Faeria Academy: Chapter 5 - Complete Pandora Breakdown

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.

Introduction

Pandora is a different game mode to constructed and wants you to play Faeria in a fun and exciting way. Community manager ‘Atmaz’ has written an excellent breakdown of Pandora which will be part one of this guide. In part two you will learn some basic drafting practices. I’ll go through each step of drafting your deck from picking cards and determining your decks archetype.

The Breakdown: What is Pandora and how does it work?

When you click on Pandora in the main menu, you will be presented with a gate that must be unlocked with a Pandora Coin, or a Practice Pandora Coin. Pandora Coins cost 2000 gold each, or 500 gems. Practice Coins are free, and you get one every day that you log on and don't have one. Those coins look something like this:

• Once you unlock the gate, you will notice one of the four main colors will be locked out of your control.
• You will be presented with a selection of five randomly selected cards, grouped by card rarity.
• You will proceed to select cards this way until you have completed a deck of 30 cards.
• Every 10 cards, you will be presented with a special "Pandora Treasure" to choose from. Treasures are powerful creatures, structures, or events. They are available only in Pandora, not in Battle Chests or constructed mode. These treasures will become available in-game after Pandora is opened.
• Your goal is to construct the best deck possible using the limited resources you have.
• Once you have done that, you are ready to play Pandora.

Queuing for Pandora works much like any other mode. Whether you use a normal or Practice coin, you are entered into the same matchmaking queue. You will continue to play with your Pandora deck until you accumulate nine wins, or three losses. Depending on the amount of games you win in one run, you will earn a certain amount of Pandora Points.

Pandora Shards

Shuffled into each player's decks are shards of Pandora. When these shards are drawn, the player then draws another card and Pandora is one step closer to opening. Once five total shards are drawn by either player, Pandora opens. When Pandora is opened:

• Faeria Wells will no longer generate Faeria
• Players will now receive +6 Faeria per turn, instead of the normal 3.
• Shards are removed from both player's decks
• Treasures that were drafted are shuffled into each player's deck
• "Treasure found" cards are shuffled into each deck. When a "Treasure found" card is drawn, each player gets a random treasure of the three they drafted.
• One "Treasure found" card is drawn as soon as Pandora opens

Pandora Treasures

Treasures are powerful creatures, structures, or events. They are available only in Pandora, not in Battle Chests or constructed mode. These treasures will become available in-game after Pandora is opened. There are currently 30 treasures available to choose from.

Pandora Points

Depending on the amount of games you win in one Pandora run, you will earn a certain amount of Pandora Points (PP). Pandora rewards:

• 0 Wins: 1 PP + 1 Battle Chest + 700 Gold
• 1 Win: 2 PP + 1 Battle Chest + 800 Gold
• 2 Wins: 4 PP + 1 Battle Chest + 900 Gold
• 3 Wins: 7 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 300 Gold
• 4 Wins: 11 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 600 Gold
• 5 Wins: 16 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 900 Gold
• 6 Wins: 22 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 1400 Gold
• 7 Wins: 29 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 1900 Gold
• 8 Wins: 37 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 2600 Gold
• 9 Wins: 46 PP + 3 Battle Chests + 2900 Gold

Those Pandora Points can earn you special rewards at the end of each season.

You can track your seasonal Pandora ranking at https://esports.faeria.com/pandora-season.

Practice Coins

The goal of Practice Coins is to let our players experience Faeria’s Pandora mode each day, for free, with the main reward being a piece of a Pandora Run.

• Each player may get one free Practice Coin per day, if they don't already have one.
• Practice Coins do not stack and cannot be purchased (in either Gold or real money).
• The length of a Practice Run is 3 Wins or 2 Losses;

Practice Run rewards:

• 0 Wins: N/A
• 1 Win: 100G
• 2 Wins: 200G
• 3 Wins: 1/3 of a Pandora Coin

Matchmaking

The matchmaking algorithm for Pandora to creates an MMR-like score per run, based on your number of Wins and Losses. In general, you should be matched against other players with a similar amount of wins and losses, creating an even playing field where a player's own drafting skill and gameplay ability determine the opponents they face.

Single Player Mode

Pandora has been updated with a Single Player mode! It's the same as a normal Pandora run but you will face off against AI opponents. The Single Player mode has reduced rewards.

