Hello faithful and new readers, welcome to my first attempt at a Duelyst Tier list of sorts. For now, I am calling it Tierlyst (everyone applause the terrible pun)…

Managlow has been a little rusty of late, and in general we are seeing fewer players release wide-ranging lists. As such, I feel that at least having this resource will encourage discussion and also result in further optimising of the sample decks provided. The goal as always, is to improve the collective level at which the game is played as much as possible. I invite comments both here, and on Reddit, to improve this resource, since one person does not an accurate barometer for the whole community make.



After that foreword, let’s jump into the nitty-gritty. The way we do this is by general rather than by faction in the tiers, and then a sample deck list for one general per faction (this also means I sensibly avoid speaking much about playstyles I do not have a lot of experience or faith in – things like Pet focused Starhorn and Heal-focused Zir’an).

The tiers are split with the concept that being present in Tier X implies you are favoured in matchups below this tier and equal to the others in the same tier, while not favoured in matchups above. Tier C will only be used when a given general is so bad that (in my opinion, and you the readers’ collective opinion) it needs an immediate buff.

Now for a sample deck from each faction. Reva is first up. Pretty much every card in this list will be familiar to any ladder player, often many in the same turn combining to deal a lot of damage. This is the power of Spellhai – targeted ranged or spell-based damage that comes fast and from varied sources as artifacts, minions and even card draw. I haven’t even mentioned Mirror Meld here!

Midrange Zirix is the result of the addition of Pax, Falcius, Nimbus and Kron to the pool for Vetruvian. Sajj can use similar lists, often putting more emphasis on a controlling variation involving such cards as Wildfire Ankh and Spinecleaver. Optimal numbers of specific cards are up to the individual player – this is what I find best for my style.

Wall Faie was making positive sounds thanks to the efforts of PandaJJ and Solafid among other players, and now I think its place in the meta is not a fluke. The concept works. My variation on the idea resulted in a neat finish – I had two Bonechill Barriers chilling in an unoccupied part of the board. The safely positioned enemy ignored them and moved further away. My turn was Aspect of the Fox on one barrier, followed by Aspect of the Drake on the other – two 0/2 walls turn into active minions, a 3/3 Flying and a 4/4 Flying. Add a Warbird and I won by dealing 9 for lethal. Definitely oodles of fun, even for a Faice enthusiast like myself.

Tempo Argeon might be the most unconventional deck on this list – the old Midrange Bond plan works just fine, but I’ve made my dislike of Divine Bond clear plenty of times in the past. The addition of Afterblaze and Slo brought this more unique version of Tempo play to the fore. This is a fast deck reminiscent of 2 draw, and Holy Immolation and Azurite Lion are the important playmaking cards, along with the ones mentioned above. Zir’an has gotten some good cards from Shim’zar, and I will try to bring out a list I consider strong enough to play at some point soon.

Down to the last two. I picked a slower Cassyva deck for this section, but it’s worth noting that ‘fast’ Cassyva (or reductionist, as I called it pre-Nova change) is equally good if not better in some matchups. That version is where you run a bunch of 1 mana cards (Grasp, Bloodtear etc) and 3x Rite of the Undervault, your purpose is to get to the Obliterate exactly as you produce enough creep to win. The slower version is a much more durable midrange type build. The general roadblock with creep nowadays is the somewhat prohibitive spirit cost of getting a high-end one completed.

Midrange Vaath is actually pretty decent – the major problem with it is the dominance of Reva. The list is pretty flexible – I choose to go with Archons to put up a decent anti-spellhai wall up if I can, and use multiple removal and counter-type cards to combat the intended weaknesses of Magmar as a faction. Both Cassyva and Vaath decks run Crossbones – you can thank a certain Dawn of the Duelyst winner for that one!

General thoughts on the meta –

it’s actually pretty diverse. Every faction has at least one good general, and players in the recently published Bryan’s top 50 have piloted all but Zir’an to those lofty heights of S-Rank. Pro-active play received a huge boost through Shim’zar, and with Kron acting as a fulcrum in many decks, building towards 5 mana powerplay and 7-8 mana blowout win is the popular successful ploy. Is Kron too good for its pay? Perhaps.

I do feel a certain Vetruvian cat is too good for its pay though, and hope to see something done to it soon. Dervish/Obelysk Vetruvian has a good 2 drop, and the Midrange version should have a first minion weakness so it can justify the one-strong-threat-per-turn style that the faction now possesses. Pax bridges the gap too well.

What does one do about Reva? Ranged pings, hard hitting buffs, oodles of draw, and the ability to deal damage for drawing those oodles. In a fast meta, damage is king. or queen, I suppose. It’s impressive that the better Spellhai decks don’t even use the potentially broken Crescent Spear and the situationally murderous Mirror Meld. There is just too much synergy between everything here, and even if there is something very satisfying about seeing a deck built out of over 30 class cards (hello Kara), Spellhai might have to become a victim of its own success.

Speaking of Kara, the old Kinetic Surge is doing what it does best – making neutral powerhouses. The emergence of midrange Kara at least meant you were facing a competent strategy with an over-tuned general. Sadly with the return of Mech Kara, it’s now devolved into a degenerate cheese strategy that still retains the ability to burst you with the darn tigers.

Finally, hearty congratulations to NowayitsJ, for getting the win in the recently concluded Dawn of the Duelysts Grand Final, and you can find his tournament decks with some annotations here.

Well, that concludes it for this edition, and hopefully this will become a recurring series. Have fun peeps!