First Impressions on Hearthstone

Hearthstone is Blizzard’s entry into the rapidly growing and very competitive arena of online trading card games. Over the past 2 years we have seen a massive surge in online TCG's being produced, with games such as Scrolls, Solforge and Might and Magic all entering this lucrative market.While Hearthstone is not strictly a TCG (as there is no trading between players)it is most defiantly a collectable card game and has all the elements of a TCG that fans will enjoy.

So what separates Hearthstone from its competitors? Well for a start, the sheer amount of polish is unreal. It’s the small things, such as the interactive card environments, For example if you click one of the windows of a building, you will repeatedly knock on it until it breaks with a very satisfying smashing noise.

Then there are the very big things, such as your collection being in an interactive binder, with pages you can scroll through as if the binder was in your hands. The game also feels very realistic, for example when you drag a card from your hand to the field of play, it’s very similar to the sound made if you were actually playing in real life, but with the added delight of creatures as they hit the field. You also cast spells and attack with beautiful animations and sounds.

The gameplay is simply fantastic! It’s very simple and easy to grasp the basics, with a great tutorial system that gradually introduces new concepts and abilities. But not everything is included in the tutorial and will be discovered on the battlefield. For instance, the ability to cast ‘secrets’ that will only be activated once a particular condition has been met. Your first encounter with them will most likely involve you running into them head first and being severely punished for it. 

An interesting feature of Hearthstone’s gameplay is that, rather than having land cards or sacrificing cards, you generate 1 mana every turn so there is no fear of being ‘land screwed’ or having to make tough decisions on which card to sacrifice for resources. This is a breath of fresh air in the TCG world, to say the least! While the gameplay is quite simple, this doesn't mean that there isn't depth to be found. In blizzards classic trade mark of games, it's easy to pick up - but harder to master. For those ready to test their mettle, there is the ‘Arena’, a draft environment where you build a deck from a limited card pool.

Currently there are nine classes to choose from, each comes with their own unique spells, creatures and a hero ability. The hero ability is a unique feature to Hearthstone, which grants each hero their own ability that can be used once each turn and costs 2 mana. These abilities range from a fireball that deals 1 damage to a target, to dealing 2 damage to yourself to draw a card. To help flesh out your deck, there are also a wide range of neutral creatures which can be slotted into your deck.

There are many viable strategies in Hearthstone, from aggressive low cost aggro creature decks, to the long game control decks, with everything else in-between. Even some very unique strategies are viable, a personal favourite is the one turn kill.  This is achieved by gently witling down the opponents health until they’re in range of a massive amount of damage in a single turn, through a combination of cards in your hand generated by cheap draw cards.

The decks you build consist of 30 cards with no more than two copies of any card and only a single copy of any of the very powerful legendary cards. The legendary cards come in the form of powerful and popular figures from the World of Warcraft mythos. These include the dragon aspects, warcraft raid bosses and famous heroes and villains. A personal favourite legendary is Leeroy Jeknins who screams his trademark“LEEEROOY MMMMMJENKINS” when he hits the field! Summoning some pesky dragon whelps for your opponent as well - just to complete the full flavour of Leeroy Jenkins.

Hearthstone definitely makes a big splash into the TCG/CCG online market at the moment and may well come out on top, due to it appealing to a wide range of players.Blizzard have created a very addictive, fun game with a lot of heart; currently there is no official release date for hearthstone but with the game in its current state I would hope it's not too much longer.

Watch Hurr an Durr play a game of Hearthstone!

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Outlast Review (Spoiler free) and Gameplay Videos

I’m someone who’s fairly new to the horror genre when it comes to games, and being a huge fan of scary films – I was desperate to find a game that could capture the same experience. Most people would agree that 'Amnesia' is the go-to game for horror, so I was rather sceptical about the potential of Outlast. But every game deserves a chance, and Outlast does not disappoint.

The game opens with the main protagonist, who is a journalist investigating the strange going-ons of an asylum known as Mount Massive (yes I did giggle at the name). Even standing outside the asylum with the thunder in the background, I felt extremely tense and yet eager to see what horror awaited me inside.

