Author: Tom Sorenson

Pantheon Card Visual Spoiler

[48-card Pantheon Text-Spoiler]

Gareth’s Will, a 1-cost Vanishing

I have been given the full art version of Gareth’s Will to spoil/preview, and once again, the artwork is phenomenal. (Dat Dragon with the swirls inside, ye.) From a gameplay perspective, Gareth’s Will is essentially a 1-cost Vanishing. On your turn, it can return a champion to its owner’s hand while keeping your gold available, or it can draw two. Therefore, most of the uses for Vanishing will naturally transfer over to Gareth’s Will:

  • Bounce an opponent’s ambush/already-in-play champion
  • Bounce then replay your [Sage] champion
  • Bounce a champion your opponent Turned/Helioned/Fairy Entrancered and get that champion back to your hand
  • Bounce a champion blocking your breakthrough champion after blockers (allowing you to do full damage to the opponent while preventing them from blocking with something else)
  • Bounce your champion before you use a board clear [Wave of Transformation]
  • etc

Differences

While these cards are very similar, the 1-cost vs 0-cost distinction creates some important differences with regard to Ally Effects, Play-Flexibility, and Deck Building.

Ally Effects


Since Vanishing is a 0-cost card, it can never trigger Sage Ally effects, even when used to draw 2. Gareth’s Will, on the other hand, does trigger Sage Ally effects, and it can even let you double trigger Sage Ally effects in a single turn.

While a single Sage Ally effect can be pretty nice in a single turn (and the fact that this triggers Sage Ally effects when used to draw 2 is one of its greatest strengths over Vanishing particularly in limited formats), double triggering Sage Ally effects doesn’t particularly wow me (unlike Evil, Good, and, to a lesser extent, Wild).


Before Pantheon, Sage Ally effects only included Shadow Imp, Temporal Enforcer, Forcemage Apprentice, Keeper of Secrets, Psionic Assault, and Blue Dragon. Of these, the only amazing one to trigger twice in one turn is Keeper for a double recycle. Imp/Forcemage Apprentice/Blue Dragon can do an extra 2 damage which is fine, Psionic Assault is strong but can’t be triggered twice in one turn (except for Frantic Digging shenanigans), and Enforcer is only interesting if built around (0-cost blitzers for instance) or if against tokens. In addition, none of these are amazing to trigger while maintaining an available gold or during combat.

However, Pantheon introduces Gareth’s Juggernaut and Master Forcemage which are both quite interesting with Gareth’s Will. Playing Gareth’s Juggernaut on your turn followed immediately by Gareth’s Will removes an opponent’s blocker, gives your Gareth’s Juggernaut unbreakable, and leaves your gold available to answer an opponent’s play. Solid.


It could also be nice in a dedicated 0-cost blitzer bounce deck. Play and attack with Dark Knight. Play Gareth’s Juggernaut, Gareth’s Will your Dark Knight (protecting Dark Knight from becoming vulnerable on your opponent’s turn, giving G’ Jugg unbreakable, and keeping your [Sage] gold up), and then attack. 10 unbreakable blitz damage from hand without committing your gold and only losing 1 card, pretty nice. (15 damage if you replay the Dark Knight and attack.)

Similarly, Master Forcemage‘s ambush and expend abilities synergize nicely with Gareth’s Will. If you ambush the Master Forcemage into play on your opponent’s turn, you can start your turn by attacking with it. If your opponent plays a champion in combat, you can use Gareth’s Will to remove that champion, prepare the Master, and leave the Master ready to either expend (possibly while still attacking) or make a second attack (or even possibly a third). As an interesting note, aside from Rift Summoner, no ambush champion can attack for that much damage [12] the turn after it is played (without buffs).

Play Flexibility

The greatest weakness Gareth’s Will has compared to Vanishing is that it isn’t as flexible. As a 1-cost card, Gareth’s Will can’t be played when your gold is already down, Vanishing can. Gareth’s Will also restricts your [second] gold to Sage cards the turn you play it, so you can’t do something like Vanishing an opponent’s champion and then play Winged Death/Scarra’s Will. Finally, Gareth’s Will only gives you an extra gold once on your turn, so you can’t use 3 in one turn, like you can with Vanishing (or Brachiosaurus).

Deck Building

As a 0-cost card, Vanishing requires you to run 2 1-cost Sage cards for every copy included. Therefore, running 3 Vanishings partially determines about 1/6 of your constructed deck. (3 of those 1-cost cards probably being Ancient Chant.)

As a 1-cost card, Gareth’s Will has no inherent deck-building requirements, so it could be run as your only Sage card(s) in your deck. But, if you want to make use of the second ability (which the card is bad in constructed if you don’t), you need to include a decent number of 1-cost Sage effects. This effectively limits it to Sage-focused decks (33+ Sage cards) partially determining at least 1/2 of your constructed deck.


