Recently, our Guild, @clanft-bank gained some new members who have joined for SPS Brawls, and we went up to Tier 2, where we are earning more, but facing more challenge: Many of our players needed to adapt to brawls and needed some strategies. In order to capitalize on this, the Clan and I will be writing a joint series of Strategies focused around Gladiator Cards, and Brawl Strategies for newer, smaller players in each league who are looking to play a bit more competitively.
Lets move on to Death, and move through each Splinter in Novice League before switching to Bronze League.
Death is a bit of a problematic Splinter, and in Novice and Bronze, this is especially true: It really struggles to find its footing, and is forced to rely on a very predictable set of teams, however, some of these teams are just plain strong, and when not accounted for, can mess up your opponent's day.
This strategy guide will be for Novice players specifically, and assume all 1 BCX, I am NOT rating these cards for their additional abilities or levels, purely as is.
Low Mana Strategies
Thaddeus + Windeku is by far your strongest low mana play, bonus points if you can use Drake of Arnak instead. This tends to work best in 12-15 Mana, where it is mostly Windeku plus a supporting attacker vs. another tank. In this situation, you'll have a good chance most of the time.
I really like Death, but it does have its issues, one of its strongest areas though, is Equalizer, where you can stack up on a very powerful low mana team using Thaddeus, who will often be your go-to summoner, especially in Low Mana.
Generally speaking, your core will use some combination of Windeku + Weirding Warrior/Whistling Damon/Life Sapper:
Here are some variations:
CL + RW Brawls: Windeku + Weirding Warrior + Corpse Fiend = 12 Mana OR Windeku + Cabalist + Corpse Fiend = 17 Mana OR Windeku + Silent Shavi + Corpse Fiend = 14 Mana... Each of these use Thaddeus Brood as your summoner.
Owster
You can build a decent Anti Magick team with Owster using similar plays to the other ones, but Owster benefits heavily from Riftwing + Cabalist in his comps, and works at a slightly higher mana amount than Thaddeus.
Contessa
Contessa is an older summoner, but gives offers a Ranged counter that can be used in surprisingly effective ways, as it counters many of the Gladiators that players commonly use.
Alpha Beta Brawls
Finally, let's take a look at A/B Brawls in Novice, Zintar is a weird play, but serves as a solid counter to Life Sneak and Fire, and is actually quite strong at handling its opponents thanks to Twisted Jester.
Here's a small list to help you with all of this that you have learned:
- Untamed Additions: Contessa and Darkest Mage give you some low mana plays to work with, and Contessa lets you counter Ranged.
- Dice Additions: Mimosa and Owster are excellent additions for low mana, and grant some more magic damage to the team, and magic reflect for a more aggressive counter than Thaddeus.
- Gladius Additions: Whistling Damon is my favorite low mana play, but Trapp Falloway is a great choice in Mid Mana or in Little League
- Riftwatcher Additions: Cabalist is what makes your teams more viable: He enhances Windeku and Owster quite a bit, if you use either, you should be rocking this guy.
- Reward Additions: Shadowy Presence is a nice 1 Mana tank to rent if you can use Rewards.
Guild Notification List
@torran @movebitch @vjekich @allani545 @jakkal @oliviander @cyouonthemoon @mrmare @kyuki @perrodelmal @rqr4 @litrydow @odinthebotza @kid.miniatures
Wanna know how more about the Gladiators, check out a tier list here: https://peakd.com/hive-13323/@jakkal/gladiator-cards-earth-strategies-and-tier-list-for-novice
