TCG Strategy & Decklists

Re: The Raid Deck Thread! NEW HOMEBUILT RAIDS

2305527 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:10:32 GMT

Yellowbrains (raid boss) is a bit hamstrung by having me on the raiding team usually, since I know how important it is to have the low drop protectors and importance of the flags. This is something the raiders will learn as they do these raids, you MUST control the flags at almost all costs. I've taken damage and played instant abilities to keep flags out of the hands of the raid boss. Only 1 flag per raider means that the raiders must work as a team to get the flags and keep the flags. I've told the raid crew how important it is, the cheat sheet will really help remind them of this...and if it doesn't then a nice board wipe will learn dem stinkin' raiders real fast.

I still feel the weak point of these city raids is the lack of interrupts, lack of removal, and the nasty abilities that some of the raid decks pack. But overall, I'm pretty happy with the progress and scaleability. Bring on the Blood Elves of Silvermoon City, I'm not scared!

Kobradin

Re: The Raid Deck Thread! NEW HOMEBUILT RAIDS

1777606 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:20:35 GMT

2783513:
@Kobradin

My group of weekly raiders just this week tried out a custom raid with the rules set that you and Yellowbrains created. I wanted to say that we had alot of fun, it was def fun seeing there faces as cards they knew well came into play as Bosses.

One thing that I wanted to mention is that I had a rather easy time crushing them, due mostly to the flags. Our raiding decks are not built to stealth through anything (for it is rarely needed in the pre-made raid scenarios).

With Naxx about to come out, I have not yet made any of the decks that you have created on the start page. However, looking to do so once Naxx becomes a bore.

Just a little about our play group, we only raid, our decks are pure raid decks, and bc of this I saw they were slightly gimped for the custom raid deck rule set. However, it was awesome to have new content to work with, and I cant wait to see the new decklists you two create.

I made some reference cards that sum up the raid rules and list out what the flags do and I've found that this really motivated the raiders to take and keep flags (in fact in the last raids I've done, the most flags I've ever had was 2..) I'll post the cheat sheets to the custom raid thread. One thing that the raiders should keep in mind is that you don't need an attack strength to be able to take a flag so even unequiped heroes can grab them. Also, using the flag will keep it exhausted, so even if the boss gets it back, he has to wait a turn until it's available.

As Kobradin said, stealth and long range are much more useful in these raids.

Which raid did you try?

Re: The Raid Deck Thread! NEW HOMEBUILT RAIDS

2783513 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:34:57 GMT

@Kobradin

My group of weekly raiders just this week tried out a custom raid with the rules set that you and Yellowbrains created. I wanted to say that we had alot of fun, it was def fun seeing there faces as cards they knew well came into play as Bosses.

One thing that I wanted to mention is that I had a rather easy time crushing them, due mostly to the flags. Our raiding decks are not built to stealth through anything (for it is rarely needed in the pre-made raid scenarios).

With Naxx about to come out, I have not yet made any of the decks that you have created on the start page. However, looking to do so once Naxx becomes a bore.

Just a little about our play group, we only raid, our decks are pure raid decks, and bc of this I saw they were slightly gimped for the custom raid deck rule set. However, it was awesome to have new content to work with, and I cant wait to see the new decklists you two create.

Re: The Raid Deck Thread! NEW HOMEBUILT RAIDS

2305527 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:36:05 GMT

Bump.

Hey JadefalconAvenger and Rezaziel, you guys do a lot of raiding...any chance your raid groups could run some playtests on the homebuilt raids that Yellowbrains and I are working on? Looking for some feedback.

We just did another playtest of the Orgrimmar city raid, against 6 raiders...it was pretty fun.

Kobradin

Re: The Raid Deck Thread! NEW HOMEBUILT RAIDS

2305527 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:38:25 GMT

We are using the Warsong Gulch Flags on UDE points cards or I have noticed that the Earthstorm Diamond UDE cards have a flag on the back too. If you buy booster packs, you should be able to get a set of flags.

These homegrown raids are fun, scaleable, and very challenging. Stealth comes into play as a great keyword that helps you get to the flags around the protectors.

Kobradin

Re: The Raid Deck Thread! NEW HOMEBUILT RAIDS

3038132 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:05:42 GMT

Hey Kobradin,

Awesome work! I'm not a big competitive player either but the raid decks are great fun. One raid deck per year is just not enough though. This is an awesome way to revive a whole bunch of cards and have lots of fun doing it.
We just need UDE to make some FLAG tokens :)

Re: The Raid Deck Thread! NEW HOMEBUILT RAIDS

2305527 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:50:41 GMT

My buddy Yellowbrains and I have posted up some Custom Homebuilt Raids for you to try...please leave feedback and playtest results. Thanks!

