In the past week since The Fall of Argenport dropped, I’ve spent most of my time (and gold) drafting the new format, because – man, this format is fun.

The number of playables in each pack is on average, significantly higher than The Dusk Road draft. This speaks to both the curated packs and The Fall of Argenport itself. Obviously almost every curated pack is going to be have playable stuff, since the cards within it are essentially the all-stars of Set 1-3 draft, save for Deathstrike.

More importantly, the overall set design of the Fall of Argenport for draft feels great. The number of playable cards is fairly high, but the overall power level of the set is not. This makes for a fun format where small interactions and decisions matter, and I’ve had a ton of fun drafting it.

Overall observations on the format

In my opinion, this is a fairly tempo-oriented format. There just aren’t many units with high stats at the 4-6 cost range in the FOA packs, which means that if you’re behind, you are less likely to be able to find a large minion to stabilise the board. Furthermore, power-efficient removal is somewhat scarce, which makes it hard to come back into the game on turns you do end up playing a removal spell.

As such, I would recommend drafting aggressive/tempo-oriented decks at the moment. Being the player to strike first with dudes is never a bad feeling, especially since it also allows you to get trades in on your turn – which triggers Tribute.

The above tribute guys are, to me, the best of the lot at Common and Uncommon, since they’re all fine cards when played normally, but fairly back-breaking when played with Tribute active. Scavenging Spikeback and Pensive Lumen are especially painful to activate – take note when your opponent makes suspicious attacks on Turn 4/5, as they are likely going to be triggering one of these guys.

Tribute makes blocking bad, and hence makes attacking first good. Since your opponent is typically wary of backbreaking Tribute cards like Scavenging Spikeback and Pensive Lumen, they might choose not to block, allowing damage in. In all likelihood, they will then swing after your guys attack. All else being equal, you will probably get to deal the killing blow first since you attacked first – this means that your opponent eventually will have to block, which either triggers your Tribute cards, or plays into a combat trick you would have hopefully drawn by then.

Speaking of combat tricks…

For those unaware, the Tactics are spells that Transmute at 5 from their corresponding Standards, which come into play depleted.

Simply put, these cards are awesome. Strong combat tricks have always dominated draft in Eternal, and these bad boys are no different – the fact that they begin as power is a nice upside to what are already great combat tricks. I’ve already stated that attacking first is very valuable in this format- getting sweet combat tricks to make the final alpha strike game-winning is amazing.

Cabal Tactic is by far and away the best trick of the lot, since it helps win two trades. Shugo and Crownwatch are clear seconds. In terms of the worst, I think its probably Clan Tactic, since it only generally functions as a 1-for-1 removal spell, when the rest get to do sweet things when you attack.

When deckbuilding with these cards, I would recommend, just like with Monuments, to count them as spells, since you always want to be playing them. It’s also an excuse to play more power, making your draft deck slightly more consistent.

This is also clearly a two-faction format. This is almost entirely because the curated draft packs do not include Influence strangers. Splashing a third colour often makes your deck significantly worse on consistency, since – yet again – you want to be a tempo-oriented deck. In my experience, the two-faction decks that barely have 26 playables tend to do a lot better than the three-faction piles, since you can win games just by curving out alone.

Standout Cards

One of my favourite factions to draft at the moment is Primal, and Changeestik is a big reason why.

At common, this card is absolutely insane and should be first-picked on sight. At 6 power, it acts as a removal spell to their best dude, and it also gives one of your dudes flying. I don’t believe I’m saying anything new when I say this card is amazing. However, it is balanced slightly by the fact that Spellcraft weapons are commonly played, so sometimes Changeestik does not completely diminish their best dude, but just shrinks him slightly. Nevertheless, this is my pick for best common in the format. It’s that good.

Wurmstone is probably one of the best commons in the set as well. I’ve already said that removal is hard to come by in this format – getting an exhausted 7/7 on turn 5 is often enough to win games. It isn’t particularly difficult to play a spell in this format, since there is the cycle of units that create a spell when you discard a card, and all of those units are fairly playable. Most commonly, Wurmstone is paired with Training Ground, another extremely playable Time spell.

Overall, Wurmstone is a surprisingly flexible card that can go into many faction pairings, and in all manner of decks – hence, I think it’s the second-best common.

Living Example is another extremely busted Time card. Left unchecked, this card becomes a Xenan Obelisk on wheels, whose buffs cannot be removed. Pick your cheap removal early and often- otherwise, Living Example will wreck you.

I do think the stock of Temper rose significantly as a result of Fall of Argenport. This is in no small part due to Living Example – however, there are a lot of random 1/1 dorks lying around in this format. Further, a lot of often-picked fliers like Skysnapper only have 1 health, making Temper an even sweeter deal.

Lastly, Rotorcyle is such a sweet card at common. A 2/3 flier for 4 is a fairly good statline as is – but it doesn’t cost any influence?? I play this card in aggressive decks, midrange decks, and slower bomby decks. Rotorcycle is extremely flexible, and would make literally any draft deck better.

Alright, I’m done with the cards I’m obligated to write about. What do I actually play the most with?

I have become obsessed with Lethrai Darkstalker. From my drafts, it seems to be a card nobody respects, since I can get them as late as 8-10th pick of the first pack. I simply cannot understand this – in an aggressive Primal deck, the card is great! This is especially true if you can get multiples, since you can continuously trigger Nightfall, keeping your dudes at 4/4. Furthermore, your opponent often has random Nightfall cards as well, which suddenly turns your 4/4 back alive for free. Even without Nightfall, a 0/4 is a body that soaks attacks, and also wears weapons reasonably well.

Things get absurd when you pair them with Moonlight Huntress, another absolutely insane flier when Night is active. This monster attacks past Silverwing Purgeleader no problem. Games end quick when you have several Moonlight Huntresses, as beating for 5 in the air is no joke. Even without Night, it becomes a Stormcrasher, which is still very good.

(Aside: It’s fairly hilarious that the first actual sign of a Nightfall dedicated deck in Eternal came not with the set that actually released the Nightfall mechanic, but in the subsequent set that just happened to have a bunch of Nightfall primal commons and uncommons.)

My best performing decks tend to include several copies of Darkstalker and Moonlight Huntress. Here are two examples of how they look.

This was a 7-2 Elysian deck that featured not just two Lethrai Darkstalker, but two Baying Serasaur to keep the Nightfall beats alive. It rocked some of the other insane cards in the format, like Living Example, Changeestik, and Pensive Lumen. There was also a sweet Yeti subtheme with Jotun Punter, which won me exactly 2 games out of the 7.

Alright, that was a sweet deck. A more accurate reflection of Primal Nightfall Aggro’s power (I’m gonna make this a thing) is the following 6-3 Hooru list.

There really isn’t much else to say about this deck – I clearly committed hard to the theme, and it paid off reasonably well, leading to sweet moments like this:

If that doesn’t look good to you, I’m not sure what will.

Thanks for reading!