S Rank Achieved with Lyonar!

[bennyboy101k]

Hey everyone! I was on a duelyst hiatus earlier this year to focus on school/work but I’m active again and have been for about 2-3 months.

As a lover of Lyonar, I set my sights on hitting S rank with Lyonar and finally achieved it!

Here’s what I used to get to rank 5:

As you can see without my explaining, the deck is centered around replacing to gain a surplus of benefits simultaneously. It was very hard to pilot at times - but very fun! I recommend giving it a shot if you’r looking for a fun Lyonar deck with decent diamond/S rank potential.

I will admit however that achieving S rank in this meta with my “Replace Lyonar” deck was too difficult, if not impossible. For the deck to win, it requires games to go late game, a stage in which too many decks are thriving in and have cemented solutions via trials/general board set ups (ie Vetruvian with sand tiles + Khan or Abyssian with it’s trial card). So I not recommend spending spirit for this deck

Here’s what got me to S Rank (full credit of this build goes to @niklaren):

The deck was fantastic. It’s not too hard to pilot, however it’s important to recognize when one should be aggresive with the deck and when to hold off and heal your stuff. Expect a slight learning curve if you’re not familiar with Zir’an’s style of play or combos.

The reason why the deck did so well was because of early/mid game trades. A lot of times, when both my opponent and I would get to 6 mana, I would have a strong board and 3 or 4 cards in hand + hand advantage. Or by 6 mana - have less cards in hand, but have the opposing general at 11-15 health.

The early/mid game consistency was so important because a lot of decks in this meta can steal games late. My hardest matchup were well-constructed Magmar building/egg decks (pun intended) because the buildings would be too hard to wipe off the board and then when they resolve into their final form, I’d get wrecked.

All of this is to say, be mindful of not letting games last too long. Clear troublesome minions of course, but always try to deal most of the finite damage dealing stuff to the general (i.e. lucent beams and sun strikes).

Also keep in mind that the deck is more toolbox-y than you would think. Yes - healing is important, but it’s merely the “vehicle” that gets your effects going. Use the deck’s effects wisely, and you’ll win lots of games - if you don’t, you’ll misplay often.

Overall, it’s a great deck! Thanks to @niklaren for posting it on the Updated Zir’an list post.

[niklaren]

Woo, good job.

Funnily enough you beat me a couple of times as I was making my own S rank climb on budget Maehv (resultsmaehvary), I remember particularly because I was staying up late playing and miscounted my mana and played a bloodtear with my last mana instead of BBS’ing an Azure Horn Shaman In the middle of like 3 things, then promptly got cleric + immo’d.

Anyway, good write up. I agree the deck has some learning curve, but it’s actually quite a good intro to zir’an since you get to go all the heal combo stuff, but you can always just fall back to ‘screw it just go face’ if you don’t know what to do. Buildings or anything with high HP can be a pain since there’s no hard removal, as you say try and end the game quickly if it looks like you’re going to be stat-checked out of the game.

Once again, good job mate.

[loliconartist]

I remember you! Your that guy I always run into on ladder! Everytime I see ya I gotta remind myself you are playing a replace deck

[slayerofpatience]

Have you built any Purist Lyonar decklists that have made it up to S-rank? It appears difficult with some of the card synergy issues… I do believe I’ve seen a couple Zir’an Purist decklists that place emphasis on Healyonar, but I don’t think I’ve seen purist decklists consisting pure lyonar tempo or swarm, simply due to the fact key meta cards from neutral lists provide a better replacement and hit harder than certain Lyonar cards.

[mmf]

He’s currently playing Burn Faie (rip my winstreaks)

[slayerofpatience]

Ouch… what kind of deck were you wielding against him?

[mmf]

I was playing a sunbond pavise deck…not exactly what you want when dealing with faice