So ive recently come back after I heard about the revamp, and after playing a few games with my stitched i wanted to try a new theme. So jacked up on enough weed and vodka I somehow came to the conclusion that Minotaurs are cool and would be a cool theme to play. Once I made the bg(Flamecrusher is holding a spot for malandur) I realized what a terrible mistake it was since the bg now has no ranged. Any suggestions? Heres the bg: http://poxbase.com/deck/c60Ch3Ch1ch2Ch=Ch4CjVCz2Ch0S8dsys4@S2ls86SAsDR3prAr20
There's very little range in UD overall, so don't worry that you lack it. Besides, minos have that whole teleport thing to close the gap.
Minotaurs don't need range, they'd be grossly OP. I've been messing around with them in Top 50 or so since beginning of post-revamp and this is what I've been running: http://poxbase.com/deck/cpqc60Ch3Ch1ch2CjVCz2Ch0cu1cqs8dsys7Fs8fs7ds3os86sOsAs1lR3prAr20e2K Grimlic provides some nice range when needed and demonologist does enough in terms of antisummons. Illusions and shadowspanwed imps also help with rushing (contesitng fonts with relics, especially when putting dimension doors behind enemy lines). I found that fury was overshadowed by a lot of the other 1x1 melee minos and gladiator tries to border between tank and beater but just doesn't cut it in either slot. Oh and Thoof has amazing stats for his nora cost so try him out. Non-champ stuff is really dependent on playstyle, but you will never use blast doors 2x in one game so drop 1. There is also a bug with blast doors where it subtracts -35 nora from your nora bank for each door that explodes (it won't drop below 0 though), so keep this in mind when playing. Me not running shatter is more or less a byproduct of running SL for years when we didn't have options for anti-equip, so I just find it more efficient to play around equips instead of wasting a slot, just my playstyle. Sub out a sacrifice for a ret. I can elaborate on more stuff later, I am just in a rush at the moment so sorry if the response seems hurried. Edit: My conscience doesn't allow me to run 2x maddening echoes, but most UD players do run it and with great success, probably worth making room for.
This is my mino BG: http://poxbase.com/deck/Ch3Ch1Ch2Ch=Ch4cz2Ch0cu1Cqs4Ws4@s86sOsAs1lR3pr2r3TrArFe2Ke1o Essentially, insurgents with their liability is a drawback so I dont include those. Gladiators are costly but this dude can hold its ground. Just engage him to as many units as possible. I am somewhat expecting a nerf on him shortly haha. I hardly use malandur to engage opponents but only just for his regal presence. As mentioned above thunderhoofs are gun for their cost. Auto includes. If you are a bit richer than me, then go for 2 portalwalkers and remove one flamecrusher. I dont include blast doors because I can't seem to find a situation where I would need to destroy my doors. Would be better to just use an aoe spell. Also to top everything off, I include a mindslicer obelisk to compensate for the lack of range in this mino deck. Anyone with any suggestions?
1. Insurgents my favorite champ, but I use him in a way where liability doesn't come into play. He's usually a 1v1 font battler (9 spd 1st turn OP type thing) or I suicide him to take out a pricier key champ of my opponent. Crushing charge -> cliff dive also leads to rage quits and happens more often than I would've thought. 2. Blast doors is mostly a last ditch type spell and not just used for the damage, but knockback utility as well. I end up using it pretty often and it usually leads to galeforce levels of cheapness. I think Erupt and Fire Ruby are the weakest slots in your deck and I'd also try and find room for a price of victory (mini-mobi).
I am still not entirely convinced on using insurgents but I guess it comes down to personal playstyle haha. Erupt I use usually just to font grab. Fire ruby for when minotaurs using their portal doors engage ranged opponent champs and drop a fire ruby so to restrict them from moving away. Otherwise, just a good old unit to drop 15 dmg to closest champ end of turn. Blast doors can be replaced with plenty of other UD AOE spells.
