Epic Deck Tech Theory: Eventless Deck

Following up my award-winning, mind-blowing, wolrd-shattering Championless Deck, I decided to try the flip side and create an Eventless Deck as well. The concept is extremely simple: Build a deck using no Events. Bear in mind this uses pre-Pantheon cards, mainly because I created the Championless Deck with that card pool, but also because a lot of people don't have the new stuff yet. Let's see what we can do.

My initial thought is that I am going to have a hard time with card draw, which is the opposite of the problem that the Championless Deck had. So what alignment do I choose? Wild has a lot of card draw with T-Rex and champions that draw a card when they come in. They also have direct damage, which is a good win condition. However, I was worried they just would not have enough. Sage has tons of card draw, as well as some really good 0-cost champions to go along with them. Evil has access to a little card draw, but really has good stuff for generating more champions (like weenie zombie blockers), as well as a champion sweeper in Angel of Death, as well as the venerable Medusa. Then there is Good, which has some of everything, but not enough card draw for my taste, at least, not enough without going very heavy into that Alignment. I decided to go with Sage/Evil.

 

When it comes to Sage, they always have some good access to card draw. Crystal Golem and Winter Fairy are solid card-drawing champions. Thought Plucker and Knight of Shadow provide card draw as well as opponent hand disruption, which could be very useful. Blue Dragon and Juggernaut both draw cards when they enter play, as well as provide some direct and Breakthrough damage, respectively. Mist Guide Herald feels like an obvious choice since it is guaranteed to always hit and give me options, and I opted for Ice Drake for some ambushing defense. To round out my 0-costs for Sage I obviously went for Muse for the card draw, and Keeper of Secrets for Recycle triggers, and Forcemage Apprentice and Shadow Imp for some offensive punch, although Shadow Imp can be a good blocker as well.

I wanted to have some Evil though, as I felt I needed more removal. Angel of Death is a must-have, as is Medusa. The Gudgeon provides some good card draw as well. Zannos gives me some life as well as puts guys on the board, and Raxxa does a little sweeping and going wide on the board as well. I put Zealous Necromancer in there for the Ambush and card draw, since I really want to make sure I have my hand size up. The 0-cost cards unfortunately do not give me card draw, but they do give me some discard pile banish removal in Guilt Demon, removal and health gain in Corpsemonger, and removal and retrieval of champions in Corpse Taker.

 

This feels like a solid enough deck. I seem to hit most of the targets in deck construction: Card draw, offensive power, direct damage, healing, discard pile banish, and hand disruption. When playing, I am going to want to make sure I always have some card draw champions, as well as champions that can be played on my opponent's turn. The problem won't be being able to put pressure on the board, the problem will be from keeping up that pressure.

Sage (36)

3x Blue Dragon

3x Crystal Golem

3x Juggernaut

3x Mist Guide Herald

3x Thought Plucker

3x Knight of Shadows

3x Winter Fairy

3x Ice Drake

3x Muse

3x Forcemage Apprentice

3x Keeper of Secrets

3x Shadow Imp

Evil (24)

3x The Gudgeon

3x Medusa

3x Angel of Death

3x Zealous Necromancer

2x Zannos

2x Raxxa, Demon Tyrant

3x Corpse Taker

3x Guilt Demon

2x Corpsemonger

Now that I have made a Championless and an Eventless Deck, I think it is only natural to want to play them against each other. Tune in again soon for a report on how they fare against each other. I am sure there are tons of ways one can go with this. This deck I feel could actually win some games, but I guess we'll see.  I hope you enjoyed this deck tech article. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Epic: The Card Game - The Art of Splashing

The art of splashing in Epic: The Card Game. Getting the term from Magic: The Gathering, who in turn probably got it from somewhere else, can be described as the practice of adding a small amount of cards from another color into your deck in order to improve certain match-ups, counter certain cards, and fill gaps/weaknesses in one’s deck. In Magic, splashing comes at the cost of straining your mana base. In Epic, it comes as a cost of straining Loyalty triggers in an alignment (color in Magic), and making sure numbers add up when it comes to counting 0-cost cards.

This seemingly simple concept has huge ramifications in Epic Deckbuilding, and is something one must constantly be made aware of, when trying to make a competent deck. The amount of splashing can be varied, but the core concept of filling in a gap/weakness in your deck remains true. Each alignment in Epic has its strengths and weaknesses, and while it can be good to have your deck consist of primarily one alignment for loyalty and synergistic purposes, you can frequently run into trouble against more colorful and varied decks.

