Nerfs highly significant here, as without them Blue’s entire board including Tower goes away at virtually no cost to Black.
As-is, Black still ends up way ahead, but at least the Tower gets to stay alive to harass future attacks.
P1 Black w/ Demon Taxes vs P2 Blue
Soul Stone
Graveyard
Pestering Haunt
Deteriorate
Dark Pact
Metamorphosis, Shrine of Forbidden Knowledge
Hooded Executioner, Shadow Blade
Dark Pact, Soul Stone
Pestering Haunt, Poisonblade Rogue, Skeletal Archery, Summon Skeletons
Patrol as below
Base HP: 18
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:Hooded Executioner
Sacrifice the Weak
Shadow Blade
Deteriorate
This seems the logical choice, prep a Meta and tech 2 demonz, wipe the board, hope to finish off stuff next turn. Probably Drop Hoodie, attack a bit, and tech 2 next turn, then Garth + Meta next turn
P2T4
TECH
Judgment Day
Reteller of Truths
STARTING HAND
Manufactured Truth
Arrest
Lawful Search
Traffic Director
WORKERS
Bluecoat Musketeer
Jail
Porkhand Magistrate
Lawful Search
Spectral Flagbearer
Manufactured Truth
Reteller of Truths
Reputable Newsman
Traffic Director
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + Scavenger - ($9)
Worker - ($8)
Tech II: Truth - ($4)
Sirus Quince - ($2)
Mirror Illusion - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, reshuffle, draw 5
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Sirus Quince (1/3A)
Elite:
Scavenger: Mirror Illusion (0/1)
Technician: Mirror Illusion (0/1)
Lookout:Buildings:
Base HP: 20 Tech I HP: 5 Tech II HP: 5 (Truth) Tower HP: 4Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
I had hoped the presence of a $2 Newsman would discourage Soul Stone as a tech choice, but I guess not. Since I’m losing board control, I’ll tech in a Judgment Day, and I’ll go with a Reteller in hopes of making it invisible and spamming both Flagbearers each turn. Avoiding card plays for maximum draws, and workering Search because Eyes would render it mostly obsolete.
P1 Black w/ Demon Taxes vs P2 Blue
Hooded Executioner
Sacrifice the Weak
Shadow Blade
Deteriorate
Sickness, Voidblocker
Metamorphosis, Shrine of Forbidden Knowledge
Hooded Executioner, Shadow Blade
Dark Pact, Soul Stone
Sacrifice the Weak, Pestering Haunt, Poisonblade Rogue, Skeletal Archery, Summon Skeletons
Patrol as below Base HP: 18 Squad Leader: Elite: Scavenger: Technician: Lookout:Metamorphosis
Thieving Imp
Shrine of Forbidden Knowledge
Graveyard
Skeleton Javelineer
Soul Stone
Voidblocker
Blackhand Dozer
Shadow Blade
Deteriorate
Hooded Executioner
Continuing forward with the plan, but no need for Hoodie if I can wipe the board and discard a card
P2T5
TECH
Judgment Day
Free Speech
STARTING HAND
Reputable Newsman
Manufactured Truth
Reteller of Truths
Traffic Director
Spectral Flagbearer
Judgment Day
WORKERS
Bluecoat Musketeer
Jail
Porkhand Magistrate
Lawful Search
Judgment Day
Building Inspector
Spectral Flagbearer
Arrest
Traffic Director
Manufactured Truth
Judgment Day
Free Speech
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($9)
Worker - ($8)
Tower - ($5)
Spectral Flagbearer - ($4)
Reteller of Truths - ($2)
Reputable Newsman - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 1, draw 3
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Spectral Flagbearer (2/2A) Tempting target Elite: Scavenger: Technician: Reteller of Truths (3/3) Lookout:In Play:
Buildings:
Base HP: 18 Tech I HP: 5 Tech II HP: 5 (Truth) Tower HP: 4Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
Late drawing Eyes/Jurisdiction, Shrine will probably hit next turn. Floating Judgment 'cuz I don’t want to give up my other non-discarded cards and teching in a Speech as I’m very likely going to need it.
