Shadow Era Going Second Deck Building Guide

Shadow Era Going Second Deck Building Guide by Brontos

“Damn I don’t start”.
If that’s what you think when your opp is going first, then maybe your deck is not designed correctly.

Quoting the current Game Designer: Calmdown

That means they’ll lose 50% of their games.

If you want a deck to be competitive, build a deck that can win going second and count first turn as a bonus. That’s how good deckbuilders do it.”

I’ll try to give a few advices here about deck building in order to improve your deck a little on this aspect.

Deck building & Curve.
When you build your deck, you certainly want to add something to play each turn. You also want to be sure to optimise your ressources available by using them all.

Exemple: On turn 2, you play Blood Frenzy. On turn 3, a Gargoyle. On turn 4, a Belladonna. On turn 5, a Berserker Edge.
If it’s good or not depends on what your opp played, but from the Curve pov, it’s good.

In terms of deck building, you have to look at the cards and sort them all by CC (casting cost).
Then, ask yourself when going first, which are the best ones for each CC. Now if you want to draw them at the right turn, you’ll have to put the adequate number of copies of them. Read this about probabilities to find out how to calculate this number.

That’s the easy part. Everybody is already doing it.

Now, you’re not the starting player. Look again at these “Best cards for my curve when I start” and ask yourself how they will behave if you don’t have board control. If your opp is playing Blake, Aldon and Ligthning Strike, will it still be good to play Puwen, Aldor and Wizent’s Staff? Maybe not.

2 options:
If they are still good, fine. Cards like Gargoyle or Blood Frenzy are usually good either you start the game or not for instance. But they are not that numerous. Allies who have 4 or more health are also good in general, because your opp will need to burn a card (or two!) to help his board dealing with them. And hopefully, his allies will lose some life doing so.

If they are only good when you start, then maybe you should reconsider them being in 4 copies, for a little more variety and versatility. Blake is strong, but in just a few starting scenarios. Puwen is good in a little more of them. So, 2 copies of Blake and 3/4 of Puwen could be good numbers.

You will have to use cards that are able to help you gain the Board controll instead of just a nice curve of allies respecting the “curve” concept when building your deck.

Exceptions: heros who will take board control with their ability (Boris, Zaladar, Eladwen, etc). Because you are able to deal with an ally AND stick to your “going first curve” at the same time on turn 4 or 5, you will take BC at this turn (and having the card advantage of being second is great in this specific situation). So don’t bother altering too much your deck because of this. Maybe just think about a way to gain the life you will lose during the first turns of the game (Enrage, Soul Reaper, Soul Seeker Bow..).

But Brontos, what are these wonderful cards?
They are not that numérous bro.
You need them to solve your current problem: you don’t have board control because your opp played a few allies before you. You just need to kill them or to stall.

Arrows in a Hunter deck are a good exemple of these cards. If your opp plays a Blake, you can kill it. One card for one card, it’s ok (you can’t always gain some card advantage). By turn 5 maximum, he will certainly stop playing allies. A deck can’t just drop a ressource and an ally per turn without refilling his hand (cough Majiya cough). If your opp takes a break to cast a card that doesn’t give him BC, take the opportunity to take it back immediately. If he plays Ill Goten Gains, Research, Enrage, etc, on the next turn, you should play a strong ally.

Weapons are also very good. With Amber or Gwen, a turn 4 weapon (Beetle Bow or Jeweller’s Dream) means you will be able to hurt allies a lot, and certainly kill them, taking BC back. Sadly, not everybody have access to good weapons for now.

Board cleaning cards are very strong for this also. If you destroy 3 creatures using just a single Tidal Wave, it will be a very strong move. Sadly, good opp keep a big ally in their hand just because they know you are a priest/mage and you will just face the same situation on the next turn. But it’s ok, because dealing with board control during midgame is easier than during the early game (you have access to more ressources, so you can play any of your deck’s cards or two cards at the same time like a Jasmine and a Retreat).

So launch the client, click on the DECK button, tick “only usable cards”, and start searching for these cards, and add them in correct quantity in your deck. Yes, now.

But Brontos, I don’t have enough free rooms in my deck!
I know. Me too. That’s what we call Deck Building.

You don’t need to have these cards each turn of the game, in fact, if you need to play an ally, and you see that your hand if full of Arrows and Death Traps, then reduce their number significantly. You only need to have them until you can start dropping your own allies. It’s awesome to have a turn 2 solution (like Arrow) and a Gargoyle to play just after. It’s correct to sacrifice an ally on turn 3, like a Jasmine (hard to deal with) if on your turn 4 you play your weapon to clean the board (now he has the turn advantage, but you have an active weapon so it’s fine).

It may be a good idea to have many different solutions in small numbers, so you will be able to wait until you draw one of them. Adding variety and adaptability to your deck is good.
It can also be good to just play these cards in 4 copies (or even more for Arrows) because you want more stability during your draw phase.
Your call.

Another choice (but I don’t like it) is to think “I will only be second 50% of the time. If my deck is built to win 100% when I go first, I can count on luck to win half of the games I don’t start. Thus hoping for a 75% win ratio”. Your call again.

I’m so much loving what you have written there Brontos. PMing you now!.
Good. I love you too.

But don’t forget that when we talk about Card games, the only rule in the stone is that there are no definitive nor perfect rule for deck building and cards playing. For instance, if you’re building a Lance deck, you will find that my advices are mostly wrong. Blake is far more stronger in a Lance deck than Puwen to come back on this exemple.

Be sure to use your brain instead of just sticking to other’s advices.

Dude, what you said is so full of crap. It’s insane. And I’m not talking about your english writting skill…
Don’t be too hard on me. I’m french. And we, frenchies, suck about foreign languages. Feel free to summon the Grammar Nasi for a whole review, I’d love to learn things.

And if you think I just said some BS, I suggest you to use the reply button and to explain in details why. This way, even if my OP is really bad, the thread will still be of some use for people who need it.

Hope it helped.