Origins Friday Constructed Analysis

Epic Box

Foreword

In this article I discuss my thoughts on constructed going into the first Epic Constructed Qualifier. I discuss my deck, my matches, and my deck revisions afterwards. I went 3-2-0 for a 10th place finish.

Opening Constructed Thoughts

Constructed and Limited/draft/etc. are very different beasts.

In limited, you have to put together a deck of 30(+) cards (usually all different). So, you try to include the best overall cards, add as much synergy as possible, and then play against opponents who could have a wide range of potential cards.

insurgencyIn constructed, each player is able to spend an unlimited amount of time beforehand selecting and testing the best possible combination of cards. Some cards that can be frequently weak in draft, like Insurgency, can be powerhouses because the deck is designed to utilize that card well (otherwise it wouldn’t be in the deck). Other cards, like Lightning Storm, aren’t as devastatingly powerful in constructed because the variability and reusability aren’t necessarily as important. In addition, being able to run 3 of a card (for example 3 Flame Strikes and 3 Lesson Learneds) is a huge deal, but since it is a 60-card deck with no resources (like Magic Lands), the variability in each game can be quite large.

Meta

hands_from_belowIn constructed cards like Hands from Below or Lightning Strike have varying effectiveness. If no one is running 4 or 5 health champions, they are pretty bad. But, if everyone is running cards like Temporal Enforcer, both of these cards could be superstars. This idea is known as the Meta, or Meta-game. The ‘Meta’ generally refers to which cards/decks people currently think are the strongest and hence are the most played. So, if the meta says Thought Plucker and Muse are incredible, people could counter by playing cards like Wolf’s Bite, Helion the Dominator, Raxxa Demon Tyrant, etc.

secret_legionUnderstanding the Meta can be incredibly beneficial. For example, Human Token Swarm decks have the potential to consistently win on turn 1, but, they are fairly weak if the opponent has cards like Flash Fire, Wither, Blind Faith etc. So, if most of the decks run these anti-Human Token Swarm cards, the Meta would dictate that the Human Token Swarm deck is a lot worse, currently.

flash_fireThis in turn could discourage people from playing that deck. Then, if few or no people are playing that deck, other people might stop playing anti-Human Token Swarm cards and there would be a Meta-shift. In this situation, if someone then plays a Human Token Swarm deck, it would be stronger, relatively speaking, because opponents don’t have the answers they need to deal with it.

sea_titanThe Meta usually refers to tournament play, but a Local-meta would describe what you play against on a regular basis. If you and all of your friends think Sea Titan is the best card and include it in all of your decks, you might be more likely to see cards like Lying in Wait specifically to deal with that card. One of your friends constantly plays a burn deck, you can counter that by including cards like Inner Peace, Second Wind, and/or Drain Essence, etc.

My Deck

This was one of five decks that I was thinking about running: Untargetable Tempo. I did not post this beforehand. The other potential decks were: Human Token Swarm, Burn (my defensive variant), Avenging Angel Control, and Combative Humans (I ran this on Sunday).

Untargetable Tempo

Evil (0)

Good (9)

Slow (0)

Fast (6)

3x Banishment
3x Resurrection

0-Cost (3)
3x Blind Faith

Sage (42)

Slow (13)
2x Djinn of the Sands
3x Juggernaut
2x Mist Guide Herald
3x Sea Titan
3x Steel Golem

Fast (18)
1x Deadly Raid
3x Erase
3x Helion, the Dominator
3x Ice Drake
2x Lesson Learned
3x Memory Spirit
3x Temporal Shift

0-Cost (11)
3x Arcane Research
3x Forcemage Apprentice
3x Fumble
2x Vanishing

Wild (9)

Slow (0)

Fast (3)
3x Draka’s Fire
3x Hurricane

0-Cost (3)
3x Flash Fire

Deck Explanation

steel_golem

My main goal with this deck was to put big untargetable champions into play and disrupt any possible defense against them. Steel Golem was the critical card because it was a 13/13 untargetable blitz body that can be quite difficult to deal with for an opponent.

juggernautSea Titan was the other big untargetable body included. Juggernaut was a major offensive superstar because, while not untargetable, blitz, breakthrough, unbreakable, loyalty 2-> draw a card was incredible. Djinn of the Sands was included because it was an 8/8 airborne blitz champion. However, since it was neither untargetable nor unbreakable, I only wanted to play it after my opponent spent their gold on my turn.

helion_the_dominatorHelion, the Dominator and Ice Drake were included for fast offensive disruption. Helion is incredible for a plethora of reason: Steal an ambushed in blocker and then attack with it, steal an opponent’s champion and use it to block an opponent’s attacker, fast reusable small burn (direct damage) on an 8/8 body, and it can even be an 8/8 blitzing attacker, preferably after your opponent’s gold is spent.

ice_drakeIce Drake was nice in theory because it can be a fast expend-all-ambushed-in-blockers champion on your turn, or it can be a 6/8 airborne ambush champion (not bad already) that can expend all attackers on your opponent’s turn while also leaving that opening for your turn. (If a champion is already attacking when you play this, it would be unaffected since it is already expended.)

erase

Erase was included for fast draw 2 + bounce. Temporal Shift was included strictly as a worse Erase, since the banish a card from hand did not synergize with the rest of my deck at all.

