Openings are Garth + Skeleton Javelineer, Zane + Skeleton Javelineer, or Thieving Imp. I think Garth is best, given I have both spells in hand next turn.
At least you’re not playing against Vandy umpteen times Can’t say I’m ecstatic about facing Daymare here.
P1T2
Starting hand: 5
Pestering Haunt
Jandra, the Negator
Deteriorate
Summon Skeletons
Sacrifice the Weak
Thoughts
River is scary, especially early on against Skeletons. Snapback is really scary with my hero loadout, no easy getting around it with Blackhand Resurrector either. Looking through Jadiel’s old games, he teched in Hooded Executioner + Lich’s Bargain instead of Bone Collectors when playing against a Discipline/Finesse deck. Lich’s Bargain I can get behind, since it’ll be good against Daymare pressure. I’m not so sure about Executioner over Taxman, but its ability will be useful later if we get into an aggressive late game. I’ll give it a go.
Options for this turn:
Deteriorate Monk, kill with Javelineer / Garth, Tech I, Skeleton, Pestering Haunt. Killing Monk with Garth leaves the Skeletons to block, ripe for Grappling Hook + sparkshot. Killing it with the Javlineer leaves a lone Skeleton in patrol, if I don’t want Garth in there too. Hook means that I definitely don’t. Depends on how safe I think Garth is on 2 health, I’m pretty sure he’s safe this turn.
Deteriorate Monk, kill with Garth, midband Garth, Skeleton, Pestering Haunt. Skeleton in patrol, Javelineer can hit the base instead so Grave can’t Hook + sparkshot. Delaying Tech I, so no Executioner if I draw it next turn.
I think Garth is safe for a turn without healing, I’ll go with the former so I can tech up.
Teched cards: 2
T2: Hooded Executioner, Lich’s Bargain
Get paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Tech I - ($2)
Deteriorate, Saviour Monk is 1/1 this turn
Garth kills Saviour Monk, you get a gold, takes 1 damage
Skeleton Javelineer hits your base to 19
Garth raises a Skeleton - ($1)
Pestering Haunt
Discard 2, reshuffle, draw 4
Technician: Skeleton 1/1
Garth L1 1/2 (1 damage)
Skeleton Javelineer 1/1 (javelin, use javelin to get long range that turn)
Pestering Haunt 1/1 (unstoppable, can’t be sacrificed or patrol, attack capped at 1)
Interesting technician draw, I’d have preferred it next turn so I could play it while teching up.
I’m wondering if it’s worth trying to draw something else in the deck here, worker + midband + Skeleton leaves me 2 gold to play Sacrifice the Weak, Lich’s Bargain, or Hooded Executioner, depending on what I draw. That’s about what I’m planning to do anyway, I’ll give it a go. Teching in a Bone Collector, in case I draw well and want to maxband Garth instead of getting a worker.
Teched cards: 2
T2: Hooded Executioner, Lich’s Bargain
T3: Bone Collector, Crashbarrow
Get paid + float - ($7)
Midband Garth - ($4)
Garth raises a Skeleton - ($3)
Garth sacrifices Skeleton, I draw
Sacrifice the Weak
Skeleton Javelineer throws javelin at Aged Sensei to do 1A damage
This was a pretty tough turn, but I think I’m ok with this setup. Even if he has surprise attack here (which I wouldn’t be surprised if he did) he can’t kill both Rook and Tech 1, so I’m still kind of ok afterwards, and can probably kill Zane back.
I could use Deteriorate + maxband Zane here to blast through the Sparring Partner and Rook / Tech I and still worker, but it leaves me with only a Skeleton on patrol. Pretty risky, I’d have to kill Rook and hope to not face double Fencer / Fencer + Discord. Destroying Tech I lets midband Rook walk past the Skeleton to kill Zane, and give Bomber an easy maxband Rook. If Bomber has teched some mixture of Fencer + Discord, he’s got a good chance of drawing something to kill Zane here, I don’t think it’s worth the risk.
Alternative plan: worker, Deteriorate, BC kills SP and lives, Zane hits Tech I to 3, Hooded Executioner, float 2 gold to try for Tech II + Lich’s Bargain next turn. I have 2/3 chance of drawing the Bargain, 1/2 if I also play Pestering Haunt, before accounting for Technician draws. If I don’t draw it, I have 4 for maxband Zane if I can kill a Scavenger. Putting Executioner in SQL gives me a patrol that’s much more robust against Fencers, and River can’t turn up for Discord with Rook still alive. I risk not drawing Bargain, and Bomber can just tech up first, but it’s a plan I’m far more comfortable with. I need to plan for facing Birds, though, maybe Bloodlust will be good enough.
