Continuing the discussion from Zir'an Smash Deck in Shim'zar? [Theorycrafting].
Disclaimer: I discuss this deck with a fair bit of passion, but I do not wish to lead anyone astray with the idea that this is a slam-dunk deck to ladder with in this meta. This deck continues to be C-tier and takes a fair bit of patience, determination and careful learning to rank up with. If you’re looking to ladder comfortably look elsewhere, this is not the deck for you! However, if you’re happy with eventually getting to Diamond playing a very technical, very cool, very fun deck that doesn’t feel cheap (unlike some other decks I could name) you’ve come to the right place.
Below you will find the new incarnation of my Zir’an Smash deck, now including all relevant new Denizens of Shim’Zar cards! I call it:
Zir’an, Lawgiver
It’s seen quite a bit of an overhaul since the time I started the thread, and it’s mostly become way more streamlined. At the bottom of the previous thread you can find the previous version of the deck. Its concept was simple: use Zir’an as a centerpiece to take damage and dish it out, and use her as the target for almost all available healing so you consistently have a healing target. The deck took me to Diamond and I reached Rank 4 with this new version today so it’s at least competent if not competitive (and that remains to be seen of course).
This deck is absolutely packed with healing, altogether you’re able to heal Zir’an by (3x5) + (3x2) + (3x2) + (2x5) = 15 + 6 + 6 + 10 = 37 points of health, forcing a maximum (not counting self-Martyrdom) 25 + 37 = 62 Health the enemy needs to plow through before she goes down. That scenario is highly unlikely of course, but it gives an impression of how hard it can be to burst Zir’an down: many common decks simply don’t have enough gas to consistently pull it off.
Zir’an, Lawgiver is essentially a mid-range Healyonar deck but with Zir’an as its pivot. You use Sunforge Lancer to pump her up and Sterope & Sunriser to control the board. You gain value over time as you kill things with Zir’an, allowing you to build up a board of two or three minions, using your healing effects to keep her healthy and simultaneously trigger your Purity (things that trigger off of healing) effects for extra value. Sterope also helps out with hand advantage whenever there’s no board to control. Having covered the key cards (Lancer, Sterope & Sunriser), let’s briefly discuss the rest.
Blistering Skorn allows you to control the board, finish off enemies, ping enemy Artifacts and damage your minions so you can heal them for Purity effects; the card is a godsend in this deck. Lucent Beam turns out to be really really good! I was skeptical of this card, but having cheap late game (try not to use them early on) burst is really working well for me so far, color me surprised! Ruby Rifter combos well with Skorn, and Zir’an is almost always going to be taking damage so it’s an obvious pick, refueling during drawn out matches is very important. It’s a later game minion, so having 1 copy is working fine so far. Dawn’s Eye is just a good card and I’m trying it out to see if it does well, you can just swap it out for whatever you like.
An important omission is the lack of Dispel! This deck has been becoming leaner and more aggressive with each iteration, and to my surprise I’m often the aggressor in my matches despite running three Martyrdoms. The change to Shadow Creep makes Dispel less of a 100% necessity so I’ve been running the deck without any Sun Blooms (Lightbender has anti-synergy with Sunforge Lancer) and things have been pretty good so far. If they turn out to be necessary I’d probably squeeze in two copies somewhere.
So there you go, let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
And if there are still any Zir’an haters left out there, here’s a song especially for you:
. If you get your draw issue sorted out I think you should be good to hit Gold, I like the deck! Good luck eventually getting all the basic Faction Rares to unlock Sterope.
