Hello everybody, it’s stormguard798 here, running it back with another deck tech and tournament report following my Tuesday Night Eternal (TNE) run. Well, OK, fine, it’s not technically *another* deck tech because I ended up running back the same archetype as I did last time we had an Expedition tournament. Look, if the deck is only kind of broken, fix it a little bit following the balance changes, then run it back? Right? Right.
In any case, I ended up running back the Kerendon Know Thy Enemy (KTE) deck for this tournament, and here’s my reasoning: as I discussed previously, I liked our matchup into Overloader Combo because we have 8 Discard spells and a now side-buffed Onoris Roa should we want it, and following AuTo’s finals performance in the last TNE, there was a decent chance that more than a few people would be packing it. (I got the meta read completely and utterly wrong once again – I guess it’s too high variance of a deck for most people’s tastes – but there we go.) My other reason was Soldiers: once everyone managed to pick up their 4 copies of Janitor David (thanks, Serus’ deckname!) from their daily wins, I started to see a lot of Soldiers on the ladder, and thought there was a decent chance that quite a few people would be packing this deck as well – and they were! As it turns out, you can have as many 1 or 2 cost 4/4s as you want, but they all get swept away by Know Thy Enemy, and in fact, I think the decks that decided to go a little bigger and packing Skimmer Wranglers and Frostclaw Riders ended up performing better than the ones that went a little lower to the ground. So what did I end up changing from the last time I played this deck?
Decklist:
Inclusions:
- Reality Warden – I previously packed it in the market as a suppressor for Mandrake decks, and whilst Mandrakes have sort of thinned out of the meta – both the Xenan and Auralian versions – there’s still a chance a couple of people might pack it. Next, Prackalackin secured the win the previous challenge with a Xenan Reanimator/<idrange list that seemed quite potent, so there’s a chance a couple of people might be on that, and whilst Warden is probably too slow for the initial Hourglass/Katra turns, it could still stop looping shanhooligans with the 7-cost Vara. Finally, tacking Overwhelm onto this unit following the balance changes means that it’s quite capable of pressuring sites like the Speaking Circle, which I expected plenty of. As a multifaction 5 costs 7/7, this unit is honestly incredibly difficult to deal with even without all the additional text, which is why I felt it warranted main-deck inclusion.
- Deathwing – I guess there is an argument for this card not being particularly synergistic in the deck having no other Valkyries nor any relic weapons, but it’s still a very good card at its base and gives me additional KTE hits. Kerendon is a deck that’s just all about playing good cards, and this is a pretty solid card. Period. @ me if you disagree.
- Moonstone Vanguard – A spicy new inclusion in Expedition that shook things up in both tournaments. It does have the unfortunate downside of being mono-faction in a deck really with not a lot of targets for Send an Agent (SAA), which means this card will get plucked off stat if they have it. Having said that, it’s a ridiculous card if it manages to stick around: a personal Pinnacle of the Reach is a card advantage engine that will steamroll the game, and helping you stabilise from behind against both units and relic weapons is not shabby either. It’s a 5 drop with a high floor and a high ceiling, which is exactly what any Kerendon KTE deck is looking for.
- Enter the Monastery – I think I’ve said what I needed to say last time around about this card, but I think it’s even more pertinent now given the inclusion of both Vanguard and Warden, which are 2 units that can easily get out of hand if you can ramp them out early, and if you have the influence to enable Monastery, you have the influence to cast both these units. Plus, I think with the changes to the powerbase, I like Enter even more. In any case, now that we’re here, let’s talk about the powerbase: following the nerfing of Rolant, Iron Tyrant, I didn’t feel that it was as potent anymore, especially not without relic weapons in the deck to back it up, and as such, I pulled back on the number of Shadow sources in the deck. Let’s be honest, running only 26 power in such a power-hungry deck is probably a little bit dicey, but to maximise my odds of Enter never being a completely dead card, I opted to run only Justice Sigils; besides, apart from Diana, I’m looking for double Time as much as I’m looking for double Justice, and with no ways to tutor power, I didn’t think there was much of a point in including symbols.
- Spicy 1 ofs: Beseech the Throne and Nectar of Unlife – Okay, so Beseech isn’t actually that spicy. However, I ended up going with 26 raw power and 1 Beseech over a 25/2 split just because it just panned out better for me (there’s probably some actual math and stats behind which is actually better, but I didn’t do them. So.) On the other hand, Nectar of Unlife is an incredibly sneaky 1-of, because your opponents can’t count out you recurring units even with only 2 Time influence in hand. When the game goes long, your opponent needs to play around what you’re likely going to flip off your KTE as opposed to what they’ve already dealt with, so being able to fake them out and get back threats they’re not as well-positioned to deal with could be quite useful in the right spot. I can understand not wanting to go for such a play in a closed decklist situation such as ladder in which case I would probably go with 2 of Beseech, but considering the open decklist format of the TNE tournaments, it’s just something that your opponents will have to keep in mind and play around. At which point you strike at their throats. Or whack them with units, whatever works.
