Support NeoGAF

[Volodja]

I think it'll do well if DWD doesn't completely stand there with a thumb up their ass when it comes to advertising, when it's finally time for full release.

Jekk's Bounty was a nice little ~250 bump to average players and that was just 16 card adventure.

But even considering that and some promotional cards, we've been playing with largely the same cards for like a year now. A 200 card expansion will give the game new life.

That said, the communication, organization and transparency have all been lacking during Early Access, and the expansion/release is consistently implied as being within a month or so. The playerbase is getting restless and as nice as card spoilers are, that doesn't remedy it. I fear they may yet do some completely avoidable mistakes in how they handle Eternal's fanbase and/or marketing.

Yeah, even in the most direct channels like Discord they seem reticent about announcing anything about the release.
They don't even commit to the previous mid July call and it's hard to keep the hype flowing for too long.
However the spoiler ramp up may point to something.

 

[Volodja]

2 more.

 

[Nordicus]

Yeah, even in the most direct channels like Discord they seem reticent about announcing anything about the release.
They don't even commit to the previous mid July call and it's hard to keep the hype flowing for too long.

It reminded me of the sort of stubbornness that Counterplay Games had starting at Duelyst's first expansion

Then late April Duelyst closed its draft mode Gauntlet for a dumb "fun" mode for a month and players dropped by a full 1/3. Everybody saw that coming, the biggest remaining Duelyst channel on Twith centered around Gauntlet, but they did it anyway.

However the spoiler ramp up may point to something.

I think that is a reasonable assumption to make.

Piercing Grief will be fun to try to fit in something. Did not expect Valkyrie tribal support.

 

[Noaloha]

I feel like Piercing Grief was designed with Grinva in mind.

 

[Nordicus]

I feel like Piercing Grief was designed with Grinva in mind.

Eeh, I feel Grinva wants a midrange'ier deck with board presence.

Piercing Grief fits better in a deck with Xenan Cultist or Hero of the People

 

[Nordicus]

Holy fucking jesus I want to play with Diogo not now, but fucking yesterday

Doesn't do anything on its current board, but turns all future draws into threats

 

[Shai-Tan]

The problem with all cards in the deck getting buffs a la Navani has been actually drawing enough cards for it to matter. In this case it might be viable with warp, including the card which gives sigils warp. That is, assuming the meta isn't all new aggro decks.

 

[Nordicus]

The problem with all cards in the deck getting buffs a la Navani has been actually drawing enough cards for it to matter. In this case it might be viable with warp, including the card which gives sigils warp. That is, assuming the meta isn't all new aggro decks.

Navani is gradual buffs that require attacking with a non-impressively statted unit and Rakano is rather bad at both keeping a board and holding out during boardstall on top of the lack of card draw. Praxis can sit still for a moment, go wider and wait for its threat cards. Unless Rakano gets good midrange cards, I suspect Diogo will work better than Navani.

Anyway, other spoiled cards:

The legendaries seem really good except for Ayan. He seems like a bad Siraf. May be a ridiculous bar to clear, but you still have to pay 9 mana for a big-ish vanilla body.

 

[Volodja]

They released 17 spoilers yesterday, it just didn't stop.

 

[Nordicus]

They released 17 spoilers yesterday, it just didn't stop.

Yeah holy shit. A lot of this is draft filler but it's not without some build-arounds.

The existence of Alluring Ember, Umbren Thirster and Cirso's Meddling have me completely baffled. Particularly the Ember, because the others can be taken as just bottom tier commons

 

[hollomat]

Gave the game a shot as a huge fan of Hearthstone and Elder Scrolls Legenda (Direwolfs other card game), but I couldn't get into it.

My biggest turnoff was opponents being able to pick a blocker for my attacks as well as the attacker fully healing after if it didn't kill them. I felt like I could only attack when I had a huge body on the field and anytime I'd get a huge body, my opponent would remove it with a spell.

 

[The Xtortionist]

Yeah holy shit. A lot of this is draft filler but it's not without some build-arounds.
The existence of Alluring Ember, Umbren Thirster and Cirso's Meddling have me completely baffled. Particularly the Ember, because the others can be taken as just bottom tier commons

This set just looks really weak overall, at least at first glance. Which is a shame, because set 1 is filled with beefcake studmuffins.

