Category: Epic Card Game

Foreword

I reference Human Token Swarm decks all of the time. This is my current version.

First Posted Deck List

Evil (6)

Slow (2)
2x Drinker of Blood

Fast (2)
2x Zealous Necromancer

0-Cost (2)
2x Wither

Good (42)

Slow (6)
3x Rabble Rouser
3x The People’s Champion

Fast (23)
3x Forced Exile
3x Inheritance of the Meek
3x Insurgency
2x Quell
2x Royal Escort
3x Secret Legion
2x Standard Bearer
3x Urgent Messengers
2x Vital Mission

0-Cost (13)
3x Blind Faith
3x Courageous Soul
3x Paros, Rebel Leader
1x Priestess of Angeline
3x Revolt

Sage (9)

Slow (0)

Fast (6)
3x Lesson Learned
3x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (3)
3x Arcane Research

Wild (3)

Slow (0)

Fast (2)
1x Battle Cry
1x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (1)
1x Flash Fire

First Shot Explanation

Human Token Swarm decks are nasty. They can do 30+ damage in one turn with nothing starting in play and just 3 cards (Secret Legion and any 2 of Courageous Soul, Paros Rebel Leader, or Revolt). Going second, I have won on my first turn of the game with this deck (Standard Bearer on his turn. Paros on my turn, and then I slow rolled out Secret Legion and Revolt trying to draw out removal without over-committing.) If you aren’t prepared for this deck, it can crush you.

One of the most devastating parts of the deck is Drinker of Blood. If you have a lot of tokens out and then Drinker on your turn followed by Flash Fire or Wither, you can just win. Or, as one member of the Epic Card Game Fan Page on Facebook laid out: Rabble Rouser on your turn. If your opponent doesn’t remove it, Secret Legion at the end of their turn and expend Rabble Rouser. On your next turn, expend Rabble Rouser, play Drinker, and then Flash Fire/Wither for 60 damage and 60 health.

The problem with this deck is that it can be countered (or at least disrupted) by a lot of cards: Surprise Attack/Final Task-> Angel of Death/Frost Giant/Time Walker, Plague, Wither, Zombie Apocalypse, Ceasefire, Secret Legion, Blind Faith (strips blitz, would not strip buffs from cards like Revolt), Insurgency, Quell, Ice Drake, Stand Alone, Wave of Transformation (not great but still saves you for a turn), Fireball, Flash Fire, Hurricane, Lightning Storm, Wolf’s Call, Draka’s Fire, and other cards disrupt it to significantly smaller extents.

Every deck needs to run at least a few of these cards to deal with this and similar decks. If you don’t, you run the risk of just losing instantly. If you don’t think anyone will run this deck, you are welcome to take that gamble. Thankfully, a lot of these cards are just super strong anyway.

I argue that Insurgency is the most important card in this deck (aside from Drinker of Blood) because it prevents the most answers (Flash Fire, etc.).

I don’t think I have seen anyone else include Zealous Necromancer, and I am still not sold on it. I have liked it the situations I have played it though. Conversely, I do not include Deadly Raid or multiple Battle Cries because I don’t think they prevent enough answers. I feel that Dark Leader is a bit weak too. The Risen could be quite interesting in combination with Zealous Necromancer.

Royal Escort is a new addition to the deck. It literally only answers Wither, but it is a nice ambush setup before the attack. It can also protect your Rabble Rouser. Unfortunately, it would prevent you from targeting your own human tokens with Wither for the Drinker Combo.

I’ve been holding off posting this deck because I originally thought Human Token Swarm decks would be the deck to beat. While I’m still considering playing it at Origins, I think enough decks will be running counters to it that it probably wouldn’t go all the way.

6/10/16 Fine Tuning

Removed: -2 Forced Exile, -2 Vital Mission, and -1 Priestess of Angeline

Added: +1 Standard Bearer, +3 Erase, and +1 Spike Trap

I am in the process of fine tuning all of the decks I expect to either play or play against at Origins. After doing some more testing with this deck, I decided to focus this deck more around winning directly with a combo. To this end, I removed the Vital Missions and most of the Forced Exiles because they provide a small enough edge for an opponent to survive. Erases were added instead because I don’t want the game to go long, and the draw 2 is a huge deal; if the first assault doesn’t win you the game, you need to reload for a second one.

