Control Sajj [Diamond]

[ellyr]

Hi! Newish player here started playing last month using Songhai then decided to try out Vetruvian this month and had a blast. Just wanted to share out the deck I have used to reach diamond (aiming for S-rank) this month.

Card Choices:

Sajj - Personal preference I really like her attack animation and her BBS has a great synergy with the artifacts + falcius in this deck.

Siphon Energy - A dispel for 0 mana. A great tempo swing since you can still play other cards after neutralizing your enemy’s threat.

Scion’s First Wish - A +1/+1 buff with card draw. Pretty standard in a lot of Vet decks.

Ephemeral Shroud - Another dispel but this time with a 2/2 body. Can be played at first turn if you do not have any other play to have board presence.

Pax - Standard Vet 2 drop. Generates another 2 2/2 bodies when it dies.

Healing Mystic - A 2/3 body which provides a 2 HP heal. A decent turn 1 play and allows Sajj to stay alive longer as her BBS demands her to attack minions head on a lot of times.

Rasha’s Curse - Destroys artifacts and provides reach. This can also be useful if you are far away and needs to summon a provoke to stop a fleeing general.

Falcius - One of the best cards for Sajj in this deck. Along with her BBS it can deal 8 damage without taking anything in return. Very useful for pushing lethal as well.

Sojourner - Card draw. I also tried Spell Jammer but it made me over draw. You usually want to play on curve playing. Using Spell jammer means that you would need to play 2 cards per turn to not over draw. Sojourner is a better drop if you do not have any other play on turn 3 rather than spell jammer.

Wildfire Anhk - Sajj gains blast allowing her to wipe minions in a straight line or to just safely attack in range. Has a very good synergy with Sajj’s BBS, Falcius and Spine Cleaver.

Dioltas - 5/3 threat which summons a 0/10 minion with provoke as dying wish. This would a lot of times eat a dispel allowing your other threats to be unanswered.

Silhouette Tracer - Allows your general to move up to 3 spaces. Very useful to escape situations where you are surrounded and cannot escape. Also gives you the option for a better positioning then use Ankh + BBS to clear minions. Optional you can change this card if this does not work for you the body is also decent.

Kron - Your first threat. A 4/6 body with provoke and summons a random 2/2 body with a random ability. It only costs 5 mana which IMO is too good. Demands an answer else it would be very difficult to deal with later on with the 2/2 bodies being generated.

Nimbus - Another threat but a very slow card. A lot of people whine about nimbus but really the effect of this card comes 3 turns later. Summon > Get damaged (Summon Obelysk) > Spawn a Devrish. The thing that accelerates Nimbus are battle pets because they would attack Nimbus at the start of your turn if Nimbus is placed near them.

Spine Cleaver - Gives + 1 attack and summons a Blood fire totem. Blood fire totems deal 1 damage after every general’s turn. The totems are also controlled by your opponent which means they have no means of clearing it unless they dispel it. This is one of your win conditions. If you spawn too many, your enemy might not be able to handle the damage and you straight up win. Falcius + Ankh + BBS allows to clear multiple totems. Very good but often times situational.

Aymara Healer - 5/5 body with provoke. Dying Wish: Deals 5 damage to the enemy then heals you for 5. Your best late game threat. If your opponents used their dispel earlier for nimbus/kron/dioltas. This card will straight up win the game for you.

Dominate Will - Improves control match-ups. Very useful for turning around unwinnable matches. A lot concedes when their final threats are dominated.

PS: I am not claiming that this deck is originally my idea. Just merely looking for some insights on how to improve it to take it further. I just used some outline from F8D’s list and modified it to fit my play style. I am currently aiming for S-rank so any insights are welcome. Thanks

[ellyr]

Yep I actually patterned this from F8D’s deck then customized it for my play style. I am just a new player started about the last week of August. Pretty much just sharing the list that worked for me.

[raqyee]

Eh, it’s pretty cookie cutter. Personally I’d remove one nimbus in favor of third aymara as it’s a better card when played from behind and I’d also remove one domwill in favor of third kron, probably add a bit more early game too. Not much to say about the deck really.

[ellyr]

Which early game minions would be great? Sometimes I think I should cut sojourners for another good 3 drop. I probably will craft another Aymara soon.

[moby]

Your deck looks solid.
But in a single deck, you are using all the cards that I find too strong* : dioltas, nimbus, falcius, Kron and Pax.

Take no offense here, I just think that CP made a big mistake with these cards… (and I love Vetruvian)

I also have to say that by “too strong” means that too many deck want to use them…

[ellyr]

Thank you for not shooting down a new player

I recently just crafted Krons. Still looking for more improvements and lowering down the curve a little. I think I have too many 5 cost drops.

[thanatos996]

This deck is very similar to what I have been running.

I would drop spinecleaver if you’re not wedded to it-- it isnt good tempo unfortunately. As for the rest- something I believe about sajj is that she revolves around tempo/control. If you want aggro, you use zirix. Because of that there are certain things I try to avoid- card draw mechanisms that can be zenrui’d or benefit your opponent as well are a big one. I would not run sojourner for that reason.

Adding to that, I wouldn’t run both shroud and siphon energy, as they overlap. You need the extra 2 drops, but siphon also has the benefit of being ranged, so it’s a tough call. You could swap for prophet, rocky pulverizer, or primus fist. I would reduce scion’s first by one so that you could carry the full 9 2 drops that lists should aspire to.

Lightbender would be a good pick to smooth out the curve a bit, as would repulsor beast- which synergizes with ankh quite a bit. Either could fill the hole sojourner would leave. The spinecleavers would best be replaced by an extra nimbus and aymara, but if you don’t have those, Ive found star’s fury can be a lifesaver. Other options could be: tech 5 drops (zen rui, grovekeeper) or entropic decay.

Other than that-- this list is quite solid. I haven’t been having much luck with sajj anymore personally-- the meta has become too fast for her (for most things really). The name of the game in my recent matchups has been ‘hand dump’. There are so few viable catch-up mechanisms that slow ‘toolbox’ style decks just aren’t competing… if you feel similarly, swich to zirix and run a swarmy vet list instead.

[nwardezir]

Oh god, I recognize it, maybe I’m unlucky but it seems everyone and his mother is playing this deck in Gold

[ellyr]

Ended up replacing sojourners with lightbenders then primus fists for shrouds. Looking good so far. I think I really like the spine cleavers so I perhaps won’t cut them for now. Thank you for the suggestions will see how far I can go with this.

[ellyr]

Is sajj that common? I often see songhais and zirix alot more often.