Hello class. Today's lesson will be on the Azalea Armoury Deck. Let's get into it!
Growing up in the Pits isn’t easy. The harsh and turbulent environment hardened Azalea, leaving her cynical and callous. Having to fight just to survive, Azalea taught herself to fight, hunt and kill. The skills she learnt in the shadowed alleyways are honed to a razor's edge.
From Blackjack’s Tavern, Azalea has carved out her reputation as one of the best mercenaries in the area. Despite the chaos and disorder surrounding her, Azalea carefully chooses contracts, going to great lengths to ensure a perfect execution.
She’s come a long way from the cold, disease ridden alleyways of her youth, but she has yet to realise that she is but one small cog in a much larger, more foul machine…
If you like patiently whittling down your opponent's defences, whilst setting up the perfect shot. Azalea is the Hero for you. Use wicked status effects to slow and drain your opponent whilst cycling through cards to find the perfect combo to close out the game. Azalea is crazy fun to play but can be harrowing to face. She favours a more thoughtful playstyle, as you’ll find out as you read further.
Below, you’ll find a run-down of the Mechanics you’ll find within the deck, my thoughts and experiences playing with and against Azalea, a full deck list and a ‘few’ suggestions for Upgrades.
So grab your quivers and nock an arrow as we dive head first into the Azalea, Ace in the Hole Armory deck.
Table of Contents
Azalea Mechanics
Reload
From the Comprehensive Rules, page 86:
8.5.23. ‘Reload is an optional discrete effect. To Reload a card, if the player’s Arsenal is empty and they choose to do so, move it from the player’s hand to their Arsenal face-down.’
8.5.23a ‘If the player has two or more Arsenal Zones, all of those Arsenal Zones must be empty for the player’s Arsenal to be considered empty.’
Having a way to place cards into Arsenal outside of the End Phase is essential for Rangers, but even more so for Azalea, as Arrow attacks can only be played from Arsenal. With her Hero ability, it doesn’t matter much what type of card is in Arsenal, just that there is one there. Reload is overly prevalent in the deck straight out of the box, but the key pieces of Azalea’s killer combo have it, which is all that matters.
Opt
From the Comprehensive Rules, Page 86:
8.5.22. ‘Opt is a discrete effect. To Opt N, the player looks at the top N cards of their deck, then puts any number of those cards on the top or bottom of their deck in any order.’
‘8.5.22a. ‘If the deck has less than N cards, the player will look and put them back in any order.”
8.5.22b. ‘If the deck has no card in it, the Opt effect fails.’
Being able to manipulate the top of your deck is an important part of how Azalea plays. Seeing what the next card is and potentially avoiding a dud turn is always good, but when you throw Azalea’s Hero ability into the mix? A miss when triggering it can leave you disappointingly unfulfilled, especially if you’ve expended a few decent cards to set up a high damaging shot. It is thematic though, sometimes, when you shoot a bow, you miss.
Dominate
From the Comprehensive Rules, page 76:
8.3.4. ‘Dominate is a static ability that means “This can’t be defended by more than one card from hand.”’
8.3.4a. ‘If an Attack with Dominate is currently defended by a card from hand, an additional card cannot be added as a defending card to the Attack’s chain link if it comes from the player’s hand. (see Rule 5.3.3d and Rule 8.5.32).’
8.3.4b. ‘If an Attack with Dominate is currently defended by a card from hand on the active chain link, Defence Reaction cards cannot be played from hand. (see Rule 7.4.2c).’
8.3.4c. ‘If an Attack is defended by two or more cards from hand and then the Attack gains Dominate, no cards are retroactively removed from defending.’
Dominate is the worst thing you can hear your opponent say when they are attacking you. This single sodding word limits your defensive options so heavily it should be criminal, especially with the ease in which Azalea can hand it out. 😤 Azalea’s Hero ability is her source of Dominate, by bottom decking a card from Arsenal and replacing it with a top decked one. If the top decked card is an Arrow, it gains Dominate. 😭 Sad times usually ensue when this ability is used.