Outlast incorporates the fatal-frame notion of using a camera to look through. While you don’t need it to see the ‘monster’, you will need it for its night vision feature. However, the more you use it, the quicker the battery will deplete, potentially leaving you stumbling around in the dark with god-knows-what chasing you. Batteries are fairly easy to find though, perhaps making them more abundant would help to create a greater sense of panic.

Much of the gameplay is focused around completing objectives while staying out of the way of the frenzied inhabitants of the asylum. Along the way you collect confidential documents, which provide a small insight as to why they are set on cutting you into pieces. Although the story itself is not much to write home about, and probably won't be the reason you keep coming back to Outlast.

Perhaps the scariest element of the game is the fact that you can’t actually fight back. Although there are a number of objects which could potentially be brandished as weapons, your character seems to have an innate fear of confrontation and much prefers to hide away in lockers (or under beds, in toilet stalls, etc) instead.

The closest you will get to a battle is flinging the mouse around wildly if someone grabs you, or slamming a door in their face. Wondering around with only your camera to protect you, is a truly terrifying experience (the bits of body parts scattered around don't help much either). Although this is not a new concept in horror games, it is definitely one that works.

Aside from getting dangerously close to horror clichés (crazy people in an asylum doesn’t scream originality) and an overuse of jumpscares, Outlast is definitely a strong contender in the horror genre market. The game itself is fairly short (although that depends on how much time you spend cowering in lockers), but overall it is definitely worth a play through. And if you are as much of a scaredy-cat as I am, you will be in for a frightening experience.

If you want to see more, then you should watch my Let's Play series - videos are below.

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Scrolls Draft Format: Judgement

Out on the test server and hopefully coming to the Beta server towards the end of the month, is the new scrolls draft format Judgement. For those not aware, a draft game is where you will build a deck from a restricted card pool, which is (to a degree) chosen by yourself, from a few options and a smaller deck size. In the Scrolls draft you will be presented with four Scrolls of which you can choose one.  You can see the next groups of Scrolls for you to pick from, so you can attempt to plan ahead.

The challenge of playing draft is trying to make a strong deck from a limited card pool and restricted choices. Often you will find cards that are sub par in the standard constructed format of a TCG, are suddenly very strong in a limited format such as draft. An example of this in scrolls would be Charge Coil, perhaps not the greatest scroll in constructed rank play, but in draft format if you get enough of them down you will dominate the field. Something to be noted is in this format, you can have more than three copies of any scroll in your deck. So if you are lucky enough to get the picks, it's possible to have more than three copies of Charge Coil in a minimum 30 card deck! A scary prospect indeed.

A nice addition to the Scrolls draft UI, is the stats which will help you round out your deck and make sure you have plenty of creatures for the resource (or resources) you wish to play. This feature greatly assists in the drafting process,  as by no means is drafting easy (as Rastien found out in his draft game against Blinky).

Here is a video which demonstrates how Judgment works:

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Scrolls ESL Opening Cup

The first official tournament which Mojang have been involved in will be commencing this weekend, and we couldn’t be more excited ! After we both finished in top positions in the unofficial ScrollsGuide tournament, we are keen for more competitive play. You can sign up by going to the official ESL page here http://www.esl.eu/eu/scrolls/news/228445/ (and also have a sneaky peek at who’s already registered).

It seems that Decay splash Growth is still the predominant deck in Scrolls, however this may also prove useful to those who have attempted to make ‘anti’ Decay decks. Either way, most players will be playing around Puppet Solider + Nutrition, or playing it themselves. It will be interesting to see what decks players have come up with; original decks are always fun to play against. New scrolls have introduced on the test server, but they won’t be released before the ESL tournament begins, so everyone should be on equal footing in terms of available scrolls.

It would be surprising if the winner of the tournament wasn’t playing Decay, but we would be pleasantly surprised ! There are some top players signed up to the tournament, so winning will be no easy task. However, the top prize is well worth the struggle ! If you haven’t seen it yet, this is what you could win https://scrolls.com/2013/09/look-what-the-winner-of-the-esl-tourney-gets#more-3375. We will both be recording our tournament matches, and hopefully we won’t fail on the first match. I suspect a lot more people will be online this week, sorting out decks and getting some much needed practice.

Good luck to everyone who enters, and maybe we’ll see you in game !

