Hello friends.

A new set of patches is out since I last posted (more posts coming soon to make up for lost time) here! With it, The Age of Kron seemingly comes to an end with its health going from 6 to 4, while Cryogenesis goes up to 4 mana, among other notable changes. It made me think that while such a change is obviously very easy to understand, there isn’t any resource to explain why changing hp in certain places is more important than others. As such, this time we will have a look at some more general ideas that will enhance our deck building as a whole, involving numerical thresholds.

In Duelyst, our Generals can (and often should) attack in the right situations. When to attack is in itself a big topic – a simplistic method to double check is to avoid being in lethal range because you hit this turn, i.e. generally not going below 12 hp voluntarily at the end of your turn unless it is the only game-saving move you can play. Plenty of factions can deal 9 damage with 2 cards out of hand at good range (Rush) + 2 from their general – but there’s significantly less percentage chances of them dealing 10 +2 without existing support. Not convinced?

Tiger + Roar + Holy Immolation = 9

Bloodrage Mask + Spiral Technique = 9

Tiger + Thumping Wave/Shadow Reflection/Wailing Overdrive = 8

Spectral Revenant + Void Pulse = 8

Grandmaster Zendo + Killing Edge = 8

While 10 is often commonly just

Elucidator + Thumping Wave = 10

Accounting for melee, Bounded Lifeforce can be more.

(Kara may have changed, but Tigers remain a common lethal tool used to secure games)

This becomes more complex in game states as often you or your opponent will have a minion on the board, but 12 is a good number to be safe. At 14hp or under on your turn, try to avoid swinging at the opponent’s general with yours. It is a testament to the speed of the game that being over half of your starting health pool is considered ‘close to unsafe’!

Moving on to some more numbers. Health is quite possibly the biggest stat a lot of our games revolve around – more than attack, even. Tempo trades go hand in hand with health pools of minions, while considerations for lethal are made with the enemy General’s health pool. Given that it is such an important concept, we should have some preliminary ideas about what is good and what can be better.

FAKE Threshold – 2 hp

Perhaps surprisingly, it’s actually not super important to have 2hp or 1hp most of the time depending on the minions chosen. Bloodtear Alchemist and Abyssal Crawler have 1hp but due to their effects they are effectively 3 atk minimum if the enemy general has to tank them down. If they had 2/2 stats, they would be statistically too good – but it would make no difference for generals who have a base attack of 2, 1 or more attack minions, and excepting Songhai who have 2 ways of dealing 1 damage to all enemies, the other factions wouldn’t even notice the change. Saberspine Tiger, for example, was once changed to a 4/1 Rush, and in almost all scenarios this was a straight buff from 3/2. Another interesting titbit – Zyx which is two 1/2 bodies, cannot trade a 2/3 out completely while Gloomchaser, a 2/2 with a 1/1 can – 3hp is good that way. Leading us nicely to the actual thresholds and break points.

Major Break Point – 3 hp

This is the one we are all most aware about, as can be seen by the fact that most popular 2 drop minions have 3hp (unless they have an important effect for the particular deck, such as Kujata). 2hp can be removed by all Generals, and as such you practically double the effectiveness of the body by adding 1hp. Most of the time in your games, you will not expect a 3hp minion to survive two turns in the fray – (Forcefield is a special case). Vaath‘s first Bloodborn Spell proc is often the most important one for this reason – he can start removing 3hp minions cleanly (especially enemy threats turned into Kins).

Minor Threshold – 4 hp

Sabrespines, Phoenix Fires, Grasp of Agony, Dancing Blades, Deathblighter and recently Dust Wailer all share a trait – they cannot remove a minion with more than 3hp. Generals don’t want to be tanking these 4hp minions if they have more than 2 attack. The ranged removal suite also becomes restricted here – Vetruvian can’t even reliably clear over 3hp without using the opponent’s positioning as a tool. Common artifacts are good here – about half of all artifacts give +2 attack or equivalent, so these minions are often dealt with by them. Vaath special case number 2, and often you’ll find the average Vaath at 4 attack on 8 mana. The ideal 3 drop should have 3 attack and 4hp or an effect that is valued at that statline.

