Topic: Kongregate Multiplayer Games /
[Eredan iTCG] Ferrus' Guide to adventure decks
DISCARD
Works against:
- Abyssien (Values of the Zil boss)
- Kepher (Values of the Nomads boss)(Recurrs cards under specific conditions)
- The Mystic Slayer’s Shadow (The Ursend Guild boss)
- Protectors of Yses (The Thread of Time boss)
The Strategy:
This deck tries to remove cards from the opponents hand and deck as fast as possible so he loses by running out of cards. Since at least one character needs to survive the game the secondary focus of the deck is survival.
Since most cards with a discard theme are from the Zil Warriors guild and often keyed to the Circus Caste, this guide will focus on building a Zil discard deck.
Important Rules:
- Mage with no other class gain chain when playing a non-AoE spell. AoE spells can never be part of a chain.
- Pure mages that cast a spell dealing damge do not physically attack during the same turn.
- There can only be one copy of any single character in a deck. If a character has more than one card, only one of those can be in a deck.
- Guemelite characters can play spells of the same kind as their guemelite type even if they aren’t mages. They gain no inherent advantage or disadvantage by playing spells like pure mages do.
- A character can only have one pet attached to him at a time.
- Cards are drawn at the end of a turn. If a player can’t draw as many cards as he needs to, he has until the end of the next fight to win, otherwise he loses.
- A perfect victory is when all opposing characters are dead and all own characters are alive at the end of the match. If the opponent loses via discard the result will never be a perfect.
- In some adventure missions neither side can lose via discard. Pay attention to the special conditions of a mission.
+Discard Cards:+
Normal:
Blackmail
Chains and discards one card. The spirit debuff it delivers works against Treacherous , and the defense debuff is irrelevant since we are not trying to kill the opponent. The spirit reduction can however reduce the magical offense of the opponent. It’s also quite expensive so not really recommended.
Indigestion
Discards 2 or 3 if the caster is Circus. Very strong and chains for mages. Use it.
Panic
Discards 1 to 3 cards depending on how played. It can be advisable to discard the first one you draw so you get a better effect from the second one without wasting your actions. Judge the situation and use accordingly. Chains for mages and Salem.
Pickpocket
Steals 3 cards and buffs your Circus. Very good but the lack of chain and that only one can be attached to a single opponent means that you should only use one or two against most bosses.
Theft
One of the few unaligned discard cards. Steals from the deck not the hand and it’s randomness makes it a bit unreliable. Still not bad, but it has lower playing priority than most other discard cards.
Treacherous
This card depends wholly on the opponent. Against high spirit bosses it discards their entire hand, against low-spirit bosses it does nothing. Use accordingly.
Trophy:
Dragon Sacrifice
A card that can be extremely powerful and discard entire hands for just two cards of yours. However it can also do nothing. Best used when you have a grasp of the opponents deck.
Special:
Mental Syphon
Can be bought in the store for 4.000 crystal once you reach level 16. Given that you can decide how many cards to discard after seeing what the opponent has left it is a strong finisher and the mental spell type allows The Psychurgist to play it. Be careful to not card out yourself though.
+Characters:+
The key cards of this deck fall into different categories, so the important facets of a character besides their stats and abilities are their association with the Zil Warriors, their classes, their caste and their guemelite type to play the important cards. Any character not mentioned here bears no special significance aside from these and can be used accordingly.
Abyssien the Devourer:
An ideal mage for a discard deck and accordingly pricy. He is geared for survival and heals when the opponent discards. There is little to be said about him except that you want him.
Alyce:
Needs Vicious Circle for level 2 and Fabulous Destiny for level 3.
She can play anything but theft at full efficiency and then removes it from the grave. Yet she is extremely expensive. Her level 2 is recommended since it allows chaining. Her level 3 increases her defensive stats. We aren’t using non-zil shadow spells, but the other advantage of her level 3 ability is that she can still play zil shadow spells after using Break the second chain.
