Days of Duelysts Past

[kirabi]

I have just a short story

I am playing with Magmar against Songhai,which is normally a good match for the Songhai.Today it is even a better match up because I am playing as Starhorn.So I am getting shredded by this spell hai,He plays an Owl beast and I have no idea how I am going get off the board. I played a Vindicator the whole point of me playing starhorn .

So my opponent is trying to set up for the win but Songhai as you know sometimes has a tendency to run out of cards.So he uses his Heaven Eclipse to refill which buffs his Owl beast to intimidating 4/11.And that’s where he realized he effed up,Vindicatior buffs on cards draw by him so it went from a 3/5 to a 9/11. Needless to say he win didnt that game.

[nibelung]

Back in November 2015 when I started playing, I discovered the game after watching some of Mogwai’s videos and I was super hyped to start playing. So I downloaded the game and started with some solo challenges, I quickly got my first orb and pulled a Tusk Boar.

Now, back in the days it was a 2 mana 3/3 with rush (still returns to your hand ) which was really, REALLY good.
However the old me without any knowledge of the game just thought:

“WTF if it returns to my hand what is the point of summoning this ugly ass creature, wasting mana?”

I immediatly disenchanted it.
It’s only a few hours later when I found a DE guide that I realized my mistake.
Felt bad about it for like 2 weeks.

[akurane]

This thread hasn’t gotten many entries in the past days, my as well add one more .

These battles happened fairly recently (6 days ago to be exact; before patch 1.70), and were one of the highlights of my career as a duelyst player from encountering highly skilled players .

So, as a little background info, I had just gotten my first duelyst ribbon around that time, a Magmar one to be precise. I had reached Gold division very early on in the season, so I had been having trouble trying to move up from rank 10 due to all of the highly skilled players that I ran into. One day, I’m trying to rank up using my Blistering Fang deck that I had been testing, and the next thing you know, I run into ZoochZ. I start to lose my cool so much, my twin walks into my room to try and understand what’s going on. I don’t exactly remember all of the details, but what I do remember is that Zooch played and Aggro Faie deck against me, and that I lost (I don’t remember how close the match was, and I believe that I went first in the match). After that, I had to take deep breaths to try and calm down the excitement brewing inside of myself for facing such a high skilled player. Inspired by the match, I decided to take the next ranked match head on.

Next thing you know, I’m playing against @Ryvirath, one of the developers of duelyst. I start to have an anxiety attack from the luck I had at the moment.

This match I remember a lot clearer. I went second, and @Ryvirath was playing a Mechtruvian deck using Zirix, and started with the Wings of Mechazor into Helm of Mechazor combo on turn 1. Near the end, I believe he had played his Mechaz0r nearby my general (not sure on that) and followed up in the following turns with an Amarya healer. Needless to say, I lost that match too. After that match, I had to lie down and contemplate what I had just witnessed in the past ~1 hour of my existance. Overall, it was a very thrilling portion of duelyst for myself, and helped inspire me to become a better player and to someday reach S-rank (as well as get faction ribbons for all the factions. I mean, those guys were stacked!)

Proof of matches (3 up from the bottom):

[phayze]

You lucky, soo sooooo lucky, I did get to face Scarzig and beat his Healyonar deck

[akurane]

We’re you in one of his videos? I feel like I saw you in one of them. Still though, it’s nice to know how close the community is, even in ranked gameplay .

[phayze]

Not sure, I mean, I did look through his videos but I dont think he included that game. I mighta missed it.
I beat him with his own Songhai deck too! xD
Was pretty awesome.

[akurane]

I think you were on one,I’m pretty sure I saw an eclipse form a Songhai appear in one of his matches

[phayze]

Nope, actually, my variant ran Hamon instead of Eclipse (because I didnt have any and was too poor to craft em)

[akurane]

Okay, it may not have, I’ll have to check on that… Still, it’s always fun to run into a known player of the game! I sometimes, I’ll just see the names of the players I face and immediately think of people I’ve seen in the forums.

[filikong]

This was way back in the beta. It was Songhai vs Lyonar. I was playing as Songhai and had low health left while my opponent was still in the double digits. On top of the life lead he completely surrounded me with provoke and other minions. All I had left was Mechaz0r which too was also provoked. What I thought was a crappy hand ended up becoming my winning move. Ephemeral shroud dispelling mechaz0r, Saberspine Seal on Mech and teleported him via Mist Dragon Seal next to the other player’s general and killed him.

