Game Reviews, Strategy Articles, and More

Foreword

I wanted a deck that ran 15 of each faction. This is that deck.

First Shot Deck List

Evil (15)

Slow (0)

Fast (10)
3x Bitten
3x Final Task
3x Plague
1x Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost (5)
3x Corpse Taker
2x Wither

Good (15)

Slow (4)
3x Palace Guard
1x Thundarus

Fast (6)
3x Cease Fire
3x Resurrection

0-Cost (5)
3x Brave Squire
2x Watchful Gargoyle

Sage (15)

Slow (4)
1x Frost Giant
3x Sea Titan

Fast (6)
3x Erase
3x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (5)
2x Amnesia
3x Muse

Wild (15)

Slow (4)
3x Kong
1x Triceratops

Fast (6)
3x Hurricane
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (5)
2x Lash
3x Rage

First Shot Explanation

While this deck isn’t terribly serious, I do like it. This deck is designed to exploit Kong, Palace Guard, and Sea Titan. All of these champions remove a champion when they come into play and leave a body (big bodies for Kong and Sea Titan). I then also bring 3 Resurrections and 3 Corpse Takers to reuse them. 3 Surprise Attacks are also included to get them into play. 3 Final Tasks can get solid blitz damage in or a block + removal.

3/11/16 Rework Deck List

Evil (9)

Slow (0)

Fast (6)
3x Final Task
3x Plague

0-Cost (3)
3x Corpse Taker

Good (12)

Slow (3)
3x Palace Guard

Fast (8)
3x Cease Fire
2x Inner Peace
3x Resurrection

0-Cost (1)
1x Watchful Gargoyle

Sage (15)

Slow (4)
1x Frost Giant
3x Sea Titan

Fast (6)
3x Erase
3x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (5)
2x Amnesia
3x Muse

Wild (24)

Slow (6)
3x Kong
3x Triceratops

Fast (10)
3x Hurricane
1x Lightning Storm
3x Lurking Giant
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (8)
3x Flash Fire
2x Lash
3x Rage

3/11/16 Rework Explanation

Removed: Bitten, Zombie Apocalypse, Wither, Thundarus, and Brave Squire

Added: Inner Peace, Lightning Storm, Lurking Giant, and Flash Fire

This deck actually worked fairly well when I played it, so I decided to forgo my 15/15/15/15 requirement to try to make it better. The strength of this deck is in abusing Palace Guard, Sea Titan, and Kong. Corpse Taker, Resurrection, and Final Task allow me to replay them, and the rest of the cards are just strong.

Flash Fire is one of the best cards in my opinion, and it was an easy replacement for Wither. It also helps to clear out chump blockers for an attack by one of my big champions.

Lurking Giant is an 11/11 ambush. I included this because it is another big Hurricane-surviving champion, and it can be played on my opponent’s turn. All of my other champions need a Surprise Attack.

Inner Peace is the most interesting card I added. This does have an ally effect so it messes with the deck’s name, but I think it will fit well. Since I am abusing those 3 champions, I have big champions and strong removal. I also have a lot of ways to deal with tokens, and a lot of ways to draw cards. In other words, I believe that I can afford to bring/play 2 cards exclusively to heal and not fall behind.

Lightning Storm is just strong in general.

Foreword

Burn decks try to reduce a player’s health to 0 primarily with direct damage. I hate burn decks. Here’s mine.

First Shot Deck List

Good (6)

Slow (0)

Fast (4)
3x Ceasefire
1x Inheritance of the Meek

0-Cost (2)
2x Watchful Gargoyle

Sage (18)

Slow (0)

Fast (12)
3x Erase
3x Lying in Wait
3x Memory Spirit
3x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (6)
3x Forcemage Apprentice
3x Hasty Retreat

Wild (36)

Slow (3)
3x Raging T-Rex

Fast (21)
3x Flame Strike
3x Forked Lightning
3x Hunting Raptors
3x Lightning Storm
3x Pyromancer
3x Rain of Fire
3x Strafing Dragon

0-Cost (12)
3x Cave Troll
3x Fire Shaman
3x Fireball
3x Flash Fire

First Shot Explanation

This deck is fairly simple. Ideally, you want to play a 1-cost burn spell directly against your opponent on your turn. If you have enough high damage burn, you can play burn on your opponent’s turn too. It is possible to beat your opponent in two turns this way.