deadly_raidDeadly Raid was included as a 1 of to let Steel Golem or Sea Titan get an attack through. Memory Spirits were included because it was an ambush champion that could return Erases, Deadly Raid and some of my other less important events. Lesson Learneds were included for similar reasons.

hurricane

All of the Wild cards (Hurricane, Draka’s Fire, and Flash Fire) were included to help fight Human Token Swarm type decks and to sweep possible defenders while my Steel Golems and Sea Titans survived.

blind_faithI love Blind Faith and try and shoehorn it into all of my decks. This was probably the worst case of this because Resurrection and Banishment didn’t fit too well into the deck, but the rest of the Good cards appealed to me even less at the time. Resurrection could bring back Steel Golem and Sea Titan. Banishment removes a champion. Giving a card to my opponent didn’t scare me much because I packed a lot of bounce (return to hand) already anyway (so they probably wouldn’t need the card), and drawing a card on my turn could have been nice.

arcane_research

Arcane Research essentially makes the deck 57 cards because it can replace itself for free if needed. Forcemage Apprentice was more offensive burn on a 0-cost card in a heavy Sage deck. Vanishing is an incredible tempo card because it can bounce a champion as a 0-cost card.

fumbleFumble was another one of the defining cards of this deck. It’s a zero that can essentially nullify an enemy attack (Draka Dragon Tyrant, Juggernaut, Triceratops, Brachiosaurus, Djinn of the Sands, Strafing Dragon etc.), and it recycles. So, if your opponent spends their gold on one of the above champions and attacks, you can Fumble and then follow up with an aggressive ambush champion (Helion, Ice Drake, Memory Spirit). Or, you can spend your gold before your opponent on their turn, if you have a Fumble in hand, and still be relatively safe. Overall, this card is incredible for how I like to play the game, one of my favorites for sure.

 Deck Choice Justification

draka_dragon_tyrantI chose this deck because I was expecting Wild with Airborne blitz champions and Burn to be the most common deck at Origins. In my games leading up to Origins, the decks that I ran had the most trouble dealing with Brachiosaurus/Draka/Strafing Dragon decks that finished out with burn. If these decks hit you once with a champion, you would be in range for a couple burn cards to finish you (while still needing to deal with that champion on your turn too). From my experience, this was fairly strong, it seemed that Wild was a very popular faction in general, and I was guessing people would gravitate towards burn for the first event at least.

strafing_dragonSo, I built this deck to counter that deck. The big untargetable champions can outpace burn and are difficult for these Wild burn decks to remove. Fumble is incredible for completely negating a hard to fully stop attack. Bounce is great offensively, but it can also severely punish people that play blitzing champions without strong Tribute/Loyalty/When Attacks effects. A Fumble followed by Sea Titan on my turn is also quite nice, even though they could replay the champion later. (It is less strong against Strafing Dragon in that deck though.) Helion is also a great play in this matchup because it can negate an attack and leave me with an 8/8 body.

Another large factor in my card choices was a fear of the Human Token Swarm type decks. As mentioned in the previous section, the Wild cards were included to deal with this strategy, but the Ice Drakes and Blind Faiths were also partially included as counters to that deck.

lying_in_waitGoing into this tournament, this was one of my least tested decks because it consistently performed incredibly well, and I didn’t want to reveal it too much. I was also partially afraid of people including Lying in Waits to counter it.

Matches

Match 1

temporal_shiftI played an opponent with a Wild Blitzing deck, in other words, the deck I specifically built this to counter. My counter was very effective. I won the match because my deck was able to stop basically everything my opponent’s deck attempted to do, while still getting big champions into play to attack.

Match 2

psionic_assaultIn Match 2, I played against a Sage/Wild Disruption/Burn deck posted on Epic Foundry here. I lost the first game because I played terribly, and my opponent successfully exploited my mistakes. I believe I started off fairly strong with an early Steel Golem, but the game went downhill from there. Essentially, I tried to maintain my offensive at the cost of drawing cards. This in turn allowed my opponent to completely deplete my hand with Psionic Assaults and Thought Pluckers.

thought_pluckerMy most egregious mistakes were playing directly into a Psionic Assault and a Thought Plucker that I knew my opponent had in hand. When I had 3 cards in hand, I played a non-draw effect with insufficient impact. This allowed my opponent to safely play his Psionic Assault to deplete me to 0 cards. Later, I made a play that left me with exactly 1 card that I was hoping to use to counter my opponent’s next turn. After I made the play, I remembered he had the Thought Plucker in hand, and on his next turn, he played the Thought Plucker, forced me to discard my last card, and then went on to win the game.

In that game I was put on tilt (I made a mistake that disrupted my analytical composure and caused me to make more mistakes) early, and then I played poorly for the rest of that game. After that game, I took a minute to think about that game and reassess my strategy. I realized that I didn’t spend enough time drawing and played too aggressively. So, in game 2 I adjusted my play and won.

time_benderGame 3 was a decently long game. I did work with Steel Golem, got him low, but couldn’t close out the game. At the end, he had me locked out with a Time Bender that he would play on my turn, bounce my Juggernaut, and then bounce his Time Bender on his turn. Because I did not draw another one of my only 6 total untargetable champions, he was able to hold me off for multiple turns. While doing this, he drew into his Flame Strikes and/or Lesson Learneds. With these, he was able to drop me from around 24 health to 0. Flame Strike on my turn. Flame Strike on his turn. Flame Strike or Lesson Learned on my turn.

