STARTING HAND
Spectral Flagbearer
Macciatus, The Whisperer
Manufactured Truth
WORKERS
Bluecoat Musketeer
Jail
Porkhand Magistrate
Traffic Director
Manufactured Truth
NextHand
Spectral Hound
Reteller of Truths
Discard
Spectral Aven
Liberty Gryphon
Liberty Gryphon
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($14)
Bigby draws
Worker - ($13)
Maxband Oni - ($8)
Oni kills Orpal
Macciatus, The Whisperer - ($6)
Spectral Flagbearer - ($5)
Tech III - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 0, draw 2
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: L8 General Onimaru (2/3A) Frenzy 1, readiness [2-]
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Lookout:
In Play:
L5 Bigby Hayes (3/2)
Macciatus, The Whisperer (3/3)
Spectral Flagbearer (3/3) Tempting target
Reputable Newsman (0/3) $3 blocked
Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Truth)
Tech III HP: 5
Tower HP: 4
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 2
Deck: 7
Disc: 3
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 10
Thoughts
Alright, this should get Frozen nervous about Gryphons, even though I don’t have them in cycle yet… now it’s just a question of whether or not I can stall long enough to get a solid deployment in place. No Reteller means I want the Flagbearer to survive for now; hopefully Macciatus can help with that. Overpower is not optional, so I’ll insist on getting a card if Oni goes down.
STARTING HAND
Spectral Hound
Reteller of Truths
Spectral Hound
WORKERS
Bluecoat Musketeer
Jail
Porkhand Magistrate
Traffic Director
Manufactured Truth
NextHand
Building Inspector
Spectral Flagbearer
Discard
Spectral Aven
Liberty Gryphon
Liberty Gryphon
Eyes of the Chancellor
Jurisdiction
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($10)
Rebuild Tech III
Bigby draws
Reteller of Truths - ($8)
Spectral Hound - ($7)
Spectral Hound - ($6)
Sirus Quince - ($4)
Mirror Illusion - ($2)
Float ($2)
Discard 0, draw 2
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Spectral Hound (4/4A)
Elite:
Scavenger: Spectral Hound (4/4)
Technician: Reteller of Truths (4/4)
Lookout:
In Play:
L5 Bigby Hayes (3/2)
L1 Sirus Quince (1/3)
Macciatus, The Whisperer (3/3)
Spectral Flagbearer (3/3) Tempting target
Reputable Newsman (0/3) $3 blocked
Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Mirror Illusion (0/1)
Mirror Illusion (0/1)
Buildings:
Base HP: 18
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Truth)
Tech III HP: 5
Tower HP: 4
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 2
Deck: 4
Disc: 5
Gold:
Gold: 2
Workers: 10
Thoughts
Booooo, Shrine. At least the Tech III is doing its job. I could take down that Voidblocker, but that would let it hit more stuff, and I wouldn’t have enough force to break through to something else… I think I’ll hold back for the moment. I want to try to get some Mirror Illusions into the action as well, though with paper-thin defenses like this, it’s hard to get set up for it… guess I’ll build outward rather than upward… try to soak some more hits, strain his resources, and gradually wear him down… and if the tide starts to turn his way, hopefully I’ll be able to sweep in with a Judgment Day at an opportune moment next cycle.
The unstoppable Dozer could hit the Soldier patroller and overpower to something bigger without taking attack damage from that something. If he’s going to hit a patroller, I want it to hurt.
Doom Grasp
Voidblocker
Sickness
Shadow Blade
Sickness
Jandra, the Negator
End of Turn Discard
Jandra, the Negator
Deteriorate
My Thoughts
Fun to actually have to play Demon tech 2 for its strengths. I’m going to risk it to get the biscuit here and leave the tech 3 up, as I am able to take out basically everything else with what I’m doing. I’ll SQL Orpal just in case Neko has one gryphon, and tech DnDs to hopefully finish the job here
Agree, though it’s still a difficult matchup for Blue, I think at this point that’s not because of an imbalance, but just because Black’s kit is inherently difficult for Blue to work around.
P2T8
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Judgment Day
Judgment Day
STARTING HAND
Spectral Flagbearer
Building Inspector
Lawful Search
Macciatus, The Whisperer
WORKERS
Bluecoat Musketeer
Jail
Porkhand Magistrate
Traffic Director
Manufactured Truth
Building Inspector
NextHand
Reteller of Truths
Spectral Aven
Spectral Flagbearer
Liberty Gryphon
Arrest
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float + Scavenger - ($13)
General Onimaru - ($11)
Lawful Search your hand - ($10)
Worker - ($9)
Maxband Onimaru - ($2)
Float ($2)
Discard 3, draw 2, reshuffle, draw 3
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: L8 General Onimaru (4/5) Frenzy 1, readiness
Lookout:
In Play:
Reputable Newsman (0/3) $3 blocked
Mirror Illusion (0/1)
Mirror Illusion (0/1)
Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Buildings:
Base HP: 18
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Truth)
Tech III HP: 5
Tower HP: 4
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 12
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 2
Workers: 11
Thoughts
Okay, this is bad. D&D could land any time, and even if it doesn’t hit and I get lucky to topdeck a Judgment Day off the reshuffle, I’ll probably be too beat up to make a comeback. Guess I’ll play it out, though, on the off chance that D&D is late and he commits most of his forces to disabling options instead of going for the kill.
