The game is broken - This proves it. PLEASE DO SOMETHING ASAP.

For starters this is a serious post.

I have been trying different versions of the SLG control dwarf deck but made for the peasent tournament i ultimately came up with this build.

It is entirely made from stuff you can buy from the shops, ANYONE CAN MAKE THIS DECK.

Is it good ? YES it is so damn good its game breaking in the balance of power this build creates.
I can beat a TOP tier 1700 ELO player using uncommons from a shop !? Something is drasticly wrong and needs urgent addressing.

(I played many ranked games with this deck today, currently at 1450elo and played my deck vs a couple of players over 1600 and won or came within a sqeemish sorc bolt of winning.i beat a whole bunch under 1450 with it..)

The reason i am posting this build is so that ANYONE can now become a powerhouse and become a 1700 elo player using just uncommon items. You still need to be carefull of position and such but you will win and convincingly.



Gandalf The Grey
Level 18 Dwarf Wizard

Whiterune Staff​

Counterblast Staff​

Runestone​

Burning Bangle​

Locket Of The Gale​

Runestone​

Robe Of Lightness​

Possessed Shoes​

Perfect Toughness​

Electroporter Novice​

​

1 x Spark Generator​

2 x Counterspell​

1 x Shuffle​

2 x Wall Of Fire​

1 x Rusty Armor​

2 x Chilling Rime​

1 x Spark Inductor​

1 x Jarring Block​

1 x Cloth Armor​

2 x Ember Spray​

1 x Surging Blast​

2 x Acid Jet​

2 x Sorcerous Blast​

2 x Hot Spot​

2 x Toughness​

1 x Dimensional Traveller​

1 x Cautious Sneak​

4 x Winds Of War​

2 x Squeamish​

2 x Improved Telekinesis​

1 x Immovable​

2 x Hover​

​

Aerith Gainsborough
Level 12 Dwarf Wizard

Counterblast Staff​

Whiterune Staff​

Runestone​

Runestone​

Locket Of The Gale​

Burning Bangle​

Robe Of Lightness​

Possessed Shoes​

Perfect Toughness​

Electroporter Novice​

​

1 x Spark Generator​

2 x Counterspell​

1 x Shuffle​

2 x Wall Of Fire​

1 x Rusty Armor​

2 x Chilling Rime​

1 x Spark Inductor​

2 x Improved Telekinesis​

1 x Cloth Armor​

2 x Ember Spray​

1 x Surging Blast​

2 x Acid Jet​

2 x Sorcerous Blast​

2 x Hot Spot​

2 x Toughness​

1 x Dimensional Traveller​

1 x Cautious Sneak​

4 x Winds Of War​

2 x Squeamish​

1 x Jarring Block​

1 x Immovable​

2 x Hover​

​

Magni Bronzebeard
Level 1 Dwarf Wizard

Chillwood Staff​

Counterblast Staff​

Runestone​

Burning Bangle​

Locket Of The Gale​

Runestone​

Robe Of Lightness​

Possessed Shoes​

Perfect Toughness​

Electroporter Novice​

​

1 x Cold Snap​

1 x Frost Jolt​

1 x Shuffle​

2 x Wall Of Fire​

1 x Rusty Armor​

1 x Chilling Rime​

1 x Spark Inductor​

2 x Counterspell​

1 x Jarring Block​

1 x Cloth Armor​

2 x Ember Spray​

2 x Mighty Spark​

4 x Winds Of War​

2 x Sorcerous Blast​

1 x Bungled Bolt​

2 x Toughness​

1 x Cautious Sneak​

1 x Dimensional Traveller​

1 x Surging Blast​

2 x Squeamish​

1 x Spark Generator​

2 x Hot Spot​

1 x Immovable​

2 x Hover​

​

You dont need Short perplexing rays, or volcanos, or this or that you dont need anything you need 500g and a shopping spree and you found the i win button. Something is VERY wrong that i can make such a powerfull and competitive deck from using shop items. This is completely bypassing the whole item hunt to gain power thingo.

I hope this gets noticed and players start to use it so that 3dwarf control is brought right back into check with everything else, there is no end game or meta, 3dc is the end game / meta.

 

I do find it awesome that a common/uncommon deck can kick arse

 

Part of game design to reward skilled gameplay, not so much of item dependencies. Then again, game's only been released for 2+ mths. The last time a thread like this was posted, it was all card draw. Who knows what the next thread will be ? Shrugs...

 

I am building something similar, but with a couple of different items, although I'm starting to think I should build something completely different. I predict that the dwarven control wizards we'll be seeing in peasant tournament will probably all be so close to each other that it comes down to luck of the draw, skill, and how well you use your "sideboard". Hopefully we'll see more variation and not just control wizards vs. control wizards.

