RadicalX

Twilight Brute was used in Fire Nature mirrors and against pure Fire, because both do have attack patterns where Ghost Spears do end up struggling at certain power levels. Especially Scythe Fiends + Wildfirespam in late T2 are insane and Twilight Brute was offering more reliable dps against that. Not worth the slot for me personally though. @ImaginaryNumb3r I wasn't exactly referring to the twilight units itself, it was more about the transformation ability. I mentioned the strong T3 as Bandits can cut a big amount of deckslots in T2 to play 4-5 card T3s. The T2 stays bad even if you invest more slots into it ... Soulhunter is an important tool to crack current Timeless One defences. If Shadow Frost goes Fire in T3 you are at an advantage because disenchant + aura is a reliable XL counter that Shadow Frost lacks since Sunreaver got nerfed. In addition to that Shadow Frost T2 doesn't require Life Weaving so the slot efficency is awful when going for Fire T3. Bandit Lancer & Vulcan do have top notch dmg/power values and shred through attacks while Giant Slayer is empowering your attacks by a wide margin. Since alot of these cards are cheap, motivate makes a big difference I don't play Rallying banner in bandits anymore, but if you do so Cultist Master + Evocators Woe may end up being super strong. Combined with Shadow Insect and Fallen Skyelf that is a very strong T3 too, that requires 100+ APM (sounds easy, but is a really high value for Battleforge) and low latency to be played effectively though. Soulhunter remains as a potential finisher. This T3 is more effective when playing Fire T1 because it isn't motivate reliant like the first one. Timeless One T3 still remains stronger, but Bandits can close out games once you are ahead. That's something alot of T3's in this current meta can't do ... and I guess that's something ... at least. In the meantime Twilight transformation will never give you an advantage. I mean the passive effects of transformations are useless and the only meaning of this ability is to spawn a small unit and transform it into a large one (Twilight Minions -> Vileblood) to bait out wrong counter units. That said most T2 S counters in this game (Darkelf Assassins; Scythe Fiends) are useful as allround counters so this strategy simply doesn't work at all since it is expensive (you have to invest like 170 power to get your vileblood and can't transform at the enemys base if he defends proactively)

I think there were players for all 10 basic colours, that managed to hit rank one at a given time. But this isn't exactly how I'd define success. A deck is being used successfully from my perspective if the deck has actual win conditions and the players ends up winning, because he is using these win conditions. I will give a very simplified example: Take a look at 2 of the most popular matchups Fire Nature vs Shadow Frost. There are 2 simplified win conditions: The Fire Nature player has the upper hand in mid/late T2 while Shadow Frost is superior in T3. Let's say T1 goes even and so does early T2 the Fire Nature player has to use supported Burrower spam to beat the equally skilled shadow frost player. A perfect Burrower spam is very hard to defend without any disadvantage at higher void levels. If the Shadow Frost player managed to reach T3 though he ends up winning unless he's down 3+ wells. This is why alot of people don't like Bandits, because the deck doesn't have a clear win condition in some matchups. It lacks individual strength, but even that deck has some combos (Skyfire + Lifeweaving; Windhunter against pure Nature) and a very strong T3 to play around. I don't see any win conditions for a Twilight deck though, which is based on transformations. And I haven't seen a player win games due to using them. It just looks like a handicap and it seems to be all about having a deck, that looks cool. You could even say Abaaaama played his deck to success, because while his micro was terrible, he managed to annoy alot of decent players (especially in 2v2s). If his T1 ended up being better, he would've been much harder to beat, because his deck at least has a clear win condition in his T3, used to be quite a big one pre church of negation nerf.

Prepare yourself, Phasetowers are coming! Btw: After a disconnect a rematch should also be possible if both players agree to it. Sometimes you dc after having a clear lead, where even the opponent realised, that he was losing.

Would be available for some content creation too. Not sure if I will be able to upload on a regular base though, since I also want to keep my own channel. Maybe we could set up little PvP tournaments (with like 4-6 players to make organization easier) and simply cast the games for the channel. This will give us alot of material to show while at least from my perspective tournaments/community challenges were the most enjoyable things to watch. A high ranked player clash in a bo5 or some elegant solutions to expert PvE maps were the things I enjoyed watching the most.

You can always hit me up when I'm online. I'm trying to set up PvP lobbies as often as possible. When we are more than 2 people we could also set up some spectator lobbies which is quite nice.

I mean it's a viable choice for sure. It helps against pure Frost and Fire Frost to an extend, which are somewhat the hardest matchups in the game for pure Fire. Comes down to personal preference if you like to have this safety card for these matchups (they still remain difficult to play against in T2) or if you like to have another card for T3. Giant Slayer won't be able to defend everything there on his own. I prefer to play a very long T1, so I can drag out the early game to rise the void level. This allows me to almost skip the T2 stage, so I can finish things in T3 with Juggernaut.

Welcome Skylords Community, today I want to introduce the start of my PvP tutorial series. This is going to be a section for newer players that are interested in PvP. Since there are not many sources, that introduce you into the world of PvP I just wanted to offer something, that maybe useful for some new competitive players, that are interested into this gamemode. Since I tend to make walls of text I decided to go for a video series this time, which is hopefully a little bit more enjoyable. I will add more and more videos over time, so we hopefully end up with a full tutorial series when open beta starts. Right away I want to say: If you have any questions or if you think I miss any important points -> simply message me and I will add videos to give more input. Overall introduction (you can also just skip this video tbh): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34NyBAZ1Xfw&t=8s #1 Pick your Deck You need to find a deck that you enjoy playing and what fits your playstyle. Every deck has a somewhat unique feeling when you play it, therefore it is useful to find something that you enjoy while playing. If you are a new player I recommend an easier deck (so stay away from Bandits at the beginning), that allows you to learn alot of basic mechanics without beeing forced to read walls of text before winning a single game. 1.1 Fire Nature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SUfp3C0yFY 1.2 Pure Frost https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRNkDzuILFQ 1.3 Pure Nature https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyj1ZpAH1ws 1.4 Pure Shadow https://youtu.be/CSaFiZ7UjHE 1.5 Pure Fire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIbRiH2LR4M #2 Deck Building #3 T1 Basics #4 Deck specific basics - more videos and comments about to appear soon: I will extend this topic as soon as possible -

I fully agree, that's what I was looking for. Sadly it's hard to find the accurate replays from my replay folder with thousands of files in there. I guess I will invest more time into finding more and better replays. Also agree about the editing part. I guess I will take some time for other section parts and maybe Eirias could support me there aswell

Thanks for the offer! Would be great to do this together. Explaining stuff like the void was something I intended to do in these bonus videos. But with a proper structure and better editing we can make this tutorial much better.

