Gravebone GRAVEBONE Gravebone is a great hero and one of the most popular cards in the current Shadow Era beta. Ability Gravebones ability is ressurecting the last killed ally once every 2 turns. Analysis Needless to say, his ability gives him a huge terrain advantage. The opponent is hard pressed to find ways to defend himself against the endless onslaught of creatures the Gravebone player will most likely throw at him. The 2 Shadow Energy cost is high enough to keep the ability in check and counterable but low enough to keep it useful and fun. Deck Building There are several viable choices when building a deck around Gravebone. Obviously, you want allies - and a ton of them. One particularly annoying creature for your opponent when combined with Gravebone is Deathbone, who's already great 3 damage on kill will become devastating to the opponent when Deathbones just keep coming back. I suggest getting more expensive allies, since his ability to bring allies back becomes more dramatic the stronger the ressurected ally is. Choose cheaper abilities that might help you survive untill the creature summoning engine that you are is fully powered. Spells like Freeze, Lightning Strike or Rain Delay are all usefull to keep your opponent in check untill you start bumping creatures. Weaknesses For all his power, Gravebone has a few weaknesses you should keep in mind when playing him. 1. Mass Kill Spells - The enemy of every creature-oriented deck, these spells might put you at a huge disadvantage if you have many creatures on the board and few creature in your hand. While Gravebone's ability will, sooer or later, bring you back to a leading position, untill that happens you might be in a tight spot. Counter - Keep your opponent's creatures in check so that, if your creatures are sent to their demise, the opponents advantage won't be that huge. 2. Smart killing order - A smart opponent will try and do kill first one or more strong creatures of yours and then finish with a weak creature so that you ressurect that creature should you use your ability. Counter - Try getting mostly strong creatures in order to make the most out of Gravebones ability. Conclusion Gravebone is a great hero with great abilities who is as good as the deck built around him. Use him wisely!
This is actually comes as an advantage when you use a deck with Deathbones. But yeah it could be tough when you spam allies mindlessly and end up loosing all of them. Oh and if Gravebone is up against Elemental deck with Mind Control then it gonna be a tough match too
My Best Card Choice is Plasma Behemoth I like the versatility of this card as it has one of the most powerful targeted ally abilitys in the current state of the game. The whole concept of the way I approach the game with this card is to abuse this card with Rain Delay By using bazaar and the other draw mechanics i can set up a field where i can remove an ally from thier side of the field while still maintaining a card advantage in my hand and not be attacked. By using rain delay to withold attacks your mana can be used over the next two turns to start shooting at an enemy hero. or to just clear a path. Also by drawing multiple rain delays you can typically just shoot an opponent hero to death over the turns they cannot attack your behemoth. Over two turns this pumps out a rediculous amount of damage, be it to an enemy hero or ally. Other than itself there is no other creature that can stand up to this creature in the late game 1v1. In order to kill this creature it requires basically a tidal wave or a combination of 2 attacks/effects. With the ability to clear two enemy allys from the field by a combination of its own attack and its ability. if blocking rules come into effect and there are no enemy allys. Your not going to have a problem killing thier hero. Personally the card is overpowered and maybe it shouldnt be allowed to use its ability and attack in the same turn, untill then i will always be running 4 of them.
