and Blind Rage. While you lose some of your tankiness, you gain a ton of power. You thought it's bad when Nimble Strike goes around your blocks? Give it a Frenzy Aura, and it dodges EVERYTHING... bar Nimbus and Force Field. It's not all that bad with it, however. Due to the fact this item costs a major token to equip, you can't equip two VPs. Which means only up to 6 armor and block penetrating attacks. And you probably realize that even having 4 penetrating Nimble Strikes is a rarity. It's scary when given right cards and situation, I'd say it's absolutely fear-inducing, but other than that you're probably fine.
    • Advanced Ferocity - Here's its minor token relative. The only difference between this one and the previous one, aside from the cost that is, is War Cry instead of Frenzy Aura. This one allows you to be even more secure. You can get rid of somebody's Defender's Block that would otherwise prevent your attack.
    It's worth mentioning these last two options are only viable if you're sure you can just spend a token on the skill. Most of the time the sheer power and stability of the deck are prefered.

    ...Oh, and one more thing.

    YOU CAN'T PURGE OPPONENT'S BLIND RAGE. The only thing you can do with it is override it.

    Let's move on to counters. More or less it's the same thing as with Steppy Elves.
    • Attachments. Whether you use something that could potentially benefit your opponent, like Genetic Engineering or you just burn them alive with Wizards, they lose a ton. Although rarely used, special mentions go to Curse Of Fragility for punishing Blind Rage even further.
    • Accelerate Time (early in the game). Not only is it forcing your opponent to show his plans. It also deals damage! Even better if you have some sort of card drawing attachment on yourself.
    • Gusts Of War/Winds Of War and Force things now take slightly higher priority due to potential of removing Frenzy Aura as well as an Armor check.
    slightly shorter part today because I felt some inspiration at the very start and it kinda went out
     
    Last edited: Jan 15, 2016
    visak13 and ParodyKnaveBob like this.
  13. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    It's been a goofy month... All 2 of you who probably are not even reading... but still. I've changed a nickname, which resulted in me not contributing to the guild at all, and it's just overall weird to me, with being barely motivated to do anything CH related.

    After starting pretty strong, at 7th or something, we're now at 46th and I'm feeling like me being goofy for the most part is something to blame. Then again, I wasn't expecting much when I made the guild, so... yeah.

    At the very least I've made 2 or 3 good unusual decks, so I'm pretty happy with that.

    Regardless of how are you ranked and how do you look at your guild contribution, you did a great job. And I'm hoping one day we'll be able to find the perfect formula that will allow us to go toe to toe with both Burst wizards and/or priests and steps.
     
  14. Han Lee

    Han Lee Guild Leader

    I READ THIS STUFF :D your experiments are pretty awesome btw
     
  15. Sir Veza

    Sir Veza Farming Deity

    I read it too. I like seeing players come up with ideas using existing items that reshape the meta. It's no easy task.
    I hope the nickname / guild thing is soon resolved.
     
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  16. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    It is resolved, it just made me skip 5 days or so~
     
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  17. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    Now that I have some free time... Welcome, Pyrious! You seem like a person that fits just right in. Pleasure to fight and have my wizzy knocked out by AoA Obliterating Chop... except I didn't really have any volcanoes to begin with except for the first turn. But overall, well played and enjoy your stay!
     
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  18. Han Lee

    Han Lee Guild Leader

    Poo, I was scouting him for later lol
     
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  19. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    We're allies anyways, what's the problem~
     
  20. Lucky Dice

    Lucky Dice Thaumaturge

    Oh yeah, delayed as all hell, but still.

    Welcome Skulla, 5th member of the Wall-Breakers! Hopefully you'll gather enough items to start building decks yourself! As for right now, that fresh new blood of yours should suffice~
     
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