Incarnations of the Cosmic forces, from which everything is made…
Drakkonen are without a doubt the most primal force in Creation. They're biology is completely unlike any other organism. While maintaining a wholly physical form, they do not possess the capacity to breath or process oxygen or any other gas for that matter. They feed, however possess not digestive tract. They are wholly comprised of a single cosmic matter. When Fluthraxic, a mighty Drakkonen of Chaos, was slain he erupted in a display of indescribable light and sound, streams of energy tearing off in every direction and out of sight. There was nothing left of him. Since that sighting many scholars have theorized what happens to a Drakkonen when they are slain or how exactly they come to be in the first place. However, since Drakkonen are difficult to isolate and are wildly intelligent, even in captivity they produce little which scientist can observe or measure other than exterior physical dimensions and properties.
Drakkonen are powerful, their manifestation miraculous and power wholly incomparable to that of more terrestrial races to which most have grown accustom to in Creation. They do vary in size. Their exact ecology is slightly strange. Some have said that they are born from eggs, however none have seen a mother laying eggs. To be fair though they do look nothing like the eggs we see foul or reptile hatch from. So it is assumed they grow. They do exhibit what could be considered a pack or brood social structure in some cases, but it does seem that there comes a point when a Drakkonen seek solitude, generally larger and more powerful Drakkonen tend to behave this way. Regardless, the Drakkonen are a presence which cannot be ignored. They are stronger and smarter Than most, but they can be killed.
Truth be told, despite the fact that they are at least seemingly dependent on one another, it is rare to see two arriving at once. Observations on how they effect on worlds they inhabit, suggest that they may in fact possess a 'charge' which repulse other life forms, it is unclear why. Regardless, this makes them easier to isolate, which is an ideal condition to meet them in battle. While one might think that dispersing of one Drakkonen's 'charge' would all but invite another, the contrary seems true. The death of even a young Drakkonen can delay the arrival of another. If you even encounter a Drakkonen on its own, it's in your best interest to immediately dispatch it, as only it's call will draw other Drakkonen.
Drakkonen are completely unlike any other creature we've happened upon before. Intelligent, powerful and wielding a seemingly passive influence on the world around them. They can't be bought. Any attempt to reason with them ends in bafflement. In truth, they operate in such a manner that is wholly alien to our way of thinking. They seem to have shades of understandable behavior, but simply are too elusive and too dangerous for us to thoroughly examine. They are a true force of nature, we cannot expect to be so lucky next time.
Optional Support
The Drakkonen utilize the Support designed for the Epic Archetype. The following section will outline some of the cards that greatly benefit the Drakkonen and their main play styles. The Drakkonen do not use Terra and have to rely on the alternate costs of cards in the Terra and Shadow Archetypes to gain additional support. Sacrificing card slots for Standard Resources can allow a Drakkonen deck to use a larger pool of cards, but reduces the chance of getting needed draws to keep momentum flowing for the Drakkonen.
Mina Holly - Mina Holly is the only Shadow Architect that explicitly can support the Drakkonen and other future Epic Archetype based decks. This is due to her static ability that reduces her Resource Condition by -1 for each Epic Character in your Void. Her Assimilate ability allows you to see your next draw and plan your next moves accordingly. If the card is not satisfactory for your situation or if you need the extra ammunition you can use her Retribution -1 ability to shuffle the top card of your deck and then draw two cards. Keeping a good hand of cards is key to the Drakkonen as you do not have to worry about Terra and most cards you draw you can immediately use.
Cards such as Mina Holly are extremely critical to the Drakkonen deck as most of the time when you take damage you lose fuel that can be used for your game. Due to this fact, the protection that Mina Holly provides is astonishing as you gain both the ability to manipulate your deck and not to worry about taking damage until she is slain. It is best to play this card main deck and utilize ElectroDark Summons to play additional support from the Shadow Architects.
Arclight - Arclight is a card that serves a slot both main deck and potentially in the Sideboard based on your matchup. This card is a free response Pitfall Effect that keeps your Epic Characters from being slain. This is very useful as you can only play one Epic Character per turn and cards of the Terra Archetype generally run a good deal of character removal. Try to have one of these set when you play some of the larger Drakkonen such as Voidfeeder Tyrant and Voidspawn Drakkonen as they are extremely vulnerable to removal once they hit play. If late game you do not need this card try setting multiple copies of it with a Sharvan Dragon out to accelerate your playing of the 10 combat Drakkonen.
Riptor, Sharvan Elite - Riptor, Sharvan Elite is one of the most unique cards in the UCG, this card can place cards from your hand into the effect zones and have them gain the ability Bide 4. What this means is the card can be played for free and all you have to do is keep it in the Effect Zones for the next four turns. This is a great addition to any Drakkonen deck as it allows you to play some of the larger Drakkonen such as the Voidfeeder Tyrant and Voidspawn Drakkonen. The cards use the alternate cost of Bide 4 to ignore their Epic Conditions and allow you to still play an Epic Character that turn.
