vandergus drafting

With the latest rebalance we also got a small refresh of the draft pool. While the number of cards changed was relatively small, the impact of those cards was significant. One of the biggest new players is Death Current. Once strictly a last pick spell, Death Current received a boost in the first round of the rebalance. It can now destroy above level creatures at levels 1 and 2 and has a level 3 effect that is worth leveling for; destroy two enemy creatures at random. Many draft players were tired of losing to giant monsters built with Shardplate Graft or Pummel Pack and are happy to see a good answer added to the draft pool. But Death Current is more than a good answer to voltron creatures. It is a solid underdrop, a way to push damage, and even a way to gain board control later in the game. It's unusual for a spell with the word "random" so prominently featured in the card text to be so consistently useful. So how do we take this spell down a notch. How do we keep our opponents from getting the ridiculous Death Current value.

For starters, Death Current's effect is random, so even though we can't stop it from killing something, we can at least make it harder to kill exactly what our opponent want's it to. The simplest way is to put more bodies on the field. Creatures like Roaming Warclaw give you essentially free bodies and make it more risky for your opponent to play a Death Current when there's a good chance it will be killing a 1/1. Ether Hounds has a similar effect and can be useful for protecting big bodies later in the game. (Sorry Hunting Pack, still not picking you.)

Playing creatures with Forge effects rather than spells is another way to get more creatures on the field. If you are debating between playing Countermeasure or Battletech Inventor on a particular turn, Inventor may be the better choice for weakening an opposing Death Current. Even playing creatures in an open lane rather than blocking and trading may be the right play if the creature your trying to protect is especially valuable. Open laning creatures means they won't die on your opponent's combat step and makes it harder for them to Death Current accurately.

While at heroic and not seen in every draft, Aetherphage is a potential answer. It's main weakness is that you have to have it at exactly the right time for it to be effective, but taking a level 3 Death Current late in the game could create a huge swing in your advantage. Vault Intruder can't actually remove the spell, but can still give you valuable information. If you don't see a Death Current in hand, you know you can at least get one turn of value out of that Ursine Strength before you have to worry about the creature dying. Given that these creatures already have decent stats, it might be worth picking them a little higher in the current environment.

The decks that will have the hardest time playing around Death Current are pump decks. If you are AU and want to make good use of Ursine Strength and Blood Boon, you may have a hard time going up against Death Current decks. Not only do pump spells invest multiple cards into a single creature (opening you up to a 2-for-1) but they also put fewer bodies in play, making opposing Death Currents more likely to hit their target. The type of play that you most want to avoid is open laning a creature and pumping it in the same turn. You don't want to play Aetherguard+Blood Boon because if your creature gets hit by a Death Current, you got zero value out of your Blood Boon. Instead, try to use of your pump spells to change combat math, like playing Ursine Strength to turn that losing trade into a winning trade. Not only does it keep more bodies on the field, but it also gets immediate value (killing an enemy creature) from your pump spell. If your pumped creature gets destroyed on the following turn, it's not as big a blow.

Pump decks might even want to start looking at one of the other new cards added with the refresh, Wildwood Sower. It's traditionally not a card I want to pick in draft but it synergizes decently with pump spells while at the same time making Death Current worse. Not every Uterra deck will need it, but if you are intending on casting a lot of pump spells in your matches, Wildwood Sower might be a nice little defensive strategy. Sometimes it takes a very specific type of format to really see a card's value.

The hardest choices to be made around Death Current will be in rank 3. I usually encourage players to open lane their powerful level 3 creatures whenever possible. It puts a lot of pressure on your opponent and if they don't have a good answer right away, you can start to push damage and close out the game. If there is an unblocked level 1 or 2 creature on the board, it's usually worth taking some damage from it to set up your own threat.

But if your opponent has leveled two or three Death Currents, the reasoning changes. Now your powerful creature may not even make it to the start of your next turn and regardless of whether or not it blocked. In this case, it may be better to block the smaller attacking creature that you would normally ignore. If your creature gets hit with a Death Current, then at least you've gotten some value out of it already. It's a tough call and I'm not completely sure on when it's the right time to block and when it's right to open lane. I'll try to post some examples in the next few days if I find the right situation.

So the Grand Rebalance is finally here and everyone is trying to figure out what it means for the future of Solforge. I've looked through the list of card changes a few times trying to get a sense of the overall scope of things (you can see the complete patch notes here obsolete). In particular, I'm trying to figure out how they will affect draft. The first thing I noticed was that most of the changes seemed to be for legendaries and heroics, which won't have a huge impact on draft. Tallying up the rares and commons, I get 18 and 23, respectively. To put that in perspective, there are currently 143 rares and 217 commons in the game. If I look just at the percentage of the card pool that has changed (at least the card pool that matters to draft), it's not that much. It makes me think that any changes we see in the draft format will not be fundamental in nature but more like meta-game changes. Games will play out largely like they have in the past in terms of pacing and the relative power of the card levels with certain strategies will getting better and others worse. I don't think, however, that a major sea change is in the future for draft.

Better levelers

Technosmith – Stat change to 5/4, 9/8, 15/14 (used to be 2/2, 8/8, 15/15) Tech Explorer – Level 2 stats now 8/10 (used to be 5/7) Nexus Overwatch – 6/7, 9/10, 13/14 (used to be 5/4, 10/9, 16/15)

There are three common leveling cards that got major changes; Technosmith, Tech Explorer, and Nexus Overwatch. All three got much better in the early game, meaning you'll be more likely to reap the rewards of your extra leveled cards. My biggest complaint about Tech Explorer was not its measly level 1, which is still there, but its crummy level 2. I can deal with sacrificing stats at one level for an extra leveled card, but not seeing any payback for my investment until rank 3 is brutal. Being an 8/10 at level 2 is a big step up. Late game leveling decks are at an all time low right now with just Tech Explorer and Metatransfer as common leveling spells and a host of angry Umbruk decks prowling the queues. I expect that to change if these cards get into future draft pools.