On the bright side, in Sage-focused decks, Sage 0-cost slots are incredibly precious (Muse, Amnesia, Arcane Research, Shadow Imp, Forcemage Apprentice, Hasty Retreat, Keeper of Secrets, Spike Trap, Warrior Golem, Frantic Digging, Siren’s Song, Vanishing, [Ogre Mercenary/Citadel Scholar are less viable in constructed], and now Gareth’s Juggernaut, Force Lance, Alchemist Assassin, and Erwin Architect of War). Therefore, Gareth’s Will can give you a Vanishing-like effect without taking 0-cost slots, which could be quite valuable.

Conclusion

Overall, the card is certainly worth experimenting with in constructed, especially in a 0-cost blitzer, bounce deck with the addition of Gareth’s Juggernaut and Alchemist Assassin, since it doesn’t take your even-more-precious 0-cost slots. It also seems pretty nice in limited formats where you have a decent amount of Sage 1-cost effects (since a Vanishing effect is already strong). However, in limited formats, if I have the choice of Vanishing or this, I almost certainly pick Vanishing for the flexibility.

Epic Worlds Trip Booked!

I have finally booked my flight for Epic Worlds 2017 from Nov 18-Nov 20, getting in Thursday, 16th night. I’ve even begun testing decks, and I’ve discovered a new one that I love. We’ll see how it holds up when we find out what the formats and legal sets will be for Worlds though. Looking forward to seeing everyone who is going to be there. With only 2 more full weeks until the event, I might not get any more major posts up before then, since I’ll be practicing/testing, but I’ll have plenty to talk about when Worlds is over.

Epic Progression (2): Basic Strategy Advice

Foreword

Now that you’ve played a couple games to learn the rules and flow of Epic, I am going to go over 3 general principles that will help you understand the game quicker and better: attack with 1 champion at a time, spend your gold after attacking, and spend your gold every turn (especially on your opponent’s turn). These principles are correct in the vast majority of cases, and if you follow them you will discover some of Epic’s subtler aspects sooner.

Attack with One Champion at a Time

In Epic you may declare as many individual attack “phases” in a turn as you want (as long as you can declare at least one attacking champion per attack phase). Further, it is almost always better to attack with one champion at a time, instead of attacking as a group. Attacking in a group allows one champion to block multiple, it can negate keywords like Airborne, and it gives your opponent a chance to break multiple champions in combat.

One Blocker Stops an Entire Attacking Group

No matter how many champions you declare in a single attack, if your opponent declares a single champion as a blocker, all of your simultaneously attacking champions are blocked. Therefore, none of them will deal damage to your opponent (unless breakthrough).

In this example, a 1/1 human token blocked 6 group-attacking demons, preventing 24 damage to the defending player. If the demons would have attacked alone, they could have dealt 20 damage to the defending player instead.

Attacking in Groups can Negate Keywords

If you group-attack with multiple, hard-to-block champions, your opponent only needs to be able to block one of them to block all of them. This can negate a champion’s airborne or unblockable keyword(s).

In addition, when determining how much breakthrough damage is dealt to an opposing player, you add up only the offense of the attacking breakthrough champions and subtract the defense of all defending champions; the difference is dealt to the defending player, and all other offense in the attack is irrelevant for this calculation.

In this example, the defending player is able to block the entire group because it can block either the Triceratops or human token (even though Medusa could not normally block Avenging Angel or Thought Plucker). By blocking the group with Medusa, the defending player would only take Triceratops’ 2 breakthrough damage, and the defending player could choose to break either the Avenging Angel or Thought Plucker + human token.

If the champions would have attacked alone (preventing the defending player from blocking either Avenging Angel or Thought Plucker), those champions could have dealt an extra 8+ damage to the defending player, let the attacking player draw a card, forced the defending player to discard a card, and only risked losing the human token.

Multiple Attackers can Break to a Surprise in Combat

If you group-attack with multiple champions, even when your opponent has nothing in play, you risk losing all of them together.

In this example, an ambushed Lurking Giant can block, break all 4 group-attacking wolves, and prevent all damage to the defending player. If the wolves would have attacked alone, 3 wolves might have lived and dealt 6 damage to the defending player.

Spend Your Gold After Attacking
(Not Before)

The most common mistake I see new players make is spending their gold/playing cards before attacking. Instead, it is almost always correct to attack with your champions already in play before you do anything else. As long as you have advantageous attacks (opponent has no champions that can block effectively), attacking and waiting to play cards is your safest and most powerful play. If you spend your gold/play cards before attacking, you become more vulnerable to board clears, you restrict your future plays that turn, and you give your opponent free information.

Become More Vulnerable to Board Clears

If you play cards/spend your gold to put more champions into play before attacking with your existing champions, your opponent can use a board clear to both prevent the damage from your attacking champion, and to remove all of your champions from play.

In this example, you have a Jungle Queen in play that can attack. If you spend your gold first (to play Fire Shaman and Bellowing Minotaur), you allow your opponent to remove all of your champions with Hurricane before either Jungle Queen or Bellowing Minotaur can deal damage. If you attack with Jungle Queen first and your opponent plays Hurricane, you can then play Fire Shaman and Bellowing Minotaur, get 12 damage through, and leave yourself with 2 champions in play.

Restrict Your Options that Turn

If you spend your gold before attacking (before your opponent has a chance to play cards/spend their gold), you lose your ability to spend your gold to react to what they do that turn.