 

[Volodja]

Yeah holy shit. A lot of this is draft filler but it's not without some build-arounds.
The existence of Alluring Ember, Umbren Thirster and Cirso's Meddling have me completely baffled. Particularly the Ember, because the others can be taken as just bottom tier commons

Cirso's passable draft removal for Primal, which is pretty lacking in that generally.
Ember seems fine in a praxis deck, more than fine actually.

This set just looks really weak overall, at least at first glance. Which is a shame, because set 1 is filled with beefcake studmuffins.

The legends cycle they showed a couple days ago is really really strong.

 

[The Xtortionist]

The legends cycle they showed a couple days ago is really really strong.

They are, but the majority of what they've shown just seems more geared toward draft than constructed.

 

[Volodja]

They are, but the majority of what they've shown just seems more geared toward draft than constructed.

I dunno, Skycrag aggro looks nasty as hell between CoFury and the Legend.
There seem to be quite a few interesting constructed cards in there and we are only like 1/5th of the set in so a lot of support is lacking.
But then again, I'm not that bothered if they don't print a lot of Siraf or SST level cards.

Only issue at times is that some engines seem to cost a bit, but stuff like the Oasis Seeker gives me hope.

 

[Nordicus]

My biggest turnoff was opponents being able to pick a blocker for my attacks as well as the attacker fully healing after if it didn't kill them.

But yet, both of those mechanics allow for better comebacks for midrange and control against aggro. Decks with higher curves genuinely play a slower game and a 3/3 will help against three 2/2s, force aggro to give up resources for face damage the moment it comes on board.

I felt like I could only attack when I had a huge body on the field and anytime I'd get a huge body, my opponent would remove it with a spell.

Assuming you're far enough in the game to not be playing the tutorial anymore, where removal options suck and minions are often boring vanilla, then this is not what you should be taking from the game's systems.

If you can accept that mutual standstills, where neither player feels like they have good attacks, are a genuine part of the game, then your decks may just be suboptimal in dealing with bigger enemy board, which Time decks often end up having. You don't have enough removal, you don't have enough Fast Spells that turn calculated perfect trades into blowouts, your aggro deck isn't fast enough to just keep SMORCing when slow enemy comes on board, or it doesn't go wide enough, which can render big blockers useless.

Point is, big bodies often enough aren't that great on their own. Champion of Progress is the biggest body and it is hilariously unplayable.

What kinds of decks have you tried out?

There seem to be quite a few interesting constructed cards in there and we are only like 1/5th of the set in so a lot of support is lacking.
But then again, I'm not that bothered if they don't print a lot of Siraf or SST level cards.

Actually more like 1/3rd. We're now up to 71 cards if Eternal Warcry is correct.

 

[Volodja]

Actually more like 1/3rd. We're now up to 71 cards if Eternal Warcry is correct.

Yeah, I didn't consider the huge spoiler dump from yesterday in my calculations so we are into the 70s and not 50s, which is between 1/3rd and 1/4th of the total but that's plenty to not have a clear image of what's gonna really be strong, I think.

 

[Nordicus]

Reward structure changes in the future

Ranked grind rewards will become more frontloaded, greatly better than before at 10 daily wins, somewhat even at 20, and diminishing afterwards. Looks like Set 2 Rares and Legendaries won't be super "grindable" but, First Win packs, season rewards and rank-up chests are something at least.

Also spoiled this Legendary

 

[Shai-Tan]

Yeah, I didn't consider the huge spoiler dump from yesterday in my calculations so we are into the 70s and not 50s, which is between 1/3rd and 1/4th of the total but that's plenty to not have a clear image of what's gonna really be strong, I think.

I think there's only ~150 cards in the set?

 

[Nordicus]

So Coup de Grace is back, tho probably way more playable as just Fire card since Praxis can build a board.

I think there's only ~150 cards in the set?

Nope

Omens of the Past brings over two hundred new cards to Eternal.

 

[Volodja]

I think there's only ~150 cards in the set?

250 is the estimation based on the Stranger that was given out as promo being #252 or #253 or around there.

 

[Volodja]

A few more spoilers have been released, but the main thing is that Set 2 is releasing tomorrow at 8 AM MST.
There will be a 3 hours downtime, however.

