Solforge Catch-All

Played in a draft tourney since they gave me a token. I have used the defenders + Jet Pack combo in the past, but now there is a better one. Cinder Colossus + Flamerift Instigator. The colossus is a 24/27 defender at level 3, then you play any level Instigator to strip the Defender flag off it. And the Instigator trades well, too, 17/12 at level 3. Also, both are Tempys, so you aren't locked into Alloyin+Tempys, leaving you free to pair up with whoever you choose. Shhhs, its avalanche country!

Overload, Consistant, Solbind, those were the only new keywords in this draft deck, but they do promise to shake things up a bit.

I think those are the only new keywords introduced in te set. But they'll definitely have an impact I think. Also, I gave draft a shot last night and I had no idea what to take with the changes to the pool.

Good times ahead I feel. I'm looking to start a new tournament some time in Sept. You all have been warned!

Just did my first draft game with the new cards as well. I really like what they've done from what I've seen so far in terms of evening out the randomness. Not just via the consistent keyword but also one-shot cards that remove themselves from your deck and cards that have solid effects if played underlevel. I drew plenty of non-ranked cards but managed to squeak out a win anyway thanks to those underleveled effects.

edit: and 2nd game I just lost to tuskin sporelord. how is that guy just a heroic? he's plain nuts! well, in draft at least when you probably don't have a way to remove it before it activates.

Tusken Sporelord? Herald of Destruction is the answer there. It does damage equal to its attack to any critter that isn't played out of your hand. So, even unboosted it kills a lot of those weeds.

shoptroll wrote:

Good times ahead I feel. I'm looking to start a new tournament some time in Sept. You all have been warned!

Kick it off on the 1st, and make it an UnHeroic. The new cards make that format rather interesting, and bloody.

I'll be getting back from vacation around that time, so maybe

I'd join

Went 3-1 last night in a draft which is probably the first time I've ever done that well. Didn't expect to do that well since I didn't think the deck had a lot of synergy, but I stuck to a lot of the general guidelines (ie. "The Rule of 6" and keep spells to a minimum).

Stray observations:

1) The creatures intended as underdrops are undervalued right now. Uterra has one which acts as an Enrage with a body and Tempys has one that is 6 direct damage to another creature. These are great support cards.
2) The Seal cycle feels like a direct powercreep/replacement for some of the cards in Alpha. I can't see myself ever using Enrage now that Seal of Deepwood exists.
3) Razortooth Stalker is ridiculously good for a common.

Very happy with the changes to the draft pool. I think dropping the majority of the Alpha cards from the rotation was a good idea since while Alpha isn't a bad set, it's uneven in terms of quality and there's a number of things in Rise and Secrets that just feel like outright replacements for cards in Alpha. I also wonder if Stone Blade is using the current draft pool as a way to get a feel for what the next base set will be like. I feel like the game is getting to the point where the card pool is so big that trying to get specific cards from the random packs is a fool's errand. It's also been a year since the launch of the Alpha set so a new "season" seems like a possibility.

I am doing a couple of drafts right now and made a few bad decks so far.
Trying to find a balance again with the new cards and it feels I have to rethink
it all again. Nice challenge, sometimes frustrating.

Apprently Herald of Destruction has been pulled due to an infinite loop interaction with Stygian Lotus. This coupled with a nasty UI bug I hit this weekend (I was unable to consistently examine opponent's cards on the PC client) makes me hesitant to run a tournament until we see another patch or two.

HoD removal basically would allow Tarsus to run rampant in the suggested non-Heroic format and I'm not totally sure I want to outright ban it. I am strongly leaning toward non-Heroic since we haven't done that in a while and it looks like there's genuinely more deck possibilities for that format now. What do people think?

shoptroll wrote:

Apprently Herald of Destruction has been pulled due to an infinite loop interaction with Stygian Lotus. This coupled with a nasty UI bug I hit this weekend (I was unable to consistently examine opponent's cards on the PC client) makes me hesitant to run a tournament until we see another patch or two.

HoD removal basically would allow Tarsus to run rampant in the suggested non-Heroic format and I'm not totally sure I want to outright ban it. I am strongly leaning toward non-Heroic since we haven't done that in a while and it looks like there's genuinely more deck possibilities for that format now. What do people think?

