Month: December 2017

Foreword

Part 3 of my Pantheon review for Dark Draft. For my non-Pantheon reviews check out the full article. Gareth vs Lashnok ratings , Scara vs Angeline ratings , Zaltessa vs Helena ratings

So excited that I finally get to write about Krieg, my favorite card of the set (followed by Silver Wing Savior, Scarred Priestess, Cast Out, and Scara’s Will).

Maligus vs Furios

Fiery Demise Rating

Always Desirable

“Draw 2 ands” are amazing, particularly off-turn ones. Eventually you’ll need to spend a gold to draw 2, and if you can remove a Thought Plucker, Muse, Winged Death, etc. with that draw 2, amazing. If nothing else, it’s a free 3 damage to your opponent.

Greater Lightning Wurm Rating

Situationally Desirable +

6 damage is enough to break a lot of important champions, such as Noble Unicorn, Avenging Angel, Strafing Dragon, and Murderous Necromancer. Attaching that to a 10 defense minion (which is out of range of Drain Essence, Hurricane, and Savage Uprising) is solid, even more so since that 12 breakthrough offense makes that big leftover booty a real threat.

And of course, the 6 damage can always hit your opponent, which is quite powerful if they’re at 6 health, if they have no health gain, or if they are relying on bounce effects for removal (Erase, Sea Titan, etc.). To reiterate though, when I draft this, I will almost always want to use it to remove an opponent’s champion because reestablishing champions are gods in limited. Would not draft a 12/10 Burrowing Wurm outside of Wild though.

Kalani, Woodreader Rating

Always First Pickable

0-cost 5/5 blitz, sold.

5 offense means this can kill your opponent in 6 attacks, and 5 defense means that the only 0s that can meaningfully remove it are Spike Trap, Lightning Strike, and Raxxa’s Curse. (Actually, Brand Rebel Fighter, Dark Knight, and Brave Squire can break it in combat too.)

All of that makes this an Always First Pickable card by itself, but preventing your opponent from gaining health also has value. If your opponent can’t remove this (you’re probably winning anyways but), they can’t effectively use Second Wind, Righteous is turned off, and Inner Peace becomes a dead card.

This can also help setup a burnout kill. Normally, spending your gold on your turn to get your opponent in range of an off-turn burn effect (like Flame Strike), is a risky move, even if their gold is down. This is because they can always go to their turn and immediately spend their gold to gain health before you get initiative to play your burn effect. However, if you play Kalani on your turn, after your opponent’s spends their gold, and don’t attack, they need exactly Raxxa’s Curse, Lightning Strike, Vanishing, or Siren’s Song otherwise all of their 1-cost health gain is worthless. (If they don’t have a 1-cost answer to Kalani, all of their 0-cost health gain is worthless too.)

Rules Interaction: If you play Drain Essence targeting an opponent’s Kalani, you will gain 9 health. This is because Kalani immediately breaks after taking 9 damage, and it is therefore not in play when Drain Essence tries to gain you 9 health. This also applies to blocking and breaking Kalani with a righteous champion, since Righteous is a triggered effect, it waits to resolve until after champions break to combat damage.

Herald of Angeline Rating

Rarely Playable

Worst Herald (so far). In addition to generically not liking the Herald effect in Dark Draft, Herald of Angeline is in the worst Dark Draft alignment, Good. Therefore, in order to get enough cards for me to feel comfortable successfully drawing a card off this Herald, I need to draft about 19 other Good cards, not going to happen. (On the plus side, since Good is so weak in Dark Draft, you’re more likely to get Good cards passed to you enabling you to get closer to my arbitrary 19.) Then, once you have your 20 Good card Dark Draft deck, this card asks you to play a 1-cost, slow, 5 defense champion without blitz; I really dislike 5 or less defense 1-cost champions because of 0-cost cards like Lightning Strike and Spike Trap.

Further, even if you draw a card from Herald and even if it isn’t removed before it can attack, it still breaks for nothing but 7 health gain against powerful 6/8 airborne champions like Ice Drake and Ethereal Dragon. It also only trades with most other 1-cost airborne champions. Although, when put that way, draw a card, gain 7 health, and break an airborne champion like Angel of the Gate, that doesn’t sound too bad. If it manages to live through that first attack it might gain 14+ health. However, that is a lot of easily preventable if’s.