Yeah, for the traditional nature T1 he is quite essential and you need at least one charge for him, because he is the core unit in nature mirrors unless Treespirits are played.

@doomsword1 If that's your concern don't worry. There won't be any changes any time soon since there are different priorities than balancing right now. Also these changes are mostly minor ones, that don't change anything in the current game. It just makes some cards/decks a little bit less weaker since some cards aren't used by any person like most anti air turrets to give probably the best example. I've seen cards in the AH that noone would buy for the lowest price possible, because noone wants to play them at all. Big changes do require alot of time (maybe with a special testing server) and a good balancing team that also interacts actively with the community to allow open discussions and offers transparency.

Alot of good and interesting points! @Navarr I agree with you, that most cards would need a rework to be fully viable. That requires much more work though compared to changing some simple numbers. I also do think your Shatter Ice idea is better than mine. I just don't believe that Emberstrike would be op in 2v2. Earthshaker (+Bloodhorn) will remain as the superior T4 choice and even that is just semi viable. @Mirosius Adding pure faction cards at some point in time would be a great addition for the game. I guess it will take some time up until this gets possible. The only problem I still do see with this is Enlightment. In order to make pure Cards worthwhile they need to either be simply stronger than other cards or add a unique strength to the faction. Enlightment can circumvent this barrier and will allow even stronger combinations for the superior splash decks. Also you are right that Revanants and twilight transformations are rarely used. I think Revanants @Eirias @ here you go Mutating Maniac is a rather weak card that could've been part of the list as it's outclassed by Fathom Lord, who is cheaper and more versitile due to his great ability. You could give it a small buff and the card would still remain as a weaker XL counter than Fathom Lord or Vulcan in the PvP environment. @Chibiterasu Bandit Stalker would be my main target to buff the Bandits faction as it could fit its gamestyle, which is about proactive defence and snowballing. It is a swift unit with good damage, but as you mentioned there is no reason to pick it over Nightcrawler. I would like to see the slow ability on the unit (similar to Scavenger) which allows you to intercept attacks earlier or at least force out cc. The card could be great to pick up burrowers with their bonus damage against beasts. Also you are right about the Rocket Tower, but I don't know how hard it will be to change the attack accuracy. Regarding Fire Sphere and Blood Healing I do understand your point and I agree that these cards are worth a slot in a pure Fire deck. But this also states how weak pure Fire is in PvE. I feel like there are alot of good damage sources in here with some great units, but without proper support (especially the lack of proper healing) the deck is simply inferior to other decks. This is why I would target Blood Healing as a support healing spell and Fire Sphere (requires 3 Fire orbs and isn't available in splash decks). Void Maw in T3 would be somewhat OP in PvP with such a powerful ability. A simple cost reduction would make more sense if you want to keep the card as an ability bot. It could remove a key unit in big camps and be a better supporter for the deck. Shadowworm was probably one of the most tricky cards as he simply isn't worth the effort for a pure Shadow deck while a disintegration buff would make him just stronger for the Enlightment deck. An implemented self heal after successful disintegration would be quite interesting, but requires work to find accurate numbers. That could also circumvent any over the top buffs for Enlightment decks. Right now I just wanted the Shadow Worm to be more versitile and suggested the dmg buff, since this would give him use outside of the disintegration. His current stats are underwhelming for a pure Shadow card.

Feel free to point out everything you don't agree with. I'm fine with discussing everything I've mentioned here since I don't want to go overboard with any suggestion here. Regarding your points: In PvP I can assure you, that Strikers are useless even with their looter ability. For PvE I admit, that I'm not that experienced at using them. I guess the looter ability buff has proven, that Thugs and Strikers are somewhat sensitive cards regarding balancing, so I can understand your point here. That's why I went only for the -5 energy cost buff. Slaver's ability is garbage. The bomb doesn't do alot damage and damagewise the card simply isn't worth anything from my point of view. Also the range of the bomb ability is nonexistent (15m won't be able to hit anything) and when you kite slaver he's gonna be nothing but food in every PvP game. Banditos are T1 units in terms of their basic stats. I meant ONLY their ability makes them somewhat useful and lower power cost enhances the possibilty to use that ability (at least the green ones). Since they are small melee units, which is the worst unit type possible, they need strong combat stats in order to be useful. Sure, adding Corsair for more units and damage is nice, still Corsair is a T3 unit and you won't be able to use Banditos in T2 the way they are now. Haven't seen any successful Banditos user in PvE, if you do have a replay that shows me otherwise I would be interested to see that. Twilight Hag in a viable spot for PvP would be very annoying indeed, but right now she's way to vulnerable to any source of AoE damage and even with 900 hp a T3 nasty simply clears the board if you spam her. I can understand your objection here though. Fireworm just ooks weak in comparison to Batariel and Fire Dragon. His hp pool is very small, therefore he requires a good amount of attention and micro to be used to his full potential. I still don't see how he could be overpowered with a slight damage buff onto his weak basic attacks. Uhm are we talking about the same card? Battleship doesn't even use its cannon (only with the active ability, which is very limited). The card is insanely slow and has a lower dmg/power stat than most T2 units. LSS is broken due to it's insane damage potential while attacking multiple targets at once. It's cheaper stronger, more versitile and faster than Battleship. Corsair isn't really busted unless you use it on Titans to solo the map due to their ability.

I haven't used Northern Keep that often and its ability sounds useful in certain situations, so I was simply unsure about what this card can do when it's buffed. While Ice Shield Tower definitely has some underwhelming combat stats for PvE, his ability is quite useful in PvP and the card is even used in high ranked pure Frost games, because it allows you to survive Phasetower pushes while receiving a decent synergy with your War Eagles later on (the Shield is quite big for 20 power).

