Treyik Is Not an Auto-Include
This is a post by PeteVG, a software issue appears to have corrupted his first attempt
So I play Elves a lot. One of the things that Elf decks tend to do is discard cards for an effect. And I therefore usually include Treyik in my decks, because, he's pretty good in a discard deck, right?
Order: Kill one of your Undead: Give an Elf a +3 ATK and +3 AC.
Then I came across biglazydragon's response to Zechnophobe's recent article on his Caitlyn the Free "Discount dot deck." And I don't mean to pick on biglazydragon, because his overall reaction was basically what my reaction to the deck would've been had I not spent a good chunk of a Saturday afternoon losing to it. But the part that stood out to me was the part where he suggested that Zechno should add Treyik to the deck to "improve" it. Because that suggestion is pretty silly -- there are a lot of better things Zechno can do with the deck than put a stunned level 1 elf with 10 AC into play.
And that got me to thinking: Treyik is not necessarily an auto-include in decks that discard cards from their hand, even when those decks are Elf decks. Assuredly, Treyik is a fine card. He has a decent ATK, and he gives you the nice little bonus of an extra character when you discard him from your hand. The problem is that he doesn't have much of an impact on your typical game. His AC is low enough that he will die quickly if your opponent is even remotely worried about him. His ATK bonus is nice, but nothing to write home about.
And Treyik is downright bad in some circumstances. If you have a Treyik in hand at a time when you don't need to discard cards, he's just a sub-par character, taking up a slot that could've been dedicated to any number of more useful cards. If you're playing an elf deck and are starting Javvyn or Amatria Tansiq -- not exactly an unlikely choice -- you typically do not want to add Treyik to your front rank on the first turn, even if you're in a position to discard him. You want your opponent to be engaged in making hard choices about whether or not to swing at Javvyn/Amatria and reap the negative consequences; you don't want to give them the easy choice of taking out Treyik instead.
This isn't to say that the little guy is completely useless. In Raziel decks, which often rely on "early game" board advantage to swing games, Treyik is a much more significant factor, just by virtue of being another hit point and strike at the happy cost of discarding a card from an opponent's hand. And he's definitely a consideration for any other elf deck that discards cards. But he's not an auto include. If you have better cards, put them in instead.
More generally, there are some cards printed to work with a certain mechanic, but it's a trap to mindlessly throw them into a deck that uses that mechanic. You want to include the best cards for your particular deck. And that sometimes means leaving cards like poor old Treyik by the wayside, sad as that may be.
~ PeteVG
Rogue Elf
posted by TaKtiX @ Friday, May 19, 2006
3 Comments:
People always seem to forget that Treyik has that other ability printed on his card; the order.
Sure, it's not gonna be used very often (and not at all if he's just some out-of-faction rank holder), but in a pinch it can be a game-saver. Giving Cairbre a boost to his stats at the right moment by offing a random token skeleton is none too shabby, given the otherwise poor showing for Elven stat buffs. And with EoS here now, he can be seen as a method for killing off your own Corinth's Refuse, to drop the enemy's skill even more. I'm starting to consider his entering play effect as a nice bonus, rather than the sole reason to run him.
Still, I'll agree that Treyik with loyalty penalty is rarely worth it. I had considered adding him to my Simon deck last week, but there are so many other characters whose usefulness when discarded is just as good as when they're played normally, like Barrow Wight or Kayle Rowan.
There was originally a line in there about opponents usually just killing Treyik if his ability is a factor -- got cut when I was tring to streamline the article.
I actually hadn't thought about using Treyik w/ Corinth's Refuse ... the problem is that he's still very fragile; an opponent who is on his toes probably isn't going to give you the chance to use him. Simply running your opponent's strikes into the Refuse with a Shadow of Jealousy might be a more effective way to make use of the Refuse, at react speed to boot ...
Treyik is a good choice with Caibre Nethryn especially with Corinth Refuse. It's a stong and useful combination. I can't think of a better elf warlord to use him with.
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