This is not a great situation. I’m ahead in econ and now buildings, but not preteching tech 2s puts me behind. He can still easily destroy my tech 1 but my tech 2 might safe, which means I can put up a good hero response next turn, or just head straight to tech 3. Just need to stay alive long enough to put beefy things on the board and outvalue him.
Crashbarrow
Sacrifice the Weak
Thieving Imp
Skeletal Archery
Thoughts
With two 4-health patrollers, shame I can’t bring out Drakk here. Or maybe I can? Sacrifice Zane, then midband Drakk, Skeleton kills Fencer, Necro I unit kills Rook, Drakk maxbands, Thieving Imp kills Fox Viper, other Necro I unit destroys Tech I. Destroying Tech II would be nice, but I’m more worried about Tech I if I’m fighting against Finesse. Teching in Bloodlusts to speed up my attacks here. If I get blown up, then I can do Tech II + Lich’s Bargain.
Teched cards: 2
T2: Hooded Executioner, Lich’s Bargain
T3: Bone Collector, Crashbarrow
T4: Crashbarrow, Shoddy Glider
T5: 2 x Bloodlust
Get paid + float - ($9)
Worker - ($8)
Zane suicides into Nimble Fencer for 1+1A damage, Rook hits level 3
Drakk Ramhorn - ($6)
Midband Drakk - ($3)
Skeleton trades with Nimble Fencer
Hooded Executioner kills Rook, you draw, takes 2 damage, Drakk hits level 6 (maxband)
Thieving Imp, Drakk gives it haste, you discard card #2 of 4 - ($0)
Thieving Imp trades with Fox Viper, you get a gold
Bone Collector destroys Tech I, your base to 17, Skeleton arrives
Discard 2, draw 2, reshuffle, draw 2
Squad Leader: Drakk L6 3/4+1A (dies: 1 to your base) Scavenger: Skeleton 1/1
Bone Collector 3/1 (2 damage)
Hooded Executioner 3/1 (2 damage)
The tech 1 break was inevitable, but damn he kept all his material. This is really bad. I’m almost guaranteed losing tech 2 here, but hopefully tech 1 stays up. Good redraw if I keep either building.
Hmm, no Tech II + Bargain for me. If I do build Tech II, then I’ll have a pretty limited board next turn, but I have several Tech II units in the deck. If I don’t, then I can keep efficiently bullying Bomber, but any Tech II units I draw are dead cards: I’d be relying on Bloodlust cast on units coming out of the Graveyard. Only way I can get Lich’s Bargain down is by sacrificing Drakk, but I’d be doing that before attacking with most of my units: hasted Thieving Imp, and attacking with Skeleton before Drakk, just gets me to enough attack to destroy the Tech II.
Worker, Tech II, Thieving Imp, 16 attack versus 8 HP on defence. Skeleton + Necro I kill Grave, other Necro I kills River, Drakk + Imp destroy Tech building. I’m left with a Skeleton in patrol, 3 HP Drakk and 1 HP Imp in backline. 4-card hand, drawing from an 8-card with 3 Tech II units in it, including 2 Crashbarrows. That’s 13/14 chance to draw at least one Tech II unit, and 11/14 chance to draw at least one Crashbarrow. If I don’t draw one next turn then I won’t have much to attack with, but I look those odds.
Worker, Thieving Imp, Skeleton hits Grave, Drakk trades with Grave. I end up with 13 attack versus 9 HP due to River levelling. If I attack with Drakk before the Skeleton, it’s 12 versus 8, so no Tech break that way either. No good, I need to break something.
Worker, Graveyard, Thieving Imp, maybe Heroes’ Hall or Javelineer. I still break Tech II, have an addition Skeleton in patrol when River’s dead and can’t cast Discord, so can block two Virtuosos, and my Necro I units are in Graveyard instead of discard. However, I have no Tech II. At most I draw 3 cards, there are 3 Tech II units in my 8-card deck, so chances are very high (23/28) that I draw at least one of them. That’s a real problem in a hand size that small.
I don’t think I can risk playing the Graveyard here, unfortunately. Going with option 1, teching up. Destroying the Tech I again, because if I’m relying on Blood II units next turn I’d prefer to be attacking a few big units in patrol instead of lots of small ones.
