#Frostspark Collection

[holoir]

The FrostSpark Collection is Evolution, not Revolution

The FrostSpark Collection is Evolution, not Revolution

The FrostSpark Collection is currently entering the meta of The Elder Scrolls Legends. After the release of the Houses of Morrowind expansion, this is the first bigger set of cards the player base has been awaiting anxiously. The designers have focussed on providing some interesting new mechanics that can be used to counter some of the current meta game and maybe swing some underplayed archetypes…

[williamsjoan]

Bethesda is Raffling Out Rad (and Mildly Uncomfortable) PS4 and Xbox One RAGE 2 Controllers

Want to win yourself a post-apocalyptic, neon controller to accompany your return to the Wasteland? As part of their “#12DaysofBethesday” holiday giveaway series, publisher Bethesda Softworks is raffling off 12 of these bad boys — but make sure to put your name in while you can, because the clock is ticking!

Revealed in a Tweet earlier today, Bethesda debuted these pretty sweet looking RAGE 2 custom controllers:

For today's #12DaysofBethesda let the holiday RAGE flow through you. #RAGE2, to be exact.

Follow @RAGEgame & RT this tweet and you may receive one of these insane RAGE 2 custom controllers!

Rules are here: https://t.co/bupY1XC1ds pic.twitter.com/bvbWx0xWRA

— Bethesda (@bethesda) December 16, 2018

Both of the designs for the PS4 and Xbox One controller are similar, with notable changes where the designs call for it. As a base paint, it looks like we have RAGE 2‘s iconic pink, yellow, and white aesthetic that they have been hammering home ever since the game’s comical Walmart leak.

Both versions of the game have what appears to be a silver/grey matte button and D-pad layout, with faint icons and lettering. Additionally, it looks like both have the gauze-wrapped makeshift battle armor on the left and right side… which doesn’t appear to be the most ergonomically comfortable. But perhaps you can take them off when you play?

The main difference between the PS4 and Xbox One versions are found in the middle; the PS4 version prominently displays RAGE 2‘s name on the TouchPad. Meanwhile, the Xbox One version of the controller has the (inarguably better) Xbox button swapped out for the Rage logo, definitely giving it the edge among the two.

If you are looking to win one of these 12 controllers, the rules lay out the basics:

The contest ends at 11:59 PM Eastern on December 24, 2018.

You must be 18+ and a legal resident of the United States

To enter, from Twitter retweet the tweet above and follow the RAGE 2 Twitter account

If you are new to the #12DayofBethesda promotions, feel free to catch up on the previous giveaways which can be found at the bottom of the article. Also, check out the most odd custom crossover of the week: the Duracell branded Xbox One controller, which exists because of reasons.

RAGE 2 is coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One on May 14, 2019; if you are looking to grab the game, you can get it on Amazon (at a 5% discount). Alternatively, you can grab the Collector’s Edition with the Ruckus the Crusher talking head wall mount.

Happy #12DaysofBethesda! For the next 12 days, starting today, we'll be giving away daily prizes!

Follow @TESLegends & RT this tweet and you could win 1 #TESLegends FrostSpark Premium Card Collection and 2 packs of Houses of Morrowind!

Rules are here: https://t.co/TQ9lx9cm47 pic.twitter.com/4FLvRVYqR7

— Bethesda (@bethesda) December 13, 2018

Today's #12DaysofBethesda daily prize is out of this world!

Follow @PreyGame & RT this tweet and you could be the lucky recipient of #Prey: Digital Deluxe & a Prey art book signed by @ArkaneStudios!

Rules are here: https://t.co/ICDaObhamF pic.twitter.com/JV7scGSx2D

— Bethesda (@bethesda) December 14, 2018

Is the holiday season not for you? Celebrate the #12DaysofBethesda #TheEvilWithin style: With terror and many-faced monsters!

Follow @TheEvilWithin & RT this tweet for the chance to win The Evil Within 1 and 2 on your platform of choice.

Rules are here: https://t.co/bkJ8z4luGD pic.twitter.com/DrQHbQeUpa

— Bethesda (@bethesda) December 15, 2018

The post Bethesda is Raffling Out Rad (and Mildly Uncomfortable) PS4 and Xbox One RAGE 2 Controllers by Lou Contaldi appeared first on DualShockers.

Bethesda is Raffling Out Rad (and Mildly Uncomfortable) PS4 and Xbox One RAGE 2 Controllers published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

[holoir]

The tenth card in the FrostSpark Collection was revealed by Santosvella. The 2-cost item in the red Strength attribute gives +2/+0 and has a special Summon ability: The wielder deals 2 damage to itself and another creature. The card art is amazing and the premium version of the card will hopefully see a cool red-orange glow-effect around the sword.

If you play the Sword on a creature with 2 health or less, the special ability will kill your creature. This would not be particularly helpful to gain the +2/+0 and is obviously not the intended use of the card ;). However, a creature with Last Gasp might give you some additional effect that you might prefer to get. Usually, you want your creature to survive to deal the damge, so you might want to run Sword of Inferno in a deck with creatures with 3 health or more. Ideally, these would come with Slay or Drain effects to benefit from the 2 damage being dealt to another creature.

Another awesome use for Sword of Inferno is to put it on creatures with Ward that benefit from the Ward being broken, e.g. Daggerfall Mage, Breton Conjurer or Iliac Sorcerer.

If you equip a Breakthrough creature with the Sword, you might even land a single point of Breakthrough damage when hitting a creature with 1 health. Why am I mentioning this? Because Crusader fans just got a cool new synergy.

But before we look at synergy, let’s run this new card through the various phases of the game, using Quadrant Theory.

Quadrant Theory

Opening

As with every item, you need to have a creature on the board to be able to play it. With a cost of 2, Sword of Inferno is perfectly playable during Opening, but you should be careful to not kill your own creatures and have enough 1/3’s or 2/3’s in your deck to benefit from the +2/+0 burst and the 2 damage removal option. The ward synergy with Daggerfall Mage or Breton Conjurer give you the benefit of their Ward being broken, a 2-damage removal option and with a Wardcrafter or Lesser Ward in hand you can do some really powerful plays during the game opening.

Note, also, that the item would allow you to remove an opponent’s creature that is hidden in the Shadowlane. Good bye, Graystone Ravager and Bog Lurcher…

Parity

At Parity, Sword of the Inferno can help remove one smaller creature, while the +2/+0-boosted creature can trade favourably into another. If the Sword leave you with a 2-for-1 trade and retain another higher value creature undamaged, then you have just made a good play and helped to stay at Parity or potentially got on the road to be winning the game.

Winning

When winning, the +2/+0 gives additional burst and the removal is also an interesting option to avoid more trades and keep board control. In this phase the card is not a monster, but can help for a good cost to deal more damage over the final 2-3 turns.

Losing

When you need a turnaround, your opponent will have some bigger threats or multiple smaller threats on the board. In the second case, the Sword can help in removing and trading against two creatures. In the first case, you might not be able to get a 2:1 trade as the 2 damage will likely not be enough to kill that bigger threat. However, with some synergy to Ice Storm (or other lane removal) or Breton Conjurer, you might find some good value even in this phase of the game. Not to forget the option to use this card on a Drain creature to regain some life while damaging another creature and giving you better trade option.

Summary

You will definitely want to experiment with this very versatile card in the upcoming season and it will likely see consistent play over the longer term. It has value in all quadrants and can swing the game in your favour during Opening. It might become a staple in Battlemage decks that are running Daggerfall Mage and Breton Conjurer. Let’s look for more synergies for the Sword of the Inferno to find some other decks it might be considered for.

Synergies

Ward

Iliac Sorcerer

Assassin’s Ritual

Daggerfall Mage

Breton Conjurer

Any creature with Ward will be protected from the 2 damage. In Warrior, you can play Iliac Sorcerer on turn one, play the Sword of the Inferno on him, and swing with 6/1 on turn two.

In Dagoth or Battlemage, you can use it on Daggerfall Mage or Breton Conjurer and leverage other creatures or supports to regain the Ward.

In Dagoth, there is a huge opportunity to equip a (Slay!) creature with Assassin’s Ritual and kill a large threat hiding in the Shadowlane. Great value!

Crusader’s Assault

Crusader’s Assault is a great card to draw two cards. If you have 5 magicka, you can play Crusader’s Assault and then Sword of the Inferno on the same creature to remove a 1-health creature this will draw two cards. You can then swing into another creature to draw another two cards. You can use Forsworn Looter as tutor for the item and Silent Pilgrim to tutor a Crusader’s Assault.

Drain

Ebonheart Oracle

Apex Wolf

Nightshadow

Drain synergy gives the Sword of the Inferno a great ability to regain life in the same turn it is played. You would need a higher health drain creature like Apex Wolf, Undying Dragon, Ebonheart Oracle or Nightshadow to allow the drain creature to survive. Particularly Ebonheart Oracle will be a cool target for Sword of Inferno before it swings – it becomes a 5/5, deals 2 damage to a creature, 2 damage to itself and can swing for 5: this makes for a life gain of 18 (thanks to Of_Moon_And_Stars for pointing this out).

Slay

Merchant’s Camel

Falkreath Defiler

The Black Dragon

Brotherhood Slayed

Lucien Lachance

Child of Hircine

In a Warrior deck with Falkreath Defiler, Sword of Inferno can do absolutely broken things on turn 5, assuming your Indoril Masterminds or Merchants Camels were able to get a Frost Giant, an Iron Atronach, a Gortwog gro-Nagorm, an Aspect of Hircine or something equally fun into your discard pile, by then.

Lucien Lachance is a Friend of Sword of the Inferno, and putting them into the hands of Night Talon Lord or Blood Magic Lord will give them some good times as well.

In Archer, Dagoth or Hlaalu, there are also great cards with synergy: Astrid, Brotherhood Slayer, Pahmar-raht Renegade, Naryu Virian, Torval Extortionist, Black Dragon, Child of Hircine, Wild Fire Dragon to name a few.

