Eternal Card Game Salty Brew - Cold Hunt Starter |
- Salty Brew - Cold Hunt Starter
- A new Sealed League begins tomorrow for Chapter 61: Final Preparations! Everyone who participates will earn this premium cardback!
- More thoughts on Eternal post set 12
- What is the purpose of rank decay?
- Fair Exchange Changed?
- Announcing the Eternal Hybrid Series starting next year
- Eternal Card Game Attack/Health Unit Matrix
- What a miserable month in Throne.
- The queue times...
- Chest Upgrades
- TNE Team Challenge #3 (Team Unified Throne) is tomorrow at 7p EST - $75 to the winner
- What card/mechanic does this?
- Helena, Skyguide hmmmmm
| Salty Brew - Cold Hunt Starter Posted: 30 Nov 2021 11:40 PM PST
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| Posted: 30 Nov 2021 10:01 AM PST
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| More thoughts on Eternal post set 12 Posted: 30 Nov 2021 03:56 PM PST So, more stream of consciousness, now after painstakingly getting expedition masters (UGH!). So... Expedition makes me appreciate the things we have in throne: full stop. I believe the current state of expedition was best described by LightsOutAce, and while this isn't verbatim, it's the idea that current expedition is sort of like taking a time machine back to set 3 Eternal--no markets, multiple flavors of fire aggro, hard control is viable (oof), and so on. He's absolutely correct. What he didn't say was that this is the reason the ETS had sideboards (before merchants were invented). Namely in that...ladder play prior to markets was not a particularly enjoyable experience IMO. Why? Because when you have a blind spot in a matchup, the FeelsBads from that blind spot are very sharp. "Oops, my elysian heroes deck decided to run with permafrost and trials and tribulations. Guess I just lose on the spot to Helena! Oh, I cut trials and tribulations for mandatory retirement? Looks like I just get run down by aggro, LUL". I'm not saying to buff elysian heroes (dear lord, no), but that's just one example. It's just more the matchup lottery, hitting the blind spots without recourse, and so on that makes current expedition ladder feel so frustrating. The difference between throne and expedition for me, isn't so much that "oh, the power level is lower", with worse fixing, lighter influence, etc., but rather, the lack of some fundamental interactive cards that exist to plug a hole that would otherwise make a game go sideways in a hurry. I'll go over some examples. Running into JPS unitless really made me appreciate Silverblade Menace that much more: so, I was on Rakano aggro/mid, and ran into Phoenix (congrats on worlds qualification!) on JPS HARD control. How hard? Oops all sweepers hard. Defiance, chloric mix, auren condemnation, wisdom, and then...how many sweepers would you like? Saloon massacre, vara's authority, nothing remains, harsh rule. You want to play units? Cute, your board's wiped. And wiped again. And a third time. No, really, I meant it--if it's on the board, it's dead! Oh, is that an aegis unit? Cute, here's my duelist's blade. Oh, I meant my Stormhalt Plating. Now, while I appreciate that there's an environment in which such a strategy can exist (to the point that I'm wondering if it can be made to work in throne by adding some just desserts, Jennev merchant package, and so on), it also makes me appreciate silverblade menace so much. Not necessarily because it's a card that says "oops you're dead, LUL", but because it opens up another attack vector against these types of decks, that needs to be respected in its own unique way by using removal that may otherwise be suboptimal (E.G. just desserts), forcing cuts elsewhere that opens up more conventional attack opportunities, leading to more meaningful games. Again, I don't hate this deck--in fact, I very much appreciate that Phoenix brewed it up. But it also makes me appreciate the counterplay that much more, even if some people, including LightsOutAce himself, may have a particular distaste to some of it. I for one have been both on the giving end of silverblade menace ("Oh, your combrei relics stabilized the board at 13 life? That's unfortunate--you have 14 spells in the void. Winged Justice ^_^"), and on the receiving end (2x dome you for 7, untap, swing for 6 in the air, GG). And if it were up to me, I'd like to see similar effects in fire as well. Playing elysian heroes made me really appreciate equivocate, and how it basically flipped elysian from a joke of a faction to a respectable one, power base permitting: Honorable mention to Jotun Hurler so, grinded to master using elysian