P1 Black w/ Demon Taxes vs P2 Blue
Metamorphosis
Thieving Imp
Shrine of Forbidden Knowledge
Graveyard
Blackhand Dozer, Death and Decay
Sickness, Voidblocker
Metamorphosis, Shrine of Forbidden Knowledge
Hooded Executioner, Shadow Blade
Dark Pact, Soul Stone
Graveyard, Sacrifice the Weak, Pestering Haunt, Poisonblade Rogue, Skeletal Archery, Summon Skeletons
Patrol as below Base HP: 18 Squad Leader: Orpal (1/3+1armor lvl 1) Elite: Scavenger: Technician: Lookout:Dark Pact
Jandra, the Negator
Blackhand Dozer
Deteriorate
Shadow Blade
Newsie throws a wrench, so I will just punt to try a 3-hero meta, but hedge on Demonz
P2T6
TECH
Liberty Gryphon
Liberty Gryphon
STARTING HAND
Spectral Flagbearer
Building Inspector
Arrest
Spectral Aven
WORKERS
Bluecoat Musketeer
Jail
Porkhand Magistrate
Lawful Search
Judgment Day
Building Inspector
Eyes of the Chancellor
Free Speech
Jurisdiction
Liberty Gryphon
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($10)
Worker - ($9)
Reteller of Truths - ($7)
Spectral Flagbearer - ($6)
Tech III - ($1)
Float ($1)
Discard 2, draw 2, reshuffle, draw 2
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Spectral Flagbearer (2/2A) Tempting Target Elite: Scavenger: Technician: Reteller of Truths (3/3) Lookout:In Play:
Buildings:
Base HP: 18 Tech I HP: 5 Tech II HP: 5 (Truth) Tech III HP: 5 Tower HP: 4Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
LOL, 2 cards left in deck, and they’re the 2 I’ve been waiting for. Well, at least he doesn’t have any Demon units in play, but a StW or Executioner could clear the Newsman and enable Meta, or a Sickness could wreck my patrol… but at least Vandy’s almost dead.
P1 Black w/ Demon Taxes vs P2 Blue
Dark Pact
Jandra, the Negator
Blackhand Dozer
Deteriorate
Shadow Blade
Skeleton Javelineer + Hooded Executioner
Blackhand Dozer
Blackhand Dozer, Death and Decay
Sickness, Voidblocker
Metamorphosis, Shrine of Forbidden Knowledge
Hooded Executioner, Shadow Blade
Dark Pact, Soul Stone
Graveyard, Sacrifice the Weak, Pestering Haunt, Poisonblade Rogue, Skeletal Archery, Summon Skeletons
Patrol as below Base HP: 15 Squad Leader: Orpal (1/3+1armor lvl 1) Elite: Scavenger: Technician: Lookout:Death and Decay
Metamorphosis
Thieving Imp
Soul Stone
Sickness
Voidblocker
Blackhand Dozer
Dark Pact
Deteriorate
Shadow Blade
Jandra, the Negator
Skeleton Javelineer
All we can do is pray no Gryphon!
Uhh I think you have to pay for dark pact? Is that in the current set of changes being tested?
Yep! LOL. I will skip the worker and draw one extra, my bad there (knew I wasn’t going to make it through this game without fking something up)
P2T7
STARTING HAND
Eyes of the Chancellor
Jurisdiction
Liberty Gryphon
Free Speech
WORKERS
Bluecoat Musketeer
Jail
Porkhand Magistrate
Lawful Search
Judgment Day
Building Inspector
Manufactured Truth
Traffic Director
Spectral Aven
Spectral Flagbearer
Reputable Newsman
Free Speech
Spectral Flagbearer
Jurisdiction
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($12)
Eyes of the Chancellor - ($9)
Liberty Gryphon - ($6)
Sirus Quince - ($4)
Gryphon breaks Shrine
Free Speech - ($2)
Eyes hide Reteller
Reteller trades with Vandy
Reteller of Truths - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 4
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Reteller of Truths (3/3A) Elite: Scavenger: Mirror Illusion (0/1) Technician: L3 Sirus Quince (1/4) Lookout:In Play:
Buildings:
Base HP: 18 Tech I HP: 5 Tech II HP: 5 (Truth) Tech III HP: 5 Tower HP: 4Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
Whew, managed to survive long enough to get some quality recon going, amazingly enough. I think I might win this one. I can’t afford a complete lockdown, even though I have the cards for it, but I’ll lead with Quince here and try to follow-up with Judgment Day next turn, if possible. Gryphon should survive and keep hitting key targets.
