Good ol' Times - Shadow Era Memories

[Lahiri]

Sometimes I think at the very beginning of Shadow Era, when a lot of cards were different and heroes like Jericho were tier 1.
I'd like to use this thread to collect memories from the early days (basically Call of the Crystals days) of the games, cards you used to love and decks that you loved to play.
I'd also like you to help me remember the "story" of the cards and the hero that has been changed because I can't find anywhere a complete history of changes (I checked the changelog section of the forum but it only states what was changed and not the original texts of the cards).

I remember that Mind Control was changed, but it was before I started to play SE, and I loved Majiya's "2SE: draw a card" ability. Too bad 90% of the players used her because she was just too powerful. Or Eladwen's insane ability "4SE: deal 4 damage to targe ally or hero".

This is a list of what I remember and I ask you to add your memories and correct my mistakes!

- Amber Rain: "weapons you control have +2 attack". This was a passive ability, no SE needed!
- Gwenneth: she had exactly the same ability of Amber!
- Eladwen: "4SE: deal 4 damage to target ally", which later became "4SE: deal 4 damage to target ally or hero"
- Darkclaw: "all damage dealt to Darkclaw is halvened rounded up". This was a passive ability, no SE needed!
- Jericho: "2SE: destroy target attachment". It was Amber's bane!
- Zhanna: "3SE: heal 3 damage". It used to heal the hero only. Very boring, it's far better now.
- Baduruu: "Baduruu has the same ability of the opposing hero". This was pretty cool. But also weak and inconsistent. Nice idea though.
- Majiya: "2SE: draw a card". It was definitely OP.
- Gravebone: "2SE: return target ally from your graveyard to your hand". It worked like a charm with Portal. I still remember Killtrend's "Gravebella" deck with Belladonna loop!

I don't remember other heroes' original abilities, mainly because they were not played much. If I'm not mistaken rogues were added later and Lance original ability was something like "2SE: target friendly ally has stealth and ambush". No clue about Serena. Help me!
Logan used to have his ability at 3SE, but maybe he had a completely different ability before.

Cards that changed:

- Blood Frenzy: costed 2. Turn 2 BF, turn 3 Aldon/Jasmine, turn 4 JD + Crippling Blow. Amber was already really good!
- Reserve Weapon: it was called Dual Wield. I don't remember exactly what was the ability... double damage maybe?
- Tome of Knowledge: it was called Research
- Aeon: I think it was the first ally with protector ability and it used to make the hero, not only allies, untargettable .
- Hellsteed: I remember that the second part of CotC was launched in the test server and Hellsted used to give +2 attack (instead of only +1) and everybody was using it. You could do insane things like T1 Fire Snake, T2 Hellsteed+Hellsteed and attack with Fires Snake for 5 damage.
- Portal: lasted forever
- Focused Prayer: it had Spectral Sabre artwork and another name (I don't remember it)

Fire Snake was actually good and a lot of people used it. The debate Fire Snake vs Brutalis was open and FS was basically the Brian Scalabrine of Shadow Era!

[jtl2901]

Thanks for posting this man, really cool to look at the changes over time, especially for a relatively new player like me. Also, kudos on finding a reason to mention Brian Scalabrine on SE forums lol.

[Preybird]

- Serena's ability used to be identical to what it is now but cost 4SE.
- Logan's 3SE ability was the same as it is now, his ability before that was 4SE: Destroy target damaged ally.
- Elementalis' former ability was 2SE, Sacrifice an ally: Gain 5 life.
- Darkclaw's passive only reduced combat damage. His next ability was 3SE: All damage to Darkclaw is reduced to 0 until the start of your next turn. You think Solo DC is NPE now, it was a nightmare back then.
- Focused Prayer used to be called Destroy Arms.
- Dual Wield used to be an attachment "All weapon damage is doubled." Amber could swing for 10 with Berzerker's Edge!
- Sandra Trueblade cost 3 at one point if I'm not mistaken.
- Blake Windrunner likewise had 2 health at one point too.

[Veles]

Cool stories. I missed all these as I started playing late 1.5

[bobrossw]

Lance was "2 SE: target ally has stealth and ambush" This happened around the time Brigitte was introduced (and before easy ways to deal with stealth allies were available to all heroes). It led to some major stealth + Protector abuse, similar to how Tala uses Eleanor now, except we can all handle that combo these days.

Also Plague used to just take 3 resources from each player, but since it didn't have that 2 resource limit, and because Priests had an excellent draw engine (wizent's staff), and most heroes didn't, it made for some really fun (and NPE for opponents) resource destruction decks. The worst part was those decks were soooo slow, they earned me a lot of curses. http://shadowera.wikia.com/wiki/Plague?oldid=4418

Ill-Gotten Gains used to cost 5. When they reduced the cost to 4, people were complaining that it was still useless, it took a while for rogues to come around to it : http://shadowera.wikia.com/wiki/Ill-...ins?oldid=4394

[kentuequi]

First Eladwen was 3se, WotF didn't have defense, ER went in graveyard, Sandra Trueblade was 4cc but destroyed one resource like HBM everytime, MC gave you the opposing allie til he died, can't remember first MS ability!

[pjoe0211]

First Eladwen was 3se, WotF didn't have defense, ER went in graveyard, Sandra Trueblade was 4cc but destroyed one resource like HBM everytime, MC gave you the opposing allie til he died, can't remember first MS ability!

i think ms was hidden, and sandra was also a 2/4, pretty much shut down ifyou went first with eladwen and you had 2 of her in hand

[Karlos4]

Very nice initiative! Keep up the good work, guys.

[kentuequi]

Amber and Gwen abilities doubled weapons damages first, then got nerfed to +2, which was a kind of buff IMO.

[Lahiri]

Does anyone remember Victor's original ability?

Multiplayer seasons were much longer and rating reset was a rare event!

A1 was the first "real" guild and had all of the best player. To apply you needed a rich "curriculum"!