- The Speaking Circle – It’s not a hit with KTE. It’s not a particularly synergistic card. It’s just one of the most powerful things you can be doing in Expedition right now, and everybody knows it. Unless you’ve got a lot of inherent synergy in your deck and just can’t afford the slots, for instance in a tribal aggro deck, it’s probably just wrong not be slamming down 4 of Speaking Circle in your deck and hope you get yours first.
Exclusions:
- Onoris Roa – I previously included Onoris Roa as a way to deal with Overloader Combo, which I thought would previously be decently prevalent, and which has a decently tough time pushing through a 5 health Onoris. However, even though the buff to Onoris was meant to make him stronger overall, I feel that it now competes on a different curve slot, and doesn’t do the job that I originally intended them to do as well, which is protecting my beautiful face from a fiery explosion. I think in a deck that doesn’t include Justice as well, I think you could make a case for Onoris as a 4 drop defensive slot since it does block a lot of damage-based removal out of a deck like Spellcrag or Grenadins. However, I just think that Diana just does a better job of stabilising VS aggro in that curve slot, which is why I don’t feel the need to include Onoris here.
- Desert Alchemist – I previously had Desert Alchemist as a hit off of KTE that can also help smooth out my draws by Plundering. However, as I later figured out, it really is a terrible hit because not only is it very cheap, but by playing it with KTE you’re missing out ambushing an opposing target. Another issue that I encountered is that I expected to see a lot of FJS Valkyries alongside Soldiers, and Alchemist isn’t great against neither fliers nor Martial Efficiency, at least in the current meta.
- Lord Steyer’s Tower – I included this in the previous version of my deck because the site is just so much value even without the Valkyrie Warp aspect of it that I felt it worth inclusion. However, following the absolute dominance of Speaking Circle in the meta, I felt that there wasn’t enough upside to including it in the deck since I couldn’t high-roll and Warp it particularly frequently. Hence, I’ve decided to bench this card for now, at least until Speaking Circle gets nerfed.
- Rolant, Iron Tyrant – Probably one of the more controversial choices since Rolant is still a pretty fantastic card even after the nerfs. In the end, I decided to exclude him here for 2 reasons: 1. 1 power is a terrible stat line to pressure a Speaking Circle with, and unfortunately, there’s a lot of those running around now. 2. I didn’t want to include any double Shadow cards so that it’d be easier on my powerbase to enable Enter the Monastery more reliably. Again, this is another card that I feel if the meta changes with a deck like Grenadins or Mandrakes becoming more popular, I could get behind including this card again.
Market:
(So I’m sticking with Winchest Merchant and I’ve already justified it in my previous article – get off my case, internet.)
- Builder’s Decree – I previously included this card in the main deck, but after further examination and tuning, it seems much better suited to the market. We already have a lot of hand attack for Overloader combo, so using it without the Amplify ability tends to not be what we’re going for. On the other hand, it’s helpful to have a huge Amplify spell which we can pull out of the market and slap down some major board presence with late in the late game.
- Dichro’s Technique – This is here to cleanly deal with an opposing Speaking Circle so that it doesn’t run away with value/so that I can drop mine. That’s it. Unfortunately, it’s a little more conditional as removal since it doesn’t deal with an assortment of Time fatties at 4/5 cost, but it’s a trade-off I feel is necessary to take.
- Edict of Kodosh – On the other hand, this is to deal with an assortment of multifaction units out of FJS Valkyries that unfortunately dodge SAA, like Kitaxius or Lynax, particularly after they get augmented by weapons. In addition, it has the side benefit of dealing with recursive nonsense out of a Xenan deck with the 7 cost Vara.
- Equalize – A card that will get you out of situations that no other card would – I’m not playing this main deck because this deck doesn’t ramp quite as hard as a deck like Combrei for instance, and many Sling lists are running Transpose, which is a very convenient answer for Equalize. But against the right deck, you only ever need 1 Equalize to bring them down like a house of cards.
- Svetya, the Lightbringer – Still one of the best must-answer threats that can’t be hit off a KTE amplify in the format. I think if this was a Time market, an argument could be made for Touvon since both are threats that can dash off with the game if unanswered and are differently potent depending on the situation, but we’re a Justice market. So Svetya it is.
Gameplay!
(Look, I’m very daft most of the time. So I finally wised up to the fact that I can record my screen, and just refer back to the VODs afterwards even though it’s not quite up for OBS instead of writing everything down. My hand thanks my brain.)
Match 1 (Vs TheRocke):
As I said, I picked Kerendon KTE specifically for this tournament because I felt a lot of people would be on Soldiers, and that’s exactly what we’re up against in this first match, with what appears to be a fairly stock list. I’m particularly happy to see a fairly low curve list with no Skimmer Wranglers or Frostclaw Riders as that means more units are likely to be swept up by a well-timed KTE – you can put as many weapons on your cheap units as you want; they’ll still all get polished off. Even better, there’s no Argo’s Technique for disruption, only Bubble Shields which will only end up preserving 1 uni, so I’m feeling great heading into this.
