This is a thread for discussing the online CCG Elder Scrolls Legends. It’s kind of like Hearthstone with some Magic elements scattered throughout, and a few of it’s own individual mechanics.
It is currently in open beta, which can be found here
This is the page I’ve been using to study deck builds: legends-decks.com
Share deck ideas here, usernames, matches, theory, etc.
Solo Arena is a great place to start building up a collection. Not too difficult and great fun to play. You can do ranked too but it can be frustrating if you have a small collection. Versus Arena is ok if you are a Hearthstone veteran but it gets old real fast for me.
For constructed, it seems that yellow cards are the best when you’re starting out. You get one of the primary epics for a token build early on (Divine Fervor) and many of the best cards for the deck are commons and rares (Imprison so good!). It also has room to grow and you can upgrade cards as you get more resources (Pit Lion, legendary cards).
EDIT: Here is the deck I am working towards, with my planned budget replacements included
3 Deadly Draugr
3 Scouting Patrol
3 Imprison
3 Fifth Legion Trainer
3 Wind Keep Spellsword
3 Kvatch Soldier
2 Siege Catapult (budget: Bruma Profiteer)
3 Pit Lion (budget: Imperial Legionnaire)
3 Eastmarch Crusader
3 Haunting Spirit
3 Young Mammoth
3 Divine Fervor (budget: None. This is the only epic you need to craft)
3 Midnight Sweep
3 Imperial Reinforcements
2 Edict of Azura (budget: Bump cards with 2 copies to 3)
3 Piercing Javelin
2 Shadowfen Priest (budget: Vicious Dreugh)
2 Golden Saint
TBH I would play three copies of Siege Catapult and Edict of Azura if I could, but they are the weakest cards in the deck in a meta full of tokens/archers which is what I see most on Ladder. Arrow Storm might be a good tech card in such a meta but I am not sure if being more proactive is just better. There are a lot of players with Red/Blue voltron decks on ladder too but I wouldn’t recommend those as they fold to a single removal spell which token and archer decks have plenty of.
Red/Green is incredibly popular right now. Not so sure about Green/Blue. Haven’t faced any on ladder TBH. Yellow/Purple is also highly played. Basically all colors with cheap removal are popular right now. ESL is a great game but they basically fell into the common trap that ensnared MtG, Hearthstone and many others: cheap removal and board clears.
Basically if you want your game to focus on cool minions doing combat, you can’t allow players to easily remove threats for less resources than those threats cost. If you have plentiful removal that also gives tempo, players will overload on it and focus on a few cheap and/or resilient threats. Alternatively they will play only minions that do something when summoned. The game will need to neuter the removal (MtG) or make minions super resilient (Hearthstone) to make combat matter.
This happened to MtG, HS and will also happen to ESL. The game is still great, but if the designers are thinking that this game will be focused on big, splashy legendary minions they will be in for a rude awakening.
I actually spent my first real money on ESL yesterday. I purchased 6 Arena tickets (it’s 6 for 10). Running solo arena is definitely a good way to grind out cards as well as gold and dust for cards. I have enough for a legendary right now, just don’t know which one I really want to make (it’s between the green assassin guy or Blood Dragon)
I actually crafted my third Divine Fervor last night, as well as some of the rares I needed for my token deck. I just wanted to get my deck to the point where it didn’t feel too gimped. Went on a fairly long win-streak on ladder afterwards.
I was shocked that I never lost, despite always going first. One of the biggest flaws of ESL as it is, IMHO, is that the “coin” is too strong. Three uses is one too many I think. When I go first it always feels like I win by the skin of my teeth, while going second it feels like the game is mine to lose.
So I found out the problem with solo arena, as you do better, the decks you play against get silly. They are basically constructed decks as you move up the solo arena rankings. I’ve switched over to versus arena for now.
I’ve actually been at the highest rank of solo arena for a while now. The decks do get ridiculous, but that just makes it more fun for me. I usually still get 8-9 wins when I draft ok, and maybe 4-6 when I draft badly. I did try VS Arena as well but I found it quite boring TBH. Everyone drafts tempo decks and it’s rarely worthwhile to use your life as a resource to control the board because of the shadow lane. The effect is that the game devolves into players racing each other from opposite lanes.
In other news I got a Lucien from my random card reward climbing ladder. I didn’t even know you could get Legendaries from those. Good stuff.
I’m sitting at rank 2 right now on the ladder. Hoping to hit legend before the end of the season.
Maybe I’m just bad at drafting or something, cuz once I hit rank 3 in solo draft, I hit a wall of like maybe 2-3 wins per run. I wonder if the arena ranks reset for the next season?
I know it’s probably silly to do, but I crafted some legendary cards. I was sitting on 4k in dust, so I just made the cards I wanted. It’s probably better to craft epics than legendaries as they seem to have more impact on decks. The next time I’m sitting on a good amount of crafting material I’ll attack my epic list.
I think it’s fine to craft epics. You probably won’t be getting those from packs for a long time, and even if you do you won’t get the 3 copies you need. For legendaries, I hope you crafted Blood Dragon because I heard it’s the best one.
I haven’t played ladder much. Sitting at rank 6 now. Wondering if I can make a push for legend still. Games have been pretty easy.
Yeah, I crafted Blood Dragon. If you go off Reddit/Bethesda Forum chatter, the main cards people are currently having a problem with are Divine Fervor and Soulrest Marshall. Marshall needs to be nerfed, it can make HUGE swings early in a game. I had one game where I potioned out soulrest followed by Jarl. So 2 4/4’s and 2 cards for 5 magic on the fourth turn. However, runes and prophecy can shift those early tempo gains.
I agree about Soulrest Marshall. Actually I have a problem with the entire “higher life” mechanic. They’re basically all snowball cards that say “if you’re winning, start winning more”. Then again Prophecy is busted for the defender so I guess it all balances out.
Recently I’ve just been barely doing dailies in both HS and ESL. Focusing on some fighting games right now. It’s sad, but looks like I picked up Nitroplus Blasterz too late. It’s a great game but no one is talking about it. Oh well.