BattleCraft – A Game For People Too Busy to Hardcore Game But Want To

I needed to show I’m still alive and College hasn’t fully eaten me yet. As some might know I LOVE card games but my love of them won’t stop me from tearing a shitty one a new hole if it proves it needs one.  This so happened to be in Beta testing so I decided to give it a shot.

With that in mind I will not be giving anything resembling a Final Judgment until the game is in full release, at which point I will reveal the gamer name I play under on the site in case you want to challenge me to a fight. Battle Craft is a card game that presents itself as a “game for busy people” ( so let’s keep this in mind before I go further) and it shows. The battles are quick and furious. Once you sign up you get to pick a deck to start with from a few Clans. Once then they game will fling you into a tutorial mode where you’ll be taught the basics and given cards for advancing through the tutorials so you can start tweaking your deck with new cards- Oh, where is my head!? Let me show you the two kinds of cards you use in game to build your fighting machine. You are to have 8 of both kinds in your deck.

This is one of the Hero cards. Hero cards of course are your foot soldiers who will deal the bulk of the damage to your opponents Heroes and your enemies Morale while trying to keep yours high. Four of these are picked at random from your deck. Before I go further let me explain a basic of the game. You and your opponent start off with a set amount of Morale and Energy depending on your level  (30 until you hit level 15, then it becomes 50). The goal of course is to get it to 0 or lower. Each time a Hero attacks they eat into your energy (indicated amount by the green lightning bolt). If you run out of Energy all other attacks and abilities will come out of Morale. The fight ends of course when this hits 0 or you kill all your opponents Heroes. The Fist shows how much attack power the Hero has and the Heart is HP. The icon on the upper right hand side shows what faction it belongs in and the one on the upper left hand side would have a B in it if the card is bound to your account.

This is a Support card. You attach these to your Heroes to help turn the tides of battle. You will notice four symbols on these. In descending order we have Clan (the one on this card is Unaligned so it may be used by any Hero), an Hourglass, A Blue Lightning Bolt and a Green Lightning Bolt. The Hourglass will have a number on it to show what turn it activates (these can only have their effect activated one time), the Blue Lightning Bolt will show its Energy cost if it takes effect before your Heroes slug it out and the Green Lightning Bolt works when your Hero attacks. Unlike the Hero cards, all of your Support cards are available before all Hell breaks loose but keep in mind you can only assign one per Hero.

Once all cards are positioned and confirmed the fight begins. Each Hero takes swings at the one across from them until a winner is decided. It can get more complicated than that, but I wanted to keep things simple for now and save a more in depth explanation once it comes out of Beta.

The game does have a Marketplace where you can buy AND sell cards on Auction for Shards (the in game currency) or use Hydra Cash (the premium currency) to buy booster packs (most boosters can be bought with just Shards) or Shards. If you want to play in the higher ends of play you’ll need cards from Booster Packs, but fear not, the game has implemented a Ladder System insuring you won’t be constantly bullies by higher ranked players. If you got someone in the low end with a really powerful deck, don’t worry, they’ll be out of the lower end soon enough unless you get silly and join a Tournament then prepare to see that dude again.

If you want you can craft some cards you need, but the materials required are other cards and materials that you could find in Daily Challenges. They drop randomly, so unless you got the patients of a Saint you might go mad hoping the Random Number God will toss you a bone.

Now for a point of concern. The packs. As of now I feel that they might be asking for too much money for the packs (in terms of Hydro Cash). $3 for 6 Cards in the Platinum pack sounds like a sweet deal but I wouldn’t mind getting at least 2 more out of it. Players can offer you cards in Private deals (for free if they’re generous enough), but in order to get these you must become a Member. Yeah, I know that look on your face going “HOW ARE THESE FIENDS GOING TO MILK ME DRY!?” Fear not, you only need to buy Hydra Cash at least ONCE and only $5 at the very least (smallest amount they’ll take) and you’ll have access to everything Marketplace wise.

Another grievance I have is with the card art. Once you get in you’ll notice in a good deal of cases the background is repeatedly recycled which drove me INSANE. It still does grind my gears, but it’s in Beta (and an Indie Project) so I’m hoping the backgrounds will become FAR MORE VARRIED once fully released. If any of you developers are reading this the same-y backgrounds aren’t professional and make your game seem like a “fly by night” operation. This ALMOST turned me off from the game before giving it a shot because I couldn’t help but wonder “if they’re too lazy to change up the background on each card do they really have faith in their product? Is this a real project or a scam?” Varied backgrounds means you care enough about the details to get me to invest and not changing up CONSTANTLY is sending the wrong message on a subconscious level!