Game 1:
I mulligan my first hand with 2 Xenan Cylices, a Justice Sigil, a Moonstone Vanguard, a Speaking Circle, a KTE, and a Merchant. Although I do have a KTE, which is fantastic in this matchup, I feel that having only 1 Justice influence could be dicey, considering I don’t have anything fantastic to pull from the market against this deck aside from the 4J influence Equalize. On top of that, since I’m on the play, I would need to pledge Vanguard here just so I can guarantee power for KTE, but I might not draw into a subsequent threat. Plus, I don’t feel like this is a matchup where the Speaking Circle would be particularly impactful. I think if this was my 2nd 7 card hand, I would probably keep it since I don’t think it’s worth the risk to go down to 6 in that position, but I feel like I could come up with a slightly less languid of a hand.
The 2nd hand I feel is much more balanced, with a Turn 2 Exploit to take a Call to Allies to hopefully slow them down a notch, and a strong defensive unit in the form of the Deathwing; I probably end up plundering the Diana here despite the card being quite strong against aggro, but dropping a Reality Warden on Turn 5 against the weenies deck isn’t the worst either. So I keep it. As it turns out, I do end up Exploiting on Turn 2 and plundering away the Diana, I see that they have 2 Call to Allies, a Bubble Shield, 2 Davids, and a Permafrost; since they have 2 Calls, it isn’t particularly helpful if I can only take 1, so I end up taking the Permafrost, which seems fantastic against my 2 non-endurance units in hand. That Bubble Shield is definitely important to keep in mind down the line if I try to go for discard again, however. The next 2 turns pan out predictably, with a David from them and a Deathwing from me. They remove the Deathwing with a Vicious Overgrowth they just drew, and they crash in for 4.
Following that, I draw a KTE and playing a Cylix followed by Trove, I draw into a 2nd one, which I’m positively cackling about. They’ll probably be holding up the Bubble Shield to save 1 unit, but then I can just clean house with the 2nd one. Sometimes it’s just nice to be a luck sack. They play out a 2nd David, and I drop a Reality Warden, but they, unfortunately, have a Permafrost to deal with it, and play out a Shock Troops. Next turn, I go for a KTE, and although I know at least 1 thing will survive, I hope to flip a decent blocker off the amplify. They Aegis up their David and I hit a Deathwing, which isn’t too bad. The next turn they however have a 2nd Overgrowth and puts me down to 5.
Now here I decide to fire off my 2nd KTE even though it does get rid of the Soldiers that the 1st David gave me, and here’s why: if I go the Reality Warden here, they could easily have their 3rd Permafrost, and finish me off with Martial Efficiency – I know they have 2 Call to Allies in hand, but they might get extremely lucky on me, who knows. Even if they do have a 2nd Bubble Shield to save their unit here, I should still be able to flip over a blocker (hopefully) to buy me a little more time. So I end up going for the safer line here because even if I do lose out on some value, I’m not going to just die next turn. I pick up the Vanguard over the Diana and Merchant – as I said, I’m not looking for anything out of the market other than Equalize in most spots against this opposing archetype. They’re probably also out of gas in hand since they didn’t deploy any more units the last turn despite all of their units being fairly cheap, and Vanguard is the best card here to hopefully press my advantage.
They Merchant and probably put away a not super-impactful Call to Allies here, play out a power and pass. This tells me that previously they probably had 2 Calls and the Merchant in hand as they missed their power drop previously, so their current hand is probably what they grabbed out of the market alongside a Call; if I were them and I had grabbed Bring to Justice, I would have slammed it down immediately, so from what I see, they probably grabbed Mantle of Justice for a flying kill. As such, I immediately snap off the Suffocate on the Merchant to prevent any kind of trickery even before attacking with Vanguard. I run out the Deathwing and Trove first here because if they do find a Permafrost, I’d much rather they use it on the Deathwing than my 2nd Reality Warden.
They desperation Call just to grab a random unit, and on my turn I slam in for 11, draw a card and slam down my 2nd Reality Warden. Not drawing anything relevant, they scoop it up.
Game 2:
My first 7 has a Painting, a Xenan Cylix, a Moonstone Vanguard, a Diana, an Enter, a Suffocate and a Speaking Circle; this is a fairly straightforward mulligan for me because I don’t have enough Justice influence for the Enter nor the Diana. My second 7 has 2 Reality Wardens, an AP Seat, an AP Cylix, a Beseech, a Deathwing and an Enter. Here, my biggest concern is just falling so far behind in tempo against the Hooru deck with depleted power on Turn 1 and Turn 2, and unless I draw a Sigil, my earliest play is probably the Deathwing on Turn 4, which is far too slow against this deck on the play. So unfortunately, I do feel I have to take the mull to 6 here just to have a fighting chance.
