April 24, 2018
Scabious Deeproot wants to use abilities, specifically non-item abilities, so how can we take advantage of that? This Nature/Dread deck should be able to give you countless opportunities to trigger his ability while causing no end of grief for your opponent.
Hero: Scabious Deeproot
Combos:
Beast Control
Raging Spirit
Treetop Tribunal
Territorial Dominance
Corrupt Wildlife
Actions Cards
x2 Mossridge Defender
x2 Stumpdrift Shaman
x1 Fungal King
x2 Den Mother
x2 Hungry Behemoth
x2 Stampeding Tusker
x1 Mantix Tunneler
x1 Royal Bumbler
x2 Spectral Web
x2 Reckless Spirit
x1 Fungal Medium
x1 Empowering Sanctum
x2 Shade Ripper
x1 Grimglider
x2 Shade Whirler
x1 Night Lurker
x1 Swamp Creeper
x2 Shadow Puppet
x1 Abyss Weaver
x1 Abyss Tentacle
Nature and Dread have a range of buffs which the player can take advantage of to trigger Deeproot’s ability so it makes sense to give the Nature hero a bit of Shadow to bring out his potential. Swamp Creeper and Night Lurker will provide Deeproot a way of getting extra use out of finished buffs and the Creeper can bring them right back into the deck for use at a later time.
The Animal Element is where the best ability buffs are, Hungry Behemoth is by far the standout buff in this category. Having both Defend and Attack abilities and only rotating when the Defend ability is used, the Behemoth is rightly feared your opponents. Stampeding Tuskar and Den Mother offer extra damage but unlike the Behemoth they are timed abilities, use them or lose the chance. Mantix Tunneler has a bit of a build up but when he is ready, dishes out some serious damage.
To round out the Animal part of the deck is the Royal Bumbler, this buff is very interesting, they only rotate when use activate a defend ability and have an attack ability on their last corner which also restarts the buff. Using the Behemoth and Tuskar abilities to heal and restart themselves you can get the Bumbler to its final corner and then deal a massive 8 damage (plus the 1 damage from Deeproot) and then the Bumbler restarts and you get to do it all over again.
The last two nature ability buffs to add to this deck are the mighty Fungal King who deals up to 5 damage depending on how many buffs your opponent has in play, and the Fungal Medium, depending on how you feel that turn, it can either give you a bit of healing or send a bit of damage to your opponent.
All of these buffs can create significant headaches for your opponent and they are going to want to debuff them as fast as they can. At certain times that may be what you want, playing a Behemoth or Fungal King to bait your opponent into wasting his small supply of debuff cards before you bring the rest of the deck to bear, other times you want to deny them the option and Nature has just the buff for that, Spectral Web. Spectral Web will stop your opponent from removing or returning your buffs for 3 entire turns, you can deal a lot of damage in that space of time, and a couple chained together will send your opponent into utter despair.
The Nature part of this deck is then rounded off with a few utility cards, Mossridge Defender for damage reduction, Stumpdrift Shaman for healing when you need it most and Reckless Spirits to remove the buffs that really annoy you.
There are more cards in Shadow that will take advantage and help you deal extra damage when you use an ability so it is a perfect fit. A couple of Shade Ripper cards and the Grimglider jetpack should give you ample chance to get access to those dread cards and the Grimiglider has an added bonus of dealing an extra damage when you have more than 4 buffs in play, which for this deck should be every turn.
Night Lurker and Swamp Creeper are your two best friends for this deck, the Lurker removes your used buffs for added damage and healing, while the Creeper brings those same buffs back into your deck. The addition of a couple of Shadow Puppets will give you event more options to remove buffs.
Access to shadow also gives you access to the Abyss buffs and they are perfect for your deck, Tentacles add extra damage and Weavers give you healing every time you use an ability which also causes Deeproot to activate his ability. Every ability you trigger causes a cascade of extra damage and healing.
The last card from Shadow makes this deck work even faster, the Shade Whirler removes the restriction of only being able to use 1 ability per turn, allowing you to activate multiple abilities on one turn, overwhelming your opponent.
This deck should be tough to beat, stopping your opponent from removing your buffs is key to this decks performance, if you can get into an overwhelming position on the board your opponent will not be able to counter even half of what this deck can bring to the table. Your opponent’s strategies and plans will disappear out of the window when you bring this deck’s formidable engine to bear.
Warning your opponents may not want to face this deck more than once…
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