Game Reviews, Strategy Articles, and More

I’m Back

 

Epic Box

Hey, sorry I haven’t posted anything on here for quite a while, but I am coming back. Recently WWG reached out to me to fill out a winner’s survey for Worlds that they will be putting on their website here. Unsurprisingly to frequent readers, I went a lot more in-depth in one of my answers than they were expecting. So, instead of just editing it down, I decided to post the full length version here.

Question

What was your favorite play during the tournament, if you can remember?

My most memorable play during the tournament was when I decided to go all-in in game 3 of the Dark Draft finals and everything after. During the first game, I realized that my opponent had drafted a better deck that would probably win most extended games. (I had over-drafted situational, non-drawing cards and given my opponent too much Evil.)

pyromancerIn game 3 we got to a point where I drew my opponent’s gold out early on my turn. My hand was garbage with no draw effects and my opponent had significant resources in play: I knew I would lose in an extended game, so, I threw everything at his face. I dropped Pyromancer to deal 4, Dark Knight from hand swung in for 5, and my Shadow Imp brought the total to 11 damage in one turn, putting him to 4 health. I only had 2 cards left in hand, but if he couldn’t remove my Pyromancer before passing initiative on his turn, I would win. I also knew that I had Lightning Storm in deck and that I was close to drawing through my entire deck to reach it (not including mulliganed and recycled card). At this point, my health was 28, my opponent had 3 champions in play and 5 cards in hand.

On his turn, he plays Angel of Death with loyalty and immediately blows up both our boards. He then begins to chip away at my health with his own Dark Knight (23). With nothing better to do, I play out my Time Bender without loyalty.

blue_dragonI draw into Blue Dragon on my turn. My goal is still to dig for my Lightning Storm, so I play Blue Dragon to draw a card and see what happens. It’s Lightning Strike. Since it isn’t the card I need to win the game on his turn, I have to decide whether to break my opponent’s Dark Knight or target his face for 2 damage. Because I was able to get Time Bender into play, I opt for the 2 damage to his face and then immediately use Time Bender to return Blue Dragon to my hand (all of this happens before my opponent has a window to remove Blue Dragon). This once again puts me into a position where I win unless he stops me, this time he has one turn to gain health or kill me from 23, and I haven’t seen any health gain in his deck.

djinn_of_the_sandsOn his turn, he Final Tasks to bring back my Avenging Angel. I have no way to prevent the attack. Calculating that I would go to 6 health if he attacked with everything and he would go to 8, I decide to draw 2 with my Lightning Strike instead of using it to remove his Angel of Death. I don’t draw Lightning Storm, but I do draw Djinn of the Sands. The attacks go through.

If I don’t win by his next turn, I lose. I don’t draw Lightning Storm at the start of my turn. At this point, I have two possible paths to victory:

  • Play Blue Dragon to bring him to 6 and draw a card. If it’s Lightning Storm and he can’t gain health before passing initiative to me on his turn, I win.
  • Play Djinn of the Sands and attack for 8 with airborne. If he can’t remove or chump block the Djinn, I win. He does still have his gold, but I have Time Bender in play that can either bounce or banish an airborne, ambush champion if he has one.

For both situations, if I whiff I lose.

I don’t want to put the outcome of the game into my opponent’s hands, so I opt for Blue Dragon. I deal the 2 damage to my opponent without looking at the card I drew first. My opponent is at 6 health. I pass. At the end of my turn, he plays Ice Drake with loyalty to expend my team.

lightning_stormHe starts his turn, attacks with Ice Drake for lethal. I play my Lightning Storm. I win.

After the match I look at my next draws: Second Wind is on top followed by my first mulliganed card. This means that if I had been keeping track perfectly, I would have known I was guaranteed to get to Lightning Storm with my last Blue Dragon play. Also, since he had Ice Drake, if I would have gone with Djinn, he could have played Ice Drake to expend my Time Bender and chump-block the Djinn.

This was a great series. Afterwards, I was so overwhelmed with joy that I just sat there for a good 15 minutes. Not only had I won a spot at Worlds and guaranteed $500 minimum, but the win empirically proved that my Epic content that I have spent over 100 hours writing has value.

TomSQualified

(Thank you Kyle Coons for the picture. I love it.)

**10/14/16 Correction**

It has been pointed that I said both my opponent and I had Dark Knight which is an impossibility in Dark Draft, which is correct. Looking back at my card list, it looks like my “Dark Knight” was most likely Guilt Demon or possibly Thrasher Demon.

****

Going Forward

I’ve been putting in a lot of hours at Fantasy Flight Games trying to get as much out of my internship as possible, and I haven’t been making time to blog. However, at minimum, I want to get my updated ratings up a week before Worlds (not necessarily including the as of yet unreleased Uprising expansion), and I would like to do another Epic puzzle contest starting on Oct. 30th so it can end on Nov. 13. (I have a playmat on its way for a prize.)

To achieve these goals, I will be posting at least once a week until Nov. 14. Ideally, I’ll add at least 5 cards a day starting Wednesday night Oct 12/Thursday morning Oct 13 (excluding Oct 13-Oct 16 when I won’t have access to my computer).

Good luck to everyone who will be competing at Worlds! I hope to at minimum get all of your pictures for the blog in addition to anyone else there who would like to as well.

Fantasy Flight Games Intern

Finally got my internet set up today in my new apartment in Minnesota. I’m in Minnesota because I got accepted for the Fantasy Flight Games internship, and I just finished my first week. It is a 3 month internship which seems like it will provide great experience to get into the game industry.

With regard to the blog, I will not have as much time to write articles, but I do plan on getting at least 5 cards re-rated for Dark Draft a week, if not more. I’ve also ordered the Fantasy Flight LCGs that I have been wanting to play for awhile (Android Netrunner, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones), so there is a good chance I’ll be posting about those as well.

Epic: Dark Draft

Epic BoxForeword

This article is an accumulation of my current thoughts on Dark Draft. (Re-rating of the cards for Dark Draft complete.) In general, cards vary in value throughout the dark draft. I talk about how and why. I have a more up to date tier list for core-only as well. The most up to date, and concise article, is Dark Draft Simplified.

(Glossary at the bottom of the article. Let me know if I should add anything to it.)

Dark Draft Structure

  • Each player is dealt 5 random cards face-down (a pack).
  • Each player picks 1 of those 5 cards and then passes their remaining 4 cards to their opponent.
  • Then, each player picks 2 of the remaining 4 cards and discards the rest.
  • This is repeated 10 times until each player has a 30 card deck.

You are not allowed to look at your drafted cards until you have your complete 30 card deck.

Implications

You will see 20 of the 30 cards your opponent has in their deck during the drafting process. But, since you don’t see the 10 cards they first-pick, it is difficult to accurately predict all 20 cards that they will chose from the 40 you pass them.

In addition, since you can’t look at the cards you draft or write down the cards in each pack, you have to rely on your memory, and there is a lot to remember.

Since Epic is filled with incredibly strong cards, you will open packs with jaw dropping power. For example, my most memorable pack was Sea Titan, Kong, Erase, and 2 irrelevant cards.

On the other hand, you can get a pack of 5 weaker cards. I don’t remember any specifically, but I would personally hate to see a Bellowing Minotaur, Dark Leader, Rally the People, Wolf Companion, and Priest of Kalnor pack.

The worst case scenario is if your opponent gets a 1 strong-card, 4 weak-card pack. For example, replace the Priest of Kalnor in the previous pack with Amnesia. If your opponent gets lucky like this multiple times and you do not, they could draft a better deck through no fault of your own.