For example, the go-to deck for most new players is the “burn” deck. This deck acts similarly to an aggressive red deck in Magic, in that you are working towards killing your opponent quickly, using direct damage. A weakness the burn deck has is if your opponent has a large amount of healing, which in Epic generally is greater in number than most burn cards. Another weakness that a burn deck can have is lack of cards in hand, as playing quick events and champions can quickly diminish your hand, leaving you vulnerable to a more controlling deck, or one that works on forcing you to discard cards from your hand. A way that proponents of a burn deck can mitigate these issues is to splash certain cards from other alignments. In this example, perhaps adding in Ancient Chant, Lesson Learned, and Muse in order to help with card draw. Or maybe add a card like Kalani Woodreader (from the new Pantheon set), which can be aggressive, as well as prevent an opponent from healing. Splashing can turn a good deck into a great deck, with only a few modifications.

So, now that we have that down, how does one splash in Epic? According to the constructed deck building rules, you must have 60 cards, with 2 1-cost cards for every 0-cost card in an alignment. This means if you want that tasty Amnesia 0-cost card, you are going to have to have at least 2 Sage 1-cost cards along with it. When considering to splash in cards, you should also be thinking about Loyalty. Although Raging T-Rex can draw you cards and give you a huge champion on the board, splashing it in any deck is probably not smart, due to it requiring Loyalty 2. On the other side of splashing, you should consider how many cards your splashing will remove from your primary alignment. Sure, you may have a bunch of your favorite Sage cards in your deck, but is it causing you to not be able to hit your Loyalty triggers as a result? Or maybe it is making a card like Scarros not as good, simply because you are missing out on using it to its full potential? Things to keep in mind.

As I have said, there are multiple reasons why you may want to splash, and it depends on your deck. However, I have found that most splashing has to do with filling the following gaps:

Card draw

Direct Damage

Sweepers

Discard Pile Banish

Healing/Anti-Healing

Specific cards that give you special abilities your deck needs (ie Surprise Attack)

I will now give some examples of how one could splash, attempting to solve each of these issues:

 

Card Draw – This is the most important aspect of a deck, and luckily, most alignments have ways of drawing cards. However, sometimes you need some of the best card draw or ways to make sure you can draw cards at the right time. For this, I recommend Ancient Chant. There is no card that can net you more cards in the game, because if you combine this with Lesson Learned, you can draw 4 cards thanks to the unique way Epic resolves its triggers. The best card drawing 0-cost cards I can recommend to go with Ancient Chant is Muse, Frantic Digging, or Amnesia for some discard pile banish and Recycle and fill 2 gaps in your deck. It really comes down to your playstyle. If you have cards you can afford to discard and use from your discard pile (like Soul Hunter or Ancient Chant), or you need to make sure you are guaranteed to draw some cards, use Frantic Digging. If you want another body on the board that if not dealt with, can continue to give you cards, take Muse. There are many options, but all of them give you card draw. My go-to card draw splash packet is 3x Ancient Chant, 3x Lesson Learned, and 3x Frantic Digging. This combo allows me, for just 9 cards, to have a ton of card draw options, filtering with Frantic Digging, and the option to replay my favorite events (including Ancient Chant), with Lesson Learned. You will see this combination in many decks, as it has become a staple in Epic.

Direct Damage – This one is important for slower control decks, that sometimes need a way of finishing off an opponent directly and surprisingly. For me, I have a deck that runs a lot of little 0-cost Blitzers that can quickly run down an opponent’s health, but I found that some direct damage could really help finish an opponent off. The smallest splash packet I love is 2x Fires of Rebellion, and 1x Flash Fire/Fireball. FoR allows you to have direct damage, as well as removal in one nice card, and Flash Fire/Fireball allows you to deal with little annoying champions if need be, as well as that last, tiny amount of health. John Tatian, I believe, used the new Steed of Zaltessa for some direct damage/anti-healing for his Championship winning deck. Now the steed was in his primary alignment, but its role was definitely for finishing off opponents.

