CAMS19 Round 1
P1 @codexnewb – Demonology/Necromancy/Finesse
vs.
P2 @Persephone – Green
Tech 2 cards. (5 discards)
- Verdant Tree
- Rampant Growthh
- Spore Shambler
-
Centaur
-
Centaur
Player 2, Turn 2
2g from last turn. (2g)
Workers make 6g. (8g)
Grow a Young Treant for 2g. (6g)
I shuffle 5 and draw a card. (5 in hand, 4 in deck)
Hire 7th worker for free. (3 cards)
Begin construction of Tech I for 1g. (5g)
Raise a Tiger Cub for 2g. (3g)
Summon Argagarg Garg for 2g. (1g)
He brings along a Wisp!
Tiger Cub patrols in Squad Leader, Argagarg in Scavenger, Wisp in Technician, Young Treant in Lookout.
Discard 3, draw 4, shuffle 3, draw 1.
Patrols:
Squad Leader: Tiger Cub (2 , 2 , 1 )
Elite:
Scavenger: Argagarg Garg (1 , 3 :heart)
Technician: Wisp (0 , 1 )
Lookout: Young Treant (0 , 2 , Resist 1)
Board:
Rich Earth
Base: 17
Tech I (5 )
1g banked, 7 workers.
5 cards in hand
- Verdant Tree
- Rampant Growthh
- Spore Shambler
- Centaur
- Centaur
2 cards in deck
- Playful Panda
- Ironbark Treant
0 cards in discard
Thoughts
Bad news, PBR makes Ironbark probably terrible. Good news, Hero’s Hall doesn’t have an attack value. Bad news, Discord is now in play and that makes Wisps terrible. Fortunately, with no float they can’t River + River Spell + Nimble Fencer/Sacrifice the Weak. Hero’s Hall makes me think Shadowblade + Nimble Fencer isn’t coming, which was probably the worst from a pure surviving-this-turn perspective. Hero’s Hall and Tech I makes me think they probably teched a River Spell + Nimble Fencer, and not Dark Pact + Harmony. River Spell is then Discord, since Tiny Basilisk is a pretty good answer to Two-Step.
Water Elemental kills PBR (with deteriorate/discord) and Nimble Fencer (unless deteriorate). Max Argagarg means I can’t stack my deck with Young Treant. If Discord is coming, do I want Treant+Tiger+Tower?
Treant in SQL, Tiger Cub in Tech/Scavenger, Tower
vs. Nimble Fencer –
- (no StW) Deteriorate Treant so Fencer can kill it, PBR trades with Tiger cub, Midband Vandy + Pestering Haunt take out Tower, 1g left over. Next turn I double Centaur (+ Tower?)
- PBR trades with Treant, StW trades with Tiger, Vandy + Fencer kill Tower, Pester hits base or all three take out Tech I, 1g left over. Yikes. Any plan where I lose Tech I is a bad plan.
Argagarg (Tech? Backline?), Forest’s Favor on Ironbark in Elite (3/[3+2]), Wisp in Squad Leader?
vs. Nimble Fencer –
- Deteriorate or anything else kills Wisp, PBR/Fencer + Vandy Midband/Sparkshot kill Argagarg if available, PBR + Fencer kill Treant otherwise. (PBR + Deteriorate kill Treant in SQL)
- Deteriorate Wisp, PBR + Pester kill Argagarg, StW kills Treant, Vandy + Fencer break Tech I. So I can’t have Wisp in SQL.
- Arg in SQL – PBR dies hitting Arg, Deteriorate kills Wisp, StW kills Treant, Vandy finishes Arg, doom Fencer + Pester kill Tech I.
- Treant in SQL – Deteriorate + PBR kill Treant, Pester kills Wisp, Vandy + midband/fencer kill Argagarg. Arg + Wisp both in Scav/Tech lets midband Vandy kill both, doom Fencer + Pester kill Tech I.
Treant, Tiger Cub, Argagarg, Wisp, float 1g.