Soft-gated removal

Grave Pact – Level 1 can target up to level 2 creatures, Level 2 has no restriction, and Level 3 is free Death Current - Level 1 can destroy level 2 and lower creatures at random, Level 2 can destroy any creature at random, Level 3 destroys two creatures at random. Spiritcleave - Level 1 can target up to level 2 creatures, Level 2 has no restriction, and Level 3 gains health equal to the creature's health. (not published in the original patch notes)

Level gated removal has always been pretty bad in draft due to the catch 22 that it creates for players. If you level it, you could draw it in a situation with no good targets, potentially passing one of your leveled cards. If you don't level it, it becomes nearly useless as an underdrop. Soft-gating gives players much more flexibility in when they choose to play their removal as well as providing ways to make use of underleveled hands. With more soft-gating in draft, there should be fewer times when you get run over trying to answer huge on level creatures with underleveled hands. We only got two in this patch, Death Current and Grave Pact, but I expect to see more printed in future sets. In fact, we've already seen the trend of underleveled removal with cards like Blood Boil and Nether Decay in set 6.

Flattened leveling curves

Frankenbaum – Stat change to 6/5, 9/8, 14/13 (used to be 4/5, 8/9, 14/15) and ability deals 2, 3, 4 damage (used to be 1, 3, 6) Tuskin Grovekeeper – Level 3 stats now 12/12 (used to be 15/15) and ability now drops a 3/3 at each level Brighttusk Sower – Stat change 6/6, 8/8, 10/10 (used to be 4/5, 8/9, 14/15) Grave Ghast – Stat change to 5/7, 8/10, 11/13 (used to be 3/5, 6/10, 12/16) Twinstrength – Gives +3/+3 and level 1 and +5/+5 at level 3 (used to be +2/+2, +6/+6)

One area where a lot of players wanted to see changes was in the power of level 3 creatures. When your opponent hits two level 3's on turn 3.1 and you draw your hand of level 1's, it can put you too far behind to catch up. A lot of people speculated that Stoneblade could narrow the power gap between levels to help prevent this. Level 1 stats could be increased and level 3 stats decreased, resulting in a flatter leveling curve and making it easier for a couple level 1 creatures to take down a big level 3. While there are quite a few creatures that got this sort of change, there are nowhere near enough to redefine the standard leveling curve for creatures (see paragraph 1). There are still a lot of big level 3 creatures left in the game and plenty of piddly level 1 creatures that will valiantly bounce off of them. What we did get are more options for underdrop creatures. For example, Brighttusk Sower got transformed from a value creature that leveled well into a solid underdrop with a mediocre level 3. It's possible that in future draft pools, Stoneblade will include many more of these types of creatures, to the extent that leveling up a full suite of 16/16 creatures for rank 3 would not be the norm. If a few of your oppoent's level 3's are 13/13's, it will be easier to battle them with underleveled cards. That's just speculation, though. If the next draft pool was selected at random from the current pool of cards, I wouldn't expect these few card changes to have an impact on the overall leveling curve of draft.

Buffs and miscelaneous changes

Many of these are buffs that take cards from last pick fodder to something that you might actually want to play. And more importantly, they could reduce the number of completely unplayable hands that you draw.  If the worst cards in your deck are now just slightly below average, they are less likely to screw you over when you really need that clutch blocker.

Rares Frozen Solid – no longer grants defender Noxious Cloud – Gives Poison 2, 4, 6 (used to be 1, 3, 5) Oxidon Spitter – Stat change to 7/3, 9/5, 14/10 (used to be 5/3, 8/6, 14/12) Runescarred Zombie – Ability now is Vengeance: return a level 1, level 2 or under, any random spell from discard to hand Spring Dryad – Stat change to 4/4 at Level 1 (used to be 3/3) Stasis Warden – Stat change to 5/6, 9/10, 15/16 (used to be 4/5, 7/8, 11/16) and ability can now only target friendly creatures Tech Upgrade – Now can only target Robots and gives +4 attack/Armor 2, +6 attack/Armor 3, +12 attack/Armor 6 Venomfang – Stat change to 6/4, 10/8, 14/12 (used to be 5/4, 9/8, 14/13) and ability gives Poison 2, 4, 6 (used to be 1, 2, 4) Windborn Hellion – Stat change to 4/8, 8/12, 12/16 (used to be 2/8, 5/12, 9/17) Herald of Destruction – Ability no longer deals damage to the creature that triggered Herald Howl of Xith – Now drains for 3x player level (used to be 4x) Spiritsteel infiltrator – Stat change to 4/7, 8/11, 15/18 (used to be 4/6, 7/10, 14/18) and ability now grants Armor 2, Armor 4, Armor 6 (used to be 1, 2, 3) Venomdrinker – Stat change to 5/5, 9/9, 13/13 (used to be 4/4, 8/8, 12/12) Batterbot – Stat change to 6/8, 9/11, 14/16 (used to be 5/8, 8/11, 13/16)

Commons Aegis Pulse – Gives armor 2, 3, 4 (used to be 1, 2, 4) Corpse Crawler – Stat change to 8/9 at Level 1 (used to be 7/8) Deepbranch Prowler – Stat change to 8/8, 9/9, 10/10 (used to be 7/7, 8/8, 9/9) Ether Hounds – Stat change to 3/3, 6/6, 9/9 (used to be 3, 5, 7) Ghostscale Cobra – 4/1, 6/3, 10/5 (used to be 2/1, 5/3, 7/5) and ability now gives Poison 4, 6, 10 (used to be 2, 5, 7) Gloomreaper Witch – Stat change to 5/5, 9/9, 15/15 (used to be 4/3, 9/8, 15/14) Glowstride Stag – Stat change to 5/6, 8/10, 12/15 (used to be 3/5, 7/10, 11/15) Jet Pack - No longer removes Defender Lightning Spark – Deals 6 damage at Level 1 (used to be 5) Pyre Song – Deals 1, 2, 3 damage to each enemy creature for each creature you have Stone Brand – Now removes defender Uranti Icemage – Now removes defender instead of granting it Uranti Warstoker – Stat change to 6/5, 8/7, 12/11 (used to be 4/6, 7/10, 12/17) and ability is now Forge instead of Activate Shardclaw Crusher – Stat change to 5/5, 8/8, 12/12 (used to be 3/3, 6/6, 12/12) and ability gives +5/+5, +8/+8, +12/+12 (used to be +3/+3, +6/+6, +12/+12) Vault Welder – Stat change to 7/9, 11/14, 18/22 (used to be 6/8, 10/14, 16/22) and ability now only removes Defender from itself Demonweb Watcher – Ability now gives enemy creatures with Aggressive -2/-2, -4/-4, -6/-6 when they deal damage

Let me sum up

I'm having second thoughts on the best way to play NT in this draft format. I saw the return of Infernal Visage as one possible way that Nekrium decks could start competing with aggressive Tempys decks. Putting the two together in the same deck seemed like a natural fit, since Tempys has a lot of high quality mobility creatures. Other players seemed to have high opinions of Visage as well but it has not delivered the results I expected.

