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Author Topic: Flying Leviathan - Siren  (Read 6613 times)

Pyrion

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Flying Leviathan - Siren
« on: March 28, 2017, 01:26:54 PM »
Hello everyone!

I wanted to share my new deck idea with you. I want to mention that this is my very first deck for the siren and I haven't played many games with it.

Mage: Siren

Attack
2x Swell
1x Surging Wave
2x Acid Ball
1x Tsunami

Conjuration
4x Shallow Sea
2x Tanglevine
1x Coral Barrier
1x Wall of Bones
1x Mana Crystal

Creature
1x Sherean Leviathan
1x Water Elemental
3x Shoalsdeep Tidecaller
1x Naiya

Enchantment
2x Eagle Wings
2x Astral Anchor
2x Hydrothermal Vent
2x Lullaby
3x Chant of Rage
2x Arcane Ward
1x Cheetah Speed
1x Bear Strength
1x Falcon Precision
1x Mind Shield
1x Regrowth
1x Nullify
1x Healing Madrigal
1x Enchantment Transfusion

Equipment
1x Leviathan Scale Armor
1x Leather Chausses
1x Leather Boots
1x Leather Gloves
1x Shoalsdeep Trident
1x Mage Wand
1x Ring of the Ocean's Depths
1x Ring of Tides

Incantation
3x Dissolve
3x Dispel
1x Seeking Dispel
2x Teleport
2x Force Push
1x Purify
1x Minor Heal
1x Heal
1x Clear Mind
2x Shift Enchantment

As the title says this deck is all about the Sherean Leviathan and giving him the flying trait (if possible for the whole game).
A flying Leviathan in a shallow sea is just epic. First of none of the enemy creatures can melee attack him, beacause they all get restrained and therefore loose the flying trait. They also can be ignored while guarding out of the same reason which allows my Leviathan to attack whichever creature I want to. Because of unstoppable he cannot be pushed out of the zone which in combination with Astral Anchor means that it is very hard for the enemy mage to get his creatures out of the “death zone”. Even if the Levi is attacked with ranged attacks he is protected very well because of his 3 armor and his tough -3.

My normal opening is:
Turn 1: Double move and cast Ring of the Ocean's Depths
Turn 2: Cast Leviathan and enchant him with Eagle Wings
Turn 3: Teleport him (if necessary) to the opponent mage or even better to his spawnpoint if he has one and cast Shallow Sea into his zone


Turn 1: Move one zone and cast Mana Crystal and Leather Chausses
Turn 2: Move one zone and cast Ring of the Ocean's Depths and Leather Boots
Turn 3: Cast Leviathan and enchant him with Eagle Wings


From this point on I try to get all the enemy creatures into the zone with my Leviathan by using push effects (attacks and Force push wand), teleports and chant of rage. To prevent my opponent from teleporting either one of his creatures or my Leviathan out of the zone I enchant it with Astral Anchor. With Bear Strength on it and therefore 10 attack dice (+piercing 2) my Leviathan will be able to knock out one small creature every round. Bigger creatures get also killed very fast (most of the time I need 2 - 3 rounds). With healing spells and purify in addition to all of his protection I prevent my Levi from getting killed. In a longer game I also have the opportunity to bring out some other creatures such as Naiya to give me more actions and mana. Once the majority of the opponent creatures is killed I focus on the mage e.g. by tanglevinig him and attacking with the levi, my other creatures if I managed to bring them out and my mage (Attack Spells and Trident).
If the opponent uses many creatures Tsunami can combo pretty well with the restrain-ability of the Leviathan. Just cast it when most of the creatures are trapped in the “death zone” and you will get a very high amount of attack dice.
The rest of the spells is just standard stuff and/or helps to support my main strategy.

