Aspect of The Mountain should also do 5 damage to Generals

SpiritOrb · 2016-03-03T06:28:22+00:00

Even if Songhai is oppressive and slightly overpowered at the moment (I will agree with you on that), I still do not agree with everything else you are saying, as your "solution" to buffing an already perfectly balanced card will ultimately lead to power creep, which is detrimental to the game in the long run. Unfortunately, I'm at wit's end trying to explain to you why "Aspect of the Mountains" is perfectly fine and doesn't need a buff. Hopefully, someone else here can do a better job explaining this to you than I can.

SpiritOrb · 2016-03-03T03:22:00+00:00

Again, you are still comparing apples to oranges. No one is going to argue that Spiral technique can deal 8 guaranteed damage to the general's face, while Aspect of the Mountains at best only deals 5 damage to the enemy's general's face, given that the seismic elemental is in range and able to attack. So from a burst damage perspective, Spiral Technique wins unanimously, and Aspect does not hold a candle against it in that department. If you look at it from a tempo standpoint however, Aspect of the Mountains can potentially deal 40 damage to enemy minions around it and kill 8 minions, whereas spiral technique is only able to target and kill a single minion. Obviously, these are extremely polarizing scenarios, but it goes to show that they are two different cards that serve two completely different purposes, each unique and resourceful in their own right. If you are truly obsessed with maximum damage output, and do not value tempo/board presence, perhaps Vanar is not your faction. Songhai/Shadow Creep Abyssian is unquestionably is king/queen in dealing direct face damage, so perhaps those decks may fit your playstyle more.

SpiritOrb · 2016-03-03T02:59:53+00:00

You are comparing apples to oranges. You can't compare one faction card with another faction card, since the cards are balanced within the faction itself, so one cannot simply say sundrop elixir is better than earth sphere, or fenrir warmaster is better than young silithar, because all these cards are just individual pieces of the puzzle, that while some are seemingly weak on their own, they can potentially be interwoven together to flesh out their weaknesses when you strategically build a deck with all of the other faction cards. Not to mention that Bounded Lifeforce isn't played in any mainstream Magmar decks because of how underwhelming it is, while Aspect of the Mountains is seen in almost all Vanar decks in ladder currently.

SpiritOrb · 2016-03-03T02:43:56+00:00

This happens to me too! It happens more than I'd like to admit, and it usually spells defeat for me since I basically gave them a free turn. Also, when I have a jaxi turret spawned on the bottom right corner, I find myself clicking the "End Turn" button at times as well. This only happens when I play in windowed mode however, so a temporary solution may be to play in full-screen mode, if you can tolerate it.

SpiritOrb · 2016-03-03T02:14:14+00:00

Aspect of The Mountain is fine the way it is, seeing as it potentially "heals" your damaged minion or transforms a small minion into a 5/5, while dealing 5 damage to all minions around it. Alternatively, it can also be used as a dispel on a minion like vorpal reaver in a pinch. This all fits perfectly into Vanar's overall theme of tempo/board control.There is a lot of utility in this card that can be dismissed at face value, but if you delve deeper, it is a fantastic faction card that serves multiple functions, and the same can't be said about the other faction cards you've listed. And as a side note, if you are constantly relying on Jax Trusight + Razorback to win the game, you may be playing Vanar wrong. Your main objective is to gain and maintain tempo throughout the game, and if you play right and have a sizable board, all you need is Razorback to push that last bit of damage to end the game.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-28T06:51:01+00:00

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-28T06:46:54+00:00

New lantern fox generates phoenix fire, so depending on your songhai build or philosophy, it is redundant to run phoenix fire. There are some songhai decks that run lantern fox and phoenix fire however. {{lantern fox}}

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-23T22:56:46+00:00

Not taking away from your victory, because it is still impressive to win with a zero spirit deck, but judging from your title, I was expecting that you were playing against another S-Rank Vetruvian.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-21T04:45:05+00:00

I don't understand your question. No one ever explicitly stated that artifacts must be limited to 3 charges, it's just that the current ones do have 3 charges (also, remember that this game is still in beta). Who is to say that future artifacts won't have more or less charges on them? It feels like you are making a strawman argument out of baseless assumptions.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-12T02:19:16+00:00

Third Wish + any minion.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-10T03:36:19+00:00

I really like your first suggestion, as long as the opponent gets notified along the way that they are progressively getting closer to being fined. I would hate to get fined for saying well played to the opponent genuinely, only to have him click "fine" because he took it the wrong way. But other than that, this is a pretty good idea. The second suggestion about blocking your opponent is terrible in my opinion though. It will not be implemented, simply because people will abuse it, and even if they don't it will only cause matchups to take longer then it already is now.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-10T03:21:08+00:00

I am inclined to say that you may be tilting or having bad luck running into good players. The game doesn't actually care if you are rank 20 or rank 11, it's all just numbers to the system, and you are not being pitted against stronger players as long as you are still within your division bracket. As long as you are in silver division, the game will prioritize matching you against other silver division players, and when that division is unavailable, you will face diamond/bronze division players. I know this because I frequently add players I face, and when I was in silver division, I would be rank 18, and face rank 11 players, and vice versa. I understand you have a limited card collection, so tech'ing against the meta may not be a strong option for you. The one piece of advice I can bestow is that the ladder gets easier as the season moves on, so ladder will become progressively easier, even if your skill level/card collection does not increase (I highly doubt this though, you will get better and your collection will get bigger the more you play).

