Hi everyone! It’s stormguard798, and I know you’re all probably missing my just positively delightful charm and wit, so I’m going to take full advantage of the weekend from the Lunar New Year to feed you all with even more cringe-worthy humour than usual.
With the latest mini-set in the form of Buried Memories dropping, I’m sure that many podcasts and other article writers are coming out with a deluge of set reviews, and honestly, I’m an uncreative lump, so I’m no different. What I am, however, is an avid purveyor of fan-fiction. And do you know what I creepily do far, far too often? Ship characters. So today, we will be ‘shipping’ each of the cards in this new set with various members of the Eternal Community, and see how many of these eventually become canon! (Honestly, I’m far too excited for all this. ^-^) And like with every set, there are unfortunately at least a few duds, which we will not be going over; sorry, but this time the story arc didn’t go in your favour. ☹
Flash Fry
Shipped With? GCH
Whilst I don’t expect this removal spell to make massive waves in Throne, it’s nice to pick off the numerous Vulks that are just completely swarming the Expedition ladder right now. That being said, I do think that people are playing it a pinch too much – it is basically a Conflagrate with minor upside, and decks that previously had Conflagrate probably slot this in instead, but outside of a deck like Mono Fire, you probably have far better options. Considering how much GCH just **loves** recursive threats from the void, this seems like the most probable pairing for this card.
Midchief Salus
Shipped With? Meverz
I am super excited to get a 3 strength 2 drop in Fire that doesn’t immediately cave to a Snowball, and I’m pretty sure the resident fast-aggro player is too. I think that this card will make quite a splash in Expedition and help maybe vault Fire-based aggro strategies to being popular again there. I’m also interested in playing this in SS in Throne; though the unit types are probably not fantastically relevant there, it fills a curve slot left there by Cutpurse, so I could see Midchief shoeing in at least some builds. Though I don’t think Soldiers and Amplify are massively supported in Fire, I am absolutely down to be proven wrong.
Inferno Den
Shipped With? NotoriousGHP https://www.twitch.tv/notoriousghp
So, way back before I started playing Eternal semi-seriously, there was a deck known as Charge Rod, which played Divining Rod on a cheap charge unit like Whirling Duo and flipped over massive units like Kaleb, Uncrowned Prince and Icaria the Liberator for ridiculous amounts of damage out of complete nowhere. Now, whilst I’m not sure that jamming this site in a deck with that original base would pan out, slapping this down and having a bunch of Time fatties that *really* shouldn’t have charge on them seems like a good way to KO your opponent out of nowhere, especially once Erica comes out. Other than that, it definitely seems worth considering in the market or as top-end in a slightly more midrangey Fire deck, for instance Stonescar, just to have the oomph to close out a game.
Impound
Shipped with? No one in particular; it’s pretty much just a side-piece.
Whilst I’m not expecting to ever see Impound played in the maindeck, I do expect it to see quite frequent play in Time-based markets, especially considering that Sling is not unpopular in both formats. ‘Tis all.
Logistics Expert
Shipped with? Iplongno https://twitter.com/iplongno
I think Logistics Expert is going to see quite a bit of play in both formats; Initiate of the Sands saw quite a bit of play in various Time Midrange decks, and in a lot of cases, this is pretty much that with upside, scaling well into the late-game. Even though it does get a little worse particularly in Throne thanks to the predominance of Snowballs, I still expect to see it give decks like Praxis Tokens a little bit of a boost alongside the various Time decks in Expedition. I’m pairing this card with Ip because like me, they can greatly appreciate the value of a solid role-player card in a wide assortment of decks. Also, this card screams Xenan. 😛
Rhuus, Warbeast
Shipped with? AsheAcer https://www.twitch.tv/gamesguildtv
Will it probably see play as a Time Fatty with upside in some Expedition decks? Probably. What I’m really looking forward to is seeing someone snapping this in half by dumping a 12 drop in their void, using Rhuus to bring it back, and then perhaps tutoring it out with a Celestial Omen, Linrei’s Kiss, what have you. Doubt it’ll be particularly viable, but as someone who brings terrible combo and/or Reanimator decks to tournaments regularly (yes, of course, I’m calling you out on it :PPP), I’m sure Ashe will find a way to make it at least somewhat work.