Councilor Ishaia:
Be very careful if you are using her. Aside from being expensive her passive ability is not of advantage here. It applies to Indigestion and changes it to “discard 4, return 2”, leaving it at a net 2 discard. However her many guilds allow her access to other useful cards and her ability can at least improve defensive spells like Ice Barrier. Her price and little use make her basically a non-option for most discard decks.
Kriss:
Another store card he can also be won with a trophy, but this trophy means you can already afford him or better characters. He can play all the non-spell discard cards which makes him useful, but as an option there are better alternatives.
Marlok the Repentant:
Needs Treacherous for level 2 and Arcanium for level 3.
A surprisingly strong option. He barely improves with level, so his level 1 is fully functional. His order bonus helps letting the enemy discard and activating it via card let’s it work as extra discard during the early turns.
N’ba, N’ta and N’taba:
N’ba is a Priest and little needs to be said about him, except that he recurrs Blackmail each turn.
N’ta is a Shadow guemelite marauder and as such quite useful. While Salem is better a deck can include both.
N’taba as the fusion of both has the advantages of both for our purposes so he can be quite useful, if expensive.
Salem:
Needs Look away
for level 3 and Panic for level 4.
Rather cheap, can cast the important spells for full effect and chains with one of them. Levels 2 and 3 are fully serviceable too. Use him.
Saphira the Zil and Telendar:
Both are too expensive to get for this deck, but if available can be useful. Their ability to chain Treacherous or Theft respectively as well as some defensive cards works well and makes for a fast game.
The Psychurgist:
Needs Blackmail for level 3.
A good option. His circus affiliation helps playing the cards and his order bonus reduces the opponents deck. His level 2 serves well and his level 3 variant has the same advantages and disadvantages Blackmail has with regards to the attribute reduction. As a mental guemelite he can play Mental Syphon.
Other cards worth considering:
The deck should be small enough so you draw the cards you need, however it can have slightly more than 20 cards without hurting its performance too much. Aside from the discard cards the rest should be focusing on defense in one way or another.
One further note regarding cards that give the opponent the choice of discarding or suffering an effect: The AI will almost never discard for them, so you get the effect.
Normal:
Good against bosses that recur cards, but a discard deck should rarely face those.
If you have priests this card will increase their survival rate by a lot.
For Circus characters a chaining +2 Defense, for all others worthless. Should you use Whip, it can be advantageous in getting some damage through.
Discards one for Circus. Generally it’s too weak to be of use, but if you know the opponents deck, it is at least a cheap card to use.
Chains, protects against some magic damage and increases the amount of cards discarded by Treacherous. Situationally useful, also very cheap.
If you rely on mages this is a superior defensive card.
Be careful with this, it makes no check if the character can play the spell, so non-Circus shadow guemelites might get a panic. If your deck fits it however it is a strong way to get your discard spells. And a surefire way to draw that one copy of Mental Syphon.
Do not use this. You want the opponent to draw out, letting him draw less cards doesn’t help you at all.
This depends on your characters. But given how useful some the order bonuses can be it is always worth inclusion. Especially Marlok, Salem and the Psychurgist profit from it.
Another useful defense card.
A weird pair of cards. Obscure reduce the ability of bosses to return cards, but you will rarely field discard against these anyway. Whip is useful, but most discard characters don’t have the attack stat to damage most bosses, so it’s ability will rarely trigger.
Same as Obscure, this is a very useful graveyard depletion and debuff, but rarely useful against the bosses this deck is used for. Not too bad, but competes with Pickpocket for the pet slot and is less useful
Cheap Variant Deck list:
Summary:
Discard is a very efficient deck and against bosses vulnerable to it, it has a very high victory chance to win, with the right setup. However the challenge is to survive long enough, since the opponent still gets a single fight after he has no cards left. It helps however that the AI rarely plays cards when this would lead to a hand size below 5 the next turn.
Especially on the cheap end the deck is more luck-based, since Panic depends on the amount of other Panics drawn, Treacherous needs enemy spirit and Pickpocket and whip are conditional. However, if a boss is vulnerable to it, it often is rather easy to discard them, so building a discard deck is worth it if you ever want to farm these bosses. In addition it is easier easy to slowly upgrade a discard deck over time as funds permit.
