Top Deck Hero

Hard 30 – Beyond the First Five: Card Draw Part II of III*

Integrating draw effects into a deck much less a first five is a balancing act. Too many greedy grabs and you’re just drawing your draw. Too little usually ends up being too late. There are also different kinds of draw that may not work for your deck. And, not every deck even wants to draw extra cards. So, how do we navigate the do’s and don’ts of card draw?

Do I Need More Plan?

Whenever I throw some poorly conceived deck idea together it normally only involves two to three cards, maybe four to five if I’m feeling adventurous. The rest of the deck is left to slotting in cards that run the same magic type. I just toss in some allies, removal, and other support cards as I see fit. After going on a brief losing streak, I have to ask what happened.

Was it the core idea? Is it just bad draws? Why am I failing?

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

― Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes

I wanted to focus on eliminating my core deck ideas as the culprit to bad play dates. If those were bad then I could just scrap the whole thing! So, I stripped everything down to original ‘core’ cards. Added some support that most decks need like a couple AOEs and some other removal. I then filled in the rest with card draw. Concentrating on draw effects to help either A) set up the core idea quicker by sifting through the deck or B) support cards that double as cantrips. If you ever see me play Jericho on Ashteki, I am probably testing a core idea!

Draw as Support

Most decks will fall under this category. Where you don’t want to dedicate a bunch of resources towards draw but you figure a third Chained Creation just doesn’t fit. You’ll want to focus on only a couple slots pulling two to three cards in one shot. I have found two to four cards is enough to make it work. If you aren’t pulling your draw effects, then that means you are pulling the gas you wanted anyway.

There are only a couple cards that fit in this narrow niche. I like New Ideas the best because I trend towards long games and assume I’ll be getting the card I buried. Even one Sleight of Hand has offset some really awkward sequences or meditations for me. If you are lucky enough to have a dominant phoenixborn ability, Generosity opens some interesting play patterns. 

Draw as a Way of Life

I love these decks. I can’t get enough of them currently. If I don’t have at least seven ways to get extra cards I’m not interested! Generating this much pull completely warps your deck building into extremely low card cost averages. The best way to compliment a style is six to nine cantrips.

Cantrips are normally low-costed cards that offer a nominal impact on the game in exchange for a single card draw. On its own you would be hard pressed to slip it into a list. But, when you combine it with six of its buddies spamming out other one cost cards it becomes a delight to behold.

Four Shells that Love to Draw

Beside just the general goodness of more options there are other compelling reasons to draw more cards. Some decks require a lot of cardboard to feed the machine ala Coal. Some are a spidery web of combinations that are seeking the right piece. The best answer is probably a blend of redundancy and supplemental cantrip effects covered in Part I. And here are the best shells to run them.

Send the Swarm

The easiest theme to replicate is low-cost bodies. Just sending the team over and over again can overwhelm small battlefields. Almost every magic type has allies or ready spells that fit the 2/1 mold. Make sure to have some two butts in there as well to break up ping fests. Koji or other high battlefield phoenixborn are great to utilize. Phoenixborn with bypass abilities can also fit the mold like Echo and Hope.

Don’t write off ready spells either. Imagine them as delayed allies. Do you care if they drop a turn later? Probably not. And next turn they will continue marching out for you as well. Sprinkle in a little removal like Out of the Mist or one cost removal effects and see how fast you can get there. Removal effects can be a pretty broad term here too. Exhausting a knight with Figures in the Fog is just as good as a Fester in short round games.

I like to include Particle Shield to protect your littles. Dropping and swinging with Spectral Assassin also allows you to attack with the same ally again and get a card.

Burn Baby Burn

Most folks will and have already trended towards burn. (This essay was originally written before Brennan’s rise to dominance.) It is heavily supported at one cost with Sympathy Pain, Final Cry, and Fire Archer. Applying damage directly to the forehead repeatedly can be bolstered by ready spells and a couple of phoenixborn abilities too.

Jessa and Brennan are outstanding with a blend of swarm and burn. I have been clocking lethal by the top of round three and in a couple of instances top of round two with Jessa. Brennan is probably a better choice but triggering Fear, Revenge, Jessa ping, and Final Cry feels good to me.

My preferred way to support this shell is with dice fixers like Accelerate and Hidden Power. A lot of the reactions require power sides. I also like New Ideas here because these feel a little more like combo decks.

Meet the Millers

Is it good? I don’t know yet, but the amount of one cost mill available is surprising. Paying one to discard one is not great. But if I said you could kill a one butt and discard a card? Yeah, ok, I’d look into it. How about a couple cheap bodies that you can attack or block? Well, Cobra is one of the best summons and Orchid Dove is fine in the right deck. What about one for two with an alternate damage clause as well? Yeah, I’m in, let’s check it out.

Ditching an opponent’s deck in round two seems like it would be oppressive. But it should always be repeated, milling an opponent’s deck does not equal an autowin. And I’m not winless with this deck. Just a…uh, lower percentage right now. I still need to tinker around with the right number of Remorseful, Violinist, and various other cards to get a win condition. I think there is a good combination out there somewhere.

“…it should always be repeated. Milling an opponent’s deck to zero does not equal win town!”

Me, I said that. Just now.

The main phoenixborn I’ve been focusing on is Saria. Her ability combines both the effects we want with mill and draw. Toss in Generosity to double up the trigger and either get MOAR DRAW or help along the milling process for my opponent. Other great choices to reinforce the theme are Leo, Rimea, and Victoria. Muffled cheering erupts as a Vicky parade starts somewhere in the world with streamers and a tuba player…

Comboliciousness

I don’t know if this exists in Ashes. I really don’t. The closest I’ve seen is a deck go all in Realm Walker round one and finish the game with burn. All of round one focuses on keeping the unit alive and ways to exhaust it to swing again. Maybe prison decks that rely on kneel, law of fear, and safeguard can be considered combo decks. They lean on draw to get the key cards while spamming out mill effects.

The goal is for every card that is NOT part of a combo piece to be draw. Or, better yet, tutor for it. This is one of the rare instances that it doesn’t really matter the cost of the draw card. The sheer power of the combination should carry the day. If it costs me four dice to get all three Fallen ready spells into play. It’s probably worth it. Even if you don’t have clever Jericho to seek out the cards; Augury or Open Memory is worth the cost.

What If You Presuppose You Didn’t?

Not playing with draw in your deck isn’t going to make you lose games. There are a ton of well-balanced decks where every card falls into a nice average to be played or pitched each round. Ideally that should be your goal for every deck. You may never actually play a deck with card draw.

And that would be a shame. Card draw opens up interesting play lines. There is a satisfying feeling of perfect information. There is the joy of extra options. Even the psychological advantage of holding more cards in hand than your opponent can be fulfilling. Until we meet again, heyo and gl!