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I need advice on decks

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Feb 21, 2011
15
Ok here is my deal, I am so confused about how the deck works and how to load them, I have read as much as I could but still I seem to just make a mess of my deck. The higher level I get the worse combat becomes at level 47 I can't even solo two rank5 with only 700 hitpoints so I know I got something wrong. I am death student, I load lots of shields, traps etc then the damage spells, the problem is that either nothing but sheilds and traps are all that I can use or no buffs and only damage comes up, if I discard a card I really get into trouble, I'm at about 47% pip rate but that too seems to surpress in battle, I try to use the highest stat clothing and weapon I can for my level and that still is just about to get me killed. this pip system seems like random poker. I'm a wreck please give me some good advice.
PS I also have tried a small deck about a medium deck and the largest I can find and my results are always the same. :?

Astrologist
Jun 04, 2010
1008
snootypatooty wrote:
Ok here is my deal, I am so confused about how the deck works and how to load them, I have read as much as I could but still I seem to just make a mess of my deck. The higher level I get the worse combat becomes at level 47 I can't even solo two rank5 with only 700 hitpoints so I know I got something wrong. I am death student, I load lots of shields, traps etc then the damage spells, the problem is that either nothing but sheilds and traps are all that I can use or no buffs and only damage comes up, if I discard a card I really get into trouble, I'm at about 47% pip rate but that too seems to surpress in battle, I try to use the highest stat clothing and weapon I can for my level and that still is just about to get me killed. this pip system seems like random poker. I'm a wreck please give me some good advice.
PS I also have tried a small deck about a medium deck and the largest I can find and my results are always the same. :?


Could you post a list of what's in your deck including the number of each type of card? I'd be happy to look it over and see if I can give you some advice.

Survivor
Nov 01, 2010
40
Don't be like some people and put 40 cards in your deck, that is insane. if you are a 47 Death then your deck should look like this:

2 Death Blades
2 Feints (optional)
2 Spirit Blades (optional)
2 Death Traps (optional)
4 Shield cards (whatever shield you need for a specific monster, or if 2 different then 1 of 1 and 3 of the other. basically, if you are fighting a Storm monster and a Fire monster, you'd carry 1 storm shield and 3 fire shields. kill the storm monster first then the fire monster, or whatever you choose. you DID spend a few training points on the shield cards from the vendor in wizard city commons RIGHT?!)
2 Sacrifice spells (and Troll Necklace for the 40%+ heal)
2 Death shields (optional for use with Sacrifice spell)
2 Wraith spells

That's 20 cards max, but it should be closer to less than 12 cards. not including your sidebar spells. Now for max efficiency, i highly suggest you turn your Wraith cards into treasure cards with Accuracy (or whatever the +15% accuracy spell is for 100% no fizzle cards, since if i remember correctly, you cannot use the Monsterous + Waith) now you can discard a wand fire card and Draw your attack card, when you need it. very effective, i can't believe everyone doesn't do this.

Defender
Oct 26, 2009
122
I'm sorry to tell you, but learning how to make a deck will be difficult. Advice is difficult to give, and since everyone's play style is different, what works for someone won't work for someone else.

But, I will try to give some advice. And, please note, this advice is DEATH SPECIFIC.

1: Train Spirit Blade and Spirit Trap
If you don't, you will die. They are a must to boost your damage farther. Go to Krokotopia and train them off the Balance tree for one training point each.

2: Don't bother with shields.
You will be 100x more efficient if you put Death Blade, Death Trap, Curse, Feint, Spirit Trap, Spirit Blade and Wraith in your deck, stick some of the utility spells (not Wraith) on the enemy, and Wraith. This should hit a decent amount AND heal you. Understand?

3: Don't be afraid to put in extra cards.
I recommend these emergency cards: Skeletal Pirate, Animate, Vampire, Poison and Sacrifice. Skeletal Pirate and Poison should be used if you don't have Wraith to do damage. Use Vampire after using the blades and traps a ton to get a scaled down Wraith. Animate can be used as backup damage. You may want to use Animate in every battle. Sacrifice should be used if Wraith and Vampire aren't healing enough. But use my tips at #2 as a core attack.

4: Train ALL Your Spells.
Here's a useful guide: http://www.wizard101central.com/forums/showthread.php?p=129699#post129699

5: Don't be afraid to discard.
Discarding will save you. But don't just discard at random. You will need some of the cards, and so always think before discarding. Think, "Am I going to need this card later? Is this a good idea?".