Since there are not enough burn cards to make a full deck currently, the rest of the deck is designed to disrupt your opponent on their turn. This deck has bounce, non-targeting Banish, airborne ambush chump blockers, and Cease Fire.

Burn decks’ weakness is health gain. Inner Peace can shut this deck down, especially since it has no discard banish. Angel of Light is 10 health and a 5/6 flyer. It also can’t be bounced since it would gain your opponent another 10 health. Righteous champions, Avenging Angel and Gold Dragon, must be removed.

I dislike burn decks because they don’t require much thought to play, they radically change how the game plays, and it is frustrating to lose to them. This is included here so people know to watch out for them. As more ways to deal direct damage are added, this deck archetype could continue to get stronger. For example, the kickstarter promos include Aftershock, Searing Blast, and Owl Familiar.

3/11/16 Playtest Notes

This deck kills quickly with a strong draw. In the games I have played with it so far, it was basically unstoppable. Since I hate burn decks, these are the best ways to beat this deck. This deck hasn’t played against a deck that employed either yet.

The biggest weakness of this deck is that it can run out of steam. Since a lot of the burn only does damage without improving your board position, you can deplete your hand and lose board position quickly. Depleting your hand also makes it less likely that you will be able to trigger the critical Loyalty 2 effects from Raging T-Rex, Hunting Raptors, and Strafing Dragon. All 3 of those cards are basically worthless for this deck without loyalty. Therefore, Psionic Assault and Thought Plucker could do work in disrupting this deck. If they run out of steam prematurely, you have a strong chance of winning.

The second way to force a burn deck to run out of steam is health gain. Angel of Light, Inner Peace, Avenging Angel, Gold Dragon, Priestess of Angeline, and, to a lesser extent, Vital Mission, Drain Essence and Unquenchable Thirst all work for this purpose. For instance, if you have an Inner Peace you can out pace even Flame Strike. In addition, you don’t lose card advantage since this deck can’t stop you from recalling Inner Peace.

As of now, I see no changes that need to be made. If you run this deck, make sure you hold onto your 0-cost cards until needed. If you use them too early, you won’t be able to power your Loyalty 2 effects later. I also generally would not recommend playing this deck in casual games. If you do, people might not want to play against you, since it isn’t particularly fun to play against.

Tyrants Initial Rework Decklist (3/29/16)

Good (3)

Slow (0)

Fast (3)
3x Ceasefire

0-Cost (0)

Sage (24)

Slow (0)

Fast (18)
3x Crystal Golem
3x Erase
3x Lesson Learned
3x Memory Spirit
3x Temporal Shift
3x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (6)
3x Forcemage Apprentice
3x Hasty Retreat

Wild (33)

Slow (0)

Fast (24)
3x Draka’s Fire
3x Flame Strike
3x Forked Lightning
3x Hunting Raptors
3x Lightning Storm
3x Pyromancer
3x Rain of Fire
3x Strafing Dragon

0-Cost (9)
3x Fire Shaman
3x Fireball
3x Flash Fire

Tyrants Initial Rework Explanation (3/29/16)

Removed: Inheritance of the Meek, Watchful Gargoyle, Lying in Wait, Raging T-Rex, and Cave Troll

Added: Crystal Golem, Lesson Learned, Temporal Shift, and Draka’s Fire

Draka’s Fire was an obvious add as it was pretty much the only burn in the expansion. (As a remainder, I hate burn decks so this makes me happy.)

Lesson Learned lets me reuse all of the powerful event burn and disruption in my deck.

Temporal Shift is just solid removal that doesn’t deplete my hand size.

Crystal Golem is a bit of a replacement for Watchful Gargoyle. A block and draw 2 cards. Could potentially be used to attack as well.

The biggest change in this rework is the moving away from 20 0-cost cards. This deck can potentially run out of steam, and having 0-cost cards that don’t do direct damage or draw is less helpful then having reliably strong 1-cost cards. If I had more card draw, having 20 0-cost cards would be less of an issue.