Please let me know your thoughts about my deck. I’m glad about every advice you can give me!
« Last Edit: March 31, 2017, 12:08:47 PM by Pyrion »
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Beldin

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Re: Flying Leviathan - Siren
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2017, 03:24:58 PM »
You have very little armor. I normally would not dissolve a leather chaussus, but in your case I would. I would also ignore your large creature and never set foot in your zone, if I can help it. You try and push me and I can put out eagleclaw boots

You talk about ranged books not hurting the levi. That is very true but you misunderstand where I aiming. I would ignore this creature and go for the throat of your mage because you have very little armor, thus you will not reduce my damage very much, and I would say the worst match up for this book is the Rush Warlock. You die very quickly from optimisied, liberal application of fire. This is the same for steep hill Grimson books, as over-calibrated mages will just eat your mage alive.

What do you do against Banish?

Just a few thoughts to think over. :)

I will say I like the idea of the combo, it really does appeal to the johnny player in me. Well done.
« Last Edit: March 28, 2017, 03:27:10 PM by Beldin »

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Re: Flying Leviathan - Siren
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2017, 04:28:01 AM »
Since Eagle Wings is so essential to your strategy I'd suggest some more protection for it.
Consider adding 1 or 2 Arcane Ward, 1 or 2 Enchantment Transfusion and maybe a couple of Shift Enchantment.

Arcane Ward on Eagle Wings makes it considerable harder to get rid of he Eagle Wings. ( ideally, play the Ward during First QC when you have ini to thwart your opponent's dispel he may have selected for that round. )

Enchantment Transfusion can help you save the Wings from destruction if you can shift them to another non-mage creature you control.

Shift Enchantment is useful to put the Wings back on the Leviathan or to play games with your other Enchantments like the Astral Anchor or Chant of Rage etc.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2017, 04:30:45 AM by Borg »
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Pyrion

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Re: Flying Leviathan - Siren
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2017, 01:14:24 PM »
Thank you for your answers!

@Beldin
The low protection of my mage is definitively a big weakness in this deck. I just added Leather Boots and Leather Gloves so that I have 5 armor in total. In general I think I played the deck too offensively. I guess it would be better if I cast the Levi on turn 3 and get out some armor + the ring + a mana crystal (beacuse I often had mana problems) in turn 1 and 2. I don't worry about Eagleclaw Boots too much because I have 3 dissolves to deal with this kind of equipment. I also added a wall of bones because it helps in a lot of situations especially against ranged builds.
I think Banish is a problem for every deck that focuses mainly on one big creature. If my Levi should get banished I just try to keep my opponent at distance, get more armor out and maybe summon a few small creatures that can protect me e.g. by guarding. I can also prevent some of the enemy creatures from attacking me with Lullaby, chant of rage, walls and tanglevines.

@Borg
I already have Arcane Ward in my deck and played it exactly as you suggested it :)
I like the ideas of enchantment transfusion and shift enchantment so I put some copies of them in.

All in all I made the following changes to my book:

+ 1x Leather Boots
+ 1x Leather Gloves
+ 1x Wall of Bones
+ 1x Mana Crystal
+ 1x Enchantment Transfusion
+ 2x Shift Enchantment
+ 1x Shoalsdeep Tidecaller

- 1x Surging Wave
- 1x Chant of Rage
- 1x Falcon Precision
- 1x Minor Heal
- 1x Water Elemental

I cut the Water Elemental mainly beacause of the spellbook points and due to the fact that there were very few situations in which I had enough mana to summon him. I think more of the smaller creatures are the better choice here.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2017, 03:23:37 PM by Pyrion »
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bigfatchef

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Re: Flying Leviathan - Siren
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2017, 04:01:43 PM »
The biggest thread I see is a sleep wand or spore. Since you can work arguing mind shield I would recommend 1 or 2 clear minds to remove the sleep condition.

Besides that I love the idea without knowing if it would really work. Very inspiring from its creativity!

iNano78

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Re: Flying Leviathan - Siren
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2017, 04:11:38 PM »
The biggest thread I see is a sleep wand or spore. Since you can work arguing mind shield I would recommend 1 or 2 clear minds to remove the sleep condition.

