Placeholder Deck Analysis

RyLHelfrov
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

Since PAX ended, I have been trying to master the ins and outs of the game. Artifact is a good game and if you somehow, someway become the best in the world, you could win a million dollars. It was an interesting fantasy to sell, to players that they could become millionaire playing Artifact.

That’s their selling point. I don’t blame them, reading about marketing strategy a little bit have its own advantage of course. But, the interesting points are, how you can win in a game with fixed materials? I guess, the answer for now is study,study and study more.

HEROES

Phantom Assasin has spell coup de grace that can kills even the Immune unit. As the best counter to Axe, Bristleback, Pugna and so on, this hero is probably the best in the game, no jokes. Lycan with savage wolfs easily push and that +2 dmg for allied neighbour really increase damage potential of a unit.

Rix, the hero with rapid deployment, enable him to move through battlefield from lane to lane. This is really powerful, especially if he carry items like Apotheosis Blade. Necrophos, with the spell heartstopper aura really enables hero like Rix and black hero which excel in dmg to be more active early. Chen allows you to be able to steal Thunderhide pack really strong creep. His spell, Hand of God, enable a turn of immunity which really helps the deck to win early.

DECK

Heartstopper + Mist of Avernus combo wells with Rix. Good items will make Rix crazy powerful. Selemene’s enable the green deck to be active early, using spells to have and edge to the game. Steam Cannon is a no brainer since we have seen this improvement destroys enemy if there 3 of them deployed in a game.

Disciple of Nevermore allows more dmg and Savage threatens to be unstoppable especially if left alone for turns. It’s possible to divine purpose a savage wolf to allow it to grows for turns and win the game. Grazing shot helps to clear early game board with payday to increase gold and pick off to kill an enemy unit with low hp.

Smeevil blacksmith modify a hero with+1 armor but since it dies to creep (2/2), it’s amount could be reduced to 2 instead of 3. Untested Grunt have good dmg but easily killed by creep (4/2). His stats for offense is good. Placing this creep well in the late game could be the difference between winning and losing. Oglodi Vandal deals 4 dmg to tower on deploy which could be game winning in certain case. Stats also good since he kills creep in 1 shot (4/4). Thunderhide pack excels in late game. Securing a lane with that enormous (14/14) could be the needed factor to secure the little bit of tower dmg.

My item choice is Traveler’s cloak x2 . More hp means more survival. Stonehall Cloak give +4 hp and the modifies with +2hp while Stonehall Pike modifies a hero +1atk and provide +2 atk. Phase boots allow you to reposition your hero which could be vital in the late game. Apotheosis blade is the ultimate counter to late game items and Horn of the Alpha just brings more 14/14 creep to battlefield. Stonehall plate could have a small advantage over Stonehall plate.

I saw the Ehome pro player started to buy the item that provide amor instead of the health. That’s quite interesting that it made me think, maybe armor is better than hp since the armor actually reduces every unit vs the hero while hp still retains enemy overall attack.

I could be renewing my deck in the future but for now, I will play-test this deck and see if I could make it even better. Until next.

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