Welcome back to the second part of Budget to Competitive. We will continue to look into dark irregulars on a whole and compare both options available: Amon focused, and Scharlachrot.
Again I will list the pricing I used in previous article.
Noteables
I will mark the prices of all the options as *Worth getting, *not so budget unfriendly, and *super-budget unfriendly.
(RR) Scharlachrot Vampir ~$4-6 each, easily found
(RR) Flag Breaker ~ $3-4 each, easily found (Compulsory)
(RR) Squall Maker Vampir ~$2-3 each, easily found
(RRR) One Who is Abhorrent, Gilles de Rais ~$6-8 each, easily found
(PR) Flying Librarian ~$1-2 each, not so easy found
(RR) Doreen the thruster ~$6-9 each, very hard to acquire
(PR) Psychic of Ash, Hadar ~ $25+ per legion pair, very hard to acquire
(PR) Astaroth Legion ~$7-9 per legion pair, not so easy found
(RR) Yellow Bolt ~$2-3 each, not so easily found
(R) Alluring Succubus ~$2-3 each, very hard to find
(RR) Great Demon, Soulless Demagogue ~ $1-2 each, easily found
(RRR) Amon's Claw, Marchocias ~$2-3 each, not so easily found
(RRR) Demon Marquis, Amon "Яeverse" ~$5-6 each, not so easily found
(RR) Amon's Follower, Vlad Specula ~$4-5 each, not so easily found
Di C and R play sets from GBT03: ~$10 for play set, easily found
Dark knight of nightmareland ~$2 for play set, not so easy
Hysteric Shirley ~$2 for play set, not so easy
Most C ~$1 for 5, most R ~$2 for play set
Now here is the rough breakdown for prices I would use for my decks:
Total price breakdown for Amon if buying singles:
4 Amon Яeverse ~$20
2 Astaroth set ~$16
2 Gilles ~$12
3 Marchocias ~$9
4 Flag breaker ~ $14
total: $71 +
Total price breakdown for Scharlachrot if buying singles:
4 Scharlachrot ~$20
4 Squall Maker ~$8
2-3 Librarian ~$4
4 Flag breaker ~ $16
4 Gilles ~$24
total: $74+
The price breakdown isn't very far off after doing the math. Its just that Amon have more early game and soul charge potential, but are reasonably harder to acquire. Scharlachrot is much easier to acquire, and people will likely be selling the entire deck for reasonable price. Both decks have the pros and cons, so pick what you like!
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Some Thoughts
Doreen the thruster vs Lunatic Masquerade
Price: $6-9 vs $0.2
So Doreen is something MANY DI players will consider a must have. Personally i think otherwise. She promotes bulk soul charging, has use pre-stride, has a higher number possible compared to Lunatic, and has almost 3000% price increase compared to Lunatic, and is rather difficult to acquire. And if you comparing turns where there is no soul charging involved (like when you are 6-7 cards from decking out), she is weaker than Lunatic, which is always a stable 11K by then. Not to say she is bad, but she and predator tends to lure newer DI players to spam their SC effects just to keep numbers up across multiple turns, which I feel is just gonna make decking out a real thing. You have to pace your SC effects to get the most out of DI, and unless it is final turn or you need the souls, I suggest trying not to aim for high soul count just to make Doreen work, but rather get her to benefit off the incidental soul charge effects you have.
Shirley vs Monochrome
Price: $0.25 vs $0.2
This is a matter of preference, as I feel if you are even going to stride even once, Monochrome performs better. Granted Shirley is 2 SC during main phase, Monochrome lets you do 2 things DI does not have often: drawing cards and countercharge. You give up a 10k shield, but you make up for it with another use of an important skill like Bar maid or either Vampir, while recycling a stand trigger back to deck and a draw. So I feel even if your deck sorely needs draw like in Amon, even Amon have very huge front row during either stride, so it is in favor of Monochrome.
Astaroth vs Hadar
Price: $8 vs $20+
Based on card pool available, Astaroth gets to dip into the entire Amon card pool, which has some of the most efficient SC engine possible. He is also a legion with always crit pressure, and a mate that is still strong even if you had to ride it. Hadar is the more generic legion, and with the printing of Rigil it is possible to make a grade 3 line-up of both Rigil and Hadar. Only real problem is getting Hadar legion set. As of this writing the price has seen a crazy spike, due to the demand for the mate, which is good in any legion DI deck. So if you wallet is hurting, Astaroth is being printed as a legion pair promo and more easily available as compared to the now low print Hadar legion.
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Decklists:
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| Fanart Amon "Яeverse" From Franky Kesuma |
Amon list
Grade 0: 18
2 Bar maid Grace (FVG)
4 Hell's trick (heal)
4 Grausam (effect crit)
4 Cruel Hand (crit)
4 Monochrome (stand)
Grade 1: 13
4 Flag breaker (PGG)
2 Pure love succubus
3 Hell's deal
4 Phu Gremlin
Grade 2:11
4 Ron Gremlin
4 Hell's Draw
3 Hell's Nail
Grade 3: 8
2 Amon
4 Amon "Яeverse"
2 Astaroth
Grade 4: 8
2 Gilles
2 Demagouge
3 Marchocias
1 Kisskill Lila
Now the plan for this list is full balls aggro. Your main stride will be Demagouge as you soul charge set up, and Marchocias for big swing turns. Grilles is strictly a finisher, and if you ended up having 2 bar maid in play, we can easily see a 66k+ Grilles with glory and double crit, which is quite game over for most people. Astaroth is there in the event you starting to deck out, as most of the time you will be spend as reverse, hopefully have the crossride through all the soul charging. You can swap Phu Gremlin for Doreen if you want, but no more than 2, as I find Phu useful even late game as emergency attackers.
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| Stride Era's Amon |
Scharlachrot build
Grade 0: 17
1 Werbat Ordonnanz
4 Alice (heal)
4 Monochrome (stand)
4 Weretiger (crit)
4 Dark knight (crit)
Grade 1: 13
4 Flag Breaker (PGG)
3 Lunatic Masquarede (11k booster @ 10 soul)
4 Pure love Succubus (stride fodder)
2 killing dollmaster
Grade 2: 12
2 Flying Librarian
4 Knife conducter
3 Izyla (legion mate)
3 Squall Maker Vampir
Grade 3: 8
4 Scharlachrot Vampir
3 Hadar (legion)
Grade 4: 8
2 KissKill Lila
4 Gilles
2 Demagouge
This is very similar to previous budget list except for the inclusion of 2nd set of Grilles and 2 Librarian and Legion. I find librarian's really decent even though it is only 8k, as we have mainly Lunatic as a booster. We have some strong 21k columns in squall maker or any column with lunatic (at 6 soul he is 9k boost, which is 21k with knife conductor), while VG column is a threat by itself thanks to stride and GB2. Same deal as previous deck; where you have to pace your SC or else you risk decking out. It is definitely less aggressive than Amon, but you have more card advantage, and therefore less likely to run out of gas. Legion is there for the end game when you still have not killed your opponent, and can help you purge triggers out of the soul to legion back.
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So what do you guys think? I am currently working on a DP and GP deck, and posting my NG deck that I main. Leave your comments on what you want to see next!
