Hard 30 – Meta-tations: Format Review Part III of V
Ever wanted to play a customizable card game but hate building decks? Feel squeamish whenever the phrase ‘Net Deck’ is uttered? Love the idea of never having a useless card in your deck? Like exclamation points?! Then Coal Off! Is for you! A recent tournament cobbled together on discord introduced me to this insanely fun format.
What is a Coal Off!
The Coal Off! format is an alternate way to play a one versus one game of Ashes. Both players sit down with Coal as their phoenixborn and one copy of 100 Blades for their deck. Those are the only unrandom factors.
Single copies of 29 of randomized cards make up the rest of your deck. Your dice are also completely randomized so you may not be able to play everything in your deck to the table. There are often five to nine cards that have play costs you don’t have. And that is the beauty of a Coal Off! Whatever, you can’t play, you can Slash!
Can’t play ’em? Slash ’em!
The rest of the gameplay is mostly like a normal game of Ashes. The only difference currently is there isn’t a Chained List and that may change. However, the simplicity of the format belies some serious deeper understanding of Ashes.
Origin Story: For the Love of High Fives
The recent tournament format came into life under the guidance of CharlotteM as she is known as on the Ashes discord channel. “I recently discovered how much fun Coal is to play, and the Coal-Off format takes it to the extreme,” she said. ”It is highly tactical, clever, and frequently hilarious.”
Dan, known as dijon on the discord channel, is the creator. He admits to not playing yet, but immediately saw the potential for entertainment. “The coal-off button made it into Ashteki because the people demanded it!” he said. “It just so happened that I was having some fun writing a discord bot to generate Carousel format assignments, random decks, and that sort of thing. The algorithm could include more useful cards and could make sure you can play all of the cards you get, but where’s the fun in that?”
This isn’t the first time CharlotteM attempted to rile up interest in this fledgling format.
“Oddfrog suggested a tournament a while ago but the idea didn’t get much traction,” she said. “So when I brought it up again, I honestly thought it would be me, him, and Carl, playing a couple matches each for high fives.”
The first official Slash Fest registered nine players, including myself. Hardly an emperor lion’s share of the online playing population. But, a pretty good start for a fan inspired format that is not Plaid Hat sanctioned and can only be played on Ashteki.com. Others have already enjoyed the chaos and wanted to support the current and future tournaments.
“More people kept jumping in,” CharlotteM said. “(Impossible) German threw in prize support, Lizzie signed up for future prize support…and everyone seems to be having a great time! I’m really hoping it becomes a regular thing and more people try it. It really is a fun way to play.”
The current tournament is set to be completed by the 26th of June. At the time of writing this article no future tournaments have been scheduled. Based on current interest it is only a matter of time Slash Fest becomes an annual event!
How to be the Best Coal
The unique aspect of picking your first five cards in Ashes lends itself to a fascinating, tense, and puzzle like beginning to Coal Offs. You have to identify what cards you CAN play. What cards are best in a vacuum. And finally what cards can be used in combination for lethal results.
”It is highly tactical, clever, and frequently hilarious.”
Negotiating Your Best Five
Randomized dice means you need to be incredibly critical of what you first five. The easiest way to win a Coal Off! is to have reasonable summon books. If you have to choose between starting an Omen Bringer or a Realm Walker because you only have one time die; it is better to run the book. If you have access to three good conjurations you are well on your way to win town.
Ideally you want one knight, a summons unit guard, two more midrange units, and a removal or cancel spell for your first five. Marching out unslashable creatures to a battlefield round after round gives the deck an incredibly solid base. If you cannot have consistency look for combos.
Unfortunately this part just comes from experience. In the above example you should absolutely start Realm Walker if you have an unexhuast card. String Mage and Small Sacrifice. Drain Vitality and Bloodshot are weird things you will run into during a Coal Off! Finally, keep your ace up your sleeve.
I have repeatedly overclocked my first five because I wanted to make sure I had a card going into round two because of its inherent blowout potential. Again, some of these will come with practice but I recommend Nature’s Wrath, 100 Blades, and Choke as all worthy carry overs. If you are lucky enough to have to choose between Sonic Swordsman or Hammer Knight, start with both and just play one later. Only do this if you feel your other four cards can either win or hold down the battlefield.