There’s a bunch I left out, but that’s only because if I told you EVERYTHING I think you wouldn’t try it or yourself. Go ahead, sign up and give it a shot. The game is seriously starved for a strong player base, and if you like it then you could pass word to another friend and get things rolling. The place is small, but I have yet to run into any douchebags.

P.S. The lower in rating you are the more Shards you get. You’ll get a lot more Shards in the lower ranks, so don’t get discouraged if you keep losing. That will pay for itself with access to more power.

Ederon – The Card Game That Can, But Struggling To Get Uphill

I am a fan of card games. I love the social aspect behind them, even if it means exposing myself to a bunch of douchebags in the process (and BOY does it seem like I find them). I think of them as the RPG minus the tedium of the grind, though that is usually replaced with the money cards that are worth over 9000 dollars that you absolutely need to win, or you might as well not play. The online card game attracted me for a few reasons. One (provided the community is active and there are at least 500 or more people on at one time) you always got someone to play with around your level, two no cards cluttering up your room like an atom bomb hit it, three, trading could be done in a matter of seconds from anywhere in the world and finally, cards can be buffed/nerffed remotely to address serious issues.

The first online card game I played was Alteil, and those of you who read my blog frequently know how that game sat with me. Will Ederon be different? You’ll find out right…about…now.

Gameplay: The first thing to note this is a browser based game, so don’t worry about having to load up your computer with more programs. All players start off with 20 Life. To win you either have to reduce the foes life to 0 or your opponent has to draw a card, but can’t. The very first turn will be spent playing your class card. There are 8 classes in total and you can only play cards that correspond to the class (of course there are some cards that anyone can play). There are several kinds of cards besides the Class one and this list is courtesy of the main site (which will be linked to at the end of the review for those new here).

This game has no resource system. You just play all the cards when it’s allowed. These cards, once played end the phase you’re on, but some effects prevent the turn from ending then and there and those cards will be critical to your success if you decide to get into higher tier play, or just to avoid getting squashed like an ant (and squashed you shall be). The main site also has a tutorial video, and since they went through the trouble making it, I might as well show you it (also because I feel like they could explain it better, and first hand examples might be easier to grasp).

Now that we got how to play out of the way, I’ll head to another aspect, something that truly troubles me about the game.

Small Community: when I log in, I’m lucky if I see at least 50 people on at one time.  This reminds me of Alteil, and that’s in a bad way (except at times they struggle breaking 30). Anyone who really likes this game will probably go into two schools of thought. Either they’ll spend, get new cards and try to keep up regardless of size, or they won’t spend due to the game lacking in a fairly wide range of players. I would fit in the second school of thinking. Spending money just to get spanked (Alteil when I was stupid enough to back Refess) repeatedly because some people got more money and or more experience than you is a rather demoralizing experience. You can play for fun though to spare your RP, but you got to directly challenge or be challenged. The way they have ratting matches to be sought out is a nice one, either you can seek for someone around your level or far beyond it if you feel lucky but it feels wasted with the size of the community as is. In fact the message boards don’t seem to have a bunch of people on at once.

This problem can be fixed with time. They have a Facebook page, so this should help with getting some hype started but as of now, since it has 80 likes, its needs a real kickstart.

Features: The game has achievements and titles from said achievements. They also give you Gold for obtaining them. Of course some are worth more than others. It seems that the only other way to gain Gold is to battle other players in Ranked matches AND WIN when you have a Golden Feather which can be purchased with Gems, which you can get from buying with Gold (as of this moment you cannot turn Gems into Gold), and that only gives you 5 Gold a win. So it’s highly modest and grindy. If you can win Gold by playing against others without the Feather the amount was so small I hardly noticed it.

There is trading in the game. The Auction House is a rather misleading name since you can only offer cards for cards in there and the only singles you can buy from the game are the bids the staff sets up in the Shopping tab. LAME! Speaking of trading, you need to buy a Trader’s Contract in order to trade cards with other people. It’s about 300 Gold, so it’s cheap to get, more than likely a way to prevent people from opening up multiple accounts to trade off cards to their main. It costs about $5 to get a key, which will allow you to sell (to the system) cards in your deck and to trade them in the Auction House.

