Why I will add Keyforge Menagerie decks to my pledge

 I am back from the Keyforge Celebration, home of the first Keyforge World Championship. My Counselor Latus Saurian cosplay outfit is back in the closet. This was my first outing, and although it was probably my worst competitive Keyforge showing ever, I still had a ton of fun. I highly recommend anyone to attend if possible. I think my highlight was being able to play with the new set in the Nightfall Sealed Tournament, but one thing I never thought I would say was that I thoroughly enjoyed the new Menagerie set and event. 

When this set was first announced, I was mildly interested. There was a mystery as to what it was, and it pointed to the new campaign which would explain in greater detail. Then, we unlocked Menagerie as a stretch goal and we were treated to what it was, and I was...less interested. The concept was cool: a set filled with pods of thematic packets, chase rares, combos, and bundled up in a wacky and crazy circus-themed set. However, there was the HUGE caveat in that these decks were not tournament legal. I suddenly had flashes of the Unchained set flash in my memory. I could almost hear my several Unchained decks that I received for free from the last campaign practically laughing at me, sitting there unopened, gathering dust in a box in the corner. Not another set that is practically useless! I have no interest in opening my Unchained decks, and I'm even less interested in trying to play even a friendly tournament with them. I would always rather play with tournament legal decks. So I planned on going to KFC basically ignoring Menagerie, content knowing that I could always play in sealed events during the day. 

"Menagerie would make for a great new player experience"

When I received my cool KFC grab bag, a Menagerie pack was inside. We were told that throughout the weekend, we needed to randomly play people with our Menagerie decks. Every 2 wins would get us a ticket that could be used to access a prize wall, and every 2 losses we would get a ticket that would allow us to purchase another Menagerie deck (to a max of 3). It sounded like a fun enough format, but I still wasn't all that interested. However, while waiting in line to register for the last chance qualifier, I overheard and then saw Keyforge's favorite personality, Sydnie Steele, hyping over her Menagerie deck. I then heard several others excitedly open their packs in amazement. This set had the new Geistoid House in it! This new set has a previously unknown Keyraken House in it based off of the Keyforge Adventures co op game! Well, I had to open mine now.

The new Keyraken House!

Although I was not treated to either of those two new and exciting houses, I was treated to a really spicy combo deck. Down at the bottom of the Archon card listed the 2 packets I got: GenKA and Rad Penny. To add further excitement those 2 houses-with-combos were joined by a Logos pod with Auto-Encoder. I got really excited. This looked like a really fun deck to play! This looked like I would do really well in this event! All of a sudden I was flipping my badge to the Menagerie side like Roxanne putting on her red light. I was ready to get down to play.  

Although my deck was probably higher than average, and a ton of fun to play, it was by no means overpowered compared to my opponents'. I lost to a giant creature Menagerie deck that had tons of Brobnar giants that sat their menacingly, happy to murder everything on the board and then reap for the win. I lost to a much better version of my GenKA pod that had their Martian Generosity card with 3 amber pips!!! I got annihilated by a Dis pod with several Maleficorns in it that pinged everything to death. Every game was pretty exciting, and it was really fun to see what crazy combos my opponents had. I even had fun losing because that meant I could go back and try my luck with a new deck. 

After several games I was itching to try a new deck. I had opened another fun looking deck whose Menagerie packets were Mars Abduction and Kelifi Dragon. Kelifi Dragon is a pretty bad card, but it does grace the front of the Menagerie packs, so that's cool. However, the Mars Abduction pod was insane. It had the new Curse of Disappearances card from Grim Reminders, and boy that card packs a wallop, or is "fire" as the youth say. If I got that card out, it was really hard for my opponent to do anything of value. I shall be looking closely at any of my Grim Reminders decks that has this Curse card in it for sure. While playing with this deck, I got to check out someone who had the Keyraken House. And that was really cool. I don't think the Keyraken pod is all that great in terms of competitiveness, but it was really cool to see in action and the art is amazing. It happened to be an awful matchup because I Scooped up the Keyraken as soon as it dropped, and then all the tentacles had to be played to archives for the rest of the game.

