Heyo!
I somehow got into a mood to write stuff when that’s usually what I hate to do. If only I got that mood when I’m on school, it would help me a bunch. Most of you have already past the school on the back-road and probably don’t want to hear me rant any cheesy teenage stories and jokes from me. Hehe… decks…
What got me in the head just now is that many players here reads the deck archetypes here differently but I’m not saying anyone is wrong. I will go down the lane of the different archetypes and make a short analyze of each of them of what I feel they are for me, most of my knowledge I will put here is drawn from MtG.
Aggro
Fast and painful, this archetype wins through offense and quick damage. Usually, they like to use low cost dudes as they enters play early damage and race the opponent before he/she can stabilize the board. Aggro doesn’t favors late game so they spend little on to get card advantage and being on the top of board position or even to care about the opposing board so basically, kicking the other dudes balls off before he even get’s the chance to do it on you if I’m forced to sum this up even quicker.
Notable aggro decks: Elad Rush, Aramia Wisp, America Nishaven (Monomax’s America qualifier winning deck), Amber (Kris and Special Delivery version)
Aggro-Control
Like aggro, these decks like to set up quick low cost dudes that hit hard and fast. What the difference is that they are not aiming to win aFAP but to protect their own allies for them to deal damage throughout the game. Cheap removal and bounce abilities such as Retreat or Darkwood Wraith complemented by cheaply cost threats that put’s a fast clock for the opponent is pretty common things to look to or look out for. Being a step earlier than the opponent and have tempo flow is the is where the money is to get your army marching to victory.
Notable aggro-control decks: Amber, Ally Darkclaw, Ripper Zal, Irina Lance
Mid-range
The most supported archetype in this game, if not because how the current game is designed, which is THE dominant archetype in both QM and the tourney scene, mid-range is when you flip aggro-control upside-down but not at the extreme though. By the sound of it, mid-range rules the mid-game and sometimes leading it to ruling the late-game as well. They win by fighting to be on the top of board, usually by heavy impact allies backed up with removal in order to get and stay there. In early game, they like to control, stabilize and set-up, usually their draw engine before they can unleash a horde of beefy dudes. Heavy hitters balanced with draw and removal is the style of mid-range.
Notable mid-range decks: Lance, Banebow, Moonstalker, Boris, Tala, Victor, Portal Majiya, Garth
Control
The ultimate jedi mind game, control decks seeks to grind the game until a point is reached when they have enough resources to fully take control of the game. Control is often mistaken by board control, because of a decks goal is to take board control doesn’t mean the deck is a “control” type. Control is defensive; they are trying answering the opponent’s play by disruption and removal in order for them not to reach their goal so you can drop your win-condition. Because of the defensive nature, they have to adapt and shape the deck after the meta in order to answer what opponent plays and they need cards with a LOT of draw so it is able to do so. The other thing with being defensive is that this archetype itself usually makes it hard to pilot as it adapts to the opponent and predicting him/her, which is why I mentioning it’s a jedi mind game, but being able to play right and knowing the opponent, the deck can be heavily rewarding if played right. Card advantage is the driven force here to deal with multiple threats without getting out of fuel while the opponent loses it.
Notable control decks: Zhanna, Jericho, Millstalker, EA+FT decks, Res-des Baduruu
PS. I’m honestly tempted to put both Zhanna and Jericho to mid-range or mid-range-control because of the reason they do pack a bunch of allies which do trying to brawl for the top of the board.
Combo
I was skeptical if I should put this into the list or not as the game as such a small card-pool that doesn’t support this strategy at all… but screw it! I got this to roll anyway. Combo decks executes by the interaction between two or more cards to together create a powerful effect that either wins you directly or creates a situation when it is going to win. Card draw and/or cycle is important to dig through the deck in order to find the combo pieces. Currently there is no real thing here in SE that put it into the extremes but there are similar things here.
Notable combo decks: Rothem One-turn-KO, Zalashard
My final notes here, I want to make my beautiful song voice heard: that currently, SE doesn’t really have the extinct difference that sets apart the archetypes at all the decks are usually following a similar deck structure. The game is so far just too focused on mid-range. For the sake of variety, I hope Wulven will take this into account and make each of these more unique in play-style and not being afraid to support other archetypes. The game is still great and I’ve spent hours playing it but it’s getting stale so I hope Wulven will fix this.
Peace
*Originally written by FlyingFerrari at shadowera.com