Keyforge: Stuff I look for in a New Deck

Okay, so you have a Keyforge deck. Whether this is your first or 40th, it's ok, we are all addicted. But is your deck any good? We all look at a new deck with anticipation and wonder. And I don't know about you, but for a while I found out that after looking at a deck, I still had no idea if it was good. Now it is true, you really won't know if a deck is good or bad until you play it. However, after looking and playing with many decks, I have started to see combos and cards that I like, and it has given me a strategy for looking at a deck and seeing if it fits my playstyle. Of course, my preferences may be different than yours, and that's great! I hope you find what works for you! This is what works for me, currently, but I'm betting there are plenty of other people that also think like I do. So these are some of the things I look for in a new deck. (images of the cards were grabbed from here)

Houses

The first thing you will notice is what 3 Houses you got. After you play for/against each faction a couple of times, I am sure you will start to like some factions over others. I, for example, am currently favoring Shadows/Dis/Untamed. Shocker, right? That's pretty much everyone's favorite combination currently. But, I can never be sad about getting Logos, as they fit with everything, and Sanctum is a solid faction that also contains the sought-after Horseman of the Apocalypse cards, which if you have 2x copies of them in a deck, you could be $2000 richer?!

I currently don't care for Mars. I don't feel as though they have a solid identity yet, and I believe Richard Garfield even said that Mars is the faction they just stuck cards in that didn't fit in the other Houses. Brobnar is also not a favorite of mine, although they at least are a lot more thematic. They are hilarious, mind you, and can be really good on the board, but their playstyle doesn't interest me.

 I love Dis because of the board sweepers, as well as several creatures and actions that can mess with your opponent like Control the Weak, Key Hammer, and Drumble to name a few. I love Shadows because of all the stealing. Cards like Urchins, Nerve Blast, and of course Bait and Switch can really swing games in your favor. And I love Untamed because of the combos they can pull off with stuff like Full Moon, Dust Pixies, and Chota Hazri.





Combos

The main thing that I look for after noticing the Houses are certain combos. I currently feel like each House in your deck needs to have a strong personality. Decks will not always have this, and I have many that just have a hodge-podge of less-than-ideal combinations, but the good ones will be synergistic. I already mentioned a couple above, but here are some again:

For Untamed, getting a bunch of creatures with good Amber generation like Dust Pixies, along with cards that give Amber every time you play a creature like Full Moon or Hunting Witch, and combo those with creature recurring cards like Nature's Call and Troop Call, and top it off with actual Keyforging with Chota Hazri, and you have my dream Untamed combo. In fact, you can even forge a key on your first turn (ie going second), with this combo.

 

For Logos, I typically look for stuff like Library Access along with Wild Wormhole or Timetraveller for the insane card draw.

For Sanctum, I like seeing Cleansing Wave alongside the Horseman of Pestilence or anything that damages multiple creatures. 

For Shadow, my favorite combo currently is using Seeker Needles to pick off my own Bad Penny, and then just replay her for easy Amber generation and bodies on the board.

For Brobnar I like Loot the Bodies with anything that destroys lots of creatures such as Coward's End.

For Mars I just look for a ton of creatures along with cards like Key Abduction, Mating Season, and Psychic Network.

For Dis I don't typically go for combos, but having a bunch of Dust Imps alongside board sweepers such as Gateway to Dis is always fun, and it fills two roles in Amber generation and board clearing.

 

Toolbox Cards

This references a style of deck originating in Magic, I believe, but it has since then been used in many card games like my favorite, Epic. In general, a Toolbox deck is a deck that has a tool for every job, meaning a card to answer anything your opponent can throw at you. There is no deckbuilding in Keyforge, at least not officially, but that doesn't mean that one shouldn't be looking out for cards that can answer stuff that your opponent throws at you. Still confused? Don't worry, I'll give some examples of what I look for. These types of cards fill certain roles in a deck and my favorite decks have these roles filled in some capacity.

Board Sweepers - Cards like Gateway to Dis, The Spirit's Way, Coward's End, Save the Pack. Any card that helps get opponent's creatures off of the board. This is especially apparent when fighting Brobnar and Sanctum, who have very resilient creatures that are not going away easily when fought. Or sometimes your opponent just has a great draw and gets out tons of Martians or creatures with Elusive. If you don't deal with those creatures, your opponent can at the very least continually Reap and generate tons of Amber, help to make sure that none of your creatures that enter play last for long, or do any other crazy combos out there. Board Sweepers help level the playing field, and I look for these in every deck I get.

Amber Manipulation - This one is really broad, but this has to do with cards that can manipulate your opponent's store of Amber. Any card that captures, forces your opponent to lose, or preferably steals, Amber, can fall into this category. Shadows is the best at stealing, and an army of Urchins would be amazing. But other cards like Burn the Stockpile and Doorstep to Heaven can prevent your opponent for maintaining that 6+ Amber needed to forge a key at the beginning of their turn as well. Stealing is the best as you not only force your opponent to not have the Amber, but you get it as well, which leads to the next role.

Amber Generation - This is similar to the combos that I talked about above, as many of the best combos have to do with Amber generation, since Amber generation is how you can forge keys, which is how you actually win the game, regardless of board state. But in addition to that, cards that just give you lots of Amber are really good. While going first, I have played a Treasure Map, which just got me 4 Amber. Virtuous Works, a simple +3 Amber, won me a game in a local sealed tournament with 15 players when we went to time and had to go to a tiebreaker of how much Amber we had. My opponent had 3 more Amber than I did, but I played Virtuous Works and another action that gave me Amber, and I won. Probably my favorite is Bait and Switch, as that fills two roles: One, it is amber manipulation, and can lower my opponent's store and prevent them from forging a key, but it also generates amber for me by stealing it. This card is a devastating swing that can win you games, and even just having it around can cause your opponent to fret so much they make a mistake, or force them to make sub-optimal plays.