6/11/16 Playtest Notes

So… I don’t actually hate playing this deck. In fact, I played quite a few games with it against a control deck, and the games were actually pretty interesting. Some of the games were fairly quick with a multiple Flame Strike draw, but one of the games I played was actually one of the longest games of constructed Epic I have ever played, most turns. (There was a lot of health gain.)

The interesting part is the balance between offense and defense. I built this deck fairly defensively with burn and disruptive events focusing on card draw. In general, I stuck with the game plan of playing burn against my opponent’s health on my turn and disrupting my opponent on their turn. One thing that surprised me though was the amount of times I passed my turn before spending my gold. Instead of just going face constantly with everything every turn, I had to think multiple turns ahead.

The most important part of playing this deck is understanding how to deal with your opponent’s threats. Burn should be saved for your opponent’s face whenever possible. Using a Flame Strike to break a champion is an absolute last resort. Instead, Erase, Temporal Shift (mini-Erase), and most importantly Hasty Retreat are your best ways to deal with big threats. Hand size for your opponent is largely irrelevant, as long as the board doesn’t get too out of control.

Ceasefire can also be excellent because it can set up for big Wave of Transformation turns. Being able to transform everything, then break all the wolves with Flash Fire and do 2 damage to your opponent’s health is a big deal.

Finally for defense, Rain of Fire, Forked Lightning, and Draka’s Fire can be insanely devastating against some decks. For these cards, if you can make efficient use of them both offensively and defensively, you’ll probably be in good shape.

Another factor to think about is your burn efficiency. This deck runs Wild loyalty and ally triggers and a decent chunk of Sage. Due to this, it is possible to have a mixed hand with a Fire Shaman, Strafing Dragon, Rain of Fire, and 2 Sage cards. Until you draw a 4th Wild, you can’t get both the Fire Shaman ally and Strafing Dragon loyalty effects in the same turn. Deciding when to hold back and when to press the attack in these situations is very important and interesting.

Lesson Learned is an absolutely incredible card as well. A second (third, fourth, fifth, etc.) Flame Strike is amazing, but so is a second (third, fourth, etc.) Erase. The same goes for Memory Spirit. Both of these cards provide a lot of extra flexibility that makes the deck better and more fun to play. (I do not currently feel like the Lesson Learned Ancient Chant combo is needed for this version.)

Overall, the deck archetype is a lot more interesting than I was expecting. This is another one of my four potential Origins decks.

 

 

Other Similar Decks Online

The Epic Insights blog posted a burn deck which can be found here.

Foreword

This deck was designed around the idea of 0-Cost blitzers attacking, getting bounced by Time Walker, and attacking again.

First Shot Deck List

Evil (30)

Slow (11)
1x Angel of Death
3x Dark Assassin
3x Murderous Necromancer
3x Necromancer Lord
1x Soul Hunter

Fast (9)
3x Bitten
1x Final Task
3x Inner Demon
1x Plague
1x Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost (10)
2x Corpse Taker
3x Dark Knight
3x Guilt Demon
2x Thrasher Demon

Sage (27)

Slow (7)
1x Frost Giant
3x Juggernaut
3x Time Walker

Fast (11)
3x Ancient Chant
1x Deadly Raid
3x Erase
2x Ice Drake
2x Turn

0-Cost (9)
3x Keeper of Secrets
3x Ogre Mercenary
3x Warrior Golem

Wild (3)

Fast (2)
2x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (1)
1x Lash

First Shot Explanation

This deck hopes to do a significant portion of its damage through 0-cost blitz champions. Dark Knight, Guilt Demon, Thrasher Demon, Warrior Golem, Keeper of Secrets, and Ogre Mercenary are the stars. Ideally, I would be able to attack with a couple or a few, then bounce them  back to hand with Time Walker, then replay them and attack again. Ogre Mercenary -> Time Walker -> Ogre Mercenary is pretty solid card draw as well.