Major Break Point – 5 hp

Cryogenesis, Holy Immolation and Makantor Warbeast cannot deal cleanly with 5hp without assistance. These three cards are very strong, and minions that can survive these are going to be ideal 4 drops. One of the important aspects of something like Silverguard Knight or the new Spelljammer is that they can survive a 2/3 + vanilla general attack. Strong passive effects on a minion with 5hp, like on Kelaino, are frustrating for this reason, since they can stay out of range while still performing their duties. The only relevant spell that deals exactly 5 damage is Circle of Life, so only one faction to worry about there. Health changes from 5 to 4 are very significant – an example being Taygete – and can change the popularity of a card overnight.

Minor Threshold – 6 hp

This is an extension of the two cases above – usually 6hp is either removed clean by a non-hp dependent removal (Natural Selection, Entropic Decay, Dark Transformation etc.) or more often, by a 4 + 2 damage division. This means things like Holy Immolation/Makantor Warbeast and then general attack, or a 3 attack Vaath + his Dancing Blades. Another reason this is a threshold is because 6 is relevant to the damage dealt by Spectral Revenant out of hand. Kron being changed in a way that you pass through one threshold (6 to 5hp) is a moderate nerf, but passing through a break point as well (5 to 4hp) is quite a severe nerf, with no changes to the effect.

Final Threshold – 7hp

No, really. Any more than 7hp is not nearly as important as having 7, over a large number of games. Ironcliffe and Nimbus both have enough hp, the difference at that high value is their effect. Whistling Blade has far too many health points, and doesn’t have enough attack power to be a threat on the turn it is summoned for the mana it cost. The ideal fattie 6 drop is something like Elyx or Archon. A 4/7 Pandora would be better or equal to a 3/10 one, while a 10/7 Paddo will be scarier than 12/6. In a particular game, it will matter a lot if your Obliterate takes out 10hp or not, but by and large you won’t be terribly inconvenienced – once you reach minions with 7hp or 5+ mana, their effects matter a lot more than any extra health. There is one minion that can cleanly remove a nearby 7hp as well -Red Synja.

What does this have to do with decks?

Obviously, when we build our decks we don’t just select our cards purely on value. However, if you end up in a situation where you just want something in a deck with the specific purpose of bridging your early game with your late game, you want to be picking minions that have a durable health pool, preferably on the major break points. Imagine the basic value deck as being one with

9x 2 mana 2/3

6x 4 mana 3/5 or better

3x 5 mana 4/6 or better

giving you a solid core to add to your win conditions. If you are choosing a minion with less than a break point for the mana cost, ascertain whether its effect is worth the loss in health.

A good example is the 4 cost slot in many mid-range decks. Most such decks run one of three neutral 4 drops – Dioltas, Sunsteel Defender and Primus Shieldmaster. Each performs a slightly different role. Dioltas threatens with its 5 atk, and the follow-up is that the Tombstone will hold you or your minions in place. Sunsteel threatens by generating an effective 3hp for itself every time it attacks, and is therefore used aggressively. Shieldmaster is utilised for the immediate lock-down, and with 6hp it clears most break points so its not easy to get rid of by trades. Incidentally Dioltas is also a minion that in the past immensely benefited from being buffed past a break point, (2 -> 3hp) as it went from barely played to top 3 contender for its cost.

Also, since I never officially made a response about this, a quick word of thanks and gratitude for Counterplay Games for having released the minion ‘Zyx’! This last month we have seen yung zyxes wreak havoc in recently resurfacing Swarm Lilithe decks, become a standard Kara deck staple and being generally on the right power level for an early game minion. I, for one, look forward to all the great new minions and spells we will no doubt be getting from the brand new expansion hitting in mid-December. With that small note, peace!