In this example, if you spend your gold before attacking with your Triceratops (to play Raging T-Rex), you always lose your Triceratops and are left with a T-Rex to your opponent’s Lurking Giant. If you wait to spend your gold, you can either:

  • Accept losing your Triceratops and play T-Rex after to draw 2 cards
  • Accept losing your Triceratops and play Rampaging Wurm after to attempt to deal 14 damage to your opponent while their gold is down
  • Use Mighty Blow on your Triceratops to allow it survive, break the Lurking Giant, and deal 9 damage to your opponent
  • Use Banishment on the Lurking Giant, to remove it before it can block (or after since breakthrough), draw you a card, and allow your Triceratops to both survive and deal 10 damage

Give Your Opponent Free Information

If you spend your gold before attacking, your opponent knows what you spent your gold on, so they can react to it when they spend their gold.

In this example, if you play Flame Strike before attacking with Ice Drake, your opponent knows they will go to 0 health when Ice Drake hits them, so they use Inner Peace to gain 10 health before Ice Drake deals combat damage. If you wait to play Flame Strike until after Ice Drake hits, you can finish your opponent off immediately (since they can’t play Inner Peace before Flame Strike kills them).

Spend Your Gold Every Turn
(Especially on Your Opponent’s Turn)

1-cost cards in Epic are incredibly powerful. Any turn in which your opponent uses a gold and you do not, you get significantly far behind.

One mistake I see a lot of new players make is not using an “or draw 2” card to draw cards on their opponent’s turn. While saving a card like Apocalypse for its break all effect can be powerful, if you don’t use cards to draw 2, you will eventually run out of cards in hand. This will prevent you from spending your gold every turn and cause you to fall significantly far behind. Since most cards in Epic are incredibly powerful, using 1 card to draw 2 is strong.

Also, don’t forget to use your recall abilities on cards like Lightning Storm and Demon Breach (especially when you can’t spend your gold otherwise).

Conclusion

These are the 3 most important pieces of advice for new players. While it is not universally correct to follow them, they are correct around 90% of the time. By internalizing these rules, you enable yourself to focus on the deeper, emergent aspects of Epic.

I recommend playing multiple games of Epic to understand and internalize these 3 principles before moving onto the next article in this series. In it I plan on going into more complicated, less absolute strategic concepts.

I have designated my classic article Epic Limited: Get Ahead, Stay Ahead as Epic Progression (3). That article gets at the meat of Epic gameplay. It defines/explains the most important Epic-specific concepts which break from conventional card game theory.

Furi

Introduction

I first saw this played on Penny Arcade’s First 15, and I was intrigued. When I incidentally got it in last month’s Humble Monthly, I decided to try it.

It is amazing. If you enjoy Bullet-Hell boss battles, I highly recommend this, so much so that I had to take time away from my Epic content to write about it.

Quick Description

Furi is a game of boss fights (I’m currently past the fifth). Each boss fight consists of multiple stages. Each stage has a mobility/ranged-attack-focused part (where you can use ranged rapid-fire or charged attacks in addition to melee attacks) and a close-range, melee-only part. In both parts you have an invulnerable dash and a parry. The final stage of each fight is a Bullet-Hell/Other Finale that you need to survive until you can finish off the boss.

[Screenshots from early bosses and don’t do the game justice]

(Mobility/Ranged-Attack-Focused Part Picture 1)

(Mobility/Ranged-Attack-Focused Part Picture 2)

(Close-Range, Melee-Only Part)
(Bullet-Hell/Other Finale)

Game Feels Great

Simply put, the game feels great to play. The difficulty is perfect in that it generally takes me a couple tries to beat each boss, yet I’m always excited to start the fight over to apply what I learned (patterns, tactics, responses, etc). Similarly, the game speed is great; its fast and exciting, but the character still feels like it is entirely under my control. The invulnerable dash enhances this even further because it enables you to exploit opportunities to dodge projectiles/attacks, close gaps quickly to attack in melee, or even strategically retreat. Everything about the pace of the gameplay just feels right.

Against melee attacks, split second parrying is incredibly satisfying (especially when you get a perfect parry), and it leads into the satisfying chain of four melee attacks that ends with a big solid down swing that knocks the boss down and away. Completing that attack chain with that finisher, after nailing a parry or dashing in during/after a massive ranged attack, is gaming bliss. Finally, each boss feels different both stylistically and gameplay wise (although the Close-Range, Melee-Only parts are a bit similar).

My only complaint is that the scenes between bosses are a bit too long and boring, but they function as a pallet cleanser so it’s fine. As a side note, many people seem to love the soundtrack, but I haven’t noticed it much while playing. It probably helps to pull me into the game, and not being overtly noticeable is not a bad thing, but I don’t have strong feelings about it.

Conclusion

Overall, Furi is a stand-out example in the Bullet-Hell genre, and I highly recommend it. The pacing, controls, and difficulty are excellent and provide an adrenaline rush that lasts for a while after stopping. As a heads up, they do recommend using a controller, and that is how I’m playing it.

Gen Con 2017 Random 60 Qualification

Foreword

I went 3-0-1 during the Random 60 portion of this qualifier. I lost a game in the final round.

