Faeria

[yuris125]

Did you guys have a chance to try this? Craig Jones, the hero of arguably the most famous Magic: the Gathering video, has been speaking very highly about Faeria on Facebook the last few days. I tried it myself, and it seems impressive so far

Faeria is a CCG which is played on a hexagonal board, which is empty at the start, and players shape it by placing lands for their creatures. This adds a unique strategic layer unlike any other CCG I had experience with. Unlike many other games, mana doesn't disappear between turns, so unlike Magic or Hearthstone, you don't have to curve out - in fact, you're encouraged to hold on to your cards until they can have an immediate impact on the board

The game is free to play, and seems to be very generous - think I got a good dozen packs for free just for running through solo missions (and I'm not done with them yet!). For ladder mode (the structure of which is pretty much the same as in Hearthstone), tI had concerns that matchmaking would take a while, as the game is relatively new (just came out of beta), and doesn't have that many players. But I haven't had to wait more than 30 seconds so far

If you're in a mood to try a new CCG, I highly recommend this one You can name me if recruiter if you want - this would give benefits to you as well as to me (at the very least setting up a recruiter gives you 3 packs upon reaching level 15 - that's what I know about you do need to specify your recruiter before reaching level 15 you want that). Or at least add me as friend player name is yuris125

Official page: https://www.faeria.com/
Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/397060/Faeria/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/faeria/

[Coeurva]

I'll play this (name: Coeur). Don't have much to say about it yet, of course, except that I like the mechanic of developing your own lands from your opponent's if you can occupy them with creatures.

Edit:
I've lost three of three games, all of them to my opponent playing that dragon that deals 3 dmg to everything eviscerating my board presence (so I guess the right strategy is not to play creatures below 4 toughness; this seems... strangely familiar ), and they all seem to use the same green/red deck. It seems that it isn't a good idea to jump right into multiplayer, because I sure don't have cards of the same quality.

[yuris125]

Yeah, it's generally a good idea to start with solo missions, as you get a good number of packs and gold from them. I maybe got lucky, as I opened a legendary and a golden legendary from those packs so was able to craft Garudan myself very early. From what I understand, most legendaries in Faeria aren't amazing (or essential), but red has two of the very best ones in Garudan and Seifer

Running into the same deck 3 times in a row is unlucky though - I had a wide range of opponents in the first 10 matches or so I played in constructed

[Coeurva]

Apparently "Pandora" is this game's version of drafting / Limited, with a twist (more on that in a minute). Once I found that out, I had to jump in. I picked green because I saw the jumping 3/5 creature who tutors more green creatures (at lowered cost!) whenever it damages your opponent. This thing is insane if you can pair it up with taunters and/or beefy guys coming from the other side; look at that card advantage:



We had both drafted green mid-range, with early tiki totems neutralizing each other.

Pandora's twist is that once the five "treasures", which are randomly mixed into both decks, are drawn, the Faeria wells shut off for the rest of the game, and you get 6 faeria (mana) per round instead. What's more, the "treasure cards" (which you also draft) come into play. These all have very powerful effects -- I played all of mine during this duel, including a 6-mana chain-lightning spell that deals 6 to one creature and 3 to everyone adjacent, while my opponent made a good play putting a 3-mana 6/6 dragon in range of my sphere.

You can see that I relinquished land (probably too much of it, really; an advance forest would have been nice in combination with the creature that, on entering play, teleports your guys into any forest -- which is one of the most fun I've found so far) and went for a single-side opening, pushing for my opponent's well rather than the middle of the board (these wells generate 1 mana each turn, as long as you have a creature next to them; and when a creature moves next to one).

Buff effects are powerful in this game because they don't vanish eot, and can seize control of any part of the board if there's multiple fronts. They also open up counterplay as your opponent tries to pick off weaker creatures.

Note the spent tiki 2/2 blocking my opponent's single advance forest. He couldn't make much use of his land advantage because he lacked neutral creatures to put on the plains in front of my sphere. That's another interesting part of the game; how many neutral creatures do you include in mid-range/control for this situation?

[AdrienIer]

I went through some solo missions, the game seems fun. I have to adapt to hearthstone-like life points instead of magic the gathering-like stamina, but that won't take long. I like blue so far.