Flaggelation Creatures

Fletcherfly Golem

Fearless Northlander

Fighters Guild Hall

Frost Troll

Brassilisk

Raging Horker

Gridstlehide Dreugh

Another interesting option is to equip Sword of the Inferno to Flaggelation creatures. When taking damage, Flaggelation creatures grow in power or trigger a special effect. Good examples are Fletcherfly Golem or Fearless Northlander in Strength or Frost Troll and a health-boosted Brassilisk in Endurance. The card draw effect of Gristlehide Dreugh might make him an option for inclusion in such “self-ping” or flaggelation decks.

Last Gasp

The Last Gasp effect of several creatures can be triggered by the item as well. However, unless the Cruel Firebloom / Balmora Spymaster combo, the positive +2/+0 effect of Sword of the Inferno is lost,  when the creature dies. Some Warrior decks might like the 5 health gained by Restless Templar, and the Sword of Inferno could be a nice trigger for this on the same turn to survive one turn longer. Otherwise, I am not convinced that the Sword of the Inferno is the most cost effective way to trigger a Last Gasp effect, as you can usually trade into something.

Summary

Definitely a great card for midrange Battlemage, due to the Ward-synergy. It can have cool uses in Warrior, Crusader and might become a stable in Slay decks. It will be very interesting to see the Sword of the Inferno in the meta tonight…

FrostSpark #10 - A look at uses and synergies of Sword of the Inferno on tesl.blog. It is an extremely versatile card!What do you think about Crusader's Assault + Sword for a draw of 4 cards? #teslegends The tenth card in the FrostSpark Collection was revealed by Santosvella. The 2-cost item in the red Strength attribute gives +2/+0 and has a special Summon ability: The wielder deals 2 damage to itself and another creature.

[holoir]

Death Hound, the ninth card of the FrostSpark Collection for The Elder Scrolls Legends has been revealed at TwitchCon by Bethesda. With the purple Endurance attribute being the one that has consistently the most powerful creatures in the game, Death Hound is no exception: a 5-cost Beast + (Skeleton — to be confirmed) with powerful stats of 6/6 and Guard.

Sounds like another powerhouse, but similar to the 2-cost 5/5 Siege Catapult, or the 4-cost 7/7 Imprisoned Deathlord, the Death Hound also comes with a bit of a caveat. The card reads: “Death Hound’s power is equal to its health”. It’s a new effect, that can swing both ways – when Health is increased the Power also grows; when Health is reduced, the Power goes down as well. With this, Death Hound will be one of the first targets to see other creatures going against it and being a Guard, there is little you can do about this – no hiding in Shadow Lane, no hiding behind other Guards. I think the creature just hopes that everyone runs away from it’s fierceness, but when opposed, he can be like a poor, little dog and almost run away subdued…

Let’s look at the card using Quadrant Theory.

Opening

Death Hound is a big body for sure. This makes him a good option to look at, when building Dominate Aggro decks. While players struggle for board control in the early game, Death Hound can certainly trade favorably into two smaller creatures. However, if attacked by a 3/2 Charge and a 4/4 on the same turn, your opponent’s 4/4 will prevail as a 4/1. In contrast, Indomitable Ordinator a 5-cost 5/5 Guard would eat both of them, as his power value is not diminishing. In addition, the Ordinator can be Exalted by 1 magicka so that he cannot be targeted with actions. With Destruction Tutor (another card in the FrostSpark Collection), damage-actions just got a lot cheaper. So, actions can also be used very effectively to beat-down the power of the Death Hound, before trading into him. In Endurance, there are also cards like Shadowfen Priest or Hallowed Deathpriest that compete for the 5-cost slot. While Death Hound has better stats, both cards provide also a very powerful effect. In Warrior decks, the Death Hound is competing with Sower of Revenge as a 5-drop. The Hound has slightly better stats, but cannot deal 5 damage like the Sower would. In Scout decks, he is competing with Blighted Werebat and Brynjolf who both gain health, and in Spellsword, Redoran or Telvanni, there is also no lack of good 5-drops. So, while Death Hound is a really powerful creature, and he will see play, he might not be as good during the Opening phase of the game, as his stats would suggest.

Parity

At Parity, where the game board is stabilised and players have run out of cards, drawing Death Hound as a top deck would be a great draw. His power can shine here and you can pick the lane that needs defending and where the power distribution of your opponent’s creature gives you the best trades. Most likely will he be able to protect your other creatures in that lane for one round of further damage, and can get you another good round of beat down. Or you can play him into the empty lane and try to force your opponent to play in the other lane as well.

Winning

As you set-up a winning board position to put the opponent on a 2-3 turn clock, the Death Hound will equally support you with this. Your opponent might not have enough answers to play around him quickly enough. If your opponent does not manage to reduce the Death Hound’s health and power during his turn you have a very interesting opportunity to turn him into something bigger. All items that increase only Health would allow you to pull his power value up.

Losing

When to regain control of the board his body can help you absorb probably two swings, so this is certainly a way to buy you some time. However, you will most likely not kill both of those creatures that swing into the Death Hound. So in this quadrant he is a good, but not an excellent card.

Synergies

Enchanted Plate

Imperial Armor

Imposter’s Mission

Health-boosting items and Imposter’s Mission

When you play Death Hound into an empty lane there is this moment of silent prayer, where you will hope that your opponent cannot immediately Charge or otherwise damage your Death Hound with actions on their turn. With an unanswered Death Hound and an health-boosting item, such as Imperial Armor (Enchanted Plate, Redoran Battlespear or Hackwing Feather would also qualify with smaller effects though) you get an additional 6/6 to swing with – ideally a 12/12 creature. With another 4-magicka for Imposter’s Mission, you can get another 12/12 onto the board. Of course, for 9 magicka, you can play Death Hound and the Imposter directly. Maybe this can be an interesting idea for some OTK decks.

Health-Boosts and Healing in Spellsword

Summerset Shield Mage

Cleric of Kyne

East Empire Crafter

Bruma Profiteer

Restoration Tutor

In addition to the items, there are other creatures in Endurance or Willpower that could be used to boost the Death Hound’s Health. Bruma Armorer, or Cleric of Kyne provide the best boost, Summerset Shieldmage and East Empire Crafter do a little bit extra. Also any card, that provides Healing could make the Death Hound stick for another turn or two.

Galyn, Maple Shield, Shadowmere and Mentor’s Ring OTK

A rather meme-ish OTK option would be to use Galyn – the Shelterer to boost the Death Hound to 9/9 and then Maple Shields for 12/12 (with Goblin Scout) and a Charge creature (Shadowmere) with Mentor’s Ring.

Avoiding the Health-Beatdown

So you want to avoid your Death Hound getting damaged? Certainly, you could use Ward to protect him from at least a ping. A smarter move could be to use Grappling Hook to move (the only) one creature out of his lane and let him be uncontested. Another option is self-silencing him; in Scout you could even Shadow Shift him into the Shadow Lane for Cover protection.

Skeleton Tribal (not fully confirmed yet)

As Blood Hound is a Beast, but also a Skeleton, both Bone Collector and Skeleton Champion will give him a boost of +1/+1. Not a lot, but he might also be a decent guard to hide Grim Champion and Deathless Draugrs next to him. I see a Halloween-themed deck coming up.

Disclaimer: As the card was revealed on Twitch, player’s asked about the secondary race of the Death Hound and asked whether it was Skeleton. CVH was not 100% sure, so maybe it can also be Vampire, as Death Hounds are guard creatures for Vampires)

Counterplays

Cruel Firebloom

Brutal Ashlander

Weakness

Laydown Arms

Dawnbreaker

We have heard about Charge creatures as possible counterplays. In addition, any action that deals damage, such as Cruel Firebloom or Lightning Bolt or any Last Gasp effect that can deal damage to a creature (like Brutal Ashlander) can be a big help in beating down the health and the power of the Death Hound at the same time. In addition, any action that reduces health, such as Weakness, or Lay Down Arms (etc.) can be pretty helpful. Since he is a Skeleton, he is equally vulnerable against Dawnbreaker’s special removal ability. ,

Death Hound – Uses, Synergies and Counterplays Death Hound, the ninth card of the FrostSpark Collection for The Elder Scrolls Legends has been revealed at TwitchCon by Bethesda.

[holoir]

Harmony is the eighth card in the FrostSpark Collection, a new promo expansion for The Elder Scrolls Legends.  The 2-cost action in the yellow Willpower attribute has Prophecy and gives all enemy creatures -2/-0 until the start of your turn.

Note, how cool the card art is aligned to this effect: When played from hand, it “confuses” or “distracts”  all your opponent’s creatures with some green magic spell circling around their heads (I hope for a nice special effect in the game) for a power reduction of 2.

Harmony played from hand

You can use this “confusion” during your turn to trade your creatures favorably into those of your opponent. When trading against a 2-power creature, even a Lethal one, you will not get any damage dealt to your creature. This can be a big deal to keep your creature out of range for Ice Storms, or to leave it undamaged, so that Leaflurker (or other cards removing wounded creatures) don’t remove it.

On your opponent’s next turn, the -2/-0 modifier still applies to them. This means two less damage for each of their attacking creatures. Obviously, the value of Harmony increases with more creatures your opponent has on board: with 8 opponent creatures, you can avoid 16 of their total damage, with 2 creatures you can avoid (only) 4 damage.

So it can be neatly played after your opponent plays Tullius’ Conscription, leaving you with 9-10 magicka to hopefully be spending on other things.

Harmony as a Prophecy

The other use of Harmony is from the card being pulled as a Prophecy, after a rune is broken. In this case, Harmony can have almost no effect, .i.e. if your opponent has no more creatures to swing with; or it can have a bigger or smaller damage-reducing effect: the earlier you pull Harmony as a Prophecy during multiple swings, the better. On a very lucky day, the card might buy you one more turn if your opponent has a lethal board.

Note, the Harmony effect carries only until the beginning of your turn. Thus, you will not be able to trade favourably into your opponent’s cards having a -2/-0.

