Zen Blitz Deck Tutorial

Zen is a Mystic Ninja who follows the winds in search of true purpose. Empowered by years of training and discipline, Zen uses the martial art of the Crouching Tiger to overwhelm his foes with perfect strikes in quick succession.

How to play Zen

Zen is an aggressive hero who likes to play lots of attacks with go again in a single turn. Many of these attacks feature the keyword combo, which activates when the last attack you played has a certain name, representing Zen’s flawless execution of martial arts. For example, if you attack with Crouching Tiger, and then attack with Pouncing Qi, Pouncing Qi will gain the combo ability, dealing more damage and gaining go again so you can play even more attacks!

Most of Zen’s combo cards require the last attack to be Crouching Tiger, a special token attack card. Crouching Tigers do not start in your deck, you have to create them through other cards, such as Companion of the Claw. Once the Crouching Tiger has been used up, it goes back to your token pile instead of the graveyard.

Crouching Tigers start with 0 attack. They are not very threatening by themselves, but a skilled Ninja knows the importance of balance. Use your Crouching Tigers to enable powerful combo attacks and build wide combat chains that stretch your opponent’s defenses thin. This deck also contains several cards to increase the power of Crouching Tigers, so it’s always good to save one in your arsenal for later if you have one spare.

Time to Transcend!

As a Mystic hero, Zen has access to powerful instants that transcend when you have played another blue card this turn. Starting your turn with a blue attack with go again then activating your Mystic instant is a strong way to transcend with Zen. Flip the card onto its Inner Chi face and put it back into your hand. You can now pitch your Inner Chi like you would any other card, but it can also pay for Zen’s hero ability.

Zen’s ability is an instant, which means you can activate it at any time without breaking the combat chain you have set up. Use it to create a Crouching Tiger in your hand, then search your deck for a combo attack that checks for Crouching Tiger. You’ve now transformed a single blue into two attacks, one with combo activated!

At the end of each game, remember to de-chi your deck, flipping your Inner Chi cards back to their regular Mystic instant face.

Armed to the Teeth

Make sure your cloaked equipment (Heirloom of Tiger Hide and Waves of Aqua Marine) start the game face down. These equipment do not do anything until you flip them face up. Heirloom can be flipped up at the start of your turn when you have 1 life, protecting you from damage the following turn.

Waves can only be flipped up when you are attacking. Once your opponent has defended, go to the reaction step and flip up Waves to give your attack +1 power. Waves will then stay face up until your next turn and can defend for 1. Note that Waves does not have any keywords like blade break, so if your opponent closes the combat chain, you can defend with it again in the same turn!

Zen’s other two equipment pieces have blade break, which means you can only defend with them once. Make sure to choose the moment wisely so that you can benefit from their bonus effects.

Zen’s signature staff, Tiger Taming Khakkara, is the main way you can give your Crouching Tigers a damage bonus. Many cards in Zen’s deck require you to pitch a blue card, which will often give you spare resources to attack with the staff. Remember to sequence your attacks in the right order so you don’t interrupt a combo!

How to win with Zen

Zen wins by pressuring the opponent into defending big combo attacks, while whittling away their life with smaller Crouching Tigers and staff hits. Once your opponent is at low life and is forced to start defending your smaller attacks, use Zen’s hero ability to play a big combo attack to finish them off!

Don’t be fooled into always taking damage to play every card in your hand. Sometimes you will be missing something like a blue to pitch or play, or a way to create Crouching Tigers. In these situations you should defend carefully to keep your life total high, and put a powerful card into your arsenal until you have the right resources to play it at full strength.

It’s important to keep track of what combo cards you have left in your deck. Qi Unleashed is one of the strongest combo attacks in Zen’s deck. If you have run out of combo attacks, the deck contains a few ways to put them back into your deck.

An easy way to remember the different cards in your deck is by how they create Crouching Tigers. Regular Ninja cards mostly create a Crouching Tiger in your banished zone when they hit, while Mystic Ninja cards mostly create a Crouching Tiger in your hand when they attack, as long as you’ve pitched a blue.