Jetpack
Shipped with? Batteriez https://www.twitch.tv/batteriezecg
There’s a cheap Relic with incidental utility, so naturally I’m looking towards Batz to see if this slots into Rats (probably not, since it’s a Justice relic, but who knows.) Other than that, this obviously will see play in an assortment of relic decks alongside Vulk, plus I think it might see play in some markets as a form of disruption/evasion; unfortunately, 2 power is quite a bit to spend, as evidenced by a card like Secret Passage. Who knows?
Smite
Shipped with? Mail
If there’s a strong Justice multi-format role player that’s been released, Mail is probably the first one building a deck around it. As it turns out, there are a lot of units that are multifaction and that commonly played removal spells like Send an Agent don’t deal with extremely effectively: Rolant, Diana, Kenna, and so forth, alongside other some mono-faction format staples like Jarrall and Kira. Sure, it misses cards like Wump, which is why it’s not premium removal, but I still expect this to see a lot of play. More than Flash Fry in any case. >.<
Fort Smasher
Shipped with? Gatosujo https://www.twitch.tv/gatosujo143
I’ve seen a lot of opponents play this in a Sentinels deck, and though I understand the desire for a cheap-ish Sentinel, the rest of the text doesn’t have much synergy with the archetype. As a result, I could see this maybe see play in a Discard Aggro deck where most of the threats are fairly cheap and pitching them isn’t the worst case either, or just eschewing the Discard part of it altogether and just slamming this in Rakano Aggro to give it a little bit more reach. As someone who’s played gato’s various Rakano decks a lot, I have the most faith in them to figure this one out.
Evolving Olzial
Shipped with? Doc28 https://www.twitch.tv/doc28ccg
(Also appreciate how I’m just skipping over the rest of the Primal cards; just honestly don’t think they’re that good.)
This evasive 5 cost threat unfortunately dies to a lot of removal out of current Expedition, which means it’s unlikely to see a lot of main deck play, but it does have a very powerful and unique summon effect that is unseen before in Mono Primal, so I could definitely see it making some waves in Primal markets, particularly in Mono Primal or Feln. Aside from that, whilst it doesn’t provide raw card advantage, a Careful Study every turn makes for great top-end in a more tempo oriented, helping you smooth your draws into the late game, and could have some inherent synergy with other self-discard cards. As a stalwart pilot of the Elysian Tempo/Spells deck, I’m definitely interested to see what Doc can make of this card.
Dark Purveyor
Shipped with? Enclave_Cryptologist
This is a little bit cheating, cause in the first few days of the new format, I’ve been goofing around with a sweet Feln Purveyor deck courtesy of Enclave_Cryptologist; previously, there have been various self-discard decks floating around in both formats, and Purveyor to buff those piddly 1/1s into game-ending threats may just be the extra oomph the deck needs to push it up into competitive range.
Smuggler’s Toll
Shipped with? Kal_Shadowstep https://www.twitch.tv/kal_shadowstep
There are a surprising number of ways for you to take damage on your turn, from Desecrate to Vows to Salvo; I’m just not sure if A. There are enough actually good ways to do so consistently and B. If a 4 cost do nothing relic is really what you’re looking for in what appears to be an aggro deck. Having said that, at a first glance, this deck will mostly likely be some variations on a Stonescar deck, which means Kal probably already has something brewing.
