Meta Monday – ETS Changes in FoA

With the new Market mechanic in full swing, the ETS has announced some changes to its format. This means sideboards are out, and markets are in! The community voiced a wide array of opinions regarding this announcement, but it is the clear future for the game, so time to get excited!

This weekend was the second week of the ETS’ season 3! Mouche’s TJP Alessi took the event down, proving Alessi to be one of the most powerful cards in the set. Overall, FoA is pretty top heavy as far as playables go, so its refreshing to see a deck maximize use of a non-legendary card like Alessi, making the deck very accessible to players. Speaking of accessibility, Pupicitus decided “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, bringing TJP Mid featuring 0 cards from FoA. While this deck does not showcase all the new toys we got this set, it does showcase how a powerful strategy can persist unchanged. This is partially a product of Pupi not playing as frequently anymore, but still very much shows the power in the archetype, even without markets. I would feel fairly confident taking this list on ladder as its game plan is very consistent, but there is room for optimization!

Dunkelwerk’s favorite archetype got a facelift in FoA, which we discussed in depth last week: FJS Midrange. Walloittaja brought a version of the deck that dropped the Vicious Highwayman, added Statuary Maiden, and is only playing Winchest Merchant. I like this version because it doesn’t lean as heavily on the Market, and its toolbox feels just as potent, without diluting the game plan at all. This is the list I think I would take to ladder if I were seeing more Time or Reanimator decks.

People often equate a lower power level with a mono colored deck. Bryce proved them wrong with their Mono Time Midrange list. Mono Time is arguably the only faction that can do this, because of its big scary creatures, plus the addition of Teacher of Humility. While I have not played Teacher myself, the card is just nuts. I forecasted it as being one of the strongest cards in the set and still believe that to be true. I would expect multiple versions of this deck to pop up, but this list feels pretty tuned for being so early on in a set.

Paradox is an amazing Praxis Mid player. They championed last season’s invitational with the archetype. They also decided that the list did not need much tuning, which I believe is absolutely correct. Add your Market toolbox and Teacher of Humility and call it a day. Bruisedbygod took a slightly different direction with the deck, adding Alhed, Mount Breaker and Thundering Kerasaur too. My guess is this comes down to personal preference, as I think the decks would probably perform similarly overall. There are some flex slots in the deck, which make Praxis Mid a nice consistent ladder deck that can be changed based on your pocket of the meta. Both of these lists can be used as a reference point for anyone looking to explore this archetype more post FoA!

If you lean toward a “Timmy” or “Johnny” play style, AirHater’s Charge Rod is the deck for you. I am no stranger to this archetype, as it has proven to be one of the funnest high rolling experiences I have had playing Eternal. Naturally, you can whiff on Divining Rod, and when you whiff, you usually effectively lose the game on the spot, so be prepared for that. It does a pretty good “play big creatures and hit them in the face” plan B. Play this deck if you have a bunch of Shiftstone you don’t want any more and you sort of miss Hearthstone.

Finally, Theovermaster brought something a bit different than what they are known for this week, in Aggro Combrei. There was a lot of discussion this week about what lists to bring, and this deck ended up toward the top of the list. It has a very straightforward aggressive gameplan and keeps the pressure on your opponent to make moves. It then effectively reapplies pressure after the move they made falls short.

The video this week is from Sifudanny, who hosted an interview with IlyaK. We are working on a few different ideas and hope to have more interviews like this coming down the line. Please let us know your thoughts so we can refine and develop the idea!

2 Dark Return (Set1 #250)
3 Gift of Battle (Set4 #146)
4 Permafrost (Set1 #193)
3 Snowcrust Yeti (Set2 #105)
4 Twilight Raptor (Set1 #379)
4 Annihilate (Set1 #269)
4 Dusk Raider (Set4 #153)
3 Haunting Scream (Set1 #374)
4 Rapid Shot (Set1 #259)
4 Territorial Elf (Set4 #210)
2 Bloodscent Avisaur (Set3 #301)
4 Jennev Merchant (Set4 #169)
4 Midnight Gale (Set1 #378)
3 Rindra, the Duskblade (Set3 #277)
6 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)
3 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)
4 Amethyst Waystone (Set3 #201)
2 Cabal Standard (Set4 #193)
4 Diplomatic Seal (Set1 #425)
4 Feln Banner (Set1 #417)
4 Seat of Cunning (Set0 #62)
————–MARKET—————
1 Gift of Battle (Set4 #146)
1 Changeestik (Set4 #152)
1 Haunting Scream (Set1 #374)
1 Rindra’s Choice (Set4 #261)
1 Rindra, the Duskblade (Set3 #277)

Use the code “TRS12” to get 12% off your order at InkedGaming.com and support Team Rankstar directly!

Check out Team Rankstar streamers: HeyWhyYou, Magikarp, NotoriousGHP, PlatypusKing, SifuDanny and y0ttabyte. ThatResolves, who makes all of the videos for Meta Monday, can be found here and Patreon here!

If you are looking for some tournament “Best of Three” practice, Kaelari has set up a really great resource that is open 24/7 here as well as a Tuesday night tournament here.

Every Friday, The Great Parliament hosts “Casual Friday” tournament now, too!

The new season of the ETS is live! Be sure to sign up or tune in ever Saturday for the highest level of Eternal competition!

Don’t forget to let us know what you think via our contact and recruitment page or in our Discord!

Welcoming plzdonhakme, superthx555 and YouCanCallMeAl to Team Rankstar!

Following suit with out last announcement post, we have some interview questions for our newest members: plzdonhakme, superthx555 and YouCanCallMeAl!

What brought you to TESL?

