Epic Card Game

Epic is an excellent game. I’ve written a lot on it. Last Saturday of every month there is a tournament with a $600 prize pool that I frequently stream on Twitch (TomSEpicGaming). [I have archived streams there, but the tournaments have stopped.]

My most recent articles can be found here: http://www.tomsepicgaming.com/category/epiccardgame/

For Those Considering Buying Epic

Welcome! I can honestly say Epic is my favorite card game, so much so that I have written a lot on it since it came out at the end of 2015. Due to all the time I’ve invested into the game, I’m obviously a bit biased, but if you are considering jumping in, here is my review I wrote on January 19th, 2016. For an explanation of how to play, check out part 1 of my multi-part Epic Progression series (in progress).

Here’s another of my first articles if undecided: critical aspects of Epic.

For a competitive M:tG player perspective:
Tom Dixon outlines some of his favorite parts here.

For Brand New Epic Players

I am in the process of writing a multi-part Epic Progressions series designed to gradually introduce new players to the game and its more advanced concepts:

Epic Progressions (1): How To play
Epic Progressions (2): Basic Strategy Advice
Epic Progressions (3): Limited – Get Ahead, Stay Ahead

Everything Else

Everything beyond this point either assumes a certain level of Epic understanding or is obscure/highly-specific. All links in Archive sections are out-dated; however, they do provide insight into my early views of Epic for those interested.

In addition, the most recent Epic articles can be found here.

Streams and Videos

I occasionally stream on Twitch, and I upload my raw footage to youtube.

Edited Videos

Constructed Card reviews: multi-part
August 2020 Dark Draft Monthly Tournament:
(Game 4 best game) Collection of Games 1 through 6
John Tatian No Burn/Health Gain Showmatch
(Game 1 best game, but unedited) Collection of Games 1 through 7
March 2020 Constructed Monthly Tournament:
(Game 6 best game) Collection of Games 1 through 6
February 2020 Dark Draft Monthly Tournament:
(Game 5 best game) Collection of Games 1 Through 6
January 2020 Constructed Monthly Tournament:
(Game 4 best game) Collection of Games 2 Through 5
Epic Digital Campaign: Missions 1-15
(Mission 11 Zombie Horde – 7 attempts, mostly successes)
John Tatian 2017 core-only showmatch: Game 1
Core-only Dark Draft: Spike Trap over Amnesia?!
Core-only Dark Draft: DD Deckout Strat
Random 60 Explanation and Sample: Random 60 Video

Unedited Footage

Jan 2019 Dark Draft tournament game v. Hampus Eriksson
In this raw footage I play 15 games of core-only dark draft.
Part 1 of my raw footage of my showmatch against 2016 Epic World Champion John Tatian. Part 2.
7 Dark Draft games from July 4, 2017.

Limited Formats

Limited formats (Dark Draft, Random 60, Cube Draft, Open Draft) have historically been my best formats in card games. In these formats, you build your deck at the start of the event instead of using an already built deck.

This article was originally written for Limited formats, but it has come to encompass my primary Epic strategy: Epic Limited: Get Ahead, Stay Ahead
My Simplified Dark Draft article which gets at the heart of what you want in limited (0’s, Card Draw, and Reestablishing Cards)
This article contains my card tier list (specifically for Dark Draft). I also discuss each card individually: Epic Card Game Dark Draft Card Ratings

Click here for the rest of my articles on Limited Formats

Constructed Format

Constructed Epic involves creating a deck ahead of time following deck building restrictions. I love me my janky cards.

I explain how I go about building constructed decks in this article: Tom’S Epic Constructed Process
My Epic: Constructed Tiered Card Ratings can be found in this article (videos with card by card analysis to come)
In this article I discuss the four main constructed archetypes (Aggro, Midrange, Control, Combo): Deck Archetypes
- Deck explanation for top midrange deck from worlds 2017
- Deck explanation for top control deck from Origins 2019
- Deck explanation for top? aggro combo deck from Origins 2019 (next planned article)

Click here for the rest of my articles on the constructed format and my detailed deck explanation

Interesting/Inspiration Articles

These articles don’t really fit anywhere else. They can be fairly obscure, get into highly unlikely scenarios, and generally be awesome.

