Spreadsheet: Card Draw
Category: Ambush Champion 1-Draw (B-Tier)
Internal Category Tier: B-Tier
Spreadsheet: Other
Category: Ambush Champions (B-Tier)
Internal Category Tier: B-Tier
Tier 3
I like tokens. I like card draw. This is both. I like it.
The on-turn board clear that gives both players tokens is also quite interesting. It can be a bit hard to exploit due to the fact that most one-sided small board clears are tied to Slow champions, but cards like Champion of the Wicked and Fireball can break the symmetry. In most situations (unless your opponent has one of those small board clear champions like War Machine/Raxxa), your opponent will just attack into your zombies, and you’ll trade with them, but, you don’t have to trade.
For instance, if you’re at 30 and your opponent is at 15, you can just take the first hit in preparation to swing back unblocked on your turn, especially if you are holding a slow small board clear effect. If you do take this line, you need to pay careful attention to how your opponent reacts to determine your next line though, especially in app.
- If you opponent immediately attacks with their next zombie, especially if all three are queued up in an attack separately queue, there is a reasonable chance your opponent will follow up by breaking all zombies in play (Flash Fire/Wither etc.). Therefore, you probably want to block the next two attacks, unless you think they made a mistake and didn’t even consider the fact that you wouldn’t block.
- If your opponent spends some time to think after you decline the first trade, they probably weren’t expecting that. If they don’t attack with the others after that, this generally means that they actively want to trade so they’ll wait until you attack to do so. If they do attack with the next zombies, it could mean that they either do have a way to clear all champions, especially if they are low on health, or, if high on health, they might be accepting the trade of 6 damage each turn. Deciding which scenario is more likely based on the current board state, cards in hands, health total, and opponent’s preferences will determine whether or not you should block. (Your opponent also might decide to keep attacking out of fear of you playing a small board clear on your turn to blow out their blockers.)
- If your opponent spends a significant amount of time thinking before making their first attack, they are most likely considering what to do just in case you choose not to block, so they can immediately react after you make your decision. This is partly done to make sure attacking is the correct play, but also to negate directly giving you the information above. (However, they’ve still given you some information this way.)
- While it is frequently “correct” to trade zombies for zombies, taking 2 damage from that first hit can be valuable, even if it ends up “just” gaining you insight into your opponent and their potential cards in hand.
In draft, this is reasonable both after your opponent spends their gold, as a punisher, and even potentially before. It can give you a chump blocker for a non-evasive attacking champion (that your opponent can’t use a slow champion to answer before blockers), draw you closer to a more appropriate answer, and give you two more back-up chump blockers just in case.
In constructed, it is excellent in token decks (especially combo token decks) because it gives you tokens, draws you a card, and provides a board clear in case things go really poorly, like Brachiosaurus -> Brachiosaurus -> sadness. There is also the potential to board clear with this on-turn into off-turn Plague Zombies/Surprise Attacked Drinker of Blood -> Wither/Flash Fire. Overall a solid card. That being said, using this against a wild player into them responding with Draka, Dragon Tyrant on their turn is brutal, since you just handed them an extra 6 damage a turn, but Draka is always going to be brutal against tokens.