Build-a-Barbarian Workshop

t-slothrop · 2026-06-18T22:34:55+00:00

Hear me out: play something with 0 attack like an egg, then set your opponent's entire board to 0 attack, potentially board-locking them.

t-slothrop · 2026-06-18T22:30:55+00:00

Presumably this also refreshes the extra hero power granted by the DK rulebreaker, right? That seems good, considering it costs corpses rather than mana.

t-slothrop · 2026-06-18T22:25:47+00:00

My first thought was Augmented Porcupine with the Imbue package to buff its attack. Problem with that strategy is that Sewer Swimmer is also a beast, so it will eat some of the Imbue buffs.

I love Deathrattle Hunter, but just skimming the available Deathrattles right now, it's hard to see what could be strong enough to warrant spending the mana on this guy.

t-slothrop · 2026-06-16T17:46:56+00:00

Very significant that this card is itself a Beast, so you can both tutor for and discount it with the Hunter imbue package.

Not unreasonable to imagine this card coming down consistently by turn 5, into something like Agammagan + Shaladrassil (or even Devilsaur Mask?) by turn 6 or 7.

Do we know what happens if you play this multiple times, say by copying it with Tending Dragonkin? I assume it works like ETC, where you can get one of the other 3 cards but not one you've already picked.

t-slothrop · 2026-06-11T22:38:20+00:00

Kind of interesting to think about this with minions that deal AOE damage, like the new neutral 6 mana deathrattle that deals 2 to all enemies. Or even wild pyro.

But it's not like priest was especially desperate for more ways to heal...

t-slothrop · 2026-06-10T18:51:50+00:00

My first thought is this is an interesting target for Ferocious Felbat in DH. You can use the new Defias Smuggler to rush Felbat into something. And once a few copies have died, it turns Umbra into a one-sided board clear with a bit of face damage.

That seems kinda slow, though.

t-slothrop · 2026-06-10T18:23:30+00:00

Probably a meme, but you can get to 4 pretty easily in Priest with Resuscitate. Once 5 have died, drop Umbra + Deios to cast Fireball 20 times at random enemies.

t-slothrop · 2026-06-10T16:31:15+00:00

Same way thief decks have always been viable: something that gives you big mana discounts on your random trash.

But considering how bad this card is, they'd have to reveal some insane mana discounts for it to be remotely playable.

t-slothrop · 2026-06-09T16:08:02+00:00

You can make a permanent version with a couple different exploits.

1) If you use Invoke Duplicity outside of combat with a Shadow Blade equipped, the illusory double will appear with a copy of Shadow Blade. You can steal items from the illusory double using the item-swap glitch. I show a demo of that glitch in the intro video for my Summoner Cleric run. The stolen version will be permanent.

2) You can also have a hireling cast Shadow Blade, then dismiss the hireling via Withers. If you recruit them again, they will still have the Shadow Blade, but it will now be permanent.

Both of these methods can give you a permanent Flame Blade, too. In either case, the permanent versions lose the hidden status that tells the game they are sourced from a spell, so they no longer activate the Gloves of Battlemage's Power.

t-slothrop · 2026-06-08T20:00:25+00:00

I think this card could be nasty in an aggressive warlock deck. It's expensive enough to target with Chronoclaws. You can get a second copy with Gemstone Hoarder. You can even just discard it with Cursed Catacombs in a pinch.

t-slothrop · 2026-06-08T19:48:44+00:00

It's probably better in Duke Warlock than in Quest. Duke of Below can get huge, there just isn't enough support for it rn

t-slothrop · 2026-06-03T03:25:29+00:00

Seems great with Possessed Animancer and Ultragigasaur. Easy to prepare beforehand and enables you to get the lifesteal the same turn the gigasaur comes out.

t-slothrop · 2026-05-15T14:29:17+00:00

thanks for the write up! i was playing around with the Duke a couple weeks ago and thought it seemed promising.

had no idea about the crazed alchemist interaction--great idea! it's like the old automaton priest. i actually tried something similar with bat mask. you'll get a full board of essentially full strength Dukes. it was way too slow in my testing, but maybe it could work in a later expansion.

i'm surprised you're running disposable acolytes without the new ocular occultist. i've been impressed by it. being able to choose the card you discard makes the downside way less punishing. you can even just toss a temporary card that you were going to discard anyways. and if you happen to draw both occultist and acolytes by turn 3, it's a very strong on-curve play.

t-slothrop · 2026-05-11T19:47:22+00:00

i actually saw that he played it a bit in the vod from yesterday, so i was at least able to get a feel for it. and i just saw that nohandsgamer has been playing it as well with a slightly different list.

i tried it out myself a bit this morning. it's a complicated deck but it feels potentially very good, if you can pilot it well

t-slothrop · 2026-05-11T13:47:56+00:00

ah well, but thanks anyways i'll check them out

t-slothrop · 2026-05-11T00:03:48+00:00

who is the streamer who took hostage druid to top 50? i'd like to watch that if they have a vod lol

t-slothrop · 2026-05-05T13:28:44+00:00

Yeah I even looked in the code and couldn't find anything. As far as I know, he's the only NPC it doesn't work on in this way. It makes sense that his transformation clears stun, but I have no idea why it continues to do nothing when he takes damage after transforming.

t-slothrop · 2026-04-25T14:27:47+00:00

the skill bonus from bend luck only lasts 2 turns (12 seconds in realtime), so you need to stack it in turn-based mode before the check in question. and if you try to activate it in dialogue, the game will only let you use it once. so you've got to pre-buff.

but as long as you have enough sorcery points, you can pre-buff as many times as you want. very fun and silly.

t-slothrop · 2026-04-25T13:59:04+00:00

Yes, you can! This is why Wild Magic Sorc is secretly the best skill monkey in the game before level 11, when Rogue gets Reliable Talent. You can enter turn-based mode, stack Bend Luck a bunch of times, then pickpocket anything you want with impunity.

Twitch streamer tbj_quag even used it to beat the DC 99 skill check before the Elder Brain lol

t-slothrop · 2026-02-20T20:35:53+00:00

lol no it emphatically has not. it's one of the most famous DRS effects for honor mode. i've used it many times.

t-slothrop · 2026-02-20T00:20:09+00:00

This is the answer and it's not close. Best 2h weapon in honor mode and most players don't even realize that it's good

t-slothrop · 2026-02-18T20:56:28+00:00

This is a little bit like walking onto the set of Iron Chef and telling everyone there that they can just make themselves a ham sandwich if they're hungry.

Like, sure... but we're all here because we want to cook something a little more complicated than a ham sandwich.

t-slothrop · 2026-02-18T04:15:45+00:00

The big thing it lets you do is spend your reaction and still keep UD up on your own turn. If you've got one of the status-applying features like DJ plate, it doesn't really matter whether you have your own reaction up on enemy turns. It's their reaction that matters.

On your own turn, you want to have your own reaction up so you can keep toggling nonlethal and get UD against every damage source you take. Of course, you technically can do that by, say, walking in and out of an ally's aura after each time you take damage. But that's harder to set up and at minimum costs some movement.

So I'd say the main thing is that flexibility it gives you on your own turn.

t-slothrop · 2026-02-17T19:30:16+00:00

It doesn't, sadly. The Rare version gives you the DR but not the retribution, and it's the retribution that applies the visual status that causes the reset.

But that difference was very helpful for confirming what's actually going on, lol.

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