Hey everyone, Reygon here again with another article. Today we will be once again looking at the PVE format and talking about some "All Stars" that consistently perform well when squaring off versus Lord Krung.
To clarify this is based on my personal experience while playing PVE and I have not come close to testing every contender and card. Each player has their own playstyle so take what I'm saying with an open mind and a grain of salt! Just because I missed your favorite contender or card, doesn't mean they are also not an all star but more likely I just haven't tried it yet!
I am also only focusing cards that really stand out and not just “good cards”. These cards provide a disproportionate amount of value in PVE or a consistent avenue to victory game in and game out. A card like deliverance is good as it removes the biggest threat, but compared to Clairty, From the Shadows who also removes the most important threat for 3 resources, it can be used repeatedly each turn with no downside.
Starting with contenders, we are looking for things that the contender provides that others dont. They need to add a certain dynamic that others cant replicate that puts it ahead of other options.
Contenders
Lord Krung, Leader of the Horde: Lord krung and his horde army actually match up the best against the Boss. Mainly because the game starts with the portal open giving easy access to ambush cards such as Morac and Gurr and each time one enters you get to draw a card so you can keep up with resources and threats every turn. By keeping cards in ambush, you can also shield yourself from board wipes in the event deck. The main downside is the flavor fail of playing Krung vs Krung and actually not being able to play when the Boss deck is piloted by another person. I played this a few times, but decided personally not to use Lord Krung anymore.
Cadavros, Prophet of Despair: For similar reasons to Krung, Cadavros is successful due to the power ambush cards with the portal always being open at the start of the game. Cadavaros can easily abuse Morac to tutor for his 4x copy of Lord Krung and match up well versus the Boss and easily end the game by turn 7. Refer to my PVP guide on how to play cadavros, it will operate the same but with noone slowing you down making it so much better. Amazon rainforest is no longer a reliable discard outlet like in PVP but with the portal being open from the start and access to bombardment this is rarely an issue. But once again, it feels Flavor bad to play discarded versus discard again.
Mean-Streak, Ready to Brawl: Mean streak stands out as a solid contender for 3 reasons. The first reason is that you get to draw a card each time a card with a Streak Counter is defeated. This allows you to trade clash card for minion and get to fuel your hand each time you do it. The second reason is superspeed. Mean-Streak has access to the superspeed mechanic and it is one of the strongest things when facing off versus the horde. It lets you safely attack and defend and win most of the clashes without losing your card. The last is Ready to Brawl allows you to stack streak counters rapidly onto Mean-Streak, Blink of an Eye to activate his team wide buff!
Genesis, Emissary of Chaos: Genesis ability to stand out from the crowd lies within his second ability which reduces the cost of cards by BB. It is a bit risky, but if you can let yourself get down to the 15 threshold you can start playing really strong blue cards 2 turns ahead of curve. On top of that he has access to both a reduced cost I am Creation and Haven to further ramp you ahead of the crowd. Its no surprise that playing strong cards sooner is powerful and noone does this better than Genesis. On top of that, being able to play cards from resource ensures you always have access to a card to play each turn even if you are out of cards in hand. Genesis, changing plans essentially gives you a free blocker every turn as it when it is defeated it just goes back to your resource zone to be played again next turn.
Paul, the Waiter: Paul fills the roll of support better than any other contender I have played with. He is able to use himself as a blocker to protect his teammates while drawing cards. And with his damage reduction he can put a stop to necrotic and brutal key words. Overall Paul is my standout pick for when looking at a support!
Next we will look at the rest of the card pool. Once again this is simply from the decks that i've played to date and you'll notice I like to play mainly Red, Black, and Blue so you will see a list of cards that probably refelct that! Secondly, I am ruling out almost all clashgrounds from this list as they get replaced every turn by the boss, limiting their impact to the game like they can in PVP.
Morac/Krung: I am looping these two cards together. Lord Krung, Ruthless Warlord and Morac, the Devour are like two peas in a pod. Since the portal starts open, you can use Morac on turn 1 and start your search for all your Krungs. You can eventually overlord the board with both attackers and blockers resulting in easy wins. These two cards are what make the Discarded so powerful in this format. Even if you arent playing discarded, morac lets you search your deck for the card you need at any time such as clarity from the shadows or genesis, steadfast fighter. If you are like me, you will start to challenge yourself to play PVE without using any discarded cards for the flavor win on top of the challenge! So moving forward I will not be highlighting anymore Discarded cards.