Although I didn't get to play a lot of games with it, my last Menagerie deck had the new House Geistoid in it with the Clocks packet! I grew up with a lot of clocks in my house, so many that my parents are lovingly called Grandma and Grandpa Clock by my children, so it felt pretty special to me. I don't think the clocks are terribly competitive, but it is fun to put so many time counters on them. Tick-Tocks are actually pretty decent and easy to pull off, and I even got to take a second turn with Ancestral Time-Keeper. 

Throughout the weekend, as I excitedly played new people, and got to see their decks and combos, something occurred to me: Menagerie would make for a great new player experience. If you are anything like me, you have probably tried to share Keyforge with new players. It can difficult finding good decks to show them. Although I like the new starter mini decks that help teach new players, they lack the punch of seeing what a full deck can look like. With Menagerie I think it gets closer to that. This is especially true for decks that have pods like my GenKA deck, but having a deck with good synergy and combos feels fun to play and pull off. Seeing an opponent play a cool combo is also exciting, especially if it is in a friendly format, with no money attached. I felt a very similar feeling to when I play a new set: A sense of wonder and excitement, that makes me want to open more packs to find better combos. It makes me want to buy more. I'm addicted like a crack addict, except I crack open new packs. I think Menagerie does a great job of showing new players what Keyforge can be. See how fun it was to pull off a GenKA turn? You can find those combos in real decks too! Like that Ganger Chieften/Drummernaut rule of 6 interaction that feels like you're cheating? Well, you can find that too!

I think it would be a great idea to market Menagerie in that light: as a way to showcase what Keyforge can be. I highly recommend someone grabbing several of those packs, and then use them in a friendly new player tournament. I am sure that new players would get really excited about their decks, and I feel as though it is more likely they will find fun combos with this set than taking a chance on a random deck. 

I teach at a small, private school, and I fully plan on using my Menagerie decks as tools to teach kids the wonderful game of Keyforge in after-school gaming clubs. I encourage you all to do the same. In order to do that, I will need some more. And so I will gladly be adding Keyforge Menagerie decks to my pledge. Thank you for reading, and happy gaming!

Epic: The Card Game 2017 Post-World's Thoughts

Well another World Championship has come and gone, and we have another winner. Well, the same winner, John Tatian, who is ridiculous and may or may not have made a deal with Raxxa to give him special powers. All joking aside, congratulations John, you have once again proven that you are the best Epic player in the world! You have provided us with the best example of how non-random Epic can be, considering how hard it is to perform so consistently well with such talented opposition arrayed against you. Seriously, so many people criticize Epic for being too random and swingy, and of course, all of the random that can come from playing a card game. If that is so, how come one player has won the World Championship twice in a row, using completely different decks, and new cards released every year? Crazy.

2017 swag bag, courtesy of Josiah Fiscus. I am envious.

Also thanks to White Wizards for hosting another successful Championship, I hope there are many more to come! Congratulations to Colin Bevis, who got his shot at announcing Epic despite forfeiting his chance at participating in the Championship, himself. He seemed to do really well and he looked like he had fun. I love to see the company allow for the fans to become more involved. Thanks to all the participants for playing some very exciting games, and thanks to the judges like Ian Taylor, who seemed to run a very tight ship this year with no incidents that I am aware of.

Just a little more about John Tatian: I have watched him on Twitch for the past two Championships, and I have played against him occasionally in the digital app, and I am still not sure how he wins. He just does. He just plays his game, and you slowly lose. Everything you do, he has an answer. Every lead you get, he brushes it off, narrows it down, then beats you to death. It’s incredible. I think he was down in one of the quarterfinals like 40-something to 10, and he managed to come back and win?! Amazing.

Sam Black on the left and the 2-time winner John Tatian on the right

Credit where it is due, congratulations to Sam Black, for jumping onto the Epic scene with a free invite due to his Magic The Gathering prowess (I believe), and then succeeding well enough to get to the Championship and make it a 5 game match. Putting Tatian on the brink of losing was quite a feat, and it made for a very exciting match. So congratulations and thanks for giving us an extremely exciting finish!