I was originally planning on going for something a bit different, but I just realized I don't have the cards for it, which is kind of ironic since this is common/uncommon tournament.

 

I wish there was a good counter for it, honestly the only thing ive found that can compete with something like this is to stack even MORE counterspells, your average peasent melle team of any description will get anihilated by this type of deck.
Its actually pretty crappy, i WANT to play other builds, other class's but they just cant hold a candle.

The aim of the post was to highlight to the masses just how easy it is to obtain a powerfull deck and by trying to make it mainstream it is brought into line. Im ok with the deck being a playable viable alternative to another build but not ok with it being a dominating force.

 

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. There are many builds I'd like to try out, like a full priest build, but I know I would have zero chance against control wizards so why even bother. Losing matches is not a big deal, but I'd like to have something that would give me at least a 50/50 chance, not a 1% chance (opponent disconnecting by accident).


It would be funny if you could start the game over as a total newbie and take this build you posted, or something similar, against other complete newbies. It would be a bloodbath, and the amount of rage-quitting would go to the roof

 

It was a dark and stormy knight...

This thread made me realize why the devs take the slow and conservative approach to game balance. Can't rewrite the game every time someone builds a good deck...

Anyhow, at the ELO I play most teams are War/Pri/Wiz with the occasional double Warrior so we'll see whether any of this trickles down. I don't expect to see too many control decks any time soon simply because it's easy to get creamed if you don't know what you're doing yet.

 

I posted in another thread my thoughts on things that would pull them into line a bit, i will quickly list them here;

1. Make Winds Of War only target one player at its current range or reduce the slide to 1 or 2. (this brings TK back into balance)
2. Make it so you can only cycle 3 traits per turn or character, *probably turn* so then choosing a trait to use becomes a stratagy oo look at all that lava time to use hover
3. Make Toughness act exactly the way Duck acts. (requires facing with an armor roll)
4. Make encumber effects diminish each turn by 1 until it is defrosted.

Just these 4 things does not cripple a control but it certainly takes away alot of its power abilities and puts it in line with the rest.

 

This is a peasant version of a basic control wizard deck. It is powerful for the same exact reasons why a non-peasant control wizard deck is powerful, so it's not really something "new", it's only new evidence of what everyone in the top rankings already knows. Also suggesting that this topic demands "rewriting the game" is a silly exaggeration. All we need are a couple of nerfs.

The main point Stormyknight is making (and you are completely missing) here, is that a player can build a very effective control wizard deck with common/uncommon cards only. This means that the old weak excuse of control wizards being "balanced" because they use a lot of rare cards, no longer fully applies. Now any newbie can start with a very powerful deck that is capable of beating top level players armed with epics and legendaries.

Trait cycling and WoW are the main issues that BM should concentrate on now, along with Vibrant Pain and Nimble Strike. I'm just hoping they don't completely cripple control wizards like what happened with card draw.

 

Although I agree with the OP, I do think that maps matter greatly. Anything with moderate line of sight restrictions makes this deck beatable. Sure this deck is probably invulnerable to a wide-open map but thank goodness the map rotation doesn't include all wide-open maps.

 

So card draw got nerfed and now the dominant cards are -

Trait Cycling, which is just deck compression and card draw

and

Winds of War, which is functionally card advantage, since it basically equates to two move cards

and

Short Perplexing Ray, which is card advantage (1 card to remove two of theirs)

and

Nimble Strike, which is basically two cards in one

and

Toughness, which replaces itself at the expense of an opponent's card

I could go on, but you get the idea.

......

See where we're going? The most powerful cards are all about card draw/card advantage. If that stuff gets nerfed then what's up next? Anyone want to make predictions on what will be the target of the following wave of nerfs?

I'm of the idea that the best card advantage items will always dominate MP, and the devs will simply need to draw an arbitrary line somewhere when it comes to determining what needs the nerf bat and what isn't OP. Maybe they've already drawn it and haven't told anybody yet.

 

The real problem is character manipulation, not nimble strike or perp rays or any of that, its to easy for control to just do whatever they want. Making them more vulnerable aka changes to toughness or by limiting cards which are stacked in the build but overly to powerfull as a single entity aka winds of war.

Also trait cycling im sure was not originaly intended. I bet the devs did not sit down and go ok guys lets create all these traits and drawbacks so people can fit as many as possible and squash their deck. I think they would of been instead, thinking up all these individual scenarios where a trait or drawback would be usefull or appropriate not creating a compression engine. Which means cycling traits is unintended, for to have it of been an intended mechanic is silly. Limiting your players to a selection of traits to play each round and having the rest either discarded or held in your hand is a much better situation then we have now.