 

[Shai-Tan]

Damn, I've got stuff to do tomorrow. Will probably end up playing all day (and night) Saturday and Sunday.

I can't figure out how mind link would be good. The advantage seems very incremental so I'm going to assume it has synergy with cards we haven't seen yet.

 

[Volodja]

http://www.direwolfdigital.com/eternal/omens-of-the-past-theme-decks/

The theme decks for the new factions are up.

 

[Nordicus]

http://www.direwolfdigital.com/eternal/omens-of-the-past-theme-decks/

The theme decks for the new factions are up.

Way more scrying cards than I expected.

Did some basic math and it seems each theme deck has some 3000-3600 gold worth of new cards. So if you're knew and know what you want, the deck purchase might be worth it.

 

[Shai-Tan]

I'm impressed with the polish they added to the game with this patch. And the art in the new set is improved in my opinion, more detailed with its own identity, moving away from the Hearthstone look. The draft environment also seems pretty good so far with enough build around cards for at least a few synergy based decks, not just generic units crushing while evasive units chip away. Here's a screenshot of my second draft with a Lifeforce based deck:

Taken the after I made two 12/12 with Bloodcall Invoker, Bloodcall Invocation, using Ghostform on the Lifeforce dude who gets attack from liefesteal

 

[Nordicus]

Did 2 drafts with pretty mediocre results, my decks kept hinging on their splash cards.

I kept more to testing 2 additions to my Overwhelm Talir Rod. First, the already spoiled Cultist Aspirant, which is an Overwhelm card.

...but my deck has almost no heal, oh how do I proc the Lifeforce...

Every Overwhelm summon multiplied by every Horn equipped can lead to some insanely big 1-drops.

 

[Volodja]

The Draft enviroment is a bit of a question mark for me at the moment.

I have no clue how to balance the faction picks, seems to be way harder to keep influence requirements in check especially when it comes to getting the necessary amount of removal.

 

[Nordicus]

Went one step further into hard meme territory, Sentinel's Might.

x1 in the deck, and whenever Talir gets a good turn, this happens.

+16/+16 groupwide buff for 6 mana

Update: got it up to +60/+60 in a mirror match against Elysiam horn.

 

[Fixed1979]

Because of the lack of Iphone support I haven't been playing this at all, not sure exactly when it happened but it is now on the Appstore and ready to go. I'm sure most everyone that plays regular knows already, but in case you didn't...

Eternal goes mobile with
Omens of the Past!
Eternal's long-awaited second set, Omens of the Past, is here! Omens of the Past brings over 240 new cards to the battle for the Eternal Throne...and it's now easier than ever to join the fight.

Get Eternal on your favorite device, and play at home, on the go or both. Cross-platform play means you can play at home on your PC and pick up where you left off with your mobile device wherever you are.

Play now on iOS and Android phones and tablets!

Change comes to Eternal. The Resistance is broken, but at tremendous cost. Much of Argenport lies in ruin. The balance of power is shifting, and the Omens of the Past take on strange and surprising new meaning.

Hard choices await those who would claim the Eternal Throne, but your choice is easy: grab your favorite mobile device and get back in the fight!

There's a whole new world to explore...what will you discover today?

We'll see you in the game!

– The Dire Wolf Digital Team

 

[GDJustin]

I have about 1200 gold and had been slowly saving up to 2000 to buy Jekk's Bounty. But the theme decks being just 2500 Gold each means I have enough to buy all 5 of them right now, should I want to?

Any thoughts on the better use of my little Gold nest-egg? Don't want to Draft with it right now as I've been out of the game so long I'm worried I'd be destroyed.

I got 2 Legendaries with my 9 free Omens packs so... off to a good start.

 

[Nordicus]

I have about 1200 gold and had been slowly saving up to 2000 to buy Jekk's Bounty. But the theme decks being just 2500 Gold each means I have enough to buy all 5 of them right now, should I want to?

Any thoughts on the better use of my little Gold nest-egg? Don't want to Draft with it right now as I've been out of the game so long I'm worried I'd be destroyed.

I got 2 Legendaries with my 9 free Omens packs so... off to a good start.

Forge ranks have been reset so you can go for their rank-up reward chests again, and they'll contain Set 2 packs.