Quadrant Theory

Opening

Harmony can be a really good disruptive utility in the Opening phase of the game: when played from hand, it will allow you to trade favorably against your opponent’s creatures and significantly reduce the overall damage potential of an Aggro deck that has gone wide. In a meta that were dominated by Aggro Hlaalu or Aggro Token decks, Harmony would have decent disruptive use to slow down these aggro decks.

Deny your Opponent Charge and the taming of Territorial Viper

Notably, the -2/-0 effect renders 12 of all the 23 Charge creatures useless on your opponent’s next turn. Almost every charge creature that can be played with 1-5 magicka will no longer be charging, or merely be doing only a tiny bit of damage. This includes the 1/1 Territorial Viper, which is a staple field lane removal for every deck that runs the green Agility attribute. So which charge creatures below a cost of 5 can still attack?

The only 2-cost charge creature that could still attack under Harmony is Silvenar Tracker, who requires a damaged creature to be on the opponent’s side of the board.

At 4-cost, only Cliff Strider or a Rampaging Minotaur could be played as Ping creatures, each dealing only one damage.

At a cost of 5, a Battlefield Scrounger, a Cliff Racer, an Underworld Vigilante and a Woodorc Headhunter (in combo with another Orc already on board) could do

Also, when pulled as a Prophecy, your opponent will not be inclined to play many of their charge creatures.

Therefore, Harmony should be a strong card in a meta that relies on boards going wide or when a lot of charge creatures are flying around. When played, the card can allow you to trade favourably, protect you from charge creatures and can be a lifesaver if you have a full board, and your opponent enters Doomcrag Vampire into the game.

Push your own Charge

Let’s assume now, your deck contains a few of these cheap charge creatures. In this case, Harmony can help you to take out one or two of the “stunned” opponents and this will still leave your Charge creatures on the board. Assume you now had Doomcrag Vampire on the board and your opponent didn’t have hard removal. That would be a nice situation to be in.

Parity

Harmony as a top deck card can help you with making a few favourable trades and slow down your opponent. Played from hand at Parity, the card can be really good against an opponent who relies on lots of creatures as Harmony will slow him down. Against OTK combo decks that deal damage only from one massive swing, Harmony has a smaller effect, but can still buy you another turn.

As a Prophecy, she is potentially saving you some damage at Parity, if your opponent has multiple creatures on board.

Winning

When you are Winning and your opponent is forced to go all-in with his creatures to oppose yours, Harmony may help you as well, to either trade favourably or to keep swining and getting fewer creatures removed. Taking out your opponent’s charge creatures on their next turn can also be a big thing.

However, the card may also have no effect, e.g. if your opponent relies on removal actions, rather than creatures to deal with your winning position. Therefore, it will depend a little bit on the matchup, but certainly the card can have value, and with a cost of 2, it might allow you to remove the Lethal Guard that you would otherwise have to deal with using a larger creature. Harmony is certainly not like an Ancano or Tazkad as a finisher, but can still have good uses when played during the winning phase of the game.

Losing/ Turnaround

As an RNG effect, Harmony can buy you another turn as a Prophecy. The action is more solidly played when you are in a Losing position, when played from hand. The effect of reducing all your opponent’s creatures damage by -2 each, can be a real big thing. Pulling her as a Prophecy when you are loosing and your opponent still has swings left, can also be a disruption to buy you another turn to search for other options to turnaround the game.

The card is versatile and it will be interesting to see it entering the meta. As it has uses in several quadrants, so the card might be around for a bit. It can certainly help as a cheap counter against Conscription decks. It will be funny to see it in a Conscription mirror, actually. Meme-ish… 😉  Just today, 70% of all my matchups on the ladder were against Telvanni Conscription decks. But since there are other cards in FrostSpark that can help against Conscription decks, we can be hopeful to finally see a new meta emerge.

Synergies

Harmony, as a disruptive tool can be used offensively and defensively. As we have seen while discussing the effect on Charge creatures, it provides the ability to slow down your opponent’s charge creatures and to simply reduce the damage dealt can in a Dominate aggro matchup that’s gone wide.

Harmony in Dodge-Decks with Guards

Khuul Lawkeeper

Hive Defender

Lydia

Phalanx Exemplar

Auroran Sentry

Shrine Guardian

Oldgate Warden

Hackwing Feather

Indomitable Ordinator

Whiterun Protector

Nahagliiv

Harmony can also help decks that are running a lot of high-health Guard creatures and attempt to Dodge the opponent. Not many of these are currently to be seen in the meta, but we should look at the synergy of those cards nonetheless. If you play Harmony in a way that allows your Guard to survive just another turn, it might help you in any phase of the game.

Harmony supporting Creatures with Charge or Battle

Ashlander Zealot

Candlehearth Brawler

Cliffstrider

Battlefield Scrounger

Hunter-Killers

Creatures with Charge or Battle can also benefit from Harmony, as they can be used as removal. A few examples of creatures that can survive longer with your Harmony are Cliffstrider, Candhearth Brawler Battlefield Scrounger (gets good tempo with an item).

Harmony produces better targets for Slay-Creatures

Jiub

Morag Tong Aspirant

Falkreath Defiler

Brotherhood Slayed

The Black Dragon

Another interesting potential synergy is with Slay-creatures. Slay-creatures get their value from their slay effect being triggered over and over again. This means, the more often a creature can slay, the greater the value. Assume you can get Jiub to trigger or duplicate a Morag Tong Aspirant on turn 2. Getting more value out of Falkreath Defiler, Brotherhood Sanctuary or The Black Dragon could also be interesting for some decks. You would probably want to support the deck with Cloudrest Illusionist…

Harmony can help remove 4-,5 or 6-power creatures

Execute

Grisley Gourmet

Arrow Storm

Spiteful Dremora

Mecinar’s Will

Devour

Your Harmony can also disrupt your opponents 4-power creatures in combination with Execution, Grisley Gourmet, Spiteful Dremora or Arrow Storm. Good targets are 4-power creatures like Garnag, Cornerclub Gambler, Piercing Twilight or Emperor’s Blade. With Mecinar’s Will you can steal your opponent’s 5-power creature to give it charge and in combination with Devour, you can get keywords from 6-power creatures onto one of your dragons (or simply remove them). Hence, Harmony extends the use of some of the Willpower removal cards and makes them playable for a little bit longer into the game.

Harmony and Shearpoint Dragon

With Shearpoint Dragon also played on board, Harmony can even get another -1 on the opponent’s Power values. This synergy might give Monk and Hlaalu some even better trade options. I would almost want a few low-cost charge creatures in my hand to damage things without taking damage myself and drop a Fallnesti Reaver on the same turn. Ah, the meme combo’s are getting at me, here.

Summary

Another versatile card with an interesting new effect that can have uses in several decks. This first look cannot be exhaustive or predict all the possible uses that people will find, but has hopefully given you some interesting insights into the uses and synergies of Harmony. Please feel free to leave a comment below, if you have additional ideas or disagree. I would love to hear your opinion on this or any other card in the FrostSpark Collection.

Only three more cards to go – could the expansion come on directly after the last reveal?

Holoir

Harmony is card #8 in The Elder Scrolls Legends - FrostSpark Collection. Will we see more or less play of Charge or Battle creatures? Have a look at uses and synergies on: Harmony is the eighth card in the FrostSpark Collection, a new promo expansion for The Elder Scrolls Legends. 

[holoir]

Green Pact Ambusher - Uses and Synergies

Green Pact Ambusher Uses and Synergies - feels like a "balance patch" - card to counter Catapult Warrior & Conscription decks. Nicely done, Sparkypants. Read more on:

Warriors7 today revealed Green Pact Ambusher, the fifth card of the Frostspark Collection, the new promo expansion for The Elder Scrolls Legends. Green Pact Ambusher is a 2-cost 4/1 Wood Elf with Prophecy and Guard from the red Strength attribute. She has a very special ability which introduces a new mechanic to TESL: “At the end of your opponent’s turn, if they have a full lane and Green Pact…

[holoir]

The Justin Larson revealed the fourth card of the Frostspark Collection: Karthspire Scout, a 1-cost 1/1 Orc in the purple Endurance attribute. The card has an interesting Last gasp effect: it draws a card but increases the cost of that card by one magicka. Hm, is this good? Should you play it? I think the answer is yes – let’s look at it’s uses and later at it’s synergies.

Evaluating Karthspire Scout using Quadrant theory

Disencourages Opponent to remove it as it has card draw so has some stickiness

Opening: Pretty Good, when supported by Items

With a cost of 1 magicka you would expect Karthspire Scout to be strong in the opening of the game to get you to an advantageous board position. It’s certainly not a strong body, so it can trade with only a few creatures that have one health. So that’s not great.

However, it’s Last Gasp effect discourages your opponent from Firebolting or Executing it on their turn one, as you would get card advantage through the card draw.

Instead, your opponent might be inclined to play a 1/3 or 2/2 or 2/3 creature in the same lane to trade into it.

This “stickiness” of Karthspire Scout can allow you to equip the Orc with an item to trade favourably into two cards to gain more card advantage. Even if Karthspire Scout were stalled by Shrieking Harpy it wouldn’t be terrible, as you would still have the card advantage if you could trade into the Harpy on a later turn.

Hence, the card is relatively strong in this quadrant if you can get it equipped with an item.

Parity: Generally Weak, but good in Orc Warrior or Betray Scout or Telvanni

At Parity, Karthspire Scout does not make a big impact. The 1/1 body will make very little difference in turns 4-6. To be good in this phase of the game, the card will need to be supported with stronger cards that synergise with the Orc. And in fact, there are several Orcs, that required other Orcs to be presented for their special effects to become effective. Hence, the cheap Karthspire Scout can actually be a good bridesmaid for a few male members of the tribe. But for itself, the card is pretty weak.

Certainly, the last gasp card draw effect will also be useful at Parity, however, you will need another effect to trigger the last gasp effect consistently. If we are now thinking about Betray-decks, or self-damage effects, we might be on the right track to make this card shine. House Telvanni fans should have a big smile on their face.

