S rank budget Faie (Jan 2019)

[owlbeastmd]

Greetings, comrades. Bored with life at the top of the ladder, I ventured north to the frozen wastes of bronze and have returned with this little gem complete with a quick write-up.

The inspiration for this post was twofold: first was @niklaren, who made a fantastic series on budget decks last year, as well as the compendium of budget lists currently available on duelspot and reddit. This list hit s along with another deck (write-up coming soon) in 95 wins from bronze, with this list doing the bulk of the climb from rank 3 onward.

I: The general gameplan

Capitalize on your dying wish minions and multiple buffs to pummel your unsuspecting opponents into submission. Fenrir warmaster and jaxi are surprise hits in this list, both able to trade and enable a buff target in their surviving token. Basilisk adds redundancy to this big body plan, as well as being able to punish the infestation of tryhard shidais and zirans in gold and up.

General goodstuffs include primus shieldmaster— an incredibly underrated card from even a constructed standpoint, as well as grimes— a massive value generator in budget and constructed alije which remains broken despite a drop in usage over the past 6 months.

II: Tips and Tricks

• Opening: mulligan grimes unless p2 in a mu where it will beat the opponent. Only hold buffs if you have a jaxi or warmaster

• Early game: try to manuever into a position where you can generate two threats. Generally play basilisk safe, as the value it generates fromthe opponent’s change in play style is benefit enough. An unanswered basilisk allows you to buff other minions with impunity. Watch for lightbender and paragon in these situations; you didn’t work this hard just to blow it all to some PWNy boi.

-endgame: chain grimes and warbirb. Don’t back off too soon, as an unexpected heal can cost you games.

III. Closing thoughts

Too often I read complaints about Vanar on these forums. Complaints which I frankly find both disheartening and unfounded. The faction holds a wealth of powerful and relatively undiscovered interactions, and I expect it along with abyss to be centers of a renaissance of deckbuilding in the coming months. Honestly most of the exploration just requires a step beyobd the confines of ramp and burn core 90+% of all faie decks run and looking into the wealth of spells and minion interactions the faction holds.

For example, this deck runs fenrir warmaster.

Fenrir warmaster

We need to do better comrades. We need to do better. Good luck!

-Loltakethistipnoob/Ree69

[nomnomnomnom]

i might try this, looks like fun. nice work

[boronian]

It looks fun, budget and cryonic potential at the same time!

But is it really budget if you include one of the sisters for which you need 18 rares?

Added it to the wiki by the way.

[nomnomnomnom]

just craft the basics rares (if that makes sense), like sojourner, lightbender, owl sage guy, emp, all that kinda good stuff.

[boronian]

“Just” is not a word you use with budget decks.

[nomnomnomnom]

oh yeah. forgot about the budget part touche

[boronian]

You are right that there are a lot of good rares to craft and we had that same problem when I collected lists for the 40 budget lists.

Kieran made Lyonar budget lists with L’Kian in them. It is a fringe case. Not that hard to get especially because you get other good rares with it but are you still under 2k spirit then?

[owlbeastmd]

L’kian can easily be sojourner

[boronian]

Good choice, it would still be under 2k spirit

Just for your information:

I added a short list of good rares to craft for L’Kian to the wiki:

Golem Metallurgist (for any Golem deck)
Manaforger (for Arcanyst decks)
Flameblood Warlock (for many Aggro or Burn decks)
Celebrant (for any Golem / Swarm deck)
Zyx (for Swarm decks)
Azure Horn Shaman (for Maehv decks)
Abjudicator (for spell heavy combo decks)
Cannon of Mechaz0r (for Mech decks)
Sword of Mechaz0r (for Mech decks)
Prismatic Illusionist (for Arcanyst decks)
Sojourner (solid card draw option if you don't have / like Spelljammer)
Lightbender (great dispel, sees play in many different decks)
Owlbeast Sage (essential to any Arcanyst deck)
Blue Conjurer (great in Arcanyst decks)
Grimes (good card, can be game winning, a lot of value for 6 mana)
EMP (often a great answer to many decks)

[cookedpoo]

Fenrir warmaster

Do berserker next

Make the Fenrir proud

Great deck, definitely looks like a fun mid-range/combo that would really catch players off guard from the standard burn package with some tech cards thrown in.

[nomnomnomnom]

this deck is a lot of fun, and competitive. feels really balanced and sharp. 10/10

[nomnomnomnom]

btw, if you put mark of solitude on a bloodsworn gambler, he can’t target your general with the first his. the following hits can target him.

[miguelosz]

What? That’s insane

[atheistmantis]

Now that sounds like a Gambler’s bug

[alplod]

AFAIK, it’s the same for ass protocol.

[phoinexflame]

Mark of Solitude does not work like Protocol. Protocol prevents you from directly attacking the enemy general and nullifies any damage you would deal to the enemy general indirectly (like splash damage from Thunderhorn/Flamewreath). Mark of solitude only prevents you from attacking the general but does not nullify any damage you would deal to them (you can still damage them with things like Frenzy or Thunderhorn).

[atheistmantis]

What you point out about the difference between AssProt and MoS is right, but just for the record Gambler should never be able to deal direct attack damage to the general if effected by MoS.
Since it’s ability states that he “has a 50% chance to attack again, attacking a random enemy”, the first and extra times he attacks targets should then always ignore the Enemy General, if he has MoS.

[phoinexflame]

The problem here is that only Bloodsworn Gambler’s first attack actually counts as an attack, any attacks after that one aren’t technically attacks and don’t follow the rules of attacks (i.e. after the first attack nobody will counter Gambler even if they are in range, attacks ignoring provoke and pando’s ability, Gambler continuing to shoot down enemies even when he is already dead ect.).

[alplod]

Gambler continuing to shoot down enemies even when he is already dead

Wow! How one could archieve that?

[atheistmantis]

any attacks after that one aren’t technically attacks and don’t follow the rules of attacks

I don’t think that’s correct as the text of Gambler says: “Every time this minion ATTACKS he has a 50% to ATTACK again, ATTACKING a random enemy”.
All the damage it deals with its ability after every first attack are also attacks.
Call it spaghetti code, call it a bug, but it’s definitely not working according to the rules.
Applying MoS should still prevent it from attacking the General, if we’d go by the rules.

@terrarius: The action of attacking should work according the rules (of attack), but surely BG plays by his own rules