A better analyst could probably look at John Tatian’s work and figure out exactly what he does correctly, although I do remember one instance during one of his matches this year: He had attacked with a large, Breakthrough champion, and his opponent blocked with a few weenie champions and Royal Escort. John had Drain Essence in hand, and could have played it and taken out the Royal Escort, which would have kept his champion alive, gained some health, killed his opponent’s champions, AND done some breakthrough damage to his opponent. Instead, he just passes and allows all of the participants to die except the Royal Escort! He then plays Winter Fairy and draws a card. On his opponent’s turn, he spends gold first and uses his Drain Essence on the attacking Royal Escort and gains his health. Was this a genius play? Well, for starters, it allowed him to get out the Winter Fairy, who could not have entered on his opponent’s turn. He would have played Drain Essence and although I don’t remember what he had in his hand, it’s possible that if he had played the Drain Essence on his turn, he would have had much more limited options to play on his opponent’s. I know I probably would have been short sighted to play that Drain Essence on my turn, and kill stuff and get some damage in. Maybe that’s why I was stuck watching the Championships at work, instead of participating, myself. Maybe John is just that good of a player, and can see his options that many plays ahead, and knows that sacrificing that damage and board state and spending gold first on his opponent’s turn, was actually the way to go. And it worked, because he went on to win that game! He is just a lot of fun to watch.

I wrote an article talking about all of the new cards in Pantheon. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,  Part 4) I knew none of the qualified players would do that, as they would not want to divulge their secrets, so I enjoyed my little time in the spotlight. I was happy with a lot of my predictions and analysis, but after this World’s, I have some comments:

Now, remember that I was not actually at World’s, so my view is restricted to what I saw on Twitch. I did not see all of the Constructed decks. Perhaps the top 8 decks were anomalies, and were not indicative of the majority. Perhaps those actually weren’t the best decks, and the best deck was piloted by someone who didn’t do quite so well in Dark Draft, and so didn’t get a chance to showcase it in the top 8 because they didn’t make it. So these thoughts and opinions are based on what I saw, so take that as you will. Obviously, a report from the champions themselves is sought. But anyway, here we go:

The “Will” cards - These were a big theme of the new set, as each alignment got one. I was excited about the cards when I first read them. My mind went crazy trying to think of all the exploits that could be done with them. In helping Josiah Fiscus practice for World’s, however, I actually was not as impressed. I had attempted to use Gareth’s and Angeline’s Will in decks, because they were the two Wills I was most excited for. However, I was finding they just were not being used. Sure, they could combo off each other and be great, but most of the time they just drained my hand when I playd them, and they did not do that much. As I said, I have not seen all of the decks, but according to the top 8 decks, it was actually Lashnok and Scara’s Will that were used the most! Granted, Lashnok’s Will was used in one deck that happened to be piloted by many people, but still. Also, Scara’s Will was also only used in one deck that happened to be piloted by two people that I saw, including John Tatian. That surprised me. (photos courtesy of Nathan Overbay)

 

The giant, Unblockable cards – These were the other big theme of the new set (at least until the gods are revealed at a later time). These were all very exciting, very big guys. They were the pinnacle of Epic. Huge, swingy champions that could win you games by themselves. I was excited for them, but I was not sure how they would do in Constructed, simply because most of them were slow.

In practice, I was very excited about Brak, Fist of Lashnok. In our preparation, Josiah and I found that he could be devastating. He is nigh impossible to block, and when he comes in he is Unbreakable and he usually drew you a card as well! Very nice. I would say that Brak found his way into many decks at World’s and showed how good he is. I was surprised to not see anyone in the top 8 using he and Final Task together, as that combo is wonderful (Using Final Task to bring a Blitzing, card drawing, Unblockable to strength <14 champions, 14/11, that DOESN’T get broken by Final Task at the end of the turn thanks to being Unbreakable).

I had expected Silver Wing Lancer to make an appearance in Tom Sorenson’s deck, as I knew he loves his Good champions with combat effects, but I had not counted on him joining the Pluck You team, and all of them running the same deck!

