Meltdown: A How To Guide

[Jeromy]

Thank you very much for this post I've been playing thus game since min req. Was 30cards lol. I enter meltdown games and come up short in My deck. Now I know why. Once again tyvm!

The latest update has fixed that issue, unless some platforms are still waiting for it...

[magiuspaulus]

A small summary from a player who just started:

Today i started playing Meltdown. I have like 20 or 30 QM games under my belt, using started decks from the $20 guide on these forums.
I do have a lot of sealed deck and draft experience playing Magic and i played that game quite competetively some years ago, which should help me a bit.

Or so i thought.
It started horrible. Since i only know the cards i have in my two constructed decks, i basically had to read every card. However, the clock was counting and i became very nervous that i didn't submit a deck in time, so i basically assembled a pile with all cards. That wasn't too good of a start.

Second game was very fast. As in, the game started, i sacrificed a card and that was so intimidatying that the opponent just gave up (or more probably, he lost connection). Yay i guess, my 1st MD run!
The 3rd game was a real cliffhangar, with both me poisoning and burning the other hero but keeping the board clear of heroes. I thought i was winning, but then a fireball just finished the race in his favor.
4th game i was completely obliterated by Infinity core, which indeed seems one of the best cards out there. So far, i hadn't found one in my pool (more on that later). The 5th game i won tx to a double pair of Big Teeth and that card that i can attack twice with it. I lost the 2 games after that, both due to that mage carddrawer that i just couldn't destroy (and so far was unfortunate never to find in my pool, more on that later).
So, i was 2-4 and feeling quite bad about this. Maybe this wasn't my cup of tea?
I kept going though, because i figured i just had learned quite some cards and especially the pace the game was going. Two things helped a lot:
- I literally got at least 1 Tidal Wave in every pool in the 6 games after that and i always drew them too.
- I also had 3 Anklebreakers in those games which were also pretty good.

I had a nice streak, coming back to 6-4 when it suddenly hit me: I never saw an item which should have helped me draw cards. I looked how i build my deck and then...
OMG!
I completely missed that items weren't a specific category!!!
Until then, i build my deck in the following way:
1. Look for good weapons
2. Look for good armor
3. Include almost all heroes except the stupid horse thingie
4. Complete the deck with the ability cards
This seemes logical for me, as this are the four filters. But when i decided to check the 'all' box, there he was: my first Infinity Core.
Wow, that was stupid of me. (Although i find it a bit weird that there isn;t a filter for "items")
After that i played some more and i had much luck with the cardpool i think.
At the moment, am 11-5

So, in summary some conclusion from a beginner:
* Infinity Core, and cards which set the opponent's hero ablaze of poisions them are very good.
* I have the feeling the starting player has quite some advantage
* There is a lot of difference between the hero pools. Sometimes i just hadn;t got a hero that could do direct damage at all, that was a bit underwhelming as i didn;t have good weapons either.
* In my 1st games, i had a pool twice that contained only 8 heroes, two of each game were 1-drops. I actually managed to win one of them and was very surprised
* I find Blood Frenzy the hardest choice so far. I have both won and lost games due to this. I almost always end up playing the card because i'm a greedy bastard, but there is probably a fine line between deciding to run it or not

[Krilori]

Also Transference is pretty strong.

How could you possibly think the most do nothing card in Shadow Era is good. It is a tempo disadvantage because it costs resources. You are not hurting your opponent in any way. Since the never drew the card you are not taking anything from them. They may have never drawn it anyway. Sure you might something great. You also might get a completely dead card.

It would always have been better to have picked a card that does something relevant. The only corner case I could see using Transference is if you truly only had 29 playable picks. Even then you are most likely better off putting it in your resource pile. Maybe you get lucky and draw something good or draw their last remaining card. The few instances it can seem good does not change the fact that it does nothing to change the board state, or you hand size, and is a net loss.

[Index]

How could you possibly think the most do nothing card in Shadow Era is good. It is a tempo disadvantage because it costs resources. You are not hurting your opponent in any way. Since the never drew the card you are not taking anything from them. They may have never drawn it anyway. Sure you might something great. You also might get a completely dead card.

