This is my first deck; I’m currently building an Arcanyst Deck for Songhai. This is the decklist I’m building towards. I have all the cards except for two Tri-Wings and two Lantern Foxes, which are substituted for Four-Winds Magi and Juxtaposition for now until I make the switch. So far the deck has been quite fun to play, and I’ve made it to Gold.
I’ve mostly been playing for fun, nothing competitive, but I would like to know the Duelyst community’s thoughts on the deck, especially because I’ve only been playing for a couple months. I used to run a slightly different deck Shidai with more arcanyst minions but I switched to Reva because Shidai’s BBS wasn’t very reliable except for spell-proc. I didn’t like the chance involved in hoping for Shidai’s BBS to give me card draw or backstab, since those were really the only ones I liked. I didn’t think Kaleos would fit (I might be wrong) because the teleport doesn’t do much. So I picked Reva for the offensive potential of the ranged Heartseekers. I’ll try and explain my reasoning behind some of the cards that are in the list.
Chakri, Owlbeast, Manaforger, and Kindling seem pretty integral to the arcanyst deck. Scroll Bandit is in there for a strong 2-drop that can steal spells, which I find is useful not only for me when I use out-of-faction spells, but it also reduces the chance that the opponent will be able to draw that spell. Panddo seems to draw more attention than I thought and it usually takes some sort of removal, which is good for preserving Owlbeast-Kindling combos. Lantern Fox was added recently because it generates those nice Phoenixes. I’ve never actually played with Trinity Wing but it seems like it gives pretty good value for a 5 drop, especially with the 3 1-drop spells.
Gotatsu is really good for drawing cards, Mist Dragon is good for repositioning and for setting up my Scroll Bandits. Deathstrike is good for board wiping with Panddo and for destroying specific minions with the Heartseekers. I added phoenix as minion removal but I usually end up using it on the enemy general instead. Killing edge occasionally gives me card draw on the Scroll Bandit, but otherwise it makes even a manaforger or heartseeker into a strong attacker.
I thought spiral technique was too slow, but someone suggested I add it. It turns out that it’s a really great finisher. For some reason I’ve been drawing a spiral consistently on turn 6 or 7 and not before that, which is just when I start needing it.
I ran Four-Winds and Prismatic Illusionist when I was still with Shidai, but I found that whenever I had the option between my four-drop minions (Owlbeast, Kindling, Four-Winds) I usually casted Owlbeast, and sometimes Kindling for a big swing turn. Prismatic Illusionist itself isn’t a problem, but it didn’t usually survive very long because I had to either cast it where the spawned Illusions would be close to the action or put it in the back where the Illusions don’t get to see much use.
I’ve gotten comments that the deck itself isn’t very focused, but I find that the combination of arcanyst-buffing and ranged offensive presence usually wins me the game. My worst match-ups so far are against the Artifact-Ascension Sajj decks… I’m always astonished at how effective they are.
Anyway, that’s generally the thinking behind this deck, so please tell me what you think!
EDIT: I switched Scroll Bandit for Araras Prophet to try it out.