With that in mind, I will probably use a decent amount of my removal on my turn, to disrupt ambush champions etc. For this reason, Inner Demon, Bitten, and to a much greater extent, Turn have been included. All of these are fast so they can answer an ambushed blocker before the block can be declared. In addition, Turn would still permanently take control of the champion, or I could swing (attack) for the win with it. (Swinging for the win is much riskier, especially since this deck doesn’t have good 0-cost token disruption. This is a big judgement call that relies on you reading your opponent. Knowing/figuring out if they have an answer in their deck and guessing if they have it in hand are key.) Banishment is another excellent card for this role. It is not currently included since it is off-faction, and this deck focuses heavily on Evil and Sage 0-cost cards.

The only other thing special about this deck is the use of Ancient Chants. I use these in conjunction with a lot of recycle triggers to turn them into draw 3 cards. It is possible I have too many recycle triggers though.

I am currently worried about my minimal token/low defense sweepers (board clears that affect certain champions, in this case low defense champions). I do have Surprise Attack/Final Task Time Walker which is excellent. In addition, I might add more Zombie Apocalypses. My deck only has 21 events, but I do also rely a lot on recycle; so I am torn.

3/11/16 Playtest Notes

I haven’t had a chance to personally play this deck yet, but I lost to it a few times. It definitely seems strong enough to warrant further testing.

4/11/16 Deprecation Note

I reworked this deck to such an extent after Tyrants was released that I made a new post here.

Foreword

This deck tries to make Plentiful Dead work.

First Shot Deck List

Evil (45)

Slow (15)
1x Angel of Death
2x Dark Assassin
2x Drinker of Blood
3x Infernal Gatekeeper
3x Murderous Necromancer
2x Necromancer Lord
2x Soul Hunter

Fast (15)
2x Apocalypse
3x Bitten
3x Drain Essence
3x Inner Demon
2x Plague
2x Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost (15)
3x Dark Knight
3x Guilt Demon
3x Plentiful Dead
3x Thrasher Demon
2x Unquenchable Thirst
1x Wither

Good (3)

Slow (0)

Fast (2)
2x Secret Legion

0-Cost (1)
1x Courageous Soul

Sage (9)

Slow (0)

Fast (6)
1x Deadly Raid
2x Erase
3x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (3)
3x Muse

Wild (3)

Slow (0)

Fast (2)
1x Flame Strike
1x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (1)
1x Flash Fire

First Shot Explanation

This deck tries to do a few things, possibly a few too many things. I designed the deck around the card Plentiful Dead. I did this because I think the card is largely bad, and I want to prove myself wrong. So, my initial thought was to make a chip damage deck centered around 0-cost minions.

In theory, I want to keep a constant, decent board on the table that threatens to do a small amount of damage each turn. I expect to potentially lose a lot of small attackers to draw off blockers. Although, if I save the bigger attackers for last, my initial attackers might go unblocked. This would let me not attack with the bigger attackers that would break, while still doing damage. In addition, I included a singleton Deadly Raid and Courageous Soul as attacking finishers. I’ll need testing to see if this is viable.

The second way I am trying to exploit Plentiful Dead is with Soul Hunter. I am hoping that, due to the Plentiful Deads staying in my hand and significant card draw, I will be able to discard my Soul Hunters because my hand exceeds 7 at the end of my turn. Once again, testing will be required to see if this is viable.

This deck’s final trick is Drinker of Blood. I run a singleton Flash Fire and Wither with a lot of 2 defense 0-cost minions to get a lot of Drinker of Blood triggers. Surprise Attack Drinker of Blood followed by board clear is also excellent.

3/11/16 Rework Deck List

Evil (39)

Slow (14)
2x Drinker of Blood
3x Infernal Gatekeeper
3x Murderous Necromancer
3x Necromancer Lord
3x Trihorror

Fast (12)
2x Army of the Apocalypse
3x Bitten
3x Final Task
1x The Risen
3x Zombie Apocalypse

0-Cost (13)
3x Dark Knight
3x Guilt Demon
3x Plentiful Dead
3x Thrasher Demon
1x Wither

Good (6)

Slow (0)

Fast (4)
2x Inheritance of the Meek
2x Secret Legion

0-Cost (2)
2x Courageous Soul

Sage (12)

Slow (0)

Fast (8)
3x Ancient Chant
3x Crystal Golem
1x Deadly Raid
1x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (4)
2x Amnesia
2x Muse

Wild (3)