Original idea from here...

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/WOW/COMMUNITY/forums/post/1839581.aspx

Decklists, Rules, etc. here...

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/WOW/COMMUNITY/forums/1850466/ShowThread.aspx#1850466

Kobradin

Re: The Raid Deck Thread!

2571123 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:37:47 GMT

2415247:

information regarding Naxxramas released: 8/19/2009

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/wow/community/forums/thread/1818110.aspx

cool

Re: The Raid Deck Thread!

2067168 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:46:06 GMT

2415247:
I hope this isn't interpreted as a thread necro

Nah, so long as it's something constructive!

I think raiding players have it too easy. Rogues have access to cards such as Detect Traps and Carnage. To take down Onyxia and Magtheridon, all players need are DOTs; both bosses don't have mass ability removal. Frost Mage has also shut me down. The deck combines interrupts with a death and taxes strategy. Ice Barbs and Orderkeeper Heneley keep me locked down, then throw in a Shadow Priest with Orlund or/and discard abilities and CRAP.

I am considering one of two things.... either buffing the boss or begin limiting certain cards such as:

Myriam Starcaller
Detect Traps
Carnage

Carnage isn't quite as nasty against BT. . . there are plenty of overpriced allies in there with a cost due to their playability by traitor champions.

As far as mag and onyxia, they do have mass ability removal. Shattering Scales and Fel Ruination come to mind; I'm pretty sure mag actually has two ways, I forget what the other one is called but it's destroy ability/equipment = # of bloods, if discard this card put it in your hand.

What CAN be brutal is if they have to deal with a solid ability cost increase array. I'd imagine a worst case scenario would be morfiel + curse of tongues + henley.

And as far as detect traps, we dont use it even though we are fully aware of its existence because we feel it makes it too little fun for the raid boss. All of the raid bosses have their draw power built into their ability array, so its nearly impossible to recover.

My friend has a magtheridon that he modified; it did away with some cards of more questionable usefulness (the random damage distribution one, the abyssal reinforcements, most spirit wrenches, a few other cards) and maxed out all sorts of removal cards, blood acceleration, interrupts, blast nova and blindside, and violent reflexes (to neutralize weenie swarm and punish DOTs harshly). Between those and the glaive "I attack and keep it open on your turns" trick. . .it's tough as nails.

As far as onyxia. . .Unrelated, but interesting story: recently played it where the raid boss got all three resource acceleration events in a row, in such an order that he got to use them all at once (i think it was do another event, then top event as an additional resource). . .he had four resources turn 1. Someone got hit with the flip. :*(

Re: The Raid Deck Thread!

2415247 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:41:40 GMT

I hope this isn't interpreted as a thread necro

Nah, so long as it's something constructive!

I think raiding players have it too easy. Rogues have access to cards such as Detect Traps and Carnage. To take down Onyxia and Magtheridon, all players need are DOTs; both bosses don't have mass ability removal. Frost Mage has also shut me down. The deck combines interrupts with a death and taxes strategy. Ice Barbs and Orderkeeper Heneley keep me locked down, then throw in a Shadow Priest with Orlund or/and discard abilities and CRAP.

I am considering one of two things.... either buffing the boss or begin limiting certain cards such as:

Myriam Starcaller
Detect Traps
Carnage

Re: The Raid Deck Thread!

2067168 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:28:20 GMT

How do you all think that the most recent two sets have changed the "core raiding decks"? I.E. Interrupt mage, healing priest, and so on?

Also, this may be just me, but between an effective healing priest and an interrupt mage it seems tough to believe there's enough damage to take down, say, magtheridon. Especially considering the beginning ally race, the loads of interrupts (that he can save solely for your offensive cards knowing he'll one-shot through healing eventually), and the cubes. We've been trying it and we're having decent problems actually beating Mag with this kind of setup or with two dps and a healer. We get to illidan with it (although we havent quite been able to kill him), and molten core and onyxia are generally fairly easy unless some really bad luck happens (and to be honest, molten core has so little randomness that the only bad luck there could be the raid boss not drawing a hotter than goo and/or shazz's arcane explosion before shazz.)

Hope this isnt interpreted as a thread necro.

