Foreword

In this article I explain my process for building my limited deck from Origins Thursday 6/16/16. I went 3-1-1 (Intentional Draw) with this deck. I do not remember my seed in top 8. (I then won the first round of top 8 and lost in top 4.)

I am really excited to talk about this draft.

Card Pool

First Pass

If you don’t like your first card pool, you are able to mulligan. If you do, you get an new list of 56 cards with between 12 and 16 cards in each faction. If you don’t like your second pool, you are stuck with it.

When I first go over my list, I look for
strong faction-independent cards (solid arrow:),
strong faction-dependent cards (dashed arrow: ),
strategy-dependent cards like Revolt (line:),
effectively unplayable cards (line through: ),
generally unplayable cards (dashed line through: )
All cards without a mark are viable, but not incredible.

(In an actual event, it is better not to mark up the sheet aside from your actual picks.)

Wild

My Wild is fairly strong. Raging T-Rex is an incredible faction-dependent card. Strafing Dragon is another solid faction-dependent card. Smash and Burn is great. In addition, I have some of the strongest faction-independent cards in wild: Lightning Storm, Kong, and Chomp!.

Lightning Storm and Kong are auto-includes. Chomp!, Pyromancer, and Rampaging Wurm are strong possibilities, but the rest will depend on what I have in the other factions.

Sage

My Sage cards are pretty decent as well. Psionic Assault (especially with Knight of Shadows and Lightning Storm), Steel Golem, Helion the Dominator, and Time Bender are all incredible, but I’m not sold.

Helion’s Fury and Ogre Mercenary are fairly weak in my experience. Djinn of the Sands and Frost Giant are strong in certain situations but don’t help much to get ahead or come back from behind. We’ll see what the other factions have to offer.

Evil

As the first event of Origins, I came in thinking Evil was in general, not the strongest, but wow. This Evil pool is packed with strong Demon/Wide strategy cards. (A Wide strategy focuses on getting multiple smaller champions into play as opposed to 1 or 2 big champions. As an Epic Card Game Fan Page member pointed out, literally Wide, as in your play space takes up a lot of horizontal area.)

Demon Breach, Infernal Gatekeeper, Plentiful Dead, Raxxa Demon Tryant, Raxxa’s Displeasure, Reap or Sow, and Spawning Demon are all incredibly synergistic. As of now it is a very real possibility I go down this route.

Good

Yup, Inheritance of the Meek and Quell combine perfectly with Raxxa’s Displeasure and a Wide token-based strategy. These situational board clears let me be aggressive and defensive simultaneously. Establish some tokens and then shut my opponent out from answering them.

Overall

I lucked into incredible Wide synergy with this pool. While my Wild and Sage are both decently powerful, the offensive and defensive power of the Demons + Good situational board clears is irresistible. (The cards with the squares around them are cards that work excellently for this strategy. A dashed square means it potentially works with the strategy for this deck.)

Second Pass

In the second pass, I weed out all of the cards that almost certainly won’t be in the deck, and I pick the cards that almost certainly will be in the deck.

• Full strike-through for not in deck
• Dashed strike-through for almost certainly not in deck
• Star for in deck
• Dashed star for almost certainly in deck
• Arrow for probably in deck
• Unmarked for possibly in deck

Most of my Sage cards are either faction-dependent or weak in a Wide strategy (I’m looking at you Stand Alone.) Most of the rest of my cards are still potentially playable.

At this point, I have 14 cards I will run, 3 cards I will almost certainly run, and 23 more cards I might run, 40 total. (I also have 6 more cards I could squeeze in if needed.)

Distribution Passes

To further cut down my cards I analyze my distribution of draw effects, slow effects, removal effects, 0-cost effects, burn effects, and blitz effects.

Italicized cards are cards I have decided I will definitely run. Cards that were italicized in a previous section are put at the top of each sub-section (Solid Star cards for example). At the end of each section I explain my reasoning for the newly italicized cards.

Struck-through cards are removed cards. Cards that were struck-through in a previous section are put at the bottom of each sub-section. At the end of each section I explain my reasoning for the newly struck-through cards.

Draw/Recall

Adequate card draw is one of the most important aspects of a solid Epic deck. In limited, I ideally want about half my deck to have draw/recall capabilities. It is a lot less detrimental to rely on -or- draw 2 cards in limited, as opposed to constructed.

