New player, join the fun and laugh at his deck!

[bluenoteyung]

I don’t know if this topic would be better listed in the Abyssian category or the Introduction category, this topic is a little bit of both. Basically I made this so you guys can give me pointers to improve more efficiently while also presenting myself. It’s a lot easier to grasp the meta, understand how to behave in a match and build with the help of more experienced players, so I’m here, you guys can show me the road ! And maybe we can talk about other stuff too along the road.

I started last month with the Humble Bumdle stuff, but I knew Duelyst for a very long time, it always looked intriguing to me but I never had enough interest to pick up the game and play. This is the very first time I’m playing a card game, unless you count Yu-Gi-Oh money matches with illegal cards in the projects. I played quite a bit during October, enough to get to Silver (I forgot the rank). Generally I’ve been doing fine, I didn’t bother to calculate my win rate or anything but I’ve been handling myself pretty well so far. Like I said, one of the reasons I created this topic is so you guys can point me to the “right” direction, some tips on the cards I should get and be wary of, stuff like that. Literally any advice is appreciated as long as it’s useful. I know this is very obtuse but I would really like to hear what you guys have to say, I’m all ears. I guess this is the part where I post my deck ? I only have one, I literally disenchanted EVERY card from every other faction except Abyssian just so I could work on my Lilithe build. I like Lilithe a lot, I played all the generals but I gotta say Lilithe is by far my favorite one. Once I completely get the grasp of Lilithe and the Abyssian faction in general (I think Cassyva is pretty cool too) I will try out other factions, because I do like other Generals but I’m kinda on the budget here so I don’t think it would be ideal to balance out two different factions when I’m trying to get familiarized with the game and resources are scarce. But anyway, here it goes !

I’m new, I haven’t seen much of the game, I haven’t seen many decks, this probably looks very standard and boring but I like this style. Swarm Abyssian is so fun to me. I guess my deck can be pretty weak to Skorn ? I’ve faced two Skorns so far. The first time I had a Bloodmoon Priestess and a Shadowdancer on the board so that didn’t work out very well for the oponent. The second time it cleared a good part of my board and prevented me from getting lethal on the opponent, ended up losing that one. Right now Skorn isn’t much of an issue to me but I’m sure it’s gonna become very problematic as I get higher in the rankings. When that happens and Skorn becomes suffocating enough for me I will adjust the deck accordingly, because I don’t know exactly what would be the best option and I feel like it’s not worth to stress too much over it when it’s not that common in the stage I’m at right now. Same goes to any other card that could potentially be extremely problematic for this specific deck. And again, the deck has been working pretty well in Silver, I watch a lot of my replays and most of the matches I lost I could recognize the mistakes I’ve made, it’s just a matter of experience at this point I would say. And uuuh, yeah, I guess that’s pretty much it. Feel free to say something. Anything. You can roast me or my deck all you want I won’t be mad, I’m very laid back and apathetic so it’s very hard to see me catching feelings and stuff. You can go in on me, as long as you have anything for me to get better, I will be satisfied. Basically there’s three layers to this topic.

1. Introducing myself to you guys and say hello. Hi.
2. Where should I go from here, basically what cards should I aim to get, what cards I should be worried about, other styles I should consider etc. etc.
3. How does my deck look right now.

Yeah that’s it I think. I know this is super all over the place, I’m very bad when it comes to this stuff but I hope I can get along with y’all. I like music a lot, especially hip-hop. Girls are awesome. Also love fighting games. And RPGs. Occasional anime/manga is nice as well. Hi again.

[Aeruniel]

1. Welcome to the forums! Glad to have you
2. I can recommend watching MegaMogwai’s Duelyst Budget Crafting Deck Guide (I’m sure I said that wrong): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZN5sV5XB4c
3. It looks fine at first glance, maybe swap out the Soulshatter Pact for Deathfire Crescendos when you get them. Maybe add 1 more Revenant, add a different card draw etc.

[bluenoteyung]

Huge walls of text ahead. Sorry in advance. Another thing about me I forgot to mention, I like to type a lot. lol

1. Thanks !

2. I did. It definitely helped me a lot since it opened my eyes to cards I didn’t even notice, like Bloodmoon Priestess. It made the learning process a lot more easier, and it helped me come up with the deck I have now (hence the 3 Dancing Blades as well lol).

