Swarm Kara, New Vanar Deck Attempting to Shake up the Meta

[cookedpoo]

After rummaging through the forum archives, I’ve sadly found no recent decklists for a Kara Swarm/Aggro approach. Since Lyonar can swarm very well, as seen by @owlbeastmd, why can’t Vanar do something similar? Boasting decent swarm potential, sticky, annoying walls (which sadly aren’t really seen in the deck I created), and the ability to buff stuff, Vanar swarm should be viable, if not competitive in the current meta ok we still lose to Magmar 100% of the time

My take on what I think is a decent swarm Kara.

Gameplan is supposed to be similar to the lyonar one, build a big swarm, buff it, aggro the enemy face. Unfortunately, Vanar does not have OP card draw like Lyonar, making the deck very all or nothing, and the faction doesn’t have the same tempo tools either. Hopefully, this should be made up for by better swarm options (but our buffs are really lacking too).

Thoughts on how this should be done? Should it focus more on an aggro package? Maybe add in more walls instead? Although I feel like my deck could be viable, it feels very MU based, and not skill based. I also only have 1 G-well, and 2 Lockes.

Help

@snowshot
@deathsadvocate
@owlbeastmd

[nh3maser]

You’ve already pointed out the main issues: Vanar lacks the card draw of Lyonar and Vetruvian, and has worse swarm-style finishers than Abyssian. These deficiencies mean that Vanar swarm decks are limited in how good they can possibly be. However, Vanar does have one competitive advantage when it comes to swarming: the ability to make multiple bodies with one card. Any Vanar swarm list should focus doing this as much as possible. The best options are Gravity Well (which definitely deserves being present in a full playset if you can come up with the spirit), Wintertide, and Luminous Charge. Here are some ideas:

The most thematic way of doing swarm is to use the faction’s signature tribe of Vespyrs. This also provides you with Glacial Elemental for removal and Animus Plate as a nice buff.

You also have access to Arcanysts. This archetype is nowhere near its old power level, and has now been sadly overshadowed by Songhai and even Abyssian. But it can still win some games if you play it well, and the in-faction cards give it a pretty swarmy subtheme.

If you don’t want to go tribal, you could instead focus on making the most of Kara’s BBS. This build is based off of AlphaCentury’s old Kara Sanguinar deck. Casting Kinetic Surge multiple times with a Firestarter on board is usually enough to close out the game.

Finally, Lightning Blitz is an awful card, but if you want to meme, here’s a combo version of swarm that runs it (an update of an old build by SilverArgyria). The idea is to drop as many bodies as possible the first couple of turns, Blitz them over to the opponent’s side while they’re still there, and then Overdrive for the kill.

[owlbeastmd]

Idk try this? Swarm is bad period atm, but this seems ok. Consider trying to sneak mana forger in, as things get quite silly once he comes down.

[eurasianjay]

Not playing Cryonic potential in a forger/gazer/bta list smh.

Fam y tho

[deathsadvocate]

I had some swarm kara stuff lists way back in the day, but I can not even find them anymore. I do not really think Neutral Swarm has much merit these days. Vespyr tends to be the best swarm deck:

DeathsAdvocate's Master Thread: Eternal Trials of Mythron

Heavy Metal : Vespyrs Control/Vespyr Cryonic Potential. Highly Competitive

http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTo1MjcsMzo1MTAsMzoyMDMyNCwzOjIwMTQ5LDM6NTEyLDM6NTA1LDM6MjAxNDcsMzo1MTksMzoyMDE2NSwzOjU2MSwzOjIwMzMwLDM6MzAwNDAsMzoyMDI3NiwzOjIwMTQ2

http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTo1MjcsMzo1MTAsMzoyMDE0OSwzOjUxMiwyOjUwNSwzOjIwMTQ3LDM6NTQ1LDM6MjAzNzEsMjoyMDM0NywzOjUxOSwzOjIwMTY1LDI6MjAzOTEsMzoyMDMzMCwzOjMwMDQwLDM6MjAyNzY=

Man Kara has some heavy armor on, yet now she has decided to load on a whole new plate.

While its hard to compete with the raw power of dedicated wall decks, dedicated vespyrs have their own appeal and can be a bit faster. The first variant favors aspects to give the deck a strong control angle, the second one goes all in on abusing Vespyr buffs including Cryonic Potential which is extra deadly when used on your early turns mixed with a cheap minion and or gravity well.

Vepyrs are a pretty sollid tribe that support each other fairly well. Of course you have the classic Elemental plus snowchaser spam, or how it combos with Bonechill Barrier which summons three walls that are Vespyrs. But more recently we have added wintertide to the mix which is another big buff for elemental and thanks to our multiple ways to summon mass Vespyrs even good old Borean Bear has turned into quite the threat. Add Animus plate to the mix and any Vespyrs on the field can snowball out of control really fast.