Stalling - This is not as crucial in my opinion, as I would prefer to have a deck that is filled with the toolbox cards above, but these cards can still help win you games. I am talking about Keyhammer, Lash of Broken Dreams, Miasma, Shatter Storm, etc. These are cards that can take away opponent's forged keys, increase the cost of keys, prevent them from being able to forge keys, and even some amber manipulation/elimination can fit this role. Anything that stop your opponent from forging keys for a turn. Sometimes your opponent will get that Untamed combo, or generate enough Amber in order to forge a key on your turn, meanwhile you have just not gotten your engine running. Stalling cards can help slow your opponent down and give you time to catch back up. Stalling can take many forms though, as board sweepers function in a similar way too. Even though you may lose your creatures, a well-timed Gateway to Dis can sweep the board, and slow down your opponent by leveling the field.

The Name of the Deck

Ok yeah, I am very competitive, but I can't help but look at my deck's name, and hope for something hilarious or controversial. I have not had the pleasure of opening an invalid name deck that most likely has racism in it (why was that word ever in the pool to begin with?!). But I have had some gems. My most memorable one so far was actually the very first deck I opened: Bradbear the Carefully Robotic. For one, my name is Brad, and the fact that the very first deck I opened had my name in it felt very prophetic. Two, Bradbear is Carefully Robotic, which I find hilarious. I picture this adorable little bear, hands against his robotic chest, timidly waddling around, worrying that everyone will think he is too robotic for the culture. It's dumb, but I like it. I also like She who Reads about Hedonism.

But anyway, this has been my tl;dr article about what I look for in a deck. I am sure you look for different stuff, but let me know in the comments! What do you look for in a deck? What are your toolbox cards? What are your favorite combos? Best deck names? I hope you liked this article, and as always, happy gaming!

Keyforge: Differences when you get the same Houses

Keyforge has been released, the dawn of discovery is here! I have been looking forward to this for a while. I was very glad to get my starter and 4 additional decks, and although 3 of the 6 unique decks I got had the same exact 3 houses, they were at least ones that I like. But this is the perfect opportunity to look at the variance of decks that have the same houses. How similar are they? It's bound to happen to all of us if we collect Keyforge. It was one of my worries getting in to the game, so let's dive in! I'm going to post the deck contents, and then look at some stats. I will look at the number of creatures/actions/artifacts/upgrades in the deck, the amount of raw amber (the automatic amber you get when you play a card), and then a short summary of how the deck works.

My first deck is Victoria "Countess Hulker" Mundy

Creatures: 11
Actions: 20
Artifacts: 5
Upgrades: 0
Raw Amber: 12

Analysis. So this deck is Action heavy. With 3 Gateway to Dis, Key to Dis, and a number of other actions, we have some serious board sweeping power and removal. It feels like a control deck. The Raw Amber count is a little misleading since if I just play Treasure Map on a turn, it guarantees me +3 more Amber. There are also several cards that allow me to steal Amber when played, and a few that capture them. It looks like controlling the board and stealing are going to be my win conditions. Shadows has several ways of stealing Amber alongside one of my favorite cards in Bait and Switch. I can take away a key with Key Hammer, slow down my opponent with Miasma, and of course draw tons of cards with Library Access in Logos. It feels like a very solid deck and I did win my one game I have played with it so far 3-0.


My second deck is She who Reads about Hedonism

Creatures: 11
Actions: 12
Artifacts: 11
Upgrades: 2
Raw Amber: 10

This deck feels like an Artifact deck to me, although actually looking at the numbers it is pretty even. It was a very slow moving deck, but once I got going, I was unstoppable. In my game my opponent got 2 keys before I got any. However, I was able to survive, put out a bunch of artifacts, and then I was able to eliminate any board presence from my opponent, slow down their production while increasing my own, and eventually come out on top. For my playstyle, unless I really got good with the deck, I am sure we would go to time in a tournament. It just takes a long time to play in order to win. The Bad Penny/Seeker Needle combo worked very well at the end of the game, and Key Hammer was crucial in slowing down my opponent in the early game. I also feel like this deck would be a little swingy due to how few duplicates there are in the deck.


My third deck is Second R. Kominajila

Creatures: 22
Actions: 9
Artifacts: 4
Upgrades: 1
Raw Amber: 10

This deck felt kind of generic. It has a massive amount of creatures, or double the previous two anyway. It feels a little disjointed, with few combos and obvious ways to win. With so many creatures, it comes down to having a large board presence, and reaping/killing with it until you win. It has the potential to become really good, but it does suffer from strong board houses like Sanctum, as well as board clears. In my opinion this is the weakest deck, but that could just be because of my playstyle. I did lose with it, although it only lost 3-2. It jumped to a good lead, but couldn't do anything once my opponent had a good Sanctum presence on the board.




So let's look at these decks: Comparing the simple stats I actually have a lot of variety right off the bat, which is pretty cool. My first deck is mainly actions, the second deck is evenly split between creatures/actions/artifacts although it plays like an artifact heavy deck, and my third has mainly creatures that swarm the board. Upgrades are minimal and the raw amber is very similar in all three decks. After playing with all three, I mainly want to play some more. I am extremely happy that each deck plays differently though. If there can be this variety within decks that have the same houses, how different will other houses be? That is exciting for the game.

