Everyone has probably already read Dire Wolf Digital’s latest bombshell – after handing off TES:L to another developer, DWD will now aim at a full release of Eternal in the coming weeks, along with an ongoing organized play program with cash-prizing to support competitive play.

Like every other fan of Eternal, I am ecstatic at this news. In my book, DWD has been doing a lot of things right in recent months with regards to Eternal – Sealed Leagues, new cards, and a mobile app have all drastically improved the player experience from what it has been months prior. Competitive prize support is the yet another step in DWD’s attempt to make this game grow and stick , and I am so glad they have committed to doing so. A healthy competitive scene cultivates new strategies, better play, and excitement even amongst the casual players. I, for one, will be glad to have more events to make Excel spreadsheets for.

The question remains whether their organized play program will be in events run entirely by DWD, or whether there will be support for independent tournament organizers. RNGEternal has done a great job with their ETS Weekly Opens, alongisde other events like Kaelari’s Weekly Ladder and the Great Parliament’s Casual Fridays (apologies if I missed any organizers) and and I hope DWD supports these tournament organizers in some way.

Kenna, Shaman of the Scale

But that’s not all. We have another spoiler from the officially named Set 4, “The Fall of Argenport.”

First impression: it’s alright. Kenna could see some Constructed play, but it is unlikely.

A 7-cost 5/6 body with no Aegis, evasion, nor Endurance, is not a great body. It doesn’t compete with 6/6s like Predatory Carnosaur or a single-activation Mystic Ascendant. It’s body is comparable to Eilyn, Clan Mother – but without the Endurance and Flying. Even so, Eilyn does something awesome when it hits the board. In order to be comparable to that level, Kenna has to do something awesome too.

Kenna does something… alright. A 5/6 Killer for 7 power is not a great rate, given it can’t take down many of the existing threats that exist around that power cost. Cornerstone cards like Carnosaur, Mystic Ascendant, Eilyn, Tavrod, Heart of the Vault and even Sandstorm Titan, can’t be taken down by this Killer. Future playable heavy-cost units that will come in Set 4 and are going to be competitive will likely have stats similar to the range of the aforementioned cards as well, and Kenna won’t be able to touch those.

That being said, Kenna does take down Icaria and Champion of Cunning, giving Primal another option to handle Aegis-ed up beatsticks.

Kenna has the option of being buffed +2/+2 on the same turn its played by playing a spell. Perhaps something cheap like Levitate, Seek Power (or, God forbid, Harmless Question) could do the trick. At 7/8, Kenna would indeed be able to take down many of the scary threats that lurk in the Constructed metagame – but relying on getting to 8 or even 9 power to do so might not be that consistent.

(Edit Note: All credit for the idea that Seek Power triggers Kenna should be given to Fyos on Reddit. I missed that the first go round.)

The sexiest part of Kenna is its last line of text: its Tribute.

Tribute: When a card with tribute is played, it gets a bonus if a unit has gone to your void this turn

Kenna’s Tribute requires one of our guys to die this turn, and the payoff is returning a spell from the void. The payoff might be large – returning a Channel the Tempest, Harsh Rule, or another removal spell might be the difference between winning and losing. Tribute is not the largest hoop to jump through, since units can die in combat – but relying on combat to get it done means the Opponent can play around this type of effect.

Therefore, having Kenna trigger reliably on your terms means playing something like Devour or Vara’s Favour on your own guy in order to trigger Kenna. At that point, we’re looking at 9 mana territory yet again. Hence – not great.

Edit: It was made known to me later that Scarlatch disclosed that discarded units will trigger Tributes as well. This improves Tribute slightly, but not by much – cards like Herald’s Song and Quarry, which are good enough to see play by themselves, cost 2 power. Discard effects that can be paid for on the prior turn, like Feln Cauldron and Nocturnal Observer, will require a high density of strong tribute payoffs in order to justify playing them. Kenna is a piece of that puzzle, but it isn’t going to be the whole picture.

Based on the current cards in the game, Tribute is going to be difficult to trigger reliably in Constructed – unless The Fall of Argenport includes cards with low (or no) power costs in exchange for sacrificing units or discarding cards. While this is not an unlikely mechanic, there is no information at this point to conclude that that is the case.

The best word to describe Kenna in its entirety is awkward. You typically want to play Killers pre-combat to remove a blocker, but playing Kenna pre-combat denies the opportunity to have Kenna’s tribute trigger from combat. Playing a spell like Devour pre-Kenna to trigger Kenna’s tribute means that Kenna cannot get the buff from having played Devour. Overall, the card seems like it does two very different things that are at odds with each other.

Returning a spell to hand is very powerful. Getting to “trick” an opposing flyer into potentially attacking while you have a fast spell in hand is also nice. But all these different effects onto the same, slightly understatted body? Not great.

Overall, I’m not a huge fan of this card. But I’d love to be proven wrong – preferably by LocoPojo, who manages to brew some kind of Spell Matters deck with Eilyn, Queen of the Wilds. Fingers crossed!

Tribute

Tribute: When a card with tribute is played, it gets a bonus if a unit has gone to your void this turn

Given the history of how Eternal mechanics work, Tribute is likely to appear on a lot of cards, down to the commons. Like Mentor and Spark, it is likely that many cards will have some form of tribute effect, most arising in extra stats and extra bodies. This might be viable in Constructed in certain decks, but also extremely critical in Draft because of how much combat happens.

This is a mechanic worth getting excited over. Tribute could potentially change the play patterns that we are familiar with in Eternal.

Tribute makes getting your blocker blown up by a combat trick a decent proposition, since you get to trigger your tribute.

Tribute makes early-game combat slightly more difficult. In draft, we are used to, as the player going second, trading our Stranger into the Opponent’s stranger on Turn 3. However, if this potentially Tributes the Opponent’s three-drop into something much better, we might have to re-evaluate this decision.

Tribute changes the timing in which we want to play removal. While it is common practice to play Fast removal spells like Deathstrike and Torch at the last possible second, we might need to start mainphasing Deathstrikes in fear of giving the Opponent a good Tribute.

Tribute turns something that is traditionally good for you (enemy units dying on his turn) into something slightly less good. This complexifies play, and is likely to make combat situations far more interesting.

Maybe because of all these Tribute shenanigans, Miner’s Canary suddenly turns into a decent 2-drop in Draft? One can dream.

Till next time!