For tech choices, I need to look at cards that deal with Grounded Guide, and Blademaster just in case. Guide is easily dealt with by Kidnapping or Doom Grasp if I need to get rid if him right now. I think my only good option against Blademaster would be Chaos Mirror, plus Kidnapping if there are other units in front of him. Air units can also help out. Going with Kidnapping to start with, plus the other Glider.
Get paid - ($8)
Worker - ($7)
Tech II Blood - ($3)
Skeleton and Hooded Executioner trade with Grave, levels fizzle
Bone Collector trades with River, you get a gold, Skeleton arrives, levels fizzle
Thieving Imp, Drakk gives it haste, you discard card #1 of 5 - ($0)
Drakk and Thieving Imp destroy Tech I, your base to 15, take 1 damage each
Discard 2, draw 4
Technician: Skeleton 1/1
Drakk L6 3/3 (dies: 1 to your base, 1 damage)
Thieving Imp 2/1 (haste, 1 damage)
Base HP: 20 Tech I HP: 5 Tech II HP: 5 (Blood)
Hand: 4
Crashbarrow
Shoddy Glider
Bloodlust
Crashbarrow
Deck: 4
Deteriorate
Pestering Haunt
Bloodlust
Sacrifice the Weak
Discard: 6
Kidnapping
Shoddy Glider
Bone Collector
Hooded Executioner
Graveyard
Lich’s Bargain
Card-count check (opponent-viewable)
Expected: 10 + 10 teched = 20
1 on board
4 in hand
4 in deck
6 in discard
5 in workers
Total: 20
Gold: 0
Workers: 9
4 x start
T1: Poisonblade Rogue
T2: Jandra, the Negator
T4: Summon Skeletons
T5: Skeletal Archery
T6: Skeleton Javelineer
Bit disappointing to have the snapback hit there, but it could’ve been worse; he could’ve hit the lizard. This is a pretty baller defence, and his offence is not going to be super devastating (I hope), but we’ll see. Not sure how I’m going to fight back with all my haste in the trash, but we’ll just make do some how.
Oh, Leaping Lizard, interesting. It’s the efficient way to slow me down, I suppose. I drew very well, however. Facing 18 health on defence, 8 attack on the board, 7 attack per Crashbarrow and 4 attack for the Shoddy Glider, 2 more damage from Bloodlust, but I can’t play everything and worker.
Best plan of attack seems to be Skeleton and Glider on Lizard, then Crashbarrows power through Rook while doing 2 building damage, Drakk finishes off the building. If I can make good use of Bloodlust, that plus the Imp also let me destroy both tech buildings, at the expense of skipping another worker. It also leaves me with less material on the board – just Drakk, in fact – but Bomber can only patrol a single non-Rook hero + White 0 units on his turn. I’ll need to bring in Garth to fetch an unit to do anything offensive, and to get my hand size back up, but the defence I’d be facing should be pretty anaemic.
I think I can safely ignore the threat of Blademaster now, but I do need to worry about keeping board presence, so I need more units in the deck. I could take the other Bone Collector, I also like the look of Ogre Recruiter if I’m facing Tech 0/1 units for a while. It’s also immune to Discord, and has the highest health out of all my options, although the Tower will still be a problem. I’ll go with one of each.
Teched cards: 2
T2: Hooded Executioner, Lich’s Bargain
T3: Bone Collector, Crashbarrow
T4: Crashbarrow, Shoddy Glider
T5: 2 x Bloodlust
T6: Kidnapping, Shoddy Glider
T7: Bone Collector, Ogre Recruiter
Get paid - ($9)
2 x Crashbarrow - ($3)
Shoddy Glider - ($2)
Bloodlust on Crashbarrows - ($0)
Skeleton suicides into Leaping Lizard for 1+1A damage
Shoddy Glider trades with Leaping Lizard
Crashbarrow #1suicides to crumble Rook, overpowers for 2 damage to Tech II
Crashbarrow #2trades with Rook, overpowers for 2 damage to Tech I, you draw, levels fizzle
Drakk destroys Tech II, your base to 13, takes 1 damage
Thieving Imp destroys Tech I, your base to 11, killed by Tower Skip worker!
Discard 0, draw 2
Sparring Partner, Safe Attacking, Fox Viper, Aged Sensei, Nimble Fencer
Discard
Thinkerino
Wow… that was an insane amount of damage. There’s no way I could have foreseen 28 damage in a single turn. And he gets to resurrect a crashbarrow again this turn… I’m in real trouble here.
