I'd like to share a fun BG I'm meddling with right now just because I tried quite a few Coalition runes. Witches kanen SP / FW. Nowhere near competitive due to most of them being sandbagged by something. But its fun to play, and does not include boring meta champs that we're seeing everywhere. Basically its a group of overcosted Crones that somehow works nicely together. This BG has won against players ranged from Common-Legendary, and have lost against players ranged from Common-Legendary. Sometimes its just gg from bad draws, drawing 80++ Crones continuously, or just generally too much Ranged champs. Sometimes it steamrolls meta BGs, most commonly SP, and UD is really an an easy matchup due to its non-versatile champions. FS is a tight match, but once their 3 heroes are up, its GG. The only weakness it has is: Any FF 3 Heroes OPness, FW everything-is-redeployed BGs, IS pallies just because they cleanses/heals every turn while hiting as hard. Well actually its weak against most meta BGs, but its still fun to play and possible to win. AUTOMATIC loss against SL, its a joke against SL. ST is a hard matchup due to their overall high HP, that's why I didn't put Chop Block in. Votaries and other Crones have a very low base HP. TLDR: Hardest Matchup - FF FW,SL,ST. P.S, needs some training beforehand if u decided to use the BG, because all you have to do with this BG is calculate really fast https://poxbase.com/deck/CfJCoPCaFcyWCyQCi@ciLCi0CzHs56s8VS4Isgs7Bs7Dr2Yr2frOR1ae1Qe20 TECHS 1) Stacking Boost, Commander, Relic bonuses (racial. That's why we don't split w SL, no Idol of Kain Taris) 2) Against less heal factions like SP, UD, or whatever, just delay stall and Pain Curse your way thru 3) Powerturn via Witches' Hourglass + Witching Hour for a cheap 65 Nora that acts as a semi Heal+APgen+Damage thing for a powerturn. 4) Ancient's Protection + Design Scapegoat for counterspell 5) State of Confusion + Mind Shackle defensive powerturn to either: A) Scare the opponents to let you continue your stall + Pain Curse thing, or B) To control the opponent's possible powerturn if your own powerturn spells are on CD 6) Despoil just to take those globes, since most of the champs here are ranged or NEEDS to be further away from the opponent, Despoil is kinda necessary for you to keep your Nora advantage. ROLES 1] FRONTLINERS: (a) Cackling Witch = Cackling Witch has Cackle. And deafening aura, and 1-3 range. and she costs 64 nora. Nothing much other than coveri (b) VERSATILE Kanen Cultist = Deafening Aura + Telekinetic Thrust is simple cheese, nothing flashy. However, their role is similar: to delay, stall, intimidate people. Kanen Cultist is often a bait where ppl see her as meat. She is persistent via Paralytic Feedback doesn't allow her to be double tapped, and she can heal her way thru. Cultist can also push people away, triggering DMZ curse, or keep everyone at range to enable double tapping. (c) Undead Crone = Again, cheap meat like Cackling Witch, and has the potential to tank coz she's so cheap, its okay to lose her. Other than that, she has Horrific Howl, again... a delay mechanism which gives u a free turn to heal your way thru via other Crones. (d) Ritual Crone/Ritual Cultist = Only put them in the frontlines once they reached 55-60HP. Otherwise, they are just subpar units that's been sandbagged via (Ritual Crone = as if she needs 6SPD. Most of the time she just wanders without doing anything like a lost dog) and (Ritual Cultist = 3-5RNG???? wth. As if she has a basic attack. And same goes with 6SPD, you can commonly find her wandering around not doing anything) 2) BACKLINERS: (a) VERSATILE Kanen Cultist = She can also be placed here for healing purposes and just general support-usage + long range attacks (b) Kanen Crone = Again, overcosted champ via Shielded and the randomly placed Grant: Electric Aura. Tbh, her usage is Drain to balance out fully maxed HP champs to benefit from Witching Hour's heal, while Boosting the party. I rarely deploy her but sometimes for fun, you get to reach 65HP Crones with her on board. Again, she's overcosted, and should you deploy it, it should be a situation where you're already winning. This is just a fun champion, and you can change it to something