Put Hellcat in front of Alchemist… if things go well, doesn’t matter… but Hellcat is stronger, and also: Khorvash. Alchemist is fastest to fill, keep him in third slot.
exactly same happen to me with a DS deck
since the DS i cant find any more efficient alternative
there are some that seem to be as fast but they are more tiring so i toss them aside in the end
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I honestly can’t see the appeal of Gard.
- It’s fragile - it won’t work if you get frozen or if you lose alchemist or hellcat. Even with mercy, it’s not always possible to cleanse without handing the opponent your butt on a plate.
- A bad board at the start can result in an instant loss.
- One AOE spell or a spell targeted at Gard really reduces his effectiveness down to being almost useless.
- With mythic troops in opposition - and now even more so with event boosts - it takes an age of looping to get strong enough for a one shot kill. Any time you hand the turn over you can get unlucky and the opponent can get a spell off in which case if it hits Gard you have a BIG problem. It takes lots of turns to get him to do 50 damage let alone 100.
- I really don’t find it that fast; it can be quick to get the first shot off but then you’ve either left loads of yellows and reds on the board (in which case there is a high chance the enemy will start getting cascades) or you’ve cleared them all and it’s slow to get Gard charged again.
I’ve even tried it with 2 Gards against a daemon team, making sure to get both Gards strong enough to kill all the enemies between them. It was not quick, and was made even longer thanks to IK resurrecting twice.
Not if you bait with skulls. Alchemist and Hellcat loop so reliably that it’s almost always possible to set this situation up.
Mab is a concern - if you give her a 4-match (rare in my experience). Death Touch and Chill Touch are a concern only if Mercy has already died. Aside from these cases, that team essentially never loses, in my experience.
You make some fair points, but I will counter with this. If you play the board right, and of course nothing is fail proof, but you can with a high consistency and regularity setup the board in a way that denies the AI a match 4 and leaves you setup to begin your loop again after the AIs turn.
Here is a very brief explanation of how I make this happen.
- Fill one of your two loopers ASAP
- Loop until Gard is full.
- Clear the board of match 4’s, this should fill one or both of your loopers.
- If there are skulls on the board, fire Gard
- If there are no skulls, repeat steps 2-4.
- Rinse and repeat.
- Collect Rewards
The reason why its fast and effective at high level is almost all the mythics you see on defense are either Daemons or Undead… or both! 
I just faced a Gorgotha/Hellcat/War/Famine team… one cast of Gard= TOOTHLESS DEFENSE! 
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All I can say is I wish I had Gard 
The very few mythics I have are the close to useless ones (except the Pharos one)
I don’t really need a counter. He’s easy to beat. He’s just ANNOYING. For ****'s sake, his spell drains 100% of the ENTIRE team’s mana…
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I find the standard Mercy / Hellcat / Alchemist / Gard team to be slow.
I use 2 x Honor and never have to worry about it. He kills everything in a couple of turns, regardless of good or bad board.
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I’m giving away my extra Gards. PM my in-game mailbox, and i’ll send you one back. Thanks.
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I honestly don’t change teams anymore based on defense combo, it’s too much hassle. If things go poorly, I quit the match and start a new one.
But you still need to fill Honor and while you’re doing that, there’s a good chance the enemy can take your Gards armour down. Not to mention that Honor can totally misfire.
Also I have to admit - and I don’t know if I’m being stupid here - that I still don’t see why you need 2 Honors? Having 2 surely just means less brown for Gard? If your first honor gets a good shot away then he’ll fill himself anyway so why do you need another one? Please tell me what I am missing here!
I use Apothecary and she fills easy. Once you get Honor started, you can literally bounce back and forth between the 1st and 2nd two or three times.
And his armor buff is so much that once you cast 3 times, Gard has enough armor to one shot an entire team of Horsemen, even if he’s been nicked on a previous turn.
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And of course no team is perfect. Bad things can always happen. Like I said, if things go poorly early on, I quit the match and start a new one.
The 2 x Honor Gard team can win matches in less than 30 seconds. That’s a lot of PVP matches over time.
I’m with @lyya and @efh313 on this - my Gard team is one of the fastest preferred go-to teams I have. It’ll effortlessly wipe almost any enemy, and quickly - the only ones I would be cautious of are Mab (which disrupts any loop play) and step carefully around anything BD (two surges and BD can break Gard’s armour). That said, the Mab teams are the only time I’d bring something else.
Barring the occasional RNG crapness (losing Mercy then Hellcat to first turn deathmark procs after RNG skull drops let the enemy attack) - no troubles.
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Yes, sorry. Rushed message! I meant honour.
You know what - I’ve just tried the mercy Gard team again and I’m coming round to it. I think @efh313 's advice about leaving a skull match for the enemy has swing it for me. Previously I was trying to loop as much as possible to get a big Gard hit, when it’s actually much better to cast him straight away and then refill him.
The Honor version I’m not so sure about. I don’t like how long it takes to get apothecary charged while you’re sat there with Gard vulnerable .
It doesn’t matter if he’s vulnerable. One cast from Honor replaces all (if not more) of the lost armor and the 2nd cast gets him to 1-hit status.
I’ve tried the Mercy / Hellcat / Alchemist version. It’s more predictable but it’s just slower for me. The 2 x Honor is high risk, high reward. Regardless, I’m not playing 2-minute matches, win or lose. I’d rather be accumulating resources to have a ridiculously small chance at getting the next dangling carrot.
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I try to make sure Alchemist or Hellcat are full, ideally both, before I cast Gard, so the loop can start up again straight after the enemy’s next turn. Also Mercy lets you jump-start things, and casting Alchemist and Mercy one after the other will often fill Gard quickly.
Agree. Honour not good. I did try looping Hellcat/Alchemist into Golden Cog then Gard - that hits very hard but is riskier.
I have used the the Rock Troll version as a variant:
Rock Troll/ Honor/Honor/Gard (+2 brown banner)
And I actually prefer it to the Apothecary.
Here is the ideal process:
- Fill Honor, select red or purple depending on highest numbers
- Cast Rock Troll (This can RELIABLY fill both Honors AND Gard on first cast)
- Bounce back and forth between Honors selecting skulls only
- Cast Gard
- Collect Rewards
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I realize I’m veering progressively off topic here, but I love BB and so I’m pretty pumped to see somebody else mention it 
I find the “feeling” of the the summon > devour loop to be very rewarding.
The Fenrir rework has gloriously expanded the BB’s potential too and I love putting Fen up front then chomping him once BB is in one-shot territory (usually 1 cast). Queen Y at the bottom and away you go
Anyways just another idea for to mix into the pot… once Aby drops for me I want to try this cofig you’re talking about. I also am dreaming of the day the Sacrifice Guardian comes into the equation, but we shall see.