In between testing for the upcoming Tuesday Night Eternal Winter Invitational, I’ve got to be doing something, right? Whilst it was only opened to their general Discord community later in the month as a result of the delayed Organized Play announcement, I have gotten the wonderful opportunity to participate in the Misplay Ladder, presented by Butterball. (trademarked). Look, I have no idea where the Misplay team got that one from. When you join, you get placed somewhere in the middle of the ladder, and can challenge up to 2 rungs on the ladder above you in either Throne or Expedition; if you win, then you swap spots with them. But be careful, you might also get challenged by the players who are currently ranked up to 2 places below you, so you need to hold onto your position whilst gunning for the top. Once your match has been completed, you may not challenge or be challenged by the same person for the next 48 hours. Whoever is left standing at the top of the ladder wins a sweet prize, courtesy of the Misplay. Not quite the cold hard cash of some other tournaments, but something worth fighting for nonetheless.
Whilst some people are packing some rather niche and dubious decklists (have you seen your decklists in the mirror, Storm?), with the entirety of the Misplay participating alongside some other strong players (wow, Storm, wow), the level of technical play from your opponents is right up there. There isn’t a rule to stick with the same decks throughout the month and all the matches are played using closed decklists, but for the purpose of writing this end-of-the-month report, I have elected to stick with 2 archetypes, 1 for each format. So for my inaugural climb up the ladder, what decklists did I choose to take?
Expedition:
Decklist:
https://eternalwarcry.com/decks/d/ttAEVvhnZkw/the-misplay-ladder-february-expedition
Some people have a ‘guilty pleasure’ decklist that they fall back on; unsurprisingly, this is mine. There isn’t too much to talk about that I haven’t discussed previously – I have largely adopted the changes that I discussed the last time I played Kerendon in Expedition, and the Edict of Makkar and Desert Alchemist are largely in line with the logic I laid out in the Xenan article. The only thing of note here are the Knight-Chancellor Sirafs – I suspect you’ve been seeing them frequently as of late in the Kerendon lists you seen on ladder, and I’m inclined to agree with the collective assessment. Whilst susceptible to Suffocate, Edict of Makkar and Smite, the Sirafs add a dimension of inevitability to Kerendon to compensate, at least partially, for the lost power of Cylices, and since it has the same vulnerabilities as the other 3 drop options, it seems like a fairly straightforward shoo-in. There are only 2 copies in the list I have above, but since then, I had added the full 4 copies to my Kerendon deck.
Throne:
Decklist:
https://eternalwarcry.com/decks/d/ltS8qKS8PAw/the-misplay-ladder-february-throne
Now for the actually interesting deck to discuss. The original decklist was one by deck brewer extraordinaire, EnclaveCryptologist, back when Buried Memories had just come out in a shell to fully utilise Dark Purveyor as effectively as possible. Your primary gameplan is to play a Dark Purveyor summon effect on an evasive unit, and clock your opponent for a truly terrifying amount of damage at the right time. This decklist has a whopping 47 units in order to maximise the potency of our Purveyor alongside plenty of ways to put them into the void. Darkwater Vines and Sporefolk do the most work in our deck to fill our void much like the Xenan Reanimator strategies that you’ve seen plenty of on ladder, with Vines having the added bonus of shoring up the ground against aggro. Whilst Spitefeeder and Gustrider aren’t as efficient at dumping units into our void, they have the upside of being evasive, which means they’re great targets to Purveyor up.
Even better, both of these cheap evasive fliers only cost 1 power, which means they can be recurred with Shadowlands Guide – getting back a 10+ power flier from your 3 drop on top of another body is probably not what your opponent hand in mind. And to make sure you don’t get bashed to death onto the ground whilst you’re dominating the skies, with all the units in your void, Shoaldredger gets cheap very quickly – I have had the distinct pleasure of dropping 0-cost Shoaldredgers on Turn 3 previously. Another excellent target for Shadowlands Guide, should the need arise. Lightning Sprite is our back-up evasive threat – whilst significantly more expensive and harder to recur, it has the advantage of being able to control our discards far better, particularly with the Felrauk, the Outcasts we have hiding out in the deck. Even though we aren’t taking advantage of our opponent’s discard, I never say no to 0 cost 5/2s with upside. Since we have elected to play Felrauks, our powerbase is unfortunately rather clunky to reflect that: despite requiring triple influence of both factions, we are running 4 Vows and 4 Chairman’s Contract for additional discard, which means we are playing 16 duals, including the 4 depleted Crests. Fortunately, I haven’t had too many curve issues since we do still have quite a few options for undepleted power, particularly in the early turns, and discarding Felrauks for no value on occasion is unfortunate, but unavoidable.
Of course, being in Feln, our units don’t have Endurance to block any pesky Permafrosts from our opponents, so we have a couple copies of Devour to be rid of that curse and get our units back in the void, where we have free reign to recur them. In order to maximise our unit count, we have eschewed a lot of traditional Feln removal, instead opting for unit-based interaction of Maveloft Huntress and Jotun Hurler – Jotun Hurler also had the upside of being plundered away or discarded to generate virtual card advantage. Following a suggestion I received, I do plan on trying out Shadowcreeper over Devour to eliminate any non-units from the maindeck and putting Devour in the market instead. Interaction with our opponent is definitely something this deck is lacking, so hopefully adding removal on a unit will help to solve some of those issues.
In the market, we have 2 pieces of very cheap interaction: Permafrost for opposing units, and Swift Refusal for incoming sweepers. As you’ll be able to see from the deck editing history, I previously included Savage Denial to dodge fast-speed removal for the unit I gave the Purveyor buff to, but it ended up being too narrow – besides, we could always recur the unit if need be. Another removal option would be Edict of Makkar, but this isn’t Expedition – Permafrost has been generally fine for me thus far. Haunting Scream is most frequently used to buyback a Purveyor, but giving flying and charge to either a buffed Spitefeeder or Gustrider isn’t a bad idea either, particularly if you have some Shadowlands Guides in hand. Champion of Cunning is in there to give my board of tiny units a group buff later in the game, but I haven’t ended up pulling it that frequently since you don’t often get to 5 power with this deck. And as you can see, I had eschewed the Dark Return for Krull, Xumuc Occultist in the market previously, but I think I’d probably go back to Dark Return, and here’s why: you don’t end up with a lot of power in the deck, because you have plenty of ways to discard any excess. As a result, when you Smuggler into Krull, you usually only have the option of getting back a 1 drop, which is fine depending on the situation, but generally not worth marketing for. Dark Return gives you more control over the timing and the cost of the unit you get back – sometimes you just want a Purveyor, and with only 1 copy of Krull, you aren’t planning on bouncing it back and forth.
