Month: March 2017

Deck Idea

Make a core only Wild-focused deck.

Gather Cards

Based on my general play style, I naturally gravitated towards all of the Tribute -> draw a card champions. By including those and most of the other powerful non-burn Wild cards, my deck was pretty much complete. 3 Jungle Queen, 3 Kong, 3 Raging T-Rex, 3 Rampaging Wurm, 3 Sea Hydra, 3 Triceratops, 3 Flame Strike, 3 Strafing Dragon, 3 Surprise Attack, 3 Cave Troll, 3 Fireball, 3 Flash Fire, 3 Rage, and 3 Wurm Hatchling were pretty much auto-includes for me. The other primary Wild cards I was considering were Lurking Giant, Rain of Fire, Hunting Raptors, Pyromancer, Lash, and Fire Shaman.

Drain Essence was basically another auto-include for me, and I knew I wanted Guilt Demon to go with it. This is basically what my gather cards list looked like:

Evil ()

Slow ()
Army of the Apocalypse

Fast ()
Plague, The Risen, Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost ()
Guilt Demon

Good ()

Slow ()

Fast ()

0-Cost ()

Sage ()

Slow ()

Fast ()
Crystal Golem, Deadly Raid, Ice Drake, Turn

0-Cost ()
Amnesia

Wild ()

Slow ()
Bellowing Minotaur, Burrowing Wurm

Fast ()
Hunting Raptors, Hurricane, Lightning Storm, Lurking Giant, Mighty Blow, Pyromancer, Rain of Fire, Wolf’s Call

0-Cost ()
Fire Shaman, Lash

Distributions

In order to be more resilient against 1-cost bounce effects, I eventually landed on Hunting Raptors. Since many of my other cards just draw cards when they enter play, I wanted something that could do permanent damage if I am continually forced to replay it. I view this essentially as Flame Strike with a body. Without access to Lightning Strike or Vanishing, if I play this on my opponent’s turn when their gold is down, I am almost assured to be able to use it at the start of my next turn too. In other words, I get 8 direct damage through, and if they return it to my hand, I’ll probably get another 8 direct damage through later. (Strafing Dragon is also excellent in this role.)

Another card I really like in these straightforward decks is Amnesia. Cutting off your opponent’s access to their discard pile at a critical time can largely cripple them and cause them to succumb to my pressure. It will briefly prevent them from recycling, and it can stop big Army of the Apocalypse or similar turns. To allow me to run Amnesias, I decided on Memory Spirits because they let me get back my powerful 0-cost events (Amnesia, Fireball, Flash Fire, and Rage), and they can get back Drain Essence, Surprise Attack, or Flame Strike too.

To fill out my required Evil 1-cost cards, I went with Zombie Apocalypse because my deck is full of champions, and I have significant discard pile removal already. For my final Sage 1-cost card, I settled on Djinn of the Sands as an additional on-turn gold-punisher with its 8/8 airborne, blitz body.

Distributions Breakdown

Below are the break downs for each of my distributions based on my Epic Constructed Process article.

30+ Cards that can Draw/Recycle/Recall/Etc. (31.5)
Reliable (30): 3 Zombie Apocalypse, 1 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Memory Spirit, 2 Amnesia, 3 Jungle Queen, 3 Raging T-Rex, 3 Sea Hydra, 3 Triceratops, 3 Surprise Attack, 3 Flash Fire, 3 Rage
Unreliable (3 x 1/2 = 1.5): 3 Cave Troll

20 0-cost Cards (20)
3 Guilt Demon, 2 Amnesia, 3 Cave Troll, 3 Fireball, 3 Flash Fire, 3 Rage, 3 Wurm Hatchling

20- On My Turn Cards (19)
Champions (19): 1 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Jungle Queen, 3 Kong, 3 Raging T-Rex, 3 Rampaging Wurm, 3 Sea Hydra, 3 Triceratops
Events (0):

