Darwin Kastle

The Epic TCG is releasing a new batch of prize cards. We were able to receive an exclusive preview and it is spotlighted below by game designer Darwin Kastle.

For a time the card Blue Dragon from the Core Set was popular as a win condition in Epic designed decks that were intended to have both players draw cards and the Blue Dragon would then punish your opponent. Now it’s time to introduce a card that will really punish your opponent for drawing cards. It's time for Dark Elf Watcher.



Dark Elf Watcher is always pretty good because everyone draws cards, but it's especially good in two situations. The first situation is if your opponent relies heavily on drawing lots of cards, especially if they are playing a stop-based control deck. Have you ever played against someone who seemed to alternate between stopping your cards and drawing lots of cards? This is often referred to as a "Draw Go" deck. Dark Elf Watcher is perfect for this match up. A typical game against a Draw Go deck will often involve you taking some big chunks out of their Mojo while they are working on establishing control. Eventually they stop your key cards, making your run out of gas while they don’t, because they keep playing cards like Knowledge and Enlightenment. This is when Dark Elf Watcher can really shine. Since the watcher is fast, you can respond to their Enlightenment or Knowledge by playing it. Their free stop cards are irrelevant because the watcher is Unstoppable! Sometimes the 6 or 8 Mojo they lose will be enough to finish them immediately. If not, they better have an answer for it without having to draw more cards. Perhaps when they do take the time to deal with the watcher you can finish the job with a Blast or a Spontaneous Combustion.

The second situation where Dark Watcher is most powerful is when your deck is designed to allow/make your opponent draw cards using Nature's Renewal, Compromise, Think It Over, Stolen Dreams and Quick Strike.

For the most part, every successful designed deck in Epic involves a large amount of card drawing. They may not include Knowledge or Enlightenment of course. Perhaps the deck recycles Graft-Steel Thoughtkeeper, perhaps they use Seaside Cave with Shadowy Advisor. Whatever the method, if the deck is a good one, it probably involves drawing lots of cards. Thus Dark Elf Watcher is pretty much always a pretty strong card, at least if your strategy is helped by your opponent losing big chunks Mojo!