What Happened To Range?

   Cards and Castles is a very diverse game with many factors coming into play for each individual match in ranked mode, making the experience fun and unique every battle. The two players could be using differing factions, differing archetypes, differing amounts of units and spells. Even within units, one can choose ranged or melee cards. Yet, in recent times, I have noticeably seen less and less play of these ranged units. Everything has seemed to focus more on spells and melee, with the few exceptions such as Karasumei, Sea Witch, and Acolyte. Other than those three staple
non-melee units, what has happened to Range, and how can it be brought back into prominence?

         Back in the older days of Cards and Castles, ranged units were used more due to the fact that almost every single figure had some special ability. During the days of the Tournament of Champions expansion and on(all the way up until monster island), the southport cannoneer was affectionately named "Cannoneer Stubs". He used to be a legendary card with four range as well as explosive ability to every attack. Today's Darkbender used to have eight attack and two health, dealing one damage to itself every time it attacked. The Sniper had four range, and Loremaster Tarius granted the player two random dragons added to their hand. Even the Eye of the Flame was unstoppable; it used to be 10/10 with four range, and the user could place it in the middle of the map. Imagine ten automatic damage to the enemy castle in one turn! All of these cards were nerfed. Their amazing abilities were taken away or changed into less useful powers. Ranged units were nerfed so noticeably in terms of power that it pushed players away from using them altogether.
            Along with the power nerf, ranged units again took a big hit in terms of "summoning sickness". In the current game mode, every single ranged unit may not attack on the turn played, therefore "wasting" that gold for the turn. That invested gold will pay off the turn after, sure, but there are not many times when one can invest 4+ gold into a card that they will not be able to use until the following turn without losing board presence or advantage. This, I think out of everything, deters players from using ranged units the most unless they are absolutely necessary to a certain deck. When has anyone chosen the Sniper over Barbarian in recent times? When has a player put 3 copies of the Eye of Flame into their deck instead of Tyrannosaur? This summoning sickness has crippled the ranged aspect of units to a great extent. Summoning sickness was added to the cards due to the fact that range units were indeed over powered before the expansion of The Enchanted Grove. Melee units weren't able to deal with them very effectively. While the idea of summoning sickness was sound, this paired with the nerfing of stats and abilities overkilled ranged figures.
             Now that it was said why ranged cards are not very effective, how can they be brought back into prominence without upsetting the balance of power? The answer is not in taking away summoning sickness. That is a very good counter to players making decks full of just ranged units where they can buff up their figures and kill any unit the opponent puts out before they have a chance to do anything. Instead, the solution could be found in one of two ways. The first option could be to make some ranged units' abilities more powerful such as that of the Wizard, Cannoneer, Darkbender, Troll Gunner, and Eye of Flame(it's a legendary for goodness sake!).  For instance the wizard could get some kind of explosive or lightning ability and the Troll Gunner could have a combo of gaining 1 gold for each attack. Option two could be plain buffing stats of these drab cards. Giving the Wizard card for instance even a +1/1 two its 2/3 stats, making it 3/4, may make it a more playable card. The trick is to make sure that they are not too buffed, however, that ranged units become the most prominent type of units. The solution to this range problem is quite simple as long as some true thinking is put into the reworks.
             Over the years, ranged units have become less powerful due to the nerfing of stats and abilities as well as the addition of summoning sickness to all ranged figures. The once powerful legendary Eye of Flame has been reduced to a card used less often than common cards like the Scout or Barbarian. While this is sad, there is hope for the future. As long as the summoning sickness is kept, I believe that some buffs to stats and/or abilities can greatly help ranged units come back to prominence in the game. Not all range cards need this buff. Cards like Acolyte, Sea Witch,
Karasumei, and even Dwarven Sharpshooter can stay how they are. But I urge that the other range be looked at and helped out. There is much diversity in the game for sure, but I do miss seeing even the Archer in competitive matches. Having the aspect of strong ranged units would be great; buffing the ranged cards, in my opinion, would be a positive step for the future of Cards and Castles.

Are Rats Worth The Play?

             Rats.... one of the forgotten archetypes. Back in the days, there was such a thing as a "Rat Deck". This Rat Deck could be made solely around rat cards, and people who used them saw great success with win rates in the high 70-80%. These decks reigned prominent in the days of "Age of Dragons" and "The Archanon War" expansions. Even a little during "Dwarves and Dinos" rat decks could be seen in the top ranks. Nowadays, in the era of "The Enchanted Grove", one sees undead, monster, and even some dragon decks reaching the top 100. Where have the rats gone? It seems as though the majority of players have forgotten about the rats, about their power in numbers. When one can make a semi-decent undead or dragon deck and reach rank 30, they may ask "Why bother with rats?" The answer to that question is: rats may still be better than decks we see in the top ranks today.
             Rat decks can easily fit into different decks. In the game, there are not many cards with the "Rat" tag at the bottom of the card, and the ones that do have the tag are factionized into pirates or ninjas. This automatically limits the choices of combos that the player may want to use if they are trying to make a rat deck. Though the player is inhibited in what he can make in order to use a rat deck, rats make up for it in their size. Not their actual stats size, but the size they take up in deck space. If one uses three copies of the essential cards for rats(Rat King, Wererat, Rat Infested Hovel),