Priestess of Angeline doesn’t offer enough to warrant a card spot, especially since this deck ideally wants to win in the first 3 turns. I also might not have 2 cards to recycle.

Standard Bearer has been very nice. I underestimated the static +2 offense buff and the fact that you can set it up on your opponent’s turn.

Spike Trap is another way to trigger Drinker: play Drinker, attack with all of my human tokens, immediately play Spike Trap to break them all. I would prefer another Flash Fire, but I don’t currently have the Wild 1-cost cards to support it.

I might, however, add some Flame Strikes etc. for finishing off an opponent. In that case, I would bring at least 1 more Flash Fire.

Foreword

I was inspired when writing my Epic: Interesting Combat Cards article to make this deck.

First Shot Deck List

Evil (0)

Good (51)

Slow (12)
2x Lord of the Arena
3x Palace Guard
1x The People’s Champion
3x White Knight
3x Markus, Watch Captain

Fast (23)
3x Angel of Light
3x Angel of Mercy
3x Ceasefire
3x Feint
3x Forced Exile
3x Noble Unicorn
3x Quell
2x Resurrection

0-Cost (16)
3x Blind Faith
3x Brave Squire
2x Faithful Pegasus
3x Paros, Rebel Leader
2x Priestess of Angeline
3x White Dragon

Sage (0)

Wild (9)

Slow (3)
3x Triceratops

Fast (3)
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (3)
3x Rage

First Shot Explanation

I made this deck because I wanted to use Feint, Lord of the Arena, and Faithful Pegasus. Since I had Faithful Pegasus, I included Markus, White Knight, Palace Guard, and The People’s Champion, all of which are big humans.

Angel of Mercy and Noble Unicorn are just generally amazing so I added them. Resurrection is similarly great.

Ceasefire is excellent, and I wanted more card draw to go with Feint. I thought about including Urgent Messengers in place of some of the Ceasefires and/or Feints, since Urgent Messengers always guarantees two human tokens with the two cards, but I decided to stick with Ceasefires and Feints because the potential is greater. Feints in particular I fully assume I will frequently use outside of combat to just draw 2 cards. In the situations where I can use it in combat, it is considerably stronger than just gaining two tokens. Unfortunately, the only expend champion I can abuse with Feint when defending is White Knight. The rest of the expend champions like Rabble Rouser didn’t fit how I wanted to build the deck.

Forced Exile is included because I needed fast targeted removal in Good. I plan on using this primarily on my opponent’s turn, so I didn’t want to draw my opponent a card with Banishment. I didn’t take Vital Mission because I wanted this deck to be more aggressive. 2 human tokens for my opponent seemed to be the least of the drawbacks. In addition, Forced Exile does have the draw 2 option that the other two lack. (Since I removed a Faithful Pegasus, I no longer need these to be Good, so I might replace them with Transforms or Bittens.)

For zeros, White Dragon and Blind Faith are just incredible cards. Brave Squire and Rage allow my big humans to fight basically all of the other champions and win. Rage is included considerably more for the +4/+4, but the breakthrough is a big added bonus.

I like Priestess of Angeline in a heavy Good deck because it recycles and gains health. Paros, Rebel Leader is an incredibly strong zero for this deck. In my testing, that 1 offense boost has actually been quite helpful, not to mention the human tokens it spawns.

One of the strongest cards in this deck is Quell. Basically every deck should have at least some board clear, and Quell works wonders for this deck. I have a very strong 0-cost champion presence and a strong 1-cost presence. So, depending on the board state, I can potentially 1-sided board clear my opponent, while leaving myself largely untouched. The fact that it can also stop Insurgency attacks is a major added perk.

I did not include High King because I wanted my champions to be threatening on the attack. Royal Escort wasn’t included, even though it is a human with decent stats, because I want to play my Brave Squires and Rages on my champions.