Steel Titan performed as I expected: a monster in Limited, and not widely used in Constructed.

 

Other cards that were noteworthy;

Scara’s Gift – This card definitely earned the MVP of this year’s championship in my opinion. I had spoken highly of the card in my review, but even I did not expect it would be so important. Now maybe it is just John Tatian, but he made this card look amazing. I would love for someone to have counted the number of times he played this card during the Championship. It had to be a lot. It was his primary damage dealer/healer he played. He used it all the time, and I think was a huge contributor to his victory. He may come out to say that isn’t so, and make me look like an idiot, and that’s fine, lol. I was very impressed by it. It was such a huge control card. It is almost impossible to deal with other than completely eliminating an opponent’s discard pile, as a smart player will only use it right before they play an Evil 1-cost card, and then use the Scara’s Gift recall trigger to pseudo-Recycle and get it back to hand. That direct damage, on top of the health gain, just really helps that control-ey playstyle with a death from a thousand cuts. I can’t wait to get my hands on these and start playing!

New Dawn – Now maybe it was just that there were only like 4 different decks used in the top 8, but I was surprised at the lack of this card. I thought using this card in conjunction with a Sea Titan/ Reel Steel would have been popular, but perhaps not yet. Heck, I thought Reel Steel was going to be a popular deck, but it looks like that was not the case.

Silver Wing Guardian – I was also pretty excited about this card, and the performance of Pluck You’s aggressive deck really showcased the Goodness of this card (get it?) This was a great way of getting some healing in an aggressive deck, without losing the aggression. Normally, people think of Gold Dragon or Avenging Angel, including me, but Ambushing this in, possibly getting 10 health, and then attacking on an opponent’s turn, is something that those two cannot do. The Guardian was a great addition to the deck, and a great card in general from the set.

Force Lance – This was my big pick of the set, the card I warned people to be afraid of. I think it did pretty well. It was used in the Pluck You deck, so it can’t be that bad, right? It’s that Recycle on it that makes it really good. I still expect it to be a powerful card, and I can’t wait for it to be released.

Kalani, Woodreader – I am not surprised this card found its way into many decks. When it was first spoiled, it was anti-Kark, but after a while, it just became an important cog in any aggressive deck. The ability to Blitz a 0-cost 5/5 is important enough, but to add on top one of the most anti-control/stall abilities of life gain on top and you have something special. This will remain one of the most important cards released in the new set I am sure. I love it.

And lastly, I wanted to mention the popular Draw 2-and cards that I saw a lot of play in both Constructed and Limited: Fiery Demise and Dirge of Scara. Any draw 2-and card is powerful in Epic, and these cards showed that. I saw many games where these cards were drafted or used in Constructed, including Dirge of Scara in John Tatian’s winning deck.

So some thoughts regarding trends that may be coming out as we got forward:

Aggressive decks are just as popular as ever. With the number of “anti-Kark” cards in this set, along with the still-recent bans of Fumble, Ceasefire, and Blind Faith, aggressive decks and Breakthrough champions are still widely used, and will have to be accounted for.

The big Unblockable champions will have a huge impact as well, especially in Limited. They are very hard to deal with and without the proper removal, can very quickly spell doom. In Limited, these guys are even more deadly.

We got no off-turn mass removal cards in this set, making the existing ones that much more desirable in draft play. This is especially so in light of the Unblockable and giant, Breakthrough guys.

Along those same lines, bounce effects will become very useful again. I think we saw this with the number of Hasty Retreats and Erases that found their way into a number of decks.

That being said, with John Tatian winning the championship using a very controlling Evil/Sage deck, obviously that is very powerful as well. Looking at the decks that were played, I am loving the meta again. I can’t wait to replay the championship decks against each other. It seems like they are a lot of fun, and could go either way. It also must be said that despite how popular Wild has been the past several years, and how it can usually get you to World’s, it has been the controlling decks like Good/Sage Kark, and now Evil/Sage, that have actually won.

Even though I did not participate, I hope you enjoyed this read. One of these years maybe I will get to participate in World's, but if not, I will still enjoy watching and following them, and I hope you will too. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!