Here's the thing about Visage...you have to invest a lot into the card. Not plays or life (well not directly), but setting up Visage does cost you flexibility. If you want to play Visage, you first have to get creatures into the sidelanes, which means ignoring what's happening in the middle lanes. And when you're ignoring what your opponent is doing, whatever you're doing has to be way better. Against slower late game decks you can do this. If they play Forge Guardian Beta plus Skyknight Glider in the middle lanes then great, you can Visage and put them under more pressure than they are putting on you. But UT decks are very good right now, better than I thought they would be after the set change. If you Visage, and they Blood Boon their Razortooth Stalker, you are the one under pressure.

You could argue that you will only play Visage when the opportunity presents itself, when you can get good value out of it. Like saving that Twinstrength until you can turn two trades with it. But despite its similarities to Twinstrength, it actually plays much differently. Most players will not willfully put their creatures in the sidelanes against Nekrium decks, so using Visage as a combat trick doesn't happen very often. It's usually an offensive move, creating two big threats. Twinstrength, on the other hand, will be played both offensively (to make threats) and defensively (to turn trades), making it a more versatile card.

You could also argue that you simply won't play Visage against super aggressive decks. That's more reasonable but when I draft Visage decks I like to draft multiples so all the side lane setup is more likely to payoff. If I decide not to play Visage against certain (fairly prevalant) decks, I'm starting with two or three dead cards in my thirty. Add that to the few inevitable don't-wanna-play cards that I picked up during the draft and the likelihood of drawing really awkward hands starts to get uncomfortable.

To sum up...for Visage to be good, it has to be more powerful than what your opponent is doing. Unfortunately, there are a lot of decks doing more powerful things.

So what should NT be doing instead? I think a better, more flexible deck would play more like an aggro-control deck. It would focus on creatures with average leveling curves (i.e. good at all levels), a couple late game finishers (Necroslime, Umbruk Glider), and quality removal spells to keep the opponent off balance. Basically, we're acknowledging that Uterra's pump is better than NT pump, so we're playing to our strengths (burn and debuff) instead of theirs. Now instead of trying to out aggro UT decks, we're playing a nimble control deck that can also hit for a lot of damage when the opportunity is there. All of the mobility combined with removal makes it hard for them to setup big plays like Razortooth Stalker or Tremorsaur or buffing lots of Dinos with Mosstodon.

In the current draft format it's really easy to build big, hard to kill threats. There are a lot of efficient pump spells (Blood Bood, Pummel Pack, Infernal Visage, Dysian Infusion) and plenty of troublesome creatures (Razortooth Stalker, Necromoeba, Spiritsteel Infiltrator, Dusk Hammer). Combine them and you get a two card combo that could not just put you ahead on board but straight up win the game. In other words, it’s a good idea to have a way to deal with these situations in your draft decks. Dendrify, Nether Decay, Seal of Tarsus, Tangle, Shatterbolt (for armored beasts) are all good options. Sometimes, though, you don't get offered the spells you want, or the one copy you did get isn't showing up when you really need it. But you still have options. Here's what the board looked like at the end of a recent game.

My opponent's first turn was Duskspire Zombie plus Toorgmai Mender pumping the zombie. I was playing a pretty aggressive UT deck whose only real removal spell was a Blood Boil. I didn't have anything to deal well with a 2/10 regenerator so I played out a couple more creatures and ignored the two damage. Then, slowly, it began to grow. First a Toxic Boon, then half a Twinstrength, then a Blood Boon to make it truly out of reach. By this time it was a 13/22 regen 4. Even a level 2 creature plus Blood Boil would have a hard time taking it down. I'm looking at 3+ cards to completely kill it. Or...I could just race it. My opponent had invested 3+ cards into this one lane which meant I was three cards ahead on the rest of the board. I was actually ahead on life at this point and should have an easier time stopping damage in one lane than my opponent will having stopping it in four lanes. A timely Roaming Warclaw, some breakthrough damage and an aggressive Ashurian Mystic helped me keep pushing damage while holding off the giant zombie. I did have to chump block a couple of times but I waited til the end, when it would save me the most damage. I also used creatures that could still give me value elsewhere on the board, like a Nargath Bruiser.

Not all decks are capable of racing big threats. If you're playing late game or midrange, you probably don't have as many tools as Umbruk does for getting in a lot of damage early. In that case, you really have to prioritize removal spells. You don't want to put yourself in a race if Shadowsmith was your main game plan. Alternatively, if you weren't able to draft removal, you need to play as aggressively as possible to keep your opponent from making big plays. Since you don't have answers, you have to use deterrents. Keeping a lot of pressure on may make your opponent pass on Blood Booning their Duskspire Zombie. And if they do decide to go for it, hopefully your aggression can still win the race.

Core Cards: Ionic Warcharger, Kadrasian Stoneback, Nargath Bruiser, Blizzard Shaman, Skyknight Glider, Razortooth Stalker, Ironbound Reinforcements, Vault Intruder, Shatterbolt

Archetype: Aggro-Control

Lead Heroics: Borean Windweaver, Emberwind Evoker, H.E.R.M.E.S

Key Cards: Pummel Pack, Arc Wurm, Torrent Acolyte, Blood Boil, Aethertap Shaman, Burnout

Description: AT has the fewest answers to big pumped up creatures so it has to play a very proactive game. Mobility helps cover the board, making it harder for your opponent to play creatures in "safe" lanes while they wait a turn to do their thing (e.g. Razortooth Stalker, Shardplate Delver, Necroslime). Torrent Acolyte and Ironbound Reinforcements can provide power boosts to either take down big threats or push a bunch of damage. Pummel Pack is very valuable in this deck since it is one of the only ways for Oratek to create a big, resilient threat. Creatures with mobility get really hard to deal with when suited up and if you can stick one on a Razortooth Stalker, well that's just filthy. If you make it to rank 3 with the life totals still close, you're in good shape. Look for opportunities to push large chunks of damage that can tilt the race in your favor. It's ok to trade evenly as long as you're doing 10-15 damage first.

