Rei chats to PDMD (a.k.a PauloDiogo), who you may recognize from the recent Community Cup and his brave showing in the top 4, or from being slain by him on ladder. He’ll be chatting to a person a week – try and see the game through their eyes.

ReiReiBarker: Where are you from? How old are you?

PDMD: I’m from Portugal and I’m 22 years old. Penafiel is the city if you want that too xD.

Is there a TESL community there?

In Portugal, not now. We had a lot of players but they stopped around December when game was in a rough spot.

Has your relationship with the game changed  because of that? More online/global peer testing group?

Nah still the same as I was at the start trying to stay with the community in CVH’s chat the most I could and now with my teammates from MetaShift Gaming, testing decks and working in lineups for tourneys

It’s good in there haha. Who is MetaShift? Do you think working in a team gives a big edge?

Metashift Gaming is me, YouCanCallMeAl, Lateralus19, and OGFlex. It’s still a new thing but we join to talk about our lists and lineups. That helps a bit cause we get to hear all the point of views from good players therefore getting more ideas about matchups and how to make decks better. It’s been pretty fun to get along with all of them and talk about meta, decks etc.

I bet. That’s a good bunch. Using a discord or something to communicate? Would you recommend players do this?

Yeah.  we use discord and yes I advise other players to get together and share ideas, decks etc.

I can confirm that. You’ve definitely helped me  a bunch. You’re quite the deckbuilder. Are there any hard and fast rules you use or a specific approach?

Aww thx xD.

I follow what CVH told me long time ago- just try to get an idea of what your deck wants to do, then test as much as you can. I normally get the idea of what I want to build for the core. Then i test a bit, change things test again until i’m happy with the final product.

As a case study, you showed me the Orcs/warrior deck you’d been laddering with and it’s been amazing for me. What was the process with that? There’s obviously a shell there with orcs but how’d you finish it?

The core for orcs is, well, all the good orcs. After I got the core I went for ways of putting early pressure with Mighty Ally, so i went extra red, then Sower for control matchups.

6/3 for 3 magicka is hard to pass up.

Extra burst from vigilante. Sharpshooter atm is tech vs tokens but I like raiders or rapid shot. The deck shifts a bit depending on what I see.

What’s your favorite card at the moment?

Gortwog! I play a lot of aggro or aggressive midrange decks. I play some slower midrange decks too, but they used to play Atros and Atros are good vs scouts.

Where does atro sit now?

Hard to say, I haven’t tested with it a lot. I think it has no space in some decks but it will still see some play.

Which is most affected? Has it pushed any archetypes out?

I think Merric suffers a lot with it and midrange sorcerer will just trade them for Bone Colossus. Merric will maybe be pushed out.

Will this have a flow on effect or too early to tell?

Still too early to tell.

Ok great. See how things shake out. Makes an interesting last week of season

What is TESL doing well?

I like all the things about the game. Lanes, cards, game modes. I think they handle buffs and nerfs really well for most of the times.

They listen to us players and aren’t afraid of saying well we messed it up, this isn’t good for the game, let’s change it. I would just like to see competitive scene being pushed a bit harder like a small tourney sponsored by Bethesda.

Or many large ones?

Well yeah large ones we all want, but at least small ones for now, just to make people happy, cause other games are doing it and we are taking it slow.

Yeah it would be great. I’m waiting eagerly too. Since you are a deck making god can we do a 2nd case study?

Lol I’m not a god. Please don’t say that.

I’ve been working on a monk dragon deck.

Sure buddy ask what you want.

I think it has the tools but I’d love your input. I love the power of undying dragon, and for the cup it won’t get banned I’m sure, while mage and crusader will imo

ReiReiBarker’s Dragon Monk

Deck Builder – Legends Decks – The Elder Scrolls: Legends

What would you do to this? What strengths and weaknesses are there?

I would max hive defenders and cloudrest, this is a control deck right?

Against aggro yes, but IMO you turn the corner quicker cos of life gain.

Lookout is better than the other dragon cards from yellow.

Green lookout?

Yep.

I wanted max dragons to increase alduin casting – people laugh at me but I think it trumps everything and only gets cheaper the later the game is.

Yeah with what I say you take only 1 dragon out XD. I would take out the the guard dragon for Hive Defender.

Cool.

Hive is better.

I’m talking max viability here. If you think change 47 cards that’s ok.

I would take out Altar for Cloudrest.

Ok. Don’t like altar, or 1of, bad fit?

Yellow lookout and blast for 3 green lookouts.

I put it in to give some extra % vs control

1 of too clunky imo for altar.

Okay

You run baroness and paarthurnax for the control matchup, also Undying Dragon.

I found games would go long but they’d outcard me eventually, but altar would put it away, and 1 cos you don’t care about drawing it early. Yellow Lookout not good enough? In general or this deck?

He’s not bad but the green one is op xD. It is very good yeah, but try 3 yellow lookouts and test them with the rest of the changes.

If you like it keep, if not change.

I did but changed to 2 cos it was something i wanted later. Playing that and a dragon in one turn as a 3 cost 3/5 or better in the midgame.

Then keep it at 2 and add 3rd baroness.

Ok thanks. Do you think this deck would be viable? What trouble would it have? What would its good matchups be? Dw i can take it.

I’d need  to play to tell but it seems aggro would be ok matchup. Midrange would suck. Control depends on draws, you have good value cards. Ramp might be hard but it’s not impossible i think.

What is the major indicator of poor midrange matchup?

Depends if you can heal with dragons or nah, lining up dawnstars and dragons. Undying ones. Lack of early removal. Like firebolts or lightning bolts. Midrange minions are strong to take trades, so they don’t care and race you with strong bodies. That’s what I think at least.

So I wouldn’t be getting 2 for 1s off Hive defender etc?

What do you do to windkeep into mammoth, into mammoth, or shade?

Good questions to ask yeah.

Would upping execute and adding crushing blow do that?

Midrange beats control and your deck looks more controlish. Hard to tell – blows can help.

There’s the community cup tonight. Say I qualified and I don’t know what to play, or I’ve never been in a tournament before. What should I play?

The decks you feel good with. I like to take 2 aggressive decks and 2 more midrange or controlish but normally what you feel better with.

Ok cool. Any deck or archetype you think would be good for this exact point in time, cos things change so quickly

I still think either token mage or crusader for tourney, and for ladder maybe Midrange Archer.

Yeah? What list would you use for archer, or who would you look at to start?

Link. Always Link for archer. My list is really close to Link’s.

2 final questions; Best advice for new players? Who should I chat to next?

Watch streams is the best advice – get all the knowledge from good players like CVH, Link etc.

Try getting link, cvh, YouCanCallMeAl or Atronach_Atronach, they should be good.

I’ll give it a shot! Thanks mate.

Cya soon XD