Similarly, since the 100 of 168 possible cards that will be seen between you and your opponent are completely random (100 of approximately 216 once Epic: Uprising comes out), it is possible that a faction might be over- or under-represented. For example, if you first pick Raging T-Rex, it is possible that you won’t see too many more Wild cards in the future packs. This effect can be magnified if your opponent also decided to go Wild early and continually first picks Wild cards. Or, if you go Evil early and there is a lot of Evil in the pool, you can build a crazy strong deck (especially if your opponent isn’t going Evil, making cards like Necromancer Lord terrible for them).

Overall, I am a big fan of Epic Dark Draft (although I prefer Open Draft). For the most part the luck of the packs seems to balance out, but not always. This is an incredibly skill-intensive format because you need to consider what both you and your opponent are taking (card draw, burn/health gain, board clears, targeted removal, threat champions [reestablishing v establishing], loyalty/ally requirements, and strategy-dependent cards). While certain cards are overwhelmingly powerful/important (Amnesia/Heinous Feast) and one player drafting a significantly stronger deck is not uncommon, the format is intense and fun.

Overarching Strategies

DDTop6

Overview

I generally tend to gravitate towards a Sage-centric balanced deck when I dark draft. By balanced I mean I want solid distributions of board clears, targeted removal, threat champions (establishing, reestablishing, ambush, blitz), and card draw. I prefer to draft strong Loyalty/Ally independent cards early, and since Sage (and Wild) has some of the strongest generically powerful cards, I generally start in that direction unless some other faction grabs me early.

I also try to counter-draft my opponent heavily.

Almost entirely independent of what I am drafting I want in approximate order:

(That comes out to 4 Sage, 4 Evil, 5 Wild, 0 Good)

Distributions

While Dark Drafting, I currently keep track of 7 generic groups: board clears, card draw, burn/health gain, targeted removal (off-turn specifically), threat champions, faction commitments, and strategy-dependent cards.

The relative strength of an individual card in a group is dependent on the amount of other cards in that group that were already in the draft. Some groups’ value increase with fewer cards in the draft and decrease with more cards in the draft. Other groups are the reverse (value increases with more, value decreases with less).

For example, if you haven’t seen any board clears like Wave of Transformation, Plague, etc., a late-draft Apocalypse is a lot more valuable than it would have been earlier in the draft. Conversely, if you have already drafted Zombie Apocalypse, Raxxa’s Displeasure, Angel of Death, and Inheritance of the Meek, and you have passed Wave of Transformation, Divine Judgement, Stand Alone, and Time Walker, that same Apocalypse becomes less valuable.

Board Clears

(Less: Increased Value, More: Decreased Value)

DDBoardClears

Background

Board clears are important because they let you come back from far behind.

Dark Draft Value

Every deck should have at least a few board clears in draft/limited formats. Since decks aren’t super fine-tuned, it is likely that you will get behind on the board at some point. If you don’t have board clears, it is unlikely that you can come back from far behind. In addition, if you opponent figures out you don’t have board clears, they can over-extend as much as they want, since they know you can’t punish them.

For this reason, if you haven’t drafted board clears yet in the draft, you want to. The later in the draft it gets before you see a board clear, the more valuable that board clear becomes. If it is around pack 7 and I only have 0 or 1 board clear(s), I would easily take an Apocalypse over Flame Strike/Lightning Strike/Raxxa’s Curse/Wolf’s Bite.

Further, if it is late in the draft and I have only passed 0 or 1 board clear(s) to my opponent, I would happily counter-pick the only board clear in a pack. Even if I already had 4 or 5 board clears, if I can prevent my opponent from 2nd-picking any board clears, I will. This is especially true for board clears because most of them are “or draw 2” cards. Since “or draw 2” is a strong effect by itself, I’m not punished for over-drafting board clears. **See Counter-Pick Section below**

Finally, if it is late in the draft and I have drafted 2+ board clears and passed 2+ board clears, each future board clear becomes less valuable. However, they are still generically highly valuable cards.

Other Community Views

Card Draw

(Less: Increased Value, More: Decreased Value)

DDDraw

Background

Card draw is incredibly important for every deck in Dark Draft. If you can’t/don’t draw cards, you won’t be able to play as many 0-cost cards, and you won’t be able to spend your gold on your opponent’s turn every turn they do (unless you have enough recall cards).

Dark Draft Value

Therefore, if you get late into the draft and you don’t have many cards that can draw 2, every card that can draw 2 (or recall) becomes more valuable. If you have a lot of card draw already, you can bypass cards that are weaker or out of faction but have a draw 2 effect, Dark Offering or Secret Legion for instance. If you don’t have a lot of card draw, those same cards become a lot more appealing, in a desperation sort of way.

Also, if you have passed very few cards with the ability to draw 2 cards, each of those cards become more valuable as a counter-pick. If your opponent can’t draw consistently and runs out of cards in hand (especially if you help with cards like Psionic Assault for discarding), that is great for you. I have counter-drafted draw cards to great effect in previous drafts. This does become weaker as a strategy if you don’t have significant threat champions or removal backed by Amnesia/Heinous Feast though; You can’t win a game exclusively by drawing cards.

Emphasis

While I do not have a ton to say about card draw, it is the distribution I generally spend the most time thinking about during a draft. This is the most important aspect because without sufficient card draw, every deck will fall apart. It is possible to have sufficient card draw without actively drafting it, but it is also possible to neglect card draw by focusing too much on situationally strong non-draw champions (Ice Drake, Lurking Giant, Avenging Angel, Infernal Gatekeeper, etc.).

Burn/Health Gain

(More: Increased Value, Less: Decreased Value)

DDBurnHealth

Background

Burn/Direct Damage (damage that can target a player) is strong because it can finish off a player or be used as removal.

Dark Draft Value

Burn

Unlike board clears and card draw, Burn becomes more valuable the more there is in a draft. Flame Strike and Lightning Storm are always strong because 6 or 8 damage is strong to finish off an opponent or to use as removal. Forked Lightning, Rain of Fire, Hunting Raptors, Strafing Dragon, etc. do not reach the 6 damage threshold and therefore aren’t as valuable for removal. In addition, just one of those effects isn’t as likely to make an enormous difference in a game. If you have multiple of those effects, they do become a lot more frightening (unless your opponent has health gain).

For example, if your deck’s only burn is Forked Lightning, you still need to get your opponent down to 5 health to win the game with burn (as opposed to 8 with Flame Strike or 12 [6+6] with Lightning Storm). If, however, you also have Rain of Fire, you only need to get your opponent down to 10 health to win with burn. Throw in Flame Strike and you can burn down an opponent from 18 health, hitting once with Steel Golem for instance. The more burn you have, the greater your threat of burning out your opponent.

Therefore, if you pass 1 or 2 burn cards, even weaker cards like Forked Lightning become incredibly dangerous to give to your opponent, and you should seriously consider counter-picking them. You can also assume your opponent will at least first pick Lightning Storm or Flame Strike if they come across it (unless you see it yourself of course).

Health Gain

If you do pass burn, health gain becomes a lot more valuable. Drain Essence is always incredible in draft since your opponent is almost guaranteed to have a 1-cost card with 9 or less defense, but Second Wind (also strong), Inner Peace, and potentially Angel of Light can become better if your opponent has the ability to burn you out. (Unfortunately for Angel of Light, it does break to Lightning Storm.)

Conversely, if your opponent doesn’t have burn, I would much rather draft a more threatening/effective card than either Inner Peace or Angel of Light. However, health gain can occasionally be an aggressive play. For example, if you know you are going to gain 10 health from your Angel of Light in hand, you can let a Juggernaut hit your face instead of trying to chump block it or use removal like Banishment or Inheritance of the Meek off-turn. In addition to gaining a net 1 health for the turn, you also get a 5/6 airborne champion in play, and you can use small, 0-cost removal like Wither to finish off the Juggernaut on your turn.

