Duelyst and Chill - Non Meta/Memes

[elahn]

Summary

What’s up my dudes. All those dispels on your minions got you down? Tired of people constantly playing minions with crazy convoluted effects that you don’t wanna read? Do you just wanna smack the crap out of your opponents without having to think? Boy have I got the deck for you.

Antimage is a deck that prioritizes heavy hitting minions that don’t need their effects or are one and done. Granting a head start early game, you more often than not burn all of your opponents removal before they even know what they can really do with it without really losing any of your own. The deck is incredibly straightforward so all I’ll really detail are the combos I typically enjoy.

Start with Biomimetic Hulk if you draw it. Ez bait. If you don’t draw Primal, try to atleast grab an Ephemeral.

Then you typically get out a Sellsoul or Terradon. Try to position yourself to trade minions so around turn 5 you can play a Capricious and combo with any of your dispels. Try to dispel your Sellsouls along the way.

Saurian Finality is your finisher. But I’m personally a fan of getting a hit off with Capricious then playing Reliquarian for an ez 11 attack general(provided you’re not already buffed to hell) and ending the game.

If you’re not too worried about draw, get some Flash Reincarnations in there. They make the dispel combos really easy. As always, thanks for the views guys. Lemme know what you think.

[limango]

I love Finality decks. It forces opponents to cancel their late-game plans while doing nothing bad for you as you don’t have a late-game to worry about in the first place. A funny variation of this deck I personally think would work is replacing a Terradon and a Sellsoul for 2 Mandrakes. Also, this deck heavily relies on suppressing the enemy enough to force a board with 3 enemies or less, and I see a huge problem with that. Most Finality decks have a combination of not less than 4 total cards of Plasma Storm, Mankantor Jesus or Homeostatic Rebuke, and for good reason: Hyperswarm. I would replace Bellow with Diretide Frenzy if you want to go all in on aggro, for just at least some sort of AOE. But otherwise, a good pilot that knows positioning should be able to punish most late-game decks including Trials and Fault-Khas. It is sad to say that you cannot no-brain this deck to victory most times as any boardstate with 3+ enemies will most definitely cause a tempo lockdown where the enemy will forever be ahead.

[elahn]

Yeah I’ve found myself running into that issue. Most wins came from a strong arm two hitter with Capricious/Reliquarian. Started seeing the surprise factor was what was forcing those wins. I’m definitely leaning towards Makantor because Homeostatic would rip apart just about everything on my side of the field. And Diretide is a fantastic recommendation. I honestly am ashamed of not thinking about that. I was so concerned about not having Selection/Plasma that I figured the stun would be decent enough to turn things. Thank you so much for your fresh look at it.

[elahn]

This has been absolutely stomping. Its just as cathartic as punching your problems away. The epitome of “If you haven’t fixed the problem, you haven’t used enough violence.”

https://play.duelyst.com/replay?replayId=-LeOaKTQ7sLToSaKvRtL

[limango]

I see beauty in here. I like how Rebuke saved his ass for only 1 turn, just for you to pump up even more big bois the next.

-1 Reliquarian for +1 Plasma Storm??? Or even Nat-Sel for more early removal. -1 TecSpikes too, unless you wanna add +3 Decimus. Hell, that’s cheesy, but it always works as a 2-card 9-damage at 7 mana. Replacing Mandrake for a more reliable body works too if you aim to end the game before it even reaches 4 manacost. A good body will be Ragebinder. We rarely use it for the healing; most aggro decks use it for just the board value. Bond with Lavaslasher is a bonus point for more survivability I guess. Or Drogon? Its impact is pretty strong especially after Finality. But that may drag the deck towards 1 turn later.

[elahn]

This is what has happened almost every game. If I didn’t have a Biomimetic up, I had a Capricious. Then played Reliquarian for 13-15 attack general. Don’t forget about the buff from the relic that gives your minions x/x equal to your general’s attack bonus. So even if it doesn’t kill, you atleast have a 13/13 Reliquarian(if you used it on Biomimetic).