it only takes up 12 space. This leaves room for 38 more cards in one's deck for them to do whatever they want with it. In Pir/Nin decks, the faction combo usually produces either a monster or a bounce deck. Because of taking up give or take 12 card spaces in a 50 card deck, it is easily integratable into either archetype. That is super beneficial to archetypes that may not need a lot of cards to function and still has a lot of space in a deck after they put in the essential cards. 38 cards is usually enough space to put in the cards one needs for monster, bounce, last will, and some undead decks, as well as add in some important support cards such as lumberjack or tyrannosaur; instead of adding more random good cards to support the archetype, just add in the twelve rat cards in order to get even more synergy amidst a deck. It is really hard to mix archetypes and make that deck playable, unless one is mixing a deck style with rats.
             Rats can help in many ways throughout early to late game. These cards help get quick board presence with little to no cost to oneself in the early game, especially if Rat Hovel is drawn. Though a 1/1 unit that spawns every turn is not too powerful, it is good for body-blocking to protect the castle until a bigger unit can be drawn or played. This comes in handy especially with monster decks. Sometimes it is good to hold on to a Manfish or a Kaijr instead of playing them and wait for a Kraken or Behemothra to pop into the hand so that the play of the card can help a kraken cost go down or buff a Behemothra. A swarm of 1/1 units on the field also has a scare factor to the opponent, since he or she has to deal with getting through a wall of tiny units until they can hit anything else. A mass of units, strong or weak, always looks daunting. If a blacksmith, armory, or some other type of buff is

put out onto the field, those bad stat rats can quickly become formidable. If one is playing a bounce deck(one of the preferred archetypes with Pir/Nin) then those small rats can be buffed by getting bounced into one's hand when there is a dojo in play(gain +2/2 to any unit returned to hand). Rat cards are great support for monster and bounce decks when it comes to getting board presence quickly and swarming the enemy.
            So if rat cards are so good, then why do people more often then not tend to ignore them? The reason, I believe, is because people are scared of not getting any offensive or defensive worth out of the cards, since it takes slightly longer to set up the rats to become powerful, while other cards don't take as long to become formidable. In other words, they are scared of their rats becoming a "waste of space" in their deck. They think of all the scenarios where rats could be a liability instead of a help, such as chain damage, or any type of aoe spell. Rats will get destroyed all in one go with chain from Yaarhym Giant or Ragnar the Storm King. My counter argument to that is if you're smart about it, you can easily space rats throughout the board without any of them touching each other to counter chain damage. That

includes Yaarhym Giant too. Will you not be able to put as much pressure on the enemy castle? Yes, but at least the rats create a good defensive shield. If you are not confident in your abilities to space rats and push at the same time, then just keep rats back completely and make them act like a wall to protect your castle, and push only with stronger units. Chain can be dealt with. The same goes with aoe spells: space out rats a little bit to avoid multiple units dying to one card. Now I know that this is not a fantastic defense against chain or aoe, but just remember that rats are not supposed to be the center of a deck anymore, as they were before in older expansions. They are supposed to be supporting characters. If the supporting characters die but the main character lives on, then it is worth
it. Use the rats as a distraction so that you can play that big unit, that OTK.
Let the opponent be consumed by the rats so they forget about every other
danger.
            Rats are great support cards in decks. I believe that most players overlook them because they see a small body instead of seeing the potential of swarm, of body-blocking, of distraction. The best part about rat support is that if a deck is built correctly, then one does not technically need to draw any rats to win a game. Remember, they are supposed to be incorporated into a previous archetype, such as monster or bounce decks. All rats do is add a nice "wild card" factor to a deck, since they can be played as both offense and defense. The one weakness of rats can be overcome fairly easily as long as one takes the time to think and plan out their moves. To be honest, there are not too many downsides to using these underrated cards as long as there is space for the cards inside a deck. I would love to see rats used more. I would love to watch rats on cards.tv, showing everyone the potential that the support cards have. Rat decks were great once, and they can be great again in their new form. Give them a chance; try them in your deck, and you will not be disappointed.

Best Card in the Game?

