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Gen Con 2017 Dark Draft Qualification (Part 1)

Foreword

I managed to successfully defend my Gen Con limited title on Saturday, August 19th, 2017 for a spot at Epic Worlds 2017. (I was one of two people who qualified in limited events at Gen Con 2016.) This is also the first time I remembered to take pictures of both my opponents’ and my dark draft pools in top 4. So, this 2-part article contains an analysis of key things I remember during my top 4 Dark Drafts. This article will be specific to these matches, but I have a detailed, slightly outdated article that goes over my general Dark Draft philosophy as well.  (I do also have my Random 60 pictures for a later article, and I will of course write an article about my Wolf deck that got me into top 8 in constructed.)

Semi-Finals

My semi-finals match was against Brad Minnigh who knocked me out in the limited semi-finals at Origins 2017. These were our decks:

My Deck

(Kong and Pyrosaur are the cards obscured by the glare.)

His Deck

My Interesting Picks

While I do not remember all of my picks, a few stand out as major decision points.

Kong over Amnesia

I am one of the most vocal people about the need to pick the first mass-discard pile banish card you come across. Doing so allows you to draft with the knowledge that your opponent can’t win by decking out (essentially). In addition, this allows you to draft as many powerful defense-only cards (like Ceasefire) as you want, since you don’t need to worry about an opponent drawing out to win if you can’t apply enough pressure to kill them first. There are very few situations where I break this rule.

The main reason I broke my rule in this match was my knowledge of my opponent. He has never had a game decided by decking out, ever. (I have had many, in Limited formats). Therefore, I know my opponent’s playstyle favors aggressive play.

Kong is incredibly powerful in an aggressive limited deck because it allows that player to remove an opposing threat while presenting their own big threat. Further, it is resistant to some of the best off-turn removal cards in the game: Erase (letting them play it a second time is painful) and Drain Essence/Hurricane/Chomp!. Due to this, the opponent frequently has to either use weak off-turn removal (Inner Demon/Banishment), a highly valuable off-turn board clear (Zombie Apocalypse/Martial Law), or wait until their turn to remove it (Palace Guard/Divine Judgement). In all of these situations, the aggressive player was able to remove a champion and either maintain a small advantage, force out a valuable card, or force the opponent to use their gold first on the next turn. Even further, if Kong isn’t removed it can be Raged/Lashed which can allow for that one big hit to get through enabling a burn-out kill.

Finally, unlike in Core-Only, full dark-draft through Uprising means there are 3 other mass-discard pile banish cards I could draft, and at this point (pack 2 or 3), I still had some chance to get one of those 3.

Aggressive Focus (Not Picking Ceasefire)

Due to not picking Amnesia early in the draft, I was forced to shift my picks more aggressive than I usually prefer. I know for certain that I passed on Ceasefire (possibly as a pick 2/3) because I couldn’t afford a card that can never be used aggressively (although it can let you overextend with an all-out attack and leave you a safety net). Similarly, I believe I passed on a few board clears for “lower tier” cards.

Winged Death over a Strong 0-Cost Card

This was a very tough pick for me. I do not remember exactly what I passed to take this, but I remember it was a powerful 0-cost card (Siren’s Song?). The reason I drafted this over a 0 was I wanted to protect my Kong and Mythic Monster. I was worried that I could lose 2 of my hard to remove champions and just get blown out of a game. In addition, I’m a big fan of this card generally.

Grave Demon over Word of Summoning

This was my last pack. By this point, I knew I had an aggressive enough deck that I probably didn’t need to worry about my opponent decking out for the win. Therefore, I wanted to take Word of Summoning because it is a strong 0 that lets you apply pressure off-turn without spending your gold. However, I chose Grave Demon out of personal preference.

Knowing my personal playstyle, I knew that I would be much more comfortable playing a deck with a mass-discard pile banish card than a deck without one. Having Grave Demon means I can always take the slow/defensive play. Without Grave Demon, I constantly need to worry about whether I am playing aggressive enough to win. This can drive me into riskier plays such as: spending my gold first on a turn possibly on a blitz champion with no relevant Tribute/Loyalty ability (instead of passing with gold up), playing another champion when I’m already ahead on the board and my opponent’s gold is down (instead of drawing cards), or using “or draw 2” cards for their effect (instead of drawing) when I’m low on cards in hand.

For all of these reasons, and the fact that it is a decent sized ambush champion, I picked Grave Demon. At this point in the draft, Word of Summoning might have been the “correct” choice for many, but not for me.

Other First Picks

Hunting Pack was my Pack 1 Pick 1. I am also fairly confident that I first picked Raxxa’s Curse and Angel of the Gate. I do not remember my 4 other first picks, but they were very possibly: Little Devil, Consume, Flash Fire, and Hasty Retreat. In other words, 0-cost cards.

I know my opponent first picked Erratic Research and Palace Guard, but I don’t remember the rest.

My Thoughts/Concerns Post-Draft

My greatest concern post-draft was the fact that I only had 13 reliable draw/recycle cards instead of my desired 15+ (not counting Quell or Cave Troll). Due to this, I made a mental note to prioritize using “or draw 2s” (like Bitten) to draw cards. Other than that, I felt like the deck was strong.

Match Interesting Moments

These were very intense games where we both spent a lot of time analyzing our moves, since the top 8 matches (in this case top 4) are untimed.