heroes, but man, it felt like Rakano just had me on farm. Crownwatch Paladin with a gemblazer cannon? Huge problem. Leaning on permafrost? Helena sends her regards. No trials/tribulations maindeck? Enjoy being on the draw vs. league explorer. Jotun Hurler and equivocate do so much to make elysian feel good to play (power base permitting)--and playing it in expedition really highlights some vital cards we might take for granted. Playing Hooru? Enjoy being unable to HALT ambassador: so, I think Xultan ambassador is a classic example of a 2-cost baneslayer angel, from Patrick Sullivan's famous rant (the watch is off), and how a baneslayer angel has a much higher degree of variance in its effectiveness--you play it, it gets removed immediately, and you're behind, or it sticks, and you just completely run away with the game. Here's why I think that's not always an upside, however: because if you're against said card, in this case, Xultan Ambassador, it feels awful sitting across from it just watching your opponent draw 30 cards more than you, because diminish doesn't answer it. Defiance doesn't answer it (unless the opponent is silly enough to red-zone this thing). Permafrost doesn't answer it. Jotun Hurler (once again, such a vital card to a healthy metagame IMO) and Valkyrie Enforcer? Oops, not in this expedition. Again, while drawing a zillion cards from an unanswered 1/1 feels good, the opposite end of the spectrum--watching your opponent draw a zillion cards with you having zero recourse, feels miserable. This isn't a card that I think needs a nerf, but rather, another example of a card that so vividly highlights the necessity of interaction that lines up with the threats. One other thing that I do think needs to be addressed, though... I am really not a fan of 2-cost baneslayers. We've all heard the phrase "bolt the bird" (or torch the initiate). However, there are certain cards in this game that can run away with it despite being fairly low cost far more than an initiate. That is, tails I lose 1 power on your 1-cost removal for my 2-cost baneslayer, heads I run away with the game. Cards like Kira Ascending (at 4J+), whispering wind, blackhall warleader (to a smaller extent), teacher of humility (needed a nerf to unplayability), Wump and Mizo (utterly absurd in how much better it is than the rest of the cycle--baby Ironthorn was nerfed while this monstrosity got to stick around in its original state?), and now, Xultan Ambassador joins that rogues gallery. Again, these cards really make me appreciate Valkyrie Enforcer in particular, and I think Pesky Seedling might warrant another look, but oh, what I wouldn't give for something more on the enforcer level. Dragons: why are they so SMALL in Eternal? So, something that I remember about Magic: the Gathering at one point, at least, is that WotC had the idea of dragons getting a push on cool factor. If they were other units, they might cost 1 more, but because they're red dragons, they cost 1 less than they otherwise would. It made for some exciting creature designs, though god knows how many were actually viable. However, in Eternal, dragons so rarely excite me. And I think a large contributor to that is that they're just so small for their size. For instance, a Crimson Firemaw is a 5/4 flying for 4, whereas midnight gale is a 4/4 flyer for 3, both with upside. Chigranth is a 5/4 flyer for 5. Solux and eclipse dragons are 4/4 flying chargers for 5--not to mention--shouldn't Solux get a size bonus for being a midrange time unit? Isn't time the faction of overstatted midrange fatsos? Kenna Uncontained is a 4/5 flyer for 4 with killer, but still, barely passing the vanilla test. Acantha starts off as a base 2/1, teething whelp is a 2/2 for 2 without flying, and there's only a single 3-cost dragon in the game. It's a 3/1 flying reckless for 3. I'm not sure what DIrewolf has against dragons, but...dragons in Eternal just seem tiny. I'd really love to see a +1/+1 buff across the board for every dragon in the game, and see how the chips fall. I honestly don't think it'd have too big of a meta shakeup aside from Skycrag Kenna being a little better at chomping on a few things she currently doesn't (Rolant, I guess?). Argenport Midrange's secret weapon to card advantage: so, this might be considered a bit of a gimmick by some, but, here goes...we all know that one of the weaknesses AP mid has is that in addition to not really having great reach (secret passage from the market!), if it runs dry on cards, it really runs dry--usually because justice is atrocious at drawing cards (Kira being the