Images courtesy of Legend Story Studios
Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X on a Budget!
Greetings and salutations my fabulous FAB folks! Welcome to another installment in our budget FAB decks series here on Card Gamer. Today, we’re finally diving into my favorite class with an awesome new hero from The Hunted. Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X, has several nicknames already, even before The Hunted officially released: Arakni, Password; Crackni; Slippy; etc. Personally, I like Slippy, so I’ll probably be using that nickname through the rest of this article.
I’m extremely excited to share this list, so let’s get right to the good stuff. It’s time to talk about one of the many faces of Arakni!
A Budget Assassin in Flesh and Blood?
Yeah, yeah, I know. Right now, the Assassin class is probably the most expensive to get into out of every hero pool in the game. I don’t think any other class comes close to the same base cost to play. And let’s not even talk about the waifu tax on shiny Nuu cards.
However, the subject of today’s brew is an exception. While we could play a lot of really expensive staple majestics, and there’s some argument to be made for things like Just a Nick, Bonds of Agony, and Flick Knives, Slippy can spread chaos and bloodshed just fine without them. At the time of writing, the cost of this competitive budget FAB list totals out to less than $100.
As usual, the equipment is the best place to start.
What Are the Best Budget Arakni Equipment?
I’m so glad you asked. Turns out, there are a few good options, as long as you’re creative (read as “not too picky”). Mask of Perdition is our default head piece, but it’s mostly meant to be block value. The effect isn’t going to be very useful, unfortunately, and we’re never going to get it back with this list. Redback Shroud is a little more useful, as it provides a point of block and the effect can be relevant on a resource light hand. Hope Merchant’s Hood is in the side board for when we want to bring in Spike with Bloodrots as a mulligan on reaction-heavy hands.
The arm slot desperately wants to be Flick Knives, but Danger Digits, a new common from The Hunted, fills in with a one-time impression of the powerful legendary. Snapdragon Scalers is arguably best in slot for the legs, regardless of budget, for our aggressively slanted list. Having a free action point just sitting on the board for a turn where we want to go a little wider is great.
Then we have the weapons. Hunter’s Klaive is the dagger we’ll be attacking with the most. We want to make our opponent think about the Mark every turn and Klaive does exactly that. I considered playing two of them, and that would probably be ok if you wanted to try it, but I like having options. Between Spider’s Bite and Scale Peeler, we cover most of the common defensive options that our opponent’s likely to block with.
What About Arakni’s Budget Attacks? Time to Get Stealthy, Right?
For sure! With Slippy’s hero ability, the first attack with Stealth each turn gets go again. Therefore, we’ll be playing a lot of small attacks. This is a double-edged sword though, because unfortunately our hero ability also counts for the opponent’s first Stealth attack too. The hero ability is a serious liability when you play against other Assassins, so be prepared.
What we can do though, is maximize our ability to abuse it. They may be able to take advantage of our hero power, but we’re going to set ourselves up to make the most of it every turn. All of our attack action cards in the deck are going to have Stealth except for one that only occasionally comes in from the inventory.
Attack Actions
Prowl is a Stealth attack that has seen exactly zero Classic Constructed play since it was released in Outsiders, but our dear friend Slippy is going to love it. With our hero power, the red Prowl becomes a zero-for-four as long as we follow it up with another Stealth attack on the same combat chain. I considered running a full rainbow set (all nine of them), but this isn’t a card you want to draw two of in the same hand – not unless you’re pitching a blue to swing your dagger, then attacking with the other one.
Next, we want our opponents to care about being Marked so that they respect our dagger. If they do, they’ll likely block it with a card from hand every turn and have a harder time racing us. Our Mark of the Black Widow and Mark of the Funnel Web package ensures that if the opponent doesn’t respect the dagger, they have to respect these.
Bite adds extra Flick effects to the deck and can end games out of nowhere. Art of Desire: Body is a card that most decks will care about blocking because when it has go again and hits, the rate is absurd. Same thing for Infect too.
I’m a little concerned about how many copies of Snag we’re going to see in the meta going forward. With Arakni, Marionette and Nuu as top meta decks and Warriors getting new toys to play with, Snag is in a really good spot. However, we can’t just ignore one of Assassin’s identifying features. So, let’s talk about some good budget reactions and non-attacks for Assassins next.
Non-Attacks and Reactions
Razor's Edge is solid in this list since we have nothing but viable targets for it. Stains of the Redback is another installment in the “why you care about being Marked” suite, and it also gives us an excuse to use Redback Shroud occasionally. Same with Two Sides to the Blade, but this will probably be the most common play with our chest.
I considered using multiple colors of Shred, but I eventually settled on just the yellow copies. We’re making our opponent want to block every turn, regardless of what hero they’re on, so that’s not the concern. Yellow Shred blocks three, pitches to swing a dagger, makes Temper equipment cry, and its effect isn’t hurt by Snag. The issue is that we just don’t need the other colors.
The real spice of the list is Prismatic Leyline. Although we don’t have any yellows to really push it to its full potential, it makes any Stealth card we play have an annoying breakpoint for the opponent to deal with. So it functions as another zero-for-four and, at worst, it’s a non-attack action that blocks three. I was surprised when I realized how cheap the card is, and considering how solidly it fits in the deck, I don’t know if it’ll stay that way.
We’re adding some defensive tools and Wizard hate in the sideboard, but your mileage may vary on those. I have a few dedicated Wizard players at my locals, so it makes sense for me.
Combine everything we’ve got so far and we’ve got a fun, powerful budget deck.
The Final List
Final Thoughts on Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X
This list was a lot of fun to put together. While I can’t say that the deck benefited from being on such a restrictive budget, I don’t think a full power version of this Arakni variant looks much different. I’m very happy with the list as it is, but if the budget were a little bigger I’d start by upgrading the equipment. Blood Splattered Vest, Flick Knives, and Mask of Deceit are all very powerful equipment that would add tons of value to what we’re doing.
Like I said, I’m happy with this list and I hope you give it a try. As always, if there’s anything you want to discuss, feel free to reach out to me. I’m easy to track down on Blue Sky, Twitter, or Discord as Dracohominis87. Also, if you’re into podcasts, check out the Flesh and Blood podcast that I do with my friends where we go over news, market updates, and generally have a good time.
Take care!
Need more Arakni content? Check out this article ranking each new Arakni variant.