Random 60

Random 60 is a “limited” Epic Card Game format where you build your deck from a random pool of cards at the beginning of the event. In Random 60, each player is given their own unique list of 60 cards with between 13 and 17 cards of each alignment. Each player uses only the cards on their list to construct a deck of exactly 30 cards. (Constructed Epic deck-building restrictions do not apply, you may include as many 0-cost cards as you have access to in your pool.)

60 Card Pool

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

Would you mulligan this pool? Why or why not?

First Pass

When I first go over my list, I look for

  • auto-includes (star: )
  • strong alignment-independent cards (solid arrow:FactionIndependentArrow)
  • strong alignment-dependent cards (dashed arrow: FactionDependentArrow)
  • strategy-dependent cards like Revolt (line:StrategyDependentLine)
  • effectively unplayable cards (line through: StrikeThrough)
  • generally unplayable cards (dashed line through: GenerallyUnplayable)

All cards without a mark are viable, but not incredible.

Wild

Raging T-Rex is a huge incentive to play Wild because it is the best card to play turn 1 going first. I also have other solid Wild cards such as Smash and Burn + Fire Spirit/Fire Shaman + Rain of Fire/Hurricane/Savage Uprising/Draka’s Fire/Fires of Rebellion. Unfortunately, I’m missing many of the rewards for going Wild: Spore Beast, Draka Dragon Tyrant, Draka’s Enforcer, Strafing Dragon, Pyrosaur, Scarros Hound of Draka, Brachiosaurus, and Feeding Frenzy.

Sage

Knight of Elara is my only incentive to go Sage, but there are plenty of other strong Sage cards.

Evil

Evil is by far my most rewarding alignment with Murderous Necromancer, Rift Summoner, Plentiful Dead, Spawning Demon, and Angel of Death. Unfortunately, Spawning Demon and Plentiful Dead require 1-cost, Evil, draw 2s to make them all-stars. In addition, Trihorror, Soul Hunter, and Heinous Feast (since I have Grave Demon) aren’t amazing. Luckily, Grave Demon, Corpsemonger, and Dark Knight are always powerful.

Overall

I kept this list because of Kong, Palace Guard, Grave Demon (a mass discard pile banish effect), and a supported T-Rex. Also having Blind Faith, Dark Knight, Corpsemonger, Ogre Mercenary, and the other auto-includes solidified that choice.

Second Pass

Once I complete my first pass with the deck list provided, I gather all of the cards I can play and divide them into cards I am certainly playing (star), cards I want to play (dotted star), cards I might play (unmarked), and cards I won’t play (strikethrough).

While getting out and dividing the cards, I initially separate them by alignment and cost (as seen below). In addition, I separated the 1-cost cards I am likely to cut into the right column of each alignment.

The only notable card that did not make this first rough cut was Mist Guide Herald. I think MGH can be a powerful card because it can dig you to a card you need, or at least a card that is playable, while also giving you a 3/2 airborne body, which is far from irrelevant. When you put MGH into play, particularly off-turn with Final Task, Surprise Attack, or Resurrection and hit something like Sea Titan, Kong, or Time Walker, it can be insane. However, if it turns up no 1-cost champions you want to play, it can be terrible. Without Final Task, Surprise Attack, Resurrection, or Dark Offering, I have no desire to take that risk. (It can also accidentally banish key cards like Amnesia in Control/Midgrange decks.)

Distributions Pass

Once I have the general shell of the deck, I make sure I have an acceptable amount of cards for the 8 distributions mentioned below (sometimes there are special distributions like 1-cost cards to recall Inner Peace). Meeting these distributions almost always guarantees a reasonable deck.

Distribution Breakdown

  • 14 Wild (Primary Alignment)

Den Mother, Draka’s Fire, Entangling Vines, Fire Shaman, Fire Spirit, Fireball, Fires of Rebellion, Hurricane, Kong, Raging T-Rex, Rain of Fire, Savage Uprising, Smash and Burn, Wolf’s Bite

I have a bit more than I need (10+), so I may cut a couple.

  • 25 Card Draw

Draka’s Fire, Fire Spirit, Fires of Rebellion, Hurricane, Raging T-Rex, Rain of Fire, Savage Uprising, Smash and Burn, Wolf’s Bite, Crystal Golem, Djinn of the Sands, Erase, Knight of Shadows, Lesson Learned, Memory Spirit, Ogre Mercenary, Reusable Knowledge, Spike Trap, Heinous Feast, Inner Demon, The Gudgeon, Blind Faith, Inheritance of the Meek, Noble Unicorn, Urgent Messengers

I have significantly more than I need (15+), so I’ll probably cut multiple.

  • 11 0-cost Cards

Fire Shaman, Fireball, Wolf’s Bite, Forcemage Apprentice, Ogre Mercenary, Spike Trap, Corpsemonger, Dark Knight, Heinous Feast, Blind Faith, Courageous Soul

I’m barely above my minimum (10+), so I’m only willing to cut 1 max.

