It works on friendly elves (or it should). Deep elves have two races: demon + elf. Since they are elf, it works for them. My scout (I run him at 58 with stealth) killed an ireguard with nearly full health and 0 AP thanks to a surprise mandate and nefari resurrection. (11+7 +50% = 27 per hit, just enough to kill on double tap, but my kaiser hexed him first to be certain. Good thing LoL goes through the arrow eater.) I didn't test it in a split bg with non demon elves.
I'm no expert and I mostly run split UD KF or UD FW, but here are my thoughts from limited experience... 1x Demon Lich. I run with Fire-eater as I want a fire counter. Magical damage plus fire eater is a good counter vs most fire champs. I would only run the Swarm Skeleton in UD FW and even then, I don't! Also, Set Ablaze is excellent and cleansing flame is occasionally useful. Scout is my second favourite rune after Pincushion. Run at 58 with Stealth. Fanatics are too expensive. the only expensive champs I run are Ireguards x2 at 90 with Rend 1 and Multi 3 for the 2/2/5 chain. Infiltrator I found too situational. Nice on paper but didn't work with my style. Merc has Hunter K'thir. No particular reason. Seemed thematic. Guardian x2 always. Very good rune. Reaper is a bit meh. Never used Mandate but I like the story with the scout. Dark Pact YES YES YES . On Ireguard. Fire Blast yes. Not the other spells you mention. Rather, Split Personality. Nef Res is good for a DE BG Good luck.
I recently lost a game as I thought the stealthed guy my opponent deployed would be harmless (low damage). I forgot assisinate. I hate Juya (and all other heroes played against me). Imagine scout + mandate and ressurection: 11+7+50%+50% (cull + hunter hero).
I used Masochism the other day in one of those pre-made training decks (the Fire Amp one, in fact). It was very useful. My opponent has equipped my Fire Elemental with something that gave it lumbering, so I put Masochism on it, and played Orb of Protection. So, my opponent couldn't touch any of my frontline champions until he first did ~60 damage to my Fire Elemental - and this with his champions doing -5 damage. It allowed my Abyssal Fiend, Demon Lich and Goblin Dirtbag to kill about 3 of his champions with no return damage and subsequently capture the middle font.
Assassins are very cool indeed but too squishy for really good BGs. I keep taking one in FF UD just because I love the threat and messing up opponent's minds. Ultimately not worth it. Fun though in stealth / relocation / AP gen BGs. Chosen = no clue.
What about Nefari Griefsinger's Wail of Grief for AP loss with Nefari Resurrection? Is one Demon Lich really enough to deal with Ethereal champions? Thanks for all the suggestions!
Nefari Griefsinger is good for sever summons too. I ran one for a while to deal with FW swarms but he was very very boring. One Demon Lich is not sufficient to beat a full ethereal deck. DEP can help. Fading Recollection also. Ethereal has changed now so whack em with big fire or similar. I WISH Messenger was costed better, as I love her, but she is way too costly. Great vs ethereal.
Fireslinger if deployed early game, equiped with an Demon Shield (the other to grimlic, obvious) will make him a monster due to Escalation. Just reduce his Upgrades to the cheapest, and you have an 74 nora, fire dmg, escalation champ, that benefit with FF bonus. He is pretty impressive, always a must have in any of my UD bg.
Ethereal champions, as the abbility states now, is no longer inmune to all but magic damage. Only to physical. But still gets 25% of other alternative damage types. You should go and check in the Rune Checklist. Grimlic, Fireslinger, and many other alt damage DEs should work just fine.
Still, having magic damage is more ideal; I mean, 75% mitigation is even greater than a rank 3 resist, which is only 50% mitigation.
