State of Shadow Era: Analysis and suggestions

[Cruxx]

After trying pretty much every possible combination, this seems to be the most valid Wulven deck to me atm. Nearly killed a Boris (some decisions on my part could have been better) and even beat a 200 something Amber (with better decision making). My Wulven heart nearly skipped a beat, a deck somewhat worth playing it seems. \o/

[BlanketEffect]

I think the deck would benefit greatly from 2x WotF.

[Cruxx]

I think the deck would benefit greatly from 2x WotF.

Had a similar thought and will try this one tomorrow. A tinsy bit more cards, but should be offset by additional draw and What Big Teeth are simply too Wulven to ignore them for long.

Let's discuss all things Wulven here.

[crazygambit]

III - Human vs Shadow
I think it is cool to have different factions and flavours, at the moment though Human creatures and abilities feel stronger to me in general. Might be for a big part, that Shadow does not have any creature with protection, thus making them even more prone to the afore mentioned spell damage.
Going into more details here would require to look at every single creature and ability, suffice to say that balance here is very important as well.

On the whole human vs shadow debate am I the only one that feels shadow allies are actually stronger?

Everyone talks about Jasmine as if it was this game changing card, but in my experience it's not that good. And the ability rarely matters anyway (and if it does you're way ahead anyway). A T3 Jasmine will NEVER be able to survive till T4 (or at least attack) against any decently build deck. Never. Doesn't even matter if you go first or second.

Mages will own her with a Fireball if going second, LS + Brut or Snake if going first. I know what you're thinking. It's OK because he wasted a Fireball and prevented 4 damage to the hero. But no, it's not OK. Sure, losing her to a Fireball is preferable to losing her to LS + Brut, but it's still bad news. You'd much rather he shot that fireball to the hero. Compare to a Gargoyle that can't be killed by that combo (and Gargoyle is the Jasmine counterpart, as the best shadow ally, not Medusil) and your opponent will throw that fireball to your hero while you gain the board. Gargoyle is by far better than anything human has and the best T3 play most of the time. The other good T3 play is DeathMage which is also pretty good with the instant ping damage.

Jasmine's ability is almost never relevant until the very late game and by then I'd rather play Raven (I'd much rather have a 3/5 3cc human with no ability, so it could survive till T4). So humans have Raven, but shadow has PB. Which can hit for 7 (split into 2 targets and 4 of those bypassing any armor) if it's played on an empty board (a lot more scary than Raven on an empty board). Humans have Aldon and Aeon which are nice, but I'll still take Gargoyle over any of that. The fact that Gargoyle usually needs to be hit for 6 to be killed and it's inmune to weenies and weapon counterattacks makes it a better 3 drop than anything human has to offer. A better T3 is enough to give a significant advantage to 1 side IMO.

Not to mention the shadow weenie potential. Much better than human. Even the nerfed Hellsteed can play a significant role once you realize shadow has Bloodlust. Sure human might have the better late game, but if you play your cards right (see what I did there?) that should never be an issue.

[Cruxx]

The great benefit of humans is that they have protectors, a great way to shield their other allies, and 3 creatures that are able to basically nullify any other creature, giving them the option for great battlefield control.

I agree that shadows have great creatures as well, but to me at least they feel less useful at creating this cruical battlefield control.

[Caitlyn0]

actually, i thought bad wolf was counter to jasmine. and gargoyle was counter to aldon.

and i thought the counter to nullifying allies was being able to destroy allies. with direct damage from allies, pumpable allies and medusil that doesnt let an ally defend. and maybe i just havent played enough good players, but protector isnt that great. brigette is fairly easy to get rid of, a small advantage briefly and aeon... well, even without protector getting rid of him is a priority.

i thought the whole reason behind human allies being a little better was the basic first 4 to 5 turn drops compared to shadow.

im confused.

[kamman13]

On the whole human vs shadow debate am I the only one that feels shadow allies are actually stronger?

Everyone talks about Jasmine as if it was this game changing card, but in my experience it's not that good. And the ability rarely matters anyway (and if it does you're way ahead anyway). A T3 Jasmine will NEVER be able to survive till T4 (or at least attack) against any decently build deck. Never. Doesn't even matter if you go first or second.

Mages will own her with a Fireball if going second, LS + Brut or Snake if going first. I know what you're thinking. It's OK because he wasted a Fireball and prevented 4 damage to the hero. But no, it's not OK. Sure, losing her to a Fireball is preferable to losing her to LS + Brut, but it's still bad news. You'd much rather he shot that fireball to the hero. Compare to a Gargoyle that can't be killed by that combo (and Gargoyle is the Jasmine counterpart, as the best shadow ally, not Medusil) and your opponent will throw that fireball to your hero while you gain the board. Gargoyle is by far better than anything human has and the best T3 play most of the time. The other good T3 play is DeathMage which is also pretty good with the instant ping damage.

