Introduction
Hi friends. So Patch 1.74 just dropped which if you haven’t already heard, has made some serious nerfs to some staple cards and Kara. That said, all the decks that I’ve posted to the forums had one or more of the now nerfed cards in them. So, instead of leaving you guys with outdated deck lists, I decided to make a new post (a really long one) with my updated deck lists. I’ve also added some deck lists created by players other than myself because I think their decks deserve some attention (and are pretty solid all around). Underneath each deck list I’ve put a description in which I talk about how the decks play out and some potential substitutions that can be made.
tl;dr: I updated my decks because Kron is dead yo.
Deck Lists
Aggro Reva
Gameplan/Description: So when people see the word aggro they think “ok I just go face” but that isn’t the case with this deck. Its an aggro deck in the sense that it has the ability to steal games quickly with certain hands, but most of the time, especially now with the saberspine seal nerf, the deck is slower and more combo/spell oriented. With the deck you want to be dumping your hand assuming you’ve got the potential to refill you hand for the coming turns with Heaven’s Eclipse, Mana Vortex, Spell Jammer, and Fox Pheonix Fires. If you can not dump your hand then play for board, make favorable trades, and set up your four-winds magi and heart seekers defensively. That said, sometimes you want to play your cards offensively so that you block options for your opponent. Learning how and when to do this is part of learning the deck and is difficult to summarize here. Big damage can come out of a hand with 4+ cards in this deck from no board. Always look to count lethal because you’d be surprised how often you have it but don’t notice it.
Substitutions: I’ve seen some decks switch to the Crescent Spear + Ghost Lightning game plan. I think if you are going to go this route then you might as well play Cranky/EurasianJay’s version of Songhai below. That said, you can run cyclone mask instead of Ki Beholder, another Katara instead of a Tuskboar, and a Zendo in place of a Heaven’s Eclipse if you don’t think you need as much draw.
Mid Vaath
Gameplan/Description: With this deck you want to mulligan aggressively for young slither and gro. Always keep flash reincarnation on your mulligan. Always keep Sunsteel if you have flash in your opening hand. If you don’t have flash, but have a two trop, then keep Sunsteel and Taygete anyway. Now that thats out of the way, you want to play this deck by taking favorable trades when possible and using your general’s life total and BBS to make favorable trades. The win condition of this deck is either by buffing something with Thumping Wave, having a Elder Slithar stick to the board, or dropping Mandrakes for cheap in combination with something like Makantor Warbeast or Earth Sphere. This deck doesn’t have a ton of draw power, but it makes up for this in card quality and the fact that we are usually only playing one card per turn until we can Mandrake or L’Kian to refill our hand.
Substitutions: Swapping out the Sunset Paragon for really any card is fine. You can also drop the Elder Silithars to run a lower curve and if you do this then I’d suggest running either more 2 drops like healing mystic. Most of the other cards are pretty much required.
Creep Cassyva
Gameplan/Description: So as far as control decks go in duelyst, this is perhaps the most control oriented deck in the meta, and one of the most difficult decks to play. Basically the general game plan is mulligan for anything less than 3 mana and play to your curve. That said, the most important thing with this deck is not developing your own threat, but mitigating the threats your opponent puts out. By doing this you can get to the end game where you just drop Obliterate or spam Revenants and Reapers to victory. Kelaino is perhaps the strongest card in this deck. It has tremendous synergy with all of the Shadow Creep we spread and pings we can muster up. Always play Kelaino defensively. Use your other minions to block and never attack their general with your general. Ghost Azalea is a win condition in itself. I’ve OTKed people from 18-20 health with it. Use it to set up a two turn lethal if you’ve got board or the health to do so.
Substitutions: I really don’t think there are many substitutions that can be made. There are arguments for Skorn, Primus Shieldmaster, and Klaxon, but they all have a downside to them. I think the go to place to swap cards out would either be the Reapers or the Mystics. These are sort of the least effective cards in the deck although they are individually strong.
