Arcane Institute Burn Package

Arcane institute has inherited the red decks burn

It seems as though Arcane Institute will be the class getting the most classic, efficient burn.

Today we have 5 pieces of burn to look at, each does something a bit different, but they all share the same goal. Kill the enemy golem dead.

Before we dive into these spells, I just want to point out one thing first:

Burn in Aradena is more valuable than it would be in a game like Magic or Hearthstone.

In MTG a player has 20 life, in hearthstone 30. In Aradena your golems have 25. However Golems hit each other for 3 damage a turn after turn 3. This means that by turn 5, golems have done 6 damage to each other. by turn 7, they deal 12 damage to each other. The damage scales endlessly.

The main point here is that by turn 6~ golems will have dealt over 30% of their max life to eachother in damage.

You are on a quick clock in Aradena. Once you factor in additional damage dealt through golem combat, you really dont need to deal a ton of damage to close the game out.

A couple of burn spells and the enemy golem will be dead in the water.

Lightning Shock:
Faction: Arcane Institute
Type: Spell
Mana: 1
Effect: Deal 2 to an enemy.

A tried and true card in many TCGs. 1 mana deal 2 simply gets the job done. It can be used at all stages of the game to control the board, removing problematic units off the board.

In Aradena specifically, Lightning Shock acts as a fast way to remove a small unit off of a command point. If its removing something off of the island command point, Lightning Shock ends up buying a ton of tempo. It takes multiple turns to get a unit to that command point, and Lightning Shock cleans it up in 1 turn.

While the primary mode of Lightning Shock will be to remove small units off the board, using it for reach will be the most satisfying. It only takes a small handful of burn to close out a game.

Embers / Fire:
Faction: Arcane Institute
Type: Spell
Mana: 1 / 2
Effect: Enchant a hex for 2 turns. At the end of the turn anything standing on this hex takes (1 / 2) damage

Two very similar burn spells, Embers and fire impacts a particular hex for multiple turns.

This is fairly different from Lightning shock. While lightning shock is immediate, Embers and Fire triggers at the end of the turn. In addition, their effects last. This means that they can be played on particular tiles, making it hard for your opponent to properly develop.

The value you get from embers and fire can be a bit more abstract than what you get from Lightning shock. I would think Fire and Embers will have a lower floor, and higher ceiling than Lightning Shock. Harder to properly play, but deadly when played properly.

In a standstill board state (where neither player has control of either command points and Golems don’t move) you can end up getting multiple burn triggers off of Fire and Embers. These two spells will end up pushing more face damage than you can imagine.

Siphon Soul:
Faction: Arcane Institute
Type: Spell
Mana: 2
Effect: Deal 2 to the enemy Golem. Heal yours for 2.

The ol’ drain-n -gain

Deal 2 gain 2 for 2 is pretty solid. On its own it may not look amazing, but where Siphon Soul shines is in a deck looking to play largely off the board. When combined with other burn spells, Siphon Soul becomes a tool that works double duty. It acts as reach to kill the enemy golem, as well as life gain to keep you alive.

The life gain aspect of this card may be more important than the reach in many situations. If Siphon Soul gains you enough life to keep you alive for 1 extra turn, it will buy you another card draw (potentially additional burn) and an extra 3 golem damage.

I expect Siphon Soul to put in work in many burn based matchups. I am however, not so sure Siphon Soul will age as well as Lightning shock in Aradenas long term metagame. As new cards get printed, players will eventually be faced with the choice. They will likely prefer to play a more efficient burn spell, or life gain spell, rather than play the less efficient hybrid.

Shattering Blast:
Faction: Arcane Institute
Type: Spell
Mana: 2
Effect: Deal 3 to the enemy Golem.

Shattering Blast has 2 goal in mind. Kill the enemy. 2 mana deal 3 from hand is a solid exchange.

Lets do some sketchy math.

Shattering blast values 1 mana at 1.5 damage

The enemy golem has 25 life.

8 Shattering blasts will deal 24 damage.

It would take 5 turns to spend 15 mana (22.5~ mana worth of damage)

by turn 5 your Golem would have dealt 6 damage to the enemies.

Now obviously, you cant spent odd numbers of mana on Shattering blast, and you cant have a deck of only Shattering blast. I am bringing this up to get you to start thinking about how fast you can actually burn someone out of the game.

If you curved out perfectly, a turn 5 kill is very reasonable.

We already see 5 solid burn spells, a deck in theory can already spend 15 card slots on this suite of burn spells. add a few cheap units, and the burn deck builds itself.

This is not to say that these spells can only go in a burn deck. Cards like Lightning Shock, Embers / fire, and Siphon Soul are flexible enough that they can fit into a few different styles of decks.

Regardless, I think it is safe to say that many of these cards will end up shaping how many Arcane Institute strategies will play, at least for the early days of the Aradena metagame.