After hearing @seraphicreaper’s claim’s against solfist being new player friendly, I decided to do a bit of budget testing myself. Lo and behold solfist can be beaten pretty consistently using no legendary/epic cards.
Before I start, the trick to beating Solfist (SF) is to stall. @halcyon98 got pretty close to the answer, but the real trick to beating him is to body block with cards that have at least 4 health.
Lyonar:
Summary
Lyonar has it pretty easy. With a wide selection of stat heavy bodies and good buff cards, the hardest part of SF was to deal with the minions. Anti-ranged precautions contributed the most to this deck’s spirit cost, but was well worth the investment.
In the end, that first avenger proves to be the most dangerous ranged you’re going to face. Other than that, prioritize getting sticky minions between you and SF and avoid having your general next to SF.
Breakdown:
Summary
- 1 Argeon - To provide instant pressure to SF (Zir’an won’t heal in time and Brome makes things worse)
- 3 Beamshock to control stall ranged minions
- 3 Auryn Nexus to help friendlies stall
- 3 Lifestream to keep friendlies alive (works best if done with life coil active)
- 3 Lasting Judgement to control ranged/board
- 3 Prism Barrier to keep friendlies alive
- 3 Sun Blooms for anti-range
- 3 Afterblaze for friendly lives
- 3 Crossbones for anti-range
- 3 Life Coil for minion stall
- 3 Repulsor Beast for cheap “removal”
- 3 Silverguard Knight as one of the main stall minions
- 3 Suntide Maidens as stall minions
- 3 Ironcliffe Guardians for anti range (plop it next to the minion) or more stall
Songhai:
Summary
As Songhai has so much firepower (all the pun intended), why not make use of it? Definitely more finesse needed when playing it, but when it works it comes in the form of an 18 damage Wild Tahr ;). The Phoenix Fires are mostly for ranged control, but feel free to burn SF if you feel like it.
Key Word: RUN
Breakdown:
Summary
- 1 Reva Eventide to summon some buffable minions. Kaleos would also work, but you’d get a little less off of him since you want your minions to be tanking the hits.
- 1 Mana Vortex. Can help you get Killing edge/phoenix barrage off easier, but really isn’t necessary
- 3 Mist Walking so you can walk away from the explosion
- 3 Phoenix Fire to control range and piss off my spelling
- 2 Crossbones. You don’t need 3, but you still want it just in case.
- 3 Killing Edges to get even more damage!
- 3 Repulsor Beasts for when you can’t run from the enemy minions
- 3 Thunderbombs for more damage/anti-range
- 3 Wild Tahr for body block, board clear, and/or SF damage
- 3 Wind Stopper. You can body stall while holding off the range attackers!
- 3 Razorcrag Golem 10 damage is a lot, but you can replace with hailstorm golem to stop SF from reactivating
- 3 Silhouette Tracers. It’s great, just traverse the map at your leisure while SF burns itself to death
- 3 Geomancer can both body block and give you a means to win from across the map
- 3 Phoenix Barrages for even more fire!
- 3 Scarlett Viper. By the time you are able to summon her, you should be able to place her at the back of SF getting 6 damage while retaining a body block
*Vetruvian:
Summary
I actually found vetruvian to be the easiest fight. Keep your lavastorm obelisk alive and move above it. SF will try to summon minions as close to you as possible which will plant them right in front of the lavastorm (provided you keep it alive). After that it’s a simple game of plopping down minions and buffing them using cosmic flesh and/or second wish for extra stick.
Warning!! General damage immunity does not extend to SF’s end-turn effect.
Breakdown:
Summary
- 1 Zirix to summon buffable poop
- 3 Helm to facilitate Mechaz0r! summon. Also a good buff target.
- 3 Scion’s first wish for card draw and extra
T H I C C buff
- 3 Cosmic Flesh to give extra health and stall capabilities
- 3 Jaxi no real reason for this, can reaplce with other minion (perhaps Azure Herald?)