I lost the third game because I wasn’t able to put enough consistent and effective pressure onto my opponent throughout the game. Alternatively, I also could have won if I closed out the game with my own burn (if I had any in the deck).

Match 3

flame_strikeMatch 3 was a rematch against the deck from match 2, played by someone else. I do not remember many specifics from these games or the record. I do remember that I was able to keep up my hand size because I didn’t undervalue draw against his discard, I didn’t draw my Steel Golems or enough other threats to put significant pressure on my opponent, and I believe that I eventually died to burn. In addition, I tried to use Sea Titan as an Establishing champion on an empty board multiple times. Unfortunately, Sea Titan was just too slow to be effective in this way.

This match loss cemented the realizations that I did not have enough reliable threats in my deck, which was due to too much ineffective card picks on disruption and other distractions. In addition, burn can function incredibly well in certain deck shells.

raging_t_rex(A deck shell is a common set of cards that define the core or a part of a deck. A big Wild Shell could contain something like 3 Raging T-Rex, 3 Brachiosaurus, 3 Triceratops, 3 Kong, 3 Hurricane, and 3 Surprise Attack. These 18 cards work fairly well together and can be used with a burn strategy like Flame Strike, Strafing Dragon, Lightning Storm, etc. or in a consistent threats strategy with cards like Draka’s Enforcer, Fire Spirit, etc.)

 Match 4

revoltIn match 4 I came across a Human Token Swarm deck that I was constantly worrying and warning about. Because I was so worried about decks like this, I had packed a ton of disruption into my deck to address it. Therefore, I was able to disrupt every potentially game winning combo that was thrown at me. In addition, my big untargetable threats were hard to stop, so I won the match.

The Human Token Swarm type decks are incredibly aggressive and dangerous if your opponent isn’t ready for them, but if the deck goes all in on the combo attacks, it becomes extremely vulnerable when the attack is rebuffed.

Match 5

memory_spiritMatch 5 was against another big Wild champions deck. My bounce paved the way for my aggressive Juggernauts, Steel Golems, etc. In this match, my opponent consistently had more cards in hand than me, but I was able to win the games before that disparity became an issue. Erase is an incredibly strong effect against Wild, even if it lets them replay cards like Raging T-Rex, Triceratops, etc. Erase + Memory Spirit is especially nasty.

 Final Results

At the end of rounds, my record was 3-2-0. With tie breaks I took 10th place and did not qualify for top 8. I did, however, stick around to watch some of top 8, specifically Derek Arnold in top 4 and the finals. I am really looking forward to writing an article about that soon. In the meantime, he wrote an article about his deck that you can find on his blog here.

Post-Matches Analysis

This deck countered the decks it was designed to counter fairly well. However, it wasn’t able to output enough pressure to seriously threaten the disruption/burn deck I lost to twice. In addition, I do not think it could have beaten Derek Arnold’s 4-color control deck for the same reason.

mist_guide_heraldSteel Golem, Juggernaut, and Mist Guide Herald (Forcemage Apprentice to a lesser extent) were my only aggressive Establishing champions, and in the games where I didn’t draw them early, my opponents were able to get far enough ahead that drawing them later didn’t change much. For a deck that was designed to be aggressive my lack of strong aggressive Establishing champions was unacceptable. (Djinn of the Sands can also be an Establishing champion, but it is extremely weak to removal when used in this way.) In order for my deck to more consistently maintain pressure, I need to increase my aggressive Establishing champion count specifically, and my champion count generally. I can’t rely on Steel Golem to win all of my games.

banishmentIn order to accommodate the increased (aggressive) champion count, I need to remove the less synergistic and less aggressive cards from the deck. Resurrection and Banishment were consistently worthless, but Blind Faith made big plays.

drakas_fireIce Drake was fairly weak and so were the Wild cards. These cards were included to help clear blockers in the path of my untargetable champions, but at 1-cost they weren’t reliably effective. Improving my 0-cost disruption would probably be wise.

Post-Origins Deck List

Untargetable Tempo 2.0

Evil (0)

Good (6)

Slow (0)

Fast (4)
3x Ceasefire
1x Resurrection

0-Cost (2)
2x Blind Faith

Sage (39)

Slow (15)
3x Djinn of the Sands
3x Juggernaut
3x Mist Guide Herald
3x Sea Titan
3x Steel Golem

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

0-Cost (13)
1x Amnesia
2x Arcane Research
2x Fumble
2x Hasty Retreat
3x Shadow Imp
3x Vanishing

Wild (15)

Slow (3)
3x Triceratops

Fast (7)
3x Flame Strike
1x Lurking Giant
3x Surprise Attack

0-Cost (5)
3x Lightning Strike
2x Wolf’s Bite

Post-Origins Deck Explanation

I am currently experimenting with this deck as a hyper aggressive tempo deck. There are no board clears and the only 1-cost removal is bounce, Helion, and technically Flame Strike.

