Amber the death-racer

[kamman13]

You should know what damage-efficiency means before reading this article- it refers to the amount of damage achieved per resource spent. Typically, a 1-1 ratio indicates good damage efficiency. Read here for more info. This article is also cross-posted on GDC's website here.

In previous version, I claimed that mages were the best death-racer around. Although true then, we now have both new hero abilities and new weapons available, and the story has changed.

Amber is currently recognized as a great counter to Eladwen, which is strange because Eladwen is without a doubt the fastest mage death racer. Is this because Amber counters the death race? No, it is because Amber offers an even faster death race than Eladwen. Amber beats Eladwen at her own game.

Amber has several key elements that aid her death racing. First as a human, she has access to a great selection of damage-efficient and cheap weenies. Plus, she has War Banner, a great boost to her damage efficiency. At 3cc, if you get 3 allies to attack after using War Banner, you've hit damage efficiency- 3 damage for 3 resources. You can usually achieve much more than this in a typical game.

Amber's second strength is her ability. The +2 permanent attack to her weapons makes any weapon damage efficient, even after 1 attack. Even if her weapons is destroyed or run down by allies during the opponent's turn, that one first attack makes it worth the resources. If Amber can get multiple attacks in with a weapon, her damage ratios go off the chart.

Amber's final jewel is having the resource acceleration of Jeweler's Dream. This increases your effective resource pool each turn, giving you more resources to convert into damage than your opponent. And when buffed with Amber's ability, Jeweler's Dream gives this resource acceleration while being damage efficient by itself. Pretty awesome.

The addition of new weapons in 1.29 includes one that deserves special interest- Rusty Longsword. In the turn it's cast (if buffed), it does 4 damage for 3 resources- even if you subtract the damage it does to your hero upon casting, it's still damage efficient at a 3 life swing for 3 resources. This, if anything, makes Amber even faster a death-racer than she already was in 1.28.

So how fast is Amber? Consider this ideal play (damage noted after each turn).

T1- Kris (1 damage)

T2- Puwen (1 damage)

T3- Aldon (5 damage)

T4- War Banner + Kris (14 damage)

T5- Jewelers Dream (17 damage)

Opponent is dead by turn 5 with 3 resources to spare. Even if an aldon is killed, you can recast it.

A more conservative starting scenario that includes card draw:

T1- Kris (1 damage)

T2- Puwen (1 damage)

T3- Jasmine (3 damage)

T4- Jeweler's Dream + card draw (9 damage)

T5- Aldon + War banner (15 damage)

Still enough to take down an opponent by turn 5, while taking card of card draw.

Even the most ideal mage draw can't expect to consistently take down an opponent before T7. Also consider that going second, a mage doesn't even have a chance to clear the board with Nova before losing all their life to Amber.

Of course these are ideal scenarios, and a typical opponent will be clearing the board of allies along the way, preventing the onslaught of damage from Amber's beefed up allies. But even this won't help much, as by T5 Amber is just getting going. At T6 with Jeweler's Dream, Amber essentially has 8 resources to cast, plus is doing 3 damage per turn with her weapon in addition to whatever she does with her resources. With War Banner out and no allies, Amber can still cast Aldon the Brave and Kristoffer Wyld to attack for 3 damage- 3 damage for 4 resources is as damage efficient as a Lightning Strike AND it leaves a threat on the board. You opponent will have to do everything they can to halt your onslaught of allies fueled by your resource acceleration, while you continue to damage them with your weapons.

So it seems settled then, go Amber if you want to death race, right? Not so fast. Although faster that any mage, Amber has a weakness which hits her hard- weapon destruction, armor, and attack prevention.

Although Amber's weapons are damage efficient after one attack, they are only as damage efficient as a typical mage spell- it's only when Amber gets in multiple attacks over several rounds that her damage efficiency really flares up. And Amber doesn't have the shadow energy to cast a damage efficient weapon every round- she needs time for SE to build up.

Also, armor can prevent Amber's damage, slowing her death racing. Currently, there is no way to prevent damage from mage spells, so there is no way to slow their death racing (though there will be soon!). So in this sense, mages are a little more consistent than Amber in the speed of their death racing.

Last, all of Amber's damage has to result from attacks, either through allies or Amber herself. She doesn't even have allies that can connect for DD, like shadow heroes do. Attack prevention, such as Lay Low or Moonstalker, can put Amber in a real fix and slow down her racing. Mages can switch between allies and DD spells, making them much more versatile.

The end result- Amber has taken the reigns as the new fastest death racer around. But this speed comes at a cost- her speed is tied into her weapons, and fails hard in the presence of item destruction. For this reason, Amber loses to her fellow warriors as often as she defeats mages. More speed, less consistency, thus is balance in a game like Shadow Era.

[Bayfighter]

Great writeup and good analysis!
Who would you say wins the matchup between Amber and the other Warriors and what % of the time?
(ie: XXX has a slight edge and wins X% of the time against XXX)

[chanson311]

I play a lot of Amber and one of the reason she beats Elad is resource acceleration, like you mentioned. Another reason is pseudo card advantage and pseudo resource acceleration. You probably know what I mean by this, Kamman, but for others, your weapons create a situation where you are able to continue to deal damage without spending cards or resources after the first turn. If I want to do 8 damage during turns 3 and 4 with amber, I can cast a RLS on t3 for 3 resources and then I get a free hit for 4 more damage next turn. This allows me to cast an Aldon/Kris or many other combinations that will keep my momentum going. If you are a mage, t3 fireball costs 3 resources, and now t4 you would have to spend another 3 resources and another card (second fireball) and you only have enough resources to play a Kris or whatever. This is the huge advantage of Amber vs Elad.

