Hi everyone, Green Cricket here and today I'll show you an upgraded version of the standard
Alchemy Deck.
We cover the topics: Decklist and Card Analysis, Mulligan Guideline, Deck Tips and tricks and
then we talk about how to play against each Matchup.
Let's start!
First of all.
we are not running Calveit because the deck is already pretty consistent and we don't
need to sacrifice any points for that.
Instead, we go with raw power, because Usurper typically gets us 17 points and more depending
on the situation.
If you are behind, drop Usurper and you'll catch up immediately and even if you get bad
draws you won't end up with bad tempo.
I'll talk about detailed Usurper usage in the Deck Tips and Tricks section!
The core deck, however, has the basic components of every Alchemy deck:
3 Mahakam Ales, 3 Ointments, 3 Vicovaro Novices, 3 Viper Witchers and 3 Slave Drivers.
Vicovaro Novice is able to look up two random bronze alchemy cards of your deck and then
you are able to play one of them.
In Round 1 we use the Novices to pull Ale and putting 14 solid points onto the board.
This is nice tempo and thins the deck, so we can reliably access Ointments in round
3.
Since Mahakam Ale needs 3 targets to reach its full value, we use Slave Drivers as our
board setup tool.
Slave Driver lets you create 1 out of 3 random bronze units of the enemy deck, so one Slave
Driver will always get you at least two units onto the board.
That way you can just play Slave Driver, then Vicovaro Medic and already get the full points
from ale.
Sometimes Slave Driver is providing you with more than 1 unit, for example when you create
a Beastmaster or an Elven Scout.
Ointments resurrect a Bronze card with 5 or less power.
Since all our cards have less than or equal 5 power, they give us great versatility in
round 3.
Viper Witchers do 9 Damage in this deck because we have included 9 Alchemy cards.
9 Damage is enough to get rid of nearly every engine out there and makes Witchers solid
14 point cards as well.
However, the Silver and Gold cards are where this deck becomes a little more potent than
the standard versions.
The biggest change is the addition of Olgierd, which is our safety measure against being
on the wrong side of the coinflip.
Playing Olgierd in Round 1 ensures that we can lose on equal cards because the enemy
is not able to drypass or play Spy-Ping pong with us.
It also provides an additional body for Mahakam Ale, when we have no Slave Drivers for the
board setup.
Then we're using Rainfarn together with Cantarella and Joachim.
Rainfarm is there to have better access to both of them and since we are using two spying
units, he won't end up as a dead card.
Cantarella has three benefits: It enables us to counter an enemy spy, it
enables us to secure card advantage on a high tempo round or in round 2, if the enemy does
not run spies and it provides us with a target for Viper Witchers if we need one.
Joachim (especially in combination with Rainfarm) is a big tempo push, enabling us to bleed
an enemy or secure the win in a short round 3.
Enemies will play around Expired Ale, but even then it is a 12 point alchemy card.
But with Joachim and Cantarella you easily can get the 18 points out of it.
Runestone is another alchemy card, able to generate good points, depending on your create
options and your situation.
Stefan Skellen lets you put a card on top of your deck, adding 5 points to it.
Through him, you can set up your perfect round 3 or you'll use him before you play Vilgefortz,
to make your enemy cry because of all the points you drop on the board.
Vilgefortz is solid points one way or the other and I'll go into detail usage in the
Tips and Tricks section.
Trial of the Grasses is another Alchemy card, able to add 20 points as a finisher in round
3 or as big tempo play in round 2.
If you add another Swallow to the deck, then this card could be exchanged for Igni or other
cards, depending on the meta.
Let's talk Mulligans.
You wanna look for Olgierd or Alzurs Double Cross, Cantarella, and of course: all your
gold cards.
Blacklist Mahakam Ale immediately, but keep 1 Ointment on your hand, so that your Vicovaro
Medics draw Ales for sure in round 1.
Assure that you have something to set up your Ales like Slave Drivers and try to have at
least 1 Witcher, so you can kill enemy engines and have it available as a rez in round 3.
Beware that Alzurs Double Cross pulls Cantarella if it is still in the deck, so use this to
your advantage!
Let's move to the Tips and Tricks section of this deck guide.
Before we talk about card combinations, we need to talk about probabilities.
To master your Vicovaro Medics, you need to know how likely it is to draw Ointment instead
of Ale in Round 1.
Drawing Ointment is especially bad if you have nothing to rez on your graveyard.
IF there is something to resurrect, then the only disadvantage is that you may be stuck
with an ale in round 3.
Let's check following table for how likely it is to draw Ale, depending on how much Bronze
Alchemy is still in the deck: The first two columns tell us how much Ales
or Ointments are still left in the deck.
Since Vicovaro Medic draws two alchemy cards, there is one column for each draw.
The second chance to draw ale is higher because we already removed an Ointment with the first
draw.
On the right, you see the total chance of drawing ale.
As you can see, it is pretty high, but for maximizing the value and get it over 90%,
we always want to keep an Ointment out of the deck, so we have 90%, 84% and 67% chance
to draw ointment instead of 80%, 70% and 50%.