Plzdonhakme: I was brought to TESL when my friend who plays other elder scrolls games saw the news and suggested we try the elder scrolls legends in November 2016. After a few weeks i took a break until Skyrim came out, and I’ve been playing a lot since.

Superthx555: HS streamer that I’ve been following, Xzirez, introduced me to TESL when the game was still in beta. With each expansion HS was introducing more and more features that put me off from the game so I was intrigued to try a different take on the ‘same’ game.

YouCanCallMeAl: I played several card games before TESL but spent most of my time with Hearthstone. To be honest the competitive scene in Hearthstone at the time was just too difficult to get into and I struggled to find success there which meant that I had to look elsewhere for competition. I very quickly fell in love with much of TESL’s card design and a few innovations over other CCGs such as the lane system.

What excites you most about the future of the game?

Plzdonhakme: In the majority of 2017, I was actually rather unexcited about the future of the game because Bethesda didn’t seem like they had the intention of making the game grow, so just seeing effort from them this year has been great. I’m really excited for the competitive scene, as well as Sparkypants’ new client. Ever since I first started I always felt like the color theme felt bland, and even worse the menu navigation and animations both in and out of game. I know that the new client’s menu will be better but I really hope that the new client’s in game animations are faster as well.

Superthx555: New client bringing in a lot of features such as tournament support and reworked chat, new mobile client easying the gameplay on the many android users and new developers hopefully being open to some balance updates alongside Bethesda ramping up the competitive scene is what makes me pretty excited about TESL’s future.

YouCanCallMeAl: It’s no secret that the game has had many long breaks from content and hasn’t supported a competitive scene particularly well since it left closed beta. However, that appears to all be changing right now which means this is potentially the most exciting time ever for competitive TESL players.

What do you bring to the community?

Plzdonhakme: I don’t know what I offer to the community. I feel like I’ve always just been a nobody doing my own thing, but lately I think I’ve suddenly got more publicity so I don’t really know. I think the community would be better at telling me what I bring than me telling the community.

Superthx555: I was always mostly focused on tournaments and not on community – besides people seeing my tournament decklists (and sometimes games on tournament streams) I’m not very oriented towards content production.

YouCanCallMeAl: Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al. But seriously I feel as though I bring a certain calm and logical thinking to any discussion I take part in when it comes to TESL. Whether it be on those rare occasions I have time to stream or in a TESL discord channel I like to be the voice of reason and realism whenever I can.

What are you looking forward to most being part of Team Rankstar?

Plzdonhakme: I’m excited with being more engaged with TESL in ways beyond gameplay whether its discussing the game competitively (and of course stealing my teammates strats kappa) or making connections. Ultimately, I’m trying to be the best player I can be and hopefully Team Rankstar can help me achieve that.

Superthx555: When invited to Team Rankstar, I was looking forward to playing and preparing with YouCanCallMeAl, Pdmd28, EndoZoa and Lateralus, which has been going great so far!

YouCanCallMeAl: Well, two of the current members of Team Rankstar, Lateralus and PDMD are my former teammates from our own TESL team as well as Team Gamer Sensei in another CCG, Hand of the Gods, which means that I already have a fantastic relationship with them. So I suppose I’m mostly looking forward to working with them as well as the rest of the Team Rankstar family to achieve great things in the newly forming competitive scene of TESL.

What is your favorite underutilized card?

Plzdonhakme: A couple cards I think are underappreciated right now is Drain Vitality and Ash Berserker because nobody seems to realize the cards are viable. Ha, gottem. Jokes aside, while i think there are a number of cards that should see more play, I do like firestorm because I think prophecy count and AoE are both very helpful to have more of right now, even if I don’t really have it in any of my decks right now.

Superthx555: Helgen Squad Leader simply because Kolento and Eyenie both played him to great success but very few other people do.

YouCanCallMeAl: I absolutely love Murkwater Skirmisher. I’ve always felt like Goblin decks are better than they are given credit for since this card is so ridiculously powerful. Their biggest issue is that each expansion goblins are hardly ever given any new cards but I believe eventually they’ll reach a critical mass of reasonable cards that the power of the Skirmisher will carry the deck.

What is the first deck you played to legend?

Plzdonhakme: The first deck I hit legend with was Dragon Ramp Scout I believe in august 2017, I’ve always been that kind of player.

Superthx555: Merric BattleMage, hit legend with Expert Atromancer budget version.

YouCanCallMeAl: My first deck to legend is probably the same as most people who started playing in late 2016, Token Spellsword, which became pretty much non-existent after the Divine Fervor nerf (it used to cost 4!). I remember loving the game straight away so I played a ton and researched all the decks and strategies the best players at the time were using and within my first few days of playing I got to legend, thanks a lot to the power of pre-nerfed Fervor.

plzdonhakme Twitter

YouCanCallMeAl Twitter

Use the code “TRS12” to get 12% off your order at InkedGaming.com and support Team Rankstar directly!

Dumpster Decking – Birthright

Hello Reddit!

Team Rankstar is hosting another deck building challenge based around “Birthright“!

First place will receive a $25 Steam Gift Card to help round out the Legendaries you need from Fall of Argenport!