33+ Primary Alignment Cards (45)
3 Jungle Queen, 3 Kong, 3 Raging T-Rex, 3 Rampaging Wurm, 3 Sea Hydra, 3 Triceratops, 3 Flame Strike, 3 Hunting Raptors, 3 Strafing Dragon, 3 Surprise Attack, 3 Cave Troll, 3 Fireball, 3 Flash Fire, 3 Rage, 3 Wurm Hatchling

3-9+ On-Turn Gold-Punishers (7)
1 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Rampaging Wurm, 3 Strafing Dragon

3-9+ Off-Turn Gold-Punishers (12)
3 Memory Spirit, 3 Hunting Raptors, 3 Strafing Dragon, 3 Surprise Attack (3 Jungle Queen to enable 15 other off-turn gold-punishers)

1+ Mass Discard Pile Banish (2)
2 Amnesia

3 Drain Essences or Comparable Health Gain (3)
Reliable (3): 3 Drain Essence

3-9+ Muse/Thought Plucker 0-Cost Answers (7.5)
Reliable (5): 3 Fireball, 3 Flash Fire
Unreliable (3 x 1/2 = 1.5): 3 Memory Spirit

Anti-Sea Titan/Bounce Plan
Hunting Raptors and Strafing Dragon get damage past Sea Titan, Memory Spirit and Djinn of the Sands can too. Cave Troll can chump Sea Titan, and Zombie Apocalypse can break it if needed.

Rampaging Wurm as well as a Raged Kong/Raging T-Rex/Triceratops (potentially Sea Hydra) doesn’t really care that much about Sea Titan either. A blocked Kong attack followed up by a Flash Fire also breaks Sea Titan.

Thoughts/Concerns

The deck is fairly simple: play big things and attack with them. The 12 Tribute -> Draw a card champions or better allow me (in theory) to keep playing threats without needing to draw 2 too often. Due to these 12 champions, it might be correct to go first with this deck. Probably not because basically no deck wants to go first, but we will see. Being able to start the game by establishing the first threat could be the best case scenario.

Deck List

Evil (9)

Slow ()

Fast (6)
3x Drain Essence
3x Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost (3)
3x Guilt Demon

Good ()

Slow ()

Fast ()

0-Cost ()

Sage (6)

Slow (1)
1x Djinn of the Sands

Fast (3)
3x Memory Spirit

0-Cost (2)
2x Amnesia

Wild (45)

Slow (18)
3x Jungle Queen
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex
3x Rampaging Wurm
3x Sea Hydra
3x Triceratops

Fast (12)
3x Flame Strike
3x Hunting Raptors
3x Strafing Dragon
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (15)
3x Cave Troll
3x Fireball
3x Flash Fire
3x Rage
3x Wurm Hatchling

Deck Idea

After my Core Incremental Targeted Removal deck (my original Sage deck plan) morphed into a Good-focused deck, I decided to look through Sage to find a more natural take on a Sage deck. I figured Steel Golem would play a role, but I didn’t know much more than that before gathering cards. (I explain the emergent deck idea in the Gather Cards section below.)

Gather Cards (With Explanation)

While gathering cards and not seeing anything particularly new and interesting, I decided to fall back on a classic: Sage Evil with blitzing 0-cost champions, bounce effects, and Army of the Apocalypse.

Guilt Demon, Dark Knight, and Warrior Golem are excellent blitzing 0-cost threats that can be played while both players still have their gold. Frequently, your opponent can’t stop the 0-cost champions without spending their gold, so they either take the damage or risk exposing themself to a 1-cost blitzing champion (on-turn gold-punisher).

If they didn’t deal with the 0-cost blitz champion, cards like Time Walker and Sea Titan can return them to my hand to be used aggressively again next turn, or even on the same turn. Dark Knight attack, deal damage, then Sea Titan it back to hand, great.

Army of the Apocalypse can also bring multiple of these champions back to play for an even bigger attack, especially when you add in any other 1-cost inherent blitz champions in my discard pile. However, while building I decided I wanted to use my Armies more frequently than just as a kill shot. To accomplish this, I include 3 Amnesias (+ the 3 Guilt Demons) to attack my opponent’s ability to get value from Army. At the same time, in addition to my blitz champions, I have Crystal Golem to draw cards and just obnoxiously big, untargetable champions. Essentially, if I can Army to get back 2 1-cost champions on my turn while providing no benefit to my opponent, I probably will, especially if at least one of those champions is an inherent blitz champion or Crystal Golem.

