Fat Fluby Sturdy Cyclops (Waiting for map pool change)

Disclaimer:
Hello, I am Gnomes...(Ironic isn't it, seeing I will be talking about cyclops) I am not a top player and I have not (yet) played over 100 games with each of these bg's or anything. But I should still be able to give you some good tips, Tricks, Insights on the Theme. I also have spoken to other top SP players to get their thoughts.
HONORABLE MENTION TO @Gorebucket


Prologue: Mythology
The Cyclopes (singular: Cyclops) were gigantic, one-eyed monsters. Probably the most famous of them is Polyphemus, the Cyclops that was blinded by Odysseus. The Cyclopes were generally considered the sons of Titans Uranus and Gaea , but according to Homer, Polyphemus was the son of Poseidon, and the other Cyclopes were his brothers. Based on their description, they were a wild race of gigantic growth, similar in nature to the earth-born Giants, and had a single eye in the middle of their foreheads. They led a lawless life, possessing neither social manners nor fear for the gods, and were the workmen of Hephaestus, whose workshop was supposed to be in the heart of the volcanic mountain Etna.

The chief representative of the Cyclops was the man-eating monster Polyphemus, described by Homer as having been blinded and outwitted by Odysseus. This monster fell in love with a beautiful nymph called Galatea; but, as may be supposed, his actions were not graceful nor acceptable to the fair maiden, who rejected them in favor of a youth named Acis; Polyphemus, enraged and with his usual barbarity, killed his rival by throwing upon him a gigantic rock. The blood of the murdered Acis, gushing out of the rock, formed a stream which still bears his name.


Hesiod mentioned only three Cyclopes (not considering them a race or tribe): Arges (thunderbolt), Steropes (lightning), and Brontes (thunder), obviously storm gods. They were also the first smiths. When Cronus came to power, he imprisoned them in Tartarus. They were later released by Zeus and fought for him against the Titans. As a reward for their release, the Cyclopes gave Zeus his weapons of lighting and thunder. They continued as his workers at Mount Olympus forging his thunderbolts. Arges was killed by Hermes while he guarded Io for Hera; Apollo killed at least one of them as vengeance for the death of his son Aesculapius by Zeus.

Welcome to the Sturdy Cyclops
The shatter Peaks have flying Voil, screeching hyaenid, and keniving Moga. But one of the biggest, diverse and most fleshed out themes in the peaks are the Cyclops. This guide will be copying @Gorebucket 's amazing guide on Treefolk in hopes of giving you many Tips, Stratagem, and insight on this glorious theme.

Overview of the Cyclops Theme
Cyclops are interesting in that they have an extremely high amount of working, strong Moduls under the theme of Cyclops. a few that i will be delving deeper into: Meta, Constructs, Nockback, Siblings, Super Champ, Battledrummer (Attrition). This makes it hard to speak of the theme as a whole, because they all in my opinion have quite different play styles depending on what module you decide to play.

But in general you can count on Cyclops to have a high HP Pool: lowest 45 (Ritualist) Highest 62 (Cyclops Runt...Ironic isn't it.) Best Ratio: 45 nora and 51 hp... (Warsmith)

And you can count on them using A LOT of 2X2 champs. I resist calling this a weakness, because it is map dependent on how much this effects you, and the 2X2 gives them all a pretty price cut.

Strengths and weaknesses of the Cyclops Themes
Like I said before, this is very hard to pinpoint just like it is hard to pinpoint their weaknesses, because of how many different ways they may be played depending on the module you choose, and how each one is played differently.

What they have Access to:

Statboosts:
Commander, Surge Behemoth, Inspire, Build em Tough, Aid Defense, Vindictive

Utility:
Pathfinding(!!!) Shatter, Stone barrage, Magical Bomb, Rituals(!), Dispel, Fester, Backlash, Drudgery, Pull

Sudo-Range:
Chuck: Moga, Chuck: Rusty Firecase, Magical Bomb, Stone Bomb, Throw Boulder(!), Chuck: Mangled Totem

Defensive Abilities:
Thirst for battle, Resistance Physical/Magical, Calcify, Battle Harden, Scale Armour

Unique things!:
Battlefiend, Portal blast, Cast: Alacrity, Stone Shield, Grant: Stoneskin Potion, Aegis

Power turn:
Guarded: Cyclops, Cast: Alacrity, Battle drum

What they have little Access to ( AND THAT'S COMPLETELY FINE):

Healing:
Sustain, Ritual, Consume

Detection:
On 2 champs, Alpine and seer wich is mostly good for Attrition(Battledrummer).

