Hello friends!

This time I figured I’d go back to my roots and put up a beginner-friendly post about the meta’s favourite anti-meta faction, Lyonar. This piece is mostly for newcomers to understand what they can do with the faction, rather than providing budget deck-lists which can be found in other places (on this blog, on Arananthi’s blog, on the Duelyst subreddit sidebar, among others). This is about how you can get into playing Lyonar with a simple-to-acquire set of cards, and some discussion of strategy to adopt when playing it.

It is primarily aimed at new Lyonar players, who may have received a hotch-potch army through their initial booster packs. I recommend looking up the cards in-game or on DuelystDB if you aren’t sure about their effects.

There are two simple ways you can go about playing Lyonar straight out of your new packs. I assume you will have hit the level where you have unlocked all the basic cards for Lyonar.

1. Using small and mid-range minions as the focal point – this gives you a lower resource curve, often you will find you play two cost minions every turn mid-game. Smaller minions, but with buffs to finish the game.

2. Using Divine Bond as a focal point – this generally puts your resource curve higher, so you build heavier board control and use cards that will hold your opponent up as you find the killing blow.

For our purpose here, I will use Argeon as the General of choice, since he is the default starter. Argeon’s Bloodborn Spell is Roar, which gives +2 attack permanently to a nearby friendly minion. For more details on other spells and how these work, refer to here.

Let us start with a basic Lyonar core:

NO crafting yet – these are cards you will already have, and are very useful even after the beginner phase. Every early deck should have 9 2-cost minions in their squad as a rule – once you become used to different factions and their win conditions you can start breaking this rule. So we find our first 6 – a versatile healing minion and a faction favourite.

3 mana minions are mostly useful for two things – turn 1 play as player 2 (right side) and later on as card draw, which we will get to in a bit. Tiger is a versatile 3 cost minion that works as targeted removal or as repositioning, and with Roar can be a 5/2 Rush for 4, in a faction with no rush minion. Silverguard Knight, however, is not just good, it is exceptional. This is one of the best 3 cost minions in the game – and you get it for free! Provoke is excellent zone control and Lyonar’s faction ability Zeal makes it quite the decent hitter.

4 is actually quite a strong spot for Lyonar – it brings a lot of decent health minions who can be used with Divine Bond, among other spells. The one we look at here also has Provoke, double whammy. This is also the first time that the ‘meta’ – what is happening in the game – starts impacting your choices. If your opponents are bringing anti-provoke minions (Hollow Grovekeeper), you bring in Hailstone Golem which is 4/6 but no provoke, and if they bring displacer cards (like Repulsor Beast) you can play Young Flamewing, which has Flying and can just return even if displaced.

Now we bring in the common and rare cards of note:

We return first to the 2 drop rule – bringing two more regulars to the squad in Azurite Lion and Primus Fist. Celerity is a high-impact ability that synergises heavily with attack buffs. Primus Fist gives a +2 attack buff to a nearby friendly minion for the turn. Together the two can deal a good chunk of an unwary opponent’s health pool.

Now for a quick detour in to some useful game mechanics.

Dispel

Dispel is an important mechanic in the game. This is where I recommend looking into Ephemeral Shroud and the faction spell Sunbloom. These can dispel enemy provokes, allowing us to maintain advantage and turn our board control and tempo in to damage on the enemy general. They can also dispel their big buffed minions that might become problematic. With Sunbloom, be careful not to accidentally dispel your own minions in adjacent spaces.

Replace

This is a good time to talk about replace. Replace is an important mechanic to really get to grips with. Every turn, you can send a card back to your deck and draw a replacement that is NOT the same card. This allows you to search your deck for ways to strengthen your position or to draw answers to any problems on board currently. Having multiple copies of cards also allows for a higher chance of drawing it. This is often reflected in good decks that run 3 copies of most if not all their component cards.

Earlier I mentioned card draw as a reason for 3 mana minions. The easiest one to utilise in Lyonar is Sojourner. For some more information on why card draw is useful in general, read the article here.