Slow (0)

Fast (2)
1x Surprise Attack
1x Wolf’s Call

0-Cost (1)
1x Flash Fire

3/11/16 Rework Explanation

Removed: Angel of Death, Dark Assassin, Soul Hunter, Apocalypse, Drain Essence, Inner Demon, Plague, Unquenchable Thirst, Erase, and Flame Strike

Added: Trihorror, Army of the Apocalypse, Final Task, The Risen, Inheritance of the Meek, Ancient Chant, Crystal Golem, Amnesia, and Wolf’s Call

The original version of this deck did not work particularly well. I played 3 games with it, losing 2 and winning 1 (barely). The deck consisted of a few combos and a lot of removal, but it couldn’t build much momentum. I also frequently ran low on cards in hand.

So, to address these issues, I took out a lot of the more situational response cards, and I added more ways to get ahead. The biggest additions to help me get ahead are Trihorror and Final Task. Trihorror is a threat that doesn’t care about breaking (bounce and banish are rough though). Final Task lets me bring back Trihorror (granting 3 demons when it breaks at end of turn), Murderous Necromancer (granting 3 zombies when it comes in, breaks a champion, and gives a 4th zombie), Necromancer Lord (brings back another champion permanently), and I can always draw 2 off it instead. Army of the Apocalypse and Zombie Apocalypse can also get me ahead later in the game. Due to these cards, I minimized my recycling and added Amnesias.

To increase my card draw, I added Ancient Chants and Crystal Golems. Ancient Chants punish my opponents for banishing my discard pile, and Amnesia recycle/Guilt Demon can banish my own Ancient Chants if needed. Crystal Golems work well with both Necromancer Lord and Army of the Apocalypse.

I also decided to include a singleton Wolf’s Call as a meta pick. I believe Wave of Transformation is going to be very prevalent. So, the Wolf’s Call is there to punish a Wave of Transformation played by an opponent on my turn, when I have tokens in play. The singleton The Risen is included to give demons spawned by a broken Trihorror blitz.

This deck’s worst matchup is almost certainly a burn deck. Losing 1 life to Plentiful Dead or Infernal Gatekeeper could be an issue, especially since I removed Drain Essence and Unquenchable Thirst. In addition, this deck isn’t particularly quick. Banish is also incredibly problematic.

 

Foreword

This was one of the first Epic decks I designed. I did get a bit carried away talking about revisions.

Deck List

Good

Slow (5)
2x White Knight
3x Palace Guard

Fast (16)
3x Angelic Protector
2x Angel of Light
2x Banishment
3x Ceasefire
2x Divine Judgement
2x Noble Unicorn
2x Resurrection

0-Cost (9)
3x Brave Squire
3x Priest of Kalnor
3x Watchful Gargoyle

Wild

Slow (9)
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex
3x Triceratops

Fast (11)
2x Flame Strike
3x Hurricane
3x Mighty Blow
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (10)
3x Cave Troll
2x Flash Fire
2x Lash
3x Rage

Explanation

The goal of this deck is to attack with a big, breakthrough, unbreakable, untargetable champion. This worked fairly well because that type of attack is hard to stop. You can’t chump block it, break it, targeted bounce it, or off-turn breaking board wipe it. The only reliable answers are non-targeting banish: Lying in Wait, Wave of Transformation, and Inheritance of the Meek (Surprise Attack + Time Walker would also work).

Surprise Attack is very important in this deck because it sets up the attack. Surprise Attack in a Kong on opponent’s turn, after they spent their gold, to break a champion. Then, immediately on your turn Lash/Rage the Kong and use Priest of Kalnor/Angelic Protector. Your opponent is now facing a 17/13 breakthrough, unbreakable, untargetable monstrosity. In addition, they had no chance to use a gold to disrupt it.

In my first iteration I ran Lord of the Arena which comes equipped with 13 offense, blitz, and unbreakable. I cut them because it was frequently getting bounced due to the lack of untargetable. (Untargetable does need to be applied after breakthrough is added.)

