The skies grow dark as Viserai returns to conquer Rathe! Join the shadow horde and usurp forbidden power at your local game store with Pre-Release, taking place worldwide from September 18-24. You’ll receive special promos, booster packs of the new set, and the best part – you don’t even need to bring a deck with you! This guide will run through what’s inside the Pre-Release Kit, how to build a Sealed Deck, and how to play each of the new Shadow heroes!
Become the Shadow Lord… take your seat!
Let’s kick off with the Pre-Release Kit. Each player gets one of these, which contains 8 booster packs of Usurp the Shadow Throne, and a promo pack with basic cards and promo cards. You can use all of these cards from the promo pack in your games. Begin by opening your booster packs, and removing the LAST TWO cards of each pack. These removed cards will be Basic, Expansion, Legendary, Marvel, or Cold Foil. Set them aside for now – you get to keep them – but they’re not needed for your games.
Next, sort your cards into four piles: Runeblade, Brute, Necromancer, and Shadow. This will make it easier to build your deck. From the cards you opened, build a deck of EXACTLY 30 cards. No more, no less. Hold onto the rest of your unused cards, because before each game, players show each other their chosen hero, then they can swap some of the cards in their deck for ones that might be stronger against their opponent’s hero. Note that equipment, hero, and weapon cards do not count towards your 30 card limit.
When you’re happy with your deck, find your hero card, their weapon card, and arm equipment card (these will be basic cards contained in your Pre-Release Kit), make sure you’ve got a Gate to i’Arathael token handy, and get ready to Usurp the Shadow Throne!
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Battle Prep
Before we dive into the heroes, let’s get up to speed with some of the keywords and card types you’ll be dealing with in Usurp the Shadow Throne:
Blood Debt — This keyword is found on many Shadow cards. At the end of your turn, you lose 1 for each card with blood debt that is still in your banished zone. There are lots of ways to stem the bleeding, such as activating a Gate to i’Arathael token in order to play a banished card (sending it to the graveyard afterwards), or using card effects to flip it face-down or move it to a different zone. While a small amount of life loss over the course of a game is an expected trade-off for getting access to extra cards, you’ll want to manage your banished zone carefully to avoid bleeding too much. Cards with blood debt can be identified by the grey symbol in their text box.
Dorinthea Pão de Queijo · Sep 25 · 71 min read0 likes00 comments0
Tip: You are allowed to separate your banished cards into two piles – one with blood debt, and one without. This makes it easier to keep count.
Go Again — Playing a card with go again refreshes your action point, allowing you to… go again. Some cards can give go again to attacks that normally wouldn’t have it, but note that a single card/attack cannot receive go again more than once.
Instant— Instants are a type of card (or ability ON a card) that can be played/activated at any time, even during the opponent’s turn, without needing an action point. Whenever a card is played, it goes on the ‘stack’, and both players have a chance to play/activate instants before that card resolves.
Block — These do exactly what you expect, they just block! Often, they have special abilities that activate when you defend with them. Be careful not to put a block card into your arsenal, as it can’t be played, and it would get stuck there for the rest of the game.
Tip: Block cards are great for defending against attacks with the overpower keyword, which limits the amount of action cards you can defend with.
Token — Tokens are cards you create during the game. They do not go in your deck.
Aura — Auras stay in the arena when played. There’s no special zone for them, just make sure you and your opponent can both clearly see the card. Auras typically self-destruct to give you a bonus, but they can also be destroyed or removed by other card effects.
Allies — When these are played, they stick around in the arena until they die or are removed by a card effect. Like auras, there’s no special zone, just make sure you and your opponent can clearly see them. Most allies have a way to attack, and can also be attacked. When an ally’s life total reaches 0, it dies. Any damage an ally takes is reset at the end of each turn. You can’t defend with an ally from your hand, nor can you defend an ally that is being attacked.
More detail on how allies work is covered in the Malice section of this article.
Tap — Some heroes, weapons, and other cards have a (tap) symbol. This means you turn the card sideways as a cost to activate it. All your cards (untap) at the end of the turn. You can’t tap a card if it’s already tapped.
