Expedition

Expedition refers to both a constructed format and the player-vs-player game mode which uses it. The format features a rotating card pool (its legal cards change over time), limited to the most recent expansion sets and campaigns/bundle sets, the contents of the current Draft Pack, and select older promo cards or campaigns. Other than the smaller card pool, the Expedition's game mode functions similarly to the Throne's.

Expedition Format

Expedition decks must adhere to Eternal's contructed format rules:

• A minimum of 75 cards and a maximum of 150 cards.
• At least 1/3 of the cards in the deck, rounded up, are power cards.
• At least 1/3 of the cards in the deck, rounded up, are non-power cards.

Unlike the Throne format, which allows all collectible cards, the legal card pool for Expedition decks is limited.

Legal Cards

The current Expedition format includes:

• Argent Depths expansion set (including its promo cards)
• Echoes of Eternity expansion set (including its promos)
• Awakening campaign set
• Shadow of the Spire bundle set
• Whispers of the Throne bundle set
• Current Draft Pack's contents
• Expedition Archives

Expedition Archives

Sometimes Expedition includes older campaigns and bundle sets (or select cards from them), or select older promo cards. These are grouped into a deck selection filter called the Expedition Archives.

The Expedition Archives currently includes the following pre-Echoes of Eternity promo cards:

• Yorja, The Tale Keeper
• Dizo, Cabal Chairman
• Brenn, Chronicler of Ages
• Wyatt, Junk Collector
• The Merriest Mandrake
• Azindel, the Wayfinder
• Veteran Mercenary

Deckbuilding

Use the "Expedition" toggle in the deck selection and creation screens to filter for cards legal in the current format. Card may be further sorted with their set filters.

A "Make Expedition Copy" button appears on deck selection screens. The feature may be used to convert existing Throne decks to the Expedition format. Cards which aren't legal in Expedition are replaced with similar legal cards using an algorithm.

Past Expedition Formats

Expedition's card pool is regularly updated. With each expansion set's release, the format's legal sets, Draft Pack contents, and Expedition Archives are revised. Between large sets, cards are added to the format as new campaigns, bundle sets, and promo cards are released, and the Draft Packs and Expedition Archives may be updated with more cards.

Main article: /List of Past Formats

Expedition Game Mode

Expedition's game mode, like Throne's, is a Versus Battle mode in which you play against other players to increase your rank and gain rewards. Expedition matches are single-game playoffs.

Playing Expedition Matches

Expedition is accessed under the "Versus Battle" section on the game's home screen. From here, players can select (and edit) their deck and see their current rank progress.

Pressing "Play" enters the player into the matchmaking queue. Once an opponent is found, the match begins. After the game, changes to the player's rank and faction progress are displayed, and the winner receives their win reward, before returning to the Expedition deck selection screen.

A history of recent games can be found in the Match History screen (Profile → Match History). Selecting a previous match reveals the cards drawn throughout the game, along with the remaining cards in the deck as it ended.

Match Rewards

The first Throne, Expedition or Casual win of each day is rewarded with a pack of the most recent set. In addition, each Expedition win is rewarded with chests as follows:

	Every 1st & 2nd win	Every 3rd win
1–9 total wins	1 bronze chest	1 silver chest
10+ total wins	1 bronze chest	2 bronze chests

Win tracking is reset each day along with the "First Win of the Day" reward. Win tracking and rewards are separate for Ranked, Expedition and Casual modes.

Player Ranks

Winning or losing games in Expedition mode contributes to a player's position in a tiered ranking system. These ranks, in ascending order, are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, and Master. Bronze through Diamond are divided into tiers of I, II, and III, I being the highest.

Ranking position is tracked in points; each win or loss will add or subtract 10-20 points. Tiers are broken up into 100-point increments, passing that threshold raises the player's rank to the next tier.

Losing games will never bring you down in rank (e.g. from Silver to Bronze). Losing can reduce your tier within a rank (e.g. from Silver II to Silver III), but this will not happen within the first three games after moving up a tier.

Each player's rank and tier is visible in Expedition matches.

Masters Leaderboard

After reaching Master, players are placed into a leaderboard where further wins and loses contribute to each player's position within it.

The Leaderboards screen (Profile → Chapters) displays the current top 100 players. A toggle lets the player their own position and those of their friends.

End of Chapter Rewards and Reset

Ranks are tracked throughout each month's Chapter. At the end of the month players receive rewards based on their final rank, of packs (of the current set) and premium cards. Player ranks are reset for next Chapter.