My 6 contain a Moonstone Vanguard, an Exploit, a Suffocate, a Painting, a Combrei Seat, and a Justice Sigil, which let’s be honest, is still pretty tragic. Hopefully I can find some kind of Justice influence for the power in my hand. On Turn 1, they lead with a Crownwatch Patroller while I decide not to pledge my Moonstone Vanguard, and here’s my reasoning: mulling to 6, I already know I’m going to be on the backfoot, and if I can’t find some Shadow influence, I’m dead anyway. Since I need to draw power anyways, I’d much rather have the Vanguard to play on 5 since that’s a way I can crawl back into this game.
They play a Shock Troops and a Painting, whereas I snap off a Suffocate on the Shock Troops after I topdeck an AP Cylix like a complete boss – there’s a decent chance they’re setting up for Call here (unfortunately, a lot of players, myself included, didn’t realise that Call was bugged during this tournament), and my hand can’t deal with a 7/7 right now, so I decided to just kill it before it gets buffed.
As predicted, they go for the Call, and my next turn I end up drawing a Reality Warden here. Here, I make what I consider to be a punt: I play Winchest Merchant and grab Equalize whilst putting away Reality Warden – I think whilst I was concerned that I might get overwhelmed by units, I still have 2 giant units in hand that are generally hard for them to deal with. I think since they were tapped out there, I probably should have gone for the Exploit, Plundered my Merchant, and guaranteed my 5th power for my Time chonkers. Another thing to keep in mind here is that because TheRocke’s removal options are Permafrost or Vicious Overgrowth, if they do end up frosting over my units, it makes my Equalize far, far worse. Lastly, it completely slipped my mind that they could pick up Face Aegis at fast speed with Bubble Shield. All in all, definitely not my best play.
On their turn, they deploy a David and a Patroller before hitting their power drop, Permafrosting my unit and slamming me for 5. This is going so poorly. On my turn, I Exploit away their last unit to leave them handless, but they still slam me for 11 the following turn. On my turn, I fire off the Equalize cause otherwise I’m pretty dead (I’m pretty dead either way, but you know.) They keep their David, which makes sense since I don’t have a lot of ways to deal with the unit since it is multifaction. I pass, and they just swing in for 4 and pass as well. On my turn, I play out my power alongside a Moonstone Vanguard, but unfortunately they have Winchest Merchant, grab Bring to Justice, and swing in for lethal.
Game 3:
I mull an opening hand with 2 Deathwings, 2 Merchant, a Reality Warden, a Vanguard and an AP Seat; even if I do draw a power here, I’ll most likely still be obliged to Pledge the Vanguard, and if the power is depleted, completely throw off my curve against this Soldiers deck, so I ship it. My 2nd hand is arguably even dicier with 2 Combrei Seats, a Painting, a Winchest Merchant, a Speaking Circle, a Deathwing and a Suffocate. Now not only do I not have all my factions of influence, but I’m still equally stuck in the same position of not being able to cast anything. Hence, I take the mulligan to 6 here. With a Kerendon deck, you already know that your average card quality is very high, so you’re just looking to be able to cast all your cards and shove yourself into the late game. As a result, I tend to mulligan quite aggressively and tend towards keeping ‘safer’ hands instead of trying to chance things.
My hand of 6 contains a Xenan Cylix, a Justice Sigil, an Enter, an SAA, a Warden, and a Diana. Fingers crossed for a Combrei-influence producing power – then I think I might have a shot here. They play a Turn 1 Shock Troops, and I draw an AP Cylix – not exactly what I was hoping for here, but it’s still power to get me my Turn 3 Enter, even if it’s not enabled. They poke in for 1 on Turn 2 and passing, which is rather suspicious but they probably just have a cadre of pump/protection spells. I drew a 2nd AP Cylix and just play it; there’s no need to fire off the SAA here until they’ve committed to making the Troops bigger. Sure enough, they go for a bugged Call for Allies on the Troops – although that makes it a 4/4 instead of the 7/7 it’s supposed to be, it doesn’t make too much of a difference against the SAA, which I’m perfectly happy slapping down here after playing the Justice Sigil. The fact that they didn’t wait until they had a more developed board to fire off Call indicated to me that they probably have a very threat-light hand, so I’m absolutely up for snapping off any and all units on their side whenever I can, particularly when they’re devoid of protection.
Next turn, they play a Daru Lee and nothing else; on my turn, I play the Enter, play my 2nd AP Cylix, and Suffocate the Daru Lee; I’m not exactly sure what’s in their hand here, but the fact that it went through probably indicates to me that they don’t have Bubble Shield or Martial Efficiency. They play out a Drillmaster, and following my Trove, I topdeck an SAA to kill that as well. I suspect that they put that on top of their deck with Call, which tells me they probably also don’t have Argo’s Technique in hand; do they just have 3 Permafrosts?? Nope; apparently at least one of them was a Maveloft Huntress, which they play out 2 of. I open with a Diana, and draw into an Exploit, which I’m perfectly happy to fire off here; I have 2 Reality Wardens, and getting them answered for 1 power would be quite tragic. Sure enough, they do have 1 Permafrost; the other being a Justice Etchings that is rather unhelpful with 2 Primal Units on board. They draw, and scoop it up.