Angeline’s Will Rating

Situationally Acceptable +

As mentioned, I don’t value the “Will” effect highly in Dark Draft, and the fact that this doesn’t even have an “Or Draw 2” option really plummets my evaluation of the card. While 10 health gain could be strong against an opponent who heavily drafts burn, and I do highly value Inner Peace, spending a gold and a card just to gain 10 health feels weak.

Further, unlike Scara’s Will, the removal effect doesn’t deal with untargetable champions (which are hard to deal with already), it can’t remove an ambush champion before it blocks, and it requires the champion to be expended to even be used. It does banish though, which is almost always better than break. Also, Good has better on-turn gold-punishers than Evil, for example Silver Wing Savior (which could get this back), Silver Wing Lancer, and Gold Dragon. Hmmmm, that actually seems fairly strong, if I’ve already drafted 2+ on-turn, 1-cost, Good, gold-punishers, I’ll value this higher going forward. Otherwise, no thank you. (As a side note, Two Time World Champion John Tatian does like this card “quite a lot.”)

Knight of the Dawn Rating

Always First Pickable

Another 0-cost blitz champion. Can banish a demon when played too, so it is a nice answer to your opponent Raxxa’s Cursing your first 0-cost blitz champion. It’s also a human so it can ride Faithful Pegasus.

Scara’s Gift Rating

Situationally Acceptable +

This card is a beast in constructed, as The Flock demonstrated by putting John Tatian and James Moreland into top 8 with it. If you can repeatedly trigger this, it can gain a ridiculous amount of incidental health and do a ridiculous amount of incidental damage, which is great if you are using a bunch of Evil 1-cost cards to control the board.

However, in Dark Draft I generally don’t draft that many 1-cost cards that could trigger this. Even though I go Evil frequently, that is usually off the back of multiple powerful 0-cost cards and just a couple key 1-cost cards. (As a reminder, spending a gold on a 0-cost card’s Draw 2 ability does not trigger ally abilities.) So, when you take into consideration the fact that I probably won’t cast this more than a few times a game, and the fact that it doesn’t impact the board at all, I am not convinced that this is a consistently worthwhile Dark Draft card.

Krieg, Dark One’s Chosen Rating

Situationally Acceptable

I didn’t think much of this card when I saw it, but then I realized how it’s ally trigger interacts. Now it is my favorite card of the set (even if it isn’t consistently that strong). Setting aside the ally trigger for now, an 8/8 that produces two 2/2 zombie tokens isn’t all that impressive, but at least it’s a human for Pegasus and Cast Out. Not a great start though.

However, the Ally ability is sick. In Epic, any effects triggered by another effect “triggered effects” (denoted by a trigger and an arrow such as Ally -> , Tribute -> , Loyalty 2 -> , and When this attacks -> ) are put into a heap until that “triggering effect” is finished resolving. Then, you choose the order in which those heaped triggers resolve.

Example 1 (Event)

Say I have Krieg in play and Necrovirus in my discard pile. If I play Apocalypse, both Krieg’s triggered Ally ability and Necrovirus‘ triggered Ally ability are put into a heap, then I fully resolve Apocalypse and break all champions. Now that Apocalypse has fully resolved, I choose to resolve Necrovirus‘ triggered Ally ability first to put 3 zombie tokens into play. Then, I resolve Krieg’s triggered Ally ability, put 1 zombie token into play and give all of my zombie tokens +1/+1 and blitz. This leaves me with 4 3/3 blitzing zombies after I cleared the board, good stuff.

Example 2 (Champion)

Say I have Krieg in play. If I play Zannos Corpse Lord, both Krieg’s triggered Ally ability and Zannos‘ triggered Loyalty X ability are put into a heap. I choose to resolve Zannos‘ triggered Loyalty X ability first, reveal 5 cards, drain my opponent for 5 health, and make 5 zombie tokens. Then I resolve Krieg’s triggered Ally ability, put 1 zombie token into play and give all of my zombie tokens +1/+1 and blitz. This leaves me with 6 3/3 blitzing zombies, in addition to Krieg’s 8/8 body and Zannos‘ 9/9 body. I like it, I like it a lot.