It would always have been better to have picked a card that does something relevant. The only corner case I could see using Transference is if you truly only had 29 playable picks. Even then you are most likely better off putting it in your resource pile. Maybe you get lucky and draw something good or draw their last remaining card. The few instances it can seem good does not change the fact that it does nothing to change the board state, or you hand size, and is a net loss.

I've lost a lot of games because opponent cast Transference. Also won a lot by using it. Yes there are a lot of situation that you should sacrifice it rather than use it, but that's how I make it usable: only use it when necessary.

[Index]

I was trying to say Transference is not a very strong card but absolutely not the most do nothing card in Shadow Era.
Moonstalker is.

[Dynikus]

How could you possibly think the most do nothing card in Shadow Era is good. It is a tempo disadvantage because it costs resources. You are not hurting your opponent in any way. Since the never drew the card you are not taking anything from them. They may have never drawn it anyway. Sure you might something great. You also might get a completely dead card.

It would always have been better to have picked a card that does something relevant. The only corner case I could see using Transference is if you truly only had 29 playable picks. Even then you are most likely better off putting it in your resource pile. Maybe you get lucky and draw something good or draw their last remaining card. The few instances it can seem good does not change the fact that it does nothing to change the board state, or you hand size, and is a net loss.

I actually always take Transference when it comes up. In a format like MD where you're for the most part playing with 1x of everything, one card could make or break your oponent's strategy. ie: they're playing gwen or serena, and you tranference their what big teeth, or speedstrike, or rapid fire, etc.
It's entirely possible that you get something worthless, in which case, just sac it next turn.

@magius, I don't understand how the starting player has the advantage. I usually prefer going 2nd in any format for the SE and card bonus.

[RobotsGoClink]

Finally a "Meltdown For Dummies".

[luminosg]

Just wanted to give some more feedback with last weeks meltdown finished. I put in something like 30,000+ gold, and got back 60,000 (not counting however much gold I got from normal victory rewards). I was able to climb the ladder to 4th rank (3600 points). I don't think I'll ever try that again just because it was ridiculously time consuming, something like 25 matches a day. But the gold profit is definitely there. Plus the foil Scourge I got as a bonus makes things worthwhile.

For deckbuilding, I leaned pretty heavily on this article and an older one by Preybird. Getting a feel for which cards produce useful synergys helps a lot, and if you play enough games you'll get better at this. Gravebone is a good choice if you are forced to play a deck thin on allies but heavy in fatties, and Elementalis is great when you lack fatties. A single good weapon is enough to make a weapon hero a winning choice even if all your other cards stink (a lucky first few turns is all you'll need).

Thanks again, Jeromy for this. It was very helpful.

[Jeromy]

Just wanted to give some more feedback with last weeks meltdown finished. I put in something like 30,000+ gold, and got back 60,000 (not counting however much gold I got from normal victory rewards). I was able to climb the ladder to 4th rank (3600 points). I don't think I'll ever try that again just because it was ridiculously time consuming, something like 25 matches a day. But the gold profit is definitely there. Plus the foil Scourge I got as a bonus makes things worthwhile.

For deckbuilding, I leaned pretty heavily on this article and an older one by Preybird. Getting a feel for which cards produce useful synergys helps a lot, and if you play enough games you'll get better at this. Gravebone is a good choice if you are forced to play a deck thin on allies but heavy in fatties, and Elementalis is great when you lack fatties. A single good weapon is enough to make a weapon hero a winning choice even if all your other cards stink (a lucky first few turns is all you'll need).

Thanks again, Jeromy for this. It was very helpful.

Glad it helped you out, congrats on the foil colossus! I am with you there, I have only placed top 10 twice (got colossus both times). Now I just try to squeak into the top 50. Your gold from victories was ~11,000. So 40k gold profit! Nice!

On a side note, if you beat this BP Amber heading your way, you and I will be meeting up in the Semi-finals. Good Luck!

[Index]

2. Concede by clicking menu, challenge, yes. Do this ON YOUR TURN! Doing it on opponents turn will cause game to get stuck on sacrifice stage for 5-10 minutes. The server is screwy, we all know this, so have the courtesy to quit on your turn only.

Really？Who can confirm this? thanks!
Never heard it before.
I was told to close page directly will make opponent stuck, but never heard about do this on your turn.