Improve Shadow Deck / PvE

[Flrbb]

Hello,

finally I took a heart and bought a harvester. Now I need a generic deck to casually play PvE, up to advanced, 2 and 4 player maps. Attached is my current build, but I guess it is not that much "optimized". Any suggestions how to get more from 20 cards shadow and neutral?

My break down:

T1 - Forsaken (to mount walls), Dreadcharger (to have a swift unit), Soul Splicer (green, took it because I do use it in rPvE, too. dunno if really needed in PvE), Motivate (to get more of the units) and Phase Tower (to have an early tower in game). If I had a slot more to spare, I'd add Decomposer...

T2 - Harvester (do anyone would suggest some sort of backup unit? like Shadow Mage or Darkelf Assassins), plus Life Weavin and Unholy Power to buff Harvester, also Furnace of Flesh. My thoughts: do I need healing like Viridya or Nether Warp (green)?

T3 - definitly Soulshatter and Infect and Necroblaster. I need a unit, too. But absolutely unsure which to take. Ashbone or Cultist Master?

T4 - Nercofury (for some defensive), both Grim Bahir and Overlord (and Blood Healing)

[ImaginaryNumb3r]

As for T3, the primary advantage of Cultist master is to quickly gain back void energy by sacrificing your Nightcrawlers in the Furnance of Flesh. This works great in particular with spell-heavy decks. In general, you should try out Resource Booster for power management.

When I was toying with a Shadow deck I found the biggest difficulty in having enough fire power in T3. Nightcrawler spam alone just doesn't cut it, but for normal circumstances mass Ashbone Pyro should do the trick. Personally, I think Frenetic Assault is a must have card becuase it offers you so much, up until T4.

Regarding your T4, I'm not a big fan of Grim Bahir. I'd rather use Death Ray + Unholy Hero and heal them with Overlords. In general, Soul Collection is a very powerful trick and Embalmer's Shrine keeps being useful throughout the game. In T1, it boosts your Soul Splicer, in T2 you can use it to great success with Shadow Phoenixes and boost the Overlord Healing in T4.

Edited April 24, 2019 by ImaginaryNumb3r

[Ggoblin]

You should probably splash other colors at T3 and T4. You only need 2 shadow orbs in your deck.

You can even use spirit ship + regrowth

Edited January 14, 2019 by Ggoblin

[DerNewYork]

Hey Flrbb

T1 and T2 looks good so far, there are quiet some ways to play in pure shadow.

I wouldnt take Live Weaving cause its an PVP card. So T1 would look like:

- Dreadcharger, Forsake, Motivate, Phasetower, Soul Splicer (and maybe Decomposer, depends on the player, I wouldn't take it with me)

- T2 I would take Harvester, Unholy Power, Shadow Mage, Nether warp, Ressource Booster, FOF, maybe Undead Army or Corpse Explosion and maybe Stone of Torment for some maps.
Side note: Shadow Mage -> Nether warp in place, Motivate one of them and you destroy every base in just an eye blink.

Must have in T3 with 2x Shadow would be Frenetic Assault / Infect / Soul Shatter.
For units in T3, it also depends on what Tier you want to play next, but Ashbone Pyro is overall a good card and allways playable with Shadow.

 

Cause you only need 2 Shadow orbs you can splash some variaty in it. In my opinion LSS spam is lame and not fun, so I wouldnt recommand it to play.
Options:
- 2x Fire and play bandit (then you dont need FOF and Cultist Master cause you can spawn SOW at T3, T4 with Tortugun, Bloodhorns, Amok etc.)
- 2x Nautre (and enlight a Bata or something else)
- 2x Frost (play LS Drake and LSS Green and suck some Altar of Chaos bombs for the healing)
- 1x Fire and 1x Nature (and play Bloodhorn with healing)
- 1x Frost and 1x Nature (and play Gemeye with some shadow CC)
- 1x Shadow and 1x Nature (and rock the map with Death Rays and heals)
- There are some more ways to play for sure!

Depends on what you'd like to play.
I can do some decks if you want me to, so you can see what choice you have.

 

Let me know, if I can do something for you.

Cheers, DNY

Edited January 15, 2019 by DerNewYork

[Flrbb]

"Pure shadow" is a wicked thing. Shadow worm is a great unit, but has more worth in a nature deck. So my deck won't need four shadow orbs, this is why I could easily splash something into. But I do not want to.

I decided against the Death Ray, because it is played best, when having Healing Gardens and Regrowth. Bloodhealing/Overlord might be an option, but it requires more micro management than I am willing to do.

As I am currently not used to "play with just one Harvester" he dies quite often. That is why I put Live Weaving into, but if you say it's mostly PvP I will try better and remove it. That saves some management and also frees a slot. Sounds good.

And after yesterday's playtesting, I think that good ol' Ashbone fits my style of play better, thus taking Cultist Master out.

[DerNewYork]

Unholy Power and Undead Army and Harvy ability should deal with most, so your Harvy doesnt get focused that often.

And you need Cultist Master if you dont play with fire -> SOW, for void power manipulation.
So no need to take that out.