Originally, I had begun this essay to vent off some frustration that had developed from playing ladder. Blaming cards for their brokenness, I wanted to excise all of it into a well thought out and rationalized analysis of why said cards, that I had thought broken, were indeed broken. In the end, I didn’t want this opus to be about how certain cards ought to be changed, I really can’t judge on that level. Instead I just wanted to share my insight into the very foundation of how cards created value. I wanted to express the power in a descriptive way, so that in case someone else wanted to understand how these cards worked and why these cards feel so frustrating to play against, they can read this essay, and hopefully understand what it is that is happening. And maybe feel a little less frustrated.

The three cards I felt the most frustration playing against were Unstoppable Rage, Soul Tear, and Ulfric’s Housecarl. But having performed my analysis and sinking my thoughts into the matter, I can only say that unstoppable rage and ramp are broken mechanics. And by broken I mean, literally, break the normal confines of the game space. I do not mean overpowered. I think Ulfric’s Housecarl is overpowered, but it is not game breaking. These game breaking mechanics do something very special. They create a lot of value. And it is because they create so much value that they are difficult to fight against, and perhaps why I was so frustrated playing against them. Moreover, the value they offer to players is so high that executing their card mechanics in the game downplays a lot of value derived from play skill.

Identifying Value

Value begins with counting. In TESL we count a few things. We count life totals, we count available magicka each turn, and we count cards. We derive value from a card when it influences these numbers in a positive way. A 4/4 for 2 magicka with a last gasp drawback is a lot of board value while being extremely magicka efficient. A 4 magicka action that draws 3 random cards offers a lot of card count value, but doesn’t affect the board in any way. A 1 magicka card that deals 5 to the face at the beginning of your turn offers a lot of life count value, but it can’t do so punctually and is extremely vulnerable to removal. As you can see, value counts of different types can’t be compared to each other, since two of these cards are almost unplayable, while one of them is an archetype staple. This value type is the most important value in the game. It is tempo. It is the very core of the game. How many stats you have on the board influences the potential life total of your opponent, while being the relevant form of card advantage. I say this because the number of cards in hand only influences the potential board state, and life total is irrelevant to the game state until it reaches 0. They are value types of secondary interest. The primary interest is board state.

The cards that offer the most tempo value on the board are the cards that are most played, and by that I mean they are the cards that are featured most in winning decks. Cards like mournhold traitor and hive defender, goblin skulk, earth bone spinners, belligerent giants, eclipse baroness, daggerfall mage and lightning bolt. Wait what? Lightning bolt? There is no card advantage to be derived from lightning bolt. That’s true. But there is something else to be said for stat versatility and magicka efficiency. Lightning bolt is the most versatile 4 magicka in the game. And 4 is the magic number in tesl. From magicka costs 1 through 6 the most powerful non legendary creatures in the game have no more than 4 health. This was certainly more true pre HoS, I feel like DWD broke that code quite a bit with HoS. Needless to say, almost every card is balanced around its effect for its magicka cost. Mournhold traitor is a 4/4, but if you subtract the a 2/1 it gives the opponent on last gasp, the mournhold traitor is kind of like vanilla 2/3 for 2. Shearpoint dragon, a 4/4 that gives -2/-2, is kind of like a 6/6 for 6 with a special ability. Skaven pyromancer, a 2/3 that deals 1 damage, is kind of like a 3/3 for 3. Shadowfen priest, a 4/4 for 5 that silences something, is like suppress for 0 and a 4/4 body. That’s actually card efficient but cost inefficient compared to its parts. Earthbone spinner is kind of like a 4/4 for 4 that silences something for -0/-2 and pings something for -1/-0. Stormcloak vanguard and stormcloak battalion really just add up to a 6/6 for 6. By partitioning the raw stats of the cards in TESL, Dire Wolf Digital (DWD) has created a beautiful game that allows for fun interaction by allowing players to maximize value from partitioned stat clauses, all the while being balanced at its core. If TESL creatures were just vanilla and raw stats, it would be balanced just the same, but far less interesting.