Solforge seems more buggy then ever. So yeah, agreed on either postponing, or the non-Heroic option. I prefer to play over not playing

-add on-
Draft really went down for me with the release of the new cards. Hard to get a grip on it and to build a solid deck that actually works. Taking a break from drafting for a long while.

Stoneblade is urging iOS users to not upgrade to iOS 8 until the next patch is available. Unfortunately the current client is incompatible and they expect Apple won't approve the new client until Monday at the earliest.

In case people didn't see this earlier... 5 more days until the start! Please sign-up if you're interested.

Some details on the upcoming changes with Set 4 (ETA: before end of the year):

* Mass forging (ie. trading in excess cards for silver) - Now you can just tell it to cash in all your excess cards
* New cards can be crafted for Silver when they are released - However, the price is higher for the first month
* Trading Sharing! - share a copy of a card with a friend
* "Casual" draft - lower entry cost but don't keep cards selected
* Economy changes - Tournament tickets are cheaper, Legendary Chests can be bought for 100k Silver, cheaper Legendary Card of the Day

I like how they keep the pace in updates and fixes. Certainly some very welcome changes in this patch!

New card:
IMAGE(http://solforgegame.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/SoulReap.jpg)
As if we need more Deathweaver combos

Had to uninstall this (and a couple other games) to update iPad2's iOS recently. Guess I should put it back on so I can do my daily login and keep saving up silver at least.

I like some of those changes with forging/crafting. Maybe I'll get back into it more.

That Staff card terrifies me. Not sure about the Scavenger as it doesn't look that much better than Battledroid (Alpha set) but with slightly more damage/armor as a tradeoff for requiring you to replace an existing creature with it.

Depending on what the rest of the Assault/Upgrade cards do, I wonder if we'll see a rise in "wide" Uterra in the meta?

Aegis Knight will go just fine with the Oreian Scavenger. Maybe Uterra will be a nice alliance for it.
Just spam creatures and then upgrade them. Or zimus...

Staff of Vaerus will probably dictate the meta for a while

shoptroll wrote:

New set is out on Tuesday

Cool, saving my tickets I suppose (or not) lol

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/jaEI15U.jpg)

Well, I can see an Oreian Justicar & Herald of Destruction deck in my future.

Well I guess that answers my question about a rise in "wide" Uterra. I'm not sure a wide Uterra/life up hybrid will work all that well but I'm not exactly good at this game so what do I know.

LtWarhound wrote:

Well, I can see an Oreian Justicar & Herald of Destruction deck in my future.

You would do that.

And here's a creature version of Cull the Weak:

IMAGE(http://www.ghoxssocks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/sorrowmaiden.jpg)

(Source)

shoptroll wrote:

Well I guess that answers my question about a rise in "wide" Uterra. I'm not sure a wide Uterra/life up hybrid will work all that well but I'm not exactly good at this game so what do I know.

LtWarhound wrote:

Well, I can see an Oreian Justicar & Herald of Destruction deck in my future.

You would do that.

And here's a creature version of Cull the Weak:

IMAGE(http://www.ghoxssocks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/sorrowmaiden.jpg)

(Source)

A version of the Uranti Heartseeker. Odd.
IMAGE(http://i1.wp.com/themetamart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Urantiheartseeker.jpg?resize=988%2C494)

-edit-
I now notice that one is about attack, the other about health. How about putting both in one deck?

Significant difference. Heartseeker targets critters with an specific exact health, no higher or lower. The maiden targets value X or lower, much more likely to happen. If the heartseeker was X or lower, then I'd use it, as it is, I don't see myself putting it in a deck.

Agreed, the 'or lower' part makes all the difference here.
I've played with hearthseeker, and it's amazing how many
creatures will fit the fixed criterium. Some cards can give a
helping hand of course.

IMAGE(http://sites.cdn.stoneblade.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/BoreanWindweaver.jpg)


This one got axed. The art will be used for another future card.

IMAGE(http://solforgegame.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/RoamingWarclaw.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/pMMqUAC.jpg)

Good to see they're completely axing Warclaw. I don't think there was a good way to salvage that one. Not sure how I feel about that Stag.

Also, I just noticed that expansion icon is nearly indistinguishable from Alpha's :\

LtWarhound wrote:

Significant difference. Heartseeker targets critters with an specific exact health, no higher or lower. The maiden targets value X or lower, much more likely to happen. If the heartseeker was X or lower, then I'd use it, as it is, I don't see myself putting it in a deck.

Heartseeker is also countered by Armor.