Beastmaster Deathlock Swarm

[Gewar]

Ring of Beasts
Staff of Beasts
Elemental Cloak
Bearskin

Redclaw
Timber Wolf x4
Bitterwood Fox x5
Cervere
Sosruko
Ferral Bobcat x3
Darkfenne Bat x2
Emerald Tegu x2
Tarok
Thunderift Falcon x3

Marked for Death x2
Poisoned Blood x2
Chains of Agony
Bull Endurance x2
Cobra Reflexes
Rhino Hide
Bear Strenght
Cheetah Speed
Block x2
Nulify

Call of the Wild x2
Charge x2
Rouse the Beast x2
Force Push x2
Knockdown x2
Dispel x2
Dissolve

Jet Stream x3
Force Hammer

Rajan's Fury x2
Tooth & Nail
Deathlock
Wall of Thornes x4
Tanglevine x2
Renewing Spring

This is fast, swarm build. I start with Ring of Beasts and try to cast at least one creature every turn.
During the following turns I put one of two Rajan's Furies and try to cast Marked for Death, as those are very effective with swarms.
After dealing some damage to the enemy I put Deathlock - it does not hurt me that much, as my small animals die from one or two hits anyway. In the following rounds I try to play Poisonous Blood and keep it face down for times when Deathlock is destroyed and when my oponent tries to heal.
I try to spread my creatures in more than one Zone, to avoid zone attacks.
If my oponent is shooter I try to block LoS of my oponent with Walls and use ground units (Foxes and Bobcats can freely run through walls). Otherwise I focus on flyers.
As I use deathlock, I don't have much healing (Staff of Bests and Renewing Spring (which can remove conditions and does not use my mage's action)) and focus rather on preventing damage (Armor, Blocks, Cobra Reflexes). Bull Endurance is the only enchantment that I find worthy to cast on my weak creatures (and reveal it before Deathlock).
Force Hammer is mainly against Obelsik and Orb.
Force Push and Jet Stream help me to charge a lot and both can be used effectively with Wall of Thornes.
I like to play at least one Bat or Lizzard just for psychological game - your oppnent can't heal and surelly would not be happy with poison.

[sdougla2]

I'd include more Tanglevines in order to deal with guards. You can attack with Redclaw or use Knockdown to clear the guard marker, but Tanglevine is just so strong at dealing with guards, and you really want to avoid losing your small creatures to guards.

I'm not big fan of Call of the Wild. I'd rather focus on persistent buffs like enchantments, totems, Marked for Death, and Redclaw, of which you have plenty.

I've never really tried Bull Endurance. It's expensive enough that I feel like I should just have another creature or use Bear Strength on my big creature instead.

Chains of Agony seems a little odd in this list. You have 2 Rajan's Furies, so your opponent is already penalized for trying to kite you. Combined with your Fast creatures I'd rather use Magebane or Ghoul Rot.

Why do you run so many Timber Wolves? They're too expensive to swarm effectively, particularly without a Lair. They can be effective support for a Redclaw, but 4 seems excessive, particularly when you're planning on swarming.

Teleport is more flexible position control than Charge or Force Push. You should keep the Force Pushes for Wall of Thorns plays, but a Teleport would help in a wide variety of situations, and is much more flexible than Charge.

Do you really need 2 Poison Bloods and a Deathlock? That seems excessive. I think you're overvaluing healing effects that your opponent might use, and undervaluing healing effects that you could use.

You don't have a great option against an early anti-creature conjuration. Turn 1 Mordok's Obelisk, Idol of Pestilence, or Suppression Orb would be hard for you to deal with, since you're big creatures aren't particularly scary or resilient. Steelclaw helps with those types of situations more than Redclaw or Cervere.

You have some good options overall, but your options seem a bit weighted towards dealing with things that won't always be an issue, and your creature distribution seems a little awkward for the way I think you're planning to play. How often will you really need 4 Timber Wolves and 2 Emerald Tegus? You also don't have great options against the hardcore swarm counters, since your 1-2 big options are relatively weak, you have few enchantment buffs, and you don't have a good equipment play available.

[Gewar]

I'd include more Tanglevines in order to deal with guards. You can attack with Redclaw or use Knockdown to clear the guard marker, but Tanglevine is just so strong at dealing with guards, and you really want to avoid losing your small creatures to guards.

More Tanglevines seams like an good idea, I'll consider this. For guards I have also many pushes.

I'm not big fan of Call of the Wild. I'd rather focus on persistent buffs like enchantments, totems, Marked for Death, and Redclaw, of which you have plenty.

CoW is used sometimes (ie. when I am in bigger group on the other side of Wall of Thornes) and that's why I have only two of them. They're cheep enough in my spellbook to keep them.

