Duelyst Forums

Live Long and Healhy: Rank 2 Exelsiour! Zir'an deck

#1

Hello there everyone who seeks to play Zir’an (warm hello to those, who already does).
I am mainly Lyonar player and i have 5 Lyonar ribbons on me. But these arent your usual lyonar ribbons. All of these (exept 2 or 3) are Zir’an wins. I went through tons of fights with this general and now i have reached rank 2 with the deck i am going to present you.

This deck shows good results for a usual deck and amazing results for Zir’an deck. I have got a 5-game winning streak with this deck from rank 3 to 2. I was mainly playing Zir’an because she is underpowered, but these results were nothing i expected.

So what is this deck about? This is the closest to control deck i have ever seen in duelyst. There are 2 sides to this deck : healing and bulky minions. Having played a lot with Zir’an i’ve found out that it is very dangerous to rely on healing synergy as your main gameplan so minions like suntide maiden and ironcliff help us play our threats.

Healing package minions provide us with an ability to snowball and have a very high removal priority.
Lets talk about each one of these and its use in this deck.

[details=Lightchaser]This little boy is a very nice 2-drop. You might overlook it because it has only 2 health, but aggressive decks these days usually run minions that deal 1 or 3 damage, not 2 so you are no loosing much.
Now about its potential.If your opponent doesnt wish to spend their precious damaging spells or removal on this, they will attempt to kill it with their general. Your goal is to protect this minion from their general but still allowing this minion to attack enemy minions. The trick is that your opponent will try to move his minions away from this minion, as they dont know lightchaser’s stats, when YOU attack with it. This is kind of phycological pressure on your opponent.
[/details]

Sunforge lancer

It is quite obvious that you want to get some procs of this minion and keep it away from combat. So most players save this minion up for an instant heal combo. While it is good, dont be afraid to summon it without procing its effect, but still away from your opponent. This forces your opponent to spend a removal, spending the most of their turn removing this. And you’ve made future of your exelsious a bit brighter. Great value!

[details=Sunriser]
Think of this minion as a holly immolation that leaves behind a body, that “hatches” into another holy immolation. This minion is only played with follow up heal or in case of dire need.[/details]

[details=Exelcious]The star of the show!
He enteres the board at a time when most of you opponent recources are already spent on either dealing damage to you or removing your previous threats. So this monster is usually killed by dealing damage to it instead of being destroyed by a spell.
But more often your opponet just concedes which is a good result anyways, dont you think?[/details]

Because of these insane threat level heal cards you can put some greedy cards. You clear the way with your healing synergy minions for ironcliffs. And even if your ironcliffs get removed you have exelsious to say hello to your opponent.
Most other minions are pretty self-explanatory so i wont stop on them.

Now we get to some spells.

[details=Sundrop elixir] Sundrop is quite good and helps your heal synergies but costs card advantage. So why did i include it?
Because magmar require you to empty your hand quickly. This card fully negates entropic gaze’s effect and gives 1 more mana than your magmar opponent.

This card is generally good as most things on ladder try to destroy your face, but that magmar matchup makes this card worth its cost.[/details]

Dampening wave and Lucent Beam

These two spells serve quite the same goal, but lucent beam can close out games, while dampening wave gives you tempo and non-conditional 4 damage. try to use lucent beam before dampening wave if you cant close the game in a few turns.

Holy Immolation

Why is there only one copy in this deck? Because you dont have enough minions to activate it on 6 mana. But the spell is still good, its just enough as a 1 of.

Trinity Oath

This card is a nice source of a card draw and allows you to stay in game a bit longer. Its just that fact that you dont need card draw in every match up. Keep it when you see that your hand is full of 2-3 mana cards and feel free to replace otherwise.

Are there any cards i am unsure about?
Well ther is decimate. This card is usefull when your opponents general does not aim to hit your general. This card is expected by nobody, but due to the nature of the game decimate rarely has any impact. Still, 1 tech card does not affect decks overall performance.

If you choose to replace decimate, i would suggest you put in any 2-4 drop of your choice.

So here we are. Tell me your thoughts about this deck or your experience with it. I am open to suggestions and feedback!

4 Likes
Control And Aggro Issue
#2

That’s a lot of one-off, don’t you have any consistency problem when you’re looking for a specific answer ?

#3

It looks like a Kevin’s deck.