The rules:

– We pick a card that is not particularly popular or appears in a tier deck

– We will offer 2 weeks for deckbuilding

– You will develop a deck list for Sifudanny to play 5 games on stream in casual

– You have to play at least 3 copies in your deck. you can have one in the market but that doesn’t count towards the three required for your deck

– Lists will be submit in The Dojo (https://discord.gg/A62XzMT)

– YOU MUST SUBMIT A PICTURE OF RATIO WITH THE GAMES PLAY WHEN YOU SUBMIT YOUR LIST (THIS IS A MUST. TO MANY PEOPLE TURNING IN LIST WITHOUT REALLY TRYING TO PLAY IT)

– You will be competing against Team Rankstar’s deck builders (we are submitting TWO deck list)

– Sifudanny will stream games with each of the decks on July 15th around 6pm Pacific Time (UTC-8)

– If more than one deck ties for the best record, then Sifudanny, with the help of the chat, will vote on which one had the most spicy list

How you win:

– The deck with the best win rate

– If there is a tie than there will be a vote (with most points given to creativity)

– Stream chat will have an opportunity to vote on their favorites

– A deck will be considered “different” from another deck if it has at least 8 non-power cards different from another list

The contest ends on 7/14, so please have your screenshots submitted by 11:59 PM PST (UTC-8) on that day in the “homework_assignments” channel (The Dojo). This is the second time we are doing this, and we hope to keep the jank train rolling! We likely did not think of everything, but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask here or in Sifudanny’s Discord! We will post the decklists on http://www.TeamRankstar.com after all of the submissions are made!

Use the code “TRS12” to get 12% off your order at InkedGaming.com and support Team Rankstar directly!

Meta Monday – Hooru Control and welcoming y0ttabyte to Team Rankstar!

Super exciting week this past week over here at Team Rankstar! We are so excited to welcome our newest member: y0ttabyte! You can catch them streaming between 8pm – 2am Australian EST (+10 GMT). They are a fairly well known member of the community, based out of Melbourne, Australia and covering a unique timeslot for Eternal fans. If you have not familiarized yourself with them, definitely do stop by or check out this weeks Unexpected Results: The Eternal Podcast for their guest appearance!

In other exciting news, congratulations ThePlatypusKing for taking down this weeks ETS! If you have had a chance to watch it, be sure to check it out here and here! A lot of really great Eternal was played, coupled with the soothing voice of SirRhino. Cannot go wrong!

This late in the set, it was a delight to see eight different archetypes represented in the top 8. Frankly, seeing that at any point in the meta is refreshing, but I, for one, expected at least one or two duplicates. Nope, not this time!

Pupictus gave ThePlatypusKing a run for their money with AP Mid in the finals, but the poetic justice of the (hopefully) last ETS of Dusk Road with Hooru defeating Argenport is immeasurable. Surely, I am a little biased, however I could not have asked for a more thematic conclusion to the set. While we are uncertain of the exact release date of The Fall of Argenport, many of us are hoping for good news this week. Alongside the the release of the cards, the official release of the game and an announcement regarding in client organized play will surely push the game in a really positive direction.

A TRS favorite, ChildRoland, came in 3rd with a Feasty Boi build of Feln Control. The list leans on a fairly established core, adding 4x Jotun Feast-Callers to keep the deck chugging along in the mid to late game, and 1x Yetipult to ping some dorks and gain late game draw as needed. Yetipult, as a singleton, is a really cool idea, as the card is pretty flexible, and can be sided out as needed.

The deck of the weekend for me was madeinmidian’s version of Owl Control. When I got started in Eternal, Jaffa’s builds of Owl Ramp was one of the first decks I fell in love with. Seeing any deck jam 4x Aid of the Hooru in it, and just go the distance, makes my heart sing. The deck is a fairly hefty investment, dust wise, but it is an absolute blast to play. If you have the Aid’s lying around, this version is the most streamlined for our existing tools, so definitely give it a shot.

Another spicy list is Kaelos’ mono-fire Oni Swarm. It is not often at all you see a viable mono colored strategy, especially one that performs well in an ETS. Fire being the most poised to do well, Time probably being the second, its very cool to see someone working within these restrictions. Hellfire Oni, Kyojun and Shogun of the Wastes are cards that most players would have to read, having not seen much of them on ladder. I hope to see the evolution of this archetype as set 4 comes into play.

Jniner’s TJP Midrange, IlyaK’s Xenan Killers and Danibor’s Moment of Creation list are all well established archetypes that will hopefully get some new toys in the next set.

 

2 Seek Power (Set1 #408)
4 Eilyn’s Favor (Set0 #24)
4 Strategize (Set3 #165)
4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)
3 Eilyn’s Choice (Set2 #220)
4 Hailstorm (Set1003 #11)
4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)
4 Auric Runehammer (Set1 #166)
4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)
4 Throne Warden (Set1 #514)
4 Daraka, Queensguard (Set1003 #12)
3 Eilyn, Clan Mother (Set3 #263)
1 Leave a Witness (Set2 #100)
3 Channel the Tempest (Set1 #244)
2 Sword of the Sky King (Set1 #186)
4 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)
5 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)
4 Cobalt Waystone (Set3 #151)
4 Emerald Waystone (Set3 #101)
4 Hooru Banner (Set2 #216)
4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

 

Hello, it’s me, ThatResolves! Back again for another Meta Monday, now Apehlion is back at the wheel I won’t have full reign to gush on my favorite characters but I’m still going to try!

This week we decided to pick up The Platypus King Hooru deck, they said it couldn’t be done, even I said no friend you need some Nostrix Porter… spoiler alert, we were all wrong. Platy went 12-2 in the swiss (undefeated in matches) and 9-0 in the top eight of the first week of the third season of the ETS.  I caught their stream for and the deck really reignited the fire in my belly and I shot up the old OBS studio.
Eilyn is as we discovered last week one of my favorite characters so any opportunity to play with her is a great day in my book. Seems only right that the KING of ALL PLATYPUS would bring the QUEEN of ALL MYRIA back to the forefront of the meta mere days before the release of The Fall of Argenport. How fitting a result that Eilyn’s Hooru defeats Argenport in the final!
I’ve always felt that the Hooru shell has been great and it had a really flexible choice of Win Conditions, you could go for second sight with Thunderstrike Dragon and Jotun Hurler, Nostrix and Porter, Channel the Tempest or Throne Warden and Sword of the Sky King. Hell, some people even splash FFF to stick Icaria or Flamestoker in their Hooru control decks!
I’m hoping the release of the Fall of Argenport only reinforces the Hooru Enclave with the ability to play with Hooru Crest and no longer need to lower ourselves to playing off-faction crests from the lower factions like the Skycrag, the Argenport, and worst of all the Feln.

