Zoo warlock cannot afford to wait until turn 8 to start getting minions on the board. The hero power would be useful to a Zoo deck if you started with it or accessed it on turn 3 or 4. A zoo deck that starts flooding the board on turn 8 will ... oh wait, a zoo lock that waits that long to get going will never survive to turn 8. The only way this is any good for zoo is if there are some really cheap invoke cards.
Umm, even with the invoke, this is an absolutely terrible card. 4 cost, 2/2 rush? Even as a 3-cost 2/1 rush, it would still be borderline unplayable. Other 4 cost rush cards include: Militia Commander, Restless Mummy, Swift Messenger, and Steel Rager. Compared to ANY of those cards, this is way, way below unplayable. Probably tops the charts as one of the worst cards I've ever seen Blizzard print. Full stop.
Edit: You can also compare it to the 5 cost invoke card literally right beside it on the reveal chart - a 4/5 taunt. THAT card is a totally normal stat-line for a 5-cost taunt with another effect (like Rotten Applebaum). But for some reason, this card has at least 2-3 fewer stats than any other normal 4-cost card. Completely unplayable.
Edit #2: A 2/2 rush is functionally almost identical to a spell that deals 2 damage to a minion, like Lesser Jasper Spellstone, Arcane Blast or Cheap Shot. Hunters have a 2/1 rush minion Hunting Mastiff - it costs 2 AND has echo. The fact that Cheap Shot deals 2 damage to a minion exactly mirrors the hunting mastiff. The health is basically irrelevant since it will almost always be trading into something. 1 health or 2 health makes almost no difference. So, for the Devoted Maniac, you are paying 2.5 mana JUST for the invoke (since a 2/2 rush is functionally identical to a 2/1 rush minion, and a vanilla 2/1 rush minion is valued right about 1.5 mana).
I mean seriously, I cannot get over how understatted and overcosted this minion is. It's mind-boggling. This will not make the cut for any deck, regardless of how much the deck wants to Invoke.
For Expedition mode, one of the top 10 players in that mode (who is famous for creating good budget decks) just wrote up his guide for Expedition Budget Decks. Here's the link to the reddit post of it.
First bit of news - Downtime Monday! Server will be taken down in order to implement an in-game ranking system for the Expedition game mode.
Second bit of news - Cosmetics! Direwolf is putting out their first-ever premium playmat, to make the game board look different. It is part of a bundle, which also comes with four unique avatars (the four horsemen) and some other goodies as well! (Or you can just buy the playmat if you want just that.)
This site puts out the only consistent "Tier List" for various deck archetypes in Eternal. They do this once per week, based on a feedback form that players can use to submit their game data.
Note: This meta tier list is based only on frequency of encountering specific deck archetypes; it is not necessarily based on how well the deck performs. However, presumably, the most popular decks are performing pretty well.
This is the link for the current list. Best place to find the new meta report each week is on the Eternal Subreddit.
Most of the info in this post comes from eternalcardgame.fandom.com.
Here is a link to all of the Keywords and a brief description of what they do. There are a lot, which is why I'm not copy pasting them in here.
Below, I will copy/paste the battle skills that units can have. The information below is also available at this link. These are also keywords, but they specifically give abilities to units that are in play.
Aegis: Protected from one enemy spell or effect (but not from battle damage).
Berserk: When this attacks, you may give it Reckless to attack a second time this turn. Can only be used once.
Warcry: When this attacks, the top unit or weapon of your deck gets +1/+1.
These are other skills a unit can have, but they are not exactly "battle skills," since they are relevant even when the unit is not in play. (Again, copy pasted from the link above.)
Ambush: Can be played (directly from your hand) to block an enemy attack, or at the end of their turn.
Bond: When played, you may exhaust another unit of the same type to reduce this card’s cost by the exhausted unit’s .
Destiny: Automatically play when drawn, then draw another card.
For this thread, I'm just posting links to resources to help anyone who wants to know more about Eternal.
Many general guides, FAQ, and New Player Guide are included at the subreddit wiki here.
An excellent guide to draft, written by one of the best draft players in the game, is at this link here. The guide is great for learning how draft works. However, the specific archetypes and card choices mentioned in this guide are from the previous rotation, so they are not relevant anymore.
Another great aspect of Eternal is the variety of available game modes, some of which are single player (which I'll call "AI" modes), some of which are against other players (PvP).
AI game modes:
Campaign - These are purchased with in-game currency (mostly 25,000 gold), and they grant full sets of specific cards when you complete the campaign (extremely similar to Hearthstone Adventures). Complete the campaign encounters, get the cards. Pretty simple.
