Best ASCENSION cards at each price

I'll be current through the first expansion. I am just going to write a brief piece on the best bang for the buck at each "price point" in my opinion. Some (Mechana Initiate) will cost you points if you take them any turn early enough that you might accidently draw them. Obviously, there are some situations in which some cards become amazeballz, but this is a generic worth ranking.

At {1}:
Best: Arha Initiate -- worth a VP, replaces itself when drawn. Harmless.
Case could be made for: Lifebound Initiate. Can ring up a lot of extra VP if taken early, but late game can clog up a deck that is running smoothly. Obviously improves if you are Lifebound heavy and can use it to power up Runic Lycanthrope and Dandelion Witch.

At {2}:
Best: Temple Librarian -- Amazing card. Gets through the deck faster, sets up your hand, worth a point, replaces itself++. Nothing close at this price.
Arguably: Deathseeker -- Strictly better than Heavy Infantry. But come on--compared to Temple Librarian?

At {3}:
Best: Lunar Stag -- Strictly better than Mystic, and if you go through your deck quickly, taking this for 2 VP everytime it shows up is good stuff.
Cases can be made for: Burrower Mark II -- replaces itself when drawn and is worth 3 VP. Nice buy at {3}. Shadowstar -- Worth 2 VP and can be the key to pushing you over the 5 power hump to get some of the juicy badguys. Runic Lycanthrope -- Starts out strictly better than Mystic and can be nuts in a Lifebound deck.

At {4}:
Best: Twofold Askara -- Unless you suck, this is autobuy if available. It duplicates your best card in hand. I would take this over everything else even if it was worth only 1 VP.
Arguably: Arbiter of the Precipice -- Taken early, the tightening effect on your deck is so worth it. Late game appearance in the center row makes me frown. Dandelion Witch -- Man alive, can I get a ton of points off this thing in the right deck. Replaces itself!

At {5}:
Best: Flytrap Witch -- Toughest level to pick for me. There's a lot of good stuff here. But 2VP for the card itself, 2 VP every time it pops up, and replacing itself makes this a potent purchase, regardless of build.
Cases can be made for: Tablet of Time's Dawn: Tricky card. You have to cough up 2 VP and a draw to play it and hope that the turn you get from it yields more. It usually does. Eternal Askara -- can solve some problems (e.g., Sordid Asp out there and you are ahead) and gives you VP to boot. I could talk about Stone Circle and Ascetic of the Lidless Eye here too.

At {6}:
Best: Nairi, Henge Queen -- 8VP for {6}, basically. Maybe more. Don't take her if there's zero chance you will draw her, you can likely turn up 6VP of Mechana with your loot otherwise. But if you will draw her, possibly twice? Or, please God, with Twofold Askara? Mercy.
Case could be made for: The All-Seeing Eye -- Great ability. Drawing more cards is important, and drawing them when you want to is even better.

At {7}:
Best: Project Alpha -- You can almost never get this without some kind of Mechana construct help, so it's at least going to net you a point a turn as you rake in Heavy Infantry or Initiates. Probably the only {7} cost card that you can count on drawing and using before the game ends. Especially good with Rocket Courier X-99.
Case can be made for: Sadranis, Dark Emissary -- By the time you can play him there is a world of dead critters to select from. You should with confidence be able to blow up constructs with a Sea Tyrant, hit the hand with Vaultbreaker Wurm, maybe sneak 5 VP with Sordid Asp, &c.

At {8}:
Best: Hedron Cannon -- You can't count on being able to draw Adayu, the Chosen. If you can Stone Circle and draw him for sure--then take him, and you are sure to get more than 8 VP for {8}.

Monsters -- not as much competition here.

At {3}:
Best: Sordid Asp -- No question. Gains you or prevents a 5 VP swing.

At {4}:
Best: Corrosive Widow -- 3VP and it will eat up a draw of the opponent, in addition to potentially stalling development, depending on how much they needed that construct.

At {5}:
Best: Sea Tyrant -- 5VP and potentially ruinous for the opponent. And in multiplayer? Fuhgeddaboutit.

At {6}:
Best: Xeron, Duke of Fuck You -- This is it. You are TAKING points from an opponent and giving them to YOU. Yes, we have all gotten an Apprentice with him, but man, if you take something even remotely decent? Best card in the game.

Funny, I was thinking about almost exactly this when playing this morning. You've pretty much nailed it, but there's a few things I wanted to add.

Twofold Askara is just stupid powerful. If this card cost 6 and gave 1 VP it would probably still be worth it. I'm not familiar with Storm of the Swords but through the first two sets it's the most bang for the buck in the entire deck.

I was playing a game this morning where Twofold Askara came up right next to the card I feel is on the exact opposite end of the spectrum, Dhthara's Retreat. Maybe I'm missing some grand strategy, but that has to be the least useful card in the deck. It doesn't have a 1:1 cost to VP ratio, and if you're early enough in the game that you might find yourself with a bad draw that won't let you buy anything useful, you probably don't gain a whole lot of utility from the two draws it would give you to completely give up a turn where you could add a Mystic or Heavy Infantry to your deck.

