Alliance War Crafting Guide – Legendaries

Have you saved a good amount of soul gems to craft a few legendary cards from the Alliance War expansion? Would you like to add the best staple cards from the set to your collection? This guide will help you to craft the best legendary cards for you depending on whether you prefer to play aggro or control.

Legendaries in Alliance War

To complete the full set of Alliance War legendaries, you will need a total of 43 cards. This includes seven legendaries per color, five tricolor unique legendaries for the new factions, and three unique neutrals. In total, this requires you to spend as much as 51,600 soul gems (or 206,400 gems for all in premium). However, since you can acquire 5 legendaries in the premade theme decks for 1,000 gold each, you will only need to spend 43,200 soul gems for the entire set of legendaries in Alliance War.

However, let’s look at what you really need to build great decks…

Alliance War Crafting Guide for Aggro Decks

The Must-Haves

The must have legendaries of Alliance War are Varen Aquilarios, Clivia Tharn, and Jorunn the Skald-King. Varen Aquilarios is good in almost everything, so you should definitely craft him. As for Clivia Tharn and Jorunn the Skald-King, you can get them for free from two of the pre-made theme decks. Clivia is in the Empire Conquest deck, while Jorunn is part of Pact Assault.

Varen is a staple card in almost every yellow deck, including control and midrange. Clivia Tharn is a key card for the token strategies employed by the Empire of Cyrodiil (yellow, green, purple), and just like Varen goes in almost every Empire deck. Jorunn from the Ebonheart Pact (red, green, purple) has good stats for a 5 drop and an immensely powerful ability that tampers with magicka cost in your favor. Jorunn sees play in basically every Ebonheart deck, just like the other two in their respective decks.

The Could-Haves

Those were the staple cards. One to two tiers below is Lyris Titanborn. She is an additional option from Alliance War that you might want to consider crafting. She is good against control decks and requires an answer. Unfortunately, she is not as good in the aggro mirror, as she can break runes in an uncontrolled way. Her special ability may shine in a meta where heavy life gain decks see consistent play, as she can remove all of the life gained by your opponent if she survives for one turn. This makes her an interesting tech choice in the right meta. She is not a must-have, though.

Alliance War Crafting Guide for Control Decks

The Must-Haves

Top tier card from Alliance War for control decks is Abnur Tharn, who allows you to use the summon ability of any creature on the board. Since this includes the summon abilities of your opponent’s creatures, he can do some really fun and unexpected things. Varen Aquilarios and Jorunn the Skald-King are very versatile cards and are equally as valuable in control as in aggro.

The Could-Haves

Let’s look at the could-haves. Before you craft these, consider the epic control cards from Alliance War.

Sai Sahan, Mannimarco and Xivkyn Banelord are decent cards, but they are not must-haves. Sai Sahan works best in a meta where players compete for the board and when it can be combined with Leaflurker, Finish-Off, or Skinned Hound. Control archer, control monk, or the tricolor control variations of those two archetypes might want the redguard.

Xivkyn Banelord goes well in control lists that run a lot of 1-attack charge creatures or other ping effects, such as Doomcrag Warrior or it’s tricolor variations. The Lord collaborates nicely with Tiny Dragon and Wildfire Dragon, too.

Mannimarco is a powerful and versatile control card that taps into your opponent’s discard pile. This can be particularly useful for matchups where your opponent has discard pile recursion tools, such as in slay Ebonheart, in Paarthunax loop uprising scout, or in other control mirrors between purple control decks. The high elf is much less interesting when competing against aggro decks, but still has utility as you are attempting to build a lethal board state.

Summary – Alliance War Crafting Guide for Legendaries

In terms of the legendaries, Alliance War is a relatively affordable set. You need only 2,400 soul gems to craft the two staple unique legendaries, Abnur Tharn and Varen Aquilarios. You should get the other must-haves, Jorunn the Skald-King and Clivia Tharn, by buying the corresponding theme decks. This will give you the top legendaries of the set. As a fan of The Elder Scrolls: Online, you might have additional reasons to craft Mannimarco, Sai Sahan, Lyris Titanborn or some of the other iconic heroes from Alliance War. Beyond that, however, what is listed above is all you’ll really need.

PS: If you have finished crafting the legendaries, check out the crafting guide for the Alliance War epic cards.