Deck Building Tips by Fartwinky

Deck building EoJ tips:

This is a basic guide towards figuring out what 30 cards you want to use in your deck.

First before you can do anything, make a picture of how you want to win.
Keep in mind the two winning conditions; 5 creatures on the board, and win by draw out.

I'll assume you want to win by 5 creatures.

Winning: What five creatures are going to win it for you? Are they unique? Does it require having exactly those five or just 5 of a certain type?
When you establish how you are going to win and what creatures will get you there, think of what can stop it.
If you win with invisibility or protection or some other status changing ability all of those have weaknesses or a source.
You have to think about how you are going to protect this. The whole deck only has 30 cards and 5 of them win it for you. So think not only
of how you are going to win but how you will protect your winning strategy. Nothing in this game is 100% so you have to think of everything.
Spend time trying to think of all the what-ifs? After you realize your own weaknesses find the cards that can combat them.
For example: A common strategy is to place the Citadel of Aegis on a green field and Edin the Green Hero on the other wood field.
This makes the two people invisible and all subsequent green creatures invisible.
How to counter: Fieldquake the wood field holding the Citadel of Aegis.
If this is your deck how would you stop that fieldquake?
Possible Solutions:
Ouroboros Dragon - No field can be fieldquaked or exchanged.
Lesser Granvenoa - Fields adjacent cannot be flipped. **This is much cheaper than the first option**
Having a discard substrategy - Constantly making the opponent discard will flush out spells like fissures and whatnot.

This is what you need to think about. How you win and how they stop it. Then think of how you can stop them.

That covers the How you win section.
Now on to the countering them section.

Counters: This is more about experience because for this section you have to know what strategies are currently being used.
Here is going to be a list of general over worked strategies and what deck best defeats them.
Protection Decks = Most protection decks focus around creatures who have protection but low HP. The easiest way to counter this is with magic damage.
Cards like Aluhja Priestess, Flame Magus, and especially Arc Sattelite Cannon are designed to take these guys out. You can't be afraid to prioritize
who you kill. Blatent aggression will not win a game but against protection decks you cannot be afraid to take people out when you can. Constantly chip
away at their HP and think of cards like Winds of Juno or other Land Damage that can cut straight through their protection. Fieldquaking can also
greatly reduce peoples HP's.
Biolith Decks = This is my favorite style of decks so it hurts a little to undermine it. These decks are based around getting certain creatures in key places.
Also, you have to understand that there are mana mana shortages in these decks. Doing your best to kill ONLY the neccesarry people and shorten their
mana sources. Another way to think since everything is so high cost is to attack everyone as much as possible not allowing for any creatures to stay.
These decks don't pack dragons and big beeasties to be scared about and they can only put one creature out a turn so kill kill kill and you may
remove their feet altogether on the board. As far as decks that compete strongly, consider a discard deck. This is will flush out creatures being saved
for later use.
Discard Decks = These decks use the Samurai, Bandit Frogs, and Elven Riders to constantly batter your hand. The strongest effect this deck has is that it makes
you think twice about killing anyone. This hesitation will kill you. The discards are based around their current field. Biolith stinger is a helpful card
to move these guys around. Any cards that can move creatures about will help to disable these threats and take the load off your mind. They talk a lot
but these decks don't actually have much attack. Simply keeping in mind to have some higher HP's and you'll be fine. This is a good idea anyways.
Ninja Decks = These decks suck. Sorry if you use it and think you have some new way of execution that makes it perfect but frankly its flawed. The Ninjas cost 3
but do only 1 dmg for 2 mana. Simply make sure you kill any ninja whenever you see it. Kill it quick and with extreme prejudice. This will completely disable
the deck. If on the off chance they get 3 out there remember that one will always be able to die. If all four are out then tough luck but it's your main goal
if you see a ninja, kill it.
Magic Decks = These decks tend to use a lot of magic(obviously) and Clare Will's. The creatures probably have low life or blind spots on all angles. Make sure you
have at least 4 creatures who can deal 2 damage. I like to kill magic users very quickly because they can pose a threat. This is not a high strategy style of deck.
You can defeat these decks by taking advantage of the upkeep required to use the magic people. Try to limit their mana and always be ABLE to kill them. You don't
have to be violent but make sure you can pick them off easily. Fielquaking can also be very useful against magic users as they aren't to strong.
Quick Weakling Decks = This is a version of the green stompy decks from the MAgic era. They flood you with characters in an attempt to overwhelm you. If you cannot
deal 2 damage every turn to these creatures you will fail. You need to be able to clean the board and not worry about strategy. These decks challenge you to do
something the majority of decks are unequipped to deal with. This is a strong idea in this game and will put you in check very easily. You need to have magic damage
and 2 damage creatures to stop them from overwhelming you. A useful way to think is that when they get 3 creatures on the board you are in check. Always be able to
kill 2 people. If you are prepared to get out of check without a second though then you take away the power of this deck.
Dodge Decks = I hate water creatures. But they do have a distinct advantage with dodge attempts. You can use a combonation of 3 strategies to defeat this. The first
is obviously bypassing it with magic. The second would be a fielquaking away the water fields completely destroying the majority of all the sources of dodge. The
final way is to simply keep attacking, don't confuse attempt with perfect dodge. If you keep attacking you will take apart these annoyances.
Big Creature Cubic Decks = These decks try to pull out dragons from a Cubic hat and are horribly unbalanced. Simply kill cubics like normal, beguil some fog and beat
them with speed. The high activation costs will cripple them. Just keep in mind how much mana they have and you'll be fine.


