Foreword
I’ve been playing board and card games with Tom for about seven years, if I’ve counted right. He introduced me to Epic a couple months ago. Him telling me it was his favorite game was enough to pique my interest, and I quickly came to really enjoy the unique facets of the game.
Dark drafting is one of the ways I can beat Tom. The randomness makes every draw fun, almost like opening a present to see what you’ll get. It can be frustrating to pass good cards to your opponent, but of course, that comes back at you. Overall, it’s very satisfying to play this format and come up with a plan for a deck as you build it based on draws.
Read on to see my choices in the 10 rounds, along with my commentary. Tom’s draft can be found here: Sample Epic Dark Draft 3/16/16 (Tom).
– Paul Kaefer, guest blogger
Round 1
Banishment, Cave Troll, Flash Fire, Surprise Attack, Wolf Companion
Pick: Surprise Attack
Guesses: Banishment, Flash Fire
Thoughts: Surprise Attack is wonderful. You draw AND can play a card as if it had ambush. Works with any deck, not just Wild.
I’m guessing Tom will pick Banishment and Flash Fire. Both are usable in many situations, and Flash Fire can be great for wiping token champions and some of the nice cards that have one or two defense.
Picks: Bitten and Plague
Thoughts: Do I risk taking something that requires loyalty, this early on? Angel of Death is fantastic, but I don’t want to have to pick Evil cards later that might not be as good.
I do like Word of Summoning, as well. Ambush+Recycle is a nice combination.
My choices are Bitten and Plague because it’s always the worst when there are some powerful champions and you have no way to get rid of them.
Round 2
Pick: Memory Spirit
Guesses: Drain Essence and Murderous Necromancer
Thoughts: This potentially gives me more draw back. Inner Demon may slightly throw him off… I’d like that to happen.
Memory Spirit may be my favorite of these cards. Think back to the fact that I chose Surprise Attack… this could let me use that twice.
Picks: Ancient Chant and Drain Essence
Thoughts: I’m not getting the loyalty, so I won’t pick
Murderous Necromancer. Draw has been killing me lately (lack of it, I should say!), so
Ancient Chant is a nice choice.
Drain Essence can be nice to get rid of a lot of strong champions, and give me a heath boost.
Round 3
Picks: Drinker of Blood and Guilt Demon
Thoughts: Okay, I’m going Evil…
I don’t have enough loyalty to go with
Ice Drake just now.
Round 4
Pick: Thundarus
Guesses: Final Task and Lurking Giant
Thoughts: I see how
Time Bender might be Tom’s choice, but I’m sticking with my guess that he’ll pick
Final Task because it’s useful.
Picks: Fireball and Hurricane
Thoughts: No question. Makes me wonder what Tom picked.
Hurricane has worked out a lot for me as a board clearer. It’s great if you have something like
Kong that won’t get cleared. And
Fireball can board clear or get rid of something pesky at 0-cost.
Round 5
Picks: Demon Breach and Jungle Queen
Thoughts: Jungle Queen can let you ambush in the likes of Kong and Raging T-Rex, allowing you to use their abilities on your opponent’s turn, and have them attack on your next turn.
Demon Breach is better on your turn, however you can ambush in two demons to “chump block” which is cool.
Round 6
Pick: Lord of the Arena
Guesses: Forcemage Apprentice and Vital Mission
Thoughts: I feel like this is a seminal pick. Based on Tom’s remark, he agrees. I look forward to my selection from the cards he passes me.
Picks: Erase and Kong
Thoughts: Wow. WHAT DID HE PICK?!
Angel of Mercy is another great card, but not this time.
Kong is one of my favorite cards.
Erase can be fantastic and gives you cards.
Round 7
Pick: Triceratops
Guesses: Ceasefire and Standard Bearer
Thoughts: I bet this’ll throw him off.
Ceasefire I know he’ll pick. The other choice is hard. I couldn’t give him
Triceratops (not to mention it’s a great card that I want).
Picks: Strafing Dragon and Succubus
Thoughts: Does he want me to win…? In the past, I would have picked
Rampaging Wurm, but I’ve come to learn how nice Succubus is. I feel like I have enough wild to use
Strafing Dragon‘s loyalty ability.
Round 8
Pick: Raging T-Rex
Guesses: Corpse Taker and White Dragon
Thoughts: Difficult choice, but
T-Rex is the best one.
Corpse Taker can be amazing, and
Dark Assassin would be an almost certain pick if I knew I could pull off the loyalty (which would allow me to break target champion when I play it).
Picks: Flame Strike and Juggernaut
Thoughts: I’ve been getting lots of awesome cards. I think this is clearly the best choice. “Unbreakable on your turn” is SUPER annoying to play against.
Flame Strike can finish off a champion or player.
Round 9
Pick: Palace Guard
Guesses: Angelic Protector and Mighty Blow
Thoughts: Mighty Blow I’ll have to watch out for.
Palace Guard is really good: you know they can’t bring back the banished champion from their discard pile.
The thing with
Mighty Blow and
Angelic Protector is that they are definitely situational. True, the card draw is always nice, but banishing a champion and getting a decently powerful champion yourself comes up a lot. And I’ve passed some things that I can expect to want to banish.
Picks: Frost Giant and Turn
Thoughts: Stand Alone &
Apocalypse are pretty darn good, too!
Turn is nice here, because I can gain control of some of the things that were difficult to pass in the draft.
Frost Giant is amazing.
Round 10
Pick: Steel Golem
Guesses: Psionic Assault and Time Walker
Thoughts: I’ll bet a lot of money on what Tom picks here! It’s really annoying to play against Psionic Assault (especially if you can’t banish it from your opponent’s discard pile). Time Walker is great with the loyalty.
I partly can’t let Tom get Steel Golem, and another strong part likes the fact that it’s powerful and untargetable. You never realize how many cards say “target” on them until you are trying to get rid of a Steel Golem!
Picks: Divine Judgement and Medusa
Thoughts: High King: I don’t quite have enough loyalty. I’ve half a mind to try
Djinn over one of these… but as Tom doesn’t like it very much, I’ll go off his advice.
I’ve come to realize the high value of cards like
Divine Judgement: the “or” effect is powerful if the situation permits. Otherwise, drawing two cards is fantastic almost always.
Conclusion
I really enjoy dark drafting. It’s fun to have a little idea of what your opponent could take, and guess based on that.
It was particularly fun to keep track of what I thought Tom would pick, and compare notes after we played with our decks. (Tom’s draft can be found here: Sample Epic Dark Draft 3/16/16 (Tom).) When we played these games, it helped me improve to be thinking about what cards Tom might have chosen. It was helpful to discuss at the end, both to learn more of Tom’s playing style, as well as what he thought would work in these drafts.
I wouldn’t encourage you to take notes as meticulous as these every time you play (but if you have a more efficient way to do so, please let us know in the comments below).
So overall, I would recommend (1) making sure you have some idea of faction investment as you draft; (2) think about important things that your deck may be strong or weak at, like card draw, removal, and slow/fast cards; and (3) keep in mind specific cards your opponent is almost guaranteed to have selected. I don’t think most people will remember everything, but it can be pretty easy to keep track of likely combinations that you can anticipate playing against.
About the Guest Author
Paul is an amateur board and card game enthusiast. His favorites are CardsAgainstHumanity, the Battlestar Galactica board game, and Bananagrams.
Epic has made his way into his top ten, and is interested in playing with more people. You can learn more about Paul on his website.
Paul is an amateur board and card game enthusiast. His favorites are CardsAgainstHumanity, the Battlestar Galactica board game, and Bananagrams.