Running out of Draw (Bitten)

As expected, in one of the games I hit an early string of non-card-draw cards and my handsize dwindled to 3 cards. My opponent was also low on cards, but I was up 1 champion in play. On my turn I drew into Bitten.

My first instinct was that I could use Bitten as cover for my champion. In other words, I could attack, and if my opponent played an ambush champion to block, I could Bitten it, get a zombie, and probably get my attack through. However, knowing that I didn’t have a ton of card draw in my deck, I decided to pass holding my gold. There were a few reasons for this:

  1. Using Bitten as removal instead of card draw was not an option
    • Assuming my opponent spends their gold on their turn, I would want to spend my gold as well, so I don’t fall behind. This would reduce me to 2 cards in hand.
    • If I don’t draw card-draw on my turn, I have to survive my turn’s gold usage and my opponent’s turn gold usage with just those 3 cards. Most likely this brings me to 1 card in hand at the end of my opponent’s turn. Then, if I don’t draw card-draw that turn, I basically lose the game by being forced down to 0 cards in hand.
  2. Since I can’t use Bitten as removal, attacking with my champion is dangerous
    • If my opponent plays an ambush champion that can block and break my champion in combat, they get to establish a champion and remove my champion for free.
    • I personally do not like taking these risks when I don’t have to, so attacking with my gold up was not an option.
  3. If I use Bitten to draw 2 now, I give my opponent a free-gold to recover
    • They could ambush in a champion that I can’t remove that turn, allowing them to attack me on their turn.
    • They could also freely draw 2 to refill their handsize.
  4. Therefore, since I don’t want to play my other cards, passing is my best play
    • If they spend their gold, I draw 2.
    • If they don’t spend their gold on my turn, I have Bitten which I can use, if they spend their gold on their turn.
    • If they don’t spend their gold on either turn, I get to return to last turn’s advantageous board state with both players at +1 cards in hand.
      • Since my deck is lacking in card draw, this is ideal for me because I maintain my board advantage while negating my disadvantage (lack of card draw) without exposing myself to an opponent’s gold usage.
      • Further, I have Grave Demon so I can afford to let as many turns pass with no plays made as I need.

In the end, I believe my opponent passed on my turn and spent their gold on their turn, allowing me to spend mine to draw 2. My next 2 cards were non-card draw cards, so I would have almost certainly lost the game if I had used Bitten for removal.

Running my Opponent out of Draw

In a different situation, I was ahead on board, my opponent was low on cards in hand, and I had at least 5 cards in hand. Instead of holding back to build my card advantage further, I pushed my opponent to prevent him from being able to draw, keeping him vulnerable.

In game 2, this was the board state: I had a Winged Death and Grave Demon in play. My opponent had Brachiosaurus and Ogre Mercenary in play. I had 5+ cards in hand. My opponent had about 3 with no discard pile. I attacked with Winged Death, no blocks were declared. Before damage, I Consumed the Ogre Mercenary.

This forced my opponent into a situation where he would lose his Brachiosaurus, if he did nothing, which would open a path for Grave Demon to attack too. In order to keep his gold available to answer a potential gold-punisher (he knew he passed me Rampaging Wurm in the draft), he opted to play Wolf’s Bite without recycling so he could break his wolf to Winged Death‘s trigger, leaving his Brachiosaurus able to block my Grave Demon.

Once he passed initiative back to me, I used Hunting Pack to break his wolf token. Why?

  1. Because my opponent was low on cards, it was possible he had no strong play in response to this. Also, since this was after blockers were declared, I didn’t need to worry about an ambush, airborne champion blocking my Winged Death. Best case scenario, he couldn’t even spend his gold.
  2. If he had no way to further disrupt my Winged Death, which I got the impression he did not based on previous turns and body language, Winged Death breaking Brachiosaurus would be backbreaking and essentially win me the game right there.
  3. Even if he played an off-turn board clear, this would reduce him to 1 card in hand, which would be hard to come back from. I also had an ambush champion to reestablish on his turn, if needed.

He ended up playing Wave of Transformation giving him 1 wolf to my 5. (On a side note, Hurricane would have blown me out there. I do not remember if he had already played it at that point in the game.)

Stand Out Cards

Winged Death, Little Devil, and Fire Shaman were particularly effective in this match. Grave Demon was useful, but there was no point where I needed a mass discard pile banish to prevent my opponent from decking out.

Of the cards my opponent played, Turn seemed to be the least impactful.

Conclusion

My knowledge of my opponent’s playstyle and my own allowed me to draft a specifically powerful deck. Then, my understanding of the primary weakness of that deck allowed me to play in such a way to mitigate that weakness. Finally, small edge plays were able to gain me just enough additional advantage to push my wins through. In my next article I’ll go over my finals match against Nathan Overbay.

Epic Progression (1): How to Play

Foreword

Epic is a non-collectible, expandable card game where players mobilize Champions to attack their opponent(s) while providing support with devastating Events. To play these cards, you and your opponent(s) get 1 gold per turn. Every card either costs that 1 gold or is free. Due to this, every card is immediately playable and no card becomes worthless later. Timing your cards to the game state, as opposed to the game turn, is paramount.

In this article series, I will guide you through as much of the unfathomable depth this game has to offer as I have discovered. For now, lets start with learning to play.

First Game Setup/Objective

  • Deal each player 30 random cards (their deck)
  • Each player draws 5 cards from their deck
  • Each player starts at 30 health
  • Randomly determine who goes first

Players primarily lose health due to champion attacks. If you are reduced to 0 health, you lose. If all of your opponents are reduced to 0 health, you win.

