Getting started with Grand Archive TCG is an exciting adventure, and it all begins with choosing your champion. In Grand Archive, champions determine your deck’s strategy and personality, as they are tied to specific classes and elements. Each champion offers unique playstyles that cater to different player preferences, making it important to pick one that resonates with your style.
This guide will break down the types of classes and its relevant champion to help you make the best choice as you dive into this anime-inspired trading card game.
Understand Classes
Grand Archive champions belong to one of three primary classes.
Warrior
Description: Warriors are melee combatants who rely on raw power and resilience to dominate the battlefield. They excel at close-quarters combat, utilizing weapons, armor, and physical abilities to deal heavy damage and withstand enemy attacks.
Playstyle:
• Aggression and Durability: Warriors focus on overpowering their opponents with high-damage attacks while absorbing damage through their robust defenses.
• Weapon Synergy: Many Warrior decks center around equipping powerful weapons and using them to deliver devastating blows.
• Sustainability: Warriors can outlast their opponents in prolonged battles, leveraging their survivability to gain the upper hand.
Key Mechanics:
• Weapon Combat: Equipping and using weapons for powerful melee attacks.
• Damage Mitigation: Abilities and equipment that reduce or absorb damage.
Perfect For: Players who enjoy straightforward, impactful gameplay and dominating the battlefield with strength and endurance.
Notable Champion: Jin, the Fate-Defiant
• A Fire-aligned Warrior who excels at aggressive melee combat, dealing heavy damage while withstanding counterattacks.
Mage
Description: Mages are spellcasters who manipulate the battlefield with a variety of spells, specializing in tactical control, resource management, and burst damage. They excel at disrupting enemy plans while setting up powerful combos.
Playstyle:
• Spell-Heavy Strategies: Mages rely on casting spells for damage, disruption, and utility.
• Control and Efficiency: Mages excel at managing resources and controlling the pace of the game.
• Combo Potential: Many Mage decks revolve around creating synergies between spells and abilities for explosive plays.
Key Mechanics:
• Elemental Synergy: Access to powerful spells tied to their chosen element (e.g., Fire for damage, Water for control).
• Resource Management: Efficient use of resources to maintain tempo and card advantage.
Perfect For: Players who enjoy calculated, methodical gameplay and using spells to outsmart their opponents.
Notable Champion: Kongming, the Wayward Maven
• A Water-aligned Mage who focuses on controlling the battlefield and generating card advantage through resource-efficient spells.
Tamer
The Tamer class in Grand Archive TCG offers a unique and engaging playstyle that focuses on commanding powerful creatures and leveraging their abilities to control the battlefield. As a Tamer, your strategy revolves around summoning allies, managing the Pride mechanic, and building synergy between your champion and their creatures. For players who enjoy creature-centric gameplay and dynamic strategies, the Tamer class provides an experience unlike any other in the game.
Summoning Allies
• Tamers rely on summoning powerful creatures to fight alongside them. These allies can serve a variety of roles:
• Offensive Beasts: Deal heavy damage to opponents and establish board dominance.
• Defensive Allies: Protect your champion and mitigate damage from incoming attacks.
• Utility Creatures: Provide buffs, card draw, or other support to enhance your strategy.
Pride Mechanic
• Many Tamer allies have the Pride attribute, which requires the champion to reach a certain level before the creature can be fully utilized. This mechanic adds a layer of strategic planning, as you must decide when and how to level up your champion efficiently.
• Prideful creatures are often stronger and more impactful, making it critical to reach their required level quickly to capitalize on their abilities.
Champion Leveling
• Tamers use specific cards and abilities to accelerate their leveling, ensuring they can deploy Prideful allies early. Some cards even provide temporary level boosts, allowing you to play higher-level allies for a short time.
Synergy and Strategy
• Tamers thrive on creating synergies between their creatures and champion. For example:
• Summons can trigger abilities or buffs that enhance other creatures.
• Certain cards allow you to sacrifice weaker creatures to bring stronger ones into play.
There are constantly new classes being added and we will tackle the rest in our part 2 together with elements. We will go indepth on these 4 in our Part 2.
Ranger: This specializes in ranged combat, agility, and tactical positioning to outmaneuver opponents. Rangers utilize traps, mobility, and precision attacks to control the pace of the game, keeping their enemies at a distance while striking strategically.
Assassin: The first Assassin champion was Zander, who can use Planted Explosive or Arrow Trap to remove threats.
Cleric: This class specializes in defensive spells and preventative effects, and players must outwit their opponents to buy time.
Guardian: Tonoris is a Guardian character with 20 health at level one, and gains taunt until the beginning of the next turn.
Stay tuned next week for Part 2!
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For now we just finished our first Grand Launch Event in Greenbelt and it was a blast. 25 players joined and we had two pods for tournaments (1 for Veterans and 1 for casual players).
Here are some pictures. We definitely welcome new players to join and discover this amazing game where the veterans help the newbies learn the game and enjoy the community.