If you have a Krieg in play and you play a second Krieg, you would end up with 3 3/3 blitzing zombies.

I love this interaction because it is cool, and it rewards a deep understanding of how cards actually resolve in Epic. It also works quite nicely with Forbidden Research (make the zombie first then break the zombie to recall) and Scarred Priestess (use the made zombie as fodder to break an opponent’s champion every time you play a 1-cost Evil card). The problem though, is getting Krieg into play.

As we mentioned, playing Krieg for an 8/8 and two 2/2s isn’t that strong, but at least it isn’t horrible. Further, to get great use out of it’s triggered ally ability we need cards that aren’t great in Dark Draft: Scarred Priestess, Zannos Corpse Lord, Necrovirus etc. (Necrovirus is actually the best of the 3 in limited, and Murderous Necromancer is actually quite strong.) Therefore, the odds of both this being strong in your deck and finding a time to play it are low, and I’d usually much rather draft an always acceptable card in its spot. I will try long and hard to break it in constructed though, but it won’t be easy.

Dark One’s Fury Rating

Frequently Desirable

I value Draws 2s. I frequently draft Evil. One-sided board clears are amazing. Even if your opponent is going Evil and you aren’t, counter drafting this to keep it out of their hands is still strong, especially since it’s always at least a draw 2.

Erwin, Architect of War Rating

Always Acceptable +

I’ve hit loyalty in 3 different alignments in one game because of this card. When focusing on 0-cost cards and “best cards in pack” over drafting “In Alignment,” this can be quite nice to help hit loyalty effects in your secondary, possibly tertiary, and even just primary alignment that you naturally fell into. For the most part, you just want to keep this in your hand to help hit loyalty for much of the game. But, if you need to find a new card, you can always just play it and recycle. 5 defense is not irrelevant either, since it survives a demon attack each turn.

Solid card, I’d pick actively strong cards over it, but I’m always up for drafting it if there’s nothing else crazy in the pack.

Ethereal Dragon Rating

Always Desirable

Ambush, Airborne champions are powerful. 8 defense makes it hard to kill in the air, and it even survives Flames of Furios. 6 offense is a real threat. Untargetable is incredible, and it lets you ambush this in while your opponent’s gold is up to use as a hard to punish blocker. Big fan.

Scrap Golem Rating

Situationally ????

(Scrap Tokens are token versions of this without Recall or Loyalty 2 -> blitz)

I was in love with this card when I first saw it as a promo (because my favorite card in Magic is Chronozoa), but now that I have it, it just doesn’t seem strong enough (even though they buffed it by giving it a recall ability).

Obviously, without loyalty this card is awful because it’s just a slow 6/6. With loyalty, it’s two slow 6/6s, meh? However, if at least one of them survives both the turn you play it and your opponent’s turn (which is reasonably likely because two 6/6 bodies aren’t easy to remove without a board clear), you can produce even moar 6/6 bodies! Then, theoretically, as long as any of these 6/6s survive until your next turn, you can continue to pump out 6/6s for just that one initial gold. Ignoring the fact that this also gets shut down by Amnesia effects or just running out of cards in your discard pile, is this even worth it? If yes, is it still worth it when you do consider those restrictions? I honestly don’t know yet.

(As a quick side note, since the Scrap Tokens are Tokens, they can be banished by Markus Watch Captain and Silver Dragon.)

Overall

This pack has a lot of interesting cards, and it does come with a few particularly strong 0s. Kalani is probably the strongest card in the pack for Dark Draft (Scara’s Gift is the strongest for constructed), but Knight of the Dawn and Ethereal Dragon are up there too. Krieg is going to be one of my new pet cards (like Knight of Elara) that I constantly try (and probably fail) to build decks around. Looking forward to it.