Overall, if you pass a burn card in draft, make sure you watch just how much more you pass for the rest of the draft. I was punished very heavily and lost in top 4 at Origins 2016 when I completely ignored the burn in the pool. After learning that lesson, I first picked Drain Essence/Forked Lightning/Second Wind in addition to picking up Inner Peace in top 4 at Gen Con 2016 after passing Strafing Dragon, Hunting Raptors, and Rain of Fire. I won that draft even though he also first picked Flame Strike and Flash Fire (he didn’t take the Raptors).

Other Community Views

Targeted Removal (Off-Turn Specifically)

(Less: Increased Value, More: Decreased Value)

DDTRemoval

Background

This is the distribution I value higher than most other people I talk to. This is also the distribution where I get to defend Chomp!.

Why Targeted Removal Is Great

chomp

I value targeted removal higher than most other people I know. I could (and probably will eventually) write a whole article just about targeted removal in Epic. It already features importantly in my Epic: Limited – Get Ahead, Stay Ahead article. For the way I prefer to play, gold-value in play is the most important aspect of the game. Targeted removal helps you maintain it.

Ideal Board State

In Epic draft/limited formats, my ideal board state is to have exactly 1-gold worth of value in play to my opponent’s 0, at the start of a turn. That 1-gold worth of value could either be 1 champion with 6+ defense or multiple tokens such as from a Demon Breach. From this position, you win the game unless your opponent spends a gold (or multiple 0s) to stop you, since you can attack and then pass every turn.

Preventing the Ideal Board State

Targeted removal early in the game prevents your opponent from getting into this position. They play a threat like Triceratops, and you answer by Chomp!ing it. Even though your opponent is up one card from the exchange, they have not established the ideal board state. If you draw 2 cards instead, they have established the ideal board state. Kong and Sea Titan are 2 of the best cards in draft because, for 1 gold, they both remove your opponent’s ideal board state and attempt to establish it for yourself.

Maintaining the Ideal Board State

Once a turn starts with you having the ideal board state, your opponent is forced to answer it or start taking damage. If they answer by clearing your board, you can play out a new 1-gold worth of value that they can’t answer that turn with a gold. If they play a champion, you can use targeted removal to remove it without affecting your champion(s) in play. On the other hand, if you don’t have targeted removal and only have board clears, when your opponent answers by playing a champion, you can only clear the board instead of maintaining your ideal board state.

For example, in a lot of my constructed decks I have found the best way to deal with an opponent’s Sea Titan in a control deck is to force them to use their own board clear. In these decks, targeted removal is generally light with a reliance on high-value reestablishing champions and board clears. However, once they land a high-value reestablishing champion, I can frequently disrupt them long enough to get 2-value worth of gold on the board (with evasion like airborne). Since they can’t use targeted removal on these new threats, they are forced to board clear me, taking their Sea Titan with it (although they will probably get it back with a Corpse Taker).

Exploiting the Ideal Board State

If your opponent removes your 1-gold worth of value on their turn, you can answer with an ambush champion (Draka’s Enforcer) to immediately regain the ideal board state. If your opponent removes your 1-gold worth of value on your turn, you can answer with a blitz champion (Djinn of the Sands). If your opponent draws, you can answer by drawing as well.

Conclusion

Targeted removal helps you maintain an ideal board state to enable you to deal damage to your opponent. If you can maintain an ideal board state, individual value from exchanges is less important; while ahead, 1 for 1s are great for you, 1 for 2s are fine within reason. Feel free to ask questions or disagree in the comments below.

Dark Draft Value

For the most part, I want as much targeted removal for myself as possible, and I want to give as little as possible to my opponent, within reason. Just like board clears, the less targeted removal you have the more valuable targeted removal becomes, and it is a strong distribution to counter-pick.

At times, I have over-valued targeted removal to the point of not having enough threat champions, but I still do value targeted removal more overall.

Other Community Views

Threat Champions

(Less: Increased Value, More: Decreased Value)

DDThreats

Background

Threat champions in the simplest sense are champions that pose a threat and must be removed.

Dark Draft Value

Once again, the less you have the more valuable they become to draft. I have never tried to lock my opponent out of threat champions, but I have underdrafted them on multiple occasions.

Faction Commitments

*Special*

DDLoyalty

Background

Some of the most powerful effects in Epic are Loyalty 2 and Ally effects. For this reason, basically every deck focuses on at least one of the four factions (alignments). In dark draft I usually focus on 1, rarely 2, never 3+ (although some ally effects like Smash and Burn, Inner Peace, and Psionic Assault don’t need a strong faction commitment to run).

Dark Draft Value

I personally believe that Sage is the strongest faction generically, followed by Wild for dark draft. Evil is incredible, if you can get a lot. Good requires the most synergy to be highly valuable; therefore, it is the weakest in dark draft.

I like to start drafts by taking generically strong cards first like the cards at the top of the article in addition to Erase, Urgent Messengers, Djinn of the Sands, Triceratops, Lash, etc. If I see a strong Sage loyalty card, especially when it was passed to me, I immediately commit to Sage. If I see a strong Wild or Evil card, I consider committing to those factions. There are no Good cards that would make me commit to Good early, except for possibly Noble Unicorn or Revolt.

Once you commit to a faction, or possibly 2, every card of those factions become more valuable, and every card with a different faction becomes less valuable. Similarly, if you expect your opponent has committed to a faction, cards of that faction become more valuable to counter-pick.

In general, I would still value the cards at the top of the page higher than cards of the same faction. However, if I thought I was under 10 of a faction I committed to, I would possibly pick a card from that faction over one of the cards from the top.

Other Community Views

Strategy-Dependent Cards

(Take Them All/Counter-Pick Key Pieces)

DDBacks

There are 2 dark draft strategies that are both difficult to build and extremely powerful. The reason these strategies are difficult to build is because they rely on drafting a significant number of very specific cards. However, if you can draft enough of those cards, the synergy between them is difficult to overcome.

I’ve hidden these strategies in case you would rather not read about them and their counters.

Dark Draft Value

When I see some of these cards pop up, I occasionally chase the deck to various levels of success. If you go for the deck, each card becomes essentially must first pick. This can be incredibly frustrating if you get a pack with a critical card and Sea Titan for instance, since if you don’t take that critical card it won’t come up again that draft.

If I don’t chase the deck, I make sure to watch just how much of it I pass to my opponent. I am more than willing to counter-pick a critical strategy card if I even suspect my opponent to be chasing one of those decks.

For the most part, I wouldn’t generally recommend chasing them in a tournament, but they are definitely fun to chase in casual dark drafts. If you do chase one and get lucky, you might just crush your opponent, but that is true about getting extremely lucky with any deck.

Counter-Picking

Overview

Counter-picking/counter-drafting is either:

A) Drafting a card so your opponent can’t draft it
or
B) Drafting a card to actively counter your opponent’s deck

For example, if you suspect your opponent is going for a Human Token Swarm strategy, you could counter-pick a Revolt so they don’t get it. Or, you could counter-pick by drafting Flash Fire/Wither/Blind Faith.

Dark Draft

Counter-picking is generally secondary to building your deck as strong as possible. It is better to play to win, than to play to not lose.

That being said, I love counter-picking.

Dark draft isn’t the most conducive format for counter-picking because you don’t know exactly what your opponent is taking, and you can only counter-pick on your first pick of each pack. This means that you could “counter-pick” a card your opponent wouldn’t actually want, and you would waste your first pick in the pack to do it. For example, if you counter-pick Revolt when your opponent isn’t going for human tokens, you just took a draw 2 in Good on a 0-cost card as a first pick, ouch. But if your opponent is going human tokens, they won’t be able to second pick the strongest possible card for their deck.