3. Sorry if I’m being obnoxious, but could you give me a more in-depth reason as to why ? The reason I have 2 Soulshatter Pacts on the deck is to not only serve as a powerful finisher when I establish my presence on the board, but to also answer bigger threats on the board since most of the minions I have on this deck aren’t exactly strong. If I can avoid using it for that purpose I will since I do have many ways to deal with threats on the board, like the Dancing Blades, the Ephemeral Shroud, the Daemonic Lure, the Ritual Banishing and so on, but I like Soulshatter Pact and it has been very useful to me in almost all of my games. Although, I can definitely see it not being as clutch in higher rankings, I will keep this advice in mind, but I would like to listen to your reasoning as to why, maybe I’m just spouting a bunch of dumb shit and I should let go of the Pact, but that’s exactly why I created this topic, I want to “hear” what you guys have to say.

Funny you mentioned Deathfire Crescendo. Literally after I finished creating this topic, I finally crafted another Deathfire Crescendo, I have two now. I tried to fit it in on my deck when I had one copy, but it never came into play, it would always spawn at the start of the match, so I decided to take it off. The spot that used to be a lonely Deathfire Crescendo is now a lonely Spectral Revenant (I only have one ). So since I got two Crescendos, I decided to give it a try on my deck, so I gave the boot to the two Shadow Watchers in the deck. I didn’t play many matches with the double Crescendos I’m running, but I can already feel the difference lol it already put in the work for me. I’m liking it a lot more than the Shadow Watcher, because I feel like Deathfire Crescendo is a much more reliable option. My Shadow Watchers were always very vulnerable and could never put in the work I expect them to in the early game. But with Deathfire Crescendo, I feel like I can proceed with a plan with absolute certain, whether that is finishing the game or pressuring the opponent with a huge minion that now has Deathwatch, possibly baiting a response to play my other threats. Basically I’m really liking Crescendo over Shadow Watcher. Shadow Watcher feels so … fragile, and if the point is to sacrifice your minions to get that one strong monster to go in on your opponent, then you might as well use Deepfire Devourer, no ? Not that I think Shadow Watcher is ass, but I definitely don’t think he was working too well for me, or in this deck to be more exact.

[maelrawn]

Hiya, and welcome to the forums!

I’m not the best at swarm abyssian (I always want to include too much stuff, it’s so hard to choose) but you may want to include Zyx, the new monthly rare. It’s 2 1/2s for 1, so they don’t die to Skorn.

How does Dancing Blades work out for you? I’d imagine something like Firestarter might help with the swarm goal in its slot, if Blades isn’t working well enough towards your goal.

As for cards you might want to get, maybe Soul Grimwar for a more resilient win condition.

[Althur]

Welcome to Duelyst and to the Abyssian faction!

Your deck looks surprisingly good for a new player.
Of course some adjustments need to be made.
Particularly a few cards which aren’t good enough to include: Horn, Watcher and to some extent Wraithling Swarm.

I recommend you check out my thread to use as a guide line.
It’s a bit outdated but I’m going to update it soon after experimenting with the new cards.

Please feel free to ask me Abyssian questions, I’ll be glad to help.

[Aeruniel]

Oh right, I overlooked the artifacts.

I’d ditch the Horn of the Forsaken.
My reasoning is that it never seemed to be worth it to me. 1 wraithling per hit, so 3 in total. I’d rather draw a Wraithling Swarm or something else entirely. It’s slow to even give you the 3 wraithlings too, imo (can take 3 turns for example).

About the other stuff: Well Deathfire Crescendo is a surprise, usually, which means the opponent cannot react. Soulshatter is too, but to kill with Soulshatter the enemy needs to be low or has to be reached by, say, 4 minions. The logistics of that is hard. With DFC you can pick one minion that has to reach the general and suicide the rest freely. It’s kind of rare to have huge boards, with 6 vs 6 minions for example. If that was common, soulshatter pact would shine more as it would allow boardclear. But that’s not the case.