Speaking of decks, the system does allow you to restart with another deck in because you hate the one you picked. Keep in mind you’ll lose Gold, RP and cards by doing this. It’s awesome since you can play around till you find something you can stomp with.

Golden Matches are a nice chance to get more stuff, but if you’re like me and keep getting spanked its just a tease that makes you want to not play if you lose them.

Judgment: I like the game, yet I am wary of getting invested in it long term. If you’re looking for a good time sink why not give this a shot? I might pop back in now and then, but I don’t see myself staying committed until the population grows and assuming it grows before something else steals away my interest. If the staff of the game is reading this…start an ad campaign, and if you already have one make it more aggressive.

Looking Out For...Card Hunter

I don't know how this slipped under my Radar...probably cause I don't frequent You Tube enough. But I'll be keeping my eyes open and do a First Look once the Open Beta begins:
http://www.cardhunter.com/

Urban Rivals: After the Honeymoon Phase…

I have never been hung over before, but I imagine it being like in a blender set on liquefy yet somehow surviving being diced into bits with a sort of warmth washing over you. When it’s over, you wonder what the hell happened to you, throw off the sheets, see some ugly person beside you and you pray you didn’t sleep with them in your state of poor judgment. That’s how I feel about Urban Rivals.

Those of you who follow me might remember how I gave this game such a glowing review…so why am I taking it back? Well, I ended up going to the game when I had reached the apex of anger with Alteil. The Nerf of 5/27/11 had made me so angry that I left the game for a few months. During that time, I had explored alternatives to get my card game fix without breaking the bank into tiny pieces or taxing my patients.

I had incurred a heavy streak of losses due to a combination of frustration and constant losing because I wasn’t willing a sacrifice my mother, sister and first born to Satan. So, after a particularly devastating lost to Falkow I went to immediately jump on the competition after hearing some high ranking Alteil players badmouth it. So off I went.

The game play is simple…TOO SIMPLE! Make a deck of 8 cards, pill off and see who wins. Even Poker has less bull crap luck involved. It can be funny to see a character win despite being 10 less in power, but when we talk in the 20’s or more, it gets rather insane. I have lost matchups where I had 40 Power more than the opponent.

Death Match is no better at times. If anything its even more luck based…as in you’d be lucky not to have an opponent stacked up with cards that completely overpower you, forcing you into overpilling so much that you can’t adequately defend yourself in the upcoming fights. There’s nothing wrong with luck being a deciding factor, but you got to pull the reigns somewhere.

Tonight was the last straw about it. You either win hard or lose hard. There is no in between. I wish I never bothered with this game. I wish I could sell off the cards for cash. This is that ugly person I took home in the drunken stupor…I resend any praise I had given this game, and I’m starting to wash my hands of it. It’s just not for me, but if you enjoy it that’s cool too.

Just don’t expect to see me on much longer. Shadow Era is suffering from a LOOOOONG wait for new cards. At this rate I question…is their really a game out there, on the internet, of an MMO scale that I will ever be truly happy with? Like anything, this will be known in time. It was fun for awhile, Urban Rivals but we must see other people.

Hindsight is A Bitch

Ladies and Gentleman it turns out I didn’t have what it takes to be a major player after all. After finding out I barely qualified for fighting in the second round I had to fight an additional fight beforehand to see if I could even play in the real round two. Though I managed to win against Ed the Man (board handle Killtrend) backed by Gravebone but I lost to a Majiya deck in the next fight. Do I think Majiya is busted because of this? No, but I do believe my deck building and card choices leave a lot to be desired. Some people on the Shadow Era forum were interested in what I had used to make it as far as I did. Now, I’ll show them and you, readers. After I show this list I’ll break it down my analysis into three parts. The logic behind my choices, why it got me as far as it did and most importantly, why it failed.