more efficient. She is also useful to take care of Perseverance champs albeit inefficient cost-wise. (c) Elsari Votary = Key to the BG, just keep em out of sight, and Curse/Pain Curse/Atk, or just wander around while your other champs controls the opponent's stats/movement/etc. Please use these guys wisely and try to have double Pain Curse CD against Regen champs. Its sometimes better to deal 10 global damage, than to have 5 global damage over 2 turns when the opponent Regens. (d) Hyaenid Headshrinker = A badly designed champion, yet still useful. Ranged champ with Detection? Almost as stupid as giving BASE RANGE to a champion that has no Range:Atk (e.g, Ritual Cultist). However, Headshrinker's usage is Shrink/Cackle. Similar to Cackling Witch, but you're paying a LOAD MORE than what you should have. But there is a synergy with Jolt + Spark Curse. And you have nothing else for Detection in split Witches. Hyaenid Headshrinker also doesn't get boosts from Idol/Kanen Crone. Tbh I deploy him/her 1 times out of 5 games. You can do Ghetto Detect via Deafening Aura / Arcane Ennervation / Static Greeting since it has a high range, so you don't need to deploy a Detection champ, just calculate the start point of a stealth unit and gamble where he's at. His/her only use is when you run out of champs to debuff imo. A filler to have that 15/15 rune count. (e) Spark Crone = Worst cost-wise than the rest of the bunch. She competes for the spot of the overcosted Crone w/ Ritual Cultist and Kanen Crone. Storm Acolyte almost never triggers in this BG, and even in an electric BG, her base HP is too low to survive any one-turning. However, she does allow you to do a continuous Pain Curse global damage, and she hits hard. You can do Electric Aura to take her cheap at 83 nora, or Surge: Kanen at 86, but I found its usually an overkill for what she does. What can she do other than Spark Curse: Dealing damage. That's about it. The only good thing is that her range is 2-4. Suggestion for devs when they take a look at this thread: Stop sandbagging the crones if you're gonna make a theme synergy. Ritual Cultist should have its range 1-1, and on the flipside, Ritual Crone should cost more but give her some kinda Vaporize/Phase Shift to tank and use that Abuse Charged synergy built into her. As of now, you have to spend a load of Nora and set up to make her tanky at 55-65HP, then proceed while praying she survives. Spark Crone should lose Storm Acolyte and give her like -2DMG and +5HP or something. She's just too squishy without Paralytic Feedback. And plz take a look at Kanen Crone. Horrible as it is, she's a walking Tempo Hit with 45HP and 0DEF. At most delete Grant:Aura + Shielded, that's -13 Nora, and you can give her Pawn + Paralytic Feedback or something (+14 Nora). Hyaenid Headshrinker should have the option to not take Detection. Less X 1, X 2, X 3 and more X,Y,Z upgrades More Coven/DMZ-generating units in SP Witches is needed. As of now, its an unpolished, unfinished theme Have fun with the BG Its very fun to play and nowhere near boring.
Maybe the problem is that you choose idol over kiergana? My SL/witch bg (posted here) is actually most consistent one of all 3 I use, and is one of strongest bgs overall.
How do u use Kiergana? I didnt consider her because she loses her purpose as a ranged pack leader. Altho even by herself she's amazing, she doesnt offer anything aside from damage. That and I dont even do FW avatar lol. Havent bought it since I dont play that often anymore, So Im a bit broke in terms of gold (spent mostly on tokens) Edit: I just saw your SL/FW witch BG from the link. Are you playing them like how you play witches? Or do you play them w powerturns like an SL-split? Coz I don't see any Hourglasses, Despoils and whatnot. But I do see you have DB, Quicken (one-turning via Coven Claws?), Rageband (powerchamping Bloodbinder/Kierg?). I think we're building diff BGs lol My reason to play Witch splits is to include all the Witches that are non-FW from SP/SL side, I'm not aiming to go semi-meta, was just testing the synergy between crones and FW witches as a whole.
Well, headshrinker, both ritual bitсhes and boosting crone indeed mix poorly, but kiergana/cultist/sparky are good.