When I do counter-pick, I occasionally try to snipe strategy-specific cards, but usually I try to disrupt my opponent’s distributions. If I notice that I haven’t passed a lot of cards that can draw/recycle, I’ll take Bitten over Helion, the Dominator even if both my opponent and I are probably going Sage. Few board clears have been passed? I’ll take that lone, off-faction Apocalypse even if it means I pass both Triceratops and Strafing Dragon. These examples are contingent on the rest of the draft, but if I think I see a way to severely stunt my opponent’s deck without overly hurting my own, I’ll take it.

This is why I love head to head drafting so much (Open Draft more than Dark Draft). Directly countering your opponent’s deck as they build it feels great. Then, it feels even better when I exploit it in the match. Even when I’m wrong, trying to do it is exhilarating.

Conclusion

Dark Draft is a format that requires a lot of concentration to do well. Cards are consistently changing in value throughout the draft, and being able to accurately judge the value of cards is a challenge. I love that challenge.

Glossary

  • Pack: The 5 cards dealt to a player at the start of a round
  • Pool: All 100 cards seen between both players during the draft
  • Burn: Damage that can directly target a player (Flame Strike)
  • Bounce: Return a champion to hand (Erase)
  • Removal: An effect that removes an opponent’s champion from play by banishing it (Banishment), bouncing it (Erase), breaking it (Bitten/Flame Strike), or taking control of it (Turn).
    • Targeted Removal: Removal that can affect one or more specific champions. Frequently has the word “target” in the text (Bitten/Lying in Wait)
  • Board: All of the champions in play
  • Balanced Deck: A deck with a reasonable mix of board clears, targeted removal, threat champions (establishing, reestablishing, ambush, blitz), and card draw
  • Off-turn: An effect that can be used on your opponent’s turn. For example, Apocalypse can be an off-turn draw 2, but it can’t be an off-turn board clear. Wave of Transformation is an off-turn board clear.
  • Gold and Card Advantage: A gold advantage is achieved by more efficiently using your gold than your opponent to get more champions into play. A card advantage is achieved by more efficiently using your cards than your opponent to have more cards in hand.
  • Over-extending: Putting more champions into play than needed to win the game.
    • Playing Into: Making a play that an opponent can directly exploit. For example, if you over-extend by putting 3+ 1-cost champions into play, you are playing into an opponent’s board clear (since their board clear can allow 1 gold to remove 3 gold)
    • Punish: To exploit a risky play made by an opponent. For example, if Player A plays a blitz champion that doesn’t draw a card (Rampaging Wurm) when their opponent, player B, still has their gold for the turn. Player B can punish player A by playing an Erase. This nets player B +1 card in hand for the turn while Player A gained nothing.
  • Slow: An effect that can only be played on your turn, not during an attack: champions without ambush (Kong)
  • Over-drafting: Picking too much of a specific distribution to the neglect of one or more other distributions
  • 1 for 1: Notation for determining the value of a trade by cards. If I play Chomp! on your Lurking Giant, that is a 1 for 1 trade since I used a card to remove one of your cards. If I play Psionic Assault, that is a 2 for 1 trade because I used 1 card to make you discard 2 cards. If I play Dark Offering targeting my Kong to break your Triceratops and White Knight, that is a 2 for 2 trade because I used 2 cards to remove 2 cards. etc.
  • Control-type/high-value deck: This type of deck tries to win a long game by relying on consistently making slightly favorable trades. Instead of applying pressure, these decks efficiently remove your pressure until you can neither apply pressure nor respond to their minimal, high-value pressure (Sea Titan).
  • Locking them out: Preventing your opponent from performing a specific action. If you have a Steel Golem and I play Plentiful Dead every time it attacks so I can chump block, I am locking your Steel Golem out from damaging me. If I have an Elara, the Lycomancer in play that you can’t remove, I can transform 1 champion a turn, locking you out of keeping a valuable champion in play.
  • Chump block: To block with a champion that can’t break one or more attacking champions to prevent you from taking damage to your health. Frequently the chump blocker breaks.
  • Face: Your health total. I let the Rampaging Wurm hit my “face” (deal damage to my health total).
  • Counter-pick/Counter-draft: To draft a card specifically so your opponent can’t draft it or to draft a card to answer a specific goal of your opponent’s deck. For example, if my opponent is going for human tokens, both Revolt (if you first pick it) and Flash Fire would be counter-picks.
  • Dig: To try and get a specific card from your deck into your hand. This is frequently accomplished by drawing as many cards as possible. Arcane Research and Mist Guide Herald are also considered digging because you look through a bunch of cards from the top of your deck and select one. Playing multiple 0-cost cards just to recycle (Spike Trap outside of an attack for example) would be another example of digging.

Constructed Epic: 4 Color Army

Epic Box

Foreword

I originally threw this deck together before Gen Con because I wanted to subvert my “play threats on my turn” idea (which is a big part of Combative Humans and Untargetable Tempo). I also wanted to use some “bad cards” that weren’t seeing much play: Winter Fairy, Vampire Lord, The Gudgeon, Angelic Protector (Djinn of the Sands).

8/27/16 Deck List

4 Color Army

Evil (12)

Slow (3)
3x The Gudgeon

Fast (5)
2x Army of the Apocalypse
1x Drain Essence
2x Vampire Lord

0-Cost (4)
2x Raxxa’s Curse
2x Wither

Good (9)

Slow (1)
1x Avenging Angel

Fast (5)
3x Angelic Protector
2x Banishment

0-Cost (3)
2x Blind Faith
1x Second Wind

Sage (27)

Slow (7)
2x Djinn of the Sands
3x Juggernaut
2x Winter Fairy

Fast (11)
3x Crystal Golem
2x Helion, the Dominator
3x Memory Spirit
1x Temporal Enforcer
2x Wave of Transformation

0-Cost (9)
3x Amnesia
1x Arcane Research
1x Hasty Retreat
2x Fumble
1x Shadow Imp
1x Vanishing

Wild (12)

Slow (2)
2x Rampaging Wurm

Fast (6)
3x Draka’s Fire
1x Flame Strike
2x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (4)
3x Lightning Strike
1x Lash

8/27/16 Explanation

winter_fairyAs I mentioned, I built this deck to subvert the idea that I play threats on my turn, and I use “draw 2+ cards” on my opponent’s turn like Erase and Ceasefire. Instead, I am using “draw 2+ cards” on my turn, primarily Winter Fairy and The Gudgeon. (Djinn of the Sands, Banishment, and Draka’s Fire are similar.) The reason why I wanted to try this was that I consistently saw decks retreating into drawing on their turn so they would be able to react on their opponent’s turn. If you spend your gold first on your turn, your opponent can’t immediately punish you: they can’t attack with held back champions, and they can’t play new blitz champions to attack immediately.

angelic_protectorThe second part of this idea was to play threat champions on my opponent’s turn. Angelic Protector is the star for this aspect. You can safely play it on your opponent’s turn before they spend their gold (unless they have Blind Faith or an AoE banish like Divine Judgement). If they don’t, you will have an unbreakable, untargetable airborne blocker on their turn and a 5/9 airborne champion that can attack on your turn.

crystal_golemAmbush champions are particularly powerful because they can give you an advantage going into the start of your turn. If at the start of the turn you are the only player with a champion in play, you can attack and force your opponent to spend their gold or take damage. Crystal Golem and Vampire Lord are nice because they are hard to deal with. Angelic Protector, Memory Spirit, and Temporal Enforcer are all ambush champions with evasion (Airborne or Unblockable). Helion, the Dominator is just an excellent champion with ambush, and Surprise Attack can essentially give ambush to any  slow champion. (I have also used it just to draw a card for free when playing a champion with ambush like Memory Spirit. This “cycles” the card. Your total number of cards in hand does not increase, but you draw one card deeper into your deck and put a card into your discard pile.)

vampire_lordIf your opponent takes the damage, that is great. You can just pass your turn with a lead on the board and damage dealt to your opponent. If they spend their gold, that is great. You can now respond with a blitz champion and attack while their primary defense is down. Vampire Lord, Avenging Angel, Djinn of the Sands, and Rampaging Wurm are included for this purpose. (Juggernaut too, but it can be played while your opponent’s gold is up.)