Now here’s the question most of you are probably asking: why aren’t you playing the Know When to Hold ‘Em/Krull/Whispering Wind package? It was included in an earlier version of the build, but ultimately cut for a number of reasons. Firstly, you’re including Purveyor at 4, which means the only way to guarantee you will pick up a Krull off a Whispering Wind Discard is by pitching Purveyor, which you rarely want to do in this deck since it’s your biggest payoff. Granted, you sometimes get lucky, but it ultimately proved to be rather inconsistent. Secondly, Know is a non-unit, which adds to your non-unit count. Lastly, rarely in this deck are you trying to out-value your opponents by looping units back from your void over and over again through juggling Krull back and forth from within your deck, hand and market – this is still an aggro deck at its core, and detracting away from your primary game plan of swiftly murdering your opponent does affect some of its potency. As a result, despite Whispering Wind being a rather tantalizing inclusion in the deck, both being an evasive unit and a discard enabler, this cluster of cards didn’t pan out for me, at least in this build.
Would I recommend bringing this deck for a high-stakes tournament? No. Unfortunately, Kira strategies are sitting comfortably at Tier 0 right now, and is what I expect a large portion of players to bring to a tournament. Kira strategies I have found to be one of the worst match-ups for the deck between the flying blockers and silence effects – Intrusion also has the tendency of ruining things horribly for us. Therefore, whilst it is a fun option to catch some opponents off-guard on ladder with, this would not be my choice to bring to a competitive tournament.
Gameplay!
(So ideally, I will try and cast myself in the most flattering light possible in future months; for instance, not include the match which I played at the time of writing where I awkwardly fumbled through a new deck that I have no idea how to play. 😛 My opponent can inform you that it was painful for both of us to watch. I’ll also try to include only 1 match per opponent/archetype so that you can get the most varied matches possible. However, since the Misplay Ladder only opened up in mid-February, I unfortunately don’t have particularly many matches to pick from. So today, you all have the honor of parsing through all my matches with me, for better or for worse.)
Match 1: VS Supermaus (Expedition) (https://www.twitch.tv/supermaus95)
(Normally I’d give my impressions of what strategy I would adopt, but…closed decklists! Ergo, who knows what we might stumble upon?)
Game 1:
I keep an opening hand with a Combrei Painting, Argenport Cylix, Justice Sigil, Moonstone Vanguard, Exploit, and 2 SAAs. Some interaction and a threat, not too tragic. I don’t think I’d Pledge the Vanguard here since I’m on the draw; if I don’t draw a Time source by then, I’ll probably plunder away at that point. Supermaus kicks things off with a Hooru Painting, which signals to me that they’re most likely on Tradition Soldiers. I end up drawing another Moonstone Vanguard, and I decide to go with the depleted AP Cylix, which, as much as it feels bad, I think is wrong in hindsight; if I Pledge here, I can guarantee my 5th power in order to cast the other one; even though I’ll be thrown off-curve by not having undepleted power Turns 2 and 3, guaranteeing myself a Vanguard on 5 is definitely the better line. There is an argument for saying that throwing yourself that far off-curve against an aggro deck is dangerous, but considering that they didn’t play anything on 1, you could probably afford to take a turn off.
Supermaus plays a Hooru Vow into a Janitor David, which doesn’t get answered by my SAAs. Oh dear. I draw a Rolant, and when I play my Exploit, unearth a horror show of 2 Hifoses, a Dazzle, and an Argo’s Technique; I sit there for a good 30 seconds pondering which of Technique or Dazzle I should take; on the one hand, all of my units in hand have Endurance, which means the Stun mode on Dazzle isn’t going to be particularly relevant; on the other hand, it is an unconditional counterspell for the SAAs I have in hand, though they currently don’t have any legal targets for the SAAs regardless. On the other hand, Technique can be paid for, although that’s still not fantastic; they don’t at present have any Time influence, but I must imagine that they have it in hand. I end up taking the Dazzle because in my mind, by the time they play something I can SAA, I should have the power open to pay for Technique; I end up plundering one SAA since I don’t have any targets for it. Supermaus drops a Common Cause on Time and a weapon on their amplified Hifos before attacking for 4. I draw a Seat and end up passing it back. Not looking good for one of our heroes here.
They drop a Combrei Vow for a Justice influence into a Hifos and a Sigil before attacking, which is rather suspicious; I imagine they must have Logistics Expert in hand then. Not that it terribly matters when I draw a Time Sigil and ship it back. They play a Seat of Order and attack for 8 before passing; ok, so not a Logistics Expert. An amplified Daru Lee then? I play a Vanguard but it’s probably a pinch too late; it’s not an amplified Daru Lee, but a Fearless Crescendo, and I scoop it up. A little bit of an awkward draw from me, but not much I don’t think I could have done in that position regardless; my interaction didn’t line up well against their units. Kudos to Supermaus for respecting the KTE and keeping that Argo’s Technique up at ALL times.
Game 2:
My opening has 1 power with no Pledge nor Plunder, so that’s an easy ship back; my second hand has a Seek Power, a Seat of Mystery, a Justice Sigil, a Vanguard, an Edict of Makkar, an SAA, and a Diana. I’m on the play this time around, which is why I decide to pledge the Vanguard and go for a Seek Power finding a Justice Sigil. They play a depleted Seat and pass it back to me; I play a Seat of Mystery and ship it right back. Supermaus plays a Justice Sigil into Janitor David, when it comes back to me, instead of dropping either a Winchest Merchant or Deathwing, I decide to immediately go for the Edict of Makkar. Here’s why: my market at this juncture was Decree, From Anguish, Reality Warden, Challenge by Law and Svetya, Lightbringer, which, given I don’t have a 5th power at this juncture, isn’t fantastic. This is why I didn’t want to pull the trigger on the Merchant quite yet. On the other hand, they just played a David, which means the odds that I play my Deathwing and it eats an Overgrowth are pretty high. As a result, I go for the safest line here, holding up SAA, even if it does mean a possible less efficient use of my power. Having said that, I think going for Merchant now grabbing Warden, and then playing both Deathwing and Edict next turn is also a pretty fine line.