Foreword

Part 3 of my Pantheon review for Dark Draft. For my non-Pantheon reviews check out the full article. Gareth vs Lashnok ratings , Scara vs Angeline ratings

Zaltessa vs Helena

Ambush Party Rating

Always Acceptable –

If you are going tokens, particularly human tokens, this card can be quite strong. Not only does it threaten 9 damage by itself and draw a card (the addition of a card draw is a huge deal), but it can also combo with other champions you have in play. Like Secret Legion, it gives all humans blitz meaning you can play Courageous Soul first, then play this to give it blitz and attack for 21. (Scarred Cultist appreciates this card too). This card is everything the human token deck wants (except unbreakable tokens).

Off-turn though, this is generally a worse Urgent Messengers. It sacrifices 1 card for 1 token and a frequently irrelevant +2 offense buff. However, it can allow you to trigger the expend abilities of Murderous Necromancer and Gladius the Defender early.

Outside of a human token deck, 9 blitzing damage with a card draw is a reasonable gold punisher, although it is weak to Flash Fire/Wither, and 3 chump blockers off turn with a card draw isn’t terrible either. While a significant portion of the time I’d rather have the extra card from a draw 2, if your opponent can’t answer the tokens, you can get multiple blocks or multiple attacks through.

Cast Out Rating

Always First Pickable

Yes, that is me in the art. No, that is not John Tatian. And yes, this card is actually incredibly powerful.

The ability to banish a champion, namely Muse as depicted in the art, (or Thought Plucker/Mist Guide Herald/Necromancer Lord [preventing Final Task], Bodyguard [preventing it from being recalled], Dark Knight [getting around unbreakable], Warrior Golem [preventing the recycle], Spore Beast, Courageous Soul, Fire Shaman, Guilt Demon, etc.) without any other help is insane. Getting 2 humans while doing that also makes this a threat/gives you chump blockers.

Where this gets even crazier though is when you have other human champions in play, not just human tokens (Citadel Scholar, Scarred Cultist, Master Zo, etc.). With just one extra human in play, this can banish champions like Juggernaut, Pyrosaur, Shadow Imp, Cave Troll, Winged Death, and Winter Fairy. Play Insurgency first and then you can banish a 6 defense champion. (I believe Hampus Eriksson banished my Gold Dragon with this card in constructed.)

Ignoring all of that, this is also one of only three 0-cost Good cards with an or draw 2 option (Revolt and Angeline’s Favor being the other 2). Like Raxxa’s Curse, this is an incredibly high pick for me, regardless of what else I’ve drafted.

 

Helena’s Chosen Rating

Situationally Desirable

I am a fan of Tribute -> Draw a card. In addition, putting that on a champion that needs to be removed otherwise it will generate two 3/1 tokens every turn is quite a real threat. However, the loyalty ability is tied to Good which remains the worst overall Dark Draft faction, since it relies so much on specific synergies which are hard to come by in limited. In addition, the 5 defense means 0-cost cards can remove it, like Lightning Strike (but not Spike Trap since this usually won’t attack).

Generally, if I’m already in Good, I’ll take this, otherwise I’ll pick it over 1-cost cards that don’t have ambush, draw a card, blitz, or untargetable.

Alchemist Assassin Rating

Frequently Desirable –

0-cost blitz champions are strong. Play this while your gold is up and attack. If they spend their gold, you spend yours. Otherwise you probably get 3 unblockable damage through and pass. The 1 defense makes it so everything breaks it, which makes it worse than some other 0-cost blitzers, but unblockable is a big bonus.

This can also be strong with unbreakable effects such as Brave Squire, Force Lance, or Mighty Blow. If your opponent’s gold is down, and you have an unbreakable effect, or possibly just a defense buff like Go Wild, the gold ability can be relevant. Otherwise, I wouldn’t use it unless you’ve seen every card in your opponent’s deck, and you know they won’t have a way to remove this after you pump it; Spending a gold to pump this just for it to get removed by Lash, Wolf’s Bite, or Cast Out would be a huge loss and could easily cost you the game.

Gareth’s Will Rating

Always Acceptable +

As I explained in my first Pantheon review, I don’t value the Will effect highly in Dark Draft. I also delved into this card’s potential, with a comparison of it to Vanishing, in my visual spoiler for it.