The Revenant: it’s just really good… you wish to draw one once you have 6 mana, that’s the reason basically
The card drawal: Undervault is a bit tricky and rather expensive… I would split between Undervault and Spelljammer or L’kian so you have a cheaper option as well, that’s just the reason.

I have just tried Zyx in an Abyssian deck and I like the little guy. I don’t know if it’s better than bloodtear though… But you can experiment with it

[bluenoteyung]

Thanks man, you guys are very welcoming.

I just checked out Zyx. He seems similar to Gor. I like that idea, these minions that like respawn and such, works wonders with Ritual Banishing and these Deathwatch combos, seems like every swarm player’s wet dream. I actually got blown back before by a dude using Gor to keep clearing the board, I was like damn that’s sick lol. I will definitely consider that idea and try to implement that to my deck, or even make a new one if I feel inspired enough.

As to Dancing Blades, boy let me tell you, it’s putting in ALL KINDS of work for me. I would dedicate a good majority of my victories to Dancing Blades, many and many times before it gave me breathing room to come back into the game when otherwise it could be very much over. I could tell you about so many games where Dancing Blades was the perfect answer to a minion that could easily finish the game for my opponent, it’s actually crazy. I will take a look at Firestarter though, I do have two copies of it, and I would say this deck has a decent amount of spells to implement him in there. If I can’t find the spot for him, then maybe I will work on a new deck, maybe a deck using both Firestarter and Gor/Zyx, that actually seems awesome when I think about it. Thanks a lot for your input man, I really appreciate it.

[bluenoteyung]

Thanks a lot man.

Horn, Watcher and Wraithling Swarm huh ? As to Shadow Watcher, I took him out of my deck like, an hour after creating this topic lol because I finally finished my second copy of Deathfire Crescendo and I’ve been having a lot of success using that card, I like it a lot more than Shadow Watcher, on this deck at least. Could you explain to me why Horn and Wraithling Swarm shouldn’t be used here ? I like both because it generates wraithlings pretty quickly, especially Swarm, I feel like it’s a pretty good starter when I go second, I always finish my turn with 4 minions on the board. I like Horn but I do feel like it’s more situational, I try not to blindly equip it when I feel like my oponent has good ways to play around it, pinging the artifact and such. One game in particular I remember having Horn equipped and this dude using Reva got rid of it so fast lol because of the Four Winds Magi, I was like damn. But I do like using Horn, I just feel like I have to be more careful whenever I equip either of my artifacts. Again, I would like to hear your reasoning, I guess there’s better options to generate bodies on the board if that’s what I’m looking for, maelrawn suggested Firestarter maybe I should give that a go instead of Horn.

I will definitely take a look at your thread, and once again, thanks a lot.

[bluenoteyung]

Yeah, now that you guys are pointing it out, Horn really is a little underwhelming. Thinking about it, it can generate you 3 bodies at max and you will probably not even get those 3 direct hits so it’s not the best way to give you good presence on the board. At this point I’m almost convinced I will take that out and give something else a spin, what would you suggest ?

I can definitely see what you mean when you say Soulshatter Pact will not be as reliable of an option when facing players of higher caliber, because it’s hard to establish a lot of minions on the board, especially minions that can reach the enemies you want to. I feel you on that, then I guess it’s time for me to work on another Deathfire Crescendo huh, fuck that’s gonna take a while lol.

Yeah Revenant is awesome. I really wish I had more copies of him, I only have one which is why you see one Revenant on that deck. On the few times he popped up for me to summon, he put in the work, I was very glad I added him, even though it’s only one copy. L’kian is the Songhai sister, right ? How much would it cost to craft all the rares to get her ? I’m very interested in that card now that you mentioned it, I think it would work very well for me. As to Spelljammer, I do have one copy of it, it would take a long ass time to craft her, would you say it’s worth the effort to cop another copy of it ? I know Spelljammer is a really good card but … man, it’s gonna take so long to craft that lol.

maelrawn opened my eyes to Zyx, I really liked the idea. I’m seriously considering Zyx or Gor (or both) on my deck, I have a good feeling about them. I can’t thank you guys enough, this is all been pretty helpful and it only has been a few posts. Thank you again.

[bluenoteyung]

lol, thanks man, I appreciate it. Also sorry for spamming the topic with replies, just found out you can reply to multiple people at once, won’t happen again.

