Hearthstone

[Wingflier]

Hmm, think I'll add Duelyst to the queue to play. I'm looking for something post Hearthstone and have been poking around in Chronicle: Runescape Legends but it's not pushing the right buttons for me.

I don't think you'll regret it, if you liked Hearthstone. From my perspective it's better in pretty much every conceivable way. Of course I recognize that as just my opinion, but I think there are some pseudo-objective standards most players use which may lead to the same conclusion.

Standards such as less grindy, less luck-based, more strategy, more depth, greater number of options, more available classes, things like that.

Hell, just the ability to swap out a card each turn makes it vastly less luck-based than Hearthstone. In HS if your hand sucks, and you can't draw into anything you need, it's really tough to win. That situation still happens in Duelyst, but fairly rarely in comparison. Most the time when I lose, I just feel outplayed. That's a good feeling to have after playing HS for so long.

One thing I will say is that, just like HS, it's grindy to get a deck worthy of being played competitively. But if you don't care about that and are just playing for fun, the things you start with are more than enough to craft a pretty strong deck. Also the people you'll be playing against will more or less have the same options as you starting out.

[Wingflier]

Hmm, think I'll add Duelyst to the queue to play. I'm looking for something post Hearthstone and have been poking around in Chronicle: Runescape Legends but it's not pushing the right buttons for me.

id absolutely recommend it so far it seems better balanced and is giving me the chance to buy packs at a fair frequency but just as a warning if you get into a match with an abyssian and they get a shadow watcher kill that thing hard those things can ramp up endless ley given the chance.

Make sure you have some Dispel in every deck you create. Dispel (Silence in HS) is a key component that should be present in every deck. Here is a short explanation and list of cards which contain it.

http://duelyst.gamepedia.com/Dispel

I would recommend just running 3 Ephemeral Shrouds in each deck. For their cost their stats are decent, and the ability to dispel is invaluable against almost every opponent.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Hmm, think I'll add Duelyst to the queue to play. I'm looking for something post Hearthstone and have been poking around in Chronicle: Runescape Legends but it's not pushing the right buttons for me.

I'm curious as to why it isn't. I was kinda interested in that game, just because of how different it was. For CCGs I have Shadow Era. Don't need anything else.

I think it's because I haven't gotten enough cards to do crazy combos yet. I have only put in about 4 hours and haven't paid for anything so maybe as I get more cards, more interesting things come up. Don't get me wrong, I really like the entire campaign section. I just don't think I've gotten the cards for some crazy stories just yet.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

One thing I will say is that, just like HS, it's grindy to get a deck worthy of being played competitively. But if you don't care about that and are just playing for fun, the things you start with are more than enough to craft a pretty strong deck. Also the people you'll be playing against will more or less have the same options as you starting out.

*shrug* Competitive decks aren't in my interest right now. As I'm not really willing to put money into these games yet, it doesn't bother me if my deck in these games are pretty substandard out the gate. What I'm looking for is something that let's me be creative with deck building without it feeling like the game is actively punishing me for trying to "break the meta" (Hearthstone).

[Wingflier]

One thing I will say is that, just like HS, it's grindy to get a deck worthy of being played competitively. But if you don't care about that and are just playing for fun, the things you start with are more than enough to craft a pretty strong deck. Also the people you'll be playing against will more or less have the same options as you starting out.

*shrug* Competitive decks aren't in my interest right now. As I'm not really willing to put money into these games yet, it doesn't bother me if my deck in these games are pretty substandard out the gate. What I'm looking for is something that let's me be creative with deck building without it feeling like the game is actively punishing me for trying to "break the meta" (Hearthstone).

My experience with Duelyst has been pretty positive in that regard.

The thing is, they aren't afraid to nerf problem cards into balance. And when they do, any copies of that card you own, you can refund for full dust for a week, so it's a win/win for the game and the players.

One of the reasons HS had such a static meta was that these obviously overpowered cards just stay in within the game forever, and you're pretty much forced to build decks around them to win. Blizzard, instead of fighting this trend has actually embraced it with the C'Thun expansion and such, which shows that this is how they want their game to be designed.

In Duelyst I feel like they do a pretty good job of trying to keep everything within reason, and for that reason alone you have a big license for creativity because it's less about what cards you use, and more about how you make them work together.

I'd recommend using the Starter Decks for a week or two, then once you get a handle on the game (and some packs), you can start coming up with ideas of your own. The Challenges are also a good place to start because they teach you the game and reward you with gold to buy more packs.

[crazyroosterman]

Hmm, think I'll add Duelyst to the queue to play. I'm looking for something post Hearthstone and have been poking around in Chronicle: Runescape Legends but it's not pushing the right buttons for me.

id absolutely recommend it so far it seems better balanced and is giving me the chance to buy packs at a fair frequency but just as a warning if you get into a match with an abyssian and they get a shadow watcher kill that thing hard those things can ramp up endless ley given the chance.