 Sweepers – Most decks like to have a way to clear the board, especially off-turn, in order to come back from a negative board state. My two favorite cards for this are Zombie Apocalypse and Wave of Transformation. In terms of splashing, it really depends on what other gap your deck has. I have paired Zombie Apocalypse with Guilt Demon in order to have a little direct discard pile banish as well as aggression. I have also paired Wave of Transformation with Amnesia for discard pile banish and a little card draw. These are very flexible, but frequently very important in a deck. For our new Epic team’s practice for World’s (The Dead Minotaurs Society), our representative, Josiah Fiscus, splashed in 3x Wave of Transformation, 1x Lesson Learned, and 2x Amnesias, in order to give him off-turn removal, event recursion, discard pile banish, as well as some card draw, all in a simple, 6-card splash. And since he went undefeated in the Constructed portion of the tournament, perhaps that was a good choice. J

 Discard Pile Banish – This splash usually has to do with adding in 0-cost discard pile banish events, since those are the most popular. Amnesia and Heinous Feast have long been the best examples of this. Usually, people will add other 1-cost cards that fill in another gap, in order to make room for the discard pile banishing 0-costers. The example of Josiah’s deck above is a good one. However, you could get really dedicated to discard pile banish and put in Grave Demon or Erratic Research to go along with Heinous Feast and Amnesia, respectively. If you know that people are playing a lot of cards from their discard pile such as Soul Hunter, Smash and Burn, Dirge of Scara, Plentiful Dead, etc, then perhaps you need a discard pile banish splash in your deck.


 

Healing/Anti Healing – The anti-healing portion of this is rather new, since it has mainly come into play with the release of Pantheon in response to the popular Kark deck that dominated the previous Constructed year. The new card Kalani Woodreader has given this as a potential splashing option, for example. Healing, on the other hand, has been around for a while. Probably the most popular healing card in the game is Drain Essence. This card has continued to be popular due to it not requiring Loyalty of any kind, so splashing it is easy, and on top of a very decent amount of health, you get to have some champion removal as well! Also, if you want to continue the health trend, Evil has a lot of 0-cost cards that really compliment Drain Essence like Heinous Feast for some health and discard pile banish, Consume for a smaller dose of health gain and removal, and of course the new all-star of the World Championship, Scara’s Gift, which gives you health and direct damage. As you can see, Epic can give you a ton of options for splashing, and it just depends on your playstyle and preference.

Specific cards to splash – This is reserved for very specific cards that provide a specific ability that your deck might want. A common example of this is Surprise Attack. This is a card that allows you to play any champion off-turn, which is an incredibly powerful ability. Using John Tatian’s World Championship-winning deck as another example: He splashed in 2x Surprise Attack, along with 1x Flash Fire. Surprise Attack gave him the ability to play a lot of his champions on his opponent’s turn, something that many of them could not do before, and it allowed him to defend and threaten his opponent more than he otherwise could have. Flash Fire provided a lot of utility, including a tiny board wipe, direct damage, and card draw if needed. It is a great example of splashing in a deck.

Josiah Fiscus splashed in 2x Final Task and 1x Wither into his deck at World’s in order to allow him to make a lot of his champions, and his opponent’s, into Blitzing monstrosities, that allowed him to stay on offense, or on defense in a pinch. Wither gave him a tiny board sweeper as well.

The Pluck You team in this years’ World Championship splashed in a couple of packets into their deck. They splashed Good with their packet of 3x Silver Wing Guardian, 3x Silver Wing Lancer, and 3x Brave Squire. They also splashed a Sage packet of 3x Mist Guide Herald, 3x Erase, and 3x Force Lance. Since they said they wanted their aggressive deck to have combat tricks in it, I would assume they started with wanting 3x Brave Squire, since it is one of the best, and the new Silver Wing Lancer is a great, aggressive punisher. The Guardian also provided them with an attacker that can be played on your opponent’s turn, and then attack on yours for damage to your opponent, as well as health gain! Meanwhile, I am sure they saw Force Lance and loved it for that Unbreakable and Recycle trigger, and so when finding room for that they went for Erase, which gave them card draw as well as pseudo-removal (especially against the mirror combat trick deck), and the MGH which gave them more bodies on the board, along with whatever champion they needed at the time. 

As you can see, splashing is a very important thing in Epic deckbuilding, and the skill with which to recognize your decks’ faults vs what could fix it, is a skill that separates the best from the rest of us. I hope you enjoyed this article, it was a long one. What are your favorite splashing packets? Any comments? Please let me know, and as always, happy gaming!

