Lyserg
Deck /
by Siren
Ok this
is my first deck post. You probably
won’t be seeing to many posts from me but I will explain in some detail how
this deck works. I made this deck with
the cards I own, this isn’t a proxy deck and this isn’t a really expensive
deck. It only has a handful of rares in
it. Also you'll bee seeing a lot of deck
building tips in this article, so if you are a new player this is a must
read. I’m not sure why I am writing this
but I have some time on my hands and very recently built this Lyserg deck and
play tested it a few times. This deck
went undefeated and works well; it’s very fast paced and can stop a lot of deck
types. If you are wondering what certain
cards do head over to www.pojo.com and see their Shaman King site. At the bottom of the page is the
Reincarnation set spoiler. This is a
pretty long article so you may want to print this and read it some other time.
Let’s
start by taking a look at the deck:
SHAMAN: LYSERG
FRONT:
HOMING PENDULUM
BACK: DOWSING
PENDULUM
TEAMWORKS
- 16
2
Duncan, Crusader
2
Venster, Punisher
4
Liliala, Keeper of Memories
2 Lyserg,
Fresh Recruit
4
Venster, Tactician
2 Marco,
Commander
ADVANTAGES
- 15
4
Decipher the Runes
2 Reposition
3
Brain Grab
4 Cleanse
2 Focal Point
STRIKES
- 31
4 Thread
the Needle
3 Rogue
Shot
4 Groundswell
4 Strafe
1
Stalefish Grab
3 Rush to
Judgment
4
Concussive Blast
4 Rail
Bird
1
Unerring Garrote
3 Shared Purpose
TOTAL
- 62
* Cards
in bold text are rares. *
The first
step when building any SK deck is to pick your Shaman out. Now out of all the Lyserg shamans this
combination I listed above is simply the best.
Let’s take a closer look at it:
Homing
Pendulum- HP is a 4/4 with a small cost of 1 green. What’s even better than its cost is its effect,
especially in an X Laws deck. HP gives
you +1, +1 for each teamwork you control that you put
back on top the owners deck. So its
potential is to give your HP a total of 7/7 stats. Of course the downside is you now have 3 teamwork’s on top of your deck that you will eventually
draw, but so what? you can put them on top in any
order. So take the one you want in your
green zone and put it on top last. Then
the one you can do without next, followed by the one you want in your yellow
zone.
ex.
>>> You have 3 teamwork’s on the field and you place all three on top of your deck to get
HP's effect. Now on your next turn you
flip the teamwork you placed last, you use it. Then you flip into the same zone the teamwork
to place on top second. And most likely
focus it. Now in the yellow zone you can
play your teamwork you placed on top of your deck first. <<<
Of course
that’s if you have indeed used its effect to the fullest by placing 3
teamwork’s, if you have that many, on their owners decks. And that’s providing all of the teamwork’s
went to your deck and not someone else’s, here is where Captivate would play a
role. That’s one reason I’m not using Captivate. Anyway it’s a good effect for
one green.
Now to the backside- Dowsing Pendulum.
Its free, yes free cost.
Can’t beat that. Not only is it free but it has 8/6
stats. Great stats for
a free card. And last but not
least it lets you stack your deck. And not just two or three cards but a
staggering 5 cards you can place in any order you want from the top of your
deck. This sig move has no downsides, thumbs up from me.
So now
that we have our shaman and his moves let look at possible deck types. Since Lyserg is an X Law we can expect a lot
of teamwork’s, in this deck I have 16 listed which is more than usual. But since it’s X Laws who cares? These teamwork’s
will really help this deck and you'll hear about them later in the
article. Now there are two primary
strategies with this deck aside from getting out a lot of teamwork’s and
boosting your own furyoku. They are to:
1. Destroy opponent’s teamwork’s and 2.
Uncharge or prevent the charge of your opponent’s zones. This really shuts down charge decks and decks
like this one that rely on teamwork’s.
OK now that we have our strategy in place lets take a look at the cards
starting with teamwork’s:
TEAMWORKS:
Ok we are
dealing with X Laws here so we’re talking about great teamwork’s in
abundance. So let’s look at what I am
using.