Deck Name: Ice Queen

Hero: Majiya

Allies: 10

4. Brutalis

4. Infernal Gargoyle

2. Plasma Behemoth

Abilities: 22

4. Fireball

4. Lightning Strike

3. Research

4. Supernova

4. Rain Delay

3. Shriek of Vengeance

Armor: 4

4. Snow Sapphire

Weapons: 4

4. Voice of Winter

The Logic: I wanted to try to burn out the opponent as quickly as possible while minimizing weaknesses from enemy Allies rushing down to make my life Hell. I chose Snow Sapphire to deal with Allies that have already entered play, while Voice of Winter would slap the brakes on anything which enters play (even if it means my Allies get frozen too). Brutails was a suggestion I took along with not inserting Fire Snake (I wish I hadn’t listen to that, but more on that later) on the grounds that Brutails had more HP and since I wasn’t going to be attacking mostly with units, it seemed like a good idea especially since once I got Voice of Winter in play my Allies couldn’t rush my opponent down immediately.

Futher reinforcing my paranoia would be Rain Delay. You know, rain out the battle, fling in a spell or two, or drop the small amount of allies or buy myself time to equip Voice of Winder or Snow Sapphire before my opponent pours his/her Allies down my throat. Shriek of Vengeance would be for those odd cases which might come up.

Why it worked in the qualifying round: The competition I faced was fairly to very Ally dependent to gain board control which played right into Voice of Winter and Snow Sapphire nicely. With those in play, and combining them with Majiya’s draw power, I had a fairly easy climb since it seemed like I read the response of the Metagame correctly. HOWEVER…

Why it failed when it was time for the main event: …the one thing my deck couldn’t cope with well was a mirror match. In the qualifying round I was beaten 2-0 by another Majiya deck. While I had addressed one issue, it turned out that it couldn’t fight another Majiya deck well. They were more concerned about just getting their damage off ASAP while I tried to deal the damage while slowing the opponent’s progression through my Life.

What kind of person doesn’t build their deck to take a mirror match into account? Apparently me. What made things worse (besides losing once to someone running a LOGAN deck in the qualifier) is that when it came to that matchup the deck could not pull off both tactics at once VS. Majiya. I found myself loaded up with 5 and 6 cost cards and more situations than I care to remember when I had to place Supernova into the Resource area.

Overall, I feel I just got flat out lucky. Had I faced more than one Majiya in the qualifying round I would have been stopped dead cold. My success in making it passed the one extra game I had to play was attributed mainly due to the way the game seems to give an advantage to the first player, but that’s another time.

This deck will vanish into obscurity outside of this post. I just made it to the second round, I didn’t come in second or win so it probably won’t be made high profile. I so wanted to win. Use the money to get a better router, the rest to my mom, and get my sister that iPad (if I made it to worlds). I could have been Champ…but I’m a chump. Maybe next time…maybe next time.

Shadow Era Card of the Day – U.S. Nationals Week: Majiya

This is it. The day where I break down a card that has just as many haters as she does admirers. Controversy surrounds her to this day. They want her nerfed to Hell and back. Could the reason be that she’s broken, or simply because she’s powerful AND lacks a penis (well, she’s a Mage, so she could probably grow one for…purposes)? Now, let’s show the lady for those at home not in the know.

Behold, the Hero who is occupying 5 out of 10 spots in the finals. I am one of those. She’s been given the nickname “Maj the Vag” by her detractors, such is the plight of any woman who is beautiful, smart AND powerful. Her ability is a simple one, drawing a card for 2 Shadow Energy. This simple ability has made a lot of people cry foul. While the drawing itself is not in of itself an issue for players who don’t like her it’s what she can draw into that freaks people out. Combining her ability with that of Research and she can draw 2 cards every other turn.

While some might go “two cards, big deal” we must also take into account that this gives more viability to another tactic a good deal of people hate because unlike Allies you can’t just swing at it to render it a non-issue. Burn. Currently, there is no armor in the game you can slap onto your Hero to reduce the damage of effects. You can rain down Fireball, after Fireball after Fireball. Following up with the likes of Lightning Strike and polish it off with a Supernova or two and you got yourself a nice recipe for Rage Cake.

Because of the fact that she draws cards and can burn, you got a bunch of people saying she’s over powered. I honestly don’t think so.  Sure, you can burn away the opponent but only a fool wouldn’t pack in Allies in such a deck (besides, we need more burn cards before you could think to go PURE burn and win). Supernova puts her over the top but you can defuse this by wearing down her Life to the point where it will hurt the opponent more than help them since it hurts both players. But it’s not seen that way since players seem to hate ANYTHING that cannot be dealt with in the conventional way.