Epic: The Card Game Pantheon Maligus vs Furios Pack Analysis

So we finally have the full spoiler list for the new Epic: The Card Game Pantheon Expansion! I am very excited to pore over the new stuff. Just like last time we shall have to wait for the art to come in, but in the meantime we can speculate and analyze the new cards. I will have an article for each of the new packs. The fourth, and final pack of the released cards so far is the Maligos vs Furios Pack. This is one of the packs that should be available around December. Here we go:

Maligus vs Furios pack

Fiery Demise 
Wild Event
Deal 3 damage to a target.
Draw two cards.

Hey, another draw-2-and card! These are always great. I think I like Wild’s other one Smash and Burn better, but this definitely plays into the burn deck archetype more. It’s a solid card that can either give you removal and cards, or straight damage and cards. Unlike Smash and Burn, you don’t need more Wild cards to fully benefit with this, so it can be included in any deck and be a decent choice. Obviously, this is a great card to have in Limited. This is like the perfect anti-Thought Plucker card, if only it was free, lol. 

Greater Lightning Wurm 
Wild Wurm Champion
12/10
Breakthrough
Loyalty 2 → Deal 6 damage to a target.

Yay more Wurms! I always love the visuals and theme of these guys, so I can’t wait to see the art. This is on the lower end of the stat spectrum for Wurms, which is pretty crazy to think about, but it’s still pretty devastating. Like its Burrowing cousin, it provides a huge, if not slow, Breakthrough Champion, and if you can hit the loyalty, THIS one at least can deal some damage. Using Final Task with this will be quite lovely. That is 6 damage to a target, not just a champion, so defending decks beware. If you can hit the loyalty, this is a decent draft in Limited, but like Burrowing Wurm, I would not go crazy trying to get it. I would rank it higher than the Burrowing, but probably lower than the Rampaging.

Kalani, Woodreader 
Wild Elf Champion
5/5
Blitz
Opponents cannot gain health.

Now that is a much better Elf name than Burger, Or Bagel, or whatever that other guy’s name is. This was also spoiled a while ago, although at the time it was just called Elf Shaman. I like this one better, although the visual in my head of an elf trying to read a piece of bark is not very flattering, but I’m sure the art is amazing. This is a very simple, but awesome, card. 5/5 0-cost Blitzer is going to be tough to deal with without spending gold, and then while it is around your opponent, and your opponent only, cannot gain health. This card sounds like it was made in the days of Kark’s reign, but it will hold its own in the current meta. I think there is a viable strategy in just playing this guy and never attacking with it, forcing your opponent to take him out, or risk never healing. I shall enjoy putting this into my aggressive Wild decks and watch my opponents squirm as they force themselves to Drain Essence the elf, all the while letting some other giant Wild Champion in for the kill. Since this card requires no loyalty, this is a solid Limited draft choice as well.

Herald of Angeline 
Good Angel Champion
7/5
Airborne – Righteous
Tribute → Reveal the top three cards of your deck. You may choose a good card among them and put it into your hand. Banish the rest.

Ok how many angels is this? This is another Scrying-like Champion, this time for Good, I do not like that 5 defense, and although it has Airborne and Righteous, I feel as though it will do nothing other than help you draw a card you need. That is very important for sure, but I think Good has so many other great 1-cost cards, that I doubt I personally could make room for this in my decks. Maybe if it had Ambush or Blitz, now THAT would be Epic. It is a fairly weak Limited choice except for the Airborne, which automatically makes it not-so-bad. 

Angeline’s Will 
Good Event
Gain 10 health
—OR—
If it’s your turn, banish target expended champion. If this is the first  card you’ve played this turn, gain  that may only be used to pay for good costs.

This is the last “Will” card, and the card I got to spoil for this set, a few hours before the entire set was spoiled anyway, lol. Anyway, you can check out my review of it, but in short I love the card. Yes, it doesn’t have a draw 2 option, but it just does so much else. Removal while allowing you to play another Good card, or +10 health? That is quite the swing any way you put it. I don’t usually try to build Good decks, but this card makes me want to try. Could Kark have a revival with this card? This is also a solid choice for Limited, maybe even more so, than some of the other “Wills”. My favorite is Gareth in theory, but we’ll see if that changes in practice.

