So in card games there is what is commonly referred to as a deck shell.

Essentially the central theme of your deck that let's you win games.

It consists of things like synergy, a curve, draw for deck thinning, wincons, creatures, and legendaries.

Then you have your tech, your answers to the current meta game, they can be landmarks (artifacts), or spells, or creatures with aura effects or on play abilities.

The mistake I commonly see in eternal is that people either build a deck with 100% tech or 100% shell they can't mix the two.

Lurk is lurk and does lurk things

This is a ping deck it pings and does ping things.

In reality you have one handful of tech, and one handful of shell and not a lot of laddering flexibility.

When I build my decks I try to be as flexible as possible.

Yes this is a ramp deck but it has 3 avalanches, 3 blighted, 3 harsh winds, and 3 tavern keepers.

Thats the tech ^ but that doesn't stop me from turbo leveling asol on mana 7

So if you want to build a p and z ping spam deck, then your "shell" is Annie Ezreal sometimes splashes Katarina.

Includes 3 conservatory, and 3 broadmanes for wincons.

Even if you're trying to build something original you need to follow the "shell" and tech formula.

Too much shell in eternal and your deck is inflexibile, too much tech and now you insta lose certain ladder matchups.

The key to being good at winning in a large cardpool is not mastering matchups or win tables its being able to go into 90% of games with confidence that you will win regardless of the 500 cards your opponent might use.

Flexibility + Adaptability

Thats what makes me king 👑 

Competition Theme: Prismatic Parlance

This week, we're giving the term "colorful language" a new meaning.

• You must make a class card with a keyword that the class doesn't normally use. For the purposes of establishing defined boundaries, as long as the class has less than 5 collectible cards that utilize that keyword, it will count.
  • Keywords that are exclusive to certain expansions or years (like Inspire or Echo) will not count as uncommon keywords for the class regardless of how few cards in that class use it.
  • Using class-exclusive keywords (like Combo or Outcast) on cards in other classes will also not count.

This week, Wailor wants the classes to step a little bit outside of their keyword comfort zone.

As always, we can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.

Competition Phases

Here are the phases of this card design competition

• Submission Phase: Starts on Mon, May 15 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sat, May 20 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
• Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, May 20 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sun, May 21 16:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
• Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, May 21 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Mon, May 22 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
• Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.

Discussion Thread Rules

No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.

By now I think everyone is pretty sick of me rolling over the LOR community.with my S tier aggro deck in eternal.

So the question remains how do you build a consistent ladder counter.

Well nifty has you covered because I spent most of my time in LOR being anti-meta before I became the new.meta.

 Step 1 counter the deck you want consistently, this one is obvious

Step 2 be able to actually win against every other deck, because unless the play rate is literally 20% you will still face other players the majority of the time

Step 3 don't jank, it might seek funny to play duplicate crystal with kittans to counter aggro but what happens when you wiff?

Follow these 3 steps and you will defeat meta Nifty just as easily as Nifty used to defeat the meta.

And also I'm sorry like Swim I never wanted my decks to be as good as they are.

They are just good...and they've only gotten better with time

12 game winstreaks aside and massive solo casual climbing potential.

People sometimes forget that I'm not actually an aggro player, or at least I don't identify as one.

I actually prefer synergy decks and I can absolutely destroy on midrange and ramp.

So come at me with your treasured trash, feel free to identify as garbage.

I'll identify as a world ending dragon 😋

And if you ever want to play for reals, yes 12 game winstreaks, and masters level deck building without tier lists will make your life fairly difficult.

So eventually eternal ladder will be coming and this format will actually become important to pro players again.

But as someone who essentially already has had a 90% winrate in this format for the last two months I thought I'd talk about one of the best decks available.

Pirate aggro, while deck has never been bad it has been overshadowed by Annie Jhin statistically.

That all changed with the release of pirouette, Samara, and the new fearsome 1 drop.

I've played this exact matchup and my deck was faster, and most of it is thanks to the flexibility of the new champion being both a burn piece and a removal option.

she is insanely good, even offering the ability to ping block ping on the defensive.

So yes Nifty pirate aggro is format definer and if I see any eternal tier lists without its because your judgement is clouded with disliking me as opposed to objectively weighing the strength of the deck.

So, apparently I cannot read dates properly. The Runeterra Open that is coming up this weekend is in the Standard format. The one that will be in the Eternal format is on June 17/18. 

So, either I didn't read that properly a couple of weeks ago, or they changed it since then (which seems unlikely). 

Anyways, I'm sure none of the competitive players are surprised, but the casual-player-that-is-me was surprised.

can someone explain to me why are they like this?

all i wanted is to get the items i lost because of their bug

did anyone experienced anything like this?

Discovered a new digital CCG the other day that I've been having a blast with that I thought others around here might enjoy:

https://wordbots.io/

Most people who play CCGs like Hearthstone and Magic seem to enjoy coming up with custom cards too. In Wordbots, you actually get to play with the cards you create. I've only created a few cards so far, and the parser that reads your card and tries to do what it says is a little finicky, and it sometimes takes a little work to find wording to get the card to do what you want, but the developers have been responsive to my questions on Discord with suggestions on how to word cards to get the effects I want.

