Spry (+2 health, +1 sp)



Secret Knowledge (random card gets cost -2)



Self Knowledge (extra starting card)



Open Mind (2 sp refund once per spell)



Learning (0-3 extra starting sp)



Unlock: Knowledge is Power



2x SP Buff



Learn Spell: Magic Barrier



Protective Magic



Mage Class Gems



8x Blood Shard



7x Wild Shard



4x Well of Ancients



4x Monsagi Lily Pad



3x Exarch of the Egg



1x Cottontail Explorer



1x Monsuun, Shogun of Winda'jin



1x Nori (Minor Mage: Draw card)



1x Rot Sniper (Major Mage: Gain SP)



3x Underworld Crusader (Minor Mage: Draw card)



3x Rune Ear Hierophant (Major Mage Gem: Gain SP; Minor Frenzy: Speed)



1x Mad Progenitist



2x Freak of Nature



2x Paw of Yazukan



1x Yazukan



4x Bitter Dread



4x Casualty of War



4x Chlorophylia



3x Herofall



2x Dormant One



Scroll of Yazukan



Gardener's Hat (Chlorophylia: -1 cost)



Infectious Toxin (Casualty of War: -2/-2 to troops with same trait)



Freak Fetters (Freak of Nature: -1/-1 to all enemy troops each turn)



Explorer's Gloves (Cottontail Explorer: Skyguard)



Mentor's Slipper (Nori: summon a Battle Hopper)



Unliving End (Bitter Dread: -2 cost)



Clatterclank (extra charge)



Katsuhiro (extra charge when going second)



Mayor Galway (Galway's Retribution)



