Epic Progression (3)

Foreword

(3/18/19 update: This is arguably my most influential article. I wrote it after my first post-release, competitive Epic experience [Origins 2016] to explain and codify my Epic style at that point. While my play style has evolved since then, the core of it is still well-represented here. After much thought, I’ve decided to designate this the 3rd article in my Epic Progression series, while largely preserving it in its original form.)

Limited/Draft/Sealed etc. are my best and favorite card game formats. Most of my pre-Epic competitive experience was drafting. At Origins my overall limited record in rounds was 6-1-3 (Loss to Rich Shay, the first World’s Qualifier at Origins, and 1 Intentional Draw). In this article I explain my limited philosophy and provide detailed examples.

Get Ahead, Stay Ahead

In my Epic experience, the most reliable way to win is to get a lead and maintain it. Sounds simple, and at a base level, it is. My fundamentals include understanding what to play when:

• there are no champions in play
• you are ahead
• you are behind

Fundamentals

These fundamentals win me a lot of games against newer players. The focus is getting ahead and staying ahead.

No Champions in Play

When there are no champions in play and it is my turn, I either:

• play an Establishing card

or

• pass holding my gold

An Establishing card is a card that either provides an immediate bonus (such as a champion with Tribute -> Draw a card) or immediate hard to deal with threat(s) (such as a champion with Blitz and Untargetable). In either case, these are the cards most likely to put me into the lead.

Both a lead in cards (card advantage) and a lead in champions in play (board advantage) are valuable. While board advantage directly leads to wins, card advantage enables you to maintain board advantage.

Erase Examples

 

Erase is one of the best cards in the game, and it can punish players for playing a non-Establishing card on their turn.

 

For example, I play Triceratops, an Establishing champion, and draw a card. My opponent plays Erase to return it to my hand and draw 2 cards. At the end of the turn, we have both spent our gold and increased our hand size by 1. So neither player gets a significant advantage.

If I had played Raxxa, Demon Tryant, another Establishing champion, and my opponent Erased him, I would have 2 demons in play while my opponent has increased her hand size by 1. In this situation, I have a board advantage and my opponent has a card advantage after we both spent our gold.

The worst case scenario is if I play a non-Establishing champion like Burrowing Wurm. If my opponent Erases that, she spent her gold to increase her hand size by 1, and I spent my gold and my turn to gain nothing.

0-Cost Establishing Cards

0-cost Establishing cards are strong because they allow me to get a small lead while holding my gold.

Dark Knight is an example of a strong 0-cost Establishing card. Dark Knight is hard for my opponent to remove or effectively block on my turn without spending his gold. I underestimated this card until it was used against me in a Sage Tempo mirror match in rounds. Since I refused to spend my gold, I had to take the 5 damage.  Thankfully I drew Blue Dragon to break it on my turn.

Paros is another strong 0-cost Establishing card. It is a pretty big star in my Combative Humans deck that I took second with at the Sunday Origins constructed tournament.

Holding Gold

If I do not have an Establishing card, I will pass my turn to my opponent while not spending my gold. By holding my gold, I do not open myself up to a stronger play by my opponent (like in the Burrowing Wurm/Erase example above). Since it is fairly likely that my opponent can effectively and efficiently answer a non-Establishing champion I play on my turn, I would rather let her begin with an open board instead of risking giving her a lead.

In addition, if your opponent decides to play something on your turn while you still have your gold, you can punish her.

Say I pass my turn holding my gold. My opponent ambushes a champion into play. Then, I regain initiative to play any card on my turn. So, since I still have my gold, I play Kong and break her ambushed in champion. If I had played Kong first, instead of passing, my opponent could have ambushed in her champion safely or finished off my damaged Kong (since Kong had to target itself with its Tribute ability).

If, after I pass holding my gold, my opponent decides to spend her gold to draw 2 cards, I can answer with a big blitz champion. In this scenario, my opponent increased her hand size by 1, but I will likely do 13 damage to her and leave a big threat in play. My Lord of the Arenas were respected and feared by the end of the tournament.