If you would draw a card and your deck is empty, you win.

(Health can be tracked with Dice, Pen and Paper, the Epic ScoreKeeper app, or any other way you prefer.)

Turn Structure Overview

A turn consists of resolving start of turn triggers once, and then any number of Battle, Slow, and End phases in any order. Below is the basic 2-player turn flow.

Slow vs Fast

While cards are divided into Champions and Events, the more important distinction here is Slow and Fast. Any card with dots at the top is Fast. If it doesn’t have dots at the top it is Slow. (All Events are Fast. Champions with the Ambush keyword are Fast. Champions without the Ambush keyword are Slow.)

(Other Fast plays include: activating an ability by paying a cost [such as expend powers] discussed later.)

Slow champions may only be played in a Slow Phase.

Explanation Plan

From here, I am going to start by explaining the basics: how/when you may play cards, how/when you may attack with champions. Once you have that information, I am going to double back to explain the start of turn effects, then the End Phase. Finally, I’ll explain all of the keywords that break these rules, as well as other terminology/notation.

Playing Cards

In 2-player games, at the start of your turn and at the start of your opponent’s turn, you reset to 1 gold. Unspent Gold does not accumulate.

In 3+ player games, you reset to 1 gold at the start of your turn and reset to 1 gold at the end of your turn. Unspent Gold does not accumulate.

To play a card, you must be:

  • Able to pay for it
    • Cards with a 1 in the upper right corner cost your 1 gold for the turn
    • Cards with a 0 in the upper right corner are free
  • Allowed to play it
    • Slow champions may only be played on your turn in a Slow Phase
    • Fast cards may only be played
      • On your turn in a Battle or Slow Phase
      • On your opponent’s turn in a Battle or End Phase
      • When you have initiative (initiative is passed back and forth when one player is finished “making fast plays.” More on this in Combat Section below.)

Events, when played, resolve all of their text and are then put into their owner’s discard pile. Then, any other card effects resolve.

Champions, when played, enter play. Then, any of their effects and any other card effects resolve in an order of your choice.

All Epic keywords are explained below. The ones that matter when playing cards are Ally, Loyalty, and Tribute (Banish, Break, Recycle, Untargetable, Unbreakable, and Unbanishable tangentially).

Attacking with Champions

On your turn, you can use your champions in play to attack your opponent in an attempt to reduce your opponent’s health to 0. Below I discuss how a champion’s State and Position determines whether or not it may attack and/or block. Then I break down everything that happens in a Battle Phase.

State (Deploying vs Non-Deploying)

When a champion enters play it gains deploying. A deploying champion may not attack, but it may block. At the start of your turn, all of your champions in play lose deploying.

Position (Prepared vs Expended vs Flipped)

A champion can only ever be in one of three positions: Prepared, Expended, or Flipped. At the start of your turn, all of your champions are Prepared (returned to the Prepared position).

Prepared

When a champion enters play it is prepared. Prepared champions may block. Prepared champions that aren’t deploying may attack or use expend powers. (Expend powers discussed later.)

Expended

When a champion attacks (or uses an expend power), it becomes expended (rotated 90/270 degrees). Expended champions may not attack, block, nor use expend powers.

Flipped

When a champion blocks, it becomes flipped (rotated 180 degrees). Flipped champions may not attack nor block. Flipped, non-deploying, champions may use expend powers.

Attack-Relevant Champion Anatomy

A Battle Phase

On your turn, you may initiate as many Battle Phases as you have prepared, non-deploying champions. A Battle Phase consists of

Declaring Attackers

You may either attack with one (prepared, non-deploying) champion alone or with any number of (prepared, non-deploying) champions together. Expend all declared attacking champions. (“When a champion attacks” triggers resolve now. Triggers discussed later.)

Fast Plays (Post Declare Attacks)

Once attackers have been declared, each player gets a chance to make Fast plays. The attacking player may make any number of Fast plays first. When they choose to make no more Fast plays, they pass initiative to the next player.

If that player does not want to make any Fast plays, they may progress to the next step, Declare Blockers. If that player makes at least one Fast play, once they finish making as many plays as they want, that player must pass initiative to the next player who repeats this step.

Once one player passes without making a Fast play, after everyone has had a chance to make a Fast play, progress to Declare Blockers. (In a multiplayer game, everyone must consecutively pass without making a play to move onto the next step.)

Declare Blockers

Your opponent may block an attack directed against them with one or more of their prepared champions (may be deploying). Flip all declared blocking champions. (“When a champion blocks” triggers resolve now. Triggers discussed later.)

Fast Plays (Post Declare Blockers)

Once blockers have been declared, each player gets a chance to make Fast plays. Unlike in the Post Declare Attackers phase, the defending player may make any number of Fast plays first. When they choose to make no more Fast plays, they pass initiative to the next player.

If that player does not want to make any Fast plays, they may progress to the next step, Assign Damage. If they make at least one Fast play, they must pass initiative to the next player who repeats this step.

Once one player passes without making a Fast play, after everyone has had a chance to make a Fast play, progress to Assign Damage. (In a multiplayer game, everyone must consecutively pass without making a play to move onto the next step.)