Match 2 (VS spiffirific):
The creator of the deck that won the previous TNE is my next opponent, which is definitely rather nervewracking, but I do think that the match-up could honestly go either way: we can both ramp, we can both deploy huge threats, and we both have very viable late-game strategies. My best bet is to SAA and early Hourglass, drop a Warden on Turn 4, and hopefully just steamroll from there. 😛 I do think if I can stifle their early game, it’ll be quite difficult for them to contest the value-train that is Kerendon.
Game 1:
I mulligan my first hand which only had 1 power, but I do end up keeping my 2nd hand with an AP Cylix, a Xenan Cylix, a Justice Sigil, a From Beyond, a Diana, a Deathwing and a SAA. I do have the SAA for the Hourglass should it ever be dropped, but unfortunately the rest of my hand does feel lackluster if still functional. Hopefully I can pick up an Enter in order to pull ahead here. I play a depleted AP Cylix, they play a Darkwater Vines, and on my turn I topdeck an Exploit and immediately play it: even if it does me with depleted power on Turn 3, I think that’s fine because it’s more important to discard their threats now rather than have a Turn 3 Deathwing. I plunder away the Diana into a Justice Sigil because I’m still kind of far from playing her, and unfortunately their hand is rather lackluster as well with an Hourglass, a Sunset Priest, and a Vara’s Favor. I take the Hourglass because it’s the only card that’s missed by From Beyond, but I was hoping for something better. This Exploit also has the unfortunate downside of triggering the ultimate on their Darkwater Vines: I Discard a Deathwing, a From Beyond, a Combrei Seat, and a Reality Warden, whereas they pitch 2 Varas, a Vara’s Favor and an Hourglass. Honestly, this could have turned out much worse since they discarded a bunch of cards they really, really want in their hand, and didn’t discard any power, which they could late bring back.
On their turn, they poke in for 2, and when it comes back to me, I From Beyond and take the Sunset Priest; at this point, I don’t feel particularly threatened by what they have on board or in hand, so I’m fine with slowplaying things here. They just play power and poke in for 2 on their turn, and on my Turn 4, I drop a Deathwing. They attack, and like a complete buffoon, I forget about the known Vara’s Favor in their hand, block, Regen falls off, and they finish off my Deathwing. Oops. (I even say it in the recording. XD) On my turn, I draw a KTE, but I honestly don’t think it’s worth it to simply take out a Vines here, so I just play power and pass. They poke in for 2 again, pass, and on my turn I unfortunately do not have the 6th power for the Circle in my hand; I did however have the fortune to draw a Vanguard, which I play out here. They however play their 6th power (let’s be honest, I knew they had mostly power in hand from the 2 Discard spells) and play a Speaking Circle of their own (oh no), and use Grisly Contest to kill my Vanguard, sacrificing their Vines in the process.
I play out my topdecked Deathwing (better lucky than good), ship it back, and they play a Display of Vision, grab a Cylix and play a Trove before dropping a Vanguard, which I’m quick to SAA. The way I see it, I want to try and take down their Speaking Circle anyway so that I can drop my own, which means there’s no point in saving the SAA for the Queen of Glass since hopefully they don’t get that far. The lucksack once again rains down on me as I draw and reveal a Warped Deathwing off the top, which I play before hitting their site for 2. I then play the Beseech I drew for turn, drawing into a Painting and then plundering away my KTE into a power, which in hindsight is definitely wrong. Now that we’re getting into the late game, I should be holding onto my KTE since I have the 6 power to cast everything in my deck at this point, and have just simply opted not to Plunder with Beseech. On their turn, they find a Merchant and find Slimespitter Slug, not killing my Deathwings but making it so they can’t threaten the Circle.
I draw a Suffocate, and scoop it up: I have no way to deal with their big threats on board, no way to remove their Circle and drop my own, so even if I somehow just topdecked removal spells from then on out, I would still be behind, which is definitely an unfortunate position to be in. They definitely got a pinch lucky there, but I definitely did as well, and unfortunately my misplays cost me that one. 😛
Game 2:
I have the good grace of going first again, and keep a solid hand with 2 Sigils, a Painting, an AP Cylix, a Vanguard, an Exploit and a Deathwing; I don’t have plans to Pledge the Vanguard with this hand, but it might be a worthwhile Plunder with Exploit depending on what I find. I lead with my only depleted Power, they play Power and pass, and we’re already off to a poor start as I play the Seat of Progress I topdeck instead of the Painting and play my Exploit. I end up taking the Exploit over the Grafter, Merchant and Priest since I didn’t want them to take the only threat out of my hand, but in hindsight, Merchant might have been a better choice since I can’t push through that anyway; not sure here. I then Plunder away a Justice Sigil for a Treasure Trove, which is honestly just digging my grave in this game even further; I think it makes sense not to Plunder here just to guarantee I hit my power for Vanguard.
