Every Single 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 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
How to win: Harold is the master of controlling the battlefield, and outvaluing your opponent in combat. Hunter's Mark is versatile and can be used in several different ways to ensure victory. First you can use it against high life enemy units to trade efficiently. Put the Hunter's Mark on an opponent's 4 life knight unit and attack with literally any 2 attack unit to take them out. There's usually nothing the opponent can do as every round Hunter's Mark allows you to go up at least 1 dice in combat every round.
Another combination is to use direct damage to take out the enemy with the mark. Any main action direct damage in particular can be used with Hunter's Mark on the same turn to take out a 2 health unit.
Trying to taking out a large enemy unit with a big attack usually means the opponent guards with their PB, using their life as a resource. Hunter's Mark can be used to deny that play so try putting large attack units and combos into your Harold deck, knowing that you can use the large attacks without fear of PB guarding.
Deck Styles: Harold is amazing at dominating and "winning" the battlefield, so your focus should be on what to do with that control. Stack your deck full of knights or burn cards, just remember you have to actually win at some point by attacking your opponent's PB once you have control of the battlefield.
Common Combos: There are many cards which combo with Hunter's Mark. Old Salt is already a great value proposition of a body and a ping damage made even better when combined with Hunter's Mark. River Skald can seem like overkill but allows you to discard 2 cost cards for 4 damage or take out something with annoying Root Armour. Use Hunter's Mark and knights with combat kill effects like Sonic Swordsman to unsure those effects get triggered.
Proven Competitive Lists:
Carl's Collection 2023 Winning PACT deck: https://ashes.live/decks/share/3a12679a-bfab-4847-a9ec-cbdc58bcbdf0/
Killercactus's Pod I Top 2 PACT deck: https://ashes.live/decks/share/236d8dd9-44b7-4875-9be9-4224cc3c75e4/
Brian B's Collection 2023 Top 2 PACT deck: https://ashes.live/decks/share/6600553b-6cc7-4a2d-870d-e27d31f4103a/
The Treatment's Pod II Top 4 Spindown deck: https://ashes.live/decks/share/763330d1-ff15-4889-aa8e-d8fd49fac398/
My Best Homebrew: https://ashes.live/decks/mine/43621/
Helping me get my 10 wins with Harold is this slow burn list. It has just about enough control of the battlefield, using Old Salt, Frostback Bear and Hammer Knight in combination with Hunter's Mark you've got every type of combo option avaliable to at least avoid losing control of the game. Meanwhile you can slowly heal Harold with Butterfly Monk and Consume Soul and burn your opponent with Chant of Revenge and Molten Gold. Use Dark Reaping on your own ally if your opponent refuses to trigger your chants.
Rin
Jessa
Tristan
Coal
Odette
Maeoni
B Tier
Astrea
Maeoni
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