Assign Damage

  1. If an attack is unblocked, the attacking champions deal damage equal to their offense to the opposing player’s health.
    |
  2. If the attack is/was blocked by at least one champion,
  • The attacking champions assign all of their offense to the defending champions’ defense (divided however the attacking player chooses)
  • The defending champions assign all of their offense to the attacking champions’ defense (divided however the defending player chooses)
  • All damage resolves simultaneously
    • If a champion takes damage equal to or greater than its defense, it is Broken and put into its owner’s discard pile
  • No damage is dealt to the defending player
    • Even if all of the assigned blockers are removed before offense is assigned
    • The number of attacking and defending champions is irrelevant

All Epic keywords are explained below. The ones that matter during a battle are Airborne, Blitz, Breakthrough, Righteous, Unblockable, and Unbreakable (Break tangentially).

Start of Turn

At the start of each turn, do all of the following steps once.

Attempt to End Turn (End Phase)

Once you no longer want to declare any Battle or Slow phases, you can attempt to end your turn (End Phase). Each opponent gets a chance to play something, and if at least one play is made, you can declare more Battle/Slow phases.

New Terminology/Notation

I’ve hidden all of the definitions behind a “click-to-reveal” section to artificially decrease the size of this article, while still making the terms searchable. (Didn’t want the article to be too intimidating when first opened, and if you’ve made it this far it’s only a bit more.)

Conclusion

Now you know everything required to play a game of Epic. Once you have played at least a game or two, if you would like some basic strategy advice check out part 2 of my Epic Progression series: Epic Progression (2): Basic Strategy Advice.

If you are a veteran card game player and would like to skip to Epic’s heart, Epic Progression (3): Epic Limited, Get Ahead – Stay Ahead awaits.

Deck Archetype: Combo

Foreword

This is part 3 of my 3 part series on Epic Deck Archetypes. Due to issues with my internet connection at my new place, I have placeholder card links instead of some images. *Fixed*

Combo

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

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

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

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

 

Deck Archetype: Midrange

Foreword

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

Midrange

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

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

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

 

Next Article

Combo archetype discussed in the next article.

Deck Archetypes

Foreword

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

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

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

 Overview

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

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

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

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

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

Aggro

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

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

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

Control

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

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

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

Midrange

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

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

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

Combo

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

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

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

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

 

Conclusion

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

First Self-Edited Videos

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

My first edited video:

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

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

 

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

July 4 Dark Draft – Nathan’s Draft

Hello everyone, my name is Nathan Overbay, but those on Epic Digital/Discord know me as Noverb. I’ve been playing Epic Card Game since the Kickstarter, and I was a 2016 Epic Worlds Championship competitor finishing in 16th place. Today I’ll be going over my side of the Dark Draft that I played against Tom on July 4th as part of the (unofficial) Epic Team Masters. Without further adieu lets get on to the draft…

Pack 1, Pick 1

  The draft started with an above average pack. I went with Brave Squire because it helps to close out games and almost always trades up. I took note of how much burn I was passing because this was an easy Fireball/Rain of Fire for Tom. If I was going to take a Wild card it would probably be Fireball. Rain of Fire is very versatile, but burn events for 0 are quite valuable. Board clear effects are too plentiful to consider taking Plague this early.

Pack 1, Pick 2

  There wasn’t really a choice here. Winter Fairy and Lurking Giant are great cards, and there was no way I was going to pick Plentiful Dead over either this early.

Pack 2, Pick 1

  I am a huge fan of Time Bender, so I was sad to see it opened this early. Time Bender can swing the game very quickly in ways few other cards can. Since I didn’t have the loyalty, I was considering Apocalypse or Keeper of Secrets. Having already passed Plague, I did want to make sure I had some number of sweepers. That said, Keeper is a unique source of card advantage in that it denies your opponent recall and draws you cards over time. I generally prefer unique effects over replaceable ones in Dark Draft. Tom will probably pick up Wolf’s Call and Apocalypse.

Pack 2, Pick 2

  This is where the picks start to get arguable. My lack of draw-twos and the newly acquired Keeper of Secrets gave me a lot of incentive to pick up Transform. The choice for me is between Thirst and Pack Alpha. Thirst is an effect that is very helpful in dealing with Muse/Plucker without losing too much value. I went with Alpha because of two reasons. First, Alpha is actually a decent establishing champion and continues to be more threatening over time. Second, Thirst gets worse if it’s one of my only evil cards. In hindsight, it was early enough in the draft to push into Evil, and I already had Winter Fairy as an establishing champion.

Pack 3, Pick 1

  I think this was a clear Wave of Transformation. It is unfortunate that I’m passing Avenging Angel alongside the choice of three very decent cards. The choice for Tom would depend on what loyalty he wanted to shoot for.

Pack 3, Pick 2

  This is another non-choice pack. These are NOT the loyalty payoff cards in Good. I’m quite happy having Forked Lightning and Ceasefire in my pool. Especially happy that Tom didn’t pick Forked Lightning. It eased my worry about burn slightly.

Pack 4, Pick 1

  I value 0’s that recycle quite highly, so Ogre Mercenary was the pick for me. Tom would probably pick Djinn and Demon Breach, so this is a decent pack for him.

Pack 4, Pick 2

  This pack concerned me. Passing Muse told me a few things. I knew he had Fireball and Rain of Fire from Pack 1, so he already had ways to remove it. Even still, the cards I would consider taking over Muse here are Sea Titan/Plucker/Lightning Storm/Amnesia/etc. I would also take Forcemage Apprentice in that slot. My pick was between Noble Unicorn or Mighty Blow. I already had three pieces of removal so Vital Mission wasn’t necessary. Unicorn was a decent option, but I had yet to pick up a single Good 1 to accompany it. I had already passed choice good cards like Angel of Mercy and Avenging Angel, so I went with Mighty Blow to accompany Brave Squire as combat tricks. A very pivotal pack and I’m still left wondering if I made the right call.