The general goal of this strategy should sound very similar to my Epic: Limited – Get Ahead, Stay Ahead article, except I get ahead on my opponent’s turn instead of my own.

lightning_strikeA large part of what makes this deck work is its versatile pool of 0-cost cards. Defensively, Lightning Strike is a great way to handle 5-defense champions like Angel of Mercy or Knight of Shadows while still allowing you to use your gold for a threat or “draw 2+ cards.” Raxxa’s Curse works similarly as a great answer specifically for Muse, Guilt Demon, etc. Fumble gives you protection after spending your gold while your opponent’s gold is up on their turn. Hasty Retreat and Vanishing are 0-cost cards that can bounce a 1-cost champion. Shadow Imp can repeatedly attack or chump block and then return to hand. Blind Faith can stop most crazy threats like Human Token Swarm or Juggernaut. Wither can break a surprisingly high variety of champions. Second Wind is free extra health, and Amnesia shuts/slows down discard pile shenanigans. Offensively, a lot of those cards can remove an ambushed in potential chump blocker as well.

memory_spiritMost of those 0-cost cards I run under 3 of in this deck, but Memory Spirit has been amazing for retrieving what I need when. If I know I’m against a deck relying on Drinker of Blood, I’ll return a Wither. Against a deck with a lot of high value 0-cost champions like Muse, Raxxa’s Curse is pretty nice. What’s really fun is dealing 10 damage with one Lightning Strike. Play LS, then Memory Spirit, and play that LS again, good stuff. Overall, my 0-cost events give me the extra edge to stay alive on my opponent’s turns and push damage through on mine. Memory Spirit helps me bolster whichever aspect is more important in each individual match, and it gives me an ambush 5/4 airborne champion too. (Returning Flame Strike, Banishment, and Drain Essence are also solid plays as well.)

army_of_the_apocalypseIn addition to the normal operation of the deck, Army of the Apocalypse can frequently work as a finisher or utility card. Since the deck is packed with inherent blitz champions (Vampire Lord as opposed to Helion), I can play Army and then swing with multiple 1-cost champions. This is especially devastating if my opponent’s gold is already spent for the turn, and/or I play an Amnesia beforehand. Crystal Golem and Winter Fairy also can provide me with some card draw when Army is used. With the combination of Army and Memory Spirit, my discard pile is constantly a threat that just a couple Amnesias can’t completely shut down over the course of a game.

rampaging_wurmOne card I specifically want to call out in this deck is Rampaging Wurm. It is a monster. Due to the massive amount of 0-cost removal I run and Lash, this has put significant pressure onto my opponents. Since no one runs Rampaging Wurm that I have seen, it is unexpected the first time I send a 14/14 blitzer at their face out of nowhere (or at least it was unexpected). Once they know about it, they have to constantly worry about it. Due to this, my opponent might be more likely to let my Angelic Protectors or Memory Spirits get through, even when I don’t have the Wurm in hand. In addition, there are few things as satisfying in Epic as hitting face with a Rampaging Wurm. Even forcing an opponent to block with a 1-cost champion is satisfying.  It is also Drain Essence and Kong resistant, and if my opponent wants to return it to my hand with Sea Titan after it completed an attack, that is fine with me (it will be there waiting). Recalling Lash is also pretty great, especially when you have this in hand.

8/27/16 Conclusion

This is currently my strangest deck. It is also one of my favorites and one of my best. In addition, I had largely written off multiple of these cards in the past. I love a lot of them now. Djinn of the Sands is one of my favorite cards, so is Rampaging Wurm. Vampire Lord is also pretty cool, and Avenging Angel when your opponent’s gold is down is quite satisfying.

Dark Draft Article Preview #3 (Evil 5 5)

Epic Box

Foreword

I am in the process of writing a large article explaining all of my thoughts on Dark Draft at the moment. Since I expect it will take a while to finish, I will be consistently putting out previews to keep me on track. Below I’ve included my current analysis of Raxxa’s Curse.

Preview

raxxas_curse

Raxxa’s Curse

Draft Frequency: 5

Draft Power: 5

Raxxa’s Curse is a faction-independent powerhouse. Breaking any 0-cost champion and giving you a demon token is a strong swing in your favor. (I have put myself significantly ahead in at least one draft where I Raxxa’s Cursed a Muse that my opponent was relying on early.)

Since every faction has strong 0-cost champions (Guilt Demon/Spawning Demon, White Dragon/Paros Rebel Leader, Keeper of Secrets/Shadow Imp, Fire Shaman/Ankylosaurus) this will usually have a target to hit. In addition, even using it on a demon token is valuable.

Aside from breaking Muses, my favorite use of this card is to break an ambushed in 0-cost blocker. If I can draw my opponent’s gold out before mine, play a Rampaging Wurm, and break my opponent’s zombie from Plentiful Dead before blocks, I am happy.

If nothing else, you can always draw 2 with it.

Dark Draft Article Preview #2 (Distributions)

Epic Box

Foreword

I am in the process of writing a large article explaining all of my thoughts on Dark Draft at the moment. Since I expect it will take a while to finish, I will be consistently putting out previews to keep me on track. Below I talk about one of the 7 distributions I watch for while drafting.

Preview

Distributions

While Dark Drafting, I currently keep track of 7 generic groups: board clears, card draw, burn/health gain,  targeted removal (off turn specifically), threat champions, faction commitments, and strategy-dependent cards.

The relative strength of an individual card in a group is dependent on the amount of other cards in that group that are already in the draft. Some groups’ value increase with fewer cards in the draft and decrease with more cards in the draft. Other groups are the reverse (value increase with more, value decreases with less).

Card Draw

(Increased Value: Less, Decreased Value: More)

Card draw is incredibly important for every deck in limited. If you can’t/don’t draw cards, you won’t be able to play as many 0-cost cards, and you won’t be able to play a card on your opponent’s turn.

Therefore, if you get late into the draft and you don’t have many cards that can draw 2, every card that can draw 2 (or recall) becomes more valuable. If you have a lot of card draw already, you can bypass cards that are weaker or out of faction but have a draw 2 effect (Dark Offering for instance).

Also, if you have passed very few cards with the ability to draw 2 cards, each of those cards become more valuable as a counter-pick. If your opponent can’t draw consistently and runs out of cards in hand (especially if you help with cards like Psionic Assault for discarding), that is great for you. I have counter drafted draw cards to great effect in previous drafts. This does become weaker as a strategy if you don’t have significant threat champions or removal + Amnesia/Heinous Feast though. You can’t win a game exclusively by drawing cards.

 

Dark Draft Article Preview #1 (Top Picks)

Epic Box

Foreword

I am in the process of writing a large article explaining all of my thoughts on Dark Draft at the moment. Since I expect it will take a while to finish, I will be consistently putting out previews to keep me on track. Below I talk about my top 13 picks when dark drafting.

Preview

Almost entirely independent of what I am drafting I want in approximate order:

  • Amnesia, Heinous Feast
  • Lightning Storm
  • Sea Titan, Drain Essence, Kong
  • Wave of Transformation, Zombie Apocalypse, Muse
  • Flame Strike, Lighting Strike, Raxxa’s Curse, Wolf’s Bite
  • Chomp!

