It is the theme that game is founded on. You destroy the shrine to win the game. Let me use a metaphor. To win this game you need to open the fridge, and eat the orange. Why would you open the fridge and peal the banana and dump out the milk along the way to eating the orange? You make it sound so simple. Like if you use stealth champs you auto win. It literally all falls into the early game good draw & great level scenario regardless of your chosen tricks or gimmicks. You have to play flawlessly, using great positioning & perfecting timing. Knowledge of you opponent helps, but you have to bugget your nora really well and plan ahead because if your opponent sees it coming either they will out rush you or you will have no fonts for most of game. Just like using any other bg. If you have problems with people effectively raiding the base you are just mad because they did not buy into your perfectly thought champ game or you got shut down because they got a good rune reveal and you did not get your counters in time. (The latter can happen vs any bg, any level.) Welcome to the misery/ ecstasy that is pox.
Its a tactic you learn to play against. If you're playing against the type of deck we're talking about, your opponent isnt right at your base and you probably have board advantage. As soon as you see an indicator that this is a shrine kill deck, you should probably stop scrying and rush you're opponents shrine. Just sayin'
Doesnt really work against the fw/ud ethereal pools+scorched dwarfs+mason spires+stealth champs+Redcap twins+traitorous helms+desecrations
Dont forget corpseapult on shrine. And I've seen it used effectively so many times without mason spire I don't think it's necessary, ethereal pool is more like a diversion than real damage(but ofc the damage counts). The strategy is making your enemy waste nora trying to rush ur shrine, while u take ur stealth champions to his.
Lol, none of those things intimidate me. Im surprised you're so worried about it. You dont run shatter or detect? And you would continute to scry when you saw an ethereal pool? If it was so good everyone would run it. Common ball, you're better than that
LOL. I used scry once it the game i played against it. With the stealth champ, they can park near your shrine and cast desecration everytime it comes off cooldown. I realized it was a shrine kill deck as soon as ethereal pool came out, so i rushed his shrine. Traitorous helm makes attacking his shrine hurt your own shrine, and if you keep deploying champs to get around the helms, ethereal pool screws you even further because its got like 20ish hp with a mason spire out. Meanwhile, even if you do attack his damn shrine, the dwarves are there to repair some of the damage and keep the ethereal pools alive. So then your shrine gets low on hp from the helms, pool, and desecrations, so you transfigure to get some more hp. Then they deploy a redcap twin, cast reanimate on it, and walk it off a cliff. Totally balanced
Just a well thought out strategy, aided by a nice rune reveal. If i can get your shirne down below 15 hp so when you transfigure to run with 30 hp, i feel like i erned the win if my nora is saved up to deploy two red caps. Unless you shrine has regeneration. Then a whole new game starts...
I made the deck and shall playtest to see how it goes. Anyone running tome of hate is now my least fave person
I lost to a deck recently that used double Quicken on a Tribe Wars cyclops, equipped with a Bag of Boulders and Enslaved. It was AWESOME.
I can only refer to Raze it as Falconer strong. I hope you understand. Compared to falconer raze is still squishy, two falconers on a grass level will tear down the base faster then any thing i use. AA will put a down payment on the shrine easily. Jakei Shadowstriker, and jakie elder/ Juya is easy money on the base with coronation towers. Voil Sorcerer and Lance Admiral Sceian are enough to put a base down with a voil guard holding a font hostage. There is a lot of turns that have to go right to set up the Raze deployment. Having such a offensive strategy really leaves me open to a direct assault as well. Raze is my high reward for attempting to set up such a high risk battle group. In that sense I feel like raze is balanced, because after I spend 15 minutes beating down your shrine and you go to transfigure to run away, raze gives me a means to finish you off, justifying my high risk bg, if i am lucky. I have a few more base assault bg's in store, but lack the runes to put them together. I have been know to make my bg's public (because they are basically free to play decks), and I have been know to make forum post about really op base assault decks.(Wavecrusher, undefeated at 19 & 0, you guys were not going to beat that build, expect maybe a k'thir player could or a solid refute play.) If i used the same bg, and you and me played 5 time ballballer i would be lucky to win one more game. My bg focuses on your rune reveal vs mine and the level that is it. If it turns into a champ/font game I lose. In my IS/UD I even use converging portals to defend my shrine or attack yours. My bg is so high risk that using a random spell is not out of the question to me. Raze play style adds so much more suspense to me. I enjoy it.
Raze now does triple the damage that it used to against avatars for seemingly no reason. Hitting my avatar for 30 damage across the map and with no means of defending against it is ludicrous. Im sorry, it just is