Forge - This is a lot like Arena in Hearthstone, but you play against a random selection of pre-made decks that are piloted by the AI. You begin with being offered 3 cards. You choose one of the three cards, which becomes the first color of a 2-color deck. You are then offered 3 new cards; if you choose a different color than the first card, that will determine your two colors for the rest of the Forge. So, you select one card from a set of three options until you have a deck of 25 cards. You then play your games. There is a cost of in-game currency (2500 gold) to play this mode, BUT you keep every card you pick permanently in your collection. And if you win 7 games before you lose twice, you will also earn 3x-4x packs of cards, on top of the cards you already earned by making your deck.
Gauntlet - This is the free AI mode. You create a 75-card deck and play against a random selection of pre-made AI decks. The last encounter will be a special boss fight with special rules, but you never know which boss you will face in a given run (so you can't really build your deck for it). Free to start this mode, but you do earn gold for doing well in it. And the first few times you get 7 wins, you get a free pack.
PvP Game Modes:
Casual/Practice - You earn about 50 gold for winning a game in this mode. No other rewards. You can use this mode to complete daily quests, or to test out deck ideas. No other real rewards though.
Ranked - This is the ladder for Eternal. It includes every card ever printed in the game (which is a lot). Kind of like Wild mode in Hearthstone. Bring your best deck, try to beat everyone else. You start out as Copper-III, and can rank up to Copper-II, then Copper-I, then you become Silver (which also has 3 tiers), then Gold, then Diamond, then Masters (Masters is equivalent to Legend). Ranking up through each tier requires earning 100 points. Exactly how many points you earn in each tier is slightly randomized, but for Copper through Gold, you basically will rank up to the next tier if you win 5 games in a row. Also, in Copper through Gold, you lose fewer points for losing than you gain for winning. So the climb is possible even with a slightly less than 50% winrate. This last part is not true for Diamond, where you (usually) get 15 points for winning and lose 15 points for losing.
Expedition - This is a new game mode, and will be more like Standard mode in Hearthstone. There is a limited pool of cards that are allowed to played in this mode. The current set will always be fully allowed (all the cards), but the remaining cards allowed will rotate in and out. Exactly how rotations will happen in this mode is not yet clear. But currently it is designed to have a lower power level than Ranked mode.
Draft - This is a mode where you gradually choose 48 cards, one card at a time, from "packs" that are presented to you. Exact details of this mode would take too long to explain here. It is a complex mode, also similar to Arena in Hearthstone, but significantly different. Like Forge mode, every card you pick while building your draft deck is yours to keep permanently. This game mode costs 5000 gold per entry. If you want to "go infinite" in draft, you actually have to win all 7 games before you lose 3, which is not easy to do. Most people who specialize in draft have to pay money to keep up.
Special Events - There are special events every few weeks which give nice rewards, as well as a monthly league.
So, lots of game modes, all of which are fun and interesting.
I should also mention, one other very significant difference between Eternal and Hearthstone is the way that "mana" works. In Eternal, "mana" is called "power" and it has different colors. There are not different classes to differentiate cards and decks (like in Hearthstone); instead, each card has a color requirement (red - Fire; blue - Primal; yellow - Time; purple - Shadow; and green - Justice). Your deck size is 75 cards, but at least 25 of those cards have to be power. So, your "mana" is provided by cards in your deck; it does not automatically get added each turn.
Summary version:
Eternal "mana" is called power
Power comes in different colors
Power is granted by cards, not automatically
The power cards have a lot of variety. Some of them do not give power on the turn they are played; you get the power the following turn. Some of them only give one color. Some of them allow you to choose which color you get. Some of them give two colors. Some of them let you choose from three different colors.
In the simplest possible terms, Eternal is a streamlined version of Magic: The Gathering, for those who are familiar with Magic. It has many very similar mechanics, and the combat rules are similar, though it has fewer response windows, which speeds up the game-play. It is also quite possibly the friendliest Free-To-Play model of any digital card game. You literally get a daily free pack just for winning your first pvp game of the day.
For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, here is the longer explanation. Have you ever been frustrated by the fact that Hearthstone only lets you do things half the time (i.e. on your own turn)? That there is very little you can do about an aggro beatdown, aside from try to throw a taunt in the way? Then Eternal might be worth a shot. The game-play is quite a bit more complex and interesting than Hearthstone, AND you can interact with your opponent on both your own turn AND their turn as well.
When your opponent attacks, they do not decide which creature hits which creature; you, as the defender, decide that. You also decide whether to just let them hit your face instead of a creature. There are also spells called "fast spells" which can be played during your opponent's turn, if you saved mana for them.