6: Level up!
Scarecrow is awesome and useful. It works like wraith, just hits all enemies, and, once you get it, add it to your core attacks.

Hopefully this will help a lot. As death you won't really need a secondary school, but I may recommend life or storm.

A+ Student
Jan 05, 2009
1706
Wow, it sounds as if you are too big. 700 damage is easy for death to deal without a lot of bells and whistles. For average street fights:

My level 47 death deck:
4 Wraith
2 pixie
3 death blades
3 spirit blades-optional, needed for larger foes. You could also add death traps, your choice (I like spirit blade as it boosts my wand :) )

equipment:
wand: spells + power pip
other equip for dam boost and power pip %

Round 1 (2 power pips): deathblade
Round 2 (3 power pips): wraith (500 damage x 1.4 (blade) x 1.2 (self boost) =
840 dam, 420 heal.
Round 3 (1 power pip): deathblade
Round 4 (2 power pips): wand spell (I perfer life as death's opposite)
Round 5 (3 power pips): wraith (as above)
==> Combat over.

if you are facing death, add prism. If life foes, you might want your death wand.
if you get hit with a weakness, use a wand spell.
if you get a rare regular pip, use a wand spell.

This deck is fast and predictable. 9 spells/5 wand spells...with 14 total spells, you should have a blade your first turn, and a wraith the second, etc.

For bosses, spirit blade and trap, plus feint should handle most DS bosses.

Hero
Sep 08, 2008
712
Hello there. :)

I have read about your troubles, and I feel your frustration. It sounds like your deck simply has too many cards of each type you carry.

Limit your cards to no more than 4 of each kind. 4 traps, 4 blades, 4 shields, 4 each of your two highest level attacks. Then of course, wand and necklace cards. This keeps your deck small. I have read that you tried a small deck, but even a small deck with too many cards of a kind can give you aweful luck of the draws.

I also have another suggestion. Get rid of traps. I have not used a single trap in Dragonspyre and Celestia. Your blades are more powerful than your traps, and your feint will cover your missing traps. (You can keep feint, but it is not necessary, either.)

Also get rid of any 1-pip shields, blades, and traps. While those cards increase damage even more, they simply clutter your deck if you are not a balance wizard to make use of them. And they use up your pips as well.

Do you have the Tower shield card? Try this configuration.

4 Wraiths.
4 Skeletal Pirate.
2 Vampires.
4 Blades. (Unless you really LOVE seeing record breaking damage, replace your blades with 4 feints)
4 Shields. (May not even need those if you finish fights relatively easily)
4 Tower Shields.
4 Sprites. (?)

Since you are a death wizard, you may want to keep both blades and feints. Since you heal yourself more and more the higher damage you do. If you find yourself running low on health a lot, you can unleash really powerful attacks that heal you back to near full health in one shot. However, there is no real need to boost an attack so much that it would heal you more than 100% of your HP. That being the case, that is something you need to 'feel' out since you are the one playing the death wizard.

I did not include life/healing spells, because I am not sure you need them with Vampires and Wraith attacks. You are ultimately the only one that can find out whether or not to keep healing cards in your deck. (I never really played Death beyond level 29.) But if you find yourself running dangerously low in health a lot, you may want to add those 4 sprites or even Satyrs instead. Like I said, "feel" it out.

At your level, your minion probably adds a huge amount of help (Don't use your minion when you arrive in Celestia). But play with this strategy and see how well you do, then think on it. You can determine yourself if your minion becomes useful or not.

Basically, point is to deliver fast and strong attacks. The strength will come from your blades and/or feints, and the speed will come from your attacks themselves. (You do not want to spend round after round buffing attack to record strength.)

Defender
Sep 11, 2010
154
It is notjust the deck, Snooty.

The art of "discarding", in my mind, is the single most important "skill" in this game. Diego can teach elementary school kids how to Blade, Trap, and Kill. But, getting those three cards to appear in your 7-card hand ... is NOT a random act of chance ... it is done by YOU, and how quickly YOU handle the discard function.

There is a "system" to staying ALIVE while "solo"ing Wizard101. It seems very difficult at first, but eventually it becomes intuitive. There is no such thing as a "perfect" deck ... it changes from fight to fight depending on what types of enemies you have in the dias with you. As Death, 90% of the 2-1 battles can be won with the starter deck, 14 spells, no side deck needed.

Ideally, you want to cast Blade, Trap, and your Kill spell, in that order, so that SOMETHING dies in the FIRST 3 combat rounds. At your level, facing two 700 point enemies, Wraith is your kill spell.

