Here you will find a number of common PvP tactics and appropriate counters for each.
Cannon Tower Assault[]
- Overview
- Before the Renegade Edition was released, most decks that had any Frost at all would play Cannon Towers. The longer build times that were introduced with the Renegade Release pretty much made this tactics no longer viable, because it gives everyone enough time to destroy the tower during build up.
Combo
- Cannon Tower, Glacier Shell and/or Kobold Trick (optional: Construction Hut, Crowd Control Cards)
- Counters
- Eruption - Can destroy any building early in its construction, but is only cost effective if it also does damage to the enemy unit or hits two buildings at once.
- Shadow Mage or Nox Trooper - Best to have two on hand before construction starts and far enough apart that they can't both be CC'd.
- Skyfire Drake
- War Eagle
- Sunstriders ability or Suppression
Drakes on Drugs[]
- Overview
- If your opponent has both Fire and Shadow Orbs at T2, you can expect that they will be playing Buffed Skyfire Drakes. For some decks, pure Fire in particular, this can be an extremely difficult to counter tactic.
- Combo
- Skyfire Drake, Ravage, and Unholy Power
- Counters
- Shadow Mages and/or Darkelf Assassins
- Defenders and Coldsnap
- Parasite Swarm
- Parasite and Crowd Control
- Skyfire Drake and Eruption - One hit followed by a quick eruption will kill a ravaged drake, resulting in their ravage being wasted (if no unholy power)
- Aggressors - The drake can't attack due to constant knockback
Nomad - his ability costs 90 power and can kill a fully healed drake in a single shot
Pure fire counters here finally ;):
Embalmer's Furnace[]
- Overview
- This combo is a very powerful method of void manipulation. Essentially, once the three pieces are built you can empty you void completely for about 100 power.
- To setup the combo, you need to build the Furnace of Flesh in range of the Soul Splicer. You can use the Construction Hut reduce the total cost of the buildings if you wish. Once you have built all three buildings, follow these steps.
- Put the Splicer in sharing mode.
- Summon a unit, a high health to cost ratio is best.
- Activate the Embalmer's Shrine.
- Kill the unit in range of the Splicer's Soul Suction ability, but out of range of the Furnace.
- Activate Soul Suction on the corpse.
- Once your void is empty you can deactivate the Splicer's sharing and often end up with a full Splicer.
- This combo makes for a high maintenance void cycle, so you must be prepared to micro it on a regular basis. Additionally, an empty void means a reduced income so you must be able to pace your spending to some extent. The largest drawback is the need for three deck slots. The rewards can be worth it though.
- Combo
- Embalmer's Shrine, Soul Splicer, and Furnace of Flesh
- Counters
Immortal Ashbone Pyro[]
- Overview
- Ashbone Pyros (upgraded to at least upgrade 2) are a very effective method to end a game once it reaches T3. Because they do siege damage, they are much better against buildings (and Wells and Orbs) than against units, so if you can, you should try to intercept them on the way to your base. You will have an easier time killing them if they are not doing damage to a structure.
- The main problem with them is their Lifeleach ability - the more damage they do, the more they will heal themselves. That is also why Unholy Power is so strong on them. It increases the damage they do while decreasing the damage they take, both effects work to magnify the Lifeleach ability.
- A single Ashbone isn't generally that hard to kill; however, if there is an Ashbone attacking each of your Orbs you are generally unable to cost effectively counter them all.
- Combo
- Ashbone Pyro, Unholy Power, Life Weaving, and (Ravage and/or Surge of Light)
- Counters
- Crowd Control - Use to wait out buffs and/or let them die by their Instability (they lose life while not in fight).
- Ensnaring Roots - Use while out of range of your base.
- Curse of Oink
- Coldsnap
- Creeping Paralysis
- Home Soil, Coldsnap, and (Lyrish Knights or Silverwind Lancers)
- Fallen Skyelf and (Nightcrawlers, Cultist Master, or Shadow Insects)
- Wrathgazer
- Church of Negation
- Fathom Lord
- Mark of the Keeper and/or Timeshifter Spirit
- Drones
- Mauler
Mortar Tower Bombardment[]
- Overview
- Fire T1 will often come to rush your starting base (or the middle of the map) with Mortar Towers. One mortar Tower alone can be easily killed if you get units in melee range, because it has a deadzone where it can't fire. So often, two mortar towers are built so they cover each other. This can be especially difficult to counter at T1. Additionally, Mortar Towers are often built above or below a cliff, so you cannot easily reach them with ground units. Even when you can reach the Mortar with ground units, it will usually be protected by Mines. This strategy is especially successful on Wazhai - most decks can't counter the Mortar Tower rush through the middle on this map, and it means you'll lose at least two wells in the first few minutes.
- Combo
- Mortar Tower (optional: Mine, Glacier Shell, Kobold Trick)
- Counters
- Eruption - Kill them before they are built. Eruption does mean you spend more energy, but if possibly damage their ground unit along with the Mortar.
- Nox Trooper - Ability can kill Mortar under construction so long as you can get in range.
- Phase Tower - Teleport inside the Mortar's deadzone and you will be safe from the Mortar's fire.
- Flying Cards - They can reach the Mortar even when behind cliffs, and Mortar can only attack ground.
- Shadow Phoenix - Two Phoenixes can kill grouped Mortars very effectively. Though generally not cost effective against less than three Mortars, unless there are other enemy entities around.
- Glacier Shell and Kobold Trick - Can buy you time to kill the Mortar before it destroys too much. It is best to focus on saving only one well if more than one are attacked, you probably won't be able to save more than one and can lose all if you divide your spells.
