WC 2014 Top 4 Interviews – A1 Sisyphos

How does it feel to finally get that boulder to stay on top of the hill?

😀 You have to imagine me happy ofc. But also quite ready for a little nap. My back hurts. I guess i could lean against that boulder over here.

When did you first start playing Shadow Era?

~3 and a half years ago.

How did you find the game?

I googled „bored“ and „browser game“. Was at work so it had to be a browser game.
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WC 2014 Top 4 Interviews – BP Vince1992

First off, we are all dying to know, what is the significance of 1992?

This is just a personal tag to differentiate me from others named Vince.

When did you first start playing Shadow Era?

The first glance I took into this game was probably at the end of 2011, but I did not know the rule of the game and was not patient to read the rule book (I doubt if there was a rule book at that time). So the real first time I started playing is at the end of 2012.

How did you find the game?

Originally, I was addicted to strategic card games like Yugioh, Three Kingdom Killing, which was a board card game based on the mechanism of Bang! and dead popular in main land China. Since in America, it was not convenient or to say not available to play them. I tried to look through App store to find out whether there was other interesting games like them. Then I got Shadow Era.
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WC2014 Top 4 Interviews – BP Lorgi

What is the significance of your IGN?

My IGN is derived from my last name and I’ve been using it as a gaming nickname for quite a while now. Also, some people call me by that nick in rl because my first name is the most common name in the country.

When did you first start playing Shadow Era?

I started playing SE around the time CotC was oficially released iirc. But after several months or so I took a longer break and didn’t return till after Iclipse won WC.

How did you find the game?

I found the game while I was looking for free to play online TCGs. It was recommended on some forums so I thought I’d give it a go…
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WC 2014 Top 4 Interviews – RS Justicar

Where does your IGN come from?

– My IGN is from a pTCG I used to play in my college days… “Jyhad” later renamed to “Vampire: The Eternal Struggle” which is produced by White Wolf Publishing, same company that produced the RPG “Vampire: The Masquerade”. Justicar is a high rank among the vampire clans of a certain sect called the Camarilla. It basically means “Judge, Jury and Executioner”.

When did you first start playing Shadow Era?

– I started playing Shadow Era about the 3rd quarter of 2012… got hooked on it from then on.

How did you find the game?

– I found it on the App Store when I was searching of a TCG to play… shortly then after I found the forums and a Facebook community of fellow Filipino Shadow Era players.
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Bob Ross’s [SF] Victor Profile

Victor has always been a favorite hero of mine.  In Dark Prophecies and before he was often underrated.  Although he was capable of being strong in certain matchups, he used to have great difficulty with others, potentially having several decks and heroes that would be auto-losses. The problem with Victor was his draw.  He could recycle cards, which was pseudo-draw, but had few cards that offered any kind of good consistent draw.  On top of that, his strongest ally killing cards were Death Traps, which had the disadvantage of triggering Ill-Gotten Gains, making Rogues a near auto-loss matchup.  At the same time, his ability requires opposing allies in play, which made him very weak against solo decks (decks without allies) which used to be much more common.

Shattered Fates, and specifically Hunter’s Gambit and Deepwood Bobcat have greatly changed this.  Now Victor has few bad matchups and no auto-losses. Even when facing a solo deck and denied of their shadow energy abilities, most Victor decks can still present with decent draw and consistent threats. This is because solo decks gain advantage by completely nullifying opposing cards devoted to ally removal (making 1/3 of an opponent’s deck irrelevant); Victor doesn’t need a lot of cards devoted to ally removal and so solo decks only nullify a small number of his cards and his SE ability, still leaving him free to mount a strong offense. Victor is generally considered a tier 1 hero (if not, tier 1.5 or 2).

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Card Breakdown: Hunter’s Gambit

Sorry for the lack of new content lately. Haven’t had many ideas on what to write about and was also distracted with real life matters too. Without further ado:

Hunter’s Gambit
2cc
Hunter Ability – Attachment
Attach to target opposing ally. That ally has -1 health. When Hunter’s Gambit is destroyed, draw 2 cards.

Hunter’s Gambit was (And possibly still is) one of the most debated cards, and in my opinion, game changing from the Shattered Fates expansion. This card provides the Hunter class with something they did not have back in Call of the Crystals and Dark Prophecies, a solid draw card.

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Quickmatch Spotlight: Last Week of Season 20

Hello!

Veles here to bring you latest update on players picks for ladder climbing. This time around I look up top 15 ranked players and their favorite decks before ending of Season 20.  Before we start I would just like to point out that player base is currently divided between iOS users and Android/PC users as they play on different versions (2/86 and 2.87  respectively)  so that might have slight impact on the meta. For reminder of state at the start of this season you can read Mojumbo’s Quickmatch spotlight.

 

#1 TJ Yman: 333, #2 Bobwei: 333, #3 ROK Viscuit: 325

This weeks number 1, TJ Yman, is using discard Zaladar, once again proving that Zaladar is one of strongest heroes in SF and especially dangerous in hands of good players. Sharing same rating and using similar deck is Bobwei and not far behind them is ROK Viscuit also utilizing discard Zaladar to a very good success. You can say Zaladar is really king of the ladder at this time.
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Bob Ross’s [SF] Garth Profile

Garth Ravensoul is ‘King of the Board’.  I mean this both in terms of his strengths and his limitations.  His strength is that any ally or weapon on the board can easily be made a threat to opposing allies.  This translates to Garth being able to establish and keep board control relatively well throughout matches.  King of the Board is also a reference to the game, ‘King of the Hill’, in which one person tries to stay on top and shove everyone else down.  Indeed, this is the game that Garth plays.  He does it well, but he needs to win at this game to be effective.  Allowing the opponent to dominate the board for too long (and become ‘King of the Board’) is a sure way to lose as Garth.

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The Metagame, Balance and You by FDL

Defining balance

 
What should the Design Team strive for in terms of balance? Do you want each archetype to have the same overall winrate (RPS) or that each archetype has a 50ish winrate against every other archetype (RTS)?

The first case is akin to Rock-Paper-Scissors. You could argue that it is a perfectly balanced game since each move has a theoretically equal chance to win – they all have one auto-win and one auto-loss. The outcome of a match is decided solely by your pregame choice.

The most successful players will be those that read the metagame better.

In Shadow Era terms, that would be like a Rush Eladawen beats Allied Moonstalkericon beats Solo Gwen beats Rush Eladwenicon metagame.
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