Here's the deck that kept getting me reported. I might as well post it because of how absurd it is, so people could develop counters. It's the junk of the top decks combined, and it works - Vibrant Pain + Searing Pain + Skull Of Savage Iljin + Evensong. It's based on getting the maximum efficiency on the priest, maximum number of steps and difficult to block attacks on the warrior, and maximum efficiency for burst + control spells on the wizard. I'm sure someone could take this to at least 1750. Spoiler: Some useful deck build info Rarity index: Warrior: 5 L, 2 E, 1 R, 1 U Priest: 3 L, 3 E, 3 R, 1 U Wizard: 4 L, 1 E, 1 R, 1 U, 3 C Replaceable items: Warrior: Steel-rimmed Buckler, Zoltan's Helm, Mouse Boots - go for parries on shield, movement or armor on helm, and Cantrip on boots. Priest: Defensive Buckler, Goat Boots - go for cycling. Wizard: Sensate's Ring, Glimmer Boots - go for cycling. [CoI] Jumper Level 1 Dwarf Warrior The Lunginator The Lunginator Vibrant Pain Wex's Mail Steel-rimmed Buckler Zoltan's Helm Mouse Boots Raging Battler Novice Bruising 2 x Mighty Hack 4 x Unnerving Strike 6 x Nimble Strike 7 x Lunging Bash 1 x Bludgeon 1 x Surging Shield Block 2 x Parry 2 x Flanking Move 1 x Cautious Sneak 1 x Chain Harness 2 x Shimmering Aura 1 x Crafted Mail 1 x Reliable Mail 2 x Blind Rage 2 x Bruiser 1 x Advanced Battlefield Training 6 devastating attacks, 13 difficult to block step attacks, self-buffing, great armors, cantrip moves, and an ABT to top the collection. What works better? [CoI] Frazzle Level 3 Human Priest Evensong Evensong Savage Plates Defensive Buckler Goat Boots Xlaka's Sacred Bundle Skull Of Savage Iljin Skull Of Savage Iljin Untrained Flexibility Advanced Piety 6 x Mass Frenzy 5 x Savage Curse 5 x Greater Heal 3 x Inspiring Presence 1 x Triple Heals 1 x Defender's Block 2 x Powerful Bludgeon 2 x Controlled Overswing 1 x Retreat 1 x Block 1 x Flanking Move 1 x Dangerous Maneuver 1 x Weakened Armor 1 x Thickened Mail 1 x Immovable 1 x Loner 2 x Altruism 1 x Slowed So, I managed to fit 11 buffs, 8 gold heals (with possible draw!), Defender's Block, and 4 devastating attacks on a priest... Notice that you have 58 maximum points of single-target healing, and 94 maximum points of team healing. Even bejeweled elves and savagely buffed fireballs can't keep up. [CoI] Razzle Level 1 Human Wizard Staff Of A Million Embers Searing Pain Akon's Amulet Sensate's Ring Asmod's Telekinetic Chain Asmod's Telekinetic Chain Explorer's Force Suit Glimmer Boots Advanced Command Focused Pyromancy 2 x Stone Spikes 2 x Run 4 x Telekinesis 3 x Firestarter 6 x Ember Burst 1 x Dissolve Armor 1 x Winds Of War 1 x Hardy Mail 3 x Fireball 1 x Gusts Of War 1 x Little Zap 3 x Squeamish 1 x Sprint, Team! 1 x Force Field 2 x Boiling Armor 3 x Flash Of Agony 1 x Flanking Move Pretty standard fire burst wiz. The extra sprint item for surprise plays really helps as it also allows you to get more movement. Like Soularmadyl, I'm capitalizing on Firestarter to get insane damage to unarmored targets with a Fireball + Ember Burst combo. This works despite the burrft-friendly maps because the armors on the warrior are great (the oft-useless Chain Harness pairs extremely well with Crafted Mail or Shimmering Aura if you didn't draw your Reliable Mail), her movement is great, you have better healing (just force them to hit inefficiently), and you have consistent buffing. You also very frequently get to cross the impassable terrain immediately in Lichard's Mausoleum and Showroom Showdown. Your burst also deals 1 to 5 points more of damage than the usual opponent.