This week was a great one, I even got a spoiler, and much like myself it’s a decisive figure that is unlikely to do much in constructed – yet it is here to showcase a mechanic, to push discussion and promote some thought.

Though most importantly I should probably give a channel update because there are likely to be some changes with the newly released content. It’s going to take me a few weeks to get together enough cards to put together a lot of constructed content so I’ll probably slow down on the ranked ladder play. However, this gives me time to focus on what I love. I really enjoyed the new player series and I put it on hold during the final days of the Dusk Road so that it stayed current with the recordings I’ll be starting after the new set. It might take a little while for the new player friendly (in regards budget) decks to pop up so it may just be updated versions of existing decks for the first month or two until the dust settles but I am always happy to take submissions from players who have their finger on the pulse.

I’d like to give a few shout outs this week:
First off to the moderation team at the Reddit, it is astounding how clean the Eternal Subreddit is and of course this is in part due to our amazing and very positive community but also in part due to the tireless work the moderation team put in for us all to enjoy a space to talk about a game we love. In particular from the subreddit, I also have a shout out for the raw ball of positive energy that is DiscoPistol, who has definitely helped hype me up when it’s hard to get the fire to keep producing content. Last of all you, yes you, you reading this, sharing this, commenting on this and voting up or down on this on the subreddit. You help us keep the content alive, and I thank you.

Keep being excellent!

-Aphelion and ThatResolves

Use the code “TRS12” to get 12% off your order at InkedGaming.com and support Team Rankstar directly!

Check out Team Rankstar streamers: HeyWhyYou, Magikarp, NotoriousGHP, PlatypusKing, SifuDanny and y0ttabyte. ThatResolves, who makes all of the videos for Meta Monday, can be found here and Patreon here!

If you are looking for some tournament “Best of Three” practice, Kaelari has set up a really great resource that is open 24/7 here as well as a Tuesday night tournament here.

Every Friday, The Great Parliament hosts “Casual Friday” tournament now, too!

Don’t forget to let us know what you think via our contact and recruitment page or in our Discord!

Yowie’s Month of Fun: Week 1

Born out of a disgust for the current meta and the lack of creativity plaguing the ladder was this experiment – the idea that you could take a series of different and unique decks to ladder and still perform well enough to satisfy your hunger for victory and maintain some dignity. I was starting to feel bored with the game and disillusioned with the ladder grinding experience so I came up with this concept to spice up my personal gameplay and the viewing experience for my Twitch regulars.

My name is Matt but you may know me as RiverYowie. For those who don’t, I am a full time Legends streamer and have been grinding the ladder for 40+ hours a week, live on stream, since November 2017. This month I decided I would play as many different decks as I possibly could whilst also giving each just enough time to get a reasonable feel for it. I recorded all results; what I played against and whether I won or lost. The decks, at least up until this point, were all nominated by my sometimes punishing subscribers. Some gave decklists and others just gave ideas. This is how my first week went.

Mid Assassin – 19 wins, 13 losses (59.38%)

This is a deck I am quite familiar with. When heyDogDude said he wanted a Mid Assassin I immediately had a good idea as to what it would look like.

This was based on a deck I used in March which utilised combinations with Swift Strike, Heirloom Greatsword, Breton Conjurer, Assassins Ritual and Lesser Ward. The deck is blue heavy to accommodate Baron of Tear and some control elements to make it to the later turns where the combinations would become accessible. The original iteration of this deck was reasonably successful on both ladder and in tournaments. It caught opponents by surprise as they weren’t used to calculating the kinds of lethals this deck was going to present. It’s a tough deck to ‘play around’.

 

The deck is great against control and can hold its own against aggressive decks. It fell short against curve based mid range decks as it couldn’t keep up a sustained value based game on a consistent curve. It went well against Scout (2 from 2) and reasonable against Hlaalu (4 from 7).Mid Dagoth, Warrior and Battlemage were all issues.

With refinement and practice with the deck I would expect it to get to 70% win rate but the inconsistent nature of the combinations would prevent it from going higher.

Classic Ramp Scout – 12 wins, 11 losses (52.17%)

 

This idea was given to me by my good friend and long time contributor Illuminanii. The rule was to have no Odirniran Necromancers and no Ulfrics Uprising. This was Ramp Scout (almost) back to December before it was nerfed.

It still had the, arguably, most painful elements of Scout. Paarthurnax loops, fat Giant Bats and balanced Drain Vitalities. Merchant’s Camel was added to simulate the modern ease in finding those key shouts. Galyn being the only post-nerf addition to the deck. This was all about Ramp. I felt it under performed slightly. I expected something closer to 60-65%. This is a deck I wasn’t new to so there shouldn’t have been any learning on-the-fly. It struggled against the things it should’ve. There weren’t any surprises in terms of match ups. It beat most control that wasn’t modern Scout and lost to decks that were fast and/or had reasonably large health creatures to somewhat resist the Drain Vitalities.

The deck felt viable but there is zero reason to play it without the Necromancer and Uprising added in. They are unequivocal improvements to the deck.

Aggro Sacrament Archer – 36 wins, 32 losses (52.94%)

 

This was a deck provided by the mad scientist that is Bujinnovation. I may end up saying this a lot in this series but that’s because I’m hard on myself. This deck under performed. I did this deck no justice. Unlike the Scout, I felt more time with it would’ve improved the win rate.