Knight of the Dawn 
Good Human Knight Champion
6/3
Blitz
Tribute → You may banish target evil token champion.

Another Kickstarter brought to life! This guy hits hard and removes tokens that are not really being used for now. It should be noted that it gets buffed by the countless Good human buffers in the game. I love that Good is getting some offensive power in this set, and I look forward to seeing what people can do with it. This is a solid choice in Limited as well. It requires no loyalty, could possibly take out an opponent, and hits like a truck. In fact, I think it hits harder than any other Blitzing 0-cost Champion. It’s a great way to start off a turn. Your opponent can only take so much damage from 0-costs before they spend their gold first.

Scara’s Gift 
Evil Event
Deal 2 damage to target player.
Gain 2 health.
 → You may banish two other cards in your discard pile. If you do, Recall.

I love this card. This may have been the first card that had my mind racing for combos and breakages. This is just a huge health swing for a 0-cost card. Yes, it does not remove anything from the board, but a 4 point health swing for free is a big deal. Plus, you can get it back for a Recycle-like ally trigger. This and the Steed of Zaltessa make me think they want Evil to start doing more direct damage decks. I’m inclined to give them a try. I think this is a fine choice in a Draft. Without Evil it is greatly diminished, but if you have a lot of Evil, this will cause a lot of havoc. 

Krieg, Dark One’s Chosen 
Evil Human Mage Champion
8/8
Tribute → Put two zombie tokens into play.
 → Put a zombie token into play. Your zombie tokens gain blitz, +1  and +1  this turn.

I hope this art portrays Krieg from Borderlands 2, but I doubt it. Fan art maybe? This is another token generator. I like zombie tribal decks, and I missed out on doing a Halloween themed deck, so maybe this guy can join in for next year. I feel like using this card along with Scara’s Will shall be fun. That’s a lot of zombies and breaking. I’m unsure if this card would make it into a competitive deck, but I still really like the card. I think it’s a nice card for Limited as well. I love the guys that put in tokens, as it is very difficult to get rid of all of them, and you usually can start giving your opponent a death by a thousand paper cuts. Plus, this guy can keep churning out new zombies, while making the existing ones much harder to kill. A 3/3 is so much better than a 2/2. 

Dark One’s Fury 
Evil Event
Draw two cards.
—OR—
If it is your turn, break all non-evil champions.

This feels similar to Raxxa’s Displeasure, except this gets all non-Evil stuff, rather than just all non-Demon stuff. Slightly different ability, although if you are facing a non-evil deck, and that’s what you are playing (like a zombie deck), this card could be amazing. In Limited, unless you specifically have Evil on board, and your opponent doesn’t, this card is a draw 2.  

Erwin, Architect of War 
Sage Human Champion
1/5
Tribute → Recycle
This card has all alignments, even while it is in your hand, deck, or discard pile. (During deck construction, it is only sage.)

I love the adaptability of this card, and it was an ability I have been talking about having in Epic for a while. I am glad it made it. This is the only card in this set that has this, but I look forward to more. This is a weenie blocker of a card, but it Recycles, and it allows you to use it for any Loyalty for any alignment. That will be quite useful. It’s cards like these that will allow deckbuilders the ability to have 4 colors in their decks, and still use Loyalty triggers. I don’t think this card is broken or anything, but it is a welcome addition. This is a great card in Limited as well. In a mode where Loyalty triggers are so hard to come by, this card could be a life saver. 

Ethereal Dragon 
Sage Dragon Spirit Champion
6/8
Airborne – Ambush – Untargetable

I am very happy about another Dragon. In terms of visuals, they are my favorite tribal in Epic I think, and I can’t wait to see what this one looks like. The Dragon Soul from Gems of War anyone? Anyway, this thing is a beast. Such a simple card, but this is a huge pain for your opponent. 8 defense is tough to crack, Airborne along with it and there are very few that can beat it in a fight, and no targeted removal for you. I could easily see this being put in “Reel Steel” decks (Happy, Dixon?). It doesn’t hit as hard, but add in some Winds of Change and you could have a monster. This is also a very solid pick in Limited. Sure, it doesn’t have card draw, so you have to be wary of that, but this card could crush your opponent if they don’t have sweepers or combat tricks or very large fliers. This will be a popular pick in Limited. 