She has also earned the name “Noob Tube” since it seems to them that even a rookie can beat an experienced player with it. If that held ANY truth to it I would not have lost my first two matches using her, so there is a bit of a learning curb. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want to flip through a large manual to know how to use something (in a GAME of all things) properly. Makes it highly unattractive and elitist which I hate. So what if you get beat by a new player with Maj? Doesn’t mean she’s busted. For all you know that person might have been experienced in other games like this before hand so it probably became second nature, or perhaps your deck just wasn’t built to take her head on…oh, wait, you’re perfect and elite so there must be something horribly wrong with the card, right? It can’t be that you just flat out suck, right? You want horribly broken gameplay, senseless nerf and buffs which create a great divide and uber elites getting the better of people and no one willing to address the REAL problems of the game? Go play Alteil. I got away from it for that very reason, but I’ll tear that apart another time.

Overall, I feel that she is not the standard of how broken cards are judge, but how ALL Heroes should be. She wasn’t the first female who was under consideration. Before I found this game it was the card I covered first this week, Eldawen Frostmire used to rock from what I heard and now we get this sad excuse of an effect. And wonder of wonders, she doesn’t have a penis. The developers might be thinking “SHE’S STRONG AND NOT A MAN! MUST BE NERFED TO PROTECT MANLYNESS!!” Sandra Trueblade  used to kill a resource when she entered play…now, she can only kill a resource if the opponent has more than you…and you know what? Yep, lacks a penis. Rather than making others better, people seem to side on making the game retarded. Want me to play Heroes like Boris Skullcrusher, Zhanna Mist (though not having a penis, she might not get better), Victor Heartstrike and Banebow? MAKE THEM NOT SUCK, DON’T CRIPPLE MORE HEROES! PUMP MORE CARDS INTO THE GAME! But what do I know, I only want the game to grow and for the players and developers to stop being scared of anything that has a vagina.

Will I have what it takes to win and go to the big show? Tomorrow, we’ll find out. As for those who still hate Majiya and can’t see the issue lies with the rest of the cards and also in the tournament, I can only wish that Maj takes you out, HARD! But seriously, good luck to everyone playing tomorrow. Now excuse me, I’m going to les out with Maj and make babies with her.

Shadow Era Card of the Day – U.S. Nationals Week: Gravebone

Undeads are awesome. Mages are awesome. So by that logic an undead Mage is mind-blowingly awesome. Behold, the forth Hero making his way to the second round of the tournament this Saturday.

Gravebone, or rather GraveBONED if you face a solid build. We have two such builds moving onto the Finals (sadly their names escape me at this time). I haven’t had a chance to face them then, but I hope I get to fight at least one of them before all is said and done.

He has this killer ability where he can bring back Allies from your Graveyard to your hand for the cost of 2 Shadow Energy. This is a big deal though it’s handled by it being limited to the topmost Ally in there so a bright opponent can kill your Plasma Behemoth first and your Fire Snake second forcing you to take the snake when you really want the Plasma Behemoth.

Belladonna makes SWEET LOVE to Gravebone. Bring a Ally back from the dead and draw a card? Yes, please! Things can really get awesome once you start thinking with PORTALS! Well, Portal to be exact. With Belldonna handing you more cards and Portal allowing those Allies to attack right away and all the other Mage goodies like Fireball and of course the devastating Supernova, Gravebone can create quite a bit of pressure if you can be a threat on both those fronts.

Overall, I think Gravebone is awesome. Shame more of him didn’t make it to the big show, but what can I say? I look forward to seeing them in action and possibly facing one before it’s all over. I might get my wish and regret it though. Tomorrow, I cover the Hero I will be using that is draped in controversy.

Phantom Spirit Battle Academy

Looks like this was drawn by Sonic Team wasn’t it? Well, it’s not (surprisingly), just the style was used. From the creators of Shadow Era comes Phantom Sprit. A bunch of information relating to the game has been fairly tight lipped. No one but the dev team knows what to expect. All we do know is that its going to be an online card game. Five mystic forces will be at your beck and call. I’ll update once I learn more.

As of now, they plan on doing an open beta this summer. When exactly they’ll do it Is anyone’s guess but you can sign up now to be ahead of the curb, as I have. I hope it’s going to be interesting.