1-Cost Champions that Draw a Card (2 guaranteed, 2 possible, 4 total)
Ankylosaurus
Djinn of the Sands
Succubus
Markus, Watch Captain

1-Cost Draw 2 and… Cards (1 guaranteed, 2 possible, 3 total)
Urgent Messengers
Smash and Burn
Feint

-Or- Draw 2 Cards (5 guaranteed, 2 possible, 7 total)
Raxxa’s Displeasure, Inheritance of the Meek
Lightning Strike
Lesson Learned
Apocalypse
Army of the Apocalypse
Divine Judgement

Recycle (0 guaranteed, 1 possible, 1 total)
Spike Trap

Recall (3 guaranteed, 0 possible, 3 total)
Lightning Storm, Demon Breach, Plentiful Dead

Miscellaneous (1 guaranteed, 2 possible, 3 total)
Quell
Pyromancer
Banishment

No Draw/Recall (7 guaranteed, 12 possible, 19 total)
Kong, Dark Assassin, Drain Essence, Necrovirus, Palace Guard, Raxxa Demon Tryant, Spawning Demon
Chomp!
Pack Alpha
Rampaging Wurm
Frost Giant
Steel Golem
Dark Knight
Infernal Gatekeeper
Reap or Sow
Courageous Soul
Gold Dragon
Noble Martyr
The People’s Champion

I started this distribution pass with only 7 guaranteed draw/recall cards and 7 no-draw cards. This means that I want to include around 8+ of the 14 possible draw/recall cards, and I don’t want to include more than 8 of the 12 possible no-draw cards.

Based on this, I added: Djinn of the Sands, Succubus, Lesson Learned, Apocalypse, and Army of the Apocalypse.

I am a big fan of Succubus since I like Tribute -> draw a card champions. It is also Evil which will help with other Evil and Ally Loyalty effects, as well as its own. A 6/5 airborne, blitz champion that replaces itself is solid.

 

Djinn of the Sands has been growing on me. The Expend draw a card option is fine if needed, when not behind, but the 8/8 airborne blitz champion (that doesn’t rely on loyalty) is excellent. I will almost never play it as a blitzing airborne attacker if my opponent has her gold on my turn, but it is awesome when she is forced to spend it before I spend mine.

Lesson Learned is incredible for this deck because Raxxa’s Displeasure, Inheritance of the Meek, and Quell are amazing for this deck. Drain Essence is another solid target.

 

Apocalypse and Army of the Apocalypse were included primarily because they are Evil draw 2 cards. Apocalypse has a decent chance to be used for its primary ability, but I doubt I’ll use Army of the Apocalypse for its ability (since I don’t have a ton of strong non-tribute/loyalty champions, and I don’t have any discard removal).

 

This puts me to 19 guaranteed cards, 0 struck-through cards, and 21 possible cards.

Slow vs Fast Effects

Fast effects are insanely important for Epic. In general, I want my decks to stay around or below 1/3 slow cards.

Fast (9 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 7 possible, 16 total)
Lightning Storm, Lesson Learned, Army of the Apocalypse, Drain Essence, Necrovirus, Plentiful Dead, Spawning Demon, Inheritance of the Meek, Urgent Messengers
Chomp!
Lightning Strike
Pyromancer
Smash and Burn
Spike Trap
Courageous Soul
Feint

Your Turn Fast (4 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 4 possible, 8 total)
Apocalypse, Demon Breach, Raxxa’s Displeasure, Quell
Dark Knight
Reap or Sow
Banishment
Divine Judgement

Slow (6 guaranteed, 4 struck-through, 6 possible, 16 total)
Kong, Djinn of the Sands, Dark Assassin, Raxxa Demon Tryant, Succubus, Palace Guard
Ankylosaurus
Pack Alpha
Rampaging Wurm
Frost Giant
Steel Golem
Infernal Gatekeeper
Gold Dragon
Markus, Watch Captain
Noble Martyr
The People’s Champion

I started this distribution pass with 16 guaranteed/possible slow cards, 18 when you add Quell and Raxxa’s Displeasure which I almost certainly want to play on my turn.

Due to this, I cut Steel Golem, Markus Watch Captain, Noble Martyr, and the People Champion. I cut all of these because they rely on non-Evil Ally or Loyalty triggers to be the most effective.

Looking back on it now, I believe I was too quick to dismiss Noble Martyr. It is a pretty bad card if you play it on your turn when your opponent has his gold, but it can be a 7-offense blitzer that can punish an opponent who uses his gold on my turn before I do. Then, on my opponent’s turn, he can’t banish the Noble Martyr from play, so he either has to return it to my hand, so I can replay it in a similar situation, or he has to break it and put it in my discard pile. In the second situation, I currently have 4 guaranteed Good cards that can trigger the one-time ally trigger that can provide me with 5 human tokens to help my Wide strategy.