Okay I'm just getting bored now, I literally can't be beaten with poppy yordles for God sake.

Like what you want me to move onto poros?

I already did that and I won a ton.

So how do you beat me?

The king of eternal?

Let's talk about tech cards.

Soul harvest - yes its just a slow speed culling strike, but it's in shadow isles and that matters.

Eradication - low key one of the best anti aggro cards recently printed.

Vile feast - there's a reason this got rotated its nuts

Tavern keeper - the best frijord 3 drop

Blighted ravine- still the best frijord removal

Again good cards are in large supply in eternal and for some reason ya'll keep brewing like chumps.

Has standard scrambled your brains cuz ya'll playing bronze tier right now.

Competition Theme: Stop! Doomhammer Time!

This week we're honoring a mighty weapon of Warcraft lore. Hit 'em hard, then hit 'em again!

• You must make a "package" of three (3) Shaman cards that work together to form the start of a "Doomhammer archetype" in a theoretical expansion.
  
  • At least one of them must reference Doomhammer by name in the text, in a supportive/synergistic way.
    • The others can have general weapon-synergy traits, but should still encourage the use of Doomhammer.

Chegwin and Linkblade91 are getting ready to drop the hammer on their enemies. Let's join in the fray!

As always, we can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.

Competition Phases

Here are the phases of this card design competition

• Submission Phase: Starts on Mon, May 8 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sat, May 13 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
• Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, May 13 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sun, May 14 16:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
• Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, May 14 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Mon, May 15 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
• Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.

Discussion Thread Rules

No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.

Sometimes I win, sometimes my opponent. How does the game decides who ins if we tie in one location, one location I win, the other my opponent?

Everyone's forgotten how to play Nifty Eternal again.

I keep drilling into everyone's heads wincons wincons.wincons.

Synergy, synergy, synergy and all I see when I come back from a small break is do nothing garbage.

And not the good kind of do nothing garbage like Nora.

But press F to concede garbage that literally shouldn't be built in the first place.

I know it's still a long time till Eternal ladder but I expect more from all of you.

Cuz Nifty is forever, he comes back same list he's been playing for what 6 months now, and you can't beat yordles!

Rofl omg you guys are so bad.

Yeeeep, new golden rule if you can't beat meme tribal decks its time to learn how to deck build...sorry but thats how it is.

And you guys call yourself good players or something.

You see Nifty grow up on the hard streets of brew Town. No deck trackers, no tier lists, no help, no getting carried by better players or stats analytics. Just me, me, and more me.

Thats why I'm the king of Eternal

Congrats, that's a really cool achievement. I hope your situation gets better soon.

Regarding the bot situation, I'm experiencing the same at the moment. I've decided to try and go for triple legend this month as in all three game modes on EU and so far, I'm facing like 95% bots in Classic. Once you figured out how they work, they're fairly easy to beat and it seems like ranking up is more of a question of patience than anything else. Might yet change though, I've only reached the platinum ranks so far. I'm a little confused why Blizzard keeps the mode alive and tolerates the bots at this point to be honest. 

I had the privilege to reopen a Hearthstone account and was severely disappointed  when we didn't get the full dust refund for the rotation. I was waiting for the refund to craft some wild cards and have some fun in wild (I know the meta in wild is problematic, but trying out fun concepts was always the more fun aspects of the game). 

So, while keeping the minimum amount of time  at Hearthstone, I started a Marvel Snap account and started to play (I also tried some other mobile games, but Snap is the only one that stuck for now, besides Hearthstone). While playing it, I found that Ben Brode and his team learned some valuable lessons and made a game that is  better (at least in some aspects). There are things for the hearthstone team to learn here, or I fear Hearthstone will loose traction, as more games will take chunks off the field.

Note: I am leaving out the fact that Snap games resolve quicker, for that is a personal reference, and some people may enjoy the longer matches.

1) Generosity- This links back to the background story, but more. I believe I opened around 60 HS packs out of the new expansion, but only "won" one legendary out of packs. In Snap, the feeling is that F2P have access to the strongest of cards, for "legendary" cards are not a grantee win. 

2) Strategy- HS lost its strategy edge. Yes, you still need to know how to pilot some decks, but usually the power level of Druid, or DK, will solve the match. In Snap, where you put your cards, and the order you play has significance. Just the play of different locations makes for a different game experience.

I am sure there are more, but that is enough for now.

Whatever you you choose to play, though, have fun :)

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Basically the stuff I said would be good.

Nora, Ryze, Ramp, high synergy brews.

Standard is all about one thing and one thing only, playing high value followers and open attacking.

Eternal is all about one thing and one thing only.

Wincons, wincons, wincons.

If I'm pirate aggro better believe I'm developing 3  one drops on turn 3 instead of open attacking.

If you're Ryze main deck that healing potion you crazy stud you.