(Not including Chomp!, that comes out to 4 Sage, 4 Evil, 5 Wild, 0 Good)

Gen Con Thursday Qualifying Limited

Epic BoxForeword

This is the list I used to go 3-0-2 with 2 intentional draws. I did not lose a game with this list.

Card Pool

Gen Con Thursday Unmarked

First Pass

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

When I first go over my list, I look for
strong faction-independent cards (solid arrow:FactionIndependentArrow),
strong faction-dependent cards (dashed arrow: FactionDependentArrow),
strategy-dependent cards like Revolt (line:StrategyDependentLine),
effectively unplayable cards (line through: StrikeThrough),
generally unplayable cards (dashed line through: GenerallyUnplayable)
All cards without a mark are viable, but not incredible.

(**Edit** As long as WWG can tell what your deck contents are and you put your name on your sheet, they do not care if you mark up your sheet.)

Gen Con Thursday First Pass

Wild

kongKong, Lightning Storm, Lightning Strike, Smash and Burn, Chomp!, Hurricane, Raging T-Rex, and Lurking Giant make this a very solid Wild pool (even with only 14 Wild cards). Ankylosaurus and Cave Troll are also pretty strong in a Wild heavy deck. Fire Shaman can be as well, but I don’t value it too highly.

raging_t_rexFor the most part though, my strongest Wild cards don’t need a heavy Wild investment (aside from T-Rex). Even Smash and Burn can be reliably used with minimal 1-cost Wild cards.

Sage

psionic_assaultPsionic Assault + Thought Plucker is super nasty. Juggernaut is an insanely powerful card that almost always performs amazingly for me. (Fumble, Angelic Protector, and Blind Faith work nicely against it though.) Hasty Retreat, Muse, and Sea Titan are also incredible, while Ice Drake and Ancient Chant can be strong too.

juggernautI used to think Djinn of the Sands was one of the worst cards in Epic. Now, I think it is incredible. An 8/8 airborne blitz that can also draw 1 or more cards is pretty strong, unless you are behind.

Ice Drake, Juggernaut, Psionic Assault, Shadow Imp, and Keeper of Secrets make me want to go heavy Sage. I also love Sage and think it is very strong in general.

Evil

raxxas_curseMy Evil pool has a few standout incredible cards, but it doesn’t have the depth for a major commitment.

Drain Essence and Raxxa’s Curse are superb. Dark Knight, Apocalypse, Plague, Necrovirus, and Bitten are also fairly strong by themselves.

corpse_takerArmy of the Apocalypse seems unlikely to be great for me, and I am probably not going wide enough to warrant Demon Breach.

Since I have access to both Kong and Sea Titan, Corpse Taker is super relevant. Not to mention Juggernaut, Thought Plucker, and Djinn.

Good

revoltI came into this draft wanting to build a Good-faction deck very, very badly. Good is rarely played, and it is thought to be weak, so I wanted to win with it. (I also think that it is fairly weak in limited/draft formats.) Seeing 17 Good cards I got excited.

Human tokens seem like the most viable path for Good in limited and I had access to: Courageous Soul, Insurgency, Rabble Rouser, Secret Legion, Standard Bearer, The People’s Champion, and Urgent Messengers.

angel_of_mercyAngel of Mercy and Royal Escort also reward a Good investment. Avenging Angel, Angelic Protector, Gold Dragon, Inheritance of the Meek, and Watchful Gargoyle are also all viable cards by themselves.

Second Wind I did not value at all in previous drafts/limited formats, but other people love it so I was willing to reconsider.

Overall

amnesiaI decided not to mulligan this card pool because I thought I might have enough strong Good to make it worthwhile. If not, I also had insanely strong cards in my other factions. Unfortunately, I had neither Amnesia nor Heinous Feast so I would almost certainly lose in a decking race against any deck that had either.

Second Pass

In the second pass, I weed out all of the cards that almost certainly won’t be in the deck, and I pick the cards that almost certainly will be in the deck.

  • Full strike-through for not in deck
  • Dashed strike-through for almost certainly not in deck
  • Star for in deck
  • Dashed star for almost certainly in deck
  • Arrow for probably in deck
  • Unmarked for possibly in deck
  • Cards with Squares around them work in the Human Token Strategy

Gen Con Thursday Second Pass

insurgencyI spent a long time trying to convince myself to run human tokens, but there just wasn’t enough. Not having Revolt is incredibly problematic because it is probably the best card for the strategy, near the same importance as Insurgency. The People’s Champion also wasn’t great because I didn’t have many 1-cost cards I wanted to use to trigger the ally triggers. The ones I had were too situational, aside from Royal Escort and Angelic Protector, but even those weren’t consistent enough.

noble_unicornI might have gone Good if I had access to High King, Noble Unicorn, Palace Guard, Markus Watch Captain, Paros Rebel Leader, and/or Quell (aside from Revolt).

So, I decided to go with a Sage-centric deck with splashes in the other factions.

Distribution Passes

Since I had 35 cards with either arrows or better after my second pass, I primarily worked on cutting my deck down to 30 from there. Struck-through cards after the second pass were set aside with dotted-struck-through cards on top. Cards without an arrow were kept visible during this process in case I changed my mind and decided to include one or more later, but I do not include them initially in the lists below.

To decide which cards to cut, I analyze my distribution of draw effects, slow effects, removal effects, 0-cost effects, burn effects, and blitz effects.

Italicized cards are cards I have decided I will definitely run. Cards that were italicized in a previous section are put at the top of each sub-section (Solid Star cards for example). At the end of each section I explain my reasoning for the newly italicized cards.

Struck-through cards are removed cards. Cards that were struck-through in a previous section are put at the bottom of each sub-section. At the end of each section I explain my reasoning for the newly struck-through cards.

Draw/Recall

Adequate card draw is one of the most important aspects of a solid Epic deck. In limited, I ideally want about half my deck to have draw/recall capabilities. It is a lot less detrimental to rely on “-or- draw 2” cards in limited, as opposed to constructed.

1-Cost Champions that Draw a Card (2 guaranteed, 2 possible, 4 total)
Juggernaut, Thought Plucker
Blue Dragon
Djinn of the Sands

1-Cost Draw 2 and… Cards (1 guaranteed, 2 possible, 3 total)
Urgent Messengers
Smash and Burn
Ancient Chant

-Or- Draw 2 Cards (3 guaranteed, 6 possible, 9 total)
Lightning Strike, Hasty Retreat, Raxxa’s Curse
Hurricane
Transform
Apocalypse
Bitten
Plague
Inheritance of the Meek

Recycle (0 guaranteed, 2 possible, 2 total)
Keeper of Secrets
Second Wind

Recall (2 guaranteed, 0 possible, 2 total)
Lightning Storm, Psionic Assault

Miscellaneous (1 guaranteed, 2 possible, 3 total)
Muse
Shadow Imp
Corpse Taker

No Draw/Recall (3 guaranteed, 9 possible, 12 total)
Kong, Sea Titan, Drain Essence

Chomp!
Lurking Giant
Ice Drake
Time Walker
Turn
Dark Knight
Necrovirus
Avenging Angel
Gold Dragon

At this point I am only potentially running 12 cards that don’t draw/replenish in some way. Therefore, no cuts or guarantees from this distribution pass.

Slow vs Fast Effects

Fast effects are insanely important for Epic. In general, I want my decks to stay around or below 1/3 slow cards.

