LunaRay has been the top competitor in the Creature of Aether scene for quite some time, collecting wins at five of seven monthlies in 2021. On top of their competitive accolades, LunaRay has collected data on every deck used by top competitors and by those that volunteer their information since their first event during the Creatures Beta League. LunaRay’s incredible CoA Cards and Tournament Decks sheets display information from raw deck data to community terminology, individual card data, and everything in between – serving as a perfect medium for players to get into the game on a more in-depth level. We recently reached out to LunaRay to learn more about them and their history in Creatures of Aether.
How did you first hear about Creatures and get into the scene as a competitor?
I’m actually a big fan of Dan’s works; I first stumbled upon a YouTube video way back in 2015 and fell in love with RoA’s art style. I’m not really someone who pays for games so I looked around and spent a long time playing the free versions of Elementimals and Super Smash Land on Dan’s old website. When Creatures was first advertised, I jumped on to sign up as a closed beta tester but unfortunately did not make the cut.
I only started playing Creatures some time in August 2020 as an open beta player; and as soon as I got comfortable with deck building, I started joining tournaments even without unlocking all the cards at that time. I do play around with new and trending decks but my all-time favorite deck styles would definitely be Mono Sylvanos, followed by Avatar Clairen and Avatar Etalus decks.
How long have you been competing in events and what about them appeals to you beyond just laddering?
My very first event was on the 3rd of September 2020, the Creatures Beta League Week 8 Tournament , where I placed 21st amongst 47 participants. I’ve been participating in most weekly and monthly events all the way till today so that’s about 10 months of playing competitively. Back when I was a relatively new player, I aimed for the free orbs and coin raffles and the Tournament-exclusive Champion skins as a participation prize. Right now, I still do aim for those, but with an added motivation to aim for the top placings for orbs and coins.
How often do you play the game outside of tournaments? How often do you theory-craft and practice new decks?
Outside of tournaments, I play for about an hour a day just to clear off the daily tasks. Creatures is partly theory-crafting and partly playing against the opponent. I tried to first find a deck that I was comfortable playing with. I used to theory-craft a lot back when there were a variety of decks that were not optimised; but when Sylvanos was released and I crafted my favorite Mono Sylvanos deck, I slowed down on theory-crafting to work on improving my game sense. I normally try out new decks when there are discussions about them in discord, just to get to know the ins and outs of how the deck works.
You won the 4 of the monthlies so far in 2021, and have cemented yourself as the undisputed best Creatures player right now. How do you achieve such consistency in a card game format?
I would say that this is mostly due to my experience of how cards work in Creatures. Of course, playing this game for a relatively long time helps when playing an opponent, but I also tend to think of different mechanics that may happen such as Clairen’s Field interactions, Forburn’s smoke interactions, and many other abilities against other cards’ abilities. Knowing what would happen and optimizing your next move, would aid in solidifying your victory.
What has been your proudest moment throughout your career?
Handling the CoA Tournament Top Decks Sheet, players would send me their decks used and I would log them onto the sheet as an archive. I believe my sheet is a great resource for new players to refer to, to read up on strategies, terms and cards that they have not seen before, on top of the weekly and monthly top tournament decks.
Do you play Rivals at all? If so, who do you use, and when did you get into the game?
I ended up buying Rivals after playing around with Elementimals and Super Smash Land, but soon realized that I was horrible at games like Rivals and only played the campaign mode exclusively. I do enjoy playing Zetterburn as his kit is relatively simpler.
Before Rivals and Creatures, I played a lot of Hearthstone since its release and even joined a few tournaments. I guess the games I enjoy are turn-based and have an aspect of pixel-art 🙂
What’s the thing you’re looking forward to most this Summer?
I’m really looking forward to when Creatures ports over to Steam and is available on PC. That way, the game would be more accessible for players on PC instead of just mobile, increasing its player base and accessibility. As mentioned, I enjoy turn-based games with pixel-art so I really can’t wait for Dungeons of Aether as it perfectly fits what I enjoy!
Do you have any personal goals or interests outside of Creatures that you’re aiming your sights on?
For now, it would be to hop right onto Dungeons of Aether as soon as it comes out and keep my eye on the expanding Aether Universe 🙂
Is there anything you would like to say to the Aether community reading this feature?
Hey there! I’m LunaRay, I handle the CoA Cards and Tournament Decks Sheet and you can find me on discord at LunaRay#3147 🙂
I’m so honored to be a part of this community! Thank you all and see you around!~