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 ensure 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. However there are also some 1 life units with powerful effects that usually don't get triggered since they die so quickly, you might want to consider building around buffing them instead.
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. Shadow Spirit often doesn't get to even trigger its spindown effect before dying to 1 direct damage so 2 health might just be enough to see it actually attack. 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/
Chaos Theory's GenCon 2023 Winning Forstback Bear Deck: https://ashes.live/decks/38694/
MBauer's LKA I Top 4 Spindown Deck: https://ashes.live/decks/48695/
My Best Homebrew: https://ashes.live/decks/48880/
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!
Maeoni
How to win: There are two main flavours of Maeoni, split between classic combo builds for exploiting the best conjuration in the game Silver Snake with the goal of turning it into a game winning attacker, and less tried and tested alternative strategies with Venom Strike or some other exploitation of Maeoni's Command Strike ability.
With Silver Snake employed on the battlefield you can make your goal a multi stage plan: protect, grow and then finally strike. Use allies with Unit Guard to protect your snake from getting killed early while it has no attack. Then use direct damage and removal, or even something like stalk attacks, to take out enemy units and stack those status tokens high on your snake buddy. Finally when they are big enough, the snake can attack with a fearsome total.
Command Strike can be used in combination with the Silver Snake as well. Once you have enough tokens your snake's attack value will kill whatever you desire and fuel the growth of your serpentine monster even more. Just be careful of Fate Reflection!
Deck Styles: With the classic Maeoni combo deck you can grow your snake to a massive attack value and then use bypass tools to hit your opponent's PB life total. Most games of ashes reborn are a back and forth of PB guards and incremental damage, but with a big enough snake 2 or even 1 attack can be enough to clinch victory.
Alternatively you can focus less on comboing the destructive power of the snake and build a more well rounded battlefield deck. With only a couple enemy deaths the Silver Snake is an amazing value proposition on its own with 4 life for only 2 dice. Your opponent may overspend resources removing the snake threat before they realize you have backup options for victory.
Instead of waiting for your snake to grow, Command Strike can also be used in conjunction with units that already have high attack, so consider adding a 3 dice knight ally to your first five for example.
Finally you can go in a completely different direction and focus on the less traditionally powerful Venom Strike unique action card, spamming out Charm Dice across your opponent's battlefield before burning and milling them. Spam those Charm Dice as early as possible in the round and avoid actually killing their units with a more passive game plan.
Common Combos: Despite being number 4 in my PB power rankings Maeoni she isn't my favourite PB, in part because I find the tried and tested cards that work so well with her Silver Snake don't leave as much room for the creative deckbuilding ashes is known for. Gilder is an amazing conjuration for both protecting the Silver Snake with unit guard, slamming direct damage into enemies and even more status tokens for the snake when the gilder dies. Explosive Growth is also almost a must in any snake deck, the multiplication factor can provide your snake with insane amounts of attack. Finally Hypnotize is usually the go to bypass combo card to guarantee your massive attack is the game winning move.
Proven Competitive Lists:
Kaile's SB5 Winning Bypass Combo Deck: https://ashes.live/decks/share/de331ca9-2626-4615-82d3-4ec1c7558776/
Carl's SB3 Winning Bypass Combo Deck: https://ashes.live/decks/share/751e31fd-1c5b-4b01-8a2e-f96d241dd709
My Best Homebrew: https://ashes.live/decks/47599/
Helping me get 10 wins with Maeoni is this unorthodox and slightly silly rush burn deck that aims to get as much damage onto your opponent's PB before they have a chance to react and then burn them to victory in subsequent rounds, in the style of Realm of the Absurd decks but without the Realm Walker.
Open the round with Grave Knight, give them Hunting Weapons and use Red Flower to attack your opponent twice. Between the ping damage of Hunting Weapons and the massive 4 attack Command Strike available to you from the Grave Knight, the goal is to deal a large up front hit to your opponent's life points. Then in subsequent rounds use all the burn cards in the deck like Frost Bite and Final Cry to finish off your opponent, using Maeoni's massive 20 life to hopefully survive long enough to see victory.