[Aellos]

Oh, hello. First time posting here. Casual player who plays on the GMT+8 timezone – casual in that I play 1 or 2 matches a day (and hope I get the First Win reward), and the Daily Challenge.

Anyway, I’ve got a by-the-teeth match to share, that won’t happen in the same manner again once Shim’zar hits.

[Silver] Zirix vs. Cassyva (me)

Opponent made a few poor plays which kind of helped. I mean, bunching in a 2x2 when Cassy reaches 7 cores the next turn is bad. So I drop a Shadow Creep worth 5 damage (see? Shim’zar changes everything) and nukes Zirix and a Scion’s Protected Sand Howler (base health exactly 5).

By this time, I’m already at 5 and opponent goes from 15 to 10.

Zirix drops a Primus Shieldbearer hoping to stem my escape (by this time, I’m standing on his starting position) but a Spectral Revenant (will Abyssian get more Rush stuff?) save drops Sirix to 6. Annoyed, Zirix Repluses Revenant to a far-flung out-of-action corner. Next, he places a Venom Toth, an Iron Dervish (which lands on a Shadow Creep square) and moves into position such that I have no way to escape the confrontation. Screwed much…

… then he goes and hit me. Now that I view the match in retrospect, that action sealed his fate for the next round. Also, in retrospect, I have higher odds of winning because I have 6 cards and he will only draw to 1 when his turn ends. Placement is so important that it cannot be emphasised enough. Looking at the match state above, if you were Zirix, where would you have placed Venom and where would you have moved to after that?

So my turn starts with Zirix at 4 and Cassyva at 3.

If I hit Zirix, I cannot summon a creature because Venom kills once I do, unless…
Pre-requisite: Summon Shadowdancer (Cassyva down to 2)

Easiest option: Summon the Saberspine (Cassyva down to 1) to deal 3 to Zirix, it dies but Shadowdancer propels me to victory!
Convoluted option: Summon Saberspine (Cassyva down to 1) to perish with Venom (Cassyva up to 3, Zirix down to 2) and then Cassyva for the finishing blow.
WTF option: Saberspine (Cassyva down to 1) to perish with Venom (Cassyva up to 3, Zirix down to 2), then kill Repulsor (Cassyva at 1, and then 2, while Zirix down to 1). Wait for the Iron Dervish’s death to deal the killing blow.

I will miss the power of Shadow Creep when Shim’zar drops. In the meantime, I really should hone my ability to analyse matches and placement.

[perix]

I don’t play a lot, but this moment I won’t forget. It was on the lower silver rank, I was abyssian and the opponent was magmar (Starhorn). On his first move he played kujata, I made my move. In his second turn he played the second kujata. At this point I had no idea of what to espect, since i was still learning the cards names and efects. Unable to neutralize his kujatas he proceeded to play dance of dream and rain minions on me. It was a storm of planar scouts, flash reincanations, dragonlarks, komodo chargers, loremasters, etc. Eventualy he drew twin fang, and keep throwing minions at the board.

He took two steps foward and hited me for 36.

I wasan’t mad, or salty. It was an amazing combo and also so unlikely to happen. But I also didn’t find the courage to keep playing that day.

Yes, I was shoked. But I was amazed as well.

[Astrasondeverest]

Hey @Ryvirath, I made a post about my Abysswarm epic match here: My most fun match yet!

Complete with dragon pups and huge Devourers

[zer0billion]

Way back to the time you drew 2 cards per turn, I was in a match against a songhai and I was vetruvian. So I played through the match and it was pretty close, but I was somewhat winning.

Unfortunately my mom needed me, so I had to go afk for a few minutes.

Come back to the game to find his general on 3hp, and I had a saberspine in my action bar. That is the story of how I won a game while being afk half the time.

[heroesxpixels]

Having a lot of confidence in myself when the new generals came out,i was playing abyssian with Cassyva in a match against magmar (Vaath).

The match dragged on,and on,and on and at some point i had used all 3 shadow novas which amounted at like,20+ creep tiles,our decks were at less than 10 cards,the field was full of either Silithar Elders,or their eggs,and all hell was loose,since they died and respawned indefinitely.

One turn,i did an almost fatal mistake into moving on another position,with me at 9hp and my opponent at 5,and i was hit for 8 by an Elder i did not see coming.That mistake was proven to save me,since i managed to summon a darkspine elemental into a good empty position,then summon diagonically into another empty position (thanks to eggs’ RNG on that) a Spectral revenant who managed to reach the enemy general and kill him.