In the end, there is still a decent chance I would have cut Noble Martyr because its strength (playing and attacking after my opponent spent his gold on my turn) is severely weakened by its 4 defense. This leaves it vulnerable to 0-cost removal cards like Hands from Below, Spike Trap, Lightning Strike, and even Dark Knight, Spawning Demon, Word of Summoning, and Brave Squire  (not to mention Hasty Retreat and Fumble). At least, most of this removal/disruption does still leave me with the discard pile Ally trigger.

After this pass, I am at 19 guaranteed cards, 4 struck-through cards, and 17 possible cards.

Removal Effects

I don’t have an approximate removal-effects-number that I use. I generally just try to pack as much removal into my decks as possible.

Targeted Slow Removal (3 guaranteed, 0 possible, 3 total)
Kong, Dark Assassin, Palace Guard

Targeted Fast Removal (4 guaranteed, 0 possible, 4 total)
Drain Essence, Necrovirus
Chomp!
Banishment

Small Removal (5 guaranteed, 1 possible, 6 total)
Lightning Storm, Raxxa Demon Tryant
Lightning Strike
Pyromancer
Smash and Burn
Spike Trap

Board Clears (4 guaranteed, 2 possible, 6 total)
Apocalypse, Raxxa’s Displeasure, Inheritance of the Meek, Quell
Reap or Sow
Divine Judgement

Miscellaneous (2 guaranteed, 0 possible, 2 total)
Lesson Learned, Succubus

Non-Removal (7 guaranteed, 4 struck-through, 8 possible, 19 total)
Djinn of the Sands, Army of the Apocalypse, Demon Breach, Plentiful Dead, Spawning Demon, Urgent Messengers
Ankylosaurus
Pack Alpha
Rampaging Wurm
Frost Giant
Dark Knight
Infernal Gatekeeper
Courageous Soul
Feint
Gold Dragon
Steel Golem, Markus Watch Captain, Noble Martyr, The People’s Champion

I value removal incredibly highly, especially fast removal. Therefore adding Chomp! and Banishment were fairly easy choices. Pyromancer is quite nice, and it can also be used for Burn. Spike Trap is solid as a 0-cost card that can deal with a significant number of champions and/or recycle.

Smash and Burn was added because it is an incredible card. Draw 2 is important and a free 6 damage to a champion trigger is amazing. I already added Chomp!, Kong, Lightning Storm, and Pyromancer to trigger this, but I added in Pack Alpha as an additional trigger too. Pack Alpha can also help add pressure with my Wide strategy or act as a small blitz champion.

 

Lightning Strike was not included here because, even though it is strong and I value it higher now after Origins, I felt like I had enough small removal. If I still have an opening after all the passes, it might get added then.

This pass put me up to 25 cards, 4 struck-through, and 11 possible.

0-Cost Effects

I haven’t decided on an approximate number of 0-cost cards for limited yet, at least 3 and probably no more than 10. 0-cost cards shouldn’t be over-included, especially if you do not have much card draw, but they can also be the small edge that wins you a game. So, it’s hard to gauge.

0-Cost (5 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 2 possible, 7 total)
Spike Trap, Plentiful Dead, Spawning Demon
Ankylosaurus
Lightning Strike
Dark Knight
Courageous Soul

1-Cost (17 guaranteed, 4 struck-through, 12 possible, 33 total)

I started this distribution pass with only 3 0-cost cards. I added Dark Knight because it is a strong Evil 0-cost champion, it works as another Wide threat, and it works as an Establishing 0-cost card (see Epic: Limited – Get Ahead, Stay Ahead). Courageous Soul was added because it’s strong in wide decks.

The deck is now at 27 guaranteed cards, 4 struck-through cards, and 9 possible cards.

Burn Effects

Burn (damage that can target a player) is important because it can close out games directly and is hard to stop. Seeing that my deck already contains all of my potential burn, we can skip this pass.

Blitz Champions

1-cost Blitz cards are incredibly strong because they can punish an opponent for using her gold on your turn before you do. I like to have at least a couple.

1-Cost Blitz (3 guaranteed, 2 struck-through, 3 possible, 8 total)
Pack Alpha, Djinn of the Sands, Dark Assassin
Rampaging Wurm
Frost Giant
Gold Dragon
Steel Golem, Noble Martyr

1-Cost Non-Blitz (24 guaranteed, 2 struck-through, 6 possible 32 total)

While Pack Alpha and Dark Assassin are technically blitz champions, they aren’t that big, and I would usually rather expend them. Djinn of the Sands is a solid choice. At this point I only have 3 slots available. I’m a big fan of all 3 of these blitz champions, but I still want Infernal Gatekeeper and Reap or Sow because they fit into my wide strategy.