Pack 5, Pick 1

  All of these cards are worth considering. Gold Dragon is a decent source of lifegain. I only had three Wild gold cards so Cave Troll and Wurm Hatchling seemed less interesting. I am incentivized by Keeper of Secrets to take a Sage card here. With no way to deal with Muse/Plucker efficiently, I picked up the Blue Dragon.

Pack 5, Pick 2

  When I opened this pack I was immediately confused. I was scratching my head as to what Tom took. The pack is great. Erase, Amnesia, and Dark Knight are all excellent cards. I took Amnesia because it’s the best option for discard banish available. I value discard banish very highly. It keeps your opponent off of Recycle and stops them from getting value off of things like Soul Hunter. Now the choice is between Erase and Dark Knight. Dark Knight is quite strong at pushing through damage and pressuring the opponent’s gold. That being said I’m not sold on this pick. I passed Tom both Avenging Angel and Gold Dragon, great targets to Erase for value.

Pack 6, Pick 1

  This pack wasn’t super powerful (for me) and I just picked up Amnesia. This is the perfect time to pick up an Army of the Apocalypse. White Dragon and Succubus are both strong cards that Tom potentially had the deck for at this point.

Pack 6, Pick 2

  Memory Spirit goes great with cards like Wave of Transformation, Brave Squire, and Ceasefire. The other card here was a toss-up. I’m not a huge fan of Steel Golem, so that left Inner Peace and Secret Legion. The choice was Inner Peace largely because I had no way to gain life. I had already passed Tom a few burn cards so ideally I could fend it off with Inner Peace–Ceasefire–Inner Peace.

Pack 7, Pick 1

  I chose Hurricane because it’s a solid off-turn board clear. In hindsight, Ice Drake would have been great in my deck. I had the loyalty to back it up and Ceasefire to compliment it. I find myself overlooking Ice Drake too often, given that I’ve loved it every time I did pick it. This pack is quite strong overall. Tom probably snapped up the Pyromancer and I’d guess one of the Good cards depending on his deck.

Pack 7, Pick 2

  Zombie Apocalypse marks my third fast wrath which left only Inheritance of the Meek. It’s a great card so I snapped it up. Divine Judgement is a solid card and also triggers ally for Inner Peace, so I was happy to pick it up over Turn.

Pack 8, Pick 1

  Hasty Retreat is a great way to save yourself from losing to an attack while your gold is down. It’s also a great way to win a race if it comes down to that. Overall, Hasty Retreat is a unique effect in core only so I was very happy to nab it. I passed a lot of decent evil earlier in the draft, if Tom picked those up he surely would pick up these two great payoff cards. Otherwise at worst this pack has two Draw-Twos for him.

Pack 8, Pick 2

  Lash (or Rage) was exactly what I wanted to pick up to compliment Brave Squire and Mighty Blow. My deck needed more ways to close out a game and Triceratops is a great establishing champion. I definitely wasn’t in the market for a Jungle Queen but I did consider Inner Demon. On your turn breaking a champion and making a demon is a fine ability, but it’s hard to argue with Triceratops.

Pack 9, Pick 1

  I was very happy to see Inheritance of the Meek because I knew that having it meant Tom had no access to off-turn wraths. I wasn’t afraid to pass Soul Hunter for the same reason I thought Tom wouldn’t take it; because he knows I have Amnesia. At this point I assumed Tom would take the Ancient Chant and Angelic Protector.

Pack 9, Pick 2

  Warrior Golem goes great with our other 0 cost threats, but, other than that, the pack isn’t great for us. Thinking back on it, I knew Erase was canned, and I had two Banish sweepers. I should have taken Thundarus.

Pack 10, Pick 1

  I was not excited to see this pack. I grabbed Flash Fire because I already had Muse and Dark Knight that I wanted to protect. The problem was that I knew he had Fireball and possibly Wither/Forcemage Apprentice. So I knew he had the answers, but I also wanted my own way to deal with a possible Thought Plucker or Necromancer Lord. Flash Fire also cleans up the Zombies and Wolves leftover from Zombie Apocalypse and Wave of Transformation. Even then, passing Flame Strike AND Frost Giant made it so this game was not going to be easy.

Pack 10, Pick 2

  I don’t think there’s too much to question in this pick. Guilt Demon and Final Task are two very strong cards. If I had more than 4 ways to trigger ally on Priestess I would have considered picking it up. Don’t discredit her small stature. She replaces herself and gains you life over time. Usually a very useful card. This wasn’t the deck for it, though.

Overall I think my deck was decent. Tom did a very good job of putting me on the back foot and keeping me there with a great deck. In the final turn I had made a grievous lapse in judgement that lost me the game (a great example of why sleep is important.) After discussing with Tom our hands and decks I agreed that I was probably going to lose in the end regardless. It happens, and it was still a good game. You can watch his side here:

I appreciate the opportunity to write my side of the draft, I hope you all found it helpful. If you have any questions or want to discuss some of my choices feel free to contact me in the comments below or on Discord. You should definitely check out all of Tom’s other content if you haven’t already.