exception). Well, we also know that if you resolve D'angolo's might for 5+ cards, you usually win the game. However, the hard part about that, of course, sticking a unit with 5+ attack. They're expensive, they have giant targets on their heads, your opponent really wants to remove them, and so on. Generally, big bodies have big price tags to match, because they'd be busted if they didn't. And even when they're expensive, they can still be nerfed hard. Just ask Davia! However, what if I told you that you could play a card that triggers D'angolo's might for not 6, not 7, but eight cards, and it only costs...not 4, not 3, but two power? And not only that, it's super hard to interact with--to the point that usually, your opponent can't even click on it, so their only recourse is sweepers. And if they play sweepers, it even has aegis, so it takes two sweepers to do away with it! What magical and busted card am I talking about? Why, Secret Weapon, of course! It's an 8J 8/8 aegis with shift 2! What's the catch? Well, whenever an opponent plays a unit, it takes one turn longer to emerge. But here's the thing...who cares? As far as A+B = win the game goes, I have to imagine that D'angolo might for 8 cards is pretty high up on that list. And, for all you filthy evenhanded golem degenerates like myself (seriously, DWD, nerf the damn golem already), both Secret Weapon and D'angolo might cost 8 and 6 power, respectively, so, you can slot them into your evenhanded decks to your heart's content. A few caveats, though: one--baby Vara eats your secret weapon's aegis, so that's a nonbo. And two: your own Nothing Remains will blow up your secret weapon through its aegis. Of course, inb4 the next throne patch has a "buff" to secret weapon to make it a 7-cost 7/7 (instead of, you know, addressing the root cause of the problem). Now, onto other throne topics. Is DWD just abandoning throne? So, talking with others about throne, while I understand that some people prefer that non-rotating formats just get forgotten (E.G. Pro Tour magic is Standard + Draft, so some people contend that Eternal ECQs should be expedition + draft), having played both formats, I really think that throne is the superior format because bad play patterns (unitless control, uninteractive fast combo, etc.) can be addressed with a few cards that stay in the format forever. However, lately, it seems DWD has neglected throne entirely. Cylix factions haven't received a single new dual since set 9 (25% of the game's lifetime ago), and have had cylixes nerfed to being worse than paintings, banners, and maybe crests depending on who you ask. 2-faction vs. 3-faction balance is completely out of tune (the last throne ECQ was completely 2F besides Almost and a pair of overloader combo decks), nerfs from half the game's lifetime ago hamstring entire factions (Rakano's market access, Rizahn, Heart of the Vault), various mechanics that simply have too few constructed-worthy cards in general to build around (E.G. imbue, pledge, mastery, nightfall to name a few), and so on. In the meantime, the last batch of balance changes were utterly bewildering in how off-base they were (Tasbu the Forbidden 6/6 -> 6/4, Stonescar smuggler 3/2 -> 2/2, Coveted Gemstone activation cost 2 -> 3, Alarming Findings 7 -> 8 cost). Shadow Icaria in the patch before then going from 6 to 7 cost (basically a ban), while cards like Wump and Mizo or Waxing Moon get to remain in their frustratingly pushed state. Are we really to believe that Icaria First Reaper was more powerful than Wump and Mizo? Bulletshaper as a 2/3 for 2? Crownwatch Press-Gang as a 3/3 for 4? (I think it'd be worth trying as a 2/2 for 4JJ). I feel like throne can be a format in which people could play decks that would otherwise be impossible, owing to synergies between cards from disparate sets. However, DWD really seems to neglect it, time and again. Expedition gets new mechanics and new cards, and throne gets...nerfs. DWD, if you don't want to take the time to improve this format, can the community at least send a list of changes, and all it will take is going into the file and carrying them out? Honestly, it's just so frustrating at this point. Future opportunities with contract and inscribe alike: so, while I think both mechanics are completely stellar (seriously, I love how they play), one thing that I think contract could have been used for is the ability to select more than one mode on modal cards. For instance, consider the following two cards: Tooth and Nail--7TT spell. Search your deck for any two units, or play two units from your hand. Contract 7: do both. Promise