Bravos Deckbuilding Part 2 - Basira

     In part 1 we looked at Atsadi’s deck which I feel at the moment is fairly focussed on his hero ability. This time we are going to look at Basira’s deck which has a few more options but leads you down a certain way. So, what we are going to do is look at the core cards for the deck and then also discuss the various options to customize the deck, finishing off with a look at the types of Unique cards you might want to look for to card with Basira.

     There is no right answer to what should I play as you’ll get a number of responses but I’ll try and take you through everything and give my opinion and let you make up your own minds.

Basira Decks

     Basira’s ability to add a boost to a character as a reaction when you gain a boost somewhere leads you to try and build around that ability. This means that there are certain cards you are likely to see in all Basira decks.

1. Seasoned Cards

     The first obvious thing you need to look for is Seasoned. Bravos really doesn’t get anchored (Parvati and Hatter excepted) but gets a ton of Seasoned characters. Why is this good? All those boosts that you are getting do not go away when the character goes to reserve, so all those boosts that you get can be used a second time for free. The best thing about Seasoned is that the ability doesn’t seem to cost a lot on the card mana.

     I feel that there are three cards in this category that are must haves in the deck. Bravos Pathfinder (rare), Red (common) and Bravos Bladedancer (rare) all have seasoned on them and are cheaper to play at 1 or 2 mana. The Pathfinder has a superb little ability on it that most people think is over costed, but by paying that two extra mana you are getting a boost from the hand, which is twice as valuable in Basira. You can run the rare version of Red, but the chances of you getting the extra card draw are fairly low.

     The Bladedancer’s ability to lose fleeting when she has boosts and under is astonishingly good and I would always run this over the common. The trick you can pull is to get her up to 4 boosts and then have the remove fleeting trigger go off first before the boosts. In this way you can potentially get her up to 10 boosts before she is finally lost to fleeting.

     I will discuss other seasoned cards later in the optional section.

2. Haven

     I feel that this permanent landmark deserves a section all to itself. The card just makes Basira decks kick, giving an extra boost for characters played from reserve and I don’t think that there’s any debate that Basira needs three of them in the deck. The debate lies around whether you should be running the rare version or the common version. They both cost the same mana, but the rare has a free come into play resupply. Now a resupply is worth about a mana on top of the Haven’s ability but is it worth the cost of the rare upgrade given the deck wants to have many rares in it. The Exalts team generally feel that it is as it gives the deck a faster start. They feel that Basira needs it to keep up with fast Axiom based decks. I think that you probably should be fine with the common. The resupply will just give you a little boost at the start and if you have enough other card advantage in the deck, I think that it should be good enough.

3. Boosts

     The other thing that the Basira deck needs it boosts, and most importantly boosts that can come from hand. Boosts from reserve can come from Haven (if you get it out) but Basira really suffers with an empty reserve if she has no way to boost from hand. You have four good options here. Helping Hand might be my favourite Bravos spell in that it is useful to all builds (plus the artwork is top notch). It not only provides a cheap way to get that starting boost from hand, but also a way to remove fleeting later on. You remember that 10/10/10 Bladedancer that you were about to lose? Not anymore when there’s a Helping hand to help her out.

      The second option I see in Basira decks a lot is Chiron in both common and rare forms. The rare can give two characters the boost and is nice, but you can get away with just playing the common version if you are tight for rare space. Chiron’s main issue is that he is not particularly strong in himself, but since he can boost from hand and reserve his utility is good.

     The third option is the most expensive one in terms of mana. The Bravos Vanguard rare I like to affectionally call Helping hand in person form. It does the same thing as helping hand but also provides decent(ish) stats to go with it. The common version doesn’t provide the boost from hand, so I don’t think I’d run that.

     The final option for you boosts from hand is a cheap but slow one. The Kelon Cylinder is only one mana but needs a turn of setup every three turns. I don’t think I’d run too many of these unless your deck has lots of unique cards that need to have one or more landmark in play. Having that free boost two turns in three though seems like a nice option as a one or two or in the deck.

4. Disruption

     This is where we start to move a little away from core cards and into some of the more optional stuff. I think it’s a given that Basira needs some removal / disruption. The question is what do you run? I’ll outline some options below with the pluses and minuses to them.

     Haven Bouncer is a nice sabotage option. At a cost of three mana its not too bad. The stats from hand are not stellar, but you get a guaranteed sabotage, and you get that extra boost from reserve or two boosts if you are running the rare. Both are good options to help you stop reserve-based strategies.

     Mana Eruption is a very good removal spell that has a real cost to it. There are some cards (Hyracaena, Robin Hood, Brassbug Hive rare, Lyra Festival) that I feel really need to be unconditionally removed from play. Mana Eruption is good for this, and the rare version is even cheap at two mana which will help take out Robin for less than his cost even with his tax. The cost though to the spell is that you need to consider that you will be lose mana orbs and you need to gain them back. I think if you play Mana Eruption then you probably need to play Tiny Jinn as well. So, Mana Eruption has a built-in deck building cost.

     Mana Reaping is similar in its effectiveness to Mana Eruption, but you don’t lose a mana, but instead give a mana to your opponent. It is the same difference but perhaps doesn’t feel as punishing. The extra cost here to using Mana Reaping though is that you need to use some of your precious rare slots on it.