The swift spam against Frost is somewhat tricky if there is a respectable distance between the main base and your power well. If both players execute it correctly the Frost player will lose a power well but maintain relevant in the game. I recommend avoiding Lightblade at all. Additional well + Light Blade + Taunt = 195 Power. There is no way to win a combat fight with Master Archers anymore and too many Ice Guardians are also a problem, because they never catch up to the swift units that will simply run around your bases. Even if you kill the taunted Scavy, the other ones will run into your main base and destroy 2 power wells in the worst case scenario. Nomads simply destroy the Lightblade in 2 seconds, so that would be even worse. To be successful in this matchup your ressource distribution needs to be thoroughly considered. You need to make sure, that you have some Master Archers at your power well, while making sure, that you have still some power in your backpocket if your opponent decides to go for your main base. If your opponent tries to fight your Masterarchers, spawn more stuff and kite backwards. If he goes for the powerwell play an Ice Guardian and prepare your Glacier shell. Make sure to use it at the perfect timing (which occurs when the power well has around 700 hp left). Keep in mind that red Nomads do have insane damage (Green Nomad spam is easier to play against anyways). You will lose your powerwell without glacier shell. If your opponent goes all in at your powerwell, you should be able to hold your position. Most players will use their swift advantage though to bait out some units and head down to the main base. This is harder to defend and this is why I recommend to hold back 150-200 power as long as possible. This allows your to play one or two Iceguardians + Glacier Shell to buy some time up until your main army catches up. Even when you play it perfectly you may lose one powerwell, but this doesn't mean you end up beeing behind. Most of the time you will remain more units, so you can pick up the power well again without worrying about an incoming counter attack. If you manage to buy some time your additional powerwell will give you 50-70 power and in addition with the 20-30 additional permanent power loss through the dead nomads (your opponent will lose alot during the well focus and 10% of that power is gone aswell) you end up beeing almost even, which is worth it because you didn't lose mapcontrol, which is your main task with Frost on some tricky maps like Haladur for instance. On some maps (Yrmia for instance) the well distance is close enough to pick up a powerwell without having to worry about all that. If you still struggle against Nomad spam, you can try to pick up either Wintertide as a cheese card (the stomp effect can kill the entire Nomad army) or also use Glyph of Frost to buy more time for your units. But both cards can be seen as a double edged sword as a missuse will put you even further behind.

Great idea! Would be nice to have that again since battleforge.gr & bfcards.info aren't working anymore. What's missing in your description would be a PvE section I guess. Some speedruns and creative decks are very interesting to watch in that section. I could try to make a replay compilation out of the matches I've played. But I think I saved up to 3000 replay files so that will take a while

Worms are the fastest units in the game and do have 50% dmg reduction during their movement. The additional Siege dmg on Coredredge and Deepcoilworm is somewhat nice. It is true though, that the T4 ones are underwhelming. Here is my ranking 1. Core Dredge: Red affinity has 100% Siege dmg & is probably the only worm that is viable in PvP, especially in 2v2 that thing is crazy good once you micro well 2. Deep Coil: Siege and fast movement are decent for PvE, especially against big armies you can use the dmg/knockback mechanic of its movement animation to maximize the dps. 3. Shadow Worm Weak stats and nothing but a disappointment in a pure Shadow deck. Only useful in nature splashes with enlightenment due to the ability. I mean it's cool here, but no one would like to use the card without massive heal support 4. Fire Worm I don't know why these T4 worms are so underwhelming. I'm about to finish a post about these type of cards soon anyways. Fire worm has shitty stats and simply lacks dmg to be effective

Just something in general here: What about creating quests around some of the community maps? I think, that some of them are very well done and fun to play. I always had no motivation going through these maps in detail though, because they didn't give any rewards. Changing this would be a nice addition for the entire PvE section in my opinion.

Depends on how developement progresses. Right now PvP isn't available, so I will just be able to make PvE videos or chose files from my replay folder and cast them. Once everything is fininshed I can give you a time when I stream (Otherwise all streams will be uploaded on youtube anyways, if anyone is interested to rewatch them)

Time to promote myself https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rZG7pzo3GYO0wR3Jx9F7w https://m.twitch.tv/radicalx5/profile I used to be one of the highest rated PvP players in the game, so the majority of my content will be PvP based (I'll upload some PvE occasionaly too). I'm always trying to make my videos a little bit more educational, so if you are looking to improve your PvP skills, you will find some (hopefully valuable) information to do so. I will start streaming on a more regular base when ranked PvP is working properly!

I think a character limitation would be a more useful way to deal with this problem. -> Having just 2-3 characters on a single account wouldn't affect the low elo experience, because really good players will run through the lower elo range in less than 2 days -> multiple characters will allow people to play more than just one deck which would lead to more diversity in PvP (otherwise almost everyone will just play meta decks) -> it helps people to deal with ranked anxiety (especially in a small community, where people remember your name once you've reached a certain level) I still think, that having the option of creating 2 or 3 characters will allow a more healty PvP environment (low elo players won't be affected too much & high ranked players can enjoy a less lame version of PvP with different matchups than pure fire vs shadow frost). Having an account limitation is completely fine, but I think multiple characters would be quite useful for the majority of players.

Nature does stand a chance against Shadow when it comes to the late game, but it still starts in T1, where Shadow for instance completely outclasses nature. Nature has slow and expensive T1 units, which can be abused heavily once you've learned how to deal with it. The last time I've lost a 1v1 against a nature player with a different T1 was in 2010 or maybe even 2009. Split attacks and early pressure are more than enough to decide the game. Shadow Mage with Nether Warp is hard to deal with in the early T2 stage due to the healing bug which extends the healing power from 200 to nearly 1000, therefore you need to stall and wait for your SoM activation, then you can take control over the game. Harvester definitely isn't a big issue as long as you stay even, it's just useful in this matchup to snowball advantages. @BFlove123 I definitely recommend switching Parasite from your Deck, the card is not very useful, because it can be dodged by proper micro management. Swamp Drake also isn't too powerful due to its low dps.

