[Eternal Card Game] Set two, Omens of the Past, released!

Spawnbroker

What is Eternal?
Eternal is a free-to-play digital collectible card game. Other games in this genre you might have heard of include Hearthstone, Duelyst, and Shadowverse.

What makes this game different from all of the other digital card games right now?
This game takes a lot of cues from Magic: the Gathering, while also being free. The major differences between this game and Hearthstone are the following:

1. No randomness. Cards do not do a random amount of damage, and random effects in this game are limited to niche legendary cards.
2. You can play cards on your opponent's turn. This means counterspells, combat tricks, and instant spells are prevalent.
3. Deck size. Decks are larger in this game, you can have up to 75 cards for constructed play.
4. In Draft, you keep the cards that you pick. This makes draft a great choice for building your collection.

What does it play like?

Paraphrasing @metaghost, Eternal "Looks like Hearthstone and plays like simplified Magic: the Gathering"



What are the different game modes I can play?

Gauntlet
This game mode is designed to be a free alternative for players who have a starter deck that they feel can't compete in ranked play, but also don't have any gold to play the more premium modes. You take a 75 card constructed deck and play against computer opponents until you lose. You get a reward at the end based on your performance. Gauntlet starts out very easy, and gets more difficult as you beat the computer more.

Forge
This game mode is the "poor man's draft", for those players who don't have a very large collection. This game mode is similar to Hearthstone's Arena mode, except you keep your cards. There are some minor differences, though. You will draft a deck from a collection of limited choices given to you, instead of from 15 card packs. The game will automatically give you choices in the two colors you choose from then on, so if you're looking for Time/Primal commons and uncommons, pick Time/Primal cards in forge!

When you go 7-0 in forge, the difficult will increase just like gauntlet. Forge is a good source of cards and gold until it gets too hard, then you should move on to ranked and draft. New players should use forge to get common and uncommon cards until it gets too hard and they can afford draft.

Draft
In this mode, you will draft from 4 packs of 12 cards, just like in a normal Magic: the Gathering draft. You keep the cards that you draft! You open a 12 card pack, choose a card, and then pass. Do this until the pack runs out. Repeat this process for all four packs, and then at the end you build a 45 card deck out of your choices. You battle against other random players with your deck until you lose 3 times, then you get rewarded based on your record. There is a draft ladder in Eternal, so you can track how good you are compared to other players!

Drafts in Eternal are not real-time, but they use the same sort of system that a draft would in Magic. That means that your first and third packs will be "passed" to you from someone on your left. Your second and fourth packs will be "passed" to you from someone on your right. Since drafting is not real-time, these draft picks were pre-recorded by someone else before you sat down to draft. This means that you will not be able to signal a color choice to anyone else, but reading the other players' signals is very important. As an example, if you try to force Justice/Fire, but the people passing to you are picking all of the best Justice/Fire cards before passing to you, your deck will not be very good.

With the release of set two, the first and third packs will be the new set, and the second and fourth packs will be the first set.

Ranked

This is the mode that most people play. There is a ranked ladder that resets about every month, and the best players always rise to the top. Matches are best of 1.

As a side note, a lot of Magic pros play this game, and some of them are the best Eternal players out there!

Casual

They added a casual queue! Now you can still lose to crazy good decks, just without seeing your rank!

Where can I find more information about the game?
Eternal Discord Server
Eternal Subreddit
Eternal Forums

Discuss!

Spawnbroker

Finished up the tutorial quests for the intro decks today. I think the first major deck I'm going to build will be a Stonescar deck of some kind, maybe burn or jito. Most players will probably be playing Rakhano to start off, so Stonescar will probably be pretty well positioned to do decently until I can get more cards.

I needed anime to post.

Really not sure how I feel about 75 card decks + Only One Mulligan. I think that might be the worst design decision in the entire game.

Spawnbroker

I needed a gnome to post. wrote: »

Really not sure how I feel about 75 card decks + Only One Mulligan. I think that might be the worst design decision in the entire game.

When you mulligan, you're guaranteed a hand with 2-5 power in it, I believe. You will still lose some games because of it, but not as many as you would think.

metaghost

I've been playing this a lot.

While the AI decks are pretty much bullshit, it's nice to have access to Gauntlet/Forge when you don't really have the cards for Constructed. I built a half-assed iteration of the Bloodrite Kalis deck, but it's really not up to snuff for the Ranked queue; the aggro decks are too fast and the control decks can prevent me from ever getting set up, but at least I can beat up the computer pretty well.

