My opnion on most powerful early game artifact

[Isisius]

Totally surpised me.
The vapour funnel.
-5 damage to pyre, units get dazed on enter.
Dazed means the pyre attacks first

It basically means you can let almost any enemy past on the first couple of fights and still take no damage.
That is inSANELY good for getting the bonus rewards on the early levels and stops you taking any early damage.
Translates well later when you can leave enemies alive on whatever damage your pyre is currently doing.

[Swisspike]

I will look for this. I haven't used dazed, on those few times it was offered as an option.

[Thane_Ragnar]

Most OP Artifact for me is the one which plays 4 creatures from your deck on the middle floor at the start at each fight. No Mana costs, can go over the floor limit. If you have that just get the biggest, meaniest, uggliest creatures you can find and go to town.

Works great at the beginning of the game too.

[Dlanor]

Originally posted by Thane_Ragnar:

Most OP Artifact for me is the one which plays 4 creatures from your deck on the middle floor at the start at each fight. No Mana costs, can go over the floor limit. If you have that just get the biggest, meaniest, uggliest creatures you can find and go to town.

Works great at the beginning of the game too.

This one at least requires you build around it some. You'd need to remove ALL weak creatures if you want good pulls, like Stewards and Dregs gotta go. No summon bonus, so Imps and other tokens will be actual trash, and those tanks that gain max HP on summon will be heavily nerfed. It also cripples lots of synergies, if you want specific units in the same lane (like you NEED for burnout or Gourge runs) this can hurt you by putting a combo piece on the field without the rest of the combo.

It's good if you're playing simple stat-heavy cards for sure, but certainly not OP.

[Nugget]

-2 on unit costs. Works wonders :)

[Isisius]

Originally posted by Thegooblop:

Originally posted by Thane_Ragnar:

Most OP Artifact for me is the one which plays 4 creatures from your deck on the middle floor at the start at each fight. No Mana costs, can go over the floor limit. If you have that just get the biggest, meaniest, uggliest creatures you can find and go to town.

Works great at the beginning of the game too.

This one at least requires you build around it some. You'd need to remove ALL weak creatures if you want good pulls, like Stewards and Dregs gotta go. No summon bonus, so Imps and other tokens will be actual trash, and those tanks that gain max HP on summon will be heavily nerfed. It also cripples lots of synergies, if you want specific units in the same lane (like you NEED for burnout or Gourge runs) this can hurt you by putting a combo piece on the field without the rest of the combo.

It's good if you're playing simple stat-heavy cards for sure, but certainly not OP.

Agreed, one of the reasons vapour funnel is so strong is that it works with anything. You just let people go through with health based on whatever your pyres attack is.

[Dlanor]

Originally posted by Isisius:

Agreed, one of the reasons vapour funnel is so strong is that it works with anything. You just let people go through with health based on whatever your pyres attack is.

To be fair, Vapour Funnel DOES have a significant downside too. It's still an amazing relic, but there are times where the -5 damage is worse for you than the 1 extra hit is. Especially when it matters most, on bosses, this can get you killed. Take the first boss for instance, If he's at 4/80 when he reaches the Pyre, if the Pyre is at 20/60 it goes like this [Pyre HP (Boss HP)]:

56(60)52(40)48(20)44(0), so you end the fight with 44 health still. Let's look at the exact same fight with Vapour Funnel putting you at 15/60 but with Dazed letting you hit first:

(65)56(50)52(35)48(20)44(5)40(0). So even though you got the first hit, the damage reduction means you come out of that fight with 4 less health. This is pretty much always offset by the damage you save if you take advantage of the effect, but it's still true that sometimes it will directly be the reason you lose a run. It's comparable to Pyrewall for sure, that gives the Pyre 15 armor every battle, which means you can still use it to tank some hits, but not so many in a single fight or the armor runs out, and unlike the Funnel the armor is always an upside, helping you survive longer against every encounter, even bosses.

Vapour Funnel IS a great artifact again, just figure I should point this out because realistically it's a risky artifact sometimes, unlike similar artifacts.