FK: Champion Play for Dummies (1-minute)

[Jexik]

This aired today in Podcast 27. I'm putting it up early because I may be busy this weekend and Monday.

The Fallen Kingdom - Champion play for dummies

Zombie Warriors teach you to to build your commons as Magic. The only way for Infect to trigger is if you have a Zombie in your own discard pile, and the main two ways for one to get there is if you Magic Drain them from an opponent who killed one, or if you build them as Magic.

The other way for Zombies to get to your magic pile is if you kill them with your own attacks. That's right, destroying your own Units gives you magic, which is another important lesson.

Dark Sacrifice pushes this idea even further. Not only can you destroy your own Units as Magic, you can turn them into healing for your own important Champion!

Elut Bal takes it one more step and says "No, seriously, discard some of those commons and get this Champion out. Trust me!"

And if you still can't afford them, there's always Force Summon which weakens Ret-Talus and gets a Champ out for cheap. It's not always worth the risk against some speedy and tricky factions, like the Cloaks, Jungle or Shadow Elves.

Now you might be thinking, "but James, I summon Commons all the time with the Fallen Kingdom. Legions of the Dead let's me get three guys out for half their usual price and out of the discard pile to boot. That's wicked."

And you'd be right. The Fallen Kingdom let you have your decadent cake and eat it too, but at a price. Their Summoner is weak in combat, and most of their Units have pretty low attack values and short threat ranges. But if you're reluctant to get Champions out, they make it too easy to pass up.

[Sauam]

FK is THE ONE faction that wants you to play champion heavy style. No doubt about that.

Almost every card they have gear toward to wanting you summoning and pwning with a champ. It is also the same reason why FK is very prone to being rush. For one, FK has crappy anti-rush common. For second, even you finally got a champion out, it can easily be rush'ed to death.

[killercactus]

FK is THE ONE faction that wants you to play champion heavy style. No doubt about that.

Almost every card they have gear toward to wanting you summoning and pwning with a champ. It is also the same reason why FK is very prone to being rush. For one, FK has crappy anti-rush common. For second, even you finally got a champion out, it can easily be rush'ed to death.

I don't know... it's true that FK wants you to play champions, but if someone asked me what faction I got the most commons onto the board with that wasn't named CG, I think I'd say FK.

It's true that I play all 3 champs pretty much every game, and also true that I build a lot of commons as magic, but between Legions, Raise and Infect I always have a ton of commons hanging around at some point in the game. Of course, Dark Sacrifice solves that problem, and allows me to play both Magic Drains, too.

[sitnam90]

I think the biggest advantage FK has is the fact that they can plya champ heavy and still have plenty of commons out on the board. Most games I get out all three champs and have still have the ability to run a good number of commons. ZW's are awesome for this style of gameplay, because you can build all except one and still get a good number of them out if the dice gods allow it.

[prometheuslkr]

FK is THE ONE faction that wants you to play champion heavy style. No doubt about that.

Almost every card they have gear toward to wanting you summoning and pwning with a champ. It is also the same reason why FK is very prone to being rush. For one, FK has crappy anti-rush common. For second, even you finally got a champion out, it can easily be rush'ed to death.

I usually try to play pretty champ-heavy with JE, too.

[Sauam]

Oh ya, JE too.

Although I think the difference between FK and JE is that... FK want you to summon as much champions as possible and benefit from them. JE want you to summon 1 champion and focus on it by pumping/healing/moving it.

So I guess FK is horde-champions style, where JE is solo-champion style?

[killercactus]

Oh ya, JE too.

Although I think the difference between FK and JE is that... FK want you to summon as much champions as possible and benefit from them. JE want you to summon 1 champion and focus on it by pumping/healing/moving it.

So I guess FK is horde-champions style, where JE is solo-champion style?

I don't know about that. It's not like JE is only gonna summon 1 champ most if the time. I usually see all 3 of them or 2 and a couple big commons. Plus, I think FK heals it's champs more than JE does.

I'd say JE is more "champion blitz", where FK is "champion outlast"

[darkbladecb]

I think a big part of the "FK Champions" thing is that the FK made it easier to summon all three Champions than any other deck when you're first learning the game and are still a bit shy about building Commons for Magic. It teaches you that doing this is OK. That's the lesson I think Jexik is leaning towards. Obviously, the FK summon more Commons than a lot of decks (particularly post-reinforcements), but that's largely due to Ret and Greater Raise (at least in my experience). Reavers and/or Zombies (depending on which your deck is running) also tend to be hard summoned as screens to protect Ret from everything but tramplers, since he's so vulnerable.