Dumpster Decking: Birthright

Last time we brought the magic with Brenn, Chronicler of Ages. It was fun, it was punny, it even had a couple of Backstreet Boys references. Brenn was an interesting card, had some real meta application for a time, and was fun as a whole to see built upon. but that was the past, this is the now.

Everyone who follows me on Unexpected Results: THE Eternal Podcast, or Twitter, even catches my comments on the Community Discord knows that I am a big fan of the lore of Eternal. This iteration of Dumpster Decking has got a little bit of a lore spin to it, which makes me pretty excited. So here is a little lore crash course around Birthright:

We all know Kaleb, he was The Uncrowned Prince. He then made a Choice to follow the clues of his mysterious birth to try and find his mother. This led him to fight Reflections of, not only his father, but himself. This conflict, both internal and external, lead to him becoming Reborn. At some point in the near future of the story line, Kaleb will journey back Argenport to confront his Father’s widow, Eilyn, for what he considers his Birthright… THE ETERNAL THRONE.

Now that we have all of that out of the way, we get to this card itself and how it ties, in my mind, into the story. Birthright depicts Kaleb and Eilyn in a confrontation, possibly a mortal one. Kaleb has the royal blood in his veins, and Eilyn has the throne currently. Meaning they BOTH have incredible power. This card reflects that: before each player’s turn even starts the top card of their deck is played. It can make for some interesting scenarios and interactions. All cards MUST be played, and not all cards (when forced) are good for the player that controls them.

Check out SifuDanny’s video on the winning deck on the Team Rankstar YouTube page after you read this article. (Don’t worry I’m there too)

Our winner this time around was BlastodermMan. He came up with some really interesting concepts, and has actually given us the shell of a deck that could be edited into something fantastic. But, fantastic is not the point of this challenge, rather to take trash and try to turn it into treasure. Take a look at his deck HERE and follow along.

So BlastodermMan calls this deck inspired Birthright, and rightly (see what I did there) so. Inspire as a mechanic, is incredible. Units you play, that have inspire, have a lasting effect on the game as a whole the longer they stay in the game. Things like reducing the cost of other units, giving them new keywords, and even combinations of boosts and keywords. However minor these buffs may seem, they quickly add up and spell certain demise for your enemies. Especially if you are playing things for free. BlastodermMan’s deck capitalizes on the fact that both players get free cards by having a deck that has really strong cards in their own right, like Alhed, Mount Breaker, but that also increase the power of any other unit drawn by an order of magnitude. In simpler terms: both players are getting free stuff, but BlastodermMan is banking on the fact that his stuff his better and makes all of his other stuff better too.

There is not a lot more to say about this deck, but I want to focus on one more card a little bit more. I feel like it has some real impact, not only on this deck, but it could become a serious contender for a meta-shifting card if applied correctly down the road (and by someone much more skilled at deck building than myself). Magus of Celerity seems to be a very strong card. It is already in the sweet spot when it comes to power and cost: a 3/3 for 3. It’s influence constraints are easily managed thanks to Seats, Banners, and Crests. Moreover, it has that inspire keyword, giving any unit drawn the most aggressive battle skill: Charge. In the words of the late great Billy Mays “But, wait! There’s more!” It also has scout. So we are talking about a card that is a minor threat on stats alone, has a keyword that makes your other threats more dangerous, AND it has the ability to set up those upcoming threats a bit better. Whew!

BlastodermMan’s deck may not have done exceptionally well in the testing video, but what it did do was inspire(hah) some really great discussion among the contributors and judges, it explored some cards  (outside of the required Birthright) that we had not seen as much of, and it was a hell of a lot of fun to play.  And, if nothing else, it won him a $25 Steam Gift Card. Be on the lookout for the next Dumpster Decking challenge and come have some fun with SifuDanny, myself, and all of the Team Rankstar community!

-MantidMan