I'll stop there for now, but if any of this is interesting to you, head on over to the Reddit and check out the first two pinned posts there. The first is a great place to ask questions; the second is a place to get a referral link that gets you some freebies in game. https://www.reddit.com/r/EternalCardGame/
If you want to message me in game, my in game ID is: TheScot+1473
Eternal is my favorite card game; they just introduced a new game mode; they currently have a good drops campaign going in Twitch; AND they just released a new set. It's an exciting time to be playing it.
I just noticed that you guys added a section to the website for a card game that has not even been only just released. Meanwhile, there is a very high quality card game that has been in existence for 2-3 years called Eternal, which does not have a section on the site.
And it's recently been getting a lot of new players coming over from Hearthstone. Maybe you could consider adding a section for Eternal?
Or, more likely, they waited or were told to hold off reacting the exact same way because they saw all of the reactions they were seeing from the community, inside and out.
People really got to stop the copy pasta responses about everything having to do with China.
They weren't waiting to decide what to do about the American University players. They specifically stated there would be no penalty, and then stated that their next match had been scheduled. The only difference between the two incidents, practically speaking, was the region where the incident occurred. One was in heavily Chinese-influenced Taiwan; the other was in the United States.
I hope this is sarcastic, because yes, absolutely, a 3/4 rush for 3 would be absolutely a good card. Probably too good.
The key words are "random enemy." Not "random enemy minion." This is a turn 6 play most of the time; or it's a base for Zilliax. Very good card.
Zoo warlock cannot afford to wait until turn 8 to start getting minions on the board. The hero power would be useful to a Zoo deck if you started with it or accessed it on turn 3 or 4. A zoo deck that starts flooding the board on turn 8 will ... oh wait, a zoo lock that waits that long to get going will never survive to turn 8. The only way this is any good for zoo is if there are some really cheap invoke cards.
Umm, even with the invoke, this is an absolutely terrible card. 4 cost, 2/2 rush? Even as a 3-cost 2/1 rush, it would still be borderline unplayable. Other 4 cost rush cards include: Militia Commander, Restless Mummy, Swift Messenger, and Steel Rager. Compared to ANY of those cards, this is way, way below unplayable. Probably tops the charts as one of the worst cards I've ever seen Blizzard print. Full stop.
Edit: You can also compare it to the 5 cost invoke card literally right beside it on the reveal chart - a 4/5 taunt. THAT card is a totally normal stat-line for a 5-cost taunt with another effect (like Rotten Applebaum). But for some reason, this card has at least 2-3 fewer stats than any other normal 4-cost card. Completely unplayable.
Edit #2: A 2/2 rush is functionally almost identical to a spell that deals 2 damage to a minion, like Lesser Jasper Spellstone, Arcane Blast or Cheap Shot. Hunters have a 2/1 rush minion Hunting Mastiff - it costs 2 AND has echo. The fact that Cheap Shot deals 2 damage to a minion exactly mirrors the hunting mastiff. The health is basically irrelevant since it will almost always be trading into something. 1 health or 2 health makes almost no difference. So, for the Devoted Maniac, you are paying 2.5 mana JUST for the invoke (since a 2/2 rush is functionally identical to a 2/1 rush minion, and a vanilla 2/1 rush minion is valued right about 1.5 mana).
I mean seriously, I cannot get over how understatted and overcosted this minion is. It's mind-boggling. This will not make the cut for any deck, regardless of how much the deck wants to Invoke.
Class cards can only be discovered by the class they belong to, not any other classes. Rogues could get it randomly, but not from the Lackey
Info about the Eternal World Championship and how to qualify for it are in this news post here.
Here is a new guide for Drafting, just posted within the last day.
For Expedition mode, one of the top 10 players in that mode (who is famous for creating good budget decks) just wrote up his guide for Expedition Budget Decks. Here's the link to the reddit post of it.
I'll use this to post news links as appropriate.
First bit of news - Downtime Monday! Server will be taken down in order to implement an in-game ranking system for the Expedition game mode.
Second bit of news - Cosmetics! Direwolf is putting out their first-ever premium playmat, to make the game board look different. It is part of a bundle, which also comes with four unique avatars (the four horsemen) and some other goodies as well! (Or you can just buy the playmat if you want just that.)
This site puts out the only consistent "Tier List" for various deck archetypes in Eternal. They do this once per week, based on a feedback form that players can use to submit their game data.
Note: This meta tier list is based only on frequency of encountering specific deck archetypes; it is not necessarily based on how well the deck performs. However, presumably, the most popular decks are performing pretty well.
