Miguel's Abyss deck and discussion space

[miguelosz]

Short introduction for the thread:

In the past months, I’ve more and more felt like making new decks. Since the changes in RotB and AB format, and because of the fact that I’ve played pretty much only a single faction for well over a year, I’m also swimming in spirit. So, besides my Dark Memes franchise, I thought why not share the rest of my creations with you guys. While not so full-blown memes, these are still more oriented towards fun gameplay than actually being ladder-viable. As always I test them out in whatever rank I’m at (Silver to Diamond mostly), but don’t craft anything unless you’re sure you’re mainly in it for trying something new&fun rather than for tryharding to Diamond/S

I’m mainly doing these for my own pleasure, so I don’t really care that much if many people actually try these out or not, but constructive feedback and comments are always appreciated

EDIT:
As of 4/2018, this topic has become the unofficial discussion space for all things Abyssian. So, feel welcome all you fellow wraithlings and wraithlinginis!

[miguelosz]

Aand we’re starting things with this piece of comboness:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Bulls

When Unearthed Prophecy came out, I’m sure many of you tested out the cool Nethermeld combos, especially with Thunderhorn. In Recombobulus (or Bob, like I like to call him) the deck just got a new combo enabler to make those silly stuffs a little bit consistent. We have the teenagers (Cass, although she’s just a disguiser, Bob and Bender), Mutants (Vorpal, Deso & Spec), Ninja-stuff (teleport and whips) and of course the Bulls (Thunderhorn, Tahr sort of, and Ooz even more sort of), so hence the name.

So the deck plays mainly like this:

You start with Ooz or Tahr (Or Bob if no other option. Poor Bob), trying to create some creep in strategic places for later use. Then you develop Tahr or Thunderhorn, and wait for an opening. If possible, you combo the bulls with either Lure or Nethermeld for a big blowout, but Lure+Grasp or Mindlathe(+Lure) are also fine plays. Lure is just so good in this deck.

Late game it’s beefy boy time with Vorpal and Revenants, while removing their stuff using the aforementioned combos and Punish/Bender. Bob is a cool (although sadly a tiny bit unreliable) plan B if you somehow don’t draw into any of your Nethermelds or Lures.

The deck can be surprisingly effective, and is a really good tool to improve your positioning if you want to train that a little bit Winrate is 75% (15/20) in Gold, which is fair 'cause sometimes you just don’t draw into your combos, lose to bad Ooz/Bob RNG or your opponent plays around ALL the things. My most glorious victory was on 9 mana teleporting a Vorpal from the other side of the field (next to my general) to the opponent’s face on the other side, while developing a Rev for 18 dmg burst on a 17-health general

[galaxydueler]

no cadence? it combos with taura so well

[miguelosz]

Mmm where can you find a Taura here? (Though it would fit better with the Bull theme)

[mmf]

Nice, vorpal reaver is such a powerful card especially for Abyssian, but why the light bender? Isn’t it kind of anti-creep/synergy with your deck to play? Why not go for shroud or emp (i’d also say tehtermaster, but it doesn’t dispel enemy generals so…)

[miguelosz]

Those are all viable options too (well maybe not tethermancer heh). I didn’t have any issues with Bender, often you only have 2-3 creeps out so with careful positioning it should work fine. It’s more of a preference, hard to say which one is actually the best here.

[alplod]

I believe your old double ramp (wish+flying) deck may work even better with the addition of furor chakram. Did you remake it?

EDIT. Found the dedicated thread:

Dark Memes IV: Flying Wish

Intensify your meme game, as you soar through the skies in a really deadly fashion! The fourth edition of Dark Memes highlights the good ol' king of rng, Reaper of the 9 Moons. This card, as you all know, can turn the game around or be borderline useless, depending on whether you pull a 1 or 6 mana minion from its dying wish. The real meme in the card, however, is not the rng part, but its combination of a couple of some of the memiest keywords in Duelyst: Dying Wish and Flying. When I realize…

[miguelosz]

Yep, that’s on the to-do list

[miguelosz]

Tfw Isbee finds your thread…

[galaxydueler]

I could have sworn that the reavers were Tauras

sorry

[isbee]

Whatever do you mean?
I’ve been stopping by since you created it…just hadn’t gotten around to liking it until now.

[miguelosz]

Ah I see, the like monster just had to refill their mana

[metalkitty]

I’m going to need new Abyssian decks. I just noticed that Aborrhent Unbirth doesn’t work with Metaltooth anymore…

[alplod]

Just add some Replicants and Nighmares into the exsting one.

[metalkitty]

I’ll try that, thanks! Although it’ll push some other cards out of the deck. That interaction might have been a bug, but I don’t see the problem here. Unbirth is on the verge of totally unplayable now

[miguelosz]

Flying Wish II: Nobody Expects the Spanish Dustdragon

So, as per requested (@alplod), here is the updated version of Dark Memes IV. I actually played this bad boy to Diamond from rank 7, going 10/15 (67% winrate).