Make sure you have some Dispel in every deck you create. Dispel (Silence in HS) is a key component that should be present in every deck. Here is a short explanation and list of cards which contain it.

http://duelyst.gamepedia.com/Dispel

I would recommend just running 3 Ephemeral Shrouds in each deck. For their cost their stats are decent, and the ability to dispel is invaluable against almost every opponent.

true but if your opponent is unlucky enough to not have dispel in his deck(like my self actually sometime during today or tomorrow I need to redesign my abyssian deck trying to make a rush down deck is pretty hard when you've got limited cards tends to be a bit miserable for now I should probably just stick to straight efficiency based decks in till I've got a large collection) I say this as some one who's been playing abyssian a lot it always amuses me how they are straight up invincible to 1 attack enemy's(apart from with persifick effects of course) but its interesting that this game minions with the dullest version of silence actually have solid stats almost like the games balanced so that minions don't have to be use less to be balanced.

[Logorouge]

One thing I will say is that, just like HS, it's grindy to get a deck worthy of being played competitively. But if you don't care about that and are just playing for fun, the things you start with are more than enough to craft a pretty strong deck. Also the people you'll be playing against will more or less have the same options as you starting out.

Duelyst sounds like a game I could enjoy immensely, but the above is the part that has me worried. The main reason I gave up on HS is because if I wanted to gain new cards at a reasonable pace, I had to play Arena (aka not my deck) or bring out the credit card. After the initial burst of gold, being limited to a handful of duplicate cards per day and maybe a new card every other day is just not fast enough for me. Is this the case for Duelyst?

To be clear, I wouldn't be playing to be competitive at all. The fun for me is to rebuild my deck over and over with new cards and testing different card combos. That's why getting stuck with the same deck for weeks or months just wouldn't do it for me.


Edit: Further research revealed that Duelyst might indeed be more... generous with freeloading newbies. :P
        Another question: Before I start playing, is there a referral code from one of you guys I can input?

[Wingflier]

One thing I will say is that, just like HS, it's grindy to get a deck worthy of being played competitively. But if you don't care about that and are just playing for fun, the things you start with are more than enough to craft a pretty strong deck. Also the people you'll be playing against will more or less have the same options as you starting out.

Duelyst sounds like a game I could enjoy immensely, but the above is the part that has me worried. The main reason I gave up on HS is because if I wanted to gain new cards at a reasonable pace, I had to play Arena (aka not my deck) or bring out the credit card. After the initial burst of gold, being limited to a handful of duplicate cards per day and maybe a new card every other day is just not fast enough for me. Is this the case for Duelyst?

To be clear, I wouldn't be playing to be competitive at all. The fun for me is to rebuild my deck over and over with new cards and testing different card combos. That's why getting stuck with the same deck for weeks or months just wouldn't do it for me.


Edit: Further research revealed that Duelyst might indeed be more... generous with freeloading newbies.
        Another question: Before I start playing, is there a referral code from one of you guys I can input?

Yeah, if you use the referral code Wingflier (my name), I guess it'll start you out with some extra gold and benefit both of us.

Like I said, Duelyst certainly isn't perfect when it comes to the 'grinding' aspect, but it seems pretty fair. Of course if it were up to me, I'd just buy the game and have all the cards unlocked, but that's not how these blasted models operate.

[Toranth]

Yeah, if you use the referral code Wingflier (my name), I guess it'll start you out with some extra gold and benefit both of us.

Like I said, Duelyst certainly isn't perfect when it comes to the 'grinding' aspect, but it seems pretty fair. Of course if it were up to me, I'd just buy the game and have all the cards unlocked, but that's not how these blasted models operate.

There's a referral system?  Drat.  You convinced me to try it out, and I started playing yesterday.  Is there any way to add a referrer later?

Anyways, so far I'm mostly enjoying myself.  Played too long last night (this morning?) and got all the factions to level 12-13.  Did all the challenges and starter quests and such, too.  So now my only way to earn gold is by winning matches.

And that's where I'm annoyed.

I'm decent at these sorts of games.  I played Magic a LOT, and TRPGs are one of my favorite types of games, so I feel right at home with most of the mechanics.  But since I won a lot, I quickly found myself in the Silver ranking.  And now I'm doing 50% wins at best, because my "enhanced" starter decks just don't have the cards to compete.  And it's not the Legendaries or Epics, either.  It's just the non-default commons: the extra creature removals, efficient enhancements, more versatile dispels.  I just opened another pack before coming back to this thread, and it was an excellent pack!  An Epic, a Legendary, and 3 commons.  The three commons went instantly into my decks, while the Epic and Legendary are sitting around in reserve.