This was hardly a controlled experiment mind you, as I played these decks against different decks each time, and against some different people. I did find out some of my personal preferences when it comes to playing, so that was very nice, and that is the best advice I can give when it comes to this game. If you want to know if you have a good deck, try it out. I do think there are some ways you can tell a "good" deck from a "bad" deck, but it is much harder to figure out. I think somewhere it is in the amount of Amber you can generate/deny your opponent, and how easily your deck can adapt to changes, but that will be hard to quantify.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this article. Which deck is your favorite? Currently, mine is the first one, Victoria, but we will see after some more games. Happy gaming!

KeyForge Impressions from Gencon 2018

Hello all, I am back from Gencon 2018. It was a fun time with cosplayers, friends I only knew previously via online, and of course more board games than I can count. One game that particularly caught my eye was Fantasy Flight Game's new game from Richard Garfield, KeyForge: Call of the Archons. The combination of FFG and Richard Garfield is almost always guaranteed to pique my interest, as both are veterans in the gaming industry, with Garfield being most famous for Magic: The Gathering. I got a chance to demo this game and it is easily my most anticipated game I saw at Gencon, and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

I wanted to explain a little bit about what the game is, how it is played, what my experience was playing it, and then talk about my thoughts on the Unique Deck Game archetype.

So first, a little about KeyForge: This is the world's first Unique Deck Game. Every deck available is completely unique (with the exception of 2 of the starting decks, as they are fixed). Every deck stars an Archon, that has a completely unique name, that is never repeated. And each deck is also never repeated. That being said, there are 350 cards in the set split among 7 different houses. Each deck has 12 cards from 3 of the houses, and those cards vary in rarity and quantity. The claim is that there are more than 104,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible decks in this first set alone. That's crazy. Each deck also comes with a decklist and QR code that will be able to be uploaded to the upcoming companion app that will be released alongside the game. This will allow you to track your decks, see other decks, and monitor all sorts of statistical goodness in the world of KeyForge.

How does it play? (Rules)

KeyForge is played over a series of turns, with the goal being to forge your three keys to unlock the Crucible Vaults. The first to three wins. This is what your turn order looks like:

1. Forge a Key
2. Choose a House
3. Play, discard, and use cards of the chosen house
4. Ready Cards
5. Draw Cards

So, in the first step, you can attempt to forge a key. Typically, forging a key requires you to spend 6 Ember (the game's currency), although the cost may vary depending on various card abilities. You can also only forge one key during this step, although it's possible that some card abilities can allow you to forge a key during your turn.

In the second step, you must choose a house to activate. This is where the meat of the game is. You must choose one of the three houses assigned to your Archon, and then you may only activate, play, discard, and use cards from that house during your turn, although this can be done in any order. There are four card types: Action Cards, Artifacts, Creatures, and Upgrades. Cards in KeyForge do not really have a cost attached to them, barring some specific abilities, which means you can in theory play all of a house's cards on a turn all at once. Creatures and Artifacts come into play exhausted, and cannot be used the turn you play them. They have various abilities, and the creatures have a power and armor value, which contribute to how combat works. Action cards get played and then discarded, and Upgrades get played on Creatures in order to give them...well...upgrades. Some cards give you Ember as well as another effect.

When you use a Creature, you may do a number of things: Firstly, you exhaust said Creature, then you choose whether to reap, fight, or trigger an Action ability on the Creature. Reaping means you gain one Ember, and that is the easiest way to gain Ember. You may also fight, where you declare a target Creature for your attack, and both Creatures deal damage equal to their power simultaneously. Damage is applied via tokens and stays from round to round. Defeated Creatures get discarded. A Creature's life is also equal to their power.

The next step has you readying all of your cards, preparing them for the next turn. Then, you draw cards up to your hand limit of 6 (normally). If you ever run out of cards, simply reshuffle your discard pile to create a new deck.

There is also a Chain mechanic. A player may gain Chains through card abilities during the game, usually as a cost to play a powerful card, or a punishment against your opponent. The game comes with a Chain tracker, and the more Chains you gain, the lower your hand size becomes. In my demo, we never gained enough Chains to get past the first tier, so we only ever had our hand size reduced by one card, but if you get 7+ Chains your hand size is -2, 13+ is -3, and 19+ is -4.

And that is generally how the game is played. You can read the rulebook here.


So how does it actually play? (Demo Experience)

I only got to play the demo once, but it was a full game that went back and forth over many turns (I even managed to play through my entire deck and reshuffle), so I feel I got a good look at the game. I apologize for the lack of pictures. I should have taken screenshots of my decklist and the various cards, but I just got caught up in the demo and didn't want to take too much extra time, as there were lots of people trying to demo the game.

The choosing of the House step was very interesting, and it really forced me to make a ton of decisions. For example, I play a bunch of Creatures and Artifacts from the Brobnar House on my first turn. On my next turn, do I activate them and do stuff with them, or should I play cards from the Logos House, of which I have a full hand? Most of the time, it is not that extreme, which makes the decision much harder. Sometimes I chose a House and played/activated only one card from that House. There were a ton of decisions to make. Even just looking at Creatures and what they can do forces many decisions. Do I attack with my Creature and defeat an opponent, even though that doesn't directly fund the winning goal of gaining Ember to forge a key? Or should I just reap and gain Ember, and risk not disrupting my opponent?

The decks we played were also pretty well balanced, although they did play differently, despite us sharing several cards. My Houses were Brobnar, Logos, and Untamed, while my opponent I believe was Mars, Logos, and Shadows. My deck was very controlling and stalling. I had 3 copies of a card that reduced everyone's Ember by half. My Brobnar cards were all very fighty Creatures, with Artifacts and Actions that helped me keep fighting, and even gaining Ember when I fight. Logos had a lot of tricky Creatures that were very weak, but gave me several abilities to use and were very disruptive. Untamed had a couple of very large Creatures, several upgrades to make them even larger, and many Actions that had bounce effects that allowed me to remove opponent's Creatures from play. Overall I think my deck was pretty good. Controlling decks tend to be high caliber, and in an expert's hands I think it could have dominated. That being said, our match was actually very close.