Now that I have a bit more experience playing, Cave Troll, Flame Strike, Divine Judgement, White Knight, Angel of Light, Banishment, Watchful Gargoyle, and Noble Unicorn seem a bit out of place. Unfortunately, I don’t see a lot of Good cards I would want to replace them with. I initially did want to stay roughly 30/30 so I can trigger both Raging T-Rex and Priest of Kalnor. I might want to add High King and White Dragon to help me stall as I set up. Jungle Queen and Lurking Giant might be worth it since the ambush is so helpful. Wurm Hatchling is another option if I go further wild.

Adding Jungle Queen and Sea Hydra might be enough draw to offset having less Good. In addition, adding those champions would make Resurrection better…

Updated Deck List

Good (22)

Slow (6)
3x High King
3x Palace Guard

Fast (10)
3x Angelic Protector
1x Ceasefire
3x Inheritance of the Meek
3x Resurrection

0-Cost (6)
3x Brave Squire
3x Priest of Kalnor

Wild (38)

Slow (15)
3x Jungle Queen
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex
3x Sea Hydra
3x Triceratops

Fast (11)
3x Hurricane
2x Lurking Giant
3x Mighty Blow
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (12)
3x Flash Fire
3x Lash
3x Rage
3x Wurm Hatchling

Updated Explanation

I’m going to try this updated list next time I run this deck instead. I am a bit concerned at my lack of off-turn targeted removal. In addition, I cut 2 Ceasefires assuming Hurricane, Flashfire, and Inheritance of the Meek would be sufficient. The Lurking Giants should hopefully help deal with bigger attacking threats too.

I’m curious which deck list everyone thinks is better. Feel free to let me know in the comments, especially if you think the changes are a terrible idea.

2/29/16 Deck List

Good (21)

Slow (6)
3x High King
3x Palace Guard

Fast (9)
3x Angelic Protector
3x Ceasefire
3x Resurrection

0-Cost (6)
3x Brave Squire
3x Priest of Kalnor

Sage (9)

Slow (0)

Fast (6)
3x Erase
3x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (3)
3x Muse

Wild (30)

Slow (14)
1x Burrowing Wurm
3x Jungle Queen
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex
1x Sea Hydra
3x Triceratops

Fast (8)
3x Hurricane
2x Mighty Blow
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (8)
3x Flash Fire
2x Lash
3x Rage

2/29/16 Explanation

Thinking about it this morning, I decided to make a few more changes. I replaced the Inheritance of the Meeks with Wave of Transformations, and I went back up to 3 Ceasefires. For this deck, I assume I will almost always want to use IotM/WoT on my opponent’s turn. In that situation, WoT banishes all champions including Thundarus, it doesn’t draw my opponent a card, and it leaves wolf tokens that my Flash Fires and Hurricanes can deal with. In this deck, WoT seems almost strictly better. I added the Ceasefires back in to keep my Good count at 21. (It is also one of the best cards, if not the best, to play on an opponent’s turn when they try to end their turn without spending their gold.)

I removed 8 Wild cards to add Sage cards to help me deal with Thundarus. This also let me bring Muses. I cut the Lurking Giants, Wurm Hatchlings, 2 Sea Hydras, 1 Lash, and 1 Mighty Blow to make room. With that last space I added a singleton Burrowing Wurm. An ambushed Wurm with unbreakable and untargetable seems strong.

I will continue to update this page as I play with this deck, assuming the deck does well enough.

3/1/16 Minor Change and Explanation

Deck changes
-2 Resurrection
+1 Rampaging Wurm
+1 Thundarus

I decided I wanted a big blitzer that can make use of Lash/Rage + Priest of Kalnor. I chose Rampaging Wurm instead of Lord of the Arena for a couple reasons. Rampaging Wurm is Wild so, if needed, I can ambush it in with Jungle Queen (in addition to Surprise Attack). It has 1 higher offense. The unbreakable from Lord of the Arena is also largely irrelevant because I currently plan to only use it with Priest of Kalnor.

I want a big blitzer because I feel like this deck is a lot more dangerous on my opponent’s turn. The best play this deck can make is to ambush in a big attacker on my opponent’s turn after they spend their gold. Then, on my turn, I immediately Lash/Rage followed by Priest of Kalnor/Angelic Protector. Without a big blitzer, I felt like I would need to wait for that opportunity to present itself. We will see with testing.