Besides that I love the idea without knowing if it would really work. Very inspiring from its creativity!

Chant of Rage and the Siren's Call both ruin Thoughtspores. And Siren is trained in Dissolve/Crumble, so Wands aren't too much of an issue. Assuming your opponent gets a Sleep out of a Wand, if all else fails, poke your sleeping Leviathan with your Shoalsdeep Trident (or get Naiya to hit him with a Swell or whatever). He can take a hit. Use Healing Madrigal in his zone if he gets below half his health.

*edit* Actually, Chant of Rage could be used on any nearby enemy creature to force it to wake up your Leviathan... It can act like an anti-Sleep spell.
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bigfatchef

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Re: Flying Leviathan - Siren
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2017, 04:46:25 PM »
The biggest thread I see is a sleep wand or spore. Since you can work arguing mind shield I would recommend 1 or 2 clear minds to remove the sleep condition.

Besides that I love the idea without knowing if it would really work. Very inspiring from its creativity!

Chant of Rage and the Siren's Call both ruin Thoughtspores. And Siren is trained in Dissolve/Crumble, so Wands aren't too much of an issue. Assuming your opponent gets a Sleep out of a Wand, if all else fails, poke your sleeping Leviathan with your Shoalsdeep Trident (or get Naiya to hit him with a Swell or whatever). He can take a hit. Use Healing Madrigal in his zone if he gets below half his health.

*edit* Actually, Chant of Rage could be used on any nearby enemy creature to force it to wake up your Leviathan... It can act like an anti-Sleep spell.

True. Siren has three perfect tools to handle this.

At the moment I fear psychic spells against living buddies generally the most, I guess. Sleep is just one of it. All other songs or other enchantments like charm could cost time, mana or actions as well. And since the buddy is your main strategie it's survivability is a main topic. Hitting it is not very reliable and could cause serious damage. So I try to avoid it if possible.

Pyrion

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Re: Flying Leviathan - Siren
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2017, 11:57:20 AM »
@bigfatchef
Clear Mind is a good idea! I added one copy of it. If I could I would put even more Clear Minds into the book but in the moment I don't know which card to replace. Maybe you guys have an idea...?

@iNano78
I wasn't in the situation yet that my Levi was put to sleep but if he will, i'll try out one of your strategies (if there are no Clear Minds left) because they seem to be very effective. I also added a Healing Madrigal (I recently played a game where it had really helped a lot).
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Re: Flying Leviathan - Siren
« Reply #8 on: May 17, 2017, 03:40:11 AM »
Have you thought that Circle of Light would work better? Since it dazes/stuns.
I like big flying creatures, but there are a lot of spells like knockdown and main wings that would render eagle wings  useless. that is why I think a barrier enchantment may work best overall.
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Pyrion

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Re: Flying Leviathan - Siren
« Reply #9 on: June 01, 2017, 11:08:03 AM »
Have you thought that Circle of Light would work better? Since it dazes/stuns.
I like big flying creatures, but there are a lot of spells like knockdown and main wings that would render eagle wings  useless. that is why I think a barrier enchantment may work best overall.

For other big creatures I would agree with you. Still I think that the Leviathan does better with Eagle Wings for several reasons:

- Knockdown doesn't work on the Levi because he is unstoppable
- Conditions like Slam and Stun which would bring the Levi to the ground are harder to apply to him because of his tough -3
- Flying is especially good with the Levi because all other flying creatures loose this trait while staying in his zone so that he basically gets immune to all melee attacks (besides attacks from uncontainable flying creatures)
- He cannot be tanglevined (which would prevent me from giving him the flying trait) so nothing stops me from despelling enchantments like maim Wings to take him back to the air

The biggest problem I had so far was an opponent summoning Gravikor but one Teleport and 1 - 2 attacks from the Levi is usually enough to destroy it

« Last Edit: August 04, 2017, 04:44:11 PM by Pyrion »
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