They play a Common Cause on Time and play out a 2nd David, joy, alongside a Daru Lee, which I am quick to snap off with SAA. I draw a KTE, which is a great fail-safe even if it does mean potentially losing my Fresh Recruits, but with no power in sight, I decide to go for the Deathwing here. I am, however, not at all thrilled to see another Deathwing on the top of the deck; I would much rather have power here. On their turn, they play a depleted Seat of Order followed by a Hifos to stun my Deathwing and crack back for 4; on my turn, I go right back in with my 2 Soldiers and play out the 2nd Deathwing that I just drew. There’s an argument for going for the KTE whilst the shields are down since my Soldiers immediately get replenished, but I’m hoping for them to extend just a pinch further.
They play a Hifos, grabbing power before dropping a Speed Grafter, which is perfect for me. On my turn, I drop a KTE like it’s hot to wipe their whole board, before getting in with my pair of Deathwings for 4. Following that, they drop a Frostclaw Rider for 4, and I decide to ship my uncastable Diana away the next turn into my market with Merchant for a From Anguish, which surprisingly happens despite their pause; that probably means they have Crescendo in hand. With a pair of Edicts in hand, here’s to hoping they just keep playing out more units I can kill. They play a depleted Seat of Order and pass, and at this point I’m not quite sure what’s happening. I play my depleted Seat of Vengeance, and go for an all-out attack; I don’t think Soldiers runs Ambush units. Instead, they play a Crescendo on my Soldier and completely blow me out of the water with an Aerial Battle. Oh. My god. Legend has it that my jaw is still floating at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
On their turn, they play a Frostclaw Rider and pass it back; I draw a Time Sigil, and unfortunately have to pass it back. They play an Argo Ironthorn before slapping me for 7; I Edict the Argo on my turn, and Exploit to have a peek at the remaining cards in their hand, seeing another Argo and a David. I make a huge mistake here taking the Argo; since I have the answer for the Argo in hand, and my Soldier is already stunned so it doesn’t make a tremendous amount of difference, I want to deny them the card off David because this gives me the best chance to recover; trading 1 for 1 with David is never a place you want to be in, and in such a close game, I shouldn’t let them have access to more cards. On top of that, lining up multi-blocks against this deck, in particular, is so dangerous because you’re likely to get blown out by tricks, so the Soldiers off the David Entomb aren’t particularly helpful either. They play the David as expected and grab a card off it before hitting for 7; I draw a Sigil and Edict the David before passing. They play a Hifos and put 2 weapons on it before attacking for 7, which I take. On my turn, I draw and play a Maeve, which might help me get back into this, but it might be a little too late; sure enough, they have an Argo Ironthorn to stun all my blockers and finish me off. Definitely could have played a little tighter considering how close of a match it was at the end, but honestly, that blowout was perhaps just a pinch too much for me to recover from. 😛 More kudos to Supermaus, by the way, for taking advantage of the closed decklist, and carefully guiding me to overextending into a wipe that I have perhaps seen twice before in my Eternal Journey. XD
Match 2: VS Slepher (Throne)
Game 1:
I mulligan an opening hand with 2 Crests, a Painting, a Shadow Sigil, 2 Huntresses and a Shoaldredger; there is barely any self-discard, everything is expensive, and frankly it’s just too slow, so it’s an easy ship back. I keep a 2nd 7 with 2 Sporefolk, 1 Spitefeeder, 1 Shadowlands Guide, a Crest, a Painting and an Insignia. Snap keep. Slepher opens with a Fire Sigil into an Oni Ronin, which means they’re probably on either Mono Fire or Skycrag Aggro. Not actually a terrible match-up for us since we have plenty of tiny chump blockers that provide incremental value. I play a Painting into the Darkwater Vines I topdecked before shipping it back. They play a Seal of Devotion, confirming they are Mono Fire, before playing an Autotread and pitching a Granite Coin to kill my Vines. In the playback, one can hear a very distinct and anguished ‘No!’ from me, for good reason: Autotread is extremely potent at shooting down my various X/1 evasive units, and as a deck that doesn’t have a lot of removal, it could definitely prove to be a problem down the line. At least the Discard to Autotread triggered my Vines? Silver Linings. They then attack for 2 with the Ronin.
On my turn, I play a Sporefolk and pass; they play a Sigil before attacking, and I block the Ronin with my Sporefolk. Now if I only I could discard that unit with all the Warcry buffs on it…They follow up with a Grenadin Drone and pass. I draw a Huntress. After playing my Crest, shoving a Seat to the bottom and seeing my chance to strike, I decide to play the Huntress going for the Killer attack on the Autotread – they might have a Salvo, which would be unfortunate, but this is my best opportunity to take out this Autotread before it wrecks my board. They do not and the pesky Sentinel goes down. On their turn, they poke in for 2 before playing and decimating an Emblem, playing the Elemental, and shipping it back.
Back on my turn, I take a very quick glance at my void before playing a Shadowlands Guide to bring back my now 0-cost Shoaldredger and following up with a Spitefeeder. Now that’s a way to stabilise the board. On their turn, Slepher starts by attacking with everything: I put the Shadowlands Guide in front of the Grenadin because it’s already done its job, and the Shoaldredger in front of the Ash Elemental – even if they use a Torch to remove it post-combat they are still in a terrible spot. I decide not to block with the Spitefeeder because if I do end up drawing a Purveyor next turn, I can start putting them on the backfoot instead. As it turns out, it’s a Blazing Salvo into a Rampage onto the Ash Elemental, which is probably even better for me since that leaves them pretty much completely out of gas.