This is the link for the current list. Best place to find the new meta report each week is on the Eternal Subreddit.
Tier List for October Week 3
Indeed, that should help with meta diversity a bit; though, to be honest, the meta is pretty diverse right now. It's mostly in a pretty good spot.
Most of the info in this post comes from eternalcardgame.fandom.com.
Here is a link to all of the Keywords and a brief description of what they do. There are a lot, which is why I'm not copy pasting them in here.
Below, I will copy/paste the battle skills that units can have. The information below is also available at this link. These are also keywords, but they specifically give abilities to units that are in play.
Protected from one enemy spell or effect (but not from battle damage).
When this attacks, you may give it Reckless to attack a second time this turn. Can only be used once.
Can attack the turn it is played.
Kills any unit it damages.
Deals double damage.
Ready's on each player's turn, and can't be stunned or exhausted by spells or effects.
When this unit dies, play a weapon with its
Can only be blocked by other units with flying.
May be exhausted one time to attack any enemy unit.
When this deals damage, you gain that much
When this hits an enemy unit, leftover damage is dealt to the enemy player.
When this kills a blocking unit, the blocker doesn't deal damage back.
This must attack.
The first time this is killed, give it Destiny and put it into the top ten cards or your deck.
Cannot be blocked.
When this attacks, the top unit or weapon of your deck gets +1/+1.
These are other skills a unit can have, but they are not exactly "battle skills," since they are relevant even when the unit is not in play. (Again, copy pasted from the link above.)
Can be played (directly from your hand) to block an enemy attack, or at the end of their turn.
When played, you may exhaust another unit of the same type to reduce this card’s cost by the exhausted unit’s
Automatically play when drawn, then draw another card.
Get an additional copy when drawn.
On your first turn, a card with Pledge can be played as a Sigil.
This card can't leave the void.
You can play this from the top of your deck.
For this thread, I'm just posting links to resources to help anyone who wants to know more about Eternal.
Many general guides, FAQ, and New Player Guide are included at the subreddit wiki here.
An excellent guide to draft, written by one of the best draft players in the game, is at this link here. The guide is great for learning how draft works. However, the specific archetypes and card choices mentioned in this guide are from the previous rotation, so they are not relevant anymore.
Another great aspect of Eternal is the variety of available game modes, some of which are single player (which I'll call "AI" modes), some of which are against other players (PvP).
AI game modes:
Campaign - These are purchased with in-game currency (mostly 25,000 gold), and they grant full sets of specific cards when you complete the campaign (extremely similar to Hearthstone Adventures). Complete the campaign encounters, get the cards. Pretty simple.
Forge - This is a lot like Arena in Hearthstone, but you play against a random selection of pre-made decks that are piloted by the AI. You begin with being offered 3 cards. You choose one of the three cards, which becomes the first color of a 2-color deck. You are then offered 3 new cards; if you choose a different color than the first card, that will determine your two colors for the rest of the Forge. So, you select one card from a set of three options until you have a deck of 25 cards. You then play your games. There is a cost of in-game currency (2500 gold) to play this mode, BUT you keep every card you pick permanently in your collection. And if you win 7 games before you lose twice, you will also earn 3x-4x packs of cards, on top of the cards you already earned by making your deck.
Gauntlet - This is the free AI mode. You create a 75-card deck and play against a random selection of pre-made AI decks. The last encounter will be a special boss fight with special rules, but you never know which boss you will face in a given run (so you can't really build your deck for it). Free to start this mode, but you do earn gold for doing well in it. And the first few times you get 7 wins, you get a free pack.
PvP Game Modes:
Casual/Practice - You earn about 50 gold for winning a game in this mode. No other rewards. You can use this mode to complete daily quests, or to test out deck ideas. No other real rewards though.
Ranked - This is the ladder for Eternal. It includes every card ever printed in the game (which is a lot). Kind of like Wild mode in Hearthstone. Bring your best deck, try to beat everyone else. You start out as Copper-III, and can rank up to Copper-II, then Copper-I, then you become Silver (which also has 3 tiers), then Gold, then Diamond, then Masters (Masters is equivalent to Legend). Ranking up through each tier requires earning 100 points. Exactly how many points you earn in each tier is slightly randomized, but for Copper through Gold, you basically will rank up to the next tier if you win 5 games in a row. Also, in Copper through Gold, you lose fewer points for losing than you gain for winning. So the climb is possible even with a slightly less than 50% winrate. This last part is not true for Diamond, where you (usually) get 15 points for winning and lose 15 points for losing.