My opponent managed to forge 2/3 keys before I even got one, due to some good Martian Artifacts and Logos Actions. However, I pulled off a 2 key turn after a devastating Brobnar turn: I had two copies of a Brobnar Artifact that when exhausted, gave me an Ember for each Creature defeated during a fight during the turn. I swept the board and gained something like 8-9 Ember. Then, on the following turn I forged a key normally, and then used a Logos (I think) Action card that allowed me to forge another key. It felt epic. The rest of the game, I got into a groove of stalling and delaying my opponent, all the while reaping with extra Creatures and slowly gaining enough Ember to forge my last key. Another key card (that seems ridiculously good), was a Logos card that allowed me to steal Ember until I had more than my opponent. This led to some huge swings. We both had the card in our decks, and if my opponent played it in his turn after my huge Brobnar turn I would have gotten crushed.

The game turns were quick, and there was very little downtime. Most of the time, I barely had enough time to read through my new hand of cards before it was my turn. I got to see my whole deck during play and frequently drew 3 cards a turn. I really liked how fast pace it was. I also really liked how my deck was constructed. Richard Garfield said it is not random, and that there is an algorithm, but how it goes about doing that I have no idea. It seems as though the decks have a theme to them and a strategy in general. As I said, my deck felt very controlling, while my opponent's seemed to be about building a resource engine and compiling massive amounts of Ember. It was a fun matchup. The cards have a ton of cool abilities, and the way you use them will greatly determine how you go about winning. After reading the rulebook, there were tons of abilities that I never saw, but I look forward to what they look like while playing. So overall my experience was very positive, and I yearn to play some more. Also, I personally really like the art style and theme choices. It feels very Smash Up-ey, which is ok in my book. The lighter theme helps with the lighter style of formatting.

Unique Deck Game?

I had many thoughts upon first hearing about this game: How can the decks be unique? How can you prevent cheating? Won't there be random crap decks that have no synergy? This feels so disorganized. How is there prize support? How could there be a genuine competitive scene in a game where you are randomly given your deck? Of course, not all the thoughts were negative: A game that is solely like a booster draft or a limited format, sign me up! No deckbuilding/netbuilding? Countless hours of preparation not needed? Really cheap cost of entry?

A lot of this will remain to be seen once the game is released, but after talking with several of the people running the demos, looking through forums, and reading/listening to Richard Garfield's take on the game, I feel a little more comfortable.

The decks are built using some kind of algorithm, so they are not completely random. You won't have to worry about getting a deck full of Action cards that require a robot with no robots in the deck. Cheating in the game would be very difficult due to the fact that each deck has a decklist, a QR code that backs this up, and every card in each unique deck has a back that has the unique Archon's name printed on it. Now this has a negative side, meaning that if a card gets ruined, that deck is essentially ruined. Sure, maybe you could try and substitute the same card and use opaque sleeves, but that may not be tournament worthy or whatever.

Each deck is only $10. If you want the correct tokens then the starter is $40, but that includes everything you need, 2 static decks, but also 2 random decks. The barrier of entry to this game is very low. Playing an LCG is far more expensive, and even similar formats in Magic are more expensive. This should be a very beginner-friendly game.

The algorithm also takes into consideration card interactions and strategies, so the deck shouldn't be a complete random junkpile, but have some good combos in it automatically. Prize support is a little more iffy, as you can't exactly have promos, but upgraded tokens and playmats are definitely possible. Now will the game be competitive? I dunno. I can't wait for fun tournaments where everyone buys a new deck, cracks it open, and then see who can win. I ideally want to have tournaments at my local gaming store, and at the end of each tournament, they take a picture of the decklist like a team picture, and put the plaque on the wall. Perhaps there could be a mini league where you play the same deck throughout the season, and the decks get rated by the league and handicaps are implemented to make it more equal. The rulebook actually talks at length about this concept with using Chains as the handicap for "better" decks. Using Chains as a bidding option in the beginning, or gradual assigning of Chains when it is obvious a deck is really good.

I really like the concept of the game. I don't play Magic competitively, but I do enjoy playing in Midnight Release Drafting parties and stuff like that. My favorite format for the Epic Card Game is Limited, where you are drafting cards from "packs" and have to make your deck work, even with suboptimal cards. So this game scratches that itch. I appreciate Richard's attempt, even if it doesn't completely pan out. I doubt the competitive Magic players will love this game. At best, it will be a fun distraction, and not considered to be legitimate in terms of competitive play. And that's fine. This game can appeal to other people. Plus, if you really miss deckbuilding, nothing is stopping you and your friends from getting opaque sleeves and deckbuilding to your heart's content.

The upcoming KeyForge App

Richard Garfield has said that he wanted to create a game that had remnants of what Magic used to be. Before the age of the internet, when two Magic players would meet for a game, there were likely cards and decks that a player had never seen. There was an excitement at seeing a new card played against you, or a new strategy, and that excitement has lessened due to the information age we live in today. Richard also mentioned talking about how fun it was to have to use a deck that wasn't optimal, that had some cards that most thought to be weak, and that winning with a deck like that made it so much sweeter. He also loves procedurally generated content, because there is a real sense of ownership and discovery when you know you are the first person to see and use something. Something that the designers may have not even seen. He likens this to the difference between walking in an amusement park and walking in a jungle.