In order to up the aggression, I stripped out a lot of the events, upped Mist Guide Herald and Djinn of the Sands to 3x, added 3 Triceratops, 3 Crystal Golem, 2 Temporal Enforcer, 3 Shadow Imp, included burn, and 0-cost small removal.

shadow_impThe Mist Guide Heralds, Triceratops, and Shadow Imp are additional Establishing champions to help me start the aggression. Temporal Enforcer, Crystal Golem, and the singleton Lurking Giant help keep the pressure up off-turn if my opponent is forced to spend their gold on their turn for removal.

djinn_of_the_sandsDjinn of the Sands remains as a way to punish people for using their gold on my turn before I do, but it has also been quite nice for the card draw. After playing with Djinn a lot more, I have realized that I dramatically underestimated it. For example, in one game I played it after my opponent spent their gold, and I was able to attack for 8. On my opponent’s turn, he played Drain Essence on it. I used my singleton Resurrection to bring it back and immediately draw. Then, at the start of my next turn I immediately drew with it again. After that, it stayed around as a 6/6 airborne champion (just out of reach of my opponent’s Angelic Protectors) and added a lot of pressure. I am now a fan of Djinn even though I used to severely dislike it.

hasty_retreatFor defense, I added 2 Hasty Retreats, but I did decrease my Fumble count to 2 to allow me to bring 2 Arcane Researches. In addition, the Lightning Strikes and Wolf’s Bites can occasionally help on defense as well. Memory Spirits are excellent for this deck because I have such strong 0-cost cards I can return and then immediately play. It also works pretty well with Flame Strike.

ceasefireTo allow me to keep my Blind Faiths, I switched up my Good to 3 Ceasefire and only 1 Resurrection. Ceasefire is a great aggressive/defensive card because it allows you to draw 2 on your opponent’s turn before they spend their gold and not risk getting attacked by a big blitzer. Resurrection is fine as a 1-of especially since I ramped up the champion count in the deck. I did have 2 Inner Peaces for a little while to get me to a 3rd Blind Faith, but I’m testing this more aggressive version. Urgent Messengers are another possibility.

vanishing

Vanishing, Lightning Strike, and Wolf’s Bite have been working fairly well for me for opening up paths for my champions. Against the decks I have tested against, there have consistently been worthwhile targets. Wolf’s Bite on a Muse is incredibly satisfying.

crystal_golemCrystal Golem was included as another untargetable champion. The fact that I can ambush it in makes it significantly stronger. I was initially hesitant to include Crystal Golem because I feared cards like Hands from Below, Draka’s Fire, and unlikely Spike Traps. Now, I’ve decided to throw them in because they work great against control decks that are forced to board clear to kill them, and they can always just be used to draw 2 if my opponent has counters for them ready. (It is also quite satisfying to Blind Faith an opponent’s Crystal Golem and then block and break it.)

Overall the deck has been working fairly well, but I do want to test it a lot more before I potentially take another run with it at a tournament.

Conclusion

I have become a significantly better constructed player after Origins, but it is still my weaker format. My next article is going to go into more detail about constructed in general, my perception of the Meta, and I’ll touch on the top 8 decks. Eventually I’ll go into significantly more detail on some of the top decks.

Since constructed is still my weaker format, I openly welcome any comments, challenges, or questions on the format in the comments below. (I always welcome these comments, but I am even more interested in what others have to say about constructed.)

Origins Thursday Draft Analysis

Epic Box

Foreword

In this article I explain my process for building my limited deck from Origins Thursday 6/16/16. I went 3-1-1 (Intentional Draw) with this deck. I do not remember my seed in top 8. (I then won the first round of top 8 and lost in top 4.)

I am really excited to talk about this draft.

Card Pool

Origins Thursday Pool

First Pass

If you don’t like your first card pool, you are able to mulligan. If you do, you get an 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.

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

First Pass Origins Thursday

Wild

My Wild is fairly strong. Raging T-Rex is an incredible faction-dependent card. Strafing Dragon is another solid faction-dependent card. Smash and Burn is great. In addition, I have some of the strongest faction-independent cards in wild: Lightning Storm, Kong, and Chomp!.

Lightning Storm and Kong are auto-includes. Chomp!, Pyromancer, and Rampaging Wurm are strong possibilities, but the rest will depend on what I have in the other factions.

Sage

My Sage cards are pretty decent as well. Psionic Assault (especially with Knight of Shadows and Lightning Storm), Steel Golem, Helion the Dominator, and Time Bender are all incredible, but I’m not sold.

Helion’s Fury and Ogre Mercenary are fairly weak in my experience. Djinn of the Sands and Frost Giant are strong in certain situations but don’t help much to get ahead or come back from behind. We’ll see what the other factions have to offer.

Evil

As the first event of Origins, I came in thinking Evil was in general, not the strongest, but wow. This Evil pool is packed with strong Demon/Wide strategy cards. (A Wide strategy focuses on getting multiple smaller champions into play as opposed to 1 or 2 big champions. As an Epic Card Game Fan Page member pointed out, literally Wide, as in your play space takes up a lot of horizontal area.)

Demon Breach, Infernal Gatekeeper, Plentiful Dead, Raxxa Demon Tryant, Raxxa’s Displeasure, Reap or Sow, and Spawning Demon are all incredibly synergistic. As of now it is a very real possibility I go down this route.