Once I established this premise, the auto includes were: 3 Guilt Demon, 3 Dark Knight, 3 Army of the Apocalypse, 3 Juggernaut, 3 Sea Titan, X Time Walkers, 3 Crystal Golems, 3 Amnesia, and 3 Warrior Golem. (24 cards). This is what my gather cards list looked like.

Evil ()

Slow ()

Fast ()

0-Cost ()

Good ()

Slow ()
Avenging Angel

Fast ()

0-Cost ()

Sage ()

Slow ()
Blue Dragon, Djinn of the Sands, Frost Giant, Steel Golem, Winter Fairy

Fast ()
Ancient Chant, Lying in Wait, Memory Spirit

0-Cost ()
Amnesia, Hasty Retreat, Keeper of Secrets, Muse, Ogre Mercenary

Wild ()

Slow ()
Rampaging Wurm

Fast ()
Flame Strike, Surprise Attack

0-Cost ()
Fireball, Flash Fire

Distributions

Drain Essence was an easy add to fill out my Evil 1-cost cards. Same with Forcemage Apprentice to fill my 0-cost Sage slots and to break Muses. I still wanted more ways to break Muse and I was struggling to find any other 1-cost Evil cards to allow me to bring Wither/Unquenchable Thirst, so that left me with Wild, specifically Fireball. I didn’t know exactly what 1-cost Wild cards would go with it, but at least there were viable options.

In order to reach 33+ Sage cards, I decided on Djinn of the Sands, Steel Golem, Ancient Chant, and Erase for 1’s. Even though Djinn of the Sands won’t get counters when I bring it back with Army, it is still a 5/5 airborne blitz champion. Steel Golem won’t gain blitz (because its Loyalty 2 effect won’t trigger when brought back with Army), but it is still a 13/13 untargetable champion. Erase is nice for returning my 0-cost champions after attacking and drawing me two cards. It is also strong in aggressive decks because your opponent has less chance to gain value from replaying strong Loyalty 2/Tribute champions. (Bouncing a Raging T-Rex when your opponent is already at 7 cards in hand is just fine).

Hasty Retreat was added primarily as a safety valve against other aggressive decks, but it can also be used to return my attacking champions. Play and attack with Guilt Demon, banishing 2 cards in the process. Your opponent blocks with Thundarus, flipping it. You play Hasty Retreat, return Guilt Demon to hand, replay it, attack, banish 2 cards, and safely fly past the now flipped Thundarus.

To fill out my 1-cost Wild cards, I decided to go with the blunt, aggressive approach: Rampaging Wurm and Flame Strike. This deck is already fairly aggressive, but both of these can really help beat an opponent to a pulp. Getting a 14/14 blitzer back with Army of the Apocalypse and something else is pretty great.

Filling out my Evil cards was much more challenging. There weren’t really any other 1-cost Evil cards I wanted, but Guilt Demon and Dark Knight were non-negotiable. I ended up reluctantly taking Zombie Apocalypse since I already wanted to prevent my opponent from having champions in their discard pile. In addition, it is another safety-valve if I get behind, Juggernaut lives through it on my turn, and it can draw 2 (which I needed). Final Task was my last choice, primarily because it can draw 2 too. It can work great with Juggernaut, and I do have big champions like Sea Titan that can win games if Final Tasked, but I still don’t really want it in this deck.

Distributions Breakdown

Below are the break downs for each of my distributions based on my Epic Constructed Process article.