Tempo Argeon
Gameplan/Description: The goal of this deck is to play well stated low cost minions on curve and then sort of steal the game away with regalia and holy immolation. It plays pretty straightforward in the sense that you keep your general near your minions, play spells that buff your minions, use your BBS for favorable trades or for extra face damage, and Holy Immolation the *#&$ out of your opponent. Divine Bond can create lethals out of nowhere especially when combined with Afterblaze.
Substitutions: Shroud for Sun Blood, Spell Jammer for Divine Bond.
Zoo Argeon
Gameplan/Description: This deck plays unlike any other I’ve ever played. You play strong low cost minions that aren’t great by themselves and then back them up with cheap spells to buff them. This deck has some crazy explosive turns that just wind up with you sealing the game as early as turn 2. Yes, the deck loses to light bender, but Light Bender isn’t played as much anymore and Kara is basically dead so there will be even less Light Benders around. Shiro, Fighting Spirit, War Surge, and Aerial Rift are the combo pieces that buff your minions like crazy and let you swarm the board. Holy Immolation lets you keep control of the board and with this deck you are almost guaranteed to have a target for it. Play on curve, cycle with your spells, and go face when you have the advantage. This deck plays a lot like Zoo from Hearthstone.
Substitutions: Spell Jammer for L’Kian. I think if you want to sub out other cards you should start with Aegis Barrier, but make sure to keep a low curve. Azure Horn Shaman and Primus Fist could be great, but I haven’t done any testing with them.
Cranky/EurasianJayHai (Idk what to call this deck at this point).
Gameplan/Description: So this was a deck originally created by CrankyPanda who is a pretty well known member of the community and S rank player. EurasianJay, another well known member of the community and S rank player took the shell of the deck and ran with this. This version I have here is more identical to EurasianJay’s list especially after patch 1.74. The goal of this deck is to build up your artifacts and suppress your opponents board while simultaneously chipping at your opponent’s health. Zendo and Spiral Technique are finishers. You don’t run any turn 1 plays that are good besides blood rage mask and Ki Beholder going second so you often don’t want to rush your general to contest mana tiles. You want to keep your distance and chip at your opponent until you can set up a two turn lethal or just kill them outright. Zen has two purposes: it buys you time while it sets up potential 4+ damage on the opposing general, and it also locks them in place letting you run away.
Substitutions: None! This list is super dependent on the cards in it. I guess you could remove Spiral Technique if you really wanted to.
Aggro Faie
Gameplan/Description: So this is your quintessential aggro deck. You basically only go face and use your cheap/efficient removal to control board. There isn’t much to explain about this deck because its pretty brainless interns of just playing on curve and going face while removing stuff for cheap. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to include this deck because I think it is the weakest of the decks I’ve listed, but it has some very polarized matchups in its favor so if slower decks dominate the meta this deck will be a monster.
Substitutions: Araki Headhunter for the Sunset Paragon. Blaze Hound if you want more draw. A third Cryogenesis is probably good too.
(UDATE 10/20/16 - Vetruvian Lists!)
The siphon nerf hit Vetruvian really hard! Like super hard! So, my intuition was to abort the meta archetypes that Vetruvian usually lends itself towards in favor of going face!
Sim City Zirix (Dervish)
Zoo?! Zirix
Both of these lists are still in development. I don’t even run dispel in the dervish deck! You guys are welcome to try and expand upon these, but don’t craft them just yet if you were planning to use them on ladder. These decks are probably in need or work, but the shells are there. No Kron just means we run 3x or 2x Nimbus now which lends itself to dervish synergy. Nimbus is just a strong card outright so I put it in the zoo deck, maybe thats not such a good idea though because at 5 mana its probably the only thing you play on any given turn.
Thats it guys. I’ll be making a separate post for each of these decks going into more detail, but that sorta thing takes time which I don’t have a lot of right now. Thanks for reading!