Mountaineer[]
- Overview
- In general there are two separate Mountaineer tactics. There are those decks that are Nature/Frost and those that are Fire/Frost. Each such deck plays very differently and there are differences in the counters for each.
Mountaineers on the March[]
- Overview
- The goal of the Nature/Frost build is to use Crowd Control to lock down the enemy while either doing damage directly with the Mountaineer or as a distraction while Cannon Towers are being built. You will often see Ice Barriers and Home Soil being used. Once two Mountaineers are on the field they can take down a Well or Orb quite quickly.
- Combo
- Mountaineer, Home Soil, Surge of Light, and Crowd Control Cards. With an optional expansion into a Cannon Tower Assault.
- Counters
- Parasite Swarm
- Nightguard - Difficult to use against Nature, because of Curse of Oink, even if it's upgraded completely. Beware of Mountaineer's knockback, summon the Nightguard out of his range.
- Defenders
- Phalanx
- Nox Troopers - Summon 4-5 and spread them out. Use Overload whenever the shield is down, but only on one or two Nox at a time. Leave some to deal with possible Cannon Towers.
- Fire Stalker and Ensnaring Roots
- Ensnaring Roots - You can force him to attack, while a possible target is in range, if you root him, thus preventing him from refreshing his shield.
- Air-to-Ground Cards
Mountaineer Rampage[]
- Overview
- The goal of the Fire/Frost build is to use the Mountaineer as a lure for Mines or to run interference for Mortar Towers. Generally, the Mountaineer won't be the card that is actually destroying things.
- Combo
- Mountaineer, Mine, Mortar Tower, and Ravage.
- Counters
- Parasite Swarm
- Nightguard - Difficult to use, if it isn't upgraded completely, because of Mountaineer's knockback. Summon the Nightguard out of his range.
- Defenders
- Beware that the Mountaineer can trample Defenders and knock them into the Mine. The knockback from Eruption can also throw Defenders onto the Mine.
- Shadow Mages and Motivate - You will need at least four Mages, wait until shield is down.
- Fire Stalker and Ensnaring Roots
- Ensnaring Roots - You can force him to attack, while a possible target is in range, if you root him, thus preventing him from refreshing his shield.
- Air-to-Ground Cards
Phase Tower Shift[]
- Overview
- The first Era Shadow tower, the Phase Tower, is the only tower in the game that can move. This aspect can make it extremely deadly in large numbers. They can be built at a safe range and moved forward into combat range as they are finished. The key to killing them lies in the fact that they are vulnerable for a short period of time after teleporting during which they take double damage. The simplest counter is the Mortar Tower, but be careful because the Phase Towers can teleport inside the Mortar's deadzone. Once there they can deal enough damage to deal with the Mortar and any units that try to help.
- Some players use a Construction Huts built at a safe distance in order to spam towers. This is especially dangerous, though at T2 there are more options for dealing with the Phase Towers.
- Combo
- Phase Tower, often supported by Nox Trooper or Dreadcharger. Sometimes used with Construction Huts, Glacier Shell, and Kobold Trick.
- Counters
- Shadow Phoenix
- Eruption
- Lava Field
- Towers
- Mortar Tower - Probably the best defense.
- Cannon Tower
- Termite Hill
- Sunstriders - Their ability can render the towers useless as you destroy them. Less effective against mass towers though.
- Mark of the Keeper - can not teleport back if to many units are spammed
Rooting Pigs[]
- Overview
- Often you will find that your creatures have gotten themselves mired down by some form of permanent Crowd Control. The more creatures stuck in this matter, the worse it is for you power wise. Each of your creatures binds power until it dies, but this is not the case with spells. Your opponent's spells go straight into void eventually giving them the power advantage. Under this threat of impotence, attacking becomes difficult and so does defending. One possibility is to split your forces and attack multiple locations or at least keep your creatures spread out so that they can't all be hit with one spell.
- This tactic lost a lot of its strength with the Lost Souls release. Now every Crowd Control effect that is cast within 10 seconds of the last Crowd Control effect, will only have last half of its original duration. This stacks.
- Combo
- Some combination of Ensnaring Roots, Curse of Oink, Creeping Paralysis, Swamp Drake, and Coldsnap. Often the prelude to a Cannon Tower Assault.
- Counters
- Nasty Surprise - Sacrifice the CC'd creature to do damage.
- (Undead Army or Cultist Master) and Soulshatter - Summon a hoard and cast Soulshatter just before they expire.
- Tower Class Cards - Cannot be CC'd. Powerful defense and offense, but it binds power to a single location. Don't spam defensive towers.
- Altar of Nihil - Be careful with this one, but it can be used to give you a permanent power advantage against a CC user.
- Flying Cards and Ranged Cards - These creatures are less vulnerable to specific spells, especially Ensnaring Roots.
- Direct Damage Cards - Direct damage spells can be used to mitigate the damage done while your creatures are taking a nap. Use them to destroy enemy structures under construction.
- Decomposer and Furnace of Flesh - If your creatures get CC'd in range of this combo, just sacrifice them to the Decomposer and summon new creatures.
- Mark of the Keeper or Timeshifter Spirit - Prevents your enemy from casting spells of any kind.
See Also[]
Community PvP Guides[]
- Circadia's PvP guide - An extensive PvP guide for new players or players looking to improve, specifically focusing on 1v1 PvP. It deals with many of the mechanics of BattleForge and offers insights into strategies and counters.
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