  • 8 Slow Champions (1 On-turn Gold-punishers)

Den Mother, Fire Spirit, Kong, Raging T-Rex, Knight of Shadows, The Gudgeon, Palace Guard, (Djinn of the Sands)

I’m under my maximum (10-). An extra on-turn gold-punisher would be nice, but since I have a mass discard pile banish effect, not 100% necessary

  • 6 Ambush Champions/Off-turn Gold-punishers

Entangling Vines, Crystal Golem, Memory Spirit, Grave Demon, Angelic Protector, Noble Unicorn

I’m above my absolute minimum (3), but I could take more.

  • 2 Mass Discard Pile Banish

Grave Demon, Heinous Feast

I only need 1.

  • 3 Board Clears

Hurricane, Savage Uprising, Inheritance of the Meek, (Draka’s Fire, Rain of Fire)

An acceptable amount.

  • 7 Targeted Removal (2 Slow/5 Fast)

Kong, Palace Guard, Fires of Rebellion, Smash and Burn, Erase, Inner Demon, Rain of Fire

Only 2 defense-independent off-turn removal effects, but that is probably fine.

  • 5 1-cost Good Cards that can Recall Inner Peace

Angelic Protector, Inheritance of the Meek, Noble Unicorn, Palace Guard, Urgent Messengers

I only need 3.

Distribution Considerations and Cuts

I unequivocally cut Lesson Learned, Knight of Shadows, The Gudgeon, and Heinous Feast. Lesson Learned: I didn’t have enough strong 1-cost events to use with it, and I didn’t have anything else I was willing to cut for it. Knight of Shadows: I didn’t need the card draw, I had no other discard effects, and I’m not a big fan of the 4 defense. The Gudgeon: I didn’t need the card draw. Heinous Feast: I didn’t need the mass discard pile banish nor the card draw.

The last four cuts were significantly more difficult. I ended up cutting what I did because

I’m personally not a huge fan of Inner Demon, so that got cut. Same with Savage Uprising, since I didn’t have too many 0-cost champions. Rain of Fire and Fire Spirit work great with Smash and Burn and Fire Shaman, so I wanted to keep those for the synergy. Urgent Messengers seemed too strong to cut. Therefore, I cut the only remaining questionable slow champion, Den Mother, and the least impactful ambush champion, Angelic Protector.

While making these final cuts, I reconsidered Demon Breach, Helion’s Fury, Knight of Elara, and Chomp!, but I ended up including none of them. Demon Breach could provide additional threats both on-turn and off-turn. Helion’s Fury was additional removal, but only on-turn. Knight of Elara has blitz, but I didn’t have enough Sage to draw a card, and Chomp! is off-turn removal, but not quite as strong as the rest of my options.

Last Minute Adjustment

Once I got down to the 30 cards above, I decided I wanted another off-turn hard-removal card that could answer Thundarus (or Burrowing Wurm). While I think these are bad cards, they can win the game if unanswered, and Erase was my only card that could answer Thundarus by itself (since Thundarus dodges my Palace Guard and Inheritance of the Meek, unless I have Blind Faith). Therefore, I swapped out Urgent Messengers for the generally weaker card Inner Demon, since I didn’t need the card draw.

Memorable Moments

I do not remember much about the matches played at this point, but I remember being surprised just how effective Courageous Soul was for me. I was able to play it frequently on my opponent’s turn to an empty board and attack for 4 damage with my gold up. Even though it was just a worse Dark Knight in those situations, that was still enough to get damage through. In addition, the +2 offense to my champions allowed me to threaten lethal damage on at least one occasion.

I also got the chance to go over a couple players’ 60 card pools with them after our matches (as well as going over my pool). As frequent readers know, I like talking about Epic, and being able to have discussions which can change my opinions in real time is even better, especially when we have common game examples to reference.

If you would like to read about my top 4 Dark Drafts which I won to qualify for Worlds 2017, check out my earlier articles (part 1, part 2).

Coming Soon

I am planning on recording at least one video of me building a Random 60 deck in real time.

Elara’s Hunting Pack (Gen Con 2017)

Foreword

This is my Gen Con 2017 constructed deck. I made it to top 8 and lost to the eventual winner, and yes, this is a Wolf Deck. It is built entirely around Hunting Pack.

Hunting Pack (and other pet cards)

Hunting Pack is strong because it is off-turn removal that puts threats into play. My goal is to make it a no-loyalty alternative to Medusa. Its main weaknesses are that 6 damage isn’t enough to break enough important champions in the current meta, and the wolves can be cleared off incidentally with Flash Fire/Wither or Draka Dragon Tyrant/Pyrosaur. In order to address these weaknesses, I need to boost the amount of damage Hunting Pack does above 6 and make my wolves relevant.

Building Around Hunting Pack

The most obvious way to make Hunting Pack better is to fill the deck with wolf producing cards. So I did. Den Mother and Wolf’s Bite are both solid. Pack Alpha is not great, but it does make wolves. Wolf Companion is worthless as it is never worth a 0-cost slot, especially after Tyrants and Uprising. Wolf’s Call is too bad, unless we lived in a meta where everyone runs three Wave of Transformation; however, Wave of Transformation fits nicely for me, as I ideally will have more champions in play, and it maintains wolves for me. The most interesting inclusion is Elara, the Lycomancer though.