• 0 Wins: 1 PP + 1 Battle Chest + 700 Gold
• 1 Win: 2 PP + 1 Battle Chest + 800 Gold
• 2 Wins: 3 PP + 1 Battle Chest + 900 Gold
• 3 Wins: 4 PP + 2 Battle Chests
• 4 Wins: 5 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 100 Gold
• 5 Wins: 6 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 200 Gold
• 6 Wins: 7 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 250 Gold
• 7 Wins: 8 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 300 Gold
• 8 Wins: 9 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 350 Gold
• 9 Wins: 10 PP + 2 Battle Chests + 400 Gold

The Draft: Pandora Opens!

You’ve open Pandora and ready to start drafting. You will be assigned three colours that will influence the selection of cards you’re given. One colour will always be locked out and won’t be featured in your draft.

Archetypes within Pandora

One of the easiest ways to build a solid deck in Pandora is to base your choices around an archetype. This becomes more apparent as you draft the cards and spot synergies with them. It’s best to stick with the three main archetypes:

• Aggro / Rush
• Mid-Range
• Control

Combo decks are much harder to build in Pandora so I wouldn’t recommend it. Yellow and Red are excellent colours for Rush thanks to the power of Axe Grinder and Shaytan Demon. Green is great for Mid-Range and slower decks because of their bulky creatures. Blue excels as a control deck shutting down your opponent with transformation and mobility.

Another tactic is to use pre-existing themes that are used in constructed. Red and Yellow have good synergies for Burn. Blue and Green can use Gabrian’s Enchantment on high health creatures.

This knowledge comes to you with time and you should always pick the best cards available. However once you start spotting these synergies you can try and weave them into your draft.

Picking your cards

Before archetypes can be spotted you need a core of good creatures. In your first ten cards I’d recommend trying to get several creatures that have good stats. You want your creatures to get as much value as possible and ideally take out multiple targets.

With that in mind left us look at an example draft.

The first five cards doesn’t offer much choice in colours but does offer us some solid creatures. Let’s take a look at them one by one.

• Farm Boy - Solid Faeria harvest and will more than likely pay for itself in one turn unless removed. Collecting Faeria is important, even in Pandora.
• Storyteller - Card draw for both players and life gain. This card is more used in combo decks and doesn’t offer much at the start of a draft.
• Syland Warrior - A 3/6 for 5 Faeria isn’t bad but not enough attack to be a real threat. With Red as one of our colour we would rather see a Shedim Brute.
• Blood Singer - Very solid 3 cost with a good health stat. This card is a good harvester and could support a burn strategy later down the draft.
• Ogre Dance - The only event card and a situational one at best. The cost reduction can be beneficial but not without seeing the rest of the draft. Creatures are a priority.

The two best picks are Blood Singer and Farm Boy. Picking Blood Singer would take us on a Red path where as choosing Farm Boy still frees up the other colours.

Treasure!

Every ten cards you will be given the choice of picking one of three Treasure Cards. Treasures are extremely powerful cards exclusive to Pandora.

Further on down the draft I’ve selected nine additional cards. I stuck with Red and now three treasures are available to be picked. Let’s analyse the treasures and how they would fit into the current ten cards drafted.

• Ring of Dominion - Stealing a land isn’t crucial for our current deck. The other two treasures are far more powerful.
• Void Guardian - A 0 cost 9/9 that destroys our deck. This can be a very powerful creature at the right moment however this card would benefit a more aggressive deck. Our current card selection is leaning towards Control.
• Secret of Strength - This looks like the best treasure out of the three. It gives out creatures Flying, Charge and +4/+4. This will empower our smaller creatures allowing them to contest the board with ease.

Secret of Strength is my pick because it can directly impact the board. There are many more treasures in Pandora and this pick of is only one of three for this draft.

Consistency is your goal when drafting a deck for Pandora. Having access to three colours gives you a lot of flexibility but you don't want to spread yourself out to much.

I'd recommend sticking with one colour decks to start off. This way you'll avoid having to dictate your land placement based on having too many colours. Once you’re more confident you can start experimenting with dual colours and maybe even tri-colour decks!

Conclusion

Pandora is a fun way for you to boost your collection. Playing Pandora is an effective way to gain more cards and gold. The better you get at Pandora, the faster you’ll collect all the cards.

Pandora also rewards you end of season prizes such as Mythic chests and cards. If you manage to become a Top 64 Pandora player you will be awarded a special seasonal card back! Every month you can obtain a new card back.

Be sure to check out the featured video below. It's part one of my Pandora Draft Breakdown, a video where I draft and play matches in Pandora mode.

You can find Part Two here.