This was an incredibly hard decision to make, but I ended up taking Infernal Gatekeeper, Reap or Sow, and Frost Giant. Frost Giant has won me a lot of games when I first started playing Epic. That Tribute ability to expend all of target player’s champions is crazy. It is great in a stalemate, and it lets my small guys through.

For reference, on Saturday I ran Gold Dragon as 1 of 5 Good cards in my deck. It worked quite well. If I had Lash, there is a very real chance I would have taken Rampaging Wurm, but I still wouldn’t have wanted to play it while an opponent had her gold.

Final Decklist

Strategy

(see Epic: Limited – Get Ahead, Stay Ahead for references)

As I frequently referenced while building the deck above, this deck is designed to go Wide and get a lot of small champions in play at once. With a lot of small champions in play you force your opponent to need a board clear to get rid of them all. Cards like Demon Breach and Raxxa Demon Tryant are especially nice because they force a board clear by themselves. If your opponent does not board clear and is unable to remove all of your champions, you can move into “stay ahead” mode quickly.

With a Wide deck you won’t necessarily get far ahead, since 1 Demon is significantly less threatening than a Sea Titan, but you can get slightly ahead more easily. This also allows you to get small amounts of damage through to your opponent consistently. In addition, cards like Spawning Demon, Plentiful Dead, and Infernal Gatekeeper are great because you can slightly extend your lead while playing removal or just drawing cards, as opposed to committing more 1-cost champions to play.

Wide decks are a bit trickier to play, however, because there are a lot of cards that give these types of decks trouble.

Ceasefire and Ice Drake can prevent you from making multiple attacks in a turn. Group attacking can be important for playing around these effects. It can also be important for playing around champions in play and suspected ambush champions. This does in turn open you up to devastating Spike Trap and/or Hands from Below plays though.

Bounce (return to hand effects) from cards like Temporal Enforcer can be devastating because a bounced token is returned to the supply pile (essentially removed from game). Temporal Shift can remove a demon, force you to banish a card from hand and draw your opponent a card. Time Walker is disgusting against a token deck.

Damage based board clears (Draka’s Fire and Hurricane for example) are brutal because they can decimate your forces while leaving your opponent’s champions largely unaffected. This does make up for the fact that this deck has multiple one-sided board clears, namely Inheritance of the Meek, Raxxa’s Displeasure, and Quell. (Quell can also be really nasty against this deck too.)

 

Overall, Wide decks tend to have a significant amount of action. You can frequently attack on your turn. Champions get removed constantly. If you have blitz token cards like The Risen or Secret Legion with buff cards like Courageous Soul or Revolt, you can threaten massive damage if your opponent attempts to wipe you on your turn. And, you can chump block frequently, but beware of Lash.

Wide decks are significantly harder to put together than a standard tempo based deck. This is because Wide decks rely on having more specific cards. The combination of Demon Breach, Spawning Demon, Raxxa Demon Tryant, and Inheritance of the Meek/Quell/Raxxa’s Displeasure is incredibly strong, but you need token spawners and the right board clears to make it brutal.

Another nice bonus is that not many people expect a Wide deck in Limited/Draft. I don’t remember running across even 1 other Wide deck in either of the Limited events. All of my opponents were caught off guard, but I did still lose a couple games and 1 match.

Match Overviews

First Match

I do not remember many specifics from this match, but I believe I won it largely on the back of Plentiful Dead. I truly underestimated this card when the game first came out, but with the amount of Evil I was running, I was largely untouchable by solitary big champions. My opponent was Tim Stanoch.

 

Second Match

I went into very significant detail on this match in a previous article. I copied it below.

Third Match

My third match was against my primary cameraman at Origins, Corey Henderson (thanks again for taking so many pictures). In these games, I drew perfectly. I started with Plentiful Dead in each game, and it was critical (not being able to get rid of it if I always play a 1-cost Evil card immediately afterwards is pretty strong). In addition, I drew my token spawning cards first, followed by my one-sided board clears, and, once ahead, I had my Frost Giant each game for a big post-gold blitzer.

Even with the perfect draws I still might have lost if it wasn’t for Plentiful Dead‘s consistent chump blocking. Plentiful Dead was my clear MVP from Thursday.

