Hello everyone, my name is Nathan Overbay, but those on Epic Digital/Discord know me as Noverb. I’ve been playing Epic Card Game since the Kickstarter, and I was a 2016 Epic Worlds Championship competitor finishing in 16th place. Today I’ll be going over my side of the Dark Draft that I played against Tom on July 4th as part of the (unofficial) Epic Team Masters. Without further adieu lets get on to the draft…
Pack 1, Pick 1
The draft started with an above average pack. I went with Brave Squire because it helps to close out games and almost always trades up. I took note of how much burn I was passing because this was an easy Fireball/Rain of Fire for Tom. If I was going to take a Wild card it would probably be Fireball. Rain of Fire is very versatile, but burn events for 0 are quite valuable. Board clear effects are too plentiful to consider taking Plague this early.
Pack 1, Pick 2
There wasn’t really a choice here. Winter Fairy and Lurking Giant are great cards, and there was no way I was going to pick Plentiful Dead over either this early.
Pack 2, Pick 1
I am a huge fan of Time Bender, so I was sad to see it opened this early. Time Bender can swing the game very quickly in ways few other cards can. Since I didn’t have the loyalty, I was considering Apocalypse or Keeper of Secrets. Having already passed Plague, I did want to make sure I had some number of sweepers. That said, Keeper is a unique source of card advantage in that it denies your opponent recall and draws you cards over time. I generally prefer unique effects over replaceable ones in Dark Draft. Tom will probably pick up Wolf’s Call and Apocalypse.
Pack 2, Pick 2
This is where the picks start to get arguable. My lack of draw-twos and the newly acquired Keeper of Secrets gave me a lot of incentive to pick up Transform. The choice for me is between Thirst and Pack Alpha. Thirst is an effect that is very helpful in dealing with Muse/Plucker without losing too much value. I went with Alpha because of two reasons. First, Alpha is actually a decent establishing champion and continues to be more threatening over time. Second, Thirst gets worse if it’s one of my only evil cards. In hindsight, it was early enough in the draft to push into Evil, and I already had Winter Fairy as an establishing champion.
Pack 3, Pick 1
I think this was a clear Wave of Transformation. It is unfortunate that I’m passing Avenging Angel alongside the choice of three very decent cards. The choice for Tom would depend on what loyalty he wanted to shoot for.
Pack 3, Pick 2
This is another non-choice pack. These are NOT the loyalty payoff cards in Good. I’m quite happy having Forked Lightning and Ceasefire in my pool. Especially happy that Tom didn’t pick Forked Lightning. It eased my worry about burn slightly.
Pack 4, Pick 1
I value 0’s that recycle quite highly, so Ogre Mercenary was the pick for me. Tom would probably pick Djinn and Demon Breach, so this is a decent pack for him.
Pack 4, Pick 2
This pack concerned me. Passing Muse told me a few things. I knew he had Fireball and Rain of Fire from Pack 1, so he already had ways to remove it. Even still, the cards I would consider taking over Muse here are Sea Titan/Plucker/Lightning Storm/Amnesia/etc. I would also take Forcemage Apprentice in that slot. My pick was between Noble Unicorn or Mighty Blow. I already had three pieces of removal so Vital Mission wasn’t necessary. Unicorn was a decent option, but I had yet to pick up a single Good 1 to accompany it. I had already passed choice good cards like Angel of Mercy and Avenging Angel, so I went with Mighty Blow to accompany Brave Squire as combat tricks. A very pivotal pack and I’m still left wondering if I made the right call.
Pack 5, Pick 1
All of these cards are worth considering. Gold Dragon is a decent source of lifegain. I only had three Wild gold cards so Cave Troll and Wurm Hatchling seemed less interesting. I am incentivized by Keeper of Secrets to take a Sage card here. With no way to deal with Muse/Plucker efficiently, I picked up the Blue Dragon.
Pack 5, Pick 2
When I opened this pack I was immediately confused. I was scratching my head as to what Tom took. The pack is great. Erase, Amnesia, and Dark Knight are all excellent cards. I took Amnesia because it’s the best option for discard banish available. I value discard banish very highly. It keeps your opponent off of Recycle and stops them from getting value off of things like Soul Hunter. Now the choice is between Erase and Dark Knight. Dark Knight is quite strong at pushing through damage and pressuring the opponent’s gold. That being said I’m not sold on this pick. I passed Tom both Avenging Angel and Gold Dragon, great targets to Erase for value.
