For many months now we live in a world where Sajjans fly through the Sky, leaving the world in shambles. They are a force to be reckoned with, but many of them have plummeted, got caught and then died. One of the reasons is the newest attack of the fire nation. Everyone brings as many pings to the table as possible.
In this hostile world Ciphyron Ascendant has gotten back his favourite weapon - The Spinecleaver - to transform into his ultimate form as a Reaper.
For those who want to hear less story, those are my thoughts to the deck:
I use Ciphyron as general in a NOSE Ascendancy deck to reduce the loss of artifacts through pings to a possible minimum while keepiing my health safe. At the same time I do less damage to minions than Sajj- but I don’t mind. The mobility and Attack rate this deck can have easily make up for it.
The mobility comes from the Flying minion+ Neurolink combo as well as the Shilouette Tracer. This deck uses more than the basic Dragonlark and Wind Striker as flying minions since Khanuum-Ka also plays an important role
You see… sometimes it isn’t enough to just fly around the board while blasting away everything in your path. This deck likes control. If I don’t have Wildfire Ankh to keep your distance or Iris Barrier to pull a guerilla tactic/ airstrike style you need other things to do the dirty work.
Well, you’ve got the super cheap and dirty Oblivion Sickle to reduce your opponents corpse to sand. with a total of 14 minions this deck is able to activate those sand tiles at least each second turn. If your opponent gets reckless enough to not guard those tiles - cause…psh… who would run that many minions in a NOSE deck…right? - can be massively punished with Khanuum-ka who is also always a good finisher when you need the last 3 damage on your opponent.
Spinecleaver is just a very nice thing to have in a meta where eggs produce Forcefields and minions never die. The ability to deny artifacts for your opponent is just huge when crescent spear is used. The damage adds up pretty fast and gives you a wincon that can’t simply be pinged away.
Obdurator is a very good card if you want your artifacts to stick. Nonetheless Staff of Y’Kir is still the best tool to finish the opponent or get enough damage to kill a minion.
The true mastery of this deck lies partly in the sequence in which you equip the artifacts. Often you start P1 T1 with Staff of Y’Kir or Obdurator to have this “pure damage” artifact be the first thing to go if you equip your fourth artifact. Starting with Iris Barrier, which is a lot more valuable than those, is very often not a good first turn equip since it doesn’t add much lo a later equip of Wildfire Ankh and isn’t as easily replaced as Staff orObdurator. If you are on P2 T1 the best thing to have is Wildfire Ankh since it allows you to equip for a lot of damage the next turn. It is also possible to get rid of some of the 2 drops. Always use the blast if you can, don’t hold back because you have an Oblivion Sickle or Spinecleaver in hand. Don’t allow them too swarm the board. Very relatable to P1T1 is S2 T1 in regards of equipping Obdurator/ Staff or Sickle/ Barrier. Big difference is that you are better off to equip Oblivion Sickle first, as it stacks badly with a later equipped Spinecleaver. In the late game also always equip damage dealing artifacts before utility artifacts. Preferably equip Wildfire Ankh always last.
If you are interested in this deck, please feel free to ask questions about it. I hope you can build it too and have fun with it. If not, I’d like to help with optional cards.
What are your opinions of the role of this deck in the current meta? This is one of the few decks of mine that have a positive winrate in the current Rank 4-5. Have I forgotten something?