That one wolf is a huge boost. At 4 wolves in play, Hunting Pack deals 8 damage which can break Draka’s Enforcer, a card that was popular in Wild aggro-midrange decks. (Wolf’s Bite is really nice because you get up to 8 damage + 2 in order to break Draka and T-Rex.) The final wolf cards I considered were Lesson Learned and Citadel Raven, both of which allow me to replay Hunting Pack.

Filling with Powerful Cards/Synergies

Since I want to run Elara, my deck building process dictates that I need 33+ Sage cards to reliably hit loyalty. In addition, assuming I run 3 of Hunting Pack, Den Mother, and Pack Alpha, I need at least 1 more Wild 1-cost card to maximize my 0-cost card count. Card Draw and Drain Essence are also important.

Feeding Frenzy Synergy

Feeding Frenzy is one of the most powerful 0-cost cards in the game because it can break a 1-cost champion without spending a gold. In order to make it devastatingly effective though, you need activators. I already have Wolf’s Bite, and I can use Feeding Frenzy to finish off a champion that blocks one of my wolves, but I want/need more. Forcemage is an easy include, and since I’m already in Sage, Helion is a possibility. Feeding Frenzy is also an excellent card to return to hand with Citadel Raven (which I already want for my Hunting Packs). To make space for three Feeding Frenzy, I can run 3 Surprise Attack (another nice card with Lesson Learned/Citadel Raven and Elara/Den Mother).

Filtering

One thing I noticed when testing different iterations of this deck was that the Hunting Pack + wolf synergy was solid, but without it, the deck fell apart. To address this, I experimented with Arcane Research and Mist Guide Herald (in addition to the Surprise Attacks) to get to the best parts of my deck. Arcane Research could help find a Hunting Pack to turn my Lesson Learneds on or a Den Mother to apply pressure. Mist Guide Herald could help me get a 1-cost wolf to make my Hunting Packs deal 12+ damage. In the end, I took out the MGHs, with the help of my team leader Tom Dixon of Pluck U because they were just too inconsistent for the deck.

Strong Sage Cards

The deck already wants Lesson Learned, so including Ancient Chant is even easier than it usually is for me. (Ancient Chant is one of my most included cards in constructed decks.) Knight of Elara provides me with a card draw (which I’m low on) as well as a blitz champion that can get through Sea Titan. Djinn of the Sands works similarly; it can either attack as an 8/8 airborne blitzer, draw 3 cards over 3 turns (not common but it happens), or do anything in between. Ice Drake took the spot of Mist Guide Herald because I need ambush champions and the expend all effect can be absolutely game-winning. (Thanks again Tom Dixon for convincing me.) Sea Titan ends up taking Citadel Raven’s two slots because I expected to be running into more aggro than control. Muse is a powerful card by itself, but it can also potentially draw out Wither/Flash Fires that otherwise could deal with my wolves. Hasty Retreat is anti-aggro, and Amnesia ended up replacing my under-performing Keeper of Secrets to deal with discard shenanigans a bit (probably should have been more Hasty Retreats).

Drain Essence

Since my deck is neither hyper-aggressive with burn nor has other health gain, 3 Drain Essence is basically mandatory. Raxxa’s Curse is an incredibly strong 0-cost card to fill my Evil 0’s slots created by Drain Essence, but it largely made it into the deck because I wanted to be able to get it back with Citadel Raven (even though I cut the Raven). The final Evil 1-cost slot is a flex slot that I currently have Zombie Apocalypse in as an off-turn board clear that can draw 2.

Gen Con 2017 List

Evil (6)

Slow ()

Fast (4)
3x Drain Essence
1x Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost (2)
2x Raxxa’s Curse

Sage (36)

Slow (10)
2x Citadel Raven/Sea Titan
2x Djinn of the Sands
3x Elara, the Lycomancer
3x Knight of Elara

Fast (14)
3x Ancient Chant
2x Helion, the Dominator
3x Mist Guide Herald/Ice Drake
3x Lesson Learned
3x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (12)
3x Arcane Research
3x Forcemage Apprentice
1x Hasty Retreat
2x Keeper of Secrets/Amnesia
3x Muse

Wild (18)

Slow (6)
3x Den Mother
3x Pack Alpha

Fast (6)
3x Hunting Pack
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (6)
3x Feeding Frenzy
3x Wolf’s Bite

Gen Con 2017 Memorable Match Moments

While I did not remember to write down names/take pictures on Friday, there were a few particularly memorable moments demonstrating the strengths and weaknesses of the deck. (I’m also not certain of the order of the matches.)

Match 1

My first match was against a Wild aggro-midrange deck (these were almost the entire field at Gen Con 2017). In this match my Den Mothers were able to do a lot of work for me. I was able to play them to an empty board and get multiple wolf attacks in before my opponent was able to answer everything.

The most important cards in the match up for my opponent were Draka, Dragon Tyrant (break my wolves) and Smash and Burn (incidentally break my Elara, the Lycomancers). For me, Hunting Pack is always one of my strongest cards, but the recently added Ice Drakes were the cards that clinched the win for me in very close games.

