Looking it over, I think you make a good case for Berzerker 2 on the Skeli. Do you find yourself actually making use of 2x Fairy 2x Caster? I'm almost never in a position where I would need a second of either. How does Risen Moga feel after the ranged attack nerfs? What's the reasoning behind double Zerker over 1/1 with Deathguard?
With the large target put on their heads, Fairy and Caster are often the target of opposing range. They aren't durable at all, and not nearly as expendable as my front liners, so when one of them inevitably dies it really helps to have the second available right away. Sadly, ranged units are incredibly necessary in today's game, and running them makes me feel more secure. The second Caster is also useful for more Death Pact. In the early game, I don't have to worry about sending one to hold a font, as once my meat arrives I can simply Death Pact to kill him, gather the huge globe and recoup my losses while the opponent sits with a half HP unit. I feel like Risen Moga actually benefited from the ranged attack nerfs. While it's true that the attacks have longer cooldowns, his previously useless upgrade of Ensnare has become quite a bit better. Entangle serves as excellent CC while doing more damage than Curse ever would. They're still very cheap at 49 nora, and having access to 2 alternate ranged attacks is pivotal in stand-offs. To be perfectly honest, I don't find Death Guard all that valuable in this deck. Literally everything but the Creepers and the Fairies is expendable (I realize a case could be made for Shank as well, but he's rarely within Bodyguard range for long, plus he has the ability to stealth). Since Death Guard is only good for Bodyguard, he doesn't prove effective enough to warrant a slot. Perhaps if I included a key piece such as Xulos, or Ravenwraith, or Collection of Souls I would be more inclined to run him. As it is, there's simply not enough worth protecting in the deck.
It's a good point about the Moga. May give him a relook if I get space. I think Deathguard isn't so much for protecting key pieces as just protecting a piece. The opponent has to cut through the health at some point, and will often go for the Yetis first. Whatever the case, I don't run Deathguards to protect an important piece, I run them because they are >1:1 and can force their HP forward on the line. Returning to that point about the Yetis: BG on Yeti means the yeti himself is effectively benefiting from his own aura. Strong combo. Incidentally, you can see I am playing Xulos. That certainly helps.
I run that in my zombies, it can be tricky to set up if you are under pressure. I think of it as a long term goal, if i can get my fonts nice and secure then ill usually start spamming the horde. I am also currently playing with Entangle on the moga, i used to use curse but frankly unless you are working in pairs its not really very good. Entangle however is pretty useful and its great for preventing escape when you finally get into melee range.
I actually found the opposite with the Pile: it works best as a mid-game stop-gap right at the time of the second zombie deploy. At that point, you are nora-positive on Pile+Spire, and can then invest that bonus into greedy late-game plays. That was part of my reluctance to boost up to 2/2
Well ideally id like to get the zombie farm going as soon as possible however due to the fact that zombies can be so vulnerable to rushing i usually find myself deploying basic meat just to hold my fonts. That said the piles can be really useful to drop on a contested font for some immediate backup, especially if you can be sneaky and get the zombie to spawn in melee with an enemy and then herd with a fleshweaver for an instant infect. I do usually find that 1x pile and 1x spire is enough but i like to include 2 of each just to make sure that i have the draw potential.
Which is a component of why I am now running 2. And actually, I do use the Pile as that basic meat to hold down a font. The timing window on the second deploy from the Pile is actually something like +50 nora, which is a wonderful tempo play.
Do you not find that often makes it vulnerable to anti relic spells? I suppose as they are so nora efficient it isn't such a bad thing but their cooldown is quite long.
If an opponent is using an anti-relic spell on a non-contesting relic that cost me 80 nora total to generate a viable unit, I consider that a win. That's 30-40 nora that will not manifest as champions or damage spells to pressure the front. And, you get a zombie. I think using them in that light, actually, is a compelling case for running 2, so that losing one early game leaves you with one for midgame.
Im glad you think so, i was often worried that losing them after only generating a single zombie was a waste but it does seem that with the extent some people will go to kill them it can swing things dramatically in your favour. I also sometimes find people are so scared of the infected zombie they'll leave my more vulnerable stuff alone.
You make a good argument about Death Guard comboing nicely with Risen Yeti; I'll see about dropping a Zerker for him. Another nice thing about that combo is that Yeti will have Enrage proced without taking damage, which basically keeps him at a permanent 17 damage. Quite helpful indeed.
Yeah. There's another big thing about the Guard: he extends the HP range from the font. Because what really matters on the front lines for Meat is your units staying in place, the Death Guard is wonderful. The BG has a lot of slow champions, so getting from the font to the fight is a big deal. Death Guard can provide a form of instant front-life HP similar to the global fear from Yeti. This instant HP, or semi-instant, is all the more important because many units are melee.
My current experiments with Meat have been so-so. It's very map dependent. On something like SP, it feels like a free win, or close to it, whereas UD, Lake, or Brood Pits - distant mid-fonts, split fighting - the chance to counter rush is almost nothing. I'm trying to fix the list to focus purely on early and early-mid game. That said, does anyone have suggestions or advice on handling distant fonts? I'm inclined to start throwing away mid on something like Darkmarsh or even UD and just bunkering, but losing ground that fast hurts.
Distant fonts and split fighting are my eternal bane. If you can get Coragh out nice and early he is obviously pretty handy when it comes to contesting fonts and his 6 speed means he will usually get there in time. Wandering Zombies are amazing on solo harrassing missions if they don't have a lot of alternative damage types, Corpse Golems can be pretty good too against protectorate factions. Sometimes running a mook with some kind of tankiness into the enemy to just delay them or contest the font until you have a better plan seems like the best option.
Blood Fiend is amazing at grabbing distant fonts, with the potential to move 11 spaces on his first turn. If a font is 12 away, this kind of reach allows you to drop a relic in there and not have to worry about it for a few turns. When it comes to actual fighting however, Blood Fiend is mediocre at best, having to burn his own HP just to attack (and you likely wasted 16 or more of it just getting to the font). Taking the Life Siphon upgrade would remedy this, but it makes him a bit too expensive for my taste. In a meat deck though, he's our best bet regarding speed.
I'm not worried about speed, I'm worried about sustained presence over that kind of range. 12 spaces is too far to make good use of the Short Lived champions, and other BGs trade better on pound-for-pound exchanges with limited champion selection. I'm starting to feel the thing to do is just throw middle away in many cases.
Match up 1-9 vs SL if they run Ravenspeaker or Unstable Powersource. Damn, this is frustrating. I think relic styles are too vulnerable to getting blownup by Powersource in SL or Font Eruption in FS.
