Try a different Weapon for your Shadow Runeblade Hero Fabrary link: fabrary.net/decks/01HF17TRBBR... 0:00 Explanation for not playing Flail 23:40 Decklist
Another option I am considering is to still use a 2H weapon but to add Shadow Puppetry (probably Reaping Blade as the weapon in that case rather than Dread Scythe, for the cheaper activation). With go again from Puppetry you can follow up your main attack with the weapon attack. You don't need flail because you could already pay life into Puppetry. So Shadow Puppetry then functions kind of like a Runic Reckoning that triggers Wail more reliably and still gives you the option of make 2 Runechants -> Go Again -> Widespread Ruin, and splitting up the turn into multiple attacks should be better vs Dragons/Spectra
This has seemed decent idea but the Unhallowed Rites plan is not really working vs slow decks (too low impact and too hard to play from the banished zone). Am now trying Read the Runes in the sideboard attempting to more reliably take advantage of looming doom / oblivion
Cool idea! I was experimenting with something similar (not playing flail) when considering a red line vynnset build. Sadly the fact that you will pitch an entire card for a weapon attack makes it so you can very rarely block efficiently, you already want to keep your 3 blocks so you can banish them and now you want to keep an additional blue so you can attack on your turn. I really want to see you playing this list as I seem to not understand it. My current builds went further into blood debt cards ~35 cards are blood debt so that I have a really low chance of getting a "dud" hand , sure some of those cards arent as powerful as the runegate attacks, but worst case scenario they will block for 3 or otherwise will be played for at least some value out of the banish (unlike what happens when having 0 blood debt cards in hand, usually means you can barely block that round as well since most of the non blood debt cards are 2 blocks + at the end of it all, your turn is very crappy as you are forced into some "setup" play). I might be overvaluing this however, but I've definitely noticed less tilt since running less "duds" in the deck.
Yeah I think the Scythe was not terrible but a bit too greedy, and that going forward with this idea I'd probably prefer to use Reaping Blade instead, just because the lower cost grants a bit more flexibility about when/how the deck can use it. In terms of number of blood debt cards it's just a question of consistency. Like imagine a situation of 1 Runechant + Vantom Wraith Red + Deathly Delight Red vs 1 Runehant + Banshee Red + Reduce Yellow. You block 3 with your Vantom Wraith then banish Deathly Delight (or vice versa) and attack with it. Or, you block 3 with Reduce Yellow then banish red Banshee and attack with it. Second scenario is 2 extra damage "for free", but has some kind of extra deckbuilding risk that if your hand is instead something like 2x Reduce or 2x Banshee (which can happen if your deck has fewer 2cost runegate attacks in it) maybe you can't find a way to attack at all, and you have kind of a wasted turn. I think that the risk/reward equation here is acceptable/manageable, so that aiming for the extra "free" damage (having less consistent but more powerful turns) is worth it. Clearly not that many other people seem to agree, as often you see lists with 3x Vantom Wraith + 3x Deathly Delight + sometimes other cheap Runegate cards like Bounding Demigon or whatever, but have these people really tried pushing the boundaries on what they can get away with? Especially after Galaxia in the cardpool making the deck's setup much more consistent. (I would acknowledge that if you start from the position that the deck wants Mauvrion Skies in it, then playing more copies of cheaper rune gate cards also makes sense, because you need to have attack actions to chain together with the Go Again. I just am so disappointed with Mauvrion Skies in practice that I want to try challenging the assumption that the deck is supposed to play that card).
Interesting thought process on the hero. As far as rift skitter goes, it’s below rate but allows you to get value from Runechants and then follow up with another attack if you wish to avoid filling your deck with NAAs that give go again. A solid strategy I’ve employed with rift skitter is following it up with cards with dominate (mainly Drowning Dire to help recycle useful NAAs). I don’t think this avenue is explored enough.