Expedition - This is a new game mode, and will be more like Standard mode in Hearthstone. There is a limited pool of cards that are allowed to played in this mode. The current set will always be fully allowed (all the cards), but the remaining cards allowed will rotate in and out. Exactly how rotations will happen in this mode is not yet clear. But currently it is designed to have a lower power level than Ranked mode.
Draft - This is a mode where you gradually choose 48 cards, one card at a time, from "packs" that are presented to you. Exact details of this mode would take too long to explain here. It is a complex mode, also similar to Arena in Hearthstone, but significantly different. Like Forge mode, every card you pick while building your draft deck is yours to keep permanently. This game mode costs 5000 gold per entry. If you want to "go infinite" in draft, you actually have to win all 7 games before you lose 3, which is not easy to do. Most people who specialize in draft have to pay money to keep up.
Special Events - There are special events every few weeks which give nice rewards, as well as a monthly league.
So, lots of game modes, all of which are fun and interesting.
I got a couple of starter posts going. I'll add more about game modes later.
I should also mention, one other very significant difference between Eternal and Hearthstone is the way that "mana" works. In Eternal, "mana" is called "power" and it has different colors. There are not different classes to differentiate cards and decks (like in Hearthstone); instead, each card has a color requirement (red - Fire; blue - Primal; yellow - Time; purple - Shadow; and green - Justice). Your deck size is 75 cards, but at least 25 of those cards have to be power. So, your "mana" is provided by cards in your deck; it does not automatically get added each turn.
Summary version:
Eternal "mana" is called power
Power comes in different colors
Power is granted by cards, not automatically
The power cards have a lot of variety. Some of them do not give power on the turn they are played; you get the power the following turn. Some of them only give one color. Some of them allow you to choose which color you get. Some of them give two colors. Some of them let you choose from three different colors.
Your deck has to be at least 1/3 power cards.
There are some very good budget decks that players have put together, to help you get into the game fast.
Hyper aggressive - https://eternalwarcry.com/decks/d/-kJlbqMPm2M/true-budget-deck-for-new-players-no-rares-no-adventure-cards
Less aggressive, but still aggro - https://eternalwarcry.com/decks/d/vg8e-9xnGr8/budget-argenport-gunslinger-scums
Yet another aggressive deck (most cheap decks are aggressive): https://eternalwarcry.com/decks/d/NYuJCK2lNo8/a-budget-rakano-aggro
A budget midrange deck: https://eternalwarcry.com/decks/d/66GHn5IcezQ/budget-fps-mid
You can also search the deck website yourself for budget or starter decks, www.eternalwarcry.com
In the simplest possible terms, Eternal is a streamlined version of Magic: The Gathering, for those who are familiar with Magic. It has many very similar mechanics, and the combat rules are similar, though it has fewer response windows, which speeds up the game-play. It is also quite possibly the friendliest Free-To-Play model of any digital card game. You literally get a daily free pack just for winning your first pvp game of the day.
For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, here is the longer explanation. Have you ever been frustrated by the fact that Hearthstone only lets you do things half the time (i.e. on your own turn)? That there is very little you can do about an aggro beatdown, aside from try to throw a taunt in the way? Then Eternal might be worth a shot. The game-play is quite a bit more complex and interesting than Hearthstone, AND you can interact with your opponent on both your own turn AND their turn as well.
When your opponent attacks, they do not decide which creature hits which creature; you, as the defender, decide that. You also decide whether to just let them hit your face instead of a creature. There are also spells called "fast spells" which can be played during your opponent's turn, if you saved mana for them.
I'll stop there for now, but if any of this is interesting to you, head on over to the Reddit and check out the first two pinned posts there. The first is a great place to ask questions; the second is a place to get a referral link that gets you some freebies in game. https://www.reddit.com/r/EternalCardGame/
The official news website for Eternal is here: https://www.direwolfdigital.com/news/
If you want to message me in game, my in game ID is: TheScot+1473
Eternal is my favorite card game; they just introduced a new game mode; they currently have a good drops campaign going in Twitch; AND they just released a new set. It's an exciting time to be playing it.
I just noticed that you guys added a section to the website for a card game that has not even been only just released. Meanwhile, there is a very high quality card game that has been in existence for 2-3 years called Eternal, which does not have a section on the site.
And it's recently been getting a lot of new players coming over from Hearthstone. Maybe you could consider adding a section for Eternal?
They weren't waiting to decide what to do about the American University players. They specifically stated there would be no penalty, and then stated that their next match had been scheduled. The only difference between the two incidents, practically speaking, was the region where the incident occurred. One was in heavily Chinese-influenced Taiwan; the other was in the United States.