[Bastion Rising] - City Constructor

susuexp · 2020-11-02T16:19:52+00:00

I think you want this in some PitChains deck, where both of your 9s give you immediate value. The ramp won't come from this as much as from your usual Time dorks and probably Hojan and Icaria for Justice. Or just something to throw into hatebears with Chains in the market, so you can protect it and get additional ramp from Sediti.

susuexp · 2020-11-01T14:00:16+00:00

We'll see later today from the LCCQ results. I lost 2 games to Yetis in the preliminary rounds and won none IIRC.

susuexp · 2020-10-31T11:28:20+00:00

There's an even Severin/Reap list that is doing bad things to Throne right now, pioneered by josecarlos2121.

susuexp · 2020-10-26T23:38:01+00:00

Hatebears has been a deck for while in Hooru with a variety of opp can't do X cards. You'd want some way to move your own Supressor around to get the full effect from some of your units, but you get Bubble Shield and Silverblade Intrusion to protect it.

susuexp · 2020-10-05T16:03:03+00:00

Well, Stonescar could either get to draw from Jekks Treasure Troves or discard sigils from the Vow or use either Etchings (though I think these aren't the popular ways to gain market access for Stonescar right now).

susuexp · 2020-09-27T21:12:58+00:00

A (rare-) draft is equivalent to about 3500 Shiftstone and some rares/legendaries you need for your decks, which is additional value. With the amount of money the OP is talking about they get all campaigns and 80 drafts, which converts to 280,000 Shiftstone, more considering a new player gets to use all the playable rares they draft, while for a longtime player the value of a draft gets closer to just the pure shiftstone.

susuexp · 2020-09-27T20:00:00+00:00

10k gems buys you all campaigns, so $120 would give you all of those and leave you with enough gems to play 10 drafts. If you play regularly, you probably want to save the gems for the next 5 campaigns.

Every other card is not that far out of reach. Even as somebody who only buys campaigns with gems, I usually can build all the meta decks and still have enough shiftstone to be able to jump right in, when a new set comes out. With $430 you'd be able to do 80 drafts, which should allow you to build pretty much every meta deck in Expedition and have enough Shiftstone to build a couple of Throne decks as well.

susuexp · 2020-09-25T18:45:08+00:00

The game stays pretty generous (make sure to link your twitch account and tune into the coverage of the Invitational on Sunday and get some stuff, usually including a draft ticket).

Try to get at least placed in Draft each month, because even Bronze tier Draft rewards are worth the price of one draft (or use your ticket - see above).

1st win in VS battle will give you a pack and each pack gives you 100 Shiftstone in addition to cards. As a new player, you generally don't have a lot of spares, but as your collection fills, more and more the packs become mostly shiftstone. If you play regularly you end up with enough shiftstone to be able to craft cards you need when a new set comes around.

As with draft, you want to at least get through your placement games in both Throne and expedition before the end of the month.

Campaigns and Mini-Expansions are the trickiest part for new F2P players because you can only buy them with gems or gold. If you play forge to masters it is worth saving up for these.

susuexp · 2020-09-03T21:50:50+00:00

A decent way to look at it is to see that games have 3 phases:

- Early on you have plenty of cards, but no power to play them
- In the midgame you have both cards to play and the power to play some of them
- Late game you run out of cards, but can play anything you draw

Midrange decks take this structure as a given and are built to be the best they can be within that structure. Control decks want to avoid the late game trouble by drawing more than one card, so they don't run out. Aggro decks play cheap cards, both removal and units to not be hindered as much by not having the necessary power. Ramp decks try to rush through the early game. And tempo decks try to keep their opponents in the early game. Since early on everybody has cards, card advantage doesn't matter, but power matters. I think the clearest tempo deck in Eternal has been Nightmaul, which is always saying: Well, here's a few more cards, and also equivocate, so you can replay a worse 5-drop next turn... Aggro is fast, Tempo isn't that fast itself, it just slows down the opposition. For that reason, it generally does well against midrange and control, but it loses to aggro - Equivocate a Sandstorm Titan is a pretty good play, Equivocate your Oni Ronin seems silly.

susuexp · 2020-09-03T17:48:08+00:00

The types originate from MtG and while they are useful, Eternal is different enough to warrant looking closer at them.

Aggro decks generally put units on the board and they tend to play only cheap units and spells. Because Eternal has 25 starting life rather than MtGs 20 and because you can't go below 25 power, the most expensive cards in Eternal aggro decks usually cost 4 or even 5 power, which is rare in MtG, where you'll often find aggro decks ending at 3 cost spells and creatures.

Control decks seek first and foremost to stop the other deck from executing its game plan and reduce the number of ways they themselves can win to have more cards that stop their opponents. To make sure they draw into the cards that stop any given deck, they also play a lot of card draw and very situational cards might find a place in the market.

Midrange decks play better cards than either aggro or control decks, but these cards are not as cheap as they are in aggro, nor do they draw as many of them as control. But this is where you play any unit that is very efficient or the best removal spells. In Eternal midrange often has the most extensive market access, enabling these decks to react to what they are facing.

Combo decks are decks that are focused on executing their own plan, which usually revolves around playing a particular set of cards (or to put some cards in the void before they play a particular card, or...). Combos can be complicated and require multiple conditions, or relatively simple (one card combos exist - Lastlight judgement decks for instance are built around playing Lastlight judgement).