The only time I ever take it is on the last turn when it's the most VP I can wrangle given my total runes.

I think at 4 there's a hell of an argument to be made for Arbiter of Fate as the second best card. Getting those militia and apprentices out of your deck seems to really speed up your engine.

It might not have a whole lot of comboing power, but at 7 I LOVE Serpantcall, if you can get it into play it more or less assures you of being able to take any card on the board every turn. I suppose it's probably one of those cards that you end up having in games you win anyway, and not a card that helps you win a game on it's own, but it's still a ton of fun to use.

I have had some impressive games with Dhartha's Retreat. But it needs to be set up. A tight deck with Flytrap Witch, Lifebound Initiate, Eternal Askara, Lunar Stags can make a lot of points. Basically, you get a turn where you play mostly point-getters that don't acquire or defeat anything. The next turn, you draw 7 cards and do some acquiring and defeating. Repeat.

I don't like Serpentcall. It just costs too much. Anything that costs that much should be fun, but I never seem to get enough out of this. Unless someone has been busy with Seer of the Broken Path there's usually not many Heroes of interest in the Void. It's basically {7} for what? 6VP after buying some stuff with it's {2} per turn before the game ends? Unless you get it weirdly early through some treat-everything-as-Mechana shenanigans.

I'm pretty new to Ascension, but I'm having trouble seeing why Eternal Askara is so brilliant. While its power is clearly very useful, to actually use it you have to have it in a hand with a hero and to get the most out of it you have to have it in a hand with your best hero. Even in a good deck that's been slimmed down of Apprentices and Militia and which has a number of extra card powers, that doesn't seem all that likely to happen.

One thing I'm currently struggling with strategy-wise is what to do when you're repeatedly in the situation of having Runes to spend but nothing to spend them on, either because you don't have enough or because there's no useful or affordable cards in the centre. It seems crazy to waste them, so I end up buying Hvy Infantry or Mystics which are at least worth a VP at end game. But then they end up clogging up your deck and preventing you playing combos. Seems to happen to me quite a lot. Should I just be wasting them?

MattDP wrote: I'm pretty new to Ascension, but I'm having trouble seeing why Eternal Askara is so brilliant. While its power is clearly very useful, to actually use it you have to have it in a hand with a hero and to get the most out of it you have to have it in a hand with your best hero. Even in a good deck that's been slimmed down of Apprentices and Militia and which has a number of extra card powers, that doesn't seem all that likely to happen.

You probably mean Twofold Askara there (Copy a Hero) and not Eternal Askara (Banish a card from the center, gain 3VP if it's a Monster). Twofold is amazing because it improves every draw. Even in the unfortunate circumstance it's a Mechana Initiate (i.e. copying an Apprentice or an Militia), it still lets you turn a {4}/{1} hand into a {5}/{0} or {3}/{2} for example. You don't want to end your turn with {1} {1} left.* In any other circumstance it is copying an effect you felt was worth paying for. And sometimes it lets you copy something silly like Master Dhartha or even Flytrap Witch. That latter play is 4VP for net 0 cards from hand. THAT's an effective deck.

MattDP wrote: One thing I'm currently struggling with strategy-wise is what to do when you're repeatedly in the situation of having Runes to spend but nothing to spend them on, either because you don't have enough or because there's no useful or affordable cards in the centre. It seems crazy to waste them, so I end up buying Hvy Infantry or Mystics which are at least worth a VP at end game. But then they end up clogging up your deck and preventing you playing combos. Seems to happen to me quite a lot. Should I just be wasting them?

Rarely. Except in games where I am working the Dhartha's Retreat angle, I almost never leave more than {1} behind. That said, *I leave {1} behind quite often. I will not pick up Mechana Initiate except in the last two turns or so to prevent me from drawing it. Same goes for Hectic Scribe unless the build "calls" for it (e.g., by having some potent {7} dude I want to see as quickly as possible). One thing I find myself doing much less than I used to is clicking the "play all" button. You sometimes need to play things in a certain order to maximize your chances of seeing something useful. I.e., play out the Draw-a-card's first. Play your Lifebounds in a certain order to maximize effectiveness. Look in the trash to see what the Crow will score on. Use Stone Circle to enable Crow scoring. Clear Monsters from the center to see if something more affordable appears or one of those trigger guys pops up and lets you do neat things.

Twofold is fantastic. Even on its most disappointing turns, it's a free play. But its true power doesn't become evident until you copy something like Master Dhartha (draw three cards) for the first time.

I'll bite...though I only have the base game.

At {1}
Best - I will always by the Arha Initiate or the Lifebound Initiaite. I tend to use decks that cycle through very quickly and the Arha only adds to that. If you buy Lifebound initiate earlier enough it can turn into a bunch of free honor points. Spending 1 Rune to get 5-6 honor is certainly worth the purchase.
I only buy the Void Initiate if I don't have something in my deck that let's me banish cards from my deck.