- 3 Lavastorm Obelisks to provide versatile SF damage/board control
- 3 Second Wish to give minions/lavastorm more surviveability
- 3 Wings for body stall and Mechaz0r! if possible
- 3 Cannon to buff and use as anti-range solution
- 3 Crossbones for anti-range and body stall
- 3 Silvertongue for use of body stall. Remember to cosmic flesh if you want it alive.
- 3 Fire Spitter for more anti-range
- 3 Wind Shrike for anti-range, body stall, and/or card draw
- 3 Blood of Air for board control
Abyssian:
Summary
Abyssian has the unfortunate fact of lacking surviveable minions. So instead of going the set-up intensive Bloodtide Priestess route, I decided to go the board control route.
Minion stalling isn’t really feasible with this deck so stay on your toes and control the board as best as you can. As long you leave behind a tracer to occupy SF, he won’t go after your general.
Breakdown:
Summary
- 1 Cass to proc punish clears
- 3 Bloodtear Alchemists for even more punish action.
- 3 Azure Heralds for body blocking and heal
- 3 Lures for even more board control (if SF summons Hamon, just lure it away to contribute to SF damage)
- 3 Punish as you main way of controling the board
- 3 Crossbones for anti-range
- 3 repulsor beast to push away your problems (and Hamon bladeseekers)
- 3 Shadow reflections to push even more SF dmaage
- 3 Void Talons. The 0/10 building can take a hit (or two) and 6 damage goes a long way.
- 3 Cacophynos. Pushes SF damage while controlling board.
- 3 Silhouette Tracers for a quick get away
- 3 Thorn Needler. It survives the initial SF hit and does more damage than hailstone golem (Sand Sister Saon notwithstanding)
- 3 Dark Transformation for even more control. Definitely less optimal than punish or lure
- 3 Stormetal Golem to try and end the game (or at least stall until SF ends it for you)
Magmar:
Summary
It’s actually kind of hard to control the ranged with magmar. Sworn avenger often has 4+ damage so getting plasma storm off is a waste. Keep at least 2 ways of taking care of range in your hand.
Breakdown:
Summary
- 1 Ragnora - Synergizes with lava lance and wears buffs really well.
- 3 Koi really only used to stall the boss. You can switch with Bloodtear if pyromancers are an issue
- 3 Lava Lances help against ranged minions
- 3 Carcynus have great potential for the buffs
- 3 Crossbones - anti-ranged
- 3 Earth walker really only used as a t1 play if you don’t get crossbones. Can be reaplced with something healthier
- 3 Primordial gazer help to buff minions
- 3 Rangebinder. Great card for this boss. SF’s effect kills it only for it to be resummoned on your turn. funny interaction.
- 3 Wild Tahr - Solid card for stalling
- 3 Egg Morph control larger minions
- 3 Silhouette Tracer helps you run away
- 3 Veteran Silithar recreate the ragebinder effect
- 3 Whistling Blades a personal preference. Doesn’t have to be it, but I thought it’d be fun to have an excuse to use it…I didn’t use it
Vanar:
Summary
It was between this and Vetruvian for easiest SF win (vet took it though due to the lack of self harm). It’s still the most fun though!
Breakdown:
Summary
- 1 Faie to burn SF
- 3 Bloodtear Alchemist to synergize with cryo
- 3 Carcynus to also synergize with cryo
- 3 Chromatic Colds to shut down Avengers (and fire spitters)
- 3 Crystal Arbiters to body stall
- 3 Frigid coronas to stun SF
- 3 Hailstone Prisons to control the board
- 3 Icy for even more stun
- 3 Crossbones to stop the Avengers (and fire spitters)
- 3 Cryogenic Potentials to make minions strong
- 3 Avalanches to stun them all
- 3 Meltwater Moose to body stall
- 3 Silhouette Tracers to dodge the Ice!
Hope this helps!