I also avoided the big token cards like Insurgency, Secret Legion, and Courageous Soul because I wanted to focus on the big human champions. After more testing, I’ll see if this decision is wise, but I have been liking it so far.

Wanting 3 Rages forced me to take 6 1-cost wild cards, and I went with Triceratops and Surprise Attack. Triceratops was chosen because I wanted another big threatening body that drew me a card. Surprise Attack is generically amazing.

My first change to my original list was adding in the the Angel of Lights. I got absolutely destroyed by a deck running blitzing Wild airborne champions, and I had no great way to stop them. Angel of Light gets boosted to 9 offense with either Brave Squire or Rage which lets it break all other non-Thundarus airborne champions. In addition, the 10 health gain is great for fighting burn and letting me play more aggressively.

Overall, Quell, White Dragon, Angel of Mercy, and Markus have been the stars of this deck. I very much look forward to testing this deck further.

Foreword

In this article I go over some of the most interesting, combat-specific cards/effects. I break down the effects based on the primary card in the interaction.

Feint

Feint obviously has to be one of the cards I talk about because it only deals with combat, aside from drawing cards.

Chump Block/Attack

The simplest interaction with Feint is to chump block or chump attack without losing your champion. You block with a champion and then play this when you gain the initiative. Your blocker is removed from combat and prepared while the attacker remains “blocked.”

You attack with a champion. They block with a champion, flipping it. You play this so your attacker is removed from combat and becomes prepared. Then, after all of the remaining combat phases occur, you can attack again with that champion and your opponent’s flipped champion can’t block it.

This card becomes more interesting in either of those situations if you can draw out resources from your opponent. While attacking, your opponent might ambush in a blocker. Play Feint after blockers are declared and attack again, bypassing the ambushed in champion. Or, if your opponent unexpectedly buffs a defending champion, play this to get out of that unfavorable situation while still wasting a card of your opponent’s, and then you still get to attack again. (This also works if your opponent buffs their attacker.) Finally, if your opponent group blocks, you can use this to essentially flip multiple defending champions while also drawing 2 cards.

When This Card Attacks

Feint can also let you trigger “when this card attacks” triggers twice in one turn. Say you have Draka, Dragon Tyrant already in play. Attack with Draka, deal 3 damage to all defending champions. Play Feint. Attack with Draka again and deal 3 more damage to all defending champions. This also works with Courageous Soul for a double +2 offense boost, and to a lesser extent, Guilt Demon and Thrasher Demon. I’ll come back to Faithful Pegasus.

One very important aspect to note: when you play Feint, it removes champions under your control from combat, but it does not end combat. So, when you attack with Draka and then play Feint, your opponent will still get an opportunity to play cards before blockers are declared, and technically after blockers are declared as well. Due to this, you could Draka, Feint, pass. Then your opponent could play Ceasefire or Bitten etc. before you can declare the second attack.

**Edit** If all champions that were declared as attackers or blockers are removed from combat, the combat immediately ends. So, in the above crossed out text, if you attack with Draka and then immediately Feint, your opponent would not get a chance to play anything before you could attack with Draka again. **Edit**

If WWG ever creates a card with a “when this card blocks” ability, you could potentially get that to trigger twice, but your opponent would have to attack you again for you to be able to get the second trigger.

Raging T-Rex

Raging T-Rex must attack each turn if able, but if you attack with Raging T-Rex and then play Feint, that condition has been met for the turn. So, it doesn’t have to attack again.

Prepare Expending Blockers

If you have prepared, non-deploying expend champion(s) (Dark Assassin, Dark Leader, Murderous Necromancer, Necromancer Lord, Succubus, High King, White Knight, Djinn of the Sands, Forcemage Apprentice, Keeper of Secrets, Time Bender, Hunting Raptors, Pack Alpha, Elara The Lycomancer, Helion the Dominator, and/or Rabble Rouser), Feint can let you trigger them twice in one turn.