Yeah, I think this version is okay still, but Kiatrox also inspired me to try a build with 3 Revel in Runeblood as the "play 2 cards in 1 turn out of banish zone" effect, because the efficiency of Putrid Stirrings has been sometimes disappointing. I don't think you can rely on creepers 100% of the time though but I still don't like Mauv that much and I don't know what other go-again effect to use to enable playing Revel after attacking. Maybe Envelop + Rift Skitter is the combo? Doesn't sound very good but like you say it doesn't really feel "figured out" yet
I prefer the flail, so you can keep combat chains open with Mauv skies turns with dealthly wail and having no shadow non-attack actions. So the flail looses the 1 life to gain the extra chant when closing the chain. I've experimented with the higher blue counts but feel like it is more of Viserai's domain given how constrained Vynnset is with using them for runegate/ double gate turns. Capping two runechants with wail is fine, if you're using creepers on something like mauv and playing a 2 cost gate from banish and then following up with a flail swing. I've 15 >19 blues in my main list and feel like it is nowhere near enough to reliably use nebula blade or looming doom. Love the idea of the deck, but seems a bit cute. I feel like mass aggro is the way to go currently with the hope of trying to dodge Victor/ Bravo. Enjoyed the summarisation, thrown a like :)
I like Mauvrion Skies when it works, but I find too often the opponent can block out the buffed attack and then also block out the Flail hit with equipment, meaning that this combo of Skies + Flail basically just turns Skies into a 0-cost "Pay 1 life, put a -1 counter on opponent's battleworn, Go Again" which is a worse card than e.g. Yellow Beseech the Demigon. Opponents that struggle to block Mauv attacks still feel like good matchups for Vynnset even without Mauv, and opponents that already want to block all your attacks are your bad matchups and become even worse matchups when your deck has Mauv in it. (So if your plan for the Bravo/Victor matchup is to just not get paired against it then it does make sense to put Mauv in the deck, but I don't know if this is an overall good plan into the current metagame). The plan with Looming Doom is to put it into play off Sonata so I don't think blue count matters too much. I think I will cut Dread Scythe for Reaping Blade because there are enough situations where the flexibility of the lower cost makes a difference. Nebula Blade is hard to use efficiently in a list like this (no Skies) even with a hypothetical high blue count because almost all the non-attack actions with Go Again buff your attack actions, so either you waste the effect of your Envelop/Stirrings etc when you attack with Nebula or you attack with the buffed attack action (without Go Again because no Skies) and now you can't attack with Nebula Blade anyway. Maybe if Nebula blade cost 0-1 to use a play like Beseech the Demigon -> Nebula Attack would be decent in some situations, but the printed 2-cost is too much probably
Sorry, I don't keep the SB map fully up to date. Bring it Vs Guardian to try to stack it as big as possible and push damage over their AB1, vs Dromai because it's a flexible way of killing Cromai/Kyloria, and vs Kano because it's just another blue to pitch into AB. Against some matchups like Ninja it might be fine if you think you want another 3block instead of Beseech the Demigon or something but I don't think I've been using it for that. You mainly only want it as this giga damage source vs guardians because stacking up 6+ runechants is generally not a very efficient gameplan to aim for, so you don't want to do it unless you really feel like you have to
I assume you've seen chow's vids and lists, but have you ever tried them? You pinpoint the issue with mauv, even if it demands cards you are still taking BD and it kills your tempo completely. With 9 copies of wail, you can build banish with wails / funeral moons / requiem until you get shadow puppetry AND Mordred Tide set up, so that all of the wails give you 3 runechants automatically. Lots of D reacts to get there. Its not perfect but it can shred guardians OTK, its kind of like playing prism where your life total doesnt matter, you just win if you get the 3-5 gate mega turn sent. But mordred tide is the answer, its hot garbage UNLESS you have multiple Deathly Wail set up for it, at which point its the GOAT
Yeah I have seen that haha, I think the "slot-machine" idea where you stack up multiple Deathly Wails in the banish zone then machine-gun them all in 1 turn using Mordred Tide is really interesting and I definitely wouldn't have thought of it myself. Last time I saw it I remember thinking that build of the deck seems probably just too inconsistent though? You're definitely right that the combo/OTK power solves one of this deck's biggest problems, but like you say, it also requires awkward cards like Mordred Tide and seems really hard to set up. I will take a look again though and see if he has made any recent changes and/or see if I can think of a way to improve it.