Core Cards: Skyknight Glider, Ionic Warcharger, Ironbound Reinforcements, Scourge Hydra, Dirge Banshee, Corpulent Shambler, Seal of Tarsus

Deck Archetype: Visage Aggro

Lead Heroics: Necromoeba, Xrath, Dreadknight of Varna, Zombie Dreadknight, Darkheart Conjurer

Key Cards: Infernal Visage, Zombie Titan, Onyxium Marauder, Spiritsteel Infiltrator, Barrier Soldier, Torrent Acolyte, Darksteel Sentinel

Description: Not quite as many mobility creatures as the Byzerak version but the ones you do get are high quality. In general, you can create more resilient, harder to kill threats than NT but your lines of play will be less flexible. Barrier Soldier can play an interesting role letting you ignore mid-lane creatures to play Visages and Zombie Titans without taking a ton of damage. In addition to pumping creatures with Visage, you have a lot of efficient ways to pump power in Alloyin. Creatures like Onyxium Marauder, Spiritsteel Sentinel and Necromoeba get a lot harder to deal with when backed up by Ironbound Reinforcements or Power Torrent.

Deck Archetype: Late Game

Lead Heroics: Portal Shade, Fleshreaver, Ebonskull Knight, Shadowsmith, Necromoeba

Key Cards: Onyxium Marauder, Necroslime, Vault Intruder, Nether Decay, Forge Guardian Beta, Battletech Inventor

Core Cards: Scourge Hydra, Corpulent Shambler, Dirge Banshee, Roaming Warclaw, Blood Boon, Twinstrength, Seal of Tarsus

Deck Archetype: Midrange

Lead Heroics: Weirwood Patriarch, Necromoeba, Portal Shade, Verdant Charge, Soothsayer Hermit

Key Cards: Torrent Soldier, Necroslime, Nether Decay, Ravenous Hydra, Hungering Strike, Toorgmai Mender

Description: A generic good stuff deck. It can lean more towards control if you pick up multiple Dendrifies and debuff spells. Seal of Tarsus is important not just for defense but also as a way to get your big creatures through when things start to stalemate in the later ranks. The deck doesn't have as many ways to push damage as its AU counterpart so you have to resort to alternate means. Even Cavern Serpent can be a big help in some matchups. If you can't push big chunks of damage, you'll be using big late game creatures (Necroslime) and incremental advantage (Torrent Soldier) to eventually build an overwhelming board advantage and win.

Deck Archetype: Regen Pump

Lead Heroics: Zombie Dreadknight, Necromoeba, Xrath, Dreadknight of Varna, Verdant Charge

Key Cards: Infernal Visage, Zombie Titan, Torrent Witch, Catacomb Spider, Ravenous Hydra, Toxic Boon, Cavern Hydra, Deepbranch Prowler, Toorgmai Mender

Description: Similar to the pump deck at the start of set 6 but it's focus is a little different. Losing Ursine Strength and gaining Infernal Visage means there's less single target pump and more multi-lane pump. It's also easier to build around Zombie Dreadknight, another multi-lane effect, because the number of good-on-their-own regen creatures increased. The deck is less about making one unkillable monster and more about gaining board advantage then pushing that advantage with timely pump spells. The key to being successful is determining when you have to answer your opponent's threats and when you can create your own.

Deck Archetype: Darkforged

Lead Heroics: Shroudthorn Splicer, Grimgaunt Betrayer

Key Cards: Dusk Hammer, Shadeclaw Zombie, Darkroot Shambler, Darkshard Witch, Toorgmai Mender, Vigorwisp

Description: The second strongest faction pair for darkforged, in my opinion. You get the two best rares of the cycle (Dusk Hammer and Shadeclaw Zombie) and they're very abuse-able with Dysian's supporting cards. The deck can even win by simply spamming Darkshard Witches if you get enough of them. It doesn't happen very often but I've been run over by decks that play six Darkshard Witches in rank 1. The chain of life drain triggers is too much to keep up with.

Deck Archetype: Life gain

Lead Heroics: Runebark Guardian

Key Cards: Tuskin Grovekeeper, Darkshard Witch, Spiritbloom Dryad, Vyric's Embrace, Toorgmai Mender, Stag of Lys

Description: Another fringe archetype. Kind of gimmicky but Runebark Guardian can actually be really strong in ranks 2 and 3 with just a single life gain trigger. Tuskin Grovekeeper gives you redundancy but, unfortunately, isn't enough to carry the deck on its own. In rank 1, focus on leveling Grovekeepers and Guardian. Don't go out of your way for triggers. Save your Spiritblooms and Vyric's Embrace for underleveled plays in ranks 2 and 3 where the they get you a lot more value. Don't try this unless you can first pick a Guardian. And don't try this at all in the Expert queue ;)

Core Cards: Scourge Hydra, Corpulent Shambler, Kadrasian Stoneback, Nargath Bruiser, Aethertap Shaman, Blizzard Shaman, Dirge Banshee, Seal of Tarsus, Blood Boil

Archetype: Aggro-control

Lead Heroics: Borean Windweaver, Byzerak Frostmaiden, Zarox, the Raging, Ebonskull Knight, Portal Shade

Key Cards: Byzerak Drake, Necroslime, Umbruk Glider, Everflame Aura, Nether Decay, Blood Bindings, Windcaller Shaman, Conflagrate, Ashurian Brawler.

Description: A deck that uses mobility and removal to control the board and push damage. Lane placement is very important. You want to place mobility creatures to achieve maximum coverage, ideally, being able to do damage in any of the five lanes at during your next turn. That will make it difficult for your opponent to set up their plays while also giving you opportunities to deal damage in open lanes. If you find yourself with a lot of mobility tricks (Blizzard Shaman, Windcaller Shaman, Zephyr Mage) you can start taking Ashurian Brawlers earlier in the packs, leaning more towards an aggresive rush deck. Be aware that that sort of deck is not as flexible and can struggle if it falls behind.

Deck Archetype: Visage Aggro (a.k.a. Infernal Turtle)

Lead Heroics: Necromoeba, Xrath, Dreadknight of Varna, Zombie Dreadknight, Darkheart Conjurer, Borean Windweaver

Key Cards: Infernal Visage, Byzerak Drake, Zombie Titan, Razortooth Stalker, Arc Wurm, Ashurian Brawler, Burnout

Description: An aggro deck that uses mobility creatures to simultaneously control the board and setup plays with Infernal Visage. Many of these creatures are just downright annoying to deal with when buffed, hence my alternative pet name for the deck. Be aware that if you do play that Visage in rank 1, you should be prepared to further commit to the side lanes for the rest of the game. You don't want to have to pass that Visage 2 because your board isn't set up for it. In addition to the mobility creatures, the faction pair has a huge amount of removal to pick from, making the late game damage push very dangerous. If you can get your opponent down in the 20-30 life range going into rank 3, you're in good shape.