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Gone Home Review

Gone Home is more of an interactive story than an actual game, but this shouldn’t stop you from enjoying this unique and refreshing experience. The opening of the game sets an unsettling mood; you are in control of Kaitlin Greenbriar who arrives home at night, in the middle of a thunderstorm. There is a note from your sister Sam on the door, who says she has gone away and that we are not to worry (which of course, has the opposite effect).

If you go into the game looking for an ‘Amnesia’ like experience, then you are going to be disappointed. Upon entering the gloomy house, my first steps were quite timid as I was rather expecting a sudden jump scare – but my fears were senseless. No matter what dark secrets I uncovered, or hidden passageways I descended down, the house remained silent.

But this sense of fear soon fades and you are then immersed into this unknown family’s world, with fragments of their lives scattered around like pieces of a jigsaw, just begging to be exposed. The house itself is a pleasure to explore, with so many interactive items you can inspect; although not all of them serve any actual purpose. However, there are some real gems amongst the dispersed objects, such as a piece of paper with Chun Li’s Street Fighter moves written on it.

While these items seem like junk at first, they do create the feeling that you are in a real house, occupied by real people with typical yet troubled lives. They also help to create a sense of the characters personalities, which is critical as they are physically absent for the duration of gameplay. This can be as subtle as a cinema ticket stubb, or as glaringly obvious as a hotel matchbox with a time on it.

The real backbone of the story comes in the form of snippets from Sam’s journal, which are played to you when you pick up a particular ‘trigger’ item. The voice acting of Sam’s character really brings her to life and creates a deeper understanding of her motives for leaving. The unraveling story does leave you feeling slightly dejected, but this is just part of the experience.

There is no right or wrong way to make your way through the main story, although if you plough right through it, the game is rather short. Your experience of the story is really what you make it, and even once you have come to ‘the end’ you can still continue to explore the house and perhaps uncover something which you missed earlier on. Although truthfully I did feel slightly empty at the abrupt ‘ending’ of the game, perhaps because I was hoping for something more sinister.

The £15.00 price tag is fair considering the attention to detail and the interactive-ness of the game, but those who want something a bit more fast-paced should stay clear. Overall, I would recommend Gone Home to more patient players who really enjoy sinking their teeth into a gripping story.

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Decay Pre-Constructed Tutorial

The week of Decay is finally upon us and Scrolls has now released its fourth resource. Many of us have been anticipating this moment for months, and those who don’t have access to the test server could only await it’s arrival. Player numbers soared during the release day, and it’s been great to see so many people getting back into the game.

As is the nature of TCG’s, it’s difficult to keep people engaged with the game and there is a pressure to keep releasing new scrolls. We hope that Decay will bring some much needed excitement among the community, as well as some new and challenging trials !

The artwork of the Decay scrolls is both creepy and beautiful. You should also take the time to read the Decay scrolls lore, my personal favourite is “Miasma Well: DO NOT DRINK”. Also, some of the creatures have been renamed since their appearance on the test server. ‘Lumbering Muckhead’ is now ‘Harvester’, and ‘Staggering Muckhead’ is now ‘Mire Shambler’.

As we have done a Tutorial for the original resources, we have also made one for Decay pre-constructed. We hope this video will help players get to grips with basic Decay gameplay strategies and combinations.

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Shiny new avatars!

On Thursday this week, both Rastien and Grumpcat of  hurrandurr.com were lucky enough to receive their very own hand drawn Scrolls avatars! The exceptionally talented Poi from Mojang was kind enough to create these amazing avatars below. She asked us which unit in scrolls we liked the most and she personified us into them! I have to say that her work is very impressive and we are delighted with the results. 

As we are part of the Scrollstream on Thursday nights at 8.30pm BST (http://www.twitch.tv/scrollstream), she has also made Seemescrollin his own avatar, as well as a beautiful splash screen for us! We cannot thank her enough for all this kind work.

Whilst you're viewing these amazing avatars, we would like to request you take the time to read Poi's go fund me page. She is trying to raise funds to pay for a friends operation, and it would be great if you could help her out. http://www.gofundme.com/helpnoelle.