·
4
Lillala- Great for stacking your deck, especially with a shaman who is using
the mind trait. Lyserg is all about
getting what you wish for and Lillala helps a lot. Since you discard her you don’t have to worry
about hogging too many zones. Lillala is
a non X Law, and is really great in any deck.
·
2
Venster, Punisher- Great against weenie decks.
This card really adds the extra punch you need but because the other
Venster is better in this deck we only use two here. Punisher works best in green zone since you
want to stuff your opponent and really prevent him from gaining furyoku while
also hitting him with force. If you’re
playing a deck where you need high intercept just focus Punisher away. Last but not least he has no "per turn
limit" so feel free to spend your green and get your boost on.
·
4
Venster, Tactician- Tactician does more than just the obvious in this
deck. He is useful in your green and red
zones. In your green zones he helps
stuff your opponent by boosting intercept, great against those decks that spend
a lot of furyoku in order to hurt you.
In the red Tactician can save your ass big time. Unfortunately he is a "once per
turn" effect so you can’t go crazy with this. He also offsets costs. By increasing intercept with Venster you can
spend more intercept for cards like "Stalefish Grab". So rock on Venster, Tactician.
·
2
Lyserg- Lyserg is great for zone charging.
Especially since I’m only using an average 15 advantages, I think Lyserg
comes in handy especially for charging those pesky yellow and even red zones. But beware he does drain your intercept and
playing against a high force deck may make you consider focusing Lyserg.
·
2
Marco, Commander- You can only use Marcos effect once. At a -2 intercept he lets you add a green
furyoku, which may not seem like a lot but this deck goes through a lot of
green furyoku so any little bit can help.
Against smaller force decks there’s no harm in using his ability. There are only 2 here so there’s not reason
not to play him.
·
2
Duncan, Crusader- Great Card here...
ADVANTAGES:
Lyserg
uses his mind in order to take advantage of the odds, hence the term “Search
and Destroy. We can stack our deck and
draw just what we want. Oh, and did I
mention we can destroy teamwork’s and prevent the opponent’s from charging or
playing his sig? Evil, very evil...
·
4
Decipher the Runes- a mind trait staple.
Here is one card that can put the odds in our favor.
·
2
Reposition- Lets you move teamwork’s around, this benefits you to some
extent. And it can also hurt your
opponent, say he’s running an X Laws deck also or even a “Yoh charge”
deck. Id say teamwork placement is key. Therefore this
card can add some problems to people and even help you out.
·
3
Braingrab- personal favorite. Braingrab
prevents your opponent from charging or playing his sig move. Great for late game come backs. This is a pretty frustrating card, even if
your opponent at the time doesn’t think he'll be affected by this card, he
will. And this can be a second chance
for you if your opponent has all his zones charged and is attempting to unleash
that devastating sig move he's been hiding.
Did I mention its only at one green to play?
·
4
Cleanse- This card is devastating against those decks that rely on teamwork’s,
like this one. The downside here is that
your opponent gets to choose which teamwork’s is going. But if you use 2 or 3 of these it wont matter much because he'll be low on teamwork’s in no
time. Especially combined with cards
like Strafe, which we'll see in a minute.
·
2
Focal Point- Here’s another card that lets you get what you need. You can cycle through 3 cards and pick the
one that you need and discard the rest.
At one yellow its easy on your wallet.
STRIKES:
The
almighty ranged strikes; they are deadly no questions about that. And in this deck except for the three Shared
Purpose cards all the strikes are Ranged.
·
3
Shared Purpose- the debate ensues on which is better, shared purpose or
directors cut. Well in this deck I’m
going with shared purpose because its easier on green furyoku. And you will have a ton of red furyoku by the
end of it. And aside from furyoku costs it does have a higher intercept which
can always help out and better for you when using cards like Venster,
Punisher. Overall 3 of these do just
fine, and if you pitch it you can move a teamwork to an empty zone.
