Gotta agree with @isgopet, spellhai is the way to go. I’ve been playing a variant that is slower than than what I see on ladder, but it’s probably been the best of my decks. At the very least, I think it has the sustain to slow down magmar enough, which helps a ton in silver and gold.
I suck hard with songhai
I’m sure you’ve already read the excellent recommendations from the other players here. Just my two cents (some of which may have already been said):
Don’t blow your whole hand. Songhai is generally combo-centric, due to low-cost minions and spells, making it easy to run out of steam fast. If you don’t yet have access to card draw like Spelljammer or Heaven’s Eclipse, a Sojourner with a Killing Edge is an effective and cheap way to get draw AND damage. Songhai is much more reliant on card draw than other factions.
Play to the win-condition of your particular archetype. For Spellhai Reva, you want to keep your critical minions away from harm, such as Four Winds Magi and buffed Heartseekers. Be careful not to take too much face damage and keep your hand-size healthy; with just one or two minions on board and enough cards in hand, Spellhai can easily burst an opponent down from 17 health or so.
For Backstab Kaleos, you’ll want more minions than Reva. You need your minions to stick on the board, out of range, and either have a movement spell in-hand or your Bloodborne spell ready. Kaleos’ BBS makes it much easier to escape Provoke minions, while Juxtaposition is excellent since it removes their threat and puts yours in their face. Avoid playing Onyx Jaguar until you already have a viable board that can benefit from its presence immediately.
Additionally, don’t put all your eggs in one basket / buffs on one minion; spread your threats. And of course, be aware of your opponent’s potential answer cards and play around them (e.g., Makantor or Holy Immo). This is especially critical for Songhai since its minions are relatively fragile.
Know when to control the board, and when to switch to face damage. This is a little tougher to discern, and depends on your opponent’s deck as well (for example, are you up against Dervish Zirix, or solo Sajj? Tempo Argeon with back-up healing? Aggro Mech Starhorn?)
When you have a critical mass of minions on board or resources in hand, you’ll know when you can safely ignore the opponent’s board and go for all-in face damage.
To sum up, Songhai as a faction is capable of enormous burst and able to alter positioning with extreme ease. On the downside, its minions are relatively fragile and weak to dispel. (In other words, they’re designed to be the polar opposite of Lyonar, the other original faction).
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Thank you so much to everyone, I appreciate a lot all your suggestions. I’ve not played using a songhai deck yet because of fear but also because mainly I play around quests (rather than focusing on scaling on the ladder). I’ll have in mind all your suggestions for the next time I build a Songhai Deck.
I forgot to mention: I’m entirely a free to play player. So… I lack important cards like spiral technique or lantern fox.
I erased my decks.
Spiral Technique is rarely used, so don’t worry about not having it. It’s a “nice to have” card, not an essential ingredient.
As for Lantern Fox, it’s a truly excellent card that baits removal or dispel from the opponent (and is another great target for Killing Edge aside from Sojourner and Spelljammer). I’d recommend crafting or obtaining three copies as soon as possible. If you don’t have it, you can try to replace it with a few Phoenix Fires in Songhai or an equivalent-cost minion in Backstabhai, but it’s hard to find a substitute.
Sojourner is a nice alternative to Lantern Fox, though in a lot of spell-heavy decks you ideally want to be running both. But if you’re short on spirit, you could just go for Sojourners and Spelljammers. Don’t worry about Spiral Technique, it’s really just one of many finishers and not a crafting priority.
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