Overall, the only-on-your-turn (fast-combat) bounce effect isn’t quite worth a gold, particularly when compared to Erase, Temporal Shift, or even Helion’s Fury (not to mention Sea Titan and Velden). However, Sage does have great on-turn gold punishers that this can bait your opponent into playing into, such as Velden, Steel Golem, War Machine, etc.

In general, I’d rather draft something that is always strong even if I don’t have another worthwhile Sage 1-cost effect in hand, but if I’m in Sage or there aren’t any better draw 2s in the pack, I’ll draft this.

Mystic Researcher Rating

Situationally Diserable

This just seems like a worse, Sage-Loyalty dependent Winter Fairy. If in Sage, it draws 2 cards immediately, then threatens to draw an extra card each turn. Hmmmm, getting a guaranteed 2 cards does make this better against removal effects, particularly bounce and banish, but it doesn’t threaten 4 airborne damage each turn.

In general, this card is pretty awful to play when behind because it doesn’t do anything to impact the board by itself; however, with a lot of 0-cost cards in your deck, since this is Dark Draft, it could draw you into some reasonable plays…It is quite strong to play when your opponent’s gold is down when you are either at parity or ahead though.

I need to experiment more with this card, but only when I’m in Sage. (A slow 3/2 champion that draws 1 card and doesn’t threaten to do anything else until your next turn is terrible.)

Bruger, the Pathfinder Rating

Always Acceptable –

Ambush, unblockable, 6 defense, reasonable off-turn gold-punisher. If you can play this when your opponent’s gold is down on their turn, they need to spend a gold, Smash and Burn, or multiple cards to remove it (since it survives Spike Trap, Lightning Strike, etc.). In addition, the turn you play it, it is an 8/9 body, so it can block some non-airborne champions favorably. Aside from that, I don’t see the tribute/when this damages an opponent effect being too relevant, unless you have the highly valuable card Hunting Pack and/or Den Mother.

I’d generally rather have my 1-cost cards affect the board and/or draw me cards, but off-turn gold-punishers are important too.

Herald of Lashnok Rating

Situationally Acceptable

Best Herald (so far), but I’m still not a huge fan of them in Dark Draft. If you have a high density of Wild cards (I’d personally want around 19 others for this card), this can be an establishing/gold-punishing on-turn blitzer, similar to Juggernaut. Without a buff, this runs the risk of hitting an ambushed Lurking Giant (or even Bruger) if used as an establishing blitzer though. Otherwise, it forces your opponent to have an immediate answer or take up to 8 breakthrough damage (since you wouldn’t play and attack with this if your opponent already had a way to effectively block it in play). Also, unlike Juggernaut, it isn’t easily breakable off-turn with its 6 defense.

Still though, I don’t see myself being happy about drafting a herald in Dark Draft often. (Great in Pluck You’s constructed deck at Worlds though.)

Hunting Pterosaur Rating

Always First Pickable

0-cost ambush, airborne champion that can break Muse, Thought Plucker, etc. Amazing. I’ve even just thrown it in front of Little Devil multiple times and been fairly happy.

Dirge of Scara Rating

Always Acceptable +

In Dark Draft you generally need to spend a gold to draw 2 multiple times. With this, you eventually get a demon too. I’ll take a free demon with an effect I wanted anyway. It can also be recalled to get another draw 2 to hand, in addition to the demon.

Similar to Ancient Chant, if you play Lesson Learned targeting this card, the “when this card leaves your discard pile” trigger will happen twice, so you’ll draw 2 cards and get 2 demons.

Necromancer Apprentice Rating

Frequently Desirable

0-cost cards are important, and this card has been surprisingly effective for me. Getting a free chump blocker every turn, while whittling away my opponent’s discard pile, has given me the time to get back into games I might have lost otherwise.

Steed of Zaltessa Rating

Situationally Desirable

6/7 airborne blitz is a strong on-turn gold-punisher stat line. At 7 defense it generally requires a gold to remove, and 6 airborne offense is a real threat. If in Evil, an extra 5 damage can be pretty devastating too, especially since 11 damage can be quite unexpected from an Evil deck. The ability to turn off health gain doesn’t seem that great, but if you do end up playing this while the opponent’s gold is up, at least they can’t gain health in response, requiring them to block/remove this or take 6 more damage. Also, if they bounce it, you can replay it for 5 more damage later. It’s even a demon for Raxxa’s Displeasure.

