Be Afraid: Viserai's Archetypes
Be Afraid: Viserai's Archetypes By: Dimos Kaloupis Viserai has not seen mainstream success in the year that he’s been fighting across Rathe. He struggles due to the interdependence of his cards on one another as he tries to balance non-attack and attack actions. However, he has seen multiple interesting decks built for him. He is generally the only hero to have diverse aggro, midrange, control, and one-turn-kill (OTK) decks. These decks also have differences other than their number of defense reaction and blue cards, which most others use to differentiate their aggro and control builds. This difference lies in the lack of information you have about his deck.When I sit across the table from a Viserai player, I get frightened because I don’t know what’s in their deck. This article is equally applicable to Classic Constructed (CC) and Blitz even if the relative power of each archetype changes between formats. For example, OTK is currently viable in Blitz but not in Classic Constructed. I will be speaking mainly to the Blitz decks due to their current popularity. In the set-up phase of the game, I need to make a decision that could make or break the game. In CC, I have to sideboard in the right cards. Do I bring Sink Below to block pesky four-attack cards like Meat and Greet and Consuming Volition? Do I bring Unmovable to block a Sloggism and Arknight Ascendancy combo? Or do I bring no defense reactions and all the offence I can muster to delay their Runechant-building opportunities, expecting an OTK? In Blitz, even though there is no sideboard, the same considerations must be made with your equipment. Do you bring extra armor to survive an Arknight Ascendancy or to cover all four damage from small attacks with on-hit effects? Or do you bring your combo equipment? The answer to all of these questions depend on the meta of the moment. If I see a Viserai in Blitz today, I assume it is either OTK or a very slow control build that aims to use Sloggism and Arknight Ascendancy, with a Ninth Blade of the Blood Oath to follow up. If someone were to play a Meat and Greet, Razor Reflex, and Consuming Volition against me on the same turn, I would need to entirely reconsider my game plan. The aggressive playstyle I was angling for earlier may now cause suffering as the dual on-hit effects of physical and arcane damage add up. I still don’t know if they’re planning on using their Bloodsheath Skeleta to hit me with a one-off Sloggism and Ascendancy. Further, I have to guess if they are running Pummel to back up that combo. Although I can assume that they aren’t because I’ve already seen a Razor Reflex, I won’t know for certain. What all this culminates to is hesitation. My confidence in my play wavers because I can’t predict what is coming next. If I were playing against a Bravo, I could be 99% sure that I would see a slow deck reliant on big hammer swings and the occasional dominated attack. Against this or any other Viserai, however, I can’t be sure. I have to spend a few turns of the game playing cautiously as I try to see what they have. What are they blocking with? Do any of those cards give any indication of other cards that I can expect to see later? Overall, what I think this means is that even though Viserai may not be the strongest hero in the game, he has so many avenues for surprise that it becomes its own significant advantage. This will likely get you some significant mileage in the Swiss rounds, especially earlier on. The strength of surprises will fade as rounds progress, or as the Top 8 decks become the subject of discussion and someone tells their buddy to keep an eye out for the rogue Viserai deck.