A few weeks ago a new batch of promo cards were released into the wild for Eternal! The Azindel’s Ways promo bundle included three new cards. Here is how I would rate them for power level after some time playing with them:
Azindel, the Wayfinder – 4.0
The effect is unique and powerful and perhaps most importantly representing the first true Xenan faction card. It is not difficult for the maximum power bonus to get quite high, so the challenge becomes finding powerful ways to spent all the extra power. My initial take was Xenan controlling build with Copper Conduit, Dark Return and Marisen the Eldest to abuse the extra power. Expanding out to a third faction brings even more powerful options. Looking at Justice you get Siraf and The Great Parliament along with Desert Marshal as a nice catch all card. You can also go for a Fire build taking advantage of Flameblast and Charchain Flail. I climbed up to Diamond 1 this season primarily with the following Azindel deck:
4 Copper Conduit (Set1 #66)
4 Dark Return (Set1 #250)
4 Initiate of the Sands (Set1 #74)
4 Seek Power (Set1 #408)
2 Suffocate (Set1 #251)
4 Desert Marshal (Set1 #332)
2 Find the Way (Set1 #513)
4 Knight-Chancellor Siraf (Set1 #335)
4 Azindel, the Wayfinder (Set1 #518)
4 Sandstorm Titan (Set1 #99)
4 The Great Parliament (Set1 #338)
4 Xenan Obelisk (Set1 #103)
4 Mystic Ascendant (Set1 #116)
1 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)
5 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)
5 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)
4 Combrei Banner (Set1 #424)
4 Seat of Mystery (Set0 #61)
4 Seat of Progress (Set0 #58)
4 Xenan Banner (Set0 #52)
The deck is quite resilient and filled to the brim with powerful cards, so it isn’t that big of a surprise that it is successful. A cool thing about Azindel is that he retains the buff through death, so if you need to you can Dark Return him and get your bonus power back into play. Another sweet thing is that The Great Parliament cares about maximum power, so you can make a big attack forcing trades with the opponent to pump up your Azindel and then drop Parliament for an army of owls. Obelisk gives the deck even more staying power and lets your Azindel’s rumble when the time is right. Copper Conduit is great in this deck as a cheap play to block early, and a strong power sink late in the game either in combination with Dark Return or just by naturally drawing it in the late game. It is not uncommon to land 20/20+ Conduits once Azindel gets involved. Azindel is interesting in that opponents seem to rarely want to remove him right away because the 0/5 body is not that threatening on the surface. This pattern works in your favor here as you can land a few punishing plays quickly if he goes untouched.
Arcanum Monitor – 4.0
Arcanum Monitor represents the first Praxis faction card in Eternal and it embraces the faction’s penchant for going wide. This card I believe finally pushes Praxis to contending with Elysian and Stonescar go wide decks. Mainly the Monitor operates as Xenan Obelisks 5-8, but if he survives, he adds potentially even more damage. By far his biggest weakness is how weak he is to silence effects and, compared to Obelisk, sweepers in general.
A quick aside on Xenan Obelisk…I feel like this is just the most powerful card in Eternal right now. It is a cornerstone of multiple top tier decks which isn’t surprising given the rate on the card. What makes it particularly oppressive is the lack of value attachment removal cards. We have Furnace Mage, but being a double fire four cost card limits how much it can be played. Barring a nerf, and it is hard to believe it used to cost 3 in early closed beta, we need some 2 or 3 cost units that interact with attachments in a more efficient way and/or spells that provide some additional value beyond just killing the attachment.
I dabbled with this Praxis go-wide deck on my climb through Gold and Diamond this season:
2 Flame Blast (Set1 #2)
4 Grenadin Drone (Set1 #5)
4 Initiate of the Sands (Set1 #74)
4 Pyroknight (Set1 #16)
4 Torch (Set1 #8)
4 Talir’s Favored (Set0 #11)
4 Temple Scribe (Set1 #502)
4 Amber Acolyte (Set1 #93)
4 Assembly Line (Set1 #29)
4 Marisen’s Disciple (Set1 #104)
4 Vault of the Praxis (Set1 #480)
4 Xenan Obelisk (Set1 #103)
4 Arcanum Monitor (Set1 #520)
6 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)
7 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)
4 Diplomatic Seal (Set1 #425)
4 Praxis Banner (Set0 #59)
4 Seat of Impulse (Set0 #54)
The breakthrough with this deck was adding Flame Blast and Pyroknight. With Amber Acolyte, Talir’s Favored, and Initiate of the Sands, the deck can get to a high maximum power if the game drags on. These fire cards, along with Obelisk and to a lesser extent Vault of the Praxis, allow the deck to have some serious punch in the late game. I have a lot of fun playing this deck. Sometimes you just curve out with an Obelisk or Monitor and win quickly, but the especially fun games are when you land a Vault and start going to value town against control decks.