Shadow Era Card of the Day – U.S. Nationals Week: Jericho Spellbane

Disclaimer: I’m just having fun here. I know not all Religious institutions are bad, this is just to spice things up so don’t send me hate mail, thanks.

Ah, Priests. Divine messengers selected by the divine to carry their message by way of mortal mouths. They’re also famous for telling us what we can’t do because it’s too fun. Like no sex before marriage, no drinking, no eating for a certain amount of days because for some reason God wants us to starve to death for some spiritual reason. They seem to be judgmental as to what we can and can’t do and if they had their way, life would be BORING and we’d be tool they’d bleed dry for money because for some reason an ALL KNOWING BEING WHO CREATED THE UNIVERSE NEEDS MONEY!

Speaking of denial…

Meet Jericho Spellbane. He is a Priests of extremes as seen by his effect for removing all attached effects off of one character. This can be anyone, even the Heroes so it has its uses as either a help or hindrance. Mind Control got your Ally that Elementalis took from you to save for a snack for later? Not having that because you see, only Religious institutions have the right to manipulate us and make us feel bad for enjoying stuff they themselves don’t like…like Soccer Mom’s, and Media Watchdogs. Finally got Dual Wield working on your warrior? Opps, can’t use that! Remember, the Earth is to belong to the meek, and meek you shall stay.

Maybe you’re a fan of Poison Gas and or Engulfing Flames because you got a sadistic personality and roll like that. Slowly yet surely you see them die- OH, WAIT he can heal himself up proper due to his powers. While it does seem devastating, Jericho is HORRIBLY overspecialized to be of any significant threat in my opinion which makes the fact that Benumb (congrats) placed as high as he did in the qualifier rounds nothing short of astounding. Either he has one Hell of a deck or got some matchups he could exploit easily. Jericho’s ability is either broken or useless and that is determined by what the opponent is playing. Support such as Plague, Holy Shield and Resurrection could make all the difference in the world when not paired up against something that doesn’t depend on buffs/status effects to get things going.

Overall, he has potential to be a beast, but he’s far too dependent on specific match ups for my liking. I honestly see Benumb’s Jericho deck being knocked out in the first round, but who knows? Divine intervention might make me a believer. Again, only time will tell how this plays out. Three more days till we witness a possible miracle.

Sorry for being so short, but its too hot to stretch this out.

Shadow Era Card of the Day – U.S. Nationals Week: Elementalis

The Elementals. They got some pretty interesting cards. I say this because I’m reviewing one of them for day two of the U.S. Nationals Week.

AH, Elementalis. All the world is but a buffet to you. I can only imagine how many living beings you gorged yourself on while under the pilot of Harry Mckenzy (major ups for placing with him). I would have used you myself (much as I love tanking) but I didn’t after the possibility of Plague showing up to slow my progress further (but more on the one Priest who did make it tomorrow). Then again victory belongs to the bold and Harry is indeed that. Let’s break it down, and be quick about it I want to end this while it’s still full.

Elementalis has a respectable 28 hit points which ain’t too shabby if you ask me. For the cost of 2 Shadow Energy it can make any Ally under your control into a 5 Life restoring treat. Got a Spark to spare? Throw it to it! Fire Snake becoming useless? Slather it in gravy and send it along. Plasma Behemoth about to die on your opponent’s next turn? Attack first, CHOW DOWN LATER!

What makes this all the better (though not for long if the Nerfs takes the fun out of it) is that you can access Mind Control to snatch up a foes Ally, beat them with it then eat it. Fun for you but Hell for your opponent who will then cry “OP!” (over powered for those not in the know) to the developers till the cows come home. If you really want to piss your opponent off-, um, I mean make things more fun by equipping it with the Armor of Ages (named so because it takes FOREVER to break, but that’s for another time). Recovering so much health in one go AND be harder to kill!? SIGN ME UP!

But wait, there’s more! Sure, you can just use the Armor, Mind Control and call it a day, but why not just take it one step further…? How can you possibly draw out the opponent’s suffering longer? Toss in 2 copies of Eternal Renewal! Between replenishing your deck, stalling like crazy, snatching your opponent’s succulent (I can taste that Jasmine Rosecult rump roast now) Allies and restoring your health every other turn the opponent will either fight on valiantly to the point of frustrating, break down in tears from the futility of it all or pull off an epic miracle move which will make you shout to the heavens “WHHHHHHHYYYYYY!!!!!?” Oh, and chuck in a few copies of Energy Discharge to further add salt to the wounds.