Overall

This is the pack to get if you want to play human tokens. Cast Out is insane and the best card in the pack. For Dark Draft, Hunting Pterosaur is a close second. The weakest card is Bruger, the Pathfinder.

Aside from human token constructed decks, Dirge of Scara will be a staple in Evil non-aggro decks as it is one of Evil’s few draw 2+ cards. I’m even experimenting with a sub 30 draw-effects constructed deck due to this and Forbidden Research. Herald of Lashnok is another solid threat/establishing champion for the Wild arsenal. Gareth’s Will is an incredibly intriguing card because it allows interesting Master Forcemage shenanigans, but I haven’t found a Sage deck for it yet that can compete with either the Wild or Evil Worlds decks.

Only 1 final pack to review. I plan to get it up before I head out on Friday.

Foreword

Part 2 of my Pantheon review for Dark Draft. For my non-Pantheon reviews check out the full article. Gareth vs Lashnok ratings

“Herald” Cards (Pantheon Specific)

Pantheon introduces a cycle of Herald cards: Herald of Scara, Herald of Angeline, Herald of Lashnok, and probably a Herald of Gareth in the final two unspoiled packs. They are 1-cost champions with a Tribute effect that lets you reveal the top 3 cards of your deck and chose a card of the same alignment to add to your hand. (Banish the other revealed cards.)

Just like the Will cards, these are weak for my draft strategy because I frequently don’t have much more than 10 to 12 cards of my dominant alignment. Therefore, my likelihood of revealing 3 non-alignment matching cards is greater than I am willing to accept. I’d much rather draft either a more reliable alignment-independent card or an alignment-dependent card that I can be sure will activate when I choose to play it.

That being said, if you have recycled through your entire deck and have been keeping track of the order of your banished cards, these can be great to get you to the card you need that you know is coming (assuming it is in your Herald’s alignment). It could even just burn you past 3 cards you didn’t want to draw. Also, if you are in the draft-as-much-of-1-alignment-as-possible camp, these cards becomes much better because you are more likely to get at least 1 alignment-matching card; you might even be able to choose between 2 alignment-matching cards.

Scara vs Angeline

Angeline’s Favor Rating

Always Acceptable

Draw 2, always acceptable. 0-cost, I’m listening. Jump with a +2/+2 attached, hmm. Best case scenario, you use this to give a Kong airborne and hit your opponent for 15 damage, past whatever non-airborne blockers they might have in play. 0-cost deal 15, seems strong. It also bypasses a potential ambush, non-airborne chump blocker, since you can use it in combat, before blockers are declared.

However, for a 0-cost card that can get damage through, I’d generally rather have breakthrough (Rage/Lash), chump blocker removal (Wither/Raxxa’s Curse/etc), or potential big removal (Vanishing/Feeding Frenzy). In all of these scenarios, not only do I still potentially get damage through (although possibly less damage), but I also remove the chump blocker so it can’t stop me next turn either. Granted, if you just kill your opponent with that one attack, removing a potential chump blocker doesn’t matter.

In addition, I’d draft 0-cost champions over this or high-value champions like Kong, but if I need card draw (and I usually do), this is a perfectly acceptable card that could potentially win me the game.

Also, nearly forgot to mention that this can be used to surprise block an opponent’s attacking airborne champion. “Well hello there Avenging Angel.” #StealingFromTheAmazingSpiderTankGamingBlog

Silver Wing Guardian Rating

Usually Desirable

Ambush champions in Dark Draft are great. Airborne champions in Dark Draft are great. Health gain in Dark Draft is pretty strong. Put all that together and you have a solid card, especially since it doesn’t rely on Loyalty or Ally effects.