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Scrolls Mono Order Ranked Matches

We know that everyone is keen to see some decent ranked matches, and so we have delivered ! Rastien takes on two serious contenders in some close games. His ranking is in the 1700s, and this will give you a real insight into the competitive nature of Scrolls.

 

 

 

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A look at Decay, Scrolls newest resource

Decay, the new resource for Scrolls has been released on the test server! Decay is just as unique as the other resources in scrolls, it relies on powerful poison spells and enchantments to keep the enemy creatures at bay, and benefits from units dying - including your own! In this set of videos Hurr and Durr play two games each against the hard AI,  and two games against each other.

Mono Decay (Durr) Vs Mono Energy (Hurr)

Mono Decay (Durr) Vs Mono Growth (Hurr)

Mono Decay (Hurr) Vs Mono Order Hard AI

Mono Decay (Durr) Vs Mono Order Hard AI

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Surgeon Simulator 2013: A true test in patience

Surgeon Simulator 2013 is about as far away from an actual simulator as you can get. The title of the game itself is completely tongue in cheek. The controls are probably some of the worst and most difficult I have ever encountered. I kind of get that this is meant to be the point but it's truly horrendous, as I shall elaborate on later.

You play the game as a 'surgeon', although all you will ever see is a floating hand. The first surgery you are presented with is a heart transplant. Your job is to smash open their rib cage remove the organs, replace the heart then place the organs back into the patient. Sounds straight forward enough right? A bit of open heart surgery should be fine! Well on my first attempt at this I was even struggling to pick up the tools, let alone perform an operation!

So this is the meat of the game and something that I think you will either love or hate with this game - the controls. You have five buttons to bind each controls, one of the fingers and the thumb. When pressing these buttons down, you close the assigned finger and/or thumb. So your left hand becomes a claw, trying to close all the floating hands fingers and thumbs at once! Now the icing on the cake is that the mouse controls are even worse. You can move the mouse forward and back to move the hand back and forward, hold the left mouse button to move the hand down towards the patient/table/tools, and hold the right mouse button to rotate the wrist. If this all sounds complicated already, try picking up a tool and going to town on your patient. 

I get that the controls are meant to be beyond clunky, everything is not meant to work and it's just abit of fun. But MY WIG after trying for 30 minutes just to pick up a hammer to crack open the guys rib cage I really had enough. If you have the patience for this game I could see it being a lot of fun, but for me personally it's rare for me not to have a good thing to say about a game. 

Oh wait! I did laugh when my hand bumped into the anesthetic needle and the screen went into a twisted psychedelic rainbow mode. There we go something good to say about the game -  it made me laugh this one time.

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GrumpCat’s Guide to Positioning Units

Most of you will already be aware of basic strategic positioning, such as gaining control of the middle lane. However, positioning units goes beyond simply placing a unit on a particular lane. I’ve seen a fair amount of players putting strong units in harm’s way, when this could be completely prevented. This guide will hopefully provide you with a basic understanding on keeping your units alive.

Structures

 

There are certain structures which are used as “blockers” and some which are used as “attackers”, although attackers can be used as both. An example of a “blocker” would be Eternal Statue, this type of structure should always be placed on the front row, furthest away from your idols. This is because your creatures will be protected behind it, so the structure protects both the idol and your other units.

Attackers such as a Mangonel can be a bit more flexible, you may want to place one in the middle of a lane to damage a particular set of opponent units. Although you should be aware that this will limit your own units movements around the board, and should be prepared to play around this. You can work around this problem with other movement scrolls such as transposition.

An example of a structure which can be used as both would be the Hellspitter Mortar. This should always be placed on the front row due to the high health of this unit. It’s random attack is not consistent, but when it does land it can be an unexpected nightmare for your enemy. Have more than one of these down, and you increase your chances even more.

There may also be some structures you’d rather protect, such as the Ancestral Totem. This should be placed on the opposite side of the board from your opponents units, where possible of course. Otherwise, you may want to place a larger unit in front of it, such as a Brother of the Wolf with Dryadic Power.

One important thing I feel I should mention is, don’t think that something is safe just because it’s hiding behind a structure. Scrolls such as Pother and Flip can bring out things from behind them, or put your structures in awkward places. In this case you will have to work on building your defences back up, this may require you moving up a lane if a structure such as a Waking Stone has been moved.