So, from the other perspective, if someone passes their turn while holding their gold while the board is empty, let the turn end. If you play something, you open yourself up to the situations above. If you don’t play something, you get to move directly to your turn. This is especially valuable on the first turn of the game. If your opponent passes holding their gold, you can pass and then you essentially get the first turn and the first draw of the game, a pretty nice start.

You are Ahead

When I am ahead I try to stay ahead; I do not try to get further ahead (usually). In Epic, if I can secure a small lead, I can win with that lead. If I try to grow that lead, I can put myself in a position to lose everything.

Attacking before spending your gold on your turn is almost always the correct play, especially when you are ahead. If the only champion in play is my White Knight and both players still have their gold, I can attack and force a response from my opponent. He can either take the damage, play a 1-cost card to disrupt the attack (ambush in a blocker, use removal, etc.), or neutralize the attack with a 0-cost card (Fumble, Hasty Retreat, etc.).

Take the Damage

If your opponent takes the damage, you just did 9 damage, and you still have your gold. Trying to end your turn is generally a strong move because you have already done damage, and you are still ahead. If your opponent then uses her gold, you can follow up with a strong blitz champion or another Establishing card to regain the lead. If she also passes, your turn was worthwhile even though you didn’t spend your gold.

1-Cost Card

If your opponent plays a 1-cost card to remove your White Knight, you can once again play a blitz champion or another Establishing card. You didn’t do damage with White Knight, but now you can more reliably play cards like Gold Dragon for damage and health gain.

0-Cost Card

This is the most interesting situation and frequently the best play for your opponent. In this scenario, you are back in the Hold Your Gold scenario above. Passing is still a solid option because you already have the lead. If you do play a 1-cost card, your opponent is safe to use his. Say you put out another champion, they can now use off-turn board clears like Wave of Transformation without fear of a big blitz champion. In most situations, I would just hold my gold and force my opponent to act first on my turn, since I have the lead.

Targeted Removal

When you are in the lead, fast targeted 1 for 1 (or better) removal is incredible. Fast targeted removal like Drain Essence, Erase, Bitten, Temporal Enforcer, etc. are excellent because they neutralize most champions your opponent might play. For instance, if you attack with White Knight and your opponent plays Lurking Giant, you can play Chomp! on the Lurking Giant, maintain your lead, and deal 9 damage with White Knight. In this scenario both players spent their gold, nothing on the board changed, but you did 9 damage and maintained your lead.

As soon as you have a lead, if you can answer every threat your opponent plays 1 for 1 (or better), you will be difficult to defeat. If, however, you try to extend your lead, you potentially open yourself up to losing everything without being able to regain the lead that turn. Then, on your opponent’s turn she can take the lead and begin holding it from you.

You are Behind

When you are behind, the best cards are Reestablishing cards. These cards frequently remove a champion and do something else. Kong and Sea Titan are the 2 best champions for this scenario. With both of them you remove your opponent’s lead (if it’s just 1 champion) and gain the lead for yourself. These are generally the best champions for limited. I value these cards incredibly highly (just not as highly as Lightning Storm, Amnesia, and off-turn board clears like Wave of Transformation).

Most of these champions are slow, but this is fine because it is safer to play them on your turn (unless your opponent left an opening by spending his gold first on his turn). On your turn you are less vulnerable because you can’t be attacked. Due to this, you can more afford to spend your gold first.

In addition, when you are behind if you pass your turn holding your gold, your opponent has little incentive to play anything, since he already has the lead. If your opponent plays this maintain-and-not-grow-my-lead style, it can be incredibly difficult to come back when behind. Without these Reestablishing cards it can be nearly impossible. This is especially true if your opponent has strong fast Reestablishing cards like Temporal Enforcer and Medusa.

Next Step

Once you understand these fundamentals, the next level of play involves adapting to your opponent. Adapting to your opponent comes in many levels. The most important adapting involves playing around cards you know your opponent has in hand or in deck. The best way I can depict this is through examples.

Origins Thursday: Soul Hunter, Ceasefire, Ice Drake (Max Jacob)

On Thursday I played a very memorable match that involved the 3 cards above. I believe I lost the first game and won the second two. This 3 card combo was the primary means of shutting me out entirely in game 1.