I understand they're F2P, and packs are how they make money.  But I'll agree with you:  If I could just pay a reasonable price to buy the game and all the cards unlocked (or even just 90%-ish of them!) I'd prefer that.  So, I'll probably play it 30min or an hour a day for the next month or three, doing nothing but the daily quests and getting the bonuses, until my decks are up to snuff, and I can compete with mid- to upper-ranked Silver, at least.

[Logorouge]

There's a referral system?  Drat.  You convinced me to try it out, and I started playing yesterday.  Is there any way to add a referrer later?

In the settings menu, I found a "Redeem referral code" button. It might not be too late.

I'm having a helluva fun time. So glad I happen to read this thread. :)

[Wingflier]

I'm decent at these sorts of games.  I played Magic a LOT, and TRPGs are one of my favorite types of games, so I feel right at home with most of the mechanics.  But since I won a lot, I quickly found myself in the Silver ranking.  And now I'm doing 50% wins at best, because my "enhanced" starter decks just don't have the cards to compete.  And it's not the Legendaries or Epics, either.  It's just the non-default commons: the extra creature removals, efficient enhancements, more versatile dispels.  I just opened another pack before coming back to this thread, and it was an excellent pack!  An Epic, a Legendary, and 3 commons.  The three commons went instantly into my decks, while the Epic and Legendary are sitting around in reserve.

For someone with a basic amount of cards, but still wanting to compete in Silver and probably make it to Gold, I would recommend Kara Winterblade of Vanar. The thing is, with her ability to buff every minion in your action bar for 1 mana, she can create an insurmountable amount of value that your opponents will find nearly impossible to deal with, even if they technically have better cards. In addition, Vanar has some of the best class removal spells in Chromatic Cold and Aspect of the Fox; both of which you get for free.

Here's a sample example deck I built at a glance:



Here's a link to it with a lot more detailed information.

The only non-basic card in there is Dancing Blades, of which there are 3. It's a common card, and it's one of the best cards in the game, it fits into almost any deck, so I would recommend crafting it if you don't have them already. It's cheap and spirit well spent. It also creates one of the best combos in the game. Aspect of the Fox turns any enemy minion into a 3/3 wolf with no abilities. If you use that plus a Dancing Blades, you will kill any enemy instantly, no matter how powerful they are, while putting a 4/6 body on the board. It's one of the most devastating power swings in the game.

With Chromatic Cold and Ephemeral Shroud x3 you'll have 6 dispels, which is more than enough to deal with most provokes, deathwatch, dying wish, etc.

The key to using the deck correctly is to try and use your ultimate ability every time it's off cooldown. That way, the value of your minions just keeps increasing and increasing exponentially, and when you finally play them, the opponent will be unable to deal with the raw stats being thrown at them.

Try buffing your Saberspine Tiger as many times as you can before using him. A 4/3 or 5/4 with Rush for 3 mana is freaking scary. Use it to destroy problem minions or finish off the enemy commander.

Of course these are all basic cards, with the exception of Dancing Blades, so you can make some replacements since I'm sure you'll have quite a few cards that aren't. However, many basic cards are some of the best cards in the game, so it's not really necessary either. A deck like that should work fine.

edit: Made some deck changes to better reflect the current meta, links and explanation updated.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I used you as a referral Wingflier, so there you go .

[Wingflier]

Thanks man!

By the way, check out this article that Kotaku wrote about Duelyst. Pretty neat.

For the record, I just edited my original "basic card" Vanar deck to better reflect the current metagame. All I did was swap out the Repulsor Beasts for Saberspine Tigers, while updating the picture and the explanation.

[Toranth]

Unfortunately, it says you can't add a Referrer if you've already player a ranked game.  Sorry

I tried your suggest deck, with some mods - I still don't have any Dancing Blades (and yes, they've been used to good effect against me, so I want some), and I don't like the Stormmetal Golem.  So I replaced those with the Repulsor Beasts and 1x High Hand, 1x Razorback, 1x Exun because I had them sitting around.
It's interesting to play; not my normal style.  I normally play very aggressively, but this deck needs to delay those summons just a little... but not too long.  The Saberspine Tigers work great with this deck - dropping a 5/4 Rush into play has caused more than a few emoticons these last dozen games or so.   >D

The deck I've been having some success with is a ranged Songhai using Reva.  Nothing special in there yet, but the combination of Ranged and Provoke seems to confuse some players.
I don't think it'll work too long in the upper rankings, though, as it is very vulnerable to DD/AoE and dispels.

[TheVampire100]

Can you trade cards int his game? Because I have dancing swords but I don't use them.