Scrap Golem 
Sage Construct Champion
6/6
Loyalty 2 → Blitz
 : Banish a card from your discard pile: Put a scrap token into play.

 : Recall

Scrap Golem Token 
Sage Construct Token Champion
6/6
 : Banish a card from your discard pile: Put a scrap token into play.

And lastly, another Kickstarter card brought to life. I love the idea of this card. I hope someone can build an awesome deck with this card. I also hope we get enough tokens for such a deck as proxies suck. This gets my vote for the next alternative art card, so we can all build up our stock. It’s also a decent card. It comes in and you can most likely get another scrap golem. If both of them survive to your turn, that’s two more. It could get ridiculous. 5/5 stats are pretty brutal, and it’s the best token we have so far in that regard. I’m also very glad they created a separate token for it, because now all of the alignments have tokens! The deck will probably fail in practice, but I’m looking forward to giving it a try. It’s a decent card in Limited simply because if left unchecked, you will have an army of minions at your disposal. You will be really hurt by discard pile banishing effects, but those are less likely (although there are more and more every release). Recall abilities are always welcome in Limited in case you don’t have gold to spend for some reason.

--

Well, that is all the packs of cards that have been released so far. My MVP for this pack is Kalani Woodreader. I plan on trying this elf in a number of decks. However, Angeline's Will is the card I am most excited to see how it can be abused. I think this is a very solid set, and a welcome addition to Epic. I can't wait to get my hands on it, and am very sad it won't be until well into next year. Some year maybe I will qualify and get to worlds.

Just FYI, the reason I said "cards released so far", is because in May/June of 2018, we should get the rest of the packs, which include the god/demigod cards from the kickstarter. I'm guessing there are some other cards as well, and these cards as a whole should give players the opportunity to play Epic in a different way. I am looking forward to what we shall get in those, and you can bet I will write an article or two discussing them. Just so you know they are called:

• Pantheon: Shadya vs Valentia
• Pantheon: Riksis vs Tarken

So thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed these articles and I hope it gets you thinking and excited about the new set. What cards are your sleeper choice? What cards are your MVP? What combos or decks are you most excited about trying out? Anyways, I need to rest my hands. Thanks again for reading, and happy gaming!

Epic: The Card Game Pantheon Zaltessa vs Helena Pack Analysis

So we finally have the full spoiler list for the new Epic: The Card Game Pantheon Expansion! I am very excited to pore over the new stuff. Just like last time we shall have to wait for the art to come in, but in the meantime we can speculate and analyze the new cards. I will have an article for each of the new packs. The third is Zaltessa vs Helena Pack. This is one of the packs that should be available around December. Here we go:

Zaltessa vs Helena pack

Ambush Party 
Good Human Event
Put three human tokens into play.
Your human champions gain Blitz this turn.
Your good champions get +2  this turn.
Draw a card.

Yay, more human token love! I still don’t really see them becoming competitive, but one of these days someone is going to bring a human deck and people will have forgotten to be prepared for it, and it will win. Heck, at this past Gencon, I made it to the top 4 in Limited using a bunch of drafted human token cards. I actually really like this card, and will be adding it immediately to my fun human token deck. It gives you more tokens, gives them Blitz, makes them stronger, and most importantly, replaces itself with a card, which is always the bane of these decks. Now it doesn’t give your tokens any defensive help, which is probably the number 1 reason why these decks don’t do well, but if your opponent already spent gold, dealing 9 damage and drawing a card is pretty good. This is also a decent card in Limited as well. It requires no loyalty or anything, and just puts bodies on the board and draws a card. It is a solid choice.

Cast Out 
Good Human Event
Put two human tokens into play. Banish target champion with  less than or equal to the number of humans you have in play.
—OR—
 : Draw two cards.

This is a card that definitely gives some fun options to the human token decks. You can quickly have the ability to get rid of some major champions for a 0-cost card. At the very least you can get rid of any 2 or less health champion for a 0-cost card, PLUS put 2 weenie blockers into play. This is a solid card whether or not you play human tokens. This is an excellent choice to draft in Limited as well, probably more so than even Constructed. You can pretty much guarantee that you would need/use this card during play, and any card that removes a threat, while putting threats on the board, is a key to success in Epic. Plus, you can always use it to draw 2. This is one of the best cards in the set in my opinion.