The deck is not bad, or at the very least, the aggressive archer is not a bad idea. It does well in the meta. It gets under Hlaalu before its value engine goes into overdrive and it has the punch to deal with Scout. I’m not completely sold on the Blood Sacraments but when they worked, they really worked. The reach when combined with House Kinsman is huge. If it’s established you hit for 3, cast for 2, sack Kinsman for 3 and cast for another 2. That’s 10 damage for 3 magicka. Under the right circumstances. It’s also a solid tech against other aggressive decks and can be the difference in a race given you get the heal as well.

Again, I did this deck no justice and I expect the win rate in more experienced hands would be better. It was also a lot of fun to play with so if you’re an aggressive player I recommend trying this if for no other reason than to try something with a twist.
Ragedoran – 16 wins, 16 losses (50%)

I’m not going to claim I did this deck no justice. It’s a flawed archetype. But ImmortalKing1982, friend, fellow streamer and moderator of my channel, insisted on punishing me by trying to make this work. It wasn’t awful but I didn’t see a huge amount of potential in it. It couldn’t possibly do anything better than Rage Archer or Dagoth.

The control in this deck wasn’t consistent enough to keep up with a lot of the aggressive decks going around at the moment and beating control felt like it came down to too much luck. There was some reliance on my opponent not guessing that there was a Rage coming or their lack of ability to play around it, even if it was obvious. Occasionally wins came from a solid mid range curve and beating the opponent with large stats and value.

Ragedoran does nothing better than another class would do itself. Perhaps there is a shred of hope for the viability of this deck and there may have been a lack of creative on my part but I would struggle to see this deck performing well in the current meta. The combinations I wasn’t overly familiar with so given more time the win rate would certainly increase but I am confident it would be capped at a level unacceptable for a ladder climbing control deck. More suited to tournaments… maybe.

Dwemonk – 21 wins, 14 losses (60%)

 

The strongest performing deck for the week much to everybody’s surprise came in the form of a Dwemer Monk deck. The idea was given to me by the great nerazzurri. He is one player I respect a huge amount in the game and fear greatly when in opposition so to receive an idea from him was going to be an honour. Until he said the word ‘Dwemer’.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Dwemer. They feel like they over perform every time. They are underrated. The shame you feel when you lose to them is unwarranted. It’s a genuine monster. If you curve out Halls of the Dwemer and your opponent doesn’t answer it; you have probably just won the game.

It high rolls in a sort of – kind of way that Hlaalu does in the sense that the value from its key support card will carry the game and make the difference. The problem for Dwemer and the biggest difference is it comes at turn 6. Up until that point you are throwing garbage at your opponent and hoping they don’t have what are reasonably simple answers. If you want to win with Dwemer you’re probably going to have to play quite smart in the early turns. This is made more difficult by the fact as soon as you drop a Dwemer on the field your gameplan is obvious. For some reason though, people still don’t give it respect and play against it like they should. Playing against it correctly means treating it like Tokens. That is – remove everything. Don’t let one of those little robot bastards live because it will bite you in the arse with their steel teeth.

The bulk of the wins here came in an 8 game winning streak against a series of slower decks. Telvanni control, mid Redoran, Redoran Doomcrag etc etc. I doubt any of them played against the Dwemer correctly despite seeing the Halls coming. It even won 4 games out of 6 against that same old Hlaalu deck we’re all used to seeing.

If you haven’t played Dwemer: do it. It’s a lot of fun and you will win more often than you think. Despite being somewhat surprised by the result I still feel the win rate is about right for the deck. It’s genuinely solid and just suffers from some minor consistency issues.

The results were somewhat surprising in that if I had predicted the win rates for each deck before I played them I would’ve got them all wrong. I achieved the goal of being positive (equal to or greater than 50%) with all decks however I barely scraped by with 3 of those so that was disappointing. On some level I feel like I’ve taken positive steps towards my hypothesis that you can be creative on the ladder and still manage a reasonable win rate.

-Yowie

Super Jank Bros – “Mono Blue Painter”

Hello and welcome to the first edition of “Super Jank Bros”, a periodical column about some of the spicier piles of jank that catch our attention! Since the majority of us play Magic: The Gathering, as well as Eternal or Hearthstone, this column may include deck showcases from any of those games.

This weeks edition features a somewhat dead archetype: Mono Blue Painter

For those who do not know, the “Painter” (as it is commonly referred to, and will be going forward) combo involves two cards: the deck’s name sake, Painter’s Servant, and Grindstone. Both powerful artifacts that when combined make the opponent’s deck (includim the color of your choosing (generally Red to enable sideboard cards such as Blue Elemental Blast) using Painter’s Servant, and then milling their entire deck with a single Grindstone activation. This deck was typically Mono Red, and featured cards like Imperial Recruiter to find the Painter, Goblin Welder, Blood Moon and the now banned Sensei’s Divining Top to help dig up the missing combo pieces. The deck functioned primarily as a “prison” style deck, aiming to lock the opponent out of the game with Blood Moon, and eventually mill them out.

While this deck was not the most competitive, it was pretty fun to watch. For the most part, prison decks can be somewhat boring because the player assembles a stranglehold that can be painful to watch the opponent squirm through. Often the prison deck does not have the most effective and quick way to finish them off, so it can make for longer games. Even Lands plays like this sometimes, and can be a slog to close out games. The difference with Painter, is that it can find its pieces somewhat smoothly, and just win on the spot. It is a pretty clean combo, since it doesn’t require a combat step or, if draws allow, your opponent to have a turn to deal with any of your combo pieces.

