However, even though this means that I can't really push for top rankings it won't stop me from trying to crush some dreams. I can't win through most normal means because I don't have strong top end legendaries so my late game is wretched - control decks just don't work. I lack a lot of the core aggressive cards too, but I am a lot closer to building a solid aggro deck than I am a control deck. In any case it just isn't plausible for me to really accomplish much either way. Everyone knows how to respond to face hunter rushes and if I play face hunter without the proper cards I won't have much success.
The only solution, it would seem, is to go rogue. (Not rogue like using daggers, but rogue like doing something wacky.)
It brings me back to my Magic days, where I would look at all the core decks and get disgusted with rock paper scissors, leading me to build something crazy. The crazy wasn't usually particularly good in and of itself, but it had the advantage that nobody knew what was going on and I could often lock in wins because my opponents would mulligan wrong or play into my traps because they didn't know what I was doing.
In that vein, I decided to defeat my opponents with mountains of trash. I took a bunch of cards that leverage having a ton of dorks in play and combined them with a collection of cards that put a ton of dorks in play. Specifically I am using Bloodlust, Frostwolf Warlord, Knife Juggler, Dire Wolf Alpha, and Flametongue Totem.
Since I am using all of these cards that leverage having a lot of minions in play, it was definitely prudent to make swarms of minions! There are some genuinely good ways to make extra minions like Piloted Shredder and Haunted Creeper but I am also using questionable minions like Razorfen Hunter, Nerubian Egg, and Echoing Ooze.
Thing is, both of those cards have uses. It isn't as though they are completely worthless, they just don't make the cut in real decks. However, in a deck like mine they are pure gold. The trick is that my opponents surely underestimate me when they see bad cards like those drop onto the battlefield but they end up being plenty effective when I manage to apply all of my force multipliers.
The way games inevitably play out is that I pile my load of trash onto the board and my opponents struggle to deal with it all, taking a bit of damage but slowly working their way towards the late game and their really powerful cards. Then suddenly POW they are facing an army of buffed idiots and they fold like a gambler who missed a gutshot straight.
I tried lots of decks to get out of the Rank 15 doldrums from Mech Mage to Control Priest to Mech Warrior and nothing was able to win games consistently. My Mountains of Trash Shaman deck though, that thing is tearing through people.
At some point I am going to start running up against people with enough skill and quality decks that this silly strategy isn't going to fly anymore. I haven't hit that wall yet though, so I am going to keep on crushing dreams as long as the crushing is good. Winning feels good in general, but seriously, winning with garbage cards like these somehow is even better.
Decklist:
2x Abusive Sergeant
1x Earthbiter Weapon
2x Zombie Chow
2x Haunted Creeper
2x Echoing Ooze
2x Knife Juggler
2x Flametongue Totem
2x Nerubian Egg
2x Direwolf Alpha
2x Hex
2x Razorfen Hunter
1x Tuskarr Totemic
2x Piloted Shredder
2x Bloodlust
2x Frostwolf Warlord
2x Fire Elemental
I've never been a big fan of Zombie Chow in an aggressive deck. There's got to be a better 1 drop? The drake egg thing maybe? Or leper gnome?
ReplyDeleteI would run leper gnome but I don't own any. I could try the egg... but honestly it doesn't seem that good. If I could be fairly sure to get 2 critters out of it, maybe, but a singular 2/1 that requires finangling to get is weak. I was also musing about argent squire, because divine shield is great with buffing like this, but again I don't own any.
DeleteBasically with Chow I contest the early board and use it to kill all their stuff and then obviously let it die before my real aggression gets going. It isn't ideal, for sure, but I need 1 drops and I don't like anything else very much.
I'm surprised you aren't using any of the new expansion's inspire abilities, since you're likely spamming shaman abilities whenever you have the mana to spare.In particular, Murloc Knight and Silver Hand Regent seem to fit your mountains of trash theme.
ReplyDeleteI don't own Murloc Knight, and he is a paladin card. I could build a similar paladin deck but lacking flametongue totem and bloodlust is pretty harsh.
DeleteI do have one silver hand regent though, so that isn't a bad idea. It is very slow (for my deck!) but it is a possibility.
I'm still very bad having a sense for what are and are not good cards, never mind overall deck strategies, but still, why do you say the Regent is slow? It's a 3/3 for 3, not a terrible card for the cost, and you go into a positive balance as soon as you've triggered it once.
DeleteGenerally dropping a 3/3 for 3 means that it will get killed by something the opponent dropped. If it comes down turn 3 it usually doesn't make it to turn 4 and end up being very weak, so I usually end up wanting to cast it on turn 5 to guarantee one extra 1/1 off of it. Unfortunately my deck has 4 power cards on turn 5 already - warlords and bloodlusts. I think the regent *could* work, but in a game where I am struggling it is just going to die without leaving anything extra behind, whereas my other 3 drops definitely leave me with an extra critter afterwards if they bite it.
DeleteThe regent isn't terrible by any means - I just normally have to close out the game on turn 6 or 7 and regent just hasn't made enough stuff by then to be awesome.