iPhone Beta Competition For the iPhone beta competition: My favorite card is Belladonna. The draw a card CITP effect is awesome. Once you've cast a couple of these, the card advantage you generate is just silly. With only a 30 card deck, Belladonna makes sure that you rip through to your top-quality cards and see the majority of your deck in every game. With her 4 power she represents a genuine threat to your opponent once she's hit the board too, forcing them to waste resources (hopefully quite literally) to remove a card which you have got a ton of value out of already. Currently running her in a Majiya deck with 4 Research and all the direct damage I can get my hands on, plus a couple of Freeze/ Clinging Webs and 3 Supernova. It's basically a control deck which wants to use Freeze/ Clinging webs to force the opponent to over-commit to the board before punishing them with the 'nova- I never have a problem with blowing up Belladonna, 'cause I've had a ton of value out of her already. The flashy centerpiece of the deck is Supernova, but Belladonna is doing all the ground work ensuring my card quality/ advantage, and pumping out a suprising amount of damage on the side. Just make sure to support her with spot removal/ direct damage- or you allow them the cheap option of smashing her in the face with Puwen Bloodhelm... It's a shame the only bounce ability is Human at the moment, but I'm hoping the full game will bring us some more fun things to do with CITP effects. Oh, and the art's not too shabby either. Thanks for putting so much effort into a fantastic game, literally can't wait for the iPhone release. Edit: I'm now playing Belladonna in a Gravebone deck: (1 Gravebone, 4 Belladonna, 3 Deathbone, 3 Portal, 4 Fireball, 4 Lighning Strike, 4 Research, 3 Stop Thief, 2 Death Trap, 2 Supernova) Actually unstoppable. Belladonna with a portal and Gravebone's effect is absolutely awesome. This deck steamrollers all the AIs in the Beta- awesome game, thanks!
iPhone Beta Contest My favorite card is Holy Shield. When used in conjunction with Tidal Wave, it shows its true power. Build up one ally while Aeon Stormcaller is in play, redirecting all attacks away from the ally you're building up, then cast Holy Shield and Tidal Wave. The opponent is ally-less and you have an awesome ally. As a bonus, this strategy works especially well against an ally spam deck (e.g. Gravebone). Since the combo requires eight (8) resources to pull off, it can quickly be followed up with Plague (each player loses 3 resources), preventing the rebuild that is somewhat easy for Gravebone under normal circumstances. I run with Zhanna Mist as my Hero. She heals up whatever damage is sustained while I'm working up to the 8 resources. I haven't lost to the computer yet! Edit: This card is also great for playing on Aeon Stormcaller. He redirects all attacks to himself and yet cannot be harmed. It's great!
I think the stated usage of "Shard of Power" is improper. Shard of Power has two abilities (I think I'm reading the second one correctly): (1) friendly allies have +2 attack, and (2) friendly allies have a maximum health of 1 (source: http://www.shadowera.com/cards/se128.jpg). It also states that the abilities are ongoing, meaning that both abilities should be ongoing, not just the first one. As davinci8 says, only the first ability is currently programmed to be ongoing. I think that logic dictates that this is an error in programming, not a brilliant understanding of the rules. When a new (or veteran) player looks as cards, there should be a logic to them. The way the card is used isn't bad either, I feel it should just state on the card that the first is ongoing and the second not, if that's how the card is meant to be played.
Plasma Behemoth Description: Plasma Behemoth is an terrifying creature. Head resembles a Rams skull, and a claw that could pierce anything. As you can tell, the artwork is amazing. You can tell that he is truly amazing. Ability: Shoot a plasma bolt that does 4 damage. Strategy: My strategy is simple. Build an army and get ready for a massacre. Have a bunch of Plasma Behemoth's in your deck, as well as Keldor's and Deathbones. They are awesome together! Get a bunch of them in a ready position and attack. If you get a good 6 or 7 allies up there, you can DESTROY. Plasma Behemoth's are so hard to destroy, that many of the opponents allies will die from counter-attacks. When you have all allies at your disposal, use resources to shoot plasma bolts, rather than putting new cards into play. Your enemies will never win. Also, use a portal early on. This is a tactic that has been used against me, resulting in me getting whooped. With a portal, you can attack immediately when things get dicey.
Unless you think of card effects as layering. Spark's card effect is ongoing as well, so, in my scenario if the subsequent Sparks are played after the Shard then the programming is functioning correctly. For instance, if I reverse the sequence (and I have before) and I play 4 Sparks right off the bat — each has a value of 4/4, then, I play the Shard causing all of them to become 6/1. To me, that makes sense because even though both effects are considered on-going, the Shard was the last one played (the outer layer, so it should layer over the Spark's ability). By your interpretation of the card, after the Shard is played then nothing could ever effect the heath of your allies in play... does that include instant effect cards such as "Bloodlust" or even modifying cards such as "Divine Strength"? Food for thought.
