SE Strategy--Card Drawing Engines

[He-Man]

Overview of card-draw cards
The following are all the cards in 1.27 that allow you to draw cards. Indicated is whether their drawing effect is one time only or continuous, and the maximum amount of cards you will be able to draw off them. Excluded are cards like Earthen Protector that bring things back to the board, but not to your hand. Throughout, cards marked with an asterisk (*) let you recurse cards from the graveyard rather than draw from your library.

Heroes
-Serena Thoughtripper - continuous - up to 1 card per turn
-Majiya - continuous - 1 card per two turns
-Gravebone* - continuous - up to 1 card per two turns

Allies
-Lily Rosecult* - one time - 1 card
-Tainted Oracle - one time - 2 cards
-Belladonna - one time - 1 card
-Shadow Knight* - one time - 1 card

Abilities
-Blood Frenzy - continuous - 1 card per turn
-Research - continuous - 1 card per turn
-Surprise Attack - one time - up to 7 cards
-Reconnaissance - one time - 1 card
-Ill-Gotten Gains - continuous - up to 7 cards per turn
-Transference - one time - 1 card
-Campfire Stories - one time - 1 card
-Here be Monsters - one time - 1 card
-Bazaar - continuous - 1 card per turn
-Bad Santa - one time - 3 cards

Items
-Night Prowler - continuous - up to 2 cards per turn (with Rapid Fire equipped)
-Wrath of the Forest - continuous - up to 7 cards per turn
-Gravedigger’s Cloak - continuous - 1 card per 3 turns
-Cobraskin Wraps - one time - 1 card
-Dimension Ripper - continuous - (theoretically) up to 7 cards per turn
-Wizent’s Staff - continuous - 1 card per turn


Introduction
The majority of the cards in the above list, I believe, are among the better cards in SE, for the mere fact that they allow you to cycle through your library faster. Generally, the most problematic scenario you can encounter in this (and any) TCG, is running out of cards. Not having cards in your hand means you cannot respond to the things your opponent does, gives your opponent inevitability, and will likely lose you the game, quickly. This couples back to the card advantage principle. Therefore, cards that let you draw, or deny your opponents their draw are among the most powerful and are auto-includes in most decks. Even more preferable are cards that do both, like Night Prowler.


Cantrips
Cantrips are cards that immediately replace themselves in your hand when they are played. (“When [card] comes into play, draw a card.”) The following cards in SE are cantrips:

-Lily Rosecult*
-Belladonna
-Shadow Knight*
-Reconnaissance
-Transference**
-Campfire Stories
-Here be Monsters
-Cobraskin Wraps

Normally, when you cast a spell, the cost of that spell is (a) the resources you pay, and (b) the card itself. (If this does not make sense to you, you can read about card advantage here.) So, cantrips are spells that have a discounted cost compared to normal cards, which is why e.g. Belladonna and Shadow Knight are powerful, and popular cards. The cards marked with an asterisk (*) have the added bonus that the card comes from your graveyard, and that through timing of your play, you can manipulate what you actually draw, making them more powerful. Transference (**) is an oddball in the list since it gives you 1 of your opponent’s cards. This adds an element of chance--the hope is of course that you draw 1 of your opponent’s key pieces, crippling their play, but you may also end up with an utterly useless card. The more you are able to put your opponent’s cards to use in your own deck, the better cards like Transference are. Other cards, like Campfire Stories and Here be Monsters, are not worth their cost in the current metagame, because their impact on the game is too small. Development added the cantrip to these cards to somewhat fix them by a price reduction.


Cards that allow you to draw, and give card advantage
The definition of card advantage that I use: "A card gives you card advantage if it nets you more cards than you expend. The following cards can give card advantage."

-Serena Thoughtripper
-Majiya
-Gravebone*
-Tainted Oracle
-Blood Frenzy
-Research
-Surprise Attack
-Ill-Gotten Gains
-Bazaar**
-Bad Santa**
-Night Prowler
-Wrath of the Forest
-Gravedigger’s Cloak
-Dimension Ripper**
-Wizent’s Staff

Surprise Attack and Bad Santa are currently the only cards that are guaranteed to provide you with immediate card advantage, provided they are correctly timed when played. Surprise Attack of course only gives card advantage if your opponent has at least 2 allies on the field. Bad Santa will let you draw extra cards, but will only actually provide card advantage when your opponent is already holding 6 or 7 cards.

For all others, certain conditions need to be met or a certain cost needs to be paid for the card advantage. E.g., you may have to save up shadow energy (the heroes), pay a life every turn (Blood Frenzy), expend resources (Research), or wait for specific play situations (e.g., Ill-Gotten Gains, Night Prowler, Dimension Ripper). What is stated above for Bad Santa also applies to Bazaar and Dimension Ripper, and all three are therefore indicated with **. To Dimension Ripper, in addition the above explained for Transference also applies.

Night Prowler is very powerful, because when you attack with it, you instantly have 2 cards advantage (you gain 1, your opponent loses 1), and you may be able to have it stick and repeat your mischief the next turn. This makes Night Prowler a game changing card when timed well.