Match 2

I do not remember what my opponent was playing in Match 2, but Djinn of the Sands was the match MVP. In one of the games my opponent got me down to 2 cards in hand on their turn with my gold down (while they were at 5+). I Arcane Researched for 4 looking for some card draw, and ended up taking Djinn. Then, I played it on my turn and drew a card. 3 turns later, I’m hitting him in the air with my 5/5 Djinn after drawing 3 and getting back up to 7 cards in hand. I believe an 8/8 blitzing Djinn also got in for lethal in one of those games. Ice Drake also performed above expectations in this match.

Match 3

I intentionally drew with Brad Minnigh so we could get some lunch, and because we’ve knocked each other out of enough tournaments in the past.

Match 4

Match 4 was against a similar Wild deck from match 1. Unfortunately for me, my opponent did manage to play multiple of both Smash and Burn and Draka enabling them to deal with my pressure (wolves) and control (Elara).

Match 5

Match 5 was against the one Evil token deck in the field (also running Thought Plucker and Knight of Shadows). In the first match, Den Mother and Pack Alpha were able to continuously push small amounts of damage as I controlled the token game. I chipped my way to victory, partially due to the fact that my opponent didn’t run Wither. Knight of Elara and 2/2 or 3/3 wolf tokens also match up very well against Soul Hunter.

Game 2 my opponent won, but I don’t remember many specifics. In general though, I was fortunate that my opponent drew very few of their Rift Summoners. With Rift Summoner, my opponent could have easily outpaced my token generation. I play Den Mother/Pack Alpha on turn, my opponent ambushes in Rift Summoner, I immediately fall behind. This match ended in a 1-1 draw. My final record in swiss was 2-1-2 granting me 8th seed in the top 8.

Top 8

As 8th seed I was paired against 1st seed Nick Blandin: decklist. While I do not remember the bulk of most of the games (Smash and Burn breaking my Elaras was important and Knight of Elara got in for 10 damage multiple times), I do remember the end of each.

Game 1 (Loss of Concentration)

I lost the first game because my opponent successfully baited me into making a play I knew would lose me the game. After attacking with their Kong and spending their gold, my opponent was at 6 health, with a prepared, non-deploying Sea Titan, an expended Kong 6 damage away from breaking, and a Flash Fire in hand (revealed for loyalty earlier). I was at around 6 with an expended Ice Drake, a prepared wolf token, my gold available, and only Hunting Pack that I could spend it on. Potential lines:

  • If my opponent attacked, I could block with my wolf token, then Hunting Pack his Kong finishing it and probably drawing out the Flash Fire
  • If my opponent Flash Fired before attacking to break my blocking wolf, I could have Hunting Packed the Kong, breaking it, and had 3 potential chump blockers for Sea Titan
  • My opponent passed instead. Knowing that I wanted to spend my gold (since my opponent had spent theirs) and that I wanted to break the Kong, I auto-piloted into playing my Hunting Pack. Then, as I knew (but forgot) would happen, my opponent Flash Fired to break all my wolves and then attacked with Sea Titan to finish me off.

If I would have just let the turn end, I could have attacked in the air for lethal, and I was fairly certain he didn’t have a way to block my Ice Drake in hand. After the match I asked him, and he said that he had a burn card to finish me off on my turn, so I probably would have lost anyways. However, if I would have drawn a Drain Essence, Lesson Learned, or Arcane Research to try to find either, I would have immediately used that before attacking, just in case of burn. In other words, by losing focus for a moment, a sacrificed my chance at winning that game.

Game 2 (Arcane Research)

Game 2’s final turn had another complicated board state. Both of us had our gold available. I was attacking with Ice Drake with a prepared, non-deploying Elara and one or two other irrelevant champions. I believe I was low on health. My opponent had an irrelevant, non-airborne champion or two in play and around 15 health.

Before blockers, he played Surprise attack into Mist Guide Herald hitting Kong. After considering for awhile, he chose to break my Elara with Kong. After groaning inside, I used Arcane Research banishing 3 cards in an attempt to find something to combat this board swing, otherwise I would have lost next turn. I flipped over a Wolf’s Bite, with no cards left in my discard pile to recycle. Due to the inability to recycle, I almost passed up on Wolf’s Bite, but I decided to take the risk. Using Wolf’s Bite, I broke the MGH. Ice Drake got through. I played Djinn of the Sands and attacked. It got through. I won. (Thankfully he didn’t have a Hasty Retreat for the Djinn.)

Game 3

I went first, slammed Knight of Elara, drew a card, attacked for 10, and felt great. In the previous games Knight of Elara was pretty much a guaranteed 10 damage (unless Hasty Retreat), in addition to drawing me a card. I also had Feeding Frenzy for a big tempo swing down the road.

My opponent Surprise Attacked Kong, and I lost.

While I had 2 Feeding Frenzys in hand at this point, I had no activator for them. I also had no way to interact with Kong on my opponent’s turn, so I ended up taking 13 when he attacked. Then I just lost, probably to Hunting Raptors. While I included Surprise Attack Sea Titan in my deck in order to beat opposing Aggro decks in the exact same fashion, it still just felt awful auto-losing to that combo after making what I believe to be a powerful turn 1, on-turn play and being able to do nothing to answer it (even though I had ways to deal with it in deck).