If you are brave enough not to expend your expend champions right when you play them (usually better to expend immediately) and your opponent attacks you on their turn, you can declare all of your expend champions as blockers. Then, assuming they survive until you get the initiative, you could expend all of your blocking champions for their effects. (Since they were already declared as blockers, they remain blocking even if expended.) After that, you play Feint which removes all of them from combat and prepares them, so you could use all of their expend abilities again, immediately. (This only works with non-deploying or blitz expend champions.)

Double removal or a lot of human tokens could be pretty strong.

Faithful Pegasus

Faithful Pegasus lets you group attack with it and another human. That human gains airborne this turn. (The human would not gain blitz, so it can’t be declared as an attacker if it is deploying or expended.)

Even if the Faithful Pegasus is removed, the human that gained airborne this turn does not lose it until the end of the turn.

The most interesting interaction with this card is Feint. If you attack with this and a Time Walker (granting Time Walker, a human, airborne), and then play Feint, both champions will be removed from combat. You could then have Time Walker attack alone with the airborne it gained from Faithful Pegasus. After that, you could attack with Faithful Pegasus and a different human, giving that second human airborne too.

Lord of the Arena

Lord of the Arena has a bunch of really cool effects, mostly concerned with combat. When you first play it, it is a 13/9 blitz, unbreakable, must be blocked if able champion. So, you can use it for 13 unbreakable blitz offense, or as removal. If you opponent only has 1 prepared champion, that champion (or one that gets ambushed in before blockers) must block it.

On your opponent’s turn, if you get the chance to play a 1-cost Good card before it is removed, it gains unbreakable for that turn. Then on your next turn, it can attack again and force another block. It’s also really nice that you can see how they block before you trigger Lord of the Arena‘s ally ability (if you don’t want to preemptively make it unbreakable that is). If its 5/9 body is big enough to get the job done, you don’t need to play a 1-cost Good card. If it isn’t, you can play a fast 1-cost Good card before damage.

Attacking with Lord of the Arena first also forces your opponent to block it, so you can follow up with a Rampaging Wurm afterwards if your opponent is out of blockers.

This card also works with Feint, since if your opponent has 2 champions and they block with the one you didn’t want to block, you can Feint and force them to block with the second one (since the first blocker remains flipped).

Since Lord of the Arena is a human, it also works with Faithful Pegasus for an airborne, 13/9, blitz, unbreakable, must be blocked by an airborne champion if able champion. In that scenario, the blocking champion would probably direct all of its damage to break the Pegasus, since the Lord of the Arena is unbreakable.

If you returned this to play with an Angel of Mercy or an already in play Necromancer Lord, you would get the tribute trigger, and then you could play a 1-cost Good card to get the ally trigger too. This would leave you with a 21/9 unbreakable blitz champion.

Turn/Helion, the Dominator

The simplest and frequently the best use of Turn is to permanently gain control of an opponent’s champion (especially if they ambush one in on your turn during combat). Since this doesn’t have much to do with combat, I’m largely ignoring that part for this article. This leaves us with the ability to steal a champion for a turn, prepare it, and let it attack (if it is your turn).

Temporarily stealing a champion on your turn and letting it attack can sometimes be stronger than stealing a champion permanently. This is especially true if your opponent has spent their gold for the turn, even more so if you are playing against a control deck. Attacking with a big body champion can get a lot of damage in that your opponent might be unable to stop. Say your opponent Surprise Attacks in Time Walker. You steal it for the turn and attack for 10 damage. If you take the Time Walker permanently instead, your opponent can wait until their turn to deal with it, potentially playing a Sea Titan returning their Time Walker to their hand.

Temporarily stealing a champion on your turn can also allow you to use a powerful expend ability like High King, Necromancer Lord, etc.

One interesting quirk with Loyalty 2 -> Blitz effects is that the champion never loses blitz (unless a Blind Faith strips it). So, if your opponent played Necromancer Lord with Loyalty 2 -> blitz and didn’t expend it, you could permanently gain control of Necromancer Lord and still expend it on the turn you Turned it.