Identifying Good Butts
Quality units are hard to find and keep in play versus Coal. This problem becomes compounded because you only have one of each card. So, a different lens has to be used to value units.
One of the most important things to realize when reviewing playable units is that Slash is going to be used constantly.
One life units that have passive abilities are largely garbage. Smaller units with come into play or side action triggers are fine. Anchornaut can be a game changer. Anything with at least two life should be automatically considered as reasonable to play. Salamander Monk gets a pass because it is like he has two life and can attack again. It cannot be overemphasized that a spellbook with a 2/2 unit, ANY 2/2 is good.
After that you want to look for one of three abilities; bonus removal, evasion, and unit guard. False Demon is an absolute power house in this format. Frostback Bear is as good as ever along with Biter. Yeah, biter is really good here. Because of the lack of quality units you have to protect your own with everything you have got and the rooted plant wrecks most attackers.
Pretty much all the knights are bonkers because they bring a second or third ability to the table. And there is very little one shot removal. Special mention has to go out to our armored friend Celestial Knight. Immune to the power of slash means they are a particularly robust beat stick.
Best of the Rest, Removal by Any Other Name
I’m going to keep this part short. Any main action removal or damage is amazing. It doesn’t matter the cost. This allows you to follow up with a slash to knock out bigger units. 100 Blades is insanely powerful in this format. Save it for the blow out or desperate situations.
Otherwise, there are few cards that can handle monster units. Know if you have any in your deck that you can play. Consider first fiving Fade Aways and To Shadows. Exhaustion can work just as well because most games are only going to go three rounds.
Other important effects to keep an eye out for are unexhausting units, card draw, and unit enhancements. This is a repeated line but if you have a knight you want to use it twice. I have gotten lucky in two games now with a Sonic Swordsman plus Flute Mage or Refresh. Card draw equals dealing damage with Coal. As long as you can generate main actions, keep drawing until you clear the battlefield. Finding unit enhancements is just a repeat of what effects you want on your units. Hunting Weapon and Confusion Spore are grade A cards to slip into the first five if you don’t have enough good units.
A Note on Mill, Direct Damage, and Life as a Tool
Coal has an Ashes worst 15 life. This means you can not tank too many big attacks to protect your battlefield. Putting unit guard even more under the spotlight. On the plus side, because the decks are singletons, there are not too many cards available to cause direct damage to your phoenixborn. Understanding this concept is tantamount to winning the close games.
Coal wants to use every card in his hand as slashbait in order to control the battlefield. If you can’t hold down the attack lanes, then focus on chipping away at their life total and/or deck. Spin down effects can be brutal as a substitute to direct damage. The longer the game goes the better position you will be in if you can stay ahead on deck size.
Spinning Up the Power Side of Dice
The opposite is true in a Coal Off! as well. Cards or abilities that allow you to fix your dice to power sides save you valuable meditations. Hidden Power is worth its weight in molten gold. More importantly, you probably won’t be able to play all the cards in your hand so getting utility out of your dice is necessary for a winning strategy.
The ceremony die is the single most important die in your resource pool. Most decks only have one or two game changing allies. Being able to get them back onto the battlefield can often spell victory. Plan you round around your best ally dying and getting them back to action. Pay attention to your discard when you have to meditate. I once played a Beast Tamer thrice in a game and it was worth it every time.
All the other dice have their places with the exception to time. There will be instances but they are rare. With the deck itself being so valuable for slashing it becomes less useful to meditate just to use a power side outside of ceremony. Just remember that charm and divine are ways to protect your units.
My Two Cents
There are scintillating formats available on Ashteki.com as programmed by dijon. Slash Fest Is not my first foray into the less popular tournaments. Other (semi?) regular events include Carousel, Jankfest, and Draft. I will say Slash Fest has been the most fun. My hope is the four smaller formats can find a way to exist annually or biannually. Run by different folks in order to decrease any burn out.
Slash Fest has been an unmitigated success and revelation in my eyes. Until I stare you down opposite a Coal Off! Heyo and gl!