At {2}
Best - Temple Librarian for the reasons Jeb stated.

At {3}
Best - Burrower Mark II (especially if you're doing a Mechana construct build). Wolf Shaman is very helpful as well (free card and a rune). If you're going with a lifebound deck you need the Runic Lycanthropes.

At {4}
Best - Arbiter of the Precipice (but only if its early in the game). Being able to cycle through to cards and banish militia and apprentices is GREAT! Reactor Monk is a card I find very useful. It makes it so much easier to acquire those expensive (and valuable) Mechana constructs. I'm not as high on Twofold Askara as Jeb...but there are times when I do buy it.

At {5}
Best - It's either the Flytrap Witch, the Snapdragon or The Voidthirster. I'd buy the Witch before the other two. Its a very powerful card. The snapdragon and voidthrister just make your life easier in general. Extra power and runes on every turn certainly make a big difference. I would also rate Ascetic of the Lidless Eye very highly. Getting one of them is always a good buy.

At {6}
Best - The Grand Design just because its worth 6 points. It usually nets you one of the other expensive Mechana constructs as well. The All Knowing Eye can be useful, but I only get it if its still very early. It is too expensive to get with less than 30 Honor Tokens left.

At {7}
Best - Master Dhartha is very good to have and has little draw backs at this high cost. I love cards that allow me to draw more and this is the best in the entire base game. If you are building for Mechana constructs than the Hedron Link Device is a must. Since it makes every construct (even in the center row) a mechana you can use things like The Grand Design or Watchmaker's Alter to buy any constructs dirt cheap.

At {8}
Best - Well in the base game you only have the Hedron Cannon...so that wins! But seriously you have to buy it regardless. Its worth 8 points and you can't let it fall into the hands of your opponent. It could easily be the difference between winning or losing.

Egg Shen wrote: Best - Arbiter of the Precipice (but only if its early in the game) ...

I like Arbiter at any time, although it's often left sitting there in the late stages, simply because better/more expensive cards will be available.

People tend to focus on the banishing aspect, but drawing two cards is the key for me. That's never a bad thing.

In the early stages, it's the best card in the entire game. Auto-buy.

TheDukester wrote:

Egg Shen wrote: Best - Arbiter of the Precipice (but only if its early in the game) ...

I like Arbiter at any time, although it's often left sitting there in the late stages, simply because better/more expensive cards will be available.

People tend to focus on the banishing aspect, but drawing two cards is the key for me. That's never a bad thing.

In the early stages, it's the best card in the entire game. Auto-buy.

I disagree! It's great until you throw a point away with it. The compulsory banish can bite you in the ass. This is rare, true, but when it happens, or when you don't play it to prevent it happening, it's heartbreaking. But hey, first turn, {4}/{1} hand, head-to-head: Twofold Askara or Arbiter of the Precipice. You take Arbiter?

My former main strategy was to build as much combat power as possible. Unfortunately, too many games result in a dearth of monsters, so that strategy is just not consistently viable.

My new angle focuses on drawing as many cards and banishing as many cards as possible.

TheDukester wrote:

Egg Shen wrote: Best - Arbiter of the Precipice (but only if its early in the game) ...

I like Arbiter at any time, although it's often left sitting there in the late stages, simply because better/more expensive cards will be available.

People tend to focus on the banishing aspect, but drawing two cards is the key for me. That's never a bad thing.

In the early stages, it's the best card in the entire game. Auto-buy.

For me it really depends upon whats already in my deck when the opportunity comes along to buy it. Lets say there are 15 Honor tokens left and you already have a Shade of the Black Witch and a Void Initiate in your deck. You also have plenty of other cards that can help you cycle through your cards.

I would pass on the Arbiter because how often will it come out for the remainder of the game...maybe 2 times? I'd rather spend those 4 (or more) runes on something else. Plus like Jeb said, there are times when you it comes up and you are forced to actually lose a point and banish a Heavy Militia or Mystic card.

jeb wrote: But hey, first turn, {4}/{1} hand, head-to-head: Twofold Askara or Arbiter of the Precipice. You take Arbiter?

Honestly, I take Arbiter over anything first turn if I have a 4/1 hand or a 5/0. It is that powerful early. Afterwards, it is my favorite 4-cost card until the game is at least 1/3 done.

jeb wrote: But hey, first turn, {4}/{1} hand, head-to-head: Twofold Askara or Arbiter of the Precipice. You take Arbiter?

First turn? I'd take it every time. The early opportunities for thinning combined with the immediate deck-cycling are just too good to pass up. Twofold, OTOH, will spend a few turns being an Apprentice clone.

Same answer for second turn, too.

Dukester.....are you still accepting games?

Not for the next few days. Just work stuff; no biggie.

I'll get back in the saddle next week.