Please note that others often use a different definition for card advantage, where it means that you simply draw more cards than your opponent. Under this definition, all cantrip cards would also give you card advantage. Also see the 4th post, below, by sweetgab for more on this.


The best drawing engines
So now that we have done some analysis, on to the beef of this article--which ones are the most powerful drawing engines? This is of course to some extent subjective, but for me, an outstanding drawing engine must meet these conditions:

-low casting cost
-provide card advantage
-any conditions must be easy to meet
-either a lasting effect or very large immediate effect

The cards that I believe meet these conditions are:

-Majiya
-Gravebone
-Blood Frenzy
-Surprise Attack
-Night Prowler
-Wizent’s Staff

The only surprise in here is probably Surprise Attack. (What’s in a name?) I believe this may become a powerful card in the new meta, that will likely be crawling with weenie decks.

The three cantripping allies (Lily Rosecult, Belladonna, Shadow Knight) are also very powerful cards, in my opinion.

I suggest you continue to read here, in this article by kamman13.
This and other articles are also available on gondorian.com.

Please leave corrections or comments and ask questions if you have any!

[He-Man]

[reserved]

[Gondorian]

That is a very good article. Some minor comments:

* there is a broken link in the middle - the BBCode has gone wrong for an url

* Dimension Ripper can get you more than 1 card per turn, depending on how many times it does damage. If you attack with it and then your Hero is attacked, I would class that as 2 card per turn. There is also the possibility of being attacked more than once on the opponent's turn or attacking twice o your turn if your Hero has Rapid Fire.

[sweetgab]

If Surprise Attack was in some other class, then it might've been a playable card. The problem with the card is: if they have four allies out, then you'll very likely lose even if you get to draw four cards, because a Hunter has no way to instantly recover from a large board disadvantage (like how Tidal Wave or Nishaven's ability would've). And in normal situations where you still have a winning chance (say one or two opposing allies), the effect just isn't good.

On card advantage, I'll revise your definition somewhat; a card gives you card advantage if you gain more cards from it (# of cards you get minus # of cards you spend) than your opponent. Therefore Bad Santa does not provide card advantage, since you gained two cards but your opponent gained three, assuming no one is hitting max hand size. If you play Bad Santa with an otherwise empty hand and your opponent having five cards in hand, then this is a +1 card advantage, the same as if you spent one to draw two. Why?

You gained two cards (three minus one that is the Bad Santa itself)
Your opponent gained two cards too (going from 5 cards in hand to a max hand size of 7), but then he gets shortchanged a card when it's the beginning of his turn. Therefore you've gained one more card than your opponent.

If furthermore he has a Blood Frenzy on him, then the same Bad Santa would've been a +2 card advantage, same as if it only drew you three cards.

[He-Man]

That is a very good article. Some minor comments:

* there is a broken link in the middle - the BBCode has gone wrong for an url

* Dimension Ripper can get you more than 1 card per turn, depending on how many times it does damage. If you attack with it and then your Hero is attacked, I would class that as 2 card per turn. There is also the possibility of being attacked more than once on the opponent's turn or attacking twice o your turn if your Hero has Rapid Fire.

Thx! link is fixed, and I changed Dimension Ripper.

[He-Man]

If Surprise Attack was in some other class, then it might've been a playable card. The problem with the card is: if they have four allies out, then you'll very likely lose even if you get to draw four cards, because a Hunter has no way to instantly recover from a large board disadvantage (like how Tidal Wave or Nishaven's ability would've). And in normal situations where you still have a winning chance (say one or two opposing allies), the effect just isn't good.

On card advantage, I'll revise your definition somewhat; a card gives you card advantage if you gain more cards from it (# of cards you get minus # of cards you spend) than your opponent. Therefore Bad Santa does not provide card advantage, since you gained two cards but your opponent gained three, assuming no one is hitting max hand size. If you play Bad Santa with an otherwise empty hand and your opponent having five cards in hand, then this is a +1 card advantage, the same as if you spent one to draw two. Why?

You gained two cards (three minus one that is the Bad Santa itself)
Your opponent gained two cards too (going from 5 cards in hand to a max hand size of 7), but then he gets shortchanged a card when it's the beginning of his turn. Therefore you've gained one more card than your opponent.

If furthermore he has a Blood Frenzy on him, then the same Bad Santa would've been a +2 card advantage, same as if it only drew you three cards.

Yup, a good definition and a good explanation. I refer to your post in the article. Thank you!

[Geargrinder]

Excellent read!

[doghouse]

I have never seen Night Prowler or Surprise Attack be effective. Wrath of the Forest is amazing, see the banebow thread by balnketeffect in hunter strategy. Also I just don't understand why anyone would play bazaar ever but I see it all the time (???)

[iClipse]

Maybe note that surprise attack will be changed in the future. (To a much better version imo)

[Raphael Majere]

I have never seen Night Prowler or Surprise Attack be effective.

That's because you have not been hit by a Rapid fire/Night Prowler.

When that happens, (assume u have no armour and Gwen is your opponent), it's at least 6 dmg a turn, REMOVAL of 2 cards in your hand, and the ADDITION of 2 cards into your opponent's hand.

*Rage-quit feeling builds...*