Versatile Lunar 2017

:The following deck is a legacy deck. It has lost its potency, either due to nerfs or power creep, but was still significant enough to warrant posting. For the next version of this deck, see Versatile Lunar 2018. For the current non-legacy deck, see Versatile Lunar.
Versatile Lunar 2017 took the most essential Lunar cards and threw in various synergistic blue cards to create a deck that can answer a little bit of everything and won by building up an icon and action engine and pressuring the enemy through different buffs and removal.
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== Stats ==
Name: Versatile Lunar	Uses many cards from the Lunar archetype plus some filler blues.
Creator: Xylias 	Started as a means of transitioning out from the starter blue deck, focusing on the icon generation and action aspects of that deck.
Deck Color: Blue/Red 	Mostly blue, but with many useful red cards to take advantage of actions from both colors.
Deck Type: Control 	You mostly respond to what the opponent does and keep them in check until you gather enough buffs and removal to wear down the opponent and win.
Goldfish: 10-16 	If your opponent doesn't quit the first time they see Erik.Cassel or TheSteelEagle, it will take a while to win, but it can vary heavily based on your action and starting hand RNG.
Consistency: 2/5 	Random actions are random.
Complexity: 4/5 	No hard combos, but knowing which action to use when along with all other one-off fighters is crucial. The turn timer is your biggest opponent.
Accessibility: 3/5 	Two legends, three epics. Several cards from Ancient Stirrings, but only commons. Several cards come from the starter blue deck, making this a good deck to transition into without needing to build something completely different from scratch. The legends and epics are a big boost, but not necessary.
Versatility: 3/5 	The variety of random actions gives you enough to deal with pretty much any threat. You just have to hope you have the right actions at the right times.
Popularity: 0/5 	I'm the only one I see playing Lunar this way. Everyone else tends towards more expensive Lunar cards. More on that later.
== Decklist ==
 
FIGHTERS
ASeal x1
Lebron x4
wer8888 x4
Kalman Sinister x2
Olafisawesome100 x1
Mad Scientist x1
Script Robber x1
xXVitalityVoidXx x1
MICHIKUSCHI x3
Sylrath x2
Glaciem Mage x1
Deep Sea Diver x2
Erik.Cassel x1
Tomspick x4
Paraselene Sage x2
LordVasco x1
Tone x1
TheSteelEagle x1
ACTIONS
Stud x3
Thunder Bolt x1
Forbidden Power x2
Luck o' the Lobsters x1
== How to Play ==
Ideally, you want to have icon generators up together with Erik.Cassel or TheSteelEagle and cast a bunch of actions to clear or stall your opponent while setting up your own strong board or just filling up on icons and actions. Getting your first actions starts with playing wer8888, Script Robber, Mad Scientist, or MICHIKUSHI. Tone can be played if you can be confident it won't die. Paraselene Sage often shouldn't be played until you have a decent chance of getting more blue icons in the future.
Because this deck is so slow to reach this engine, a lot of cards deal with the aggro decks that give it the most trouble. Kalman Sinister, Tone, and Script Robber are great against decks that try to run you over with small stuff, and also xXVitalityVoidXx when you have actions. Olafisawesome100 and Glaciem Mage help you stall, weaken, or destroy large fighters.
Luck o' the Lobsters and Thunder Bolt help you clear the field when you have no other options to deal with the enemy. It may be worthwhile sometimes to not play anything at the start and just boardwipe your opponent before playing anything down, since many cards in this deck don't fight well for the board early on.
== Guide to Actions ==
* Eye Spy - Good vs aggro or when you have lots of icon generators. Don't overdraw.
* Pumpkin Bomb - Good, cheap, single-target removal. Can kill weak things or be the extra edge needed to kill something big.
* Crystal Snare - The ultimate stall for things you just can't deal with right away. It can also be used on zero or low-power allies in a pinch to keep your engine going.
* Moon Rabbit's Rage - Good way to push for damage if you already have something on board.
* Bloated - Cheap way of keeping stuff alive. Good to use on legends, Tone, Divers, or Sages.
* Fallen Guardian - Keep one of your things alive or zero out an opposing fighter's power. Good first buff for LordVasco. Effect often is too expensive or not worthwhile though.
* Psychotic - Most commonly used as big damage removal, but a healthy TheSteelEagle or LordVasco can use it to swing hard at things, or anything you've buffed with some other health spell.
* Beam Sword - Often used as single-target removal, though expensive for its damage. Could also be used on allies to boost power, but is only worth it if the ally survives killing something afterwards.
* Depths of the Nether - Cheap AoE damage and snare if you have an engine going.
* Inferno! - Good AoE damage that also helps push past big health walls for killing blows.