11 Likes
#4

While there are a lot of one-off, most of these complement another one-offs for quite similar, but still different effect. For example dampening wave and lucent beam, holy immolation tempset and sunriser. But you dont need dampening wave in extremly agressive match up while it may be good in others.

#5

Hahaha, same thoughts, after first paragraph I was about to reply “@kevin2hard, is that you ?” :laughing:
Oupsie, seems I did actually.

#6

Seems like rank 2 is the sweet spot for Zir’ans

#7

Well, if you say so, all Lyonar decks look the same: General,a bunch of spells and a bunch of minions. But hey, lets call everything that has Zir’an in it a Kevin’s deck, especially when 1/4 of a deck is similar to all lyonar decks in general.

#8

Yup, especially Decimate and one-offs as a half of the deck, it’s so common these days.

#9

Let me clarify something.Are youou are calling this a Kelvin deck because it shares 1 unusual card and has alike card quantity? Or maybe its only Kelvin who is allowed to reach rank 2 with Zir’an deck? Maybe Zir’an is a general ,restricted to Kelvin only? Or 15 cards in common out of 40 is a sign of someone’s deck? Why dont you call the whole magmar arctype someone’s deck? They all run entropic gaze, so why not?

The fact that most decks have 3-ofs means that players cannot handle hard choices. General decks have to be easy to play. Have you watched any tournamets? Is every deck there only consisting 3-ofs?

#10

let’s not get defensive now yeah @sandclock let’s get to a more important question, do you think arclyte regalia is crucial? what can i put in to replace it?

#11

A “Kevin” list means a Zir’An list that speaks highly of how good it/the player piloting it is, while being an unholy amalgamation of cards. He has way more 1-2 ofs, and a worse curve. But man, that defesniveness, and then launching onto an assault on others.

Zir’An is quite strong right now, and is more than capable of hitting S-rank. But your list is inconsistent due to all the 1-ofs. Tempest and Holy Immolation due to their different costs and ranges do not fulfill the same role. Sunforge Lancer is a main win-con and should be 3-of. There’s no reason to run 1 of Lightbender and Sun Bloom, pick the one that is better for your list and stick to it.

There’s a lot of chaff in this list. You either play Sundrop Elixir with a full complement of Sunrisers, because it allows you to proc them, or you don’t really run either. Mixing the tempo package which reduces value with stuff that is high on value is questionable. Ironcliffe is fine, Excelsious is not. 1 Decimate is actually good, for those who wonder, to the level I’m considering putting a second in. Arclyte Sentinel is just so random in this list.

This list is all over the place, which is what makes it a Kevin list. All those 1-ofs aren’t actually adding to a 3-4 of which is usually the goal, but just shows this list couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be control Zir’An or Tempo Zir’An, and ends up weaker on both fronts as a result.

Here is Crankypanda’s take on Maser’s take on Zayne’s list (I hope I got all of it right), which is S-rank worthy.

Here is my Zir’An list, also S-rank worthy, two variations, I actually like some things about the first more so am going to find a spot in between:

Zir'An 0.1.png920×488 103 KB
Zir'An 0.2.png806×475 70.2 KB

Hope these help.

8 Likes
#12

The thing Arclyte regaia does is providing trade value/face damage and protection. But as i dont like using primus shieldmaster i would suggest putting in arclyte sentinel, suntide maiden or if you are willing to be unique, chaos elemental. Elemental looks good but i haven tested it out due to the lack of cards in the deck, but i think that it is going to be decent.

I really recommend trying out Chaos elemental before you put in other cards i suggested. If you have Chaos elemental that is.

#13

I dislike crankypanda’s approach to Zir’an decks as her BBS is not a consistent way to trigger heal cards, especially in the deck, there most minions have either low attack or never live a turn to damage themselves.

The point im making is that in decks like that argeon is better than Zir’an just because you rely on cards instead of BBS to proc effects, resulting in you playing BBS-less general. You are just better of playing Argeon in that list.

Tempest and holy immolation are used in very different matchups and with a very different purpose. Zir’an decks can only use immolation on 6 mana, but most minions these days kill you before you are at 6 mana.

Tempest is reasonable but rarely does something on its own. And taking face damage is very dangerous in this meta. These 2 cards are kind of tech in and are not generally usefull but sometimes you need them in very specific matches.

