Introduciton
In last post we had an opportunity to look closer at metagame. I would like to show you guys Dhamiria creatures I was working on since SoB release, she perfectly fits current meta, we could even consider her as a counter for majority of decks played (my win ratio was above 91% while I was playing Dhamiria).
The Grand Scheme of Things
Main plan while playing Dhamiria is actually... lack of any plan. The strongest part of the deck is flexibility and ability to adapt. Thats right, our plays will depend on our opponent and will be different versus certain heroes or deck archetypes. However in most cases we will go for card advantage whenever we can, protecting our HPs in same time. I'll try to explain strategies against different decks in next post, today we will focus on deck itself.
Hero
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| Decklist |
Why this succubus filled with madness?
As I've pointed about Dhamiria in previous post she has two amazing pros: access to Earth and Fire spell schools, which both are great for board control ; ability which can strip enemy removal, counters and such, so we can control not only enemy board but also hand in certain matchups (mostly those slower) ; I would also add that she is Inferno hero, and Inferno used to have the best control creatures in game since Herald of the Void, well Necropolis creatures are as good, however we don't have Necro hero with such good magic schools, so choice was obvious for me.
Events
Events are very important part of the decks. They often fulfil two roles: give more synergy for our deck and/or disturb plans of our opponent. My picks fulfil both of those roles. Rise of Nethemancers is necessary, even if it's asynergic with Spellstealer Heretic, because we need to keep graveyard in check due to few reasons: 1) we need to be able to deal with Boneyards ; 2) we can't allow Academy to abuse Memory Lapse, Void Trap or Shifting Fates ; 3) we don't like returning Moon Phoenix on enemy side of table 4) it's also good to be able to make Spellstealer Heretics played by enemy worse. Week of the Dead on the other hand is enabler for our Hellfire Bloaters, Chaos Lacerators and Doom Bringer.
Creatures - Resource & Might Curve
Before we focus on certain creatures, we should look at Resource and Might curve. Those two things are really important, because picking right curve for our deck can let it spin like perpetuum mobile. As you can see on the graph I've picked my creatures to make both resource & might curve pretty low, so we can focus on ramping magic for early removal and game is still fluent.
Creatures - early game choices
I believe that our choices for early game defences and threats are the most important choices in deckbuilding, because they determine in what shape we will arrive into midgame. I've decided to run minimum of 14 proper two turn drops (Lurker in the Dark doesn't count, since we can't play him as 2nd turn drop while starting) just because I hate opening game with empty turn. Succubus in this package is more or less just a filler, mostly played just to block early, like most creatures in 'early game choices' category, however it can be agressive if we get initiative (immune to retaliation). Hatchling Breeder it's great as blocker due to his ability to block twice, even after lethal, and he can leave another body after our AoE. Chaos Lacerator has good synergy with Week of the Dead and our AoE, random discard can be really annoying for our opponents, especialy when comined with Dhamirias ability. Finaly - Hellfire Bloater is our ultimate early game removal (enabled by Week of the Dead), which can spank enemies for any attempts of power laning, it has also great potential mid/late game, because it can be comined with our spells. Both Lurker in the Dark and Ur-Jubaal's Minion are you shall not pass creatures, also I would like to note that Ur-Jubaal's Minion is great choice for any Inferno deck, which want to ramp magic early.
Creatures - mid/late game choices
Mid and late game creatures should be strong enough to generate card advantage on their own and reclaim initiative for us, all cards in this section were picked to fulfil this purpose. Moon Phoenix is nice single to have, can be 'endless' blocker or threat depending on situation, but more than one makes no sense, since we will run out of fuel for it pretty fast. Spellstealer Heretic is my favourite card from SoB since she makes entire deck more consistent and less random (less draw dependant in mid/late game), anyway I wouldn't run 4 copies in deck with Nethemancers and low amount of targets for ability, because it may become vanilla 3/1/7 for 6, which isn't something we want in reactive control deck. Damran due to his ability (can deal with up to 3 threats at same time and block another) was auto include for me. Hellfire Maniacs like Hellfire Bloaters punish enemy for power laning. Doom Bringer is completly board wipe in combination with Week of the Dead.
Spells - Resource & Magic Curve
As we can see on the graph, both Resource & Magic curve for spells is higher than creatures. Thats because of two reasons: first - we don't play spells in our first turns (early removals such as Firebolt are made mostly for pushing damage which isn't part of our plan); two - we often ramp Magic first (after reaching 2/3 Might, unless our hand is all about Might).
Spells - AoE Removal
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AoE Removals are the most important among our spells, since they can let us reset the board. Insect Swarm is our key card in any rush matchup (Deleb/Kiril/Mother Namtaru), since those decks want to fill board as much as possible early and thanks to AoE we can make them run out of steam pretty fast. However Insect Swarm can't reset entire board on its own and may require support of our creatures and/or partial aoe removal spells. Arkath's Wrath on other hand often can reset the board on its own and what is more, can be replayed by Spellstealer Heretic.
Spells - Partial AoE Removal
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Partial AoE Removals fulfil support role. They can help us clearing board supporing both our creatures and/or AoE Removals. Also (like Insect Swarm) they can be used to push damage thru enemy creatures in some situations. Both of them (Forked Firebolt & Fire Rain) work with Spellstealer Heretic.
Spells - Utility
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Utility cards aren't key cards in the deck, however they help us in various situations. Main purpose of Stone Shield is to buy us turn while ramping Magic in early game for Arkath's Wrath. However it can allow us to avoid extra damage dealt by Bound Succubus or sudden damage dealt thanks to Time Jump. Nature's Wrath is theoretically a creature with Magic requirements instead of Might. It's really good card because of two reasons: we can play it with low Might, also it generates card advantage (gives us two guys).
Soon...
In depth guide how to play Dhamiria properly.