Mean-Streak, Blink of an Eye: As mentioned earlier in the article Mean streak (MS) can provide a team wide boost by reaching 5 streak counters. Once you hit this threshold it usually results in a win. On top of that, MS also has superspeed built into his kit making him a useful card even before that threshold is hit. My entire deck is built around getting MS to 5 counters ASAP and it has been reliable.
Magnate, Destructive Adversary: Magnate is single handedly one of the best game finishers available. His ability do do large chunks of damage with little effort. The more players you have in the game, the better he gets but he may struggle in solo play. With 4 players and the boss in a game, its not uncommon to have 20+ clash cards in play letting magnate take big chunks of health with every attack. He is also not exclusive, so you can potentially get multiple in play and really snowball the game. Undisputed also gives him a degree of safety when attacking but most of the time your clearing the way before you swing to get in direct damage.
Clarity, from the shadows: Clarity provides repeatable removal by sending to oblivion. With a few exceptions this will always be able to care of the biggest threat and the Skulls and Shields off the field making the horde much less deadly. And since the boss doesn't attack engaged clash cards you dont have to worry about her built in downside of having to send another clash card to oblivion when she is defeated. As i mentioned before she can be played in combination with Morac to be searched from your deck, so you only have to play 1 in your list.
Harvest of Souls: This is the first non clash card we will be highlighting and its for a good reason. Harvest of souls is team card draw for only 2 black resources. Since there is consistent clashing happening every turn when the boss attacks, there is always plenty of clash cards in each players oblivion. Each player banishes any number of clash cards from their oblivion then each player draws cards equal to the number of clash cards banished by all players. So for example P1 banishes 3, P2 banishes 1, p3 banishes 5. Each player would draw 9 cards (3+1+5) refueling their hands. This is specifically useful when the DPS player doenst have to worry about building in any card draw into their decks and can rely on their support player to assist them in this. But be careful, if the boss is piloted he can also draw cards which can result in a quick loss.
Here Comes the Boom: to no surprise a board wipe is a powerful option when facing off versus Krung. The downside is that it also sets back your team. In certain situation this is the most powerful card you can play by setting the board back to square 1. But typically the boss can get cards back into play quickly so make sure your team knows its coming and has a recovery plan. I like to know that at least one teammate is running this card just in case.
Set 1 Clash Buffs: the big bans have returned and still powerful. Being able to play a clash buff with 0 resources available give good stats and draw a card is no laughing matter. If you contender has access to one of these, you should probably be playing it with few exceptions. Being able to protect your teammates and manipulate who has the focus is essential to a strong team strategy.
Paul: a new card from the spoils of the vault, Paul (yes just plain Paul) can be played for 2 black resources. The first time you obstruct each turn target contender gains 2 health. Since Paul mainly plays support, he is always looking to obstruct for his team making it easy for him to heal up other contenders to stay out of one shot range. This gets even better when you get multiple in play. This is one of the best repeat life gain cards available in PVE right now. There are a few cards in the boss deck that does unavoidable damage that Paul can help your team survive. When it comes to solo play, this card has stabilized me more than I would like to admit.
Thragor, Dread Titan: Ok so I lied earlier, I am going to talk about one more discarded card from Echoes. The new legendary Thragor, Dread Titan is another powerful finisher similar to Magnate. For 9 resources (or 7 if you meet the conditions) thragor becomes a high stat attacker with break through that can be replaced even if he is defeated. Typically by turn 7 the oblivions of most players and the boss are filled to the brim with clash cards giving Thragor a HUGE stat buff. During my PVE event in Nashville I was able to attack for 57 in one turn with Thragor. The downside is that he is a Legendary so only one can be in your deck. I like to include Lord Krung’s Dominion in my deck so I can directly put thragor into my oblivion each game. With this setup you can act as a support deck with tons of blockers then transition to a DPS once you have Thragor online. 10/10 would recommend trying him out if you haven't yet!
Well once again you can see my preference for playing Black and Blue decks show from the description above. I know there are more all-stars out there I havent played with or along side yet. I am looking forward to seeing more brews posted on Deck Planet around beating Lord Krung.
Thanks for reading! :)
Reygon