CARD BREAKDOWN: MIDNIGHT SENTINEL

Kaos Dark inspired me with his card breakdowns on Shriek of Vengeance and Yari Marksman so I thought I’d add one of my own.

Midnight Sentinel is one of my favorite human faction cards in Shattered Fates. Its utility is subtle, but the impact that it has on games is undeniable.  First thing of note is its cost. 3cc is the prime point for allies.  Most resource curves allow for the bulk of allies in the deck to be 3cc, however there is also a great deal of competition to fill those roles.  Among humans there are great cards like Aldon the Brave, Jasmine Rosecult, Fleet-Footed Messenger, Layarian Seductress, Twilight Ritualist and Priest of the Light to name a few.  On top of that, each class has a variety of excellent 3cc allies as well.  Why, when faced with all of those options would you choose Midnight Sentinel?  There are actually several reasons that I will go through in some detail, namely – survivability, ambush, utility at each stage of the game, exhausting opponent resources, damage prevention and combos.

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Card Breakdown: Yari Marksman

Yari Marksman
Warrior Ally
4cc
4/2
When Yari Marksman is summoned while an opposing player controls at least 3 allies, target ally controlled by that player is killed.

Yari Marksman is one of the newest additions to the Warrior class pool. It is part of the Yari Tribe, which was introduced with its original sole member, Yari Spearmen, back in Dark Prophecies. This ally has a very simple, but potentially devastating effect of instantly killing an opposing ally on Summon

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Warriors Of The Blue Phoenix Challenge #47

On Saturday the 13th September, at 2 pm GMT+0, 16 people gathered on the IRC channel #tournament in order to take part in the Warriors of the Blue Phoenix challenge #47. The Warriors of The Blue Phoenix guild host a tournament every weekend with various rules, which is “the best way to get crystals and test your skills”.

I have not one, but two decks for you today from the finalist of this tournament. In First Place came A1 Peithoson, who was playing A1 Vyz’s discard Zaladar deck, a very popular deck choice at the moment, which aims to benefit from discarding cards from your hand and deck. In Second Place was ETC Xander Spitfire, who was running “Victor Troll Deck”, a deck of his own creation. This deck is a beat down deck, in which you attempt to spam as many allies as possible. It also attempts to make use of Nathanias the people champion.

Deck 1- Vyz’s discard Zaladar

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[SF] Shadow Warrior: Drawing Capabilities

Hi there!  Over the next few days and weeks, I’m going to be doing a run-down of draw capabilities available across all faction/class combinations in Shadow Era.  Each article will be quite in-depth, since the main idea is to highlight options that perhaps you might have previously overlooked, to give you as much flexibility as possible when putting together your next deck.

In a move designed to slightly nudge the game back to unbiased treatment of each faction, I’ve decided to start with Shadow Warriors, who are not normally available to play from the outset.  (Your free class deck when you sign up has to be for Human faction).  Let’s get going …

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Bob Ross’s [SF] Serena Profile

Current Version: SHATTERED FATES (2.87)

HERO ABILITIES:

Serena Thoughtripper – 3SE: Until the end of your turn, your weapons have +2 attack, and if Serena deals combat damage to a hero, that hero’s owner discards a card at random.

Serena excels at control, and has since the beginning. She represents a difficult, hybrid play-style, combining items and allies. Like other rogues, she does best when she has some board presence; however she sometimes has difficulty regaining board presence or control once she’s lost it. She has comparably little room for error and it is often important to anticipate your opponent’s moves. For this reason, Serena is often considered difficult to play, like Logan. Unlike Logan, she has been considered a middle-tier hero (not the strongest, but not the weakest), and may even be top-tier in the current version (2.86-2.87). Serena requires a weapon to use her ability, which means that Serena decks would do well to have at least 6 weapons in a 40 card deck.  Having many items and abilities makes Serena have less room for allies, and so it is important to make those allies count. When Serena is played well with a good deck, it feels like everything is under control: even when the opponent doesn’t know it, she has an answer for everything.

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Card Breakdown: Shriek of Vengeance

 

SoV

Shriek of Vengeance
Shadow Ability
1cc
Target enemy item or support ability with a cost of 4 or less is destroyed, and one of your resources is removed from play.

Shriek of Vengeance is one of the game’s oldest  cards, and in my opinion,  one of the best. For a very small cost of 1 resource permanently, you can do away with any opposing cost 4 or lower item or support. Although this is card has generally fallen out of favor, but I feel that including this card again in a diverse Quick Match environment can be warranted.

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Hidden Potential In Cards: Antimatter

In Call of the Crystals Elemental class had to rely on burst draws (Bad Santa/Sac Lamb), cantrips (Here Be Monsters) and other bilateral draw sources (Bazaar, Dimension Reaper). They were only class without dedicated draw engine and it was their main weakness. My guess is the reason behind it was that power level of Zaladar (with arguably best ability in game) would be too great if he would have access to strong draw engine along the lines of Blood Frenzy or Ill Gotten Gains.

Still, lack of draw was apparent and with Dark Prophecies they filled that hole in strategy with Antimatter. If you compare it to other draw engines in game at that time it was most expensive one. Gain of one card for 3c is really expensive, and only synergy with discards had Soul Reaper and some gimmicky stuff like discarding attachments for Xar Modulator. Cost of discarding a card was real cost back then and that was the reason many deck builders were reluctant to rely on it and still went on burst draw route. Continue reading