I’ve also found that your Diretide recommendation is an absolute tempo changer on these minions because of their early game attack. So I’d be tempted to take a third Diretide instead of Plasma. Simply because of how early you can play it. The only time you really see minions above 4 health that early is if they’ve been buffed(Cryonic/Fortitude/ect) which doesn’t really matter thanks to all the dispels. So I honestly might drop the Terradon for another Phalanxar… I’m really torn tho because there are so many 1 damage spells out there. So Ragebinder is looking /really/ appealing. BUT so is Komodo Hunter. Even more damage than Sellsoul and all you have to deal with is two 1/3’s which are inconsequential especially if you have a Diretide/Plasma. Komodo also essentially fulfills the role of both Terradon and Phalanxar by bringing damage with big body block.

Natural Selection in this deck is basically a guaranteed removal on their side. So that’s nice. Decimus would also be a nice late game combo if you haven’t drawn Reliquarian or Finality. Cause I always save Tec as my the last card. So maybe because of how heavy Komodo is you can trade out Mandrake for Decimus?

[boronian]

When Komodo Hunter was introduced everybody called the card OP and said it is an amazing card. Even Hsuku said “what do I care about 2 1/3s if I get a 5/6 for 3 mana!”.

Then reality happened and people realized that its drawback is worse than anticipated. If you play Komodo Hunter on curve you’ll give your opponent minions to take tiles (especially as P2 on T1) and that’s something you can / will come to regret. Therefore almost nobody plays this card (except for a very specific plan e.g. Scarzig, Infest), because it is too inconsistent.

So if you play Komodo Hunter you need to have a plan on how to deal with its drawback. Just saying

[elahn]

I do. Diretide/Plasma Storm. I just specifically needed a solid T2-3 body. But as @lilmango recommended and I agreed, anyone not willing to take the risk should absolutely go for Ragebinder

[elahn]

Summary

What’s up my dudes. Got a new deck here, the good ol’ Ilena stun deck. And what’s that? Reliquarian? I don’t have an addiction to Reliquarian. You’re the one with the problem! Not me.

So essentially you wanna prioritize Disciples and Guantlets. Burning all your opponents minions and casually getting in hits on their general when you can. After T2 start looking for Reliquarians and Displacers/Vespyric Calls. The Vespyric Call is basically there to give you double the chance at Discplacer. Hopefully by the end of T6 you’ve drawn a Reliquarian and summoned a Displacer. If not, a Voracity will do perfectly fine for the Reliquarian effect. You get atleast 7 to hit and five 3/3 Wolves of Edge minimum. If you manage to get Displacer, then look at the board. I typically find it best to position yourself to kill a minion and summon the full nine Edge Wolves if you can’t finish off the general that turn so you can protect yourself from losing the artifact before the next turn. But who cares, I’m not your mom. You can make that end game call yourself and go balls deep if you wanna. finger guns Thanks as always for the views and critiques!

[limango]

I love competitive memes. The core of this deck is actually quite competitive if your enemy doesn’t realize it’s not an Ice Age stall only until it’s too late. There is a very concerning problem here tho. Funnily enough, there is still too little control. You HAVE to rely on the Iceshatter Gauntlet + Resonance Scythe combo to establish reliable board dominance, and this is, in fact, weak to your previous deck. And if a meme can’t reliably compete with another meme, it will stand zero chance against normal decks. A VERY important addition here will be Shatter itself. It’s Punish for Vanar, a must-have for Ilena, and also costs 2 mana. I would also prefer Shivers over C-Wisp because alongside having a better body, a better overall playstyle and positioning advantage, it baits unlike C-Wisp, which is pretty much anti-bait that you may not want. Getting your 1 mana pinged off is objectively better than getting your artifacts pinged off later. Ditch V-Call and rely less on Reliquarian. Taking Essence Sculpt or even Snow Rippler can provide stronger bodies to carry you to the mid-late game, which is where you lay down all your trump cards and win. White Asp is also a very questionable card here, being that although essentially a 6/6 body with +3 Attack on you, it is an artifact, doesn’t give immediate value past the first 3/3 (not favourable for 4 mana), and easily thwarted if Iceshatter Gauntlet is not equipped. Having too unreliable of an endgame and a weak start will only bring wobbly, adrenaline-filled but quite unrewarding games. Luckily, this deck does perfect wonders against Smash Vaath among other midrange to aggro decks. You, however, will most likely lose the far late, and have very few ways to stop that from happening unless you pull off the Reliquarian combo. Not enough chipping to pressure too; Voracity is good, but risky. This would fly you through games in Silver but can’t get past Gold. But nonetheless, getting huge combos off is very satisfying and I’d love to make Stun Ilena decks someday when I have the resources to!

