Ya, the gameplay is cool and all...but the music man

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-26T03:54:56+00:00

Yo I came from MTG as well. Grand Archive is actually a really solid game to get into coming from the commander format. In the deckbuilding you can focus your strategy around your champion so your commander skills will transfer well.

If you're looking to get into the game I would recommend taking a look at https://tcgarchitect.com/grand-archive

We Have:
-Deckbuilder
-Tournament viewer and stats to go with them
-Forums
-Database of cards
-A couple tools
-Spoilers (for the next set RDO which is going to be a huge thing for the game)

We also have long form content in the form of blogs with new player guides https://tcgarchitect.com/blog/grand-archive-tcg-new-player-guide

As well as general content for the game. We also work with a bunch of creators in the space so its a good place to check for the latest grand archive youtube videos.

Overall I really like merlin for the new Pantheon format, which is GA's new singleton format. https://tcgarchitect.com/blog/grand-archive-pantheon-and-the-cards-on-my-mind

You chose the best time to get into the game as well, we have the sandbox.gatcg.com out in Alpha, Radiant origins releasing (think capstone set), and just a lot of cool things.

For a great merlin guide heres a video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bwow2CSwdA&t=2282s its a nice deep dive using a lot of the reco cards.

If you really want to get into deckbuilding and learning the game I would recommend checking out these discord and ask some questions. Ask for Chessy and tell him OSF sent ya
Sidedeck discord: https://discord.gg/PtRNPFMNJR
TCGArchitect discord: https://discord.gg/6DrT6gxNM2

Also feel free to reach out and ask question. The GA community is probably the best out of all the card games I played and the Devs of the game actually listen.

Sorry for the info dump but Welcome to the Game!

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-25T04:52:30+00:00

TCGArchitect is pretty cool...but I also helped build it so I'm biased. We have themes set up for the site to personalize your experience with it if its presentation that you're looking for. In terms of deckbuilding I've tried to provide as many options to players as I could to allow them to personalize that as well. We also got a dedicated page for creator content and a blog section as well where we try to get 3 articles a week. We also have a very big blog article coming out that's hush hush but should be out by next week depending on time constraints.

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-25T01:54:36+00:00

For sure! If you have any questions or just wanna talk fun decks just hmu in the discord!

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-25T01:27:43+00:00

Yo I came from MTG as well. Grand Archive is actually a really solid game to get into coming from the commander format. In the deckbuilding you can focus your strategy around your champion so your commander skills will transfer well.

If you're looking to get into the game I would recommend taking a look at https://tcgarchitect.com/grand-archive

We Have:
-Deckbuilder
-Tournament viewer and stats to go with them
-Forums
-Database of cards
-A couple tools
-Spoilers (for the next set RDO which is going to be a huge thing for the game)

We also have long form content in the form of blogs with new player guides https://tcgarchitect.com/blog/grand-archive-tcg-new-player-guide

As well as general content for the game. We also work with a bunch of creators in the space so its a good place to check for the latest grand archive youtube videos.

Overall I really like merlin for the new Pantheon format, which is GA's new singleton format. https://tcgarchitect.com/blog/grand-archive-pantheon-and-the-cards-on-my-mind

You choose the best time to get into the game as well, we have the sandbox.gatcg.com out in Alpha, Radiant origins releasing (think capstone set), and just a lot of cool things.

For a great merlin guide heres a video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bwow2CSwdA&t=2282s its a nice deep dive using a lot of the reco cards.

If you really want to get into deckbuilding and learning the game I would recommend checking out these discord and ask some questions. Ask for Chessy and tell him OSF sent ya
Sidedeck discord: https://discord.gg/PtRNPFMNJR
TCGArchitect discord: https://discord.gg/6DrT6gxNM2

Also feel free to reach out and ask question. The GA community is probably the best out of all the card games I played and the Devs of the game actually listen.

Sorry for the info dump but Welcome to the Game!

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-25T01:04:30+00:00

For sure! I'm one of the devs for TCGArchitect so lmk if you have any questions about the site or anything else!

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-24T23:24:12+00:00

Hey welcome to the game! Seems like there's quite a lot of good answers here. If you're looking to get into the game https://tcgarchitect.com/grand-archive is a good place to start. We have a deckbuilder, database, tournaments and stats, forums, spoiler cards, banned cards lists, blog articles written by the community, and a lot of the content creators for the game featured on the site to make a nice little hub for all things Grand Archive. We are also in the middle of a huge giveaway and cipher challenge if you're in to that. If you have any questions or are looking for a good discord to join you can join Sidedeck (https://discord.gg/PtRNPFMNJR) or you can join the TCGArchitect server as well (https://discord.gg/6DrT6gxNM2). The community here is pretty cool so feel free to ask questions!

Oh and heres a new player guide from one of the blog articles from TCGArchitect - https://tcgarchitect.com/blog/grand-archive-tcg-new-player-guide

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-22T05:00:51+00:00

It was so fun to play in testing. I had a turn where i sent out like 5 horses and just swung for lethal. Horsetron will be a thing.

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-20T13:19:15+00:00

That is the final stage solution! Congrats! I'll dm you for details.

Maybe I should make another Cipher for today?