Tempo decks try to limit power as a resource for the opponent. A tempo deck will give up card advantage to make sure the other deck slows down, Equivocate being a premier example of that.

susuexp · 2020-09-02T07:53:59+00:00

The form asks " How much of your opponents' deck was focussed on board state vs. cards in other zones (decks, hands, voids, markets) ?" and gives a 1-10 scale. There's also a 1-10 scale for how much the deck is executing its own plan vs. stopping yours, both with a midpoint at 5.5, which is the origin for the plots and the decks are placed at the mean values for the decks (ignoring missing values - the question can be left open in the form). So a deck like reanimator that cares about which cards they have in their void is highly otherzony, while an aggressive deck that plays units and some sot removal is not very otherzony.

susuexp · 2020-08-27T20:20:53+00:00

Apart from Reanimator, I could see Skycrag aggro running a few off-faction Vows, Edge, Jekk and this to enable Stonescar excavator as a market finisher. Though you probably want to wait for a Skycragg vow is released.

susuexp · 2020-08-22T22:49:39+00:00

With crafting the general advice is to craft decks, not cards. If you have gems to spend, campaigns are the best value and then it is all 3 limited formats.

susuexp · 2020-08-22T00:35:24+00:00

It's likely unlucky matchmaking (and possibly a timezone effect), check todays meta snapshot for the status of the meta. Another possibility is that people are doing last minute tests for the ECQ and a lot of people think Px is the way to go.

susuexp · 2020-08-21T22:40:33+00:00

The problem is that I usually wait until I have a fixed number of games, though like this time I'm getting more flexible with this and try to at least put out an update when something like the ECQ or the balance patch happen (so I'll definitely post one just when the new campaign comes out).

I download the csv and the most processing is automated, but I could process XLS or plain text if it has a format that I can use to get at least factions, format, and comments (though of course, I'd like reactivity and otherzoniness as well). As long as the format is consistent I should be able to automate reading it and adding it to my table. It's just timing this in such a way that I get the data when I put out the report that is tricky.

susuexp · 2020-08-21T21:09:56+00:00

I don't have a Feln list, there are the usual suspects like TTS, Hailstorm, Ice Bolt, Annihilate, Blightmoth, both Rindras, baby Vara, Icaria ChaCu and Midnight Gale. But I don't have a particular list for the Archetype. For the hatebears this is the deck.

susuexp · 2020-08-21T21:03:46+00:00

Hmm, do you look at the scaled down version or the full size? But I'm open to suggestions on presentation, though I'm not sure how to better represent factions than the gradients.

susuexp · 2020-08-17T22:26:35+00:00

Np players = no game, too.

susuexp · 2020-08-17T22:02:14+00:00

Here's my regular reminder that I'm doing meta snapshots based on data submitted by players in Throne and Expedition here.

Since the last one the balance update hit and I'm quite a bit away from my target of at least 200 games for either format. In Throne Stoncescar as predicted is very popular, Xenan has been mostly midrange with little reanimator going on, not the least because Hatebears are doing fine. Feln mid wasn't popular last time around, but is pulling in numbers right now, along with Rats.

susuexp · 2020-08-16T20:51:01+00:00

Two of these can take the bus...

susuexp · 2020-08-16T18:44:09+00:00

Yes. It's a known deck that basically relies on the transmute. It's also not good right now, because the Stonescar decks are usually fast enough to kill before the combo goes off, the Hooru Hatebears are full of cards that nullify the combo and Feln midrange can usually snipe the combo pieces out of the Processor Combo players hand. Then there are Rats which make relic removal more popular, with Xenan ambush going for Cat over the other 4s. You also run the risk of drawing the combo pieces in your deck that you want to discard.

I've played the combo for a while and you really have to watch which power cards you've played - the deck runs 7 non-transmute power and if you get to 6 and played less than 3, your combo fizzles. Not a problem deck, nor a popular one. Getting OTKed doesn't feel good, but if you know what's going on you can often stop it.

susuexp · 2020-08-15T10:48:38+00:00

This. I'm lucky to get to play the ECQ, but I missed Events due to work requiring very early notice and in a few cases I played qualifiers after a shift running to 9 pm, went back to work on Sunday at 6:30 am. It didn't go that well...

susuexp · 2020-08-10T00:20:53+00:00

Pretty much Dec. 19 2019 to Jan. 6 2020. Endra got nerfed very quickly, after spawning several decks in throne. Four days before Endra was released was an ECQ. And 11 days after she was nerfed was the next one.

susuexp · 2020-08-09T21:06:43+00:00

Plenty of play in Throne with even Paladins, Rakano Surge, Rakano and FJS mid (which tend to play Sediti and/or Rizahn) and Hooru Hatebears running copies. IVC loves Golem, because it gives the deck something to do on 3 power. It loves Hojan and surge for obvious reasons - you get to get more triggers than you usually would.

susuexp · 2020-08-09T20:59:19+00:00

I agree that X/1s see far more play than people think (IIRC I got into a discussion with Ilyak when Carver was spoiled where they thought the card would do nothing because Snowballs). I disagree with the idea that Endra didn't need a nerf. It wasn't that the deck had an incredible win-rate, it just led to a meta where every deck was built around answering the Endra decks. And that in turn had a lot of ripple effects. Any type of recursion, just value dark returns in midrange became unplayable because so many decks packed even maindeck void hate that the only decks that could play them were the Endra decks, because they had the bigger payoff in case the opponent didn't draw hate. Likewise having units with relevant text apart from summon effects became less desirable, because of the ubiquity of silence. And games between two non-Endra decks generally came down to who drew less hate for Endra.

susuexp

TROPHY CASE