A take on Salamander.

Edit - January 2022:

"2 months ago I climbed with it from R3 to Pro with 22-7 score :)".

The base consist of good old Lined Pockets (currently in poor state due to Drill nerf), and package with 5 (possible with 4 or worst case 3) Salamander combo pieces.

Lined Pockets base helps mostly to manage a win on R1 - very important and currently extremely hard to pull due balance and power levels in game. Another negative is that often you'll end up with bricks/combo pieces in starting hand and will be forced to pass - cause most everybody just abuses blue coin.

Besides helping you win R1 - with cards like Freak Show, Drill (now not so much due nerf), Bloody Good Friends, Blacksmith, Sea Jackal and crime cards, your goal is to thin as much. For that Ferko into Novigradian Justice, Flying Redanian/boat :P, Oneiromancy - great to get a missing card both for R1 win or R3 missing combo piece. You might end up using Vivaldi Bank as well. Preferably at least 1 of the later 2 card is better kept for potential missing Salamander combo piece!

The general game plan and combo patterns works like that. You try to win R1 and thin decently. R2 is often a pass with mulligan for the 5 combo pieces. They are as follow - 1 Azar Javed (least important), 2 Salamandra Hideout, 3 Roland Bleinheim (2 and 3 depends on situation), 4 Salamander (poison all), 5 Renew Salamander. Those are the last five cards you play in this order R3 as well. Without Hideout and last 2 cards (plus 8 coins) combo is impossible! Try to Keep your leader for R3! Bare in mind Hideout can be played in R2, because the location stays and that's all you need for R3, risk is that it might be heatwave.

The Jackpot leader helps you make a huge Roland if the combo is pulled. Due to him giving you 2 coins on every poisoned unit - with full board and overprofit (basically boosting itself by 2 for every poisoned unit on board). That way even if you don't end up killing everything by poisoning it 2 times, you still can sneak out a win.

Hideout serve the purpose to pull Salamandra Abomination - at adrenaline 6 - when poisoned it gains 2 power and purify itself (don't depend on it too much). It also kills your Salamander finisher - you use the Hideout order to transfer poison from (about 90% of time) Roland on it. Be careful if you suspect Salamander might be banished from graveyard!

Negatives for the deck:

It's not gonna win you a lot of games, mostly it's for "fun". As mentioned - you often get abused on blue coin, because it's rare you end up with hand without bricks and current power of decks and cards allow for people to dominate you R1.

Otherwise for the combo to happen and stars to align, there is a lot of if's. Thinning is decent and the amount of times you'll get the combo pieces will be high. Unfortunately after that it's rather straightforward and a lot of praying little gameplaying! Azar is the weaker link/problem as he is single handedly the worst defender in the game. Meaning if you are in Pro ranks or r1-5 - both defender scarabs will be answered in about 9/8-10 games in one turn. That leads to every other piece left to be placed on field, to be exposed and dealt with. That's where Roland dies, Hideout is banished, etc. Nothing is in your control at this point.

An enemy board with good amount of veil units can ruin your Salamander poisoning experience.

After Drill nerf (warranted but awfully realzied, because it was issue with Lined Pockets leader mostly), it's even harder to manage a win in R1. I've added more crime cards - before it had more units - to test out Drill, but it's rough.

Have fun!