I've never really tried Bull Endurance. It's expensive enough that I feel like I should just have another creature or use Bear Strength on my big creature instead.

Bull Endurance is handy for Sosruko. Bear Strengh is bad choice for creature that will die soon.

Chains of Agony seems a little odd in this list. You have 2 Rajan's Furies, so your opponent is already penalized for trying to kite you. Combined with your Fast creatures I'd rather use Magebane or Ghoul Rot.

Yeah... Chains will be thrown away... I think I was trying to much tu suprice my oponent.

Why do you run so many Timber Wolves? They're too expensive to swarm effectively, particularly without a Lair. They can be effective support for a Redclaw, but 4 seems excessive, particularly when you're planning on swarming.

Wolf play suppouse to be my alternative play to pure swarming - just to keep my oponent not sure what will be comming against him. Maybe I'll reduce numbers to 2 Timber Wolfs.

Teleport is more flexible position control than Charge or Force Push. You should keep the Force Pushes for Wall of Thorns plays, but a Teleport would help in a wide variety of situations, and is much more flexible than Charge.

Teleport is lvl2 out of school. I'll keep my pushes.

Do you really need 2 Poison Bloods and a Deathlock? That seems excessive. I think you're overvaluing healing effects that your opponent might use, and undervaluing healing effects that you could use.

Deathlock is my first option. And I'll put PB as soon as my Deatlock is in danger - otherwise my enemy will start healing. And this build has no economy, no healing and not many lasting creatures -> I want to kill my enemy early.

You don't have a great option against an early anti-creature conjuration. Turn 1 Mordok's Obelisk, Idol of Pestilence, or Suppression Orb would be hard for you to deal with, since you're big creatures aren't particularly scary or resilient. Steelclaw helps with those types of situations more than Redclaw or Cervere.

I Have Force Hammer - if it would not be enough it will be close and I can deal remaining damage with creatures or mage.
Cervere + Rajan's Fury is strong combination, as it can run around and get charge bonus every time.

You have some good options overall, but your options seem a bit weighted towards dealing with things that won't always be an issue, and your creature distribution seems a little awkward for the way I think you're planning to play. How often will you really need 4 Timber Wolves and 2 Emerald Tegus? You also don't have great options against the hardcore swarm counters, since your 1-2 big options are relatively weak, you have few enchantment buffs, and you don't have a good equipment play available.

Some numbers are due to the fact that I have limited number of cards and I am not using proxies. I love Grizzly, but I feel like it not belongs here But with few more spellbook points I may add it.

Thank you for your insight. What I am planning to use, from your ideas:
- more Tanglevines
- no Chains of Agony
- less Timber Wolfs
I'll also look if I can fit something more to be a little more versetile (I mean not prepared for everything, but more unstopable in doing my job).

[sdougla2]

There are a few reasons that I really value Teleport. It lets you get creatures out of Tanglevine/Quicksand if you need to, it works on unmovable creatures (like creatures in Tanglevine/Quicksand, Iron Golems, and Earth Elementals), and it lets you escape a position that you're trapped in due to Force Hold or Force Crush. Plus you can move creatures farther with it. Force Push is nice, but it doesn't address as many mobility concerns. Teleport also helps against specific abilities like Thorg's Taunt, whereas Force Push only helps if you only need to move the creature 1 zone.

I hadn't considered putting Bull Endurance on Sosruko. That's worth trying, although probably not in my current BM build.

As for Bear Strength, that's why I put it on my big creature (Redclaw, Timber Wolf Pet, or Steelclaw) or on my mage rather than on my level 1 creatures.

You can Force Hammer a problematic conjuration, but that won't quite kill it on average, and costs pretty similar mana to the conjuration. I prefer to have a strong option that lets me ignore the conjuration and try to kill my opponent directly if they've just invested a good chunk of mana into something to punish a play I haven't actually committed to yet. You don't have a great option for that type of play, and you'll absolutely need to destroy conjurations like Mordok's Obelisk, Suppression Orb, and Idol of Pestilence.

If your opponent starts healing, so what? You should be able to do damage faster than they can heal, and you really don't need 2 Poison Bloods and a Deathlock. 2 Poison Bloods or a Poison Blood and a Deathlock is plenty. I don't think it's necessary to run any of those cards, but it can be a good idea to run 1-2 if healing can be a problem for you. 3 seems excessive. If you can develop a strong enough board advantage, healing won't save your opponent regardless. If you're worried about direct healing spells specifically, you could replace one of the Poison Bloods with another Nullify. Nullify can be used to prevent direct healing, but it can also be used to help against a variety of other types of plays.