Aegis is extremely goddamn annoying.

Spawnbroker

metaghost wrote: »

I've been playing this a lot.

While the AI decks are pretty much bullshit, it's nice to have access to Gauntlet/Forge when you don't really have the cards for Constructed. I built a half-assed iteration of the Bloodrite Kalis deck, but it's really not up to snuff for the Ranked queue; the aggro decks are too fast and the control decks can prevent me from ever getting set up, but at least I can beat up the computer pretty well.

Aegis is extremely goddamn annoying.

I would put together an aggro deck to get yourself going for now, until you get more cards. If you have a lot of Stonescar cards, there are some pretty good Stonescar aggro decks; one is focused around burn, the other around Frontier Jito. Rakhano is probably still decently strong, although the gilded glaive nerf hit that deck pretty hard.

metaghost

I played Rakano Pants during the closed beta. It's not fun to play with or against.

And generally speaking, aggro isn't my thing, unless I'm drafting.

Spawnbroker

If you're looking for a control deck, Icaria Blue is pretty good! I think 4F Control might have died to the secret pages rework so hold off on that, but Icaria Blue might have the tools to be able to survive against the aggro decks right now.

metaghost

Spawnbroker wrote: »

If you're looking for a control deck, Icaria Blue is pretty good! I think 4F Control might have died to the secret pages rework so hold off on that, but Icaria Blue might have the tools to be able to survive against the aggro decks right now.

I'm probably going to work on some sort of Elysian midrange deck. I have a soft spot for Dawnwalker (no matter the slight nerf), and having access to Lightning Storm is pretty important in the meta at the moment. Or maybe I'll fiddle with some Shimmerpack shenanigans.

Spawnbroker

I think I'm going to do Icaria Blue to start. There's a ton of aggro decks right now and I think Icaria Blue does okay against those since it main decks Lightning Storm and Harsh Rule. It also didn't lose much with the changes. I think Push Onward had a minor rework and that's it?

It's relatively expensive, but not as bad as I thought at 30,000ish stones. I just wonder how it will do if I don't have all of the legendary finishers.

metaghost

Push Onward no longer exists, technically speaking. Instead there is:

Scheme
3 Power, 1 Shadow
Spell
Look at the top four cards of your deck, put one into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your deck.

And who needs multiple finishers when you have Icaria and 6+ tutors?

I needed anime to post.

To clarify I'm concerned about 75 card decks because of how much more variance it introduces. It makes card draw and tutors even more important than ever, and also makes a lot of the starter deck experiences swingy and miserable.

metaghost

I needed a gnome to post. wrote: »

To clarify I'm concerned about 75 card decks because of how much more variance it introduces. It makes card draw and tutors even more important than ever, and also makes a lot of the starter deck experiences swingy and miserable.

I have yet to experience significantly greater variance in terms of being able to set up what my deck is trying to set up. The aggro decks are perhaps more successful as a consequence of A) more redundant parts and a somewhat greater chance opponent doesn't have Lightning Storm/Plague, but I think the greater issue is just that they haven't provided sufficient tools to interact with aggression beyond mass removal.

The starter deck experiences are miserable, which is disappointing in contrast to how Duelyst was able to pull of very successful starter experiences, but Duelyst is also a dramatically different game. Which, even with its 40 card decks, still highlights the great importance (and strength) of card filtering and quasi-tutoring — that's just how deckbuilding games are.

Spawnbroker

I had a really disappointing 0-3 draft last night. I did my usual strategy of not committing to a color in pack 1, and I picked the wrong colors to shift into in pack 2 and got absolutely nothing for the rest of the draft. Bleh.

metaghost

While I like Eternal's draft better than Heartstone's and Duelyst's (which Forge imitates), I find the simulated "live table" to be a little frustrating for the reason you describe. It's certainly possible for the same thing to happen in Magic, whether due to bad packs or knuckleheads cutting you for whatever reason, but you nevertheless feel a greater sense of responsibility in your bad outcomes.

webber

I've been playing since closed beta, it's really fun.

I've been trying to put together an infiltrate deck.

metaghost

webber wrote: »

I've been playing since closed beta, it's really fun.

I've been trying to put together an infiltrate deck.

The Haunted Scream deck(s) are always pretty neat, though Steward of the Past can kinda shut that down.