Deck Archetype: Defender Control

Lead Heroics: None

Key Cards: Sparkstone Elemental, Steam Sentinel, Avalanche Guardian, Cinder Colossus, Windcaller Shaman, Nether Decay

Description: I'm really not sure if this is a deck or not but I think there's something to it. AT has been the traditional home for defender decks but since the only enabler (Sparkstone Elemental) is in Tempys, there's no reason it has to be limited to that pairing anymore. And, currently, I think Nekrium has better tools for stalling and making it to the late game, which is where defender decks want to be. You can pick up a couple Steam Sentinels or Avalanche Guardians as generically useful cards in any deck, but I wouldn’t start picking Cinder Colossuses or going heavy into defenders until you have at least one Sparkstone. Windcaller Shaman is a nice trick to get more value out of defenders that have already blocked and Nether Decay and Seal of Tarsus help answer big mobile monsters that your walls can't handle. Unlike Flamerift Instigator, it's not a bad idea to level up your Sparkstones early so they can hang around longer later in the game when your giant rocks are smashing face.

Core Cards: Skyknight Glider, Ionic Warcharger, Ironbound Reinforcements, Blood Boon, Twinstrength, Vault Intruder

Deck Archetype: Pump

Lead Heroics: Shardplate Graft, Warmonger Mod

Key Cards: Pummel Pack, Spiritsteel Infiltrator, Esperian Wartusk, Dusk Hammer, Ravenous Hydra, Toorgmai Mender, Torrent Acolyte, Deepbranch Prowler

Description: For this deck to work you have to make sure you pick up good targets for the pump. All of the key creatures listed have either mobility or breakthrough, meaning that your big beefy monsters can't simply be chumped and whittled down. Your opponent will be taking damage while they try to manage your threat without falling too far behind on board. Being ahead on life will in turn make it easier to setup big all-in plays later in the game. As always, be mindful of what your opponent could have for efficient removal. If they level a Tangle early, you may have to abandon your Spiritsteel + Pummel Pack plan and move into more of a midrange stance, using pump to turn trades and push opportunistic damage. Since most of the creatures are solid on their own, you won't be giving up too much.

Deck Archetype: Midrange

Lead Heroics: Weirwood Patriarch, Soothsayer Hermit, Esperian Scarab

Key Cards: Torrent Soldier, Esperian Wartusk, Roaming Warclaw, Forge Guardian Beta, Dendrify, Barrier Soldier

Description: It's all about the value. Torrent Soldier is an incredible card for attrition matches and is tough to beat with just big vanilla creatures. You'll want to mix in a couple late game win conditions and some ways to answer big threats from your opponent, since you won't necessarily be putting on a ton of pressure yourself. In rank 1 you want to level 2-3 win conditions, 3-4 value/goodstuff cards, and 1-2 answers or tricks. The rest is board management and constantly evaluating when you should be defending and when you should push your advantage. Typical Solforge. 

Deck Archetype: Darkforged

Lead Heroics: Shroudthorn Splicer, Shadowsmith

Key Cards: Dusk Hammer, Shadowmist Angel, Darkroot Shambler, Darksteel Enforcer, Pummel Pack, Toormgai Mender

Description: Technically, you could put this archetype in all the faction pairs but AU is the best place for it so you'll be more open to drafting it. Even without a first pick heroic, you may still find a good opportunity for a darkforged deck. I tend not to go into it unless I see one of the rares (Dusk Hammer or Shadowmist Angel) early in the draft. A Dusk Hammer backed up by Darkroot Shamblers is much stronger than the Shamblers on their own. Other than that the strategy is pretty straightforward. See darkforged, pick darkforged. Draw darkforged, play darkforged.

Deck Archetype: Dino-bots

Lead Heroics: Uterradon Rex

Key Cards: Mosstodon, Batterbot, Pummel Pack, Shardplate Delver, Roaming Warclaw, Featherfang, Flowsteel Carrier

Description: Definitely a fringe archetype but sometimes it works. You probably won't go into this intentionally because first picking a Uterradon Rex should lead you into Umbruk where the deck is much stronger. But if you're already in Esperian and see an early Mosstodon, you can still make good use of it. Batterbot into Pummel Pack can be a pain especially if you follow it up with Mosstodon to make it even tougher. Other than that, pick dinos and try to be aggressive.

Core Cards: Razortooth Stalker, Kadrasian Stoneback, Aethertap Shaman, Ravenous Hydra, Blizzard Shaman, Nargath Bruiser, Blood Boon, Twinstrength

Deck Archetype: Tricks Aggro

Lead Heroics: Borean Windweaver, Gemhide Ravager, Soothsayer Hermit, Emberwind Evoker

Key Cards: Umbruk Glider, Arc Wurm, Toorgmai Mender, Windcaller Shaman, Toxic Boon, Blood Boil

Description: There aren’t really any must have key cards for this archetype. It simply makes use of the best cards available in the faction pairing. The deck plays creatures that scale well through all levels and relies on abilities like mobility and breakthrough to push damage. Combat tricks play an important role in gaining board advantage and providing impactful, underleveled plays later in the game. The deck should constantly be trying to present must answer threats, preventing the opponent from setting up their own game plan. Games usually end in the early part of rank 3 but you can play into the later ranks if necessary.

Deck Archetype: Dinos

Lead Heroics: Uterradon Rex, Thunderstomp, Tremorsaur, Gemhide Ravager

Key Cards: Mosstodon, Umbruk Glider, Featherfang, Shardplate Delver, Roaming Warclaw

Description: The deck takes advantage of tribal synergies between Uterradon Rex, Thunderstomp, Mosstodon and the large number of high quality dinosaurs available in Umbruk. Mosstodon is the most critical creature to this deck and should be picked over almost anything else, including heroics. The deck can be very aggressive but also has the ability to win battles of attrition with Thunderstomp and Mosstodon for easy card advantage. Remember that, at times, you may need to open lane dinosaurs rather than block in order to set up potential tribal draws on the next turn. A very powerful deck when it comes together.

Deck Archetype: Big Dumb Animals (BDA) Aggro

Lead Heroics: Borean Windweaver, Verdant Charge, Tremorsaur

Key Cards: Ashurian Brawler, Storm Caller, Spiritbloom Dryad, Deepbranch Prowler, Rimehorn Charger, Shatterbolt, Everflame Aura

Players are always trying to figure out the best faction pairs as well as the best strategies within a given faction pair. We love archetype analyses because they can save us a lot of time and losses playing with sub-par decks. I would love to be able to give detailed breakdowns of all the faction pairs but I feel like it takes a huge number of drafts to be able to say anything definitive. As one man drafting, the format has usually changed before I can write something meaningful. But I'd like to put something out there even if isn't complete.

