Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate

By Brage Sekse Aarset

Table of Contents

Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate is a peculiar fellow. His hero ability encourages eager usage of cards with the type Evo. 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 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 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 cards at low cost. Typically, Teklovossen will some cards with boost, such as Zero to Sixty, Heavy Metal Hardcore and Blast Rig, which are not only good value attacks with go again, but can put Evos in the banish zone that can be played at Teklovossen’s leisure, replenishing the defensive value of his armor and possibly triggering other effects.

The endgame

Notably, Teklovossen has access to a very unique card called Singularity, transforming him and his Evo sinto the Teklovossen, the Mechropotent. Ideally he wants to stack a decent pile of Evos on top of each other in each equipment slot and have a Steel Soul equipment equipped in each slot.

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 retrieving two 6 power attack action cards back into the deck. For as long as there are cards left under the Mechroponent, it can attack for 6, forcing a discard, and attack action card like Terminator Tank, and War Machine (now granted go again) can provide additional damage and disruption at low cost.

It is very hard to defeat the Mechropotent, so Teklovossen has a natural advantage over Guardians by having such a strong endgame.

Playing against Teklovossen

Teklovossen is very good against Guardians. We can’t play defensively and defeat Teklovossen through pitch stacking or fatigue, due to his insane endgame, and it is very hard to apply enough pressure to put Teklo on the back foot. He will most certainly get to the stage of the game where he has four Evos and his cards become really powerful. Death by Terminator Tank is a very real concern. Your best bet is being as aggressive as possible.

Teklovossen does have a few block cards such as Steel Street Enforcement and Firewall, and some decklists even feature generic defense reactions such as Sink Below and Shelter from the Storm. This means that you could get some benefit from damage compression.

The best hate cards against Teklovossen are equipment destruction. Destroying an Evo takes out the whole pile of cards in that equipment slot, forcing Teklovossen to find and play Fabricate to refill the slot with a new Base equipment and start building it up again with whatever Evos are still left in the deck that fit that slot. In the early to mid game, destroying an equipment can be a big setback for Teklovossen, making his weapon and Evo Upgrade cards worse, and possibly even denying him the ability to transform.

There is a second dimension to these cards. Mechropotent itself is an equipment. If it has a -1 counter on it (from blocking on of your attacks, presumably), it can actually be destroyed by these effects. If you are able to play Buckle and Headbutt (useful since Mechropotent can’t defend it), it is very difficult for Mechropotent to defend, and Buckle’s effect will destroy the Mechropotent, winning you the game.

This is easier said than done, though, since Teklovossen is able to apply a lot of pressure, and experienced Teklovossen players will not defend with equipment/Mechropotent and expose themselves to equipment destruction effects. Additionally, they can play Evos as instants to rescue equipment from destruction effects (transforming into a new Evo takes away -1 counters).

Still, the threat of equipment destruction at least forces Teklovossen to be a bit careful with his equipment.

One thing to note is that since Evos are actions, overpower is usually a bit better than dominate against Teklovossen.

Useful cards against Teklovossen

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

Buckle is the premier equipment destruction against Teklovossen, since it only needs to hit to destroy an equipment. Teklovossen will usually defend with equipment very liberally since they get replenished when a new Evo is played, so it is likely that there are plenty of equipment with -1 counters ready to be destroyed.

Headbutt needs a lot of help from auras or pummel to apply its own crush effect, but its first line of text lines up really well together with Buckle, since it dodges equipment blocks.

Exposed to the Elements played at the right time can be a very effective way to destroy an equipment and hamper Teklovossen’s gameplan.

Frozen to Death is one way to take out an Evo if Teklovossen is not careful.

Edge of their Seats and other suspense auras can be used for aggressive plays, and can also be used to defend their overpower attacks.