I’ll GG to that! Nicely done. The Newsman drop on my Meta attempt was critical.
I will start a game 4 as P1 given that we’re wanting to expand to 10 games.
Any thoughts on this game? I’m not sure if indexing towards demonz as I have is the right call, I definitely feel the squeeze on gold now each turn so it’s tough to get done what I want to get done. Tower is a big MVP for you in that regard.
I definitely think scaling back the number of Illusions I’m running was a good decision.
I really just want the Flagbearers to shut down Shadow Blade and protect my hand size, so going with 2 Flagbearers and 1 Reteller to recycle them seems sufficient. The Shrine is devastating when you drop it on a board with Demonized heroes and/or Dozers, but playing it before that seems much less effective… I guess maybe you wanted to be sure to slip it through before I got around to using Injunction, which was worrying but didn’t seem particularly effective. I think if you’re going to use it, it should be as a finisher, not an opener… same with Meta, considering the nerfs to Vandy and Meta. But, if you don’t have enough gold to suppress my spell usage while developing your board, I would encourage experimenting with another spec, because it’s the discards making spells unreliable that make the Shrine so difficult to deal with.
Also, choosing Orpal rather than Vandy as your first hero would have been more troublesome for me, as $2 Newsman + Flagbearers is a solid defense against Vandy’s non-ultimate spells, whereas defending against both Sickness and Carrion Curse would have been much more difficult. Also, the Jandra opening is much less intimidating than any of your single-hero openings, since Jandra alone can’t kill a L1 hero SQL and is an ideal model for MTruth, not to mention she’s vulnerable to Bigby’s midband and Arrest making her unreliable on defense… and if you let me safely play Bigby on T1, I can have any card I want ready to play on T2.
I also consistently felt the squeeze on gold when I started trying to mix in spells, but I had enough to scrape by. In general, though, I feel like I actually have options with these balance changes, instead of feeling perpetually cornered. I think this might be my first Blue v Black win without running Garrisons? … which has me excited to try out another idea I’ve had for a while.
Arright game 4, gl hf!
P1 Black w/ Demon Taxes vs P2 Blue
Thieving Imp
Sacrifice the Weak
Skeletal Archery
Summon Skeletons
Skeleton Javelineer
Skeletal Archery
Patrol as below Base HP: 20 Squad Leader: Elite: Scavenger: Technician: Lookout:Graveyard
Deteriorate
Pestering Haunt
Jandra, the Negator
Poisonblade Rogue
Time to try something new after losing, Let’s get bully Vandy going!!
GL HF. This opening definitely feels more pressuring.
P2T1
STARTING HAND
Lawful Search
Building Inspector
Manufactured Truth
Bluecoat Musketeer
Spectral Aven
WORKERS
Lawful Search
Arrest
Reputable Newsman
Porkhand Magistrate
Jail
Traffic Director
Manufactured Truth
Bluecoat Musketeer
Spectral Aven
Building Inspector
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Bigby Hayes, midband - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 4, draw 5
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: L3 Bigby Hayes (2/4A) Elite: Scavenger: Technician: Lookout:Buildings:
Base HP: 20Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
With the Vandy nerfs, I have more options than on a standard Vandy opening, but none of them are particularly good options. I think the least bad is SQL midband Bigby, however. He’d have to skip a worker and pay to max Vandy if he wants the kill, and if he just wounds, I can pay to max and get a card draw, if nothing else.
It’s just tough for me to do knowing it’s harder to get Vandy that initial heal. Gold feels really tight as P1 with this start and the balance changes, which I think is moreso an anchoring affect to how I’m used to feeling with it and not a function of it actually being too hard to use, but it’s a hurdle for me all the same.