Building a Cyclops Deck
I recommend starting with a base of:

1x Alpine Cyclops - Pathfinding, Detection, Cheap with alternate attack
1x Ritualsist - Rituals, Guarded, Dispel/Fester
(1x Wardrummer - Battle Drum, Battle Harden)
2x Warwizard - Cast: Alacrity, Pull
1x Tribal Post (Warbanner) - 5 hp, 1 dmg Global
(Honorable mention to Chieftain)

These champs make every Cyclops deck into something playable at top levels IMO.

Alpine is ESSENTIAL for Pathfinding. Remember back when I said that A LOT of the Cylops are 2X2 well, this ability makes it much more manageable allowing these Fat Fluby Cyclops to go over Impassable Terrain (More on this later)

Ritualist has a bit to much utility to be left out, he allows all summon spam/swarm BG's to be laughably easy. He also allows for super champ bg's or annoying spells to be counterd with dispel, im looking at you Magnify beast / bubble of protection. Thirdly, he has a very good set up for super turns with Guarded: Cyclops, allowing you to bait the hit on your Ritualist only for you to retaliate in FULL(+4 dmg , +2ap)!

Wardrummer is a bit debatable as a needed rune because of that 5 speed. But he allows for something i think a few people do not take in to account FEAR. when he comes out, the enemy gets scared....your champs are now all at upper 60's hp if not 70. Once you Battle drum with a cast: Alacrity your transfusing a 65 nora spell (Dradonic benediction) with a 45 nora spell (Alacrity) for free, and it will causes a incredible threat range and dmg on your champs.

Warwizard, to me, the Bread and butter of Cyclops. Cast: Alacrity, a free 45 nora spell every 5 rounds, Pull, and he is a 1x1 with teleport.

Chieftain, Not essential, but pretty damn good! also looks bad ass... Magic bomb vs high Def, Spellswallower to know when to dispel with Ritualist, and Commander. He is also tanky with high damage(from surge).

"Great. So just what is all that stuff? What does it do? And why should I use it?

Good question. What follows is a detailed analysis of all of the theme's champs and a brief rundown of the out of theme champs and support runes that merit special consideration. Of course, you might find a rune not included in this list to be a better fit for your own battlegroup (feel free to share them). After that there is some general advice on actually playing with your Cyclops. I hope you find this guide useful and enjoyable. =)"

 

Meta

As stated before, he is one of the essential Cyclops to have. His ability Pathfinding is what allows Cyclops to bypass their innate disability to maneuver and position carefully. This ability gives all Cyclops Mountaineer- This champion ignores movement restrictions and movement penalties imposed by terrain elevation and ignores terrain restrictions while moving. You can find out what terrain is Inaccessible and what Impassable as well as the terrain elevations by pressing the " N " key while hovering over a tile with the mouse. If you press the "G" key it will turn on the map grid, if you do it again it will show you all of the terrain modifications. The striped tiles may be walked upon with the Mountaineer ability out. Alpine also gives Detection, another ability that is rare for cyclops. Lastly Alpine gives you Power Attack, this is strong, because after playing poxnora for a while, you will see that many defensive abilities hinge on defending from "Basic Attacks" and Power attack does not count as one of these.


Personally my FAVORITE cyclops (If not champion). This guy has some of the best - Artworks, Animations, Personale sounds!, upgrade paths, Flavor, and is all around a solid champ. Any of his upgrades could be vouched for. Crushing Charge, to get in and bypass some of that bad maneuverability. Quest: Kill Enemy is my go to upgrade and it does work, you are already gaining a lot of dmg and Armour from Thirst for Battle and Quest: Kill enemy allows for some heal and even more dmg and armor, making this a one man Super Champ needing no other Support to get rolling and stay rolling ;D. Lastly Multiattack 1 is always appreciated especially in congruence with some key equipment (Later). For his second upgrade line i take Thirst for battle, because it causes him to become a HIGH priority threat (making the opponent sink a lot of nora to kill him...but he is only a 73 nora deploy), if they dont kill him quick, the damage will ramp up, and he will become a fearsome force to be reckend with. Bold makes him tanky as well and costs him at 75 nora, Its good for running long distances to engage. And lastly Resistance: Physical is very strong vs UD or any Physical dmg dependent set up. His Iconic and unique ability is Chuck: Moga, this is a Range ability that throws even more meat on the board that your enemy has to get through, and this Moga can be consumed by Klub, for the heals, even if minimal.