Winning: Meh… Unless Used in Abomination Scout, Orc Warrior or Telvanni Where it can Shine

How can a 1/1 body be good in the Winning quadrant, when you are already on a three turn clock to win? The answer again – Orc synergies and more deck cycle…

Losing: Digging for a Solution…

A 1/1 body without Lethal or Guard is obviously useless when you are already losing the game. However, the card cycle effect can help you to dig for a solution if you don’t have one on hand, but you have to be able to trigger it very much on the same turn that you play Karthspire Scout. This actually does give the card decent utility in this quadrant when you can trigger it consistently. Again, Betray or self-ping decks might find uses; other decks should stay away.

To summarise: the card can be good in all quadrants, which makes me predict that this female Orc will see lots of play in a few archetypes. First one being:

Synergies

Orc Warrior

Wrothgar Kingpin

Stoneshard Orc

Bangkorai Butcher

Woord Orc Headhunter

Militant Chieftain

Orcs fight better together. A low-cost Orc like Karthspire Scout is a really great bridesmaid for some of the more powerful Orcs that rely on another Orc to be on the board, for example:

Wood Orc Headhunter: Yesterday, at the Warpmeta EU#10 tournament, one player would have won his semifinal game, if he had had a Karthspire Orc to trigger the charge effect on a Woodorc Headhunter. Bad luck she wasn’t around.

Wrothgar Kingpin gains +1/+1 from his beautiful bridesmaid and with the last gasp effect triggered on same turn you might be able to draw and play yet another Orc. Too bad for the marriage but maybe you find her twin sister?! Orcs

Stoneshard Orc let’s you remove a slightly bigger creature if you have Karthspire Orc on board as his bridesmaid,

Bangkorai Butcher – if he marries her at Parity you will see these Honeymooners be on a trip of joy, because the Butcher is now a lot bigger… (+2/+2)

Betray and Altar of Despair

For Betray decks, Karthspire Scout can be sacrificed easily, as it will immediately draw you another card (although that card is slightly made a bit more expensive). This allows you to cycle your deck faster while looking for combo pieces or stronger cards.

In addition, as a 1-cost, in an Altar of Despair deck you get a 2-cost body and another card to hand which will give you card advantage and help you in thinning your deck further.

Self-ping

It might not be the kindest way of dealing with the Orc-beauty, but if the Ravenous Crocodile damages her, you get another card draw, but a 3/4 body for 2 magicka. Could be a nice combo in Warrior or even Conscription

Redoran (Orc) Conscription

Let’s think about Karthspire Scout in Redoran Conscription: Karthspire Scout, Ravenous Crocodile, Stoneshard Orc, Ambitious Hireling, Orc Clan Captain. Praetorian Commander… no need to say more?! Could be nice, right?

Card draw in Ramp decks

Endurance is the weakest attribute when it comes to card draw options (see Card Draw #7: Card Draw Options in the Endurance Attribute). In a ramp Spellsword or Ramp Scout deck, the last gasp draw effect can get you to the cards that increase your magicka a little faster. The increase to the cost of the drawn card, might not even be as bad in a ramp deck. So, I would expect some will experiment with this

Petamax Abomination and other Cycle decks

Another opportunity for Shadowmarking sits with card cycling decks, relying on the deck being cycled almost completely in a short amount of time. Thieves Guild Fence, Disciple of Namira and Necromancer’s Amulet are some of the key cards in this case. Karthspire Scout could be a good addition to this type of deck as well.

So, another good card in the Frostspark Collection strengthening a few deck lists and giving us more room to experiment with. I am looking forward to this one.

And… Justin Larson – just amazing card reveal – thank you!

Frostspark's Karthspire Scout - Uses and Synergies: The Orc Warrior Bridesmaid, who opens with weapons, and supports her kinsmen winning. The Justin Larson revealed the fourth card of the Frostspark Collection: Karthspire Scout, a 1-cost 1/1 Orc in the purple Endurance attribute.

[holoir]

Shadowmarking, is the next card in the Frostspark Collection that was revealed today by Aquaman88 on his Twitch channel (in Russian). The 3-cost action allows you to look at the top three card of your deck – you then have to choose one card to put into your opponent’s hand and you will draw the other two.

Card Art and Lore

Just look at the card art – I find it simply amazing. It is worth spending some time to admire the card art and I can only imagine how the Shadowmark will be animated on the premium version of the card.

In The Elder Scrolls Legends, Shadowmarks are used by the Thieves Guild, so that buildings across Skyrim can be identified easily as to their potential usage for Thieves Guild Members. These symbols are usually carved next to the doorway of the building. The symbol that is being carved on the Shadowmark action cards in Legends stands for danger: “If you see this shadowmark, head the other way or take your life into your own hands. It means there is something ahead or beyond that door that wants to turn you inside-out” (from: the Shadowmarks book in Skyrim).

Let’s first use Quadrant Theory to evaluate the card and let’s look at synergies later – because there are a few really cool ones!

Evaluating Shadowmarking

The ability to draw three cards is a big thing in The Elder Scrolls Legends. It has the potential to make Shadowmarking one of the most powerful tools to cycle through your deck, e.g. when you are looking for the pieces of a combo, or just want to get through your deck as quickly as possible. There is already a good number of card drawing options in the green Agility attribute, but other than Cornerclub Gambler, Shadowmarking cannot be interrupted by your opponent. On the downside, however, the new Frostspark card also forces you to give one card from your hand to your opponent. This can cause some tough decisions, but might also provide for some interesting options.

Opening

Shadowmarking may, however, not be the best option if you are looking to get card advantage: while you play one card to draw two, your opponent also gets an additional card. Hence, playing Shadowmarking on turn 3 may actually not be the best use of the card. I would therefore consider it okay, but not great when looking at it’s value in the opening phase of the game. I believe the card will have it’s strength more in the later phases of the game.

Parity

At parity, depending on the matchup, Shadowmarking can provide a strong advantage if you are able to give your opponent a card that is much less valuable in the next few turns than the cards you get to keep. Let’s say it is turn 7 and you draw (in Control Archer) an Unstoppable Rage, Child of Hircine and a small creature – that would be your dream come true, right?  However, (in Control Scout) if you  drew a Hallowed Deathpriest, Almalexia and Nahagliiv, the decision is a little bit more difficult, isn’t it?

Assuming your deck is a control deck, the likelihood of drawing two powerful and one not so powerful card is not as bad.

If you are running Shadowmarking in a Goblin Archer Aggro deck, Shadowmarking will also likely have a positive effect as you might get your Murkwater Skirmisher or your Goblins faster, and this would enable you to give your opponent a non-Goblin card.

So, at Parity, a little bit further in the game – maybe at 6-7 magicka, the action may actually be servicing you pretty pretty well.

Winning

At turn three, if you are Winning (=ending the game in three more turns), Shadowmarking will potentially be costing you tempo and allow your opponent to regain board control. Thus, including the card in an aggro deck where your aim is to Dominate the opponent, Shadowmarking might likely distract you from your beatdown objective. The card will be much more suitable if you are running a Disrupt strategy, as you will more likely draw a suitable card to keep disrupting your opponent’s game plan (e.g. when you are looking to get a Silence effect or a support removal card).

Overall, I would give Shadowmarking an “okay” rating for it’s use in the Winning quadrant.

Losing/ Turnaround

When you are losing and looking for a turnaround, a card that helps you dig through your deck is a good tool. For a cost of three magicka, it does not provide an immediate effect, unless you get to draw the two cards in a way that let’s you play one more card on the very same turn.

Summary

To summarize – the card is good in three of the four quadrants (Parity, Winning, Losing). if your deck is slower, maybe aims at disturbing your opponent and does not follow a Dominate beatdown strategy. I believe it is a very powerful card that has the potential to influence the meta game. So, let’s look at some of the potential synergies to see which deck types it might run well with.

Shadomarking Synergies

One of the most obvious synergies is with the disruptive cards that Agility and Willpower have to offer.

Disruption Monk (Stealer Monk)

Arenthia Swindler

Penitus Oculus Agent

Mecinars Will

Ahnassi

Chodala’s Treachery

Gentleman Jim Stacey

In Disruption Monk, you would be aiming to interfere with your opponent’s game plan. You are looking to disrupt his plays, e.g. when he plays a creature with Lethal and Guard, you would run cards that would let you steal the keywords or the entire card. Hence, you could use Shadowmarking to give a card to your opponent, that you would later steal from them, i.e. you regain the card advantage, because he spends the magicka to play the card, while you get it’s positive effects. For example, Shadowmarking draws you an item and you would give your opponent that item. So he spends the magicka to equip it to one of his creatures, and you later play the Arenthia Swindler to steal the item back from him.

If you had Jim Stacey in hand, and played Shadowmarking at 10 magicka, you would potentially be able to get your opponent to return the third card you gave to him (if he has no cards in hand). Trickery, trickery, trick!

Certainly, similar synergies can be achieved with Miraak, Chodala’s Treachery, Arrest, Ahnassi and Mecinar’s Will. The tricky piece will be to draw a non-disruptive card from your deck and to hand that to your opponent.

It might be worth noting, that Shadowmarking will also help other Disrupt-type decks, e.g. those that rely on Shackle, Silencing and Removal effects, as it allows you to dig for those disruptive cards. Instead of Disruption Monk a Disruption Assassin or Disruption Scout might also be envisioned.

Hand Manipulation and Card Cycling Synergy

Thieves Guild Fence

Disciple of Namira

Necromancer’s Amulet

Another opportunity for Shadowmarking sits with card cycling decks, relying on the deck being cycled almost completely in a short amount of time. Thieves Guild Fence, Disciple of Namira and Necromancer’s Amulet are some of the cards to consider in this case. More details on the card cycling strategy can be found in Card Draw #9: Card Draw-Engines.