Jasmine's ability is almost never relevant until the very late game and by then I'd rather play Raven (I'd much rather have a 3/5 3cc human with no ability, so it could survive till T4). So humans have Raven, but shadow has PB. Which can hit for 7 (split into 2 targets and 4 of those bypassing any armor) if it's played on an empty board (a lot more scary than Raven on an empty board). Humans have Aldon and Aeon which are nice, but I'll still take Gargoyle over any of that. The fact that Gargoyle usually needs to be hit for 6 to be killed and it's inmune to weenies and weapon counterattacks makes it a better 3 drop than anything human has to offer. A better T3 is enough to give a significant advantage to 1 side IMO.

Not to mention the shadow weenie potential. Much better than human. Even the nerfed Hellsteed can play a significant role once you realize shadow has Bloodlust. Sure human might have the better late game, but if you play your cards right (see what I did there?) that should never be an issue.

Jasmine will never survive because people can't afford to let her survive. At one less attack, people can afford to let a gargoyle survive. Jasmine is still damage efficient with an awesome ability to boot. Which I will disagree with you is always relevant.

I'd say raven is just as good as plasma behemoth. Anything she touches, whether she kills it or not, becomes useless. Sure, the PB can rack 7 damage in a turn, but at an additional cost of 3 resources. 8 resources for 7 damage is eh, barable, but nothing to brag about.

I'm not arguing humans are better, but their certainly not definitively worse. and in the <3cc allies, they rock.

[crazygambit]

Jasmine will never survive because people can't afford to let her survive. At one less attack, people can afford to let a gargoyle survive. Jasmine is still damage efficient with an awesome ability to boot. Which I will disagree with you is always relevant.

I'd say raven is just as good as plasma behemoth. Anything she touches, whether she kills it or not, becomes useless. Sure, the PB can rack 7 damage in a turn, but at an additional cost of 3 resources. 8 resources for 7 damage is eh, barable, but nothing to brag about.

I'm not arguing humans are better, but their certainly not definitively worse. and in the <3cc allies, they rock.

I disagree. It's not like people can afford to let Gargoyle survive, it's that it's much harder to get rid of on T3 or T4. So you're much more likely to see it remain on the board and do something useful before your opponent can deal with it. That makes Gargoyle much better than Jasmine IMO. Also her ability is only relevant late game, since on the critical T4-T5 you can't really spare resources to use it. And like I said, late game Raven is much better anyway. I still run it when I play human obviously, along with Aldon, but if I had the option to run Gargoyle instead I would.

PB is not 8 resources for 7 damage. That's a silly way of looking at it. PB costs 5cc and you draw an additional Fireball every turn he remains alive that dissapears if you don't use it that turn. That's massively better than 8 resources for 7 damage, it's basically 7 damage a turn. If you've ever played a Mage you'd realize just how awesome that sounds. Basically if your opponent can't come up with an answer in a turn or 2 it's game over. Raven? Not so much, since she only does 3 damage per turn.

[kamman13]

I disagree. It's not like people can afford to let Gargoyle survive, it's that it's much harder to get rid of on T3 or T4. So you're much more likely to see it remain on the board and do something useful before your opponent can deal with it. That makes Gargoyle much better than Jasmine IMO. Also her ability is only relevant late game, since on the critical T4-T5 you can't really spare resources to use it. And like I said, late game Raven is much better anyway. I still run it when I play human obviously, along with Aldon, but if I had the option to run Gargoyle instead I would.

PB is not 8 resources for 7 damage. That's a silly way of looking at it. PB costs 5cc and you draw an additional Fireball every turn he remains alive that dissapears if you don't use it that turn. That's massively better than 8 resources for 7 damage, it's basically 7 damage a turn. If you've ever played a Mage you'd realize just how awesome that sounds. Basically if your opponent can't come up with an answer in a turn or 2 it's game over. Raven? Not so much, since she only does 3 damage per turn.

I play mages all the time, and fireball is awesome, but PB is not. As a mage, I am constantly thinking about how much damage I can do for what resource cost. PB takes two turn and 8 resources usually to set up the first "fireball," which only translates into 7 damage for 8 resources, where no one can do anything to stop a fireball from your hand. To get the fireball, you need to have board control, otherwise you just wasted 5 resources. I'm not saying PB is bad, but it's use is pretty conditional. Raven, on the other hand, can always be cast to good use, and is even slightly harder than PB to kill.

Concerning Jasmine and gargoyle- this is simple, jasmine is a damage efficient ally, and gargoyle is not. When figuring out how much damage I am getting for resources spent, Jasmine is maxing me out, whereas gargoyle is playing for control. I would never run gargoyle in a race style deck, whereas I would run jasmine in one. But in a control type deck, both cards are useful because of Jasmine's ability.