That was truly a great match which we both enjoyed,as we found once i tipped him,added each other,and had some friendly matches for the next couple weeks.Sadly,he has not logged on since and i kind of miss him,he was great company.
Cheers to all friendly and helpful people out there,keeping our community as nice as it is.

[norfemignissius]

I was always searching how to make Chrysalis burst usable, the 4 mana legendary spell. During my different match with decks that use it, I once had the occasion to gain… 0/3 eggs that can’t be killed by AoE of 2 damage (which is the main counter to this card).

The answer is simple : two Bastion <3.

This move allowed me to gain a big advantage in my game, and finish to seal the fate of my oppenent with a Replicate on a Makantor Warbeast that spawned with the eggs. No wall of minions stand a chance against 3 Warbeast at the same time.

Well, it happened only once, but I’ll remember it for a long time, just like my turn 1 Elder Silithar with two Flash Reincarnation (3 mana ^o^ !), or my Khimera that summoned two MECHAZOR an a poor Vetruvian (also with two flash reincarnation).

[martinsilenus]

I am not quite sure what to write about, but I feel I have to make an entry into this contest. It feels wrong to simply describe one of the many amazing matches I have experienced over the eight and a half months of playing the game. Instead, I want to incapsulate my experience with the game into a fairly short post.

I’ve found Duelyst back at the end of 2014 when the game was still in the prototype stages. Back then, I made a mental note of the amazing pixel art and curious gameplay, and forgot about the game for a long year. In the December of 2015 I stumbled upon Duelyst once again, and got hooked faster than ever. Duelyst is to this day a game which resonates with me the most. I have games which I like more. I have games which I think are better. But I’ve never had a game which I feel so happy to come back to and experiment with.

Over the past eight month I have played countless matches, had innumerable close calls and brain-melting lethal puzzles. I have created ridiculous meme decks and experimented with the cards I found cool and exciting. I have been storming S-rank for three month straight (fruitlessly). I have been trying to get every living person I know into the game and was disappointed time and time again by people being unable to let go of their investments into Hearthstone.

I was infuriated by the 1-card-draw change which made me quit the game for a month, only to come back later finding new appreciation for the new dynamics it had brought. I was left raging first by the Third Wish Tiger meta, then by the Face Monkey meta, then by the Kara Boredomblade meta. And yet, I’ve always found new ways to have fun with the game thanks to the help of all the amazing deckbuilders in the community including MegaMogwai, ZoochZ, WyzeD, Grincherz and many others. Their decks allowed me to combat the meta while still having fun and gave me courage to experiment with my own ideas. I even ended up posting some of my stupid decks online.

I have been trying to contact Keith Lee in order to save Duelyst from the abyss of the Russian translation agencies, and I may have even succeeded. Maybe. I have had many funny, cool and sometimes obscene conversations in Mogwai’s stream chat. I have gone crazy on the lore, creating insane and stupid theories with the help of mrenderman. I still can’t wait for the new chapters to see where this crazy, reference-filled train will take us.

Duelyst was the first game to make me seriously research deckbuilding theory and try to go fully competitive. Before Duelyst, I was never a competitor, playing for fun. But in this game something made me really try to grind out wins and optimize, for a time at least. I did go back to my memes and my dumb decks, but the expirience was exciting and something I had never tried in any other game.

In my thoughts about games and gaming, I have created a term “home game.” It is a game to which you return from time to time and feel relaxed and satisfied playing it, even if it’s your 500th time completing the same level. And that is exactly what Duelyst is for me - a home game.

And it’s a damn nice home to have with all of you amazing people around. I’ve had a lot of fun with the game already, and I can’t wait for Shim’zar and all of the insanity it will undoubtedly bring!

(Well, this ended up not being so short after all)

[alexicon1]

So this was when I was new to Duelyst, first season, laddering up through Bronze. I was one game away from Silver, which I was super hyped for because it was a mark of achievement so early in the game for me.