My favorite Card & Strategy I like portal card because my allies can attack immediately. [Turn4] I cast Portal card -> [Turn5] first of all I use hero Nishaven's plasma attack and kill enemy's allies and then I cast Aldon the Brave & Attack Enemy Hero immediately
TArgeting Issue Hey, sorry if this is already a known issue, but in the web browser beta, I just had my AI opponent cast Arcane Burst to kill my Belladonna, but then his Keldor pumped and attacked targeting my Belladonna in the graveyard... Obviously the targeting seems off, but pumping Keldor from attack 2 to attack 4 to then target Belladonna (2 health) seems like something you don't want in the AI as well. Thanks S Edit: I've just plaed another game where a similar thing happened: Playing as Gravebone, AI Majiya killed my Belladonna with a spell, then attacked into it with an Infernal Gargoyle even though it was already in the grave. In my turn I activated Gravebone's ability targeting Belladonna, she stayed in the graveyard, but seemed to be 'alive', and I was allowed to attack with her as many times as I wanted from the graveyard. Thanks, seriously, this game is top quality, can't wait for the mobile release!
You make good points that I hadn't considered. I rescind my dogmatic statement that Shard should keep the Sparks at 1 maximum health, but I will stand by my desire for a logical consistency. I still feel there should be some consistency between playing four Sparks then Shard, or Spark, Shard, 3xSpark. That order shouldn't make a difference, IMO. Ordering on the stack of ongoing effects should not make the difference you outlined.
I've gotta say, this game is coming along nicely and I'm really starting to look forward to the mobile version quite a bit! Very nice work by you and your team here Kyle! The latest version of the beta is great, a lot more cards and functions since the last time I had a chance to play. Gotta say I was skeptical as to how strategic the game was going to wind up being early in the beta, but as more of the game became available it just got better. Best of luck with your release when it comes and thanks so much for helping to prove that this is a fantastic platform for customizable card games when they are done right! Bravo and best wishes for a happy new year! Sincerely, Mark
My tactic is to spam Aldon the brave, along with other cheap hero cards (like blake wildrunner). Very simple tactic, but very effective against the computer. I like the fact that Aldon doesn't need to be attacking for the bonus to effect your other heroes, so your other heroes get the bonus even when he has summoning sickness. A couple of Aldon the Braves, and a couple of cheap heroes along side him, and I steamroll every enemy AI in the game. However, I'm sure that using such a tactic would get me battered by a human opponent.
iPad beta here i come ;-) Hi Kyle, i'd love to be in the iOS beta as well, iPhone 4 and iPad waiting for testing. iPad of course prefered ;-). I like playing multiple allies and keep them alive somehow and then use multiple Bloodlust for one strong attack causing heavy damage to my opponent! Cheers Jens
Hey there, I am an avid player of Shadow Era on the PC (Beta). Although I haven't played it in quite a while I am really looking forward to playing it on the iPhone. I don't really have a favorite card at the moment and I won't pick one at random. Thanks! Fingers crossed to get into the iphone beta.
Glad to see that the beta is about to start up again, I was worrying about it falling off the radar. Anyways, my favorite strategy involves an element deck, packed full with a bunch of these little buggers. I like to use these guys in combination with a couple of different cards including (but not limited too): Eternal Renewal: To shuffle all sparks that end up in the graveyard back into my deck. Shard of Power: A quick burst technique to take out any enemy in one hit (4 sparks with 6 attack is great to take out any opponent, including killing a plasma behemoth in one shot) Life Infusion: Good to use in general to give a spark to give it a little more survivability. Zaladar: My primary hero for this deck, it allows me to help out the sparks to weaken an opponent that has a lot of health before they go in for the kill. Bad Santa: To allow me to draw lots of sparks out of my deck as quickly as possible, and to allow me to gain extra cards to use as resources. Along with the standard cards to boost health, attack, and negate some of the enemy techniques, but I won't go into too much depth for the sake of taking up this entire page which is also the reason I didn't include all of the pictures for the cards.