[Althur]

Crescendo is one of the best cards in the game!
Definitely the strongest tool in swarm Abyssian.

My reasoning behind what I said is as follows:

Horn offers very little value and doesn’t contribute to the swarm aspect enough. The wraithling you generate is easily removed and playing around the artifact is extremely easy - avoiding attacking Lilith until you can remove the wraithling on the same turn.
I believe the best use for it is for ramping - using Dark Sacrifice on the generated wraithling to get instant value out of it.

Regarding Wraithling Swarm, the spell can be good especially turn 1 as player two, it is however not impactful enough as the 1/1 bodies are easily contested. It’s ok early game and weak late game which is why I find it not good enough.
I think its best use is with AoE buffs like Shiro, MirkBlood, Void Steal.

I would recommend you play Zyx instead of Horn and play a third Dancer instead of 1 Dancing Blades, which btw is a phenomenal card and you should definitely play it, at least until you get your hands on more options.

Here’s a wonderful tip which will help you with deckbuilding - figure out what is the role of each card. Understanding this will let you pick better alternatives and better deckbuild overall.

Good Luck mate!

[bluenoteyung]

Yeah, you guys got me thinking really hard about Horn here, as I started analyzing the card, I can’t help but feel there’s other cards out there that could provide me with a better purpose. I can definitely see what you guys are saying, I’m taking Horn out.

I don’t know, Swarm has proven to be very useful to me in all phases of a match, early, mid and late game. I like to use it early game to quickly start my pressure and possibly accelerating into orbs so I can potentially get Priestess or Shadowdancer going. As to mid or late game, I use it to either reach big threats or trap my opponent. Swarm helped me a lot on matches against some Revas for example, as I was able to reach their ranged minions with swarm and dispel it or Dancing Blades it. I like that option compared to, say, Daemonic Lure because in that case I’m dealing with a minion while also adding quite the number to the board. And three/four minions can really limit your oponent’s options as to where they can move or where they can summon their minions so it really puts in the pressure, it allows me to stay close to the enemy and keep going ham. I also managed to trap people in the corner before with Swarm which gave me a lot of liberty to set up more scary threats while preventing my opponent to set up theirs. But even with all that being said, I still appreciate your advice. Yeah Swarm can limit your opponent’s options to an extent, working like a less sticky version of Vanar walls, but it’s still very susceptible to AoE, which can turn things sour very quickly. Again, in most of my matches, I didn’t have to deal with people abusing AoE and such to clear my board, there was cases where they actually played it too soon and I was able to make 'em pay late game. But I definitely feel like this will become a huge factor in my games as I climb the ranks and start facing better opponents, the whole trapping thing with Swarm too I guess that can also be attributed to bad positioning, which is definitely something I will see less of as I improve. I will 100% keep this in mind and I will keep watching my replays, as soon as I start noticing that Swarm is being a liability and I need to make myself less prone to be blown back by AoE, I will work on that ASAP.

At this point I’m almost convinced on the Zyx, I will work on crafting it for sure, I’m a fan of that idea. I do have 3 Shadowdancers and there were definitely games I wish Shadowdancer was there for me sooner, so I will give that idea some heavy thought as well.

Thank you so much for all the help man, I know I’m saying that a lot but I really mean it. Cheers.

[Althur]

I’d like to add that you should use 3 Lures.
It’s one of Abyssian’s best cards and you’ll find it in every single variation.
It’s cheap and versatile removal which you can find use for in all stages of the game.

Also using both Pact and Void Steal is unnecessary. Remember, you need to consider the role of each card. They fill the same role and having both just takes up room.

Consider adding more card draw to your deck. I find Sojourners pretty useful in Lilith especially if you have buffs.

I once again encourage you to check the budget list in my second volume and perhaps Blood Wraiths from my first volume to get a better idea of what you can strive for.

Regards

[bluenoteyung]

That’s a pretty good point. I do have two Soujourners so that makes things easier. I took away the Horn artifact and added in another copy of Shadowdancer and Daemonic Lure after talking to you guys. I’ll take out Pact and try out Sojourner, see how that goes. Plus definitely checking the thread you’re talking about, thanks for coming through man.