I guess my response is a little bit late, sorry for that ^^ In a different environment (tournaments, sparring games) you have alot of variety in terms of deck choice, to add some special counter cards (One of the most obvious examples would be something like global warming against pure Frost), but for classic ranked games you want to have a deck, that is solid against every color (or at least the popular meta decks). This sort of makes some decks superior due to their consistency or their special strength against popular decks like pure Fire or Shadow Frost. Sure, skill is definitely the most important part and therefore the players strength will decide the outcome of the game most of the time, but some decks have clear weaknesses, that can be abused in certain matchups on the highest level of PvP. Also pure decks are definitely not weak at all. Pure Nature is very inconsistent, but Frost and Shadow do very well in almost every matchup and pure Fire is arguably the strongest deck in PvP. Mixed decks are superior in PvE though.

a PvP Guide by RadicalX -General talk- Since some people asked me to do this I decided to make a small guide regarding Shadow T1. This guide provides information for every type of player (from new to experienced). I will try to explain every single matchup and I hope this is going to be helpful for some of you, who want to improve their gameplay when we get to play again. Note: Every statement refers to 1v1-PvP since 2v2 doesn't always works in the same way. First of all: What makes Shadow T1 so attractive? Shadow T1 & Fire T1 were the most played T1's in the game for a simple reason: Both of them haven't got any major weaknesses. Frost T1 often loses Map control due to the lack of swift units and Nature struggles seriously against towers or can get entirely ruined by an instant T2. Meanwhile Shadow doesn't have these issues and it doesn't lack in strenghts either. The early T1 is the strongest out of all colours. - the Deck - (This is just a short list without in depth explanation. For some more detailed information take a look at Eirias' Deck building guide: [http://forum.bfreborn.com/index.php?/topic/917-how-to-build-a-pvp-deck-guide/]) Group 1 - The "must have" Units (you won't be able to compete on a high level without them): Dreadcharger Forsaken Nox Trooper Nasty Group 2 - Strong additional cards, which provide safety for some matchups: Motivate Skeleton Warriors Phasetower Nightguard Group 3 - Cards, that are only useful for higher Tier combinations: Embalmers Shrine Life Weaving Group 4 - Cards that are only useful in a single certain scenario (usually not viable): Snapjaws Witchclaws (both affinities) Wrathblades Soulsplicer (green) Decomposer Lifestealer (For specific information ask @Hirooo) Executor Group 5 - Trash Offering (both affinites) Soulsplicer (red) You should make sure that your T1 has a good synergy with the rest of your Deck. Some examples: - If you play Shadow Nature, Life Weaving would be a trash card, but in a Bandits-T2 Life Weaving is essential to support your skyfire drakes. - Phasetower gets even stronger in a shadow/frost deck, because you can support them in T2 with Kobold Trick & Glacier Shell. - Shadow Nature has a nice synergy with nightguard because the cheap cc allows you easily to catch the enemies units / you can prevent the nightguard from escaping after she used her ability. The average Shadow T1 includes 6-7 cards (I usually played Dreadcharger, Forsaken, Nox-Trooper, Skeleton Warriors, Nasty & Motivate (+ Life Weaving in Bandits & Pure Shadow). In theory Phasetower has to be included since this card is a little bit OP (especially against nature), but Phasetowerspam doesn't require any micro and these dirty wins weren't really satisfying. - Matchups - Shadow vs Fire Lets start with this matchup since it's the most popular one. Most important cards in this matchup: Shadow: 1. Dreadcharger - 2. Forsaken - 3. Nasty - 4. Motivate Fire: 1. Scavenger - 2. Sunstriders - 3. Thugs- 4. Sunderer - 5. Eruption Core strategy: Your first unit is Dreadcharger. Apparently this should be your starting unit in every single matchup, because the Dreadcharger is fast and has the shortest spawn animation out of every T1 swift unit (werebeasts are equal, but they weren't really popular). This means you will always reach important positions like middle orbs on random maps before your opponent. The first thing you have to notice is your map. As long as you play on a large map you are allowed to take a power well without any concern, but on smaller maps like Elyon for example you shouldn't take anything, otherwise you are going to lose immediately against a Sunderer rush. On smaller maps you have to go for a dazed fight. So lets take a look at "How to play dazed fights": 1. Spawn a dreadcharger, walk towards the position you intend to capture. 2. Spam mass forsaken and split your units (as long as your units are dazed you shouldn't have multiple ones at the same position, otherwise the can get erupted. If your Units reach full hp it's okay to have 2 Forsaken-squads close to each other). If you got multiple units in position you are ready to fight! 3. Your opponent will use Scavenger, Thugs & Sunstrider. Your first focus should be the scavenger, Sunstriders may have next to no health and are very vulnerable, but the scavy can slow your unit -> your opponent will kite you to death. The Fire player on the other hand has to focus your dreadcharger, because he won't reach your forsaken with his 540hp Scavenger, who has got inferior stats compared to dreadcharger, but a superior ability and aslong as they focus each other they are even in terms of strength. 4. If your units are close to death try to get them out of combat and heal them up later. Save as many units as you can and always try to have a good focus to catch out your opponent's Sunstriders as long as the scavy is out of the fight. If one of your Forsaken squads is out of position close to your enemies units just frenzy them to force your opponent back to get a positional advantage or - in the case where your opponent doesn't retreat - deal tons of damage (Frenzy Forsaken are devastating for Fire) and motivate them afterwards to get an even bigger damage boost. 5. Many people play thugs since their micro isn't good enough to win a dazed fight against frenzy Forsaken. The most important thing to notice is that Thugs are more expensive than Forsaken, which means the focussed forsaken squad can just run away, the thugs have to chase them, but your opponent has 10 additional bound power which creates an advantage for you. But be careful! Don't get lazy with your micro against thugs, because otherwise they can delete your forsaken and their passive will give your opponent even more power. Your micro has to be on point in this situation. EDIT: Since there was some discussion about thugs I want to expand this paragraph. It's very important to note that 2 Forsaken can kill Thugs, that are played in your backline before they get out of daze. So a very important tip against Thugs is to avoid early engagements and get up a decent amount of Forsaken (at least 4-5). This allows you to burst down dazed squads & full hp thugs from the other side will be easier to kite. Thugs are powerful, but onedimensional cards, so this strategy works with a high consistency to prevent them from destroying and zoning your backline and ensures you to win the early dazed fight. 