P1 Black w/ Demon Taxes vs P2 Blue
Graveyard
Deteriorate
Pestering Haunt
Jandra, the Negator
Poisonblade Rogue
Dark Pact, Bone Collector
Jandra, the Negator, Skeletal Archery
Patrol as below Base HP: 20 Squad Leader: Vandy (2/3+1armor lvl 1) Elite: Scavenger: Technician: Lookout:Bone Collector
Sacrifice the Weak
Thieving Imp
Summon Skeletons
This should probably prompt a tower, but we can hope it doesn’t XD
P2T2
TECH
Spectral Flagbearer
Spectral Flagbearer
STARTING HAND
Arrest
Jail
Porkhand Magistrate
Reputable Newsman
Traffic Director
WORKERS
Lawful Search
Jail
Reputable Newsman
Bluecoat Musketeer
Spectral Flagbearer
Arrest
Spectral Flagbearer
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Worker - ($5)
Tower - ($2)
Tech I - ($1)
Traffic Director - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, reshuffle, draw 5
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Traffic Director (1/1A) Untargetable Elite: Scavenger: Technician: L3 Bigby Hayes (2/4) Lookout:Buildings:
Base HP: 20 Tech I HP: 5 Tower HP: 4Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
He’s really going for that unit spam. I could try to protect Bigby with Porkhand, but I think the Tower is probably a better long-term investment; it’s definitely more resistant to removal by spell and doesn’t cost a card to play.
P1 Black w/ Demon Taxes vs P2 Blue
Bone Collector
Sacrifice the Weak
Thieving Imp
Summon Skeletons
Soul Stone, Bone Collector
Dark Pact, Bone Collector
Summon Skeletons, Jandra, the Negator, Skeletal Archery
Patrol as below Base HP: 20 Squad Leader: Thieving Imp (2/2+1armor) Elite: Scavenger: Technician: Poisonblade Rogue (2/1) Lookout:Dark Pact
Graveyard
Deteriorate
Sacrifice the Weak
Soul Stone
Bone Collector
As expected. Going to tech a Soul Stone for my BC, and another BC, and see what Neko does. Drawing into DP so I do have that as an option, which is nice
P2T3
TECH
Justice Juggernaut
Justice Juggernaut
STARTING HAND
Bluecoat Musketeer
Arrest
Spectral Flagbearer
Reputable Newsman
Spectral Flagbearer
WORKERS
Lawful Search
Jail
Arrest
Manufactured Truth
Spectral Aven
Traffic Director
Bluecoat Musketeer
Justice Juggernaut
Justice Juggernaut
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($7)
Worker - ($6)
Spectral Flagbearer - ($5)
Spectral Flagbearer - ($4)
Maxband Bigby - ($2)
Bigby kills Imp
Reputable Newsman - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 0, draw 2
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Spectral Flagbearer (2/2A) Tempting target Elite: Scavenger: Spectral Flagbearer (2/2) Tempting target Technician: Reputable Newsman (0/3) $2 blocked Lookout:In Play:
Buildings:
Base HP: 20 Tech I HP: 5 Tower HP: 4Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
Locking down his discard ability and prepping to ramp up into Juggernauts. Should be interesting! He really does have a lot of attack power over there, though, even with the Imp dead. I’m sure to take a fair bit of damage, but getting both Flagbearers out now means it’s not as bad for me if my Tech I goes down. The important thing is to strain his resources.
P1 Black w/ Demon Taxes vs P2 Blue
Dark Pact
Graveyard
Deteriorate
Sickness, Dark Pact
Soul Stone, Bone Collector
Dark Pact, Bone Collector
Graveyard, Summon Skeletons, Jandra, the Negator, Skeletal Archery
Patrol as below Base HP: 18 Squad Leader: Bone Collector (3/3) Elite: Scavenger: Skeleton (1/1) Technician: Poisonblade Rogue (2/1) Lookout:Thieving Imp
Sacrifice the Weak
Soul Stone
Bit rough. Sickness is the cure for those flagbearers so let’s grab that, and another DP to hopefully use next turn. Maybe I’ll get lucky and redrew the Deteriorate though.
…
Well the other BC isn’t a bad thing to play, and I can make a HH to help here too. Let’s do that