Monks

Hey guys,

Since the only thread I found about monks focused on NKD I decided to post this in another one.

This is my first atempt at a ST bg and focuses on Swift Current and Silent Master. Heres the deck:



The idea is basically abuse the AP gen + relocation effects + CD reset.

The only champs outside of monks are Phoenix, Dancer and Snowspinner. Phoenix is kinda obvious, included Dancer in there for Divert and Dispelling Blows and while it doesnt get AP from Swift, it's CD is reset by Silent. Snowspinner becomes a beast support champ when paired with Silent Master. You can Snow Shroud 2 champs in the same turn or heal every turn non stop.

The bg has alot of ways to buff dmg: Discipline (which can be activated every turn, generating a constant + 6 dmg with Ferren Master + Disciple), Commander, Artic Gift, Fast Friends, Fury Hat (amazing on Swift Current), Sunder, last but not least Portal Watcher on Ferren Master (it can get really insane, slap on a Lonx Bone Charm and go melt some face). This means its really easy to one round 2-3 champs in a good turn.

Defense wise theres NKD, Scrapper, Elusive Leap (which can be used every other turn), Snow Shroud, Command Dodge... anyways, theres plenty of things your enemy will have to deal with.

I havent play tested this alot but so far the main weakness seems to be maps where you have to split up. I'm still playing around spell/relic selection but so far so good.

As for the champ selection I'm between Ferren Brawler (this little dude can deal insane amounts of dmg) instead of Fracturing (1-4 range Strike and 7 speed is really good with Swift) and Leoss Magnate in place of Jakei Disciple, which would make me loose some dmg across the board for a more potent ranged unit and majestic (whats really keeping me from including him is that hes role is kinda mixed between dmg and support which hinders him with low AP to do both).

Any inputs on how to improve the bg or any criticism at all is welcome!

Cheers

 

You seem to have a great grasp on it. I ran a lot of knock backs with the monk bg i played. Using the wind discipline spell and gale for relocation effects. Stack monks in a line for added effects.

The lady that gives birth to a pupil was 2x auto for me for gale meat and swap meat.

I ran a shadow master for annoyance.

I like the dancers for higher defense units. Divert is bit too expensive for me.

I ran also mostly nkd units except the mind striker who cost too much and grandmaster for same reason.

Big things you will find possible problems. There is no shatter. No anti swarm. No detect. You seem to have a good grasp on the bg.

Keep us updated how you do, monks are a slow mo style in today's fast paced game

 

Looks good to me. My only suggestion is to try to fit Pilgrimage in there somewhere, because it has great synergy with furry hat.

My Monk BG looks like this:


I went with more of a Leoss subtheme, because I found that redfist has crazy killing power with silent master- you can attack up to 6 times in a single turn with enough charges and two silent masters. Leoss Monk is also great with Invig 2 and divert getting reduced CD's. Magnate, Ailur Concord and Providence are in there because I had so many other leoss.

It's interesting that there are so many completely different ways to build a Monk BG. You can use Ferrens, Leoss, NKD, or the Discipline abilities. I found that disciplines are awkward to trigger without a ton of sources of Frozen, so I mostly ignore them. NKD isn't that great either, because it costs so much ap and is countered in so many ways.

 

It's a false impression lol... I havent played that much with it yet, just gave it some thought.

Which equips you consistently ran into that gave you trouble? Most of the time it's inefficient running anti equip and ST options are really bad, so I opted to leave it out. For stealth I have a pseudo detection with Snowspinner's Orb of Frostfall. And your right about anti summons, I dont have any direct counter, but with Silent master reseting the atk chain basically every champ has multi attack 1, which makes it easier to deal with numerous enemies...

Have you tried Ferren Masters? Its like that but every single turn and all you need is a Swift Current. Its not uncommon to hit like 50 dmg per turn with it. Managed to do like 90 once lol... and hes like 10 less nora.

I don't rely too much on disciplines or NKD but its there when its needed. NKD is a great counter to early rush, it can slow down the pace and allow for you to build up. Pupils form Guide has frozen discipline and you can summon 2 or 3 each time, also I run frozen discipline on both my Ferren Masters and lastly Dancer has Ferren Focus.

I love how flexible this theme is indeed, so flexible that it becomes really hard to make some choices, but oh well, this one seems to suit better my playstyle, just need to learn how to effectively use it as well. At first it's so demanding that I often finish my moves in the last seconds of my turns...

 

I didn't know that swift current counted as a relocation- you're right, portal watcher is extremely strong. Now i'm thinking that portal watcher might be better than scrapper on Silent Master. I think i'll stick with using leoss instead of ferren, because I like the leoss monks more.

Monks are incredibly fun to play. They might be the most mechanically intensive theme in the game, and it's thrilling to pull off a turn where you have to carefully activate and reset all of your abilities in order.

What upgrades do you run on the nohkan guide? I use feint and freezing discipline, so I can give a champion -2 defence for 0 ap every turn with resets.

 

I thought about running Watcher on Silent Master, but he's such key piece on the bg that I rather keep him alive for the CD resets, then make him another beater. Would probably need more support to keep both him and swift alive. I run scrapper and logistics on him. Preparation is nice in theory, but optimally I will hit something every turn to activate both scrapper and CD.

On Guide I use Commander and Crippling. It's a bit more expensive, but I already have other champs with freezing and it doesn't stack. Commander I find better then faint since 2 dmg > -1 def and Guide doesn't have to be the first to hit, actually don't even need to hit.

 

Yeah, but you can use feint to activate freezing discipline, so -2 def = +2 damage (on a single target). I use freezing because I don't have many frozen sources or any other champions with disciplines, other than the summoned pupils.