[boronian]

You use ramp cards because you want to ramp because your deck needs it. Shivers is too unreliable for that, with Crystal you can be pretty sure you will ramp.

[snowshot]

White asp goes well with the aoe artifact and infinite shroud.

If you want to go reliq you might as well use seraphim.
Voraclty is good if you run a nemeton deck or even reflection/sotw or every deck that will provide big bodies to distract otherwise it will be removed, trust me.

What else, drop icy and you better use the 0 Mana stun since you got 3 jammers.
The 0 Mana stun will give you as p2 t1 a 5/5 that heals itself.

[elahn]

Summary

What’s up my dudes. Finally decided to jump into Songhai and boy does this deck feed some kind of power fantasy when you get it off. Just as much about aesthetics as it is about pummeling and shooting power blasts. And. Don’t say it. Yes. That’s RELIQUARIAN. It just feels so good!

Ace is great T1 play if you got a Mist Dragon Seal in your bar as well. Otherwise it play Scroll/Chakri. Chakri Avatar is gonna be a bit useless after T2-3 but pretty decent if played immediately for a free to teleport 3/4 body T2 still allowing other minions of 1 or 3 mana cost. Allowing even heavier sustain if Sparrow is played. Prioritize Scroll Bandit for draw if you want. Slowly work your way up the list, replacing as you can till you have a Reliquarian. Along the way you should be building some bulk either from buffs or Onyx and even if you lose some, as long as you have one up, the combo is pretty worth. At your lowest which would be 5 damage minion, your general is guarenteed 7 damage to whatever plus 15 damage split between 3 random enemies which almost all goes to the general as this deck does pretty good at trading. Your draw should still be strong by replacing Seals and by T8 latest you should have Hideatsu. He is more of a late game failsafe provided it gets that far.

This deck struggles most against swarm decks. I have considered Beastbound Savage and Wild Tahr. Battle Panddo wouldn’t be a terrible idea either. Stormblossom isn’t terrible for this deck cause more draw never hurts with Hideatsu, but Redhead Step-child Vegeta just feels so right. Thanks as always guys.

[bepoest]

Hmmm. Fun.
Isn’t there a place for Cyclone mask here?

[halcyon98]

I fucking love the Glitch Mob.

[halcyon98]

INZO is amazing too. We may have similar tastes in music.

[elahn]

Bruh that sounds scary.

[elahn]

Hell yeah. Been a fan of Glitch Mob for an eternity. And INZO’s pretty good, Overthinker is up there.

[elahn]

Gonna take a break and let the decks build back up. Haven’t played a lot recently due to work. Feel free to post your own memes. Much love guys. Posting one more tho to talk bout.

[elahn]

Summary

What’s up my dudes. Alright. So. Figured I’d atleast peace out with a deck. This one I have been having far too much fun with. If you’re willing to throw all caution to the wind and play this high risk high reward cacophony of cards I call a deck, you’re in for a treat.

Your general essentially the eye for a storm of chaos, taking hits as you slowly and inevitably build up minions with a crazy amount of keywords. Recommend T2 Elkowl and T3 Hsuku or T2 Fate Watcher and T3 Spelljammer. Eventually you’ll have a pretty solid pool to play Neurolink and Thunderclap/Iris Barrier with your Bloodbound for an insane combo. Gamblers beware, you’re in for addiction. More combos: Minions with Provoke/Frenzy go well with Second Wish, Hsuku and Astral Phasing give you decent body block, just Blast and Flying alone make Neurolink worth playing if you have your Bloodbound up.

And no, sorry. There’s no Reliquarian in this deck. But now that you mention it… Anyways, Spriggin can be fun in this deck. Watch out for the party pooper himself, EMP. Makantor Jeebus will teach you minion spread. Let me know what you think about this dank meme. I’ll post another deck in about a month or two.