If you cannot do 700 damage with a bladed/trapped Wraith in three rounds, you are wearing the wrong clothes and carrying the wrong wand.

You should start the fight with at least 2 pips from the wand.
Your wand should be Balance or Life. I carry both.
Death damage from your clothes should be 25% or better.
There are amulets that give a Feint Card, a Wraith Card, a Vampire Card, a Ghoul Card, and others that give THREE Shield cards, Storm, Fire, Myth, and Ice. Carry them all and wear the one you need for THIS battle.

Starter Deck.

3 Pixies.
3 Blades.
3 Traps.
3 Wraiths.
1 Reshuffle.
1 Feint or Spirit Blade - Prefer Feint.

In your mind, know that you can discard 1 Blade, 1 Trap, and 1 Wraith without effecting the battle at ALL. They are "extra". ALL wand spells are discardable except two ... do it viciously. ALL Pixies are discardable except one.

The Reshuffle is NOT discardable ... EVER. It fixes discarding mistakes.

Death School enemies need prisms and a deck with three more spells in it. Life enemies cast Death Shields, you need a deck with Poison and three more spells in it. Bosses thaty don't die with a single kill spell, need Spirit Blades or Feints and decks capable of handling 3 -6 more cards in them. Scarecrow will change your deck strategy also, but it is NOT needed to reliably kill 2 700 pointers, at will.

Solo'ing requires a quick decision as to WHICH enemy dies FIRST, a single-minded commitment to judicously discarding until the cards needed to accomplish that kill are IN the deck, and then VICIOUSLY discarding what is NOT needed ... NOW, at THIS time, ... and a predator's unrelenting concentration and focus upon that FIRST target until it is dead.

ANYBODY ... can join a crowd of npc lynchers and settle for casting the spells the game "deals" to them. Finesse is not required when you are a member of A Gang of Four.

But if you want to venture alone, "Far from the Maddening Crowd" ... a diet change is required ... you need a heavy portion of ...

Dis Card Go ...

Pun intended ... lol.

;)

Survivor
Feb 21, 2011
15
Ok what your saying is all well and good but let me tell you what happens while you throw all those spiritblades and all those boosters the mobs are pounding you into the ground and then there is one good card of damage then nothing the rest of the battle except a few luck shots, and then why just load wraith when there is scarecrow too? I have loaded wraith, and scarecrow in my deck. The problem is solo I get one good damage shot and no pips there after with gain of maybe 1 or3 that is just bull corn, then the two mobs just pound away till either I skate by with enough health to live to end the battle, but good grief battle should not take 20 to 30 minutes with having to pass and let the mobs beat on you while you gain a piddly pip points
PS I am now just a about 2 bars from level 50 and I can't or won't buy any telling me they are or did solo DS or MS I am beginning to think it is just simply tales to make others think they are a wiz101 super hero

A+ Student
Jan 05, 2009
1706
You can usually assume that a Mob will do about 100 damage per turn at max.

By turn 3 you should kill one mob off. You have taken at most 600 dam.
By turn 6 you should kill off second mob. You have taken at most 300 dam more.

So, you have killed off two mobs in 6 rounds (max), taken at most 900 damage, and healed back 800+ damage.

Any of the decks outlined above will do this if you follow the advice on discarding (Very good advice Alex!).

Survivor
Sep 24, 2010
2
ok first off, dude if your level 40 anything, you should be able to solo 2 rank 5's.
second: the deck works like a play card, well sort of. next time if you log on and havent figured out how the deck works, press the "p" key.
your deck page will show up with all the spell cards that you can cast. on the left side of the screen that popped up it shows a graph like square area with places for the cards to be seen. click a card that is showing on the right side of the table and it will go into the table. when you do this when you go into your next fight that card will be one of the cards that shows up in your hand. you can place as many cards in the deck as the deck allows. when buying a new deck, look for one of your 'element' and look at the level compared to yours, then look at the stats. for example: i am a level 50 life person, i want the best deck i can buy. go to a deck seller or the bazaar and look at 'usable' decks. find the one thats your level and look at how many of your kind of card there is, and then look at the amount of cards you can place in that deck, lastly look at the sideboard. if this doesnt help then my guy talon mistwalker is NOT a legendary pyromancer. hope this helps :-)

Explorer
Mar 25, 2009
57
what i would do is get the novice death deck [i always use novice (insert school here) deck] Then put your three best heal spells, and two of your best attacks, but leave room for at least two blades and traps..