Small creatures (those with 2 or less health)

  

Each of the resources have small creatures among their repertoire, and each of them will be played differently depending on the creature and the aim of your deck. For example, in a Mono Growth deck the Sister of Fox is used to draw, and then used again as food for Fertile Soil. In the early turns of the game you want to keep her alive for this purpose, so you should play her away from opponent units.

Later on in the game you may want to use her to protect a unit against an attacker without relentless. This play style is particularly prominent in the GO draw deck. Therefore, she can be placed on the front row in place of a structure. While she serves little threat with one attack, if you play God Hand she can easily take out something with 3 health, clearing the way for your other units.

Then there are the more aggressive small creatures, such as Crossbowmen and Scattergunner. This can be played early game to put on pressure while you ramp for more resources. Although they can be killed easily, if your opponent gets unlucky draws or ignores them for too long, your board presence can become overwhelming.

You also need to be prepared for board sweeps when playing small creatures. Scrolls such as Thundersurge and Inferno Blast will wipe out small creatures. Even Decimation can be deadly, if you play three Vaettr of the Wild on the same lane for example. Unfortunately, Energy also has Spark and Burn – which are perfect for the removal of small and medium creatures.

 

Medium creatures (3- 4 health)
 

Medium creatures are the most flexible in terms of placement, however you should always be conscious of Kinfolk Veterans when playing against Growth. If you are playing Order, Spearmen should always be on the front row and sometimes you may want to play two of them on the same lane, which is perfectly acceptable.

Skirmishers can be played in the front or middle lane while you are waiting to draw into something defensive, but as these are your main attackers you really want to look after them. Even putting an Infantryman in front of them is much safer.

When playing Growth, your medium Creatures such as Brother of the Wolf and Mangy wolf are more often used as blockers for the Great Wolf or Ancestral Totem. They can be placed on the front row or the middle, depending on how many small creatures you have available. Smaller creatures should be in front of medium ones where possible.

For Energy, the Gun Automatons and Gravelocks should be kept behind something defensive such as a Hellspitter mortar where possible. Otherwise they can be used to protect your more important units such as the Gravelock Elders. Using bombard with small and medium creatures can catch your opponent off-guard, this allow you more time to get your larger creatures down.

 

Large Creatures (5 or more health)

 

Where you place large creatures will depend on your resource and the creatures ability. For example, if you are playing Order and want to play an Honourable General – you should place him behind something defensive such as a Spearman, and as close to other attacking units as possible, so that you can make use of his cooldown reset ability. You should be wary of placing a useful unit like this on the front row as they will be crucial for building your attacking force.

The Great Wolf is not one of the largest creatures by itself, but due to the buff it receives from other wolves it is a major threat. For a Growth player, keeping one of these alive is key for victory. Therefore, they should be shielded from harm using the smaller wolves if no structures are in the deck. 

This differs entirely from the Cannon Automaton in Energy. Due to its Armour 1 ability, it’s best played on the front or middle row so that it can soak up damage while still being used as an attacker. Place an enchantment such as Potion of Resistance or Plating on this creature, and you’ve created a huge threat on the board.

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Durr's Growth Deck vs Energy

In this video Durr plays a game against a mono energy deck, with commentary from Hurr & Durr.

Complete deck list:

3x Rallying

3x Brother of the Wolf

3x Fertile Soil

3x Quake

3x Great Wolf

3x Kinfolk Brave

2x Kinfolk Jarl

2x Mangy Wolf

3x Ragged Wolf

3x Sister of the Fox

2x Unleash Inner Power

3x Ancestral Totem

3x Kinfolk Veteran

3x Crimson Bull

2x Eye of Eagle

3x Ranger's Bane

3x God Hand

3x Vaettr of the Wild

Total scrolls: 50

Deck Builder Link

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GrumpCat's Scrolls Preconstructed Tutorials

Order 

Growth

Energy

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Scrolls giveaway !

 

 

We have both had an amazing time being part of the Scrolls alpha, and to celebrate that we wanted to give a free copy of Scrolls to one lucky winner !

All you have to do is tell us what precon you would choose as your starter deck, and why.

To enter, email us your answer to hurranddurr1@gmail. The giveaway will end on Tuesday 4th June at 1800 GMT, the winner will be announced by Wednesday 5th June 1800 GMT.


