So I think I found a pretty nice combo with a Spirits bg that even throws in stealth and a nice way to generate nora and cause damage while nora is generated. Currently, this is what my bg looks like for competitive play: **UPDATED: 8-12-2014** *See PoxBase link for upgrade path selections* POXBASE LINK: http://poxbase.com/deck/c93CdYCw4Cf2C8ZCg-CuBCiTCqgCjZs4Ns12S5_Sns4frTrZe20e2y CHAMPS: Death Harvester - the beauty of Harvester in this bg is the free nora created from all the Revenants that die. When you consume with a Magistrate, you get nora as well as what's collected from Dusk Creeper's soul collection ability. It's marvelous. He also doubles as a not-too-shabby finisher with 8 dmg, 9 with banner, and has detection. x2 Dusk Creeper - he's pretty much auto in any FW bg now. Improve range and soul collection in one package is priceless. One has Improve Damage, the other has Improve Range. Both of them have assimilate. x2 Ethereal Soldier - lasts a good long time and hits like a train. Also has Hex. Auto x2. x2 Lich Magistrate - auto x2 in spirits. When an enemy champion dies in range of restless souls, BOTH magistrates spawn a Revenant if they are both in range... that's +2 dmg for all your surge champions. x2 Netherwrawith - very great melee beater for 63 nora with surge: spirit and Hex, and don't forget to use Hex! x2 Shadestriker - has surge: spirit and backlash. Even without the Ravenwraiths in this bg, the backlash upgrade path is still pretty epic. It's just a lot of extra damage to give your enemies, and it all ignored defense (not sure about tough though). x2 Utterdark Fadewisp - gives a different damage type, also a different DoT with poisoned. Also has soultap so allows you to keep racking up enemy champs that are soultapped. x2 Utterdark Soulrender - has initiative 1 and surge: spirit as well, which is the main reason he's in this bg. He's above average, slightly pricey, but considering the relatively low nora cost of everything else, can't complain. Another source of solid damage and soultap. x2 Utterdark Spectre - has soultap and stealths all incorporeal champions. Yes please. x2 Whisperghast - 6 range surge:spirit is aweomse. He gets 7 range with dusk creeper, which is just awesome. Also, utterdark sanctuary is one of the most overlooked abilities. It's free ap. You just can't beat a 75 nora champ with all these tools and abilities. SPELLS: Doom - This spell is a Godsend. Has saved me against OP cheese so many times. Cast on annoying, OP champ and run away and dodge fro 6 turns, then collect nora globe with dusk creeper. Haunt - I only run x1 because that's all I find to be necessary. x2 Haunting Grip - Awesome awesome awesome. x2 auto. Makes up for not having Haunting Spirit. x2 Mobilization - derpa Soulreave - auto in all FW bgs IMO. RELICS: Elsarin Vex/FW Banner Skull of Decay - It's a source of anti-heal, which this bg doesn't have any anti-heal except for lich magistrate's rabid DoT. This is a good a cheap deploy and even a good font contester. EQUIPS: Mind Shackle - A source to disable an enemy champion for at least one turn. If the equip doesn't get shattered, then it is a huge advantage for you. Soulreaver - I find that this works great in this bg. Spot cleanse has won me games as well as spot defile so the enemy cannot cleanse: latch on, diseased, poisoned, soultapped, etc.
You guys are like an old married couple... But that goes for many players For what it's worth, my opinion that is, if it's worth anything- I'm not a fan of that, bro. The bg I mean. It's not my cup of tea.. I run spirits myself and the theme is rather powerful in itself. I tend to stick to one theme at a time, or go for the balls-out-meta. But this is what my spirits look like, to compare. Nether Wraith is much better than you think he is. Stuntin' is a habit, I guess
I had two netherwraiths in the bg, but I took them out for Soulrenders. What don't you like about it? Thanks for the feedback!
Ghost Stalker has more synergy with spirits, with illusions and surge, and does what dusk creeper does. That's a matter of what you prefer, but the ghost stalker will cop you more damage. Netherwraith gains damage with that, for example. You don't really need the lichlings, so you could exchange those. The fact that nethers can hex comes in extremely handy, and since you're running the cleansing equip, you could use defiling aura from it. Soul Cage is a spell that works well when you use defiling aura I find. People almost always try and cleanse it Obelus also would be uncleansable. Just some ideas Two other things, you're probably gonna want some access to some kind of soulstrike. I run a single experimental warspirit with horrific aura and phase shift, pretty expensive at around 90 nora, but he's usually able to keep swinging with aura and shift. If he's too expensive or you don't have one of those, reapers blade works. Ghost stalker doesn't have much damage but when you get a chance to double tap something big, you could snap on a reapers blade and essentially you will essence drain a target for 5 nora less than the spell itself. It's actually better than essence drain because it can kill things, while essence drain cannot. And if you can stealth something out and hit more times with that same reapers blade, it's basically profit. And lastly, decay. Anathema is a more bursty option, I prefer the long term classic Decay spell. Nite2Kill is running two skulls of decay apparently. That's kind of... strange.
It is kind of different but I really don't like healing. With the soultap/backlash at full swing with 1 skull the healing negates the damage 2 skulls guarantees damage. But best of all 2 skulls really pisses my opponents off.
I had the Netherwraiths in there, but I ended up replacing them with x2 Soulrenders and haven't looked back since. Edit: also, I had ghost stalker in there, but he isn't really missed. I use dusk creeper instead because of improve range, which is far more valuable to me. Plus undead bonus is a built in dead eater so he ends up generating more nora for less nora price tag. I just wish I had a 2nd Magistrate *I'm LF one and will over bid*
not everyone knows the runes by sight, a link to poxbase would be awesome. my skelie deck is about as good as its going to get and was thinking of trying spirits next if they aren't too exo heavy.
This is true - in a FF build you don't have any true stopping power you have to rely on the condition to stop adversaries
Ehhhh initiative saves they day... having two init champs x2 is pretty amazing... trust me. BUT Netherwraith might get squeezed in again... Hex is a great ability. And plus he has surge, I know I know.
actually nothing yet, I just really liked the concept and wanted to try it out, but don't have the whisperghasts
Well you may hate me, but I changed the build a little bit. I took out the Ravenwraith because it was too much of a tempo hit to spawn an 83 dmg champ that only had 12 dmg and was used mainly for backlash. I put in a fallen draksar for shatter which could also get very high-dmg-beater-like with violent, and added a mind shackle. Actually the mind shackle just won me a game against draksars and vex. If I were you, just replace it with a mind shackle and a second soulrender.