6. If you get an advantage take a super aggressive power well to gain map control. If you lose the dazed fight try to take a safe position and buy time to recover your temporary disadvantage (but be careful, if your opponent tries to abuse this and starts spamming power wells. Pure Fire benefits heavily from this.). If you get a good amount of practice with this, you should win at least 90% out of your dazed fights against Fire T1. Important notes: Even if Nasty and Eruption can be game changing in the perfect moment they are usually not efficient in dazed fights! They are only good to punish mistakes, aside from that spawning additional units is the better choice. Sometimes you can spawn a single squad Skeleton Warriors with their tank ability they can easily reach good nasty positions, but you still shouldn't rely on the use of Nasty to win the fight. NEVER use lifeweaving on your Dreadcharger. It's just not good to spend 70 power to support a unit without substantial damage. Your opponent can just run away or change his focus and would always win the trade. If you think you really need a tank in your fight choose skeleton warriors. They do have got even more effective hp (1.5k) with their ability and you have to spend only 50 power which is fine. Fake Frenzy is pretty funny ^-^ You have to wait a split second until Frenzy gets activated which means you can easily cancel the animation by walking around -> sometimes your opponent thinks you really activated your Forsaken and retreats immediately. Always try to play at your power limit. It's pointless to hold anything back since the only useful spell in your Deck is Motivate which costs next to nothing. Here is a replay that shows how a dazed fight between two good players looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cm1gRHwA0U Hirooo made some small mistakes but that was an overall well executed T1. Sadly the commentating isn't always on point since Farrock doesn't have the same game knowledge as the top players (No offense against him, I respect his work & effort alot). The dazed fight is pretty much the most important thing to master in this matchup, because even on alot of the bigger maps you will fight under the same conditions after taking a power well. But lets take a look at another very common scenario: The close well fights This fights are way more aggressive, because Forsaken & Thugs are way more efficient in these situations. The reason for that is very simple: As a fire player you can't just run away from Frenzy Forsaken because otherwise they will just focus your well and delete it in no time. Thugs are super strong to support the fire players' defence. But keep in mind you got the early advantage in this matchup, so play as aggressive as you can. The power of fire scales proportionate with gametime as long as no wells go down, because Sundererspam can get really dangerous in the later stages of your T1. If you have to defend a Sunderer just use a Dreadcharger to block its walkpath as fast as you can (this slows the unit down severely) and focus it as much as you can before it's able to reach your power well (Use Nox Trooper + overload if you need a little bit more burst to finish it of when your opponent retreats). You have to keep calm in these situations, because if you panic and go for something like "mass frenzy" your opponent just walks away, waits 20 seconds and returns with a second Sunderer and this is ... lets say it's not good ... I also found a replay that shows how to abuse the early power of Shadow in a close well fight. Very nice decisionmaking by killroy in this game (he didn't waste any units). He does a really good job in terms of snowballing the game by attacking 2 spots at the same time, it's worth it to watch this game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD_n3CbbbMk This is a pretty rare scenario, but some maps do have big well distances and promote passive play (Simai does this because the Shadow player doesn't take the middle since he's scared of cliffdancer, meanwhile the Fire player prefers high well distances). Nox Trooper gets more valuable on maps like this. Usually they are inferior compared to forsaken in this matchup but they can create a high amount of burst and on this maps you don't have to deal with such a high amount of Sunstriders. The Overload-ability does 487,5 damage -> 1 hit + overload kills a scavenger in 6 seconds for sure and creates a little temporary power advantage for you. Just abuse this and take another power well, your opponents' attacks will be predictable since the map is big which allows you to defend well against sunderer. You can create a small, but reliable lead like this and this allows you a safe transition into your T2. [I didn't find a good replay for this, but I'm going to add one as soon as I got one] - Map Advantages - This matchup is the least map dependend one (Shadow mirror doesn't count ^^), but there are still some maps that give you advantages or disadvantges. Elyon: Small map, fast and early T1 fight -> it's easy to secure map control and sometimes you will be able to prevent your opponent from his T3. Yrmia: This is a very small map aswell with close wells next to each other, but the map isn't as fancy for you as it looks. The passages on this map are really really small, you won't be able to split your units unless you attack from multiple areas! Keep that in mind, otherwise Eruptions can be a threat at this map. Haladur: This matchup is pretty balanced on this map and very entertaining aswell. Pretty much one of the main reasons why Haladur was such a popular map in the community. Simai: As explained this map promotes a slow & passive T1. It's usually a solid map for you, but be careful against these nasty pure fire player, who abuses this to get into a high powerlevel T2. Lajesh: Weird map for casual ranked games, since you always have to pay attentions at your walls + it gets really easy to turtle with wallspamming. In tournament maps this can be one of the greatest maps in the game as long as both players agree to play without walls. Whazai: This map is fine for T1 action, but has some risks for you. It has a very small passage before you reach the middle which is a dangerous eruption spot and the small area gives you a hard time microing against thugs at the same time. But if both players take a well in the middle you are at a clear advantage. It's very easy to let your Forsaken attack the well & the main base at the same time and since there is a cliff next to the main base thugs & scavenger can't reach the Forsaken in time. But careful! This map gets really nasty against pure fire, especially if you decide to take that well in the middle. Uro: The most dangerous map for you. Wells are so far away from each other, it's even hard to move your units between your own wells to defend properly against Sunderer without a disadvantage. Sometimes you get forced to trade wells - you can't just sit back and play passive. Calm decisionmaking is even more important on this map. Generated maps: Small maps usually favour you a little bit since they are mid centered and you will most likely win the dazed fight, big maps are really shitty to be honest. T1 doesn't really matter, the better T3 usually wins. Shadow vs Frost The second matchup will be against Frost. I think a very important thing to notice is that this matchup is very map dependend. Most important cards in this matchup: Shadow: 1. Dreadcharger 2. Nox Trooper 3. Motivate Frost: 1.Master Archers 2. Ice Guardian 3. Ice Barrier 4. Home Soil Core strategy: Playing against Frost is always a little bit tricky. You will start with your Dreadcharger as fast as you can! Don't waste time, you have to reach your opponent as fast as possible to force a dazed fight, because Shadow will win that dazed fight against Frost every single time. Dreadchargerspam will always beat Masterarcherspam, just be careful with wintertide. If your opponent plays it just stop any move command and micro your units very carefully. Aslong as you don't suicide your Dreadcharger, Wintertide won't have any impact on the game. If you catch your opponent before he takes a power well, you can deny him access to the entire map, which is litereally game over. But lets get over to the interesting part where you can't deny the power well: 1. Your opponent has to take a well: You get a 100 power advantage and now it's your turn to use that to attack (unless you play on a super big random map). Your core units in this situation are Dreadcharger & Nox Trooper. That's everything you need since Forsaken are very weak against Master Archer (sometimes you can play a single squad, but be careful with the use of Forsaken against Frost). 