 

July 4 Dark Draft VoDs

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

Full Playlist

DD v Noverb: Epic Team Masters

DD v Noverb: July 4, 2017

DD v Gutpocket: July 4, 2017

DD v www: July 4, 2017

DD v RetroKC: July 4, 2017

DD v RetroKC #2: July 4, 2017

DD v GeneralGyp: July 4, 2017

July 4th Dark Draft Team Masters Stream

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

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

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

Konan’s Epic Core Draft Insights

Hi everyone – my name in the Epic community is konan – some may also know me as konanTheBarbar from Solforge. I used to write limited and metagame article on www.ghoxssocks.com and was very active in the Solforge community. I actually played Solforge together with Jonah – TheAce – Acosta, who placed top8 in that last Epic World Championship and told me about the Epic kickstarter.

So while I’m fairly new to Epic – I had some good success in the currently ongoing Dark Draft tournaments.  My first Epic Dark Draft Tournament I won with a 5-1 record and in my second I won the swiss followed by the top8.

I read most of Tom’s articles about Epic and Dark Draft which helped me improve immensely – I think his Epic Core Dark Draft Tier List is really good – which is probably the only reason I haven’t started a tier list myself 😛

Tom asked me if I would be willing to share some of my insights here on his blog, and I thought it was a great idea. I will first write down some principles that are important for dark draft in general, but especially for the core only dark draft format. I will then try to give a visual example by going through my picks in the finals of the last dark draft tournament against kinger.

    • Never pass all burn and lifegain

This is a really important principle for dark draft in general, but more so for the core only format due to it’s high density of burn spells. While it is ok to pass the one or the other category, you should be aware of how easy it is get burned out if you haven’t picked up any lifegain. So (hate) picking burn becomes more important when you didn’t pick up any lifegain.

  • Keep track of potential counters –  most importantly bounce effects and board clears
    This is also true for any format, but in the core set there are only a very few cards of the given categories. If you pay attention during the drafting process, you can often get a very good understanding of which cards your opponent can have and try to exploit that knowledge as much as possible. For example, there are only Sea Titan and Erase as direct bounce effects, Time Walker (given sage loyalty), and Hasty Retreat when attacking. A card like Trihorror is very weak against bounce effects and can also be punished by Palace Guard and Banishment. But that’s about it. If you can rule those cards out, Trihorror suddenly becomes a really good threat! The same is true for the token sweepers. There are only Flash Fire and Wither, which are blowouts against Zombie and Wolf Tokens – if you have both or burned them – Wolf’s Call is actually a pretty solid punisher.
    While there are quite a few Board Clears, there are only 4 off turn Board Clears (one for each faction – Wave of Transformation, Zombie Apocalypse, Hurricane, and Inheritance of the Meek). It’s easy to keep track of them, which helps you to not overextend or exploit their weakness.
  • Hate pick over getting a card of your main alignment
    I will usually even pass the best Loyalty 2 cards, if I can give my opponent a weak pack that way. This has to be done carefully and is also closely related to paragraph 2 – especially in core only dark draft you can often hate pick/prioritize certain categories to make some of your cards really shine.
  • Good hand size management
    The point I want to emphasize, where I disagree with Tom, is that you don’t need 10+ cards of a certain alignment to be able trigger your loyalty cards. In my opinion it is often more important to have enough draw 2/recycle cards and keep a healthy handsize during the game. E.g. it is often not a problem to hold back 2 evil cards when you have 6 or more cards in hand. Simply wait for the third evil card to appear and have a better deck quality overall. Don’t mistake this for being able to pass all cards of a certain alignment.
  • Don’t be afraid to spend your gold on your turn first
    This is completely different from constructed, since there are often not tons of good off turn gold punishers/answers in the core dark draft pool for a given threat. You can also rule lots of cards out, because you picked or burned them or passed them along with much stronger cards. Just think about the worst case answer your opponent could have (e.g. Thought Plucker) and see if that’s an acceptable outcome. I don’t want to say that you can slam your 1 cost cards left and right, but the risk of getting blown out is much more manageable in dark draft than it is in constructed.
    I’m actually much more careful to spend my gold before my opponent on his turn, since there are lots of good on turn gold punishers, which require a gold to deal with.

Lets move on to a typical drafting process to explain what I’m actually talking about.

P1P1

This is an interesting first pick – consulting the Tier List the pick is either Lash or Lying in Wait and I agree with that assessment. The thing is that Lying in Wait is actually pretty good against a Lashed creature that’s why I picked it over the Lash. The best viable options for my opponent are Angel of Mercy and Lash, which are reasonable, but not fantastic. I will try to keep both of them in mind, because they are important cards to play around.

P1P2

Here my opponent had to pass me 3 strong cards – Necromancer Lord, Plague, and Ancient Chant. I think Necromancer Lord is so good that I can’t pass him here. So the second choice is between Ancient Chant and Plague. While I love Ancient Chant (which is basically a draw 3), I value board clears very highly and this way I already get some loyalty going.

P2P1

I think the Dark Knight pick here is quite obvious, but I have to keep in mind that my opponent will get a Noble Unicorn (he probably has picked the Angel of Mercy in P1) and potentially a Strafing Dragon.