I draw a Jotun Hurler on my turn, use the Snowball to pick off the Drone, and put the Hurler itself away for a Haunting Scream since I do have a pretty stacked void that includes a Purveyor. They do have a Yeti Pioneer, which might be kind of scary…if I wasn’t a giant luck-sack and flipped another 0-cost Shoaldredger right off the top. Yikes. Opting to take the greedier line, I decide to fire off my 2nd Sporefolk, just to get a very nice and juicy void for next turn, which also had the added bonus of flipping a Felrauk and forcing Slepher to pitch the last card in their hand. They are a stronger man than me because I would be completely flipping out right now at my opponent’s luck. They have a post-combat Grenadin Drone, but on my turn, I play the Haunting Scream and attack with everything for exactly lethal. Can’t say that was a particularly nuanced game, unfortunately; I just got really lucky. >.<
Game 2:
My opening 7 includes a Crest, an Insignia, a Chairman’s Contract, 2 Huntresses, a Felrauk, and a Shadowlands Guide; with only the Contract to trigger self-discard, as with Hand 1 of Game 1, the hand is just too clunky and slow. My 2nd 7 has a Felrauk, a Banner, a Painting, a Shoaldredger, a Devour, a Lightning Sprite and a Darkwater Vines. Still a little slow, but hopefully this Vines can stall them out, so I keep it. They once again lead with Turn 1 Fire Sigil and Oni Ronin, whereas I go for the Darkwater Vines, hoping it sticks around for undepleted Banners. They run the Oni Ronin into my Vines to knock off Regen, and then follow up with a Yeti Pioneer. Perfect! I was worried it would be a Coin followed by a Patrol, but this way, I still have Darkwater Vines to block and sacrifice to Devour, which is…exactly what happened. Following that, they play an Impatient Pyromage into 2 Oni Ronins, a 2/1 one and a 3/2 one, and an Oni Patrol. That is far too many units; please stop.
On my turn, I play a Huntress to take out the Pioneer – the last thing I need right now is for them to keeping dumping out their hand before I can get set-up, and plunder away 1 of 2 Smugglers – right now, I’m only looking for Permafrost. Since I plan on Permafrosting whatever big thing they draw anyways, the 3/2 Oni Ronin therefore becomes less of a priority to take out than Pioneer. On their turn, they attack for 10 and play and decimate an Emblem for an Elemental, which they play before passing. I go for Lightning Sprite, discarding and therefore playing Felrauk just to put out the maximum number of bodies on the board. On their turn, they attack with all the 3-strength unit: I block the Sprite on the Ash Elemental and the Felrauk on the Ronin, letting the only 3/2 without additional text through. Post-combat, they play a 4/3 Pyroknight and pass.
I decide to go for a 4-cost Shoaldredger here since Slepher still only has 3 power, which means they won’t be able to ultimate the Pyroknight just yet; that means if they plan on pushing past my Shoaldredger, they better come packing some burn spells that then hopefully aren’t going at my face. I then play a Crest to put the Insignia on top to the bottom. They attack with everything, dropping me down to 8 as I block the Pyroknight, but thankfully don’t have anything to follow that up with. On my turn, it’s one of the rare instances where I have this much power in play, so I use the Smuggler to grab the Champion from my market. I then play a Sporefolk which flips over and plays a Felrauk, forcing Slepher to pitch a Sigil. Is that what we call…stabilised? As such, I choose to crack in for 7 with Shoaldredger and pass. On their turn, they play a 4/3 Oni Ronin, and with poor attacks, send it back; on my turn, I slam down the Champion and just pass; I should have attacked with Shoaldredger here since it’s perfectly fine for me if they decide they want to double-block and trade – I have the advantage now and should be pressing it.
On their turn, they simply draw and pass. I draw a Shadowlands Guide and play it to bring back Darkwater Vines before playing a Sporefolk, and once again flipping over a Felrauk, causing them to discard a Fire Conjuring. Man, I’m getting extremely fortunate with the Felrauk flips this match. Here, I choose to just attack with the Champion since it just puts them dead next turn, and I have no idea how Mono Fire is going to deal with the deluge of units on my board. They play and decimate an Emblem in order to have a card to pitch to Jekk to take out my 2 Felrauks, but unfortunately that doesn’t save them from my flying Champion, which attacks the next turn for lethal. Slepher got off to a blisteringly fast start against me, but fortunately they didn’t have much gas following that, and I managed to stabilise. We might be an aggressive deck, but against similarly aggressive decks, we do have some semblance of longevity and late-game burst that they don’t quite have.
Match 3: (VS Essarefess) (Expedition)
Game 1:
I keep an opening hand with 2 Vanguards, a Justice Sigil, a Time Sigil, an AP Seat, 2 Moonstone Vanguards, a Deathwing and a Merchant. No interaction, but otherwise a solid hand; since I’m on the draw, hopefully I can find a couple of interactive pieces. They play a depleted Cylix and pass whilst I draw a Combrei Seat; learning from last time thankfully, I decide to pledge one of my Vanguards to guarantee my playing of the other one. They then fate a Xultan Arbalest, and I’m very intruiged to see what I’m up against. They then drop a Stonescar Painting into a Rust Grafter; I’m guessing they’re on some kind of Valkyries Armory build? I play a Seat of Vengeance and ship it back. They play a depleted Seat of Glory, poke in for 2 and ship it back; I draw and play my Deathwing. Though I was off being generally confused by their deck, given that I know they have an Arbalest in hand, and since battle skills don’t much matter to relic weapons, I should have gone for the Merchant and grabbed the Reality Warden, who is a giant roadblock of a unit against the relic weapon decks. Darnit.
SRFS plays a Seek Power followed by a Lynax, Moltenwing before passing it back to me; now the decision to play that Deathwing over the Merchant is coming back to bite me real hard, especially with no removal for the Lynax in sight. Fortunately I topdeck an Exploit, and seeing a Deathwing or the Arbalest in hand, I opt to take the Arbalest so that they don’t completely mow over me; I decide to plunder away my Makto to find a 2nd Shadow source, but no dice. (Also, I tried Makto for this one match and immediately regretted my life choices; it’s a terrible fit for Kerendon.) They play a Cylix into a Trove into a warped Deathwing off the top; not ideal, but Valkyries have a tendency to high roll. Can’t be helped. When it comes back to me, I play a Sigil and drop the Vanguard; if they’re going to give Deadly to a weapon, at least I’m hoping they burn it on the Vanguard instead of the Warden down the line. On their turn, they play a Shadow Sigil before activating the Grafter and plopping out the Deathwing we knew about. Since it’s closed decklists and all, just to err on the safe side, come my turn, I Exploit and am faced with a Decay buffed Deathwing, a Speaking Circle and a Seek Power: since I can’t break through the absolute glut of Deadly blockers on their side at present to pressure a site, I elect to take the Speaking Circle. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to get past this absolute fortress of blockers since I can’t clear them out with KTE. I could try and go for a Merchant/Equalize play, but that seems like a dangerous proposition against a deck running numerous relic weapons.