And of all people chat has, YOU complained how CH is just not the same? Hipocrisy through the roof. The person that inspired me to try non-meta stuff in the first place runs burffft himself. I'm disappointed man.
Yes, I made my attempt on a meta deck to expose the current imbalances in the game. That's also why I'm posting it. I don't plan on running this regularly - you know me. If you didn't get the imbalances I wanted to point out: Vibrant Pain is still incredibly strong for warriors because it's unbelievably flexible. Dwarves might also be too good at self-buffing. Priest equipment has too godly itemization. Inspiring Presence, Greater Heal, and Savage Curse are problematic because the first two lack counterplay other than "deal more damage" and the last one is because it's undercosted and should at least have a base damage of 1 or something. Burst is too strong and consistent both because of itemization and how easy it is to play, and fire is top-notch in the damage department. There's so much a wizard could get without spending tokens, and the best of that is harmless cycling. Sprint, Team! is an incredibly swingy card.
Good cards on good items. Makes sense. But what doesn't make sense is drug references in signatures. Blue Manchu should not allow this. "I'm 21 year's old and I've wasted my entire life <picture of cat? smoking something>" --Lucky Dice. "I like game balance and other drugs" --Deepweed. I usually refrain from standing on a soap box. But shouldn't Blue Manchu prevent this drug culture from invading the forums?
A possible change to the warrior to suit the healing and up-front nature of this deck is to forgo The Lunginators and run Troll's Ire + The Strongarm instead. I just picked up the latter in my RR today. The decrease in step attacks will make every other aspect of the warrior's deck better - I could run something like Ewix's Evolving Ensemble to shut down hyper-focused builds completely until they get answers to armor, and take advantage of Blind Rage + Mass Frenzy + possibly Savage Curse with Mimetic Crown. Also, this will allow the deck to have more team moves, Quick Reactions to draw armors or movement, and a Frenzy Aura or Team Walk as I see fit. An added bonus to all this is that Adaptable can prevent damage from Blind Rage after the first hit. Here's the proposed change: [CoI] Jumper Level 1 Dwarf Warrior Vibrant Pain Troll's Ire The Strongarm Ewix's Evolving Ensemble Aegis Of The Defender Shimmering Helm Diamond Moccasins Raging Battler Savvy Attacker 1 x Impaler 1 x Weak Strike 1 x Weak Chop 2 x Shimmering Aura 7 x Strong Hack 2 x Defender's Block 2 x Sundering Strike 2 x Reliable Mail 1 x Adaptable 1 x Team Walk 4 x Blind Rage 6 x Nimble Strike 1 x Quick Reactions 1 x Brutal Charge 1 x Slicer 1 x Sparkling Cloth Armor 1 x Quick Run 1 x Mimetic Crown This warrior has really made me think about an interesting deck building dilemma - how could I make the cards more "actively usable", such that there are less cards you want to keep and more you could flexibly play? This is why Nimble Strike is so good... it may not be like Mighty Hack that you'd want to keep, but it's flexible enough that you can expend it, gain an advantage by doing so, and keep your better cards. I made sure the warrior had two costless Shimmering Auras instead of Officer's Harnesses because I wanted more high-impact cards against wizards that you could just discard when you've drawn your better armors. The attacks are also pretty generic, doing significant damage but having no tech, but numerous enough to draw reliably. I thought, "What would I want to keep?" and I decided it was blocks and armor over attacks so that I'd prevent damage from Blind Rage and be able to deal with multiple opponents while taking the Victory Squares. I actually wanted to run Frenzied Slicing or something with more consistent traits because the trait stacking can push off buffs, but I realized that it could push off debuffs anyway and movement is everything. After all, few things feel better than the opponent Sprint, Team!ing their warriors to your wizard out of cards just to have him escape (hence I run Retreat too... it also works very well as a Scamper for the warrior against wiz teams that block with a priest). The only thing missing now is some Bless, but I can't find a way to get some without reducing the heal and buffing consistency. If it's going to be a build showcasing items and cards that seem out of balance, then I might as well include one of the major offenders.