P2P2

One of the picks is obviously Forcemage Apprentice. The other options are more or less equally weak, but how good they can potentially be strongly depends on which answers my opponent could get during the draft. Since it’s this early and I can’t rule out Flash Fire and Wither, I don’t like Wolf’s Call here. The same is true about Bounce and Banish effects. If you know your opponent can’t have Erase, Sea Titan, and Palace Guard, a card like Trihorror suddenly gets much better. I simply don’t have enough information yet, so Pack Alpha is the safe pick.

P3P1

There are 4 good cards in the pack, which is always bad for me. I really love Drain Essence, since lifegain and removal in one card is really strong and lets you care less about the burn spells of your opponent (it would also fit to my Evil Alignment). I picked Flash Fire, which is a bit of a hate pick here. I have Necromancer Lord, Forcemage Apprentice, and Dark Knight already so I can’t allow my opponent to have Flash Fire – as simple as that.

P3P2

This is one of the easier picks. Both Juggernaut and Turn are fantastic cards and also work well together, while the other two cards are fairly weak. Keep in mind that you can use Turn to untap one of your units (to attack again), or you can use it while your opponent attacks to get one of his other champions, use it to block, and kill one or both of those champions in the process. The ability to take control of a champion gets stronger the more Bounce effects you have in your deck.

P4P1

Ok, this is one of the Facepalm packs. Angel of Death would fit my deck perfectly. I don’t wanna pass Sea Titan though, and if I pick him I pass my opponent two burn sources and a Raging T-Rex. At this point I’m fairly certain he will dig into Wild because I passed Strafing Dragon, Rampaging Wurm, and Triceratops. My best guess is that he’ll take the T-Rex and the Flame Strike. So I have to keep in mind he could already have 13 points of burn damage in his deck (Strafing Dragon and Flame Strike).

P4P2

I think the Final Task pick is quite obvious here, but the second pick could either be Banishment or Army of the Apocalypse. I like Army a little more, simply because I want to hit my Evil loyalty more reliably and there is still a small chance I get more Discard Pile removal later on, which can turn Army into a huge threat.

P5P1

I value board clears high enough that the pick was Apocalypse for me here. I didn’t pass any 0 cost answers to my annoying threats, so denying a board clear is really valuable. My best guess is that my opponent would pick Angel of Light here along with Memory Spirit or even the Fire Shaman (since he is lacking 0 cost answers :P).

P5P2

I’m definitely picking the Hurricane here – it’s actually quite a good off turn board clear – especially against a deck with a good alignment. I think Time Walker is quite reasonable, but I like Winter Fairy a bit more, since I don’t have to hit the loyalty for her to be good.

P6P1

I know quite a lot of people will disagree on my pick here, because it is really hard to pass Murderous Necromancer and Succubus (knowing my opponent has a few Good Champions already), but I picked the Thrasher Demon. My reasoning is that Thrasher Demon is also a fantastic card, and this way I leave my opponent with the Pegasus and 3 cards he will most likely not hit the loyalty for.

P6P2

Given that I have quite a few Evil cards Unquenchable Thirst is a pretty good pick and my only source of lifegain so far. It’s also good to have more than 1 0-cost answer to Muse and Plucker (both of which I haven’t seen so far). In hindsight, I could have also picked the Lurking Giant, since that is quite a reasonable off turn punisher, and I completely lack those so far, but 0 cost cards with recycle are hard to pass (since they replace themselves), so I picked the Gargoyle.

P7P1

This pack has 4 really good Wild Cards. I suspect my opponent to have Wild loyalty, so one of my biggest concerns was that he shouldn’t get all the Burn (since I didn’t get lifegain yet). I hate to play around Surprise Attack and usually prefer to have it myself, but sometimes you have to pick what is best for your deck. My guess was that he would pick Hunting Raptors and Rain of Fire if I picked up the Surprise Attack, so I ended up picking the Rain of Fire, because it is so effective against many of my threats.

P7P2

I knew directly that I would pick the Gold Dragon – it’s a card that is really hard to punish in the core dark draft format even when you use your gold first, since your opponent either needs a combination of cards to make a somewhat favorable trade or use his gold to remove it. It’s also a reasonable source of lifegain, which should not be underestimated. I thought briefly about picking the Mighty Blow as a simple draw 2, but at this point I have enough Sage cards that Blue Dragon fits my deck very well.

P8P1

Do you remember how I argued I have to first pick Rain of Fire and Flash Fire? For me there was still no question that I’m picking the Erase over Fireball here. It’s the best card in the pack, fits my alignment, and most importantly I can now safely rule out my opponent having any bounce effects (besides a potential Hasty Retreat). I picked Sea Titan and burned Time Walker, so by picking Erase, suddenly Turn, Necromancer Lord, and Final Task are getting much better (since if bounced, creatures that I stole from my opponent are returned to his hand). I would even go so far to say that this could be the game deciding pick. I also have to keep in mind my opponent will pick the Fireball and the Angelic Protector.

P8P2

I briefly thought about picking up Secret Legion, because I think it’s a pretty potent card if you can rule out your opponent having a good counter for it, and I already picked up Flash Fire and Plague, but I still couldn’t rule out Wither, so I passed it. On top of that, there are three other fantastic cards for my deck. I first wanted to snap pick Plentiful Dead, but on second thought I didn’t have that many 1 cost evil cards that I could play it with, since two of them were board clears and leaving Plentiful Dead in the discard pile didn’t seem like a smart plan given I have seen 0 discard pile removal. That made me also realize that I should pick Keeper of Secrets to have at least have some form of Discard Pile removal, and I was pretty sure I could trigger the recycle ability quite easily. I also felt like I needed more single target removal and Bitten fills that role really well.