With 4 defenders, Vandy probably gets Sparkshot in somewhere.
vs. Sacrifice the Weak
- Deteriorate/Pester kills Wisp, StW + PBR kill Tiger + Treant (assuming Arg not SQL), Vandy + Fencer + Pester kill Tech I if Arg isn’t patrolling, so Arg is patrolling. Mid Vandy kills Arg and maxes;
Doom Fencer + Haunt kill Tech I (requires StW + Fencer + either Deteriorate or Sparkshot to matter, else 1 damage short?) [can’t StW and midband and Fencer] or regular Vandy + Fencer kill Arg, Vandy levels. [If going Treant/Tiger/Arg/Empty/Wisp, Sparkshot lets Vandy ping Tiger,]
vs. Fencer, no StW
- PBR kills Treant in SQL, Fencer kills Tiger, Deteriorate kills Wisp, either play River and Vandy + Pester kill Arg, or mid Vandy to kill Arg and max her. I don’t think I see a way to get Doom Fencer on the other side of Tiger Cub.
vs. River + Discord
- River + Discord, Wisp dies, Tiger is 0/1, Treant is 0/1+A. PBR kills Treant, Vandy + Pester kill Argagarg, Deteriorate Tiger; or Deteriorate Treant,
I was expecting to find a way to preserve Tech I earlier than this, maybe depth-first search isn’t going to be very efficient. Let’s try math.
On the board is on the board is 5 attack, possible +1 for Sparkshot, +1 for midband Vandy (2g), +2 if killing hero and Doom is useful, +1 if PBR kills something other than Wisp in SQL, more vs. Ironbark, +1 if Deteriorate kills Wisp in SQL, +2 for Fencer (2g), +2 minimum for Sacrifice the Weak (2g), +X for Discord (4g)
6 (+1 sparkshot) (+3-5 for +units or two from { +1~3, +2, +2 }) is 11-13 effective attack (let’s ignore armor). I have 7 gold and Tech I has 5 hp, I’ll need to get a few more HP than gold to protect it.
Young Treant and Tiger Cub are 2hp for 2g each. Arg is 4hp for 2g but enables maxband doom. Ironbark is 2 for 3g, since I probably can’t stop PBR from hitting it, and Forest’s Favor / Panda are 1hp for 2g.
So YT+Cub+Ironbark is 6 health not counting SQL and with 3 defenders and no Arg, avoids Sparkshot and Doom. 6+1+2+2 is exactly enough to kill Tech I, assuming Deteriorate + StW + Fencer, which is 3 specific cards.
YT+Cub+Arg is 8 health, enabling Doom + Sparkshot, so 7+3+2 is 12, 1 short of Tech I? Have I been miscounting something? Yes, I had StW + Doom Fencer, but that’s 6 gold. Yay math.
Cub | empty | Arg | YT | Wisp
PBR -> Cub, Mid Vandy -> Arg, Sparkshot + Deteriorate YT, Haunt -> Wisp, 4 damage Doom Fencer hits me. Haunt survives and Tech I is likely at 1 hp or base at 13.
Cub | Wisp | Arg | YT | empty
PBR -> Cub, Deteriorate+Haunt -> YT, Mid Vandy -> Arg+Wisp, 4 damage Doom Fencer hits me. Haunt survives and Tech I is likely at 1 hp.
Arg | empty | Cub | YT | Wisp
Vandy + Fencer kill Arg, Haunt takes Wisp, PBR takes choice of Cub or Treant, option to play River. River sidelining a blocker next turn is harsh, since I’ll probably only have 2. Leaves 8 attack on the board at minimum.
Cub | empty | Arg | Wisp | YT
PBR -> Cub, Mid Vandy -> Arg+Wisp (doom Haunt?), likely Fencer -> YT since dooming it costs 1g.
Vandy can also kill Arg at level 1 w/ Haunt, then play both River and Fencer if they want to go wide and have a much better board state at the cost of letting me hit Tech II with a healthy base possibly. They can also leave Arg on the board, which possibly prevents me from counterattacking with Dinosize turn-after-next and denies me the 9g I need to play both Centaurs + Tower. In theory the longer I survive the better chance I have of catching up with a +2g/turn advantage.
Time play Young Treant and draw my card. Centaur. Subideal.
Cub | YT | Wisp | Arg | Empty
Assuming PBR takes Cub, Vandy can’t attack without guaranteeing me the Wisp gold, but now I don’t need it as much maybe? Mid Vandy -> Cub, spark YT, PBR + Haunt kill Arg, max Vandy dooms YT and leaves Wisp behind, Fencer or River. Hmm. Don’t think that’s better.
Score, got the Centaur on the rebound! If I didn’t, still would have had 50/50 chance to draw it if Wisp dies.
edit: post game thoughts: critical error here, I thought about maxbanding Argagarg as paying +4g for a 3/3 and forgot that he gets +2 hp as well. Max arg was probably the correct play. I also included armor pierce when calculating attack (why the 5 jumped to 6) before I decided it was simpler to just not count it; that off by one error + off by two error made me take a much riskier option.