Newbie - Would like suggestions

**Jason D Thomas** · 03-29-2011, 07:41 PM

First, let me start by saying that I have had a wonderful time with this game. I'm a long-time M:tG player (1993 - present) and spend a lot of my free time playing Magic using LackeyCCG (an amazing app, btw, and free, I'm Fu3lman there).

I found out about Shadow Era from a post on Kotaku, and it mentioned iOS compatibility. Finally found the time to download the app and give it a spin and it's been lost productivity-ville since.

Pleasantries aside, I've got a few questions I'd like to throw out there, and maybe get a few recommendations if you aren't too busy.

I'm playing a Human Mage (Nishaven

) deck and am enjoying it quite a bit. I've replaced bits and pieces of the deck with other cards but, for the most part, the deck remains largely unchanged with the exception of a couple of 3-sets.

Without taking the game too seriously at first, I haphazardly sold a TON of cards, including a couple of boosters worth, to buy 3 x Aeon

Stormcallers (I really liked the art, and it seemed to have mechanics that were strategically sound and fun) and have kind of worked the deck around that card, but not so much that I'm unable to cut my losses.

- Is this card considered "strong", and if it is, why?
- I don't plan on spending too much money on this game and would rather work on my decks existing strengths. Is this a card worth building a deck around?
- If I have two of them in play, do their effects protect the other, essentially making my allies unattackable?

I've also invested in 3 x Snow Sapphires, and am not finding too much synergy, though they are serving their purpose, I've had to sacrifice them more often than use them. Is 3x too many?

Thanks for the input and I look forward to really sinking my teeth into this game

**Sorter** · 03-29-2011, 07:49 PM

Aeon

is a very strong ally. Usually they have to spend resources to get rid of it if they want to do damage to you. I am not too sure about actually basing your deck around it. I'd say base it around the hero.

Why it is strong: Greatest attack and life, forces opponent to attack it while you may have more allies down pounding at his life. But for that he has the highest cost to cast. If you have two or more in play (God that would be a tough cookie to crack) your opponent can choose which to attack. They are still attack-able. Read the ability carefully.

2-3 Aeon

and Sapphire should be fine.

**Jason D Thomas** · 03-29-2011, 07:49 PM

Here's my current deck as of the date of this post...

1 x Nishaven

2 x Dirk Saber

2 x Sandra Trueblade

3 x Puwen Bloodhelm

3 x Blake Windrunner

1 x Raven Wildheart

1 x Aldon the Brave

3 x Aeon Stormcaller

2 x Fireball

2 x Poison Gas

1 x Supernova

2 x Retreat

1 x Reinforced Armor

1 x Campfire Stories

2 x Extra Sharp

3 x Snow Sapphire

**Jovai** · 03-29-2011, 07:54 PM

Jason when you said you do not want to spend money on this game... you do mean you're mostly playing AI, right?
Otherwise, my advice would be to dig in and get the sets . . . this game is ALOT cheaper than Magic ever will be to play, but I'm just throwing it out there. There's plenty of posts on decks. There's even some tier lists, if you spend some time browsing I think you'll put it together

**Sorter** · 03-29-2011, 07:55 PM

Dump Dirk

. Get 1 Blake and 2 Fireballs. Dump stories and Reinforce Armor. get 2 more Sandra

and 1 aldon. Dump raven.

**Jason D Thomas** · 03-29-2011, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by Sorter

Aeon

is a very strong ally. Usually they have to spend resources to get rid of it if they want to do damage to you. I am not too sure about actually basing your deck around it. I'd say base it around the hero.

Why it is strong: Greatest attack and life, forces opponent to attack it while you may have more allies down pounding at his life. But for that he has the highest cost to cast. If you have two or more in play (God that would be a tough cookie to crack) your opponent can choose which to attack. They are still attack-able. Read the ability carefully.

2-3 Aeon

and Sapphire should be fine.

I appreciate the response, and I agree with you totally. The only real synergy I've found with the Stormcallers and Nishaven

are the fact that they can, usually, easily survive his ability (4 damage to all allies) if things start getting rough. I'm not sure it's enough to consider it basing the deck on the hero, but I guess that's good enough for me until I become a bit better at this game.

**Sorter** · 03-29-2011, 08:03 PM

Originally Posted by Jason D Thomas

I appreciate the response, and I agree with you totally. The only real synergy I've found with the Stormcallers and Nishaven

are the fact that they can, usually, easily survive his ability (4 damage to all allies) if things start getting rough. I'm not sure it's enough to consider it basing the deck on the hero, but I guess that's good enough for me until I become a bit better at this game.

Yes, and as Jovai suggested, there are some threads with posted decks you can take a look at. And you don't have to spend crazy money to be competitive. There are even offers for free shadow crystals that you can use to buy pax and themed decks with. Or if you are on the idevices there are apps you can dl to generate crystals, albeit slower.

**jiminee** · 03-29-2011, 08:03 PM

Here's my planned Nishaven

deck (burn-deck)..

1x Nishaven

4x Fireball

4x Lightning Strike

4x Clinging Webs

(or just 2x to keep the card count to just 30; or 2x Clinging Webs

and 2x Bazaar

)
4x Rain Delay

4x Blake

2x Aldon

2x Aeon

2x Supernova

4x Snow Sapphire

4x Voice of Winter

I haven't played with it at all, but the main premise is to gain board control by "freezing" them with your mage abilities and armors and Rain Delay

, while you focus on burning the opposing hero with Fireballs and Lightning Strike

as well as your few allies (2x Supernova also accounts for 10 if your hero can manage to survive both bombs lol). But, I'm not yet confident with this deck, and as one poster has mentioned, Nishaven

is considered a Tier 3 deck.

**Jason D Thomas** · 03-29-2011, 08:04 PM

Originally Posted by Jovai

Jason when you said you do not want to spend money on this game... you do mean you're mostly playing AI, right?
Otherwise, my advice would be to dig in and get the sets . . . this game is ALOT cheaper than Magic ever will be to play, but I'm just throwing it out there. There's plenty of posts on decks. There's even some tier lists, if you spend some time browsing I think you'll put it together

Ehhh, let me correct myself. I'm not ready to spend real money on the game quite yet. Went down that slippery slope with Magic before

, I will concede, however, to the fact that this game seems downright cash-friendly. $.99 boosters and sets and so on, I just wish there was more variety of cards, but I guess 17+ years of Magic makes one jaded like that. This is a brand new game and I'm already enjoying it FAR more than game-x.

@Sorter: I'll take your advice asap and see how it goes