Fourth Match

I do not remember much from my fourth match aside from being trounced by Rich Shay (1st Origins Qualifier who didn’t lose a single game all day). I believe he had the board clears when most necessary and did significant damage to me in the air (Djinn of the Sands), but I’m not certain.

Thankfully, I got a chance at revenge in top 4, but that didn’t exactly go great for me either. He completely outdrafted me. When looking through my deck after drafting, I realized that I had been incredibly greedy. I had a lot of strong champions, but I was severely lacking in board clears and card draw. Rich Shay, on the other hand, put together a nasty Evil deck that ripped my weak draft to shreds. Still, I had a great time playing and talking about Epic. I look forward to hopefully qualifying for Worlds for another official rematch.

Fifth Match

My opponent was already guaranteed a spot in top 8, and if we drew I was guaranteed a spot too. So, we did an Intentional Draw and both got food. My record was 3-1-1 in rounds. I do not remember my seed.

Conclusion

Overall, my takeaways from Thursday were:

1. Evil is incredibly viable in limited, if you get a deep pool (Plentiful Dead is excellent)
2. Blitz champions are better than I originally thought, as long as you wait for the right opening
3. While Dark Drafting, stay focused and keep track of each players’ potential card draw, board clears, and burn; don’t get distracted by champions
4. The Epic community is awesome, open, and inviting

Epic Progression (3)

Foreword

(3/18/19 update: This is arguably my most influential article. I wrote it after my first post-release, competitive Epic experience [Origins 2016] to explain and codify my Epic style at that point. While my play style has evolved since then, the core of it is still well-represented here. After much thought, I’ve decided to designate this the 3rd article in my Epic Progression series, while largely preserving it in its original form.)

Limited/Draft/Sealed etc. are my best and favorite card game formats. Most of my pre-Epic competitive experience was drafting. At Origins my overall limited record in rounds was 6-1-3 (Loss to Rich Shay, the first World’s Qualifier at Origins, and 1 Intentional Draw). In this article I explain my limited philosophy and provide detailed examples.

Get Ahead, Stay Ahead

In my Epic experience, the most reliable way to win is to get a lead and maintain it. Sounds simple, and at a base level, it is. My fundamentals include understanding what to play when:

• there are no champions in play
• you are ahead
• you are behind

Fundamentals

These fundamentals win me a lot of games against newer players. The focus is getting ahead and staying ahead.

No Champions in Play

When there are no champions in play and it is my turn, I either:

• play an Establishing card

or

• pass holding my gold

An Establishing card is a card that either provides an immediate bonus (such as a champion with Tribute -> Draw a card) or immediate hard to deal with threat(s) (such as a champion with Blitz and Untargetable). In either case, these are the cards most likely to put me into the lead.

Both a lead in cards (card advantage) and a lead in champions in play (board advantage) are valuable. While board advantage directly leads to wins, card advantage enables you to maintain board advantage.

Erase Examples

 

Erase is one of the best cards in the game, and it can punish players for playing a non-Establishing card on their turn.

 

For example, I play Triceratops, an Establishing champion, and draw a card. My opponent plays Erase to return it to my hand and draw 2 cards. At the end of the turn, we have both spent our gold and increased our hand size by 1. So neither player gets a significant advantage.

If I had played Raxxa, Demon Tryant, another Establishing champion, and my opponent Erased him, I would have 2 demons in play while my opponent has increased her hand size by 1. In this situation, I have a board advantage and my opponent has a card advantage after we both spent our gold.

The worst case scenario is if I play a non-Establishing champion like Burrowing Wurm. If my opponent Erases that, she spent her gold to increase her hand size by 1, and I spent my gold and my turn to gain nothing.

0-Cost Establishing Cards

0-cost Establishing cards are strong because they allow me to get a small lead while holding my gold.

Dark Knight is an example of a strong 0-cost Establishing card. Dark Knight is hard for my opponent to remove or effectively block on my turn without spending his gold. I underestimated this card until it was used against me in a Sage Tempo mirror match in rounds. Since I refused to spend my gold, I had to take the 5 damage.  Thankfully I drew Blue Dragon to break it on my turn.

Paros is another strong 0-cost Establishing card. It is a pretty big star in my Combative Humans deck that I took second with at the Sunday Origins constructed tournament.

Holding Gold

If I do not have an Establishing card, I will pass my turn to my opponent while not spending my gold. By holding my gold, I do not open myself up to a stronger play by my opponent (like in the Burrowing Wurm/Erase example above). Since it is fairly likely that my opponent can effectively and efficiently answer a non-Establishing champion I play on my turn, I would rather let her begin with an open board instead of risking giving her a lead.