Piercing
From the Comprehensive Rules, page 79:
8.3.23. Piercing is a static ability. Piercing is written as “Piercing N” which means “If this is defended by an equipment, it gets +N (power).”
Throwing an Attack with Piercing can force your opponent to defend with cards from hand, limiting their effectiveness during their new turn, especially if you buff the Attack beforehand. Hit out for 8+ damage, in me at least, causes a certain thought pattern. Face tank this Attack and hit back hard next turn, or defend to reduce or negate the damage and have an off/down turn. Health remaining and cards in hand usually determine the choice.
Initial Thoughts
Having no experience with Rangers before playing this deck for the first time, I was woefully unprepared for what I needed to be thinking about and doing. Azalea is one of the more complex characters I’ve played during my tenure playing FaB. So here’s the warning! Don’t go for this deck if you want a character to just pick up and play. Azalea is a Hero who you handle better with familiarity. The more you play her, the better you’ll be with her.
Azalea’s play style is very combo orientated. Sometimes, waiting a few turns to pull off that massive combo turn, firing off 2 or 3 arrows, each hitting for 8+ with Dominate.
Like with Boltyn before her, Azalea has a full suite of RAINBOW FOIL equipment. Unique equipment to this Armory deck. This equipment is key to most of the combo we (myself and my fellow playtester Fez) have discovered. Because of this, I would caution not to use them too early in a game. Azalea seems to struggle for momentum once all her equipment is spent. She can still deal some good damage, but not in the health devouring upper teens like she can with a full complement of equipment.
Due to her dependence on her equipment for high damage per turn, Azalea’s playstyle is like a sniper, perched on a rooftop, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, unleashing hell upon her chosen quarry. Which matches her backstory to a T, as a slum dwelling heartless Mercenary who would go to any lengths to complete her contract.
Deck List
Arena Cards
Pitch 1
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
3 x 
3 x Pitch 2
3 x 
3 x 
3 x Pitch 3
3 x 
3 x 
3 x Tokens
Playing As Azalea
Azalea is a crafty character in both her back story and in play. Azalea has a combo orientated playstyle, stringing a couple of attacks together and inflicting some, let's say, ‘annoying’ status effects. She can also be used like a sledgehammer, smashing your opponent down with 1 big arrow each turn, swinging out for 13+ damage with Dominate. It’s the simpler way to play her for those, like me, who can’t combo her off for toffee. 😣
However, for the Blue players… 😅 err, sorry, wrong TCG. For the Combo players, there is a way to combo off at least 2 with Dominate, and deal upwards of 15 damage in a turn.
Pulling off a good combo ultimately comes down to the cards in your hand and Arsenal, but there are ways to mitigate a bit of the random chance. That comes in the form of Nock the Deathwhistle. This is a ‘tutor’ card, to steal an MTG term. This allows you to search your deck for an Arrow card, reveal it, shuffle and put it on top of your deck.
The following example is a ‘relatively’ 😅 simple combo that requires you to have Nock the Deathwhistle, another Arrow and a buff Action, all of which cost 0, preferably.
- Have Red in the Ledger in Arsenal.
- Use the Ability of Equipment piece Hidden Agenda to flip Red in the Ledger face-up and gain 1 Resource.
- (Optional) Play a Buff Action card, one of the Lace cards is good here (Lace with Frailty, Lace with Bloodrot, Lace with Inertia). Ideally, you’ll want Red in the Ledger to hit, its effect is pretty nasty.
- Play Red in the Ledger from Arsenal using the Resource gained from Hidden Agenda. During the Reaction phase, use the Equipment piece Flight Path to give Go Again.
- Play Nock the Deathwhistle from hand. Search for Stone Rain. Reload with a card from Hand, it doesn’t matter which unless it’s your blue card.
- Use Azalea’s Hero ability to bottom deck the card in Arsenal and replace it with Stone Rain, giving it Dominate. Pay 1 Resource to activate Crow’s Nest’s ability and put an Aim counter on Stone Rain.