Pack 6, Pick 1
This pack wasn’t super powerful (for me) and I just picked up Amnesia. This is the perfect time to pick up an Army of the Apocalypse. White Dragon and Succubus are both strong cards that Tom potentially had the deck for at this point.
Pack 6, Pick 2
Memory Spirit goes great with cards like Wave of Transformation, Brave Squire, and Ceasefire. The other card here was a toss-up. I’m not a huge fan of Steel Golem, so that left Inner Peace and Secret Legion. The choice was Inner Peace largely because I had no way to gain life. I had already passed Tom a few burn cards so ideally I could fend it off with Inner Peace–Ceasefire–Inner Peace.
Pack 7, Pick 1
I chose Hurricane because it’s a solid off-turn board clear. In hindsight, Ice Drake would have been great in my deck. I had the loyalty to back it up and Ceasefire to compliment it. I find myself overlooking Ice Drake too often, given that I’ve loved it every time I did pick it. This pack is quite strong overall. Tom probably snapped up the Pyromancer and I’d guess one of the Good cards depending on his deck.
Pack 7, Pick 2
Zombie Apocalypse marks my third fast wrath which left only Inheritance of the Meek. It’s a great card so I snapped it up. Divine Judgement is a solid card and also triggers ally for Inner Peace, so I was happy to pick it up over Turn.
Pack 8, Pick 1
Hasty Retreat is a great way to save yourself from losing to an attack while your gold is down. It’s also a great way to win a race if it comes down to that. Overall, Hasty Retreat is a unique effect in core only so I was very happy to nab it. I passed a lot of decent evil earlier in the draft, if Tom picked those up he surely would pick up these two great payoff cards. Otherwise at worst this pack has two Draw-Twos for him.
Pack 8, Pick 2
Lash (or Rage) was exactly what I wanted to pick up to compliment Brave Squire and Mighty Blow. My deck needed more ways to close out a game and Triceratops is a great establishing champion. I definitely wasn’t in the market for a Jungle Queen but I did consider Inner Demon. On your turn breaking a champion and making a demon is a fine ability, but it’s hard to argue with Triceratops.
Pack 9, Pick 1
I was very happy to see Inheritance of the Meek because I knew that having it meant Tom had no access to off-turn wraths. I wasn’t afraid to pass Soul Hunter for the same reason I thought Tom wouldn’t take it; because he knows I have Amnesia. At this point I assumed Tom would take the Ancient Chant and Angelic Protector.
Pack 9, Pick 2
Warrior Golem goes great with our other 0 cost threats, but, other than that, the pack isn’t great for us. Thinking back on it, I knew Erase was canned, and I had two Banish sweepers. I should have taken Thundarus.
Pack 10, Pick 1
I was not excited to see this pack. I grabbed Flash Fire because I already had Muse and Dark Knight that I wanted to protect. The problem was that I knew he had Fireball and possibly Wither/Forcemage Apprentice. So I knew he had the answers, but I also wanted my own way to deal with a possible Thought Plucker or Necromancer Lord. Flash Fire also cleans up the Zombies and Wolves leftover from Zombie Apocalypse and Wave of Transformation. Even then, passing Flame Strike AND Frost Giant made it so this game was not going to be easy.
Pack 10, Pick 2
I don’t think there’s too much to question in this pick. Guilt Demon and Final Task are two very strong cards. If I had more than 4 ways to trigger ally on Priestess I would have considered picking it up. Don’t discredit her small stature. She replaces herself and gains you life over time. Usually a very useful card. This wasn’t the deck for it, though.
Overall I think my deck was decent. Tom did a very good job of putting me on the back foot and keeping me there with a great deck. In the final turn I had made a grievous lapse in judgement that lost me the game (a great example of why sleep is important.) After discussing with Tom our hands and decks I agreed that I was probably going to lose in the end regardless. It happens, and it was still a good game. You can watch his side here:
I appreciate the opportunity to write my side of the draft, I hope you all found it helpful. If you have any questions or want to discuss some of my choices feel free to contact me in the comments below or on Discord. You should definitely check out all of Tom’s other content if you haven’t already.