Click here for my Miscellaneous articles

Guest Articles

Guest blogger Tom Dixon outlines some of his favorite parts of Epic here: Tempus Fugit
Guest blogger greylag discusses her “Deck 2” idea: Epic Theory: An Introduction to Deck 2
Guest blogger konan breaks down a digital dark draft in his article: Konan’s Epic Core Draft Insights
Guest blogger Nathan Overbay walks through his dark draft in our streamed match: July 4 Dark Draft – Nathan’s Draft

Epic Puzzles

Every once in a while I host puzzles with prize support (play mats, deck boxes, and promos). They let our Epic players flex their creative muscles and do truly crazy, unexpectedly awesome things. Currently Greylag is the person to beat, but we’ll see how long the rest of the community will let that last.

Click here for my past Epic Puzzles

Links to Outside Epic Content

Below are some of the links I have collected to other Epic Content.

Official Epic Website

Click here for the rest of the links

My Previous Card Game Background

Click here for my card game background

My Epic Background

Click here for my card game background

Finding Out About the Game

A little while after I left my programming job to pursue a career in the hobby games industry, I received an email from White Wizard Games about their Epic Card Game kickstarter. (I was on their email list because I picked up the Star Realms app from an earlier Humble Bundle.) After getting intrigued by the no resource screw/flood, non-collectible distribution model, and their track record of producing a game I thought was at least fine, I decided to use some of my saved programming money to back at the Wizard for a Week tier; this let me go out to Boston for a week to get first-hand experience with a game company.

Gen Con 2015 and WWG Wizard for a Week

Before getting out to Boston, I played a significant amount with my print-and-play copy (still have a complete proxied playset through Tyrants somewhere). At Gen Con 2015, I participated in the first Epic tournament with only 100 of the 120 base cards. I lost in the semi-finals to Bill Anderson (Lightning Storm + Psionic Assault was brutal). This did get me even more excited for Boston though.

When I finally got up there, plenty of Epic games against the creators cemented my love for the game. This visit also gave me the motivation to finally start this hobby game blog.

Early Blogging, 2016 Conventions, and Online Community

When I started blogging about Epic, I considered myself a better than average player, but not much more. However, I had a once a week strategy article schedule to keep to, and I kept coming back to Epic. (Playing once a week with Paul Kaefer helped too.) While I believe my early articles still have value (less so my early constructed articles), they improved dramatically after each convention/tournament: Origins 2016, Gen Con 2016, and Epic Card Game Worlds 2016.

By losing to top players (Origins top 4 loss to Rich Shay, Origins top 4 loss to Kyle Coons, Origins finals loss to Hampus Erikkson, in addition to the World’s-qualified players on the discord community: Derek Arnold, Jason Tian, James Damore, James “Atlanta” Moreland, Abdul Majid, Richard Matney, and multiple other non-qualified players), analyzing my losses, and describing what I had learned in my I articles, I gained an understanding of the game that dramatically outstrips what it was when I started. Discussing with people who held different Epic views than me (notably Tom Dixon) also helped a lot.

Epic Worlds 2016 and On

At worlds I managed to come in 22nd of 64 with a record of 4-3. I dominated the first 2 rounds of Cube draft with probably the best limited deck I’ve ever assembled. Then, I lost my mental composure in the first Dark Draft match which partially contributed to losing the next 3 rounds. I did manage to come back and win the last 2 rounds of constructed with my World’s Pyrosaur deck though.

Preceding the alpha release of the Epic Card Game digital app, I have been releasing Core-Only articles. I plan on streaming and discussing the app, while concurrently attempting to qualify for Worlds 2017.

Support Tom’S Epic Gaming

Click here to see ways you can support Tom’S Epic Gaming.

Epic Card Game

For Those Considering Buying Epic

For Brand New Epic Players

Everything Else

Streams and Videos

Limited Formats

Dark Draft

Random 60

Cube Draft

Open Draft

Constructed Format

Featured Decks

Core Only (Pre-Digital Alpha)

Post Worlds (November 21, 2016)

Post Gen Con 2016 (August 7, 2016)

Post Origins 2016 (June 19, 2016)

Pre-Origins