(The new version of the deck is the second deck listed, this post is a legacy. Still leaving it up because it's not actually bad, just not as good as the new one.) Back when I started Cardhunter, I was fascinated with lava. I used twelve Blister Stone, watched in amazement as people played the mythical Volcano (This was back before AotA, so it was even rarer), and failed to be competitive with my antics at all. I eventually discovered how trait cycling worked, but before I truly explored the potential of the Runestone, I stopped focusing on lava and went on to be the semi-successful Melvin player you know and love. About a month ago, I looked through my items list, and discovered twelve blister stones sitting there unused near the Mordecai's Staff Of Magma I had just collected from a chest. I remembered my old deck, and then decided to make something with Runestones to go back to my roots. What was expected was a fun deck that would be about my normal quality of deck at around 1200-1300 that my more mobile enemies would be able to dance through. What I got was a hurricane of lava, ember bursts, and a whopping twenty-four traits that either insulated me from my own mayhem or were ideal cycling material to get more of that liquid rock under my opponent's feet, shooting me to 1450 and beyond. I've procrastinated sharing the deck with you guys for long enough, so here it is, in all it's white-hot glory. Alpha Level 3 Human Wizard Charring Staff Hydrogen Staff Runestone Runestone Runestone Sensate's Ring Robe Of Lightness Pergop's Slippers Untrained Command Novice Teleportation 4 x Ember Burst 2 x Potent Spark 1 x Attack, Soldier! 1 x Force Bolt 2 x Violent Spin 2 x Flame Spit 2 x Acid Blast 2 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Flimsy Block 3 x Winds Of War 4 x Squeamish 1 x Gusts Of War 1 x Cloth Armor 5 x Wall Of Fire 1 x Little Zap 1 x Shuffle, Team! 1 x Toughened Hide Strips 2 x Hover Gamma Level 1 Human Wizard Hydrogen Staff Staff Of Embers Runestone Runestone Runestone Sensate's Ring Robe Of Lightness Zachary's Boots Untrained Command Novice Teleportation 7 x Ember Burst 2 x Potent Spark 1 x Attack, Soldier! 1 x Force Bolt 2 x Violent Spin 1 x Burning Fingers 2 x Acid Blast 2 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Flimsy Block 3 x Winds Of War 4 x Squeamish 1 x Gusts Of War 1 x Cloth Armor 1 x Weakened Armor 3 x Wall Of Fire 1 x Little Zap 1 x Shuffle, Team! 2 x Hover Omega Level 2 Human Wizard Mordecai's Staff Of Magma Staff Of Soot Runestone Runestone Runestone Sensate's Ring Robe Of Lightness Zachary's Boots Untrained Command Novice Teleportation 2 x Ember Burst 1 x Attack, Soldier! 4 x Volcano 1 x Force Bolt 2 x Violent Spin 2 x Flame Spit 2 x Smoke Bomb 2 x Flash Of Agony 1 x Flimsy Block 3 x Winds Of War 4 x Squeamish 2 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Gusts Of War 1 x Cloth Armor 1 x Weakened Armor 3 x Wall Of Fire 1 x Little Zap 1 x Shuffle, Team! 2 x Hover Why I chose this stuff: The spine of this deck is the three Runestones and Sensate's Ring on each wizard. I consider Runestones one of the best items in the game for the amazing synergy it has, providing Wall Of Lava for damage, Winds Of War for keeping people on the damage, and Squeamish for not effecting the last two in the least. However, Squeamish does mean that direct attacks are usually not an option for me, hence the staff choices. Linear and Burst attacks both allow ranged options while not triggering Squeamish, and burns can usually do the same thing. Hydrogen Staff shines in this deck, as its normally unspecialized attacks fall in line perfectly with the Runestones while providing the armor removal the arcane items don't have. Staff of Embers and Staff of Soot provide more bursts while Mordecai's and Charring Staff provide more lava, enough said about them. Robe of Lightness and Novice Teleportation both help to cycle the deck and keep out of the lava. I chose Hover over Resistant Hide because most of the time my strategy for wizards is to stay out of their range and lava them to death instead of trading spells. Violent Spin is a gold card that at first glance seems like an inferior option to Team Walk, but it can move enemies without triggering blocks and allow for quick repositioning if you stick close together. Finally, Untrained Command is basically a grab bag. Every card is useful on occasion, and it's the only tokenless human skill I have without drawbacks I wouldn't be able to handle. Strategies to deal with common deck types Burst Wizards: The effective range of a burst 1 attack is seven squares. Wall of Fire reaches up to eight. Combine kiting with a wizard's low health and pushing them away if they try advancing, and you can render them helpless. Other Terrain/Control Wizards: Laugh deeply and drink their tears. Sprint, Team Warriors: This is the best use for Violent Spin and Gusts Of War possible. As long as they aren't next to you and near each other, you can hit both at once. Armored Warriors: Use your bursts elsewhere, and just focus on moving them away and into lava. You'll whittle them down eventually, that armor also means that they aren't saving step attacks or moves. Vampire Priests: Stay away from them at all costs and keep the heat on until you can isolate one and concentrate enough fire to take it out. Burn effects can be very useful to push off their traits. Entangling Roots Priests???: Stay out of range, Winds of War yourself to safety, and once you play a few more games and get out of the 900 ELO bracket you'll probably never see them again. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the deck or opinions, let me know!