·
4
Thread the Needle- costing an average expense, thread the needle comes in at
6/4 stats and in your opponents green zone he gets +2 force. This actually helps you get furyoku;
hopefully it'll push your opponent into the yellow giving you at least one
green and one yellow furyoku next turn.
I'll take 4 copies.
·
4
Groundswell- Well the ruling on this cards is as follows, "Groundswell is
worded a little confusingly. Its text box is essentially meant to say,
"While defending this strike, unless your opponent plays a non-strike,
Groundswell has +5 Force." So in essence, it checks the NEXT turn, rather
that the previous one." So here we
have a 4/1 which at the beginning of your opponents turn is 4/6, and if he is
heavy on strikes it may stay 4/6. if he
plays a non strike then down to 1 force groundswell goes. Either way its not a bad card to have in the
deck and at 1 green 1 yellow cost I cant see not playing it.
·
3
Rogue Shot- Did I mention I like this card?
Well I do and I only have three of them, but three is all you need
really. With an ability that says, “-3
intercept uncharge any zone" Rogue Shot is perfect in combination with
Venster, Tactician. Rogue Shot adds that
spice that makes this decks strategy come to life in a whole new way. You can uncharge an opponents zone if you use
RS's effect, that just hurts. And if
your opponents force is weak enough and you added to the intercept of Rogue
Shot then you can possibly use this effect twice and uncharge two of your opponent’s
zones. That’s downright mean.
·
4
Strafe- Strafe serves one purpose eliminate teamwork’s. At 4/4 stats he can block average cards and
combined with Venster, Tactician he can intercept even more. Against teamwork decks Strafe is a must
have. I like strafe a lot of and just so
happen to have 4 copies.
·
1
Stalefish Grab- I wish I had one more of these.
Stalefish is expensive as all hell but really helps this deck. I used this card in conjunction with Venster,
Tactician today and added a whole bunch of green furyoku. Since this cards isn’t limited to "once
per turn" you get moneys worth from it.
·
3
Rush to Judgment- At 5/2 stats this card is good and in your opponents green
zone he gets a +4 force boost. This is
another one of those cards that add furyoku to your deck but pushing your
opponent back to at least the yellow zone.
Beware of punishers though...
·
4
Concussive Blast- Here’s a solid 5/3 strike that uncharged whatever zone your
opponent counterattacks from. Good card
here, I have 4 listed but 3 of these would be ideal. Most decks made from this reincarnation set
are going to want zones charged so the odds of actually getting this effect off
aren’t as bad as you may think. Plus 5
intercept is good enough to get most jobs done.
·
4
Rail Bird- This is a 6/3 strike that for a -2 intercept can add a yellow
furyoku when you counterattack. This
does boost your yellow which is needed in this deck. Rail Birds a solid card and I wouldn’t
consider using less than 4. Plus this isn't a "once per turn" effect
so with 6 intercept you may be able to use this effect 2 or 3 times and add 2
or 3 yellow furyoku. Good Stuff!
·
1
Unerring Garrote- 6/7 stats make this a powerhouse, if only I had 2-3 more of
these bad boys. Not only are the stats
good but you can eliminate a teamwork when you counterattack with it. The downside of course being that it costs a
lot. But in this deck you'll see that
you'll have some extra furyoku set aside for cards like these since the rest of
the deck isn’t so expensive to play.
There you
have it a complete breakdown of the card list.
As you can see this deck has a lot going for it and can almost mold to
defend against a variety of deck types.
After playing with this Lyserg deck you'll realize you have better
furyoku management then your opponent. Also
when they lose their ability to capitalize on sig moves and teamwork’s that
leads to their inability to capitalize with their strategy. This is the closest thing I’ve seen to a
control deck in the Shaman King TCG.
Unless you are running a deck that eats your opponents furyoku this deck
really goes after the heart of your opponents strategy while at the same time
giving yourself great furyoku management.
Now I’ll break this deck down two
other ways; Furyoku and Strategy.