Shadow Resist — This keyword is found on some equipment and allies. You can destroy it to prevent 1 damage from a source controlled by a Shadow hero. This includes arcane damage, or damage leaking through from an attack with overpower! The card that is dealing damage to you doesn’t actually have to be Shadow type itself, only the hero controlling it. You can’t use it to stop life loss from blood debt.
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Viserai
Viserai is a ShadowRuneblade hero. He can play Shadow cards, Runeblade cards, and Shadow Runeblade cards. You start the game with the following basics:
Viserai, Between Worlds (hero)
Seven Sin Nebula (weapon)
Grasp of the Darknight (arms)
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Runechants are tokens that self-destruct when you attack, dealing 1 arcane damage to the opponent. Arcane damage can’t be defended normally, so the opponent will need to find other ways to prevent the damage. Each time you make 1 or more Runechants, you banish the top card of your deck. Note that you don’t banish 1 card for every Runechant created, you banish 1 card each TIME you create 1 or more Runechants. So if you play a card that says “create 2 Runechants” you will only banish 1 card.
Keep track of how many Runechants you’ve created, because if you create 3 or more in a single turn, your hero traverses (flips into Viserai, Usurper). Viserai, Usurper gives you free go again every turn, allowing you to play more attacks. You cannot start the game as Viserai, Usurper. Most of the time you want to try getting to 3 Runechants quickly, because Viserai, Usurper lets you play more aggressively. Sometimes you may want to consider activating a Gate to i’Arathael just to traverse back, in order to banish more cards. Think of it like alternating between fueling up and stepping on the gas!
Usurp is a keyword you’ll see on a lot of Runeblade cards. If there is a Runechant in the arena, you MUST usurp it. Usurping sacrifices the arcane damage of the Runechant and powers up the attack instead. You can even usurp your opponent’s Runechants!
You’ll also find Runeblade cards in this set called “Runechant of…” – these are not Runechant tokens, but they do count as Runechants for the purpose of usurping. Playing these will not trigger Viserai, Between Worlds, nor does it count towards your 3 Runechants needed to traverse. This is because there is a difference between PLAYING and CREATING a card. However, they do create a Runechant token when destroyed…
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Playing Viserai is all about creating Runechants and setting up big usurp attacks. You’ll want a mix of cards that make Runechants, attacks with usurp, and any ‘Runechant of…’ cards. It’s good to have a few ways of making Gate to i’Arathael tokens, but you’re not as reliant on it as other heroes, mostly because your usurp attacks can already be played from the banished zone. Try to limit the amount of non-usurp blood debt cards in your deck, as they can get stuck there when banished and bleed you out. Look for ‘glue’ cards that can tick all of the above boxes (make Runechants, banish usurp attacks) – for example, Embrace Ursur.
Aim to traverse as quickly as possible, then attack two or more times every turn, using your weapon whenever possible. If you draw a hand early on that only makes 1 Runechant, arsenal that card and wait until you draw another card that makes a Runechant. That way, you can pair them with Grasp of the Darknight to reach 3 Runechants in the same turn.
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Levia
Levia is a ShadowBrute hero. She can play Shadow cards, Brute cards, and Shadow Brute cards. You start the game with the following basics:
Levia (hero)
Hell Hammer (weapon)
Hex Gauntlet (arms)
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Levia keeps herself alive by feeding the demon within, using lots of cards with 6+. Both her weapon and her arm equipment can satisfy this condition, kind of like a ‘get out of jail free’ card. Often, it can be strong to include a “Repentance” equipment if you have one, because it allows you to flip Hell Hammer face-down after using it, so that it doesn’t continue to drain your life for the rest of the game. Hex Gauntlet doesn’t require you to have any other cards with blood debt already in your banished zone in order to use – it can just flip itself face-down.
Levia has one ally she can call upon in battle – Blasmophet, the Insatiable Hunger. You’ll need to play a card that summons Blasmophet, then each turn you need to banish a card with blood debt to keep him around (this includes your opponent’s turn). If you haven’t been able to banish a card with blood debt, or a card with 6+ for Levia’s ability, you can always use Blasmophet to banish a card from your hand at the end of the turn to satisfy those requirements. Note that while Blasmophet has 6, he does not have an attack ability. In order to attack with Blasmophet, you’ll need to play specific cards that command him to do so. But the real benefit of Blasmophet isn’t really his attack, it’s how he acts similarly to a Gate to i’Arathael, allowing you to both banish cards and play banished cards.
