Miguel's Abyss deck and discussion space

[eurasianjay]

Why are you running tormentor over Mentor/Soul/Pridebeak?
Why are you playing 2 herald/mystic instead of Void Pulse? (or at least Bloodtear/Jaxi)
Why are you playing Spectral Blade and not Mindlathe? (ok blade im actually fine with, even if lathe is better against wanderer)
Why are you playing Caco instead of better/proactive 4 drops such as Dioltas/Shieldmaster/Fizz/Lkian?
Why does inkhorn get no love, why do tempo Maehv players not playGloomchaser, why does Jax/beeg tiger get no love in Chakram Skinsolder deck?

Why REEEEEEEE

[snowshot]

Simple - i’m new to abyss and have no idea what to put

[miguelosz]

How do you exactly use Letigress with Maehv? I’m curious Do you combo it with Chakram next turn?

[miguelosz]

Really difficult to say without testing. Lilithe is usually the better general for Nocturne. Mainly you need 2-3 more t1 plays (Pluck is not a good one), and Lure should be in there too. You may need to tweak this more either to swarm or creep direction, but I’m not sure how’s the best way.

[zanestheargent]

As one with similar decks, mostly:
1- because stealing cheap bodies to burn is fun/cruel/good;
2- because i want not only heals, but bodies to crush;
3- i’m not a fan of Spectral, but it is a classic tool to offset her extensive self-murder;
4- Caco is a wondrous combo piece with any sort of easy sacrifice, but i’ll agree the only sensible one here is her BBS making it relatively bad HERE (could be great with a couple Darkfires);
5- i dunno about Inkhorn, but Maehv players evade the multispawn package because we want our flunkies to have good reasons to live AND die.

[miguelosz]

ArtiSwarm, v3

Tagging @bepoest and @alplod: After our Grincher discussions, I thought I’d make a new brew of one of the older secret builds of mine: Artifact Swarm (at least I think I haven’t posted this one before?).This is a very versatile deck that combines powerful swarm strategies with versatile artifact combos. Often it’s correct to equip Grimwar in a safe spot while developing some swarm, and cashing in a couple turns later with Silhouette Tracer for some insane damage (“you though you would be safe at 23 health? think again”). Matchup knowledge plays a huge role in this deck, for example against Songhai you want to use your swarm asap since they can remove both your artifacts and swarm in an instant, whereas waiting it out in a safe place is nice against generals like Ragnora and Maehv who don’t have such good artifact removal.

Grincher has a real good home in this deck: I’d say that with the 3 cost decrease he provides for his artifact, more than half are good at either boosting general attack potential or giving cool swarm buffs. Each time I test out the deck I discover new combos: this time it was Chakram + Skywind Glaives and, at last, (gasp) one of the most op multi-faction combos in the game: Grimwar + Bangle. I also got two discounted Chakrams which tend to be pretty good in Lilithe for two mana

For the latest version, my main changes were Spectral Blade for Mindlathe and Ritual Banishing for some more swarm potential. Since the current meta favors memes that are highroll-y and all-in, removing things is often not worth it when they just drop a ramped Wanderer or Fault anyways. Instead, we want to take the initiative fast and “improvise, adapt, overcome”. I realized after a few games that I forgot Cryptographers from the current version, but Zyx was more than good enough substitute for this meta, dodging Rebuke and pings nicely. Wraithling Swarm is super important in this deck, since positioning is much more important than in the general yolo-hyperswarms.

WR was 9-7 (56 %) in Diamond. Most of the games were close either way, but sometimes you can just close the game with a huge bang which can feel really cathartic in this meta

[bepoest]

Nice!
Let’s say I want to try it, but because of missing cards I’d go with a Jax Truesight instead of Vorpal Reaver, and a Spectral Blade instead of Mindlathe. How wrong would I be?

[miguelosz]

Blade is very fine, after testing Mindlathe again I’m not very hyped for it outside hyperswarm. It works, but is rarely worth keeping in hand for long. Jax on the other hand probably doesn’t work hugely well here, since it’s too reliant on drawing Chakram at the right time. I’d go with Cryptographer instead and try to use it with Mentor. Often it’s correct to play the extra bbses out instead of replacing, Lili’s bbs is just that good.

[alplod]

Hmmm, playing Smash Vaath in Lil. Well done, sir

How good is Mundlathe without sacrifice synergy?

[miguelosz]

It’s ok, nothing spectacular. I think Spectral Blade might be better in the end. I was looking for its combo potential like with Ankh, but there’s much less artifacts that synergize with it than with the others.

[miguelosz]

Actually, the deck is like playing a weird mix of Smash Vaath, Midrange Swarm, Combo Sajj and Titan

[phoinexflame]

Bump because the Underlord’s Decree forbids this thread from dying

I bring another of my sloppily made Abyss decks: Spellslinger Cassyva

One day Cassyva pretended to be Shidai, and since she knew Abyssian has some of the coolest spells in Duelyst after Songhai she was sure she would make an unstoppable abomination. Unfortunately for our Heroine, she soon learned that her new creation has a few flaws, namely:

• Even with all the arcane power of the abyss combined she can not assemble enough Shadow Creep to Obliterate her foes from the face of the earth.

• Cassyva has no means to dispel or transform her enemies, so pesky pests like Sarlac the Immortal are particularly pesky.

Disregarding the flaws of her plan, she charged to the ladder where many dreadful opponents awaited her. Sometimes she failed and sometimes prevailed, and after many valiant fights she was reminded by Underlord Xor that at the age of well over 400 her retirement is long overdue. Cassyva was left with no choice other than to leave the battlefield. As she left the ladder, she vowed that one day she will return and spread Creep across the entire world of Mythron.

---

This deck was pretty fun despite being uncompetitive. Perhaps some good Abyss mains can make something better out of it than what I did

[alplod]

Just add some Alcuins there, and you have a chance for obliterate OTK.

[phoinexflame]

Swapping Abjudicator for Alcuin Loremaster sounds good. Most of the Abyssian spells are already pretty good for their cost, and ever since I removed the Tormentor I don’t really have a reason to ramp Shadow Nova.

[alplod]

Also try fugitive…if you think you will be able to make it stick.

[phoinexflame]

Fugitive is also nice, but I’ll probably have to replace Loreweaver to make room for him which means no more Loreweaver + Yeilding Depths for a full hand refill

But on the other hand Fugitive is more reliable and would actually give me the Painful Plucks I want, I guess I’ll try it with both of them and see how it will go

[miguelosz]

Yeah, the Alcuin engine is surprisingly reliable with Pluck. Key trick is to always have one Pluck in your hand at the end of your turn

[alplod]

Dunno, I rarely meet dedicated ranged decks on ladder, and even then we pack Lure and Banishing.

And I reached Diamond 2 more than once with it as a matter of fact.

[eurasianjay]

Awkward bump and stuff I guess.

So for the first time in 3 years, much to my shock and horror I made my trip to S rank with a non Songhai deck, weird times fam.

The list in question:

Budget (er) version

Main idea is to have the strong developing starts available to swarm but easier transition into the mid and lategame, either by using Crown to grow your swarm past common removal, using Lady Locke to lock opponents down and setting up chakram turns.

For the version i used Kron is fantastic at bridging your early swarm pressure and stalling for your artifacts/Rev, latter of which does obscene damage with Chakram since it procs +4 damage for each enemy hit by the initial frenzy.

EurasianJay
Abyss main

[snowshot]

I actually used this in time of relaxation:

And it works well in my second account (dedicated to abyss) and got me to rank 2 this week with ease.
I actually have no idea why ir what i did well.

I’m an abyss noob.