Obvious play is to bring out Garth to fetch a Crashbarrow, but I’ve got two options for the extra gold:
Worker. Play Pestering Haunt to help Drakk destroy the Tower.
Skeleton, sacrifice it with midband Garth to see if I draw Bloodlust. If I do, Bloodlust Garth and Drakk, fling them into River, spend my last gold to maxband Garth, Deteriorate Saviour Monk, fetched Crashbarrow kills it and destroys Tech I again. Problem is, I’ve only got 1/2 a chance to draw the Bloodlust, and if I don’t draw it then I can’t destroy anything.
Going to play it a bit safer and make a worker, I don’t want Bomber to get too far ahead in income.
Not sure what to tech here. I could do with some spells from different heroes, in case of Snapback. Alternatively, I just go for Bugblatters, since Bomber’s base is pretty low on health now. I’ll go with that, it helps get more value out of my Skeletons from Garth / Bone Collector.
Teched cards: 2
T2: Hooded Executioner, Lich’s Bargain
T3: Bone Collector, Crashbarrow
T4: Crashbarrow, Shoddy Glider
T5: 2 x Bloodlust
T6: Kidnapping, Shoddy Glider
T7: Bone Collector, Ogre Recruiter
T8: 2 x Captured Bugblatter
Get paid - ($9)
Worker - ($8)
Garth Torken - ($6)
Maxband Garth, Crashbarrow arrives - ($0)
Crashbarrow clears patrol, you draw, levels fizzle
Pestering Haunt, Drakk gives it haste
Drakk and Pestering Haunt destroy Tower, your base to 9, Haunt dies, Drakk takes 1 damage
Discard 0, draw 2
Oh I made a minor mistake last turn where I forgot to put a teched card into my cycle at all. I won’t bother redrawing this turn’s hand since the odds of drawing it were pretty low anyway (unless you particularly want me to) I’m just letting you know for transparency.
I’ll also @zhavier to keep this above board.
Missing card (for zhavier)
I somehow forgot to put Versatile Style in my discard (reversal made it in fine) so I’ve now put that in my deck for reshuffling and drawing.
This is going to be close, with so many Tech II units in my deck I can’t afford to let Bomber recover. Zane can get me through the patrol, I think I shove the Sensei and Bloodlust Zane to get Rook. Zane will die from lust, but I can kill the Fencer too and hope Bomber isn’t holding the other one. I’d draw a card with 3 gold left, 3/8 chance to draw a unit I can play right now. If not, Bomber 's turn could really hurt.
Teched cards: 0
T2: Hooded Executioner, Lich’s Bargain
T3: Bone Collector, Crashbarrow
T4: Crashbarrow, Shoddy Glider
T5: 2 x Bloodlust
T6: Kidnapping, Shoddy Glider
T7: Bone Collector, Ogre Recruiter
T8: 2 x Captured Bugblatter
Get paid - ($10)
Captain Zane - ($8)
Maxband Zane, shove Sensei to scavenger and kill, we get gold - ($4) Bloodlust on Nimble Fencer and Zane - ($2)
Zane trades with Rook, I reshuffle, we draw, levels fizzle
Draw: 1
Bone Collector
Thoughts
Nice, I get a Skeleton to stick in Technician too! The question ia whether I hit Bomber’s base down to 1, or destroy the Tech I, leaving his base on 7. What’s the worst thing that could come out? Fencer + Starlet + 2 Guides, Partner kills Skeleton, virtuosos destroy a Tech building each. If not a second Guide, the refresh Partner to buff Fencer to 5 attack. Skeleton in Elite still leaves the Partner alive because of Safe Attacking. I can’t risk that, I have to destroy Tech I here. Worst I could see is Discord to clear my patrol, Sensei’s Advice + Two Step on Partner to destro a Tech building. Definitely safer.
Bone Collector, Drakk gives it haste - ($0)
Bone Collector and Drakk destroy Tech I, your base to 7, Skeleton arrives, Drakk finally dies to Tower, your base to 6, levels fizzle, Bone Collector takes 1 damage
Discard 1, draw 3 Nimble Fencer dies of lust
Base HP: 20
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger: Saviour Monk (2/2)
Technician:
Lookout:
Can’t say I’m ecstatic about facing Daymare here.
Technician: Skeleton 1/1