On their turn, they play Grafter, and when it comes back to me, I play my depleted Painting (-_-) and my Trove (-_-) before passing it back. They play a Sunset Priest, hitting a Vines, a Praxis Vow and Favor for them, and a Warden, Xenan Cylix and From Beyond for me; not going to lie, really would have liked that Warden against this deck. Ah well. Here, I topdeck a From Beyond and completely missequence: I should have taken the Merchant I know they have with my From Beyond before playing out my 4th power and dropping the Deathwing; instead, I play the Power first, my From Beyond transmutes, and I can only play the Deathwing. Whilst it’s nice to have Maeve as some late-game value particularly against this deck since it doesn’t have particularly many ways to remove Maeve, I should have removed the known roadblock that they have in hand – or a potential SAA that they have drawn for the things I know I will be able to play. (And there’s the Oops emote. See, we agree, past Storm.)
On their turn they play an Hourglass, attack in for 3 and pass; this is pretty bad news since the only hit for Hourglass is a Vow that puts more power in the void for future turns. Joy. I retaliate for 2 in the air and drop the Vanguard – and am thrilled that they don’t have an SAA for it immediately. However, as expected, they Merchant for Edict of Makkar and immediately deal with the unit. **sigh** On the plus side, I had drawn the 6th power the previous turn, which means they don’t have a good way to get the Maeve off the board; whilst I still think that letting it transmute was probably wrong, considering I do have a KTE in hand, I guess it panned out alright. Then I immediately get unbelievably greedy and play my topdecked Circle over the Maeve. **cricket noises** I pick up a set of fairly unhelpful spells in my agenda with Brenn’s Scrying, Pillage and Stand Together, and immediately pick off the Priest. (Honestly not a clue what I was thinking here) I hold back the Deathwing to block, but as expected, they have the Suffocate and take down the Site. On my turn, I play my Maeve, play the depleted Seat, and ship it right back; the one saving grace here is that they don’t have a Circle of their own otherwise they’d probably have dropped it the previous turn, which at least buys me a pinch of time.
On their turn, they play a Merchant into Express Route to get rid of my Maeve; on the bright side, they don’t have any more ways to cleanly dealing with another Maeve, which is nice, and they aren’t applying too much pressure, at least just yet. I play a Sigil and slam my KTE for 8; I have the option of a Diana or a Reality Warden for both amplifies, and I decided to split the difference: Reality Warden is supremely awkward against these ground deadly units, but I would still like a copy to block any recursive shenanigans, plus it’s unbelievably rough for them to get rid of it due to its stats. They attack, play a Cylix into a Trove into a Merchant before passing. From the open decklists, they almost certainly took Slimespitter Slug unless they took something they put away earlier – I think the Slug is fine here just to get rid of the Diana, but then I proceed to forget to attack with her anyway. -_- On my turn, I get unbelievably greedy as I play an Enter the Monastery, and play out both power to set up for a huge KTE next turn; this ends up being a huge punt as they have the Exploit in hand to take it from me before playing out the Slug as expected and attacking in with the squadron of Deadly Units. I draw a Beseech into a Diana, which I then play and pick up a Nectar; I don’t think it’s massively helpful to fire this off anyway, and since spiffy is empty-handed right now anyway, I think I’ll just hold onto this for now. Famous last words.
They topdeck a Speaking Circle, and hit Slay, Triumphant Return and Flash Grenade. Whelp. They Slay the Warden, which forces me to chump the Slug with Diana. I use the Nectar to buyback a Diana and pluck off a Merchant, play the Diana, and Suffocate a 2nd one. I think that the correct play here was actually to pick up the Warden and use it to trade with the Slug; whilst that does end up putting me at a very precarious life total, I’d be super low anyway, and given how far I’ve fallen behind, that would just have been a risk I needed to take. With Warden out of the picture, they are free to Triumphant Return, picking up a Grafter, before attacking; I decide to trade with the Merchant here and put me down to 1. They play a Katra, and I just decide to scoop: I would need to draw exactly SAA here since the surge triggers from Katra would put her in lethal strength range even with the health buff from the Vanguard I have in hand, and I would probably still be in chump-blocking mode. Yes, I did have some outs there, such as just topdecking like a deity and eventually slamming down a massive KTE for the come from behind victory, but the odds were so small I didn’t feel like it was worth playing out.
Match 3: (Vs theovermaster)
Whilst they are also on Hooru Soldiers, the biggest difference between this and TheRocke’s list is the lack of Bubble Shields, instead opting to go for the full playset of Argo’s Technique as their interactive spell, so I’ve got to keep that in mind when lining up my KTEs. They have also opted for Tayana instead of Edict of Kodosh out of their market, which is great for me. Furthermore, without a way to gain face Aegis, Equalize could be particularly devastating against them.