Even with these uses, stealing permanently is so powerful, that the first option is usually only used on your opponent’s turn. The most common use of Turn on your opponent’s turn is to stop an attack. They play and attack with Gold Dragon, you Turn it, gaining control of it, preventing the attack from dealing damage to you/giving your opponent health through righteous, and you gain a blocker that your opponent won’t want to remove (since they will get it back at the end of the turn). If that is all you use it for, it’s okay, but not great.

The more champions in play and the more champions attacking at once, the greater Turn‘s  potential. Say your opponent attacks with 2 Draka, Dragon Tyrants at once. All of your champions will take 6 damage, but then you could Turn 1 of the Drakas, and, assuming your opponent doesn’t play anything, you can declare your stolen Draka as a blocker to the other Draka. This will cause both Drakas to break, netting you removal of 2 1-cost champions for 1 1-cost card. Even if your opponent only attacks with 1 Draka in this situation, you could still steal the non-attacking Draka and declare it as a blocker.

Another excellent option is a combination of block and expend. Say your opponent has a Dark Assassin that they expended to break one of your champions, then they attack with Pyromancer. You could turn the Dark Assassin, declare it as a blocker, and then expend it to break one of their other 1-cost champions. In this unlikely situation, you would remove 3 1-cost champions with just 1 1-cost card. Even just stealing Elara to chump block a Steel Golem and then transform herself giving you the wolf token is strong.

Another great thing about Turn, is that you can target your own champions. You want to Rabble Rouser again? Turn. You want to attack with your Lashed Kong again? Turn. Another use of Necromancer Lord, etc. You could even attack with Dark Assassin and then if they ambush in Lurking Giant, play Turn on your Dark Assassin, expend to break the Lurking Giant, and then let your attack finish.

Finally, one really fun one. Elder Greatwurm cannot gain blitz from Turn because of its “this card can’t gain powers or abilities” ability. But, if your opponent has Elder Greatwurm in play, you can play Blind Faith and strip Elder Greatwurm‘s can’t gain abilities ability. Then, you can play Turn on the Elder Greatwurm, give it blitz, attack, and play Lash on it.

That’s right WWG remainder text, I just gave it both blitz and breakthrough.

Helion, the Dominator can do some of the same things. It does not prepare the targeted champion though.

Sea Hydra and Angelic Protector

If you have Sea Hydra in play and you get attacked by a big champion (Steel Golem for example), you can block with your Sea Hydra and then play Angelic Protector before damage. Sea Hydra still takes 13 damage, but it doesn’t break because it is unbreakable. At the end of the turn, it will gain 13 +1/+1 counters. This can also be done with Brave Squire.

Thrasher Demon really appreciates unbreakable as well.

Army of the Apocalypse

Army of the Apocalypse can do a lot of crazy things: a lot of blitzers, Drinker of Blood combos, etc. Specifically related to combat already in progress, I really like it with dragons.

Attack with White Dragon. If your opponent doesn’t block, play Army of the Apocalypse to return 3 Thundaruses and a Gold Dragon to play. Your unblocked 20/20 righteous will then hit. If your opponent still isn’t dead, you can swing with your 21/23 airborne, blitz, righteous Gold Dragon.

More?

As I come up with more, I’ll be sure to add them here. Let me know if I missed any that you would like me to add.

Foreword

This is a highly-experimental deck focused around Evil board clears.

First Shot Deck List

Evil (41)

Slow (16)
3x Angel of Death
1x Drinker of Blood
3x Murderous Necromancer
3x Necromancer Lord
1x Raxxa, Demon Tyrant
3x Reaper
2x Soul Hunter

Fast (15)
2x Apocalypse
3x Final Task
3x Medusa
3x Plague
3x Raxxa’s Displeasure
1x Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost (10)
2x Guilt Demon
1x Heinous Feast
2x Plentiful Dead
2x Spawning Demon
1x Unquenchable Thirst
2x Wither

Good (6)

Slow (0)

Fast (4)
3x Ceasefire
1x Inner Peace

0-Cost (2)
2x Blind Faith

Sage (9)

Slow (0)

Fast (6)
3x Ancient Chant
3x Lesson Learned

0-Cost (3)
3x Arcane Research

Wild (4)

Slow (0)

Fast (3)
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (1)
1x Flash Fire

First Shot Explanation

I have been playing against a lot of Brachiosaurus decks recently, which is part of the reason why I wanted to make a board clear heavy deck. (I also wanted another Evil based deck.)

