Deck Archetype: Midrange

Foreword

This is part 2 of my 3 part series on Epic Deck Archetypes.

Midrange

If you consistently apply pressure, while preventing your opponent from winning, you will eventually win.

Epic Midrange decks focus on aggressively controlling the board (champions in play), in order to create and exploit unopposed gold-opportunities (turns where your opponent spends their gold first), to establish and maintain immediate/recurring sources of champion-based damage.

To achieve this, midrange decks tend to favor cards that have 3 of 5 primary functions: 6+ toughness champion, fast (event/ambush champion), draw a card, blitz, and/or removal (secondary functions: make tokens, deal direct damage, gain health, discard pile removal, airborne). Midrange decks win when they exploit X gold-opportunities (X depends on opponent’s deck); this involves surviving against aggro or maintaining handsize with board pressure against control.

 

Next Article

Combo archetype discussed in the next article.

Deck Archetypes

Foreword

Decks in card games generally fall into a few broad archetypes: Aggro, Midrange, Control, and Combo. In this article I explain the intricacies of these archetypes specific to Epic.

For historical context, I have included links to similar articles for 10 different card games – Magic: the Gathering, Hearthstone, Eternal, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Shadowverse, Game of Thrones, Star Wars: Destiny, Solforge, Duelyst, and Android Netrunner.

Magic is the originating game. Hearthstone is the new juggernaut. Eternal has a particularly well-written article. If anyone has a link to a similar article to an unrepresented game, like Spoils, let me know, and I’ll add it.

 Overview

“Aggro” decks are aggressive, try to win early, and focus on converting their gold to damage.

“Control” decks are defensive, try to win late, and focus on making their cards and gold worth more than their opponent’s.

“Midrange” decks are persistent, try to win in the mid game, and focus on applying consistent pressure.

“Combo” decks are ticking-time-bombs, try to win when precise conditions are met, and focus on exploiting explosive synergy between cards.

These archetypes are high level descriptions, and many decks fall somewhere between two or more.

Aggro

If you reduce your opponent to 0 health, you win.

Aggro decks attempt to take the quickest and most direct path to victory, reduce your opponent to 0 by any means possible, regardless of what else happens. To achieve this, aggro decks tend to favor hard to answer blitz champions or cards that do direct damage. The quicker an aggro deck can kill an opponent, the less time the opponent has to build up to kill the aggro deck or draw efficient answers like Drain Essence.

Burn is a subset of aggro decks that try to win primarily through direct damage, such as Flame Strike.

Control

If you safely run your opponent out of resources, you will inevitably win.

Control Decks in Epic focus on doing everything possible to not lose until they eventually win. To achieve this, control decks tend to favor removal with extra effects, off-turn board clears, low-board-impact high-card-advantage cards, and health gain. The longer the game goes, the more opportunities control decks have to slip attacks through or build to their potential alternate win-condition, such as Kark.

In general, control relies on cards that can gain multiple gold/cards worth of value.

Midrange

If you consistently apply pressure, while preventing your opponent from winning, you will eventually win.

Epic Midrange decks focus on aggressively controlling the board (champions in play), in order to create and exploit unopposed gold-opportunities (turns where your opponent spends their gold first), to establish and maintain immediate/recurring sources of champion-based damage.

To achieve this, midrange decks tend to favor cards that have 3 of 5 primary functions: 6+ toughness champion, fast (event/ambush champion), draw a card, blitz, and/or removal (secondary functions: make tokens, deal direct damage, gain health, discard pile removal, airborne). Midrange decks win when they exploit X gold-opportunities (X depends on opponent’s deck); this involves surviving against aggro or maintaining handsize with board pressure against control.

Combo

If you combine cards a, b, c, and d with specific game state x, you essentially win.

The “purest” form of combo works by surviving until it assembles multiple key cards and crafts an acceptable Game State to use them. (Game State refers to exactly what is happening at a specific time: such as champions in play, cards in discard piles, players’ current health, etc). Then, the combo deck uses those key cards with the crafted Game State to immediately win, usually by reducing an opponent directly from their full starting health (30) to 0.

For example, you survive until you draw Zombie Apocalypse, Drinker of Blood, and Wither. In addition, you wait until both discard piles have a combined champion count of at least 15. Then, on your opponent’s turn you play Zombie Apocalypse, putting 15 zombie tokens into play. On your turn, you play Drinker of Blood followed immediately by Wither. This breaks all 15 zombies, creates 15 Drinker of Blood triggers, deals 30 damage to your opponent, and wins you the game.

While flashy One-Turn-Kills (OTKs) are the hallmark of combo decks, any deck that combines 3+ cards for one incredibly powerful effect can be considered to have a combo aspect. Combo decks are generally built around supporting/enabling one (or more) of those combination(s). Due to this, combo decks vary widely in how they are constructed and when/how they try to win.

 

Conclusion

Understanding the basics of deck archetypes (how specific decks try to win and why they use specific cards) helps both when building your own decks and deducing what other cards your opponent might have in theirs. That being said, almost no deck is a “pure” representation of a single archetype. Some aggro decks lean midrange and vice versa; all combo decks have a secondary archetype attached, etc. This is merely a guide. Build what you want, and expect to see some crazy stuff.

First Self-Edited Videos

I’ve finally started to edit some of my Epic Digital Alpha videos. Since I am new to video editing, I would love any feedback to help improve future videos.

My first edited video:

My second edited video (Posted for the first time in this article):

If you do watch the videos, I would greatly appreciate any feedback (constructive/positive/negative), but you can also click below for a few specific questions. Feel free to answer as many or as few as you would like.

 

Whether or not you choose to provide feedback, thank you for taking the time to come to my blog and view my content. Also, if there is anything else you want more of, let me know.

July 4 Dark Draft – Nathan’s Draft

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 PeaceCeasefireInner 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.

 

July 4 Dark Draft VoDs

Today I played my first game of the Epic Team Masters. As a member of team The Flash Fire, I went up against Brave Squires team member Noverb. Going into this game team The Flash Fire was down 0-1. Afterwards, I played 6 more dark drafts.

Full Playlist

DD v Noverb: Epic Team Masters

DD v Noverb: July 4, 2017

DD v Gutpocket: July 4, 2017

DD v www: July 4, 2017

DD v RetroKC: July 4, 2017

DD v RetroKC #2: July 4, 2017

DD v GeneralGyp: July 4, 2017

July 4th Dark Draft Team Masters Stream

Tomorrow, Tuesday July 4th, at 10am CST, I will be streaming 1 game of Dark Draft against Noverb from team Brave Squires. My team, The Flash Fire, is currently down 1-0 in the match. Will I be able to start to turn things around? Tune in to find out: twitch.tv/tomsepicgaming

If you want a notification when I begin to stream, you can add me on twitter @tomsepicgaming
The raw footage will be uploaded to: Tom’S Epic Gaming Raw youtube channel
For edited videos check out: Tom’S Epic Gaming youtube channel
(Shout out to Phoenix Gravin for editing)

After the game against Noverb, I’ll happily continue to stream for as long as I have challengers (any format).