This makes our first 2 draws almost guaranteed.
Another trick is to chain Vicovaro Novices to thin your deck and to put some extra value
on the board.
If you know that you can't access your remaining ointments or you want to thin, to be able
to draw a gold card, you may want to play Vicovaro Medic, select Ointment, resurrect
a Vicovaro Medic and keep this going until all the Alchemy cards in your deck are gone.
Having 6 points or not having those points may be the difference between winning or losing,
so always maximize your points!
Usurper is a solid tempo play most of the time, but we can increase his power even further,
by doing some preparation.
Playing Usurper later in a round usually gives your more Options and points, if you think
of Radovid, Filavandrel or Harald.
Since there is a chance to get Eithne, I also try to already have a Silver spell in my graveyard
for her to replay.
Leaders like Eist, Adda and Eredin can provide you bodies for you Mahakam Ale, - Whispering
Willock, Unseen Elder, Filavandrel can provide you big point spikes, especially when the
enemy has big units (think of Mardroeme, Scorch, etc.) and then Crach and Brouver can access
cards in your deck.
So don't be afraid of using Usurper and try to play him within a round, where you can
get the maximum of options for him!
Vilgefortz is most of the time used to play another card from your deck, but there are
certain situations, where it is good to use Vilgerotz to destroy an enemy unit.
For me those are:
A short round 3, where the enemy has played Ciri: Nova, Trial of the Grasses or something
worth a lot of points, which he can't recover through drawing a Bronze card
When the enemy thinned down to zero or I am sure that he won't be able to get a bronze
card from Vilgefortz because there is none left in his deck
When there is a decent chance, that I'm not getting a lot of value by playing another
card of my deck, like when the enemy is row stacking and it's pretty likely that Expired
Ale is the next card
Always try to have the last card and keep a Witcher or Ointment in Hand, if you're running
Trial of the grasses.
You don't want to end up in a situation, where you'll play a Witcher, the enemy removes it
and suddenly you have no target for Trial of the Grasses.
Also don't forget, that you can use Trial of the Grasses offensively for killing a unit
with 10 power or less!
This becomes useful in a situation where the enemy really relies on a specific unit, like
killing the only Henselt target, thus rendering him useless.
Last but not least let's quickly go over the matchups.
Henselt Try to bleed him into a short round 3 and
disable his targets for Siege Masters or Henselt himself.
Especially Battering Rams will give him good value, since he can kill your Medics and Slave
Drivers, so try to grow them beyond the 5 point mark immediately.
Greatswords Greatswords is an Engine deck, Alchemy is
Control.
Perfect!
Try to get as much removal as possible into your hand and don't give him the opportunity
to grow big!
Marauder Ships Similar to Greatswords you want to have Witchers
in your hand to get rid of every ship appearing on the enemy side of the board.
Use Slave Drivers to set up ships on your side and outgrow him.
Always damage curse units or go for the kill or his Marauders will grow big.
Mulligan Elves Kill Elves instead of damaging them, so they
won't be buffed, but except that you just want to out-tempo them.
Your Olgierd will save you from a round 2 Wardancer drop, so don't care too much about
winning or losing round 1.
Important is that you prevent your enemy from playing a long round 3, so try to split the
rounds as good as possible.
Nova Elves Keep Vilgefortz to destroy the enemy Ciri:
Nova and immediately get rid of cards like Dragoons or Hawker Smuggler.
Don't care too much about Farseer.
As long as there are no Dragoons on the board, it won't grow too big.
Alchemy Mirror Match Typically you play against Calveit as Leader,
so we have the advantage of Usurper's tempo push.
Try to mulligan for Slave Drivers and focus on creating their Viper Witchers or you may
overthin your Alchemy cards, resulting in a dead Vicovaro Medic.
Their last round is strong because they usually Mandrake Calveit and then get it back out
with Cahir + Roach or/ and use Trial of the grasses.
Keep Vilgefortz ready to counter this power spike.
Also, beware of Assire: She may put a dead Cantarella back into your
deck, so keep that in mind in your Mulligans!
Reveal Get Witchers in your hand and destroy their
Mangonel.
Some of them play Drought, so try to get it out in round 1 with a good pass, so you are
not forced into it in round 3.
Ultimate / Greedy Consume Don't let them grow their Nekkers and target
their Vran Warriors.
If you can pull out Nekkers early that's good as well.
Keep Vilgefortz and hit a big target in round 3!
After Nekkers are out his bronzes won't be able to generate value anymore!
In round 1 you should go for insane tempo, try to block his whole Nekker setup, by forcing
him 2 or 3 cards down with Rainfarm, Usurper and co.
That way, he needs more setup later and you can try to bleed him in round 2.
Deathwish Don't be afraid of killing their Deathwish
units.
If you don't kill them, they will use Griffin or Cyclops to trigger it anyhow, so better
to prevent their targets!
Try to keep a Witcher ready in the case they play a Bargegazi because it will outvalue
your Olgierd and render it useless.
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