In that game I had Raxxa, Demon Tyrant, at least 2 demon tokens, and possibly 1 or 2 other champions. Max had Soul Hunter in play, and I had no way in hand to deal with it. So, on my turn, since I had significantly more champions in play than my opponent, I attacked with a 6/6 demon. My opponent blocked and then played Ceasefire. My attack still happened which broke the Soul Hunter and did 5 damage to me. Since I couldn’t attack anymore, my army had to sit back and do nothing.

Next turn Soul Hunter comes back from the discard pile. I still have no way to answer it, but I still have the board advantage. So, on my turn I send my demon in again to begin the onslaught. My opponent blocks, plays Ice Drake, and my army gets halted again. I don’t remember the rest of the game, but I died shortly afterwards. I did, however, make a mental note of those 3 cards since they caused me so much trouble, especially since my deck could go fairly wide (get a lot of smaller champions into play as opposed to 1 or 2 bigger champions).

In the next 2 games, I made sure to constantly hold onto at least one of my only 4 cards that could banish champions, specifically to deal with Soul Hunter. In both of the games my opponent drew and played Soul Hunter, but I had an answer ready both times. Since I knew my deck was weak to Soul Hunter (most of my damage was non-airborne and blockable), I had to specifically adjust my play to prevent myself from getting blown out by that one card.

After dealing with Soul Hunter, I still had to worry about Ceasefire and Ice Drake. To play around these cards, I did a significant amount of group attacking. I frequently had multiple demons in play at a time. Since I knew that my opponent had both of those cards, I almost constantly attacked with 2 demons in a group. This would allow me to get 8 damage through if he Ceasefired (significantly more than 4), and it was enough offense to break Ice Drake if he dropped that in to block. In addition, I slow rolled out some 0-cost blitz champions after attacking with my demons for some extra damage. I did over-extend a bit when I was ahead on the board, and I got punished for it. But, since I got those demons through for damage, I was able to barely edge out game 3 before dying to burn (damage from cards like Flame Strike that can directly target a player aka direct damage). I gained a rival that day, and I look forward to the rematches.

So, in order to come back from a 1-game deficit, I specifically held onto answers for a known threat, and I adjusted my attack pattern to suit the situation.

Origins Saturday: Aggressive Mulligans (Kyle Coons)

In the semi-finals I drafted a demon deck in the dark draft. I believe I lost the first game, but I learned a lot from it. My deck was fairly controlling with a heavy demon and board clear focus. Kyle’s deck had a lot of burn, decent control, but minimal board clears. In the first game, there were probably around 3 turns where I couldn’t apply any pressure because I had no champions or tokens I could put into play. During that time, my opponent was able to draw his burn, and drop me from around 24 health.

Due to this, I realized that I would have to put the pressure on early and either win quickly or deny him as much opportunity to draw as possible. To achieve this, I mulliganed 4 cards in game 2 even though I knew I was against burn. The 4 cards where all control cards that I knew wouldn’t be terribly strong in the match up. I then drew into some major demon threats like Spawning Demon and Demon Breach. With these cards I was able to go wide enough to bypass his defenses and win game 2.

Game 3: I aggressively mulligan 3 or 4 cards again and get a strong starting hand. I am able to expand quickly and get some damage in, but a timely Stand Alone clears most of my board. Kyle then follows up with a top decked Raxxa’s Curse to clear out my remaining Spawning Demon. Luckily, I have Demon Breach, and I am able to reapply pressure 3 demons at a time. In this match up, I focus on recalling Demon Breach instead of drawing since Demon Breach is one of my most effective threats. 12/12 spread over 3 bodies is solid.

Kyle does manage to slow me down a bit with Ceasefire and other disruptive cards, but I am able to prevent his answers from sticking. I am going slow enough that his burn is becoming a real issue, and he’s getting close to decking himself as well. On one of the longest and most pivotal decisions of the game, he plays Memory Spirit and, after much consideration, takes back Ceasefire. I then take a long time on my turn and decide to go all in on lethal (enough damage to reduce my opponent to 0 or less health in one turn). I have 3 demons in play with a Lash in hand. So I Inheritance of the Meek to remove his Memory Spirit (and my Medusa), and then I attack with my 3 demons as a group.