I really like this quote from Richard about this game: "In the amusement park there are experts telling you how to play the game, the safest strategies, what net decks to use. In the jungle you have the tools you have. There is every chance that you are going to be the best in the world at playing your decks – you can’t just look up what the synergies are or the weaknesses; you will only find out by playing. Welcome to the jungle!"

I for one can't wait to get into the jungle. I hope you enjoyed this article. Wait with me until Q4 of this year, and happy gaming!

Epic: The Card Game Pantheon Riksis vs Tarken Pack Analysis/Full Art Spoiler!

Welcome to the final pack of the Epic: The Card Game Pantheon Expansion, Riksis vs Tarken!

Riksis vs Tarken

Elder Greatwurm - 1 cost Wild Champion

30/30 - This card can't gain powers or abilities.

Ah, the banner child of Epic. The original champion from the Kickstarter, that after reading the rules and finding out that you only start with 30 health, makes your jaw drop. I like this art better than the original, although either can be used because he remains unchanged. We just need a way to Blind Faith our own champions so we could abuse him more. He's still ridiculous in Limited, as if your opponent doesn't have an answer, you WILL lose. Always fun.

Gift of Furios - 0 cost Wild Event

Target champion gets +6/+6 this turn. Or 1 gold - Draw two cards.

Minotaur on the front, it automatically moves up in my book. It's art is legitimately pretty awesome. +6/6 stats are pretty insane, and although I don't think it's as good as Rage, Lash, or Go Wild, it will still really hurt if my opponent gets this in Dark Draft and then hits me with an 11/8 Blitzing Unbreakable Dark Knight.

Rising Storm - 1 cost Wild Event

Deal 5 damage divided any way you choose to up to five targets. Draw a card.

I also got very excited when I first saw this card. It is basically a Lightning Storm that draws a card instead of being Recallable. The art is absolutely fantastic and is easily top 5 in the set. Only dealing 5 damage does hurt it a lot, especially with these last two packs giving us huge statlines. The card draw is amazing, but one of the biggest draws of Lightning Storm was its use in Limited, with that Recall ability. Without it, Lightning Storm wasn't used as much in Constructed, and I fear the same may be for this. It's still a decent Limited pick as it doesn't require Loyalty, draws a card, and can deal with a lot of little guys, which is always a common thing in Limited.

Carrion Demon - 0 cost Evil Champion

3/4 Blitz. Break any champion damaged by this card. When this card damages an opponent - Banish their discard pile.

My immediate thought upon seeing this card is a comparison to another venerable Evil champion in Thrasher Demon. They both have blitz, both have similar stats, at least starting out, and they both break any champion they damage. Now while Thrasher Demon can keep growing until your opponent is forced to spend gold to get rid of him, this little guy provides a much more useful and disruptive ability. He gets to banish an opponent's discard pile! Discard pile manipulation is a huge thing in Epic, as it can really control an opponent's options when it comes to recall abilities or retrieval, and it completely stops easy card draw with recycle abilities. In Limited formats, the lower deck size can lead to outright wins when an opponent draws all of their cards, but this card can halt that. It practically demands a block, and almost everything that blocks it will get broken, unless they manage to become unbreakable through another ability. It's another relatively simple card, combining stuff that is already in Epic, but together makes a great new card to play with. My only problem now is how to decide which 0-cost Evil cards I want in my decks, as there are so many great ones to choose from!

Dark Prince - 1 cost Evil Champion

8/7 Airborne. Blitz. Tap: Put a demon token into play.

Here is another Kickstarter exclusive card. I think I like the new art more, as it is a lot more dynamic and unique, but the old one is solid, and since the cards are the same, you can use whichever one you want! Airborne with Blitz is very common now, so I'm not really excited about that or anything, and tapping to put a demon token into play is something I would very rarely do. I'm glad he became legal, but I don't really care for yet another flier.

Red Mist - 1 cost Evil Event

Draw two cards OR If it is your turn, break all champions that aren't prepared.

This is an interesting card. This card really makes you think a lot of how it is used. It is an on turn board wipe, which is nothing too crazy, but it has a clause that you may be able to use it to make it a one-sided board wipe, which is absolutely huge! Josiah Fiscus spoiled this card and did a much better job explaining it than I could ever do, so just read this. In short: “If it is your turn, break all champions that are expended or flipped."

Rise of the Many - 1 cost Good Event

Your 0 cost champions gain +3 power and blitz this turn. Draw two cards.

I have always been a sucker to themed decks, and the human token theme has always intrigued me. There is something so satisfying about filling the board with a huge army, and wiping your opponent out. In the past, it has been difficult to pull off, but this card could help bring it back. This very simple texted card does so much. ALL of your 0-cost champions (not just human tokens), gain +3 power and blitz this turn. This helps everyone, so if you wanted to boost that Dark Knight and Demon Tokens, go right ahead! You have a Muse out as well? Don't worry, this will help her too! And then, to add on top of this, you get to draw 2 cards! This is what really sold the card for me. I love draw 2-and cards. Every one of them is amazing. In Epic, you need to maintain your hand size, and although the secondary ability of many events can let you draw 2 cards, it's cards that let you draw 2 cards AND do something else that can really help get you ahead in a game. What is also amazing about this card is that it does not require any loyalty or any other dedication to Good. This card can go anywhere where you have a bunch of 0-cost champions and it will probably shine. This card will also be a pretty easy draft choice in Limited, considering its flexibility. Plus, I really love the art on this card. It shows so many different characters on it, many of which are represented as 0-cost champions. I love it when a card matches its ability with the art.

Silver Wing Griffin - 0 cost Good Champion

3/3 Airborne. Blitz. Righteous.

