Unearthed Prophecy: Blood Faice (Hit yourself to win!)

[sinpathy]

Ayy it’s ye boi Sinpathy~ With Version 3 of Blood Faice!
I’m your local credible consistently Diamond player, hitting S twice

After settling down with the latest expansion; Unearthed Prophecy, Vanar has received some additional support for this self-destructive playstyle.

If you’re unfamiliar with this sadistic deck concept, take a look here:

MIRACLE Faie, or Blood Faice

Hi, my name’s Sinpathy and I’m here to share with you Freeze Mage in Duelyst EleGiggle With the advent of Rise of the Bloodborn, Vanar got a ton of removals and extremely good cards. The introduction of ice block equivalent; Concealing Shroud meant the return of an aggressive playstyle, as well as the support for one-turn-kill decks. I used to pilot a deck upon the release of the 25 mana card; Blood Taura, but it didnt see the light of day beyond lower diamond (which i think is still an amazi…

The new version showcase:

Enter EMP; A great alternative effect breaker/ board wipe stacked on a giant body.
This golem punishes the stalling of wraithlings, growing minions, dying wishes and every single artifact and minion that make or break a deck (Alabaster Titan). Some might say it’s counter-acting the walls in this deck. That’s because you’re not playing smart. Remember when I said that this deck requires foresight?

Another neat addition is the Luminous Charge, a 5 mana “Chrysalis Burst” that forces a lightbender, or extremely unfavorable trades. Not to mention battle pets are like magnets to this thing. Stalling has never been made more easier. Thing is, this spell is extremely elusive. Until the moment of their deaths, they will never expect your deck to not be a wall deck.

And finally, Moonlight Basilysk; a new type of minion introduced in this set called the “Sentinels”. Sentinels are essentially secrets in hearthstone, except it is a 3/3 minion and only triggers when a certain condition is met. Basilysk is the living definition of the popular “answer or die” memes in duelyst discord. Tacked with a difficult way to remove it, it gains stats exponentially should the opponent try to use spells to progress the game. Remember, Basilysk is a stall card. Do not overstep your boundaries when playing it. Play for the board and maintain level with the opponent until your taura+sotw combo.

In addition to these new cards, with the help of Jason (Icicle), I’ve streamlined the deck so it is extremely consistent now. It is no joke how the combo never fails to show up in your hand when you need it. I can never stress this enough, that is to say practice makes perfect; you need actual experience to pilot it. Predict what spells are going to be played, make calculated risks when the opponent has a small hand size.

There are new pseudo removal options against provokes like repulsor beasts, and hearthsisters. Dioltas and spelljammers now fill the much needed 4 mana slot perfectly, able to cycle away your cheap removals to refill your stall, as well as provide a potential 5 damage and a sticky provoke body.

Some considerations include Razorback, to pump your walls enough for a surprise lethal, or silhouette tracers to keep yourself away from heavy provokes. Tech the deck to however your playstyle fits!

These are my few games with this modification, and I’ve played with every single general and deck.
This does not mean to say I’ve won all my games purely with the combo! Be flexible with your lethal options! Your bloodborne spell is a death timer

If you have any queries, feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll try to answer them! :3
Good luck on the ladder and godspeed

[whyb0t]

Flash Freeze, Lore Master, Dioltas and Repulsor are questionable. Could use a little more consistency, third Hearth Sister and CC for sure. I’d recommend trying a certain 1/1 minion with draw capabilities as well, with so many spells.

That being said, looks like it’s fun to play, lots of their new toys are annoying to play against. Well on its way to becoming a refined deck!

[sinpathy]

Changes are subjective! Hope you liked it

[sinpathy]

UPDATE:
I’ve achieved 2nd place in this week’s Melee tournament

here was my deck/sideboard

The VOD is going to be cast today so be sure to check out F8’s stream~

[paralykeet]

Itt: Sin demonstrates why CPG have accidentally made the game unplayable for a couple months. Because Luminous Charge is just as bad as old Shadow Nova- for two mana less. Like… trying to get my friends to try Duelyst lately has been hard to justify once they run into it because “Run EMP” means nothing to them- because they can’t access the $20 expansion, now that you can only get the content with a purchase of $15 or $40, which screams “oh no, screw that”, because prospective players would rather not pay $22 over 2 transactions, or torture themselves with all of the gold oppourtinities on a new account to force out the 300 gold shots at obtaining a card which when it is being played at such volumes means “Oh god, something in your game is so broken, that this warranting chronic, non-ironic play”.

