Reaper Deck #2: Obscurity Deck

[seraphicreaper]

-Personal Bit-
I tried to implement a similar idea when I first started playingprior to the latest expansion, but with a certain new card, a new and extremely lethal combination has been available. I am uncertain as to why I haven’t seen or heard of it being used yet.

-Deck-

-Core Concept & Winning Condition-
Obscuring Blow + Celerity

• Combo Damage: 10, 20, or 30 (10 if exhausted, 20 if not or 2nd Inner focus on hand, 30 if not and 2nd inner focus on hand)
• Card Combo: Dagger Kiri or Beastmaster + Obscuring Blow + Mist Dragon Seal + Inner Focus
• Combo Count: 4-5 Cards
• Mana Cost: 7 if all done in one turn, 5+2 if done in two turns

-Core Deck Cards-
These are the cards I believe to be core to the deck. I think it doesn’t matter what general you use, but I’m open to correction.

-Short Explanation-
I’ve always aimed to use Dagger Kiri before in Songhai, but with Obscuring Blow available now, Celerity + Backstab + Inner Focus allows for 4 unreplyable attacks. With beastmaster also available, this allows greater odds of finding a card to implement the combo.

I would believe that Aethermaster is an absolute must to assist in cycling to find the combo, as well as low cost cards to stall out the early game. I would think that draw cards are also a necessity since you’d be using low cost cards to stall out the early game.

What I think to be an additional benefit to this deck is that it doesn’t appear to be a backstab deck, increasing the odds of the opponent being unprepared to the lethal combo.

-Opinions and Thoughts-
As before, I just don’t have the cards and spirit for the deck myself, but I wanted to share my deck concept. Opinions and critiques are welcomed and appreciated again. Also as before, if you try this concept out, please let me know how it worked for you; thanks!

[isgopet]

You, my friend, are a genius. I would say that this is good, but I’m a bit concerned about inconsistency. I would also say that I would try this deck when spirit isn’t so scarce, but I need to diversify my decklists to factions aside from Songhai. After that, then I can start diversifying within the factions.

[whyb0t]

This looks… dank. Have you tried the deck yet? If so, at what rank, and how successful was it?

[isgopet]

I just don’t have the cards and spirit for the deck myself, but I wanted to share my deck concept. Opinions and critiques are welcomed and appreciated again.

I really don’t think he has.

[whyb0t]

Whoopsies. I suppose I should pay more attention

[isgopet]

When I clicked the notif, I fully expected you to be overflowing with salt, good on you for not doing that.

[akurane]

I tried using beast master/celerity as a win condition in a move Kaleos list that I posted early on in RotB expansion, although I didn’t focus so heavily on using celery+obscuring blow+inner focus in the deck. Nice build, have you thought of adding killing edges or the new 2 mana spell to give you more (celerity) burst options?

[seraphicreaper]

Thank you haha, I appreciate the sentiment

I had similar concern about inconsistency, which is why I considered Aethermaster necessary for the deck (along with some draw cards).

[maelrawn]

This honestly looks awesome. Some changes I think I’d make:

In this particular deck, your combo can go off as soon as you hit 6 mana. 6 mana is reasonably speedy, so I think you should speed up the deck in kind:

-2 ghost lightnings
-1 cyclone mask
-3 void hunter
-2 heavens eclipse

+3 killing edge
+3 juxtaposition
+1 Jammer
+1 spiral

+1 general

Reasons being

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Ghost lightning: your deck is fast, the goal against swarm is to kill them before they can get a substantial board, so you don’t want it. This matchup can be difficult against Kelainos, and against both lilithe and Cass your 2-drops are weak. If you struggle here, maybe try them out again.

Void hunter: if my opponent is paying 3 mana to play a card that dies to my general, I’m happy. You don’t want your opponent to be happy. You want them dead >:?( also you have lots of draw already

Heaven’s eclipse: you have loads and loads of draw, and you win off a combo. You dont need this.

Cyclone mask: if you’re playing this deck, you’re using your health as a resource, but you don’t play big enough minions to help pivot away from melee range, and 1x is too inconsistent for something that doesn’t end the game.

---

Jammer: consistency is power, and she wears buffs well.

Killing edge: with obscuring blow, it draws you a card off any minion. It also is worn very well by your combo pieces and draw engines.

Juxtaposition: this is what enables you to be so fast. It becomes unsafe for the enemy to hide their behind, and with MDS, you can teleport any minion to any corner, jux it, and BANG free removal. It also allows you greater consistency in playing your combo pieces somewhere safe to teleport them in the next turn.

Spiral: I think spiral is a great finisher, and 1-of is good here because you can hold it to fish for mana if you have managed to almost-not-quite win with your combo.