(just so u know, I do this with my LV. 59 Life and its really good.)

Mastermind
May 02, 2009
356
Hero
Sep 08, 2008
712
Hello there. :)

Something about discarding. If you can discard while you charge, it becomes perfect. Don't ever discard without a reason.

You have two mobs. One single blade per mob will be enough power for the finish. If your hand has 3 blades, you know that you won't need the third one. Discard the third blade, while you select the first blade to cast on yourself. Always discard while you select your spells. If you find yourself using up a complete round of doing nothing but discarding, you know you got something you can improve on.

Make sure you reshuffle card is not the trained balance school spell. That may be using up valuable training points. Instead, make it a treasure card. You will discard at least once every duel, and if you do run out of cards, you can 'draw' the reshuffle, in order to reshuffle. If you ever run out of cards and you found yourself not having discarded at least a single card, that may be an indicator that your deck is too small.

Defender
Sep 11, 2010
154
snootypatooty wrote:
Ok what your saying is all well and good but let me tell you what happens while you throw all those spiritblades and all those boosters the mobs are pounding you into the ground and then there is one good card of damage then nothing the rest of the battle except a few luck shots, and then why just load wraith when there is scarecrow too? I have loaded wraith, and scarecrow in my deck. The problem is solo I get one good damage shot and no pips there after with gain of maybe 1 or3 that is just bull corn, then the two mobs just pound away till either I skate by with enough health to live to end the battle, but good grief battle should not take 20 to 30 minutes with having to pass and let the mobs beat on you while you gain a piddly pip points
PS I am now just a about 2 bars from level 50 and I can't or won't buy any telling me they are or did solo DS or MS I am beginning to think it is just simply tales to make others think they are a wiz101 super hero


There are no "Spiritblades" in the suggested starter deck.

They cost a pip and are NOT free to cast ... you LOSE "kill spell" pips casting them. The Blades suggested cost ZERO pips to cast, so you GAIN "kill spell" pips while casting them. This is why you are being "out-pipped" by the NPC's.

Being "out-pipped" means THEY have the pips to cast the higher ranking, more damaging spells, and YOU do not.

The reason you are having to pass - is because your are NOT following the directions you have been given. Passing - is PROOF positive you have a poorly constructed deck and are NOT D_I_S_C_A_R_D_I_N_G as you have been asked to do. Passing, without DISCARDING, only prolongs the poor selection of spells you have been dealt for another round. It makes it WORSE, because in addition to having uncastable spells - you have LOST ... time. This mis-management of "time" - is another reason you are being out-pipped by mobs.

Scarecrow was NOT suggested for this TRAINING exercise because YOUR mindset and approach to combat - which you have unfortunately PRACTICED ... wrongly ... for almost 50 levels ... is preventing you from understanding how IMPORTANT ... simple decks and vicious discarding ... is to solo'ing this game. IF you have NOT learned how to solo kill two mobs with your most powerful spell, there is little point, Grasshopper, in asking you to kill multiple enemies at once with a weaker spell.

When combat starts, how many pips do you START with? IF you have the right wand and the right clothes, you should START combat with TWO pips.

BOTH of them should be yellow, but one of them MUST be yellow.

ARE they?

If not, then you are NOT wearing the level 50 equipment you should have ... OR ... it is not EQUIPPED. Level 30 wands have a very small circle on their descriptions telling you this wand starts combat with an EXTRA pip. Later, cannot remember the level they appear, the small circle becomes a small, solid dot telling you not only does this wand start combat with an extra pip, it is a power pip as well.

"I can't or won't buy any telling me they are or did solo DS or MS ..."

This part ... you got absolutey right ... for the record it is "can't" ...

and it will STAY "can't" until you go back to square one and re-train yourself to cast spells ... differently, ... with ONLY the spells and decks you have been asked to use. You have literally practiced, over and over, for 50 levels, a losing technique until now it is so engrained you simply accept it as a "fact", the price of doing business, and cannot get your mind past the "past pounding" long enough to fairly try a new technique.

Please. Keep it simple. Equip the deck suggested. Put ONLY the 14 spells listed in it ... Spiritblade is NOT Deathblade ... terms ARE important ... go to DS ... select any two non-death, non-life mobs, and ...

You will kill a mob in three rounds, heal if needed, and kill the next three rounds after healing.

And it will happen the same way EVERYTIME you do it.

THEN ... you have something to work with and can build from there.

Staying where you are with what you have ... you are beaten before you start.

Try it. You'll like it. Luck ... ;)