6/25/2014

Black Witches Prototype 1

Black Witches Prototype 1

Test Build 1


Rias and Deirdre
(White Witches would be Genesis Witches)

For all decks labeled as:
stable - working as intended.
test - still under tuning and some things may or may not work as intended.

FVG:
Witch of Banquets, Lir *1

 Trigger: (6 stand/6 crit/4 heal)
 Black Cat Witch, Milkre (Heal) *4
Black Crow Witch, Eine (Critical) *4
Witch of Goats, Medb (Stand) *4
Revenger, Air Raid Dragon (Critical) *2
Revenger, Waking Angel (Stand) *2

 Grade 1: (*14)
Barrier Witch, Grainne (QW) *2
Revenger of Darkness, Mac Lir (PG) *2
Ruin Witch, Scathach *4
Witch of Precious Stones, Dana *4
Witch of Nostrum, Arianrhod *2

 Grade 2: (*11)
Comet Witch, Serva *2 (will be replacing with Witch of Attraction, Adora once she's out)
Inspection Witch, Deirdre *4
Witch of Reality, Femme *4
Skull Witch, Nemain *1

 Grade 3: (*8)
Cultus Witch, Rias *4
Witch of Enchantment, Fianna *4

   First (actually, 2nd, but close enough) attempt on the black witches. As much as I like my RRR Nemain, her 3k hurts this deck way too much since this deck has to run stands for the awesome utility Medb provides, and I almost never find myself ever wanting to use Nemain's effect more than once per game even if I can. But she is still occasionally useful and looks great, so there's 1 copy for that.

   I've explained why I prefer 6 stand/6 crit over 8 crit/4 stand previously in my Silver Thorn deck profile; with 4 stands, I still need to attack with the R > V > R pattern to avoid wasting triggers, but I see them with low consistency (as much consistency as draw triggers in the standard 8/4/4 ratio), whereas with 6 stands, I can attack with the R > V > R pattern but expect to see both with equal frequency. Honestly I feel like the witches aren't the best deck to utilize stand triggers for reasons including a weaker front line, on-call skills that makes you think twice about calling it prematurely, absolutely no on-hit pressure (that'd change once Witch of Attraction, Adora is out), and how you can and will turn front row units into G0s and so there are a lot less interceptors to swing at. It kinda sucks that Medb has such a strong skill but is on a stand trigger, forcing you to run it.

   A few major issues I've noticed with the witches are:
  • Unlike traditional Shadow Paladins, they have no superior call (the FVG one doesn't count), and relies on Nemain and Fianna for direct advantages, which is really low quality, unreliable, and inconsistent.
  • Riding Rias first absolutely sucks. Her on-legion skill is pretty useless early on and even requires you to eat another witch (-1), and her Polymorph skill is extremely costly, to the point it costs as much as Fianna's but less than half as effective (you run the risk of not seeing and G0s off top 5 of deck). For the cost of CB2 even Berserk Dragon could have guaranteed something dead.
  • Performance is heavily dependent on the other deck in terms of match up. Examples includes, but are not limited to: Meets Raisers? Fianna helps them fetch for up to 2 Cat Butlers off the top of their deck, and the G1 and G2 helps them reuse Cat Butler. Meets Revengers? They can just eat the triggers to suffer like nothing and even lock you out of your skills that checks for the amount of G0s on the opponent's field. 
  • Fairly easy to play around and heavily dependent on your opponent's hand and actions. Good players can avoid guarding with G0s early game, guard with G0s mid game, and then Legion to shuffle all G0s away and then leave your Dana and Deirdre always vanilla. Smart players can and will call over the G0s you give them to lock you out of your skills that require X number of G0s on their field to even trigger, and then Legion the G0s away. 
   Still working on it, but these are the current issues that needs to be solved/worked around. Since Witch of Attraction, Adora is already revealed and known, I'll be beginning my testing by using that as well to see how much issues it solves.

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