P9P1

There are three outstanding and two good cards in the pack. It really hurt that I had to pass Zombie Apocalypse (and Ogre Mercenary), but I picked the Lightning Storm with a reasoning similar to the Rain of Fire. Never pass all the burn and lifegain to your opponent. I already passed Angel of Light, Drain Essence, and in this pack Inner Peace. On top of that, Lightning Storm hits my opponent’s Wild alignment and again – it is fantastic against Necromancer, Juggernaut, and lots of other 0 cost cards that I picked.

P9P2

Getting the Guilt Demon here is fantastic, since it’s the second best discard pile removal after Amnesia in the core only format. There aren’t many higher picks than Guilt Demon so my guess was he got either Muse, Plucker, Kong, or Amnesia here (in hindsight I’m fairly certain it was Muse). The second pick was between Deadly Raid and Feint. Feint is the better card, but often it’s just a draw 2 as well, so I picked the Deadly Raid to hit my Sage loyalty more reliably (and there is still a small chance that Deadly Raid will end the game when played as an on turn gold punisher).

P10P1

Here I’m really happy to pick up Word of Summoning. You basically get an off turn 4/4 demon token for free, which is pretty awesome. I guessed my opponent would take Lord of The Arena and The People’s Champion. Lord of The Arena is definitely one of the on turn gold punishers you have to keep in mind when playing against.

P10P2

Picking the Warrior Golem here (given my Sage alignment) was the easy part. As a second pick I chose Resurrection, since it’s never bad to pick up a draw 2 that has a situationally really useful effect. In general I try to stay away from Psionic Assault, since that is one of the most complicated to play correctly cards in the dark draft format. Now looking through all the picks it would have actually been the correct pick here. I didn’t pass my opponent that many draw 2’s, which makes Psionic Assault much more valuable. On top of that, my deck has more than enough draw 2 cards already, and I don’t really have good off turn gold punishers.

Draft Conclusion

Overall I’m pretty happy with the deck. I just got one of the 5 S-tier cards (Thought Plucker, Kong, Amnesia, Sea Titan, and Muse), and while I don’t have that many off turn gold punishers, I have lots of answers and draw 2’s. I also have some really good 0 cost cards, enough board clears, and some decent discard pile removal. I also denied my opponent some efficient answers to lots of my threats (namely Flash Fire, Rain of Fire, and Lightning Storm), which could make it awkward for him to respond to them efficiently.

The game

I had a quite decent opening with enough removal, card draw and threats, so I kept my whole hand. I thought about either passing or directly opening with Gold Dragon. From the cards that I saw during the draft, he could use either Strafing Dragon or Ice Drake to block and maybe use Lash or Fireball to get a favorable trade. Another possibility was something like Surprise Attack into Kong/Palace Guard, but I still had the Lying in Wait on his turn for that case and the Word of Summoning in case he got a big Blitzer as follow up.

So, I lead the game by attacking with Gold Dragon. My opponent answered with Strafing Dragon, showing me a Fireball and Jungle Queen. So he finished off my Gold Dragon with Fireball while keeping the Strafing Dragon. I then used Lying in Wait to remove his attacking Strafing Dragon (which didn’t feel great), since I guessed he would play Jungle Queen anyways. My response was to Sea Titan his Jungle Queen, which he responded with a Wave of Transformation. While it seems like I got punished by the Gold Dragon play, this sequence of plays baited out quite a few good resources from my opponent (and also prevented him for getting the loyalty for T-Rex for a long time).

At this point in the match we had equal hand sizes. As you can see the turn before I removed his Muse with Unquenchable Thirst. He attacked, dealt 5 damage and played Zombie Apocalypse (he got 2 more tokens than I did). Remember how I hate picked both Rain of Fire and Lightning Storm? That really payed off here.

I traded off some Zombie tokens and used Necromancer Lord to get back my Gold Dragon (the turn before). Again, my opponent didn’t have a good answer (he used 3 board clears over the course of the match already), so he played T-Rex and put up some 0 cost threats. He needed the Fire Shaman for the T-Rex loyalty so he didn’t kill my Necromancer. It wouldn’t really have helped him, because I had Resurrection for that case. In hindsight I misplayed slightly, because the really smart play would have been to use Turn on my Necromancer Lord to get back Juggernaut on his turn and then on my turn get his Angelic Protector to protect my Necromancer Lord before a board clear.

I drew 2, got back the Juggernaut on my turn, attacked with Gold Dragon and then played a board clear. This left me with Juggernaut which is Unbreakable on my turn. So I took down my opponent to 8. He had a pretty good answer in the form of Angel of Mercy to block my Warrior Golem and got back Angel of Light on his turn to gain 10 life and then removed the Juggernaut with Palace Guard. The tides suddenly turned around again, but I drew into Hurricane on my turn to clear the board.

He played the Triceratops on his turn, and I made another mistake again in not seeing that I could use Final Task, to get Necromancer Lord, to get Angelic Protector, to protect my Lord, to not die to Final Task (to get Gold Dragon on my turn). I simply drew more cards and used Turn to give his Triceratops blitz and attack him with it. He had to take the 10 damage play Ice Drake to block Guilt Demon, and I could use Dark Knight to finish him off. Also note that I just reached deck 2 – the last card that I drew was Sea Titan 🙂

Conclusion

I hope this illustrates how I used the principles stated above to get the edge in this match.