Faeria Academy: Chapter 4 - Building a Deck
Posted by Aquablad on 08/03/2017
Faeria Academy is a series of articles to help new players get started with Faeria. Faeria combines the pace of modern digital card games with a living board, creating a dynamic and exciting element unique to the game. The goal of the Academy is to ease beginners into all aspects of Faeria, starting with the basics and eventually moving on to more advanced concepts. Each article will supply further resources for helping you on the subjects covered, such as other articles and videos.
Faeria Academy: Chapter 4 - Building a Deck
Faeria Academy is a series of articles created in order to help new players get started with Faeria. The game combines the pace of modern digital card games with a living board, creating a dynamic and exciting element that is unique to the game. As the combination of a card game with a living board is entirely unique, we created the Academy to help new players transition and adapt to this style of game play. Faeria Academy starts with the basics but eventually delves into deeper, more advanced tactics and concepts. Each article provides access to additional resources that provide further help on the subjects being covered, including videos and similar articles.
Click here to see the contents page of the Academy.
Building a deck
We’ve covered Land Placement and Board Control and now it’s time to build a deck. In this chapter we will cover every card for building your decks. Creatures, events and structures will all have uses in your strategies.
Creatures
Creatures make up the core of Faeria decks. You will need them to gain control of the board but also harvest Faeria. Harvesting Faeria is important because it gives you the resources to play more cards. When you create you deck you can pick cards based on a role. I will split creatures into two roles:
- Warriors
- Harvesters
I’ll go into every role in detail and discuss cards that fulfill the role. This will help you in building your decks because you will know what you lack in your strategy. Rush strategies don’t use Harvesters because their land placement doesn’t support them.
Warriors
Warriors hold the front line and you want them to battle your opponents creatures. These cards will have good stats that can challenge most creatures. These creatures will also double up as harvesters once in a good position. Let’s take a look at a few cards that can fill the warrior role.
Axe Grinder has the best stats for a three cost in the game. He becomes a 5/4 powerhouse when summoned next to an opponents Faeria well and is very versatile. Axe Grinder can be used as an aggressor, punching up to five damage to the Orb per hit. He can be used as a Faeria well harvester because his attack will help you tackle anyone challenging your well spots.
Grove Guardian is a great warrior because of his high health and taunt keyword. As a 5/6 creature he is very durable and will help you in defending and harvesting. Bulky warrior cards are great for controlling Faeria wells because they are tougher to remove.
When you’re picking warrior cards look at their stats and abilities and consider how effective they will be in combat with other creatures. High attack or high health stats will help them destroy or survive enemy encounters. Warriors make good Faeria harvesters inside enemy territory where as other cards are better left as just harvesters in the back line.
Harvesters
Harvesters primary goal is to collect Faeria. These cards are often cheap creatures because you want to play them early. These creatures will be away from the battlefield and avoid confrontation. Warriors will also act as harvesters but risk destruction because of their more offensive positioning.
Sturdy Shell is an excellent harvester thanks to his Aquatic keyword. He doesn’t have an attack stat but has a durable five health to make up for it. Sturdy Shell only costs two Faeria and will easily harvest his cost and more.
Sturdy Shell really shines when you swim him in between two wells on the side of the board. This strategy can also be used with the Flying keyword.
Farm Boy is the games classic harvester. A one Faeria 1/1 may seem weak but his purpose is to sit back, relax and farm those wells. If Farm Boy survives two turns of harvesting then he has already paid for himself and gained you one extra Faeria. The longer he stays on the board, the more value you will gain.
Events
Events are powerful cards that can turn the tides of battles. This is one of the ways you will interact with the board without using creatures. Events have a wide range of different effects and abilities. Events can deal damage to on board, empower your own creatures with stats and even transform. I’ll cover some of the core events seen in standard decks but I’d recommend having a browse of them yourself. There are so many exciting possibilities with event cards!
Removal
Red and Yellow have access to powerful removal cards. Both have damage based removal but Red packs powerful board clears while Yellow has single-target hard removal. Hard removal is when you destroy a creature instantly.
Seifer’s Wrath is one of the best events in the game thanks to its cheap cost and extra damage to your opponents Orb. This is often a staple is most Red decks. It can help you clear creatures with high health or destroy harvesters.
The big daddy of removal. Last Nightmare destroys a creature for six Faeria. Creatures with Last Words will still get their abilities so keep that in mind when playing this card. Creatures in Faeria can grow very large especially cards like Zealous Crusader. Last Nightmare is the cleanest answer to bulky threats.
Utility
Utility cards will have multiple uses on the battlefield. Cards with two effects are the pinnacle of utility cards. These cards can give your creatures stats, heal you, move land or move creatures.
Shifting Tide lets you choose from two effects; draw a card or move a land. Drawing a card is always useful if your hand isn’t offering any good lines of play. Moving a land is very disruptive because you can move a creature into a more aggressive or defensive position.
Ruunin is kind enough to give us mere mortals two choices in her presence. Power-ups are Green’s specialty and +2 stats can help you clean or trade with another creature. If you’re low on life and need time to make a comeback then the life gain will be a massive help.
The price for power
Some event cards have game changing abilities. One example is Aurora’s Dream, a twenty-four cost event!
In Faeria you don’t lose your resources like other card games. You keep any Faeria you saved until it is used. Saving up for Aurora’s Dream can be tough but very rewarding. If you want to see more on this card check out episode two of my Deck Doctor series!
Structures
Last but not least we will take a look at the two types of structures in Faeria. Structures have three types:
- Activate
- Persistent
- Trigger
Activate structures have to be used in order to gain their ability. This can be done on the turn they’re played. Persistent structures abilities continue until the structure is removed. Trigger structures only activate when something happens on board.
Activate
Activate structures can use their abilities on the turn they’re played. This alone makes them very powerful and cards like Derelict Tower have become staples in Red decks.
Persistent
Persistent structures have abilities that are always active. A good example of this is Kobold Barracks. As long as a creature is adjacent to the Barracks they will gain the attack buff.
Trigger
Trigger structures will activate once a specific requirement is met. Weeping Idol only activate when you take damage. Another example is structures with the Production keyword. When you gain three Faeria for your turn, production cards will activate.
If you want a more in-depth look at structures be sure to check out Structures and their Impact.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for further reading on deck building then check out the ‘How to Build’ series. This series covers each individual colour and will give you an idea on what cards are good for each archetype!
Community member Reath has written an article that covers archetypes which includes land placement and example deck lists!
Alternatively if you’re looking for a cheap and simple deck to get started check out the video featured in this chapter. This is an excellent deck to start off with because the deck is based around board control. Learning how to position your creatures and make good trades are important fundamentals in Faeria.
The Hub offers loads of decks built by the community for you to try out. If you’d like to know more about net-decking then check out Netdecking and You.
You now have a strong understanding of the types of cards you can put in your deck. Go forth and let your imagination run wild!