Good

Yup, Inheritance of the Meek and Quell combine perfectly with Raxxa’s Displeasure and a Wide token-based strategy. These situational board clears let me be aggressive and defensive simultaneously. Establish some tokens and then shut my opponent out from answering them.

Overall

I lucked into incredible Wide synergy with this pool. While my Wild and Sage are both decently powerful, the offensive and defensive power of the Demons + Good situational board clears is irresistible. (The cards with the squares around them are cards that work excellently for this strategy. A dashed square means it potentially works with the strategy for this deck.)

FirstPassOriginsThursdayRevalation

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

SecondPassOriginsThursday

Most of my Sage cards are either faction-dependent or weak in a Wide strategy (I’m looking at you Stand Alone.) Most of the rest of my cards are still potentially playable.

At this point, I have 14 cards I will run, 3 cards I will almost certainly run, and 23 more cards I might run, 40 total. (I also have 6 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, 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)
Ankylosaurus
Djinn of the Sands
Succubus
Markus, Watch Captain

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

-Or- Draw 2 Cards (5 guaranteed, 2 possible, 7 total)
Raxxa’s Displeasure, Inheritance of the Meek
Lightning Strike
Lesson Learned
Apocalypse
Army of the Apocalypse

Divine Judgement

Recycle (0 guaranteed, 1 possible, 1 total)
Spike Trap

Recall (3 guaranteed, 0 possible, 3 total)
Lightning Storm, Demon Breach, Plentiful Dead

Miscellaneous (1 guaranteed, 2 possible, 3 total)
Quell
Pyromancer
Banishment

No Draw/Recall (7 guaranteed, 12 possible, 19 total)
Kong, Dark Assassin, Drain Essence
, Necrovirus, Palace Guard, Raxxa Demon Tryant, Spawning Demon
Chomp!
Pack Alpha
Rampaging Wurm
Frost Giant
Steel Golem

Dark Knight
Infernal Gatekeeper
Reap or Sow
Courageous Soul
Gold Dragon
Noble Martyr
The People’s Champion

I started this distribution pass with only 7 guaranteed draw/recall cards and 7 no-draw cards. This means that I want to include around 8+ of the 14 possible draw/recall cards, and I don’t want to include more than 8 of the 12 possible no-draw cards.

Based on this, I added: Djinn of the Sands, Succubus, Lesson Learned, Apocalypse, and Army of the Apocalypse.

succubus

I am a big fan of Succubus since I like Tribute -> draw a card champions. It is also Evil which will help with other Evil and Ally Loyalty effects, as well as its own. A 6/5 airborne, blitz champion that replaces itself is solid.

 

djinn_of_the_sandsDjinn of the Sands has been growing on me. The Expend draw a card option is fine if needed, when not behind, but the 8/8 airborne blitz champion (that doesn’t rely on loyalty) is excellent. I will almost never play it as a blitzing airborne attacker if my opponent has her gold on my turn, but it is awesome when she is forced to spend it before I spend mine.

lesson_learned

Lesson Learned is incredible for this deck because Raxxa’s Displeasure, Inheritance of the Meek, and Quell are amazing for this deck. Drain Essence is another solid target.

 

apocalypseApocalypse and Army of the Apocalypse were included primarily because they are Evil draw 2 cards. Apocalypse has a decent chance to be used for its primary ability, but I doubt I’ll use Army of the Apocalypse for its ability (since I don’t have a ton of strong non-tribute/loyalty champions, and I don’t have any discard removal).

 

This puts me to 19 guaranteed cards, 0 struck-through cards, and 21 possible cards.

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 (9 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 7 possible, 16 total)
Lightning Storm, Lesson Learned, Army of the Apocalypse, Drain Essence, Necrovirus, Plentiful Dead, Spawning Demon, Inheritance of the Meek, Urgent Messengers
Chomp!
Lightning Strike
Pyromancer
Smash and Burn
Spike Trap
Courageous Soul
Feint

Your Turn Fast (4 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 4 possible, 8 total)
Apocalypse, Demon Breach, Raxxa’s Displeasure, Quell
Dark Knight
Reap or Sow
Banishment
Divine Judgement

Slow (6 guaranteed, 4 struck-through, 6 possible, 16 total)
Kong, Djinn of the Sands, Dark Assassin, Raxxa Demon Tryant, Succubus, Palace Guard
Ankylosaurus
Pack Alpha
Rampaging Wurm
Frost Giant
Steel Golem
Infernal Gatekeeper
Gold Dragon
Markus, Watch Captain
Noble Martyr
The People’s Champion

I started this distribution pass with 16 guaranteed/possible slow cards, 18 when you add Quell and Raxxa’s Displeasure which I almost certainly want to play on my turn.

Due to this, I cut Steel Golem, Markus Watch Captain, Noble Martyr, and the People Champion. I cut all of these because they rely on non-Evil Ally or Loyalty triggers to be the most effective.

noble_martyrLooking back on it now, I believe I was too quick to dismiss Noble Martyr. It is a pretty bad card if you play it on your turn when your opponent has his gold, but it can be a 7-offense blitzer that can punish an opponent who uses his gold on my turn before I do. Then, on my opponent’s turn, he can’t banish the Noble Martyr from play, so he either has to return it to my hand, so I can replay it in a similar situation, or he has to break it and put it in my discard pile. In the second situation, I currently have 4 guaranteed Good cards that can trigger the one-time ally trigger that can provide me with 5 human tokens to help my Wide strategy.