Some of the pitfalls of using Riptor, Sharvan Eite is it opens up the the cards to two forms of removal. The first and most important is each card placed into an Effect Zone counts as Effects in play and are open to removal such as Pink Totem Wing and ElectroDark Storm. You can use cards such as Arclight to prevent the cards awaiting their bide costs to be paid from being prematurity removed from the field. The second pitfall of using Riptor, Sharvan Elite is all the cards while not in a zone that allows you to activate them, they are still valid targets for removal especially character since most decks can run some form of it.
Lustful Demise - The most critical of Pitfall Effects that can be used with the Drakkonen. This card when used at the proper times can have you discarding powerful Architect cards from your opponent's hand or their most powerful effect cards such as Final Clash or Ballad of She. The cost of the card while it is simple can be hinder some late game as you need to have an Epic Character to both Contact and Engage the Pitfall Effect in your hand. You can use this card in combination with Disturbing Thoughts to return a card back to its owner's hand and then use the returned character for the Engage to activate Lustful Demise. It is best to run as many copies as possible in your deck for even if you cannot discard a card from the opponent's hand, you can still see their hand.
Key Cards for your Deakkonen Deck
Emerald Green Gold Drakkonen - This Drakkonen card is very useful for when an opponent plays a character that you are not prepared to handle. Use this when the player Attucks with a smaller attacker and then activate. This will generally cause the attacking character to be Slain due to the Engage stating to choose another character that is not attacking. Now that you have a large Drakkonen out that is the same size as the threat, you can focus more on the offensive. This card is extremely useful to Drakkonen decks as it can block characters with Swift due to its ability to place itself into the encounter zone blocking the attacking character.
Drakkonen Timekiller - This card is extremely brutal to several Terra Archetype based decks as it completely shuts down their ability to both search for cards to put into their hand or in play except by drawing them. The Descendants, Gangsters, and Mercenaries are all extremely vulnerable to this card and it is definitely worth keeping the Arclight free to save this card from being Slain. Use this with cards like Diplomatic Solution and Fledgling Drakkonen to create a field dominated by your control cards. Along with having an extremely powerful ability, the Drakkonen Timekiller also does not have delayed and packs a large combat stat of four to take down any of the opponent's characters.
Drakkonen Whelp - The Drakkonen Whelp is the unsung hero of the Drakkonen. While this card does not directly win games with attacks, it primary power is to let you play Drakkonen from you Void. By Decimating this card from the Void on a turn that you did not play a Drakkonen, you could play late game a card like Dark Armored Sharvan or get back a much needed Riptor, Sharvan Elite. This card makes great bait for the Drakkonen with written Epic Conditions as it only has one combat and it only useful while in the Void. Run as many copies of this card as you can in any Drakkonen deck as it will allow you to continue to play Epic Character each turn.
Drakkonen Breaker - The Drakkonen Breaker is one of the strongest of the no Epic Condition Drakkonen. This character has Overpower and is not Delayed, combined with the +1 Combat Counter it comes into play with makes for a great early game play. This card is useful against many of the effect heavy decks such as Azkar Rah and several Gangster builds. You can use it to immediately slay an effect card in play and then use it as part of the cost for a larger Drakkonen.
ElectroDark Summons - ElectroDark Summons is one of the more unique cards that is available for the Drakkonen. This card allows you to get any Shadow Architect from your Sideboard Zone directly into play as long as you control an Epic Character when the Bide cost was played. Use this card early game when you have a plentiful amount of Drakkonen in your hand and on the field. This card allows you to run other Architects in addition to Mina Holly such as Ayaka Lizzy and Dretch Muerte. These two cards when played with ElectroDark Summons allow to regain control of the game if the tides were to turn. Be careful when using this card as you cannot activate it if you already control an Architect and if the Bide Cost is not equal to the Resource Condition.
Weaknesses
Drakkonen are very vulnerable to cards that return characters back to the hand such as Ignorance. While all character decks are vulnerable to the character removal Drakkonen need their early game cards in order to grow in power. If the player is good about keeping the smaller Drakkonen from staying in play, a Drakkonen deck will have a very hard time establishing field control. In additional to these weaknesses, Drakkonen are limited in numbers and have to rely on cards such as Agent Drake to prevent combo pieces from leaving the deck before they can be used. Timewave Zero is a very cheap answer for most decks to run against the Drakkonen early game that also has the Timing of Immediate. Lastly, Drakkonen rely on the use of Pitfall Effect cards for their strategies and cards that can easily remove their Pitfall before they can activate can give them issues.