Blastmage is a very interesting and versatile champion, his iconic ability Portal Blast makes it so after he teleports, all champs adjacent are knock-backed 2 spaces, this can be used both offensively as well as defensively, for example, if you are not in range of an attack with one of your champs, you can bounce them into range, or your own champ into their range depending. He has very good synergy with "Spike" because if their is a champion in his vicinity with spike equipped, he will gain one more range, and with that 2 more dmg from Kinetic Impulse. I run Teleport 2 and recoil and I think this is sadly the only effective way to play him, Teleport ranks can of course be changed but on his first upgrade line, recoil is the best IMO.


Chieftain, he is a bit of everything, has the Dmg from Surge: Behemoth, the Tankynes from 55 hp and 2 armor. and is a great support from Magical Bomb(wich is crucial to give enemy's that 0 armor), Commander and Spellswallower. I think Spellswallower is a Support ability because it tells you when the enemy has cast a hidden spell, such as Split personality or cancle magic. This allows you to either Dispell their champ with Ritualist or cleanse your own with an emerald. And by late game, the dmg will also ramp up nicely.


Klub is the Theme's Hero, and he is a very good one. I Prefer Throw Boulder and Blood Rage as his upgrades (though pummle is fine too), He is our first Throw boulder champ we have encounterd so i will speak more about it here: It is a 2-5 range attack with a cool down of 3 that goes through defense and causes "awestruck". My meta deck has an extremely high amount of sudo-range champs, I have 17 champs, and 5 of them are ranged, but of the other 12 i have 2x Chuck: Moga, 1x Chuck: Rusty Firecase, 1x 1-4(5 with spike) range champ, 2x magic bombs, 2x Chuck: Mangled Totem, 3x Throw Boulder, 1x Stone barrage. Thats another 12 ranged attacks that go through defense and have another effect... needless to say i am not afraid of having too little range, and if the enemy does play to much range, I always have 2x cast alacrity to go in. Consume on him is not great seeing as their are no easily edible champs(Cyclops Artificer) but you can eat the Moga that get thrown out from Chuck :Moga. Klub is a good candidate for Spike(It was made for him after all.) he already has 2 armor and scale armor, and the tough 2 just makes him a tanky beast. He is Cheap, dishes out nice dmg, and can take a lot of hits, a fine Champ for the Cyclops Squad.


Cyclops Ritualist is another one of my standard champs that go in every BG. He brings insane utility and is a cheap form of magic dmg. This champ single handedly destroys any type of swarm or cheap summons bg. The ritual abilities are not in the attack chain, so you can Ritual of power and still attack. All of the Rituals are good for different situations: Power for powerturns, Destruction for killing one champ, Healing for keeping one of your champs alive. (one of the only types of healing we have) I recommend Guarded: Cyclops, this Ability gives an insane amount of dmg and ap and pretty much means every time they attack him, they have to deal with a counter powerturn. I even recommend at times, if you dont think he will die, put him just about in range as a bate so you can the turn after, retaliate with extreme power. Lastly he has Dispel or fester, both nice depending vs what your playing. I think Dispel is a bit superior to fester, but healing is quite prevalent in the current meta so its not a bad upgrade. Dispel works well in tandem with Cyclops Chieftain because spellswallower indicates hidden spells that you may be able to counter with a dispel.


Our latest Legendary, he also is a hard choice for upgrades (Meaning @Sokolov is doing a good job) I prefer Calcify and Throw Boulder. Calcify is an Anti- One round Ability and is usually best used with healing in the bg, to heal after the attempted kill. Tough 2 is a nice upgrade, but in my opinion too expensive in this case. Resistance: physical 2 can also be nice, but is more expensive and can be more easily circumvented than calcify. Now comes the really hard choice, I like throw boulder. Personally I am ok with my champs dying, I mean i am playing SP, I get 1/3 of my faction bonus off the death of my champs. But Regen and Heal Self 3 are both very strong to keep alive, especially in 1v1 situations (even stronger with the high base hp of 60). Now one of the Strongest abilities in the game Chuck: Mangled Totem, this is a ranged attack that summons a 30 nora Relic. I see it in a few ways, every time he chucks a Totem he becomes 30 nora cheaper, and gains 20 hp. so after one chuck he is 46 nora and 80 hp...(and this is not even accounting the insane dmg the totem can cause) and its keeps adding every time he gets to throw a totem... The totem is also an extremely high priority target because of that Punish aura.