Unfortunately for me, I play right into his hands, or, more precisely, his Hands from Below. This was a card I knew he had in his deck, and I possibly new was in his hand, but I was blinded by lethal and crippled myself trying to win. My opponent masterfully baited me into that group attack, and it was brutal play.

I do manage to draw my Amnesia before he can deck out (my first pick of the draft), and I launch a lethal 15 damage Reap or Sow into The Risen group attack (avoiding Ceasefire). But, he manages to disrupt enough of that damage with Rain of Fire and Smash and Burn. Then he burns me on his turn, and when I pass initiative on my turn, I lose.

By aggressively mulliganing I was able to put significant pressure on Kyle, and I almost pulled out the win. The Ceasefire Hands from Below play was both clever and brutal, and I walked right into it. I lost that match because I didn’t stop him from getting all of the burn in the draft, I didn’t take any health gain to mitigate that fact (Drain Essence), and I was outplayed. He was able to recognize my strategy and counter it.

With regard to mulligans in general, I always ideally want a strong Establishing card for my turn and a fast card I want to play on my opponent’s turn. In this matchup I pitched my almost worthless control cards.

Against non-burn control decks, I would probably pitch my Inner Peaces when playing my Combative Humans deck. Against a deck with no targets for certain removal, Lightning Strike for example, I would pitch that card. I also generally mulligan 0-cost recycle cards because I am unlikely to want to use them in the first couple turns, unless I need a card like Blind Faith specifically to counter an opponent’s cards/strategies.

Origins Sunday: Selective Loyalty Reveals (Hampus Eriksson)

In the constructed Finals on the last day of Origins I was playing against Hampus Eriksson. The matchup was me on Combative Humans, him on Sage/Wild Control/Tempo/Burn. My deck had a few tricks that my opponent was not expecting, and I kept it that way until the time came.

I knew my opponent was running Sage/Wild, and I was expecting discard effects. My deck relies heavily on combat tricks such as Brave Squire. So, when I play, I usually try to avoid revealing my Brave Squires for my Loyalty 2 effects. This lets me attack into bigger champions because my opponent doesn’t know if I have a combat trick in hand. Against the Sage/Wild deck though, I was willing to reveal my Brave Squires because I had a more important card to hide: Markus, Watch Captain.

The first game went fairly poorly for me because I couldn’t establish much momentum against his control. It got to the point where I was far behind and needed to draw specific cards to win. I had 2 unrevealed Markuses in hand, a White Dragon, and a Triceratops. My best chance of drawing what I needed would have been to play a Markus into White Dragon, but I was so far behind, that I decided it was more important to hide my Markuses for game two. However, Hampus played Psionic Assault on me. I debated conceding or discarding my non-Markus cards to see more of his cards before I lost game 1, but I decided to go for the win. I went to end step, dropped my 2 Markus on the board, revealed 2 Good cards, and drew 2 cards.

Because I had hidden my Markuses, my opponent played right into them. If I had shown even 1 of them earlier, it is highly unlikely the Psionic Assault would have been played. I did still lose both that game and the next (1 health), but I was able to make the big play because I adjusted my reveal strategy.

Wrap Up

This article describes my current understanding of Limited Epic as of 7/2/16. Epic is a very nuanced game which means everything I’ve said here has exceptions. The most interesting parts of playing a game of Epic for me are understanding my opponent, understanding my opponent’s deck, and understanding when I need to break my own guidelines.

With regard to Establishing and Reestablishing champions it is more important to understand why a champion is one than it is to memorize which are which. Therefore, I did not include lists above, but for those interested, I include the lists down here.

 

Overall, I hope this article was helpful for explaining my general and evolving strategy. This strategy is less relevant in constructed as will be demonstrated when I discuss Derek Arnold’s Lesson Learned deck.

Feel free to let me know any topics you would like me to go into greater detail about in the comments below.

Epic Progression [3] Update

Once you are able to experience and understand this level of play, you will either be in love with the game or will know it isn’t what you want. If you are the type of person who read through these three articles looking for a decision/skill-intensive game, I find it next to impossible that you will not fall in love.

