The Swift Sword

We've been looking over and discussing EE decks for a while now and there are some Fate cards showing up consistently in all of the military decks.

What are the key military cards that will/should be in every deck without considering the key words Scout, Tactician, or Paragon?

So far I've noticed these three in everyone's decks just about:
1) Cast Aside the Weak
2) Brothers in Battle
3) Sundering Strike (thanks to all who turned me on to it)

Now I've seen some honorable mentions...should they be included in the above?
- Know no Fear
- Broken Alliance
- Reckless Rush
- Unorthodox Attack
- Brawl
- Heart of Darkness

Lion decks are, bluntly, extremely shy of kill actions on the Dynasty side. That's probably by design. Naturally, we gravitate towards just about anything that will fill in this gap, such as Cast Aside the Weak and Brothers in Battle, despite the fact that Brothers In Battle is really going to end up being kinda weak against a sizable chunk of the military field who can sport 5+ force people and followers, making us burn force reductions on them before they're even realistically endangered by the Ranged 4 attack.

Sundering Strike
Reckless Rush
Heart of Darkness

These are the ones I expect to see a ton. Brawl, maybe. A card without attachments (not "card without unbowed attachments") may prove to be weaker than most available alternatives. Unorthodox Attack requires an unbowed samurai.

Gold and Steel should be seen a LOT. Free attachments provide a lot of protection. Nuking that is a big deal. Also, it's trait-less personality v. personality bow with optional send-home and a simplistic targeting requirement.

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Swift Sword Forum Rules

brawl or control the board (if you have tacticians) i'm seeing as a must. heart of darkness is flat out one of the strongest cards in the environment: it's two bows in one card that can't be straightened by battle actions and can't be negated by most (any?) reactions, you're gonna need an answer.

i honestly think you have to keep a couple copies of heart of darkness in your deck on the chance that they don't have terrain destruction.

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RUN KEPPO IN YOUR SCOUT DECK!

Ancient Feud helps with that, and doubles as a really powerful answer to a huge chunk of defenses we've seen so far. Wall of Honor, Flooded Pass, Willing Spirits, Ebisu's Honesty, Siege Volley, Ring of Earth, and a number of personalities. In the military match-up, it just straight up nukes Heart of Darkness and prevents a second copy from being played.

I find it difficult to envision a military deck early arc that doesn't run 2-3 copies.

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Swift Sword Forum Rules

i'll agree, ancient feud would make a fine substitute for brawl/control the board. i think the decision comes down to how the metagame shapes up.

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RUN KEPPO IN YOUR SCOUT DECK!

Don't count out Akodo's Grave either. Pretty much everybody has answers to terrains, so between Golden Plains, Brawl, Feud, and Grave anyone who is actually counting on Heart (or any particular terrain) to win a battle is just borrowing trouble, hoping people haven't meta-gamed properly or just can't afford (monetarily or Focus Value wise) to play Brawl.

As to Brothers in Battle, I think Archery Dojo should be at a premium to help make it stick. We have so many good Fate options for Terrain control and no need for lux silk so it shouldn't be hard to put the ranged 5 on the table.

- Marty Lund

Yojimbo's Duty and Rumors traveled

I love both of these cards. Having Cast Aside the Weak I have skipped A Yojimbo's Duty for my unbow tech but CAW has cost me being restricted to the Open phase only.

Rumors Traveled will go into my deck just as soon as I get my meta tightened up.

Since the beginning of EE, one of my favorite card is Block Supply line. It is not performed, and bow an enemy unit. It is very good and makes it much easier to attack on your turn !