To compliment the board clears, I added the Reapers, Murderous Necromancers, Medusas, and Necromancer Lords. All of these are incredibly powerful champions that are either removal or need to be removed. Medusa can be played off-turn, and all the rest will control the game if left alive. I did not include Dark Assassin because it is too easy to remove with a single 0-cost card.

Soul Hunter is included almost exclusively to be played when one of my Reapers is already in play. In that situation, I can use Reaper‘s ally ability to target Soul Hunter. This breaks the Soul Hunter dealing 5 damage to my opponent, puts a demon token into play for me, and put the Soul Hunter in the discard pile to come back on my turn. Reaper will also trigger its ally effect whenever you use a 1-cost Evil event to draw 2 cards. This does not work with 0-cost Evil events due to the nature of ally triggers.

The Ancient Chants and Lesson Learneds are included primarily for the 4 card draw combo, explained at Epic Insights. Lesson Learned also has a lot of other strong events to copy such as Surprise Attack, Final Task, Ceasefire, or any of the board clears.

Surprise Attack and Final Task can provide me with more fast removal. One of the best targets for this is an Angel of Death for an off-turn board clear.

3 Arcane Researches are included for a variety of reasons outlined by Derik M in an earlier comment.

Unquenchable Thirst can clash a bit with Arcane Research. I am not sure if I want both, or I might just adjust the quantities of each.

Plentiful Deads are included primarily for fast chump blockers.

Since this is a control deck and I have the Arcane Researches, I might add in some more singletons like Lightning Storm and Lash.

I avoided some strong non-Evil cards like Brave Squire and additional Flash Fires because I wanted to keep my ratio of 1-cost Evil cards high. It would be nice to cut the Sage and Good 1-cost cards altogether, but the 0-cost cards I gain from them are quite nice. If I were to cut them, it would help my Reapers, Spawning Demons, and Plentiful Deads. It would also be more incentive to add Infernal Gatekeepers.

The main reason I labeled this highly experimental, aside from heavy board clears, is the card draw situation. Most of the slow or 0-cost cards included do not draw cards. In addition, the board clears don’t draw cards when I use them for their “if it is your turn” effect. Due to this, I included the Ancient Chant/Lesson Learned combo and the Cease Fires. I might have gone a bit overboard though, since this deck only has 9 zeros that don’t replace themselves or come back to hand.

 

Foreword

Epic implements combat in a TCG/CCG-like game better than all of the other games of that genre I have played. Attacking is a fluid part of your turn because both you and your opponent have a lot of decisions to make.

You must decide:

• When to attack on your turn (if at all)
• How many champions to attack with at once
• When to “chump block” to prevent damage
• When to play “combat tricks” that enhance your champions
• Which of a plethora of other possibilities you need to consider

In this article, I will discuss first the generically correct answers to these questions. At the end of each discussion, I will link to an article that goes into more detail about that specific aspect of Epic combat.

Combat Overview

I have included my Epic Turn chart below to provide context for how attacking/combat works in Epic.

In Summary, Passing initiative during combat works like this:

• Both players get a chance to play fast actions
• Then, instead of playing fast actions and passing back to their opponent, a player may end the passing initiative cycle
• The attacking player goes first after declaring attackers
• The defending player goes first after declaring blockers
• Explained in further detail later in the article

 

On April 6, 2017, WWG announced a couple of rules updates during the “Attack” phase and “Try to End Your Turn” phase. The currently accurate diagram and examples are above, click below to see the changes and old diagram.