Stonecaller was recently buffed as per request. (<3 @Sokolov ) I play Grant: Stoneskin and Shatter. Stoneskin is very nice for Chaos brave before he becomes a super champ so that you can keep him alive. Sadly it costs 3 ap and is a bit expensive of an upgrade, but tough 3 is extremely strong after all. Empowered: Defense is also a good upgrade and puts him at 4 armor and tough 3(If Barrage is not on CD). I feel I have enough tanks in the BG and having an expensive champ in your bg is fine. Shatter and Grant:mobility are also both hard calls. The first allows you to not need a diamond mace, but the second gives that mobility that we cyclops need! Lastly Stone barrage is utility and dmg, it is sudo-detection(If lucky) and does 20 spot dmg to one champion. Thinking of putting in another for shaman.


Saving the best for last... Warwizard. He is cheap, has nice range, does not die to easily, and has a 45 nora spell on demand. Teleport is their to counter his low speed, making him have sudo 6-7 speed depending on what rank you choose. He is 12 dmg and with a commander and banner he is at 15 dmg. With a battle drum and Guarded proc he is at 22 dmg. This is a lot of "If", but even with 15 dmg, he will be doing 11 dmg at max range. Lastly CAST: ALACRITY, this is a 45 nora spell for you to use for free every 5 rounds. In my eyes, your cheapening this champ by that amount every time you use it. A Cool trick that has gotten me a lot of comebacks is to deploy Battledrummer while this champ is in range then cast alacrity on your champs and battle drummer for a spot 5 ap 4+dmg (1 from battleharden, 3 from battledrumm). Be very careful though you need to plan beforehand so you can get the turn done fast.

 

Constructs

Artificer is the glue that holds construct together. I would run Reclaim Materials for that extra nora back, it works very well with the SP bonus. On the First upgrade path i would run Fire eater, my reason is that their are 3 maps at the moment with lava terrain on it. So with Fire eater, you can run across this easily and heal up at the same time, win win. Chuck: Rusty Firecase was nerfed sadly, but its still a ranged attack that creates meat, so still not horrible. another pro of Artificer is that he can go in and melee if needed and has attack fire, to counter void shield for example.


The cannon can get 4-10 range with preparation. Cyclopean Machine gives him tough, 1 speed, and mobility, those are some nice ass stats for just having a tinkerer around. Aim is nice for precision, but does cost ap. really just preference. I switch between the two constantly. I would choose fearsome hunter on the second upgrade line though, makes him cheaper and allows you to give a global(6 range) -3 dmg if he kills a champ. Recoil can be hard to get use to and makes it much harder to double tap, luckily cannon is quite meaty so he can take the 5 dmg if it allows you to double tap. Weighty also is hard to get around, definitely makes cannon a mid game deploy. (because you wont be getting fonts easily with him... YAY MULIGAN.)


Aah, Symbiot. This guy use to be a meta cyclops(and might still be), but with the price-tag of 87 nora, he is just to expensive for me. Now in constructs, he does a fine job, he can get tough from tinkerer, and Cyclopean menace gives him an insane amount of ap gain. He is very hard to kill because of absorb and regeneration 3 and sonic Roar. An all around great support tank who is hard to kill and has a lot of abilities that get through armor. I highly recommend regen 3 and Sonic Roar for upgrades. Sonic roar is 2 turn cd, and makes all melee close to useless VS him and because he has Absorb, most of the dmg coming his way will be melee. I also prefer Regeneration 3 because it keeps him alive, and tough you can get from tinkerer anyhow.


