Everfest Ranger Set Review
It’s everyone’s favourite time of the year, spoiler season! In this article I will dive into my initial thoughts on the new Ranger cards coming up in Everfest.
|
Dreadbore Dreadbore is the newest weapon available to Rangers and it is quite an interesting one, that definitely requires some building around to maximize. The ability to prevent your opponent from playing cards from hand gives some rangers some much needed evasion. However, due to its once per turn activation and only working on the arrow’s chainlink, this card is best used in go-tall builds. In order to maximize Dreadbore we want our deck to have access to the following tools:
|
|
All of these points seem to suggest Dreadbore might be nice as a sideboard card in go-tall dominate builds, in order to punish your opponent for loading up on defense reactions. In particular, Azalea or Ice Lexi seem like nice options as both these decks tend to have easy access to dominate.
Perhaps the most intriguing part about this bow is that it opens up the ability for Azalea to use New Horizon, as Dreadbore does not require you to have an open arsenal slot to activate. This might allow Azalea to play a slower strategy where she arsenals defense reactions, or even traps, while utilizing her other arsenal slot to load arrows and chip in with dominate. However, losing access to Skullbone Crosswrap might require us to get creative and find ways to increase Azalea’s consistency going off the top of the deck with her hero ability . Currently, I’m not sure the card pool gives us easy enough easy access to this, but it’s definitely something to consider for the future.
There is also definitely something to be said about the existence of this bow discouraging opponents from loading up on defense reactions against go-tall builds. There’s some potential for cool mind games, where maybe you bring this in against someone early in a tournament and then play your regular bow later in the event.
Synergies: The card has obvious synergy with Remorseless and Release the Tension, as together these cards completely turn off defense reactions. You can even add in Seek and Destroy to clear out the arsenal for future turns. Battering Bolt also synergises well as it can strand defense reactions in our opponent’s hand. Finally, Bolt’n Shot gets turned on by Dreadbore’s +1, something that Azalea hasn’t had free access to from her weapon up until now.
Where Dreadbore Doesn’t Work: It is not just going to slot easily into your go-wide Voltaire and Death Dealer builds, because these bows require your deck to build very differently than how dreadbore does. Voltaire tends to want upwards of 30 arrows and Three of a Kind with only a few pumps. While go-wide Death Dealer builds play lots of non-arrow attacks with go again, which just allows your opponent to use their defense reaction on your non-arrow attack.
The Verdict: I’m glad Dreadbore exists, but I think it will mostly be interesting as a way to target a slower metagame with lots of defense reactions. Other bows are likely more powerful into more open metagames like the upcoming Pro Quest season though.
|
Tri-Shot The best part about Tri-Shot is that it is a blue that blocks for 3 and costs 0, while having some significant upside. That being said, Tri-Shot doesn’t fit smoothly into any existing first-cycle gameplans. Voltaire typically doesn’t have the resources to load more than 2 arrows, and while Three of a Kind does give you extra resources, it’s not guaranteed you will draw the blues and enough arrows to leverage Tri-Shot. Similarly, while Death Dealer seems like an obvious home due to it giving you lots of extra cards, it requires you to also be able to give the arrows go again. In my experience building decks so far, even with Perch Grapplers Tri-Shot feels quite clunky and hard to get value out of. Currently, the only real way to reliably use Tri-Shot is to set it up in the second cycle of your deck and playing towards a specific endgame, perhaps something like a Snapshot combo with Death Dealer. However, due to Ranger’s difficulties playing defense, successfully getting to the second cycle of your deck and being able to pivot can be quite difficult. |
 |
The Verdict: I have no doubt that Tri-Shot will be a very fun card to build around and enable some absolutely massive turns. The possibility of setting up a Rain Razors, Endless Arrows and Tri-shot endgame to deal with fatigue is interesting, but not especially relevant in the meta right now. Overall, I think Tri-Shot may end up being a bit of a trap, at least for now, much the same way Rapid Fire and Poison the Tips are. That being said I think fun and janky build arounds are important for a card game to have, and this card definitely has potential down the road.
|
Rain-Razors The rate on this card is very good, it’s basically a yellow lightning press that applies to all of your arrows. Additionally, +2 pushes our 5 power arrows to 7 which is a very important breakpoint. This card enabling multiple Bolt’n Shots is also quite powerful. For all of these reasons I think that the card will see play, it’s just a matter of figuring out where its best homes are.