Since the banning of SDT, the deck has all but died, and what few players were left playing it, have moved on to other decks. Not Tobias Dietrich! They have found a way to use some new technology (Whir of Invention) to breathe new life back into the deck. So much so that they managed to top 4 a 25 person event with it! There is a certain type of person that can pilot a list like this effectively, and we hope this list starts to pop up more frequently!

Some of the key things we love about this list:

• Counter magic – while the Red based list could play a Blood Moon turn 1, it could also lost to ANT turn 1. This list also includes other versatile counters such as Counterspell, Spell Pierce, Hydroblast and Flusterstorm.
• Cantrips – the lists of yore played SDT and Imperial Recruiter to help dig up the combo peices, this version plays Ponder, Brainstorm and Whir of Invention (not a cantrip, but fills the spot of Imperial Recruiter).
• Broader toolbox – since you are able to use Whir of Invention to tutor up whatever you need, you can mainboard answers to some of the various problems you might face with your artifact toolbox! Relic of Progenitus, Pithing Needle, Ensnaring Bridge, Spellskite, as well as both parts of your combo.
• Sideboard options – this list includes some serious tech: Llawan, Cephalid Empress and Thopter Spy Network. Neither of which are “Legacy Staples”, but both can definitely find a home in this melting pot of jank. I could see an argument for including Jace, The Mind Sculptor in one of those slots as well. More toolbox artifacts can be included as well, such as Ratchetbomb, Phyrexian Revoker and Hope of the Ghirapur.

The deck differs so much from its predecessor, that it plays much differently, and identifies more in the “Combo Control” category, than the “Prison with a combo finish” of the Red iteration. The reasons to play this version are just that: you want to play countermagic, you think Brainstorm is the best card in Legacy or simply the other version more or less died with the SDT banning.

Thanks for taking the time to read about our featured jank, and we hope to have you check us out in the future!

– JesterOfJank and Aphelion

Top 8 Time Vault Games Open ft Food Chain

Hello all! I top 8’d a 6 round of swiss, 34 person tournament and wanted to post my thoughts on it. Here is the list I brought: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=19394&d=323551&f=LE

While I do not have a fully detailed recollection of how everything shook out, I can do a quick once over of my matches:

R1 – Rory BUG Delver

G1 – BUG Delver did BUG Delver-y stuff. 2 blindly flipped Delvers closed out the game pretty quickly.

G2 – I actually am pretty unclear about how this game went. I think I combo’d but am not sure how I got to that point.

G3 – I kept a greedy hand that leaned on DRS a bit too hard, and was punished for it. I generally fetch up basics versus Wasteland decks, but for some reason needed a dual to play my hand as it was. The DRS died, the land died, I moved to the concede phase.

R2 – Nate Tezzerator

G1 – He sticks 2 Mox Diamonds and a Birthing Pod, I start to set up for the combo, but then go in for the Griffyn beat down plan. I apply too much pressure for him to dig out from under, and kill him before I see basically anything else.

G2 – Birthing Pod in Legacy is new for me, therefore I wasn’t ENTIRELY sure what his game plan was, and I kept Forces in (which I generally do not do unless its versus combo). He sticks a Pod while I set up the beat down plan again, then goes for a 7mana Affinity for Artifacts creature that I definitely force. I am able to close the game, then he informs me Griselbrand was in my future if I had not Forced that. He was pretty choked on mana, not having a blue source that game, so he was unable to do much, which felt bad.

R3 – Rory (?) Mono Red Prison

G1 – I have a semi nut draw with 2 basics and a fetch that gets the other basic I need. I knew what he was on, since he had sat next to me the round before, so I had a bit of an edge. I fetch up my basic, play my Ponder before they land a T2 Chalice. He has prison effects, but after I Decay the Trinisphere, I pretty smoothly sail into a combo finish.

G2 – I leave in the Forces and take out Relic, a Ponder, and Clique for the 2 Thoughtseize and Brutality. The Thoughtseize grabs a Rabblemaster, revealing Blood Moon, Chalice and some lands. He Chalices then Blood Moons the next turn, but I naturally drew into the combo, and kill him a turn or two later. I really like Red Prison conceptually, but it seemed to run out of gas pretty hard both games. I was under no pressure to assemble anything, and was able to do so at my leisure.

R4 – Tim Czech Pile

G1 – Tim is a good friend of mine and a pillar of the local Legacy community. While known for his all foil DnT, he owns multiple copies of just about every deck in the format, so it really is a dice roll when you sit across from him. The last we played, he steam rolled me with Shardless, so I thought it would be BUGx something. He does a few things that were pretty characteristically Czech Pile plays, like fetch up Sea into Badlands, then Hymn me. So I knew pretty quickly. There is some good resource exchange here, but I get a Food Chain online to give the birds “vigilance” and that is more than enough of a board state to close things up.

G2 – This was probably my most unfortunate game of the day. As I know he is a very capable pilot, I believe he drew 3 total spells the entire game, and 13 of his mana sources. While one of the spells was a Hymn and another a Deluge, he just sort of sat there and watched me go ham with my fliers. I had certainly anticipated a more interactive game, but it was over fairly quickly because of him being on the wrong side of variance.

R5 – Derek Red Taxes

G1 – So these games were intense. I did not know what I was on, because when people fetch up Plateau, you generally stare in awe. Which is what I did. He also did it with a Flooded Strand, so I was all sorts of concerned. A few turns in, after a Vial and SFM hit the table, I had a better idea of what I was dealing with. I combo’d through some Ports and the like, but not knowing if I am going to be Magus of the Moon’d I had fetched for basics which turned of his Wastelands.

G2 – I cant recall how I boarded, but I don’t think it was correct. I definitely did not bring in Needle, which I should have. I have been playing a ton of Eternal lately, and the “First Strike” rules in that game are different, so I had a pretty savage punt attacking a DRS into a Thalia offering the “trade”. I shame scooped immediately.