Odette
How to win: That sword isn't just for show! Odette brings consistent destruction down upon the enemy. Enter the Fray is the bane of every 0 attack 2 life unit out there, and can also be used aggressively against anything that needs taking out asap regardless of damage to PB. It doesn't get more removal than simply destroy an unit than Sword of Virtue, the ultimate send off for any high health enemy.
My advice, if you suspect a 0 attack unit will get played, like the Raptor Hatchling or Ruby Cobra then hold off on your Enter the Fray, but don't be afraid to use your PB health as a resource and take out that 2 life Winged Lioness or pesky Adaptodon. Between PB guarding, Enter the Fray and destroying a unit with Sword of Virtue you should be able to establish control of the battlefield quickly, just make sure you have a plan to convert that battlefield control into big PB damage in later rounds before all that Enter the Fray damage adds up.
Sword of Virtue is 2 dice for removal, so if your opponent plays a 3 dice knight round 1 its a fantastic trade for you. However what if they play all cheap units round 1? By also playing a large unit yourself you can make the most of the sword's flexibility, take out their knight, or refresh your own.
Deck Styles: With the ability to take out key enemy units round after round Odette is the perfect home for combo decks that require protecting specific special units. Combo Enter the Fray with side action damage and you can take out most threats before they can attack. By sacrificing your PB health you can establish control of the battlefield, so even if you don't play big unit combo consider running high attacks units that can convert that battlefield control into enemy PB damage.
Common Combos: Bypass decks are a common combo with Odette, starting with the cornerstone bypass card Frostback Bear. Take out their units with attack high enough to block your fearsome ursine friend, and leave the rest to scramble as you hit their PB. Unit Gaurd summons can make things even more awkward to navigate for your opponent, like Turtle Guard or Butterfly Monk. With only 3 spell board slots you have to make those summons count!
Then there is the question of what units will benefit most from protection and Sword of Virtue refreshing. Realm Walker is always a frustrating threat for your opponent if you can keep it alive long enough. Massive Growth or Wallop can turn your Frostback Bear or other attacker into a unit worthy of attacking multiple times.
There is a possible specific combo with Odette and Shining Hydra you may wish to consider. Use Enter the Fray on the Hydra while it has 1 attack, then give it Massive Growth while you use Regenerate Heads to heal the damage. With just a 2 card combo your Shining Hydra will end up as a 7 attack Terrifying 2 unit, quite possibly enough to win the game with multiple attacks against your opponent's PB health.
Proven Competitive Lists:
Clu's SB LCQ Winning Realmwalker Deck: https://ashes.live/decks/share/de331ca9-2626-4615-82d3-4ec1c7558776/
Shadowfire's Phoenix Pod I Top 4 Battlefield Deck: https://ashes.live/decks/share/32f91b2c-1ec6-42f4-b304-4a703ac1279d/
My Best Homebrew: https://ashes.live/decks/share/91d98622-d8e6-4a81-bdb7-d3f6209c8809/37819/
Helping me get 10 wins with Odette and first place at the Sunhold Webcam Tournament is my personal variation of the bypass deck, with Steadfast Guardian. Root Armour on the Guardian can make it very difficult to deal with, and if they deal incremental damage Sword of Virtual refresh can be devastating.
Use the classic combo of Shining Hydra, Enter the Fray and Massive Growth to close out the game. To add consistency to the deck, Polarity Mage can pull either Root Armour or Massive Growth from the discard. Use Light Bringer to make your opponent attack awkwardly into the armoured Steadfast Guardian. You can even play Call To Action in response to get another attack out of your bypass Bear or Hyrda. A fun unexpected trick unique to this version of the deck is to play the Massive Growth onto the Steadfast Guardian if you need to. This can really put your opponent in a bind.
Finally, when it comes to closing out the game don't forget those charm dice! Using a charm dice power to reduce an enemy unit's attack below the terrifying threshold of my bear has won me several games!