I end up plundering away one of my Merchants to hit the power drop, and go into the market with the other one and pulling out Svetya – if we’re going to be stalled out here, I hope to at least try and make my units as big and as difficult for them to deal with as possible. They play the Seek Power and Deathwing we knew about before dropping a Fire Sigil and passing; when it comes back to me, I play a Svetya followed by a Justice Symbol – now to not have this unit removed, please. I pass, then they draw and pass. Then I draw and play a Justice Sigil, and am left with a KTE in hand. Feeling good about the buffs of all my units, at this juncture I choose to attack with my Vanguard, which at first glance probably makes absolutely no sense. Here is my reasoning: I have given +3/+3 to all of my units, and I have a KTE in hand to find those massive units in short order. That means I need to start whittling away at their board because outside of Edict of Makkar, I can’t deal with those Deathwings at all. At least if I attack, I still get a card off my Vanguard, and that’s what happens as it trades with a Deathwing. I draw an Enter off my Vanguard, and elect to go for the Enter this turn and having a bigger KTE next turn. Am I learning anything from the last time this situation popped up in the Expedition TNE? Absolutely not. On the other hand, however, I have not seen hand attack out of them yet; since they are a more Rakano-leaning build of the deck, I hope that isn’t the case and I’ll be able to KTE for 10 next turn.
Unfortunately, SRFS plays a Lynax before Warping their Deadly, Lifesteal, Heavy Artillery off the top, using the Lynax triggers to take out the 2 fliers before taking out Svetya with the weapon itself. So glad I played greedily now. They then proceed to attack me for 10 and put me down to a very precarious 9. C’mon, some good units off the top please with my KTE. I grab a pair of Dianas and a Winchest Merchant just to make sure I have plenty of fliers and recoup a little bit of life so I don’t just die to the Raildriver alongside the Lynax triggers next turn. Having drawn a Diana and a Vanguard off the 1st 2 Dianas triggers, alongside the Maeve I still have in my hand, I don’t feel a need to access my market again. Svetya has done her job. Now let’s flip this game around. On their turn, they attack with both Deathwings, and knowing I have plenty more threats in hand, I’m fine trading a Merchant and Diana for them, even if it’s not the most-efficient. Though they are now at 40 life, so that’s plenty of time for them to find an answer to eventually kill me with. They play the Raildriver on the Lynax, and use the triggers to kill my 2nd Diana. Fortunately, that means they do not have that weapon to kill my Maeve, which I play followed by my 3rd Diana and a Justice Symbol. There is however still the distinct possibility of just taking a huge chunk of damage to the face at any given point, so I need to be careful whilst pressuring them to make sure I still have enough blockers that they can’t chip in, even if I’m very favoured to win this race.
They play an Arach, Razorshaper, which is rather interesting – I suppose it’s more for buffing the weapons rather than spitting out a huge board of Grenadins – followed by a Treasury Gate, which is an unbelievably spicy meatball. Hot. But now I really need to start pressuring them, otherwise this Gate is going to spiral out of control fast. I play a Seek Power for a Shadow Sigil (shockingly, I still don’t have double Shadow influence at this point yet), and I deploy my Makto and a Vanguard. There was the option to attack with the 6/8 Diana, but considering how high their life total is right now, I feel like I need to bide my time a little since they’ll easily let it through and crack back for more. On their turn, they warp a Deathwing off the top – at least all 4 are accounted for now – play a Rakano Cylix into a Trove and deploy a Battlemaster Kitaxius. They then warp another Heavy Artillery off the top – joy – deal 8 damage to my face with the Lynax triggers and take out my Diana before she can use her ultimate. Fair’s fair.
Unfortunately, I am now just dead to the Raildriver that they have in hand, so I need to find some way to gain life stat. I play my Makto and draw into an Alchemist. Nope. I attack with Vanguard which they are quick to throw the Razorbot in front of and draw into a Seat; nope. I did however miss plundering my power with Alchemist to grab a Trove and try to draw into Diana. Ultimately, it didn’t make a difference as they played a 3rd Lynax before playing their Raildriver and smacking for lethal in the face with Lynax triggers, even if I had a buff from Diana. I think in that tail end of the game I set myself up pretty well, but sometimes you just don’t find the removal spells you’re looking for, and there’s nothing you can do about that. Also, yes, that game was just as exhausting to play for the both of us as it was for me to write and for you to read. Dear gosh.
Game 2:
My opening hand does contain only Argenport cards and only Argenport producing power, but considering that I have multiple cards that require double time and I am on the play this game, this is probably not a hand that I can keep. My second 7 has a Justice Symbol, a Painting, a Makto, a Deathwing, an SAA, a Merchant and a KTE. Now I can only cast 1 thing in my hand, and I’m completely screwed if I don’t draw any power. Unfortunately, the hand is too dicey to keep and I take the mulligan to 6. My 6 contains a Seat of Vengeance, an Argenport Cylix, a Shadow Sigil, a Justice Sigil, an Enter, and a KTE. SRFS, please proceed to not do anything for the first 5 turns: that would be great. We both open with depleted Argenport Cylices Turn 1, and on Turn 1 I play the Seat and pass. They play a Seat of Glory into a Watchwing Support – now, I haven’t seen this card in constructed too much, but from my experience in Limited this card completely slaps. So…I’ve got to be careful. On my turn, I play an Enter just to draw 2 Justice Sigils and ship it on back; they play a Seat of Vengeance followed by a Treasury Gate. **sigh** Even if I draw the SAA, I still can’t cast it. Darn it. XD
It comes back to me, and I draw a 2nd Makto. Maybe I can just kill them with fliers? Possibly? But for now, I just have to plop down a Justice Sigil and pass it right back. They play a Seat, a Kitaxius, and a pair of Seek Powers and pass it back to me. Rather ominous, not going to lie; I wonder what they’re setting up for. I draw, play my first Makto and pass it back. They have a Heavy Artillery to take out the Makto which makes me moderately sad as they whack in for 3, but fortunately I have a KTE to wipe up their board and deploy the Makto right back onto mine. However, they have a massive 10/11 Xultan Arbalest – which also makes a similarly sized unit, I’ll have you note – to blow up my Makto again and leave me in a precarious position. I play out my 2nd Makto and Edict the massive Minotaur on the board – could have possibly gone for the KTE here instead, but in this iteration, I don’t have any unit bigger than a 5/5 anyways.
