I made a claim last week that I don’t think the Lurk mechanic is very good. The thing about making bold proclamations on the internet is that if at any point, you are proven wrong, then the record of your mistake is forever ingrained into history.
And yet, I happen to find a recipe for a Lurk deck that has been seeing some play. So is it time for me to already be proven wrong?
Original recipe courtesy of Mobalytics.
Modified recipe: CMBAMBAGAEBAGBAFB4DAIBYNCNAUISSQAEAQIBZ3AIAQIBQHAECAOFQ
My friend’s recipe: CMBAMBAGAEBQIBIJB4DAIBYCCMLEISSQAEAQIBQCAIAQIBQHAECAOQI
The Lurk deck can eat shit!
Okay, that’s an admittedly extreme take, but honestly my opinion of the deck is only marginally more positive now that I’ve gotten games in with it. It’s not as bad as I thought it was. Players can certainly win games with it, but it has weaknesses that will be difficult to overcome.
The first is that the Lurk package lacks any meaningful form of card advantage, putting it on a much tighter clock than other decks. Even the removal spell that best synergies with the mechanic, Bone Skewer, is effectively -1 in terms of card advantage unless it’s used to blank a removal spell already being cast. And in that scenario, you’re unlikely to get the Lurk synergy anyway because combat would have most certainly already been initiated by this point, and you’re using it to turn the tide back in your favor.
We can and do offset than with The Preservarium, but the playset are the only 3 cards in the deck that offer +1 card advantage. Additionally, it runs into the second big problem with the deck. Eight out of its 40 cards, or 20% of the cards, do not have Lurk. While a 4/5 chance to get a successful Lurk trigger sounds like a lot, any X-Com player knows it is still a 1/5 chance to miss. Those odds to miss only go up with every Lurk card we draw, or that exist in our opening hand. We had some lucky matches at first, but I think the later matches were a better indication of what you’re likely to experience, even with some topdeck manipulation.
Now, that’s not to say that there are no positives whatsoever. It feels good when we’re consistently getting our Lurk procs. Our creatures can grow in power rapidly, forcing our opponent to answer our board or die before they can truly set up. And despite our aggressive strategy, we do have some ways to clear up a late-game board thanks to both a leveled-up Pyke and/or Jaull-Fish. That can help us swing in that final bit of damage before our opponent is able to stabilize. Combined, this means our board and grow powerful quickly, which we will need since we lack much in the form of long term card advantage.
It’s a rewarding deck when RNG gives us the good luck, and miserable at all other times. I’d personally stay away from it despite understanding its allure.
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