This is particularly strong with combat tricks, namely Brave Squire. Ambush this in on your opponent’s turn during an attack, gain 4 health, Brave Squire it and block with it (if opponent’s gold is up, Brave Squire before passing initiative, otherwise Brave Squire after blocking), break the opponent’s attacking champion, gain 11 more health, and have a 6/6 airborne righteous champion to attack with on your next turn. (Tom Dixon figured this one out and it was incredibly strong in constructed.)

The reason this isn’t always desirable or better is because it isn’t as absurdly powerful/game-swinging as other cards, it can’t draw cards, and it breaks to Smash and Burn Ally trigger.

Silver Wing Lancer Rating

Usually Desirable

Effectively the best on-turn punisher to play after your opponent spends their gold on your turn. Without a gold, the only way your opponent can prevent 10 damage to their face is Hasty Retreat, Spore Beast, Blind Faith, Fumble, or a combination of cards such as combat tricks. After it his your opponent, at 8 defense, your opponent will be forced to use a gold (or multiple effects/Vanishing) to remove it, and since it is unbanishable, cards like Divine Judgement can’t sweep it up. It’s hard to appreciate just how strong this card is until you play with or against it.

Force Lance Rating

Frequently Desirable

This is the best enabling card for playing your gold first on your turn.

Most of the time, playing a 1-cost blitz champion and attacking with it while your opponent’s gold is up is a bad idea; your opponent can remove your champion with cards like Medusa, Drain Essence, Erase, Chomp!, etc. and you gain almost no value from them. However, if you Force Lance that champion before passing initiative when you attack, your opponent’s possible answers drop dramatically. Further, since you recycled when you played this, even if your opponent has that Erase, you don’t get completely screwed.

This can also be used on an ambush champion you played last turn, before either player spends their gold, if you think your opponent wants to Medusa it. As a reminder, this only gives unbreakable on your turn, not your opponent’s.

Steel Titan Rating Rating

First Pickable –

This card, if unanswered, can win you the game in two attacks (because 13 offense, effectively unblockable), and it is pretty hard to answer (because untargetable). If your opponent doesn’t have a board clear, Scara’s Will, Winged Death, Lying in Wait, or Mythic Monster/Kong, you basically win. Assuming you can play this without dying since it doesn’t do much the turn it is played, aside from being a big untargetable blocker.

While there are still cards I would pick over this, I would only do so if I either A) already have ways to remove this or B) it’s early enough in the draft that I can pick ways to remove it. This card terrifies me, and I’ve already seen it almost single-handedly win multiple games. One benefit of first picking this card is that your opponent won’t know to prioritize answers for it.

Pretty strong with Surprise Attack (and Final Task) too.

Teleport Rating Rating

Situationally Acceptable

I’m not a huge fan of this card, now that the card draw is conditional on expending the target champion. (This also means that if you Teleport a token, the token disappears before you can expend it, so you can’t draw a card. Also true if you play this with no legal targets.)

Best case scenario is that you use this on your turn on a Kong or Brak, get the Tribute effect and then attack with that champion a second time… Now that I think about it though, using this on your Kong off-turn to break a champion and draw a card (by expending Kong) seems pretty strong… Anyways though, my main problem with this card is that it requires you to already have a strong champion already in play to have a strong effect.

Using it defensively to stop an attacking champion feels weak since it triggers that champions tribute/loyalty effect again for your opponent. It can save you if desperate (even against a Force Lanced Silver Wing Lancer), but I would much rather have a card that is strong when behind, can always draw me cards, or can punish an opponent after they spend their gold when I have nothing else in play.

Herald of Scara Rating

Situationally Acceptable

I don’t like the Herald cards in draft as I explain above. Therefore, if you ignore the tribute ability, this is a slow 9/7 airborne champion, which I would not draft.

On the bright side though, at 7 defense, your opponent needs to use a gold to remove it, and it can survive in combat against better airborne champions like Ice Drake, Ethereal Dragon, Gold Dragon, Strafing Dragon, etc. It is also a demon, so it lives through Raxxa’s Displeasure (and Dark One’s Fury), which, as a 9/7 airborne champion, is not to be underestimated. Therefore, if you have either of those board clears (which will continue to be less likely as the card pool grows) or you have 15 to 20 other Evil cards, this is a perfectly reasonable 2nd/3rd pick. Otherwise, I’d avoid it.

