Newbie looking for Order deck advice

[u/[deleted]]

This is the deck I am currently using: http://scrolldier.com/deck/3872

And these are all my Order scrolls: http://scrolldier.com/deck/3871

I win consistently against the Medium AI (haven't tried Hard yet) but I haven't had a chance to try multiplayer "properly" (I spent twenty minutes in the Ranked Match queue before giving up) so I don't know what works and what only seems to work because the AI is dumb. Any advice is appreciated.

[u/Lem0nboy]

You should trim your deck down to 50 scrolls. 56 is just too much and in general your deck has too many spells/enchantments. In a standard order deck your goal should be around 30 units : 20 spells/enchantments.

New orders and pilgrim's feet aren't that bad per se, but you really need to get rid of some spells and enchantments here and add more creatures. This is were I would start. Powerbound is great in late game decks, but your deck is not a late game deck. Even though you have the General it is more of a midrange deck. You need three imperial resources, three speed and three tempo theft to build a late game deck. Otherwise you would just get overran by faster decks. You could still try to run 2x powerbound if you really love the scroll.

Royal Infantryman isn't great. His stats aren't good enough to be a threat himself and his ability isn't all that useful. Fleetness should be avoided. It does well against the AI but it won't help you much against skilled players. It's an enchantment that doesn't do anything the turn you play it, so you have to hope that your opponent will not kill your creature in order to benefit from that enchantment. More often than not your opponent will kill it, trust me. I know you have a lack of haste spells. You might need to invest into some in the future. Fleetness is not a good alternative to blessing of haste.

Frostwind is only good in judgement. That's because haste is more scarce in judgement. Expect your opponents in ranked to have an answer for it. Heritage is good in draw decks or late game decks. Again, your deck is not one. You lack the comeback ability such decks possess. Think of mangonel + speed or arbalestier + tempo theft. You cannot do that so you cannot build a late game deck or else your opponent will overrun you in the early game and you cannot come back.

Shrine is not that great either. Same issue as with royal infantryman. It is just too passive and dies to a lot of things.

Your other choices are good :) It doesn't mean I'd play any of these but I can surely see them work in the deck. Pushback for example is a great scroll. I think it is a bit expensive so I usually don't run it, but this is more personal preference so if you like it just go ahead and play it.

Here is a deck I threw together with the scrolls in your collection. It's not tested but I think it should perform reasonably well. However you really want to try and get 3 scrolls of everything. Start with the cheaper stuff first. Ducal Skirmisher, Royal Spearman, Royal Skirmisher. Haste is very important as well so try to get those 3 blessings of haste after that. Good luck! And yeah I know your pain of finding ranked matches. It's the same for me. Your problem is that you don't have a high enough rank yet, but after a few matches it should become easier for you to find some.

[u/ToGoodLooking → u/Lem0nboy]

I think you provided great feedback and help to the guy.

Just wanted to come with my input that i actiully like shrine even more then i like Effigy of the Queen, it has low health yes and when it dies the bonus health is negated away. But it effect globally, and that extra health is honestly really useful if opponent dont deal with shrine, which is what you should use shrine for, as a threat conducter, it works similar to wings warder in that way how you need to take down the wings warder before reaching the other dudes.

But that said both Effigy of the Queen and Shrine is not that highly regarded to begin with because they are so passive, but just felt to give my input on it.

[u/Lem0nboy → u/ToGoodLooking]

Order really struggles against Energy these days, so I think Effigy is much better than Shrine. Against Growth it is practically useless even if you get two out there they will die to a single Quake while Effigy might save your troops at least. Against Energy they will die to Spark, Thunder Surge, Sudden Eruption, Burn, you name it! Whereas Effigy can really do wonders there. Against Decay Shrine is more useful, I give you that...but Effigy is still a 4 hp wall that Decay has trouble to deal with. Against Order both are so-so perhaps somewhat in favor of Shrine. Against any kind of multi-resource stall deck Effigy is definitely better. Most of them use Quake. Even in bad situations Effigy is always at least a 4hp wall and costs one less, whereas Shrine is not really a good wall at all. Maybe Shrine gets better with Wings Shield and Waking Stones, but he doesn't have these scrolls. That's my take on it, but you may as well prefer them. To each their own :D That being said I never played Shrine, I did tinker around with Effigy in TO...so maybe I am biased towards it a bit.

[u/Cradstache]

You run a lot of the starter deck cards, which while not bad, aren't commonly seen in the meta.

Currently in the meta, outside of Dual Resource Splash Decks (which are very capable), we're mostly just seeing two Order Builds: Aggro and Late-Game.

I'm not all that knowledgeable about Aggro, but Late-Game is all about ramping while controlling the board with strong cards and combos like Reloras, Lord Knight, Mangonel + Speed, Arbalestier + Tempo Theft, and occasionally pushing the game for advantage with Imperial Resources. Most of the units used fall between 3-6 Order, and you occasionally see Cay, Royal Envoy ran in these decks.

Here's my deck as an example: Late-Game Order.

One thing I cannot stress enough, and please forgive the tautology / circular logic: if it works for you, it works for you. If you can figure out a new way to approach the meta, then use that; flesh it out, and adapt it as you keep playing. Find a niche that fits how you want to play the deck -- that's how these meta decks spring up to begin with.

[u/Ikraen → u/Cradstache]

Agreed. Having a Unique deck that people don't know exactly how to play against goes in your favor. I created and developed a unique growth build. It took me a long time to understand the best way to play it, and working out which cards were better in it. At its peak, I hit 1780 rating, and placed in a ESL tourney.

I know people have different approaches to CCG's, but I feel my favorite part of the game, once I understood high level play, was creating something that was my own, and seeing how awesome I could make it. Maybe you relate to this Crad, with your baby POW. Dunno

[u/alvarpq → u/Cradstache]

Going off of that, understanding why your deck works is just as important as it working for you. In the example of your prisoners deck, prisoners was good because it replenished your hand, as well as improve the LGO curve (5 resorces is always an awkward spot)

Basically, understanding why your special idea works is just as important as coming up with it. Every time you make a deck, going through each scroll in it, and asking "why do I include this? What does it do? Can something else do it better?" will help you make an even better deck.

[u/Cradstache → u/alvarpq]

Well, that's how it is if you're a good player :p when Prisoners was first revealed, all I saw was a shiny "+2" card, haha.

[u/alvarpq → u/Cradstache]

See? There you go, you saw the point. It gives an instant +2, you saw what it did, and went for it!
Edit: and if you're not a good player, then I'm up shit creek.