Now, the theme decks, there are some nice cards there but you can just craft a lot of the most important ones because they tend to be new removal at common/uncommon.

That said, the Hooru deck in my opinion has most bang for buck when it comes to playable and interesting rares. Spirit Guide is kinda nice, but Torgov is an amazing Primal value beater, and Champion of Order has been shown to end games on its own if not immediately removed.

 

[Nordicus]

Apparently 82 people have signed up for this week's Eternal Tournament Series, which is already a new record. Hoping for a lot of mad brews

Edit: ended up 95

 

[Keasar]

Never.
Ever.
Draft.

That's what I learned today. Waste of gold and time. Could have gotten way better boosters for that 5000 gold.

 

[Nordicus]

Never.
Ever.
Draft.

That's what I learned today. Waste of gold and time. Could have gotten way better boosters for that 5000 gold.

Depends. If you have most of Set 1, sure, but I tend to raredraft pretty aggressively if none of the cards being offered help me build my deck, get like 7-8 rares every other run.

Tho if completely new to the game, you should try to get like Gold, maybe even Diamond, or Master, in Forge before you try drafting.

Having to balance between Set 1 factions in two packs and Set 2 factions in the other two is not easy.

 

[Shai-Tan]

Even if you go 0-3 it's worth it to draft. 5000 for 4 packs with rare and premium picks plus rewards at the end. Maybe not the most fun if you suck at drafting and deck building but you're getting your value back. Even more so if you can get to 3 wins on average. Less if you've got all the set 1 cards already - even then, after a while you would have most commons/uncommons in either set 1 or set 2. At that point it becomes all about getting missing rares/legendaries and accumulating stones to craft.

I went 0-3 wins in my first month of drafting. If you don't know the cards, don't know how to make a good mana curve, don't know deck building philosophy for limited it's not surprising.

 

[Keasar]

Depends. If you have most of Set 1, sure, but I tend to raredraft pretty aggressively if none of the cards being offered help me build my deck, get like 7-8 rares every other run.

Tho if completely new to the game, you should try to get like Gold, maybe even Diamond, or Master, in Forge before you try drafting.

Having to balance between Set 1 factions in two packs and Set 2 factions in the other two is not easy.

I managed to squeeze in 2 victories in that Draft before I finally lost. I was tricked into doing draft by one of those daily quests and thought I should give it a go, but then remembered I never liked drafting.

Have run a few Forge runs now and had much better time with it.

 

[Shai-Tan]

From what I understand Forge isn't bad EV so if you enjoy that keep doing it. Eventually it becomes more difficult with rank up though so the first few ranks might make it seem easier than it will end up being if you wanted to play it regularly instead of Draft

 

[Twinguistics]

I've started playing this and loving it so far, however I've got a question.

I've done all of the campaign but the pvp modes are still locked. Any idea why that is?

 

[Nordicus]

I've started playing this and loving it so far, however I've got a question.

I've done all of the campaign but the pvp modes are still locked. Any idea why that is?

Nothing should be locked in the main menu if you did the campaign. Can you show a screenshot?

 

[Twinguistics]

It's ok, it fixed itself after I excited the game and went back in. I am now able to get wrecked in ranked. Not ready for it yet anyway, going to do a few gauntlet runs.

So, I saw a few familiar faces from hearthstone GAF earlier in the thread, you guys ditched this game or what?

 

[The Xtortionist]

Even if you go 0-3 it's worth it to draft. 5000 for 4 packs with rare and premium picks plus rewards at the end. Maybe not the most fun if you suck at drafting and deck building but you're getting your value back. Even more so if you can get to 3 wins on average. Less if you've got all the set 1 cards already - even then, after a while you would have most commons/uncommons in either set 1 or set 2. At that point it becomes all about getting missing rares/legendaries and accumulating stones to craft.

I went 0-3 wins in my first month of drafting. If you don't know the cards, don't know how to make a good mana curve, don't know deck building philosophy for limited it's not surprising.

Kinda wish individual packs were made a bit cheaper or given more value to compete with draft. I prefer playing deliberate, optimized decks, so limited formats have never appealed to me.