G3 – Midrange soup in action! We slugged it out for a long while, me fighting through a Sanctum Prelate and some Ports. I was able to stick a Leovold, draw some cards, it died, stick ANOTHER Leovold, draw some cards, and ultimately this won me the game. I got a Food Chain and a full board of birds online toward the end, staring down a Crusader with Batterskull. I dropped a Pithing Needle on the board, naming SoFI, which I SHOULD have named Batterskull (since I was looking at it), but thought he may have drawn the Sword and was going to start killing my stuff. Eventually hitting for 9 in the air, and having 2 DRS online was enough to close out a very long and interesting game. My opponent was incredibly fun to interact with, and we had a good conversation throughout our game, which was easily one of the highlights of my day.

R6 – ID

R1 of Top 8 – Cody 4c Deathblade

G1- Cody and I have a really great rapport. He is easily one of the best and widely respected Legacy players in the area, and is a fantastic person to play Magic with. As we are shuffling up, he comments on my playmat: “Do you write for www.TeamRankstar.com? I have heard they put out some good stuff.” Since I am the owner of the site, I nearly pass out from flattery in this moment, but drop a casual “Yea, I own the site!”

With my colored glasses firmly lodged on my face, we jump into the game. I have not played against much Deathblade, since it is all but nonexistent in our local meta. So I have never played against it on Food Chain. While I have experience with the deck, and know what Deathblade is capable of, I did not see some of the tech. I managed to cobble together enough value to combo off some how, and feel pretty good about it.

G2 – I did not see baby Jace coming. Between that flashing back StP a few times, and Bob getting him ahead on cards, I just could not keep up. We slug it out for a while, but I was a bit choked on cards after a Lily and some Thoughtseize action, so we move into G3.

G3 – This is definitely the game I am the most proud of. Not only am I giving a player who I respect a ton a run for their money, I feel like I make some really tight plays that give me the best chances to win. If he does not have the Force for my Deluge destroying his board of Bob, DRSx2 and Baby Jace, I pretty much win on the spot. Because he DID have the Force, I had to slither my way around his pressure, making some reasonable trades. The nail in the coffin turn was when I go to cast a Ballista for 6, which would have wiped out his Bob and something else, buying me enough time to find a Food Chain, and combo off with the pieces I had on board/in my hand. He politely Force of Will’d my game plan into the shadow realm, and swiftly ended the game on his next turn.

Overall, I think the list performed very well. While the Relic in the main was not particularly good today, it has been a house for me in the past, exiling cards in response to opponents DRS activation, getting a Griffen out of the GY and so on. I would probably take a similar list to another event this weekend, but may find room for a Chalice in the SB. I am also likely going to swap out a Ponder for either a Search for Azcanta or a Sylvan Library.

Huge shout out to each of my opponents for being incredibly gracious and having great conversations after our games.

Thanks for reading!

-Aphelion

Meta Monday – FPS Scream

With the season two invitational behind us, the hype is building in a big way for Set 4: “The Fall of Argenport”. The coming of Set 4 represents more than just a new collection of cards for us to enjoy. “The Fall of Argenport” marks the official release of the game from beta. For those who do not know, the game has been in open beta for some time now, waiting on a few details to be finalized, and bugs to be fixed, to fully release the game to the public. Direwolf Digital has confirmed that alongside this official release will be the first foray into in-game organized play. This is probably the most important announcement for the game’s future in my opinion.

Neon knocked it out of the park with their piece on the state of the game. If you have not read it, I would highly recommend it to anyone invested in Eternal’s future. Since they very thoroughly lay out a lot of ideas about how the game can grow, I will focus on one that I think is very important: organized play.

I got into this game because I was burnt out on Hearthstone. While loving digital card games that I could play on my lunch break or from the comfort of my couch, Hearthstone was no longer scratching that itch. For one reason or another, I had heard of Eternal as a “MtG analogue”, so as a long time MtG player, I thought I would give it a shot. As soon as I completed the campaign, I was in love. Within a couple of days, I was watching LightsOutAce stream, asking noob questions, and having them graciously answered by one of the games top players. I felt a part of something immediately, and that sense of belonging was very powerful. Within a few weeks, the beginning of Team Rankstar was in motion. Soon, it became clear the direction things were headed for us, and how a lot of that hinged on the more competitive side of things. RNG hosts the “Eternal Tournament Series” and has singlehandedly curated the entire competitive scene up until this point. I don’t think it is outlandish to say that the community would not be what it is without the efforts of RNG and their team.

As my involvement in the Eternal community picked up, I kept my eyes on top players. Generally to find deck ideas, but also to get an idea of what drove them to stick with Eternal. For most of the players, it was about being the best at the game they loved. The biggest drawback being no real incentive for being a top player in Eternal. Aside from the ETS, there was no benefit to being “top 100 masters” aside from bragging rights. Once you queued for the ETS Invitational, a lot of these players just sort of floated around until the time came to compete in that event. This gave the opportunity for interest to wane a bit, for these players to get bored, since grinding ladder didn’t accurately translate to the “best of three” environment of the ETS. I began to see a lot of players going to other games to fill in the time between major events.

