Last week's strategy challenge was something I enjoyed writing so I'll give it another go this week. Last time we looked at Conqueror Jacek with an Unhittable Chaos Agent. This time I'll provide a strategy for Quix the Devious for low mana matches. The best element to use for Quix at low mana is life, mainly due to access to Pelacor Conjurer.
This strategy has worked wonders for me through the Chaos Legion era in modern ranked. Rebellion introduced some new strategies that are troublesome for this one, but they typically revolve around expensive cards, so unless you are at the top of the modern ladder, this strategy is likely something that you can use a lot.
The lineup
Quix the Devious is our summoner for this strategy. The main reason to pick Quix in this setup is that he is the cheapest (modern) dragon summoner at the moment. This allows us to access
Vruz
, which is one of the core cards in this strategy. Besides, Quix is a good alround summoner. The -1 Ranged is fine, but -1 Speed is very good. Never underestimate the ability to strike before your opponent does!
Out frontline is going to be Vulguine. It is a bit of a tough choice which one to put in front - Vulguine or Pelacor Conjurer. At this low mana, it is quite common to face Sneak based teams, and if we do that, then placing Vulguine in front lets him begin beating down the frontline right away. If we face a frontline focused team, it will often be better to place the Pelacor Conjurer up front and allow Vulguine to stack up some health with
Scavenger
before going into the battle. Vulguine is a very strong card for 2 mana. He will have 5 attack once enraged, and and has a good chance of evading melee and ranged attacks due to
Dodge
.
Pelacor Conjurer is among the strongest cards in the game. It might not appear that way since it is so accessible, but I can assure you that if this had low print rate, it would be a very expensive card. It has super strong defensive stats - good ability to evade all attack types with its high speed,
Flying
and
Phase
, and has 8 health on top just in case it does get hit. It is also a strong anti-magic card due to
Magic Reflect
. Meta-defining card for sure. We get great durability against frontline based opponents by including this card.
Soul Fiend is a cheap filler card like all fiends, however, this is the best one due to
Swiftness
. The speed boost pairs great with all our cards (look at high much speed we already have to begin with here). We place him in third slot because we do not want to put the Martyr buff on it. Otherwise it would have been standard to use it as a Sneak feeder in the last position.
Celestial Harpy will be our next include. This is also a standard card in low mana life matches, maybe a little less common after Eternal Tofu arrived. The
True Strike
is what makes this card so good, paired with
Opportunity
to allow it to attack from any position. This is also a great card to fight any enemy Pelacor Conjurer, since it is able to consistently hit its strikes. This can often be crucial in the later rounds of a match. We place it in fourth position, next to Vruz to get the
Martyr
stack on it if Vruz dies.
Vruz is the most important card in this strategy. He has fantastic speed, can attack from anywhere, will always hit due to
True Strike
, and most importantly, if he dies he will boost his neighboring units with
Martyr
, essentially making our team even stronger when he dies. Due to the 7 speed, we can count on dealing a little bit of damage with him every match, and we are not sad if he smashes into thorns. He also offers decent Sneak protection due to his high speed.
Finally, our last unit is Dr. Blight. A staple card in all sorts of strategies ever since he was released. Everything he provides is of value to us - the only downside is his lousy speed. The speed does make it so that if he lands
Poison
, there is very low chance of it being cleansed before dealing damage. Blight will be the second target to receive the
Martyr
buff if Vruz dies. That can be game-changing since Dr. Blight has
Camouflage
and
Scavenger
, so that he will be protected until he is the last unit standing and can use the increased stats for all their worth.
When to use
16
mana is the perfect amount for this strategy. At that particular mana level, it uses exactly all the mana for a very efficient set of units. We can adapt up to 18 mana, and down to 14. Outside that, I think that the strategy loses out to other setups. The backline trio can still be used at even higher mana.
We need to be able to play both magic and melee units, but not ranged. This means that we can play it in no-ranged matches. We dont care if we dont get value from Quix's -1 ranged there. It is still great.
Noxious Fumes
and
Earthquake
are good rules for this strategy because they will kill Vruz quickly, and it is perfect in
Target Practice
where all ranged and magic units get Snipe. We can also use it in
Briar Patch
, but then we will likely need to swap the positions of Vulguine and Pelacor Conjurer, and maybe swap the Celestial Harpy for a Naga Assassin. Vulguine is still useful in that rule because we are guaranteed to enrage him, and then he hits pretty hard.
Unprocted
is great for this one, particularly because we do not have any armored units, so our lineup is unaffected by it.
Battle examples
| penass vs. trebuh | |
|---|
| Type | Ranked |
| Format | Wild |
| Mana | 16 |
| Elements | Red, Green, White, Black, Gold |
| Rules | Corrosive Fog, Fire & Regret, Blood and Sunder |
| Winner | trebuh |
penass's team:
trebuh's team:
bunsbagsandcaps's team:
kiokizz's team:
| senker32 vs. penass1 | |
|---|
| Type | Ranked |
| Format | Wild |
| Mana | 17 |
| Elements | Red, Blue, Green, White, Black, Gold |
| Rules | Unprotected |
| Winner | senker32 |
senker32's team:
penass1's team:
| quasar007 vs. icebirdd | |
|---|
| Type | Ranked |
| Format | Wild |
| Mana | 16 |
| Elements | Blue, Green, White, Black, Gold |
| Rules | Fire & Regret, Silenced Summoners |
| Winner | icebirdd |
quasar007's team:
icebirdd's team:
Variations:
At 17 mana we can replace the Soul Fiend - for example with Kra'ar Xoc
| z4orce vs. cryptoeater | |
|---|
| Type | Ranked |
| Format | Wild |
| Mana | 17 |
| Elements | Blue, White, Black, Gold |
| Rules | Target Practice, Broken Arrows, Silenced Summoners |
| Winner | cryptoeater |
z4orce's team:
cryptoeater's team:
Or at 18 mana, we can add in the Naga Assassin:
bk300bnb's team:
raymondspeaks's team:
If we are at lower mana, we might skip the Dr. Blight:
| toocurious vs. porquito | |
|---|
| Type | Ranked |
| Format | Modern |
| Mana | 14 |
| Elements | Red, Green, White, Gold |
| Rules | Close Range, Healed Out, Even Stevens |
| Winner | porquito |
toocurious's team:
porquito's team:
Final words
I hope you found this strategy useful. It is a very strong lineup that predates Rebellion, but is still very strong. It is also something that beginning players can play with. In particular, the variation shown in the last battle example uses mostly very cheap cards that a beginning player can buy or rent.
The battle links and summaries were made with spltools, specifically the function discussed in this post.
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Best wishes
@Kalkulus
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