Trust me, I'm sad too. Pergop's is on the top of my list of legendaries to buy. I've been messing around with some of the staffs, racials, and class skills recently, I'll post if any of them work out well. EDIT: It DID work out well! I switched the arcane skills for Electroporter Novice to cycle more and stop my winds of war from being blocked so much, changed my human racials to some odd ones with better movement, and swapped the Charring Staff for Searing Pain because I have enough lava and can use some more edge on burst wizards. The deck's reached 1500 ELO, and I'm now going to stop playing ranked for a bit to bask in this achievement.
Updating this for the new year so I can link it to people. Alpha Level 20 Human Wizard Searing Pain Sour Staff Runestone Runestone Runestone Sensate's Ring Robe Of Lightness Pergop's Slippers Untrained Flexibility Electroporter Novice 2 x Potent Spark 1 x Retreat 2 x Acid Blast 1 x Toughened Hide Strips 3 x Wall Of Fire 1 x Spark Inductor 3 x Winds Of War 1 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Little Zap 2 x Violent Spin 2 x Hover 4 x Squeamish 1 x Slowed 3 x Fireball 1 x Cloth Armor 3 x Flash Of Agony 1 x Flanking Move 1 x Spark Generator 2 x Acid Jet 1 x Gusts Of War Gamma Level 1 Human Wizard Blue Destruction Staff Of Embers Runestone Runestone Runestone Sensate's Ring Robe Of Lightness Zachary's Boots Untrained Flexibility Electroporter Novice 1 x Spark Generator 1 x Weakened Armor 3 x Wall Of Fire 1 x Spark Inductor 3 x Winds Of War 1 x Dimensional Traveller 5 x Ember Burst 1 x Little Zap 2 x Violent Spin 2 x Hover 4 x Squeamish 1 x Slowed 1 x Burning Fingers 6 x Arcane Burst 1 x Cloth Armor 1 x Retreat 1 x Flanking Move 1 x Gusts Of War Omega Level 2 Human Wizard Mordecai's Staff Of Magma Illusion Runestone Runestone Runestone Sensate's Ring Robe Of Lightness Zachary's Boots Untrained Flexibility Electroporter Novice 1 x Retreat 1 x Weakened Armor 3 x Wall Of Fire 3 x Winds Of War 1 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Little Zap 2 x Violent Spin 2 x Hover 4 x Squeamish 1 x Slowed 1 x Flanking Move 1 x Cloth Armor 3 x Flash Of Agony 1 x Spark Inductor 1 x Spark Generator 4 x Volcano 5 x Illusory Barrier 1 x Gusts Of War
I kind of regret not buying them when I saw them, but that's life. I forgot to note the changes from the original deck, and because a lot of them were very important to getting to 1680 with the deck I'll do that here. Staffs: This deck was posted a year ago, and I have gotten a lot richer since then. The staffs have become more focused, solidifying into three distinct roles of a control wizard, a burst wizard, and the wizard with the acid. Notable mention goes to Illusion for protecting my non-dwarf wizard from dwarf wizards, as well as slowing enemies in tight spaces. Arcane Items: Over the past year I played with the idea of more armor removal, but eventually I decided that an armored warrior away from me was better than a naked warrior right next to me. Plus, I tend to burn to death a lot when I'm combustable. It never crossed my mind to change even one of the Runestones. Runestone is a great item, I'll never stop yelling about it, you should own a lot of them. The Other Stuff: Changed to Electroporter Novice on Flax's suggestion, and boy howdy it is amazing having hard to block winds of war. Moving at the start of turns is nice, but it's nicer having an extra trait to draw the good stuff rather than a force bolt. Untrained Flexability was a good suggestion from @gulo gulo if I remember correctly, two great cards and a not particularly bad card that can be used to stall for Volcano is a good deal for tokenless.
Amethyst crystal shard is also nice could replace a blue destruction, if you put Superb Command in same wiz you can have a nice little melee surprise for enemy, since they will be discarding their parries against your 3 wiz.