**This competition has ended***

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Sacrificing: Scrolls or Resources ?

 

 

 

One of the big mistakes I’ve seen from new players is sacrificing for scrolls when they should be sacrificing for resources. I’m going to explain the different situations you will encounter during play, and how I generally deal with them.

You should be sacrificing for either scrolls or resources every single turn, unless you are confronted with a situation where you are forced to play your hand without doing either. For example, you may have a Burn and Spark - which you desperately need to get rid of a Great Wolf.

At the start of the game, you should always be sacrificing for resources over scrolls. If you don’t build up your resources early game and your opponent does, then you will not be able to keep up with their field presence. This will allow them to have control over the game and you make things unnecessarily harder for yourself. As a general guide, I would say that sacrificing for scrolls when you have 5 or less resources is incredibly dangerous. That’s not to say that you should stick to 5/6 resources. I usually try to get to 7 then focus on sacrificing for Scrolls unless I have a decent opportunity to sacrifice for resources.

While it can be daunting to continually sacrifice for resources while your enemy is playing more creatures at the start, eventually you will get to the point where you can play 2 or 3 scrolls a turn (depending on their cost). In these early stages it is vitally important to make use of any scrolls that will let you draw scrolls, Sister of the Fox, Burn and Pother are a few examples of low cost scrolls which allow you to draw. This will give you more options when it comes to sacrificing.

Sometimes it is necessary to gain more resources even if it means you will have no scrolls in hand. However, this will also largely depend on your opponent. If they have less resources than you, then it is safer to sacrifice for scrolls (although not ideal) if you really need to. It can also be tempting to try and draw into a certain scroll. For example, if your opponent has played a Kinfolk Brave – you may want to find a Spark to get rid of it. But it’s much more worthwhile to sacrifice for resources, play a structure, then a large creature and deal with the threat when you can.

During the late game you should be keeping a close eye on your opponents resources. Make sure you don’t fall behind them by too much. If they are on 8 and you are on 7 it should be ok, but if they’re on 10 and you’re still on 7, then that’s potentially 1 more scroll a turn they can play (an extra Burn, Skirmisher, or Mangy Wolf coming your way!). 

If you keep this advice in mind when playing you will be in a strong position and will be able to make the most of the scrolls in your hand.

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Dust: An Elysian Tail

Dust is a game that harks back to the good old days of Castlevania and Metroid, a 2-D side-scroller with fast paced frantic combat and RPG elements, with a solid story built in to boot. First of all the game is just beautiful to look at, the hand painted graphics and character design is brilliant. Considering that everything in this game was made and designed by one man is truly inspiring.

The combat strikes the perfect balance between being easy to pick up but hard to master, the basics of combat are introduced at a steady pace, making it easier to get to grips with. With one button letting you do a basic attack and another letting you perform a heavy attack, holding down the heavy attack will make you spin your blade. On top of this you can dodge left and right and have a button for magic, whilst the magic is very weak when initially cast, if it's combined with your spinning heavy attack then it will create mass homing missiles or pillars of fire depending on the selected magic.

The story of the game is deftly told with a strong cast of voice acting and beautiful animations, the main character is voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch, who's other notable performances include Izaya from Durarara and Renton from Eureka Seven. He really brings the character of Dust to life. Fidget  Dusts main companion throughout the story provides often needed comic relief and a few hilarious 4th wall breaking comments such as early on she screams "mash all the buttons!!!" during one of the first fights you encounter.

The RPG elements of this game are well done being able to level up and assign a stat point according to your play style. There is a crafting system as well enabling you to craft items found in the field. However something I haven't come across before which I loved was the ability to sell materials you find to the merchant who will in turn then be able to stock them for you. This removes the need to grind X monsters for Y material which is a breath of fresh air for the genre.

If you enjoy the Castlevania sides scrolling action of ages past or just enjoy a game with a good story and fun combat I can't recommend Dust enough. Truly worthy of more praise than it has received thus far.