Those are all of the most common stylized decks. If you run one of those then consider how to beat the suggestions I have listed.

Balance: Personally I try to add up how much all you cards cost in the whole deck. Then divide this number by 30. You should end up with a number between 2 and 3 mana
needed per turn. This is not perfect but it will get you close before you can tweak the deck after using it for a little while. This should allow you to play
every single turn.

Spells: It is very important to manage your number of spells. Very many spells are far to useful to turn down and the temptation to use a lot of them is high. So
The best way to think is in numbers so you don't over pack them into your deck. Every spell is one less creature in your deck. In a long game this will be
your downfall. Remember that also many spells require that you discard other creatures. Tis means you should prepare an equivalent number of draw cards to
discards. Winds of Juno = 2 Ice Tritons and so on. Consider that many spells have a creature who does the same thing. An Ice guard may seem silly but he is
a cheap creature who can do more good on the field than the Summoner Mesmer's Errand in the graveyard.


Commonly Used Cards: These are cards that you should consider simply for their merit on the field alone. I personally do not include Fissures of Goghlie to the list for
the fact that I do like fieldquake but do not like Fissures of Goghlie. I think their are other ways to fieldquake without that damned card.

Beguiling Fog - Can turn a dragon into a wall ornament, why not?
Goghlie Altar - Emergency Mana
Parmetic Holy Feast - Mana boost with little consequence
Tritonan Ice Guard - A little draw power never hurt
White Cubic - Common sense says it can't hurt
Juno Tree Haunt - 2 dmg for 1 mana and perfect dodge


Thats all for part 1. I can write more if desired but I think I've said enough as is.

Fartwinky
Posted by violentant on Sat, 12th Jan 2008, at 23:07
An interesting enough read, I dislike how you completely discredited ninja decks but this help the more new player rank up. [I use my ninja to get me to my top 17 in word position] PSN: Victory_AVOS – my last reply is off a discard deck watch it if you like
Posted by Fartwinky on Sun, 13th Jan 2008, at 03:23
Ninja decks are an obvious strategy set down by the man. They work not based on the deck but the player. It requires a very good player to make ninjas work correctly. Obviously you are good enough of a player to do so, but this isn't about players, it's about decks. And very little can be done to counter a ninja deck other than kill any ninja as soon as possible.
Posted by bettand on Mon, 21st Jan 2008, at 15:31
Oh my goodness, I have been looking for something like this on the web forever. I am such a newbie and still trying to figure out how to stack my deck points wise. This has opened my eyes to so much more. Thank you.
Post a Comment
You are currently signed in as To sign out, click here.