Hello folks!

I have been spending my time on strange things – it is the standard phase I find myself in around the 20th of the month where I start foaming at the mouth to build decks with the newly released cards! I will leave a discussion of the new cards for another time, just note that the coming month brings us a common Golem, a rare Arcanyst, an epic Structure and a legendary Mech.

Instead we will look at using standard deck-building principles to build unconventional decks. DO not be too focused on the deck itself (for one it is expensive, on top of which it is definitely not going to be to everyone’s taste) but on the processes that lead to making it.

In the previous edition – Principles of Deck building I – we looked at building a Kara deck for the meta, using the template of efficiency, expected value and appropriate win conditions. This time we will apply it to build a deck from a simple concept – chaos.

reads paragraph, notes the word ‘abyss’, moves on.

Next we have this slightly more mathematics/physics version:

Now before you start thinking this is some etymological blog, let us come back to Duelyst. The best faction to utilise the above concept of chaos is Abyssian (of course, or the whole prologue would be useless), and what I really wanted to build was something that I could play many times over and not find it was settling into a hyper-familiar pattern either for me or my opponent. What do I mean by that?

There are many characteristic ‘tells’ for most popular decks. The number of times you will see Windblade Adept into Silverguard Knight into Dioltas into Ironcliffe Guardian/Roar + Regalia is not going to be trivial. Minor variations like an Azurite Lion or Primus Shieldmaster may appear, as well as a stray Tempest or Sunbloom. By and large, 9 out of 10 Lyonar games will look similar. Abyssian decks tend to favour early Gloomchaser/Wraithling Swarm, Bloodmoon Priestess and Black Solus, followed by some wraithling deaths and a blowout Reaver/Revenant/Crescendo. Vetruvian decks are widely renowned for somehow always getting an Aymara on curve due to their First Wishes and neutral card draw usage. The list continues.

I wanted a deck that would maintain unpredictability. Even within such a situation, we need to hit the core components. This can be done in two ways (and others but we will stick to two) –

by building it as win conditions-good additions-tech cards fashion,

or by building the deck up in an early-mid-late game phase fashion.

By far, the better version when you have a plan in mind is to build with the win condition first. Generally an absence of a sure win condition is already a red flag that your deck will struggle, but it is not always so if the components are flexible. The second method is how some people build aggro and midrange decks successfully. An aggro deck often, has no ‘I win’ button – it’s a steady stream of damage from available sources, so what that needs is a heavy bias on early game phase, with a back-up midgame plan and practically no cards devoted to the late game.

For this deck I will choose the second method, since other than unpredictability I have nothing concrete in my head. So first up we need some –

Early Game

This is not going to be a fast deck since fast decks rely heavily on consistency in getting the high damage potential cards from their deck in hand, aggro decks are best designed as the opposite of unpredictable. So the starting point is at least 6 and ideally 9 2 cost minions that you are comfortable playing on your Turn 1 as Player 1 – note this point. When you make your deck with 9 2 drops but 6 of those are Ephemeral Shrouds and Bloodtear Alchemists, you won’t be contesting that board too hard in the early game. This also makes some minions better for some factions – you will rarely find a good use for Jaxi in Lyonar, while even Rust Crawler without using its effect will feel fine. Playing a turn 1 Maw feels terrible, but for contesting the board you really should have a body available to take the mana orb on your second turn. It is usually better to play that Maw now.

The next step is to reason through your choices. Normally the reasoning should be focused around expected value and the ability to exert own or prevent enemy board control. For the purpose of this deck though, the concept brings us the answers. There are four minions with ‘random’ in their text, but one of those is Rust Crawler so it goes in to the Tech pool. This leaves me with 3 Gloomchasers and 3 Jaxi, and everyone knows that an unpredictable deck is fake until it has exactly 1 Ghost Lynx. 7 2 cost cards, 6 of which are good Turn 1 plays. For player 2 Turn 1 plays any of the above and a single set of a decent 3 drop should do. In the ‘random’ department I can choose between Sarlac and Chaos Elemental. Sarlac is a terrible body and works well in a synergistic manner while Elemental is a good stand-alone. Also the deck is built around chaos and it would look odd without the card with ‘chaos’ in its name. 3 in.

Soft and Hard removal is more important in a deck that will not try to force the game’s conclusion through sheer damage. As such, cheap faction spells and 3 mana or under cards that delay the opponent enough for you to stabilise are always worth considering. In the case of Abyssian, the best for this purpose are Daemonic Lure and Ritual Banishing. Repulsor Beast also achieves the same purpose as Lure, providing a 2/2 body instead of the 1 damage.

Lure is almost universally useful since it is a versatile card. Ritual Banishing needs a target and Lilithe is the General that can provide targets for that spell for 1 mana. With this in mind I add 3 Lures, 3 Banishings and 3 Repulsors to the deck and also choose Lilithe for the Chaos build.

