Balance Deckathalon: Making Progress

 Let's get this out of the way right at the top. Here's Ferricord's youtube video on strategy and advice for completing this Deckathalon. Also, he says it's the hardest one, and I had been stuck on stage 5, so I believe him.

I had been stuck on stage 5, and just today, trying to get through it, I got hit with four Mana Burns while trying to build up for a Scarecrow hit. Well, that was trash. And my equipped pet is quad may-cast heal pet, with a side of may-cast Sanctuary. I was seriously frustrated. I had NOT seen this video yet, and I'm currently contemplating his advice; but I DID get through the level, and this is how I did it.

The first fight isn't hard, though the likelihood of a Mana Burn is high, and yes I got hit with it on the second turn. I trapped twice, bladed once, and hit with either Vampire or Wraith if I magically got my pips high enough.

And then that second fight. The run killer. I was using the death drain strategy as I think that's the most pip efficient one. However, as I had already seen, I would never be able to do a Scarecrow. I built my deck to get past this one stage only, which is a huge deviation for counting and planning which cards would be used on which stage and fight for longer runs. You just can't do that for the Balance Deckathalon. I instead relied on getting a minion out (Storm Elemental!), using both Tower and Elemental Shields, Fortify if I had the luxury, and spamming low drain hits. I would keep loading traps and blades where I could, making sure to have shields up as well, and then hitting with either Ghoul or Vampire opportunistically.

It was somewhat similar to Ferricord's strategy, in that he was dumping his pips down when one of the enemies showed 5 or more pips at the start of a turn. I wasn't trying to avoid damage - I was simply using any attack I had, expecting that I would lose those pips.

This wound up being a LONG fight, with my pet healing making a major difference. I used up all but 2 of my Tower Shields, all of my Elemental Shields, and nearly all of my Ghouls. It was VERY frustrating, as I would only do around 150 damage with an unbuffed Ghoul, because I was carpeted with Weakness. And I fizzled a few times because of Black Mantle. The shields were mandatory, and the minion gave me the breathing room to isolate one of the the mobs to grind down and kill. And it still came down to pet healing luck.

After reviewing his video, I am very afraid to start stage 6.