Hired Muscle
Shipped with? Deedub
For those familiar with the Magic Card Cavalcade of Calamity, this is very similar that effect on a stick, acting as a way to push through damage with a bunch of tiny units, and if you’re able to warp this, it’s a pretty good way to swing a race against an opposing aggro deck. Deedub is pretty well-known for playing aggro decks, and although I could see this as some top-end in otherwise very low to the ground decks, I do wonder if 5 power is indeed a bit too much.
Vulk, the Autoforge
Shipped with? Jedi_EJ https://www.twitch.tv/jedi_ej
Ok, so this is **definitely** cheating because Jedi already posted a video about the Vulk deck they were running on YouTube. 😛 Having said that, I could probably have picked any number of people considering how many of them there are on ladder right now; whilst I do think the card is very good, there are a lot of ways to counter it from removal to void/recursion hate, coupled with the relatively high set-up cost of the card, it’s unlikely that it’ll end up as a Tier 1 strategy. Very fun to play with though.
Dichro, Conqueror
Shipped with? OneAntic.
To be frank, I don’t think Dichro, Conquerer is a particularly interesting build-around, at least within the context of the Valkyries tribe as it doesn’t have synergy with what they’re doing. Plaguing your opponent’s entire board is solid against a go super-wide tribe like Grenadins, but doing this at slow speed isn’t terribly exciting. What I am hyped about, however, is the potential synergy with Xumuc Shaman: nerfing your opponent’s board whilst jamming in for a massive amount of flying damage sounds baller, and as the brewer of a super fun Xumuc Shaman deck a couple of Expeditions ago, OneAntic might just be the person to pull it off.
Gren, Iron Martyr
Shipped with? TheBoxer https://twitter.com/TheBoxerECG
It’s a unit that’s just asking to be sacrificed for value; who else was it going to be? However, as TheBoxer themselves already pointed out, 3 cost is quite a fair bit for some value-fodder, and being completely unable to block means you really do need to find someway to proactively sacrifice it. Whilst all 3 parts of its entomb effects are at least mildly relevant to the tribal themes, the poor body on what is a fairly aggressive tribe probably means it doesn’t make the cut.
Hifos, Reach Captain
Shipped with? Applechips
Applechips recently piloted an amazing TJP Soldiers deck in Throne at the recent TNE Showcase Given the addition of Hifos to Expedition, there’s a much stronger case for going Tradition Soldiers in Expedition as opposed to straight Hooru which is what most people were previously on, and I’m super hyped to see what they can come up with. Considering that Soldiers was already a Tier 1 even before the addition of this mini-set, I expect to see plenty of Soldiers at the upcoming TNE. Just hopefully not too many mirrors, cause those are boring. :PPP
Euryd, the Drifting Song
Shipped with? Johnholio https://www.twitch.tv/johnholio
Considering that Mandrakes already has a Reanimator subtheme, I’m super excited to see what our team’s Reanimation Expert can pull off with this ridiculous 8 cost Mandrake. Whilst I don’t think it’ll make much of an impact in Throne, and am also skeptical of a Mandrakes deck being viable in Expedition following the recent nerfs, I am excited to see what horribly unfair shenanigans can happen with this card. Destiny anyone?
I’m overall quite happy with the overall power level of this mini-set, particularly for Expedition: whilst there are a lot of interesting build-arounds and quite a number of role-players, nothing feels overtly broken or an auto-include in many decks (I’m looking at you, Jekk -_-), which is fantastic for brewers. :DDD Thanks again to Stevercakes and MLNTN for uploading the new card images so quickly over at EternalWarcry! ^-^
Of course, be sure to check out all these wonderful players and community members at their links above (I’ve included them where I can find them; please let me know if I’m missing any links!) As per usual, I can’t wait to find out how horribly wrong I am about all of these card evaluations; feel free to yell at me through the internet on Twitter, or at the FE and TEJ Discords. Until next time. 🙂 And like (hopefully) most of these pairings, have a very happy Valentine’s Day! 😛
Careful Considerations - Ramblings of an Aspiring Azorius Lawmage 