So here's how I'm going to approach it.

Core Cards: These are the cards that most decks in a faction pair will contain. They are high quality commons (not rares) that are almost never bad. You'll be picking a lot of them because they are plentiful and generically good. The archetypes within a faction pair should be able to make use of these core cards in their strategy.

Archetype: Most faction primers I see tend to focus on one type of deck in each pair. I think, however, that there are at least a couple different types of decks with cards that you may want in one type but not in the other. It's important to distinguish between them.

Lead Heroics: These are first pick heroics that might give you a reason to draft a particular archetype. Some archetypes are highly dependent on getting the right first pick, others, not so much.

Key cards: Cards that are necessary for pulling off a particular strategy in the archetype. Think Mosstodon for Dinos or Infernal Visage for, well, Visage decks. They're usually rare cards that you won’t always see in a draft. Cards in this category may be fantastic in one archetype but mediocre in another. A lot of the core cards could double as key cards in that they are important to a strategy (Skyknight Glider in AN Visage) but I'm not going to list them twice.

Description: Some comments on what the deck is trying to do. Playing early game vs late game, etc.

I will list 2-4 archetypes for each faction pairing in rough order of best/most common to least. I will probably include some fringe archetypes at the bottom even though they may not be as good as the main ones. They can be fun but you may want to keep them in the casual queue. Just sayin'. 

I would also love for this to become a collaborative project. If you recognize one of the archetypes I list, go ahead and suggest other cards that you like to play in it. If you have a completely new archetype, make a short write up using the above format and leave it in the comments. I wanna see what you’re playing! Like I said before, it’s hard for just one person to completely define the current draft environment in a reasonable amount of time. Getting more people involved will help everyone out in the end.

I want to go through a game I played recently because I think it highlights some interesting things about Solforge and how we as players react to losses. First a brief summary.

The Deck

A pretty straightforward NT Visage deck. A good core of high quality creatures focusing on mobility and resilience. Three Infernal Visage to put the pressure on and a smattering of removal spells for use when appropriate. It feels like a solid deck that I should be able to 3-1 with.

Rank 1

Opponent leads with a Gemhide Basher which is a peculiar first turn play. It's possible that they just had a really awkard hand. I ignore it, playing two creatures in the side lanes to set up my Visage plays. Opponent plays Seal of Deepwood on the Basher and Anatomizes both of the creatures. At this point I start to feel pretty good about the game. My opponent has leveled three cards that aren't very scary and I'm about to have a nice lead on board. I decide to get aggressive, opting to play a Rimehorn Charger to eat the Gemhide Basher instead of playing a card that levels for the late game. I'm playing Visage so it's good to be as aggressive as possible, making it easier to dictate side lane play. Things go pretty normally for the rest of the rank and here's what it looked like going into rank 2.

Opponent's leveled cards: Gemhide Basher, Anatomize, Anatomize, Seal of Deepwood, Battletech Inventor, Spiritsteel Infiltrator, Flowsteel Carrier, Batterbot

My leveled cards: Zombie Titan, Zombie Infantry, Rimehorn Charger, Infernal Visage, Scourge Hydra, Arc Wurm, Nargath Bruiser, Kadrasian Stoneback

Opp Life: 79 My life: 94

Rank 2

Here's where things start to go south. We both miss on level 2 cards to start out. My opponent had hit Flowsteel Carrier onto a Batterbot at the end of rank 1 so I spend an Ashurian Brawler to clean that up. On the second turn I miss again but my opponent Seals a level 1 creature. It's not a big threat but it's kind of annoying because I don't have a good way to answer it in this hand and I'm starting to lose momentum. Next turn I finally hit my level 2's but have to use them to win back the board rather than put on pressure. Turn 2.4 is very nice and let's me play Scourge Hydra 2 into Visage 2, giving me a 15/15 in one side lane and a 14/13 in the other. I had to take some damage to make it happen but I still have a lead in the life totals so I'm feeling pretty good going into rank 3.

Opponent's level 3 cards: Seal of Deepwood, Anatomize, Flowsteel Carrier, Spiritsteel Infiltrator, Gemhide Basher

My level 3 cards: Arc Wurm, Zombie Infantry, Infernal Visage, Scourge Hydra

Opp life: 39 My life: 60

Rank 3

My opponent bricks to start off rank 3, chump blocking the big Scourge Hydra and Dendrifying my other pumped creature. I have Visage 3 which makes the Scourge Hydra huge and turns the left-over tree into a threat again. Recovering well, my opponent hits the Hydra with a level 3 Anatomize leaving it with just 5 attack. The treefolk gets blocked by a level 3 Spiritsteel Infiltrator, which survives with 4 health. I have a mediocre hand that can answer the Infiltrator but not put any real pressure on.

It's here that I should have paused for a moment to think about how I could lose this game. Looking at my opponent's leveled cards, there isn't anything really scary there. Anything except Spiritsteel Infiltrator + Seal of Deepwood, which is really scary. My opponent has basically one way to win this game and it involves a two card combo that will be very hard to set up when they are at 16 life and have to block basically anything that I play.

My hand is Dirge Banshee (level 2), Patron of Tarsus, Corpulent Shambler, Catacomb Spider and Burnout (all level 1). I ended up playing the Patron of Tarsus in front of the Spiritsteel thinking that it didn't matter much what I played as long as I cleared it and it would be nice to have a level 2 Patron. What I should have been thinking was, "Holy crap, I can't let them Seal that Spiritsteel" and used the burn spell to get rid of it immediately. Hindsight is for Monday morning quarterbacks, or something like that. By now you've figured out that of course they had the Seal and of course it killed me.

Creatures with high attack play a vital role in draft decks. I'm going to lay out three reasons you'll want to be picking them, but first a brief definition.

A high attack creature should have at least 6 power at level 1, 11 power at level 2 and 17 power at level 3. The level 1 stat is the most important but there are times where you will want leveled creatures with high attack values as well. Let's see why...

The underdrop

In Solforge parlance, an underdrop is a card that has a meaningful impact on the board when played at a level that is below your current player rank. Ideally, you'd be playing on level cards in each of your turns but you simply don't have enough leveled cards in your deck to do it consistently. You will be leveling 7-8 cards in rank 1, depending if you play first or second, but since you only draw two-thirds of your deck in rank 2, you'll see 4-5 of them on average. It gets even thinner in rank 3 where you usually see around three level 3 cards. You're going to be playing under leveled cards whether you like it or not so you better make sure that you have underdrops in your deck that do something.