The deck also has a fair amount of wall focus thanks to Karas natural synergy with them thanks to her BBs, Luminous charge, if unanswered, is a staggering 15 damage. And should your opponents manage to escape the clutches of the walls they can instead be transformed with your aspects to chase people down.

Wisp is vanars best card of the expansion and is borderline oppressive, which is rather important as vanar has suffered greatly from nerfs and the rotation. But wisp came to the rescue and really pushes all vanar decks up a notch. Wisp not only ramps for you, but it also lowers your opponents mana! And if you dispel, bounce, or transform it, the effect is permanent. Wisp is best played defensively but not so far back it cant get into trade, as Idealy you play with it, trade once, and then transform it.

Between Elemental, Luminous, and Aspect of the Mountain you do pretty decent on AOE, you excel at body blocking and stalling, and developing fields that can overwhelm your opponent quickly. Snowchaser and Cryo mixed with your aggressive gameplan tends to keep you ok on card advantage, although running out of steam and vulnerability to burn are its biggest weakness, but the ability to win games fairly quickly, or push out some pretty devastating lategame combos prevents this from being to much of a concern.

Its a solid enough deck but it was much better during rotations, between the many fields wipes, and powerhouse late game stuff like winters wake back its trailing behind a bit now.

But if you do want a pretty swarmy deck that runs Lightning Blitz I got you covered.

DeathsAdvocate's Master Thread: Eternal Trials of Mythron

Wailing Blitz Range Kara: Competitive/Gimmicky

http://www.bagoum.com/deckbuilder#MTo1MjcsMzoyMDE0NywzOjUxNywzOjExMDE0LDM6MjAyMTEsMzoxMDAyMSwzOjIwMjE0LDM6MTA5NTQsMzoxMTAzMywzOjU2MSwzOjExMTE1LDM6MjAyMDgsMzoyMDI3NiwzOjEwOTYz

Play ranged units early on, when your opponent starts to close the gap blitz them all to the otherside with a nice buff. Jax tokens, hearth sister, and of course blitz all make wailing overdrive quite viable and its extra rude when its put onto a ranged minion.

Karas natural synergy with Jax tokens and Walls mixed with a few Vanar staples like aspect/thunder and wisp leave you with a pretty effective deck. Unfortunately its a bit slow, vulnerable to AOE, and despite our many ways to abuse ranged units they can still underperform sometimes leaving us with something really cool when it works out but ultimately a gimmick.

[niklaren]

I will not forget Munk’s list he played here.

It does need some updating from card changes, but it was pretty well put together. I guess I’d pull the nerfed cards and add Razorback or something like that.

[deathsadvocate]

Ah yea, I remember that. That was precisely the inspiration for the swarm decks I could not find. I made a couple variants of it but I guess I never published or saved them anywhere and they just sort of morphed into my modern day vespyr and arcanyst lists which ended up being drastically different.

I basically split it into two decks, and sadly cut the Aura despite really wanting to make it work. The vespyr stuff I posted above and my rather old, and in need of an update, Blood Surge Arcanysts:

Deathgrip, Corona, aspect/thunder, and possibly circulus all likely need to be replaced.

[cookedpoo]

I remember playing against a similar ranged/blitz list that Seedy ran, definitely gimmicky and weak to decks with reach, but is fun nonetheless.

Thanks for all the advice everyone, its clear that neutral swarm isn’t the way to go in Vanar because of the lack of natural finishers and damage pushes, and that Arcanyst/Vespyr is just a better option.

[owlbeastmd]

reviving this topic due to a recent breakthrough. Munk-style neutral seems to be stronger than vespyrs on initial playtest. Will post list once more data is gathered.

[dandelionpoet]

can you elaborate?

[yowohokid]

If the deck had more combos with it, could polarity maybe be a nice finisher? (Good with Owlbeast sage for instance). Or would it be too unconsistent?

[cookedpoo]

Currently, there’s not much that polarity could be played on (besides tech against obelysks, which the deck doesn’t really have a problem with, considering it teleports stuff everywhere). As a finisher, I’d assume it’d be best on rocky? But using the other vanar buffs such as cryonic/wailing are a lot more consistent than polarity.

[yowohokid]

@deathsadvocate, what are your thoughts on Thicket Augur? And what about flawless reflection, winter’s wake or ice age?

[deathsadvocate]

Thicket of Augur is mostly a Nemeton card, have not seen much use for it elsewhere.

Winters Wake remains one of Vanars best win cons. Flawless had its time to shine but between it and seraphims nerf its pretty underwhelming these days when compared to wake or cheaper wall synergy cards like enfeeble or razorback.

I am not a big fan of Ice Age as it often feels like a win more card and really only works in the super all in ramp version which is horrifyingly powerful but also folds miserable to its counters where the non ice age variants tend to have a better early game and good fall backs. But its certainly good in the right deck.