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 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 V 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/44410/
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/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 available 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
How to win: Winning with Rin is all about using his Ice Buff ability on the unit which benefits the most from it. Changing a 2 life unit to a 3 life unit can have the largest impact since placing your unit outside of double ping removal range can make a big difference. An already tough unit to take out with 3 or more health like a knight becoming even more difficult to kill can also work well.
In general Shattering Fist is a much more powerful removal card than the more situational and expensive Rin's Fury which can admittedly catch an opponent off guard attacking with a knight, since it's rarely played. Note the side action cost for this event and get your Ice Buff or other disposable alteration out early so that you have the option to shatter an enemy whenever is best. A good move to exploit this side action destruction can be attacking a 4 life knight unit with a 1 attack ally. If your opponent doesn't guard the single damage then the extra 3 from shattering fist is enough to destroy their 3 dice investment and make them regret their decision.
Deck Styles: With superior unit health and a powerful removal spell Rin is best suited for controlling the battlefield to his advantage and converting that control to PB damage later. I find Ice Buff is generally more powerful when combined with higher health units, so focusing on making kills without losing your units in the attack can give your opponent very awkward combat maths to deal with.
Common Combos: The main reason Rin is in my A tier of PBs is how Shattering Fist combines with Adaptodon for amazing round 1 value. The downside of Shattering Fist removing an alternation turns into a positive since you can trigger Adaptodon's Adapt ability again, and conjure another Adaption alteration. Altogether this can combine for 5 direct damage and a 2/2 unit just for 3 dice, split up however is most useful.
Other common combos are units that benefit from the extra 1 life. Frostback Bear is already a great value proposition that can get even harder to remove with 4 life instead of 3. Ruin Dweller is an example of a 2 dice summon that is often the target of removal, so getting it up to 3 health is great protection against direct damage. It's worth mentioning Ice Golem as an obvious choice for the Ice Buff to trigger the additional life from Skin Morph, but even so the investment of 3 dice into a large unit can be underpowered, so I don't recommend this unit unless you're fine with playing something janky.
Proven Competitive Lists:
Fred's LKA II Winning Adaptodon deck: https://ashes.live/decks/49763/
My Best Homebrew: https://ashes.live/decks/49766/
Helping me get my 10 wins with Rin and Top 4 at LKA2 is this extremely fun to play big beastly deck of large units and alterations.
Use the now classic Rin combo of Adaptodon and Shattering Fist to blast your opponents units in round 1. Then tactically decide which of your four summons best suits the Ice Buff in any given round. With 8 dice every round spent on summons the rest of the deck is full of situational actions and alterations. Pump value into your 2 dice beasts by giving them just the right amount of attack, or extra ping to dominate the battlefield. Don't worry to much about losing your large units, just make your opponent waste energy and attacks to take them out!