Studium Headmaster

Insightful Scholar

Thief of Dreams

Caius Cosades

Maybe even Arcaneum Librarian could be persuaded into looking at the Shadowmarking – assume you would find a Studium Headmaster and an Insightful Scholar at the same time?! Sounds like fun times to me… Could only be topped by a Thief of Dreams or a Caius Cosades with magical predictive capabilities…

Night Mother & Mass-Removal

A more far-fledged option for a meme-deck might be to include Shadowmarking into a deck that is using Night Mother as it’s win condition. When you then give your opponent a low-cost card that summons two or four tokens (Illusory Defenses, Marked Man, Scouting Patrol, Crassius’ Favor ) and you have a mass removal card in hand (Ice Storm, Dawn’s Wrath) that might be a neat trick. Probably not a very viable option, but maybe someone is courageous enough to give it a go…

Slay Control

If you like Slay Control decks, Shadowmarking might be a good opportunity to dig for your Slay creatures, while handing your opponent an easy-to-slay target (e.g. a creature with Guard and a power of zero could be ideal). You would hope that he plays that card…

Jiub and Cliff Racers

Okay, I admit, this is a personal obsession, but having Jiub in play, hidden behind a Guard and using Shadowmarking to hand over some Cliff Racers to your opponent is just a new mission for me, personally. Just forget, that you read this paragraph…. 😉

Summary

Well, the card has endless possibilities, and the ideas outlined in this article are only a first grasp at what might be possible. It is certainly a RNG effect, but also a potentially powerful card draw effect in midrange or control decks. What I like personally, is that Shadowmarking invites the player base to find interesting uses, and while some are definitely meme-yish and totally nonviable, others might be turned into a decent strategy against the current meta, that is so heavily dominated by Dominate Aggro (Siege Warrior, Siege Scout, Redoran or Hlaalu Aggro). If we assume that Conscription decks are mitigated by Piercing Twilight to some degree, then this card might well have some potential to counter some of the Dominate Aggro decks.

Shadowmarking - Uses and Synergies: Will Disruption Monk hit the meta soon? Thief of Dreams seeing play? Really? Read more on: Shadowmarking, is the next card in the Frostspark Collection that was revealed today by Aquaman88 on his…

[holoir]

The second card of The Frostspark Collection (that was revealed by Teamrankstar during their TRS Classic Tournament) is Apex Wolf, a yellow 6-cost Wolf with a power and health of 4 and both Breakthrough and Drain keywords. For this alone, the card would be understated – just compare it to the 6 cost 6/5 Night Shadow in the Endurance attribute.

Apex Wolf

So the power of the card must be sitting somewhere else – obviously a good candidate for this is it’s Last gasp effect, that draws the top creature of your deck and gives that creature Breakthrough and Drain as well. Hence, it provides an additional card draw that thins your deck by a creature, plus gives more life gain and more reach – certainly an interesting RNG effect. But is the card draw and the additional effect enough to make this card playable?

Quadrant Theory

Let’s apply Quadrant Theory: with a cost of 6, Apex Wolf is not a card you could play in the opening phases of the game. At parity, Apex Wolf puts a strong body on board that does not have an immediate effect and it is a little bit understated as well. With Breakthrough, Apex Wolf can effectively help in winning the game and provide a little bit of reach – although it is not a strong card – for 6 magicka there are more powerful cards with Breakthrough.

The main strength of Apex Wolf is in the Losing/ Turnaround quadrant: it provides life gain, a card draw and also the Drain keyword to the creature you draw. Again, for 6 magicka, there are stronger cards that provide Drain, except in the red Strengths and the blue Intelligence attributes. So the card could be a Turnaround card to consider in midrange or control Monk or Mage.

Still, I’m not 100% convinced the card will be good enough, unless there are strong synergies from other cards in the deck. Let’s look at some options:

Synergies

A Wolf Tribal deck rising?

Pack Leader

Alpha Wolf

Conjurer’s Spirit

Wolf Cage

The obvious synergy for Apex Wolf is in Wolf decks:

If Apex Wolf gets boosted by Pack Leader it gains another +1/+1 to become a 5/5

If Alpha Wolf is in play Apex Wolf gets a boost of +2/+0 – this makes him a 6/4 with Breakthrough and Drain, so a pretty powerful beast,

If Wolf Cage is in play, the newly summoned Wolves get another +1/+1

If Conjurer’s Spirit is in play, the Drain effect can help summon 2/2 Familiars (Wolf Ghosts)

Definitely, Apex Wolf will be a worthy inclusion in any tribal wolf deck. Whether that will be enough to move Wolves deck to a higher tier remains to be seen. But definitely something one can experiment with…

Thieves’ Den and Pilfer Breakthrough Synergy

Thieves’ Den

Skooma Underboos

By providing Breakthrough and Drain for itself and ideally another creature, Apex Wolf gets an option in a deck running Thieves’ Den. Here, the Breakthrough effect will make the card stronger for its next attack and also provides the keywords to another card in the deck. Apex Wolf could be worth trying in Monk or Hlaalu decks that are also running Haalfingar Marauder. With Skooma Underboss and Thieves Den, the Pilfer/Breakthrough effect of the card could go crazy even when slaying your opponent’s creatures.

Unstoppable Rage

Unstoppable Rage

Obviously, a card with Breakthrough and Drain will obviously be a good inclusion in any deck that runs Unstoppable Rage. Maybe in a Wolf Crusader or in Control Hlaalu? Definitely worth a try…

Charge-heavy decks

World-Eater’s Eyrie

Aspect of Hircine

Swiftwing Dragon

Apex Wolf can also have a great effect in decks with a reasonable number of Charge creatures (~18 or more cards with that keyword in a 50 card deck). In such decks, the Breakthrough/ Drain combination can make the Wolf a winning card if it provides that attribute to a charge creature. Consider a deck with World-Eater’s Eyrie and Swiftwing Dragon and Aspect of Hircine as finishers.

Altar of Despair and Last Gasp Synergies

Altar of Despair

Necrom Mastermind

The strong Last Gasp effect makes the card an interesting option for Altar of Despair decks where it can be sacrificed to advance the Altar, and at the same time provide card advantage and equip another creature with Breakthrough and Drain. I’m not aware of any Wolf-Token Altar decks, but maybe this can be something new to investigate a little further.

In addition, the usual Last Gasp synergy with Necrom Mastermind can help to get more value out of the Apex Wolf. Currently Necrom Mastermind decks are not played oftentimes on the ladder, so maybe Apex Wolf can help to bring him into a few more decks?!

Spriggans, Ebonheart Oracle and Ring of Namira

Ring of Namira

Shadowgreen Elder

Green-Touched Spriggan

Ebonheart Oracle

Another synergistic combination for Apex Wolf is with Ebonheart Oracle, Ring of Namira and Animal Monk, where Spriggans like Green-Touched Spriggan benefit from the health gain and Shadowgreen Elder would boost Apex Wolf with +2/+2 as well. Another midrange Monk that could become a bit more viable with Apex Wolf in it.

In-Deck Creature Buffing

Caius’ Machinations

Praetorian Commander

Another interesting synergy for Apex Wolf could be around cards that buff the cards in your deck. Examples are Caius’ Machinations, an action that gives the top three creatures in your deck a buff of +1/+1, or Praetorian Commander, who gives all creatures in your deck a buff of +1/+1. While Apex Wolf summons the top creature in your deck, this could be a nice additional boost in Wolf Spellsword or in Redoran Conscription type decks.

Summary

Some will say, the card is just too weak based on it’s stats. The card certainly makes Wolf tribal decks a bit more viable. It also provides some interesting synergies to some existing deck ideas (like Animal Monk/ Spriggan decks), predominantly as a turnaround or as a winning card, so definitely an interesting card to try in a few different ways. Certainly, the card will not see a lot of play in aggro decks. It’s only going to see a bit of play possibly in some niche midrange or control decks. Should be fun to see more Monk decks on the ladder!

Apex Wolf - More Monk decks coming to ladder soon?! Read about uses and synergies: The second card of The Frostspark Collection (that was revealed by Teamrankstar during their TRS Classic Tournament) is Apex Wolf, a yellow 6-cost Wolf with a power and health of 4 and both Breakthrough and Drain keywords.

[holoir]

Bethesda announces the FrostSpark Collection

Bethesda announces Frostfspark - 11 card expansion for @teslegends. First card revealed is Piercing Twilight!

Today, Bethesda announced Frostspark, a new 11 card expansion for The Elder Scrolls Legends for the price of 9.99 USD or 1500 gold (non-premium). Frostspark will also be released as a fully premium version that can be purchased for 19.99 USD (but not for gold). They explained on the weekly TESLegends twitch stream that the expansion will help mitigate some current issues in the meta.

They also…

[holoir]

Frenzied Allit is the Monthly Reward card for November 2018 in The Elder Scrolls Legends. The 1-cost Reptile comes with a power of 1 and a health of 3, making it more resilient to damage than most 1-cost creatures. Frenzied Alit is another “flagellation”  creature: it increases in power by +1/+0 when it takes damage. As with every monthly reward card, you will need to reach

rank 1 to receive three copies of the card by the end of this month,

rank 5 to get two copies of the card,

and rank 9 for a single copy of Frenzied Alit.

Let’s evaluate at the card using Quadrant Theory, before we look at additional uses and synergies with other cards.

Frenzied Alit in Quadrant Theory

Opening

With a cost of 1 magicka, Frenzied Alit is definitely be a decent option during the game opening as you are attempting to establish board control. The flagellation ability makes Frenzied Alit a better choice if your opening game plan is to fight your opponent’s creatures for board control. If your game plan is to maximize damage to your opponent’s face immediately from turn one onwards, the card does not offer the greatest power value. Ideally, you want to use the Alit to kill a 1/1 creature and a 1/2 creature during opening, which will develop him into a 3/1 as a result. If you are facing a lot of Token decks, the Alit might be a good choice to deal with these small threats early while sustaining your board presence.

