Oracle : Hermes

[Higurashi]

So I didn't feel like doing the EA Dim thing on my alt, even though it works quite well for me for some reason. I thought "hey, Bone Wall is Fire's bane" and made a classic OE+BW. It seems to stand a pretty good chance, as Hermes wastes Explosions on BW if you don't let him Explode an OE, and he tends to use his Rage Elixirs after he's used Heavy Armor on something. I was about to win with 40 HP because it took pretty long for me to draw a BW, but then he bolted me down to 8 HP. Because of this I concluded the main problem of this deck is that it's slow, which gives Hermes time to build a lot of . Regardless, a win is a win, and I'll usually draw my BW earlier. On the other hand he might draw more Lances. Luckily, his deck is fat as heck. If you have Deadly Poisons but no SoSa's, I'd give it a chance.

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52g 52g 52g 52o 52o 52o 52o 52r 52r 52r 52r 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 718 718 71b 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n5 7n5 7n5 7n5 8pr

Edit: another win yesterday on my alt. This time with 84 HP ^_^
My winrate: 3-1

[TribalTrouble]

I tried the above deck, fully upped, and lost due to being outrushed. Also, Buckler really hurts the Eagles.

[Higurashi]

Yeah, it does. You'll usually want him to Explode BW's so you can keep one in your weapon slot.

Sometimes he gets a super-rushy start and I lose with all decks because he has so much late-game control. At least by that point I have a chance if I'm packing BW's.

[Higurashi]

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6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 71b 71b 71b 71b 74b 74b 74b 74b 7k1 7k6 7k6 7k6 7k6 80f 80h 80h 80h 80h 8pl

Spinning on the concept of BW+CC, I made something more suited to combat Hermes. For future tries I'm going to pack 2 AM's, since even though the huge early Destroyer I never managed to nom never got to hit me even once, it could've given me an EM instead of me ending with a dangerous 30-ish HP due to Lances.

As with all Rainbows, get bad RNG with towers and you'll end up dead. In this case because of no BW. Mine went up around 36 HP. Nom extra Otys if no food is around.

[trashduke]

Tried the un upped deck in the OP (Protect Artifact, PU, Dim shield) and got stomped pretty hard.  I think I'll stick with Zso_Zso's Pdials variation next time.

[TribalTrouble]

This is what I use for Hermes and it seems to work well enough:

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710 710 718 718 718 718 718 718 71u 71u 71u 71u 71u 71u 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 7k1 7k1 7km 7km 7km 7km 7km 7km 7q9 7q9 7q9 8pq

Yes its a variant of PoisonDials, but instead of Arsenic uses Morning Glory, because that cannot be destroyed by Explosions. Also low on sundials as they can be blown up but can still help sometimes -- usually use them very early if I lack something to play, don't play them in tight case when blowing up would get you killed. Rely mostly on Sacrifice to stay alive.

EM with 172 HP, won a Fire Shield.

This deck completely worked like a charm, but it's not really noob-friendly tho. Might want to put this on the first post, in case you want to add the best working deck

Just got an EM with all 6 SoD used. Nice counter Zso Zso!

[Optimalist]

Thank you. This got me 196 HP EM. Won a card.

This is what I use for Hermes and it seems to work well enough:

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710 710 718 718 718 718 718 718 71u 71u 71u 71u 71u 71u 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 7k1 7k1 7km 7km 7km 7km 7km 7km 7q9 7q9 7q9 8pq

Yes its a variant of PoisonDials, but instead of Arsenic uses Morning Glory, because that cannot be destroyed by Explosions. Also low on sundials as they can be blown up but can still help sometimes -- usually use them very early if I lack something to play, don't play them in tight case when blowing up would get you killed. Rely mostly on Sacrifice to stay alive.

EM with 172 HP, won a Fire Shield.

This deck completely worked like a charm, but it's not really noob-friendly tho. Might want to put this on the first post, in case you want to add the best working deck

Just got an EM with all 6 SoD used. Nice counter Zso Zso!

[jsrjohnny]

+ Rep for Zso, that counter is great. Thanks for sharing.

[bjessee]

Allow me to bring Zso_Zso back down to earth.  I faced Hermes twice in a row (lucky me), and both times he drew as many Explosions as I drew permanents (4 each game?).  Nothing I played lasted until my next turn (with the exception of one pendulum which got popped the next turn), and lack of quantum production killed me.  It is frustrating to die with multiple SoSacs in hand and no way to play them.

I know he only has 12 Explosions out of 120 cards (maybe he should get SoBs in the next update), but against 7 quanta sources, the odds might not be that extreme that he can match you one for one.  I considered whether replacing the Dials with Towers might have done more than delay my agony for two turns, but I also wonder how this affects the deck's win rate when Hermes is not so Detonation-happy.

In conclusion, this deck performed about as well as other Hermes-counters I have tried in the past:  not as well as I had hoped.

[Higurashi]

Aye, I always run at least 8-9 quanta against Hermes. SoD's are not needed at all in my experience and do not add much (I usually win with mostly Death SoSa decks). Not even half a turn of stall. If you can't predict his burst damage, you can't win with any deck.

[Ian007]

Yes more quanta is needed, but SoD's are very useful -- more than sundials I think.

[OdinVanguard]

I see the logic in the OP deck. Unupped I'm not sure it will pull it off consistently though.
I just gave a go with a partly upped version and ALMOST pulled it off. Got him down to 18 health before my 3rd dim shield wore off... couldn't find a fourth in time so his creatures just ate my face after that.
If you run it fully upped I think it may be fairly consistent though. I would have been able to clone his golemn earlier and grow it consistently (since upped EA only takes 1 quanta). That probably would have been enough to do the trick I think.
... For now this seems like the best we have for him.