Blasmophet has the unique keyword, which means you can only control 1 at a time. If you make a second Blasmophet token, you will need to immediately clear one of them.
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A good Levia deck aims to include as many cards with 6+ as possible. Not only are they big attacks, they allow you to keep blood debt at bay and improve consistency. You’ll find a lot of Brute cards that banish or reveal the top card of your deck are hoping to find a card with 6+ on top, so including a large amount increases your chances. Levia also plays well with ‘pumps’ (actions that increase the power of your next attack), because she can stack them onto her big attacks to overwhelm the opponent’s defenses.
There are a couple of different ways to play Levia. One way is to try pulling off huge turns, either by pumping super tall attacks, or playing attacks with go again like Feeding Frenzy, making your damage output too vast for the opponent to operate efficiently. If you want to play this style, you’ll want to include lots of 2-cost cards with go again, so that you can reliably pay for big turns. The other way to play is more defensive, and focuses on maintaining high life total, keeping your banished zone clear, and throwing one big attack every turn until the opponent has been grinded out of cards. This style plays well with lots of 7 attacks, especially ones that don’t banish cards from the top of your deck, and lots of cards with 3 or more .
Cards with overpower work really well in both styles of deck, by either closing out the game before your deck and/or banished zone become dangerous, or by forcing the opponent to defend awkwardly and miss out on value.
Tip: If you play Feeding Frenzy but the card it banished from the top of your deck doesn’t have 6+, you can still use Hex Gauntlet to get the go again!
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Malice
Malice is a ShadowNecromancer hero. She can play Shadow cards, Necromancer cards, and Shadow Necromancer cards. You start the game with the following basics:
Malice (hero)
Vox Necropolis (weapon)
Appalling Bearers (arms)
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Malice commands a horde of zombies that decay over time, eventually becoming Corrupted Corpses, which are like super-zombies. Your regular “Restless” zombies are actions, which means when you play them from hand or arsenal, you can’t do anything else afterwards. However, Malice allows you to play one zombie from your graveyard every turn, and when that zombie enters the arena from the graveyard (or banished zone), it’ll automatically attack, even though your action point was used up. You can attack with that zombie again on future turns by paying 1 and tapping it.
You’ll have to find ways to discard your allies to get them into the graveyard, because you can’t defend with them. Your opponent will have to decide if they want to attack the ally (which is great for you, because then you’re not the one getting attacked), or just let the ally die in a few turns from decay (more on this in a bit). Either way, it presents a challenge for the opponent, which is worth the extra hoops you’re jumping through to get them out into the arena. Note that you also can’t defend an ally that is being attacked. All damage taken by allies resets at the end of each turn.
Your Restless zombies have the keyword decay, which means that at the end of each turn, they get a -1 counter (which sticks around, regardless of how much damage they’ve taken). When the zombie’s life reaches 0, it dies, you banish it face-down, then create a Corrupted Corpse in your banished zone.
Corrupted Corpses have some key differences to the Restless zombies in your deck. Firstly, they have the keyword incarnate, which means they cannot start in your deck. Secondly, they have blood debt, which means you will lose life each turn unless you get them out of your banished zone. The most common way to do this is by activating a Gate to i’Arathael. Another common way to do this is by playing a card that can move a card from your banished zone to the graveyard, where it can then be played via Malice’s hero ability. Thirdly, Corrupted Corpses do NOT have decay, which means once they hit the arena, your opponent will have to attack them to get rid of them. Lastly, their attacks have go again, which means when it enters and automatically attacks due to Vox Necropolis’ effect, you’ll refresh your action point.
Tip: When your zombie dies from decay, the Corrupted Corpse is created AFTER blood debt life loss. So you won’t lose life from the Corrupted Corpse on the turn it was created.