Parity

At Parity, Frenzied Alit alone offers little value. His 1/3 body does not have much of an impact on the board. It lacks a Guard or Charge attribute to make at least a bit of an immediate impact and is just too small a body to make an impact. Frenzied Alit requires support from other cards to make a reasonable impact during this phase of the game. There are a few options that allow you to retain and increase value considerably, but it will require a special built-to-purpose deck.

Winning

Equally, when you are winning the game, a 1/3 body alone does not make much of a difference. Frenzied Alit just is not the big body or the guard removal action that you are looking for, when you are starting to swing for victory.

Losing/ Turnaround

Unfortunately, the same is true when you are losing the game – Frenzied Alit alone will not allow you to make much of a comeback when the game is already well-progressed. A 1/3 body, even if it’s growing power a little bit, is not that much of a threat to your opponent’s larger creatures.

Summary

By using Quadrant Theory, we can see that the card offers opportunities during game opening for decks that care about board control in the early game. Since most Aggro or mid-range decks do care about this, he is generally worth considering. However, as the card does require a lot of synergistic cards to offer at least some combo-value in all the other quadrants, we shall expect that the card will see play only in very tailored decks. Prime candidates for this are flagellation, health-boosting and / or healing decks. Each having a game plane of allowing it’s creatures to stick for a longer time on the board and wanting to kill multiple of their opponent’s creatures.

Synergies

Sword of the Inferno and other Items

Sword of the Inferno

Legion Shield

Yew Shield

Enchanted Plate

Imperial Armor

Hackwing Feather

Dawnbreaker

With Sword of the Inferno being one of the most popular cards in the recent FrostSpark Collection, an obvious synergy exists with this two-cost item. If played on Frenzied Alit, Sword of the Inferno makes him effectively a +3/+1 while also dealing 2 damage to another creature. In an aggro deck, this would allow you to swing three damage to your opponent’s face in turn two, while likely removing one of your opponent’s creatures. However, Frenzied Alit couldn’t easily be buffed further on from here. Also, he is not the best 1-cost creature to synergize with the Sword. So use this with caution.

To boost Frenzied Alit even further, you would need to consider items granting more health, such as Enchanted Plate or potentially even Imperial Armor. With a Hackwing Feather, a 3-cost item, providing +1/+3 and the Regenerate keyword, you can basically create a mini-version of the Frost Troll that does not grow as aggressively but can have a similar effect.

Equipping an item that provides the Guard keyword would actually help Frenzied Alit a lot in the dodge department and make him a reasonable blocker for your opponent. The 2-cost Legion Shield could promote the Alit into a 3- cost Hive Defender. And a Yew Shield would be just perfect in a Token matchup.

Another option is to simply use a very powerful item, such as Dawnbreaker or an Heirloom Greatsword to buff his attack value. With this, you would have a powerful threat swinging for face, that could also be used to kill-off creatures with 2 power or less for an additional greater swing next turn.

Healers and Health Boosts

Another category of cards with reasonable synergy are cards that can heal Frenzied Alit from any damage he has already taken, as well as any cards that boost his health even further.

Healing Hands

Almalexia’s Disciple

Blackrose Herbalist

Plea to Kynareth

Restoration Tutor

Bruma Profiteer

Ring of Imaginery Might

Healers allow you to get more value from Frenzied Alit, as they heal any previous damage, allowing him to keep engaged in the fight for the board:

Healing Hands – As a 0-cost card that heals and provides an additional +1/+1 boost, this action is a cheap alternative to strengthen Frenzied Alit during game opening.

The Exalt ability of Almalexia’s Disciple would allow you to heal Frenzied Alit and all your other creatures for a cost of 4-magicka. Potentially a reasonable consideration, when you have been able to develop your board a bit wider.

Once each turn, Blackrose Herbalist can heal one of your random creatures in play.

Plea to Kynareth allows you to heal Frenzied Alit alongside all other creatures in the same lane and boost them by +1/+1.

Restoration Tutor can heal a creature when summoned.

Health-Boosting Creatures can also help to grow Frenzied Alit further while fighting for board control:

With Bruma Armorer in play, Frenzied Alit would immediately gain +0/ +2 when summoned, which would allow him to grow a bit further.

Ring of Imaginery Might could be used to convert Frenzied Alit into a 5/5 creature, which is about average, when considering the cost of 5 magicka needed to play both cards. If your deck already runs the Ring or is built around it, then Frenzied Alit might be a reasonable addition.

Flagellation Decks

Raging Horker

Fighters Guild Hall

Fearless Northlander

Brassilisk

Frost Troll

Gridstlehide Dreugh

Fletcherfly Golem

The game plan in Flagellation Decks is to boost your creatures by self-pinging them or while fighting for board control. Oftentimes, this allows you to snowball these creatures into much bigger threats. In addition, some healing or health-gaining cards can help not only Frenzied Alit, but also your other Flagellation creatures to endure one or two additional turns.

One of the key cards for this deck is Fighters Guild Hall. This support adds +2/+0 to a creature that’s been dealt damage to. Assume you get Frenzied Alit on turn one and the Hall on turn 2, you might use the Alit to kill a 1-health creature, making him a 4/2 which is decent attack-value for the cost of three magicka.

Furthermore, Flagellation decks include additional cards that benefit from taking damage, as well as card that can be used to inflict damage to your own creatures.

Flagellation Creatures

Raging Horker is pretty similar to Frenzied Alit, although the Horker is gaining +1/+1 for a cost of one additional magicka

Fearless Northlander is a 2-cost 2/5 who gains +2/+0 when taking damage.

Brassilisk, a 3-cost 2/2 Fabricant, summons a copy of itself in the other lane when it takes damage and survives

When the 4-cost 1/6 Frost Troll takes damage, he gains that same amount of power. With Regenerate, the Frost Troll can be developed into a bigger threat across multiple turns.

Whenever the 5-cost 3/5 Gristlehide Dreugh takes damage and survives, you will draw an additional card.

Whenever Fetcherly Golem takes damage and survives, you summon a 2/2 Fetcherfly Swarm.

Cards with Self-ping effect

To allow you to control, when your creatures get this power-boost, your flagellation deck will also likely run a few self-ping cards like Rapid Shot, Sharpshooter Scout, Firepot Spider, Skaven Pyromancer, Dushnikh Yal Archer, Valenwoord Huntsman or even Wildfire Dragon.

Firepot Spider

Rapid Shot

Sharpshooter Scout

Ravenous Crocodile

Skaven Pyromancer

Valenwood Huntsman

Dushnikh Yal Archer

Wildfire Dragon

Summary

Obviously Frenzied Alit is not a super powerful card that will dominate the meta for the next couple of month. Monthly Reward cards have never been designed like this, and also they should not be. As they are a bit more difficult to get for new players who are joining the game later on, they have usually strengthened a somewhat under-rated theme, and attempted to make it a bit more viable.

And Frenzied Alit does a decent job at this. It expands the Flagellation theme in a reasonable way and adds an additional flagellation creature for these types of decks. I have already seen a few flagellation decks on the ladder this month and would expect a few more coming our way in early December.

Outside of this archetype, the card has reasonable use during the Opening phase, particularly against Token decks and when combined with the appropriate items or health boosting/healing cards, the Alit can add much more value than meets the eye, initially. It is great to finally see the Monthly Reward cards coming back as an “insitutation” to The Elder Scroll Legends.

Good luck for the last days on the ladder!

Look what I found after my morning-flagellation ritual. ;) I was dusting cards from today's #teslegends Festival of Madness and found: Frenzied Alit Have a look at uses and synergies on tesl.blog: Frenzied Allit is the Monthly Reward card for November 2018 in The Elder Scrolls Legends. The 1-cost Reptile comes with a power of 1 and a health of 3, making it more resilient to damage than most 1-cost creatures.

[holoir]

Sorcerer Beatdown Deck: Merlin, the Moose - Blood Warriors Guild Weekly

Congrats, @GicaForta for winning the Blood Warriors Guild Weekly #teslegends Deck competition. His deck is called: Merlin, the Moose. It's a super-solid Sorcerer Beatdown featuring the "Moose" for resource extension. Write-up here:

Hail and Well Met! The Blood Warriors Guild is back with another Weekly Deck for The Elder Scrolls Legends. This time we are proud to introduce you to Merlin, Moose Sorcerer, a classic mid-range beatdown deck. The guild members voted to design a Sorcerer deck with at least one card from the new FrostSpark Collection. By a clear margin, GicaForta won the competition with a deck that helped many…

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The final card reveal for The Elder Scrolls Legends FrostSpark Collection is Wilds Incarnate, a 7-cost 5/6 Neutral Beast with Guard and a pretty interesting Summon effect: Draw a card if you have four runes. Draw an additional card if you have five runes.

Wilds Incarnate

The Elk (?) comes with good statistics for a Guard, although 5/6 is not the greatest Guard at 7-cost. His summon ability, however, gives a card draw opportunity under a rather novel condition. It draws one or two cards if by turn 6 or 7 (or higher) only one or none of your runes have been broken yet.

If you are playing against aggro this will be rather difficult to do, and there is currently only Morokei, the Deathless who can restore rune 5 or 6. Obviously, the effect of Wilds Incarnate is targeted against Combo or Control decks. Those usually do not attack the opponent’s face before turn 10 or 12 to avoid that any cards be given to them. In such match-ups, Wild Incarnate will be a good tech choice. Before we look at synergies, let’s quickly look at evaluating the card using quadrant theory.

Quadrant Theory

Opening

With a cost of 7 you can forget playing the card from hand. No use here. The only (meme) options to get it into play would be to tutor it (not possible, currently), or to use Falkreath Defiler to draw him from the discard pile (see Sword of the Inferno – Uses and Synergies).

Parity

A different assessment at Parity – a 5/6 Guard as a top deck card, can certainly help with a few favourable trades and stop damage. The additional potential card draw can be the “Tüpfelchen on the i”, or the icing on the cake. Thumbs up for the Incarnate, here.