Spell Strategy

Substitutions

Specific Fight Strategies

Class: Shin'hare MageResources: (23)Troops: (19)Actions: (15)Constants: (2)Artifacts: (1)This is an updated version of the deck I first beat AZ2 with. It's not primarily tuned for farming, but rather beating difficult challenges such as those past the Gallows. That said it's still capable of some reasonably quick wins, but it generally takes a few turns to get started.The key troop in the deck is Rune Ear Hierophant. With the Major Mage Gem it's capable of generating dozens of SP over only a few turns. If you're curious, the SP counter does support three digits! Bitter Dread and Dormant One are the other major win conditions, but any of the troops will work.You have access to quite a large amount of mass removal. AZ2 has quite a few swarms and Casualty of War lets you take all of them out at once. Freak of Nature is even better removal against those swarms, since with it's equipment it hits everything and triggers twice as often (at the end ofturn).Bitter Dread is a fun card and most of the 3-cost Underworld troops are worth it. You will occasionally hit a 1-power troop (or even a 0-power troop), but Dormant One will help with that. Rune Ear Hierophant is a particularly disgusting one to hit since it'll double it's power every turn. Ruthless Cutthroat also doubles every turn if you can get it kicked off by raising it's power above 0.Knowledge is Power is a bit of sketchy talent at times but it's required for the gems. Your best choice is usually to target a Chlorophylia to improve your ramp, but Casualty of War and Herofall can be the right choice sometimes. Or just discard it with Soothsaying.Finally, always make sure to check to see which troop got hit by the level 15 Shin'hare talent. A troop returning when it dies is incredibly strong and gives you some more resilience against opponents with fast starts. If it hits the same troop as Galway's ability then you can even get more than one copy of Galway's Retribution.SOOTHSAYING: The base spell for all mages, this lets you quickly cycle through your extra resources in longer games. Don't forget that you can use it to toss a specific card in your crypt, whether it's to pump Nori or give Yazukan something to reanimate.TRANSMUTATION: This is the spell that makes Shin'hare Mages amazing. It's a kill spell and considering you don't spend a card for it, giving your opponent a draw barely counts as a drawback. If you can get a Rune Ear Hierophant going you'll quickly hit the point where you can just kill everything your opponent drops and he'll end up with a hand full of shards. Don't forget that you can target your own troops with this for card draw or to evade something nasty like your opponent stealing one of your Rune Ears or Freaks.MAGIC BARRIER: A 0/4 goes a long ways towards keeping you alive against the enemies that start with troops in play. You'll have enough starting SP half of the time (you get 3 to 6) to cast this before even taking a turn. Combined with the free starting 1-cost Shin'hare in dungeons lets you survive a lot of early attacks. The trickiest way to use this spell is as a combat trick to pump your Rune Ear! You'll usually want to use it to pump a Rune Ear even if it isn't blocked - it gets you 2 of the SP back when the Rune Ear hits your opponent.The Gloves equipment I selected is not particularly critical and can be replaced by the Herofall gloves. This is advantageous in most fights, but there's a few (e.g. Flickering Gobbler, Dynamo Swarm) where you'd much rather void the troops in your opponent's hand.The Boots equipment is also something worth experimenting with. I don't have the one for Rot Sniper so I'm not sure if the extra +1/+1 boosts are better than the free Battle Hopper.BRUTECROWN BLUFF:Be careful with your Dreadlings when that 2/3 that deals damage is out. Otherwise, your Magic Barrier will keep you alive against any of the three daughters. Make sure to save a kill spell or some SP to take out the two the boss gets when he enters his final stage.KRAKEN'S COVE:Use SP to take out the Tentacles and you should be fine. Exarch of the Egg is also in here to provide an alternative - remember that as long as you kill it the crush damage won't matter.GREAT MACHINE GRAVEYARD:Freak of Nature and Casualty of War deal with most of the nonsense the enemies in here throw at you. Be careful with the boss since he's one of the harder fights for this deck - he has the potential to generate far more card advantage than you can handle. Saving a Herofall or SP for a Scraptooth Bender is strongly recommended.RUINS OF KUKATAN:Make sure to summon a Magic Barrier against the final boss since it can absorb 10 or more damage from his behemoth. Exarch of the Egg can also shortcut the first phase with his Lethal. The Mosquito fights can actually get a little sketchy, so make sure you get out a Magic Barrier as quickly as possible.GALLOWS (Gallow Ghast):Herofall on his namesake card is always fun. Soothsaying helps prevent the resource screw that can result from his discard ability and Magic Barrier gives something for his -1/-1 ability to hit. Your kill spell is amazing here at keeping his larger troops from overwhelming you.GALLOWS (Flickering Gobbler):This guy can be nasty sometimes, depending on what he gets back from his crypt. The trick is to set a stop at the start of his turn. This lets you hit his newly summoned Gobbler with a Herofall to eliminate any that are in his hand. Alternatively, Casualty of War lets you eliminate them all at once.GALLOWS (Great Gobbler):You want to take advantage of the field effect that gives you back your actions. You can ramp really, really fast with a Chlorophylia. And Bitter Dread is essentially infinite troops. This is the fight where you're actually happy to draw Knowledge is Power. Casualty of War (or a ton of SP from a Rune Ear) is the answer against his charge power.GALLOWS (Succubus/Mancubus):Watch out for him/her stealing a Rune Ear. With the extra draws it's usually pretty easy to find one and then the SP lets you kill all the free Avatars and burn him down.GALLOWS (Obsidian Elemental):His charge power is obnoxious, but you have all the tools to kill his troops. His deck is literally all shards, so this is the fight where the Transmutation "drawback" is mostly obviously not an issue.GALLOWS (Savvas):Due to the field effect (extra charges), you don't even really need a Rune Ear here to have massive amounts of SP. You have enough troops that can serve as chump blockers for his Blaze Elementals, so you just need to kill him before his free Scorches wear you down.GALLOWS (Mad Aradam):This is the only fight you can't really beat without making some deck tweaks (AoM6 is AZ1 is pretty sketchy too, but that opponent at least has low health). Freak of Nature theoretically lets you stay alive by putting troops back in your deck, but it's Basic speed so it doesn't work in practice. Cosmic Totem is generally sufficient, but you're usually better off with a dedicated mercenary deck.