Every Phoenixborn - Ninja's Tier List and Guide

Recently I've completed my ten wins on Ashteki with every phoenixborn in the game. I thought I'd share my thoughts on each one, how powerful I think it is, strengths and weakness and common combos. This list was written just before the release of The Siege of Lordswall.

A Tier

Hope

How to Win: Duplicate is unbelievable value. You should definitely be using it every round to apply pressure with key 1 life conjurations especially those that have 2 or more attack. Combo this aggression with Void Pulse to take out enemies and either hit face or control the battlefield.

Deck Styles: You generally want to max out Void Pulse damage so swarming and playing lots of cheap units is a good plan. Taking out a 3 or 4 health unit can be amazing value, but don't get too greedy and wiped by card like Nature's Wrath. Start your deckbuilding by choosing what 1 life conjurations you can duplicate. You can utilise your giant spell board to insure you still have multiple different 1 life units you could duplicate, should your opponent take one of them out. Duplicate and Void Pulse together do make for a pretty aggressive package, so an aggressive attacking deck strategy will work well here. 

Common Combos: What makes Hope so powerful and my number 1 PB is the flexibility they provide with Duplicate.  Common targets for the ability are Shadow Hound, Vampire Bat Swarm and Light Bringer. Shadow Hound is the most expensive conurbation with 1 life so it makes sense you get a lot of value from duplicating it. Vampire Bat has a great on destruction ability you can trigger and Light Bringer can really help with your aggressive strategy, forcing your opponent to attack when it's least beneficial and then hitting back hard when they exhaust their units.

Proven Competitive Lists:

Carl's LKA winning Shadow Hounds deck: https://ashes.live/decks/50100/

Killercactus's Collection 2023 Top 4 Agro Burn deck: https://ashes.live/decks/share/8534a00b-f6ff-487d-acbd-90cbf4742ab6/

Brian B's Phoenix Pod II Top 2 Shadow Hounds PACT deck: https://ashes.live/decks/share/975e32d4-cea7-4b2e-b2d8-ef7f540078ec/

My Best Homebrew: https://ashes.live/decks/share/92cb5165-b5e5-44a7-b196-a0dc9e5cddb8/

Helping me get my 10 wins with Hope is this Shadow Hound deck which combines the time dice Fighting Spirit spellboard package with classic Hope Shadow Hounds.

With so many 1 life units to choose from I have a lot of options during the game. Every card I draw helps me build up my spellboard with focus effects, so quite often I duplicate the Wishing Wing instead of the Shadow Hound, depending on if there is a juicy target to stalk and kill. Build up your Fighting Spirit with tokens and hit your opponent with a big attack, using some combination of Void Pulse, Accelerate, and Stand Still to ensure your opponent cannot block the beatdown. Just be careful to avoid getting clogged, always leave a battlefield slot open for a Seafoam Snapper to eat something or a conjuration to duplicate into!

Harold

Rin

Maeoni

Tristan

Jessa

Coal

Odette

B Tier

Astrea

Leo

Saria

Koji

Aradel

Echo

Xander

C Tier

Noah

Dimona

Lulu

James

Rimea

Orrick

D Tier

Fiona

Brennen

Sembali

Rowan

Namine

Jericho

F Tier

Victoria