Mid Game

4 and 5 drops along with medium cost spells form the middle core. In a fast meta, decks will often just finish their curve at 5. Ironcliffe Guardian + Dancing Blades max Argeon for example, is pretty popular when aggro is the norm. Aggro decks themselves fit this pattern, and merely adding 2 Aymaras to an aggro Vet deck seems to result in it being called ‘midrange’! I digress. Dioltas and Primus Shieldmaster are widely considered the top neutral choices for the minion slot, and most factions have key spells at 4. 4 and 5 are premium slots also for tech – Lightbender, Zen’Rui, Hollow Grovekeeper among others – so whatever your deck, you will find yourself in a good place with the right selection for your idea. 5 also brings us the power of Dancing Blades which can work its way into nearly any deck. I take 2 Dioltas (obviously) and some tech cards for myself from here – the chaos needs some support to thrive, after all.

4/5 is a great spot with spells like Egg Morph, Holy Immolation etc for many factions. Not Abyssian though, as Breath of the Unborn is meta-dependent tech and Dark Transformation feels overpriced but has a place in Cassyva decks. I choose a single Rite of the Undervault for my job, as I don’t really want the others and Rite primarily serves as mid-late game refuel. Now a lot of people have issues with Rite burning a card if you play it on its own at 5 mana, or are unable to play a card from what you drew. This is a legitimate concern – however on balance I think that drawing (usually) 4 cards is a good enough pay-off. The worry will be if it destroys a copy of your win condition, but on average even losing the one copy is worth a better chance at finding the others due to the thinner deck. A truly functional milling deck is still a fair ways away for Duelyst.

5 for Abyssian is generally a no-brainer since the advent of Shadowspawn, Lilithe’s Bloodborn spell. If you are Lilithe you take Black Solus, and if you’re not, you usually take Reaper of the Nine Moons. Shadowdancer is also quite the star in a swarm-based affair and usually an excellent mirror match-up minion. For the concept of this deck, we cannot leave home without 3 Reapers. No way.

Late Game

Most things you play at 6 or more mana need to impact the game strongly to be even worth considering. Sometimes these can be minions with exceptional, often immediate threat, and in rare circumstances they can be strong spells. Depending on your deck, this might be a Rush minion (Makantor Warbeast, Spectral Revenant) for impact, a strong stand-alone and combo piece like Jax or the slower but more dangerous self-win-condition like Dark Nemesis, Pandora or Silithar Elder. Conventional wisdom also dictates that you should not run upwards of 6 cards that cost 6 or more unless you are really intent on getting late in the game. Novacentric decks skirt the limit with some players running all 3 Revenants and Shadow Novas. Control Magmar often does so too, but then you are playing a heavy reactive game that does not appeal to everyone, and often get put in awkward positions as a result. Perhaps it is #MakeControlMagmarGreatAgain time, who knows.

Again, analyse whether your deck really needs that hopeful Zurael the Lifegiver. You will almost always be better served by a cheaper impact card instead of a greedy value one. Analysing for my deck concept, I find that ‘random’ is abundant in the text for 7 cost category for minions in Duelyst, which almost serves as an insight for its game design, favouring lower cost cards and combos in general while earmarking the higher cost cards as a bit of Johnny/Timmy fun.

For my purpose, I pick single copies of Paddo – for getting out of sticky situations or finding unexpected lethal – and Pandora – probably the best designed ‘random’ card in the game, and 2 Grailmasters for its ability to win games at range when combined with Lilithe’s spell. Khymera starts its career on the bench – I tried it but without Darkfire Sacrifice I cannot recommend it, not that you should be following my recommendation in this particular matter anyhow. Vorpal Reaver is the choice for 6 and fits the theme – and to assist in finishing the opponent off after they disperse the Reaver’s wraithlings as well as to use the death of Lilithe’s spell spawns, I finish off by adding 2 Deathfire Crescendo at the end.

Umm yeah. Not the face of a meta-defining concoction. Also hideously expensive. The point of the exercise this time round is to make choices based on your central concept. Remember my disclaimer from last time – sometimes the grand plan is a terrible failure built on shaky ground with termite-addled wood and rusted metal. On other occasions, you may not have figured out the best way to play the strategy involved in the deck. Get some advice, play it against friends and if they have the cards, get them to play it against you. Find out what is working and what isn’t – the Duelyst playing bot called Zoochz wasn’t built in a day y’know.

I played this deck a few times and found that it largely achieved my goal – my wins came from varied sources such as a Deathfire Tombstone, a Reaper that stole an enemy Revenant, a one turn 5-ability stack Grailmaster, a Paddo play that moved an active Vorpal Reaver in to attack range and a ZenRui Vindicator. The opponent lost their playbook for a bit every time Chaos Elemental hit the field, and there was a memorable instance where my Ghost Lynx moved an enemy Bloodmoon Priestess in range of my active Elemental.

The concept of the average deck will be directly related to your aim. What do you want to achieve with it? If it is a healthy does of fun, then build for that, and if it is high level competitiveness, build for that, while trying to have some personal touches that allow you to enjoy your spin on the general plan. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, as they say, but that don’t stop you from having your own cool customised rim!

I wanted to also go through a more reasonable deck (both in concept and in cost) but this is already quite long, so I will bring it up another time. Keep smiling!