This is going to be a series where I go over what I think are the top cards from each Keyforge house that you should be aware of when playing against that specific house. In the Archon format you are allowed to look at your opponent’s decklist and once you’ve learned all of the cards you’ll know right away that your opponent has one of these cards. In the sealed format you are not allowed to look at your opponents list and it will make playing around cards much harder. I’ll make a distinction between formats in my analyses and break the cards into 4 categories: Amber Management, Positioning, Area of Effect and Miscellaneous.

Amber Management

If you don’t work on your amber management you’ll have to go to anger management. The Shadows house is one of the hardest houses to play against because they have so many effects that can steal 1 resource when played from hand. Here is a list of all those cards:

That’s a lot of cards that can steal one when played from hand and there are a couple of other cards that can disrupt your amber but those you really can’t play around as much. Some of these are conditional but my point is that if you are threatening to forge with 6 amber showing and are playing against Shadows you are usually going to get you stopped. I personally can’t look at my opponent’s card list and make a mental note of all of these cards, track everything and make high level calculations – in theory that would be best. I’d say in generally you want to go over by at least one, otherwise you are better off establishing more of a board presence. The cards that I want to focus on in this list will punish you for gaining a lot of amber.

Bait and Switch

Sealed: Since this is a common there is a big chance that your opponent will have one of these but not always. Your opponent might tip their hand that they have this if they ever paused for a bit when it would have gained them two amber. This is probably the biggest card to worry about and you should have it in mind. Your opponent should be trying to create a situation where they forge a key and then play bait and switch. The best way to play around this is by keeping your resource levels at about the same and if you need to try to forge try to do it at a point where they naming Shadows would be bad for them aside from playing Bait and Switch.

Archon: if your opponent brought a Shadows deck there’s a good chance that they will at least have one of these. You’ll look at the list and play around it in the same way you do in Sealed. You will usually have a better deck in Archon and will be more likely to set up a forge outside of the forge step which makes it a worse in Archon.

One Last Job

Sealed: As a rare its going to be nearly impossible for you to play around this. I’d say just try to make a mental note of it if they play it early and they ended up reshuffling their discard pile into their deck.

Archon: Being aware of this card when you are playing archon will pay good dividends. Its a great end of the game type of card when each player is racing to forge that last key and players aren’t fighting and choosing to reap instead. This card won’t come up too often but since its a star it should pop out of your opponents card list. One way you could play around this is by prioritizing killing your opponents creatures and choosing houses that do that instead of going for the kill. Sometimes you will be too far behind to do that but its something worth considering if you are in that specific spot.

Too Much to Protect

Sealed: In a lot of instances playing around this will be the same as playing around Bait and Switch which is a much more common card.

Archon: You generally play around this by only going to six resource but because Shadows has so many steal ones you generally want to go to seven amber. This card isn’t that back breaking when it only steals one but when you go bigger… its going to be a lot of value for your opponent.

Positioning

Booby Trap

Silent Dagger

Sealed: Both are uncommon and they make you want to play the exact opposite way – one is big creature on flank and the other is big creature in the middle. The only advice here is to track what your opponent has played before they reshuffle. If you saw one of these then play according. Other Houses have position specific cards that are commons that in the blind you should play around, i.e if you were playing against Dis/Shadows/x you should default play around Hand of Dis by playing your best creatures on flanks – since it’s a common they are more likely to have that.

Archon: Whichever you see you play around but you also should know what the other houses position cards are.

Area of Effect

Poison Wave

Sealed: It’s a common and it will mess you up a lot. Tracking after they have played it or discarded it is an option and also matching your opponents creatures as well – if they are playing small creatures you can feel a little better playing small creatures since playing this card will also kill their creatures.

Archon: You’ll both know each other’s decklists and your opponent should know if this card will be very good against you. Many of the best cards in shadows are creatures with power 2 or less and if you see that your opponent isn’t playing many creatures and hasn’t chosen shadows then there is a good chance that they may be waiting for a big blowout turn where they play 2 damage to everything into a bunch of small creatures.

Miscellaneous

Sneklifter

Sealed: You aren’t going to know that they have this card and if you have powerful artifacts they will take them. Sometimes you don’t have anything to take and this card stinks. Being aware that they have this when they reshuffle will be very relevant in a long game.

Archon: This card is on this list because of Archon. Most decks people want to play will have powerful artifacts and this card is just insane in a metagame where people get to choose their own deck. The only way you can play around this is by playing a worse artifact first or if you have some form of targeted discard.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this read and if you have any comments please let us know on here or on social media. Thursdays is usually going be our Keyforge day and if you have any interest in writing for us send us a not at thehyperloops@gmail.com. Take care and as always…

-NJCuenca

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