* SnyFort - Decently sized body that also triggers generators. Board space is valuable real estate though, and this doesn't always deserve a spot.
* Sorry! - Expensive card draw for the cost most of the time, but can be useful if you opponent is close to death. Don't overdraw.
* Dark Book of Spells - Typically just a blue icon, but used viably in dire situations or final pushes for a win. Don't overdraw!!
* Forbidden Power - Punishment against overextenders. Dead card otherwise. Don't overdraw!
* Stormchaser's Gambit - Pays for itself when you play it, but can also be used to trigger things that happen when you play an action. Takes up three slots on the board to reach its final state.
* Spicy Lollipop - Great for asserting your dominance if you have an engine going. Bad everywhere else.
== Other Options ==
Sylrath could be cut for Pumpkin Bombs. This was more obvious for the brief period that Pumpkin Bomb had card draw, but can be done regardless.
Any single card that isn't an epic or legendary could be dropped for another card in the deck or some similar card. The "versatile" nature of this deck resulted more from indecision in which cards were best than wanting to have one of everything. Swap in different cards as your mileage varies. The most important aspects to consider are that most action generators are in blue and making sure red is abundant enough to reliably cast Forbidden Power on the first turn.
== About Slow Lunar Decks/Cards ==
Expensive and slow Lunar cards should be avoided at all costs. Lunar cards have a tendency to be very weak for their icon costs, and this is because they can get value every time you fulfill some condition. If you don't fulfill those conditions often enough, you don't get enough value out of the card to be worthwhile. The most important part about this is the early game. If you draw expensive Lunar cards in the beginning and either can't cast them or can't get value out of them, you will never make it to the late game where you can actually win. Erik.Cassel, TheSteelEagle, and LordVasco are examples of expensive or slow Lunar cards (less so that first one), but their effects are strong enough to warrant their inclusion and costs cheap enough to not be prohibitive. SirAdurite used to be included, but its cost was too clunky, effect too weak, and synergy with random actions too poor to last very long.
Cards like Friaza, Scripter, Stravant, JaikKaik, and MUTO2014 are not yet good enough to be worth including into a Lunar deck.
== Weaknesses and Counterplay ==
Twelve cards have zero power (counting LordVasco, not counting Script Robber). Nine more have 200 power or less. Fighting for the board early on is hard and you depend on having the right specific cards to deal with whatever threats you first face. Losing the board early on can often mean giving it up until you find a boardwipe or find some other lucky way out.
If the random actions you draw aren't useful for the situation you're in or are infeasible to use at the time, your engine can die. An example would be getting several copies of Dark Book of Spells, Forbidden Power, or Fallen Guardian while having a strong board.
Because of all the anti-aggro options, especially through Kalman Sinister and Tone, aggro is not the most dangerous threat, though it can be if you don't have cards like those. More threatening are fighters with high health and power values for their cost. Decks that buff allies out of range of the damage you can deal are also dangerous, as are decks whose actions or fighters deal direct damage to take out targets before they trigger effects.
Along with not being able to fight well for the board, the deck only has two boardwipes. Both cost white icons that can only be faster earned through playing Studs, both are rather expensive in that regard, and one of them doesn't even work if the opponent plays around it and doesn't play too many fighters. Flooding the board after a boardwipe can create an untenable situation for the Lunar deck if it hasn't stocked up appropriate icons and actions for dealing with that.
Tech cards that hard counter the deck include Ye Old Arte and Xenotrent. It that was Silenced in Lycanthrope decks and Overseer Drake in Overseer decks are more common soft counters that fit naturally into those decks. Defaultio and Thesupernessiiiii are mostly unused, but can be used to soft counter the deck. LordFlanz gets value off this deck, especially in the mirror matchup. Victor Sinister may be an ineffective counter as new fighters played after its removal won't face lockdown.
== Fall and Legacy ==
The deck began as a strong example of how Lunar could be used as a central concept for a deck without resorting to Hyperburn and a transition out of the starter blue deck.
One of the key aspects to its success was its easy access to Forbidden Power, which granted more icons than its cost, cards, life gain, and hand pollution, all for the cost of wiping out the user's board. This made it great for launching at the start of the game and recovering from a lost position or wipe. Once Forbidden Power started changing, it ceased to be such an excellent initiation and comeback card, leaving this deck somewhat stranded in both areas.
Additional changes to Stormchaser's Gambit and Depths of the Nether and the presence of an often unusable Forbidden Power made the Lunar action pool much weaker and riskier. Changes to Sylrath and Script Robber made their presence infeasible without decent immediate substitutes. The extraordinary number of zero or low power fighters in the deck allowed it to be bullied by most decks before it could significantly get off the ground.
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Category:Legacy Decks