30+ Cards that can Draw/Recycle/Recall/Etc. (31)
Reliable (31): 3 Army of the Apocalypse, 3 Final Task, 3 Zombie Apocalypse, 3 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Juggernaut, 2 Ancient Chant, 3 Crystal Golem, 3 Erase, 3 Amnesia, 2 Hasty Retreat, 3 Warrior Golem
Unreliable (0 x 1/2 = 0):

20 0-cost Cards (20)
3 Dark Knight, 3 Guilt Demon, 3 Amnesia, 3 Forcemage Apprentice, 2 Hasty Retreat, 3 Warrior Golem, 3 Fireball

20- On My Turn Cards (20)
Champions (11): 3 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Juggernaut, 3 Sea Titan, 3 Steel Golem, 2 Time Walker, 3 Rampaging Wurm
Events (3): 3 Army of the Apocalypse

33+ Primary Alignment Cards (33)
3 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Juggernaut, 3 Sea Titan, 3 Steel Golem, 2 Time Walker, 2 Ancient Chant, 3 Crystal Golem, 3 Erase, 3 Amnesia, 3 Forcemage Apprentice, 2 Hasty Retreat, 3 Warrior Golem

3-9+ On-Turn Gold-Punishers (15)
3 Army of the Apocalypse, 3 Djinn of the Sands, 3 Juggernaut, 3 Steel Golem, 3 Rampaging Wurm

All but Steel Golem and Rampaging Wurm have alternate uses than on-turn gold-punisher. Arguably Time Walker and Sea Titan could be added to this list.

3-9+ Off-Turn Gold-Punishers (3)
3 Crystal Golem

This deck generally tries to kill on its turn and survive its opponent’s turn.

1+ Mass Discard Pile Banish (3)
3 Amnesia

3 Drain Essences or Comparable Health Gain (3)
Reliable (3): 3 Drain Essence

3-9+ Muse/Thought Plucker 0-Cost Answers (6)
Reliable (6): 3 Forcemage Apprentice, 3 Fireball

Anti-Sea Titan/Bounce Plan

This deck is fairly ill-equipped to deal with Sea Titan. Only Zombie Apocalypse removes it, only Rampaging Wurm beats it in combat, and only Djinn of the Sands can fly over it; however, the deck will hopefully be able to apply enough pressure to force Sea Titan to stay on the defensive. My own Sea Titans and Steel Golems can also block enemy Sea Titans while being immune to bounce effects (untargetable). In addition, I can theoretically throw enough attackers at my opponent to overwhelm their Sea Titans.

Aside from that, I actually met all of my distributions!

Thoughts/Concerns

This deck is very strong while ahead. It can pressure with 0-cost blitz champions and punish hard on its turn when an opponent spends their gold first. If this deck is able to come out of the gate quick and force the opponent to play reactively, it might do well. It also has the ability to finish off a weakened opponent with burn.

On the flip side, it seems very weak from behind. It doesn’t have a ton of interaction, and all it can pretty much do is attack. If the opponent gets a couple champions ahead on the board, this deck can currently only really reset with Zombie Apocalypse, Time Walker, or Sea Titan. It might be correct to add in more board clears like Apocalypse/Plague or Stand Alone, but that would potentially diminish the effectiveness of Army of the Apocalypse and the unrelenting blitz pressure.

In addition, while untargetable on Sea Titan, Steel Golem, and Crystal Golem is excellent protection, it does prevent me from including Lashes/Rages to get damage through with them. Add that to the fact that the deck only has 3 Fireballs for fast 0-cost removal and tokens become a real problem. One unremoved The People’s Champion or Plentiful Dead could halt much of my champions’ aggression, at least until my opponent can board clear me. While I don’t expect to see a lot of The People’s Champion, it would go a long way towards beating this deck.

It’s possible that the deck might work better in Evil. Bring Angel of Deaths, Apocalypses, and Plagues with Vampire Lords and just keep playing 0-cost blitz threats while repeatedly clearing the board. Or, keep it Sage focused, so I can run 3 Time Walker instead of trying to reach 3 Angel of Death… Okay, I talked myself into making a change: **see Board Clear adjustment below**

Deck List

Evil (18)

Slow (3)
3x Army of the Apocalypse

Fast (9)
3x Drain Essence
3x Final Task
3x Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost (6)
3x Dark Knight
3x Guilt Demon

Good ()

Slow ()

Fast ()

0-Cost ()

Sage (33)

Slow (14)
3x Djinn of the Sands
3x Juggernaut
3x Sea Titan
3x Steel Golem
2x Time Walker

Fast (8)
2x Ancient Chant
3x Crystal Golem
3x Erase

0-Cost (11)
3x Amnesia
3x Forcemage Apprentice
2x Hasty Retreat
3x Warrior Golem

Wild (9)

Slow (3)
3x Rampaging Wurm

Fast (3)
3x Flame Strike

0-Cost (3)
3x Fireball

Deck Idea

I wanted to make a core only Evil Token deck for Epic Card Game Digital Alpha.