There’s one other Ally I feel that would go well with Elementalis, but I think that one would work best with another Hero I will be reviewing later this week. Elementalis has a weakness in the form of being dependent on Fatties (cards that cost 5 Resources or more) to really bring the pain. Resource denial cards such as Plague will really grind you to a halt. Elementalis is beefy, has access to powerful toys and can really make its foes suffer, but all someone needs to do is rush it down and it’s over. Did he get lucky? Will Harry ride Elementails to the top or will a much faster Hero prove to be his undoing? We'll find out on Saturday if Harry has what it takes to bring the pain and dominate the tournament. All I’m saying is if he got that slow thing to the top 8 I sure as Hell don’t want to face him.

Allies! The other white meat.

Allies! It’s what’s for dinner.

Allies! Sweeter than candy.

Allies! Part of a nutritious breakfast.

This message was made possible by the Elementals for World Domination Society. Please don’t eat me!

Shadow Era Card of the Day – U.S. Nationals Week: Eladwen Frostmire

Welcome to my first card of the week segment on this blog. Well, I should say card of the work week since these will be done Monday through Friday.  On last Saturday I entered in the first official Shadow Era tournament and managed to qualify for the top 8, which means I’ll be heading back next week to see if I can hack it to become United States Champion and play in the World Championship. It’s because of this I decided I this is the week to start on this game.

I based the order of review off of the least amount of copies of a particular hero to the most copies (some had only one so I picked based on what struck me as oddest). So enough with the senseless chatter and onto business.

For our first review we got Eladwen Frostmire, Kathalar’s weapon of choice (congrats man/woman for making top 10 with her). She’s got a heart of ice and turns it into a weapon to make the Shadow aligned people into nice yummytastic frost pops. Interestingly enough it’s said in the single player campaign that she knows their weakness. Though she wields ice and could possibly bring them to an end is she REALLY a badass or a faux? Let’s break her down.

As you see she’s got 26 Life which happens to be the current average for anything that uses magic. It could stand to maybe be 2 more considering her ability of dealing 4 damage with an Ice shard at the cost of 4 Shadow Energy. At this point in the game’s development the fact that it is Ice damage is meaningless (outside of story flavor) until we acquire cards where it matters that the damage is a certain kind.

Her ability takes at least 4 turns to get off at which you can select a single target and deal 4 damage to it. For me, waiting 4 turns to deal 4 damage to ONE enemy is a long time to wait so I can’t just spam this ability if I hope to get any use out of it. Unlike Nishaven who has to wait a turn longer but can nail all allies (even your own) in one go can play board control Eladwen is a surgical tool. With that in mind it’s not fair to compare the two. One’s a bomb and the other a bullet, think rocket launcher vs. sniper rifle.

Elad (I’m referring to Eldawen as this for the remainder of the review) can compensate for this since as a member of the Mage family she has access to cards like Research to help draw into something more. Say your opponent has a Plasma Behemoth he’s about ready to go crazy on Elad with on the next turn and you got the required amount of Shadow energy to use Elda’s ability to deal four to him and follow up with Lightning Strike so you can place the final nail in its coffin and still smack the opponent for a little damage and if not, you’ll just bring him down to 1 life and then eat 7 damage.

YES, the fact that she can’t kill the likes of Behemoth or Aeon Stormcaller in one hit is problematic but remember…she’s a human, and has access to Retreat to help pick up the slack. The ability is also helpful in cases like Elda vs. Majiya in who could deal with a beefy ally better. Majiya would on average need to use two cards to take care of the issue while Elad only needs one and her effect saving those other cards to jack up your opponents. Sadly, the like of Gravebone simply laughs this off cause he can just get the ally back at a later time.

To help Elda along I would strongly recommend Snow Sapphire to buy her some time against ally heavy foes. Keeps them affixed in a block of ice so it takes some pressure off a little while and conduct some Research to fix the problem.

Overall I would say she’s not useless, but she does require some help to stay in the game and maxing out her ability. Depending on her ability is a death sentence. Like I said earlier, it takes too long to get off and only hits a single unit. Being a Mage helps her case but even then…well, only time will tell if Kathalar will force feed the detractors some humble pie.