of Power: 5SSS spell: Draw 5 cards and lose 5 life, or play a nightmare from your hand with atk and health equal to the number of cards in your hand. Contract 6: do both. Or maybe, using contract to mimic buyback. Something like: Barriers of Tranquility: 1JP fast spell--draw a card and gain 1 armor. Contract 3: redraw Barriers of Tranquility from your void if your debt isn't more than your maximum power. With inscribe, something that I find frustrates me is that like plunder, the number of efficient, throne-playable cards with it is staggeringly low. Basically, I think it's 3 cards for throne right now--plating, fear, and serpent hive. While for plunder, we have what...dazzle, desert alchemist, exploit, and maveloft huntress? Would it kill anyone to give eager deputy and passionate stonehammer 1 point of health? (Well, opponents maybe, I suppose). In my opinion, and this might sound controversial, but: I don't think modality that says "you are allowed to play the game" should have a cost in terms of power budget. Pledge was well-received. Plunder was received even better. And inscribe, I think, has been received better still. These are fantastic mechanics. Can we please see more of them on cards that would be compelling without these aspects? These "modal power" cards seem to be absolutely beloved. Dear DWD: please give us more of a good thing. Okay, so that's all I got for this post. Feel free to discuss. [link] [comments] | ||
| What is the purpose of rank decay? Posted: 30 Nov 2021 04:53 AM PST I know that it's supposed to keep people playing, make sure it's deserved, etc. But has anyone ever questioned these things? Just because MTGA and HS do it, does not make it a good idea -- in fact it probably makes it a bad idea. What does it really aim to accomplish, and is it even a net positive? Ranking up is mostly a matter of time investment, not even skill, as I've calculated in a previous post, so it only seems to be there to waste people's time. Case in point, I am currently bronze in both throne and expedition because I haven't had much time to play recently. I picked up a deck yesterday in expedition and proceeded to play against a bunch of what were basically draft decks. This was both a waste of time for me, who wanted to play against real decks and see what the metagame is like, and almost certainly a terrible experience for my opponents who got destroyed by cards they don't have access to. Now I again have lost the desire to play because I can't have competitive opponents, while these (probably newer) players are probably frustrated to be so unfairly matched. We know already there must be some kind of hidden MMR. Can't there be a reasonable system where if your MMR is greater than X, you can't get relegated below rank Y? [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 30 Nov 2021 01:28 PM PST Does anybody know if Fair Exchange was changed at some point to play the unit exhausted when cast while declaring a block? I ask because I don't believe it used to function this way. I thought I remembered running a Fair Exchange market for the purposes of ambushing either Zadia, Revered Outcast or Skylord Tolek into play, making a favorable block, and then attacking with them to achieve mastery. Was it not intended to work that way from the start and if so, what is the logic behind the card now playing the unit exhausted and ruining the whole synergy/combo. Really wanted to revisit the deck archetype with the new cards from the set. Decklist if curious about the deck: FORMAT:Throne 2 Accelerated Evolution (Set1 #351) 4 Repel Darkness (Set1115 #4) 4 Re-read (Set6 #153) 4 Trials and Tribulations (Set12 #175) 4 Fair Exchange (Set10 #75) 4 Master Conjurer (Set9 #51) 4 Sodi the Metamorph (Set7 #182) 4 Storm Hex (Set1107 #7) 4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218) 4 Spared Fate (Set12 #106) 4 Albon, Fallen (Set8 #163) 4 Quinn, Master Tracker (Set11 #418) 4 Serpent Hive (Set12 #121) 2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63) 3 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187) 4 Cobalt Monument (Set1 #418) 4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261) 4 Elysian Cylix (Set9 #196) 4 Elysian Insignia (Set7 #178) 4 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63) ---------------MARKET--------------- 1 Auralian Merchant (Set4 #70) 1 Alessi, High Arcanist (Set12 #174) 1 Reality Warden (Set1 #343) 1 Zadia, Revered Outcast (Set8 #194) 1 Passage of Eons (Set1001 #3) [link] [comments] | ||
