Tier 1 deck archetypes

I saw Enkidu go down to five weenies who realized he's Red List and out of combat cards. The weenies just ran at Enkidu hitting for one and getting torpored in the process but the fifth took Enkidu with him.

Reyda wrote:

Banishment on Enkidu, you must be kidding me

You're right in that Shalmath is much more vulnerable to Banishment. Enkidu banished is still something I have seen.

Reyda wrote:

Enkidu decks pack pentexes to avoid being pentexed.

Packing 1 pentex don't help all that much. Of course, maybe people pack 5+ pentex to avoid the main problem of the deck, or use Infernal Pursuit or whatever to have it fast, or some other creative solution. I didn't see them doing much good however.

Reyda wrote:

Taste of vitae for 6 goes a loong way for a vampire to not even think about torpor

But when you actually taste for six, it's combat where you were never in any risk. Enkidu is good in combat, but other deck are authorized to be good too, and believing a vampire with small fortitude cannot go in torpor is ... a bit foolish.

But most importantly : people don't take specific measures against star rusher, because it is not played that much and it's a bit underestimated. But my opinion is that making a deck powerful against Enkidu or Shalmath is a lot easier than against tier1 decks. For example, being able to banish it ain't that hard, and being able to mostly survive its combat package is not that hard either, even if a small bit more difficult than sticking 5 majesty and calling it a day.

Ohlmann wrote:

being able to mostly survive its combat package is not that hard either, even if a small bit more difficult than sticking 5 majesty and calling it a day.

Out of interest, how do you do this?

Out of interest, how do you do this?

Looking through some latest TWDA decks, one-shotting Enkidu seems pretty ez for a combat deck. For a combat monster deck, Enkidu decks pack quite low defences (Taste is not a defence!). Hektor could burn her like any other vamp, using most tricks available for Enkidu, as well as Prevent All and Disarm combo would work, as only 1 of 4 recent TWDAs starring Enkidu had more than 5 cards to prevent that single point of damage to have Enkidu disarmed. Needless to say, most of people behind the table would diablerize torpored Enkidu even at a cost of losing a minion.

How in the high heavens is a superstar multi-act RUSH deck even remotely close to tier1? Weenie rush kills vampires as well as multi-rush, except that it can actually afford to lose minions, doesn't rely on a perfect card sequence to keep going and can actually bleed for more than 1 as well.

Enkidu rush with Earth Meld/Phyche is cute, somewhat of a novalty to play at the kitchen table occasionally, but it's tier 3 at most.

If Enkidu multirush decks are tearing up your metagame, then either you all play terrible decks, or are all terrible players. Or both.

kombainas wrote:

Looking through some latest TWDA decks, one-shotting Enkidu seems pretty ez for a combat deck. For a combat monster deck, Enkidu decks pack quite low defences (Taste is not a defence!). Hektor could burn her like any other vamp, using most tricks available for Enkidu, as well as Prevent All and Disarm combo would work, as only 1 of 4 recent TWDAs starring Enkidu had more than 5 cards to prevent that single point of damage to have Enkidu disarmed. Needless to say, most of people behind the table would diablerize torpored Enkidu even at a cost of losing a minion.

You seem to be focusing on possibilities instead of probabilities. I can only speak for my own deck lists and tournament experiences but Hektor and the like are only a threat if they a) have the good sense to rush Enkidu before he can act, b) have set range + Immortal Grapple, c) there's a guy that can and will diablerize Enkidu and d) Enkidu doesn't have the answer to aggravated damage in his opening hand. That's not an insignificant amount of ifs. If Enkidu does get to act, I typically run through 30 cards in a turn if necessary. That's plenty enough to pull some answers.

If that's not enough, the lack of prevent cards is not really pivotal to the deck design - if hitback was a significant obstacle to winning with Enkidu, the deck lists could easily pack more combat defense.