|
 |
|
Release the Tension While another pump isn’t exactly anything new, Release the Tension actually feels quite pushed and is one of the better 0 cost +3 attack pumps we have seen for Ranger. This is especially evident when you compare it to its close relative, Increase the Tension. Turning off defense reactions from Arsenal not only has obvious synergy with Dreadbore, but is generally more valuable than turning off defense reactions from hand. The reason for this is that dominate clearly seems to be a core mechanic in ranger, and arsenaling a defense reaction is one of the oldest tricks in the book when it comes to playing against dominate. While your opponent may still be able to play an Unmovable from hand, it requires them to draw it at the right time, instead of just saving it in arsenal for your big dominate turn |
 |
The Verdict: Release the Tension Red seems like an auto-include for go-tall Ranger decks looking to come in with one big dominated arrow. However I think these decks need either more support or a different metagame to really shine. It’s also just one of the better untalented pumps in general as it makes it hard for your opponent to get value out of their big defense reactions. It also has nice synergy with Seek and Destroy. I could even see playing the yellow copies of this card in go-tall decks.
|
Read the Glide Path Yet another 0 cost +3 attack pump with upside for Ranger. While this one isn’t quite as exciting as Release the Tension, I think it definitely has its own niche to fill. In particular, giving Azalea access to opt to increase the consistency of her hero ability is quite powerful. Cards like Read the Glide Path that are on rate and offer free deck manipulation are exactly the kind of tools we need to enable the more defensive Dreadbore build I mentioned earlier in the article. |
 |
The Verdict: Good red in Azalea or future Rangers who care about the top of their deck. Lexi doesn’t really have any use for this effect though
|
Battering Bolt This arrow mostly seems like a card designed to pair with Dreadbore, as it strands the defense reaction in hand and makes blocking very awkward for the opponent. Without the Dreadbore passive, your opponent will just happily play their defense reaction(s) from hand to block out Battering Bolt. Increase the Tension could also fill this role, but it isn’t a card that has seen a lot of play and neither card seems particularly good on its own. That being said, if you have Dreadbore in your 80 I think you will definitely want Battering Bolt as the synergy is quite high, I can imagine some very big blow outs with this combination of cards.
The other very obvious place for this card is sideboard tech to pop Illusionist phantasms. It’s quite nice to have a card that is fine on rate and fits into ranger’s main gameplan, while also helping them block. Additionally, Prism tends to have more instants than most classes, which does get you a little bit of extra value. However, in most cases she would probably just choose to block this card, or play her instants in response. |
 |
The Verdict: A nice sideboard card to play against Prism and good with Dreadbore. Possibly could be good if there is a class that plays a lot of non-action cards in the future. Overall it’s a bit on the narrow side, but will probably see some play.
|
Fatigue Shot Fatigue is my pick for best Ranger card in the set and one of the best arrows ever printed. I talk about this card in full detail in my previous article “The Arrow That Will Forever Tip the Scales”. To summarize my thoughts, the card is excellent on rate, generally providing a 7+ point life swing if it hits. It also helps shore up Ranger’s weakness of a poor defense by mitigating damage and making scary hit effects like Command and Conquer, Crippling Crush and Spinal much easier to block.
|
 |
|
Timidity Point While I’m always happy to see new arrows, Timidity Point might be the worst arrow ever printed, at least for now. Taking away dominate is only relevant if we want to block with multiple cards. However, Ranger blocks worse than any other class in the game since we play lots of 2 blocks and our 3 blocks are mostly our attacks which we need in order to be able to do anything since bows do not attack on their own. Taking away dominate from our opponent just doesn’t feel relevant for a class that is so heavily disincentivized from blocking. |
 |
The Verdict: This card is basically unplayable as of right now. However, LSS has a history of showing that their card designs are very well thought out and often plan into the future. Perhaps one day there will be a more defensive Ranger class that can actually make use of this effect. Until then, I will be passing on Timidity Point.
General Impressions of Everfest
Azalea got lots of new tools, but I am unsure if she will be able to hold a strong spot in the metagame, in particular prism is very challenging for go-tall builds. While Lexi got a few tools in the form of Fatigue Shot and Rain Razors, it doesn’t feel like anything that actually provides new deck building options. A set full of non-talented Ranger cards is tough for Lexi as she typically has very few slots for untalented cards due to the reliance on her fuse mechanic and hero ability. Overall the Ranger cards we received in Everfest are solid, and Fatigue Shot in particular is an excellent tool to have access to, but Ranger didn’t receive the raw power level that Prism or Runeblades did.
Sticker crybaby tough guy gay rob geek weeb Niggers kys hope you get gang raped and ur family die in die i front of ur eyes, imagine still liking stickers and magic the gaythering
ignore my last message. I did not read the other article yet. That article answers my question!
Great insight.
Do you think only the red fatigue shot is worth it? or would you also play the yellow/blue fatigue shots?
Amazing post, thank you for sharing your insight and opinions! Have a nice day :)