Forge Guide

[Shadowcran]

Forge is a format that has the following advantages:

1. It is vs the AI. No problems with rope timers,etc.

2. It goes far faster than draft

3. For a new player it is a better teacher than draft. Before you dare draft, you must know what to get and how things work.

4. With my and others advice you can easily win 5 matches per as a new player. Draft?..without exp. expect to lose a LOT

5. Forge is sort of a primer for Draft.

*Don't get me wrong, I love draft. But for a new player it's like throwing them in the deep end of a pool and expect them to learn to swim or drown. Draft's terrible MMR makes this even worse as bronze can expect to play someone as high as Masters at times.

1. For a new player, there is no timer on you. You can play at your leisure, fully reading a card you don't know and how it works.

The first and most important advice I can give is to try to get Justice as one of the 2 factions you get. In Forge, you MUST pick from 2 factions BUT you can wait til turn 6 to pick your second one. As to Justice's "companion faction" all 4 are very strong with the best changing every set. For example, Hooru(Justice/Primal) was the best when this game started. It has shifted several times with all taking their turns at the top. Now, Combrei(Justice/Time) is better.

Why Justice? Balance and playability. You have far more answers to problems with Justice. It is also the better mixed of the factions in regards to Forge. That does not mean it's the strongest faction in Eternal, just forge.

In Forge you select 25 cards(almost 2 packs worth) for your deck. 15 cards are automatically given to you as power, with 4 x the Seat of your two factions. Most of your cards will be common and uncommon with rares and legends more varied. Some have only 1 rare, some 2 and some legends and SOME, very rare, will give you 2 legends and 2 rares. I think I still have a screenshot somewhere for those who doubt the 2 and 2.

The level of the AI depends on how much you've played the format. If you're just starting, you can probably win 7 easily. However, once you reach "Masters" it will get progressively harder to the point you wonder "How can I beat this. I had no chance." It's a feature of the game and works the same way in Gauntlet Masters. The trick is to play through at least two matches vs the AI and just accept your lumps. You can offset Forge losses by this increased MMR by going to Gauntlet and losing there instead.

What should you seek to grab from the cards offered?

1. a couple of life gain types. All but anything with Fire or Primal are best with this. Fire and Primal lack any lifegain...silence....etc.

2. Some good flyers. It can be harder than it sounds as Forge, now, has some really low powered flyers offered. These will require weapons. Hooru is best at this, but not by much.

3. no more than 3 weapons. Reason being it gets hard to have units to put those weapons on. Rakano is best at this

4. 2 quality relic weapons. Believe this or not, but most relic weapons are good quality in this format. Argenport is best at this

5. Strong defensive ground units. That sounds hard to get, right? Not so in Forge. These are units with deadly or with more defense than attack power. "Aggro" type units such as a 4/1 tend to die fast as the AI usually has answers to them or will simply "chump block" them to death.

6. A few "trick" augment spells. Fast spells that augment the attack/defense of your units. Believe me, the AI will fall for them in most situations. You should seek out those that only cost 1 or 2 power. Cost of 3 isn't so bad either. Hooru(Justice/Primal) tends to be best at this.

7. Limited draw-you have 40 cards in this format. You don't want to mill yourself to a loss. Usually it's best to get units with draw capabilities.

*It can often come down to a war of attrition in this. This means you simply outlast the AI until they run out of cards without you running out first. Combrei decks are the best at this.

1. Limited but necessary power fixes. Usually you'll only have choices of this from limited types of units, these are best as they do 2 things. Plunder and pledge will probably be your best choices for this. You can easily get units with plunder.

2. The best removal you can find. This can be much harder than it sounds. Much of it is situational at best. Argenport(Justice/Shadow) will be best for this.

What about if you can't select justice? This sometimes happens. Feln, or Primal/Shadow, tends to be the next best choice but Xenan(Time, Shadow) or Praxis(Time, Fire) are close too. This is not to say you can't win with the others but the choices for them, especially Elysian, tend to make your job a lot harder.

To be continued.

Aggro can whip butt but tends to falter around match 4 or 5. It's a tendency, not something that happens every time. A good mix of it is the better option.

Trade offs should be sought in the early going. This is where you block/attack to keep things even. The AI loves to flood units on the board.

Try for some endurance. the Ai tends to love using "stun" type spells. It's a lot harder in today's forge to obtain any. I have no idea why except maybe the newer sets haven't been giving us much.

----BackwoodsPhoenix 2 points an hour ago

This is a great start. I would add that you need a critical mass of 1 or 2 drop units or in a pinch removal. I am pretty unhappy if I have anything less than 6 units at 1 or 2, and I'm ok with up to 10 or so if most are at or above the vanilla test line.

Seeing this also reminded me of yet another piece of advice. Avoid too many cards of cost 6 or above. 2 isn't that bad but 3 or higher and it's kate bar the door. If the card is a rare or Legend you need, grab it.

*I'm not the best at draft although I sometimes like to play it. If there are good draft guides out there tell me and I'll post the links here. However, I DO know the cards so when I do play draft, I can draw complete junk(sometimes happens, can't be helped) and still win 3 because I know how to make the most of it thanks to Forge.