Warcart, its a Firking CYCLOPS IN A TANK! I run him with manic and charge 3. But you could go heavy charger instead of manic. I do not recommend domain: Rock, because he already has mobility from cyclopean mashine, and it only works on rock terrain anyhow. On his other upgrade line immunity fire could be good vs all the lava maps but charge helps get in range, and works well with manic. Trample works well in tandem with mobility from cyclopean machine, it gets even better if you run Zealotry (The spell). With a Tinkerer around, he has 8 speed and manic, quite frightening indeed! Great champ for paper wings or Mamoth Club.


The Warsmith is in my opinion very underrated. At his cheapest he has a better nora to hp ratio then altered Lemur, and in this bg has much more utility. If you factor in the SP Bonus and boost + banner, he is 39.6 nora (b/c 12 % discount) for 61 hp at his cheapest... now in Constructs, he has boost, build em tough, mason 3...(but for 50 nora instead of 45) definitely a fine Addition, and if you feel that all your Champs dont need the heals and to be made tough....then just run him in as a every efficient meat shield. You may also like to play one warsmith with inspire and one with boost, just because inspiring a cyclopean cannon with 10 range and 20 dmg is pretty crazy. In my opinion he is a even bigger MVP in my Super Cyclops BG, but on to that later.


Calcified Lurker is an all around Swiss army knife support tank. He can easily take care of equips and relics by himself, a feat that most decks have to put 2 spells or equips in for. I run shatter and defender as upgrades for my calcified lurker, putting him at a comfortable 73 nora. Reclaim relic will not work to well with your own relics because you do not really want to destroy cleansing emerald or warbanner because they have persistent effects that you would usually like to keep up. An example where reclaim may be used on your own relic is if the fight has moved forward for example and is no longer at a certain font where you deployed your cleansing emerald, then you may want to destroy it for the extra 2x speed and to get the emerald on cool down. Defender gives 2 def to your other constructs which works wonderfully with build em tough and the natural tankyness of constructs.


At the moment im playing one Fircase and one Boltcase. Sadly the Boltcase does not have cyclopean machine though. The Firecase is a strong font contester and harasser/detection unit. I play him with Turtle and damage shield, this in addition to leap 3 allows him to just leap across font spaces and stay out of range and if he is caught Turtle should keep him alive a bit longer(also fire aura does work while Turtled). Annihilate is pretty much a dradonic pulsar centered from this champ, a great spell to detect invisible units or just do nice AOE dmg. Also with cyclopean Maschine and leap 3 he has sudo 8 speed, which can be very handy.

 

This is my current second meta deck... its not exactly meta but its a mix of a lot of my bgs. and has loads of synergies and fun things to do.

to get battlefiend rolling you need to play battlefiend, have a chieftain near by, have warbanner up, and have battledrummer do some stuff, or you can just inspire them with the tinkerer

 

Siblings
This theme excels at hand to hand combat, they have some of the best Beaters in the game and even give UD a run for their money in close range fights. The Siblings all have above 60 hp(with warbanner,boost,tribal hut meaning if they take around 15 dmg to get in range, they will still be at par with most other champs in the hp Department. So the bg needs ways to get in and once in, to stay battle ready(cleanse).


Cyclops hauler is Tanky, and has the potential for high dmg with Encouraged. He has a Resistance against the most abundant form of dmg in the game and a high life total. With sibling, boost, and warbanner out he will be running around with 70 hp 7 speed and 13 dmg. He has relocate:relic at base which can not fully be utilized in a cyclops bg because you just do not run many relics that actually want to be moved, maybe you can relocate cleansing emerald if the need arises. He has 2 range wich is big, because this allows him with tactition from spike to attack over other cyclops. Since the removal of shrine scry, i recommend siege and res physical 3


Cyclops lurker is my second favorite sibling cyclops, he has Shadowspawn and Shadowstrike, this allows him to get in melee range with out taking a lot of dmg before hand. He also has Constrict, giving him an easy way to make sure that whatever he is pummeling to the ground can not get away. this champ will be your forerunner and early mulligan target, so that your other cyclops have time to catch up and help in the assault after a champ has been constricted.


This guy is CRAZY! highest 1 turn dmg in the game! lets crunch some numbers for an ideal(and not rare) setup for him:
13 Base dmg, + 3 from banner and sibling, + 4 from Berserker (3), + 2 from chieftain, commander.
6 base speed, + 2 from Berserker, +1 from sibling.
50 base hp, + 5 from warbanner, 5 from sibling.