         (DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion; I would love to hear your take on this if you don't agree)

          Dwarves, druids, monsters, mages, spells, traps! Everyone who plays Cards and Castles knows the diversity of the game, knows how no two decks are the same. Inside these diverse decks, people tend to quickly develop a "favorite card" that they like to play. I have played this game for four years now, and I have gone through my fair share of "favorite cards". In every era of the game, there has always been a card that has stood out to me as the very best. In this current era of Cards and Castles, however, the game is much more balanced and fun. Now almost every single card in the game can be classified as "good" in the right situation. But in order to be at the top of ranked play, one must find the best combinations and cards in the game to propel them to victory. So how does one determine the "best" card in the game?
          Well, whichever is the most versatile would be the best. Since versatility is the main factor being taken into account, spell cards should immediately be ruled out. Why? Because most spells -- well, most good spells -- are classified into their own faction, therefore limiting the situations it could be used in. For instance, the trap card called "Might of the Minotaur" is an extremely good card that gives unit +3/3 before it gets struck by an enemy, taking the opponent by surprise and potentially ruining the rest of their turn. Though it is really good and one can almost never go wrong adding this into their deck, the card is only in the Viking faction. This limits the amount of combinations a player can do with the card by already putting it into a pre-existing faction.
          So if spells are taken out, this means the best card in the game must be a unit. Now, the faction limitation comes into play again. There are many powerful cards throughout the game, but flexibility in a card is what is being sought. This will rule out all units put into a faction. That means no Ragnar the Storm King, no Vileroth the Devourer, no Craxus God of the Arena... This leaves us with a small set of units to choose from which would be able to strengthen any deck, any archetype. The neutral units.

         Though the card spectrum has now been narrowed down to a select few, the new question is, besides versatility, what unit has the best stats and abilities in relation to gold cost? One neutral unit that may stand out immediately from the rest is Mordok the Dark Rider. He has an amazing ability, which summons a random undead unit every single time he deals damage to an enemy. The random unit summoned can be anything from a zombie to Rakanoth the World Breaker himself. He has a good scare factor when he is played, but his stats do not fully justify his gold cost. Though the ability is good, he is worth 8 gold and only has 4 attack and 5 health. Compared to other units his cost, such as King Kaiju and Craxus, one could get a better deal adding in a different card instead of Mordok. Another card one might look to would be Northlands Ranger. This card is a 7 gold monstrosity with 7 attack and 8 health. This card is very versatile due to its board clearing capability with its high attack, and its potential to be the leading unit in a push against the other castle due to its high health. While this card is also very good, it does not have any special abilities. The lack of an ability can really hurt the user in late game if the match comes down to the wire and any small factor can turn the tide of who will win and lose. So if Mordok or the Northlands Ranger is not the best card in the game, what is?
         The answer comes in the form of a mid to late game card. Worth 6 gold, with 6 attack and 7 health, and an ability to make units run away in terror, the Tyrannosaur is easily the best card in the game as of right now. Its neutral standing lets one use this card in any variety of decks. Its attack and health lets the user play offense and defense with this, depending on the situation of the game. The cost is cheap for the stats, so a player can get this out fairly early and turn the tide of a match to their favor. And the ability... the ability is what makes this card so great. The "fear aura" is what it is called. What that means is that every single turn, any unit -- friendly or not -- adjacent to the Tyrannosaur runs away in terror. It works almost like knock back, except that units running away pass through units that may have blocked their movement path before. This can obviously help in defense; if a buffed unit is close to a player's castle, play the Tyrannosaur and have it run away, which lets them stall for an extra turn or two. If someone wants to push an attack, play the tyrannosaur and let the fear aura push your units forward towards the enemy castle. The only drawback to this unit is that it has a legendary rarity, which may make it hard to acquire for some players. But in this game, it does not take too long to amount the resources needed to buy a legendary card for free, so that obstacle is not too hard to overcome. Overall, this card is so versatile and dangerous that it should be classified as the best card in the game at this moment.

         Cards and Castles has gone through many phases throughout the years of me playing, and this current era of the game is by far the most balanced and most fun. Every card has a good place in the game and can be used effectively in the right situation. There are many cards in the game of Cards and Castles that can be classified as "good" or even "great", but only one can be categorized as the best. The best card in the game has to be the Tyrannosaur as of right now. I have seen other versions in the past of this card and other competing cards, and it just strengthens my view that there is no beating the Tyrannosaur. It's versatile due to its standing in the neutral faction. It is only worth 6 gold, so one could play it mid game or even play the Tyrannosaur with another card as well in late game situations. The stats of the card are outstanding for the cost, easily letting it soak up damage in defense and deal it as well in offense. The fear aura ability is hands down one of the best abilities in the game due to how it can be used as an aggressive offensive push or as a defensive stall. No opponent will look at the Tyrannosaur and easily find a way to counter it. So use this card; craft it, put two to three copies of it in each of your decks. This card effectively helps any archetype ever made so far. The Tyrannosaur is by far the best card in the game and will stay that way for a long time to come.