In the end, there is still a decent chance I would have cut Noble Martyr because its strength (playing and attacking after my opponent spent his gold on my turn) is severely weakened by its 4 defense. This leaves it vulnerable to 0-cost removal cards like Hands from Below, Spike Trap, Lightning Strike, and even Dark Knight, Spawning Demon, Word of Summoning, and Brave Squire  (not to mention Hasty Retreat and Fumble). At least, most of this removal/disruption does still leave me with the discard pile Ally trigger.

After this pass, I am at 19 guaranteed cards, 4 struck-through cards, and 17 possible cards.

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 (3 guaranteed, 0 possible, 3 total)
Kong, Dark Assassin, Palace Guard

Targeted Fast Removal (4 guaranteed, 0 possible, 4 total)
Drain Essence, Necrovirus
Chomp!
Banishment

Small Removal (5 guaranteed, 1 possible, 6 total)
Lightning Storm, Raxxa Demon Tryant
Lightning Strike
Pyromancer
Smash and Burn
Spike Trap

Board Clears (4 guaranteed, 2 possible, 6 total)
Apocalypse, Raxxa’s Displeasure, Inheritance of the Meek, Quell
Reap or Sow
Divine Judgement

Miscellaneous (2 guaranteed, 0 possible, 2 total)
Lesson Learned, Succubus

Non-Removal (7 guaranteed, 4 struck-through, 8 possible, 19 total)
Djinn of the Sands, Army of the Apocalypse, Demon Breach, Plentiful Dead, Spawning Demon, Urgent Messengers
Ankylosaurus
Pack Alpha
Rampaging Wurm
Frost Giant
Dark Knight
Infernal Gatekeeper
Courageous Soul
Feint
Gold Dragon
Steel Golem, Markus Watch Captain, Noble MartyrThe People’s Champion

I value removal incredibly highly, especially fast removal. Therefore adding Chomp! and Banishment were fairly easy choices. Pyromancer is quite nice, and it can also be used for Burn. Spike Trap is solid as a 0-cost card that can deal with a significant number of champions and/or recycle.

smash_and_burnSmash and Burn was added because it is an incredible card. Draw 2 is important and a free 6 damage to a champion trigger is amazing. I already added Chomp!, Kong, Lightning Storm, and Pyromancer to trigger this, but I added in Pack Alpha as an additional trigger too. Pack Alpha can also help add pressure with my Wide strategy or act as a small blitz champion.

 

Lightning Strike was not included here because, even though it is strong and I value it higher now after Origins, I felt like I had enough small removal. If I still have an opening after all the passes, it might get added then.

This pass put me up to 25 cards, 4 struck-through, and 11 possible.

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 (5 guaranteed, 0 struck-through, 2 possible, 7 total)
Spike Trap, Plentiful Dead, Spawning Demon
Ankylosaurus
Lightning Strike
Dark Knight
Courageous Soul

1-Cost (17 guaranteed, 4 struck-through, 12 possible, 33 total)

I started this distribution pass with only 3 0-cost cards. I added Dark Knight because it is a strong Evil 0-cost champion, it works as another Wide threat, and it works as an Establishing 0-cost card (see Epic: Limited – Get Ahead, Stay Ahead). Courageous Soul was added because it’s strong in wide decks.

The deck is now at 27 guaranteed cards, 4 struck-through cards, and 9 possible cards.

Burn Effects

Burn (damage that can target a player) is important because it can close out games directly and is hard to stop. Seeing that my deck already contains all of my potential burn, we can skip this pass.

Blitz Champions

1-cost Blitz cards 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, 2 struck-through, 3 possible, 8 total)
Pack Alpha, Djinn of the Sands, Dark Assassin
Rampaging Wurm
Frost Giant
Gold Dragon
Steel GolemNoble Martyr

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

While Pack Alpha and Dark Assassin are technically blitz champions, they aren’t that big, and I would usually rather expend them. Djinn of the Sands is a solid choice. At this point I only have 3 slots available. I’m a big fan of all 3 of these blitz champions, but I still want Infernal Gatekeeper and Reap or Sow because they fit into my wide strategy.

frost_giantThis was an incredibly hard decision to make, but I ended up taking Infernal Gatekeeper, Reap or Sow, and Frost Giant. Frost Giant has won me a lot of games when I first started playing Epic. That Tribute ability to expend all of target player’s champions is crazy. It is great in a stalemate, and it lets my small guys through.

For reference, on Saturday I ran Gold Dragon as 1 of 5 Good cards in my deck. It worked quite well. If I had Lash, there is a very real chance I would have taken Rampaging Wurm, but I still wouldn’t have wanted to play it while an opponent had her gold.

Final Decklist

OriginsThursdayDeck

Strategy

(see Epic: Limited – Get Ahead, Stay Ahead for references)

As I frequently referenced while building the deck above, this deck is designed to go Wide and get a lot of small champions in play at once. With a lot of small champions in play you force your opponent to need a board clear to get rid of them all. Cards like Demon Breach and Raxxa Demon Tryant are especially nice because they force a board clear by themselves. If your opponent does not board clear and is unable to remove all of your champions, you can move into “stay ahead” mode quickly.