     Intimidation is I feel a weak option. It doesn’t take out all of the things you want to kill. It’s a tempo play for a speed deck, and I feel it doesn’t really fit Basira, though I have seen some lists play it. My feeling is that Intimidation only belongs in a very aggro Kojo deck.

5. Seasoned Options

     So, we’ve covered most of the basics of the Basira deck its now time to talk about some of the options for the rest of the deck. I covered the three seasoned characters earlier that I feel need to be in the deck. Now I’m going to touch on the others.

Kappa (rare) – I’m just going to state it up front, I do not like the rare Kappa as an option in the deck. Whilst it might potentially seem good, it is quite expensive, and it suffers from the four curse. Characters costing 4 mana are vulnerable to the most commonly played removal. Intimidation, Kelon Burst, Sticky Note Seals all target 4 along with the spells that target everything. Teamwork Training should also be able to get up to 4 in token decks, so I think that realistically a boosted Kappa is the most vulnerable character you would have in the deck.

Atlas (rare) – The rare Atlas also has seasoned as well as gigantic. So, any boosts that you chose to put on it will be double as effective, so it would seem like a good option. However, the fact that it seems good also makes it doubly the target for your opponent’s removal. They are getting double the benefit from their removal. I think it’s a valid option, but I’m not sure its one I love.

6. Options – Card Advantage

     The second category of cards you might want to think about adding are more ways to draw cards or get card advantage in your deck. A card draw heavy build will look at getting that extra card flow so as to ensure that your always have the cards you need in hand and reserve to get those boosts. There are six options here.

• Physical Training (rare) – The rare physical training lets you draw a card on both the hand cost and the reserve cost, but at three mana the hand play means that you are spending a bit more for your first iteration. Physical training has the advantage of also giving your seasoned characters boosts, so it has some good synergy also. Definitely an option but you also don’t want to have too many non-characters in your deck. My view is that you want to have as few as possible, but that could go up to 10 non characters at the outside. Too many and you will suffer from draws where you run out of characters.
• Ozma (rare) – I see a number of the Exalts run Ozma in their Basira decks, but I’m not a fan. To get the reward you need two other boosted characters in play already. It’s possible that you can do it, but you need all the circumstances come right for you. I’m not a big fan, but some people like it. It also takes up some of your rare quota.
• Kitsune (rare) – Another option is Kitsune. You are getting just under par stats for your two mana here and you are also giving a card to your opponent. Its not a great option, but where you are starving for card advantage you might take it. Once again though this will eat into your rare quota.
• Mighty Jinn (rare) – Potentially the rare Mighty Jinn can draw you a card before becoming mana. It can help you solve two issues in your deck. Firstly, it can help your mana loss from Mana Eruption and secondly it can help the draw. Now once again you are sacrificing a rare slot and also, you’re paying quite a lot of mana for poor relative stats to get all the rewards. Once again, it’s an option that you can choose in a Basira build.
• Hua Mulan – We now move on from card draw to card advantage. Hua Mulan will never leave the reserve unless you chose to discard it or your opponent discards / sabotages it. That means that you can constantly replay it and potentially get a boost each time from Haven. The rare version is only two mana and is efficient, but you could equally play the common version which is still only three mana. It’s a little less efficient but has slightly better biome stats in 2 out of the three biomes.
• Sun Wukong (rare) – Sun Wukong is a statement rare that like Hua Mulan will never leave unless you choose it to, or it gets discarded / sabotaged. Sun Wukong will provide you with 6 in the mountains and 4 in the other two every turn from reserve for only 4 mana, plus you may get a Haven boost and a Basira boost. I think it’s a strong card but generally you want to keep the mana costs of your cards down if possible.

7. Other Options

     Now we are into some slightly more obscure options for a Basira deck. You could choose to play more sabotage in your deck. Options for this would be Tanuki and Tooth Fairy, though I’m not convinced that a heavy sabotage build is right for Basira.

     I have seen Issun-boshi played in quite a few builds as a nice cheap turn one play that might win water and then a support ability to be able to provide that initial boost to get Basira going. The rare version has a built-in boost from reserve as well as the support ability but I’m not sure that its worth the upgrade to a rare slot.

     Another option might be to play an odd Shenlong, Asmodeus or Kaibara in as a statement rare. I am not convinced that this is a good option for Basira, but some people might try it.

    Dracaena self-anchors and gives himself a boost the following round. This might be a way to trigger Basira’s boost early in a round, but I think where possible you want to trigger it late in the round rather than early in the round.

     Parvati is another option I’ve seen tried. She can anchor another character and thus may be able to anchor a big Bravos Bladedancer or other seasoned character with lots of boosts. Including her though has an associated rare cost.

8. Unique Cards to look for

     I think that Basira decks really want to have Unique cards that have easy ways of getting a boost from hand or both hand and reserve built into the creature. The best Unique cards for Basira will have this as well as some disruption (discard a character / discard a permanent / sabotage / return a character to hand). These multi ability Unique cards I think will be the most valuable for Basira.

     The Unique card below is my best Unique so far for Basira.