2. It is very important to notice which starting unit your opponent got. If it's a Lightblade just go for 2 Dreadcharger + Nox Trooper spam. If he got only Master Archers you should think about more Dreadcharger. 3. After that you have to react to your opponents' unit composition. If he chooses to play ice Guardians, play more Nox Trooper - against Master Archers you have to get more Dreadcharger. In the perfect scenario the Dreadcharger take out the Master-Archers without beeing hit by the Ice Guardians, who get smashed by your Nox Trooper in the meantime. But this doesn't always work out perfectly. https://youtu.be/F-uawwk6hRg?t=23m5s At this game it worked out pretty well, even if it's a 2v2 match. That would've worked on a small 1v1 map aswell. 4. If one of your units starts to get very low just pull it out of the fight. It's easy to micro the fast Shadow units. Sometimes you won't be able to kick the power well, but you can take out so many units without losing a single one. 5. If you get around 4-5 low hp units just take your own power well, heal your units and continue to pressure. Your temporary advantage is still massive and even if your opponent got a good amount of power thorugh his extra well he doesn't have that much extra power, because he lost many units already and only 90% of the power returns back into the void. 5 power lost per unit and this adds up pretty fast in this matchup. Especially if you continue your attacked with your healed units. Now it's your time to get a massive advantage. 6. If you think you can take your opponents' power well you can use motivate to give your units some extra punch, but be careful. Frost has already access to Glacier Shell, you have to deal around 3,8k damage in a very short time. It's usually wise to go for the units first & take the well down later when you got an overwhelming amount of units. Important notes: Nasty is usually not very useful against Frost units, because they have just too many hp. In addition to that Ice barrier can be used to block alot of the damage in dangerous Situations. You need at least T2 units like Lyrish Knight for example to make some effective nasties. If you have to wait for some units to heal up or something like that, try to tease a little bit with your Dreadcharger to force a early home soil or maybe even a frost glyph. You need godly reaction to entirely dodge a well placed Frost Glyph, but keep in mind that it's not that bad when you get hit unless your opponent has already 5+ units, which shouldn't be the case as long as you are aggressive. Otherwise just use the focussed unit as motivate-food ^-^ Many people don't consider attacking as the best choice, but that's just a huge mistake. If you just take your own well against frost, the power level will rise and your opponent benefits from that since Frost T1 Units are very cheap and have very good stats. Back in 2011 I lost so many games, because I wasn't aggressive enough in this matchup. Double Ice Guardian + MA spam + homesoil will be way to efficient at some point, there is not alot you can do against then after you played a passive early T1. -Again I would love to add a replay at that point, but I didn't find a decent one. If anyone knows some good Shadow vs X replays on youtube send me a pm please.- Ok lets get through the Map part. Frost is super map dependend due to the lack of a swift unit, so it's really important to abuse your map-advantages. Haladur: The more common "Scavy-spam" works on Haladur aswell with Dreadchargers. Your opponent takes a well in the middle, but the distance between the well & main base are incredible high. So you just have to spam Dreadcharger and run down to the main base, attack there and if your opponent spawns alot of units just walk back to the well in the middle. The Frost units will be to slow to follow and you can overwhelm your opponent. Motivate is essential to this strategy! Aside from that Frost even has an advantage on Haladur if your opponent gets his position in the middle since the power wells are very close to each other and Frost T1 excels at that scenario. So try to zone him from the main entrance to the center of the map. Elyon: One of the easier maps for you. You can get control over the middle wells & orbs, which denies your opponent a T3 spot. You don't even have to take anything there. Just use your units to prevent the Frost player from reaching the area. Later on you just need to stall for T3 and win basically without taking any risks. Yrmia: Very difficult map. Power wells are really close to each other, there is no way to get superior map control or something like that. At least it is a really small map which allows you to attack very early with a strong rush. But if you fail to control the early game you may end up beeing at a bad spot because Frost T1 results nearly every time in a Timeless One based T3 which is very powerful. Simai: Slow Map, you can make an aggressive push to deny your opponent control over the wells at the top of the map. Aside from that the well distances are very high unless you take any stupid power wells which makes it a low pressure map. But if your opponent takes a well at the start you actually get to zone him from his T2, which gives you control over the early game though. Whazai: Great Map for you, you can get immediate control over the mid spot and in addition to that nox trooper can attack 2 of the power wells in the base over cliffs, which makes it sooo difficult to defend against this with Ice Guardians. Keep in mind that Frost can spawn dazed Iceguardian with an active (!) Shield behind the cliff at their main base, so don't rely on a simple Dreadchargerspam. Uro: The best map for you. It's important to do a quick start, because you have to walk very far. This map is litereally an autoloose for Frost because you can deny your opponent every position on the entire map. You will be able to force a dazed fight, that shadow is going to win without any Problems. Lajesh: With walls again very weird to play. Very slow and passive gameplay. If both players agree to play without walls the game gets really great. Small map with alot of potential for aggression, but potential close wells on the other hand. Generated Maps: small maps are nearly a freewin since they are usually mid-centered (as I said before) and you will be able to control the mid-wells. Large maps will be boring & usually end up in a T3 fight, which is not so good against Timeless One decks. Shadow vs Nature The matchup with the potential to be the greatest out of all, but 2 cards influence the balancing in a negative way (Phasetower & Treespirit). Most important cards in this matchup: Shadow without Phasetower: 1. Dreadcharger 2. Nox Trooper 3. Nasty Surprise 4. Motivate 5.Forsaken (!) Nature without Treespirit: 1.Spearman 2. Windweavers 3. Ensnaring Roots 4. Surge of Light Core strategy: There are 2 ways of playing the matchup Shadow vs Nature and I'll start with the easy one. It includes the use of Phasetower, a card that is ridicilously broken in this matchup for multiple reasons: 1. Phasetower has insane stats (900/1200) and is even with his teleport debuff stronger than any unit nature can offer (Primal defender can match him in terms of strength, but Phasetower has his insane teleport ability which makes him way more versitile). His strength is so overwhelming that his transition into T2 is still amazing (especially for shadow frost that can protect the turrets with kobold trick and glacier shell). 2. Phasetower has splash damage which allows him to finish off windweavers squads very quickly (The Nox Trooper for example has to shot at every single unit at the end to kill the entire squad) 3. Buildings are uneffected by crowd control which is a huge advantage against nature, that usually relies on Ensnaring roots in this matchup. 