My deck fully takes advantage of Zir’an BBS and provides value even if you dont have “if healed” cards.
Lancer is not a win condition in it. Lancer is a card that provides an ability to kill any low mana minion that aims at my face. Also lancer serves as a magnet for removal to provide some space for exelcious, which IS my main win condition.

You dont go face with your sunforge lancer buff (exept in lilithe). You win by continiously getting card advantage from your BBS and exhaust your opponent’s hand. This makes my deck not a combo heal Zir’an, but a true control list.

#14
Kelvin did amazing job to further develop this game (even though he's dead)

I do like his work though. It makes measuring temperature easier. Anyway I never said your deck is bad or anything, but the way you presenting it and those “unusual card choices” reminds me of him(I mean Kevin). Also why only one Holy Immo? I still don’t get it.
Also not every Magmar deck has Gaze so calm down.

2 Likes
#15

Ye, i was triggered. Sorry for that. It just really got me when the deck i polished with nearly 1000 games is called someone else’s.

So is a Kelvin’s deck reffering to an actual person or it is a deck type?

About that. Zir’an minions dont usually get into a good position in first turns and you dont have a Slo to get the best case scenario. At 6 mana you are either in equal position or loosing. People play around immolation so it gets very hard to come back with this card. You are ususally better of with playing ironcliff as your opponets most likely have already spent remolav on lancer or suntide maiden, or never had any removal in the first place. So ironcliff does wonders here.

#16

Welcome @sandclock, to Zir’An! You’ve picked a good time to be interested because she’s definitely left meme-tier and turned into a capable General in her own right. In general I’m going to echo a lot of the sentiments here to say that your deck can use a lot of tightening up. I can imagine you don’t have three copies of all the cards yet and maybe you want to try things out but you really need a lot more 3-ofs to make things work. There’s no fixed way of going about this, but I’d like to recommend against you running Lightbender, Suntide Maiden, Excelsious, Tempest, Holy Immolation and even Arclyte Regalia. Lightbender is hard to summon in a deck where almost everything is severely hurt by getting dispelled and the reach on Sun Bloom is very valuable. Suntide Maiden is a strong card, but better with Argeon because her attack tends to be just slightly too low to work well. Excelsious doesn’t get to come into play often enough and is just too weak to removal imo. Tempest is a good card but Blistering Skorn is better because it only damages for 1, allowing your 4-Health minions to attack on the same turn you play it and it leaves a body. Holy Immolation is a good card but with Tempest/Skorn and Sunriser I really think you have enough AoE cards to control crowds. Arclyte Regalia is a good card (and never a bad pick) but if you’re already buffing with Lancer Zir’An’s going to be plenty strong and you actually want to get her slightly hurt so you can heal her with your Mystics and Elixirs; Dampening Wave and Tempest are also anti-synergy. Decimate can be good as a one-of especially versus Songhai and Kara so I’m not going to knock that choice per se.

Decide what kind of Zir’An deck you want to play and identify your key cards for that deck. Then run 3 of those as much as possible. Have look at the tactica thread I made if you’re looking for extra food for thought.

Good luck.

PS: Talking about a fellow forum user like this is in poor taste and particularly un-constructive.

#17

I have been playing Zir’an since her first appearance as a general in this game. This deck is a result of few hundred games and i am quite saticfied with the result.

I appreciate your help, but here are my thoughts on including this cards.

Lightbender is a good card firstly beacuse it has great impact against cassyva and her shadow creep which is very hard to hit with sunbloom. Secondly, due to sunbloom being so popular people play around it a lot. You are not going to hit more than 1 valuable minion with this spell and it serves as a kind of ranged removal. I am thinking of cutting it but dispell effect is versatile. Second lightbender would make my deck a lot slower and sometimes couldnt reach some minions so i prefer to have an option. Think of lightbender as 4-mana 3x3 Sunbloom with more consistent result, as nobody really plays around it.

Suntide maiden is quite usefull in this meta as rarely you can encounter a minion with more than 3 health and my deck does not aim to deal as much face damage as possible. Also maiden is very hard to deal with and usually gets a removal out of your opponent making your lancers,ironcliffs and exelsious much better. Think of maiden as of primus shieldmaster with restoration effect. This card is still quite slow so i dont put more than one in the deck.

Exelsious due to me having so much threats never gets removed by spells. And that makes him an amazing minion in this deck.