There are exceptions, of course. Blood dragon, for example, has +2 health and a special ability compared to his bristleback cousin. A lot of endurance cards break the 4 health rule. But the real exceptions come from unique legendaries. Legendaries do something above and beyond their epic and rare cousins. While some epics offer strict 3 for 1 value, the point I want to make is the special place that these 3-1 cards have in the game. In Magic the Gathering (MTG) there was a very special 3-1 card. It was blue and it cost 1 (“u” technically speaking). I’m talking about ancestral recall. There’s actually an aphorism that says: when you resolve ancestral recall you win the game. This is what most fights in TESL are about. Creating value and “outplaying” your opponent. And this is where I’d like to illustrate some examples of what TESL skill is really about. For example, Ice Storm does 3 damage to every creature on the board. If a player isn’t careful, he’ll unload his whole hand full of 2 and 3 drops and have them all die to a timely icestorm, an easy 3-1 or more for his opponent. A smarter player will play a 2 drop and a 4 drop and slow play his creatures to deny his opponent such an efficient clear. This was a skillful part of aggro vs control games. Similar playskill is required against cards like dawn’s wrath or skaven pyromancer. Other cards like daggerfall mage (DFM) are so powerful because they offer a similar 3-1 potential. If DFM trades her ward into an x/2 and kills it, then uses the tome of alteration on a creature to make an otherwise even trade favorable while also drawing a card, that’s drawing a card and killing two creatures and there is still a 2/2 to show for it. That is 3-1 advantage, but it was super interactive with lots of opportunities for both sides to outplay. For example, the opposing player can be mindful of the tome and preemptively force the DFM to tome itself on his own turn to avoid a disadvantageous trade. Or run to the shadow lane so that the DFM doesn’t get direct value. Not until it’s silenced or executed and can be safely contested later. DFM is a super powerful card for this reason. Field lane control or 3-1 value.

Other cards also offer 3-1s. Eclipse baroness is 8 for a 5/5 that draws a card on summon and draws a card on last gasp. There’s much less interactivity behind this 3-1. It’s her 8 magicka investment into a 5/5 with no board effect that makes her balanced, although, if you consider the 4 magicka reduction in the cards she draws as “tempo” investment she’s kind of like an unconditional 5/5 triumphant jarl for 4 magicka – aka super strong, hence her staple presence in all green late game decks. Miraak is another easy 3-1, you get two creatures while your opponent loses one from a single card. Ungolim, tazkad etc. all offer 3-1 potential with some room for counter play. And that is why the best cards in the game are unique legendaries. Gortwog offers endless value if you don’t kill him, Red Bramman is like 4x suppress and a giant snake rolled into a 5/5 body. Now I know you’re thinking that it’s the uniqueness of the abilities that make them legendary. Like Garnag and his 7 magicka cap. While he’s on board he can easily make 3 cards in the opponent’s’ hand unplayable. And until he’s silenced or removed from the board he’s actually more like a time walk (another restricted card from vintage MTG).

But you didn’t come here to read me theorycraft value counts. No, the point I’m trying to make is that TESL is full of 3-1s. The best cards in the game offer 3-1s and winning decks use them judiciously. What’s important to note is how some of these 3-1s are situational. Like Nahagliiv soaking up three bodies because he’s relatively hard to remove. But there are many answers to him where he doesn’t 3-1. Some 3-1s are hard coded and much less conditional like paarthurnax. He literally draws three cards and his removal probably costs a card at the very least. And lots of these 3-1s are unique legendaries. Effects so powerful you can only play 1 in a deck because playing more than 1 in a deck would be oppressive. Obviously I’m building up to soul tear, and I’m going to really try and nail the feelsbadman part about it. But first, I need to explain why a card or combo makes you feel bad.

The feelsbadman feeling comes from powerlessness. It’s why activists get angry when rights are taken away. It’s why we get salty when we lose to meta decks. When you have a fair fight you can credit your loss to yourself. Owning up to your own misplays empowers you. I lost this game fair and square is an important part of competition. I could race my car faster if I had handled it better. I could have avoided checkmate if I had read the position better. I could have won that match if I had served more aces and less out of bounds. I could have won that game if I had anticipated that defender better before i shot at the net. These same things translate to the best parts of TESL. I could have won that game if I had saved my execute for the daggerfall Mage instead of using it preemptively on the wind keep spellsword. I could have won that game if I had played candlehearth brawler instead of orc clan captain and raiding party->double firebrand into turn 6 icestorm. I could have won that game if I had split lanes before dawn’s wrath or mantikora. There is an important part of play skill involved here called interactivity: being able to make different decisions that improve your chance of winning. The feelsbadman feeling is when situations arise that you can’t outplay. My opponent played back to back to back eclipse baroness turn 8 9 and 10 isn’t something any control deck comes back from easily. But that’s a level of variance that’s quite extreme. The cards I want to talk about I consider broken because they create unfair value, not only with poor counter play, but also with incredibly consistency.