Gather Cards

A large portion of this deck built itself. As a (Evil) token deck, I knew I wanted Murderous Necromancer, Demon Breach, Plentiful Dead, Inheritance of the Meek, and probably Infernal Gatekeeper.

As an Evil deck, I knew I wanted Medusa and probably Necromancer Lord. Since I planned on consistently having small tokens in play, I decided not to bring Angel of Death in the prototype version. Drain Essence, Guilt Demon, and Wither were 3 more easy Evil includes. The rest of the process was filling holes. This is what my gather cards list looked like:

Evil ()

Slow ()
Angel of Death, Dark Assassin, Drinker of Blood, Infernal Gatekeeper, Trihorror

Fast ()
Apocalypse, Bitten, Inner Demon, Plague, The Risen, Vampire Lord, Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost ()
Guilt Demon, Thrasher Demon, Unquenchable Thirst, Word of Summoning

Good ()

Slow ()

Fast ()
Inner Peace

0-Cost ()
Brave Squire, Courageous Soul, Watchful Gargoyle

Sage ()

Slow ()

Fast ()
Ancient Chant, Deadly Raid, Erase, Lying in Wait, Wave of Transformation

0-Cost ()
Amnesia, Forcemage Apprentice, Hasty Retreat

Wild ()

Slow ()
Pack Alpha, Rampaging Wurm

Fast ()
Flame Strike, Mighty Blow, Surprise Attack

0-Cost ()
Fireball, Flash Fire

Distributions

One of my first thoughts when building decks is always, “how can I deal with Muse.” I’m a big fan of Forcemage Apprentice for this role, in theory, and I like Fireball for it too, in theory. In order to fill out the 1-cost cards to allow me to run these 0’s, Wave of Transformation seemed like a great choice. Since I’m going wide on the board (playing a lot of small champions), I’ll probably end up with more wolves in play most of the time. In addition, it is able to answer any champion in the game (Sea Titan). Ancient Chant is also always high on my list. For Wild, I like Pack Alpha as a way to increase my ability to go wide in a dedicated token deck.

In an effort to add on-turn gold finishers, I stumbled upon the most interesting aspect of this deck: Secret Legion + Courageous Soul. As an on-turn gold-punisher, Courageous Soul into Secret Legion threatens 22 damage across 7 attackers. Normally, this isn’t terribly hard to counter, especially if used while your opponent’s gold is up, but since this deck ideally will produce multiple hordes of tokens, my opponent might use up their 0-cost mass removal (Flash Fire) early and be unable to stop my assault. (The lack of Blind Faith is another big boon for this combination.)

Another great aspect of this combination is that both cards can work fine by themselves in this deck. Secret Legion can draw 2 cards if needed, and Courageous Soul can make my board of Evil tokens a lot more dangerous. I really like the idea of adding this combination to a deck otherwise devoid of human tokens. I am excited to see how it works in practice.

Finally, I filled my 0-cost Evil requirements and my 1-cost requirements to support my Fireballs. At this point, I needed more card draw. Word of Summoning as additional demon + recycle seemed like the best Evil 0-cost choice left. Final Task is an “or draw 2,” and it works great with Murderous Necromancer and Necromancer Lord, pretty decent with Medusa too. Bitten was just the best “or draw 2” Evil card for the deck, but I don’t really want it. Mighty Blow I like in theory with token decks because it is easier to slip a token through without getting blocked (then you make it unbreakable and give it +10 offense). I also traded out 1 Forcemage Apprentice for an Amnesia (draw or recycle while meeting my 1+ mass discard pile banish distribution).

Distributions Breakdown

Below are the break downs for each of my distributions based on my Epic Constructed Process article.