Winning

A very similar situation when you are winning. A big body, that can be played next to some of your smaller ones to protect them, so your damage train can roll. Similar to Parity, if you get card advantage from his Summon ability, you will likely be able to continue the steam roll.

Losing

Wilds Incarnate is also a good option when you need a turnaround. The Guard keyword will likely let you block a lane and get to trade for one or two creatures. Guard creatures are always a little bit risky to be relied on when losing, because your opponent could have removal or a silence effect which might let him continue to beat you down.

Synergies

Aggro Steam Engine to compete past turn 7

If you are running an Aggro Deck and playing against Midrange, you will have noticed it: the Midrange player will have very, very, very little incentive to break any of your runes, as this would give you additional cards. All their removal and Guards and everything is just thrown in your way to break the waves of your attacking creatures. He is fighting for the board and will oftentimes avoid to hit you below 26 health.

Usually, around turn 6 or 7 your offensive runs out of steam and the midrange player gets to control the board. How often have you been thinking – oh, I wish I had just one or two more cards to take the last 3 points of health”? Well, Wilds Incarnate is here for you. His role in an aggro deck is very similar to that of Triumphant Jarl, who has been a staple for many red aggro decks. While the Jarl is a little bit cheaper (6-cost, 4/4), Wilds Incarnate may has some advantages:

it has Guard and can protect other creatures in a lane to make them survive another turn, which can just be the one turn you might need,

as a Neutral card, it can be put in any aggro deck of any attribute, class or house,

it has slightly better stats (granted: for one more magicka).

If Wilds Incarnate were to enter the meta consistently, it might make midrange players consider to break a rune (or two) a little bit earlier on. This should make games more interesting.

Singleton – Morokei, the Deathless

Morokei, The Deathless

Siege of Stros M’Kai

Seht’s Masterwork

A Night to Remember

Ulfric’s Uprising

Dark Rebirth

Doppelganger

In Singleton, you can use Morokei, the Deathless to restore one or multiple runes. This can be done by re-triggering the Morokei’s summon effect multiple times. For example, an Ulfric’s Uprising or a Dark Rebirth might help with this, or a Doppelganger. Would be quite cool to draw maybe even four cards across two turns in Singleton.

Neutral Synergy

Verminous Fabricant

Shalk Fabricant

Kagouti Fabricant

Nix-Hound Fabricant

Hulking Fabricant

Verminous Fabricant, Shalk Fabricant, Kagouti Fabricants, Nix-Hound Fabricant and Hulking Fabricant all rely on a neutral card to be in play. Granted, they do not see play very often, although they do have some value. I just thought I would highlight them for re-consideration.

Summary

I guess there was not too much to say about Wilds Incarnate. It seems like a pretty solid and straight forward card that is strong in at least two, if not three, of the four quadrants. Now, let’s hop onto the ladder and give FrostSpark Collection a try.

FrostSpark #11: Wilds Incarnate - Uses and Synergies. Hope you enjoy a quick card review. Have fun playing with the new expansion - very excited that new content is here! #teslegends back in action, after two hard months! #goodtimes The final card reveal for The Elder Scrolls Legends FrostSpark Collection is Wilds Incarnate, a 7-cost 5/6 Neutral Beast with Guard and a pretty interesting Summon effect: Draw a card if you have four runes.

[holoir]

In today’s Combo, Wombo – Bam, we will be looking at a classic One-Turn-Kill (OTK) combo that works as a finisher in very action-heavy control decks. The centerpiece of this combo is Stealer of Secrets, a 6-cost 1/1 creature with Ward that has a very unique summon effect: “Summon: +1/ +1 for each action in your discard pile.”  Have a look at the nice card art. When looking at it, I always thought, smoking can kill you one day 😉

Shadowmere

Mentor’s Ring

Stealer of Secrets

Anyway. The idea is to put as many actions into your discard pile and to use a strengthened Stealer of Secrets with the likes of 26 power or more to finish your opponent in one go. As the Stealer cannot immediately attack after he is played, we need to give him charge by playing a low-cost charge creature (like Shadowmere) with a Mentor’s Ring from hand.

The combo therefore has a cost of 12 magicka in total, and is accessible to all (control) decks that run the blue Intelligence attribute and play a lot of actions. For decks running both Intelligence and Strength (Battlemage, House Dagoth), the combo costs a minimum of 11 magicka, when you use Nord Firebrand as the charge creature.

Deckbuilding – Strategies and Hints

Here are a few Stealer of Secrets OTK decklists for your inspiration:

Morrowind’s Stealer OTK: A complete and up-to-date Battlemage decklist with an extensive guide and further discussion by Max_Mystel

Dagoth Stealer OTK: The main goal of the deck is to control the board with actions and lethal creatures and use as many actions as possible until you have the combo. The decklist was created by saiyan. It also features a second combo that will be featured in another Combo, Wombo – Bam!

HOM OTK Stealer BM – This deck was run by r4d1cAL in top 40 legend ranks with an above 60% winrate. Interesting addition to the deck is Therana, who multiplies the available actions in this control deck until you get the combo. The deck requires a relatively good card pool though and is maybe a bit more expensive to craft.

Meta MeMe Mage – This deck from SpoilerULose uses cards from the FrostSpark Collection as well as the October Monthly Reward card Altmer Dragonknight. It comes with a second win condition, which is snowballing your actions to buff Crystal Tower Crafter.

To build your own Stealer of Secrets OTK deck, you will definitely want to include lots of (removal) actions that help you to control the board. In addition, you might want to try including any of the following cards that do have some additional synergy:

Dragon Priest Mask: a 6-cost item that you play on Stealer of Secrets to trigger’s his summon effect again. This card has very nice synergy as you will need much fewer actions in your discard pile.

Doppelganger: A 5-cost creature that clones Stealer of Secrets, so if one isn’t enough, maybe two will get you the power stats you need to beat down your opponent in one turn.

Ulfric’s Uprising: A Neutral 7-cost action from the Forgotten Hero Collection. If you can’t get Mentor’s Ring or a Charge creature to hand, you can play the Stealer already if you feel your opponent has little hard removal in hand. It’s an expensive action, but it almost doubles the Stealer’s power. Similar to Dragon Priest Mask, but also triggers other cards with summon effects, so that might provide some interesting additional synergy. Maybe you want a Shrieking Harpy to shackle something, that could hit your Stealer?

Merchant’s Camel: This neutral 4-cost 1/4 creature let’s you cycle through the cards in your draw pile faster to find the combo pieces. It is probably a good inclusion in any combo type deck, of course.

Genius Pathmage: This 6-cost 4/4 Breton can be used to tutor Stealer of Secrets from your draw deck. Alternatively, you can also use it to tutor Shadowmere, if you have the Stealer already in hand or in play.

Dragon Priest Mask

Doppelganger

Genius Pathmage

Ulfric’s Uprising

Videos – The Combo in Action

Several content creators have also shared videos of the combo on YouTube.

Here is the Battlemage version from CVH:

CVH also provides a deck tech guide on this combo.

This is SpoilerULose‘s Mage version, available on his YouTube channel: the deck is running some of the latest cards (as of November 2018).

How to get the cards for the combo?

So how do you get the cards required for this combo? You get most of the cards from The Fall of the Dark Brotherhood story expansion.The most difficult part to craft is Mentor’s Ring, but here are the details:

Stealer of Secrets is available in The Fall of the Dark Brotherhood story expansion,

Mentor’s Ring is a legendary card from the Core Set,

Nord Firebrand is a common card from the Core Set. However, using this charge creature limits you to use the combo in the Battlemage class (red/blue) or in House Dagoth (red/blue/green),

Shadowmere is a unique legendary card from the The Fall of the Dark Brotherhood story expansion.

Hope you liked the summary, please give the archetype a go, to try it. It is really fun to play. If you have any feedback or remarks, please do leave a comment. Also, I’d like to hear what other combo deck you would like to see discussed.

Building a #teslegends combo-library on @blogtesl: today's "Combo, Wombo - Bam" features a classic: the Stealer of Secrets OTK. With decklists, strategy guide and a few embedded videos from @IamCVH - thanks to him for creating these In today's Combo, Wombo - Bam, we will be looking at a classic One-Turn-Kill (OTK) combo that works as a finisher in very action-heavy control decks.

[holoir]

Jele77 today revealed the seventh card for the FrostSpark Collection: Destruction Tutor. The 5-cost 3/5 High Elf reduces the cost of your actions that deal damage by 2 magicka. Another interesting effect that applies while Destruction Tutor is in play.

  Let’s look at the card using Quadrant Theory.

Quadrant Theory

Opening

With a cost of 5, the card can only be played during the late part of the opening. When played at 4 or 5 magicka, you can potentially immediately play a 0-cost Firebolt or a 0-cost Sorcerer’s Negation from hand to also damage a creature on board. The stats of 3/5 also provide sufficient protection from hard removal: neither Lightning Bolt nor Reverberating Strike will destroy it, and it’s also not targetable by Fell the Mighty nor by Execute. Piercing Javelin, Cast into Time or Edict of Azura will however remove it of course. Nonetheless, the card is a serious threat during Opening and can keep your momentum to control the board.

Parity

If you draw her at Parity as a top deck, she can be a good option when you still have removal actions in hand or can get more action cards to hand. At this point in the game, she should obviously be surrounded with a strong card draw engine, as her special ability relies on a high number of actions flowing through your hand and dealing their damage.

Winning

Her special ability makes Destruction Tutor an interesting option to secure board control while you are on a 2- or 3-turn clock towards winning. She can help in securing your position by supporting creature removal through cheap actions, allowing you to continue to play creatures as well. A 1-cost Reverberating Strike can remove a Guard(s) or even multiple tokens on turn 5 or 6 to bring home your victory. Of course, a 2-cost Lightning Bolt for an additional reach of 4 will equally come in handy. She can definitely be a good card in this phase of a game.

Losing/ Turnaround

If your opponent is on a two turn clock, Destruction Tutor can do you good if you have action cards in hand, that help to remove creatures. With her in play you might be able to play two or even three of those actions from hand and even get a body on board that can maybe help in removing another creature. Whether this will be enough to stabilize the board enough really depends on the synergy cards you have on hand or can quickly draw to hand.