The core of the deck is remarkably same as we had almost a year ago: early game develop Jaxi or Lurking, then start creating a board of Flyers and Dioltas. Skywing is very good in the first couple of turns, allowing you to ramp into 9moons or Wings. Furor Chakram is just bonkers with the Flying keyword as we all know, and between 9moons, Vorpal, Deso and Lilithe’s bbs there will usually be stuff on board to benefit from it even if we aren’t able to fly directly into the opponent’s face.

Z0r is there mainly to have an ok turn 1 play if nothing else is available, Azure Horn Shaman or some additional heal may also fit decently in its place. 2x Shroud and Lure and 3x Ritual cover the decks’ removal quite enough, since with Furor you can achieve a partial board clear in most games. The real MVP award, however, goes to Dust Wailer. Ain’t nobody gonna play around Dust Wailer (okay possibly in S, but still not sure). So many good value plays happened because of that card.

[miguelosz]

What Have We Done?

Well, not every attempt has to be a successful one. I’ve never really liked the rush keyword, so I took my time before making an Abhorrent Unbirth-deck. And yep, with the Metaltooth interaction nerfed, this is not very effective at all (not even as a meme, and that’s something coming from me). Being the guy I am, I of course went full retard with rush-synergies, some early-game mechs to proc Metaltooth and Tormentor to give us some cheap things to help with the big combo. With under 7000 spirit, this deck is actually on the not-ridiculously-expensive side as you can easily switch out LeTigresses for something like Desolator or Necrotic Sphere. In hindsight, Wings of Mech might have been a better alternative than Metaltooth for contesting mana tiles, but I wanted to believe in the MechaZ0r-Unbirth dream. The deck’s name of course comes from the effect’s wonderful name which you can see when you hover your mouse above the Abomination.

While the deck looks incredibly fun on paper, reality is quite different. I blasted my way through 2 wins in Diamond, and then got a 6-lose strike (of course with tons of Thunderhorns and LitD) and sadly lost my interest in the deck. I got some really cool moments, but also some really frustrating ones like not being able to utilize Abominations’ celerity effect because his summoning animation takes so long… feelsbadman. Anyway, posting this here if someone wants to use the idea for a less memey version, I believe the Elkowl-Tormentor-Unbirth synergies do have some unused potential

[miguelosz]

Tempo Maehv

This is probably the first Maehv deck I’ve posted, yay! This is indeed a tempo list first and foremost, and heavily utilizes the board to steamroll the opponent with stats. Therefore it has very polarized matchups, often overcontrolling aggressive opponents while suffering against facespam (Mantra etc.). I went for some funky card choices in the deck, so maybe a short card-by-card is in order:

Prophet & Horn Shaman: Maehv staples that allow the use of her bbs in the most effective way. Especially Shaman is amazing after it’s change, since you can get a 3 mana 4/8 plus buff whatever else you have nearby.

Zyx & Crypto: Early combos with Shaman and mana tile contesters. A typical opener of the deck is Cryptographer t1, followed by Shaman and Zyx t2 to get a 4/8, 2/6 and two 1/6s. Not bad eh?

Herald, Desolator & Purgatos: Maehv really desperately needs heal. Herald and Desu are the typical choices that also synergize with her bbs, while Purgatos is just a fun old card that can really surprise the opponent when positioned well. Maximum memes with Bastion on board.

Bastion: This is not the most obvious choice, but even a single proc can turn your Husks into 4/5 which, as we all know, are so much better than 4/4s. Can also occasionally eat removal nicely.

Burster: A plan B in case you can’t find that Shaman early on. Remember that when sacrificed, it can transform the Husk, so it’s best to have at least one small thing on board when using it, for a chance to get that sweet 6/6 pseudo-rush.

Shadowdancer: The deck has so much little stuff that Dancer is an easy choice. 2-of since it’s still quite situational.

Moonrider: I really tried to make this card work in Maehv, and I partially succeeded. Still there are times when you’re just very low on health and can’t utilize him, but if you’re ahead on board then that additional 4/4 can be the last nail on your opponent’s coffin.

Variax & Rev: Late game insurances.

Removal suite (Shroud, Breath, Dark Trans, Necro Sphere): The deck packs lightly on removal, since it creates big boardstates which really help with trades. Breath is especially amazing since it can heal your 4/12 Husks and 3/8 Purgatoses to full, might even justify it being a 3-of in this deck. No Lure cause I just couldn’t fit it in the deck, and more often than not killing the enemy minion beats moving it far away.

The deck went 9/16 on Diamond (56% winrate). It’s fun, fair, and if you’ve always wanted to be Lyonar but play Abyssian, this is definitely your deck

[boronian]

Somehow I haven’t come around to add your deckspace to the wiki, it is done now! https://duelyst.gamepedia.com/Guides#Decklists

[d5dr4k3]

Oh, hey! I just played you earlier!