In addition, I wanted to put in a Thundarus. Surprise Attack Thundarus followed by Lash/Rage and Priest of Kalnor/Angelic Protector would be 14/14 breakthrough, unbanishable, unbreakable, untargetable. The only answers to that are Wave of Transformation and Surprise Attack/Final Task Time Walker.(Surprise Attack -> Necromancer Lord -> Time Walker also works.) If you add Mighty Blow (+ Lash/Rage and Priest of Kalnor), Thundarus becomes a 24/14 breakthrough, unbanishable, unbreakable, untargetable.

Burrowing Wurm, Sea Hydra, Rampaging Wurm, Thundarus, and Lord of the Arena are all potential cards for this deck. Testing will determine which ones perform the best and get to stay.

3/11/16 Playtest Notes

This big breakthrough combination is terrifying. I have not played this deck enough to know the best champions to include, but the unbreakable, untargetable, breakthrough, big champion combinations is really strong (especially when unbanishable too). Due to this deck, I am at the point where I basically always include Wave of Transformation. This, and other constructed testing, has raised the value of Wave of Transformation in my mind significantly. Watch out for this deck.

Untargetable Breakthrough Rework Deck List 5/7/16

Evil (0)

Good (18)

Slow (2)
1x Markus, Watch Captain
1x Thundarus

Fast (12)
3x Ceasefire
1x Divine Judgement
1x Inner Peace
3x Resurrection
3x Royal Escort
1x Vital Mission

0-Cost (4)
2x Blind Faith
2x Priest of Kalnor

Sage (0)

Wild (42)

Slow (20)
3x Brachiosaurus
2x Burrowing Wurm
1x Draka, Dragon Tyrant
3x Fire Spirit
2x Jungle Queen
3x Kong
3x Raging T-Rex
3x Triceratops

Fast (12)
3x Draka’s Enforcer
3x Draka’s Fire
3x Smash and Burn
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (10)
1x Feeding Frenzy
3x Fire Shaman
2x Flash Fire
1x Lash
3x Wurm Hatchling

Untargetable Breakthrough Rework Explanation 5/7/16

I started this update just because I really wanted to use Burrowing Wurm. By the time I was finished, the general spirit of the deck had turned into a less combo-heavy variant of Big Breakthrough. So, I’m putting it here as that deck’s spiritual successor.

The main difference between the two decks is that this one, Untargetable Breakthrough, relies a lot more on champions inherently having breakthrough. Brachiosaurus, Burrowing Wurm, and Triceratops being the big 3.

This deck also carries significantly fewer ways to grant breakthrough, just 1 Lash, and to grant unbreakable/untargetable, no Brave Squire and no Angelic Protector. It does get access to Royal Escort, however, which is amazing. I can get Royal Escort out, then I can follow it up with Burrowing Wurm later. This will generally give the Wurm at least one turn before it can be answered. Surprise Attack makes that a potentially very threatening Wurm. Playing Draka when Royal Escort is in play is also nice for a 9/9 blitzing airborne untargetable champion.

The other critical card in this deck is Brachiosaurus. This card is so important because I can play that into Burrowing Wurm etc., and then I still have one big breakthrough threat left if they remove the other. Brachiosaurus and then pass is also nice, since they can spend their gold, leaving me open to drop another big Wild champion, or they can pass leaving me with an 8/12 breakthrough, win win. Resurrection on Brachiosaurus can also be quite nice.

I did purposefully keep my 0-cost cards down to just 14, as I am a bit scared of running out of cards in hand. I am also trying the deck out initially with only 18 Good cards, even though I am trying to hit loyalty on Priest of Kalnor and potentially Markus.

For dealing with my opponent’s threats, I hope to be able to have my massive Wild Champions handle the big guys, while my Fire Spirits and Fire Shamans handle the small guys. I do also have Flash Fires and Draka’s Fire to help with the small guys too. The other main reason for including Draka’s Fire is to finish off big untargetable blockers like Sea Titan, without hitting my own champions (which is why I didn’t include Hurricanes).

Smash and Burn is included primarily for card draw. Most of the Good cards are included to hit loyalty and to provide me a bit of protection. Inner Peace is nice since it can potentially keep returning to hand for loyalty triggers, if I do need to play it.

