Pet Training: Ferocity



Pet Training: Shared Exercise



Ranged Expertise: Overwatch



Resourcefulness



Pet Treats



Lay of the Land



Eye of a Sniper



Hunting Party



Ranger Class Gems



Every Piece of the Animal



Barrier Vines



Survival Skills x2



Bonded for Life



Blood Shard x8



Ruby Shard x10



Well of Hatred x2



Sneakblade of the Milky Eye x3



Soul Siphoner x3



Acolyte of Xentoth x3 (Ranger's Minor Orb of Knack)



Kindling Skarn x2



Glyph of Hatred x3



Crushing Blow x3



Blitz x3



Pyre Ceremony x2



Soul of Battle x2



Spontaneous Combustion x3



Fire with Fire x3



Seeing Red x3



Touch of Xentoth x3



Spectral Acorn x2



Voltwrench x2



Helm: Reptilian Faceplate (Kindling Skarn)



Trinket: Trinket of Hatred (Glyph of Hatred)



Chest: Pyretic Vestments (Pyre Ceremony)



Gloves: Dagger Handlers (Sneakblade of the Milky Eye)



Boots: Heretic Stompers (Acolyte of Xentoth)



Weapon: Voltdealer Dirk (Voltwrench)



Sekki



Clatterclank



Katsuhiro



Interaction 1: Soul of Battle. If you cast Soul of Battle on your pet, it will die once at the end of turn and will keep both Crush and double damage. Please note that double damage doesn't affect Siphoner's buff, which states 'loses health' as opposed to 'deals damage'.



Soul of Battle. If you cast Soul of Battle on your pet, it will die once at the end of turn and will keep both Crush and double damage. Please note that double damage doesn't affect Siphoner's buff, which states 'loses health' as opposed to 'deals damage'. Interaction 2: Spontaneous Combustion. It's exactly what it seems to be: you kill your pet and deal damage equal to its attack to a champion, also triggering Siphoner's buff.



Spontaneous Combustion. It's exactly what it seems to be: you kill your pet and deal damage equal to its attack to a champion, also triggering Siphoner's buff. Interaction 3: Fire with Fire. This here is the nuclear bomb of the build. Casting Fire with Fire makes your pet immediately trigger its Siphoner's buff three times with fourth time being at the end of turn, effectively making your opponent lose 4*(your pet's attack) in health. The more buffed is the pet, the more it will hurt. And, of course, nothing prevents you from swinging first and going off post-combat, thus adding serious injury to insult.



Tier 1:Tier 2:Tier 3:Tier 4:Resources:Troops:Actions:Artifacts:Equipment:Mercenaries:Have you ever set a rat on fire? No, wait, don't answer this; you never know who's lurking on these forums. What we're gonna do here, we're going to make it a thought experiment, as if we suddenly had an urge to burn a rat, purelySo, why would we want (hypothetically) to burn a rat? Because the rat in question is unique (pun not intended) in terms of its abilities, mainly because of the Deathcry that puts it back into play. This effect means that we can seriously consider cards that will make good use of this ability: sacrifice, damage to your own troops etc. That's why the deck is essentially divided into two packages: a Pet Package, familiar to anyone accustomed to the Big spider, and a Pyre Package (or Kamikaze package, as I call it), unique to this particular combination of race and class.core actions are fairly standard: Seeing Red and Glyph of Hatred for permanent buffs, Blitz for burst. Seeing how the Rat isn't unblockable, I needed to make some room for utility cards to make damage go through, so there is also an assortment of Crush and Unblockable buffs. Whilst Crushing Blow speaks for itself, I believe that Touch of Xentoth and Acolyte of Xentoth require some additional explanation:a) Unblockable vs Crush. Originally, I was running Stink Trolls and Runic Fury in these slots. Runic Fury, for one, seem like everything this deck wants as it gives a hefty amount of attack and repeats with a resource. Then I realized that with games ending on turns 3-4 I simply cannot afford to waste a whole turn casting something that may or may not be useful. Touch of Xentoth, for example, lets you cast itself on turn 3 with 1 resource point remaining for something else, be it buff or shift, all the while leaving behind an unblockable troop.b) Xentoth vs Skulk of the Wastes. Skulk seems a fair card, but I really don't like it for this deck. First of all, it's a 3-drop. Second, it actually debuffs your main threat. Sure, it's the price of a permanent Unblockable buff, but you likely won't have the time to benefit from it, because matches tend to end rather quickly.And, quite frankly, I like that Touch of Xentoth provides some additional utility in spiders. It is negligible, and after many hours of testing I am yet to run into a single spider, but the possibility is there, and it feels good.And now the fun part begins.is one of the most fun things I'vehad with Ranger pets in the game.It all begins with a Soul Siphoner, who has a very powerful shift: "Deathcry - Each opposing champion loses health equal to this troop's power". Do you feel that great disturbance, as if millions of AI opponents cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced? The ability, obviously, goes on the rat, because the rat can die twice to trigger it. Soul Siphoner is our Holy Activator and the gateway to hilarity.This stuff is very consistent and provides an array of finisher options.The rest is utility. Sneakblade is a solid 1-drop that only gets better with Glyph of Hatred. Kindling Skarn is mostly a filler card which sometimes can provide some advantage in terms of useful spells and can go off by itself if you have enough cheap spells. Voltwrench is a 2-cost artifact that helps buffing your pet in case of a match being unexpectedly stalled.Equipment is mostly in a good spot, except for gloves. I am currently running a safe option, but Skarn gloves might be superior to lifedrain, seeing how the champion usually doesn't have any problems with health. What's more, Siphoner's Spirit Depleters are also a contender for the spot, except that I haven't once seen them in the game.Resource base is fairly simple. You don't want 0/1 shards (even if they Fateweave) because resource management in the first turns is very important. To lessen a chance of a terrible opening hand you also don't want a playset of Wells. You maybe don't even want to run 20 resources - honestly, between fetch and low curve you should be perfectly fine with 19 shards or maybe as low as 18.Mercenaries are a combination of the standard I-Am-Going-Second Clatterclank and Katsuhiro package and Sekki (between Pet Treats and our own 0-cost cards the effect is rather consistent).Talent build is spread between pet buffs, utility and health gain.All in all, the deck feels fairly optimized for everything that is out there outside of obvious boogeymen (I am yet to run it against Mad Aradam, should be fun). Your usual goals are turn 3 or turn 4 kills. Itgo faster, but it would require some shenanigans mostly revolving around Fertile Ground.In the end, the main question you have to ask yourself while deciding if you want to play this deck is fairly simple: