____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

| _ \ | | | | | | ( ) /\ | | (_) | |

| |_) |_ _ ___| | ____ _| |__ ___ __ _| |_|/ ___ / \ _ __| |_ _ ___| | ___ ___

| _ <| | | |/ __| |/ /\ \ /\ / / '_ \ / _ \/ _` | __| / __| / /\ \ | '__| __| |/ __| |/ _ \/ __|

| |_) | |_| | (__| < \ V V /| | | | __/ (_| | |_ \__ \ / ____ \| | | |_| | (__| | __/\__ \

|____/ \__,_|\___|_|\_\ \_/\_/ |_| |_|\___|\__,_|\__| |___/ /_/ \_\_| \__|_|\___|_|\___||___/

The following is everything I've written for Eternaltitans.com, which is no longer online, arranged in chronological order. The text of all articles except the last are presented sic erat scriptum as they exist on my hard drive, before any edits took place by the site's editor or myself after publication. Images are not included, but I will substitute textual descriptions for them if possible and necessary. The date of writing on each article are simply the Date Modified of each file on my computer, and may not be when I actually finished writing them. Two unpublished articles are included for completeness.

While I do not want to return to the Eternal community in general nor reveal my new in-game identity, I do still play Eternal and want the game to succeed. Resources such as my articles are important to this goal, so I make the exception this time to post what I have now that they have become otherwise inaccessible. If I produce more articles without finding another place to publish, they will be posted this way too.

-Buckwheat 2019-09-09

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PATCH 1.28.7 REACTIONS

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// Written 2018-02-23 //

DWD has announced more balance changes on February 21, only weeks after the previous balance change. Regardless of its contents, the patch itself is a welcome indication that they're not afraid to make frequent changes to the game in response to community feedback. In this post, I will discuss these changes and their effects on the game.

The bulk of this post will discuss the upcoming changes from a competitive ranked persepective. This is because I consider myself fully qualified to comment on competitive ranked play while the same is not true for other play modes. In addition, tournament play is not officially supported, jank is highly subjective, and the problems with the current draft format cannot be solved with simple changes to a small number of cards. This makes in-depth discussion on these topics difficult and prone to error, and I would rather provide no information than wrong information.

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0. CONTENTS

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1. Individual Cards

1.1) Nerfs

1.2) Buffs

2. Changes to Archetypes

3. Changes to Factions

4. Closing Thoughts

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1. INDIVIDUAL CARDS

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The actual mechanical changes to each card are listed on DWD's announcement post and will not be listed again here.

1.1) NERFS, in order of descending impact on competitive constructed play according to me:

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Protect was an important part of any strategy involving both Justice and units that mind dying. It shines against reactive strategies that use spells to remove units, and was especially good in decks that had a lot of either evasion or units that gain value by staying in play. It was definitely pushed at 1 cost, but also definitely overcosted at 2. Since a cost of 1.5 is not possible, the card can't both be fairly costed and remain as mechanically simple as it was. Given that Justice was too good at doing too many things, this change is justified. Overall, Protect has gone from a staple that sees play in a wide variety of decks to a fringe sideboard card at best.

Vara, Fate-Touched was the default Shadow control finisher. Many decks in the game simply scooped to Vara, which they no longer will. 8 is a huge cost for any card, and playing it usually takes up one's entire turn. For your entire turn 8, getting a body that dies to most conditional removal spells without any additional value is simply not good enough. Shadow control decks will now need alternate ways to close out games, if they are to exist at all. There will still be people trying to make Vara work, but such people are probably not trying to make a competitive deck. While the nerf is severe, it should be noted that Sets 2 and 3 introduced a number of Shadow control cards that compete for slots with Vara, so current Vara decks are likely to be able to adapt, unless they depend heavily on Vara herself, as Reanimator does. Overall, Vara has gone from a default inclusion in Shadow control to only playable in specialized, uncompetitive strategies.

Soulfire Drake was an aggro staple, seeing play up to full playsets in all kinds of Fire aggro, even in 25-power decks that had neither enough power nor enough fixing to cast it on curve. Its power level was high enough that selling some games to screw to buy some games via Drake was a good deal according to many good players. I agree that this is a good way to tell that a card is too good and deserves a nerf, but I don't agree with how they nerfed it. Unlike Protect, Soulfire Drake is a Legendary, and could therefore afford some increase in complexity to make it better balanced for its new cost. In addition, a big reason for Drake's popularity was the absence of Time midrange, Sandstorm Titan, and Silence effects, not due to the strength of the card itself. If I were in charge of changing the card, I would probably increase its stat line to 6/2 and relax its influence requirements to 6FF. Overall, Soulfire Drake has gone from an almost default inclusion in Fire aggro to only playable in specialized, fringe strategies in a small number of copies. However, direct replacements for the old Drake exist in the form of new Jekk and Obliterate, so decks that once had Drake will not become entirely obsolete.

Wanted Poster used to be the best draw effect in the game, which was simply not good design, as it was also a Justice card when the primary card draw faction in the game is Primal. Justice simply can't be allowed to have the best draw, best counterspell, best evasion, and best removal if the game is to remain balanced. This is the change I agree with the most out of the whole patch. While substantially worse, the card will still be run in decks that used to run it, especially if said decks lacked Primal. Overall, Wanted Poster has gone from being an automatic 4-of in Justice control to merely a viable option for those who need the effect.

Stonepowder Alchemist was a fair card, since a 2/2 for 3 is simply blank against a large number of decks no matter how many keywords it has. However, a significant portion of this large number of decks were not played due to the meta, making the card seem better than it was. I expect meta changes to have a bigger effect on the viability of Alchemist than the nerf itself. The most significant effect of the nerf is the fact it no longer blocks 1/1s without dying and dies to 1-damage effects, making it much worse against fast aggro. Overall, decks that wanted Alchemist will probably still be viable, albeit not as good, and might not play Alchemist any more.

Elysian Pathfinder was necessary for the echo revenge deck to function, and is now entirely unplayable. They could have deleted the card from the game and the effect would be identical. This change is welcomed by most because Revenge is a mechanic that decreases both player's ability to affect the outcome of the game. It is fun in moderation but a competitively viable deck based on a random mechanic is problematic. Overall, this change does not significantly affect the upper levels of competitive ladder, and I can't comment on its effect on the lower parts of ladder as I am not often there.

Entrapment was fringe playable by the most liberal definitions of playable, and is now not playable by any definition of playable. This hardly has any effect on the meta as Entrapment decks can already play Vanquish and often do, and Entrapment is not a necessary effect for any deck to function.

Lastlight Druid was not nerfed, was not competitively viable, and still not competitive. Allowing Summon effects to happen increases the amount of jank one can brew with him. A shame he also transforms the 6/6 dragon from Magus, though I'm sure there's other applications I've missed.

Elysian Trailblazer, Spiritblade Stalker, and Roosting Owl were not constructed cards except Trailblazer in Carpet Shuffle, a deck I haven't seen in months. These nerfs have no effect on ranked.

1.2) BUFFS, in order of descending impact on competitive constructed play according to me:

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Lunar Magus was only played in decks that made heavy use of Nightfall, Lifeforce, or both. The 1 extra Strength is easily the most impactful buff of the patch, giving Time decks a default 3-drop similar to Titan being a default 4-drop. Xenan, Praxis, and mono Time benefit the most from this change. Unfortunately, Nightfall is usually a drawback for Time decks, preventing the card from reaching Titan levels of powerful. This buff will definitely increase the presence of Time midrange in the meta.

Amethyst Monument was way too small and is now finally the size it should have been all along. DWD has been slowly correcting its mistake of being overly cautious with Lifesteal cards, an observation (I believe) first made by Elunex. Despite this, a deck that can take full advantage of this buff doesn't seem to exist, and the deck that benefits the most seems to be the Lifeforce beatdown deck, which still suffers from needing Katra to really go off and having no way to find her. It remains to be seen whether new Shadow midrange decks would emerge that want this card.

Into the Furnace and Toppletower both received straight buffs in the Stonescar sacrifice deck, which is already viable. I would probably play Into the Furnace over Annihilate in my current version of the deck, though the card does suffer from there being so few units in the game with 4 health. If Lunar Magus becomes popular, so will this. Toppletower having 5 health means it blocks most ground aggro units but I'm not sure if it can be played without Scrap Heap, a very fringe and uncommon tech option for the deck. Scream decks might play Toppletower as a finisher, but it's hard to play enough Grenadins to activate it in Scream. Their inclusions in aggro decks are dubious for the same reason on top of Furnace not going face. Overall, I'd expect both cards to see some play, Into the Furnace more so.

Cabal Slasher is a buff to the Lifeforce beatdown deck, which has already received several buffs. The deck now has so many viable options it must decide to cut some of them, but still can't get rid of its weakness against Harsh rule and inability to dig for Katra. Still, if Lifeforce is now good, so is Slasher.

Amaran Shoveler, Seasoned Spelunker, Stirring Sand, and Parapet Sentry are all buffs to the Praxis Sentinel-Explorer-Relic tribal deck. I still have doubts regarding whether the deck functions better than just normal Praxis midrange due to a lack of good early Relics, but Spelunker is likely better than Magus in the specific deck. It might appear that Parapet Sentry is only a Towering Terrazon even when active, but the Summon is more relevant than first appears in Praxis. These cards will either all be viable together, or all not be.

Thudrock, Artic Artisan and Iceberg Warchief are both buffs to the Yeti deck. Given the effectiveness of non-tribal Skycrag aggro, I do not believe this will make Yetis, and by extension these cards, more viable than the aggro deck.

Ayan, the Abductor had a very minor, but reasonable, buff. If Mystic Ascendant counts as a 7-drop, then big Xenan no longer has a break in its curve on turn 8. This buff is unlikely to have a noticeable effect on the meta because it is so minor, though.

Mask of Torment's Ultimate is still too expensive to be competitive, so the Tormentor deck will remain what it was.

Reliquary Raider is too small, slow, and fragile to be played. 3 Health on a 3-drop is no longer good enough against aggro, and the chances of the draw ability going off is close to zero.

Bellowing Thunderfoot was not a constructed card and still isn't.

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2. CHANGES TO ARCHETYPES

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Aggro continues getting nerfed, though its best cards remain untouched. This is probably for the best, as aggro decks were already struggling before this patch even when Midrange is mostly absent. The buffs to Lunar Magus and various Lifeforce cards exacerbate this problem. I expect a decline of current popular aggro decks consisting of curving into aggressive standalone cards, both due to the Soulfire nerf and the expected increase in Time decks. I also think Lifeforce and Rally are going to increase in popularity, the former due to the massive buffs it received, the latter due to the nerfs to Protect and control, Feln control in particular. Feln aggro might emerge playing Snowcrust Yeti and Twilight Raptor now that it has enough early redundancy to function and Nightfall damage is surprisingly relevant, but I have my doubts.

Midrange receives numerous buffs, Lunar Magus being the most significant. I expect a decline in Combrei and Hooru midrange due to the Protect nerf, but Argenport should become played again due to meta shifts and having Sabotage. Xenan definitely becomes viable as it now has a second 3-drop and Vara, one of the cards it had great difficulty beating, is no longer a card. Mono Time was surprisingly viable before the buffs and should still be viable, though it will now have trouble competing against the value other midrange decks will produce. Elysian did not benefit enough from the buffs to become better than it already is. Non-Time non-Justice midrange also will mostly stay the same, as in virtually unplayed.

Control suffers greatly from the loss of Wanted Poster and Vara. However, if the expected increase in Time decks happens, it would make control decks better as control is usually good against midrange. Chalice and/or Temporal control will make a comeback because they received a whopping four indirect buffs: the absence of Vara and by extension decrease in Champions of Cunning, the nerf of Protect, the buffs to midrange in general, and the Soulfire nerf. Feln control must now play Channel as a finisher instead of Vara, but I don't think the deck will disappear entirely because, again, of the rise of Time. Icaria hasn't gotten worse, but Justice has, so 4 Icaria decks should be a thing of the past. I feel Makto suffers even more from Justice nerfs, though I can't quite explain why. I am not sure if Armory gets better or worse, but it's not very good to begin with so my hopes aren't high. Grenadins seem to benefit slightly from the Furnace buff and even more slightly from the meta shifts, so it will probably remain where it is.

Combo has virtually disappeared. The echo Makto deck is dead, Reanimator is dead, and Carpet Shuffle is dead. Charge Rod now has no Drake. Scream decks didn't get nerfed directly but the incoming meta shifts will hurt them. What remains is the old classics of Clockroaches and West-Wind OTK, which have remained unchanged and are not competitive. This is consistent with DWD's design philosophy of keeping combo uncompetitive, something I don't disagree with but I think they sometimes overdo.

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3. CHANGES TO FACTIONS

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Praxis got Magus and significant Sentinel buffs, but I still think the old Praxis Midrange is the best Praxis deck. Praxis Tokens, due to having Obelisk, is probably going to be more viable than it was, but not enough to be better than Heart of the Vault.

Rakano lost Soulfire Drake and Protect. Depending on how exactly the meta evolves, Rakano Rally might become the best Rakano deck again. Otherwise, it's hard to see Rakano being competitive in its current form. The Armory side of Rakano lost Wanted Poster, but Icaria is still one of the best finishers in the game. You just can't run 4 of her any more.

Skycrag remains mostly unchanged outside of the Soulfire nerf, and lacking an answer to Titan has a bigger effect on the faction than any direct changes to its cards. Barring the emergence to some new Yeti brew, the aggro deck completely overshadows Yeti tribal, and the aggro deck will get worse due to the meta. The control side of Skycrag continues to lack ways to stabilize and I don't think it will be any good. Midrange skycrag suffers from the same problem and also won't be good enough.

Stonescar lost Drake, but its best cards remain intact. The loss of Drake means it no longer has the critical mass damage from hand burn plan. On the other hand, Rally and Rapid Shot should get better in the meta. The Grenadin deck got a minor buff, but its increase in viability is going to come more from its good Rally and midrange matchups. I don't think slow Stonescar changes much aside from the loss of Vara, which means the end of Means to an End, but not much otherwise.

Combrei loses Protect, probably the faction that suffers the most from this nerf. The reasons to play Combrei over other Time factions are now Parliament, Harsh Rule, and silences. While important, these effects are hardly necessary. I expect Combrei to see more play as 2 colors of 3f control decks than on its own outside of the Gloaming Wisp aggro deck and the Lucky Prospector aggro deck, both of which are hardly competitive.

Elysian remains unchanged since Set 1, and will continue to be the most efficient beatdown midrange deck and very little else. Shimmerpack might make a return, but I really wouldn't count on it. Clockroaches is still what it was, and Carpet Shuffle is gone.

Xenan gains the most from this patch. It is now almost strictly better than Combrei at doing everything. Lifeforce beats down better than fast Combrei, especially since it doesn't rely on sticking an Initiate. Big xenan has Sabotage, Dark Return, and better removal. This may not be true in tournament play where aggro is less prevalent and Silence is more important, but I see little reason to choose Combrei over Xenan on ladder now.

Hooru losing Protect matters less than Combrei losing it, both because many Hooru units already have Aegis or additional value even if they die, and because Hooru is more about spells than units. Hooru control may become viable especially with a light splash in the new meta, but Hooru Flyers is likely dead. I am not experienced enough with the faction to predict how Hooru midrange, either with Kosul Brigade or Nostrix, will go.

Argenport still has Sabotage to replace Protect with, and Argenport Midrange is still a deck because Tavrod is still a card. Other than the obvious, the control side of Argenport does not look optimistic. At least there's no more need to decide between Vara and Sword of the Sky King for a finisher, but the lack of card advantage is a serious problem preventing the deck's sucess, just like it was before Wanted Poster was printed.

Feln control is still technically a deck, but continuous nerfs have made it unattractive in all but the most lopsided metas. Feln midrange is likely to emerge as a competitor to Argenport midrange, especially if Permafrost proves good in the emerging meta. The Scream side of feln probably gets a bit better in the meta, if I were forced to guess. Feln aggro might end up working out, maybe, but it's a long shot.

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4. CLOSING THOUGHTS

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DWD did the right thing by responding to the volume and intensity of community feedback to their previous balance patch as quickly as they did. I hope this trend of communicating with the player base continues in the future. While it's uncertain and subjective whether the new meta will be better than the old one, we now know if it gets worse it is likely to get fixed in a timely fashion.

Being depressed sucks. I already can't last through a whole tournament so I've quit playing in those and while my technique has hardly declined, I'm no longer able to stay focused enough to apply them consistently, especially not over enough games to make rank 1 again. At least there's no timer when I'm writing, so I can take breaks and make sure I do it right. I hope I did it right this time.

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GEARCRUNCHER DECK TECH

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// Written 2018-02-28, unpublished //

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1. INTRODUCTION

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In my previous post, I wrote that I was no longer able to focus for long enough to play the volume of games needed to reach rank 1 again. But I am also one of the best players at adapting to new and evolving metagames. It turns out this, plus some good fortune both in stumbling upon the perfect deck against the meta and getting lucky draws in the games I've played, was enough to let me feel the thrill of being rank 1 once again, despite playing only a little more than what's required to get my 3 silver chests a day.

Here's what I did it with:

4 Combust (Set1 #392)

4 Dark Return (Set1 #250)

4 Grenadin Drone (Set1 #5)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

1 Combustion Cell (Set3 #7)

4 Devour (Set1 #261)

1 Into the Furnace (Set3 #9)

4 Quarry (Set1001 #15)

4 Vara's Favor (Set0 #35)

4 Assembly Line (Set1 #29)

4 Madness (Set1 #267)

4 Scraptank (Set1 #391)

4 Stonescar Scrapper (Set3 #236)

4 Gearcruncher (Set3 #46)

4 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

4 Granite Waystone (Set3 #1)

5 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Crest of Chaos (Set3 #268)

4 Seat of Chaos (Set0 #60)

4 Stonescar Banner (Set1 #419)

The remainder of this post will discuss how I did it.

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2. WHAT'S IN THE DECK

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It is worth noting that the deck has as many 4-ofs as possible. This is the most consistent way to build a deck because it narrows my range of possible draws. I call this the camat0 way of deckbuilding: the shorter the list, the better it is. And if this paradigm is good enough for the world champion, it's good enough for me.

Gearcruncher is the deck's primary win condition. Fully active, it is the biggest 7-drop in the game at 14/15 stats, even before considering its activated ability.

Combust, Devour, and Madness make up the Stonescar sacrifice package that we all know and some of us love. Combining Madness with either of the other two spells is a way to gain tempo without falling behind on value, at the cost of Madness being blank without anything to combo with it.

Grenadin Drone and Assembly Line can block aggro, chump midrange, fuel sacrifice synergies, and enable Gearcruncher.

Scraptank is a glorified Assembly Line that also distracts removal from more important units and grows to enormous sizes if left unchecked.

Torch and Into the Furnace are standalone efficient removal cards that kill problematic units.

Quarry is an anto-include cantrip in slow Stonescar builds, of which this deck is one.

Stonescar Scrapper is one of the best draw engines in the game. It has consistently surprised me in how fast it snowballs out of control if unanswered, often outvaluing Big Combrei. Gaining life is a welcome bonus.

Dark Return has overperformed so much that I went up to 4 copies. Buying back Scrapper, Scraptank, and Gearcruncher proved crucial in winning longer matchups. It also lets me reuse opponents' utility units that I stole.

Combustion Cell is nice to have, but not necessary. It is a permanent sacrifice outlet for Madness, a great ramp tool to gain tempo early on with the right hand, and a way to activate Scrapper and Gearcruncher on the turn they come down earlier. However, the second copy and beyond are literally worse draws than power. This limits me to running 1 copy, because drawing more than one late is worse than not drawing any early.

The power base is about as simple as it gets. 12 Stonescar duals, 4 red Waystones, 4 Vara's Favor. No Diplomatic Seal to keep the Sigil count high enough for Seats, no Amethyst Waystone for the lack of Night synergy, and no Monuments because I want to get to 7 power.

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3. WHAT'S NOT IN THE DECK

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3.1) Cards that don't fit the deck

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Coalscrounger and Rally only help deal face damage when I already have a sizable board. Though this amount of damage is often enormous, these are too often dead cards in a deck that already relies on synergy to be included.

Crimson Firemaw, Jekk, Hunted Fugitive, Obrak, the Feaster, and Umbren Reaper all share one trait: they do nothing the turn they are played. This enabales removal decks to use their spot removal for a tempo gain with no benefit to me. In particular, while Firemaw, Obrak, and Reaper are all evasive, the deck is unable to take advantage of evasion because it is not able to buff or protect them and also isn't a good deck at racing.

3.2) Cards that didn't make the cut

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Spark Hatcher, Slumbering Stone, and Dark Wisp make good sacrifice fodder, but the deck already has enough sacrifice fodder to not need them. In particular, Spark Hatcher was a good card against aggro when Gearcruncher was first printed, but it is no longer good in those matchups.

Deathstrike and Devious Drone do not fit the deck because it already has 4 Madness, 4 Combust, and Gearcruncher activations to handle large threats.

Bait is a payoff card, but a 7/7 flyer is not good enough for this deck.

Direwood Prowler is a worse Stonescar Scrapper most of the time, and isn't necessary with 4 Scrapper and 4 Dark Return.

The Witching Hour is too hard to cast. Including enough Shadow sources to cast it reliably means cutting enough Fire sources to virtually never activate Granite Waystone.

3.3) Tech cards that I chose to cut

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Sabotage is good for picking off payoff spells such as Channel the Tempest. Unlike in beatdown decks, this deck doesn't need Sabotage to protect its threats because its threats that die to spot removal also produce additional value on the turn they are played. This limits the utility of Sabotage in this deck, so I didn't include it.

Miner's Musket, Suffocate, Annihilate, and extra copies of Into the Furnace are all options for removal for different metagames. I've found 4 Torch and 1 Into the Furnace optimal for what I tended to face. The 1 Into the Furnace was an Annihilate until Patch 1.28.7, which made Furnace a Fast Spell and made one of its best targets, Champion of Chaos, a Gunslinger and therefore much more popular.

Scrap Heap, Toppletower, and Flamestoker are good sideboard cards against unit-light control. Toppletower is also a decent blocker against aggro. But all three of these cards are very bad against midrange so I don't run them on ladder.

Kaleb, Uncrowned Prince on a wide board ends the game, but you're rarely losing if you have a wide board. A cost of 8 is prohibitively expensive for a 29-power deck, but this is a decent option if you need the damage from hand to cheese wins in a control-heavy meta.

Torrent of Spiders is a good anti-midrange tech card and almost good enough to run without considering the meta, but in too many cases it only results several 1/1s that don't have Grenadin synergy. The 1/1s being Deadly blockers is surprisingly irrelevant when chump blocking a unit for ever is often as good as killing it. Against aggro it's too slow to get going, and most aggro decks either have ways to deal 1 damage or enough evasion to not care about spiders.

Slimespitter Slug is only good in the most flyer-heavy metas, which isn't this meta.

Oblivion Spike can kill some control decks on its own and can be removal, and is worth considering if the meta contained less aggro.

Bloodrite Kalis is good against decks with neither lots of direct damage nor oversized units. This means Feln, which was just nerfed, so I don't expect to play it on ladder any time soon. It also means some Hooru variants, though, so maybe I'm wrong about this.

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4. PLAYING THE DECK

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This section only contains brief tips and not extensive analyses because this post is a deck tech, not a technical discussion.

4.1) General Tips

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-Block liberally. This applies to both blocking to trade and chump blocking. If your opponent is in a position to attack, your 1/1s are not going to attack any time soon. The most common mistake when playing this deck is blocking too little.

-Keep Madness live. If you have Madness and no way to sacrifice, your priority is finding such a way. If you have Madness and a way to sacrifice, try to only use the sacrifice effect if you also use the Madness. Having an unplayable Madness is one of the easiest ways to lose.

-Don't rush the game. A bunch of 1/1s may not seem like much, but this deck actually plays the control role in most matchups. You don't have to worry about running out of resources before your opponent most of the time. There are, of course, exceptions.

-Redraw for an early-game plan. This deck is one of the most applicable cases for the "three turn plan". If you can do at least 2 things in the first 3 turns with your starting hand, you usually keep, otherwise you'd redraw. Exceptions exist, but are few.

-Scraptank is bait. It's a good thing to get your Scraptank killed by spot removal, even if said removal is a Torch, because then they don't have that removal for your more valuable threats.

-A full board is a way to activate Madness. This rarely comes up, but it's also not documented. If you use Madness when you have a full board, the unit dies and goes to your void. Any Entomb or Revenge on the unit will activate on your side.

-Steal the utility. When you have a choice of which unit to Madness to your void, choose the one with a Summon instead of the bigger body when possible.

4.2) Matchup Advice

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

-Ground aggro, including Stonescar and Skycrag. These are your good matchups. Prioritize removing Overwhelm and Quickdraw units, chump the rest. Hold back at least 2 blockers if you're concerned about Charge damage. Don't be afraid to cast low-value Dark Returns if they advance you towards your win conditions of Scraptank and Gearcruncher safely.

-Icaria control, including Removal Pile and Icaria Blue. Begin by beating down with a few damage worth of units but do not overcommit to board wipes unless you can tell they have none or when they'd also wipe their own units. Save a ping if possible for Icaria, and save Dark Returns to refill after getting wiped. This is a war of attrition you'll usually win, but they definitely have chances.

-Evasive aggro and midrange, including Rakano and Argenport. These are bad matchups. Prioritize removing evasive units above all else and take as little damage as possible. Try to not spend removal on things you can chump block. Race aggressively with your ground units even at the cost of giving free blocks, but only if you actually have a realistic chance of winning the race. Get lucky.

-Value control, including Chalice. You are the beatdown. The favorability of these matchups depends almost entirely on how many board wipes they run. This is mostly an exercise in hand-reading and avoiding overcommitment. Your first priority is to try to deal damage to their face every turn, within reason. Your second priority is to squeeze as much value out of each card as possible. Your third priority is to stay out of range of direct damage like Channel the Tempest. Patience is a virtue in these matchups, but you also need to know when to push for lethal.

-Scream, including, well, Felnscar Scream. This matchup is somewhat unfavorable. Save fast removal for their attack phase on Infiltrate units and ideally nothing else. Gorgon Fanatic matters way, way more than the Beastcaller infiltrate, because 5/5s can be chumped and killed with slow removal. Consider chumping away all your units if they use Madness without a pause on 2 because they might only have Combust and not Devour. Take great pains to keep your life total up because one of the few ways you lose the late game is repeated Fanatic damage.

-Beatdown midrange, like Elysian and Praxis. These are good matchups. Prioritize removing Overwhelm units and chump the rest. Try not to let their board get too wide even if you can still chump it, because Novaquake Titan and Crystallize can cause you to lose instantly.

-Value midrange, like Combrei and Xenan. These are similar to beatdown midrange and are also good matchups. Against Combrei, it's often correct to not kill Sandstorm Titan so they can't fly. Save removal so they don't stick a value engine and Gearcruncher will do the rest.

-The mirror. "Be the better player", as I like to say, and hope they don't run any mirror breakers like Statuary Maiden and Kaleb. Madness and Stonescar Scrapper should always be on the back of your mind, if not the front. Devour is not only for your own Madness but for theirs too.

-Other decks. Your win condition is either "chip with a few grenadin at a time" or "drop Gearcruncher and laugh". Identify which one is the case and do your best to get there.

___________________

5. CLOSING THOUGHTS

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

I realize reaching rank 1 once is a reliable indicator of neither the strength of a deck or that of a player. However, this deck took me to rank 1 from the moderate position of 200+ in fewer games than any other deck I've played in all of Eternal. For this reason, I felt justified to write a deck tech on it despite its apparent blandness and lack of innovation. Even so, the deck definitely has weaknesses, and the lopsided metagame contributed as much to its success as the deck's strengths.

I do not play ladder when I am rank 1, and I'm ok if people pass me and I never catch up to them because of it. The first month I tried climbing the Eternal ladder seriously, I got stuck at rank 2 for the better part of the month because the person ahead of me played many games more than me and built up an insurmountable lead. This made me salty in a way that made me think no one else deserves to feel that way. Either that or I just want an excuse to not exert effort.

The mention of my depression at the end of my previous post has resulted in an overwhelming amount of support, literally. The sheer number of responses alone has made me somewhat emotionally unstable for the past couple of days. I ask that you do not interpret my lack of display of gratitude as lack of appreciation for your efforts. I also ask that you realize it's extremely difficult to understand the mind of a depressed person even if you've had personal experiences with depression because every individual is different. Offering advice without learning my situation in detail, posting generic "feel-good" messages, and offering yourself as a conversational partner without fully intending to follow through are all things that hurt more than they help.

As a proper conclusion, I would like to compare building decks to cooking. Everyone needs to eat, and everyone needs a deck to play the game. Some people cook better than others, but everyone can learn to cook if they wanted to. You get better at it over time, and only you know exactly what tastes you enjoy. I've seen many posts complaining about the recent metagame, but if I can build my deck to thrive in it despite my mental burdens, so can you. Cooking isn't hard, and building decks isn't either.

I hope you get more out of this deck tech than just a list of cards you can copy and paste. I hope I get more out of making it than the 10 minutes of satisfaction of getting something, anything, done for the first time in a while.

***************************

POWER BASE REFERENCE TABLES

***************************

// Written 2018-03-14 //

These tables show the number of power sources needed in a 75-card deck to achieve various power and influence requirements.

The effects of the redraw rule, deck thinning, and card draw are not shown.

These effects combined make the actual number of sources needed for real decks lower than these tables would suggest.

Entries with asterisks (*) indicate more sources than the turn number, such as 6 sources by turn 3. Most decks don't care for these chances, but they are included for the sake of completeness.

This document is a reference, not a guide. It does not attempt to provide any instruction on how to build a power base. Rather, it contains information that may be useful in this process.

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┓

┃50% CHANCE GOING 1ST┃TURN NUMBER ┃ 1 ┃ 2 ┃ 3 ┃ 4 ┃ 5 ┃ 6 ┃ 7 ┃ 8 ┃ 9 ┃ 10 ┃ 11 ┃ 12 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┃NUMBER TO DRAW ┃NUMBER IN DECK ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 1 ┃ 7 ┃ 6 ┃ 6 ┃ 5 ┃ 5 ┃ 4 ┃ 4 ┃ 4 ┃ 4 ┃ 3 ┃ 3 ┃ 3 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 2 ┃17*┃15 ┃14 ┃12 ┃11 ┃10 ┃10 ┃ 9 ┃ 8 ┃ 8 ┃ 7 ┃ 7 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 3 ┃28*┃24*┃22 ┃20 ┃18 ┃17 ┃15 ┃14 ┃13 ┃ 13 ┃ 12 ┃ 11 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 4 ┃38*┃33*┃30*┃27 ┃25 ┃23 ┃21 ┃20 ┃18 ┃ 17 ┃ 16 ┃ 15 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 5 ┃48*┃43*┃38*┃34*┃31 ┃29 ┃27 ┃25 ┃23 ┃ 22 ┃ 21 ┃ 19 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 6 ┃59*┃52*┃46*┃42*┃38*┃35 ┃32 ┃30 ┃28 ┃ 26 ┃ 25 ┃ 24 ┃

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┛

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┓

┃60% CHANCE GOING 1ST┃TURN NUMBER ┃ 1 ┃ 2 ┃ 3 ┃ 4 ┃ 5 ┃ 6 ┃ 7 ┃ 8 ┃ 9 ┃ 10 ┃ 11 ┃ 12 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┃NUMBER TO DRAW ┃NUMBER IN DECK ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 1 ┃ 9 ┃ 8 ┃ 7 ┃ 7 ┃ 6 ┃ 6 ┃ 5 ┃ 5 ┃ 5 ┃ 4 ┃ 4 ┃ 4 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 2 ┃20*┃18 ┃16 ┃15 ┃13 ┃12 ┃11 ┃11 ┃10 ┃ 9 ┃ 9 ┃ 8 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 3 ┃31*┃27*┃25 ┃22 ┃20 ┃19 ┃17 ┃16 ┃15 ┃ 14 ┃ 13 ┃ 13 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 4 ┃41*┃37*┃33*┃30 ┃27 ┃25 ┃23 ┃22 ┃20 ┃ 19 ┃ 18 ┃ 17 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 5 ┃51*┃46*┃41*┃37*┃34 ┃31 ┃29 ┃27 ┃25 ┃ 24 ┃ 22 ┃ 21 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 6 ┃61*┃54*┃49*┃44*┃41*┃37 ┃35 ┃32 ┃30 ┃ 28 ┃ 27 ┃ 25 ┃

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┛

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┓

┃70% CHANCE GOING 1ST┃TURN NUMBER ┃ 1 ┃ 2 ┃ 3 ┃ 4 ┃ 5 ┃ 6 ┃ 7 ┃ 8 ┃ 9 ┃ 10 ┃ 11 ┃ 12 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┃NUMBER TO DRAW ┃NUMBER IN DECK ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 1 ┃12 ┃10 ┃ 9 ┃ 8 ┃ 8 ┃ 7 ┃ 7 ┃ 6 ┃ 6 ┃ 5 ┃ 5 ┃ 5 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 2 ┃24*┃21 ┃19 ┃17 ┃16 ┃14 ┃13 ┃12 ┃12 ┃ 11 ┃ 10 ┃ 10 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 3 ┃35*┃31*┃28 ┃25 ┃23 ┃21 ┃19 ┃18 ┃17 ┃ 16 ┃ 15 ┃ 14 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 4 ┃45*┃40*┃36*┃33 ┃30 ┃28 ┃26 ┃24 ┃22 ┃ 21 ┃ 20 ┃ 19 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 5 ┃55*┃49*┃44*┃40*┃37 ┃34 ┃31 ┃29 ┃27 ┃ 26 ┃ 24 ┃ 23 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 6 ┃64*┃57*┃52*┃47*┃43*┃40 ┃37 ┃35 ┃33 ┃ 31 ┃ 29 ┃ 27 ┃

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┛

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┓

┃75% CHANCE GOING 1ST┃TURN NUMBER ┃ 1 ┃ 2 ┃ 3 ┃ 4 ┃ 5 ┃ 6 ┃ 7 ┃ 8 ┃ 9 ┃ 10 ┃ 11 ┃ 12 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┃NUMBER TO DRAW ┃NUMBER IN DECK ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 1 ┃13 ┃12 ┃11 ┃10 ┃ 9 ┃ 8 ┃ 7 ┃ 7 ┃ 6 ┃ 6 ┃ 6 ┃ 5 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 2 ┃26*┃23 ┃20 ┃18 ┃17 ┃16 ┃14 ┃13 ┃13 ┃ 12 ┃ 11 ┃ 10 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 3 ┃36*┃32*┃29 ┃27 ┃24 ┃22 ┃21 ┃19 ┃18 ┃ 17 ┃ 16 ┃ 15 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 4 ┃48*┃42*┃38*┃34 ┃31 ┃29 ┃27 ┃25 ┃24 ┃ 22 ┃ 21 ┃ 20 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 5 ┃56*┃50*┃46*┃42*┃38 ┃35 ┃33 ┃31 ┃29 ┃ 27 ┃ 26 ┃ 24 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 6 ┃65*┃59*┃53*┃49*┃45*┃42 ┃39 ┃36 ┃34 ┃ 32 ┃ 30 ┃ 29 ┃

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┛

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┓

┃80% CHANCE GOING 1ST┃TURN NUMBER ┃ 1 ┃ 2 ┃ 3 ┃ 4 ┃ 5 ┃ 6 ┃ 7 ┃ 8 ┃ 9 ┃ 10 ┃ 11 ┃ 12 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┃NUMBER TO DRAW ┃NUMBER IN DECK ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 1 ┃15 ┃14 ┃12 ┃11 ┃10 ┃ 9 ┃ 9 ┃ 8 ┃ 7 ┃ 7 ┃ 7 ┃ 6 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 2 ┃28*┃25 ┃22 ┃20 ┃18 ┃17 ┃16 ┃15 ┃14 ┃ 13 ┃ 12 ┃ 11 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 3 ┃39*┃35*┃31 ┃28 ┃26 ┃24 ┃22 ┃21 ┃19 ┃ 18 ┃ 17 ┃ 16 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 4 ┃49*┃44*┃40*┃36 ┃33 ┃31 ┃28 ┃27 ┃25 ┃ 23 ┃ 22 ┃ 21 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 5 ┃58*┃52*┃47*┃43*┃40 ┃37 ┃34 ┃32 ┃30 ┃ 28 ┃ 27 ┃ 25 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 6 ┃66*┃60*┃55*┃50*┃47*┃43 ┃40 ┃38 ┃35 ┃ 33 ┃ 31 ┃ 30 ┃

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┛

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┓

┃85% CHANCE GOING 1ST┃TURN NUMBER ┃ 1 ┃ 2 ┃ 3 ┃ 4 ┃ 5 ┃ 6 ┃ 7 ┃ 8 ┃ 9 ┃ 10 ┃ 11 ┃ 12 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┃NUMBER TO DRAW ┃NUMBER IN DECK ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 1 ┃18 ┃16 ┃14 ┃13 ┃12 ┃11 ┃10 ┃ 9 ┃ 9 ┃ 8 ┃ 8 ┃ 7 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 2 ┃30*┃27 ┃24 ┃22 ┃20 ┃19 ┃17 ┃16 ┃15 ┃ 14 ┃ 13 ┃ 13 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 3 ┃41*┃37*┃33 ┃30 ┃28 ┃26 ┃24 ┃22 ┃21 ┃ 20 ┃ 19 ┃ 18 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 4 ┃51*┃46*┃42*┃38 ┃35 ┃33 ┃30 ┃28 ┃27 ┃ 25 ┃ 24 ┃ 22 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 5 ┃60*┃54*┃50*┃45*┃42 ┃39 ┃36 ┃34 ┃32 ┃ 30 ┃ 28 ┃ 27 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 6 ┃68*┃62*┃57*┃52*┃48*┃45 ┃42 ┃39 ┃37 ┃ 35 ┃ 33 ┃ 31 ┃

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┛

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┓

┃90% CHANCE GOING 1ST┃TURN NUMBER ┃ 1 ┃ 2 ┃ 3 ┃ 4 ┃ 5 ┃ 6 ┃ 7 ┃ 8 ┃ 9 ┃ 10 ┃ 11 ┃ 12 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┃NUMBER TO DRAW ┃NUMBER IN DECK ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 1 ┃21 ┃18 ┃17 ┃15 ┃14 ┃13 ┃12 ┃11 ┃10 ┃ 10 ┃ 9 ┃ 8 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 2 ┃34*┃30*┃27 ┃25 ┃23 ┃21 ┃19 ┃18 ┃17 ┃ 16 ┃ 15 ┃ 14 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 3 ┃44*┃40*┃36 ┃33 ┃31 ┃28 ┃26 ┃25 ┃23 ┃ 22 ┃ 20 ┃ 19 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 4 ┃54*┃49*┃45*┃41 ┃38 ┃35 ┃33 ┃31 ┃29 ┃ 27 ┃ 25 ┃ 24 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 5 ┃62*┃57*┃52*┃48*┃44 ┃41 ┃39 ┃36 ┃34 ┃ 32 ┃ 30 ┃ 29 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 6 ┃69*┃64*┃59*┃55*┃51*┃47 ┃44 ┃42 ┃39 ┃ 37 ┃ 35 ┃ 33 ┃

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┛

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┳━━━━┓

┃95% CHANCE GOING 1ST┃TURN NUMBER ┃ 1 ┃ 2 ┃ 3 ┃ 4 ┃ 5 ┃ 6 ┃ 7 ┃ 8 ┃ 9 ┃ 10 ┃ 11 ┃ 12 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┃NUMBER TO DRAW ┃NUMBER IN DECK ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 1 ┃26 ┃23 ┃21 ┃19 ┃17 ┃16 ┃15 ┃14 ┃13 ┃ 12 ┃ 11 ┃ 11 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 2 ┃38*┃35 ┃31 ┃29 ┃26 ┃24 ┃23 ┃20 ┃20 ┃ 19 ┃ 18 ┃ 17 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 3 ┃49*┃44*┃40 ┃37 ┃34 ┃32 ┃30 ┃28 ┃26 ┃ 25 ┃ 23 ┃ 22 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 4 ┃58*┃53*┃48*┃45 ┃41 ┃39 ┃36 ┃34 ┃32 ┃ 30 ┃ 28 ┃ 27 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 5 ┃65*┃60*┃56*┃52*┃48 ┃45 ┃42 ┃39 ┃37 ┃ 35 ┃ 33 ┃ 32 ┃

┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━╋━━━━┫

┃ 6 ┃71*┃67*┃62*┃58*┃54*┃51 ┃47 ┃45 ┃42 ┃ 40 ┃ 38 ┃ 36 ┃

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┻━━━━┛

*****************************

POWER BASE BUILDING ALGORITHM

*****************************

// Written 2018-04-12 //

I present a series of steps you can use to build a power base for any deck. The steps should be easy to follow with a minimum of difficult decisions. Power bases made using this method are likely suboptimal but always functional. It is, of course, possible to further refine power bases.

Example decks are included to aid explanation. The decks are likely suboptimal, but somewhat functional, and are not the focus of this article. You can take them for your own use, at your own risk.

________

CONTENTS

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Step 1: Choose power count.

Step 2: Add sigils.

Step 3: Add rainbow fixing.

Step 4: Note the required dual count.

Step 5: Add duals.

Step 6: Change power types.

Step 7: Check your work.

Another Example Deck

Closing Remarks

___________________________

STEP 1: Choose power count.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Build the rest of the deck, leaving the power slots empty. The proper power count ranges from 25 to 34 depending on your curve. The example deck is Screaming Tower, which only has 4 cards above 3 cost and thus plays the allowed minimum of 25 power.

4 Combust (Set1 #392)

2 Dark Return (Set1 #250)

4 Grenadin Drone (Set1 #5)

2 Levitate (Set1 #190)

2 Permafrost (Set1 #193)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

4 Devour (Set1 #261)

4 Haunting Scream (Set1 #374)

4 Quarry (Set1001 #15)

4 Assembly Line (Set1 #29)

4 Gorgon Fanatic (Set1 #375)

4 Madness (Set1 #267)

4 Toppletower (Set3 #26)

4 Bandit Queen (Set1 #389)

___________________

STEP 2: Add sigils.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Use influence requirement reference tables or a hypergeometric calculator. To do so, you need to decide the percentage chance you want to hit each of your color requirements. If you're unsure, use 80%. Hypergeometric percentages are lower than percentages during play because you actually get two adjusted starting hands, not one random starting hand.

I examine each of the example deck's 3 colors in turn.

Bandit Queen requires FF on turn 4. This is the only FF card in the deck, so I don't need 80% to hit it. I go to the 75% table, and find that I need 18 sources.

Quarry requires S on turn 2. I debate with myself between using the 80% or 85% chart, since although it is extremely important to Quarry on time, 2 extra sources really is a lot. I end up deciding to go with 80%, 14 sources. Note that compromising and deciding on 15 sources is a perfectly acceptable solution here, too.

I really, really need Primal on turn 4 to cast all the Primal cards that help push Infiltrates through, but can function without it earlier. 85% to find 1 Primal source by turn 4 requires 13 sources.

I add 18 Fire, 14 Shadow, and 13 Primal sigils to my deck.

4 Combust (Set1 #392)

2 Dark Return (Set1 #250)

4 Grenadin Drone (Set1 #5)

2 Levitate (Set1 #190)

2 Permafrost (Set1 #193)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

4 Devour (Set1 #261)

4 Haunting Scream (Set1 #374)

4 Quarry (Set1001 #15)

4 Assembly Line (Set1 #29)

4 Gorgon Fanatic (Set1 #375)

4 Madness (Set1 #267)

4 Toppletower (Set3 #26)

4 Bandit Queen (Set1 #389)

18 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

13 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

14 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

___________________________

STEP 3: Add rainbow fixing.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Rainbow fixing means fixing that can become all colors of influence the deck needs. Remove a sigil of each color for each card of rainbow fixing added.

The example deck requires 4 influence total, making it a good deck for Diplomatic Seal. It has no other viable rainbow fixing option. I add 4 Diplomatic seal and remove 4 of each sigil.

4 Combust (Set1 #392)

2 Dark Return (Set1 #250)

4 Grenadin Drone (Set1 #5)

2 Levitate (Set1 #190)

2 Permafrost (Set1 #193)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

4 Devour (Set1 #261)

4 Haunting Scream (Set1 #374)

4 Quarry (Set1001 #15)

4 Assembly Line (Set1 #29)

4 Gorgon Fanatic (Set1 #375)

4 Madness (Set1 #267)

4 Toppletower (Set3 #26)

4 Bandit Queen (Set1 #389)

14 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

9 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

10 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Diplomatic Seal (Set1 #425)

_____________________________________

STEP 4: Note the required dual count.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Subtract 75 from the current number of cards in your deck, and that is how many duals you will need. If this results in an unrealistically high number of duals, you must either change your deck to need less influence, change your deck to run more power, or go back to step 2 and pick less ambitious numbers. Any more than 14 duals likely means much of your power will be depleted, and any more than 16 will make your deck uncompetitively slow.

The example deck has 87 cards, meaning it needs 12 duals. This is acceptable, so I proceed to the next step.

__________________

STEP 5: Add duals.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Remove 2 sigils of different colors and add a dual that is those colors. Don't worry about the type of dual yet. Repeat until your deck is 75 cards.

For the example deck, I add the 12 crests in the factions I'm playing, removing sigils as I do.

4 Combust (Set1 #392)

2 Dark Return (Set1 #250)

4 Grenadin Drone (Set1 #5)

2 Levitate (Set1 #190)

2 Permafrost (Set1 #193)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

4 Devour (Set1 #261)

4 Haunting Scream (Set1 #374)

4 Quarry (Set1001 #15)

4 Assembly Line (Set1 #29)

4 Gorgon Fanatic (Set1 #375)

4 Madness (Set1 #267)

4 Toppletower (Set3 #26)

4 Bandit Queen (Set1 #389)

6 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

1 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

2 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Crest of Fury (Set3 #266)

4 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

4 Crest of Chaos (Set3 #268)

4 Diplomatic Seal (Set1 #425)

___________________________

STEP 6: Change power types.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Finally, optimize the types of power cards the deck runs without changing the total influence counts. This involves a lot of guesswork and subjectivity, but also won't make your deck much worse if you do it wrong. There are two types of optimization:

Changing a source to one that produces identical influence. For example, changing a banner to a crest, or changing a sigil to a waystone.

Changing a dual to one that produces different influence and adjusting sigils at the same time. For example, changing a Praxis dual to an Elysian dual, adding 1 Fire Sigil, and removing 1 Primal Sigil.

The first type of optimization is useful to get the most benefit out of your power cards. Be careful not to make your power base too depleted in the process. The second type of optimization can enable the first type, but is also useful in its own right since in general, you want your cards to be in the same colors as your duals.

The example deck's duals are all crests, which is ok since crests are very good to have. It has no seats, so I can turn as many sigils I'm allowed into waystones so they stay undepleted with a bit of extra benefit. There are no other apparent optimizations available.

4 Combust (Set1 #392)

2 Dark Return (Set1 #250)

4 Grenadin Drone (Set1 #5)

2 Levitate (Set1 #190)

2 Permafrost (Set1 #193)

4 Torch (Set1 #8)

4 Devour (Set1 #261)

4 Haunting Scream (Set1 #374)

4 Quarry (Set1001 #15)

4 Assembly Line (Set1 #29)

4 Gorgon Fanatic (Set1 #375)

4 Madness (Set1 #267)

4 Toppletower (Set3 #26)

4 Bandit Queen (Set1 #389)

2 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)

4 Granite Waystone (Set3 #1)

1 Cobalt Waystone (Set3 #151)

2 Amethyst Waystone (Set3 #201)

4 Crest of Fury (Set3 #266)

4 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

4 Crest of Chaos (Set3 #268)

4 Diplomatic Seal (Set1 #425)

________________________

STEP 7: Check your work.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Examine the deck to make sure everything makes sense. Count the number of sources in each color to make sure they are the numbers you chose in the first place. Draw a few sample starting hands to see how the power base will perform in practice.

The example deck now has 20 Fire, 13 Primal, and 14 Shadow sources, the numbers I had intended to begin with. I draw some sample hands and most of them are playable, so I am reasonably sure that the power base is functional.

____________________

ANOTHER EXAMPLE DECK

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

I apply my method to another deck without following each step in rigid order. This is close to what I'd do when making actual decks I use. In fact, this is exactly what I did with this deck. It is my take on 4f Mask, inspired by IlyaK1986's attempt.

I decide that my deck should have 4 Seek Power and 2 Find the Way. Since I know these will be in my deck, I add them right away.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

This is a slow control deck that really needs to hit all of its influence requirements at some point every game. For this reason and because I'm lazy, I didn't bother examining which influence requirements I need the most, and just went with 80% for each. I can revise the decision to use this shortcut later if I need to.

According to the charts, I need 22 Primal, 20 Time, 18 Justice, and 11 Shadow sources. Seek Power is rainbow fixing, and I count each Find the Way as 1.5 rainbow fixings, giving each color 7 sources. I add 15 Primal, 13 Time, 11 Justice, and 4 Shadow sigils.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

13 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

11 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

15 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

4 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

The deck is now 93 cards, meaning I'd need 18 duals. Realizing that any number of duals greater than 16 will make a deck uncompetitively slow, I roll with it anyway, because chances are this deck isn't competitive even with a faster power base.

With 4 colors, I need to approach adding duals methodically to prevent screwing up. I replace two sigils with one dual at a time, choosing the sigils I have the most of each time, and choosing the uppermost sigil in the list in case of ties. I don't care which kind of dual I am adding, since those will be adjusted later.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

1 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

2 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

3 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

1 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

2 Elysian Banner (Set1 #421)

4 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

2 Hooru Banner (Set2 #216)

4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

2 Seat of Mystery (Set0 #61)

This configuration only has 1 Time Sigil when the deck requires 2 Time influence, so I might run out of Time Sigils to fetch before my Time requirement is met. To fix this problem, I need to remove a Shadow Sigil, add a Time Sigil, and change my duals to maintain my influence totals. Note that I could have avoided this problem by choosing the lowermost instead of uppermost Sigil to remove when adding my duals, but it's too late to do that now.

I add a Time Sigil, add a Justice Sigil, and remove a Seat of Progress. I remove a Justice Sigil, remove a Shadow sigil, and add a Seat of Vengeance. I maintain my influence totals while solving my problem of only having 1 Time Sigil.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

2 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

1 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

2 Elysian Banner (Set1 #421)

4 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

2 Hooru Banner (Set2 #216)

4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

1 Seat of Vengeance (Set0 #55)

2 Seat of Mystery (Set0 #61)

This very slow control deck currently only has 1 crest. It should have as many as it can support, since it really doesn't care about curving out and could use the extra filtering. The most obvious step now is to change as many existing duals into crests of the same factions as possible.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

2 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

3 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

2 Hooru Banner (Set2 #216)

4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

1 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

2 Seat of Mystery (Set0 #61)

It is possible to fit more crests into this deck, even though the only available crests now are of Vengeance and Cunning and there aren't any more of those duals to replace. I do this by swapping duals around to create duals of the right color.

In particular, I remove a Seat of Mystery, add a Time Sigil, and add a Shadow Sigil. I change a Time Sigil to a Justice Sigil and change a Hooru Banner to a Seat of Wisdom. I can now remove a Justice Sigil, remove a Shadow Sigil, and add a Crest of Vengeance. I repeat the entire process to add a third Crest of Vengeance, except this time I already have 4 Seats of Wisdom and must add an Elysian Banner instead.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

2 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

1 Elysian Banner (Set1 #421)

4 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

3 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

This configuration has a banner, which is not ideal since in such a heavy control deck, banners are essentially always depleted with no benefit. I would like to change it into a different type of dual, but I'm already running a full 8 other Elysian duals. I will need to shuffle my duals around to solve this problem.

I remove the Elysian Banner, add a Time Sigil, and add a Primal Sigil. I remove a Primal Sigil, remove a Shadow Sigil, and add a Crest of Cunning. I swap the extra Time Sigil for the missing Shadow Sigil, and change a Crest of Vengeance into a Seat of Progress to balance my influence totals.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

3 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

4 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

2 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

1 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

There is one final optimization possible. I have 8 Elysian duals yet no Elysian cards to cast, and 2 Argenport duals with no Argenport cards. I swap a Crest of Vengeance for a Crest of Cunning, and swap a Seat of Wisdom for a Seat of Progress. Now I only have 7 Elysian duals for my 0 Elysian cards, and 1 Argenport dual for 0 Argenport cards.

If I repeat this process, I would have to add a banner, since I already have 4 Seats of Progress and Crests of Progress do not exist. Having a banner is worse for this deck than having mismatched duals and cards, so I don't do that. The final result:

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

3 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

1 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

2 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

To check my work, I tally up the number of sources of each color, counting my 4 Seek Power and 2 Find the Way as 7 sources for each color. I count 20 Time, 18 Justice, 22 Primal, and 11 Shadow sources, which is what I had intended. The Sample Hand feature isn't as helpful for such a slow deck, since the majority of the cards I will see while playing it will not be opening hands. I skip that step and go straight to play testing.

In the end, the power base hits its influence requirements surprisingly consistently, considering the greediness of the deck. The multitude of seats even makes it undepleted fairly often. But 7 sigils is simply too few, and the deck suffers from too much depletion to be anywhere close to competitive, which is what I expected out of such a 4f monster.

_______________

CLOSING REMARKS

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

The astute reader will notice that my method fails to take into account some crucial factors in building power bases. Notably, it completely ignores the help from cheap early cycling and scouting. It also does not take into account that counting rainbow fixing as 1 of each color is overly generous, since you often have a Seek Power that can only get one of your several missing influences.

These omissions are intentional. First, there is the issue of article length. This article is already over 3000 words, and would be even longer had I accounted for these effects. Secondly, accounting for these effects would dramatically raise the complexity of the method, which goes against my goal of making the steps "easy to follow with a minimum of difficult decisions". Thirdly, the effects of the omissions are errors in opposite directions. Ignoring cheap cycling and scouting makes the numbers generated by the method too high, and ignoring that rainbow fixing can be overloaded makes the numbers too low. In a very crude fashion, these two errors tend to cancel each other out, making the actual number closer to accurate.

I use this method myself to build the power bases for the first versions of my decks, then refine them by play testing. The end result is usually very similar to the generated power base, but not identical. I encourage you to do the same.

As for the example decks, their current power bases in the real world are remarkably close to what was presented here. I have replaced 1 Fire Sigil with a Stonescar Banner in Screaming Tower, and replaced 1 Seat of Order with a Crest of Vengeance in 4f Mask.

I do not claim to be an authority on building power bases, but I do claim to build better power bases than the majority of lists I see. Please try the method and let me know how it goes, ideally by facing me on ladder using a deck that has a nice, reasonable, functional power base.

***********************

A TALE ABOUT A DECKLIST

***********************

// Written 2018-04-17, unpublished //

April 14, 2018, 3 PM. I take my own deck into the constructed event and run it to a 7-0 record. On its own, this is of no significance. I am not unfamiliar with winning or with building decks. I also know, of course, that I need a huge amount of luck to win 7 games in a row, no matter how good my deck is.

But this achievement feels different, and I don't know why. It feels like there's some greater significance to this 7-0 than all other 7-0s. Maybe It really has been this long since I built a successful deck. Maybe I deserve the reward for the many hours of effort I spent. In any case, I want to tell the story of how I got here.

I call it a story, though it is not much of one. There is no tension, no build-up, no excitement, no climax, and no conclusion. There is only a thousand insignificant events, a thousand trials and errors, strung together to form an incoherent mess. And my job is to tell you all about it.

This is 4-faction Mask, and here is its story.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

On April 7, a man named Top8 finished second place in an ETS weekly. This in itself was insiginficant as the ETS produced a second place every week. But it's interesting what deck he did it with.

2 Dark Return (Set1 #250)

3 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Temple Scribe (Set1 #502)

4 Vara's Favor (Set0 #35)

4 Amaran Camel (Set1 #357)

2 Crown of Possibilities (Set1 #355)

1 Sunken Tower (Set3 #175)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Katra, the Devoted (Set2 #208)

1 Lumen Reclaimer (Set3 #80)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 Yetipult (Set1002 #11)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

1 Talir, Unbound (Set3 #93)

3 Channel the Tempest (Set1 #244)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

5 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

4 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

2 Elysian Banner (Set1 #421)

2 Seat of Cunning (Set0 #62)

1 Seat of Mystery (Set0 #61)

4 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

This looked like some Eternal beginner's first attempt at deckbuilding. It tried to cast Katra and Yetipult on 3 Seek Power. It had zero removal. It had Crown of Possibilities and barely any worthwhile units. It had Lumen Reclaimer so it could stop getting 1/1s from The Tormentor. Very little about this deck made sense to me, and I paid it little attention.

But I did lose to it a couple of times on ladder, because I was playing Grenadins, a deck notoriously bad at beating decks that don't do anything. This made me interested enough to look up the deck and learn of its existence. At the time, I thought of it only as a curiosity, a statistical anomaly, an indication of the randomness in card games.

I had no idea what this idea would become.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

4 days later, Ilyak1986 made his version of Mask. It had 4 factions and Aid of the Hooru.

3 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

3 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Temple Scribe (Set1 #502)

3 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

3 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

3 Secret Pages (Set1 #81)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

1 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

1 Stronghold's Visage (Set1 #339)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

1 A New Tomorrow (Set1 #348)

4 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

3 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

1 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

4 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

1 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

3 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

4 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)s

This was far easier to look at than the previous list. The deck had the single coherent goal of casting Aid of the Hooru instead of no clear goal at all. It was at least somewhat close to competitive, as the many streamers who have tried the deck proved with their results.

But it also left much to be desired. The double-influence cards were awkward to cast with the power base, especially Temple Scribe who never came down on turn 2. 3 singletons without Celestial Omen baffled me, as did the 3-of Strategizes and Combrei Healers that looked like they really wanted to be 4.

Still, this deck set the precedent of using Aid of the Hooru as a ramp payoff, playing the standard Justice and Primal control tools to get there. The previous version of Mask lacked both Harsh Rule and such a payoff card, and did nothing between turns 6 and 20. This deck no longer had that problem.

This deck inspired others to build their own Mask decks. One such person was ManuS.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

ManuS also tried to cast Aid of the Hooru, and also played good Justice and Primal control tools. Beyond these similarities, his version of the deck looked totally different from IlyaK's.

4 Permafrost (Set1 #193)

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

2 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

3 Eilyn's Choice (Set2 #220)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Stronghold's Visage (Set1 #339)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

3 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

2 Cobalt Waystone (Set3 #151)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

2 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

4 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

4 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

Permafrost replaced Combrei Healer because it cost 1 instead of 3. The ramp was replaced by straight power cards. Eilyn's Choice and Stronghold's Visage made their appearances, and Temple Scribe exited for being impossible to cast. The deck was abandoned after only a few test games, partly because of its inconsistent power base.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Playing 4 factions was just too hard on the power base, and ManuS didn't try to make it work. He went back to 3 factions.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

3 Annihilate (Set1 #269)

3 Lightning Strike (Set1 #197)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Temple Scribe (Set1 #502)

2 Banish (Set2 #207)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

4 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

4 Channel the Tempest (Set1 #244)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

3 Amber Waystone (Set3 #51)

3 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

2 Cobalt Waystone (Set3 #151)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

1 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

4 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

1 Seat of Cunning (Set0 #62)

4 Seat of Mystery (Set0 #61)

2 Xenan Banner (Set2 #201)

I won't comment on the deck because ManuS made a video on it. This is the last deck in this article that I didn't make, and the last deck that isn't 4 factions.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

So far, I only looked at other people's Mask builds and didn't try my own. I usually did this as I was not good at inventing whole decks on my own. I was better at refining ideas that others already tried, and this was my first attempt.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

4 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

3 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

4 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

2 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

1 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

Celestial Omen was the only card I used that others didn't. I chose this over running more actual win conditions because the deck produced enough power that the high cost was acceptable. In addition to win conditions, Omen also found removal and Mask.

Although functional, this deck's power base was simply too slow. Only 7 sigils, multiple crests, and Find the Way made most of my power at least one turn behind curve all the time. The deck was powerful when it played its cards, but most of the time, it didn't.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

I iterated on the idea and made little tweaks here and there, but didn't find a breakthrough.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

3 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)

3 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

2 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

2 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

I ended up with this list. I reverted most of the changes I tried except the 2 Feeding Time for 2 Great Parliaments. I needed Feeding Time in case I needed to silence something. I cut the number of Great Parliaments in half because half of its function, as a makeshift blocker early on, was already being performed by Theurge.

This deck was functional, but only that. I felt I can make it better, but didn't think of how for a while.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

The breakthrough happened when I thought about what prevented the deck's success. The answer was the deck's atrociously slow power base. Thus, I had the crazy idea to cut Wisdom and Hailstorm from the deck, even though they were some of my best cards, since they were also the heaviest on my influence.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

2 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Slay (Set2 #236)

4 Stonepowder Alchemist (Set2 #239)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

3 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

3 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

4 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

1 Amber Waystone (Set3 #51)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

2 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

3 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

2 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

Stonepowder Alchemist replaced Hailstorm as an anti-aggro tool. No longer needing PP on turn 3, the deck now had Slay, the best spot removal in the game. I added a copy of Parliament and Aid in an attempt to make up for the lost value from cutting Wisdom.

This list was bad. Alchemist was simply not big enough to impact the game in any meaningful way, and the lack of card draw proved a bigger issue than I thought. The extra win conditions did more harm than good as they got stuck in my hand.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

I needed card draw, but already lost Wisdom. I flipped through my collection for ideas. Eventually, I chose Ancient Lore and dismissed options like Wanted Poster and Beckoning Lumen.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

2 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Slay (Set2 #236)

4 Stonepowder Alchemist (Set2 #239)

4 Ancient Lore (Set1 #105)

2 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

4 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

1 Amber Waystone (Set3 #51)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

2 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

3 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

2 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

I knew Ancient Lore was not a good card, otherwise I'd have seen it more often. Its synergy with Lifesteal and Revenge made it just good enough to not feel horrible. I cut a couple of Devoted Theurges because of the curve and to fit everything in. I didn't need that many Theurges any more to block or to activate Lifeforce, now that I'm running 4 Alchemist.

This list did better than the last one, but Alchemist was simply too weak. I couldn't cut Alchemist either as that left me too vulnerable against aggro. I faced a problem that seemed impossible to solve.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

I found a solution eventually and it was Desert Marshal. It blocked early units but also gave me a silence, so I cut the clunky Feeding Time that was clogging up the 4-cost spot. This saved me 2 slots, which I used to run 4 Theurge again.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

4 Desert Marshal (Set1 #332)

2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

2 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Slay (Set2 #236)

4 Ancient Lore (Set1 #105)

4 Devoted Theurge (Set1002 #6)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

4 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

1 Amber Waystone (Set3 #51)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

2 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

2 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

3 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

2 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

This was the list I took into the event and ran to 7-0, and where I planned to end this article. I've developed, through thousands of hours of playing Eternal, a sense for when a deck has become the best version of itself. It was a sense of finality that I felt with this exact list.

It seemed, then, the story of 4-faction Mask would end here. But it didn't.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

I was wrong about the deck being finished. The next day, I thought again about the idea of cutting down on the deck's influence requirements. I needed JJPP for Aid of the Hooru, but could I run only single-influence cards in my other two colors? It's not like I needd any more to cast Mask.

4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)

4 Strategize (Set3 #165)

4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)

4 Combrei Healer (Set1 #333)

4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)

3 Secret Pages (Set1 #81)

4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)

2 Feeding Time (Set1 #381)

4 Mask of Torment (Set2 #212)

2 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)

4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)

2 Stronghold's Visage (Set1 #339)

4 Black-Sky Harbinger (Set1 #385)

2 Celestial Omen (Set1 #241)

1 Sword of the Sky King (Set1 #186)

2 Aid of the Hooru (Set2 #230)

2 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)

2 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)

4 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)

1 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)

4 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)

4 Crest of Wisdom (Set3 #261)

4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

2 Crest of Vengeance (Set3 #264)

2 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)

It was not only possible, but quite good. The control staples of Hailstorm and Wisdom have returned, the power-hungry Theurge was replaced with Visage, and the Visages allowed the addition of an alternate win condition in Sword of the Sky King. The power base felt smoother than ever even without Find the Way.

This list compared to my first attempt with its clunky, slow, awkward power base was night and day. This list and Top8's original may well be from different galaxies. Even without any external confirmation, I felt proud of my work.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

It has only been a week since Top8's ETS finish, but it feels like a year. In fact, it has been about a year since the first time I got to rank 1, with that hilariously bad Armory list. Things are definitely different now.

It was hard to collect and organize all the deck lists from the depths of my memory, since I have no habit of keeping old versions of decks in my collection. It was hard to write a concise description for each list. And most of all, it was hard to spin this mess of decklists and events into a tangible story. It still doesn't feel like much of one.

This article is not meant to be instructional. It tells you what I saw and what I did, but says nothing about what you should do or how you should do it. I hope to offer a glimpse into the mind of a deck builder, about how I approach the task of making a deck my own. I don't know how valuable this information is to you, but at least you might find it entertaining.

Feel free to play some games with the deck. You get extra credit if you test each version of the deck to feel how it evolved like I have done. I can't promise anything about the final product except that it is the culmination of my week of effort and that I'm satisfied with it. The deck feels smooth to play and wins games in convincing fashion. Without ladder results to back me up, though, everything I say might be wrong.

I don't know if the story of 4-faction Mask, if you call it a story, ends here. I know that for now, I am a bit too tired to write its next chapter. This doesn't mean the current chapters will be the only ones. Perhaps someone will write its next chapter, perhaps even you.

***********************

GLEANING GRAIN I

SEEKING POWER

***********************

// Written 2018-04-21 //

*DISCLAIMER: This article's topic is of a mathematical nature. I am not a math expert, so I might have gotten it totally wrong. If you know better, please let me know.*

This is the first installment of my recurring column, Gleaning Grain. I haven't decided yet how often it will recur, or whether it will be on a set schedule at all.

Gleaning Grain means to gather the grains, of knowledge in this case, left over by less careful havesters. It is also a pun on my name, which is a grain. In particular, this column will discuss situations in Eternal that people don't usually think about, that hardly matter, but have a non-zero chance of affecting a game. Often, I will analyze a single "what's the play" situation. Other times, I will investigate a specific, recurring pattern of play that has a minimal, but real, effect.

I'm not sure who exactly I'm writing this column for, but fresh beginners should avoid going too deep down this rabbit hole. I write about these topics mostly out of curiosity, because these topics are interesting in their own right, not because I expect them to noticeably improve anyone's play. Most people, therefore, should treat this content as entertainment. If you are good enough at the game to treat it as genuine advice, I don't have to tell you that, because you know who you are.

Today's topic is on casting Seek Power in the late game for deck thinning. Imagine playing a slow matchup where you have enough power and influence for the rest of the game. You cast Seek Power, and can choose to draw your only Time Sigil or one of your two Primal Sigils. If you think this decision doesn't matter, you're wrong. I will use the remainder of this article to show you why.

