Raven (B21)

## Overview

Written by: Basil

Raven is undoubtedly an aggressive MC- His skills are critting to break one of the opponent’s orbs and sacrificing one of his own orbs to draw cards. However, he’s in a strange position because he has one of the best support cards a purple MC could ask for: Priscilla 4(3). She is a tome with a support skill that draws a card when she supports Raven’s attack, which is literally just free draw if you can stack her. Combined with cards like Canas who can stack her from Retreat or Nino who can stack her from hand and get a Raven to crit with, and all of a sudden Raven wants to be built like a midrange deck. The result is a lot of different potential Raven builds with varying levels of aggression- all in on hitting the opponent early with low costs, or running mages to repeatedly stack Priscilla to maintain card advantage.

## Gameplan

Like most aggressive decks, Raven wants to play 1 costs and pressure the opponent early on. This means playing 1 costs and targeting the opponent’s MC as much as possible, hopefully getting a few orbs down so when he promotes, he only has to crit a few times to get them to 0. It's also possible for him to play Lucius 2 on turn 2 if he doesn’t have promo but it was milled as a bit of a consistency boost.

Once Raven promotes, you really want to be critting the opponent’s MC every turn. It is effectively 2 guaranteed hits, only 1 of which can be evaded. Forcing your opponent to take orbs is quite strong since they end up at risk of finishers like Zephiel, who can kill at 0 orbs, or even Lilina 4(3). It also makes their hand size bigger, and if you are running darkness emblems you can then force them to discard as their hand size stays above 4 from the broken orbs.

As you are critting every turn, cards that draw or heal Ravens are pretty important to your gameplan. Lucius, Nino, and Priscilla deploys can directly heal him, but sometimes just drawing off of Priscilla stacking and Raven skill 2 will be enough to get you there.

Once your opponent is at 0 orbs, you can choose to slow down a bit, or you can continue critting to clear their board and try to finish them. They will likely try to hide behind a board, so having ways to pull or clear the board is important. If you’re lucky, Zephiel might just end the game outright for you, or you can use Canas or Nino to farm the board and kill your opponent as they run out of dodges, depending on your build.

## Strengths and Weaknesses

**Strengths:**

* Lots of good support options and builds
* Anti-stall since he can break his orbs to draw cards and guaranteed pop their orbs

**Weaknesses:**

* Not the best deck against other aggro since critting & taking your own orbs = lose faster
* Some builds can be somewhat confused between aggro and midrange
* If the opponent’s MC is in the back line he can struggle to do anything

## Key Cards

### Priscilla 4(3)

Any purple MC would kill for a card like Priscilla, since it would instantly make them a more relevant MC. Her support skill is just free draw when she supports Raven, which can be rigged since you’re already in purple, but also can just randomly line up sometimes. It's also extremely relevant that she is a tome card, meaning Canas can stack her from your retreat- so it's possible for him to stack a dark emblem for his own swing, then priscilla for Raven to get a draw, for a net flip 1 +2. Her skill 1 is also not bad considering how great her support skill is- Flip 1 to heal back a 1 cost of an ally, usually just Raven, helps him get his crit to use his skill, and you usually run 1 cost Ravens already since they are attack emblems.

### Lucius 2

Oh yeah, Raven has another quite strong dedicated support card. Lucius is mostly run for his skill 1, which can grab your main promo if you miss it on turn 2, or later on get you a Raven to crit with. Flip 1 heal is efficient and extra consistency to get main promo is always a plus, so Raven usually makes room for him.

### Zephiel 5(4)

Raven’s skill has him deleting orbs by critting, so Zephiel is a great compliment to him as he can randomly kill the opponent when they’re at 0 orbs. He is usually your finisher as he buffs himself and another ally to pretty much guaranteed hit, but sometimes his random discard can win you the game.

### Stackers (Eliwood, Canas, Nino)

You’re likely going to want some kind of stacker in your deck, since Priscilla is so strong it's a missed opportunity to not have at least one. Eliwood isn’t the most common pick, but his stack skill pulls an enemy, which is great if they try to move their MC behind a board. Canas is great since he can stack from retreat and can potentially swing for 80, especially if you’re also running darkness emblems. Nino is a bit less aggro at first glance, but she can stack your Priscilla in hand and get you a Raven crit for free, which is great synergy even if she only swings for 60.

## Sample Decks

Raven (Canas)
4 Raven, Unquenched Flame of Vengeance
4 Raven, Sublime Mercenary
3 Raven, Nemesis-Targeting Swordsman
4 Roy, Heir to House Pherae
3 Lucius, Eliminean Monk
4 Priscilla, Ever at My Lord Brother's Side...
4 Canas, Benighted Smile
4 Canas, Scholar of Ancient Magics
4 Raigh, Darkness-Pursuing Youth
3 Eliwood, Knight of Lycia
3 Zephiel, Liberator of the World
2 Hapi, Karma-Burdened Valkyrie
3 Peony, Sweet Dream-Bringing Lass
4 Al, Brave Youth
MC:
1 Raven, Nemesis-Targeting Swordsman