Thanks, I do what I can. I've become more of a Blood Locket player than a Runestone one, but this set-up has always been my greatest Cardhuntrian love.
I'm all about the poor people, so I made a peasant version of my Hot Winds deck for the people who don't have wealth beyond compare. All the wizards use the same setup in this version. Changing my deck like this also gave me a bit of insight on how the regular deck functions best, so I'll be writing a bit of commentary on that, too. Alpha, Gamma, and Omega Level 20 Human Wizards Whiterune Staff Chillwood Staff Runestone Runestone Runestone Sensate's Ring Robe Of Lightness Boots Of Safety Apprentice Guidance Electroporter Novice 3 x Gusts Of War 1 x Telepod Jaunt 3 x Winds Of War 2 x Acid Jet 1 x Little Zap 1 x Walk, Team! 2 x Hover 1 x Cold Snap 2 x Mighty Spark 3 x Wall Of Fire 3 x Chilling Rime 1 x Frost Jolt 4 x Squeamish 1 x Unreliable Block 1 x Spark Inductor 1 x Spark Generator 1 x Cloth Armor 1 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Bungled Bolt 1 x Healing Dash 1 x Attack, Soldier! 1 x Teleport Self The old stuff: The core of the deck is left intact, there's still 9 traits per wizard. This means that you can draw through to the better cards much faster, as well as get some positive effects at the same time. Runestone x 3: For the people in the back that may have not heard the bazillion times I've yelled about Runestone already, Runestone is very strong and very good, partially due to good cards and partially due to the good cards working together in perfect unison. You have no excuse to not own lots of them. Sensate's Ring: Tokenless Gusts of War with cycling is very good, even with the dead card. Robe of Lightness: Two traits that work very well with the massive amount of terrain getting thrown out, and it's tokenless as well! It may not be Dimensional Traveler, but it's still very handy. Electroporter Novice: Three traits, and all of them work well with the deck. Dimensional Traveler gets you out of terrain and away from enemies, and the two spark traits mean more damage, another way of circumventing squeamish, and it stops people blocking your winds and gusts. The new stuff: The items changed were the staffs, boots, and racial. Changing them meant an almost complete overhaul in the playstyle of the deck, interestingly enough. Linear and bursts aren't available at peasant level, so squeamish is more of a concern than it used to be. The new staff selection also shifts the deck more to control than active aggression, which while not an unwelcome change does mean the opponent has more time to draw better cards. Whiterune Staff/Chillwood Staff: Every staff with the exception of Sour Staff in the regular version is legendary (and Sour Staff is a rare), so they all had to go. Whiterune Staff is a very good control staff that synchronizes with the old stuff nicely, with the added bonus of at long last giving the deck enough armor removal. Chillwood Staff is a damage/control combo for cheap, not much more to say. Boots of Safety: They're very nice at running away, but they're no Violent Spin. Still great cards to hold on to if you need to get out of a pinch. Apprentice Guidance: All the other replacements, I'm fine with. This, I'm not fine with at all. There really is no replacement for the Untrained Flexibility in the original, and Leadership isn't an option in this deck because there are nearly no dead cards that remain in the hand. If you don't want a painful negative trait though, this is the best you have as an option. Playstyle changes: The regular version of this deck is all about not letting the opponent attack while quickly hitting them with as much damage as possible. Working best at range 7-8, it hits hard from any angle, and can win rounds without taking a single point of damage at times. This version, however, does not have the luxury of bursts, barrier, or volcano. As such, it has to make do with added control and more direct damage. Playing either deck, one of the best options is to focus attacks on one character while taking victory points. If your opponent isn't mobile enough, they won't get to you, and you should win in 5-6 rounds if you consistently keep the victory terrain.
If you;re keeping people away, wouldn't that mitigate the problems of Vulnerable allowing for the use of Novice Guidance or Superb Guidance? It seems to me another trait might help, and Jump, Soldier! is another control card. If wary, Superb has two blocks, allowing for the possibility of six blocks. I'd value those cards over Walk, Team!. Anyway, nice deck. I still think Oak Staff could work well here, but I like what you came up with.
The reason I didn't want to run Vulnerable is because unlike the regular version of the deck, this deck has no real anti-wizard capabilities outside of shoving them where they can't attack or taking them on head-to-head.
Im using now 2nd build with change of 1 item (searing pain -> staff of winter). It's very funny to run it=) Thanks for sharing=)
Thanks for telling me! I almost never hear about people running this deck, it's nice that someone likes it. The second version of the deck is the best one, with its best ELO at 1680 on the Gladius set of maps. Of course, that was before EttSC had come out, so Rad Bomb might be too strong for it...
