With the Arena here, many players are jumping in and trying out crazy new decks and synergies which Rank play cannot provide. Since in the Arena you can pick cards from all factions, be it Gold, Silver or Bronze, there are many unusual interactions that can be found. Today though, we will be talking about a particular Silver card that I would highly recommend as a pick which is the Runestones of each faction.
The Runestones provide great flexibility where it can provide certain answers to certain situations when the other cards in hand cannot provide. One of it is weather clear through the silver Mages of each faction. Still, I believe certain Runestones outclass the other since the silvers in certain Factions are much better than others. So here are my rankings for the Runestones for the Arena Format.
#5. DEVANA RUNESTONE
The last and the worst is Devana Runestone which creates Silver Monster Cards. The reason this card is bad is because there can be a time at your worst luck, you will be presented with all three Crones as the option of the Create. If you have no other Crones in your deck to pull, this card will be a low tempo play. Still, there are some good cards like the Parasite that can provide a huge boost to your unit or a high removal, or Golyat that can be game winning in the third round.
The problem is that the amount of bad cards outweighs the amount of good cards. Cards like Ruehin, Nithral, Mourntart, Maerolorn, She-Troll of Vergan or even Ozzrel can be dead cards. For that Devanna Runestone can be avoided from the draft unless you draft Monsters heavily and have the synergy for it.
#4. MORANA RUNESTONE
Fourth on the list is the Morana Runestone which creates a Silver Scoia’tael card. The cards that can be created that are good are few like Yarpen Zigrin which provides carryover, Morenn, Milaen and Braenn that can provide removal or Toruviel which may provide 14 Strength play. Still these cards are situational where certain conditions must be met for it to be good. Even Yarpen without any other dwarfs is only a 7 strength play which can be removed easily in Arena.
Furthermore, the other cards that are presented in the Runestone are the Zoria Runestone which can be dead at most times. Pavko Gale requires you have another item in the deck while Barclay Els, Hattori and Paulie require you to have either dwarfs in your deck or a unit in your discard pile. The Silvers in Scoiat’ael although do provide high value are mostly either combo pieces or situational.
#3. ZORIA RUNESTONE
Zoria Runestone is third on the list as it creates Silver Northern Realms cards. Prince Stennis is a great pull from the Runestone to thin your deck and pull another card while Ves can also be a great card which can swap cards in your hand providing better cards in hand. Another great card is Ronvid the Incessant which not only provide crew 1 for your Machines that you draft but also a small carryover strength.
As we go lower in the ranking list, the amount of miss will grow with each Runestone. This is evident with the Zoria Runestone as the amount of miss is quite abundant with cards like Hubert Rejk, Lubberkin, Sabrina Glevissig, or even Princess Pavetta which does nothing unless certain situation or certain cards are present.
#2. STRIBOG RUNESTONE
The next Runestone on the ranking is the Stribog Runestone which creates a Skellige Silver. The only reason this is in Second place is because it can Create into Morkvarg which is the best carryover card in Arena. The other Skellige Silver that is highly valuable is Djenge Frett, which can provide 14 points and can damage your own cards which provides synergies with certain cards. Other honorable mention is Yoana is also another great card ttat Heals a unit you have and boost it by the amount healed, and Campion of Hov which can be a removal at times.
The other reason it is second is because the Runestone hardly misses. The only bad cards are Sigrdrifa, Skjall and Derran. Even then these cards fit certain situations where Sigrdrifa can resurrect a Clan unit, Skjall can pull a curse unit you may have drafted and Derran is superb when you have played a Gold Weather Card.
#1. DAZHBOG RUNESTONE
The best Runestone to me is the Dazhbog Runestone which Creates a Silver Nilfgaard Card since Silver Nilfgaard provides a variety of answer or high value cards. Other than Vanhemar which is the Nilfgaard mage, there other great cards like Peter which provides a great answer to high boosted cards by resetting a unit and weaken it by 3. Other great high value cards that can be found is Auckes which locks, Henry which conceals your cards from shenanigans, Ceallach which can spawn an Assassin to remove key units or even Joachim to just thin a card from your deck and provide a high strength unit.
Furthermore there only a few misses from the Runestone like Sweers which is bad in Arena or Nilfgaardian Gate when you have no officers in your deck. Since there are a lot answers and a few misses in the Runestone, this makes it to me the best Runestone in Arena.
That is it for today on and I hope you do enjoy the new Arena format as I do. It is an alternative to the Rank play and can be a lot more fun with wacky combos, lucky pulls from create, or even certain combos that you never knew before.
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