Game 1:
My first hand contains a Combrei Seat, a Justice Sigil, 2 Vanguard, a KTE, a Reality Warden, and a Speaking Circle; even though I’m on the draw so there’s a chance that I’ll be able to find a Shadow source by then, it still feels far too dicey to keep this against such an aggressive deck, particularly if they have Argo’s Technique on 4. So I end up taking the mulligan. My next hand has a Xenan Cylix, a Combrei Painting, 2 Vanguards again, a Nectar, a From Beyond, and a Winchest Merchant; whilst I do have a few more early interactive pieces with this hand, since I’ll probably have to end up pledging one of the Vanguards, the power (assuming I don’t draw anything else) means that I’ll have to make some rather interesting choices as to what I want more: From Beyond on 2 or Merchant on 3, and the truth is neither of those options is that appealing. XD I do end up keeping it since I’m not sure that going down to 6 will improve the situation here, but I might be wrong.
They open with a Crown Patroller, and after drawing my 2nd From Beyond, I do end up pledging a Vanguard. On their turn, they play a 2nd one followed by a Daru Lee, which is just…horrifying, to be honest; that’s a lot of early pressure. I draw an AP Cylix, and end up deploying that here – I don’t think it makes a difference as to what Cylix I play here, and considering that they’re already dumping their hand, I don’t feel like I can afford to do nothing here. I take the Argo’s Technique over Janitor David, which in hindsight is egregiously wrong: if I draw undepleted power, I can opt to play the 2nd From Beyond the next turn first so that they don’t get a lot of value out of the spell cast, and I don’t currently have a way of dealing with David in hand; whilst I can clear away everything with KTE if I do draw it, the odds of that are so little.
After playing David and presumably like many others before them, sit horrified at the fact that David themselves aren’t a Soldier, theovermaster cracks in for 7 with their units following the Daru Lee activation. I draw a Painting, and whilst they’re tapped out, pick off Lee with a Nectar of Unlife; that being said, I’m still terribly behind on board. They play out a 3rd Patroller followed by an Elite, whereas I end up playing a Winchest Merchant for Equalize followed by my 2nd depleted Painting; as long as they don’t have a pump spell here, I should be able to just barely survive, and hopefully eke out a 4th Justice source…somewhere…? They play a Trove, and just attack with everything, putting me down 2 as I chump Dovid. By some semi-miracle, I flip a Justice Sigil off the top and Equalize, keeping only the Moonstone Vanguard in hand. They play a Huntress and a Shock Troops before passing back to me, where I drop my Vanguard; unfortunately, the turn after, they Overgrowth my face and that’s game. Punted, and it cost me greatly there. Oops. My teammates are always nagging me about my threat evaluation, and here is a very clear example of considering the time frame with which you have to deal with the things out of your opponent’s hand – ultimately, I didn’t have the KTE, so them negating that should not have been a concern of mine, and instead have taken the threat that was going to kill me there and then.
Game 2:
I mulligan my first hand since it only had 1 power, and I end up keeping my hand with a Xenan Cylix, a Justice Sigil, 2 Vanguard (wow this is a strange trend), a Deathwing, a Speaking Circle and From Beyond. Honestly, not a terrible hand, especially since I’m on the play – attack their hand on Turn 2 followed by a solid blocker on Turn 3. I pledge on Turn 1, they play a Daru Lee (joy) and I From Beyond on Turn 2, taking a Huntress over an Elite – given that they don’t have nearly as aggressive of a hand as previously chock-full of units, I’m taking the Huntress to hopefully stop them from smoothing out their draws. On Turn 2, they play the Elite as expected, and I draw a 2nd Speaking Circle and plop down a Deathwing. I could use some more power, deck, thanks.
On their turn, they play a 2nd Daru Lee, exhaust it to pump their first 1, and drop a Permafrost on my Deathwing before poking in for 7. I do draw some depleted power but have nothing I can play, so I just ship it back; on their turn, they just activate a Daru Lee to get in for 7 and play power; fortunately, they’re not doing much either. On my turn, I topdeck undepleted power and drop a Moonstone Vanguard – since it has Endurance, it can’t be Permafrosted unlike the Reality Warden; plus it can gain me some life to hopefully stabilise. On their turn they elect to play Martial Efficiency at slow speed to debuff the Vanguard before dropping a Huntress, imbuing the buffed Daru Lee to finish it off, followed by an attack for 5. On my turn, I draw another undepleted power and decide to go for a Speaking Circle over the Reality Warden – I think I’m just dead to a lot of topdecks out of Theo, and I’m hoping to hit a sweeper off this Circle now that they’re empty-handed; I pick up a Fall Short, a Fluctuate Reality, and an Immortalize, which is an altogether a pretty solid agenda. I use Fall Short to pick off the stunned Daru Lee to dramatically reduce the stats on the Huntress, and if I can buyback the Vanguard next turn with Immortalize, I might have a chance here. No fear, because my opponent topdecks a Martial Efficiency to finish me off instead. XD Thought I played that game decently (at least better than the last one), but they just had some very solid draws.