TL;DR, EMP is bullhonkey, trash like Luminous Charge is bullhonkey for the design-projection that EMP is magically sufficient as a "deal with it’ answer for players who haven’t been here for over half a year.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I’m not ragging on Sin as a player. I’m ragging on the devs for thinking Luminous Charge was even remotely in the same dungeon as “good design decisions”, alongside Ghost Seraphim, Frostburn, etcetcetc. The players deserve mad respect. The cards themselves deserve the sideways glances.

[sinpathy]

@paralykeet
I agree with the sentiment that the game might seem a little jarring to new players because of all these new effects, but the same goes for any kind of card games. Besides, Hsuku and many other streamers have proven that it is possible, with game knowledge and smarts, to use a completely free-to-play deck to S.

We also have to make the argument of whether or not new players are even capable of hitting the upper ladder within a week of play.
I believe the game balance of competitive ladder and new players’ initial interest of the game have no correlation to each other.

As for Luminous Charge, it is definitely one of the cards I foresee getting nerfed to 6 mana, but in this deck, it wasn’t much an essential tool for victory but a stall card out of many others.

EMP’s problem is with it’s stats and mana cost. It does things too quickly and efficiently for what it’s worth. Again, it is definitely going to be nerfed. Would you play EMP at 9 mana?
Another issue is with it’s rarity. EMP should definitely be either an epic or a legendary based on its ridiculously tempo-heavy effect. As it is now, it is definitely a staple in competitive decks, but again I don’t see it scaring off new players.

Cards like Ghost Seraphim and Frostburn are kinda iffy to evaluate. Against certain matchups, Frostburn can be devastating to deal with, while Seraphim just does everything a Vanar player wants in a ramp deck. Although I understand your sentiments very well, I don’t think Duelyst can ever be made fair, because its sense of power balance is extremely different from any other CCGs I have played, I believe Duelyst is a fine mix of quick and explosive turns weaved in beautifully animated pixel art.

[paralykeet]

So, pardon if this and any of my following posts in the near future are course. Expecting massive cyclonic phenomena within the day to come.

I don’t think EMP is the issue, so much as the alarm siren (as I think of Ephemeral Shroud and Lightbender as well.) When the game is functional, these are mostly haphazard, clunky, almost outright bad cards- but when these are played at a certain threshold, it seems like they’re supposed to catch the developer’s attentions.

With Vanar right now, it’s just sort of a systemic thing that has been building up, and has now reached critical mass.

-Faie’s BBS undermines the whole “this game cares about a board, and positioning and stuff”- since Duelyst has mostly been paced by “Faie with Flameblood Warlocks”. The more you can successfully stall the game, the more you can take advantage of Faie’s BBS getting to avoid playing Duelyst with the rest of us, in favor of more effective FBW procs

-Death Managrip- Because “terminally undercosted combo fuel” and “ramp that doubles as 1 mana removal” doesn’t sound like a recipe for a slew of really really awful archetypes

-Ghost Seraphim- Is just combo fuel. Every. Single. Vanar spell, has to be evaluated through the lens of “with a Seraphim”, and because of it we get “8/9+ Luminous Charge” turns.

-Frostburn, I don’t think it’s necessarily a problem in the meta, but the card is an obvious holdover from Hearthstone that much like the Rexxar HP/BBS circumnavigates too much of what’s going on in the game. I like the idea of spell wipes, but entirely one sided ones (as opposed to ones you need to position to make one sided), are just going to continuing contributing to archetypes that chronically oppress whatever meta emerges.

-Luminous Charge is the whole thing here. Shadow Nova for 5? Thanks.

Tbh, I think Luminous Charge is probably a 7 mana card in it’s own right- but even changing that isn’t going to stop whatever the next “Meltdown No.X” that makes this same Faie deck keep breaking any meta it touches.

Again, emphasis that this just a rag on the choices of the design, in practice, you obviously don’t get enough actual free wins, and get policed by Aggro Cassyva fairly hard- but any of the fair decks that would normally unravel a Cass deck packing warlocks, don’t have a place in a game where the queue is also half “Get shrekt Faie Stall Combo”

[trulster]

Most of the problematic aspects will go away if just Ghost Seraphim receives a much-needed nerf.