That puts this guy at 22 dmg, 9 speed, 60 hp....for 75 nora

now lets attack a champion with him, for 5 ap you will be able to execute and pummle so thats:
31 dmg execute(22 + 11(50%) , + 22 dmg normal hit. This is 53 dmg, in one round for 5 AP... dont forget you have cast alacrity and battledrum and 9 base speed for a HUGE threat range...
Good luck trying to play around that.



The drudge gets the highest hp in this module. 58 + 10 + 6(if you want to count battleharden from drummer) for 74 hp. I say +6 from drummer because you will be playing him usually with battledrummer because of that 5 base speed. I run Aid Defense and multi attack two so that he can buff up my other siblings even more! Drudge is an extremely nice addition for the theme because he allows for your cyclops to run into range(hit once hopefully) and then drudgery, allowing the benefit of being the defender(Have your ap stacked for a double tap (usually 10 ap)) be negated.


Siblings (Tribal hut) needs a buff. So, @Sokolov nerfed the ability "Sibling" a while back by leaving out the clause "Once one sibling is deployed reveal the other cyclops with the same name" because Red tipped raptor, and a few other champs were a bit to efficient. This was a good way to fix those singular overpowerd champs, by slowing down the time it took for both siblings to be on the field. But it was a bit to hefty of a nerf to a whole Module that HINGES on the ability.

I have a few suggestions, to raise Sibling theme back up to snuff.

My first suggestion would be to give the tribal hut the same ability that "Transmission relay" has:
When this relic is deployed and at the end of each turn. a (Cyclops sibling unit) is revealed in your runedock. If no (Cyclops sibling units) are concealed, a random (Cyclops sibling unit) on CD has its CD reduced to 0. When a friendly (Cyclops sibling unit) is deployed from your rundock, this relic loses 3 HP.

Pros: One one of your siblings dies, you can get it back quickly so that the buff is up again. You would also find your sibling units much faster because their are only 8.
Cons: Its a big mittle finger to the FW bonus... the whole theme would also kinda hinge on the relic.

Suggestion two:
The first part stays the same as "Transmission relay" so you still get the reveals, but now instead of the cooldown reduction, we can do one of two things.

Once the one sibling unit dies, the other keeps the stats.

Once on sibling unit dies, the other one looses the stat boosts but instead gains: Vengfull, and Fast friends. (so kind of the champ becomes depressed to the death of his brother, but finds solace in his friends)

@Sokolov What do you think?

 

Super Champ
This Bg, like the name implys, hinges on Buffing certain champs to ungodly levels of Dmg and survivability. A "Put all your eggs in one basket" type of BG. The Champs that we will be doing this too are the Cyclops Battlefiend and Zeventrech the Last. This bg is not really meta worthy and is very situational but when it does work, you will be sure to get some ragers...and have loads of fun while drinking their tears. You will always be a few champs behind with this bg, but the superchamps should be able to take them all down as long as they are being supported well. You will at all times want Havoc touch, Healing hand, and Zealotry on your Superchamps and if you can, a unit with guard around to make sure they are nice and tanky.


Battlefiend is the Main Super champ that you will be trying to support. He has high base health and Armour, but very little dmg. This is where the Ability Battlefiend comes in: When this units's DMG modifier is greater than 5, it gets +2 SPD, Fury, Multiattack 1 and Berserker 3. Originally this champ was meant to just stay in the back lines until he finally is able to get the +6 dmg from Warmonger which gives you +1 dmg for every friendly champion killed. But with the addition of havocs touch you will be able to get to that criticle +6 dmg much quicker.

Stormcaller is their because he works in two ways, one : revier, and two: ally st. He has a lot of hp this way and can reduce the price of zeven.

 

Battledrum/attrition

 

reserved

 

Reserved

 

Alright, judging by Gorbuckets guide, this should be enough

 

Amazing so far. Sticky @IMAGIRL ?

 

Aye. @Gnomes Be sure to keep it updated throughout patches.

 

aah yes, will do.

 

excuse me for the question but what is that relic from battledrum deck between club and whip with the white landscape?

 

i ment equipment...

 

Paper wings

 

I dont think they still exist, what should i replace them with? thank you anyway for answering

 

they're current expansion, so they're not in the forge yet, but you can still get it from a site like poxbox or from another player or whatever.

 

i have some extra if you still want some