Ok hit the 50-50 of getting my 1-drop so have the best possible start in terms of board. Not quite the best turn 2 though as I won’t have Rampant Growth, but he doesn’t know that so it should be hard for him to play a hero. I felt Verdant Tree wasn’t likely to stand up to Red building pressure so I’m ditching that now. Need as many units as I can bring to bear for later. Lets see if I can pressure to keep him off Tech II and get my time wizard on
STARTING HAND
Forest’s Favor
Young Treant
Playful Panda
Rich Earth
Spore Shambler
WORKERS
Verdant Tree
Rich Earth
NextHand
Behind the Ferns
Playful Panda
Rampant Growth
Ironbark Treant
Young Treant
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Prospect for a gold - ($6)
Worker - ($5)
Midband Calamandra - ($3)
Calamandra kills Brogre, takes 3
Spore Shambler - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, reshuffle, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Spore Shambler 2/3+A [++, Resist 1]
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
L3 Calamandra 3/1
Merfolk Prospector 1/1 [Resist 1]
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 3
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 6
Thoughts
I couldn’t see a good line where I keep Calamandra and get to Tech I so I had to decide what was important right now. After some deliberation I felt like trading Calamandra would set me back too much board pressure so I’ve opted for delaying Tech I and hoping to weather his 9 gold counter attack.
I think I can probably do fine from the board state where he kills Calamandra (the way I could figure out to do it is Midband Drakk, Charge Nautical Dog to kill Shambler, Madman to kill Calamandra) because he’s most likely skipping Tech I, going down on cards and/or conceding economic advantage to me. It’s pretty tough to do otherwise, so I’m playing as if I keep her.
I could see maxband Arg + Tech up as a good counter turn, so I’m throwing in Ferns and Ferocity to try and cut through board based advantages. They aren’t that useful next turn unless I also keep the Shambler, but again it’s expensive to deal with so I think I’ve got a good shout of that happening.
Edit: Fixed. My teched cards weren’t added to the discard automatically. Almost certainly due to a mistake I made as I had mis-clicked a button and had to redo my turn. I’ve redrawn my hand.
P1T3
StartingHand Workers
STARTING HAND
Ironbark Treant
Playful Panda
Rampant Growth
Young Treant
Behind the Ferns
WORKERS
Verdant Tree
Rich Earth
Playful Panda
NextHand
Forest’s Favor
Behind the Ferns
Ferocity
Huntress
Tiger Cub
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Prospect for 1 gold - ($7)
Worker - ($6)
Tech I - ($4)
Ironbark Treant - ($1)
Float ($1)
Discard 3, draw 3, reshuffle, draw 2
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Ironbark Treant 1/2AAA [Resist 1]
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Spore Shambler 2/3 [++, Resist 1]
Lookout:
In Play:
L3 Calamandra 3/1
Merfolk Prospector 1/1 [Resist 1]
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 3
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 7
Thoughts
I had a couple of options to break his Tech I building, but all of them left me frustratingly weak to the expected counter play and unable to threaten Tech II next turn due to a lack of workers. I decided I’d be best served by building my economy and board instead. If he leaves me be and just Techs up I will have Maxband Calamandra and a strong board to threaten him with. If he does respond it should sap all of his resources and let me try take the tech lead. If he does have kidnapping I am SCREWED but I think having it this early in the game (on cycle 1) seems unlikely to me. Teched in Huntress and Now! to offer me some good value counter attack should everything go sideways.
I can’t tell how best to counter calamandra. if I had predicted my guys would survive I could have broken him with behind the ferns, but now I’m expecting him to have ferocity or behind the ferns, and it’s proving problematic to play around. I can’t reliably keep tech 2 up, and he might still leave stuff alive, so I have to figure out which way he is headed. I can either centaur and tech up, but tech spells assuming he breaks through or sneaks through. I could go for drakk, but that doesn’t get me very far through his patrol.
STARTING HAND
Forest’s Favor
Tiger Cub
Ferocity
Behind the Ferns
Huntress
WORKERS
Verdant Tree
Rich Earth
Playful Panda
Tiger Cub
NextHand
Young Treant
Centaur
Now!