Scara’s Will Rating

Always Desireable

Best Will. I would draft this card even if it didn’t give me an extra Evil gold the turn I play it.

A Fast, only-on-your-turn removal card that can hit Sea Titan/Steel Titan is incredibly valuable, especially since it’s a removal option that doesn’t involve breaking/banishing all your champions too. In addition, it can draw 2. The fact that I can play this and, at minimum, bluff that I could play another 1-cost Evil card makes this absurd. If playing against this, I would recommend practically always spending your gold if they pass while their Evil-locked gold is up though, especially since there aren’t a ton of amazing Evil on-turn gold-punishers.

Scarred Cultist Rating

Frequently Desirable

0-cost champions are inherently desirable, and a 6/5 stat line is no joke. If you are in Evil, this becomes amazing. A threatening 0-cost champion that can return your best 1-cost champion is fantastic. It can even jump onto a Faithful Pegasus (on offense or defense), and it can make Cast Out stronger (since it is a human).

Flames of Furios Rating

Situationally Desirable

I don’t know how to rate this card yet. It’s a draw 2 so its never bad. In addition, it can break practically all 0-cost champions, which is great if your opponent plays multiple. Further, any 8+ defense champions you have in play survive this, and it can be played off-turn as a one-sided board clear. Finally, in Dark Draft your opponent will almost certainly have at least 1 reasonable 7 or less defense champion.

Overall, I think it is worth spending a significant amount of time analyzing how powerful this card would be in any given draft in which you see this. If either player is going tokens, this is amazing. Or, as mentioned, if your opponent has strong 7- defense champions and/or you have strong 8+ defense champion, this could be powerful.

Keira, Wolf Caller Rating

Always Acceptable

Ambush 10/10 worth of stats, with blitz, not bad. In addition, it can’t be fully removed by a 0-cost card, namely Flash Fire/Wither or Hasty Retreat/Vanishing/Fumble/Lightning Strike. The dream will always be to use this after your opponent plays Wave of Transformation on your turn while your gold is up, but unlike Wolf’s Call, it is significantly harder to casually answer, and the +1/+1 buff means your opponent can’t trade wolves 1 for 1. (Lightning Strike would at least prevent any additional wolves from attacking that turn though.)

Stampeding Einiosaurus Rating

Frequently Desirable

The effective replacement for Rampaging Wurm. This is a fantastic on-turn gold-punisher because it hits for a lot of damage, and it can’t be effectively chump blocked. In addition, the permanent 11 defense means this can’t be broken by Drain Essence, without help, on your opponent’s next turn (which is a nice bonus over Great Horned Lizard, Gold Dragon, etc.).

There is one situation where this is worse than Rampaging Wurm though, if you play this while your opponent’s gold is up and they have Chomp! in hand…Dang you Tatian! (for reference)

Overall

Every card in this pack is exciting for Dark Draft. Silver Wing Guardian, Silver Wing Lancer, Keira Wolf Caller, and Einiosaurus are all solid gold-punishers. Steel Titan is a worthwhile slow champion which forcibly alters drafting when seen. Herald of Scara could theoretically be powerful, and it will be fun in the game where it works (or frustrating in the game where you drafted it anyway). Scarred Cultist is a solid 0-cost card. Angeline’s Favor, Force Lance, and Teleport can create interesting combat situations. Scara’s Will is sick removal, and Flames of Furios would feel great against a token deck. Of the 2 packs I’ve reviewed so far, if you were only to buy 1 for Dark Draft, I’d buy this one.

The weakest card for my Dark Draft style (even though Evil is currently my most drafted alignment) is definitely Herald of Scara. The most powerful card is probably Steel Titan, followed closely by Scara’s Will.

For constructed, Silver Wing Lancer, Silver Wing Guardian, and Force Lance were all in the deck I played at Worlds. Flames of Furios and Scara’s Will made it into other constructed decks of mine. Keira probably replaces Pack Alpha in Elara’s Hunting Pack. Finally, if Scara’s Will doesn’t become too prevalent, Steel Titan is a real card in constructed too.