Patch 1.11 is here and with it comes the new Promo System! Promos are the way by which Direwolf will inject new cards into the metagame between major set releases. Promos are unique new cards that are available through winning your first game of the day for a two week window. After that two week window they will become available for purchase by another method (as of yet determined) This release schedule allows them to keep the metagame from becoming stale between new sets.

Right now we don’t have all the details about the system, such as how often new promos will come out and whether or not promo releases will repeat. We do know that Direwolf plans to have formats for it’s constructed game, so it will be interesting to see how promos ties into whatever system of rotation they set up. I imagine a promo will be tied to the most recently released set when they release, and when that set rotates the promo will rotate. Regardless of how they will work, I’m excited to find out all the nitty gritty details about the promo system as time goes on.

Speaking of promos, let me introduce the first promo card and first NEW Eternal card to be released!

Scouting Party is a powerful Primal Spell that puts four Yeti Spies into play, ready to draw you cards. It’s like Lingering Souls and Tidings had a baby, and that baby went on to dominate the mid game and bury your opponent in card advantage.

It was the Primal draw spell we all wanted and felt was missing, bridging the massive gap between cards like Wisdom of the Elders and Channel the Tempest. While much testing is needed to be done with this card, people have already begun having success with it in Feln archetypes. By pairing Scouting Party with a five shadow influence activated Champion of Cunning the deck aims to explosively draw multiple cards in a single turn while applying burst damage. While quite the deadly combination, the deck is still ambitious in it’s ability to support cards such as Champion of Cunning and Witching Hour. These ambitious build choices force the deck to play such draft “meh”-stars as Feln Stranger simply to reach the heavy influence requirements of their sketchy (albeit powerful) card choices.

I have found that decks that want a mid-game way to refuel along with a mid-game army in a can effect similar to Autofurnace can gain much by playing this card. This card is extremely powerful in these sort of strategies as they tend to one-for-one through the early game and the mid-game and need a way to restock lest they fall behind in the late game to the more powerful spells featured in their opponents decks or simply a lucky string of top decks. I imagine Scouting Party will be a staple of S/F/P strategies, and I wouldn’t be too surprised to see it paired with Statuary Maiden often.

Next up I’d like to feature a deck I’ve been having some success climbing the ladder with that is a lot of fun and deceptively quick at killing your opponent. How you ask? Why it’s easy! With six power and this hand, how do you kill your opponent at 22 health? You have to do this before they take their fourth turn after this one.

Easy! First you cast Cloudsnake Harrier and place Second Sight #1 on top of your deck so it costs 0, then you start your next turn and cast Second Sight for 0 and place Static Bolt on top (assuming it’s the 1st bolt, it is currently at 2 damage). Then cast Trailblazer to give it Echo and pass the turn. Then start your turn, drawing the echo’d Static Bolt, it will charge going from 2 to 3 then to 3 to 4 as you draw the echo’d copy. Now you’ll have two copies. Play your second sight and put a copy back. Start your next turn, draw the bolt and echo it. This time boosting the damage to 6. You now have 24 points of burn in your hand relatively easily, which is more than enough to kill any opponent this deck is facing. If that sort of turn sounds like fun to you, then you’ll love everything you can do with this deck.

The deck has all kinds of vicious combos to get out of any situation and attack any match up. it’s really hard to lose to midrange when you have infinite Harsh Rules! Thanks to the flexible power of Elysian Trailblazer and Cloudsnake Harrier the deck can either play a echo focused long game or abuse cost reduction mechanics to power out powerful spells like Channel the Tempest as quickly as possible.

1 Flame Blast (Set1 #2)

4 Light the Fuse (Set1 #6)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

2 Lightning Storm (Set1 #206)

4 Second Sight (Set1 #207)

4 Static Bolt (Set1 #194)

2 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Push Onward (Set1 #213)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Cloudsnake Harrier (Set1 #225)

4 Elysian Trailblazer (Set1 #228)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Obliterate (Set1 #48)

3 Channel the Tempest (Set1 #244)

4 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

3 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

4 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

4 Hooru Banner (Set0 #57)

4 Seat of Fury (Set0 #53)

4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

4 Skycrag Banner (Set0 #65)

Other than echoing your best spells or reducing their costs to combo out and kill your opponent the deck plays like a traditional control deck. You use your removal to control the board until you’ve either assembled a combo, dealt enough extra damage, started a channel chain, or even let light the fuse do enough damage to kill your opponent. This deck can very easily catch people by surprise with how quickly it can dish out damage from nowhere in the late game.

Thanks for reading this small preview of Scouting Party! Look forward to my next article as my testing team tries to break it in time for the Invitational next weekend, and feel free to send in what you think are the best Scouting Party brews!

Cheers,

Peter

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