"GG! I'm 2nd. Go next." or "The history of FTA"

[Tyr Anasazi]

An exercise of your imagination.

What will SE be like if the defender ALWAYS strikes first, no matter the combat is hero vs. hero, hero vs. ally or ally vs. ally?

Basically everyone has Defender. And then only hero and ally with special keyword (e.g. Striker) will strike first when they are the attackers.

[painful_smile]

An exercise of your imagination.

What will SE be like if the defender ALWAYS strikes first, no matter the combat is hero vs. hero, hero vs. ally or ally vs. ally?

Basically everyone has Defender. And then only hero and ally with special keyword (e.g. Striker) will strike first when they are the attackers.

It would be a festival of mage player :-)
Seriously. You have no idea how strong Defender is combined with high attack.

[Caitlyn0]

this thread is being reported as offensive. do NOT use GG!

[MacLeod]

Very interesting idea. Let me see if I can get this right.

With defender striking first, Blake still dies to both DMT and FfM, but will deal 3 dmg to FfM before he dies. Among 2cc allies, only Brutalis can kill Blake will 1HP left. CoI need a boost in HP first before he can attack Blake. So Blake becomes an okay play going 2nd. On the other hand, Blake can only attack into 0 atk allies and heroes w/o weapon. He can do very little in helping you gain the board.

Bella becomes very hard to kill directly in combat. Only IG/MA/Warden can do it. All 3cc allies with 4HP will die first in the combat. However, she cannot kill any allies with 2 or more atk. Only good use is again to swing at heroes.

SK now is a real beast. The only ally that can kill SK in combat is Kairos. SK can kill pretty much all 3cc allies with still 1-2 HP left. But then he will die if he attacks a 2nd 3cc ally without some healing first.

As a result, it is a lot harder to clear board with combat alone. Ally removal is a must to deal with high atk allies. HP boost and ally ATK debuff (Book of Curses) are more important than ATK boost. Healing allies will change from a joke to bread-n-butter in every game.

Indeed, SE will be totally different.

[qaz92zaq]

All those factors would lead to the rise of Mage and Amber rush.... wait we already have that.

Ambush would suddenly be useful though. It would also lead to a rise in allies with strong abilities as they would suddenly be harder to remove.

[ReignTheConquer]

Deck construction can abolish the FTA. I have a Gwenneth Truesight deck that i prefer to go 2nd with. The low cost Hero ability makes the gaining the first SE very handy. Being a hunter she is also equipped with a wide verify of abilities such as poison dart at only 2cc is fabulous for quick and multiple counters. Then there is feathered longbow. When going 2nd i never have to worry about being in a dilemma wondering to sacrifice or not to maintain its ability. I do agree FTA is a big deal in SE but with the right type of deck build its meaningless.

[Codepunk]

Deck construction can abolish the FTA. I have a Gwenneth Truesight deck that i prefer to go 2nd with. The low cost Hero ability makes the gaining the first SE very handy. Being a hunter she is also equipped with a wide verify of abilities such as poison dart at only 2cc is fabulous for quick and multiple counters. Then there is feathered longbow. When going 2nd i never have to worry about being in a dilemma wondering to sacrifice or not to maintain its ability. I do agree FTA is a big deal in SE but with the right type of deck build its meaningless.

This discussion has been around since the very beginning of Shadow Era and this has always been the solution - good deck-building.

in any strategy game, the idea is to figure out how to win within the confines of the rules of the game. Shadow Era has first strike and attacker target selection as inherent mechanics, so keep that in mind while building any deck and formulating your strategy. Depending on your deck, the extra card and shadow energy can be more than enough to balance FTA.

I argued all of these points long before all the hero abilities were changed, long before half of CotC was even finished, and obviously long before DP. Now, FTA is even less than it was back then, as all of the hero ability changes and fantastic new cards have made building decks that work well both first and second a much easier task. I have never felt, since returning, that I lost a game simply because I went second, and that the game would have been completely different had I gone first.

TL;DR - FTA is virtually non-existent in the current game, and if your deck consistently fails hard going second, chances are you need to redesign your deck.

As a side-note: Who remembers Darkclaw mill decks before his ability was changed? People used to drop out of matches the second they saw him. Those decks were TERRIBLE to play against.