Rilgon, Hooru Operative – 3.0
I have not had the time to properly put Rilgon through his paces. I believe the rate is there for the card to be powerful, but you need to build your deck around him to maximize his power. My problem is that I haven’t been too excited about the decks that take best advantage of him. One conflict is that the traditional way to build a Hooru deck is to jam as many fliers/aegis units as possible along with weapons. One of the better weapons to play on Rilgon is Elder’s Feather. The feather is quite bad on units that already have flying though. The flying based Hooru decks also really want to play Cloudsnake Saddle which does not play well with Rilgon unless you happen to also have the Feather. Though I guess you could also Levitate Rilgon and then land the Saddle. However, again Levitate has the same problem as Feather in that it doesn’t play well with units that already have flying. Here is my completely untested Rilgon deck that tries to dodge some of these conflicts while maximizing Rilgon’s abilities. Hopefully you can use this as a possible starting point for using Rilgon:
4 District Infantry (Set1 #134)
4 Elder’s Feather (Set1 #128)
4 Finest Hour (Set1 #130)
2 Backlash (Set1 #200)
4 Borderlands Waykeeper (Set1 #517)
4 Vanquish (Set1 #143)
4 Gilded Glaive (Set1 #125)
2 Polymorph (Set1 #211)
4 Silverwing Familiar (Set1 #152)
4 Thunderbird (Set0 #27)
4 Valkyrie Enforcer (Set1 #151)
4 Hammer of Might (Set1 #170)
4 Rilgon, Hooru Operative (Set1 #519)
4 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)
4 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)
4 Cobalt Monument (Set1 #418)
4 Diplomatic Seal (Set1 #425)
3 Emerald Monument (Set1 #422)
4 Hooru Banner (Set0 #57)
4 Seat of Order (Set0 #51)
Finally, I wanted to share the deck I used to get from Diamond 1 to Masters this season. It was a smooth climb with only a few losses:
1 Temper (Set1 #10)
4 Torch (Set1 #8)
4 Champion of Glory (Set1 #314)
4 Rakano Outlaw (Set1 #20)
2 Rolant’s Favor (Set0 #18)
2 Vanquish (Set1 #143)
1 Ijin, Imperial Armorer (Set1 #326)
1 Sword of Icaria (Set1 #315)
4 Valkyrie Enforcer (Set1 #151)
1 Auric Runehammer (Set1 #166)
1 Furnace Mage (Set1 #40)
4 Rise to the Challenge (Set1 #320)
1 Deepforged Plate (Set1 #317)
4 Obliterate (Set1 #48)
4 Throne Warden (Set1 #514)
4 Jekk, the Bounty Hunter (Set1001 #11)
1 Starsteel Daisho (Set1 #328)
2 Icaria, the Liberator (Set1 #329)
1 Rolant, the Iron Fist (Set1 #185)
1 Sword of the Sky King (Set1 #186)
8 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)
8 Justice Sigil (Set1 #126)
4 Diplomatic Seal (Set1 #425)
4 Rakano Banner (Set1 #427)
4 Seat of Glory (Set0 #56)
The idea behind the deck is essentially Rakano Midrange, taking advantage of 4 Rise to the Challenge to include a large tool box of powerful units and weapons. This is yet another attempt at winning with 4 Jekks, and Jekk performed nicely here. The more I play with Throne Warden, the more I like it. This card is so powerful that it supplanted my previous favorite five drop, Marshal Ironthorn. The Aegis on Throne Warden and its combos with Relic Weapons put it over the top of the ramp Ironthorn can provide. I have not missed Ironthorn’s ultimate ability as this deck tends to put the game away quickly once it has control. The rest of the deck is straightforward, playing most of the stronger Rakano cards.
Thanks for reading!
Ben
@bchap55
