Tough matchup to start the tourny with, but hopefully being P1 will give me an edge. bolyarich doesn’t know I won’t have Hook next turn, so I’ll play Grave to try and force an awkward patrol. Workering Monk over Primus to respect the threat of Gargoyle.
STARTING HAND
Skeletal Archery
Sacrifice the Weak
Graveyard
Thieving Imp
Pestering Haunt
WORKERS
Skeletal Archery
NextHand
Poisonblade Rogue
Jandra, the Negator
Skeleton Javelineer
Summon Skeletons
Deteriorate
Discard
Pestering Haunt
Sacrifice the Weak
Graveyard
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Imp - ($1)
discard #3 out of 5
Float ($1)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Imp(2/2)
Lookout:
In Play:
*
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 0
Disc: 3
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 6
Thoughts
Don’t see the way to open with a hero with such hand. Decided to launch agression on his hand. The question is – are we too slow to have a opportunity to go with skeletons build? I think yes, we are too slow, we wouldn’t have a window to clear a board here in 2-3 turns
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Discard #3
Worker - ($4)
Tech 1 - ($3)
Grave kills Imp, you reshuffle and draw (before teching)
Smoker pings your base
Aged Sensei - ($2)
Heroes’ Hall - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, reshuffle, draw 4
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Aged Sensei (1/1)
Lookout:
In Play:
Grave lvl 1 (2/1)
Smoker (1/1)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Heroes’ Hall HP: 4
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 4
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 6
Thoughts
Not sure why bolyarich would want to reshuffle before teching, but I’ll take it. I’m behind on cards, but a Deteriorate on either of my weenies replenishes my hand. Plus, HH lets me pour gold into heroes.
STARTING HAND
Fox Primus
Nimble Fencer
Martial Mastery
Grappling Hook
Snapback
Reversal
WORKERS
Savior Monk
Fox Viper
Smoker
Sensei’s Advice
Fox Primus
NextHand
Snapback
True Power of Storms
Morningstar Flagbearer
Safe Attacking
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($8)
Worker - ($7)
Grappling Hook the Skeleton over to elite
Grave kills Garth, sparkshots Skeleton to death, Rook to lvl 3
Nimble Fencer - ($5)
Martial Mastery, nothing to discard, draw 2, then I look at your hand - ($4)
Spartner kills Javelineer
Rook and Fencer break tech 2, your base to 15
Tech 2 (Finesse) - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 3, reshuffle, draw 1
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Grave lvl 7 (5/5A),+, sword rune
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Rook lvl 3 (3/5),+
Nimble Fencer (2/3)
Sparring Partner (2/1)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Finesse)
Heroes’ Hall HP: 4
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 7
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 9
Thoughts
Do I go all in on MM and risk drawing TPoS early? I think yes. It lets me peek at bolyarich’s hand before deciding which tech building to break, and lets me reshuffle this turn.
…
So bolyarich has an even spread of tech 2’s and tech 1’s. Lizards are obviously much better value, but Hoodie gets rid of my Spartner. Hmm, I think it has to be the tech 2, if only to prevent throwing two heroes in the mix as well.
Didn’t draw TPoS early, but I did draw two of my 3-cost cards, so I may not be able to play it next turn anyway. But if I get to…
It seems like Boly was going for a cheeky Tech2 Rush for Lizards, hoping not to draw them turn 3, and just had bad luck hitting them BOTH on the 2 out of 6
It’s a bold and interesting strategy, if you play it out from a re-draw of that turn 3 hand 5 more times it’s likely he gets the setup twice (and gets one lizard in the turn 4 hand the rest of the time).
Drawing 0 lizards in the 2 out of 6 is 40%
Splitting 1-1 is 53.3 %
Drawing BOTH is 7.7%
Bad luck P2T3 draws are a real killer in codex You had exactly the right draws (Spartner->Fencer) to punish it w/ hard aggro anyway though so didn’t really matter. Boly didn’t have enough board to defend the Tech2 and probably should have Maxed Vandy on T3 in response to the whiff, maybe built a HH himself and teched anti-hero for Garth (or LB maybe)
I was more curious about the meme-y TPoS tech; just felt the game was that far gone? Seems like playing straight up with birds into Strength T2 (or finesse T2) would have been a safer bet
@bansa, @FrozenStorm thanks for cluing me in, I don’t remember ever seeing that sort of commitment to early tech 2 before.
The TPoS tech was pretty meme-y, yeah, but I do think it could’ve pulled its weight if the game had lasted longer. If nothing else, it heavily punishes Dark Pact and Lich’s Bargain.
Fair to say DP and LB were possible comeback vectors and you had setup with not workering Flagbearer + teching MM! Thanks for the reply
That kind of early commit to tech 2 in my experience doesn’t often work exactly because you’re giving up the board so hard. Especially against early white Rook + Grave, who are hard to anti-hero effectively and flood the board with enough weenies that anti-hero alone isn’t enough; you just lose the board uncontrollably
P.S. I think Daymare can be a counter to Nightmare especially as P1. Reason for my deck choice but I’m still learning White starter so opted for Neutral instead.
Daymare P1 in general is super strong (as any white P1 is, but Discord and Fencer providing heavy early pressure help it dominate harder, and Finesse T2 or Strength T2 + Two-Step transitions better to late game than mono white does). I don’t think specifically it counters Nightmare so much as it is very strong P1
Totally agree and I think it may arguably be the strongest. I wonder why we don’t see it’s appearance as much as Miracle Grow or Nightmare. Is there a known counter to Daymare?
It just isn’t great as P2, and can be defeated as P1 by ASG (as Rook + Zane gives enough variance early game to either wether it or blow it up w/ haste)
I think Zane in general blows up the early aggression fairly effectively. Not sure though that’s a gut read nothing empirical I can point to for backup
White starter relies on 1/1s to help defend early, Black starter is also good at defeating those in general. I think a more aggressive P2 plan from nightmare plays pretty 50/50 with it (Imp is a limp P2 black starter, you have to commit to ceding early and play the card squeeze hard to win with it IMO. Like either Boly needed to play Garth + weenies T2/3 afterwards and fall back on LB, or just go empty on heroes and play for T4 Tech2 if he’s gonna go full turtle board ceding)
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout: Smoker (1/1)
Base HP: 20
You had exactly the right draws (Spartner->Fencer) to punish it w/ hard aggro anyway though so didn’t really matter. Boly didn’t have enough board to defend the Tech2 and probably should have Maxed Vandy on T3 in response to the whiff, maybe built a HH himself and teched anti-hero for Garth (or LB maybe)