The Makto predictably gets eaten by the Arbalest, and they follow up with a Steyer’s Tower and a 2nd Treasury Gate – dear god. I follow up with a Deathwing and just pass; in hindsight, knowing that they’re probably going to go for the Curfew Enforcement means that I should have probably held the Deathwing in hand since the excess Overwhelm Damage is coming straight for my face. I was sort of right, as it turns out they have a Spectral Scythe instead that bypass the units entirely and go straight for my face. Even though I have a KTE in hand to clear their board, I can’t deal enough damage to take out the relic weapon, so I just scoop there. Don’t think any lines of play would have made a difference in that position, unfortunately. XD
Match 4: (VS mistermath314) (Throne) (https://www.twitch.tv/mistermath314)
Game 1:
I mulligan my opening hand with only 1 power, and I keep my 2nd hand with 2 Insignias, a Darkwater Vines, 2 Shadowlands Guide, a Blight Pass Smuggler and a Shoaldredger. It’s not a particularly good hand, let’s be perfectly honest, but since I’m on the draw, hopefully I can pick up another source of discard so that I can get the engine going, and I don’t think going down to 6 will make this hand better. They go Turn 1 Fire Sigil into Oni Ronin, and with the Darkwater Vines in hand, I’m getting some serious déjà vu. I play my Vines and pass; they opt to play a Passionate Stonehammer but not attack with the Ronin. On my turn, I attack with my Vines, which they opt not to block, so that I can trigger the Gustrider I drew – I draw a Chairman’s Contract and a Lightning Sprite, and elect to pitch a Shoaldredger and a Guide. There is an argument to keeping the 2nd Shadowlands Guide and pitching Purveyor since the odds that my 1 drops at present will end up in the void are…not slim, but the power ceiling on Purveyor feels too good to pass up, even if I don’t have the power to play it at present. They Torch my Gustrider and elect to activate the Berserk on Stonehammer, getting in for 6; post-combat, they deploy a Oni Patrol post-combat.
Back on my turn, I deploy a Lightning Sprite since the Stonehammer is forced to attack into me anyways, and I’m fine with forcing them to 2-for-1 themselves here whilst I get set up. However, they end up exhausting the Stonehammer for a Thunder of Wings instead, and after some consideration, I opt to block with the Sprite, which in hindsight was rather poor. I have the Shadowlands Guide to get back the Gustrider if it really need be, and I also have a Smuggler in hand to grab Essence Feast, so really, I should have plenty of ways to deal with the flying Dragon – plus, I was at 19, so I think I could afford to take 4 here. On my turn, I play a Chairman’s Contract but hit no units, which means my Shoaldredger is still at 2-cost and can’t be bought back with Guide just yet; instead, I opt to play Smuggler and swap out my Sigil for a Permafrost before passing; I don’t think playing the Purveyor would be particularly helpful since their Patrol can just jump in front of my Purveyor, and that would be a terrible trade. Plus, considering how much burn they have, sticking the buff on the Vines still leaves it quite vulnerable, and I’d rather bring back something different with Shoaldredger and/or save the buff for something with a different battle skill. Here, none of the units they have in play are worth the Permafrost, so even though I’ve taken it, I opt not to use it yet: I’m expecting something along the lines of Jekk/Prism Golem/Milos out of this deck, which would be much better targets.
On their turn, they poke in for 2 in the air, and play a Fire Sigil, a Prism Golem and a 3/2 Oni Ronin. Perfect! On my turn, having just drawn a Felrauk, I play the Permafrost on the Golem and simply pass. They poke in for 2 and pass as well. On my turn, I draw a Painting, and fire off the Purveyor on the Smuggler and Berserk my attack – they easily double-block it with a pair of 2 drops, but Berserking pretty much forced them to do so. This also sets up for my Guide next turn whilst cleaning up their board a little. They attack for 2, and once against just pass. On my turn, I draw a Gustrider, and attack with Vines and Purveyor to trigger Onslaught – the Purveyor trades with their remaining 3/2, but I get to bring back Shoaldredger with the Guide and drop a Felrauk following the Gustrider discard – seems pretty worthwhile to me. On their turn, they play a Waystone, getting the Grenadin to shove into their market with their follow-up Merchant before attacking with Stonehammer, which I block with Gustrider. Perhaps they took a Flash Fire or Obliterate? On my turn, I start by attacking with everything other than the Darkwater Vines – they trade with Felrauk but still take 10. I then play my Vines followed by another Gustrider – out of my 3 options of Contract, Devour and Smuggler, I chose to keep Smuggler. Most likely, I’ll end up marketing for Scream next turn so I can close this game out with Purveyor. It’s not a massive burn spell but a Deheen Blitz, but they scoop when they realise they’re just dead on the crackback.
Game 2:
I once again mulligan a single power hand, and keep my second 7 of a Contract, a Painting, a Seat, a Sporefolk, a Shoaldredger, a Devour and a Lightning Sprite. Good mix of enablers and pay-off. They open with a Turn 1 Infernus and smack my beautiful face for 5, which is…horrifying, but not too tragic. At least they don’t have a 1-drop. I draw and play a Crest, putting the Insignia to the bottom. I think I’m good on power now, deck. They play a Stonehammer and T2, and I play a Sporefolk before passing. They opt to Berserk the Stonehammer to get in for 4, and follow up with a Prism Golem. On my turn, I play an undepleted Seat thanks to the Sigil I drew and deploy my Lightning Sprite; what I should have done is probably done is play the Chairman’s Contract to see if I discarded another unit that would have allowed me to deploy my Sholdredger for even less power, and then decided what to do. On their turn, they play a Waystone and a Milos before attacking – I eat the Stonehammer with Sprite and chump the Golem with Sporefolk, letting them through for 3 and eating a Firebomb; post-combat, they use the Torch to finish the Sprite off. On my turn, I use the Contract to discard another unit and the Firebomb (yay!) so that I can deploy both the Shoaldredger and the Sprite this turn. They opt for just an Oni Ronin before passing back to me without any good attacks.