Helena’s Chosen 
Good Human Champion
6/5
Tribute → Draw a card
Loyalty 2 → Blitz.
Your other good champions have +2  .
 : Put two human tokens into play.

Here is another helper for human tokens. This feels similar to a lot of those guys like Rabble Rouser, Gladius The Defender, The People’s Champion, Paros, Standard Bearer, etc. Helena’s Chosen draws a card, which is very important, but is rather bland for everything else. I just think there are a lot better 1-cost Good token generators/buffers. For Limited, any card that draws a card while putting a body on the board is ok, but there are just so many better cards in Epic. Ironically, I can’t imagine this would ever be chosen. 

Alchemist Assassin 
Sage Human Champion
3/1
Blitz – Unblockable
 : This card gets +7  this turn.

This card seems like fun. By itself I don’t think it is great, simply because it can be killed too easily, and it is competing with other Sage 0-costs, of which there are many great ones. However, if you combine this with Brave Squire or the new Force Lance ( +2 strength and unbreakable if it is your turn), then this card gets scary. It is unblockable, which seems to be the theme of this set, and since this is a 0 cost with Blitz, this can threaten more quickly and cheaply than the others. I’m not sure it can replace the Shadow Imp in my opinion, but I could see this card being abused. Spending your Gold along with Brave Squire on this guy after your opponent spends gold for example has a 15 unblockable, unbreakable champion going in. That is crazy. I’m sure there are others that could abuse this card. It’s a worse card in Limited, as I said without some support, this card dies too easily to other stuff. But still, anything with unblockable can be powerful.

Gareth’s Will 
Sage Event
Draw two cards.
—OR—
If it is your turn, return target champion to its owner’s hand. If this is the first  card you’ve played this turn, gain  that may only be used to pay sage costs.

Ooo, how fun! I love these new “Will” cards! This card was spoiled by Tom Sorenson, who pretty much covered everything you need with a ton of detail. I highly recommend checking it out. However, in my quick review: I really like this card. Yes, it is a 1-cost Vanishing, but triggering those Sage ally abilities is huge. I can play Gareth’s Will after I attack with a Shadow Imp or do damage with a Forcemage Apprentice, then return a target champion (which could also be my own), AND then untap the apprentice and return the Imp safely to my hand. And THEN still be able to spend my gold on a Sage card. The potential for abuse here is awesome. I can’t wait to try it out. It may not pay off in the end but I am probably the most excited about this card. In Limited this is a solid card as well. It’s a draw 2 in a pinch, and on offense, with almost any other Sage card, it will be a positive swing. I expect to see a lot of this card at worlds.

Mystic Researcher 
Sage Human Mage Champion
3/2
Tribute → Draw a card.
Loyalty 2 → Blitz
 : Draw a card.

As long as you can hit the loyalty, this card can give you a draw 2 with a body on the board, with the potential to draw multiple cards. Since you have to exhaust it to get that second card, the body hardly counts, and that defense is so very horribly low. I do not think I could afford to put this card in a competitive deck as there are just too many better options. However, it is a decent choice in Limited.

Bruger, the Pathfinder 
Wild Elf Champion
5/6
Ambush – Unblockable
Tribute and/or when this card damages an opponent → Your Wild champions get +3  and +3  this turn.

Although Bruger has the worst elf name in history, and will be called Burger, or Bruger’s Bagels, or some other levity-inducing name, it’s actually a pretty decent card for specific decks. I could see this guy in wolf decks, and with Kiera becoming legal (that sounds dirtier than it is), I could see this being a solid addition. I love Ambush, and I love Unblockable, and this has both. He has fairly generic stats, but giving a boost to your other (hopefully plenteous)  wolves on board, this guy earns back his gold. I look forward to seeing what Tom Sorenson can do to improve his wolf deck that he managed with which to do well at Gencon! Since this specifically only helps Wild champions, I don’t think it’s a great choice in Limited, but Ambush and Unblockable is still something your opponent will have to deal with. 

Herald of Lashnok 
Wild Beastman Champion
8/6
Blitz – Breakthrough
Tribute → Reveal the top three cards of your deck. You may choose a wild card from among them and put it into your hand. Banish the rest.