- (Optional, but the better time too) Play a Buff Action card, like above. A Lace card is a good option here, but with Dominate, the attack will do some damage unless your opponent throws all their equipment that can defend in front of it.
- (Optional) Activate the ability of Equipment piece Target Totalizer to gain: ‘If an Arrow with an Aim counter hits this turn, draw a card.’
- Play Stone Rain from Arsenal. Should it deal damage, which it should, draw a card.
Many of the cards in the deck allow you to manipulate the top card of your deck. Be it using Opt, to look at it and put it to the bottom of the deck if you don’t need or want it at that point, on cards like Read the Glide Path. Cards like Scout the Periphery let you look at the top card of Target player’s deck, naturally, you’ll be targeting yourself. Even attacks can get in on the action with Spire Sniping; when it is put or turned face-up in Arsenal, you may look at the top 2 cards and put them back in any order. All this top deck tech allows you to keep apprised of what's going on so that when the time comes for a big combo turn, you know which pieces of equipment and what cards from hand, Arsenal and top deck need to where and when. This forethought and foreknowledge is what makes Azalea so unpredictable and what gives her, at times, such explosive damage outputs.
This playstyle requires mastery of the 5 Ps. Prior Planning Prevents P*ss Poor Performance! More than once during play testing, my opponent (cough Fez), came up a resource short when trying to combo off. 🤣
Playing Against Azalea
The first thing you need when facing Azalea is to go first. Don’t allow your opponent to get an early Arsenal, or you’ll feel it in their following turn. When play testing, we alternated who went first to simulate both eventualities. In the games where I went second, Azalea’s 2nd turn was almost always bad for me. 😢
Try to force her onto the defensive as quickly as you can. If you can force cards out of your opponent’s hand, they can’t come at you with ridiculous 13+ damage with Dominate attacks too often. If you have the option between a single strong attack or 2 weaker but cumulatively comparable damage, go for the strong attack and buff it if you can. Hit her hard and keep hitting her hard.
Try to keep a Defence Reaction in your Arsenal whenever possible. Take lesser hits, if you can absorb the damage, to prepare for the, no doubt, much larger hit that's about to land.
If you have any, try to play cards that remove cards from Arsenal when they hit. This will totally screw up your opponent’s game plan; force them to use their cards to block, buying you turns to get some damage through and possibly winning you the game. Look for cards like (for the memes 🤣) Command and Conquer, or a card from the recent set Rosetta, Smash Up.
Upgrades
The problem I face whilst picking out the following cards is that to make this deck ‘competitive’ you have to completely swap out most of the cards, making it a completely different animal. I won’t be recommending Command and Conquer for Azalea, and I know you’re all disappointed. 🤣 That said, the following are my suggestions to tool her up!
1: Take Aim (red)
IN:
Take Aim is a 0 cost Ranger Action card that gives the next Ranger Attack Action +3 Strength. It allows you to Reload and has natural Go Again. If such a thing as a perfect card existed, this is one of them for Azalea.
OUT:
Lace with Bloodrot is a decent enough card, but giving your opponent a token that deals 2 damage unless they pay 3 resources at the end of their turn is a naff pay off, even with the +3 Strength buff. In any case, Lace with Frailty and Lace with Inertia are both, in my not so humble opinion, better and more in keeping with what I see as Azalea’s playstyle of slowing down your opponent before hammering them with a sick combo.
2: Seek and Destroy
IN:
Seek and Destroy is a savage card. Buffing your next Arrow Attack by +3 Strength and, should the Attack hit, forces your opponent to discard all cards from their hand and destroy them in their Arsenal. Combine this with Azalea’s penchant to attach the keyword Dominate onto many of her attacks, and you can laugh in your opponent’s weeping face!
OUT:
Point the Tip is, by no means, a bad card, but with the addition of the above card, it becomes a bit redundant.
3: Skullbone Crosswrap
IN:
Skullbone Crosswrap is a piece of Legendary equipment, which’ll have a not inconsiderable price tag. However, what it brings to Azalea cannot be understated. A once per turn Opt action at the cost of turning a Face-down card in your Arsenal, Face-up. Knowing what the top card of your deck is is essential to Azalea’s playstyle.