Feels like I have to work a lot harder to earn it right now, though fundamentally the matchup doesn’t feel that far off vanilla black in how I’m approaching things. Just feels like I legit have to gamble something to make plays, and it’s hard for me to tell if I’m just getting fortunate with coin flips, or if this is just fundamentally still too much in my favor. Where’s your head at Neko?
Perhaps this last P1 game will be revelatory on that front, GL HF!
Vandy + Haunt wouldn’t be a bad choice here but I generally liked how starting Jandra + Imp went last game & the overall Demonz tech plan, so I think I’m going to veer that direction again and see if last game was just fortunate or still the real trouble spot it seemed for Blue.
Hmm, I’d say Blue vs. vanilla Black is an oppressive early game leading into a devastating late game, and vs. nerfed Black is a competitive early game leading into a devastating late game. I feel like I’m playing suboptimally, though… I’m not used to having breathing room to work with, and I’m still figuring out how to leverage that to defend against your power plays. That’s why I don’t want to blame the balancing for my losses… at least not yet.
P2T1
StartingHand Workers
STARTING HAND
Bluecoat Musketeer
Building Inspector
Arrest
Lawful Search
Manufactured Truth
WORKERS
Bluecoat Musketeer
NextHand
Porkhand Magistrate
Spectral Aven
Jail
Reputable Newsman
Traffic Director
Discard
Lawful Search
Manufactured Truth
Arrest
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Bigby Hayes - ($2)
Building Inspector - ($1)
Float ($1)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: L1 Bigby Hayes (2/3A)
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout: Building Inspector (1/1) $1 tax, resist 1
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 0
Disc: 3
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 6
Thoughts
I seemed to do okay in the early game last time, but completely crumpled in the face of the Shrine and Sickness. I think I’ll try opening with Flagbearers again this time around, and immediately follow up with Eyes and Jurisdiction, idea being get Eyes in play ASAP and stash Jurisdiction for maximum flexibility in responding to threats. The Hounds didn’t do anything to help me last game, anyway.
That’s a crisp summary and I’m not seeing any gaping windows of opportunity early you aren’t taking advantage of. I think things might change when we swap sides though
Pestering Haunt
Dark Pact
Graveyard
Poisonblade Rogue
Skeleton Javelineer
End of Turn Discard
My Thoughts
Much harder to leverage anything here… Going to skip the tech 1 and try to Soul Stone Jandra, but we shall see if I can make it work. It’s certainly what Neko will expect but I just have to hope I’m dodging Arrest and MTruth
Right, in the early game, I held my own just fine, but in doing so I left myself unprepared to survive your late game. Unstoppable Demons are hard to deal with in general, and I needed to prevent you from playing the Shrine or clear away your Demon units before it dropped. Normally, I avoid relying on spells because Carrion Curse punishes them really hard, but last game I managed to keep a $3 Newsman alive longer than usual, so I would have been much better off teching in Injunctions rather than Hounds. Either that or I needed more mid-late game aggression of my own. Either way, overcommitting to low-cost Illusions was a mistake, especially since I wasn’t running Garrisons and I ended up having more gold than I knew what to do with. But then, if I had gone with a different strategy, it might have failed for some other reason, so 2 games is probably not enough to get a good read on the matchup.
P2T2
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Spectral Flagbearer
Spectral Flagbearer
STARTING HAND
Spectral Aven
Traffic Director
Porkhand Magistrate
Jail
Reputable Newsman
If I can get him to trade both Demons for Bigby, even with the free levels, that’s a nice trade in my favor. I’m half-tempted to scrub my previous plan and rush Garrisons, though that would be somewhat risky… and I kind of want to see this plan through. However… I think Frozen’ll be happy to leave the Newsman alive on $3 and go for Sickness again, which Flagbearers aren’t great at defending against… in fact, he could have a Sickness in hand right now, which could allow Jandra to solo-kill Bigby and survive, and also either snipe the Inspector or allow the Imp to kill the Newsman and survive. As much as I fear his $3 discard spells, I think I have to block $2 instead, at least for now. I’m kind of tempted to tech in a Brave Knight or two to combo with Manufactured Truth and allow me to bounce and replay the Newsman to alter that choice, but Black is pretty good at finishing off Knights with non-combat damage, so I’d better not. No, Flagbearers and $2 is probably my best bet.
After basically giving away that I’m thinking about Injunction, and having the Newsman deployed on something other than $3, I’m less confident about the Eyes/Jurisdiction angle… though not quite so much as I would be if he’d gone with Orpal instead of Vandy and/or played a Heroes’ Hall… though I suppose if he really wanted to, he could suicide Vandy to make room for Orpal. I’m tempted to shift gears and try something unusual, but with Vandy on the table and my lack of aggression right now, I also need to worry about Metamorphosis, so I’ll stay the course. Coming off his reshuffle, I’ll take the opportunity to kill the Imp and prep to use Bigby to rebuild my hand while guarding against Shadow Blade, since that worked pretty well last game.
Patrol as below
Base HP: 20
Squad Leader: Orpal (1/3+1armor lvl 1)
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout: Blackhand Dozer (7/6)
Squad Leader: L8 General Onimaru (2/3A) Frenzy 1, readiness [2-]
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Lookout:
Base HP: 20
this definitely feels more fair.