Edit: Also, I'm considering making a prot warrior raid deck. I'm thinking, as a general set of cards to adjust as needed:

Shields

Shield bash, Shield slam

Spell ricochet

Absolute poise, pummel

Whirlwind (with an atleast semi-large array of weapons)

king's defender and courageous defense for protector

mok'nathal wildercloak (only for certain raids)

merciless gladiator's armor + heavy hitting weapon (gorehowl?)

deafening shout / withering shout

defiance

something to help keep up on damage at the start. . . not sure what but i dont want it to be a slow one-trick pony

bloody ritual for card draw

morik

standard raid quest array (toxic horrors, gurok, sunken treasure / deap sea salvage)

Thoughts on something missing or what I ought to drop?

Re: The Raid Deck Thread!

2415247 — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:08:02 GMT

information regarding Naxxramas released: 8/19/2009

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/wow/community/forums/thread/1818110.aspx

Re: The Raid Deck Thread!

2305527 — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:56:55 GMT

Other equipment that has been useful:

Myrmidon's Signet - Your hero has +5 health

Naaru Lightwarden's Band - Friendly heroes have +5 health

Onyxia Tooth Pendant - Friendly allies have +2 ATK while attacking

Kobradin

Re: The Raid Deck Thread!

2305527 — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:35:20 GMT

Another link to a raid spec priest discussion.

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/WOW/COMMUNITY/forums/thread/1649253.aspx

Kobradin

Re: The Raid Deck Thread!

2305527 — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:13:14 GMT

Hey Raiders,

Great thread! I haven't been posting for a while, but felt that I had some experience in raiding that can help people. I started the game learning from raiding and consider myself a better raider than PvP constructed deck player.

I've posted before on my own raid team. Here are some things:

We all usually run Horde Blood Elves (Pally, Rogue, Warlock), except for the occasional Tauren Shaman when we 4 man. BE gives you access to Arcane Torrent and Solanian's Belongings. We believe in redundancy, so if the main interrupt player cannot interrupt, someone else usually can. Same thing goes with healing--redundancy, everyone runs 4x of Blood Knight Kyria and when we need it we have a dedicated healer priest with all the heals and some discard/damage abilities & allies. Shadowfiend is a favorite of the priest, has done well with that. Morik is awesome for card draw, we usually run him in at least 2 of the decks. Quests are important too. My raid group likes the quest Gurok the Usurper, sort of hamburger helper for quests. Toxic Horrors is great for raids. A location is often a good idea, because it doesn't go away...eg. Twin Spire Ruins vs. Finkle Einhorn. Or it can really help with some sort of damage prevention, like Silvermoon City. Hellfire Citadel for card draw.

Favorite allies? We like Horde because of the ferocity allies. Into the Fray for ferocity, one of my favorite combo allies to use is Debros Cousin-to-Moon. He gets pretty big mid/late game and if you give him ferocity he can be really hurtful. Run Finkle Einhorn to keep him coming back. Shadala is always good for someone using a lot of abilities. We use Vindicator Kentho a lot, when you don't have an interrupt in hand sometimes he can really help. Moko Hunts-at-Dawn, a great big ferocity ally. It's been mentioned on here, but Eyeball Jones is good and cheap. Cheap protectors like Spiderlegs McGillicutty and Jasmine Bloodlove are great. Warstomp allies have been great. Interrupter/Mage should run some sort of inspire ally--we use Xavar the Resourceful. Lightwarden's Band on your heroes. Rak Skyfury for those swinging weapons is a must.

Some of our secret tech...interrupt mage was built with tons of interrupts (24-26) but also packed a couple AoE's and a couple Greed Before Need cards which allowed the mage to grab a nice weapon from the Rogue or Pally and bash with it--totally unexpected by the Raid Boss. Also a couple bomb allies like Leoroxx for late game. We built the raid interrupt mage with lots of card draw--Essence Gatherer and all the mage card draw cards.

Favorite equipment? I'm the Pally and am partial to the Felsteel Reaper/Rak Skyfury FTW! We all got playsets of the Mok'Nathal Wildercloak, beat up the trash mobs and it gets HUGE! One got over 30 counters on it one time, couldn't be hit. Demonblood Eviscerator has been great. Axe of the Legion dual wield with another axe. Our rogue loves the Barman Shanker with warstomp allies. Wastewalker Combo (hat and pants) has great synergy with warstomp allies.

We've beaten all the raids, 3 man on Onyxia and Magtheridon, 4 man Molten Core full clear, 5 man Black Temple (we had Pally, Rogue, healing Priest, interrupt Mage and Shaman). Black Temple is hard! Things get worse at the end. You are not prepared. Card draw dried up.

Kobradin

edit: added link to another raid thread...

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/WOW/COMMUNITY/forums/thread/1651215.aspx