Moridin889

Some of these decks in the ranked queue are super frustrating for a new player to run into. I'm hoping these guys become bigger, the forge and gauntlet are great ways to earn up cards and resources before jumping into the big pool

metaghost

Moridin889 wrote: »

Some of these decks in the ranked queue are super frustrating for a new player to run into. I'm hoping these guys become bigger, the forge and gauntlet are great ways to earn up cards and resources before jumping into the big pool

Strangely enough, it seems like Bronze is way more meta-oriented at the moment compared to Silver (if not higher). And the prevalence of Rakano Aggro is really frustrating if you're trying to experiment or just practice.

Regardless, forge and gauntlet are rad for growing your collection (as you say), though the Gauntlet boss setup is pretty dumb and the higher level versions of both modes are cheap as fuck.

For folks stepping into Forge for the first time, I recommend always "drafting" one of the allied pairs (Primal/Shadow, Shadow/Fire, Fire/Justice, Justice/Time, Time/Primal), as that gives you access to the more powerful multi-faction cards that simply can't appear in forge if you pursue an "enemy" pair.

Spawnbroker

I got my feln control deck together and have been moving my way up the ladder with it. I wonder what would be good to build next, I've been seeing a lot of Rakhano pants and a lot of Haunting Scream, believe it or not. Maybe Icaria Blue, maybe Combrei, hmm.

webber

A friend made a relic weapon deck, it was pretty expensive to craft but got him to legend rank.

Kevin Crist

So I gave this a shot, went through the deck opening stuff. Stranger deck was no match against Giant Flying Justice.

I like it overall, and I really like you can build (but of course not play) decks without owning all the cards. Good way to plan ahead on crafting. Took me a bit to figure out how to Edit the amount of power you put in a deck.

metaghost

Up to Silver 1 with my dumb Bloodrite Kalis deck, which has since devolved into what is basically just a bad Stonescar deck. Soulfire Drake has proven to be a legit card thanks to the 1-power buff, as it can now take out Staff of Stories without assistance, which is pretty great. And then no one wants to kill it unless they have Steward of the Past out.

That said, the Rakano Pants deck is really shitting up the ladder, as it's just a coin-flip. And Pants players that lose that flip get so salty about it, as though they deserve to always have the perfect curve topped out with a Flameblast.

I kinda hope they change Aegis to primarily being player-only, or at least something that isn't innate to any creatures. There are already so many timing protections in the game that prevent the sorts of blow-outs prevalent in Magic, that I really don't know why creatures need it. Whereas Player-Aegis definitely has an important function related to the efficacy of pure burn decks and curses.

I needed anime to post.

Oooooooooh

Echo + "put cards back on top of your deck"

I get it

Auralynx

I blew through the single-player on this last night and am trying to figure out an aggressive-thinning green / yellow strategy, as what I've opened seems to lend itself to smashing face with vigilant minotaurs. Suggestions?

metaghost

Auralynx wrote: »

I blew through the single-player on this last night and am trying to figure out an aggressive-thinning green / yellow strategy, as what I've opened seems to lend itself to smashing face with vigilant minotaurs. Suggestions?

Most of the successful Combrei decks (Green/Yellow, Time/Justice) tend to be Midrange-Control decks that leverage efficient threats and the ability to quickly recover from Harsh Rule (Eternal's version of Wrath of God); they also tend to have a disproportianate emphasis on legendary cards like Sandstorm Titan, Siraf, and Marshall Ironthorn.

That said, when you're just starting out, a deck built around commons and uncommons like Awakened Student, Vanquish, and Desert Marshall can still be effective.

Kevin Crist

Ok, so I grinded Gauntlet until I had enough dust to make my Rakdos aggro deck. I do hate that dang Rise Up deck. I like that the final "boss" of the gauntlet is a Tavern Brawl style with special rules.

I gave ranked a shot and beat a Time midrange deck. As a reward I got a prepackaged Stonescar deck and a quest to win five times with that kind of deck. I'll leave that for later.

I want to build a Blue/Black control deck next.

edit the Rakdos deck I used.

And yes I'll keep calling it Rakdos you cannot stop me.

Auralynx

metaghost wrote: »

Auralynx wrote: »

I blew through the single-player on this last night and am trying to figure out an aggressive-thinning green / yellow strategy, as what I've opened seems to lend itself to smashing face with vigilant minotaurs. Suggestions?