With a Wide deck you won’t necessarily get far ahead, since 1 Demon is significantly less threatening than a Sea Titan, but you can get slightly ahead more easily. This also allows you to get small amounts of damage through to your opponent consistently. In addition, cards like Spawning Demon, Plentiful Dead, and Infernal Gatekeeper are great because you can slightly extend your lead while playing removal or just drawing cards, as opposed to committing more 1-cost champions to play.

Wide decks are a bit trickier to play, however, because there are a lot of cards that give these types of decks trouble.

ceasefire Ceasefire and Ice Drake can prevent you from making multiple attacks in a turn. Group attacking can be important for playing around these effects. It can also be important for playing around champions in play and suspected ambush champions. This does in turn open you up to devastating Spike Trap and/or Hands from Below plays though.

temporal_enforcerBounce (return to hand effects) from cards like Temporal Enforcer can be devastating because a bounced token is returned to the supply pile (essentially removed from game). Temporal Shift can remove a demon, force you to banish a card from hand and draw your opponent a card. Time Walker is disgusting against a token deck.

drakas_fireDamage based board clears (Draka’s Fire and Hurricane for example) are brutal because they can decimate your forces while leaving your opponent’s champions largely unaffected. This does make up for the fact that this deck has multiple one-sided board clears, namely Inheritance of the Meek, Raxxa’s Displeasure, and Quell. (Quell can also be really nasty against this deck too.)

 

Overall, Wide decks tend to have a significant amount of action. You can frequently attack on your turn. Champions get removed constantly. If you have blitz token cards like The Risen or Secret Legion with buff cards like Courageous Soul or Revolt, you can threaten massive damage if your opponent attempts to wipe you on your turn. And, you can chump block frequently, but beware of Lash.

Wide decks are significantly harder to put together than a standard tempo based deck. This is because Wide decks rely on having more specific cards. The combination of Demon Breach, Spawning Demon, Raxxa Demon Tryant, and Inheritance of the Meek/Quell/Raxxa’s Displeasure is incredibly strong, but you need token spawners and the right board clears to make it brutal.

Another nice bonus is that not many people expect a Wide deck in Limited/Draft. I don’t remember running across even 1 other Wide deck in either of the Limited events. All of my opponents were caught off guard, but I did still lose a couple games and 1 match.

Match Overviews

First Match

plentiful_deadI do not remember many specifics from this match, but I believe I won it largely on the back of Plentiful Dead. I truly underestimated this card when the game first came out, but with the amount of Evil I was running, I was largely untouchable by solitary big champions. My opponent was Tim Stanoch.

 

Second Match

I went into very significant detail on this match in a previous article. I copied it below.

Third Match

frost_giantMy third match was against my primary cameraman at Origins, Corey Henderson (thanks again for taking so many pictures). In these games, I drew perfectly. I started with Plentiful Dead in each game, and it was critical (not being able to get rid of it if I always play a 1-cost Evil card immediately afterwards is pretty strong). In addition, I drew my token spawning cards first, followed by my one-sided board clears, and, once ahead, I had my Frost Giant each game for a big post-gold blitzer.

Even with the perfect draws I still might have lost if it wasn’t for Plentiful Dead‘s consistent chump blocking. Plentiful Dead was my clear MVP from Thursday.

Fourth Match

djinn_of_the_sandsI do not remember much from my fourth match aside from being trounced by Rich Shay (1st Origins Qualifier who didn’t lose a single game all day). I believe he had the board clears when most necessary and did significant damage to me in the air (Djinn of the Sands), but I’m not certain.

Thankfully, I got a chance at revenge in top 4, but that didn’t exactly go great for me either. He completely outdrafted me. When looking through my deck after drafting, I realized that I had been incredibly greedy. I had a lot of strong champions, but I was severely lacking in board clears and card draw. Rich Shay, on the other hand, put together a nasty Evil deck that ripped my weak draft to shreds. Still, I had a great time playing and talking about Epic. I look forward to hopefully qualifying for Worlds for another official rematch.

Fifth Match

My opponent was already guaranteed a spot in top 8, and if we drew I was guaranteed a spot too. So, we did an Intentional Draw and both got food. My record was 3-1-1 in rounds. I do not remember my seed.

Conclusion

Overall, my takeaways from Thursday were:

  1. Evil is incredibly viable in limited, if you get a deep pool (Plentiful Dead is excellent)
  2. Blitz champions are better than I originally thought, as long as you wait for the right opening
  3. While Dark Drafting, stay focused and keep track of each players’ potential card draw, board clears, and burn; don’t get distracted by champions
  4. The Epic community is awesome, open, and inviting

Epic: Limited – Get Ahead, Stay Ahead

Epic Progression (3)

Epic Box

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

 

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

 

triceratopsFor 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.

raxxa_demon_tyrantIf 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.

burrowing_wurm

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_knightDark 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_rebel_leader

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.

kongSay 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).

lord_of_the_arenaIf, 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

white_knightIf 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 Cardgold_dragon

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

fumbleThis 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

drain_essenceWhen 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

sea_titanWhen 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.

temporal_enforcerIn 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)

soul_hunter

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.

ceasefireIn 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.

ice_drakeNext 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).

banishmentIn 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.

demon_breachAfter 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.

spawning_demonDue 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.

memory_spiritKyle 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.

hands_from_belowUnfortunately 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.

lightning_strikeWith 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.

brave_squireI 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.

markus_watch_captainThe 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!