If you would like to read/watch more of my Epic content, I have descriptive links to all of it (sorted by format) on my Epic Card Game page. Ideally, I would like to continue this series by at least distilling my constructed articles into Epic Progression (4) and culminating it with a brand new article exploring the top-level competitive skills that transcend the game’s inherent mechanisms in Epic Progression (>5). In the meantime, Enjoy Epic Everyone!

Foreword

In this article I explain my process for building my limited deck from Origins Saturday 6/18/16. I went 3-0-2 with this deck which I believe made me the 3 seed in top 8. (I then won the first round of top 8 and lost in top 4.)

Mulligan

In this event, I did not like my first 60-card limited pool, so I mulliganed down to a 56-card limited pool. Unfortunately, I was too focused on the event and didn’t think to take a picture of my pre-mulligan pool.

I mulliganed my first limited pool because it wasn’t strong in any particular faction, and it didn’t have enough amazing faction-independent cards. My only regret was losing Lightning Storm which I believe is the best limited card in Epic.

After the mulligan, this was my card pool:

First Pass

You are only allowed to mulligan once (down to 56-cards). 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:),
strong faction-dependent cards (dashed arrow: ),
strategy-dependent cards like Revolt (line:), and
effectively unplayable cards (line through: ).
All cards without a mark are viable, but not incredible.

(In an actual event, it is better not to mark up the sheet aside from your actual picks.)

Wild

My only faction-dependent cards in Wild are fairly weak; I don’t have a lot of them, and the ones I do have aren’t the greatest (Hunting Raptors, Jungle Queen, and, to a lesser extent, Fire Shaman). Due to this, all of the other viable (unmarked cards) are weaker because I don’t need them for Loyalty/Ally effects.

This means that I will probably only take the most incredible, faction-independent cards out of Wild and ignore the rest.

Sage

Sage has 7 incredibly powerful faction-dependent cards. In order to reliably use these to their fullest, I would have to include a significant number of other Sage cards. Thankfully, my Sage pool is also packed with strong faction-independent cards as well.

This means that I will probably go heavy Sage in this deck.

Evil

I have a few demon/wide/token strategy-dependent cards in Evil. I could go this route, but the strategy doesn’t feel deep enough in this pool. In general, the wide strategy usually isn’t as strong either, and the rest of my cards so far don’t support the wide strategy enough.

If my Good cards heavily support a wide strategy, that is still a possibility, but, since my Sage pool is so strong and deep, it is unlikely I will go wide.

Good

Not a lot of faction-dependent cards in Good and only some support for a wide strategy. In addition, the wide strategy support doesn’t actually synergize with the Evil wide strategy support.

Once again, I will probably just cherry pick the best faction-independent cards from this faction.

Overall

My Sage pool is by far my deepest and strongest faction. It offers me a lot of high-tempo cards which are incredible in limited/draft environments.

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

I immediately cut all non-Sage cards that rely on Loyalty or Ally triggers. (Reaper has an ally trigger, but it doesn’t need it to be worthwhile). At the same time, I set aside the most powerful faction-independent cards from my off-faction and the strong cards from my dominant faction (Sage).

At this point, I have 17 cards I will run, 6 cards I will almost certainly run, and 15 more cards I might run, 38 total. (I also have 4 more cards I could squeeze in if needed.)

Distribution Passes

To further cut down my cards I analyze my distribution of draw effects, slow effects, removal effects, 0-cost effects, and burn effects. (In my next article I will also break down the importance of establishment cards and reestablishment cards.)

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 (1 guaranteed, 3 possible, 4 total)
Juggernaut
Ankylosaurus
Blue Dragon
Memory Spirit

1-Cost Draw 2 and… Cards (1 guaranteed, 0 possible, 1 total)
Ceasefire

-Or- Draw 2 Cards (2 guaranteed, 10 possible, 12 total)
Amnesia, Hasty Retreat
Lightning Strike
Mighty Blow
Rage
Deadly Raid
Lying in Wait
Apocalypse
Final Task
Plague
Divine Judgement
Forced Exile

Recycle (1 guaranteed, 1 possible, 2 total)
Amnesia
Blind Faith

Recall (1 guaranteed, 0 possible, 1 total)
Lash

Miscellaneous (1 guaranteed, 1 possible, 2 total)
Muse
Pyromancer

No Draw/Recall (11 guaranteed, 6 possible, 17 total)
Kong, Lurking Giant, Elara the Lycomancer, Helion the Dominator, Ice Drake, Steel Golem, Temporal Enforcer, Time Bender, Turn, Drain Essence, Reaper
Fireball
Flame Strike
Hands from Below
Necrovirus
Brave Squire
Gold Dragon

I only have 7 guaranteed draw/recall cards so far and 11 no draw cards. This means I don’t want to include more than 4 of the 6 possible no draw cards. At this point no new cards are for sure going into or getting removed from the deck.