If you're ramp, then create that 18 power overwhelm jack for the lolz you have infinite mana.

Like frankly I don't care what you play in Eternal as long as you prioritize synergy, and wincons.

Leave the value garbage for standard, where there are no good decks or wincons and you can main 3 copies of chunker bandle gunner and thats actually good.

You can check out the current situation after the recent patch here:

https://masteringruneterra.com/tuesday-meta-report-may-2nd/

A new card, High Evolutionary, has been revealed for Marvel Snap!

At the start of the game, unlock the potential of your cards with no abilities.

Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page!

A new card, Howard the Duck, has been revealed for Marvel Snap!

Ongoing: Tap this to see the top card of your deck.

Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page!

A new card, Iron Lad, has been revealed for Marvel Snap!

On Reveal: Copy the text of your deck's top card.

Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page!

It must be frustrating to essentially throw everything you have at a player, knowing that they have 0 inside knowledge of your deck

You can play any card, any list, any tech, and I will know nothing

and you will know everything

and despite that I will win 90% of my games.

I'm sorry it must be frustrating, but think of me as Eternal Majin, right I did the DBZ thing I hit my next form

You guys don't stand a chance. 

Once again put your gamer tags in the comments for private eternal tutoring

https://masteringruneterra.com/meta-stats/

For those that don't know, every region in LOR has a 10 mana chunker.

Typically they all read the same, I cost one less when x condition is met.

These cards are historically terrible and haven't been played competitively for as long as I've been playing so lets say 2 years plus.

But right now the top deck in standard is bandle gunner...you know that 10 mana card you have never looked at or seen before and basically wrote off immediately.

That is the card that is dominating standard right now lol!

yeah man these players are gonna be in for a rude awakening when they play Eternal in Runeterra open.

They'll be like man why is my garbage not working anymore?

Like I have to build high synergy decks with clear wincons?

That's nuts!

bandle gunner...hahahahahaha standard is such a joke.

Competition Theme: Bold Moves

This week, our cards are getting bold and brash. But they don't belong in the trash.

• Make a card that conditionally gains a keyword (or multiple).
  • Note that giving a keyword is not the same as gaining it. Cards that give keywords to other cards will not count (unless said card also happens to gain a keyword as well).

As Out of Cards is making some bold moves transitioning to Out of Games, Wailor is asking us to make our own bold moves with our cards as well.

As always, we can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.

Competition Phases

Here are the phases of this card design competition

• Submission Phase: Starts on Mon, May 1 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sat, May 6 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
• Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, May 6 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sun, May 7 16:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
• Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, May 7 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Mon, May 8 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
• Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.

Discussion Thread Rules

No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.

So it's been confirmed that the next Runeterra open is going to be in Eternal to celebrate the unlocking of eternal ladder in 30 days.

One interesting problem tho, with all pro players busy arrogantly dismissing this format nobody actually knows what's good right now.

I might come the closest because I've literally spent all of this season playing and winning in Eternal casual with no ladder available.

But I was masters last season and that was as close as we've gotten to the eternal card pool thus far.

So  for all the pro players out there let me illuminate you by starting with updating the old tier lists:

1. Jayce - still a fine deck but the difference from eternal to last season is that aggro got all the tools

2. Elites - also a fine deck but it will feel quite midrange compared to the most aggresive options out there

3. Anna - I'm not convinced anna is better than the new pirate aggro, just the fact that pirotte exists and now you can have a cheap stun outside  of Runeterra region, so probably 50/50 for ana vs Samira

4. Ramp - while there were no competitive ramp lists last season except the ones I piloted this is an archetype that has massively advanced with the addition of Jack. Coins, plus trundle, plus auto level for 12 mana, plus regular ramp tools equals a deck that is probably faster then ASOL.

5. Ryze - Another deck that keeps getting better as the card pool expands I wouldn't be surprised to see the winrate of this deck go from 50/50 last season to 53% this season

6. Nora - while there is no such thing as an amazing Nora deck, she shows up in so many lists that I'll just say the Nora deck that gets played this eternal season

7. Sett - sett is one of the best new ionia control tools available he's very strong and there's a decent chance he will have an eternal list worth playing

8. Shadow control - I think shadow control has changed quite a bit from it's previous iterations just because it got new control spells. There's the mini ruination for 6 mana that will help quite a bit with the more aggressive matchups. I will say Heimer has felt very bad for my opponents every time they play that old list into my new aggro decks.

But like that's kind of it, this is all uncharted territories here and it doesn't matter if your name is Majin Bae, or Mogwai, because honestly they will have no idea what the Runeterra Open is going to look like with all their recent standard experience being practically useless.

Here's a list of the games that might give some traction if featured, at least according to my tastes:

Battle brothers, Wartales, Rimworld (+mods!), Jagged Alliance 3 (upcoming), Spaceborne 2 (very active dev and complex game), Age of Wonders 4, Humankind, Distant worlds 2, maybe other Paradox titles.

Curious to see what other people like :)