Scout AvA (LoN)
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Overview
Many people predicted the death of Scout AvA after several of its key cards were reduced in power with the release of Inquisitor. The most damage seemed to come in the form of the Blade Storm nerf, but rumors of this deck's demise have been greatly exaggerated.
This is a deck that can play very well thanks to the help of some cards in the new set. The changes to Steel Dagger, Assault, and Blade Storm certainly hurt the deck, but the addition of the song cards like Lurching Limerick and Dissension help this deck stay alive.
The deck isn't quite as explosive as it used to be, but it's still a very consistent deck. It has more ways to get into combat with an opposing avatar than any other deck and some nasty new surprises in Inquisitor. The most obvious are the song cards, but Flash of Steel is also a powerhouse card in this deck that is particularly powerful against the ever popular Shadow Priest decks. This deck doesn't go quite as mindless aggression for Blade Storm as it used to, focusing now on keeping pressure up while staying in control of the game with its powerful song cards.
Strengths
The deck's biggest strength is its ability to apply pressure while also disrupting the opponent. It has a lot of versatility as well. It can get very aggressive or slow the game down a little and play a more controlling game. It has the potential to dish out a lot of damage in a very short amount of time.
There's also a lot of redundancy built into the deck which makes it very consistent. Consistency is an important quality in a tournament level deck and this deck packs plenty of it. This deck seems like it can attack the opposing avatar whenever and as often as it likes. The biggest trick to managing the deck is properly setting up the attacks to get as much damage in as possible while also not leaving yourself completely vulnerable to counterattacks.
One of the better strategies with this deck is to try to set up two attacks every other turn. This deck has a lot of ways to begin combat during the quest phase with Stalk, Ruse, and Valor of the Keepers. If you can set up your turns where you can get one attack in during the quest phase and then another during the main phase, your attacks will tend to be more effective (especially the one in the main phase) as they won't be able to ready after the first attack like you will.
This deck is great at controlling the tempo of a game. It can go aggro against slower controlling decks, or it can play a slower controlled game using cards like Lurching Limerick to keep unit rush decks under control. Lurching Limerick is a nice card because it can be a control card when you get aggressive as well since it can take out problem allies when you go on the attack.
This deck is also very consistent. At its heart, the deck just wants to attack the opposing avatar and it can do that very reliably. The deck lacks some of the explosiveness of other top decks like the Shadow Priest, but it's still a very effective deck.
Weaknesses
Defensive avatar decks can give this deck fits. While they are generally unpopular, there are some very defensive Fighter decks out there that try to win by getting the opposing avatar to attack them and then winning on defense. They use the Wood Elf avatar that gets a damage bonus for exerted abilities and it's not rare to see them produce upwards of 10 defense in an attack. The Scout deck just isn't designed to dish out that much attack in a single combat.
Blistering fast unit decks can also give the deck some problems. The level 2 quest Job of the White Rose helps to slow them down, but this deck doesn't run a lot of defense. Maintaining a Lurching Limerick is imperative against unit rush decks to help handle all their units.
The deck also relies on being able to reliably attack the opposing avatar. If a Shadow Priest deck (or any deck for that matter) can set up recurring Disables, they can make it difficult for the Scout to get into combat with them.
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