 

[Twinguistics]

Won my first ever ranked game just using the standard justice deck. Feel quite pleased about it. Think it was mainly due to me drawing the nuts but I'll take it.

Unpacked a premium legendary too, will probably Dust and craft one that I want.

 

[Nordicus]

Kinda wish individual packs were made a bit cheaper or given more value to compete with draft. I prefer playing deliberate, optimized decks, so limited formats have never appealed to me.

Tho when you tweak pack value to make constructed "compete" with draft, you devalue draft. And draft is the mode that takes 3 days of playing another mode to pay for the entrance fee.

Won my first ever ranked game just using the standard justice deck. Feel quite pleased about it. Think it was mainly due to me drawing the nuts but I'll take it.

Unpacked a premium legendary too, will probably Dust and craft one that I want.

A monojustice deck won the ETS tournament nearly 2 weeks back. Not the *most* budget deck but it doesn't cost all that much in the end.

Which legendary did you get?

 

[Twinguistics]

I got Diogo Malaga. Is it any good?

Oh cool, it seems that justice is a strong class just maybe not that fun to play. The weapon that gets buffed when you play a power is crazy good.

 

[Nordicus]

I got Diogo Malaga. Is it any good?

Diogo malaga is good, though maybe not great. There is a good Praxis midrange deck that plays him, but it's not as if he's a vital key of a perfect brew.

Might be worth it to dust him for another legendary or 4 rares if you aren't passionate about playing him.

 

[Twinguistics]

Just had my first really annoying game. I had a hand of five weapons or buff spells and didn't have any units. I didn't draw a unit for the entire rest of the game, must have been about 8 turns or so. Absolutely nothing I could do. All I could do was pass, pass, pass, dead.

Really annoying.

 

[The Xtortionist]

Tho when you tweak pack value to make constructed "compete" with draft, you devalue draft. And draft is the mode that takes 3 days of playing another mode to pay for the entrance fee.

They just aren't comparable at all. Buying five packs for 5k gold will get you five rares and that's it. Drafting for 5k can generally get you five rares or more, and even if you concede the draft immediately you still get an additional two silver chests worth ~500 gold with a chance to upgrade. You miss out on 100 shiftstone for drafting, but the value of additional rares makes up for it.

Maybe draft is designed to be better value than packs by default, but then why even include the option to buy packs? Boxes, sure, since they're a quick way to spend real money and complete playsets of commons and uncommons, but any player looking to build a collection bit by bit is better served with drafting.

 

[Nordicus]

This week's Eternal Tournament Series over, finals was a Praxis midrange vs "Dark Praxis" midrange. Kcnabrev's honest aggressive 2-faction deck outran Shadow's value in extended games.

Kcnabrev also made Semifinals last week, but he made minor changes to his deck since then. The important additions are bolded

Main Deck:
1 Flame Blast (Set1 #2)
4 Initiate of the Sands (Set1 #74)
4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)
4 Torch (Set1 #8)
2 Friendly Wisp (Set1 #82)
4 Temple Scribe (Set1 #502)
2 Xenan Initiation (Set2 #44)
4 Amber Acolyte (Set1 #93)
4 Dawnwalker (Set1 #86)
1 Diogo Málaga (Set2 #179)
3 Praxis Displacer (Set1 #100)
4 Sandstorm Titan (Set1 #99)
4 Obliterate (Set1 #48)
2 Shatterglass Mage (Set2 #181)
3 Heart of the Vault (Set2 #183)
2 Predatory Carnosaur (Set1 #118)
7 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)
9 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)
3 Amber Monument (Set1 #420)
4 Praxis Banner (Set2 #171)
4 Seat of Impulse (Set0 #54)


Sideboard:
1 Xenan Initiation (Set2 #44)
2 Scorpion Wasp (Set1 #96)
4 Groundbreaker (Set2 #21)
2 Healer's Cloak (Set1 #98)
3 Xenan Obelisk (Set1 #103)
2 Shatterglass Mage (Set2 #181)
1 Waystone Infuser (Set2 #63)

What these cards in this deck mean, is that this Praxis deck is in an advantageous position against other Time midrange decks explicitly.

 

[FoxSpirit]

What woukd currently be the most tricked out deck? Playing Rakano but it's a little too straight forward for my taste at times. Also super susceptible to removal.