When You may Attack Overview

After you perform all of the Start of Turn actions, you can initiate an Attack Phase at any point on your turn. You can attack, then play a champion, then attack again, then attempt to end your turn, then, since your opponent played a card, you can attack again, etc. As long as you have prepared champions that aren’t deploying (similar to “summoning sickness” for Magic player or non-charge minions for Hearthstone players), you can initiate an Attack Phase on your turn.

When Each Player may Play Cards in Combat Overview

(updated with April 2017 changes)

During an Attack Phase, there are 2 windows where both players may play Fast Actions: After attackers are declared and After blockers are declared.

An Attack Phase starts when the current player declares 1 or more champions as attackers. Then this attacking player may play any Fast Actions (events, champions with ambush, or activating a card’s power like expend on a champion in play or recall on an event in your discard pile). After the attacking player performs any number of these actions that they would like, the defending player gets that same chance. So, the defending player can play events, champions with ambush, or activate cards’ powers.

If the defending player doesn’t want to play any Fast actions, they can instead move directly to the next step (declare blockers). However, if they play one or more Fast actions, the attacking player gets another chance to play as many Fast actions as they would like. From here, players may take any number of Fast actions and then pass back to the other player, until, one player decides to move onto the next step (declare blockers) instead of playing 1 or more fast actions.

Once both players have passed, the defender assigns 0 or more champions to block the entire group of attacking champions. If at least 1 champion is assigned as a blocker, than none of the champions will deal damage to the defending player. (This is complicated by airborne, unblockable, and breakthrough.)

Once blockers are declared, repeat the same process that occurred after attackers were declared, except, the defending player gets the first chance to play Fast actions: defending player may play Fast Actions, attacking player may play Fast Actions or move onto the next step, etc.

Once both players have had a chance to play Fast Actions and then one player passes instead of playing a Fast Action, damage is assigned. The controller of the champions assign the damage. So, the attacking player would determine how much of the attacking champions’ offense is dealt to each defending champion, and the defending player would determine how much of the defending champions’ offense is dealt to each attacking champion.

When to Attack

You (almost) always want to attack with your champions before spending your gold.

At the start of the turn, you know all of the champions you have in play, and all of the champions your opponent has in play. If you see an attack you can make that is advantageous to you currently, make it. Your opponent will either have to play something to stop you or take the damage.

Examples:

Example 1 (Lone Attacker)

The most simple example is if you have a champion in play and they do not. If you have a Medusa in play and they have nothing in play, attacking guarantees that you will either do 6 damage to them, or they will need to do something to prevent it.

They could either remove Medusa by breaking/banishing/bouncing (returning it to hand) it or ambush a champion in to block it. Once they have committed to something, you can then potentially have an answer for it.

Scenario 1 (Opponent Ambushes in a Champion)

 

Scenario 2 (Opponent Uses Removal)

 

Example 2 (Multiple Attackers)

Attacking before spending your gold is even more important when you have more champions in play than your opponent. The greater your advantage on board, the better it is for your opponent to play a board clear. If you attack with your small champions first, you are almost guaranteed to do at least some damage to your opponent.

Say you have 2 demon tokens, Infernal Gatekeeper, and Triceratops in play. Your opponent has Sea Titan in play.

If you attack before spending your gold, your opponent can only block 1 of the champions, or they can board clear early.

Scenario 1 (Opponent Board Clears Early)

 

Scenario 2 (Opponent Holds onto Gold)

 

Relevant Supplementary Articles

When to Spend Your Gold Before Attacking (Coming Soon)

How Many to Attack with Simultaneously

You (almost) always want to attack with 1 champion at a time.

There a few major disadvantages when attacking as a group:

• If any attacker doesn’t have airborne or unblockable, the entire group is treated as if they don’t have it
• If even 1 champion blocks the group, all of the champions in the group are blocked
• Cards like Spike Trap affect all attacking champions

If you attack with 1 champion at a time, you are more likely to deal damage to your opponent.

Examples:

Example 1 (Chump Block)

You have Thundarus, Knight of Shadows, Kong, and 3 human tokens in play. Your opponent has a Thrasher Demon in play with 2 +1/+1 counters on it.