While you usually can't straight up trade with leveled cards, high attack cards can still do a lot of work when played underleveled. They may be able to take down a previously damaged level 2 or simply present a bigger threat of damage to your opponent that can't be easily ignored. If you're lucky, you may even get that opportunity to "trade up", where your level 1 Torrent Acolyte kills a level 2 Roaming Warclaw. That is incredible value and you should almost always make that block. This is the most common argument for including high attack creatures in your deck, but it isn't the only reason to do so.

The monster killer

Building monsters by stacking pump on resilient creatures is a common tactic in draft. In the old days it was Nightgaunt + Dryad's Boon. Nowadays it might look like Pummel Pack + Onyxium Marauder or Blood Boon + Razortooth Stalker. To fight these threats you need to be able to deal large chunks of damage. Even though high attack creatures won't be able to take them down single handedly, they will at least wear them down, where a normally stat'd creature would be completely absorbed. In emergencies, they can be paired with removal spells to get the clear immediately.

The example above shows high attack creatures filling these first two roles (try to look past the unusual faction combinations, it's from a weekend warrior event). The Umbruk Glider is taking down a partially damaged Zombie Titan (the underdrop) while the Featherfang is getting exactsies on a very dangerous Necroslime (the monster killer). Notice how both of these situations would be much worse if I had to wait another turn for a high attack creature. The Zombie Titan would get to regen to full health, meaning I would likely have to spend a level 2 card to clear it. Likewise, the Necroslime would be growing even larger to a monstrous 16 health. I would probably end up chump blocking the Slime to prevent damage and falling even further behind on board to other unblocked creatures. An average level 1 (5/5) and an average level 2 (10/10) would not be nearly as good in this situation.

Defense that levels

Lastly, high attack creatures can help you survive aggressive starts by decks that play over sized creatures in rank 1. Cards like Stormcaller, Ashurian Brawler, Blizzard Shaman and Spiritbloom Dryad are big creatures that can often trade 2-for-1 with average sized level 1 creatures. The trade-off is that they level poorly, making decks that rely on them weaker in the late game. High attack creatures let you trade evenly with big aggressive creatures without sacrificing late game power.  Compare the leveling curve of Ashurian Brawler to Vault Intruder. They trade evenly at level 1, evenly at level 2 (although Intruder has better overall stats) but Vault Intruder is much better at level 3. If you can fight off the early rush, you should have the edge in rank 3 and beyond due to your higher quality creatures.

That is a Kadrasian Stoneback with three Infernal Visages on it (two level 1 and a level 2). I played it on turn 1.4 and it’s still going strong into rank 3. It just hung out on that side of the board dealing about ten damage a turn while picking off the occasional level 1 creature.

What makes Stoneback such a good card for Visage decks are its two native abilities, mobility and psuedo-defender. Mobility is great in Visage decks because it allows you to place creatures without totally committing to the side lanes. One way to beat a Visage deck is to apply a lot of pressure in the center lanes, especially with growing threats like Razortooth Stalker. If the Visage player ignores it to play their pump spell, it could put them behind on board and in the damage race. Mobility creatures, however, let the Visage player respond to center lane threats when necessary, or move into a side lane if the time is right. 

Having defender half of the time is less obvious as an advantage, but it is very important. The biggest weakness of pump spells is not having a target when you need one. Pump spells that want two targets are even trickier to set up. Your opponent is constantly blocking and clearing your creatures while you replenish them with fresh ones each turn. Stoneback, however, doesn’t attack on your opponent’s turn, making it very hard to clear through combat, and its sizable body makes it hard to corner without offering up bad blocks. If you let Stoneback hang around near the side lanes for as long as possible, you can almost guarantee good Visage targets. The fact that defender also gives it more turns to regenerate health is just icing on the cake.

I will recommend some caution, though. It’s not a risk free venture. Stoneback is kept in check in draft by two frequently seen answers; Glacial Crush and Tangle. There’s nothing worse than leveling up two Stonebacks in rank 1 only to have one of them Crushed on 1.4. Now two of your leveled cards can be answered by your opponent for free. Oof. Tangle is not quite as much of a blowout but can still trade or 2-for-1 a pumped Stoneback as an underleveled play. And while it doesn’t prey directly on Stoneback’s unique abilities, Nether Decay is quite a good answer, too. Since you won’t be attacking on your opponent’s turn, they don’t have to worry about taking too much damage while they wait for it to die.

With the most recent mini set release, SBE also decided to refresh the card pool for draft. It looks like all of the set 6 cards are still here but the changes in the supporting cards should significantly shake things up. You can find the complete draft pool here but I'm going to highlight the cards changes that I think will have the greatest impact.

Alloyin

Notable gains: Onyxium Marauder, Skyknight Glider, Ironbound Reinforcements

Notable losses: Battle Techtician, Alloyin Strategist, Nexus Gunner, Nexus Overwatch

Alloyin did not change much compared to the other factions but it did get a couple key cards that should help certain types of decks. Onyxium Marauder is a great addition to AN decks especially with Infernal Visage returning to Nekrium. It's a solid creature at all levels, is a great win condition on its own and becomes really annoying with any kind of buff. Skyknight Glider is also great in Visage decks giving you the flexibility of moving into a side lane when necessary. Alloyin even gets the one and only bound card in the pool. Often maligned as the worst of the bound cycle from set 3, it is still a very good draft card, and a welcome addition.

I don't think Alloyin lost much from the meat of their draft pool but I did notice some premier heroics are gone. Techtician and Strategist were often the cards that would get me into Alloyin and without them (or much else at heroic) I don't see myself first picking it often. That's ok though. It will still be a great faction to pair with.

Nekrium

Notable gains: Infernal Visage, Zombie Titan, Byzerak Drake, Dirge Banshee, Corpulent Shambler,

Notable Losses: Nyrali Symbiote?

Man, Nekrium got a lot of new toys. Zombie Titan and Infernal Visage bring the fear back to the side lanes while Dirge Banshee and Corpulent Shambler help to shore up Nek's shortage of quality role players. Visage isn't a card I’ve always liked because of the restrictions it puts on your plays, but this draft set looks like pretty good for it. Pairing with Alloyin gives you access to some mobility creatures and the previously mentioned Marauder. Pairing with Tempys gets you more mobility creatures including the old favorite Byzerak Drake and the new favorite (oh man) Kadrasian Stoneback. If you think getting rid of Stoneback is annoying now, think about making it an 8/8 and giving it regen. And Wallbreaker Yeti's not around anymore to bail you out, either. Might want to move those Tangles up on the priority list.