Back on my turn, I start by activating Sprite, drawing a Vines and pitching the Seat I just drew. I then poke in for 2 – even though I plan to play a Vines followed by a Gustrider post-combat, in case they do have Salvo (I’m not sure if Mono F has 8 market access cards nowadays, but who knows) I don’t want to over-twist my Sprite. Post-combat, I play the Vines and Gustrider, pitching a Sigil and the Hurler. I then Snowball the Oni Ronin and use the Crest I just drew to scout, putting the Darkwater Vines to the bottom. At this point, my void is fairly well-filled, so I’m looking for something with a little more impact to help close out this game. Going back to them, they just play a Grenadin from Waystone before passing. Oh no. On my turn, I twist the Sprite twice before attacking in for 5; since I drew into one naturally, there is no longer a need for me to use Smuggler to grab the Haunting Scream, so I just pass. They play a Pyroknight on their turn before passing; on mine, I play a Spitefeeder before dropping the Purveyor, giving the buff to the Sprite; I should have put the buff on the Gustrider instead, but they definitely don’t have Salvo at this point otherwise they would have used it last turn, so I doubt this punt will matter much. I attack for 17 and put them down to a very precarious 1; on their turn, they draw and scoop. Pretty much the same trajectory for both matches against Mono-Fire – who’d have thought early Shoaldredgers would be so good against them?
Match 5: (VS Essarefess) (Throne)
Game 1:
To avoid another crushing defeat in Expedition, I elect to challenge SRFS in Throne this time because I’m a coward. >.< I mulligan my 1st hand of Shoaldredger, Darkwater Vines, Felrauk, Purveyor, a Crest, a Seat, and a Banner. This is a really borderline hand in my opinion because I’ve got the influence for Felrauk and a Purveyor, but in the end I decide to ship it back because if I don’t find Discard for this Purveyor, I’m screwed. (Oh, how I was going to eat my words in about 30 seconds.) My 2nd hand has 3 Insignias, a Vines, a Hurler, a Guide and a Purveyor – similar composition to the 1st hand and similarly borderline, but this time since my redraw will be to 6, I don’t think it’s worthwhile to go down to 6. So I keep it. I play a T1 Vines and pass; they play a Painting into a Bloodseeker. Oh. My. Gosh. This is going to be a wild match-up. I play a Contract and attack for 2, but they remember the Snowball and elect not to block. They play a Dreamstealer, and internally I am screaming because that is a massive problem for our deck. When it comes back to me, with no targets in the void for Guide, I play out my 2nd Vines and pass, bracing for impact. On their turn, they play a Seat of Cunning and pass, which is rather odd for a Discard deck that’s running Bloodseeker; I guess they have some kind of removal.
Despite that, I play an Insignia followed by my Huntress to go for the killer attack on the Dreamstealer anyways, because YOLO. And also because I really don’t have anyway else to get rid of it; I plunder the Hurler since it doesn’t do much at this juncture. Surprisingly, it happens, and I pass it back. They open their turn with a Tome and attack with the Bloodseeker; I block with both Vines which knocks the Regen off of both of them but takes out the Bloodseeker. Post-combat, they play a Gustrider, pitching a Sigil and a Felrauk; I opt to pitch the Sigil out of my hand. On my turn, I Snowball the Gustrider before attacking in a Vines for 2 and passing; still no 1 drop to buy-back, unfortunately. On their turn, SRFS uses a Know to grab Krull and get back a Dreamstealer on the board – now that’s a nifty interaction with Tome – before playing another Tome and attacking in with Felrauk, whom I block with my Vines. They then play a Gustrider post-combat, pitching the Know’ed Krull and an Elvish Swindler. On my turn, I draw a Huntress and plunder away 1 of 2 Guides since they’re not being particularly helpful right now to try and remove the Dreamstealer. It definitely feels bad giving them such a massive life buffer, but I’ve got to get this Dreamstealer off the board ASAP. On the bright side, their discarding of my deck hit 2 Felrauks, so I am able to rip apart the rest of their hand. Since they are now empty-handed, I attack with my remaining Vines to try and trade with the Gustrider – I am very much aware my library total is getting kind of precarious, so I’d like to kill them ASAP. They don’t end up taking the trade. Post-combat, I play my Guide to buyback a Shoaldredger and pass.
On their turn, they nick the top card of my deck before passing. Aight. On my turn, with a lack of particularly good targets, I put the Purveyor buff on one of the Felrauks to force a chump block, and get in with everything; they chump my massive Felrauk with the Gustrider but still take 17, and I pass. On their turn, they play Socrato, and with 14 cards left in my library, I scoop it up. Close game, as I expect all the games in this matchup to be. :DDD Those Dreamstealers sure are annoying to deal with, however…hopefully they draw less of those?
Game 2:
I’m on the play, and keep an opening hand with 2 Paintings, Devour, Shoaldredger, Sporefolk, Lightning Sprite and Felrauk. Could do with a pinch more power, but I could always snaccrifice the Sporefolk if I really need it. Plus, they’re doing most of the work for me, so hopefully that’ll mean a cheap Shoaldredger crashing the party shortly. We both play power and T1 and pass; I play T2 Sporefolk and pass. They play a T2 Dreamstealer – oh boy, so on my turn, I immediately drop the Huntress I just drew to pluck it off and plunder away the Devour for my 4th power. Perfect! Unfortunately, the next turn they play a Know, grabbing Krull and plopping the Dreamstealer back into play. …rude. XD They then follow up with a Tome before passing. On my turn, even though I know it’s going to trigger Dreamstealer, I play Lightning Sprite and twist, discarding Felrauk – it’s a pinch too much value to pass. I then attack for 3 with Huntress, which they take.
On their turn, they attack with Dreamstealer, which I’m happy to get off the board by blocking with Felrauk; they play a post-combat Gustrider, drawing a Krull and pitching 2 and getting back Dreamstealer again. XD They play a post-combat Socrato, which immediately dies and discards 7 cards from me. I twist my Sprite, drawing and pitching a Hurler, and using the Snowball to kill the Gustrider before twisting once more and attacking for 4. I haven’t seen any snowballs or removal out of their deck yet, so I’m much more comfortable twisting aggressively. Post-combat, I pass, but should have probably played 1 of my Gustriders to try and dig for that elusive Purveyor or Smuggler to try and close out this game before they find too many Tomes. In their turn, they play a Shadowlands Guide, bringing back Darkwater Vines, and pass. *sigh* More blockers. On my turn, I use the Huntress to take out the Dreamstealer, plundering away my Lightning Sprite – better take it now than when it gets really stacked – before attacking for 4. I play both my Gustriders post-combat, and end up keeping the Spitefeeder and the Devour – my train of thought was that I want more evasive threats, but with 3 fliers already on the board and no Purveyor in sight, it would have made more sense to have the removal spell in case they found a Gustrider to block my Sprite.