 

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 (11 guaranteed, 14 possible, 25 total)
Lash, Lurking Giant, Amnesia, Hasty Retreat, Helion the Dominator, Ice Drake, Muse, Temporal Enforcer, Time Bender, Drain Essence, Ceasefire
Fireball
Flame Strike
Lightning Strike
Mighty Blow
Pyromancer
Rage
Lying in Wait
Memory Spirit
Final Task
Hands from Below
Necrovirus
Blind Faith
Brave Squire
Forced Exile

Your Turn Fast (1 guaranteed, 4 possible, 5 total)
Turn
Deadly Raid
Apocalypse
Plague
Divine Judgement

Slow (5 guaranteed, 3 possible, 8 total)
Kong, Elara the Lyocmancer, Juggernaut, Steel Golem, Reaper
Ankylosaurus
Blue Dragon
Gold Dragon

Even if I took all of my possible slow cards (and Turn), I would still have under 1/3 slow cards in my deck. So, no new italicized or struck-through cards from this section.

 

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 Removal (9 guaranteed, 4 possible, 13 total)
Hasty Retreat, Helion the Dominator, Temporal Enforcer, Time Bender, Drain Essence, Turn, Kong, Elara the Lycomancer, Reaper
Flame Strike
Lying in Wait
Necrovirus
Forced Exile

Small Removal (2 guaranteed, 4 possible, 6 total)
Lash
Fireball
Lightning Strike
Pyromancer
Hands from Below
Blue Dragon

Board Clears (3 guaranteed, 0 possible, 3 total)
Apocalypse
Plague
Divine Judgement

Miscellaneous (1 guaranteed, 1 possible, 2 total)
Memory Spirit
Blind Faith

Non-Removal (7 guaranteed, 7 possible, 14 total)
Lurking Giant, Amnesia, Ice Drake, Muse, Ceasefire, Juggernaut, Steel Golem
Mighty Blow
Rage
Final Task
Brave Squire
Deadly Raid
Ankylosaurus
Gold Dragon

Board Clears are incredibly important in limited because it is easy to fall behind, so I put in all 3.

I didn’t have much small removal in my deck, so I put in Blue Dragon. Blue Dragon is also excellent because it draws a card, it is Sage, and it benefits from a heavy Sage investment.

I put in Memory Spirit at this point because I’m in Sage, and it is an excellent card that helps with all of the distribution categories so far.

After adding these 5 cards, I am up to 22 guaranteed cards.

 

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 10. 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 (7 guaranteed, 4 struck-through, 0 possible, 11 total)
Lash, Amnesia, Hasty Retreat, Muse
Ankylosaurus
Fireball
Lightning Strike
Rage
Hands from Below
Blind Faith
Brave Squire

1-Cost (18 guaranteed, 9 possible, 27 total)

I added Blind Faith and Brave Squire because I value them both highly, and I had room for them. Lightning Strike was included because there are plenty of targets for it in limited, generally.

I did not include Hands from Below because the zombies don’t fit well into my deck and Lightning Strike fills a similar role.

I skipped Rage because I have Lash already, I don’t need Wild cards, and I have decent draw.

I cut Ankylosaurus because my deck’s strength largely comes from powerful 1-cost champions. I felt like Ankylosaurus wouldn’t offer enough.

This puts me to 25 guaranteed cards, 4 struck-through cards, and 10 possible cards.

Burn Effects

Burn is a category that I have been undervaluing in Epic. While it did determine one of the cards I chose, it probably should have determined at least 1 more.