Rampant Growth
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($8)
Ferocity - ($6)
Shambler gives a rune to Treant - ($5)
Treant kills Centaur, takes 1
Shambler kills Dog, takes 1
Prospector trades with Mad Man
Maxband Calamandra - ($3)
Forest’s Favour on Calamandra - ($1)
Calamandra breaks Tech II, takes 1, your base to 18
Worker - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 3, reshuffle, draw 1
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
L5 Calamandra 5/5 [+]
Ironbark Treant 4/1 [+, Resist 1]
Spore Shambler 1/1 [+, Resist 1]
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 6
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 8
Thoughts
So I could use either of Ferocity or Ferns to break his Tech II Building, but the line with Ferocity offers me better economy and eradicates his board. I can’t see a way for him to kill Calamandra and my Tech I building from this position, so I should have one or the other next turn. I don’t think I can do better than this given my board, hopefully I can follow this up with enough pressure to secure a win. To that end I can’t afford to put any Tech II stuff in, so double teching Centaurs should give me the strongest potential board pressure if Tech I stands. I’ll have the 1 card post-reshuffle but also the guaranteed Young Treant to try and fish for a good Tech I unit.
Well what do you know, I found a Centaur first time! Now I wait and see what horrors he swings back at my open board.
Mad Man
Kidnapping
Charge
Makeshift Rambaster
Crashbarrow
Crashbarrow
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + Scav - ($9)
Worker - ($8)
Drakk - ($6)
Kidnapping on Treant, pay resist - ($1)
Treant hits Calamandra to 1, then dies
Crash Bomber - ($0)
rebuild tech 2
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 4
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Crash Bomber 2/2+A
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Drakk 1/3, lvl 1
Lookout:
In Play:
*
Buildings:
Base HP: 18
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Blood)
Tower HP: 4
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 1
Disc: 6
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 9
Thoughts
So, I can drakk to mid 5, BRO plus charge, 4, dead calamandra and a maxband drakk to show for it, which would promptly die to treant and shambler at a minimum. I can kidnap and ping cal down with Treant. Max Drakk and Crash bomber works a lot better when there is a patrol…
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($8)
Young Treant, I draw a card - ($6)
Rampant Growth on Shambler - ($4)
Calamandra trades with Bomber, Drakk to level 3
Geiger - ($2)
Shambler safely kills Drakk, Geiger midbands
Maxband Geiger, flicker Shambler - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Young Treant 0/2+A
Elite: Spore Shambler 3/3 [++]
Scavenger: L5 Geiger 3/4 [Sparkshot]
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
*
Buildings:
Base HP: 18
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 0
Disc: 7
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 8
Thoughts
Yeeeuuggh that turn was pretty rough. The Young Treant didn’t give me anything that could help break his Tech II so now I just have to hope to weather the storm and get mine up. Not feeling likely with the way this game has gone and assuming the Crashbarrows are coming. No Tech IIs means if he can kill my Tech I its probably GG. At least I still have Arg to throw on and get card free units to help me out while I try and survive.
So the Crashbarrows weren’t in there yet, or I got rid of them when I broke his Tech II. This turn I couldn’t see what I do other than block up and hope to still be alive. I’ve got 14HP defending me. Midband Drakk + Crashbarrow gives him 16 damage but I assume there will be more than that on route to my face, so I expect to probably lose my Tech II here.
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($11)
Calamandra - ($9)
Behind the Ferns - ($7)
Dog hits your tech 2 for 2
Mad Man - ($6)
Stampede - ($0)
Wisp breaks your tech 2
Mad man kills Young Treant, 1 extra damage to base, now 15
Water Elemental kills Shambler, base to 12
I did not see that coming. Stealthed Calamandra is real strong and he has another guaranteed Tech II break if he doesn’t mind going down on cards. This turn I’ve purposefully not prospected and workered so my hand size is slightly preserved. I’m going to assume he’s got Drakk spells in hand so killing Arg is actually a bad plan from here. If he has another Stampede in hand though I’m probably just dead. My only hope is having enough left alive to murder him. Arg and Geiger spells make that slightly easier to do if I make it that far.
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($10)
Wisp triggers tower detection attacking treant for 0 damage, poof!
Makeshift Rambaster, sneaks in and hits base for 3 - ($8)
Water Elemental hits base for 3
Arg taps to buff dog, dog deals 3 to base
Discard 2 cards, Cal has stealth, hits base for 2
Mad Man rushes at your base with wild abandon, GG!
GG @zhavier! I was pretty sure no matter what I did on that last turn I was dead but felt trapping you with Arg was the lesser of the available evils.
Just read through your comments, pleased that I had you concerned for a while there. I think my main mistake was double teching Centaurs on turn 4 instead of Hyperions. Would’ve been much better going for Tech II on turn 5.
The behind the ferns turn totally caught me though. I clearly have Drakk fixation
I definitely agree sticking at tech 1 was a mistake. I really thought you would maybe kill drakk, but figured it would be expensive to do so. T4 didn’t have the tech 2, and then t5, I knew the tide had turned. Also keeping you stuck with Geiger when I knew you had at least 2 Cal spells that could mess me up was key.
Squad Leader: L1 Calamandra Moss 2/3+A
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
Base HP: 20
Base HP: 20