(There is no Match 4 because Battlefy is a clotpole and gave me the bye out of all the people still playing at 1-2. Honestly, how rude of them. Harumph. Blame it for not giving me – and you – more content.)
Post patch update!
Since this tournament has occurred, a major patch update has occurred on the 1st of February AND a new mini-set has just dropped, completely overhauling the metas in both formats. Most impactfully, the Speaking Circle has been nerfed, and so have the Cyclies, which have been a cornerstone of the Kerendon deck in both formats. As such, I no longer think a Kerendon deck is necessarily Tier 1 in Expedition, but still definitely a viable option. Whilst everyone is trying out some fun and whacky new strategies, trust Kerendon to be the fun police in terms of being a powerful, consistent deck. Always.
Decklist:
https://eternalwarcry.com/decks/d/t35-oDusFEI/post-balance-changes-kerendon-kte
Above are what I would consider running in the current Expedition. Due to the nerfing of duals in the form of the Cylices, we have reverted to a pure Seat/Painting powerbase, and now that we’re running 4 Seats, I feel that we need to include some Seek Powers just to make sure that our power is appropriately fixed (I’m now also running a few Expand the Reaches which serve a similar purpose now that we don’t entirely have Justice Sigils.) I think this deck already has so much depleted power early game, and keeping the Cylices in the deck would have just exacerbated the issue; with the deck at present being base Combrei, I also doubted that we’d get the Trove off the Cylices nearly often enough. I’ve decided to drop the Suffocates now that I’m less likely to find Shadow influence in the early game, and they would be competing against the Seeks for an early play; although I am also concerned that From Beyond would suffer from a similar issue as a discard spell, since it can transmute into an absolute house of a late-game threat in the form of Maeve, I think I’m good leaving it in for now.
Since I’m unlikely going to need to use Beseech the Throne to fix in the early game, I’m trying out the new removal spell, Smite, over Nectar of Unlife; Smite is probably a much better removal spell than Nectar, which I’m mostly playing to buy back units, but it seems like it could be really powerful in the right meta. Might adjust it depending on how the meta shakes out.
Lastly, I no longer feel like it’s a mistake to not be playing 4 of Speaking Circle: the Speaking Circle nerfs have made it significantly less potent; there are also many more options that can answer a 3 health site. As such, I’ve decided to free up that slot for more KTE hits. Rhuus, my big fluffy Elephant Boi seems like it could be quite a good hit; although the deck doesn’t do anything particularly broken like pitching a 12 drop, giving it destiny, and then tutoring it out, Rhuus is still a solid value unit, and can buyback some value units for even more value down the road. The other card I’m considering in this slot is Onoris Roa, especially since I’ve seen an uptick in Overloader Combo following the balance changes. Having said that, I do think it is, unfortunately, weaker against specifically that deck now, but the unit itself is still decently statted, in a better curve slot, is a power sink, and has relevant side text, particularly if FPS Grenadins becomes popular. Rolant could also make it in this slot if I do an overhaul of the powerbase, but I’m not sure if it’s worth including Cylices and warping the powerbase to play Rolant; it might be necessary against all the sacrifice decks we see at least in the early days of the mini-set dropping, however.
In the market, I’ve ditched the Dichro’s Technique now that Speaking Circle is no longer as prevalent, at least in the early days, and gone back to the From Anguish I had previously. Now that FJS Valks have also taken a hit and are dwindling in meta percentage, I’ve also decided to shave the Edict of Kodosh. A lot of people have flocked to the ladder with Hooru Soldiers, and unfortunately, Edict doesn’t quite cut it against most of the units in that deck; I’ve elected to replace it with the previously main-deck Lord Steyer’s Tower just as a fantastic value site – after all, isn’t that what Kerendon KTE is all about? Value?
Some other considerations would be Vanquish – after all, I’ve complained quite a fair bit about Soldiers, and unfortunately From Anguish does miss a Janitor David. Another option would be Tayana the Mender since I could also see various Sling decks rising to the occasion following the balance change, and it being a particularly unfortunate matchup for us since they do tend to out-value even us. Finally, Sharp Tactician could also be a worthwhile add since AP Valks might make a comeback and sniping a Deathwing always feels good, but given all the Permafrosts that Hooru and Elysian decks are running to cleanly answer the unit for 1 power, on top of the fact that we can’t take advantage of the tribal synergy, I think I’ve got to give it a pass for now.
As per always, you can find me on Twitter @stormguard798, or lurking around the FE and TEJ discords if you want to talk about Eternal, or chit-chat about not Eternal. (I am incredibly capable of rambling, as you may or may not have noticed.) Until next time! ^-^
Careful Considerations - Ramblings of an Aspiring Azorius Lawmage 