4. Nature doesn't have a counter unit against phasetower (apparently Sunderer is the only unit with Siege damage in the entire T1 -> no nature Unit, that can threaten buildings.). 5. I do consider Treespirit as a ridicilous card, that needs a rework and destroys the beauty of nature T1. But Phasetower is the perfect counter against them, because of superior stats and the fact, that they are unaffected by the poison. 6. Since nature is forced to play slow units against shadow it is possible to take a well on mid centered maps and defend it successfully with a Phasetower to gain map control for free, which is devestating on maps like Elyon. Just overall: Phasetower is op and I will just show a short replay that demonstrates the power of Phasetower without any micro-effort. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1x8GEMpyAI (Game 3 of a showmatch series between Elendil & Sarlesch - german cast by JMCW) Sarlesch wanted to go instant T2, that's why he started with amazon. He changed his mind after 30 seconds and played 2 Windweaver squads (I guess the reasoning behind this was the fact, that elendil was able to rush his instant T2 in the previous game). And after that his chance of winning went down to litereally 0%. Elendil realized immediatly Sarlesch couldn't go T2 anymore, built up some phasetowers and won the game with no effort. The matchup gets way more interesting without Phasetower or Treespirits (btw. I recommend instant T2 against Treespirit as long as you play without Phasetower) included. The start is pretty interesting against nature because nature has different starting units against different colours. Swiftclaw, which is usually the best choice, is just awful against Nox Trooper and against shadow in general. So as long as your opponent doesn't know you play Shadow T1, you can try to play some mindgames. Just don't play a single unit in the first 10 seconds and see how your opponent reacts. Some people will get impatient and start with the swiftclaw which gives you a massive advantage. Nature needs 4+ units (Spearmen + Windweaver spam) and around 100 extra power to be able to use crowd control and surge of light. If he plays an aditional useless 80 power unit it takes such a long time for him to reach a state where he is able to fight you. A time window that can get abused heavily. At that point you can just go ahead and beat your opponent with a nox trooper spam. If he retreats you can use your temporary advantage to secure map control with an aggressive T2, which is litereally "gg" beacuse nature struggles really hard against T2 since its units are super expensive with low dps. If your opponent doesn't fall for the bait just go ahead with your Dreadcharger and look for an immediate fight because at late T1 stages Ensnaring roots & Surge of light provide way to much power. On the other hand Shadow has the early fight advantage beacuse you've got cheap high dps units, that can overwhelm the nature player easily. Dreadcharger and Nox Trooper are your core units at this stage. How to play a dazed fight against nature: If you get to fight your opponent before he gets a critical amount of units you have to play around 2 things: 1. Ensnaring roots This is why you need at least 2 dreadcharger to run around your opponents' slow units and attack from multiple positions with them and multiple nox trooper. Otherwise your entire army gets rooted and 3+ windweaver squads can easiliy take out 2-3 units in those 15 seconds with a 45 power spell. If your opponent tries to kill the rooted units the other army can attack without interference (maybe even with a motivate boost). 2. Surge of light It is very important to notice, that nox troopers don't finish 6 unit squads immediatly. They have to shoot at every single unit once to kill it. It is really important to finish off the windweaver/spearmen squads immediatly to prevent efficient heals. There are many ways to do this: - Dreadcharger can use his "stomp" to finish them off since it does a small amount of damage when you knock back units - If your opponent plays with Spearmen it's fine to have a single forsaken squad added to your unit composition. They can finish off squads very fast, but be careful with your positioning, Forsaken are really squishy in this matchup - Windweavers can take them out really fast. And don't play 2 squads at the same position otherwise hurricane is going to hurt you - Nasty surprise can outclass heal in this matchup. If your Dreadcharger is in a good position and you can finish a single unit + damage other ones, just go for it. Your opponent can't make an efficient heal against that (150 vs 110 power). In addition to that the power of nature decreases tremendously with every unit loss since this just lowers the efficency of crowd control. How to play if your opponent takes a power well: Just attack at 2 positions at once with the compositions of 1 dreadcharger, 1 nox trooper & 1 forsaken squad. There is no way nature can match this even if you built up your own power well. Just spawn additional Dreadcharger/Nox Trooper over time and apply as much pressure as possible. If one of your attacks seems to go down, just use motivate to start the big push on the other side. You can kick a power well for sure. After that just go immediatly T2 to negate your opponents temporary advantage due to a superior amount of left units. Nature can't use cc at multiple positions, playing around this is your main win condition. Important notes: - This doesn't work against Treespirit! So be careful if you don't know your opponents' playstyle. - You can force your opponent to take a well as long as you play with phasetower, because shadow can just take a power well and defend it without any problems due to phasetower. If your opponent then decides to take his own well you have 2 places to attack, even if he is a smart player who tries to avoid unfavourable early fights. Map specific information: Haladur: Great Map for you! You can split your army really well and threaten the main base & the middle position at the same time. Haladur is really troublesome for nature, your opponnent may think about an instant T2. Elyon: With phasetower an absolute freewin. Without Phasetower it can get a little troublesome because the main base it protected through the wall. Your main approach is winning an early fight in the middle since there is alot of space to play around ensnaring roots. Afterwards you can secure map control with an early T2 Yrmia: Great map to attack from multiple positions, but can get sometimes a little bit tricky because there isn't that much room to split your units that well. But since the map is really small you can apply an insane amount of early pressure. With phasetower it's nearly a freewin. Simai: Very slow map that doesn't really promote early fights unless both players try to go for the middle immediatly. At that point you have a good shot at beating the nature player with a good nasty if you play well around ensnaring roots. Whazai: Ridiculous phasetower map. You need 2 ports from your base to be able to attack your opponents power wells. Without Phasetower it's important to use the side ways to surround your opponent. If you are only focussed on the middle you will get serious trouble against roots. Uro: You can run around your opponent due to the fast Dreadcharger. But keep in mind, Uro is a really big map and it takes time to reach the enemies base which favours the nature player. Your advantage: An early T2 at a good position can be devastating for your opponent. Lajesh: Favours Nature heavily. The Walls just block every kind of early aggression. On lajesh without walls you have a better shot since the map is really small and you can play more aggressive. But there is a wellcluster pretty close to the main base which is easy to defend for the nature player. Pretty