---

That brings you closer to spellhai with a combo package; if you choose Kaleos you’re going all in on obscuring blow. If you choose Reva you want a little more diversity, for KE on Heartseekers. If you find yourself not getting out of the early game, it’s because your 2-drops are not so great; spellhai’s strength and what keeps them in the match are the fact that everything they cast is threatening, due to both KE and the general explosiveness of things like Katara.

If you find this not working, I’d go a little deeper into Spellhai with Kataras, and potentially Chakris, before pulling out and trying with a different archetype.

Have fun & good luck :?)

[seraphicreaper]

I considered killing edge, but I personally feel that it would be more limiting toward deck building options and play, as there are no cards actually within this deck that have backstab. I feel that card space could be better utilized in other manners of the reader’s discretion.

Additionally, the mana cost of inner focus is lower and damage output higher when in conjunction with obscuring blows, as (obviously) you can’t inner focus after killing edge.

I could be completely wrong on this evaluation though; just a silver player. Hopefully someone higher up the ladder would provide a more knowledgeable answer.

[maelrawn]

What Killing Edge does is essentially function as another Obscuring Blow for the purposes of your combo. Sure, you can’t IF it after, but you’ll wind up dealing 12 damage with 1 card (activated celerity KE) as opposed to 16 with 2 (activated celerity, IF Obscuring). This increases consistency which also increases speed.

It also turns minions like Jammer and Soj into huge threats, and Aethermaster provides good board presence as a 5/5.

I hate mentioning rank, but since you brought it up, I got S last season with a Songhai list and had a few working ones and tons of games; I’ve had quite a while to figure out the roles of each card. Hopefully that can persuade you.

[shatteredskys]

Man this is old school. It used to be a good budget deck during the 2 draw period of Duelyst but hasn’t really taken off since. The major problem was that it tends to brick pretty hard at times, this might’ve changed with the addition of Beastmaster but I don’t think enough experimentation has been carried out.

I would say try following Maelrawn’s advice, I’m quite frankly horrible at Songhai but his advice is pretty sound.

[nwardezir]

Maybe I’ll try to replace Aetermasther with Manaforger or Abjudicator in order to pull the combo earlier.

Something more like :

Juxta for more movement
Boar to steal first tile and cast Katara on T1
Abjudicator to cast combo faster
OBS to deal with huge threats
And yeah, I added a Bloodletter, because it’s fun with MDS/Juxta for surprise buttseks, with an ObscuringBlow on it, should deliver a nice 12 on the back, 14 if moved with MDS.

Edit : Ok, it's a sign from the stars, I must test it ...

[seraphicreaper]

You make good points about KE. I personally greatly appreciate knowing and stating rank, as it provides a form of measurement of understanding about the game. I would definitely consider it more myself and your other suggestions, should that day of obtaining Obscuring Blow happen (crossing fingers)

Thanks again

[nwardezir]

Edit : Ok, it’s a sign from the stars, I must test it …

Ok, conclusion after a dozen match, deck isn’t fast enough with current meta to set up such a combo. Most of my opponents were faster or had a direct answer to any threat. Putting a Kiri or Beastmaster on board and hoping it sticks to the next turn is almost impossible. Either you must have the IF+Blow+Minion combo directly in hand, either you have to be lucky, which I wasn’t.

Maybe these Aethermaster were a good idea to fish for the combo, but I doubt they will survive long enough.

I managed to pull some nice Kiri+Blow+KE, same with one Beast, was nice cleaning but too much effort to achieve.

[valium]

Have a hybrid between what Reaper put together and peppered some of the ideas Nwardezir threw in. Having a lot of fun. 7 game winning streak so far.

Abjudicator has created a ton of win conditions for me.

[seraphicreaper]

Are you gonna share with the rest of the class?

In seriousness though, it’d be cool to see what you’ve spun up. I wanna watch these games; is there any way for that to happen?

[valium]

Need to tweak it some more. Thinking of pulling Aethermaster out and maybe getting rid of one of the D. Kiri’s. Issues is everything is so fast paced now, getting a 5 cost to stick is rough.

Thinking of adding Silhouette Tracer to create distance from the Magmar nonsense that is running rampant in this meta.

[nwardezir]

My next test will be :

• more backstab
• some cleaning with PF
• some ranged+lock minion with Ki Beholder
• Zendo as a finisher or to force opponent to offer his back

I still not convinced with Abjudicator because 6 spell costing 0, but I’ll keep trying.[quote=“valium, post:16, topic:7473”]
7 game winning streak so far.
[/quote]

Just curious, which division ?

[whyb0t]

Yeah, ditto, that deck looks widely inconsistent, are you winning above silver?

I’m on a winning streak right now but when I lose I’ll probably try some of these combos out, but probably the budget version, and probably get destroyed… I wonder how we can get these minions to stick.