Blistering scorn is nice, it was a 3 of in this deck before scirn’s rework, but now i find that 1 damage that late in the game does not achive much. And 4 health is very vulnerable to 2 mana minions or just gets ignored unlike suntide maiden. Due to draw magmar being so popular i really want to avoid putting much 4+ mana minions in this deck and keep an ability to empty my hand.

Sunriser is quite situational and is more of 5 mana conditional play so i am unsure about this minion.

Holy immolation allows me to deal fast damage in case i face lilith, which i cant win otherwise, as well as being raw value in itself, but i agree that Zir’an cant abuse this card as much as Argeon can.

Arclyte regalia allows your general to kill 3 health minions and mitigate some damage which is invaluable in this deck. Sadly, this artifact rarely sticks for more than 1 turn, but that is good because i dont have to worry about anti-synergy. If i have arclyte regalia on me for more than a turn, i am in a good enough position already and dont have to use tempest or dampening wave. Otherwise i can play them before i equip regalia so no antisynergy takes play. Meta is agressive enough to deal enough damage so i am not on full health and if there is a slower non damagind deck, i can win with exelsious.

About 1-ofs, this deck lives long enough to mitigate that unconsistency and i have never felt that i didnt drew the card i needed to win.

This deck is not about a tempo but about exhausting your opponent. I dont rely on some combos or tempo plays. I force my opponent to spend recourses besides dealing face damage to me and win by getting reccurent value with ironcliffs, maide and exelsious. This is a playstyle that is very much rare in duelyst now but I’ve come up with someting that has 5-games winning streaks in rank 2.

I suggest you to try this deck out. It provides much different deck experience from tempo or aggro decks out there and takes full advantage of Zir’an BBS. I hope that you’ll enjoy this deck as much as i do.

#18

Woops, I misread your OP as coming from someone just getting into Zir’An, my bad.

Lightbender is a good card, but what are you playing it next to without harming your own cause? Healing Mystic and Arclyte Sentinel, but that’s it unless you didn’t draw into a Lancer. If you don’t mind dispelling your own stuff it doesn’t matter but I don’t think you have the slack to afford anti-synergy.

If you think Suntide Maiden is a good card right now, why only one copy? Primus Shieldmaster is a good card for decks that deliver consistent tempo: this deck is too much of a toolbox and you’re running Zir’An with it. The same goes for Suntide Maiden: if it doesn’t have a strong immediate effect it had better make up for that with strong stats and you need Argeon to make that happen. I’ve championed Maiden for a long time, that’s why I feel confident in saying these things.

on Excelsious: if you had to make an educated guess; if you had played 100 matches, how many of those does it get played? And of the matches where it gets played, in how many of those does Excelsious have an actual impact that’s worth its 8 mana cost? My experience insists on “not enough” but please do let me know.

On Tempest: okay, I have no issue with that reasoning. I think Magmar’s impact on ladder is overstated but that’s a whole other discussion.

If you’re unsure about Sunriser you might just consider playing an Argeon deck with Sunforge Lancer, Scintilla and Healing Mystics because without her you’re really not getting a whole lot of benefit from investing in the Healyonar approach. Imo.

I don’t think I can add anything on Immolation and Regalia; they’re good cards that are hard to argue against.

Can I add you as a friend in-game so I can check out some of your replays? Is your username here the same as it is there?

#19

I’m not sure where this is going. The general feel of this deck is that it in development and testing out which cards to keep / take out. All of the 1 of answers and tech cards can probably be boiled down to just a few that cover your weaknesses after testing. It is not as monstrous as Kevin’s Decks, but it seems like a test deck. Since you have been having some success with it, try to pinpoint which cards in the deck helped you get those 5 wins. Maybe add more copies of those and cut down on the 1 offs for consistency

Also, a 5 win streak from 2-3 on the later half of the month does not say much about how good the deck is. This sample size is pretty small. I can’t even do statistical analysis with thems numbers! Maybe, do more testing before making a post? I usually try to take a deck to S rank from gold before making a “this is a serious good deck” about it.

Also, [quote=“sandclock, post:1, topic:7771”]
This is the closest to control deck i have ever seen in duelyst.
[/quote]

You need to play more control decks! In the lategame, this can get out valued by a lot of other control and even mid ranged decks.

#20

I was i bit unclear. Its the closest to control deck that is viable and does not rely on out of nowhere burst.

I dont say that you should bring this deck to the tournament or consistenly take S-rank with it, but it is very much efficient for Zir’an.