___________

0. CONTENTS

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

1. Simplifying Assumptions

2. Analysis

2.1) With only good colors

2.2) With no good colors

2.3) With favors

2.4) Systematic errors

3. Other Factors

3.1) Multiple searches

3.2) Strategize

3.3) Depleted sigils

3.4) Premium sigils

4. Conclusions

5. Closing Remarks

6. Acknowledgements

__________________________

1. SIMPLIFYING ASSUMPTIONS

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

To keep this article to a reasonable length, and to keep the math simple enough for me to do, I need to ignore some factors that might matter in a real game. I will assume the following:

-The opponent's deck and plays will not affect my decision.

-I do not benefit from playing more power cards this game.

-I want to minimize the chances of drawing power.

-The game will not go long enough for me to naturally draw cards I've previously put on the bottom of my deck.

___________

2. ANALYSIS

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

I define the following terms:

-The failure rate of a color is the odds of drawing a sigil I've put on the bottom if I search for a sigil of that color.

-A good color is a color with a failure rate of zero.

-To spoil a color means to make it go from good to not good.

-An active card is a card I have not put on the bottom.

2.1) With only good colors

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

First, I analyze the case where you have at least two good colors and no favors. When there is exactly one good color, you should obviously Seek that one. When there are no good colors, there is usually one with the lowest failure rate among the colors, which is the best color to Seek. I will examine the case where there are no good colors and a tie for the lowest failure rate later. Favors complicate the calculations, so I will leave those for later as well.

You want to minimize the chances of all your colors becoming spoiled by the time you Seek Power again. A color can be spoiled by:

-Scouting a sigil of the color to the bottom, or

-Strategizing a sigil of the color to the bottom, or

-Drawing all sigils of the color.

To scout a sigil to the bottom, you must play a scout effect, which must reveal a sigil. The chance this happens is approximately the density of scout effects multipled by the density of sigils in your active deck, per draw. Multiply that by the average number of cards you expect to see before your next Seek Power, and you get the chance of scout effects spoiling the color.

To Strategize a sigil to the bottom, you must play a Strategize and not have anything better than a sigil to put back. You should put back a non-sigil power card or a dead card in the matchup over a sigil. You have some control over the odds of Strategize spoiling a color, and can even wait to do it until you know it has no chance to spoil any color. For these reasons, I assume you can't spoil any colors with Strategize.

You draw all the sigils of a color before your next Seek Power if all such sigils are above your next Seek Power.

Given these approximations, I can write a formula for the odds of a color being spoiled before drawing the next Seek Power.

Sp = (Sc * Si) / (D * Se) + Si! * Se! / (Si + Se)!

Where:

Sp is the chance the color becomes spoiled before the next Seek Power;

Sc is the number of active scouting effects in the deck;

Si is the number of sigils of the color in the deck;

D is the total number of active cards in the deck;

Se is the number of Seek Powers in the deck;

! is the factorial operator.

This formula is not only approximate, it is also too complicated to apply multiple times every Seek Power. I studied the equation using a graphing calculator and found some patterns, but they were hard to generalize. Here is what I know:

-The more sigils a color has, the more often it gets spoiled by scouting.

-The fewer sigils a color has, the more often it gets spoiled by drawing.

-The graph starts at 100% chance of spoilage with 0 sigils, has a steep initial decrease, reaches a local minimum, then climbs nearly linearlly as the spoilage from scouting becomes the dominant factor.

-The local minimum occurs at around 2 to 3 sigils. This is where the total chance of spoilage is lowest.

-The steady linear climb occurs beyond about 5 sigils.

-The most importnat sigil is going from 0 sigils to 1 sigil in almost every case.

-The shape of the graph, especially the steepness of the linear portion, depends strongly on how many active scout effects you have left and weakly on how many active Seek Powers you have left, compared to the size of your active deck. The linear portion of the graph gets steeper with a higher density of scouting or a lower density of Seek Powers.

-If the linear portion of the graph becomes flat enough for the sweet spot to move outside the 2-3 sigil range, it also becomes flat enough that the linear portion essentially does not increase.

You want to minimize the product of the chances your remaining colors will spoil before your next Seek Power. This is because you will only end up without a good color for your next Seek Power if all of your remaining colors become spoiled. The following is how to do this:

-If up to one color has 4 or more sigils, choose the color with the most sigils.

-If more than one color has 4 or more sigils, choose the color with the fewest sigils among those.

This is not always correct, but should be close enough in practice. It would take a far more complex procedure to determine the correct choice for every case without error. That is infeasible because the resulting heuristic would be too complex to quickly learn and apply.

2.2) With no good colors

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It is rare, but possible, for two or more colors to be tied for lowest failure rate when there are no good colors. If the tied colors have identical numbers of active and inactive sigils, the decision doesn't matter as all choices are the same. It therefore makes sense to rank the colors in order of number of sigils if such a ranking helps.

The current Seek Power does not change the failure rate of the color you choose. You might get a sigil that is not on the bottom, which raises the failure rate, or get one that is on the bottom and lower the failure rate. You can't tell which case actually happened, so you average out every possible case, where your overall failure rate for the color remains unchanged.

Unlike with good colors, you only need to draw a single sigil to make its color worse. Like with good colors, you need to scout a single sigil to make its color worse. Also like the case with good colors, your next Seek Power only becomes worse if all of your tied colors become worse in the meantime.

You cannot control the total number of sigils among your tied colors remaining after Seeking, but you can control how they are split. You want to minimize the product of the number of active sigils in your best colors. The caveat is you don't want to eliminate a color entirely. If that happens, only one thing instead of more than one thing would have to happen to worsen your next Seek. Based on this analysis, you should:

-If at least one color has at least two active sigils, choose the color among those with the least sigils.

-If no color has at least two active sigils, choose the color with the most sigils.

Note that the number of active sigils might not be a whole number. For example, Seeking a color with 3 active sigils and 1 inactive sigil results in 2.25 active sigils and 0.75 inactive sigils remaining. Fractions of a sigil, of course, do not exist, but you can't tell whether you now have 3 active and 0 inactive sigils, which happens 25% of the time, or with 2 active and 1 inactive sigil, which happens 75% of the time. All you can do is to assume the average case, even if it's impossible.

2.3) With favors

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Until now, I have ignored favors. Favors do not change the method the math is done, but they skew some of the numbers. They act like Seek Powers for their color, and reduce the effective number of sigils of their color.

A deck with, for example, 2 sigils and 2 active favors will draw through its sigils at an accelerated rate, as fast as if it had 4 sigils. This means the sigils will run out as fast as if the deck only had 1 sigil. In general, a colors with S sigils and F active favors will run out of sigils as fast as a deck with S^2/(S+F) sigils and no favors. This number is useful, so I call it the color's effective sigil count. This only applies to drawing. The odds of scouting sigils are not affected by favors.

All the odds calculated so far are in terms of "until the next Seek Power". For a color with favors, this becomes "until the next favor or Seek Power". A color with favors can add its favors to its Seek Power count.

Since favors do not invalidate previous methods of analysis, I don't have to repeat the entire analysis for either of the previous cases when favors are involved. I only need to revise the results I've already reached.

With good colors, I need to replace each instance of "sigil" with "effective sigil". With lots of sigils, the color with the biggest proportion of favors is the least likely to spoil, because it has fewer cards to go until the next Seek Power, except for extremely lopsided and unrealistic sigil counts. The following are the revised heuristics for Seeking with favors when there is more than one good color:

-If up to one color has 4 or more effective sigils, choose the color with the most sigils.

-If more than one color has 4 or more effective sigils, choose the color with the most favors per sigil among these.

For the case without good colors, I only need to replace each instance of "sigil" with "effective sigil":

-If at least one color has at least two active effective sigils, choose the color among those with the least sigils.

-If no color has at least two active effective sigils, choose the color with the most sigils.

2.4) Systematic errors

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My method for determining the optimal Seek Power target is approximate. In particular, I calculated everything as sampling with replacement, while drawing cards in reality is sampling without replacement. I did this to simplify the math to a point where I could actually do it. More accurate numbers probably need to come from simulations and statistical methods.

Sampling with replacement approximates sampling without replacement reasonably well at large deck sizes, but my method breaks down below deck sizes of about 20. I think there is no easy heuristic available for Seeking Power correctly at very small deck sizes.

It is sometimes impossible to spoil every color by scouting because there are fewer scouting effects than good colors left in the deck. I omitted this possibility from my calculations because the resulting error is minuscule.

I rounded the cutoffs for my heuristics up to whole numbers. The actual cutoff for good colors is closer to 3.7, not 4, and for no good colors it is closer to 1.5 than 2. I did this to make the systems easier to learn and less prone to serious error. In general, the odds change slower the more sigils there are, so I'd rather make my numbers too big than too small to err on the side of less costly mistakes.

My math on favors was sloppy, but I don't know enough math to calculate it any better than I did. I think the errors due to this are acceptable, and are no more serious than the errors resulting from my other methods.

I only considered how to optimize the very next Seek Power, not all Seek Powers remaining in the game. Doing that would require knowing how long the game is expected to last, which I lack the information to predict.

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3. OTHER FACTORS

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3.1) Multiple searches

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You might cast multiple sigil search effects in the same turn. With the way my heuristics are set up, you can treat them as multiple separate searches.

3.2) Strategize

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Bottom dead cards in the matchup and non-sigil power cards before sigils. If you must bottom a sigil, and have more than one option, choose the one of your worst color. Your worst color is either your color with the highest failure rate, or the highest chance of being spoiled if all your colors are good. Good colors with exactly 1 sigil spoil the most easily, followed by those with 4, 5, 6, ..., with 2 and 3 close to tied for least likely to spoil. If you must choose between a 2 and a 3, choose the 2 to spoil the least number of sigils.

3.3) Depleted sigils

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Depleted sigils can be put on the bottom of the deck without spoiling their color, unless you have favors in the color. You should treat them as "n