In addition, if your opponent decides to play something on your turn while you still have your gold, you can punish her.

Say I pass my turn holding my gold. My opponent ambushes a champion into play. Then, I regain initiative to play any card on my turn. So, since I still have my gold, I play Kong and break her ambushed in champion. If I had played Kong first, instead of passing, my opponent could have ambushed in her champion safely or finished off my damaged Kong (since Kong had to target itself with its Tribute ability).

If, after I pass holding my gold, my opponent decides to spend her gold to draw 2 cards, I can answer with a big blitz champion. In this scenario, my opponent increased her hand size by 1, but I will likely do 13 damage to her and leave a big threat in play. My Lord of the Arenas were respected and feared by the end of the tournament.

So, from the other perspective, if someone passes their turn while holding their gold while the board is empty, let the turn end. If you play something, you open yourself up to the situations above. If you don’t play something, you get to move directly to your turn. This is especially valuable on the first turn of the game. If your opponent passes holding their gold, you can pass and then you essentially get the first turn and the first draw of the game, a pretty nice start.

You are Ahead

When I am ahead I try to stay ahead; I do not try to get further ahead (usually). In Epic, if I can secure a small lead, I can win with that lead. If I try to grow that lead, I can put myself in a position to lose everything.

Attacking before spending your gold on your turn is almost always the correct play, especially when you are ahead. If the only champion in play is my White Knight and both players still have their gold, I can attack and force a response from my opponent. He can either take the damage, play a 1-cost card to disrupt the attack (ambush in a blocker, use removal, etc.), or neutralize the attack with a 0-cost card (Fumble, Hasty Retreat, etc.).

Take the Damage

If your opponent takes the damage, you just did 9 damage, and you still have your gold. Trying to end your turn is generally a strong move because you have already done damage, and you are still ahead. If your opponent then uses her gold, you can follow up with a strong blitz champion or another Establishing card to regain the lead. If she also passes, your turn was worthwhile even though you didn’t spend your gold.

1-Cost Card

If your opponent plays a 1-cost card to remove your White Knight, you can once again play a blitz champion or another Establishing card. You didn’t do damage with White Knight, but now you can more reliably play cards like Gold Dragon for damage and health gain.

0-Cost Card

This is the most interesting situation and frequently the best play for your opponent. In this scenario, you are back in the Hold Your Gold scenario above. Passing is still a solid option because you already have the lead. If you do play a 1-cost card, your opponent is safe to use his. Say you put out another champion, they can now use off-turn board clears like Wave of Transformation without fear of a big blitz champion. In most situations, I would just hold my gold and force my opponent to act first on my turn, since I have the lead.

Targeted Removal

When you are in the lead, fast targeted 1 for 1 (or better) removal is incredible. Fast targeted removal like Drain Essence, Erase, Bitten, Temporal Enforcer, etc. are excellent because they neutralize most champions your opponent might play. For instance, if you attack with White Knight and your opponent plays Lurking Giant, you can play Chomp! on the Lurking Giant, maintain your lead, and deal 9 damage with White Knight. In this scenario both players spent their gold, nothing on the board changed, but you did 9 damage and maintained your lead.

As soon as you have a lead, if you can answer every threat your opponent plays 1 for 1 (or better), you will be difficult to defeat. If, however, you try to extend your lead, you potentially open yourself up to losing everything without being able to regain the lead that turn. Then, on your opponent’s turn she can take the lead and begin holding it from you.

You are Behind

When you are behind, the best cards are Reestablishing cards. These cards frequently remove a champion and do something else. Kong and Sea Titan are the 2 best champions for this scenario. With both of them you remove your opponent’s lead (if it’s just 1 champion) and gain the lead for yourself. These are generally the best champions for limited. I value these cards incredibly highly (just not as highly as Lightning Storm, Amnesia, and off-turn board clears like Wave of Transformation).

Most of these champions are slow, but this is fine because it is safer to play them on your turn (unless your opponent left an opening by spending his gold first on his turn). On your turn you are less vulnerable because you can’t be attacked. Due to this, you can more afford to spend your gold first.

In addition, when you are behind if you pass your turn holding your gold, your opponent has little incentive to play anything, since he already has the lead. If your opponent plays this maintain-and-not-grow-my-lead style, it can be incredibly difficult to come back when behind. Without these Reestablishing cards it can be nearly impossible. This is especially true if your opponent has strong fast Reestablishing cards like Temporal Enforcer and Medusa.