OUT:
Target Totalizer is a vital piece of equipment for pulling of combo plays, well it would be if we weren’t upgrading the sh*t out of this deck, in which it has been overshadowed. Card draw is good, don’t get me wrong, but the once per turn, on demand Opt the Skullbone Crosswrap gives you is too good not to include.
4: Take Cover
IN:
Take Cover is a Defence Reaction that blocks 4 incoming damage and allows you to Reload. This neat little package comes at the total cost of 0! 🙂
OUT:
Spire Sniping is a good card, also a needed card as it has some good utility by letting you look at cards when it's put or turn face-up in Arsenal, which is why I’m only removing 2 copies, and why those copies are Yellow and Blue, the Red ones are just better.
5: Judge, Jury, Executioner
IN:
Judge, Jury, Executioner, or J2E, as no-one has called it ever 🤣, is another savage card! This one’s a Legendary Azalea Specialization, meaning you can only have 1 copy in your deck. Let me explain why. 😅 This thing costs 1, hits for 5 and defends for 3. Nice and simple so far, but from here, sh*t gets real! If J2E has an Aim counter on it, and should it hit, your opponent discards all their cards from hand, except for 1… 😑 Need I say more???
MOVE TO INVENTORY:
Barbed Undertow isn’t bad, per say; it's just very situational. On hit, with an Aim counter, you choose Red, Yellow or Blue, and your opponent cannot pitch cards of that colour in their next turn. 🤔 Right… And… This is only useful when you have a decent idea of what cards are in your opponent's deck. I can hardly keep track of what I’m doing when I play, nevermind whatever the clown opposite me is doing. That said, this is a definite include if you’re facing either Boltyn or Prism, as they both care about and pitch a lot of Yellow cards.
6: Immobilizing Shot
IN:
OUT:
Infecting Shot, for me, doesn’t fit Azalea thematically. Inflicting a Bloodrot Pox token may cause some players to pitch a card to be rid of it, but most of the time, I forget it's there and end up taking the 2 damage as a result, which has never caused me significant issues. That aside, it has a solid stat line, hitting for 5 (R), 4 (Y), 3 (B), blocking for 3 and gets an additional +1 Strength if it has an Aim counter on it, all for 1 resource. Not bad, but when you’re trying to slow your opponent, Immobilizing Shot has a more apparent effect.
7: Tri-shot (blue)
IN:
Tri-shot isn’t all that fancy, it just allows you to use your Bow 2 extra times in a turn… 🤯
It also costs 0.
OUT:
Infecting Shot is cut again for the same reason as above: thematic failure. Plus, the utility Tri-shot brings beats out a Strength 3 hit that's easily blocked by a single card.
8: Three of a Kind
IN:
In FaB, card draw is king! Three guesses as to what Three of a Kind does? Anyone? Of course, it draws cards! 3 cards specifically, for the modest sum of 1 resource, however until the end of turn, you can only play cards from Arsenal. 😏 Guess what loads of effects in this deck let you do? Put cards into Arsenal!
OUT:
Not gonna lie… I hate Ravenous Rabble! However, I appreciate why it’s here in this deck. It reveals your top card, which is good, but I’m adding better cards and was struggling to choose what to cut so… 😅
9: Remorseless
IN:
Remorseless is another little slice of savagery you can feed to your foes for the affordable price of 1 resource. Hitting for 5 and blocking for 3 is pretty standard as these additions go, but its effects are borderline on war crimes! 🤣 Should Remorseless be put into Arsenal face-up, Defence Reaction cannot be played from Arsenal to Remorseless’s Chain Link, meaning this thing is a prime candidate for Dominate! On top of that vileness, should Remorseless hit, until their next turn, whenever your opponent plays an Action card, they lose 1 life! Like I said, War Crimes!!!
OUT:
Ravenous Rabble is cut again for the same reasons. It’s been replaced by better cards and is no longer needed, but it is still hated!