On their turn, they play a Crest and a Smuggler before passing; I start by attacking for 6 before Devouring one of my Gustriders to draw…2 power before passing. SRFS plays a Haunting Scream for the Swindler, grabbing another Tome before attacking with everything, including spending the Berserk on their Smuggler – I block the Smuggler with Huntress and the Guide with the Shoaldredger – definitely just should have knocked off the Regen of the Vines instead with the Huntress. In any case, this starts a chain reaction of Felrauks where I hit 2 of my Felrauks, causing them to discard, and that hits one of theirs. Felrauk party! Luckily for me, that gives me some blockers for the 2nd attack out of the Smuggler, and I eat it, picking up a 3rd Felrauk. That gives me lethal on board when it comes back round to my turn, but I topdeck the Purveyor anyways, and decide to play it out for the BM. >.< Don’t be like me kids.
Game 3:
Once again, Essarefess graces me with the only Game 3 of the tournament. Maybe I should just be matched up more often against them for better content? I keep a very solid opening hand of Contract, Painting, Banner, Shoaldredger, Spitefeeder, Sporefolk, and Darkwater Vines. Lots of cheap discard and a payoff to boot. We both start with a T1 Painting into Darkwater Vines, and on their turn they play a Banner followed by a Xenan Lifespeaker. Interesting. On my turn, I decide to go for the Spitefeeder and Crest over Sporefolk and Banner since I know that they will also be discarding plenty here, and I’d rather have the evasive threat. I put Devour to the bottom with the scout because I haven’t seen any removal out of them in either game. They play a Lifesteal Whispering Wind followed by an Insignia – here come the Krull shenanigans. On my turn, I play my Chairman’s Contract, the Shoaldredger and the Sporefolk, discarding 2 Felrauks without the influence to play them for free. The pain and horror. Should have gone with the depleted power and subsequently dropped the Sporefolk and Shoaldredger. Sigh. SRFS attacks with Whispering Wind, pitching Socrato before dropping a Smuggler and going rummaging in their market. Probably Haunting Scream for the Swindler they have in their void?
On my turn, I crack in with Shoaldredger to knock the Regen off of their Vines before playing a post-combat Gustrider, ending up with Huntress, Banner and Smuggler in my hand. I opt not to plunder with the Huntress as I play it to take out the Whispering Wind and follow up with a Banner. Again, should have played out the Banner first in case I drew into any Felrauks. As expected, they Haunting Scream for the Swindler, grabbing Tome, and attacking for 3, which I do not block. They end up discarding a Felrauk of mine and discard a Seat from their hand. On my turn, I get in with my 2 fliers and Shoaldredger, and they chump the Shoaldredger with Vines. Post-combat, I play my Smuggler and swap out my Painting for a very easy Scream here. On SRFS’s turn, they start by Know/Krulling – that’s a neat interaction with Lifespeaker, by the way, that I didn’t notice before to avoid taking any damage by taking it right back – and get back a Vines, which doesn’t end up hitting Felrauks from either side. They then attack in with their 1/1 Lifespeaker, which I block with Smuggler – they follow up with a post-combat Gustrider, pitching Krull and a Crest. I’m not going to lie, I thought my Scream was a goner there from a pitched Felrauk. They then play a Crest before passing.
Unfortunately, they now have a flying blocker, which is rather annoying, but we’ll get through it. I play Scream and put the Purveyor buff on the Smuggler before attacking with everything but my 2/1 Vines – they can put their now 3/1 vines and Gustrider or Smuggler in front of my massive Smuggler to double-block it, but everyone else still gets through, which still seems pretty worthwhile to me. They opt to eat the Felrauk with their Vines and chump block the Smuggler twice and take 16, which is not a line I would have taken. They’ve already seen Snowballs out of me, not to mention I could simply topdeck a Purveyor, so leaving the 23/4 on board seems a little dubious to me. On their turn, they Know/Krull for a Smuggler and grab a Shadow Etchings and exhaust the Smuggler, and at this point, I am very confused and/or worried about what’s happening. They grab a Krull from the market and buyback a Socrato, which, even discarding 7 cards from me, isn’t quite enough to empty my deck. I draw and simply attack with everything for lethal. Geez, Essarefess is truly the go-to person if you’re looking for some absolutely baller games.
Final thoughts:
Those were all the games I had the opportunity to play in February, and colacoma ended up defending their title as the Ladder Champion for what I believe is the 4th month in a row. I had a fantastic time playing in the Ladder, of course – everyone I faced has been extremely friendly and chill – and I definitely plan on making a run for the crown in March. Got to get that sweet prize, of course. Whilst it’s less structured of a tournament than that of the TNE or TNT tournaments, if you like to play good Eternal against some fantastic players in a casual environment, this might be what you’re looking for. You might play 1 match, you might play 20, it doesn’t matter; it’s just all about having fun.
I would also like to clarify since it was something that was brought up in a late-night, partially drunk discussion some time ago: I am not a very good Eternal player, despite my mystical luck-sack topdecks and ability to spike the occasional tournament. My deck-building choices are questionable at best, and I’ve got all my spectators burying their heads in their hands whenever they happen to catch me in-client. That being said, I do think I am capable of improvement, and reviewing my individual card choices and lines of my play hopefully will me, as well as you readers, become better players. 🙂
Which line do you think I have taken? Is there that one card that’s perfect for the deck that I somehow have completely glossed over? You’ll probably be able to find me on Twitter @stormguard798 or lurking in the FE, TEJ or Misplay Discords. I say probably because there’s a non-zero chance that I might end up dead behind the bookshelf on Polus after Parm adds all the inevitable new players to the Misplay Ladder following the publication of this article, and takes revenge for all the extra work I’ve created for him. >.< And of course, if you have any feedback for the articles in general, please let me know. Until next time! 🙂
Careful Considerations - Ramblings of an Aspiring Azorius Lawmage 