[sinpathy]

To quote @baharoth 's comment under the thread “Faction Identities”:

“Vanar is the definition of a control faction right now. Excellent removal, both spot and mass, lot’s of ways to limit the opponents movement and powerful lategame cards to finish the game. Weakspots are lack of healing and weak minions in general. There can be minion centric decks in Vanar (Arcanyst and Aggro for example) but they use almost entirely neutral minions spiced up with some Vanar removal.”

They have subtly touched on the nature of Vanar spells; slow and reactive, which I think is the source of frustration from most players because they “don’t get to play the game”. Stall cards are definitely favourite now because of seraphim and many other popular win conditions you can ramp into, but there was a time when the Vespyr archetype and Faice decks were fairly popular too.

Although it might seem really unfair for Vanar to pack so much removals and get away with extremely bombastic combos that require 2 or more cards to use in sequence, I believe that it is intended. As with every other faction that does particularly well in some aspect, Vanar too has to have something “unfair” to even the scales. Playing fair would just make Vanar another pre-expansion Vetruvian.

Warbird on the other hand is a mess, I agree with the fact that churning out out-of-hand chip damage is a little ironic coming from a control class like Vanar. That can be easily fixed by having it not hit face.

As with other extremely powerful minions in the game, Ghost Seraphim would stop being as oppressive in Duelyst’s card design when it is nerfed in mana values, and not it’s inherent effect.

This is why tier lists are made, so people who value the competition more than the masses would jump trains on whichever factions are performing. It might not exactly be a good design philosophy for Duelyst in the long run if they want a large pool of cards to excel in each season, but the fact is that ranking is a clear division of people who wants to play the game casually, and people who just wants to overpower opponents to prove their skills.

The problems you have stated exist on a fundamental level in Duelyst’s fast-paced game design.
I would like to believe CPG isn’t just winging every expansion and making every card as imbalanced as they can be just for sparking hype among returning and new players.

Although in my case, my biased arguments tend to sway towards the statement “It’s not the game’s fault if you’re not looking for ways to have fun”

[baharoth]

Again, emphasis that this just a rag on the choices of the design, in practice, you obviously don’t get enough actual free wins, and get policed by Aggro Cassyva fairly hard- but any of the fair decks that would normally unravel a Cass deck packing warlocks, don’t have a place in a game where the queue is also half “Get shrekt Faie Stall Combo”

Can you give an example for a “fair Deck” that is pushed out of the meta in your oppinion? Given how diverse the meta is right now i really wonder kind of deck you mean because there are so many highly competitve decks for all the factions around that i honestly can’t wrap my mind around that statement and your post as a whole. I mean maybe i am just consistently incredibly lucky but i don’t even get close to 50% matchups against either Faie or Cass. 20% or something at most and i am playing pretty much the entire month in highly competive rank regions so if someone is supposed to run into meta decks, it should be me.

I mean i can somewhat understand people who don’t like the control playstyle that Vanar is using right now, back in MTG there were also always people who got pissed of by playing against control decks but to me this is just part of card games and even strategy games in general. Disrupting you opponents plays until you can pull of your own is an entirely valid strategy and in my opinion Vanar is relatively fair at doing this right now.

Yes when they get the right draw they can be overwhelming, but this can be said for pretty much any deck. Yesterday i had a match with Fault Vet which is more or less a meme right now and won with it on turn 2 because i dished out fault + rae on my second turn and my opponent insta conceded. Today i had a match with my Midrange Kaleos deck where my opponent conceded turn 3 because he had no minions on board while i had a Lantern fox, a bandit and a thunderhorn in his face. On the receiving end i also witnessed a tripple MDG on my 2 drop into turn 2 emp followed by turn 3 Dagona yesterday. Shit happens. It’s just in the nature of this game to be really one sided sometimes. Heck i lost turn 2 to a dance of memes deck once, nothing i could have done about it. But this isn’t the rule, it’s an extreme exception, i have ten times that many games against Vanar where they can’t even put up a fight because they have the wrong cards in hand. MDGs and Crystals are incredibly useless if you don’t draw into your win cons quickly enough and vice versa a hand full of 7 and 8 mana drops won’t do much without any ramp early on.

TL:DR i can understand people that don’t like vanars playstyle atm but balance wise they are fine imo. Good, sure but by far not too good.