Scenario 1 (Attack with Everything at Once)

 

Scenario 2 (Attack One at a Time)

 

Example 2 (Pack Attack)

You have 5 wolf tokens in play. Your opponent has Triceratops in play. You can either attack as a group for 10 damage, which would break Triceratops (and all of your wolves), or you can attack one at a time.

Scenario 1 (Attack with Everything at Once)

 

Scenario 2 (Attack One at a Time)

 

Relevant Supplementary Articles

When to Attack in Groups (Coming Soon)

When to Chump Block

“Chump Blocking” is when you block an attacking champion with a smaller one. The attacking champion won’t break, the defending champion will break, but you won’t take any damage.

You (almost) never want to chump block with a 1-cost champion. If you can’t break an attacking 1-cost champion and you have a token, you (almost) always want to chump block.

If you chump block with a 1-cost champion, you can fall behind in champions on the board. If you chump block with tokens, you protect your health and don’t lose much.

Examples:

Example 1 (Emergency Chump Block)

You just spent your gold playing Inheritance of the Meek on your opponent’s turn, clearing the board. They then spend their gold on Rampaging Wurm and attack for 14. You play Plentiful Dead to get a zombie token.

Since your opponent doesn’t play anything before blockers are declared, you declare it as (chump) blocker. Neither player plays anything so your zombie breaks to Rampaging Wurm‘s 14 damage, Rampaging Wurm gets tickled by the zombie, and you take no damage.

Example 2 (Airborne Lethal)

You have Ice Drake in play, Inner Peace in hand, spent your gold, and are at 16 health. Your opponent has no champions in play, 4 cards in hand, 3 health, and spent their gold. They play Draka, Dragon Tryant, revealing Flame Strike and Flash Fire for loyalty 2->blitz, and attack with it.

You could either chump block with Ice Drake, causing only Ice Drake to break, or not chump block.

Scenario 1 (1-cost Chump Block)

 

Scenario 2 (Don’t Chump Block)

 

Relevant Supplementary Articles

When to Chump Block with 1-cost Champions (Coming Soon)

When not to Chump Block with tokens (Coming Soon)

When to Play Combat Tricks

A combat trick is generally a buff (like Rage and Brave Squire), but the term can be broadened out into any Fast effect that can be used to modify combat (fast removal for instance).

You (almost) always want to play your Combat Tricks after blockers have been declared. The obvious exception to this is playing an ambush champion that you want to declare as a blocker before blockers are declared.

As the attacker you want to wait because how your opponent blocks can determine which combat tricks you want to play, if any. In addition, if you play a buff on an unblocked attacker after blockers are declared, the defender cannot change their mind and block the now buffed attacker.

As the defender you want to wait because your opponent might buff their attacker, and then you can use 1 card to answer 2 or more cards, the champion and the buff(s).

Examples:

Example 1 (Token Buff)

My favorite example is when you have Mighty Blow in hand, you have at least a token and 1 more champion in play, and your opponent has at least a token in play.

You could either play your Mighty Blow before or after attackers.

Scenario 1 (Play Mighty Blow Before Blockers are Declared)

 

Scenario 2 (Play Mighty Blow after blockers are declared)

 

Example 2 (Lying in Wait)

You are at 22 health. Your opponent attacks you with Raging T-Rex. You have no champions in play so you declare no blockers. After blockers are declared, your opponent plays 2 Brave Squires on Raging T-Rex. Now, you play Lying in Wait and remove 3 cards for the price of 1.

Relevant Supplementary Articles

When to Play Combat Tricks Before the Declare Blockers Step (Coming Soon)

When to Play Burn Removal in Conjunction with Combat Damage (Coming Soon)

Additional Articles

Included above are the main considerations for Epic combat. Below you can find articles that cover in smaller and/or rarer situations. Articles denoted as Coming Soon have not yet been written. So, if a particular one catches you eye, let me know in the comments, and I will prioritize it.

Bluffing (Coming Soon)

Breakthrough (Coming Soon)

Chump Attacking (Coming Soon)

Interesting Combat Cards