My Sabo-Sajj w/ Psychic Conduit

[ferenzy]

… Hai!

My 1st serious Shimz’ar deck: a midrange-sabotage deck built around Zen’Rui and Psychic Conduit.
You can call me a weirdo for using a card like PConduit and call it a “serious deck”, but let me tell you something Timmy: You don’t know how good a card is until you try it.
I was very skeptical at first but when I used it the first time… I immediately fell in love with it!

Ahem… The decklist:

Hmmh… There’s something weird about this list… Oh! I got it! There are no Siphon Energies, Allomancers nor card draw!

Please do not panic!

• Allomancer: I found that it’s a bit too slow for the deck so I ended up cutting it. Besides, it doesn’t really provide any synergy with Sajj.

• Siphon Energy: 3 Lightbenders are all the dispel that you need. Including more dispel is just an overkill.

• No card draw: Games usually end by turn 8-9. You won’t run out of cards unless the game drags for too long which is very rare.

Card choices:

• Entropic Decay and Dominate Will: Help tremendously in the Lyonar matchup and Vetruvian mirror. You’ll feel safe as long as you have one of them in hand

• Rasha’s Curse: Cuz artifacts.

• Psychic Conduit: A criminally underrated card. Excellent in the early game when you can’t summon Zen’Rui: Azurite Lion, Lantern Fox, Sojourner, Young Silithar, Unbuffed Chakri, turn 1 Cloaker/Snowchaser, Heartseekers, Abyssal Crawler, Kelaino, Zirix’s poop, Kron’s prisoners, the dead Sarlac and much more…
  Tip: If you suicide a Young Silithar the Egg will be yours permanently, same with all the “Dying wish: Summon X” minions

• Circle of Desiccation: As a 1 of. I don’t think that you need more than 1 copy. It can get you out of tight situations while keeping the Totems and Obelysks alive, so you’ll have the upper hand and increase your chances of winning the late-game war.

Enough talk! Winrates?!

Okay, Okay… From gold 10 to Diamond in a single win streak

Been facing mostly Vaath and Vetruvian (mostly Sajj): There’s no particularly hard matchup, probably Lyonar? but they have very limited removal for your Nimbus and Aymaras so…

Have fun!

[akurane]

Hey, I run something thats somewhat similar to this! Quick question though, what are your thoughts on using Sand Sister Saon? I find that it helps when using spinecleaver + BBS, ankh + BBS, and Falcius + BBS to help clear enemies and provide that extra damage against the enemy general. It also helps fill out the 4 drop slot for Sajj.

[ferenzy]

Saon is surely a nice addition with all the support Sajj has received, she helps Sajj a lot, but I would only run it in decks that heavily rely on Artifacts to control the board or if I had an open 4 drop slot to fill i.e. to replace Allomancer/L’kian etc.

[atd09]

I don’t have the nimbus yet. Is Kron a suitable replacement? I have everything else for the deck, so…

Edit: are there enough 3 drops? Cause it’s just falcius and conduit, I’m not counting ankh , and conduit is situational …

[raqyee]

3 drops aren’t really needed in general due to mana tiles. It’s all about 2 and 4 drops.

[atd09]

This deck runs 9 2-drops, but 3 are pax, which doesn’t grab tiles…

Edit: not counting curse as a 2

And for that matter, where are the 4 drops?

[phayze]

I think it needs Mirage Masters because that minion is way too fun and unexpected to not run in a sabotage list. Anyway, if you dont find yourself climbing through diamond quickly, try and sub in some Mirage Masters and give it a shot for the heck of it and it comboes very well with Siphon.

[raqyee]

I know, that’s why I said “in general”. I wasn’t specifically referring to this deck. But the point still stands, just as cookie cutter midrange decks that play on curve don’t need 3 drops, this deck needs them even less because it’s not about playing on curve as much as it’s about dealing with every threat enemy throws at you and having few key cards to close out the game.

[ferenzy]

Yes, you can replace Nimbus with Kron.

3 drops aren’t generally needed. You can build a deck having 0 3 drops and still have a decent winrate. 2 and 4 drops are the most important.

In my 11 games, I have never missed a turn 1 play. Besides, I don’t have any “good” 4 drops to grab the tiles.

This is a reactive deck which means that all you want to do is answer every threat your opponent throws at you. If you establish dominance in turn 4-5 you increase your chances of winning the game because you’ll be able to get out your big threats without really worrying about tempo loss. That’s why I run only Entropic Decays and Lightbenders as my 4 drops.

There’s no “general rule” about how many 2s, 3s and 4s your deck has to run to be “decent”. It depends on what you’re building and in which stage of the game you are focusing.

[ferenzy]

I know, I love that card too but I couldn’t fit it into the deck

Petition to CPG to increae deck size to 50 so I can fit in all my favorite cards!

[atd09]

Thanks! Will try deck!

[phayze]

Only card Im missing is CoD, any ideas?

Ive replaced it with a Dark Nemesis for now cause I had nothing better to put in and a 3rd DomWill seemed a bit clunky.
You were right, PConduit, destroyed a Songhai player :3

[ferenzy]

You can try replacing it with a Stars’ Fury/Rainbow Pony as a comeback, a 3rd Rasha’s Curse for early game control or a 3rd Zen’rui.

Yup, PConduit is Songhai’s new weakness

[snowwy]

Interesting deck! Im building one similar to it. However, do you think you’re having success on the ladder to S-rank? Im currently stuck with my other decklist.

[ferenzy]

It’s having an OK success in diamond. I’m currently halfway through rank 3 playing 1-2 games a day, so it’s totally possible to reach S with it

[snowwy]

Im at the same spot at you, but I seem to make no progress. Im winning till halfway, and I lose back to rank 4 -5. And the same cycle occurs again for 2 days straight now LOL. Do you feel spinecleaver winning you games, or is it tooslow? Because I find myself having issues with taking too much face damage from jsut including even wildfire ankh alone ( that card is also highly situational most of the time). And also Im running Krons instead of nimbuses, do you think nimbuses might have a better chance? And are you survivng the onslaught of revas, lilithe swarm 9super rare but existent) without skorn? Or any other form of AOE?