[yuris125]

I hate blue and like red, but what else would you expect from me :P I'm actually on a fence if I should craft a blue-based deck to get a better feel for how the colour plays, or disenchant all my epics and craft Seifer

Still at a loss about land placement - I seem to allow opponents place aggressive lands next to my face too often. Or maybe I just place my creatures too aggressively, leaving face defenceless. Hopefully that improves with experience...

Went 1-3 in Pandora today, deck wasn't great, but thought it could do better... two opponents played the 6/6 treasure which deals 6 to me when it dies.. not very nice to see on opposing side when you're on 5 life

[Coeurva]

yuris -- Blue can actually produce an aggressive deck as well, if that's what you're thinking I haven't had the chance to play Ninja Toad, but a 3/2 jumper with haste could be up your alley. Triton Warrior is a great common, too (4/4 jumping), Aurora turns any creature into a 6/6, and I'm always uneasy playing against Mirror Phantasm (5/5, makes another creature 5/5).

U/G has a great budget mid-range deck available, and I've found that others have long since made builds after the same idea I had. I've climbed to rank 15 using it:

3 Gabrian Enchantment
3 Gabrian Enchantress
3 Spellwhirl
3 Frogify (substitute Humbling Visions if not available)
3 Sturdy Shell

3 Deepwood Grizzly
3 Living Willow
3 Wood Elemental
3 Elderwood Embrace
3 Tiki Caretaker

How to play and win with this deck: just keep your cards in hand, the rest follows trivially

But no joke, keep your cards in hand, that's what I've learned with this build. It's great to make your opponent guess whether you have a Gabrian enchantment by plopping down a willow / bear in range of their sphere, and better yet if they don't know which of two advancing creatures you will hit with it. Same goes for the combat buffs / debuffs. They cannot make informed decisions that way, which is the most important resource to deny them.

The aim is to play the Gabrians (creature's attack becomes equal to its life) on either Deepwood Grizzly (3/8) or Living Willow (1/7 taunting), with the turtle (0/5 aquatic) providing a secondary target -- especially in the opening, when it can lure in your opponent's harvesters. The enchantment cantrips, and thus you gain card advantage if you can use it to remove any opposing creature, while your threat is still marching on the board (the turtle tends to get boxed in, which is also why it shouldn't carry the attack).

The willow can also produce excellent counterplay if your opponent is on the march with several smaller creatures. Plop down a forest next to an advancing pair, place the willow on it, Gabrian enchantment, and now he has to get around a 7/7 taunter.

Elderwood Embrace and Tiki Caretaker serve as combat tricks; the former works well with the Gabrians, while the latter can be used for harvesting in the backlines. As far as I can see, Green features no better buffs on common cards -- you definitely want to keep them targeted, because random battlefield buffs will hit your backline enchantress or marginal turtle, and while Oakling's +5/+5 is never wasted, your opponent must activate it. They will choose to ignore the 1/5 Oakling instead, and you usually can't force them to pay attention unless you waste the Gabrian buffs on it, or set it up to double-harvest.

You can also play the Gabrians on opposing creatures, but usually shouldn't. An 8/8 grizzly threatens their whole setup; a single creature of theirs rendered 2/2 usually doesn't. Of course, if they have one big creature (Primeval Colossus is a card I've seen quite often), you can swing a spent grizzly/willow into it, enchant it, and clean up nicely with the other.

A 7/7 taunter in the enemy "box" is a marvelous asset. Wood Elementals can save a similar purpose after the opening.

Aim to find either the turtle or the elemental in your opening hand (better yet, both of them). Build towards your own, then your opponent's well if he's not rushing through the center.

I play Spellwhirl at three, as it can serve up further Gabrians or the game-winner Frogify (really -- I've won more than one game turning my opponent's taunter or main battering ram into a 2/2 frog), and you almost never draw duds.

If you find you're not drawing enough creatures, you can include Triton Warrior or Verduran Force. I've also found a copy of Possessed Ursus that I want to try out in this list.