Drakkonen have the main limitation as each of their characters are of the Epic Character archetype. This means you are limited to only playing one of them per turn. This designator also is not Terra based so you lose a vast majority of support offered by the other designators or even the ability to run power effects such as Ballad of She. Cards such as Tear the Void while very useful the deck are quite taxing as you need to decimate the cards in your hand in order to use its effect. Regardless of the strategy used, you are also dependent on Pitfall Effect cards, that if placed improperly can take up all of your Effect Zones leaving you defenseless. The deck can also tend to be very weak to destruction heavy decks as they desperately need to keep spare Drakkonen in play in order to play their stronger members. Any deck that runs large amount of effect card removal will also make your life a burden as most Pitfall Effects cannot be used immediately unless triggered.
Ignorance - This card was brought up earlier in this article, it must be stressed how bad this card can ruin a Drakkonen deck. Most of the stronger cards in the Drakkonen faction all require a timed commitment in the form of turns or other cards being disposed. By using cards like Ignorance you can cause the Drakkonen deck to lose up to three turns of work by bouncing one of the larger Drakkonen cards. There is very in the form of protection from cards like Ignorance from the Drakkonen as Arclight only stops cards or abilities that would Slay the Epic Character. Along with returning cards to the hand, cards that can make players discard cards such as Black Totem Wing.
Bubs Maclain - Bubba is a great response to any Drakkonen deck. This card can totally remove almost all the support offered to the Drakkonen. By taking control of Effect cards in play, you cause the Drakkonen to lose out and gain their own effects against them. If you are running a great deal of Insane support, you also gain the benefit of having most of your Insane cards now too large for the Drakkonen to deal with in most situations. This card holds a great sideboard slot against effect heavy decks and the Drakkonen make use of a great deal of effect cards.
Nature's Wrath - Nature's Wrath is a fantastic answer for most early game setups. However, the Drakkonen unlike most decks in the game, need their smaller cards out in order to play better cards. The Nature's Wrath will always have one or two targets that it could take out regardless when you would play it. Late game, if you were to play the extra cost almost all the Drakkonen early and mid-game cards will fall to the four damage. If this card does not comply well with your strategy, you can opt-in the use of Lost in Thought instead to save your characters from being removed from the field.
Gizmo Replicator - The over commitment of resources can easily be punished for the Drakkonen. The Drakkonen player needs to commit at least two or three cards to have a character of four combat or more. By playing cards such as Gizmo Replicator and Curious Cat Girl you can match the Drakkonen's pacing and for the most part your Gizmo Replicator is safe. The Drakkonen lack removal that does not damage the player in some way, if you play a Gizmo Replicator, there is little a Drakkonen deck can do to remove it without taking damage themselves.
Play Style(s)
Dragon Master
The Dragon Master deck is a deck focused directly around playing powerful Drakkonen cards and using cards such as Pitfall Effects to protect your investments. This deck runs cards that directly support the Drakkonen and Epic Character archetypes and has many advantages over a Terra base deck which is used by the other designators in the game. The strategy is to play out Pitfall Effects to gain control over your opponent's ability to be aggressive until after a few turns you establish field control with power Drakkonen such as Drakkonen Soultaker to power up their Drakkonen and also grants them the rare ability of Swift. This type of Drakkonen Deck can also play some of the larger Drakkonen such as Voidspawn Drakkonen and Voidfeeder Tyrant to overwhelm your opponent as early as the third turn with super powerful Drakkonen. It is very wise to use the two Covert Drakkonen Riptor, Sharvan Elite and Dark Armored Sharvan to quickly establish field control if things were to get out of hand. This deck benefits well from running the Unique Resource card Paradigm's Edge as it will allow you to remove your opponent's special resource cards to force them to move at a slower pace. It is very helpful when playing this deck is to use the "baby dragon" otherwise known as Drakkoenen Whelp which can be used to get our control cards such as the Fledgling Drakkonen and the very powerful Dark Armored Sharvan.
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Dragon Splicer
The Dragon Splicer version of the Drakkonen Deck works with the more Terra based Designators in the game. By using this deck type you can make up for some of the flaws of the Drakkonen by "splicing" in another Designator. The Demons are especially great with the Drakkonen as their low cost members such as Samson Bloodcoat and Cwn Annwn. The flow of turns for this deck gives you many choices as well, for example, you can play an Epic Character and play only Terra Effects or characters with support afterwards. If you have a good bit of Demons in your hand, you can play them and immediately kill them to buff other Drakkonen, then draw cards or go for a big attack! You have so much utility and tool boxing that the low price Demons and Drakkonen make it very difficult for an opponent to handle your characters. One of the best combos to use in the deck is to use a Samson Bloodcoat and kill it using its abilities. Once the card has been slain, you can then place the +1 Combat Counters on the slain Demon onto your Drakkonen Breaker which can then remove the counters to slay Effects! This ability can be used as many times as you need and the Demons give a VERY healthy supply of counters for it to use!
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