Here is another fairly simple card. If you can combine this with any number of boosting events like Rage, Go Wild, or the new Gift of Furios, this guy quickly becomes a huge pain. Airborne and Blitz are common, but it being a 0-cost and having Righteous is crazy. I played a game where I attacked with this guy, was blocked by a Wild Roc, I played Gift of Furios, and all of a sudden I killed the Roc, gained 9 health, and STILL hadn't spent my gold. Very nice. Also, with so many fliers, this card will be very useful to block at the very least.

Silver Wing Paladin - 1 cost Good Champion

7/6 Blitz. Tribute - Draw a card. When this card blocks or becomes blocked - This card gets +7 power this turn.

Here is another card similar to War Lion of Valentia. It has 1 fewer defense, Blitz instead of Ambush, a guaranteed draw 1 instead of a Loyalty requirement, but has the exact same strength gain upon blocking or becoming blocked. I tend to lean more on Ambush abilities, but that guarantee card draw is really nice, especially in Limited. This card is also a human so benefits from certain cards more than the lion. These 2 cards are just so similar though. I think I'd rather only have 1 of them to make room for a different card. Same with Runek and Scarred Berserker.

Dark Eyes - 1 cost Sage Champion

8/7 Airborne. Blitz. When this card damages an opponent - Draw a card.

Yet another flier with a big statline. This card stands a better chance of drawing a card than the Scarred Berserker thanks to being Airborne. In Limited this will have to be dealt with, and games could quickly get out of hand if not, but this card is doesn't to gush about.

Halt! - 1 cost Sage Event

Expend target champion. Draw two cards. OR If it is your turn, expend each champion target player controls and draw two cards.

This card is fun, although I probably wouldn't build a deck around it. It is a great mind game card similar to Ceasefire. Do you hold back a big guy and attack with a little guy? Which champion do you attack with first? This card could foil those plans. It is a draw 2-and as a result so that is very nice. It can also be used on or off-turn. The on-turn ability is considerably better, as it will expend the entire opposing board, AND draw 2 cards, which could easily give you the swing you need for a win. It also has an exclamation point in the title, which I don't recall seeing before. I wonder why?

Shield of Tarken - 1 cost Sage Event

Draw two cards. Each of your champions gain untargetable this turn.

Let's end with a bang. I have already mentioned how important draw 2-and cards are in Epic, so this already comes with those same benefits, not to mention have the pack's namesake. Each of your champions gain untargetable this turn. That is a game-ending ability, especially in Limited formats. If you have some board presence already in the form of an army or even a hard-to-get-rid-of target such as Brak, Fist of Lashnok, playing this card can negate most removal in the game. Sure, wide sweepers may be able to get you, but in Limited it is less likely your opponent will have them. This is one of those surprise cards that will win games. Cards like Demonic Rising and Deadly Raid are both solid picks in a Dark Draft game, simply because they can be a surprise way to beat your opponent, and this card helps that as well. Not only that, but since it is a Sage card (an already sought after faction in Limited), it will help with Loyalty costs.
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I think the MVP of this pack is Shield of Tarken. I think it is a better game ending card than Halt! and I love the game ending cards and draw 2-and cards. What do you think? Do you agree with my assessments? Let me know, and happy gaming!

Epic: The Card Game Pantheon Shadya vs Valentia Pack Analysis/ Full Spoiler Art!

Oh boy, the final two packs from the new Epic: The Card Game Pantheon expansion! First up is Shadya vs Valentia. Let's dive in:

Shadya vs Valentia

Gareth's Automaton - 1 cost Sage Champion

9/6 - Tribute - You may return target event card from your discard pile to your hand.
Sage ally trigger from discard pile - You may banish another card in your discard pile. If you do, Recall.


A decent statline that forces a block, although it has no evasion like flying or unbreakable. The tribute ability is a nice way of getting back any event, especially 0-cost events, which can be played immediately if needed. The recall ability is also nice. I think this card will fare better in Limited than in Constructed, but I could be missing some kind of event abuse.

Lycomancy - 1 cost Sage Event

Draw two cards or If it is your turn, transform up to two target champions into wolf tokens.

Awesome art to this card. Fairly generic card. On-turn removal is a dime a dozen but you at least can transform 2 big targets, although it isn't removing a board presence. I would rate this card fairly low. It will be used in Limited as removal but I can't imagine anything else.

Owl Familiar - 0 cost Sage Champion

1/1 - Airborne. Tribute - You may return target 1-cost event card form your discard pile to your hand.

A Kickstarter card brought back. This is exactly the same as the Kickstarter, which is nice if you want to use the "alternate art". This is a key component to the insta-win card drawing combo, but we still lack the Time Master from the Kickstarter. Still though, a 0-cost airborne champion is useful, especially with this pack in circulation with all of its flying champions. Gaining back 1-cost events is nice, especially since you could instantly use them if you haven't spent gold yet.

Ritual of Scara - 0 cost Evil Event

Target a champion. Each of your evil champions deal 1 damage to it. Or 1 gold: Draw two cards

I like this card. It is similar to Unquenchable Thirst with it's targeting damage. A 0-cost card that allows you to take out a 1-cost card is always nice. This will be a fun addition to a zombie deck, which will have no trouble getting lots of Evil champions out. Unlike Unquenchable Thirst, this gives you a card draw option, so it might edge out the latter. UT was nice, but I hated to lost my own Evil cards in my discard pile. The health gain with UT is nice, but Consume was more consistent. So Ritual of Scara gains the lead!

Runek, Dark Duelist - 1 cost Evil Champion

8/8 Ambush. Blitz. Break any champion damaged by this card. Unbreakable on your turn.

A solid statline with the very useful Ambush and Blitz keywords. It automatically kills anything it hits, although it probably would anyway doing to be so big. But it's still nice. The Unbreakable on your turn is awfully nice. This will be a very good Dark Draft pick and will be a big thorn in many a game.