Most of the successful Combrei decks (Green/Yellow, Time/Justice) tend to be Midrange-Control decks that leverage efficient threats and the ability to quickly recover from Harsh Rule (Eternal's version of Wrath of God); they also tend to have a disproportianate emphasis on legendary cards like Sandstorm Titan, Siraf, and Marshall Ironthorn.

That said, when you're just starting out, a deck built around commons and uncommons like Awakened Student, Vanquish, and Desert Marshall can still be effective.

Noted. I actually cracked a Harsh Rule last night while grinding out the win-with-Rakano-have-a-deck quest.

metaghost

As an FYI, the weekly Theme-Deck quests can be completed in Gauntlet, so you don't have to feel like you're being hindered in Ladder if it's a faction pair you don't care for (or lack many cards for).

Spawnbroker

Also a good way to build your collection is to run Forge until it hits diamond or master rank. It's relatively easy to get 6+ wins in forge until then, and will give you a lot of commons and uncommons.

You can force it to go to the two-color pair you want by just refusing to pick cards outside of those two colors until you get them, i.e. if you want Primal-Shadow cards, only pick Primal cards until you see a Shadow card, and now you're locked in for the rest of the forge.

metaghost

And definitely stop running Forge when you hit Master, as you need to get ridiculously lucky in order to recoup the expense.

Master Gauntlet is equally dumb, but it's free so whatever.

Darkewolfe

Thread needs some screen shots so I have an idea what we're talking about.

Burtletoy

I started this yesterday.

I have, like, 2 more campaign matches to go, I think. I'm hoping the strategy part of the game will start once I have cards to build decks? Mostly just seems like "Top Decking: The Game" right now.

TetraNitroCubane

I was in the closed beta for Eternal. Played the heck out of it, and got my face smashed inward constantly when I went up against real people. I did a lot of grinding through the Gauntlet, did a lot of Forge, and had a huge collection of cards (Missing maybe one or two of the Mythics?). I had 10,000 shiftstone and 10,000 gold saved up.

Then they jumped over to Steam and the accounts reset.

I got six packs. Six. All that time, and they gave me six packs. Other people report getting upwards of 30.

Combined with the frustration of always getting turbo-smashed when playing against real people, and I'm so demoralized I don't even want to finish the tutorial campaign after the reset. Ugh.

Auralynx

Burtletoy wrote: »

I started this yesterday.

I have, like, 2 more campaign matches to go, I think. I'm hoping the strategy part of the game will start once I have cards to build decks? Mostly just seems like "Top Decking: The Game" right now.

It definitely gets more interesting at that point. I think once you clear out all of the "Try X" quests it throws at you to start it begins to open up.

http://www.eternaldecks.cards/deck/z8eS7zRHEWE468KmcYuse

@metaghost

That deck, or something like it, was what you were talking about?

Kevin Crist

Good God.. Master Gauntlet Primal Fury deck had all four of their "deal four damage to an attacking minion" cards in hand then followed up with 6/6 and 10/3 flyers.

metaghost

@Auralynx - Yeah, that is basically an archetypal Combrei deck.

@Darkewolfe — It looks like this:



So, more or less visually Hearthstone, but plays like simplified Magic.

Darkewolfe

Ah, thank you, that's super helpful. I was picturing it more like Scrolls, but that's a very Hearthstone design.

Auralynx

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Ah, thank you, that's super helpful. I was picturing it more like Scrolls, but that's a very Hearthstone design.

"Looks like Hearthstone, plays like Magic," is a pretty apt summary, honestly.

Spawnbroker

metaghost wrote: »

@Auralynx - Yeah, that is basically an archetypal Combrei deck.

@Darkewolfe — It looks like this:



So, more or less visually Hearthstone, but plays like simplified Magic.

Oo good picture, added this to the OP

webber

TetraNitroCubane wrote: »

I was in the closed beta for Eternal. Played the heck out of it, and got my face smashed inward constantly when I went up against real people. I did a lot of grinding through the Gauntlet, did a lot of Forge, and had a huge collection of cards (Missing maybe one or two of the Mythics?). I had 10,000 shiftstone and 10,000 gold saved up.

Then they jumped over to Steam and the accounts reset.

I got six packs. Six. All that time, and they gave me six packs. Other people report getting upwards of 30.

Combined with the frustration of always getting turbo-smashed when playing against real people, and I'm so demoralized I don't even want to finish the tutorial campaign after the reset. Ugh.

Can you send in a bug report? This doesn't seem right.