30+ Cards that can Draw/Recycle/Recall/Etc. (27.5)
Reliable (26): 3 Bitten, 3 Final Task, 3 Plentiful Dead, 3 Word of Summoning, 3 Inheritance of the Meek, 3 Secret Legion, 3 Ancient Chant, 3 Wave of Transformation, 1 Amnesia, 1 Mighty Blow
Unreliable (3 x 1/2 = 1.5): 3 Demon Breach

I don’t like being under 30+ of these cards, but I’ll try it out and see how it works before I contort the deck further to meet this distribution. If I decide to cut some cards for more draw, Infernal Gatekeeper and Necromancer Lord are both viable possibilities in order to add Plagues or Apocalypses.

If I cut the Gatekeepers, my Necromancer Lords get worse with me only having 11 other 1-cost champions to return to play. If I cut the Necromancer Lords, my Final Tasks get weaker.

Pack Alphas could also be traded for additional Mighty Blows.

I could also theoretically trade out my Fireballs for Flash Fires and stick in a couple Drinkers of Blood, but I’m not a huge fan of that idea. Flash Fire will usually break my own champions, and I wouldn’t be likely to draw the 1 or 2 Drinkers I add to go with them at the right time.

20 0-cost Cards (20)
2 Forcemage Apprentice, 1 Amnesia, 3 Guilt Demon, 3 Plentiful Dead, 3 Wither, 3 Word of Summoning, 3 Courageous Soul, 2 Fireball

20- On My Turn Cards (15)
Champions (12): 3 Infernal Gatekeeper, 3 Murderous Necromancer, 3 Necromancer Lord, 3 Pack Alpha
Events (3): 3 Demon Breach

33+ Primary Alignment Cards (36)
3 Demon Breach, 3 Infernal Gatekeeper, 3 Murderous Necromancer, 3 Necromancer Lord, 3 Bitten, 3 Drain Essence, 3 Final Task, 3 Medusa, 3 Guilt Demon, 3 Plentiful Dead, 3 Wither, 3 Word of Summoning

3-9+ On-Turn Gold-Punishers (3)
3 Secret Legion (with 3 Courageous Soul)

3-9+ Off-Turn Gold-Punishers (3)
3 Medusa

1+ Mass Discard Pile Banish (1)
1 Amnesia

3 Drain Essences or Comparable Health Gain (3)
Reliable (3): 3 Drain Essence

3-9+ Muse/Thought Plucker 0-Cost Answers (7)
Reliable (7): 3 Wither, 2 Forcemage Apprentice, 2 Fireball

Anti-Sea Titan/Bounce Plan
Flood the board with tokens so Sea Titan can’t block them all. Chump block Sea Titan with tokens if it attacks. Remove it with Wave of Transformation or Inheritance of the Meek.

Thoughts/Concerns

With only 3 on-turn gold-punishers, 3 off-turn gold-punishers and the inclusion of multiple board clears, this deck is a lot more controlling than many of my other decks. Against control decks, I worry that I might not have enough threats to pressure them out.

Under 30+ reliable card draw is another aspect I worry about. Due to my low 1-cost champion count, it might be correct to remove or at least decrease my Necromancer Lord count for Evil cards that can draw.

Aside from those, we’ll just have to see how it plays and make adjustments form there.

Deck List

Evil (36)

Slow (12)
3x Demon Breach
3x Infernal Gatekeeper
3x Murderous Necromancer
3x Necromancer Lord

Fast (12)
3x Bitten
3x Drain Essence
3x Final Task
3x Medusa

0-Cost (12)
3x Guilt Demon
3x Plentiful Dead
3x Wither
3x Word of Summoning

Good (9)

Slow ()

Fast (6)
3x Inheritance of the Meek
3x Secret Legion

0-Cost (3)
3x Courageous Soul

Sage (9)

Slow ()

Fast (6)
3x Ancient Chant
3x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (3)
1x Amnesia
2x Forcemage Apprentice

Wild (6)

Slow (3)
3x Pack Alpha

Fast (1)
1x Mighty Blow

0-Cost (2)
2x Fireball