Burn (4 guaranteed, 1 struck-through, 1 possible, 6 total)
Blue Dragon, Helion the Dominator, Plague
Flame Strike
Pyromancer
Fireball

Miscellaneous (1 guaranteed, 0 possible, 1 total)
Memory Spirit

Non-Burn (21 guaranteed, 3 struck-through, 7 possible, 31 total)

I added Pyromancer here because it had been working well for me at Origins. I should have also added Flame Strike, but I undervalued it. After all of my distribution passes, I am at 26 guaranteed cards. 4 more cards need to be finalized and 4 cut.

Final Pass

By this point I have decided on a dominant faction (or two for some pools), picked the most consistently powerful cards, and made sure my distributions for key aspects was largely solid. Now, I just have to make the final cuts based on deck cohesion and personal preference.

Updated Distribution Numbers

Remaining Cards

Flame Strike
Mighty Blow
Deadly Raid
Lying in Wait
Final Task
Necrovirus
Forced Exile
Gold Dragon

I probably should have included Flame Strike because it is incredible, but I did not.

I really wanted to include Mighty Blow, but I ended up cutting it. I really like it in theory because it is 10 damage with 1 card, if played on an unblocked attacker. Unfortunately, it hasn’t really showed up much for me in my experience. In addition, this deck has very few tokens and minimal breakthough restricting the viable targets for this card.

Deadly Raid is Sage which is great for this deck. In addition, I have Steel Golem which is the best card to use Deadly Raid with in my opinion. So, I included it.

Lying in Wait is solid Sage removal that can also draw 2 if needed. I love solid Sage removal/draw 2 cards for this deck. Fairly easy include (even though it made it to the Final Pass).

Final Task could be strong since I have Kong, Juggernaut, Pyromancer, Brave Squire etc., but it is Evil which makes me less inclined to use it in this deck. Final Task also seems a bit weaker in limited because the body usually breaks. I picked other cards over this one.

I highly value fast removal and Necrovirus is solid fast removal. The tokens don’t benefit me significantly, but I can eventually activate it with my few Evil 1-cost cards for extra chump blockers that allow me to be more aggressive.

Forced Exile is more removal, but it is a Good card which doesn’t benefit me. I picked other cards over this card.

Gold Dragon is nice for that 6/8 airborne blitz body. The righteous is an added bonus. I am a fan of having at least a few blitz champions because they can severely punish an opponent for spending their gold first on your turn. This was very close to being cut.

So, below is my deck list that I went 3-0-2 with on Saturday 6/18/16 at Origins:

Deck Strategy

This deck, like most decks, prefers to draw first instead of play first. Kong, Elara, Temporal Enforcer, Reaper, and to a lesser extent Time Bender, Turn, and all of my targeted removal like having targets when they come into play. These are high value plays that put your opponent on the back foot when they are already 1 card behind.

Once you have an advantage, you want to beat down your opponent with that advantage without over extending. With this deck, you basically always want to hold your gold until your opponent spends theirs. If that means trying to end your turn without spending your gold, great. This deck is packing a large number of fast high-tempo cards that make it incredibly difficult for your opponent to come back from behind.

Juggernaut, Steel Golem, and to a lesser extent Blue Dragon are the only cards in this deck you generally want to play to an open board when your opponent still has their gold. (I call these establishment cards.)

Games Overview

I only remember 2 of the matches particularly well.

First Match

In the first match, I believe it ended in a draw because I rushed my final turn after time was called.

Second Match

I believe the second match I was able to execute my strategy effectively, but I do not remember specifics.

Third Match

The third match I played was very interesting. This is probably the match with the most turns where neither player spent their gold. Both of us had high tempo decks that could severely punish our opponent for spending their gold first. Due to this, in at least two of the games, we both spent the first few turn just drawing and passing to the next player. This match ended in a draw because neither of us had enough/drew enough of our establishment cards to get things moving in our favor. I would say we played at a fairly decent pace though without too much time in the tank thinking.

Two of the cards that were quite strong in this match up were my Juggernaut and his Dark Knight. Juggernaut in general is an incredible card because it is hard to deal with effectively, and it draws a card. Dark Knight was deceptively strong because I couldn’t stop it from getting in the first turn without spending my gold. If I didn’t have my Blue Dragon to kill it on my turn, I could have been in trouble. Overall these games were memorable and a lot of fun: the games were close, interesting, and unusual and my opponent was cool too. Shout out to Auggie on good games: 1, 1, 1.