balanced map aslong as both players agree to play without walls. Generated Maps: Small maps favour Shadow with Phasetower heavily, because you can just take the middle, build a turret and ... it's gg (okay to be honest Phasetower-Shadow T1 has an advantage on every map). Without Phasetower you can get problems on mid centered maps, but atleast there is alot of space to play around Ensnaring Roots. Large generated maps favour you a little bit, because you can just play super aggressive without anything to worry about. Even if you mess up, your opponent won't be able to reach you in time, because it sometimes takes around 50-60 seconds for remaining windweavers & spearmen to reach their destination. Enough time for your void to come back to you. Shadow vs Shadow The mirror matchup is pretty interesting since small mistakes can get punished super hard (especially with high dps units like Forsaken). The Most important cards for the mirror matchup: 1.Dreadcharger 2.Forsaken 3.Skeleton Warriors 4.Motivate 5.Nasty Surprise Core strategy: In theory this matchup consists mainly of Dreadcharger + Forsaken spam vs Dreadcharger + Forsaken spam and the guy with better micro (or the one who hits the clutch-nasty) wins the game since both players use the same cards. If you want to reach the highest ranks you should practise the mirror match opening, because the first skirmish is super important since you can't avoid it unless you go instant T2. You can't just take an additional power well unless the distance between you and your enemy is incredible big. If your opponent gets greedy and takes a well you can just attack, destroy it and the game is pretty much over. And this is how the rush works: Spawn 2 Dreadchargers to prepare an attack from 2 spots. Your opponent loses his opportunity to defend with a huge nasty. Spawn additional units and focus the power well. There is nothing your opponent can do against this since he just spent 100 power more which is massive in the early game (you can play 2 additional Forsaken squads, which adds more than 2.000 dp20s). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u965vcN2cug Here is an example of a T1 rush against the strongest defence shadow can offer (Phasetower + wrathblades). I made some horrible mistakes in the early T2 stage, but if you can destroy a power well that early in the game you get such a massive advantage. The game was just over. My opponent was more than prepared for an attack (I used the same strategy to beat him in the first game in this bo5 series) but there is nothing you can do to stop the rush. If your opponent doesn't go for a power well things will get a little bit harder. Micro management gets super important, but also the decisionmaking. The way you use the Frenzy ability of your Forsaken often decides who wins the fight. You can increase your dps in the skirmish, but if you activate to many Forsaken your opponent can just retreat and wait for them to die for nothing. More important notes: - Always be aware of nasties. Dreadcharger is very fast and if you leave it at full hp you can get in trouble if your units aren't well positioned - Motivate can be massive. The amount of additional damage you can deal for literally no power is very good for any kind of skirmishes. Use it on the first Forsaken squad that is close to die. - Phasetower can be super useful on maps like Whazai, but usually isn't the best choice, because Shadow has got high dps Units to deal with it. But lets go ahead and talk about one of the most important cards in this matchup. Skeleton Warriors are monsters against Shadow. 50 power and 1,65k effective hp with their ability is huge. Shadow just hasn't got anything to deal with them. They can tank against Forsaken forever, they beat Dreadcharger with their ability and the most dangerous thing: You can't just ignore them and kite because they are a massive nasty threat aswell. Many players would just think of Wrathblades as a solution. But here is the problem: Wrathblades have got only 600hp and can get killed super fast by Forsaken and even if you don't focus them Wrathblades get a dp20s of 1512 against S units with their ability. If you compare the stats (1512dmg/600health vs 600dmg/1650health) you will realise, that Skeleton Warriors win the 1v1 against the Wrathblades. This is why Wrathblades are pretty useless, at least for dazed fights. If you managed to win the first skirmish you can use your temporary advantage to take a power well at a position that gives you map control. Try to make a gameplan from that point, maybe you can use your position to deny a T3 spot, or maybe try to get close to your opponent to push your advantage. If you are even after the first small fights you can also try to take a power well, but maybe at a safe spot. If the power level gets higher it is unlikely to get rushed that easily, because you can spam more units to intercept your opponent. In addition to that nasty gets way more effective at that point since it's harder to split the high amount of units well enough to prevent nasties from beeing power efficient. How to play when both players aquired a power well: Try to play as aggressive as possible. Never be passive, that will lose you the game for a simple reason. If the enemies Forsaken manage to reach your base you'll get a problem. At that point your opponent can just activate frenzy and you can't get rid of them, because it's super bad to frenzy your Forsaken in a defensive position. Even if you kill the enemies units, your own Forsaken will die aswell and you will just sit there with a low power well. You can play more units, but the next attack will finish the well most likely and if you decide to repair your well you won't have enough power to play any units. This is why you have to force skirmishes on an open ground and if you get an advantage due to superior micro just play as aggressive as you can. If you get pressured at some point just don't lose your nerves and activate your Forsaken. You will lose your chance to use a temporary advantage for a counterattack. Attacking at multiple positions is always a good choice. It is just way more difficult to react properly if you apply pressure everywhere even if your opponent has got enough power in theory. If you manage to control and micro your units well you can gain massive advantages because so many players struggle with multitasking especially when they have to react fast and have to prevent you from reaching their power wells. A common strategy: If you get an overwhelming amount of units just go ahead, and frenzy all of them. Just go for the wellfocus, but go T2 at the same time. This will allow you to deal with the counterattack (Darkelf Assassins, Shadow Phoenix, CC vs Frenzy, AoE damage spells like lavafield or lyrish nasty). There aren't many map specific advantages because both players have got access to the same cards so i won't make a map list for this matchup. Just keep this in mind: - Phasetower is super effective on Whazai (I mentioned this earlier aswell) - Big generated maps are just awful, you can't be aggressive on these maps, because if your opponent takes a well you just have to take one aswell. You need atleast an entire minute to reach him, which means your opponent can build up a good defense and even gets around 30-40 power back even before you applied any sort of pressure. But this is just an exception. So keep in mind: Good micro and the ability to be proactive are the most important things you need to master the shadow mirror. Okay, this is the end of my Shadow T1 guide. I hope this will help some of you in the upcoming future. Since I've got some requests I will write something about different colors at some point too, you can find my Frost T1 guide in the new player section and I almost finished Nature T1 too which will be released soon. So thank you for reading this, enjoy your day and stay hyped. Best regards, RadicalX

Oh I see, thanks! Fixed that