Now we look at the two 5 cost minions in here. Ironcliffe Guardian is the premier faction 5 drop. 10 health and Provoke makes it usually a difficult customer to get rid of, and it has an in-built finisher combination with Divine Bond. Brightmoss Golem can fulfil this role respectably as well, and is especially preferable if you face a lot of Magmar with their spell Plasma Storm instantly killing Ironcliffe but not Brightmoss. Dancing Blades is the premier 5 drop in budget decks, often also seen in high-level play. It deals 3 damage to any minion (even your own) in front of it when it is played – this is the tile directly to the right if you started on the left and vice versa. It can often create board advantage on being played.

A word on Divine Bond

The average Lyonar deck has a finisher combination of sorts – Divine Bond adds your minion’s hp to its attack. This makes your tank into a juggernaut. Its a strong card, and while the best target is likely Ironcliffe Guardian, do not hesitate to use it on other minions you might add to your deck like Suntide Maidens, Primus Shieldmasters or Brightmoss Golem. All of these cards make great durable hitters.

DO NOT get into the habit of Divine Bond-buffing a minion if you will not attack with it that turn. The enemy will do everything to remove it or dispel it and you will lose a minimum of 2 mana and possibly a chance to gain a winning advantage.

Specific Counter Cards

You will likely find that certain enemy cards are causing you trouble.

This is a small list of budget cards that can help:

Rust Crawler – breaks enemy artifacts, often good against other Lyonar and Vetruvian

Lightbender – dispels in an area of effect, can be good in a lot of decks

Frostbone Naga – deals 2 dmg in an area around itself, can be good against wraithlings

Crossbones – destroys a Ranged minion, can be good if you find Mechs

Repulsor Beast – displaces an enemy minion, good for fast decks

Alternatives

Alternate cards that you can consider include Magnetize (unexpected repositioning), Lasting Judgement (unexpected spike of spell damage) – and Second Sun, Dagger Kiri or Whistling Blade as greedy targets for Divine Bond.

UPGRADE UPGRADE UPGRADE

This is what you look forward to once you start getting a decent card collection building up, more expensive cards that will improve your deck and get you a good Lyonar foundation. The numbers are what I recommend if you want them – remember that while there is a deck type that will run all of these, usually you want to be thinking about your own deck and will likely not need or want all of the above.

Arclyte Regalia is the premier Lyonar artifact, the only one you will see regularly, and it is strong, complementing the brawling style that Argeon enjoys in particular. Holy Immolation is a spell that you will use a lot in any mid-range or slower Lyonar deck, correct use will allow for board control and occasional comebacks. Grandmaster Z’ir has a fun effect that can sometimes save your life and the game, while Elyx Stormblade is a hefty provoke minion with a boost to your squad’s movement on the board. Use these cards if you get them out of your early Orbs. (Not pictured, but Dioltas is an excellent 4 drop at the moment, and gives a provoke body and a formidable problem for the opponent due to Roar and Divine Bond. Definitely worth considering.)

Zir’an

In the middle of all this, you probably completed level 10 for Lyonar and unlocked a whole new General – Zir’an. New General, new Bloodborn spell – Afterglow, restores 3 health to a friendly minion. This new power allows for a different spin on the faction’s cards –

These cards sure don’t look like the ones we’ve already seen! Healing synergy is very interesting and allows for a slow-paced grinding deck to be built around the concept, by mixing some of the previous set (Holy Immolation, Circle of Life, Arclyte Regalia etc).

Incidentally, when Sunriser’s current effect was released along with Lightchaser’s new effect, this concept rapidly became popular. I was not a fan then, but now I think there is a lot of interesting display of skill available with this deck strategy. Not for beginners though, and as such I will not say much more on this, at least not here.

As you can see, we are just starting out, there’s plenty to look forward to!

Adding your own cards will give the deck some individual flair. Throw in your Dark Nemesis or Jax or Pandora if you got lucky.This is just the beginning, young Lions!