I've had less success with my second round of Pandora (green midrange, seen above, ended up with a 5-3 record), where I played 3-3 with a yellow flyers deck that saw, as I've come to find out, several silly inclusions and plays on my part (the 1/1 deathtoucher, which doesn't help at all vs. burn and only runs into taunters vs. green, or the 2/1 transformer -- turns out the 5/2 flyer can't move on the same turn, making the card worse than ineffectual) and didn't curve well at all, which saw me punished by having to put a Crystal Dragon into the line of fire of a 7/7 ranged attacker just to save myself (and I lost anyway). Possessed Shaytan is unexpectedly strong, though.

[yuris125]

Yeah I know blue can be aggressive in Faeria - even if I still see its primary feature as disruptive. Moving lands definitely qualifies as disruptive in my experience (even if it can be done to push damage as well), and that mechanic is primarily in blue. It's funny - I favour aggressive red deck in Magic, in Faeria red is more of a control colour, but I still prefer red to everything else. Guess I just like burning opponent's face

I'm currently playing red control(ish) version with a lot of burn, featuring clearly aggressive cards like Grim Guard. Do have problems with green, which I understand is pretty bad match-up for red, as they make creatures too big to be killed by burn. Maybe I'm just not aggressive enough in the match-up

Definitely thinking of getting another deck as well if I can get enough dust (is it called memoria?). Magic experience taught me how much you can improve your understanding of match-ups and the game in general by playing the other side

But yeah, holding cards in hand in general is a big difference Faeria has compared to other TCG/CCG, thanks to its resource system being so different. Definitely has to re-learn Magic and Hearthstone habits

1 toughness creatures I found a liability more often than not, be it the 1/1 deathoucher or the 4/1 vanilla. Falcon Dive is a common available to everyone, and at 1 mana it kill anything worth killing at mana advantage. Plus red has even better ways to punish 1 toughness creatures like Flame Spitter and Derelict Tower (not even mentioning Groundshaker, who's a constructed staple, but less frequent as an epic)

[Coeurva]

I'm currently playing red control(ish) version with a lot of burn, featuring clearly aggressive cards like Grim Guard. Do have problems with green, which I understand is pretty bad match-up for red, as they make creatures too big to be killed by burn. Maybe I'm just not aggressive enough in the match-up

I've been wondering about how to defeat Green with Red, as well, even if I'm on the other side on the match-up currently

How playable did you find the long-range 7/7? Or perhaps you can splash other long-range creatures (I'm not too acquainted with the pool yet)? Green has issues with moving its juggernauts across the map -- no keywords like Jump or Flying. They can do excellent point defense with Taunt, though.

Edit: This is wrong, actually. Green has two flyers (the legendary dragon and Flowersilk Faerie), as well as three jumpers (two of which can be seen in the screenshot above, even), although one of them is quite terrible (the one that can only attack players). Still not many, but not negligible either.

1 toughness creatures I found a liability more often than not, be it the 1/1 deathoucher or the 4/1 vanilla. Falcon Dive is a common available to everyone, and at 1 mana it kill anything worth killing at mana advantage. Plus red has even better ways to punish 1 toughness creatures like Flame Spitter and Derelict Tower (not even mentioning Groundshaker, who's a constructed staple, but less frequent as an epic)

And Garudan, of course but there's also Famine, a "rare" sorcery (Faeria jargon for "uncommon", I guess) that deals 1 dmg to every creature for 2 neutral mana. Some strategy guides still recommend Farm Boy or Village Elder as a harvester, but I can't get behind that.

Also, Triton Warrior (and other jumpers) are great fun in the deck I'm using. You can usually put him on the second lane you're opening after the main force has had initial success, jump across land gaps, Elderwood Embrace him, and casually pick off the enemy harvester on that side, threatening a huge mana advantage. I'm just not sure in which slot to put him, as I love my Spellwhirls too much. I think I'll have to build a mono-U frog deck some time... but not before I draw Mirror Phantasm and Aurora, I suppose.

[AdrienIer]

I just had the funniest moment. We're on turn 3, this guy (forest deck apparently) finally plays something and puts a Ruunin right in front of my poor 3/2 card. I frogify the Ruunin and kill it. The guy instantly ragequits.

Green seems popular. And with cards like Ruunin or the everbloom wisp, it seems perfectly understandable.