Fast (8 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 13 possible, 21 total)
Lightning Storm, Lightning StrikeHasty Retreat, Muse, Psionic Assault, Thought Plucker, Drain Essence, Raxxa’s Curse, Urgent Messengers,
Chomp!
Hurricane
Lurking Giant
Smash and Burn
Ancient Chant
Ice Drake
Shadow Imp
Transform
Bitten
Necrovirus
Inheritance of the Meek
Second Wind

Your Turn Fast (0 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 4 possible, 4 total)
Turn
Apocalypse

Dark Knight
Plague

Slow (3 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 7 possible, 10 total)
Kong, Juggernaut, Sea Titan
Blue Dragon
Djinn of the Sands
Keeper of Secrets
Time Walker
Corpse Taker
Avenging Angel
Gold Dragon

Once again I am at my threshold for this distribution pass so no cuts yet.

Removal Effects

I don’t have an approximate removal-effects-number that I use. I generally just try to pack as much removal into my decks as possible.

Targeted Slow Removal (2 guaranteed, 0 possible, 2 total)
Kong, Sea Titan

Targeted Fast Removal (5 guaranteed, 2 struck-through, 0 possible, 7 total)
Hasty Retreat, Drain Essence
Chomp!
Transform
Turn

Bitten
Necrovirus

Small Removal (5 guaranteed, 0 possible, 5 total)
Lightning Storm, Lightning Strike, Raxxa’s Curse
Smash and Burn
Blue Dragon

Board Clears (5 guaranteed, 0 possible, 5 total)
Hurricane
Time Walker

Apocalypse
Plague
Inheritance of the Meek

Miscellaneous (0 guaranteed, 2 possible, 2 total)
Ice Drake
Corpse Taker

Non-Removal (5 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 9 possible, 14 total)
Juggernaut, Muse, Psionic Assault, Thought Plucker, Urgent Messengers
Lurking Giant
Ancient Chant
Djinn of the Sands
Keeper of Secrets
Shadow Imp
Dark Knight
Avenging Angel
Gold Dragon
Second Wind

Okay, here we go. I added 9 cards to the guaranteed list and more importantly cut 2 cards (Bitten and Necrovirus). 22 guaranteed, 2 struck-through, 11 possible, 35 total, 3 more cuts needed.

plagueAs of this point, I had no board clears. I like board clears, so I added them all. I also really like fast targeted removal. I decided to go with Chomp!, Transform, and Turn over Bitten and Necrovirus. Transform and Turn are nice because they help with my Sage loyalty and ally triggers. In addition, I only have one Evil 1-cost card so Necrovirus is less likely to trigger at all, let alone when I want it to.

transformI generally prefer Transform over Bitten because I am more likely to use a fast removal event on my opponent’s turn anyway, and transform is almost always better than break. While Turn can’t be used permanently on my opponent’s turn, it is crazy powerful on my turn with either mode.

chompChomp!. I like Chomp! quite a bit. Chomp! is off-turn removal that can break most champions, and it gives no added benefit either. Sure, a lot of the time if you Chomp! a Triceratops or T-Rex it is a net loss for you regarding card advantage alone, but removing a 1-cost champion in play and spending your gold effectively on your opponent’s turn are both more important, frequently. If I have 6 or 7 cards in hand, I am happy to use one of them to remove a threat that drew two cards or put a demon into play. I still have plenty of cards in hand, and I go to my turn able to play an establishing champion as opposed to a reestablishing champion (reestablishing champions being considerably less common). Or, if I was already ahead on the board, this play keeps me ahead and forces my opponent to respond to me before I spend my gold on my turn.

smash_and_burnIn addition, Chomp! is great at punishing opponents for greedy/desperation plays of blitz champions (Avenging Angel, Djinn of the Sands, Draka Dragon Tyrant, etc.) while I still have my gold up.

Finally, Chomp! functions as another reliable Wild ally trigger. With Chomp! and Hurricane (in addition to Kong and Lightning Storm) I am comfortable including Smash and Burn.

0-Cost Effects

I haven’t decided on an approximate number of 0-cost cards for limited yet, at least 3 and probably no more than 13. 0-cost cards shouldn’t be over-included, especially if you do not have much card draw, but they can also be the small edge that wins you a game. So, it’s hard to gauge. 0-cost “or draw 2” cards can effectively count as non-zeros, as long as you remember and don’t neglect drawing.

0-Cost (9 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 2 possible, 9 total)
Lightning Strike, Hasty Retreat, Muse, Raxxa’s Curse
Keeper of Secrets
Shadow Imp
Corpse Taker
Dark Knight

Second Wind

1-Cost (18 guaranteed, 2 struck-through, 6 possible, 26 total)

keeper_of_secretsI had room for all of the 0-cost cards I was considering, and I have been wanting to include them so I did.

Keeper of Secrets is recycle on a body that I can easily trigger with my massive amount of Sage. In addition, it is the only discard removal I have (not including Corpse Taker).

shadow_impShadow Imp is strong as 2 unblockable damage for multiple turns that I can return to hand to protect after attacking. It also can function as a free chump block every turn. I use both of these functions, and they are nice.

 

dark_knightCorpse Taker can get back Kong and Sea Titan. That alone makes it worthwhile.

Dark Knight is great to play on your turn before you spend your gold. It is unlikely that your opponent will have a 0-cost answer, so they either have to take 5 damage or burn their gold before you do. Either scenario is excellent for you. In addition, I do also have Time Walker and Sea Titan to return it to hand after attacking if desired.

second_windI did not value Second Wind basically at all at Origins. A few people were shocked by this and let me know. So, I decided to run it with this list. It is pretty great. Damage is very difficult to push through in Epic. Therefore, 5 free health can be pretty huge, especially if your opponent wants to burn you out (how many games have been lost to Flame Strike?). In addition, even though recycling slows down your potential draw-out victory by one card, I am now of the opinion that the 5 health is more likely to help you survive long enough to actually be able to draw-out at all.

Burn Effects

Burn is a category that I have been undervaluing in Epic. Since damage is so difficult to get through, direct damage is great at finishing off a player.

Burn (3 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 0 possible, 3 total)
Lightning Storm, Plague
Blue Dragon

Miscellaneous (0 guaranteed, 0 possible, 0 total)

Non-Burn (25 guaranteed, 2 struck-through, 5 possible, 32 total)

blue_dragonThis deck has minimal burn. Plague and Blue Dragon are stretching it. Blue Dragon is worth it for the extra burn, small removal, draw, and it is Sage.

Blitz Champions

1-cost Blitz champions are incredibly strong because they can punish an opponent for using her gold on your turn before you do. I like to have at least a couple.

1-Cost Blitz (3 guaranteed, 1 struck-through, 0 possible, 4 total)
Juggernaut
Djinn of the Sands
Avenging Angel

Gold Dragon

Non 1-Cost Non-Blitz (24 guaranteed, 2 struck-through, 6 possible 32 total)
Lurking Giant
Ancient Chant

djinn_of_the_sandsDjinn consistently impresses me. My favorite use is as essentially a Flame Strike to the face with an 8/8 airborne expended body attached. If you can pull your opponent’s gold out on your turn before you play this, it is highly likely Djinn will connect (unless Fumble, Watchful Gargoyle, etc.).

avenging_angel

Avenging Angel is great in the same situation. It is 2 less damage, but it also gives you 6 health and forces your opponent to deal with it if they want to attack. In addition, it does have 6 defense so it can only be broken by a 1-cost card (sorry Lightning Strike) or multiple cards. Since I only want to use this after my opponent spent their gold, the “can’t be attacked while this is expended” is more valuable than the 2 extra defense on Gold Dragon. I also don’t have other Good champions that can benefit from Gold Dragon‘s righteous sharing.

lurking_giantThe final two cards that got pushed out by the blitz champions were Lurking Giant and Ancient Chant. Lurking Giant is a great card, but I already had plenty of fast cards I could play on my opponent’s turn. I also had Kong and Sea Titan as massive bodies.

ancient_chant

Ancient Chant is a great card, but my deck was already packed with draw/recall effects. If I needed to draw, I could draw. If I had Ancient Chant and needed to do something besides draw, Ancient Chant couldn’t help me there.