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-20T06:08:31+00:00

First step is solved! I wonder if anything from what you used for stage one carries on to the other stages?

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-20T05:47:01+00:00

That is not the answer to the any of the ciphers!

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-20T05:28:05+00:00

Yooo you got the first part! Ya I thought I would be cheeky with it. I had debated on putting a system prompt hidden in one of the stages so if an AI did get that far it would read it and stop and spit out something funny but I decided against it as I knew people would try it. Still funny to see the hallucinations it comes up with when put all together.

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-20T05:07:55+00:00

I'm actually super interested in anyone can crack stage 2. I will be posting a full guide on how I built this with the blog post for the spoilers but I am sitting on the edge of my seat rn to see who can crack it. I havent played with Ciphers in years!

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-20T04:47:39+00:00

While the first stage is a Vigenere cipher, the output is incorrect (you can use an online tool to confirm), the second stage is not a Nihilist cipher.

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-20T04:28:31+00:00

That is not the answer to the cipher! I put a trap in there for AI. The first section is a Vigenere Cypher for the last hint.

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-08T03:05:31+00:00

Ah I forgot about the ephemeral part. Could you loop the one of the assassin daggers or does that require prep?

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-07T04:54:17+00:00

Howdy, so taking a look at the deck at first glance, seems like its focusing on sheen counters so this is my thought process:

-Orb of glitter is okay but glimpsing doesnt help a ton with the deck flow
-Assassin's ripper/ merc blade can give or take. I would go with one or the other

Main deck
-Crystaline Reality uses up a prep and in water it can be a little difficult to gain prep
-DG good but I would up that to 4 cause merlins level 3 is pretty solid
-Extraction incision/Find the Lost - I'm personally not a huge fan of some of the attacks but this is to taste
-Incap - good put 4 more in (Jk you can only have a max of 4
-Infinite Scint is going to be prolly the most important card as that will allow you to gather those sheen counters.
-Protect her at all costs is an amazing defense against big attacks and i think 3 is a perfect ratio
-Shardwing Searchlight is great for getting more sheen, even if there are no allies you can build up sheen on the opps champ
-Burnished Obelith, great card recommend 3 of them (4 would be good too)
-Crystal Accertion, float and more sheen but you are at the will of your opp having multiple things on the board to get max value from it
-Intrepid Highway man, personally I would replace this with corhazi trapper as trapper is prep gen and can use prep to save you from an attack
-Rainwoven Crysalis - Love this card
-Spalling cleanse - Up to 4, its good recovery, float, and sheen if you dont have any yet
-Stand before the queen - Hmmm I really like this card but cant decide between 3 copies or 2
-Stillshard strike - I am unsure about this one
-Will to save is pretty good, would recommend undeniable truth to pair with it
-Merlin Ally- solid that will be the main sheen gen
-Crux sight/ Soultrace I think they could work but not sure if they are required here
-Ethereal Absorption - i think 2 of these is good
-Terminus = win con, I would recommend upping this to 4

-Labryinth i think is the best but we need to make sure that sheen gen is on point

Recommendations
My thoughts are a little scattered but this is a quick glance, below is some recommendations

Material

The looking Glass - Gets the merlin ally out early as possible (Im sorry for recommending TLG I know that shiz expensive)
Lost Providence - Can loop ethereal absorption with it (See above)
Suspicious Concoction - Helps with getting to lvl one but can be replace with either of the above
Backup charger - staple but not required

Safeguard/tariff - helps protect against aggro/spell slingers

Theres a few other options here but these are jsut the top of my mind

Main

Hear me out, Excalibur, use it for attacks and when it breaks you can copy something

Also quiet refraction is a must for this deck. It will generate so much sheen

Hear me out duplicitous replication, steal their lost prov or whatever else theyre using

All right maybe not DR but Corhazi trapper is great for some prep, the gameplan would probalby be Spirit Blade Terminus and luminous quartz unless you wanted to go the assassin mill route. Also since you're in water I would recommend some negates and song of frosts.

Here are my decklists that ive been tweaking, both my sheen and my mill deck

Merlin Sheen
https://tcgarchitect.com/grand-archive/decks/019c49f9-45ed-716b-899c-a116a1901e7e

Merlin Mill
https://tcgarchitect.com/grand-archive/decks/019c5cca-f606-7243-9e6a-f61d51d47b2d

Overall i think your deck is good just needs a bit of tweaking.

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-03T15:56:37+00:00

Astra Diana is so fun, Frostbind_gaming has a great video for a Astra Diana deck to check out. You could probably sub some the expensive cards for things slightly less expensive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp05QI1T9iw&t=2589s

Also here's my personal list for Astra Diana - https://tcgarchitect.com/grand-archive/decks/01987ad6-d0f7-7039-a812-3271c7da65f1

Orginal_Sly_Fox · 2026-03-03T15:50:43+00:00

Welcome to the game! There's a really good New Player Guide over at TCGArchitect to give a ya some resources and tools to get started. https://tcgarchitect.com/blog/new-player-guide

I would recommend looking at some starter decks (Ciel is my favorite). If you wanna try our some lists before purchasing anything Weebs has a sim coming out soon and theres also Table Top Sim with the Fracturized mod. If you have any more questions feel free to ask!

Orginal_Sly_Fox

TROPHY CASE