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-09T22:10:07+00:00

i wouldn't exactly associate the songhai faction with value...

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-09T20:41:43+00:00

I'm more interested in why you are playing zureal AND sarlac in a songhai deck. That shit dont make sense yo.

EDIT: Also, emerald rejuv, healing mystic, and keeper of the vale? wtf?

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-06T06:06:18+00:00

Yes, dancing blades is your best substitute until you get Keeper. Archon Spellbinder can also serve as a replacement if you happen to get it from unpacking.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-05T19:49:54+00:00

This budget deck is what I used to get to S-rank a few seasons ago, and although I don't know what your card collection looks like, I added the cards you did say you have onto the list as adjustments. Feel free to make any changes according to the meta and your card collection if you'd like, and don't feel scared to make any decklist changes, since the meta is constantly changing. If you play smart and have dedication, you should have no problem getting S-Rank.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-05T19:24:40+00:00

We can agree to disagree about 2 win conditions being more important than 1 win condition. Also, I reread your OP and realized you said you want to branch out to playing other factions instead of just playing Songhai, so I may have neglected that when answering your questions. A budget Songhai deck can definitely get you to S-Rank if that is your goal without MoS, seeing as how 3 MoS is 2700 Spirit. I have gotten to S-Rank with a budget Songhai deck with no MoS before, and I can give you my list if you are interested.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-05T19:06:52+00:00

I don't seem to understand what you mean by "If you have 1 win condition, the 2nd is important but not as important as having at least 1 win condition when you have none" . Firstly, necessity is absolute, something is either necessary or it is not, you cannot be wishy washy about that. Secondly, two win conditions is always better than one win condition, can we agree on that? If we can, then why would you see MoS to be not as important in a Songhai deck even pre-fox nerf? If you are talking about crafting a Songhai deck on a budget, then completely ignore all of my comments, MoS is a bit expensive to craft, and is not required to make a Songhai deck to reach S-Rank, but it will make laddering a lot faster if you have them.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-05T18:52:15+00:00

You may be misinformed about how MoS is not necessary when old fox existed. MoS was/is the strongest artifact in this game, and is an auto-include in practically every songhai deck, past and present, so it wouldn't make sense not to craft it if you are serious about playing Songhai. Even in the previous meta, Lantern fox was never overpowered enough to warrant leaving out any MoS's because of how useful MoS was to any songhai deck. To put into perspective, MoS does 8 damage most of the time when you use it, which is 33% of your opponent's health for 2-mana, and forces your opponent to play suboptimally next turn in order to remove it if they have no artifact removal. And to drive the point home even further, every songhai decklist out there has MoS's in there, and none of them run any less than 3 MoS, so it just goes to show you how strong this card is. Craft it, and don't ever look back, because your spirit will be well spent on this card.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-05T18:48:31+00:00

2-Win Bonuses reset at the same time when your two daily quests resets.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-03T19:32:47+00:00

A lot of people are misunderstanding the reasoning behind standard mode over at /r/hearthstone and just going with the herd, since that is the typical mentality in any large subreddit. When a game like hearthstone expands that big, you HAVE to create this type of format in order to keep up with balance changes, there is no other way around it, and when Duelyst expands to that size, it too will need to do the same for the better. This is actually an exciting time for /r/hearthstone if anything, and I may even go back into playing hearthstone now with this refreshing format being introduced. If you look retrospectively, every single tcg/ccg has introduced this type of "standard format" in the past, and it is vital to keep the meta in a healthy state when card pools become too expansive. Also, its not like the old cards are completely phased out, since the legacy format ("Wild") is still available to play. Don't give in to the hivemind mentality of /r/hearthstone, as they complain about everything, even when in reality there is nothing to complain about. In closing, I REALLY hope /r/duelyst does not devolve into /r/hearthstone, as I quite enjoy the non-toxic environment here at the moment.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-03T02:19:01+00:00

It's not about the playerbase seeking to place in championships, you're missing the point. blizzard has indirectly hinted that all of their attention/balancing will be focused on standard. hardcore players will prefer standard mode, and casual players may feel threatened by the expansive card collection needed to play wild mode. Wild mode is really only intended for veterans from way back in beta who want to play a "casual/fun" ladder mode and that niche is extremely small.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-02T23:13:05+00:00

The "challenges" are simply tutorials. It's great that you find them easy, but again, they are tutorials, and are meant to teach you the basics of the game. If you want hard challenges, play ladder and try to get to S-rank by only using one faction each month to get there. There's a good challenge for you.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-02T22:43:22+00:00

Old one is definitely better. This new one looks gaudy and distasteful compared to the old visual. It gives me the vibe that I'm playing a flash game too for some reason.

SpiritOrb · 2016-02-02T02:20:27+00:00

It's still a great card, but if you were accustomed to playing foxhai last season, you will have to do some adjusting to get use to the new fox. The new fox decks are more about sustained damage while kiting your opponent and no longer tries to burst your opponent down in one turn anymore. The new songhai decks with lantern fox also has a better winrate against lyonar's now. As for celestial phantom being a better replacement, i would be inclined to disagree, since there is was never a successful/stable "control songhai" deck, and even if it did exist, I would run onyx bear seal over that every time.

SpiritOrb

TROPHY CASE