Duelyst Forums

Returning player, how do you beat Arcanyst Vanar?

#1

Hi there,

As the title says, I’m a player returning to duelyst after a long break (I think I stopped playing some time after shimzar or the expansion directly following it?) and I started trying to ladder again. It went decently for the most part, but then I ran into this deck that I have no idea how I would ever beat it. Arcanyst vanar just seems insane from my perspective, and I don’t know what to do.

My problems are as follows: Well before I can put enough pressure on them to stop anything of the sort from happening, they have an owlbeast sage out and a ton of other arcanysts, constantly stun all my creatures for next to nothing and buff all their health way outside of the range I can deal with.
Hard removal doesn’t seem good enough since their arcanysts just generate more arcanysts every spell they cast, removing them with my minions isn’t happening because of owlbeasts, and dispelling them isn’t good enough because even at their base stats the arcanysts are overwhelming if I also have to pay for dispels every time any of them come out and I can’t dispel all of them anyways.

I know the deck I was playing isn’t optimal for sure, since it’s definitely outdated by now (sunriser/lancer heal lyonar with hardly any cards after shimzar or the expansion after it), but the game was so insanely one-sided I honestly don’t know what I could ever do to win against it. The rest of the games I played up until facing this deck were either in my favor or close losses, I’m only in silver right now.

Any advice?

#2

Play Lightbender or more hard removal and it shouldn’t be too tough to deal with. Vanarcanyst is strong but Magmar can just bully them right now so it’s quite far from meta.

Healyonar is also just terrible right now, so that doesn’t help.

#3

The deck’s just bad huh, guess I should look up and make at least one current deck to be able to play for now. You mentioned magmar, is that a safe bet to go with currently?

#4

It has the strongest deck currently, if you play Magmar get 3x makantor snd 3x Lavaslasher

#5

Magmar’s almost as broken as when they had 2 mana unconditional 4+ face damage and cycle (be thankful to miss it). Yes, just grab a deck with 3x of Young Silithar, Natural Selection, Homeostatic Rebuke, Lavaslasher, Makantor, Saurian Finality and it should be an easy lizard climb.

#6

YOU DONT. I AM FAIE. AND YOUR GAME, IS MINE. - Dominus Faie.

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#7

Alright, thanks. I’ll give it a try once I’m free again later today. Hopefully it goes better than my last attempt.

#8

After those responses though I’ve become distinctly aware I have yet to run into any of these new magmar decks somehow, which is a little scary when a thread just a few away from this one is titled “Magmar is stronger than ever”

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#9

That just means it will be…

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#10

Honestly I think most people exaggerate it, but it’s true that they’re in a solid position on top of the meta. That being said, having the strongest meta deck be one that is a direct counter to Healyonar means you should try something else for the time being.

Most generals are in a good spot, but Lyonar is probably lowest on the meta, with Swarm Brome being their only competitive deck.

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#11

If you have the spirit to spare Magesworn can often shut down Arcanyst variants as it prevents them from playing the cheap spells that fuel their synergies, including their BBS’ and pretty much all their single-target removal. Besides that, as mentioned Lightbenders are a cheap investment that work very well as counters to minion-based decks like Arcanar.

Honestly I have had success with Healonar recently, but mine makes heavy use of cards from several expansions, particularly Unearthed Prophecy which gave Hallowed Ground to Lyonar which hands out heal procs like a low-rent hooker hands out VD.
However it is definitely not S-tier and loses out to a lot of the top-tier decks at the moment.

If you have a decent collection or grounding in some of the other factions you may try building a budget deck for that faction, as Lyonar is kind of down on their luck right now besides Swarm variants.

#12

Well, got time to check and realized I don’t have nearly enough spirit right now to make a full deck with all those cards (can probably just decide to trash some legendaries/epics I won’t use but I’m terrible at deciding which ones those will actually be).

I’m got some gold but not a huge amount and I’m not entirely sure what the absolute best orbs to open would be right now, with the end goal of this magmar deck. Just go for the newest one since that has legendaries I need in it?

#13

Yes, you are, like everyone and his mother a couple seasons ago :slight_smile:

1 Like
#14

the tierlist goes like this
vaath
faie
everyone else
ziran
maehv

choose your deck accordingly

#15

Don’t do my girl Maehv like this, she’s 3x better than Ziran if you’re running the only good Maehv deck

#16

I got a quest for vanar games, only to discover almost everything in my budget kara deck either costs more than it used to or is slightly less effective like chromatic cold :cold_sweat:. Plus it was initially made before kara’s bloodborn spell got nerfed, but it was still definitely playable after it… but now, ehhhhh…

And I don’t have enough spirit to shell out for this arcanyst vanar, especially when I’m building up that magmar deck now I guess

seems tough to get back into these digital card games after a year+

#17

what IS the only good Maehv deck?

also ditto-ing everyone else:
Lightbender gud. EMP also gud.

#18

I didn’t know about EMP before I asked this. That is a hell of a dispel option that’s now in the game, assuming you live long enough (unfortunately, the deck I was playing sure doesn’t want to get dispelled itself so it wouldnt fix my bad deck. Still gotta start over somewhere)

#19

I suggest you try it anyways. It’s cheap to craft solid minion you can put in many lists. It’s just so good, some obelysk decks run them. something about your opponent almost always losing out more than you do when you drop him.

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#20

What’s the good Maehv deck?