Fourth Match

I believe this was another match where I was largely able to play my strategy.

Fifth Match

The Win and In match. This match was interesting because apparently I could unintentionally draw and most likely make it to top 8. I thought this might be the case but didn’t feel like doing the math. My opponent seemed to know this, and he had to win to make it to top 8.

I don’t remember many of the specifics of this match, but I remember drawing perfectly and largely preventing my opponent from gaining any headway. (Steel Golem off the top after my opponent Inheritance of the Meeked on my turn.) I believe I may have reestablished my board presence with a Kong, and then never let go. Whichever specific reestablishment or establishment card(s) I used, I constantly had the perfect answers in hand that let me just attack, pass, and respond to everything. Ambush in a blocker: return it to hand with Temporal Enforcer or Time Bender. Break my champion on my opponent’s turn: ambush in Lurking Giant to put him right back into the same position.

After the game, we started talking about some concepts such as auto play (I consistently just attack, pass, and react when ahead) and how to break free from the situation I put him in with my high tempo plays. At the time, I didn’t have any great answers, but I am going to be discussing them in my next article about limited in general.

As a quick note, I would say that 1-cost reestablishment cards like Kong, Sea Titan, Reaper, Medusa, Elara, Temporal Enforcer, Angel of Death, etc. are some of the most important limited cards. Without these, your opponent can continuously 1 for 1 trade with you once they get ahead.

High-impact 0-cost cards are also incredibly important. Hasty Retreat is one of the best because it can remove a 1-cost champion for free and allow you to spend your gold on something else, or you can spend your gold and have Hasty Retreat as a safety net. I also think I like Fumble for similar reasons. Lightning Strike can be pretty strong as well, or potentially worthless.

Overall, I am a big fan of limited, and I look forward to going over it generally soon. I am also excited to discuss my Thursday limited deck because it broke form the usual Sage/Wild tempo deck mold.

Origins 2016 is over, and I have a lot more to say about Epic now. I participated in all 4 tournaments:

Thursday (sealed) top 4
Friday (constructed: Sage Untargetable Tempo) 10th place
Saturday (sealed) top 4
Sunday (constructed: Combative Humans) 2nd place

The 9 unique constructed deck lists from the top 8 and top 4 on Friday/Sunday can also be found at Epic Foundry. Combative Humans was the only new deck in the Sunday top 4, hence 9 unique decks instead of 12. Lessons Leaned is Derek Arnold’s modified list for his deck.

My overall record for sealed (not including the Intentional Draw) was 6-1-2. I am significantly more confident in my sealed ability than my constructed ability. Due to this, I am going to be going over my sealed experiences first.

Epic Sealed Articles

I am going to be writing at least 3 articles on sealed, and these are, most likely, going to be written in this order:

1. Saturday Sealed Pool (deck explanation and analysis of play, top 4)

2. Overall Sealed Analysis (my deck building and sealed play general thoughts)

3. Thursday Sealed Pool (deck explanation and analysis of play, I took this list in an unexpected direction, top 4)

Epic Constructed Articles

I have significantly less experience playing in constructed tournaments, so I am less confident in my constructed abilities as a whole. My overall record was 5-2-1 I think (only 3 or 4 games on Sunday). I am going to start by going over my decks. Then I will discuss my thoughts on the meta in general. I will also thoroughly analyze Derek Arnold’s Lessons Learned deck that won the Friday event.

The order of these might change.

1. Combative Humans (My Sunday Constructed deck 2nd place)

2. Untargetable Sage Tempo (Friday Constructed deck 10th place)

3. Overall Thoughts on the Meta

4. Derek Arnold’s incredible 4-color Lessons Learned deck (Derek Arnold qualified with this deck on Friday. I watched his last two matches, and it was fascinating. This deck completely subverted a few of my ideas about how to play Epic. I am really looking forward to analyzing this deck. Derek Arnold also has his own blog, Epic Insights. I am very much looking forward to reading what he has to say about this deck.)

(Derek Arnold’s Lessons Learned rework pictured below.)