Scarred Berserker - 1 cost Evil Champion

7/10 Blitz. Break any champion damaged by this card. When this card damages an opponent - draw a card.

It's sad this card comes right after Runek. I like Runek better than this in almost every way. The statline difference is fairly negligible. They both break champions damaged. This guy lets you draw a card if it gets through, but with no evasion and no blitz, I am thinking that will be difficult to pull off. I kind of wish it drew a card upon damaging another champion, but that would be too good, especially with Ritual of Scara existing. :). This guy being a human is a slight edge, since there are many cards that help humans and not vampires, but that is also pretty negligible.

Pelios, Storm Lord - 1 cost Wild Champion

14/14 Loyalty 2 - Draw a card. Tribute - Deal 3 damage to a target.

This guy came out of nowhere. He has some awesome pantheon-esque art, with a huge statline, the ability to draw a card with loyalty, and a little dainty tribute damage ability that can target anything. I doubt I'd see this guy in Constructed, considering all of the other good options, but in an all-Wild deck, you'd always get a card draw. He will be decent in Limited.

Wild Roc - 1 cost Wild Champion

8/9 Airborne. Ambush.

Let the waterfall of Airborne champions begin! This is an extremely simple champion. 8/9 with Airborne and Ambush. It trades well with most fliers and if your opponent cannot deal with it, it will cause trouble. This will be a solid pick in Limited. The lack of card draw, extra damage, and evasion makes it less likely to be used in Constructed, but maybe an all-airborne deck could find some room.

Zaltessa's Fire - 0 cost Wild Event

Deal 3 damage to target champion. Recall for 1 gold: When this card leaves your discard pile - deal 2 damage to each opponent.

If you missed my spoiler article for this card you can view it here. This is great to take our many other troublesome low-life champions such as Muse, Thought Plucker, or Guilt Demon. Its Recall ability is the best part of this card. It behaves similarly to Scara's Gift, except you don't need to have Evil cards to help get it back to your hand. I have found it to be a great card to help whittle down an opponent's life total, and an easy thing to do if I, for some reason, have found yself unable to play something off-turn. I think this card could possibly find its way into a control Evil/Wild deck with some direct damage finishers. This is a solid pick in Limited due to not needing any Loyalty requirements.

Royal Intervention - 1 cost Good Event

Gain 5 health. Draw a card. Or Each player returns one of their champions to its owner's hand. Banish all other champions. The player whose turn it is draws a card.

This psuedo-off-turn removal is interesting. It is one of those cards I think could be abused if I could just wrap my head around all of the interactions. It is similar to New Dawn, just maybe a little less hard-hitting and lets you save your favorite champion for later. The gain 5 health and draw a card is pretty generic, especially considering Second Win basically does it for free. This is great to play if you are really far behind on board presence, but giving your opponent their champion in their hand is risky. You can use this off-turn, which is hugely important, and it can deal with any single champion no matter what they have on them since the return-to-hand doesn't "target". Using it off-turn does give your opponent a card, which is never good. This is definitely an ok pick in Limited, and it could find its way into Constructed, especially with a ton of big champion decks being a popular deck archetype.

If you want a much better analysis, check out Tom Sorenson's blog as he spoils this card and does an awesome job: http://www.tomsepicgaming.com/pantheon_royal_intervention/

War Lion of Valentia - 1 cost Good Champion

7/7 Ambush. Loyalty 2 - Draw a card. This card gains Unbreakable this turn.
When this card blocks or is blocked - This card gets +7 power this turn.

I got really excited when I first saw this card. For one, the art is amazing, and to my knowledge we haven't had a lion in Epic before. But two, I thought this was something that could deal with the giant unblockable champions we have seen earlier in this Pantheon set. However, I was reminded that those big guys are unblockable by champions with power less than them, and this lion only gets stronger AFTER blocking. Oh well. It still gets really huge on offense though and is going to kill pretty much everything it blocks. The Ambush is really important, and statline is big enough to be a problem. If you can Rage or Lash the lion, he could get pretty scary on offense. The Loyalty is a really big boon, and this card gets very decent or alright depending on if you can hit it. Unbreakable off-turn is practically unheard of, and card draw is the best icing on the cake.

Warrior Angel - 1 cost Good Champion

9/9 Airborne. Blitz. When this card attacks - You may banish target evil token champion.

Lastly for this pack we have another Kickstarter exclusive. I think this is the first alternate art that switches the genders? Both pieces of art are very well done, I'm not sure which I like more. The new art is more dynamic and action-filled, but the weapons and armor I think are better on the original. We end on another huge flier. banishing a target evil token champion is thematic, but way too conditional to be counted on. Blitzing Airborne champions are nice, and this one is gigantic, trading positively with almost all the others, including the above Wild Roc. Definitely not my favorite angel, but I'm glad he/she finally becomes legal (that doesn't sound right).

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I think the MVP of the pack goes to Zaltessa's Fire, although it could be overshadowed by Royal Intervention if a really good combo is found. Well that is it for the first pack. Do you agree with my assessments? Do you have a favorite card? Let me know! And happy gaming!

Epic: The Card Game Pantheon Demigods Spoilers

Pantheon Demigods Spoilers

by Guest Blogger (Brad Minnigh( | Jun 12, 2018 | Card Preview, Guest Posts, News |

It is my pleasure to bring some spoilers from the remaining two packs from the Epic The Card Game: Pantheon expansion! We have been clamoring for news ever since Pantheon was announced, and I am so excited to finally get my hands on the final two packs. Shadya vs Valentia and Riksis vs Tarken are the final two packs, and they give us 24 new Epic cards to add to our lovely collection! These packs will be available to those lucky enough to attend the Origins gaming convention in Ohio. But don’t worry, they will be available to retail probably in July, so that’s right around the corner.