Nekrium really didn't lose much either. No Nyrali Symbiote makes the NU pump deck a little harder to put together but losing Ursine Strength is a bigger blow there. All things considered, Nekrium should see a lot more play in the next month.

Tempys

Notable gains: Umbruk Glider, Avalanche Guardian, Storm Caller, Sparkstone Elemental

Notable losses: Thranik Ambusher, Borean Stormweaver, Cloudcleaver Titan, Flamerift Instigator, Frostshatter Strike

Tempys lost two of their best commons, Thranik Ambusher and Borean Stormweaver, as well as some key partners in the dominant Umbruk decks. It won't be quite as easy to steam roll ranks 1 and 2 this time around, which is probably a good thing. There’s plenty of meat left, though, with core commons like Nargath Bruiser, Blizzard Shaman, Kadrasian Stoneback, and Aethertap Shaman all still present. Tempys will still be a great faction to base a draft deck on.

Uterra

Notable gains: Poisoncoil, Esperian Wartusk, Roaming Warclaw

Notable losses: Snowdrift Alpha(!), Stinging Invocation(!!!), Ursine Strength, Swampmoss Ancient, Venomfang

Yes, Snowdrift Alpha is gone, but that's not the real victory. Stinging Invocation, that hideous abomination of a draft card, is no longer going to haunt player's dreams. So long bees and thanks for the salt.

As mentioned earlier, Umbruk is losing some staples in Swampmoss Ancient and Ursine Strength. These cards were key for overwhelming your opponent in rank 1 and keeping up the pressure in rank 2. The Big Dumb Animals are going to have to get a little smarter to succeed in this draft environment. 

While Umbruk slips down a notch, I think Esperian rises. Set 6 Esperian was sorely lacking for late game reach, having to rely mostly on breakthrough damage or Ionic Warchargers. Wartusk and Glider give the deck two more cards that help get you there while also being solid at the lower ranks. I'd still love to see an Alloyin spell that grants mobility a la Jet Pack, but Even without it, AU should work a little bit better now.

Here's another example of ignoring an opponent's plays in order to push damage. Unlike the previous example, this won't lead to a likely win next turn, in fact there's a good chance that I still lose this game, but I felt like it did give me the best chance to win the game. Let me explain...

My opponent leveled four extra cards in PL1 off of two Nexus Overwatch and two Aetherforge Oracle. Noteable cards among them were two Ionic Warchargers, a Nexus Gunner and a Dendrify, all of which are great lategame cards. Not only does my opponent have more leveled cards than I do, they also have some great finishers. I am certainly not favored in a long game, so it's in my interest to turn the game into a race and end it early.

Also, two of my opponent's remaining level 2 cards (Nexus Overwatch and Nexus Gunner) want to be in the center lane, especially the Gunner. If I leave the existing Overwatch alone, they will have to either overwrite it or play them in an off lane. Gunner and Overwatch are still decent creatures in an off lane but letting my opponent get free value out of the center lane does not seem like a good idea.

So I decided to ignore the Overwatch and try to race. I'm a little bit ahead on life, have an oversized 12/12 to play, and can use some of my many pump spells to keep the aggression going. I ended up ignoring the Nexus Overwatch not just for one turn but for most of the player level. I Dendrified it on 3.4 after my opponent pumped it, then finally blocked it with the Ranger on turn 4.1. And despite being outdrawn on level 2 cards five to three, I was still able to keep pushing damage. I didn't see any more center lane creatures so maybe they didn't draw them or maybe they passed them for other plays. It's impossible to say, which also makes evaluating the "correctness" of such plays really difficult. Here's how the game ended.

It was close. My opponent did brick on 3.1, which helped, but I also drew underleveled. One of the advantages to being aggressive is that, usually, you only need to draw evenly to keep your advantage, whereas if you are behind you have to draw better than your opponent to catch up. By the time my opponent saw the fruits of their extra leveling, they were dead.

There comes a point in most Solforge games where your objective switches from winning trades to pushing damage. As a new player, I had the hardest time getting myself to transition out of board control mode and into killing my opponent mode. I had blocking tunnel vision. If there was a good trade to be had on the board, I was making it. Who cares if I could put lethal on board for the next turn, I was winning trades!

You may think that making these kinds of blocks are ok, or just personal play style. You’d rather play it safe and and not take damage. After all, if you’re winning trades, you’ll win eventually, right?

But things don’t always go according to plan in Solforge. You may draw poorly for a couple turns, have your board advantage erased and missed your opportunity to close out the game. One of the trickiest parts of Solforge is knowing when you can press your advantage, ignoring your opponent’s plays, and when you have to control the board. A clear example of when you should be trying to end the game is shown below.

The conservative play is to let the Swampmoss Ancient and Battle Techtician trade, then play Venomfang poisoning Stormweaver and block it with a level one creature (or Flame Jet it, actually, to clear it immediately). That’s a pretty good position to be in. Two full health, level three creatures with the opponent at 22 life. But it isn’t an insurmountable board either. Venomfang is easily beaten by other level threes and Nargath Bruiser usually trades evenly on level. If we hit some bad draws, we could find our self behind and 22 life for our opponent is still out of burn range or a single hit from a big mobility creature.

However, if we think ahead to the next turn, we can put our opponent in a very tough spot. If we Flame Jet the Battle Tech, that let’s us push 26 damage, putting our opponent to just 10 life. Then playing the Venomfang in the open lane means we have three creatures that can all deal lethal damage if not blocked. Our opponent needs to have some sort of multi-lane effect in order to not die. Generally, when you can put your opponent in a position where they need to have one of a few specific cards in order not to die, it’s a strong play. We will be taking at least 16 damage from the Stormweaver but our life total is high enough so we don’t have to worry about dying before we kill our opponent.

We can also apply the decision framework I laid out earlier to help show why not blocking is ok here. The driving question is “Does my opponent get a big advantage if the creature is not blocked”. Since our life total is still reasonably high and none of our creatures can be killed by four damage from the Stormweaver’s ability, it’s ok to ignore him for a turn. The other important factor is “Do I need my creature to be alive next turn”. To which the answer is a resounding, yes! Having three creatures attacking is key to setting up lethal damage.