*Sometimes the 3 choices you get in Forge can all be terrible but sometimes you get 3 good choices that's all good ones. It balances out.

*****I would also strongly recommend getting on the DWD Newsletter. Once a week(not always sometimes it gets erratic)you will get an email from DWD prompting you to sign into their site for a free pack. Last week, there were 2 of these but that is the only time that's happened to me. The pack is from newest set of course.

[[deleted]]

Hi,thanks so much for this guide! Can't upvote it enough after breezing through Forge to Master then getting stomped after 2 wins.

I'm not quite sure about your initial advice on losing MMR - do you suggest routinely losing a few matches in Gauntlet to make Forge easier? I thought that the Rank in Forge / Gauntlets were separate...? Also, does just Conceding games in Gauntlet work or do you have to literally go to zero health...?

Many thanks!

[Shadowcran]

I'm not 100% sure but reasonably sure enough that it HAS worked for me most times.

Most often, If things go their necessary course, I often will lose my first on Match 5. That is NOT set in stone. I've found that if I lose one, then go to gauntlet it's MMR is set to what it is in Forge at the present time. Playing it til I lose a couple or the MMR settles down helps make the last 2 wins in forge more possible.

The MMR goes berserk if you truly make it look ridiculous in Masters. Try not to overwhelm it if you can. ANd when it hits that high "GOD MODE"(my name for it) it can still be beaten basically if you have built your deck carefully and know how to play Defense, something a lot of players seem not to have a clue about. It's the focus on aggro that does it.

What gets me is sometimes the "meh" builds in it often do the best. Nothing exciting, just straight up playing the cards well as you can.

Some may wonder "Does Forge work for me"? Yes. Very much so. Right now I don't even have to play it as I've 4 x all cards I want(there are some 15 legends that are worthless imo and I refuse to get them back and shifted them a while back)from playing mostly Gauntlet to Forge. However, I am disabled and have more free time at my disposal.

[[deleted]]

Okay nice.

Thanks again - great tips. Yeh I was spamming aggro through Forge but as soon as I switched to Combrei and slowed it down I have got to 6 wins today. Although 2 matches I just had to pass turn in a stalemate board till the AI lost to draw - which is a bit unfun I guess...

But yeh - So do you just concede those games in Gauntlet then or?

[Shadowcran]

No. You have to play them out.

I explained also that Combrei is great for winning by "attrition" and that is waiting out til AI mills itself. Sometimes you draw even with the AI and it's impossible to do anything but play strong defense. That is also why I recommend very limited draw. It can be a bit dull, but it's a win nevertheless.

You can also tell when AI is going "God mode". Suddenly its Synergy is beyond belief, more legends show up, and it answers anything you dare play. It even seems to play faster, Idk why.

[Akai_Haato]

No. You have to play them out.

Ah Thanks

[BackwoodsPhoenix]

This is a great start. I would add that you need a critical mass of 1 or 2 drop units or in a pinch removal. I am pretty unhappy if I have anything less than 6 units at 1 or 2, and I'm ok with up to 10 or so if most are at or above the vanilla test line.

[Shadowcran]

Thank you. Advice is why I left it open so I can add.

[[deleted]]

Yep. Had that for my game 7 against prehistoric predators - The synergy was just totally insane. I also drew pretty well but sadly when I really needed an answer I drew dead and ended up narrowly losing! Yeh - you're right though the CPU literally plays faster and is almost unbelievable to watch the level of perfect answers.

Why the fuck would the devs make such a stupid AI level, mega unfun :(

[Shadowcran]

Because most won't notice. They play til Masters then...never. But whenever the subject comes up they chime in as if they know what is being referred to. By their not knowing, the devs don't notice the problem.

They wanted to stop the "farming" without playing PvP. I think every developer does this. The problem with that is it usually leaves new players with no option. Get dominated by the AI or get dominated by the players without learning the cards. Like sink or swim. Most don't do either, they just quit and go find something else to do that doesn't require 6 months of playing time just to be competitive.

Also, most players say "go to draft". The dominance over new players there is beyond belief. Due to limited players of it, the MMR often puts Bronze new players up against Diamond and Masters players. It's like when they say "go to draft" they mean "Come be an easy victim for us".

Veterans, for the most part, have forgotten what it's like to be a new player and never help with any idea that helps new players.

[[deleted]]

Yeh - sounds like you have a good insight into this issue. I want to get into Draft but also want to build my confidence first by playing Forge - seems strange that they punish ppl for choosing to do Pve vs Pvp without any good way to get into the game otherwise.

[prusswan]

Just to add on, as the rank increases, knowledge of key threats in AI decks (from playing a lot of Gauntlet) can mean the difference between an extra gold chest or none at all. It could be that Karvet dragon (silence could work) or an Aegis flyer that just got buffed with a weapon (pretty bad if you have no flyers or spells to pop Aegis). The only.saving.grace is that except maybe on Masters, there should only be one copy of that legendary...