There are a few instant auras in this set with the keyword bind. These can be played at any time, and ‘attach’ themselves to an ally in the arena, giving it an attack boost and some bonus effects when it hits or dies. There’s no official space to put them, but it’s recommended to put it next to (or slightly underneath) the zombie it is bound to, so that it’s clear what’s attached to who. If the ally is removed from the arena for any reason, destroy the aura.
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Building a strong Malice deck is all about including the right tools and ratios in order to manage your zombies efficiently. 4-6 zombies is a perfect amount to include in your deck, and you’ll also want lots of cards that create Gate to i’Arathael tokens so that you can reliably play out your Corrupted Corpses. Cards that discard are also useful, as it is far more efficient to play a zombie from your graveyard than from your hand. Look out for cards that can tick multiples of these boxes, such as Ominous Toll. Make sure to include at least 12-14 blues, because you want to be able to reliably pay for Gate to i’Arathael tokens, Malice’s hero ability, and Corrupted Corpses.
Playing Malice is a little tricky at first, but you’ll soon get the hang of it. Often, the best approach is to defend lots and keep your life total high, while creating Gate to i’Arathael tokens and getting your zombies into the graveyard. Corrupted Corpses are relatively easy to deal with on their own, but can be backbreaking in multiples, so try to work towards big turns where you can play two Corrupted Corpses and a third ally from your graveyard in one fell swoop. Not only do these big push plays present a lot of damage, it makes getting rid of the allies extremely difficult, allowing you to swing them turn after turn while your opponent is trying to catch up.
Tip: Zombies are at their most deadly when they swarm together as a horde!
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Baalghor
Baalghor is a Shadow hero. He can only play non-class Shadow and Generic cards. Baalghor does not have a weapon. In order to play Baalghor, you MUST open him in your Pre-Release Kit. He shows up VERY occasionally as a rare in the promo pack.
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33. That’s right. You get a substantial life advantage against other heroes in the set, but it comes at a steep price. Your card pool is smaller, you only draw 3 cards per turn instead of 4, and whenever you pitch a card, it gets banished. This means your blood debt will pile up quickly, and you are not equipped to survive longer grindy games. However, with Gate to i’Arathael tokens, you can play these banished cards, AND they all get +3, which is a huge damage boost. So your goal should be to eat whatever damage the opponent throws at you, and stomp them into the ground as quickly as possible.
Key cards to look out for are those that can be played from your banished zone without needing a Gate to i’Arathael, such as Ghostly Visit, Void Wraith, and “Abyssal…” blue cards. Both red and yellow copies of the first two are perfect to pitch, as they will then get banished and can themselves be played. Cards that cost 0 or can be paid for by putting a card from your hand on top of your deck instead of pitching, such as Darkest Hour and Seek Horizon, will allow you to slow down the rate at which you burn through your deck.
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Cards that allow you to turn banished cards face-down are great, as it stops you taking too much blood debt early on. “…of i’Arathael” cards are also strong, because you can guarantee a card will be banished just paying for them. Your goal is to race the opponent and kill them as quickly as possible before you face inevitable fatigue and/or death by blood debt, which makes attacks with overpower or go again very valuable, especially when combined with the buff from Baalghor’s hero ability.
for each card with blood debt that is still in your banished zone. There are lots of ways to stem the bleeding, such as activating a Gate to i’Arathael token in order to play a banished card (sending it to the graveyard afterwards), or using card effects to flip it face-down or move it to a different zone. While a small amount of life loss over the course of a game is an expected trade-off for getting access to extra cards, you’ll want to manage your banished zone carefully to avoid bleeding too much. Cards with blood debt can be identified by the grey symbol in their text box.
(tap) symbol. This means you turn the card sideways as a cost to activate it. All your cards (untap) at the end of the turn. You can’t tap a card if it’s already tapped.
. Both her weapon and her arm equipment can satisfy this condition, kind of like a ‘get out of jail free’ card. Often, it can be strong to include a “Repentance” equipment if you have one, because it allows you to flip Hell Hammer face-down after using it, so that it doesn’t continue to drain your life for the rest of the game. Hex Gauntlet doesn’t require you to have any other cards with blood debt already in your banished zone in order to use – it can just flip itself face-down.
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and tapping it.