I have a few questions. First of all, don't you find 15 champions to be too small of an amount? Or is Demonologist with his summons compensating for that? Also, do you ever find yourself wishing you had one of the more standard AoEs? Or do you feel like you got it covered between Superiority, Blast Doors and Fiery Ambush? Also, I've noticed plenty of equipments in other people's decks recently, do you not find the need to deal with that? I notice that you chose Demolish over something like Shatter.
I think I'm leaning toward a split with SP, where most of the champs are UD Mino, and most of the non-champs are (in)famous SP utility runes like Whip and Harpoon. More and more, I just don't see the value in adhering to FF for Minotaur. My justification is that SP has what FF UD Mino lacks: healing (Piez and Cultist) and non-minotair-based relocation (harpoon, thrower, transporter, chaongel). With a few gates out and a well-placed Harpoon or Thrower, you can close a LOT of distance between your minotaurs and the opponent -- fast. Could be good.
1. I usually go around 15-17 champs in all my bgs. Haven't ran into any problems running 15 champs. 2. Demonologist summons compensate a little in their utility. Being shadowspawned, theyre useful for surprise doors and blockades. I also like using them to test for things such as RD or Protection and as fodder for effects like Stunning. 3. I've never really been a big AoE person. Otherwise I'd probably just go and play ST or KF. Most of the time, all I actually run are Superiority and Blast Doors and these have suited me well. If blast doors wasn't bugged, I'd say its borderline OP when in the right hands. 4. I just don't find a reason to waste a slot and nora to get rid of an equip simply because I'd rather use the nora to continue deploying champs and I find that the generic UD spellset is well-equipped at dealing with problem champs. I just have yet to fight someone who used equipment in a way that I thought problematic (unless it was armory abuse, which is another problem entirely). In addition, the way I use blast doors lets me instakill most champs (knockback tricks). 5. For running demolish over shatter, I find that there are much more problem relics than problem equips. In addition, it is easier to use (being AoE 3 instead of single-target gives it a longer cast range) and you can destroy multiple relics (often opponent drops relics within the same area - by the font, shrine, or near battle).
The only equipment usage that I personally find fundamentally troubling is Ethereal + Darkmarsh Staff (although @Gedden said that he's removing Immun: Mag from the Staff) Another one that might give you trouble if you run across it is that SP equip that gives Immun: Physical
Ethereal + Darkmarsh Staff does sound like a pain, but overall it is a worse versoin of the old version of protein chains + zoalt/any flying champ. Even if the slim chance of facing this were to come up, I'm still confident I could win by ignoring the champ the rest of the game (I've done this a lot with a weaker Draksar bg and in the setting where prot chains were abused even more than darkmarsh staff). On a few maps this is impossible, but I usually do fine with direct shrine rushes in the case of playing around super champs. On a separate note, I've been thinking about trying out Molten Cloak. Two immunities to what are now common dmg types, anti-healing, and a minor stat buff seem really appealing for just 25 nora. Do you guys have any experience using it?
You can't ignore Spirit of the Mountain and its endless stream of projections. But hopefully Immun: Magical will get removed on Monday's patch.
I have a question for yall Mino players. How many Minos should I/can I play at minimum in order for it to be worth to use Dimensional Doors? I like all of the Minotaurs, but I wanna use them in a certain split deck for what they do and I'm wondering if it also worth to use Doors or at what point it would be worth it. Because I can't have all my champions be Minos in this particular case due to needing to fill other champion roles.
It all depends on how many minotaurs you anticipate playing in the average game. I'd say that I wouldn't play the doors unless I'm deploying at least 3 minos. If you are running a split with them you might consider running just one door and 1-2 sentries.
I would consider sentries as auto include. Summon door is 1 AP, One attack on it to destroy is 3 AP. You can't have enough doors
So a split with a heavy mino-themed module? I'd include room for bmages, portalwalkers, thoofs, and sentries. Since you'll probably find better ranged options in w/e other faction you are splitting with, you most likely won't need cullers but it might be worth keeping them in mind. I think that might be a good start but ultimately you'll just have to do a lot of playtesting to see what works for you.
thoofs over flamecrushers? I was thinking about a fire/mino bg with portals, crushers; battlemages, demon liches for magic damage; sentries for mobility and then some extra fire with fe grimlic.