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The Scrolls Resources

 

 

 

With beta just around the corner, we thought that now would be the best time to go through the three resources in a bit more detail. When you log into the game, you will be asked to choose your first precon deck from the three resources. You will be able to buy the other precons later using gold or shards. For many alpha players who experienced a pre-beta reset, choosing their precon deck was a difficult choice to make. This guide will hopefully help both old and new players make their decision.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Growth

Growth is the most aggressive resource and has little to offer in terms of defence, but what Growth lacks in defence it more than makes up for in terms of synergy. Creature wise, there are the lesser Bunnies and Rats, the Kinfolk and Wolves. 

The way Growth decks work is by overrunning the field with small creatures, which then buff the larger ones such as Great Wolf and Kinfolk Jarl. When Growth has enough units on the field, the player can then focus on countdown resets which Growth seems to have an abundance of. This means that when Growth has reached this level of control, it’s very difficult for an opponent to recover.

There are a lot of attack boosting scrolls, such as Ancestral Totem, Champion Ring and Crimson Bull. This means that even the weaker creatures can become a problem for the opposing player. It also allows unexpected attacks where a player may have left a unit unguarded, believing that the damage wouldn’t be sufficient enough to destroy them.

Growth also has field wipes in the forms of Quake and Frost Gale, allowing the player to regain control of the field. Once the field has been wiped, they can then draw scrolls using Sister of the Fox and Fertile Soil. 

Overall, Growth is aggressive and fast. However, it does have its weaknesses. For example, if the key units in a Growth deck (such as a Great Wolf) are removed in play, it can be difficult to maintain control of the field.

Order

 

 

 

Order has more of a balance between aggression and defence. Order’s strength comes from unit placement, forming ranks and buffing units. Orders creatures include Spearmen, Skirmishers, Infantrymen and Generals.

 

Order also has strong defensive structures, such as Waking Stones and Obelisk. These can be used to guard the attacking units such as Skirmishers. There is also Mangonel, which is Order's offensive structure and can be used as field wipe.

The Infantrymen, while not powerful by themselves can be used to buff other creatures. There are two types of Infantrymen, one buffs health while the other buffs attack. As they only buff the creatures on the same row, it is extremely important for someone playing Order to maintain ranks and keep units close together.

Order can also unleash quick, unexpected attacks. The Honorable General reduces adjacent units countdown by 2, triggering their attack. This can then be combined with an attack buff such as Royal Vanguard or focus.

 

One of the unique features of Order is the scrolls which affect units positioning. Scrolls such as Horn of Ages, New Orders, Flip and Pother may not seem that strong, but causing a unit to move infront of an attacking Skirmisher is an extremely effective strategy.

 

Overall, Order is well balanced and has the opportunity to devastate opposing players once ranks have been formed. However, Order's biggest challenge comes from decks which disrupt their formation.

 

 

 

Energy

 

Energy is the most defensive of the resources, and has the most effective structures. Most of Energy’s creatures have Ranged or Lobber, meaning that they can avoid certain affects such as Spiky or Vitorial Aura – which would affect a melee attacker. Creatures include Gravelocks, Automaton’s and the mighty Iron Orge.

Energy starts off a little slower than the other resources, but what it lacks in speed it more than makes up for in defence. Energy also has the most removal of the resources. With scrolls such as Inferno Blast and Thundersurge, Energy can devastate big groups of enemy units. It can also use Spark and Burn to remove any early aggressors and establish a line of defence (or attack). 

The synergy between the Gravelocks can be dangerously overwhelming for an opponent to deal with. As the Elders buff each other’s attack and health, it is vital to keep them in play. The Cannon Automaton’s are extremely powerful as all damage dealt to them is decreased by 1. This makes them effective as both defence and offense.

Structure wise, Energy has a lot of offensive structures such as the Destroyer, Catapult of Goo and Ether Pump. These can not only deal damage to your opponent, but can also distract them while you place more creatures on the field. The Machine Priest can control them, while the Tool Initiate can increase their attack.

Energy also has powerful Spells and Enchantments such as Potion of Resistance and Plating, making it harder for the larger units to be destroyed. The Iron Orge is most powerful of the Energy creatures, but due to his 3 countdown reset he is not an easy scroll to play. In terms of countdown reset, Energy can make use of Bombard and Iron Whip. 

Overall, while Energy is slow to start, due to the amount of removal and strong creatures – Energy is by no means weak.
 

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