Monday, November 25, 2013

Deckbuilding 201- Darkheart Wanderer N/T Spells

Welcome to the first edition of Deckbuilding 201, where I will look at past deck ideas and make improvements. With 24 new cards being added to Solforge soon there will plenty of good additions to old decks. Also, sometimes testing my own decks it's become clear that I undervalued or forgot about some cards.

Been demoted to 2nd favorite card :/

So, we return back to Darkheart Wanderer. He loves when you play spells, he loves being made bigger, and is more often than not takes at least 2 cards to remove. Think about it; a Darkheart Wanderer that has grown and has regeneration is not simply taken down by a simple Cull the Weak, Dreadbolt, Lightning Strike, and many other removal.

Core: Darkheart Wanderer, Static Shock, Master of Elements, Rite of the Grimgaunt

Master of Elements and Static Shock are still the backbone of all the spells decks I love so much. Rite of the Grimgaunt is by far the best way to grow in N/T, and works well with the removal we have flying about. Match ups where removal is scarce can instantly lose to a well timed Rite, particularly against Mono-Uterra

Synergy Spells: Epidemic, Uranti Bolt, Lightning Spark, Fervent Assault

3 good removal that we are happy to see made free by Master of Elements and are also good when leveled. Fervent Assault provides a way to get an overgrown creature a clean hit, and also has great synergy with the majority of our creatures.

Synergy Creatures: Grimgaunt Predator, Rageborn Hellion, Grimgaunt Devourer

GGP sees a lot of play, particularly because we are playing a lot of removal and because his mobility means he's very potent. Grimgaunt Devourer is easily stopped, but a well timed GGD can often come onto the board as big a 9/7 and instantly be a huge threat.

Rageborn Hellion is a card I completely omitted from my Deckbuilding 101, and quite unfairly. He has a great body, he grows out of control quickly, and his high health make him hard to remove. Like GGD he mainly sees play when the situation is favorable, as in Rageborn Hellion comes into play and instantly grows out of control.

Support: Dreadbolt, Zimus

Playing N/T you don't have the elite removal of Botanimate or Metasculpt. Having a Dreadbolt that can be pulled out when you see things such as Everflame Phoenix or Brightsteel Gargoyle is very helpful, even if you end up trying to play catchup.

Likewise, when playing the mirror matchup against N/T Zimus the Undying is the biggest nuisance in the world. Often whoever plays more Zimus wins the matchup, so bring one and hope to draw him often. Oh, and he's not bad if you happen to play him in other matchups, but other plays are often just as lethal and are also relevant as level 1.

Potential Deck List:
Darkheart Wanderer x3
Static Shock x3
Master of Elements x3
Grimgaunt Predator x3
Rite of the Grimgaunt x3
Epidemic x3
Uranti Bolt x2
Lightning Spark x2
Fervent Assault x2
Rageborn Hellion x2
Grimgaunt Devourer x2
Dreadbolt x1
Zimus x1

This is an incredibly spell heavy decklist, but for large majority of deals you get at least 2 creatures, or what you draw is very workable. If anything drop a Rite of the Grimgaunt. It will be much better relatively once N/T Shapers gets nerfed.

My IGN is pwndnoob, I will continue to make these posts whether people read them or not, but I will appreciate advice or constructive criticism on formatting, and please feel free to comment. Thanks for reading, till next time!


1 comment:

  1. I put this deck together last night (only have 1 hellion, but have 3 ggds, so that was only change) and here are my thoughts. I never wanted to play master of elements over darkheart or ggp or zimus or sometimes ggp or hellion. Of those hellion was the least impressive what with the low creature count and no haste or buitlt in mobility. Also, while fervent assault is a fun card, uranti, spark, and dreadbolt were far more important. I definitely always wanted more dreadbolts. So, I cut my one hellion, the 2 assults and 1 MoE for bolt #3, spark #3 and dreadbolts #s 2 and 3.

    After further play I felt like static spark doesnt pull its weight in this deck, while it's huge for adding saplings in the sower deck and for triggering shapers in T/x shapers, simply adding a small amount of regen isn't worth it. Also, darkhearts are rather weak without buffs and the deck needs more than just the three rites to buff him. So, even though I havnt made this change yet, I think I'm going to cut the statics for hungering strike which of course doubles as pseudo-removal.

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