I decided not to run any Evil or Sage, although I was considering Army of the Apocalypse, Final Task, Heinous Feast, Ancient Chant, Lesson Learned, and Amnesia. Instead, I decided to keep my Wild Ally count high (also helps Wurm Hatchling) and my Good Loyalty not too low.

A singleton Vital Mission is included for removal, or if I need to target something big like my Burrowing Wurm (or Thundarus) for 18 health and 2 cards.

Overall, this deck just wants to flatten its opponent by connecting with a big Breakthrough champion that can’t have targeted removal played on it.

 

All Epic Card Game images are owned by White Wizard Games, Copyright 2016.

Foreword

This is the first of many Epic constructed decks to come. A friend and I created constructed decks today. We started simply by picking out all of the cards we potentially wanted to include in a deck. Then, we separated the cards by faction and whether or not they had Loyalty 2/Ally/faction requirements. Once we did that, we were able to choose which primary faction(s) we wanted, and we went from there.

We created a primarily Good deck (Persistent Good) featured in this article and an Evil/Wild deck.

Deck List

Evil

Slow (1)
1x Drinker of Blood

Fast (3)
3x Bitten

0-Cost (2)
2x Wither

Good

Slow (11)
2x Gold Dragon
3x High King
3x Palace Guard
3x The People’s Champion

Fast (21)
1x Angel of Light
3x Angel of Mercy
3x Ceasefire
3x Divine Judgement
3x Inheritance of the Meek
3x Noble Unicorn
1x Secret Legion
1x Standard Bearer
3x Vital Mission

0-Cost (13)
3x Brave Squire
1x Courageous Soul
3x Priest of Kalnor
3x Priestess of Angeline
3x White Dragon

Sage

Slow (1)
1x Frost Giant

Fast (5)
1x Deadly Raid
3x Erase
1x Lying in Wait

0-Cost (3)
3x Muse

Explanation

We didn’t design this deck with any particular goal in mind. While playing, we almost constantly had a hand of 5+ cards. This was primarily due to the Noble Unicorns and Cease Fires. In most situations, this deck would get out a Noble Unicorn, Palace Guard, or The People’s Champion and build up from there. The Priestess of Angeline and the White Dragons were used to expand that position.

Since all of Noble Unicorn, Priestess of Angeline, and White Dragon replaced themselves, this deck was able to grind through its opponent’s removal. Whether the opponent used targeted removal or board wipes, this deck was able to quickly reestablish board presence. This deck would then generally win with the help of the singleton (only 1 of a card in a deck) Standard Bearer, Courageous Soul, Deadly Raid, and/or Frost Giant.

These were generally slow to set up victories. While setting up, the copious amounts of removal held the opponent at bay. In addition, the significant life gain from Priestess of Angeline, Gold Dragon, and Priest of Kalnor held back the other deck’s aggro (quick damage such as direct damage or blitz champions).

A couple things that worked particularly well in this deck. Noble Unicorn was a beast. Gold Dragon + Priest of Kalnor was very strong. The singleton Courageous Soul did serious work, especially with the White Dragons. Wither was brought specifically to deal with Muses, but it was excellent against the strong, small expend champions in Evil as well. Muse was generally excellent.

A couple things that didn’t come up much. Drinker of Blood and Angel of Light were never played. Lying in Wait, Secret Legion, and Divine Judgement were only used to draw. Erase wasn’t as useful against Raging T-Rex, Necromancer Lord, Strafing Dragon, Kong, etc., but it still had other targets.

This match up seemed to favor this Good deck. Mainly this was because of all of the banish this deck has. Necromancer Lord, Corpse Taker, etc. were hit hard. More experimentation will be needed to see how this deck fares against other factions and deck archetypes.

Looking Ahead

As we move forward, decks will be designed in multiple other ways. We will try to exploit specific cards/combinations, build to specific archetypes, and, of course, build decks named “Who Needs Allies or Loyalty” etc. In addition, all those cards I have called out as being weak, you better believe I am going to try to break them (use them in such a way that they seem over-powered). I am looking at you Plentiful Dead.