Next Step

Once you understand these fundamentals, the next level of play involves adapting to your opponent. Adapting to your opponent comes in many levels. The most important adapting involves playing around cards you know your opponent has in hand or in deck. The best way I can depict this is through examples.

Origins Thursday: Soul Hunter, Ceasefire, Ice Drake (Max Jacob)

On Thursday I played a very memorable match that involved the 3 cards above. I believe I lost the first game and won the second two. This 3 card combo was the primary means of shutting me out entirely in game 1.

In that game I had Raxxa, Demon Tyrant, at least 2 demon tokens, and possibly 1 or 2 other champions. Max had Soul Hunter in play, and I had no way in hand to deal with it. So, on my turn, since I had significantly more champions in play than my opponent, I attacked with a 6/6 demon. My opponent blocked and then played Ceasefire. My attack still happened which broke the Soul Hunter and did 5 damage to me. Since I couldn’t attack anymore, my army had to sit back and do nothing.

Next turn Soul Hunter comes back from the discard pile. I still have no way to answer it, but I still have the board advantage. So, on my turn I send my demon in again to begin the onslaught. My opponent blocks, plays Ice Drake, and my army gets halted again. I don’t remember the rest of the game, but I died shortly afterwards. I did, however, make a mental note of those 3 cards since they caused me so much trouble, especially since my deck could go fairly wide (get a lot of smaller champions into play as opposed to 1 or 2 bigger champions).

In the next 2 games, I made sure to constantly hold onto at least one of my only 4 cards that could banish champions, specifically to deal with Soul Hunter. In both of the games my opponent drew and played Soul Hunter, but I had an answer ready both times. Since I knew my deck was weak to Soul Hunter (most of my damage was non-airborne and blockable), I had to specifically adjust my play to prevent myself from getting blown out by that one card.

After dealing with Soul Hunter, I still had to worry about Ceasefire and Ice Drake. To play around these cards, I did a significant amount of group attacking. I frequently had multiple demons in play at a time. Since I knew that my opponent had both of those cards, I almost constantly attacked with 2 demons in a group. This would allow me to get 8 damage through if he Ceasefired (significantly more than 4), and it was enough offense to break Ice Drake if he dropped that in to block. In addition, I slow rolled out some 0-cost blitz champions after attacking with my demons for some extra damage. I did over-extend a bit when I was ahead on the board, and I got punished for it. But, since I got those demons through for damage, I was able to barely edge out game 3 before dying to burn (damage from cards like Flame Strike that can directly target a player aka direct damage). I gained a rival that day, and I look forward to the rematches.

So, in order to come back from a 1-game deficit, I specifically held onto answers for a known threat, and I adjusted my attack pattern to suit the situation.

Origins Saturday: Aggressive Mulligans (Kyle Coons)

In the semi-finals I drafted a demon deck in the dark draft. I believe I lost the first game, but I learned a lot from it. My deck was fairly controlling with a heavy demon and board clear focus. Kyle’s deck had a lot of burn, decent control, but minimal board clears. In the first game, there were probably around 3 turns where I couldn’t apply any pressure because I had no champions or tokens I could put into play. During that time, my opponent was able to draw his burn, and drop me from around 24 health.

Due to this, I realized that I would have to put the pressure on early and either win quickly or deny him as much opportunity to draw as possible. To achieve this, I mulliganed 4 cards in game 2 even though I knew I was against burn. The 4 cards where all control cards that I knew wouldn’t be terribly strong in the match up. I then drew into some major demon threats like Spawning Demon and Demon Breach. With these cards I was able to go wide enough to bypass his defenses and win game 2.

Game 3: I aggressively mulligan 3 or 4 cards again and get a strong starting hand. I am able to expand quickly and get some damage in, but a timely Stand Alone clears most of my board. Kyle then follows up with a top decked Raxxa’s Curse to clear out my remaining Spawning Demon. Luckily, I have Demon Breach, and I am able to reapply pressure 3 demons at a time. In this match up, I focus on recalling Demon Breach instead of drawing since Demon Breach is one of my most effective threats. 12/12 spread over 3 bodies is solid.

Kyle does manage to slow me down a bit with Ceasefire and other disruptive cards, but I am able to prevent his answers from sticking. I am going slow enough that his burn is becoming a real issue, and he’s getting close to decking himself as well. On one of the longest and most pivotal decisions of the game, he plays Memory Spirit and, after much consideration, takes back Ceasefire. I then take a long time on my turn and decide to go all in on lethal (enough damage to reduce my opponent to 0 or less health in one turn). I have 3 demons in play with a Lash in hand. So I Inheritance of the Meek to remove his Memory Spirit (and my Medusa), and then I attack with my 3 demons as a group.