It was this moment, on top of earlier practicing with this deck, that I finally accepted the fact that it is always correct to choose to go second. On the bright side though, losing meant I got to play in the limited event, and while I would have loved to win in constructed, my main goal was to get wolves in top 8. As a sneak peak, here was my first random 60 pool of that event:

 

Deck Retrospective

I brought this deck, “Elara’s Hunting Pack” to Gen Con 2017 because I wanted to play a different, unexpected deck, and because it performed better than I was expecting during testing. In the end, the most underwhelming part of the deck was the wolf package. While Hunting Pack worked pretty well, specifically with Elara who dramatically over-performed when not broken by Smash and Burn, Pack Alpha was underwhelming and Den Mother was only okay.

In addition to Elara, a few other Sage cards over-performed for me: Ice Drake, Arcane Research, and Djinn of the Sands. (Knight of Elara was solid.) Surprise Attack Elara is an insanely powerful way to get back into of a game: ambush her in, transform a champion, go to your turn, transform another champion. Not only do you remove two threats, but you also prevent your opponent from retrieving them from their discard pile or even just recycling them later.

On multiple occasions, Ice Drake either kept me alive by expending all of my opponent’s champions, cleared a path for my attacking champions, provided me a reasonable attacking/defending body, or all 3. I was consistently happy to have Ice Drake in hand. Arcane Research in a deck with minimal recycling and a few key cards was repeatedly able to dig me into perfect answers for specific situations. While I don’t generally like the idea of trading a 0-cost slot for a 1-cost card (Corpse Taker), the utility of Arcane Research was truly impressive.

I used to hate this card, but now I love it. Almost every time I play this card, it impresses me. An 8/8 airborne blitz without loyalty is strong, and the threat of multiple card draw is strong. I have used both in different matchups and they have both been pivotal to success. That being said, this is one of the most difficult cards in the game to play well with the most niche applications. Djinn is essentially unplayable when behind on the board, and it is almost worthless a blitz attacker if your opponent’s gold is up. Further, if you are at 7 or so cards in hand, drawing with it doesn’t accomplish much. However, it helps you get to a 7 card handsize when you are low on cards, and once at 7, an 8/8 airborne blitzer (or a 5/5 airborne champion) is a powerful threat.

While I think this is a fun deck that can do powerful things, I highly doubt I’ll be playing it at Worlds. (But I’ll probably have it built for casual play.)

White Wizard Games Fair 2017

White Wizard Games has given more information on their 2017 game fair here.

For those of you considering going, and if feasible I would recommend it because I personally had a great time last year, there are two entry passes you can buy: General Pass and Weekend Gamer Pass.

General Pass

The General Pass gets you access to the site including demos and the ability to play Star Realms against Top Ranked Star Realms players and Epic against Pro Magic players. It is $5 at the door or free if you pre-register.

Weekend Gamer Pass

The Weekend Gamer Pass gets you access to Epic Worlds 2017 Last Chance Qualifiers (LCQs), Epic on-demand tournaments (such as cube draft), daily Star Realms $1,000 tournaments, Hero Realms campaign events etc. (Players who have already qualified for Worlds 2017 will receive a complimentary Weekend Gamer Pass.)

I reached out to WWG to ask about how many LCQs there would be and this is the response I received, “We are still finalizing our plans, but it looks like we’ll have 6 to 8 Last Chance Qualifiers. (Subject to change, of course.)”

Based on my past experience, these will probably be a mix of random 60 cut to dark draft top 8/top 4 and constructed qualifiers. They also might overlap making it impossible to compete in all approximately 6 to 8. If you win a qualifier, you qualify for the Worlds 2017 tournament and, as long as you show up, are guaranteed a minimum prize of $500 and a maximum prize of $25,000. (Top 8 is on Monday however.)

The price is $50 for this pass, but if you use promo code: WWGFEarlyBird! you can get $10 off. (I do not know how long this promo code will be active.)

For more information about the event, check out their Registration Page and their Worlds page. Feel free to ask me any questions about my experiences last year too.

Tyrants Wild Anti-Plucker

After getting tired of playing against all-in Plucker/Muse decks on the app, I decided to throw together an all-in anti-Plucker/Muse deck. It served its purpose quite effectively, but it could probably use some refining.

Evil (6)

Slow (1)
1x The Gudgeon

Fast (3)
3x Drain Essence

0-Cost (2)
2x Wither

Good ()

Slow ()

Fast ()

0-Cost ()

Sage (18)

Slow (4)
2x Djinn of the Sands
2x Sea Titan

Fast (8)
3x Ancient Chant
2x Erase
3x Lesson Learned

0-Cost (6)
3x Forcemage Apprentice
3x Spike Trap

Wild (36)

Slow (15)
3x Brachiosaurus
3x Draka, Dragon Tyrant
3x Fire Spirit
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex

Fast (9)
3x Draka’s Enforcer
3x Smash and Burn
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (12)
3x Feeding Frenzy
3x Flash Fire
3x Lightning Strike
3x Wolf’s Bite