Cult of the Harmonious Fists (Knucklestorm deck)

[cookedpoo]

Introducing the all new and improved non-spell (kind-of ), non-Ox, control Reva!

After sifting through my Songhai repertoire, and constantly coming back to all intensify strategies, I finally decided that knucklestorm needed a lot more love than as a 1 mana 8g8s damage spell, and Mantra spam.

Gameplan

Obviously this deck is based around Knucklestorm, tossing out every single Songhai spell in favor of those that support the card. Generally, we want to mulligan for our strong 2-3 drops early on, and start replacing for things that will help in our match-up. Lightbenders for vet/abyss/vanar, and Paragon for sticky Lyonar/Magmar stuff. Tracer is added in for extra aggro and face pressure, along with being great for saving Reva from annoying minions we can’t manage to remove/dispel. Having minions that usually have a sort of 2-1 trade allows us to gain the tempo we need to transition to our late-game, where we start burning our opponent’s face (if they already haven’t been killed by our Dioltas/Panddo/Fox).

Deck Tech

Bloodtear Alchemist - Provides more ping, along with having a great 1 mana body

Mystic - Standard 2 drop, preserves our HP to get to the late-game

Herald - Same as Mystic

Cryptographer - Synergizes really well with BBS

Battle Panddo - The cheapest AOE Songhai has available without being a spell, also has a decent body, and is really annoying for some factions to clear

Lantern Fox - This is a flex spot, but I felt like the deck needed another 3 drop, lantern’s ability is pretty good, but comes with a terrible body, and the deck should not replace the phoenix fire unless it absolutely has to.

Dioltas - 5/3 body is not something people usually want to hit, and it trades incredibly well if it doesn’t die to a 3 drop before it gets in range. The tombstone is also really tanky, and gives us the much needed lockdown to make our escape/stall the opponent.

Lightbender - Vaath and Obelysks aren’t fun to fight

Silhouette Tracer - Allows us to hit targets that need to be cleared, but have terrible bodies (ranged minions/Ripper Eggs). Also gives us a turn to burn the enemy if used to run away.

Paragon - Wanderer isn’t fun to fight

Tips and Tricks

• Don’t meditate Knucklestorm unless you have a Heavens Eclipse that will draw them
• This deck has a late-game capable of winning from virtually nothing, you haven’t lost until you lose the last point of HP. This means running away is potentially stronger than being aggressive

Conclusion

I believe that having 0 other spells besides the knucklestorm package is the best way to play the deck, because you don’t dilute the tutor of Heavens Eclipse

If there are any questions why a card isn’t included in this deck, ask away! There are potentially many cards that could make this deck more consistent that I haven’t considered yet.

[halcyon98]

The Boxers approve of this.

[loliconartist]

I like the historical references

[miguelosz]

Is Crypto really worth it without the buffs to Heartseeker? How about Rock Pulverizer for example?

[alplod]

I love your approach! I tried to brew smth like this together long time ago, but never managed to archieve at least somewhat working state.

What do you think of adding Geomancer into this deck?

Eternity Painter?

IMO, the deck lacks hard removal, or am I wrong and one can perfectly do without it?

[owlbeastmd]

consider tusk boar + primus fist, rakushi, alcuin loremaster, and eternity painter. The former 3 win the tempo game early. Loremaster gives you more knuckle storms, and painter another panic button which cannot be removed with a punch.

I think chunkypapa posted a similar deck on duelspot recently as well. Consider racking his brain as well.

[cookedpoo]

I haven’t considered Rock Pulverizer yet, it seems like it would be pretty good at stalling a bit further, but the only reason I really put Crypto into the deck is to generate ranged threats that the opponent usually wants to answer, diverting resources away from Reva.

Geomancer seems slow to me, and he doesn’t have an immediate impact + knucklestorms are our main damage spell. Although this deck doesn’t really have any hard removal, paragon/bender take care of nearly every threat, and ones that can’t be answered easily can usually be run away from, so I feel like the deck can function without any hard removal at all.

Loremaster is clunky, and I’d rather generate a threat then use 4 mana to play 1 spell.

I don’t have any experience with tusk boar (also only have 1) so I have no idea how great it actually is as a minion.

I might actually replace fox with Rakushi, great advice!

About painter, I never really stated this in the opening post, but the late-game of this deck is typically 6-7 mana, and by that point you should have casted HE and meditated knucklestorm in preparation for one last HE + remaining mana spent on burning face with knucklestorms. Painter comes way too late for the deck, and his role is filled pretty well by bender/paragon, although they have much worse bodies.

[zerounderscoreou]

I second the “replace Crypto” sentiment. And as with any combo deck, Aethermancer would be my goto.

[randomex]

owlbeastmd:
I think chunkypapa posted a similar deck on duelspot recently as well. Consider racking his brain as well.

https://duelspot.com/deck/true-knucklestorm/

[alplod]

Somehow I can’t load the picture. Can anyone just directly post it here?

[eurasianjay]

I’m old and tired Aplon, dont do this to me.

Also deck is bad kappa