Origins Saturday Draft Analysis

Epic Box

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:

Origins Saturday 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:FactionIndependentArrow),
strong faction-dependent cards (dashed arrow: FactionDependentArrow),
strategy-dependent cards like Revolt (line:StrategyDependentLine), and
effectively unplayable cards (line through: StrikeThrough).
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.)

FirstPassOriginsSaturday

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

SecondPassOriginsSat

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:

Origins Saturday Deck

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.

Auggie

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.

Post Origins Epic Schedule

Epic Box

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.

Recording Play Mat

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)

Origins Saturday Pool

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)

Origins Thursday Pool

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)

Combative Humans Origins

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

Untargetable Tempo Origins

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 Lesson Learned Origins

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

Derek Arnold Lesson Learned Post Origins

Origins Sunday 6/19/16 After

Well, I made it past top 4 today. Not only that, but I did it with my favorite deck Combative Humans (modified slightly). In the end Hampus Eriksson claimed the last Origins qualifier after 2 great games.

Even though I didn’t qualify at Origins, it was still an excellent time. There were a lot of great people and a lot of great games of Epic. I learned a lot from the 4 qualifiers, and I have a bunch of new Epic articles I plan on writing (in addition to the ones I planned before Origins). In addition, I finally bought my Gen Con badge and signed up for the Thursday Limited Qualifier.

Overall, the Epic Qualifiers were an excellent experience with an excellent game and excellent players.

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Ben Wienburg pictured below.

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Hampus Eriksson pictured below.

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Congratulations Hampus Eriksson on qualifying for Worlds. It was a pleasure playing against you in the finals. Especially since I can now say I’ve dropped double Markus, Watch Captain with loyalty to a Psionic Assault (and still lost).

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Origins Saturday 6/18/16 After

Knocked out in the top 4, again, but the games were great. I also think I played and drafted well, so I’m not too frustrated with the loss. This also means that I get to play in the constructed tournament tomorrow, and I am looking forward to that. I need as much practice in the format as possible.

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Below is the decklist I mulliganed into. I’ll post my chosen cards after Origins and explain why I picked what. I do not have the decklist I started with unfortunately. This list was excellent for me though. I went 3-0-2 (3 wins, 2 draws, no IDs) so I didn’t lose a match with it. If I wouldn’t have rushed I might have won my first draw, but I learned a valuable lesson about playing your final turn carefully since the time limit no longer matters.

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Auggie pictured below. A lot of passing priority while holding gold in this game, but it was fascinating. Dark Knight was surprisingly strong in this scenario, sort of like a 0-cost Juggernaut. Juggernaut is incredible.

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John Tatian strikes a well-earned victory pose after qualifying for Worlds, pictured below.

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While I am looking forward to another day of Epic, it unfortunately means I won’t have much chance to cover the rest of Origins. Good luck to everyone who is competing tomorrow.

Origins Saturday 6/18/16

Today is the last Origins Epic Limited format qualifier (more will be at Gen Con and elsewhere). This is my better format, and I only dropped matches to the eventual winner, who is no longer eligible to play in qualifier events. So, we’ll see what happens today (I did have multiple close 2-1 matches yesterday though). Good luck to everyone competing today.

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(As a heads up, I did go to Marquette, but I was not in ROTC.)

Origins 6/17/16 After

Another excellent day at Origins. I only placed 10th in the constructed Epic tournament (3-2-0), but seeing what everyone brought was fascinating. I brought an untargetable Sage Tempo deck designed to counter/outpace blitzing, airborne Wild fliers + burn; I’ll be posting, analyzing, and updating it after Origins.

Other decks that were played were discard/burn, life gain/burn, at least one Human Token Swarm type deck, Dinosaurs, and control decks. Derek Arnold’s 4-color control deck was outstanding, and it further evolved my understanding of the game. I am going to analyze it in much greater detail after Origins, but it appears to be a difficult deck to play well, the games go long, and it ended with multiple draws in the swiss rounds. All of the top 8 decklists can be found at the Facebook page or on WWG’s Deck Foundry.

My note keeping failed me again, last name Randolph pictured below. I will hopefully update tomorrow.

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Hayden Brass pictured below.

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Ryan Aker pictured below.

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Jared Wood pictured below.

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Brad Minnigh pictured below

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Kyle Coons pictured below.

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Top 8 from left to right Gabe Costa-Gioni, Cory Henderson, Nathaniel Mansfield, Chris Weidinger, Hayden Brass, Auggie, Kyle Coons, and Derek Arnold. *Names Updated*

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Derek Arnold winner of the Epic constructed tournament and Worlds Qualifier pictured below. He brought an excellent deck and played it excellently.

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Tomorrow is the final Origins limited Epic tournament. Good luck to everyone participating.

Special shout-out to Cory Henderson for taking multiple pictures for me today and yesterday.

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