Unfortunately for me, I play right into his hands, or, more precisely, his Hands from Below. This was a card I knew he had in his deck, and I possibly new was in his hand, but I was blinded by lethal and crippled myself trying to win. My opponent masterfully baited me into that group attack, and it was brutal play.

I do manage to draw my Amnesia before he can deck out (my first pick of the draft), and I launch a lethal 15 damage Reap or Sow into The Risen group attack (avoiding Ceasefire). But, he manages to disrupt enough of that damage with Rain of Fire and Smash and Burn. Then he burns me on his turn, and when I pass initiative on my turn, I lose.

By aggressively mulliganing I was able to put significant pressure on Kyle, and I almost pulled out the win. The Ceasefire Hands from Below play was both clever and brutal, and I walked right into it. I lost that match because I didn’t stop him from getting all of the burn in the draft, I didn’t take any health gain to mitigate that fact (Drain Essence), and I was outplayed. He was able to recognize my strategy and counter it.

With regard to mulligans in general, I always ideally want a strong Establishing card for my turn and a fast card I want to play on my opponent’s turn. In this matchup I pitched my almost worthless control cards.

Against non-burn control decks, I would probably pitch my Inner Peaces when playing my Combative Humans deck. Against a deck with no targets for certain removal, Lightning Strike for example, I would pitch that card. I also generally mulligan 0-cost recycle cards because I am unlikely to want to use them in the first couple turns, unless I need a card like Blind Faith specifically to counter an opponent’s cards/strategies.

Origins Sunday: Selective Loyalty Reveals (Hampus Eriksson)

In the constructed Finals on the last day of Origins I was playing against Hampus Eriksson. The matchup was me on Combative Humans, him on Sage/Wild Control/Tempo/Burn. My deck had a few tricks that my opponent was not expecting, and I kept it that way until the time came.

I knew my opponent was running Sage/Wild, and I was expecting discard effects. My deck relies heavily on combat tricks such as Brave Squire. So, when I play, I usually try to avoid revealing my Brave Squires for my Loyalty 2 effects. This lets me attack into bigger champions because my opponent doesn’t know if I have a combat trick in hand. Against the Sage/Wild deck though, I was willing to reveal my Brave Squires because I had a more important card to hide: Markus, Watch Captain.

The first game went fairly poorly for me because I couldn’t establish much momentum against his control. It got to the point where I was far behind and needed to draw specific cards to win. I had 2 unrevealed Markuses in hand, a White Dragon, and a Triceratops. My best chance of drawing what I needed would have been to play a Markus into White Dragon, but I was so far behind, that I decided it was more important to hide my Markuses for game two. However, Hampus played Psionic Assault on me. I debated conceding or discarding my non-Markus cards to see more of his cards before I lost game 1, but I decided to go for the win. I went to end step, dropped my 2 Markus on the board, revealed 2 Good cards, and drew 2 cards.

Because I had hidden my Markuses, my opponent played right into them. If I had shown even 1 of them earlier, it is highly unlikely the Psionic Assault would have been played. I did still lose both that game and the next (1 health), but I was able to make the big play because I adjusted my reveal strategy.

Wrap Up

This article describes my current understanding of Limited Epic as of 7/2/16. Epic is a very nuanced game which means everything I’ve said here has exceptions. The most interesting parts of playing a game of Epic for me are understanding my opponent, understanding my opponent’s deck, and understanding when I need to break my own guidelines.

With regard to Establishing and Reestablishing champions it is more important to understand why a champion is one than it is to memorize which are which. Therefore, I did not include lists above, but for those interested, I include the lists down here.

 

Overall, I hope this article was helpful for explaining my general and evolving strategy. This strategy is less relevant in constructed as will be demonstrated when I discuss Derek Arnold’s Lesson Learned deck.

Feel free to let me know any topics you would like me to go into greater detail about in the comments below.

Epic Progression [3] Update

Once you are able to experience and understand this level of play, you will either be in love with the game or will know it isn’t what you want. If you are the type of person who read through these three articles looking for a decision/skill-intensive game, I find it next to impossible that you will not fall in love.

If you would like to read/watch more of my Epic content, I have descriptive links to all of it (sorted by format) on my Epic Card Game page. Ideally, I would like to continue this series by at least distilling my constructed articles into Epic Progression (4) and culminating it with a brand new article exploring the top-level competitive skills that transcend the game’s inherent mechanisms in Epic Progression (>5). In the meantime, Enjoy Epic Everyone!