Final Decklist

Gen Con Thursday Final

Arcane Research

arcane_researchI did consider playing Arcane Research because it is a powerful card, but, as you can see, I chose not to. For the most part, there are very few cards I felt the need to tutor for (Magic: The Gathering term meaning search your deck, while this isn’t exactly the same, it is similar), Drain Essence and Lightning Storm are pretty much it. Aside from that, I was very happy with the layout of my deck.

heinous_feastSecond, I had neither Amnesia nor Heinous Feast, so if I did a large Arcane Research, I pretty much guarantee a loss in a draw-out race. Third, I can always just play it by itself for 1 so it just replaces itself making my deck effectively 29 cards, but I am very pleased with every card in my deck, and I would rather not provide free information. Therefore, for this deck, I saw minimal benefit derived from including it. If I had Flame Strike and/or Amnesia/Heinous Feast, I would be much more willing to include it.

Strategy

This deck is a fairly standard Get Ahead, Stay Ahead deck. Like almost all Epic decks (especially in Limited/Draft formats) it wants to go second.

Match Overview

sea_titanThis deck had a draw-out win in at least 2 of the 3 matches on Thursday. Having access to a lot of draw, the massive tempo champions Sea Titan and Kong (plus Corpse Taker), and a lot of board clears is quite nice for this type of win. Luckily I didn’t run into either Amnesia or Heinous Feast for those wins.

thought_pluckerOne of the games I won with Psionic Assault and Thought Plucker devastating my opponent’s hand, as they tend to do. I think that was also the game where I opened with Dark Knight attack, followed by Sea Titan to bounce it to my hand. Thankfully I chose not to replay the Dark Knight because I got hit by my opponent’s Psionic Assault that turn. Being able to discard the Dark Knight to go to 2 cards in hand was a lot better than if I had to discard down to 1 card.

museRaxxa’s Curse broke a lot of Muses over the 3 matches, and it largely secured the early game of at least one of them.

Djinn of the Sands managed to get in for a lot damage after my opponents spent their gold. It was also a reliable threat in the deck-out races because it can’t be ignored. The potential to draw 3 cards with only one card is quite significant.

flame_strikeI am also willing to admit that I undervalued Second Wind. Not only is the 5 health by itself valuable, but when you combine it with the Drain Essence, 14 health becomes a really big deal. Not only does this protect you from burn effects like Flame Strike, but it also allows you to be more aggressive. When you have a 15+ health advantage on your opponent, you can afford to allow an attack or two through, if it allows you to get ahead elsewhere.

reaperFor example, I played a casual constructed game at Gen Con with Combative Humans where my opponent was able to get double Reaper into play. Needless to say, all of my threats got turned into demons for multiple turns as I tried to draw my answers. At the same time, my opponent also had demon tokens in play, and he attacked with them expecting to trade for my demon tokens. Instead, I chose to take around 12 damage in demon attacks over multiple turns, since I gained health from an Angel of Light or two. This kept my growing army of around 6 demon tokens alive.

quellAfter a couple turns, I drew into my Quell. I played it on my turn removing all of my opponent’s 1-cost blockers leaving him with a Corpse Taker and 1 prepared demon token. My demon tokens were then able to attack and win me the game that turn. If I would have traded my demon tokens, I would have had more health at this point, but I wouldn’t have been able to win at that moment. In general, it is frequently better to play to win as opposed to play to not lose. I used a similar concept to this to win game 2 of my third match, and to win game 3 of the finals.

ice_drakeIn game 2 of match 3 in rounds I was able to establish a Sea Titan early. On the following turns, I cleared a path for my Sea Titan to hit twice at the cost of significant resources in my hand (Lightning Strike, Ice Drake, etc.). So, after a few turns my opponent was knocked within range of a Lightning Storm, Recall, Lightning Storm kill, but he had also managed to secure a board advantage and card advantage.

lightning_stormSince I had the Lightning Storm in hand, I played it on his turn to put him on a two-turn clock. After I played it, he realized I would kill him in two turns if nothing changed, but he said something along the lines of “I have Drain Essence so we can keep playing” (he had played it the first game where I had managed to draw-out first at the start of my turn when he only had 1 card left in deck). Going into my next turn, I spent a long time deciding what to do. I could recall my Lightning Storm, but if he had Drain Essence in hand, he would put himself comfortably out of range while I did nothing to disrupt his board and card advantages. I had a few other lines of attack to try and get my Sea Titan through, but they were all risky and potentially counterable. So, I decided to recall my Lightning Storm, leave my Sea Titan as a potential block and see if my opponent had Drain Essence in hand.

drain_essenceHe did not. He did, however, have a draw 2 card to dig for it. At the start of his next turn, he burned a Blind Faith to recycle. Then he burned a Spike Trap. Finally, he spent his gold to draw 2. He turned over the next card, Drain Essence, and conceded. Because I took the chance and recalled Lightning Storm, I put myself into a position to outright win unless my opponent had one specific answer. Since he didn’t, I won. If I would have played around the Drain Essence, I probably wouldn’t have won on the recalled Lightning Storm turn, and I would have given my opponent enough time to draw into his Drain Essence. In either situation, if my opponent plays Drain Essence that game, my chance of winning decreases sharply. By forcing my opponent to have Drain Essence immediately, I was able to win that game and ID (Intentional Draw) into top 8.

Dark Drafts

I am going to be going into these dark drafts in detail in my major dark draft article(s) coming soon.

Quarterfinals (2-0)

GenConQualifyQuarterFinals

Semifinals (2-1)

GenConQualifySemiFinals

Finals (2-1)

GenConQualifyFinals

Conclusion

I built a strong deck from a strong pool in limited, and it allowed me to make it to top 8. I believe I out drafted my opponent in the quarter and semi finals, but I believe I was out drafted in the finals.

After 3 close games in the finals, I barely managed to come out on top and qualify for worlds. You can bet that I will go into significant detail on game 3 of the finals. If you watched it, you understand why.

Dark Draft Article Coming Soon

Epic Box

I am currently working on updating my ratings for cards from my original rating here. Instead of releasing 1 faction a week like before, I am combining it all into one big organized article. In addition, I will be discussing my opinions on general deck composition for Dark Draft as well as specific strategies to watch out for/counter-draft. This will take quite awhile.

While I work on this article, I plan on putting out 1 other shorter article per week: an analysis of my World’s Qualifying Limited deck, Card Game Tournament Etiquette, Combative Humans updated list, analysis of the Constructed decks from Gen Con (at least Tom Dixon’s deck [can by found on the Facebook Epic Card Game Fan Page] until the others are posted), etc.

If there is anything specific anyone would like me to talk about/write an article on, let me know in the comments below. (I haven’t forgotten about my combat articles, but Origins and Gen Con have delayed them for now.)

Gen Con Short Recap

Got to play so much Epic after I qualified that I forgot to take pictures (thanks again Adam and fellow WWG volunteers/staff for keeping my camera safe for me). This event has added even more articles I want to write onto my Epic backlog already, and I do plan on redoing my rankings soon. Not only do I want to update some cards (Djinn of the Sands, Second Wind, Dark Assassin, Lightning Strike, etc.), but I also plan on revamping how I evaluate cards all together.

Congratulations to all of the players who qualified, and good luck to all that didn’t and will be at future qualifiers. Once again, interacting with the Epic community has been excellent, and it feels great when readers of the blog come up to chat. As you all know, I can and do go on for quite awhile when it comes to Epic.

To any new readers, welcome. I’m going to be updating the Epic page to make it more accessible for newer players. In general, my best article on Epic is probably Epic: Limited – Get Ahead, Stay Ahead.