The Question of “What are the best decks?” has come up more than once, and after having the game released for a little over a year, I figured it was worth starting a discussion of “what are the strongest tournament decks?”
Generally speaking, I think Necromancy is the strongest spec, and Black is the Strongest Starter.
I’ll edit this post as I have time to add more thoughts on each of these “top tier” decks I’ve listed, but I’m curious to hear other’s thoughts.
A+ Tier
[Demon/Necro]/Finesse
This deck is incredibly strong. The amount of early game pressure Fencers and Vandy can bring (along with Black Starter) is unparalleled in my mind. It can combo into so many things, too. Garth can fetch Grounded Guide to make your fencers hyper-buff, River can bring Dancers to combo off your Dark Pact, Soul Stone can turn Star-Crossed Starlets into hasty wrecking balls, Graveyard and Maestro give you free replays on the haste… Not to mention just playing for Metamorphosis or demons (TerrasQ + Discord anyone?) or just skeleton horde as alternate win lines… This deck I find very user-friendly and oppressive to play against. It can deal with everything but upgrades, which makes the Growth Tech 2 decks (especially the hasty ones like [Blood]/Strength/Growth) its greatest weakness, but even then having Discord does great work against the weanies like Bird’s Nest that deck uses as fuel for Might of Leaf and Claw
I can’t add poll options right now it seems… My bad on Anarchy vs Blood /strength/growth, I couldn’t remember which one fared better but you’re both right, Anarchy was the better one I misremembered.
Agree on Future/Truth/X, I think Feral was what I saw it run with the most (and with green starter? [Feral]/Future/Truth? Gives good hero pressure).
@Legion 99% sure Eric ran [Future]/Peace/Necro (not Anarchy), as Necro allowed for fetching a DS and gives anti-hero from Nether Drain, plus Hoodies are soldiers and BC / Skeletons give good patrol cover.
Also I feel like there’s something involving Future and Blood that did well (Maybe Truth or Growth?) and some deck featuring Discipline that did well that I’m forgetting.
Agree with @zhavier that [Anarchy]/Strength/Growth is strong and the best [Red]/Strength/Growth deck. The killer is being able to follow MoLaC with Surprise Attack, gets you close to a win condition earlier than most decks can handle. The deck still plays well (though not quite so scarily) against decks with Upgrade removal (Balance, Discipline or Future), can buff Birds and/or Barbarians with Growth Spells, play a regular Growth game (Ancients etc) or Anarchy rush for Gunships. And Rook gives good early stability against aggro heroes.
I’m still a fan of the match where I took that deck into Molac against balance, and followed it up with gunships to close it out. Note Future is the scariest upgrade removal against molac. Even when balance or discipline are in the opponents deck, a turn of Molac being active can be devestating if the opponent didn’t prepare with upgrade removal fast enough.
I’d vote on [Peace]/Demonology/Anarchy as a third choice.
The Chaos Mirror / Terras Q combo is really devastating and cheap on ressources (especially awesome with Traffic Director), Peace Tech I are overall solids and Pirate Gunship is the awful unit that made me stop the game bc salt.
You get an awesome versatility with other lines (Vandy Rush and Peace Tech II), your econ is balanced (spending money on Vandy is always great but you can go cheap with Overeager Cadets) and you can have hand management with Dark Pact and Brave Knight.
My other choices were Necro/Demon/Finesse and Necro/Blood/Fire bc Black Starter has cheap answers to everything and as few as 2 crap cards (it’s OP).
I’m really happy Midori was balanced because I’m pretty sure he would be far on top of the current meta with its old midband. Maybe the nerf was a bit zealous thought ?
On FFA the meta changes drastically : on 5 players Law and Disease are clearly top tier (opposite to their usefulness in 1v1) and Fire and Feral are great all-around specs (specs which are meh in 1v1).
@Bob199 I did lose with it twice in CAPS '17, though in fairness I was still feeling it out for myself as I hadn’t played the deck prior to that tournament
Spectral Aven and Building Inspector are awesome targets for Chaos Mirror, but Red red starter is good too to delete the first 5 hitpoints and you can always get a flying unit with Gargoyle. Black one is very good too, as Jandra has Overpower and you can play a full demon+heroes line !
The real combo here is Demonology/Anarchy
Totally agree, Nullcraft is awesome here too !
The Peace spec isn’t the most important. I like it because cheap Tech 0/1 units allow fast Vandy/Zane levels up.
Green starter has the least synergy with this combo and it’s still good