The furyoku
breakdown lets you see first hand how your deck will handle the furyoku
curve. In an deck building article by
Inquest they suggest the average deck should have no more than 12 cards with
red costs and 30 with yellow. That’s a
general estimate and is a great tip for new players.
Furyoku Breakdown:
Green – 56
Yellow – 35
Red – 4
The
furyoku breakdown looks pretty normal. I
am running a few more yellow than I like but I have Rail Bird to offset that
plus I’m only using 4 cards with a red cost.
Strategy Breakdown:
Teamwork
Destruction (9):
4 Cleanse
4 Strafe
1
Unerring Garrote
Furyoku
Gain (7):
2 Marco
Commanders
4 Rail
Bird
1
Stalefish Grab
Charging
Problems (10):
3 Rogue
Shot
4
Concussive Blast
3 Brain
Grab
Stacking
the Deck (10):
4 Lillala
4
Decipher the Runes
2 Focal
Point
Ok we
have plenty of cards dedicated to this decks strategy. The only thing that seems to be lacking here
is extra furyoku gainers but this is a pretty inexpensive deck to play so
you’ll be stock piling furyoku by the end of it.
By now
you have probably realized where the title “Search and Destroy” came from. The strategy for this deck relies on stacking
your deck for cards that can counter your opponent’s strategy. Sometimes I see decks trying to do too much;
well at first glance you may think that this is one of those decks. But really this deck only focuses on one
strategy, and that strategy is to counter whatever your opponent is playing.
You'll
also notice that this deck is running at 62 cards which is not so much over the
60 card minimum. This game doesn’t
really rely on you having 60 cards like other games do. Plus with Lysergs mind trait advantages
you'll be sucking through this deck picking out cards you enjoy more than
others. Lillala, Decipher the Runes, and
Focal Point help with this matter. Those
cards also help you get the cards you need, since no strikes in this deck are
too overpowering you will need to do some searching to find the cards you need
to defend. They also help when you are
going to get different combos going with your teamwork’s. Searching your deck for certain cards is the
key to this deck. And by searching I
really mean skimming, no cards let you search your deck but the mind cards I’m
referring to do let you stack the top of your deck in a certain way. Make
sure you know this deck inside and out and make sure you remember what you are
drawing and how many copies of each cards you’re using.
This
isn’t a template for all Lyserg decks this is just a template for the one I am using. You can feel free to do whatever you
please. Some will disagree with my
ratios and others will enjoy this deck.
This deck was just made from the cards I have and really I could only
see making a few modest adjustments to it.
The addition of Captivate (Lysergs Spectergram) would be helpful but in
this deck the red furyoku of Captivate wouldn’t be the best move, I think the
cards I listed are good for what this deck is supposed to do. After play testing this a few times I am
tweaking it as I go along, I have to say I haven’t lost a match yet and this
deck is doing very well. What turned out
to be a spur of the moment Lyserg deck actually has become an interesting deck
type. I hope everyone will experiment
with Lyserg and unlock his potential.
And if
any new players are looking for a ratio to use I like the one mentioned in an
Inquest magazine. For beginners 2/3
(35-40 / 60) of the deck should be strikes.
Obviously the deck I made above has about half the deck strikes but
that’s because this is a different deck and once you experiment you will find
out how many are working for you. This
is a good way to breakdown your deck.
When play testing your deck write down what’s working and what’s not
working, then refer back to your sheet and see what adjustments can be
made. By breaking a deck down into Deck,
Strategy, and Furyoku Costs you can pinpoint any problems your deck may have.
For you
new players out here are some resources for you:
Pojo's
Reincarnation Spoileriler:
http://www.pojo.com/shamanking/index.shtml
Shaman
King Rulings Thread-
This is a thread I started and has become the largest thread on the SK
forum. It has a ton of official rulings
and If I were you I would print the whole thread out. If you have any questions I suggest you post
them there:
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=126352
Ok enjoy
this article because they won’t come often.
I hope this helps any new players find their style and any advanced
players find a new strategy.
Happy
Gaming,
Siren
Note:
Don’t send me decks that need fixing. If
anyone wants to discuss the SK TCG feel free to correspond.