Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate

By Brage Sekse Aarset

Table of Contents

Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate is a peculiar fellow. His hero ability encourages eager usage of Evos. These are Action Equipment cards that, when played, can be equipped during the game, so long as there is a Base equipment available for it to transform from.

There are various cards that synergise with Evos, serving as utility cards to help set them up, or as payoffs for having multiple Evos equipped.

One special utility card to be aware of is the versatile Fabricate. Most notably this card allows Teklovossen to equip a base equipment, which is very useful should one of his equipment get destroyed during the game. However, Teklo’s preferred usage of this card is to buff the defense of his equipment (making it defend for up to 4, effectively) and put it under an Evo to add more “fuel” for the late game.

Teklovossen’s gameplan

Teklovossen wants to play Evos into each of his four equipment slots, at which point the full potential of his weapon and Evo Upgrade cards is unlocked. This allows him to play very powerful, disruptive cards at low cost.

When playing against Guardians, Teklovossen will usually pack a copy of Cognition Nodes which allows him to recycle attack any attack action cards that hit. This means there is theoretically an infinite supply of Terminator Tank and War Machine (or any other attack action card) available to Teklovossen.

Notably, Teklovossen has access to a very unique card called Singularity, transforming him, his 4 Evos and his weapon into Teklovossen, the Mechropotent.

When these prerequisites are met and Singularity is played, the Evo Steel Soul Processor, Evo Steel Soul Tower, Evo Steel Soul Controller, Evo Steel Soul Memory will grant a whole host of bonuses: six resources, two action points, +2 intellect and putting two 6 power attack action cards back into the deck (usually Terminator Tank).

By banishing two cards from under the Mechroponent, it can attack for 6, forcing us to a discard a card. Additionally, mechanologist attack action cards like Terminator Tank, and War Machine are granted go again.

Teklovossen has a natural advantage over Guardians by having a theoretically infinite supply of high value cards edge once the Evos and Cognition Nodes have been set up, with an additional late game power spike when transforming into the Mechropotent.

Playing against Teklovossen

When playing against Teklovossen there are two main strategies you could choose from. Which of these are realistically available to you depends on your hero and your deck.

Equipment destruction

Teklovossen’s true power stems from his equipment, so if you manage to destroy an equipment, they need to find and play a Fabricate to equip a Base equipment from the inventory and find an appropriate Evo. This gives you more time and space to advance your game plan.

Teklovossen players are aware of this risk, and so it is common for Teklovossen players to be very cautious about defending with their Evos since all our equipment destruction effects requires the equipment to have a -1 counter. This means that he misses out on a fair bit of defensive value from his Evos, and the only thing you really have to do is have some equipment destruction effects in your deck (and an intimidating posture, perhaps).

Keep in mind that Teklovossen can play Evos at instant speed thanks to his ability, so if there is only one Evo with a -1 counter on it, it is quite plausible that they can respond to your equipment destruction effect by replacing the Evo, thus clearing the -1 counter and negating the destruction effect.

Equipment destruction is mostly relevant if you are playing Jarl, although if you are not playing Jarl and have space for them in your blue base, Buckle is the go-to equipment destruction effect.

Destroying the Mechropotent

It is possible, though very difficult, to destroy the Mechropotent. It is a hero, so if it is destroyed, you win.

Actually getting a -1 counter on the Mechropotent is by far the most difficult part of this plan. Once Mechropotent hits the table, a wave of Terminator Tanks in addition to the unpreventable discard trigger from Mechropotent makes it very hard to hold onto enough cards to do anything.

Still, destroying Mechropotent is something to keep in your back pocket in case your opponent slips up and gives you a window to actually do it. Most of the relevant equipment destruction cards are blues anyway, so they naturally tend to find their way into the late game.

If you are really motivated to destroying Mechropotent, a Timesnap Potion, an Energy Potion and a tunic resource lets you do it with a three card hand (Crumble to Eternity, Frozen to Death and an ice card to fuse with).

Fatigue

It is possible, though very difficult, to fatigue Teklovossen. This involves carefully pitch stacking cards that can get around overpower, so that you are able to fully defend their 9 overpower attacks, preventing Teklovossen from recycling them with Cognition Nodes.

This is easier said than done, though, since Teklovossen can also recycle them with Evo Steel Soul Controller up to 7 times. Theoretically they could recycle even more if they destroy their arm slot, put Evos back into the banish zone with Scrap Trader and then re-equip a Proto Base Arms with Fabricate to start the whole thing over, but that’s quite clunky and unlikely.

Still, this is a viable game plan. Bring your best hammer and prepare to play very very fast if you want to beat the clock!

Smash face

It is possible, though very difficult, to defeat Teklovossen by smashing his face in before there are 4 Evos in play. A lot of Teklovossen’s cards are pretty mediocre in the early game since they require 4 Evos to be online. If you are able to take a very aggressive stance playing back to back disruptive attacks, he could stumble and not establish his Evos before it’s too late.

Your decklist needs to be aggressively slanted with a good density of aggressive cards to be able to do this. You cannot afford to pitch stack your power cards and wait for the second cycle.

One thing to note is that since Evos are actions, overpower can sometimes be better than dominate against Teklovossen.

Many Teklovossen decks feature a lot of defensive cards such as Steel Street Enforcement, Fiddler’s Green, Firewall, Sink Below and Shelter from the Storm. This means that you could get some benefit from damage compression, though if you pass the turn without attacking and they happen to have a hand full of Evos, they will likely get to play out multiple Evos, rapidly advancing towards a favourable game state.

Useful cards against Teklovossen

Since Teklovossen is a fairly tough matchup, it’s not necessarily the wisest matchup to dedicate lots of deck space to. Nevertheless, here are some options.

Buckle is a nice to have blue card, since it only needs to hit to destroy an equipment. Teklovossen might defend with his Evo equipment quite liberally if you are not playing Jarl, so this card could catch him off guard.

Headbutt needs a lot of help from auras or Pummel to apply its own crush effect (which could theoretically destroy a Evo Beta Base Head), but its first line of text makes it easier to sneak a Buckle past Teklovossen’s vast array of defensive equipment.

Some combination of Exposed to the Elements, Crumble to Eternity and Frozen to Death can be used to destroy Equipment or Mechropotent itself.

Edge of their Seats and other suspense auras can be used for making big power plays, but can also be used to defend overpower attacks which is highly relevant when attempting to fatigue Teklovossen.

Smashing Good Time could make Cognition Nodes go away?

Staunch Response can defend the big overpower attacks with ease.