Introduction

Whilst writing Part One of my Beginner's Guide to Shadow Era, I had to play the role of beginner and start with a new account. I picked Eladwen Frostmire because I think she is strong against the AI (to ensure maximum EXP and Gold earnings) and also good for early PvP match-ups (where can you expect to run into other people with limited card pool).

After earning enough Shadow Crystals to buy a Shadow Mage Starter Deck, I was able to trade spare cards to make a decent v2 of the starter deck, which is shown in a screenshot near the end of Part Two of the guide.

Now, I am onto writing Part Three of the guide (sorry, not finished yet!), and have gained enough Gold (approx 4500) to build what I consider to be a highly-tuned deck.

Deck List

Strategy

When playing a burn deck, it's important to always have enough damage left in the deck to win the game. You do not want to run out of steam! So, it can sometimes be really hard making sacrifices, particularly in the early rounds where little of your opponent's deck has been revealed and you don't know which cards you might need for later.

For this reason, I have made a deck where sacrificing every turn in the early game is not required, so you can avoid having to sacrifice perfectly good cards and make use of them later instead. This is a rather subtle form of card advantage, since most people will sacrifice every turn, whereas you will have more cards available to choose from and play.

The key to making this strategy work is the cost of each card. You'll notice there are 4x 1cc, 11x 2cc, 11x 3cc, 4x 4cc, 2x 5cc. There are a whole lot of good combinations of these that can work very well for you; very rarely will a resource go unused and very rarely will your only viable play require the sacrifice of a good card to pay for it.

What do I mean by good? This deck is full of the best value cards you can find: Fireball does 4 damage for a cost of 3; Lightning does 6 damage for a cost of 4; Retreat can bounce back a 6-cost ally for only 2; Jasmine is absolutely the best value ally in the game, due to her stats and ability; Research lets you buy card advantage; Aldon beefs up all your allies; Puwen is a great card for turn 2; Kristoffer is incredibly versatile (explained later); Supernova can regain the board for you if you've had some bad luck going second or give their Hero the last 5 damage you need to win. There are no duds in this deck!

With all of this in mind, it can be perfectly sensible with this deck to skip your 4th sacrifice, if necessary, so you can hold onto key cards rather than losing one of them. This is especially important when going second, since you need to be reacting to your opponent's plays and it might be too early to tell what you need to keep.

Once Research is out, however, you can start buying cards with it and switch up a gear, aiming to get to 6 resources. The best cards to sacrifice are duplicates of Research and then Retreat and Puwen and Aldon, but it really depends on the board situation, your resources and what else is in your hand at the time.

When you get to 6 Resources, the card combinations available each turn are very powerful: Fireball+Fireball; Fireball+Jasmine; Lightning+Retreat; Lightning+Draw (with Research), etc. Only move to 7 resources if you have the cards available to make use of it, or you are really desperate and need to buy a card with Research.

Key Points

Go for board control with your allies from the outset. Use them and Eladwen's ability to dominate the board, supplementing with Fireballs/Lightning/Retreat. Try to be as economical as possible though - if you can find a way to store up Shadow Energy or avoid using a Fireball/Lightning then do that because you'll be in good shape to deal with bigger allies, such as Aeon, as they inevitably get played.

Jasmine is your most valuable ally. Expect her to be killed with Fireballs if you are facing a Mage, but that's OK because she soaked up damage that would have otherwise gone on your Hero, who can't heal. Do all you can to help her survive though, by clearing the board where possible and using her powers of distraction. (Distracting an opponent's Jasmine is almost always a bad move though - since she can distract you back next turn.)

Do not play Kristoffer on Turn 1. Keep hold of him to supplement a Lightning Strike to kill off a 4HP ally or to ping an armor or weapon - e.g. a Dual-Wielded Berserker's Edge on Amber that is about to hit your Hero for 10 damage next turn - or spring a Death Trap. Also, if Aldon is out, Kris has attack of 2, which makes him better value, so keep this in mind.

Research is your only means of card draw, but it comes second to board control, so only play it when you can keep the board secure with 2 resources to spare for Research. Once Research is out, you can start drawing extra cards with your spare resources. When your opponent is running low on cards due to saccing them all in the early game, you can happily start to catch up on resources and hit hard with the good cards that you saved up in your hand.

Feedback

Please post comments/questions on my thread at the Shadow Era Forums.