10: Memorial Ground (yellow)
IN:
Memorial Ground lets you put an Action card from your Graveyard that costs 1 or less on top of your deck. Spent all your big combo Attacks in the early game? Need a Stone Rain, but you used them all by turn 3? Here’s a way to recover key pieces of potentially game winning combos for the late game scramble. Also, it costs 0 and is an Instant, so play it at the beginning of your opponent’s end phase, just so they know, as early as possible, that they’re screwed in your next turn. 🤣
OUT:
Ravenous Rabble is out again. Replaced by some needed utility this time.
11: Bull’s Eye Bracers
ADD TO INVENTORY:
Having a Bull’s Eye Bracers in your Inventory, your sideboard for any MTG player reading/ listening isn’t a bad idea. They aren’t necessary against the majority of other Heroes you’ll face however, they will be useful against those who favour Arcane damage or those who dabble in it, like the New Heroes from Rosetta. The BEBs have Arcane Barrier 1, allowing you to spend 1 resource to negate 1 Arcane damage. You can do this as many times as you want as long as you can pay the resource cost. Good for those pesky Runeblade runechants, says the Runeblade player. 😂
Other Cards to Consider
Dreadbore and Sandscour Greatbow
I decided to recommend both these Bows as alternatives. Not replacements, alternatives. All 3 Bows, Death Dealer, Dreadbore, and Sandscour Greatbow, are so remarkably similar that it really comes down to personal choice and which Hero you will be facing. Having 1 or both in your Inventory may not be a bad idea, then swap them out depending on the threat you are facing.
Eye of Ophidia
Ok, only consider if you have deep pockets, like $350+ deep! Eye of Ophidia is the Fabled card from the Arcane Rising set, you know, the rarest card in the set! It’s a resource, so you can only pitch it, but it has an Opt 2 trigger whenever you do pitch it. The price tag made me shy away from properly integrating it into the deck. Only really bother with this if you want a Tournament entry level deck or if you have more money than sense… like Me! 😁👍
Codex of Frailty
Another expensive card. Not of the same level as the Eye of Ophidia, but at £50 a pop, for ‘cheap’ ones, and when you probably want 3 of them… Yeah.
Price aside, this is a reasonably useful card. It allows each player to put an Attack Action card from the Graveyard, face-down in Arsenal, those who do discard a card. Then it creates a Ponder token, allowing you to recoup your lost card at the end of the turn, under your control and a Frailty token, causing all weapon attacks and attack cards played for Arsenal to have -1 Strength during their next turn, under your opponent’s control.
Pretty decent, not to mention, it’s a 0 cost, Yellow, Assassin/ Ranger Action that blocks for 2. Good, low cost, average blocking capability, but amazing utility effect means this card was always going to be a suggestion, but only that because of the prohibitive expense attached.
Final Thoughts
Straight out of the box, like Boltyn, Azalea is a quality preconstructed deck. That being said, it isn’t a beginner friendly deck; Azalea favours a more advanced playstyle with lots of, at times, complex interactions between cards and equipment. There are triggers to remember, token effects to keep track of, resource and hand management, the whole nine yards. It took my and my fellow playtester, both of us with some decent FaB experience, a fair while to truly begin to properly understand the ‘correct’ way to play this deck. Fez, more than me, I had to let him play Azalea. He loves the Waifus. 🤣
All in all, I like this deck. It’s thematic and flavourful. It resonates with elements of Azalea’s backstory, which, if you haven’t read, please go and do; it’s excellent. Knowing her backstory gave me a deeper understanding of the card choices put into this deck, I mean real Eureka moments, as I suddenly realised the card I was playing was a reference to a particular event from the backstory. I haven’t ever had a profound revelation, almost 😏, like I have when playtesting this deck. More, please LSS, and keep up the good work.
Now, I have to Dash. I’ve got an appointment with a Mechanologist in half an hour. I’ve an issue with my Manifold. It keeps blowing out… nevermind. TMI! 🤣
Class Dismissed!
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