Hey guys! Been wanting to start posting my decks for a while and now that I’ve gotten back into playing Duelyst more often with the release of the new expansion I figured id give it a try. So here is my take on the Vetruvian Quest, Its still a new deck of mine and I’m still testing it thoroughly so please feel free to leave suggestions!
To start off I know the curve isn’t amazing but do remember that we focus harsh on rushing the early turns to snowball into our quest.
Tips:
General: This deck can be played with any of the three Vetruvian generals but I believe it is Ideal to use Sajj so that once our quest is active it is much easier to clear vast amounts of the board with just one artifact equipped and activating our blood born spell.
Starting Hand: If we can we always keep 1x silhouette tracer, which allows us to quickly traverse the field. Also, we will always keep at least 1x Iris barrier as I find it is the best early artifact for us and really the card that lets this deck work. We can easily clear smaller minions as we cross the field and this also allows for quick turnarounds with devasting hits late game while not taking any damage ourselves. Asides from these two main cards we also want to try to keep a copy of either Dustdrinker or Lost Artificer, Preferably Lost Artificer. Both of these will give us early pressure, access to the mana tiles, and cheaper cost of our artifacts with Lost Artificer.
Early strategy (turns 1-4): Typically we are usually able to play our quest on turn five, given that our draw is absolutely awful. The best starting hand usually contains, 1x Lost Artificer, 1x Silhouette tracer, 1x Iris Barrier, and one other card. Given that this is our starting hand and we are on left, we can play Lost Artificer turn one. Turn two Silhouette tracer with the collected mana tile, and then teleporting behind the enemy general and moving forward putting us one tile away from the edge of the board. This sets us up to equip our first piece of equipment (or two) on turn four and reach the edge of the board allowing us to activate our Destiny on turn 4.
Ending the game: Once our quest is active we can finally start moving towards ending the game, my most common strategy for this is rushing to equip 2 artifacts giving our general flying and allowing us to move to a safer side of the board or positioning to wipe out several minions and take control of the board. Moving on from here we then try to equip a 3rd artifact and combo with either Auroras Tears or Time Maelstrom to one shot the enemy general.
Card thoughts, and tests:
Why not include…
Atom Klinger: I started this deck off originally with 3 copies of AK but found that he typically was not useful early game as early on we are using Lost Artificer which indirectly nerfs our AKs damage gain. Late game we are equipping a large number of artifacts but this is typically from Autarch’s Gift and Metalmend which do not count towards the damage buff.
Oserix: At first glance, Oserix looks like it will combo well with our deck, but because the artifacts equip as a Dying wish this card is much too slow for us Seeing as turn 7 we are typically equipping more artifacts and using Time Maelstrom to end the game.
Grincher: I do like Grincher as a lot and he does work in this deck, Occasionally. But often I found myself playing him on 4 or 5 and hoping to gain an artifact to put into play immediately to achieve Destiny but was often left stuck with a more expensive artifact that left me with a dead turn. That being said I have also had several games where artifacts from Grincher have saved me and turned the game around. So overall he can be used but it is an RNG risk.
Hexblade: Hexblade is nice with its +3 ATK but comes with a high mana cost of 4 which is balanced out by its secondary passive, the problem is that typically we will have Iris barrier equipped as it is our most important artifact so the passive doesn’t do us a lot of good.
Sand Sister Saon: I’ve yet to test with Saon but I do think she could work out quite well with the deck, it’s just hard to find a spot that she could take. Additionally, if you’ve fallen behind she doesn’t do much to help regain tempo. Only really helps you if you are ahead with your quest active.
Incinera: Probably seems like an obvious addition because it allows us to traverse the field faster but Silhouette Tracer does the same job 10x better and also allows you to escape being trapped, either by being surrounded or Provoked.
Why we include…
Time Maelstrom: With our quest active and any artifacts equips Time Maelstrom allows us to do a lot more work but is best used when we are fully equipped giving us a total of 4 attacks in one turn which will often lead to ending the game.
Auroras Tears: Combos extremely well with our deck and even better when used with Time Maelstrom.
Autarch’s Gift: With our quest active if our opponent happens to destroy our full set of equipment and put us in a bad spot Autarch’s Gift will allow us to reset and escape if needed. Additionally, it can be used to top off our equipment to gain Celerity or just reroll for different artifacts.
Droplift: Although Droplift isn’t always able to be used it can drastically change the course of a game. Best uses I’ve found are against Songhai, to cancel combo spell damage and Lyonar to steal heavily defensive artifacts.
Dustdrinker: Yes Dustdrinker doesn’t combo with our artifacts but it isn’t a bad 2 drop and gives us early board pressure while also not giving away that we are Quest Vetruvian on turn 2 or 3. That being said I am still looking into other early game minions that could be better.
Skyppy: Skyppy is generally just a decent minion, giving us more board presence with the addition of another artifact in our hand early on. Just be sure to have room for it.
Imperial Mechanist: While this card is useful I typically find it to be a dead draw in several cases but I am not entirely sure on what to replace it with. But it has often saved me from losing an entire set of equipment so I believe I will most likely always have at least 1.
Entropic Decay: sometimes you just need to be able to instantly remove a troublesome minion. Could be swapped out for Blood of Air but that still needs more testing.
Final Thoughts:
So far I’m loving this deck, its very fun to play and the combos are easy to pull off. Snowballing from the early game with a decent hand is nearly always an instant win but defending our artifacts can be troublesome as they are our win condition. That is also why we run so much retreval for our artifacts and cards that give us more. With some more tweaking I do believe that this can be a top tier deck but its definitely not there yet. Thanks for checking out my first deck post and please leave some comments on what you think and how it has worked for you!!
