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!