EDIT: To emphasize the pure power of control, just played arated game in the 1500's and on crundy bridge i was able to walk right into the middle while pushing his characters back to the corner again taking damage the whole time and he was powerless after a whole plethora of team moves and pushes and steps. No other build can just squash your every effort to do anything.

 

You are mis-informed. Scroll after the Slippery card image and read: http://www.cardhunter.com/2012/03/mystery-cards-revealed/

 

yeah they briefly say churning through your deck, im not exactly interpreting that as trait engine though. But who knows i could be wrong its open to a number of interpretations, but since they have already nerfed one draw style it makes sense that this style of draw is also a bit out of line.

 

I can't speak for the entirety of the normal CH PvP meta, but, for the peasant tournament:
• I've tried to include maps in the tournament rotation that are both better and worse for wizards, without punishing or rewarding them too much (e.g. Gladius Single/Celestial Koi).
• I'm looking forward to getting data from the tournament regarding what gets played and what wins. If 3DC wipes the floor with no competition, I am definitely going to be considering a ban list for the format.
• On the topic of "luck, skill, how well you sideboard"—I'm probably the only person in the world who enjoys 3DC. I was talking about this in lobby chat yesterday. But 3DC is super consistent and very strong, which means it's hard to get lucky against it. You can always assume that the party has one toughness and a few winds of war in hand, and that forces you to play the best you can at all times. To me that's kind of fun. I can see how it could get old, but to me right now it is refreshing that there is a strong and consistent build, accessible with basically no grinding, that creates an interesting gameplay experience.

The funny thing about Stormy's peasant 3DC is that I think it might actually be a favorite against full-powered 3DC. Counterspell>SPR in the mirror

 

As with vibrant pain, the problem isn't that powerful cards exist, but that a single item grants nothing but universal usefulness.
Runestone is another offender. WoW and Wall of Fire are very good cards that could fit in just about any build effectively, but on top of that, they also have very good synergy. The third card (squeemish) is supposed to bring down the quality of the item, but it achieves quite the opposite, as it serves to reduce the effective deck size of a wizard.

I wonder how effective Dwarven control wizards would be without easy access to wall of fire.

 

I want to come out and say that Stormy is definitely not entirely correct and that it DEFINITELY DOES have a HUGE amount to do with both skill and luck.
Since Stormy posted this, I've been running the exact same deck in pvp and (not counting games where the opp. quit in round 1) have since won ONLY

This may be because:

• Stormy's a better player.
• Stormy built the deck and has a better feel for it.
• Stormy's in a higher bracket and such players in bracket have often reported having difficulty with their decks in lower rankings.

• People just haven't figured out how to counter the decks and those which have are keeping it to themselves.

OR maybe Stormy's right.

You're definitely not, Flax. I've been wanting to build a successful control deck forever. I friggin LOVED my Needle Worm/Morphing Jar Lock Down deck when I played YuGiOh. For those who never played, those cards (first off, in America, they were cards you could only get from Tournament Booster Packs and even then they were "Ultra Rares" when they were first released, though later editions released ) were used to force your opponent to discard this hand and draw a new one and to discard cards directly from his deck. in YGO, if you had no cards remaining on your draw phase, you lost the game. My deck was built so that, in the rare occasions where my opp COULD attack, it would cost him cards from his deck to do so and, even then, would usually end up triggering something to make him discard more cards.

I love that there's an option in CH, and loved it in YGO, for VIABLE (keyword here) strategies other than just pummeling your opp. into defeat, especially because, aside from the Needle Worm and Morphing Jar, my deck was mostly made up of commons and uncommons which other players never stopped to think about using together.

So what's the real problem here? That these cards are too easily accessible? Too Powerful? Or that there isn't enough to counter them?

I, for one, suggest that it is a combination of all of these, but that it is overwhelmingly that there isn't enough to counter this powerful strategy. Why do I feel this way? How did my YGO deck fair? It faired reasonably well, dominating less skilled players with less rare cards, but against others, it could and did crumble easily because they had access to cards that could defeat that strategy.

I love Card Hunter, but it's still very young. New cards and items and classes haven't been implemented yet to expand our options. Once they are, I believe that we will see a decrease in 3DC's use and power, if the cards and items allow for the defeat of such strategies.

 

Btw, I just looked over my wins/losses since running this deck. I've lost 4 out of 6 matches, one of those wins, my opp. quit midway through round 2, the other quit after the match was 23 seconds in.

Based on that, I would say this deck is not, as Stormy would suggest, game breakingly powerful

 

I should clarify, I enjoy playing against 3DC.

 

Bottom Line, Blue Manchu? Please don't break the viability of Control decks. It's a lot more fun and satisfying thna just rush rush rush rush smash slash boom fights. Just... find a way to BUILD UPON what's here so that they can be beaten.