I was playing Lyonar, because I got told to play Lyonar by the tutorial, and frankly, I sucked. It was one of the longest games of my Duelyst career, reaching just over 30 minutes, which as we know, is freaking forever. I was down to 3 cards, my opponent was down to 1 in hand, 1 in deck. I was on 5 Health, my opponent was on 8 with a Silverguard Knight on the board for me, but in the corner thanks to my Abyssian opponent’s Daemonic Lure. At that point I had no clue what was in my deck because I had thrown in whatever Lyonar card I could get my hands on into it. I had a Saberspine in my hand, and a Blaze Hound, with one card in the deck. The Abyssian Void Pulsed and face hit, bringing me to 1 Health, putting him at 9. They drew the last card in their deck, and I spent the majority of my turn figuring out what to do. I had no idea what the last card was. So, I played my Saberspine, Roared it and hit General with it, bringing her down to 4. I played my Blaze Hound, drawing a FREAKING MAGNETIZE!!! My opponent had no cards, so took the 1 fatigue damage, putting them at 3. I Magnetized my Silverguard and smashed the General to win with 1 health remaining and get to Silver. One of the best games of my Duelyst career…ever. I then quit Lyonar and have played Abyssian and Magmar ever since.

Cheers,
Alexicon1

P.S Sorry for the wall of text

[rayezilla]

My best story has to be my promotion match from Gold to Diamond. I started playing 2 weeks ago so hitting diamond for the first time was a big deal.

It’s my midrange vaath magmar vs. lilith swarm abby. My first play of the game is Flash Reincarnation, Elucidator. Walk him onto the center orb and cast Amplification. 5/7 play. I’m expecting an answer right away, but incredibly she runs to the bottom right corner and plays Blistering Skorn. I advance and throw in a young Slithar to try boxing her in, kill the skorn with Elucidator.

Her next turn she HITS the 7/2 elucidator to kill it, and I’m on top of it like a vulture in the desert. the next few turns she draws into her removal and starts popping things as soon as they drop. I’m beating them up as well, but my hand is getting drained. My 6mana play rolls around, the board is clear, I have NOTHING except bounded life, flash reincarnation, and a young slithar. I play the young slithar, end turn, draw a primus. She drops the 6/6 that spawns 1/1s when it dies, hits me, vaath is now 4 attack 10 life, she’s got 15! Very dicey board at this point. But… She ignores my young slithar. It’s my seven mana play. I flash the primus in, young slithar is now a 4/3, then I bounded life with takes me from 4/15 to 12/10.

I swing for victory and a promotion!

[qeltar]

This will be a bit different because it’s not about a specific game. It’s about my overall experience here and the community. If that’s not what I was supposed to post, well, I guess I won’t win any orbs. But it is what came to mind.

I’ve been around Duelyst for about a month. I was looking for a new option after a bad experience in another game I won’t mention.

I started playing this game having almost no experience in CCGs, I had started the Well Known Game That Shall Remain Unmentioned just 4 days before that. I heard about this game in the subreddit for That Game, downloaded it, and fell in love with it immediately.

On the main Duelyst site I found a link to the Discord chat. I went to it and was immediately astonished. There were something like 700 people logged in! I watched the banter. I went to #new_player and asked questions. Everyone was so friendly. Veterans took time to help me with one dumb question after another.

Then I noticed the red names. The previous game I played, getting a developer to answer a question required an Act of God. Here there were always 5-10 developers online, many interacting directly with players, answering questions.

The first time I did Gauntlet I had no idea what I was doing. One of the best players in the game – a name you would recognize – messaged me and said “Hey, why don’t you share your screen with me, I will walk you through it”. He took an hour and a half out of his day just to show me how to do Gauntlet, without my even asking. I was floored.

I found these forums when they opened, and they too were a breath of fresh air. Virtually no arguing or acrimony. Lots of positive vibes and help. Even to the extent of people posting tournament-winning decks. Amazing stuff.

My newbie status also extended to streaming. I had never used Twitch, didn’t know anything about streaming, nothing. Despite this, on my 3rd day of playing, I decided to start a stream, encouraged by a positive email I got after contacting Counterplay on their streamer email. This has been such an amazing experience as well – I’ve met so many fun people and found something I enjoy probably as much as the game itself. While my stream is still tiny, I already have a few people who join me almost every night, forming a growing “subcommunity” that I have come to really appreciate.

Anyway, this probably sounds like a big suck-up post, but it’s not. I’ve been a gamer since before most of you reading this were born – I mean, I literally go back to Pong on black-and-white TVs. And I knew within a few days that Duelyst and Counterplay really had something special here. I hope it continues to evolve and grow and get better, but no matter what happens., those early memories will stick with me always.