I want to see the art for this guy, as beastman seems awfully similar to Minotaur, and I am sure I would rather just have him be a Minotaur. I am reminded of the Bellowing Minotaur with this card. You get another Blitzing/Breakthrough Champion with similar stats, and although he cannot be recalled for gold, and he does not boost your other wild guys, I actually think I like this better. Card Draw is so important in Epic, and not only do you get to draw a card, but you get to choose which Wild card you want (provided you have multiple Wild cards in the deck). This does mean you give your opponent some information, and it means you have to fairly heavy in Wild in order to make sure you get to draw a card, but I love Champions that draw cards while coming into play. I think this is a solid choice in Limited as well for the reasons I stated above. You will want to draft some more Wild cards to go along with him, but those are usually desirable anyway. 

Hunting Pterosaur 
Wild Dinosaur Champion
4/3
Ambush – Airborne
Tribute → You may break target champion with 2  or less.

I remember when I first saw this guy I thought he would change the game. Now, several expansions in (this was a Kickstarter promo FYI), there are a lot of cards that do similar stuff, but this is still a solid card. You will run into 2 health champions a lot in this game, and not only does this dino get rid of them most likely, but you get a hard hitting 4/3 flier on top of that! Not mentioned that it Ambushes, which means you can use it to remove blockers, be a blocker, or use it in response to anything such as Muse and Thought Plucker. This is an awesome card, and although Wild has a lot of solid choices, this card could easily find its way into competitive decks. I think it’s even stronger in Limited, for the reasons above. It also does not require any loyalty or any other requirement, so it’s a top draft choice. I’m very glad to see this “little” guy become legal (again with the unintended inuendos). 

Dirge of Scara 
Evil Demon Event
Draw two cards.
 : Recall.
When this card leaves your discard pile → Put a demon token into play.

I want someone to write this dirge, or maybe the flavor text will have it. I’m sure it’s hilarious and not mournful at all. I’m pretty excited about this card, as it’s a nice punishment to Thought Plucker. If you have to discard it, you do so, then spend your gold to pop it back to your hand for no card loss, and get a demon token for your trouble. This is in the same vein as Ancient Chant, where you get to draw cards, and then when it leaves the discard pile, you get something else. Which means, it shall have the same weird rule when it combos with Lesson Learned, which is really cool. So while this card is in your discard pile, and you target it with Lesson Learned, you will get 2 cards and 2 Demons tokens due to it popping out of the discard pile before resolving, and then being banished, which nets that demon trigger twice. That is a pretty awesome deal. Demon Tokens are very hard to deal with, and you get 2 cards on top as long as you use Lesson Learned? I will be adding 3 of these to my demon token deck along with 3 Lesson Learneds for sure. This is also a solid Limited card as well since you always need card draw, you always need anti-Thought Plucker, and cards that allow you to draw 2 and then something else are always good. I hope to see someone abuse this at worlds.

Steed of Zaltessa 
Evil Demon Champion
6/7
Airborne – Blitz
Loyalty 2 → Deal 5 damage to target player.
When this card deals damage to a player → They cannot gain health this turn.

Now we’ve seen this before, although it has had a name change. It was called Steed of Scara, so I’m not sure why it got changed, since we see Scara in this set as well, but whatever. It does all of the same stuff as before. It is similar to Strafing Dragon, except it has slightly better stats, can only target a player, is missing Ambush, and prevents health gain for the turn. In the days of Kark this would be better, but now-a-days I think I would prefer Strafing Dragon. However if you need some direct damage in your Evil deck, this is your demon. I think it could be a solid choice in Limited despite it being Evil, simply because of the Airborne and decent statline. With more Evil it becomes very good.

Necromancer Apprentice 
Evil Human Champion
1/1
Blitz
 : Banish target card from any discard pile. If that card is a champion, put a zombie token into play.

We have seen this before, as it was a Kickstarter Promo, as well as a participation promo in tournament kits. I could field an entire army of these things, although I’m not sure I want to. It’s not an awful card, as any discard pile banish is good, plus you can create a token out of it, but those measly stats along with a lot of other fine 0-cost Evil champions, just leaves me wanting more. It’s a solid choice in Limited though, as discard pile banish and token generation becomes a lot more important.

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And there we go for pack three. My pick for MVP is Gareth's Will. I can't wait to include this in my deck and see how it does! What do you think? Do you have a favorite card? Did I miss an obvious interaction or play? Are you as excited as I am about this set? I hope you enjoyed reading this, stay tuned for the last pack for the cards revealed so far, and happy gaming!