| Announcing the Eternal Hybrid Series starting next year Posted: 29 Nov 2021 09:00 PM PST the eternal hybrid series is a series of tournaments in a multitude of formats where each winner gets a spot in the grand final throne/expedition hybrid tournament with the winner of the whole thing getting 50usd the tournaments are as follows 1/15/22- throne 1/22/22- expedition 1/29/22- cube draft 2/5/22- pauper 2/12/22- gauntlet 2/19/22- throne 2/26/22- expedition 3/5/22- cube draft 3/12/22- peasant 3/19/22- gauntlet 3/26/22- throne 4/2/22- expedition 4/9/22- cube draft 4/16/22- campaign 4/23/22- gauntlet 4/30/22- last chance throne event 5/7/22 grand final gauntlet matches will be done in the match format (each player will do a run of gauntlet in masters and whoever has the highest amount of wins will in the match, if tied another run is done, if still tied match ends in draw unless its a finals match) cube drafts will be done on eternal warcry with the final pools being posted in the EHS discord campaign is a format where only campaign/mini set cards are legal first event is posted here: https://battlefy.com/eternal-hybrid-series/eternal-hybrid-series-1-throne/6190d30342040311bb095cee/info?infoTab=details discord for events is here: https://discord.gg/jXy2XdMKZx edit cause i forgot to mention that each tournament is streamed [link] [comments] | ||
| Eternal Card Game Attack/Health Unit Matrix Posted: 29 Nov 2021 04:08 PM PST
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| What a miserable month in Throne. Posted: 30 Nov 2021 05:53 PM PST Salt incoming, if you just want to comment about how I'm upset then don't bother: Finished off this month in Throne playing against the umpteenth hard control deck, this one playing multiple copies EACH of:
Same colors as Fall to Ruin, Know Thy Enemy, Hailstorm, Saloon Massacre, Malediction, Stray into Shadow.... Why? What need is there for so many sweepers and so many more hard control cards printed every set? It took 18 fucking turns for this player to just sit there with their thumb up their ass wiping the board every single turn just so that they could play two Silverblade Menaces and a Dichro's Ruin on the same turn for an almost instant win. This has been every other game in Throne since Cold Hunt was printed, it's just such a god damn slog. It's not fucking fun to play against, full stop. Win or not, it just isn't fun to play the game. I really tried to stick it out this match, as the particular deck I was playing was even based around my units dying, and it was still just miserable. DWD, please consider players BESIDES hard control and hyperaggro when creating cards for the next set or considering future balance changes, please. Rant over. What a bad taste in my mouth. [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 30 Nov 2021 02:54 AM PST Don't play much ranked anymore and now I remember why, the queue times are enormous, several minutes. Wish I could join up for all formats in one go to keep the waiting down. So you'd choose a deck for each format and then join the first available spot. Would be nice indeed. [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 29 Nov 2021 09:50 PM PST Not sure if this is just bad luck on my part, but since the release of Cold Hunt, I've opened roughly 100 chests and none of them have upgraded (i.e. bronze -> silver; silver - > gold; gold -> platinum). I think it's a 1/10 chance a single chest upgrades, so the odds of that are about 0.002%. Did they change the likelihood of upgrades or am I just getting a bad string of luck? P.S. The new set is great; contract is awesome. [link] [comments] | ||
| TNE Team Challenge #3 (Team Unified Throne) is tomorrow at 7p EST - $75 to the winner Posted: 29 Nov 2021 04:58 PM PST
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| Posted: 29 Nov 2021 09:12 AM PST I've just played a gave vs shadow, where a guy kept playing shadow sigil (depleted) and then what looks like "both players discard top 2 cards from their deck" happened. The thing is, he did it even on turn 1, with 0/1 power (thanks to that depleted sigil) but nothing else was played. How is this happening? [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 29 Nov 2021 01:40 PM PST Basically seeing her every other game in Expedition cos obviously she is too good for her cost. What do you guys think so far? My thoughts on her: I think her stats are way too high for 3-cost and she should either be nerfed to maybe 3/2 OR her Contract effect should be nerfed to +2/2 if her stats stays the same. Basically she should be an aggro oriented card and not also an insane blocker. Lets discuss :) [link] [comments] |
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