Synergies

Card Draw

Card draw options are key to get Destruction Tutor’s special ability to shine. One of the best choices in Battlemage or House Dagoth decks is Ash Berserker. Combined with a 5-cost creature he draws you a card consistently and with a him, another 5-cost creature, and the Destruction Tutor on board, your opponent might have a hard time in deciding which card to remove first, as such a trio can easily cause 12 damage or more in one turn.

Another awesome combination in Mage is Ayrenn. She also reduces the cost of (all) actions by 1 and lets you redraw an action from your discard pile when summoned. Definitely a strong pair of High Elves.

Another potentially interesting option that might be tried out is a Prophecy deck with Somerset Orrery, a card that currently sees very little play. There are several actions with Prophecy that deal damage and both Mage and Battlemage have been known to work nicely as Prophecy aggro decks.

Disciple of Namira in Sorcerer would potentially rely too heavily on creatures being available, while Destruction Tutor would love more actions to be available. Those might be conflicting with each other in your deck builds.

Therefore, Namira’s Shrine seems to be the most natural card draw engine that would go very well with Destruction Tutor. On top of this, the blue Intelligence attribute provides plenty of card draw options related to action cards, so it should be easy to keep actions flowing.

The Rise of Hit Hard Beatdown decks?

Crystal Tower Crafter

Ice Spike

Shimmerene Peddler

Thalmor Embassy

Lightning Bolt

Ice Wraith

Lillandril Haxmage

Mages Guild Retreat

Therana

Inspired by an article from Magic: The Gathering, tesl.blog recently looked at the different types of Beatdown Aggro deck (Being Aggro – Beatdown Decks in Detail). The Elder Scrolls Legends currently has no Tier 1-/ Tier 2-level Hit Hard beatdown aggro deck as maybe other CCGs do. The reason for this is a lack of face-hitting action cards. However, by combining Destruction Tutor now with cards like Ice Spike, Ice Wraith, Lillandril Hexmage, Crystal Tower Crafter, Lighting Bolt and Shimmerene Peddler and maybe additional support from Therana, this archetype will probably see some more play in the meta after the FrostSpark release. It will be interesting to see if the playerbase finds a strong enough deck or whether additional cards will be needed to support Hit Hard decks.

Summary

I think, this is definitely a card that is worthy of some experimenting and just another example of how well Sparkypants and Bethesda are making conscious design decisions to keep the meta of The Elder Scrolls Legends interesting. If you like the article, and want to support the blog please follow us on Twitter, subscribe here. I would also be interested in hearing your thoughts and comments on the card as well.

Counter-Play?!

Oh… before I forget. Some counterplay options for your consideration that could keep you some creature control on the board or prevent action damage. Maybe some interesting tech choices that might potentially see some more play than they do in the current meta.

Thalmor Embassy

Mage Slayer

Stampede Sentinel

Shadowmaster

Indomitable Ordinator

Nahagliiv

Iron Atronach

rostSpark card reveal: Destruction Tutor - The Rise of the Hit Hard Beatdown deck in #teslegends?! I certainly hope so... Jele77 today revealed the seventh card for the FrostSpark Collection: Destruction Tutor. The 5-cost 3/5 High Elf reduces the cost of your actions that deal damage by 2 magicka.

[holoir]

Extortionist

/ɪkˈstɔːʃ(ə)nɪst,ɛkˈstɔːʃ(ə)nɪst/

a person who tries to obtain something through force or violence; a racketeer.

DragonTamerBlayde revealed the sixth card of the FrostSpark Collection, the new promo expansion in The Elder Scrolls Legends: Torval Extortionist. It is a perfect fit for him, as he loves playing Slay decks!

Torval Extortionist is a 5-cost Khajiit with 7/5 from the green Agility attribute. The Khajiit comes with the following Slay-ability: “Gain magicka this turn equal to the slain creature’s cost.” So, for every time he slays, he gains you magicka to play more cards.

While the value of some of the other cards in FrostSpark is still in some debate, most people do agree on this one: Torval Extortionist will change the meta to make mid-range more popular again, and people are saying on Twitter or Reddit: “This card is insane”, “Can you nerf it before it’s released?”

So let’s look at him, and let us find some counterplays as well…

Quadrant Theory

Opening

During the very early opening of the game, you obviously cannot play Torval Extortionist due to his cost of 5 magicka. Torval Extortionist also does not have an immediate effect when played, like other creatures with a permanent or a summon effect.

But when he is played, you can be certain to get your opponent’s immediate attention. very likely will you see a hard removal coming his way. But – Lightning Bolt, Devour, Execute, Firebolt, Ice Storm all don’t kill him. Piercing Javelin, Edict of Azura or Fell the Mighty would though. So that’s some options but also not too many. The 5 health are doing a lot for why he is such a good card.

The great thing is, if no hard removal or shackle is headed his way, you will be directly en-route to the Winning quadrant. Hence, you should probably run some special setup for him, to exhaust your opponent’s hard removal before you play him. Actually, even him being silenced is not a catastrophe. So, yes, Torval Extortionist is that good!

Parity

During Parity, between turns 4-7, if you draw him as a top deck and both players are out of cards in their hand: Congratulations, awesome! Your opponent’s top deck draw needs to give him a 5-power creature or a hard removal. If he doesn’t get that or at least more card draw, you will possibly be on a 3-turn clock to victory to winning!

Note: at this point, you also want to quickly get more cards in hand as his Slay-ability would likely let you play something even bigger and more powerful:

Slay a 7-cost creature with him on your turn 8 and you will have 15 magicka to spend.

Assume, you Slay a 4-cost creature on turn 5 or 6, you could then play Tazkad – the Packmaster or Aspect of Hircine already. Wouldn’t that be amazing? I sure think so…

Winning

If you are already in Winning, having a Torval Extortionist, will support your game plan. While playing him, will not have an immediate effect, he is still such a massive body that he cannot possibly be ignored. And if he sticks, he will let you play more and more cards, even if you don’t go for face allowing you to play more creatures. And if he doesn’t stick, your other creatures will likely get another swing in.

Losing/ Turnaround

When you are losing the game, he will not have an immediate effect to stop your opponent. When you are on a 2-turn clock on the road to defeat, he might not be enough to remove all the creatures you need removed, unless he is complimented by some other cards that help him. For example, those could be giving him Charge or Guard to allow favourable trades in one lane. There are a few better cards when you are losing, like a Dawn’s Wrath or an Immolating blast to mass remove creatures. Torval Extortioner might, however, be an important piece in getting you the turnaround.

Now that we know, how good he is, we can try and make him even better by surrounding him with cards that give more consistent wins. Also some meme-options exist if you are in for the fun. And finally, you should think about some counter plays, as he will definitely see lots of play after FrostSpark is released.

Synergies

Brotherhood Sanctuary

Dargon Cult Ghost

Lucien Lachance

Unstoppable Rage

Slay-Synergy

Clearly, Brotherhood Sanctuary is a great option to double, triple or even quadruple his slay effect. An interesting OTK deck could be to use the Extortioner to get to an absurd amount of magicka in one turn and play Dragon Cult Ghost as a 30/30 creature from hand. I can see YouTube videos being created with that… Not sure, that the deck will be viable on the ladder, but certainly a fun thing to accomplish. More down-to-earth but also very strong is when Lucien Lachance takes the Extortioner to a brawl.

Finally, if you are getting to play an Unstoppable Rage in Archer or Hlaalu to be played on him, this can be a fun turn for you as well if you have some additional powerhouses in hand.

Strike Monk

Swift Strike

Monk’s Strike

Shadowmaster

Haafingar Marauder

If you want to use the Extortioner’s sheer power and don’t care so much about the Slay attribute a Monk Strike and a Swift Strike will deal 20 damage and gain back 20 life. For 8 magicka, you can add-in a Shadowmaster to protect the Extortioner from removal for one turn in the Shadows, when no Guard is in your opponent’s Field lane. Deadly Strike!

With Haafingar Marauder in play you could be equipping up to 2 additional items which might be a decent OTK option.

Battle-Items

Stendar’s Hammer

Improvised Weapon

Duel Atop the World

Umbra

Another interesting effect will be to use items that let him battle against creatures. Stendar’s Hammer in Archer or Umbra in House Hlaalu are good examples. Make sure you can also equip an improvised Breakthrough to let the Extortioner deal face-damage as well.

Duke Vedam Dren

Duke Vedam Dren, who has actually been improved in the last “nerf” will be the last option we shall look for today. It’s a complete meme, but I am just waiting for the first YouTube video of both Duke Vedam Dren and the Extortioner on board, where the Executioner slays Ancano, and a Nord Firebrand is played to pull Alduin to hand… Oh, this would take months to film, lol…

Wait, does this also work with smaller creatures than Alduin? Duke Vedam Dren finally entering the meta…?! 😉

Summary

To summarise: Torval Extortioner will be a good addition to classic Slay Scout, he will equally help Strike or Shadowmaster Monk and he can also find a home in midrange Hlaalu or Dagoth decks. Another spicy card from the FrostSpark collection to finally shake up the TES Legends meta!

Counterplays

Oh wait, the counterplays… Here are a few. My absolute favourite meme is Mecinar’s Will into a Siege Catapult or a Bleakcost Troll in the same lane. I will give Stealer Monk a chance … 😉

Sentinel Battlemace

Edict of Azura

Sower of Revenge

Mecinar’s Will

Cast Into Time

Piercing Javelin

Allena Bennoch

Torval Extortionist. Who will be the first to post a video of Duke-Torval-Alduin-Hlaalu? A look at uses, synergies and counterplays can be found on tesl.blog. Extortionist /ɪkˈstɔːʃ(ə)nɪst,ɛkˈstɔːʃ(ə)nɪst/ a person who tries to obtain something through force or violence; a racketeer. DragonTamerBlayde…