These last packs do not bring the game-changing cards like Chamberlain Kark, or the giant, unblockable champions. These packs help bring a wide variety of cards to help round out the set, which I think is perfectly fine. There may not be a bunch of new abilities or keywords, but the cards have the abilities we all know and love, and have combined them in a lot of unique ways. This helps this set be familiar and thematic to veteran players, but more importantly will not bring in complexity creep that may drive away new players, like some other games do. There are some Kickstarter exclusives that are finally made “legal” (one from each color, but with new art!), and some of the most beautifully drawn cards we have to date. And of course, there are a bunch of new cards with which to smite our foes and slam on the table in Epic fashion. In the first four packs of Pantheon, we had some themes going on; such as giant unblockable champions, the “Will” cards, and new draw 2-and cards. In general, the theme I get from these two packs are an invasion of flying units (although you draw 2-and fans will get some love as well). This pack adds a bunch of fliers that are really gonna shake up the Limited meta I think. For this initial announcement of the set, however, I am not going to talk about any of them (just a little tease to tide you over), but rather a mix of 0-cost and 1-cost cards, one from each faction.

In general, I think these packs help bring the rest of the Pantheon expansion together in a wonderful bundle that does everything a expansion should in a game. I hope you enjoy them, I know I have.

First up is Zaltessa’s Fire:

This of course is a 0-cost Wild Event, with a pretty typical Wild ability of dealing 3 damage to a target champion. This is great to take out many other troublesome low-life champions such as Muse, Thought Plucker, or Guilt Demon. It also has a very fun 1-cost Recall ability where when it is recalled, you deal 2 damage to each opponent. Besides being extremely good in a multiplayer game, I actually have found it very useful in my Limited Dark Draft matches. It behaves similarly to Scara’s Gift, except you don’t need to have Evil cards to help get it back to your hand. I have found it to be a great card to help whittle down an opponent’s life total, and an easy thing to do if I, for some reason, have found myself unable to play something off-turn. I think this card could possibly find its way into a control Evil/Wild deck with some direct damage finishers. Could be fun!

Second up is Rise of the Many:

I have always been a sucker for themed decks, and the Human Token theme has always intrigued me. There is something so satisfying about filling the board with a huge army, and wiping your opponent out. In the past, it has been difficult to pull off, but this card could help bring it back. This very simple texted card does so much. ALL of your 0-cost champions gain +3 offense and blitz this turn. This helps all of your free dudes (not just human tokens), so if you wanted to boost that Dark Knight and some Demon Tokens, go right ahead! You have a Muse out as well? Don’t worry, this will help her too! And then, to add on top of this, you get to draw 2 cards! This is what really sold the card for me. I love draw 2-and cards. Every one of them is amazing. In Epic, you need to maintain your hand size, and although the secondary ability of many events can let you draw 2 cards, it’s cards that let you draw 2 cards AND do something else that can really help get you ahead in a game. What is also amazing about this card is that it does not require any loyalty or any other dedication to Good. This card can go anywhere where you have a bunch of 0-cost champions and it will probably shine. This card will also be a pretty easy draft choice in Limited, considering its flexibility. Plus, I really love the art on this card. It shows so many different characters on it, many of which are represented as 0-cost champions. I love it when a card matches its ability with the art.

Speaking of 0-cost champions that could benefit from Rise of the Many, we go into Evil with Carrion Demon:

My immediate thought upon seeing this card is a comparison to another venerable Evil champion, Thrasher Demon. They both have blitz, both have similar stats, at least starting out, and they both break any champion they damage. Now while Thrasher Demon can keep growing until your opponent is forced to spend gold to get rid of him, this little guy provides a much more useful and disruptive ability. He gets to banish an opponent’s discard pile! Discard pile manipulation is a huge thing in Epic, as it can really control an opponent’s options when it comes to recall abilities or retrieval, and it completely stops easy card draw with recycle abilities. In Limited formats, the lower deck size can lead to outright wins when an opponent draws all of their cards, but this card can halt that. It practically demands a block, and almost everything that blocks it will get broken, unless they manage to become unbreakable through another ability. It’s another relatively simple card, combining stuff that is already in Epic, but together makes a great new card to play with. My only problem now is how to decide which 0-cost Evil cards I want in my decks, as there are so many great ones to choose from!

Last up is a Sage card, and one that could shake up the meta the most: Shield of Tarken.

I have already mentioned how important draw 2-and cards are in Epic, so this already comes with those same benefits, not to mention have the pack’s namesake. Each of your champions gain untargetable this turn. That is a game-ending ability, especially in Limited formats. If you have some board presence already in the form of an army or even a hard-to-get-rid-of target such as Brak, Fist of Lashnok, playing this card can negate most removal in the game. Sure, wide sweepers may be able to get you, but in Limited it is less likely your opponent will have them. This is one of those surprise cards that will win games. Cards like Demonic Rising and Deadly Raid are both solid picks in a Dark Draft game, simply because they can be a surprise way to beat your opponent, and this card helps that as well. Not only that, but since it is a Sage card (an already sought after faction in Limited), it can help pay their various powerful Loyalty costs.

This is a guest blogpost from Brad Minnigh. Brad is married with 3 kids, and plays a variety of board games/card games/video games. He is an avid boardgamegeek and has been very active on a number of game forums as well as a Senior Playtester and guest designer for the successful Summoner Wars card game by Plaid Hat Games. For Epic, he has managed to organize two World Qualifiers at his local gaming store, and he is looking forward to more events!