Chapter Rewards

Rank	Chapter Rewards
Bronze	2 Premium Uncommons 1 pack
Silver	2 Premium Uncommons 2 packs
Gold	1 Premium Uncommon 1 Premium Rare 2 packs
Diamond	2 Premium Rares 3 packs
Master	1 Premium Legendary 3 packs

Rank Reset

Ladder Finish	Ladder Start
Master	Gold III
Diamond I	Silver I
Diamond II	Silver I
Diamond III	Silver I
Gold I	Silver II
Gold II	Silver II
Gold III	Silver III
Silver I	Bronze I
Silver II	Bronze II
Silver III	Bronze III
Bronze I	Bronze III
Bronze II	Bronze III
Bronze III	Bronze III

Quarterly Championship Points

For players who reach Master, the end of each chapter also rewards Quarterly Championship Points (QCP) towards the next Expedition Quarterly Championship. The amount of points is based on final leaderboard position:

Ladder Finish	QCP Rewarded
Rank 1 Master	40 QCP
Top 20 Master	15 QCP
Top 100 Master	10 QCP
Master (101+)	5 QCP

Organized Play

Expedition is a featured format of DWD's organized play program. Expedition and Throne formats are alternately used for the 2020 World Championship season's Eternal Championship Qualifier tournaments.

This season also has Quarterly Championships, 2-day invite-only $4,500 tournaments in each calendar quarter for both Expedition and Throne formats. Invites are based on points accrued by top monthly leaderboard positions and in specific events.

Card Back

An exclusive Expedition-themed card back was awarded for participation in the Expedition Orienteering and Expedition Caravans tournament events. Each player received a basic cardback, and could earn points based on leaderboard standings to upgrade the cardback's appearance up to 6 times.

History

The Expedition format was announced in June 2019. It was introduced as a replacement for the Casual game mode, with series of different formats which would rotate in regular intervals (of around a month) and could include custom game rules.

Its release was delayed slightly to make improvements in response to community feedback from the announcement, including a new "Practice Mode" for Ranked to replace the supplanted Casual mode. Expedition's match rewards were increased to matched Ranked, and DWD designed several format-playable theme decks.

The format released into Eternal on July 2, 2019, in its own game mode and queue, and the "Expedition" toggle was added to the deck selection and creation screens. A random Expedition theme deck was given away to each player for free to encourage participation in the format's queue

The Expedition Orienteering event took place from August 2–5, 2019 as the first Expedition format leaderboard tournament. In addition to run rewards, it awarded cash prizes to its top 3 finishers and gave the Expedition cardback to all participants. After the event, the Expedition format updated to include the cards from the new Trials of Grodov bundle.

The next format rotation was hinted at in the Flame of Xulta set announcement, along with the news of another Expedition event. The Expedition Caravans tournament event took place from September 6–9, awarded $1,000 across its top 5 finishers, and also included the Expedition card back.

The Expedition had a substantial update with the full release of Flame of Xulta in October, 2019. It fully replaced its previous legal sets with The Flame of Xulta, the contents of the updated Draft Packs, and a select list of promo cards. The curated Draft packs were expanded to include 785 different cards from the pre-Flame of Xulta expansion sets.

A leaderboard sytem (like Ranked's) was added along with the new rotation. At first it was tracked on DWD's website, but was later implemented in the game client. The "Make Expedition Copy" deckbuilding feature was also added, so players could convert their existing decks to the Expedition format, replacing illegal cards using an algorithm.

DWD announced that this new Draft Pack–based Expedition format would be featured in its organized play program, and would be used for the first ECQ tournament of the 2020 World Championship season in November 2019. Quarterly Championships were also being introduced for both Expedition and Throne formats. Quarterly Championship Points to qualify for these tournaments started to be tracked in November 2019, with points awarded for October's leaderboard finishes.

In November 2019, the Expedition format was updated with the addition of the Dead Reckoning and The Trials of Grodov campaigns (except for a few select cards). With these additions to the format's card pool, new set filters were added to the deckbuilder and collection screens to make finding their cards easier: the Eternal Draft Pack, and the Expedition Archives for the select campaign and promo cards.

DWD stated in their announcement for the December 2019 "Draft Pack & Expedition Updates" that they do not plan on removing cards from the Expedition formats until a major set's format reset on its release. They do not wish to make cards in players' Expedition decks illegal partway through a season. This means that any updates to the format will be done through the addition of more cards (to the Draft Pack or Archives) or balance changes.