Yes I have ripped off a famous title. Hopefully no one mistakes this post for a work of Shakespeare. We did however visit both Hamilton and Tauranga this week for armories. First up it was Card Merchant Hamilton where we have been for a Skirmish and a Store Championship Qualifier but not an armory before. Then it was our regular Gateway Games.
This week also saw the release of Armory Deck: Rhinar so you’ll be able to see how I went playing that deck.
News
The big news this week was LSS announcing what a Showdown is and that it’s replacing Battle Hardened events. Not the rollout of Store Championships globally as I thought it might be.
Also we had the LSS Keynote at Philadelphia Worlds which I’ve covered most of in my Did My Predictions Standup To The LSS Keynote? post. They gave us details about the next release which is a ‘premium supplementary booster set’ for the constructed side of the game. Gave us a release road map for 2026 and a new hero but old mentor called Hala will be coming in an armory deck.
Emptying The Wallet
Armory Deck: Rhinar was released and so I had to get that for the Armory Deck League at $59.90. It’s not a hero that I’m planning on making my main hero at the moment. I enjoy playing Pleiades but not only is it for fun content but also it’s good to learn how other types of hero play. If only so you have an idea what they are trying to/can do when attacking you.
Also I picked up a Dragon Shield Strong Box to keep the Rhinar deck in at $9.80. I’m planning on keeping each armory deck in a strong box. There might be a more efficient way to store them but we have been given 2 strong boxes so it seams like a sensible way to go.
The armory at Card Merchant Hamilton was $15 each but you get to choose 2 packs from a range of releases. I went Everfest and Bright Lights and my daughter went with 2 packs of The Hunted. Gateway Games is $6 each and you get 1 pack of the latest release which at the moment is obviously Super Slam. So $42 in entry fees for this week.
That’s a total spend of $111.70 for this week.
Armory - Card Merchant Hamilton
The first armory we got to this week was on a Tuesday evening over at Card Merchant Hamilton where I played Pleiades. It’s a bit of a further drive being a 1h20mins drive rather than the normal 55mins drive to Gate Games in Tauranga. So this is more a treat armory rather than one we’ll be making every week.
First up I played Nick with Prism. I had to rack the memory banks for what I’m supposed to do here. ‘Pop’ attacks by blocking with more that 6 attack cards and kill those angels. I did take 6 damage early but did 10 in return to make it 34-15. Yup Prism starts with less life. There were a couple of rounds where neither of us could do anything. His wards and shields were able to absorb a lot of damage as I was sending 18 attacks his way. I managed a hit with 2 pummels that cleared a lot of those things. I was hampered by getting a couple of hands with no attacks. At the end I should have over blocked because an attack reaction got him the win with only 1 life left. I didn’t realise that I could attack some of his auras to get rid of them. If I had then there would have been less of those spectral shields and maybe I would have got the win. Either way it was very close.
Next up Ettie was trying out a new Oscilio deck, this was another really close game. Arcane and instants hurt me but I was able to do damage back. I should have pitched a What Happens Next? instead of playing it. By playing it my Pummel was going to be free as I already had a What Happens Next? in play. However it allowed Ettie to counter the aura so it didn’t come into play. With life at 1-1 that would have won me the game. In the end we ran out of time and it ended as a draw 1-7.
Last up is my worst matchup. Bradley is a new player on an Armory Deck: Ira with no modifications. I should have blocked more and played a sensible waiting game. Instead I went for hits and ended up losing. I have never beaten Ira with Pleiades. It was good to see Bradley really happy with his first ever armory win.
0-1-2 not a great return for me but so close to getting 2 wins in the first 2 games. My daughter went 2-1 and came second on the night. She enjoyed having the Spring Tunic this time.
Armory - Gateway Games
For our second armory of the week I decided to play the Armory Deck: Rhinar straight out of the box. Let’s be honest even if I wanted to tune this deck I wouldn’t know what to do without the help of Mr Google. I don’t think I’ve faced a tuned brute deck yet. This was a step into the unknown and my expectations for results was low.
First up I faced Cindra being played by Michael. I was able to do deliver a couple of big hits of 14 and 12 with him not blocking. I quickly realised this was going to be a race not a tactical game. I did get it down to 1-1 and I was flicked to death. This was a lot better than I was expecting to perform with deck straight from the box.
Next up I played my daughter on Ira, a matchup I always lose never mind if I’m playing Ira or Pleiades. Would Rhinar succumb to the same fate? I did get a life lead at 27-22 but I had used up all of my equipment to get there. Ira played Blossom and got to draw 2 cards but they were both defence reactions! That certainly helped me but I still lost this one with the life at 0-4. Again it was closer than I was expecting.
Round 3 brought me face to face with Roydon playing Lyath. Leave Them Hanging is a horrible card! 3 rounds on the bounce Roydon played that card in my turn meaning that the combos I was trying to deliver suddenly weren’t there. Also when you’re intimidating cards out of an opponents hand it’s not as effective if they have 5 cards. I was able to intimidate 3 cards but he could still do things. I did manage to get the win with life totals at 3-0. Once he ran out of Leave Them Hanging cards and I was able to get my beat the chest combos going he wasn’t able to block enough of the damage.
Going 1-2 and with all 3 games close I think you can say that this Rhinar deck is a really solid base to build from. I’m looking forward to seeing how he stands up to the other armory decks.
Cardboard
On the cards front of things we cracked open a bunch of packs from 4 different sets and also got GEM packs. However I don’t think we got anything of note.
From out Everfest, Bright Lights and The Hunted packs.
From our GEM packs.
From our Super Slam packs.
Meta Matters
Having attended 2 armories this week there are 2 locals Metas to go through. First up the Meta from Card Merchant Hamilton where we had 10 decks and 8 heroes:
* Pleiades
* Ira x3
* Oscilio
* Prism
* Jarl/Bolton (winner)
* Teklovossen (a hero I’ve still never played or seen played)
* Gravy
* Lyath
2 of the Ira decks were unmodified armory decks. The reason there is a Jarl/Bolton is that he played Bolton into the Ire armory decks so that he didn’t just destroy the new players. Oscilio was a new deck that was being learned by an experienced player. It felt more experimental than our local armory. I guess with 2 new players, someone learning a new deck and a Lyath that people are still working out that’s not surprising.
The Gateway Games meta was even more diverse with 12 heroes across 12 decks.
* Gravy
* Ira
* Florian
* Lyath
* Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X
* Vynnset
* Victor Goldmane
* Verdance
* Cindra
* Rhinar
* Yarl
* Prism
We lost Pleiades (me changing to Rhinar), Puffin and Kayo, Armed and Dangerous and gained Rhinar, Prism, Yarl and Cindra. I will probably return to Pleiades next week so that’s a temporary change. We did see a couple of players switch decks so I think we will see Puffin back as well at some point. However Kayo might LL soon in which case we’ll have seen the last of that version of him.
What’s Coming Up?
I’m aiming to get to Gaming DNA in Hamilton for their armory on Thursday where I’m due to pick up an Armory Deck: Kayo.
Over the next few weeks I should be posting the write-ups and results of several matchups in the Armory Deck League.
On the news front I’m expecting it to be results from Worlds, so not much that impacts the average player. However LSS are very good at putting at least 1 significant announcement out each week. We are 5 weeks away from the next Scheduled Banned and Restricted Announcement so I’m not expecting anything on that front.