With the imminence of Set 4, the release of the game, the announcement of organized play (although somewhat unclear what that will look like at this time), the “Market” mechanic as a quasi-sideboard replacement (LoA has a great article with predictions on how this will look), many players who had taken a break from the game are returning with rekindled passion! Adding an incentive for the top players to stick around, produce content, develop the community and cultivate a healthy competitive environment will help cement the long term viability of Eternal. While a new set always heightens the interest in the game, I believe that the official launch of Eternal will be accompanied by more formal marketing and promotion, which will bring a lot of new players into the fold. This provides a unique opportunity for existing community members, content producers and top players to be as helpful and inclusive to help our corner of the card game world grow. There is a lot of movement happening in digital CCG space right now (TESL changing developers and releasing a new UI soon, Gwent: Homecoming releasing later this year, Ben Brode’s departure from Hearthstone leaving the future of it uncertain, MTG:A…. doing things that MTG:A does, and finally the new colossal franchise that will be Artifact coming to soak up card gaming pros left and right with its million dollar tournament scheduled for 2019) so the onus is on Direwolf to give the players what we need to sink our teeth into, and us, the players, to keep the game healthy and growing.

With that, we appreciate each and every one of you who take the time to check out our work every week. Whether it be Unexpected Results: THE Eternal Podcast, Meta Monday, ThatResolves video series, or any one of our streamers doing their thing, thank you for helping support us do what we love to do. We plan to continue to bring high quality content (and some low quality content as well) as the game continues to grow, and look forward to participating in the growth of our wonderful community.

Without further ado…

As the set 3 life starts to wind down and we prepare for set four and the ultimate release of the game in the public domain, I’ve just got the two videos prepared.

 

2 Permafrost (Set1 #193)
1 Seek Power (Set1 #408)
2 Eilyn’s Favor (Set0 #24)
4 Lightning Storm (Set1 #206)
2 Lightning Strike (Set1 #197)
2 Second Sight (Set1 #207)
4 Strategize (Set3 #165)
2 Talon of Nostrix (Set2 #74)
3 Vanquish (Set1 #143)
4 Auric Sentry (Set1 #146)
2 Eilyn’s Choice (Set2 #220)
4 Wisdom of the Elders (Set1 #218)
2 Duelist’s Blade (Set2 #226)
4 Harsh Rule (Set1 #172)
3 Jotun Hurler (Set1 #227)
2 Throne Warden (Set1 #514)
2 Thunderstrike Dragon (Set1 #243)
4 Channel the Tempest (Set1 #244)
6 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)
8 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)
4 Cobalt Waystone (Set3 #151)
4 Hooru Banner (Set2 #216)
4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)

 
We have a new player episode which has been asked for since I started the new player series in that people wanted a walk through how to build a control deck. Unfortunately Feln costs quite a lot just in terms of the shiftstone required in the staples and you can’t really go without Black Sky Harbinger so I decided to focus on Hooru as this feels like not only the most flexible control deck — it can play whatever it wants as its win condition — but the deck to gain the most from set four with the addition of the Crest of Order and whatever other Eilyn themed goodies we get. I’m already super stoked to try out any warp cards in Hooru as we get to pair them really well with Second Sight. This deck also allows you to pivot quite easily in to a Primal Icaria or Primal Armory deck and these play-styles are enjoyed by many players who enjoy the draw go decks of old from Magic : The Gathering or the Warrior decks from Hearthstone and WoW Tcg.

 

4 Combust (Set1 #392)
4 Dark Return (Set1 #250)
4 Grenadin Drone (Set1 #5)
2 Permafrost (Set1 #193)
4 Torch (Set1 #8)
4 Devour (Set1 #261)
4 Haunting Scream (Set1 #374)
4 Quarry (Set1001 #15)
4 Gorgon Fanatic (Set1 #375)
4 Madness (Set1 #267)
4 Nocturnal Observer (Set3 #173)
4 Rindra, the Duskblade (Set3 #277)
4 Torgov, Icecap Trader (Set2 #126)
4 Amethyst Waystone (Set3 #201)
3 Cobalt Waystone (Set3 #151)
4 Crest of Chaos (Set3 #268)
4 Crest of Cunning (Set3 #267)
4 Crest of Fury (Set3 #266)
2 Diplomatic Seal (Set1 #425)
4 Granite Waystone (Set3 #1)

For the Meta Monday however we’ve got a very apt video and this is FPS Scream, straight from the archives of Platypus Island and Sanctioned by the King of Platypus Island for general use amongst the general populous this deck feels like it’s in a real good spot right now, being able to make the most of the Madness package as we have access to both combust and devour should allow us to destroy the Praxis menace as well as being able to play Haunting Scream which is the best thing to come out of decks who can no longer rely on Steward of the Past and now are left with just In Cold Blood which reduces the amount of fast speed interaction the opponents can have.
For sure our opponents can play Feeding Time, but if we already drew three cards and our fanatical gorgan is in our Void — who cares?

Rindra is also a house when it comes back playing dark return and haunting scream because not only do you have the ability to win any race but having a build your own dragon that has a built in ping effect can really turn the tides against armory as well as being an excellent attacker in the face of Icaria herself.
For sure of course the Sandstorm Titan is a real problem, but it would be a shame if someone were to madness them and gobble them up for some tasty tasty cards or just combust them up to gobble up another Titan if your opponent was lucky enough to hit two of this monster!
Thank you for joining us for another Meta Monday I’ll catch you next week!

A small bonus though, I’ve been doing a few videos for a game in closed beta called “Manarocks“, I’ll be doing another deck discussion for the game in the next few days and will be giving away a few game keys to people who would like to join in on the fun.

Check out Team Rankstar streamers: HeyWhyYou, Magikarp, NotoriousGHP, PlatypusKing and SifuDanny.ThatResolves, who makes all of the videos for Meta Monday, can be found here and Patreon here!

If you are looking for some tournament “Best of Three” practice, Kaelari has set up a really great resource that is open 24/7 here as well as a Tuesday night tournament here.

Every Friday, The Great Parliament hosts “Casual Friday” tournament now, too!

TheSkeeJay’s most recent tier list is up this week!

Don’t forget to let us know what you think via our contact and recruitment page or in our Discord!

-Aphelion and ThatResolves