[kamman13]

Thanks guys for the feedback and valuable comments!

@Bayfighter- it's sort of hard to say, and I've only really played race Amber extensively against Logan, since Boris and Ter aren't seen much. She's definitely under 50% win records against Logan, maybe 35%-40% (a guess). I imaging Ter and Boris should be just as bad, with their nice weapon destruction and weenie control.

[TripleHBK]

T1- Kris (1 damage)

T2- Puwen (1 damage)

T3- Jasmine (3 damage)

T4- Jeweler's Dream + card draw (9 damage)

T5- Aldon + War banner (15 damage)

If I may humbly add...
If at T4 with the extra resources that JD grants you'd play a BS, in theory at T5 you would have enough cards and one more resource available to cast a kris and deal 3 more damage.
Cast Aldon, 5-3 = 2 resources left; hit with JD 2+2 =4 resources left -> WB + kris
Now, taking into account the "armor issue", let's assume that (going first) at T4 opponent casts Wrath of the Forest or Cobraskin Wraps, which currently are the only 4cc armors available.
Let's assume also that we are going with your most conservative scenario.
If opponent casts a WotF we have two options:
1) attack with all allies + weapon
2) use a smashing blow.

option 1

T1- Kris (1 damage)

T2- Puwen (1 damage)

T3- Jasmine (3 damage)

T4- Jeweler's Dream + card draw (9 damage)

T5- Aldon + War banner (11 damage since WotF has 4 durability and 1 defense)

BUT, as seen before, at T5 we have another resource to spend to cast a kris and do 3 more damage to go to 14 damage.
Still enough to take down most heroes.

option 2

T1- Kris (1 damage)

T2- Puwen (1 damage)

T3- Jasmine (3 damage)

T4- Jeweler's Dream + card draw (9 damage)

T5- Smashing blow + War Banner/Aldon + kris (14)

Same as before.

If cobraskin is casted, then we have the issue of losing a resource, but we could always go for

T5- Aldon + War banner (12 damage -> cobraskin has 3 durability and 1 defense)

or

T5- Smashing blow + War Banner/Aldon (12 damage)

That makes 26 damage, which means that mages and priests are dead, and you only need another turn to finish any other hero.
Still one turn less than a mage with the perfect draw.
Of course, damage prevention and item destruction are a big pain, and this is only to add something to your theory.
I'd like to make calculation for when you're going second too, but there are a lot of other possibilities and...
It's late and I'm tired, gotta go to bed. -.-"
I hope I did not make any big mistake in calculations, and that this can be helpful.

[B0HATER]

This is gonna flood the game with Amber deathracer wannabes. Time to make an anti Amber deck lol

[s3Ki]

This is gonna flood the game with Amber deathracer wannabes. Time to make an anti Amber deck lol

No, I don't think so.

[abazigal]

In practice, I find your ideal opening hand much less than ideal.

In reality, what will happen is:

1) Opponent plays his own kris to counter your kris.

2) Already has allies out to attack your puwen when he gets played, or some counter like retreat

3) Fireballs your jasmine

4) If facing boris or eladwen, use hero ability to off your aldon

5) Supernovas the board on turn 5 if need be.

I find a better alternative to be:

Turn1) Play kris (never ever play birgette on turn1, she is just a lightning rod for attacks)
Turn2) valiant defender (now you can play your own allies without fear of reprisal from enemy allies)
Turn3) Jasmine
Turn4) Aldon+birgette
Turn5+) Dig in your heels

Not much of a death race, but much greater staying power and more consistent, IMO.

[pyrogene]

In practice, I find your ideal opening hand much less than ideal.

In reality, what will happen is:

1) Opponent plays his own kris to counter your kris.

2) Already has allies out to attack your puwen when he gets played, or some counter like retreat

3) Fireballs your jasmine

4) If facing boris or eladwen, use hero ability to off your aldon

5) Supernovas the board on turn 5 if need be.

I find a better alternative to be:

Turn1) Play kris (never ever play birgette on turn1, she is just a lightning rod for attacks)
Turn2) valiant defender (now you can play your own allies without fear of reprisal from enemy allies)
Turn3) Jasmine
Turn4) Aldon+birgette
Turn5+) Dig in your heels

Not much of a death race, but much greater staying power and more consistent, IMO.

Kinda ironic that your "counter" effectively counters your version of the "ideal play".

Turn1) Play kris (never ever play birgette on turn1, she is just a lightning rod for attacks)
1) Opponent plays his own kris to counter your kris.

Turn2) valiant defender (now you can play your own allies without fear of reprisal from enemy allies)
Turn3) Jasmine
3) Fireballs your jasmine
Turn4) Aldon+birgette
4) If facing boris or eladwen, use hero ability to off your aldon (Still possible if they have any nukes)
Turn5+) Dig in your heels
5) Supernovas the board on turn 5 if need be.

I think kamman13 does not mean that the ideal play happens all the time but just used it to show that Amber is potentially faster than Eladwen who was commonly regarded as the Queen of Deathracing.

In practise, more often than not, I think T2 BF will still be a beneficial play even though you sacrifice a bit of damage early.

[The Eyes]

And the problem with all of these speculations... perfection resides in a vacuum and plays solitaire. As soon as you add an opponent with a deck all of this is poppycock.