I fix that. Thanks for the catch. I do have a rules question about resist and multiple targets.
Lets say I play Ember Sparks and pick three targets. Do I need to pay the resist cost for each individual target?
For example lets pretend I have 1 unit with R1, 1 unit with R2, and 1 unit with R3. What would the spell cost be of Ember Spark? 9 gold?
That sounds right to me, assuming Ember Sparks was used to target those three units instead of other things (like the Base or just one of those units).
Good use of Kidnapping, by the way!
Thanks! It was fun. 
P2T8
STARTING HAND
Barkcoat Bear
Tiger Cub
Stalking Tiger
Rampaging Elephant
WORKERS
Verdant Tree
Rich Earth
Ironbark Treant
Merfolk Prospector
Forestās Favor
Spore Shambler
Ferocity
Barkcoat Bear
Ferocity
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($10)
Draw from Surplus
Recruit Rampaging Elephant - ($4)
Recruit Barkcoat Bear - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 3, reshuffle, draw 1
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Barkcoat Bear (5/5+a) (Overpower, Resist 2)
Elite: Wisp (0+1/1)
Scavenger: Young Treant (0/2) (Canāt attack)
Technician: Playful Panda (2/1)
Lookout: Rampaging Elephant (6/7) (Resist 1)In Play:
Buildings:
Base HP: 18 Tech I HP: 5 Tech II HP: 5 (Feral) Surplus HP: 4Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
Well, that could have gone a lot better. In hindsight, I probably should have let Zane live and maxed Arg instead, but that still wouldnāt have prevented the Kidnapping play from working out the same way. As it happens, this setup is still weak to Kidnapping, so I have to hope that he doesnāt have a second copy in his new handā¦ But the one good thing here is that the longer this game goes on, the more my Surplus will give me card advantage. At the start of next turn Iāll be back to the normal 5 cards in hand, whereas heās pretty much forced to bleed cards just to keep up with my beefy units. And of course, if he canāt kill my Elephant (and the Bear in front of it), next turn I drop Ferocity and go to town.
I think I have hobbled on long enough. I see the end in site. Sweet. sweet silence here I come.
It was a good thing you did take Zane down actually. Despite my fun plays I was not able to pull off a Maximum Anarchy.
P1T9
STARTING HAND
Surprise Attack
Ogre Recruiter
Maximum Anarchy
WORKERS
Mad Man
Bloodburn
Nautical Dog
Bloodrage Ogre
Charge
Calypso Vystari
Pillage
Surprise Attack
Scorch
Shoddy Glider
Captured Bugblatter
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($12)
Build Tech 3 - ($5)
Float ($5)
Discard 3, draw 4, reshuffle, draw 1
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Jaina Stormborne (T1 2/3 Sparkshots) Elite: Scavenger: Technician: Lookout:In Play:
Buildings:
Base HP: 20 Tech I HP: 4 Tech II HP: 5 (Blood) Tech III HP: 5 Tower HP: 4Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
My hand and deck didnāt line up well to continue the fight. I think I will be down in about 2 turns. Lets tech up to level 3 and see how that goes. If I play a card from my hand I will not be cycling my deck fast enough to make a difference. Time to get elephant stompped.
@2ās turn!
No luck on my reshuffle. My last request is that you give me a quick ending. 
Sadly, you canāt summon Zane when you already have two other heroes in play. You only can have three heroes out at once if you have a Tech III or Heroesā Hall, and neither gives you that benefit until the turn after you start building them.
ā¦Iām really curious how the word Tech got replaced with Tower there. 
Fixed. I typed in tower instead of Tech III. I has already hit draw/discard so I put it in manually. That way it didnāt change my hand when I pushed the redo button.
Zane is still shown as patrolling, FYI. Should I just act as if heās not there? Also, do you want to patrol Drakk at all since you canāt play Zane?
Fixes again. Just one patroller.
Well, who am I to deny someoneās last request? 
Because itās relevant to this turnās events, I should note that I forgot to mention back on Turn 6 that destroying your Tech II caused your Base to take 2 damage. This means your Base should be at 18 HP remaining at the start of my turn.
P2T9
STARTING HAND
Barkcoat Bear
Spore Shambler
Ferocity
Ferocity
Centaur
WORKERS
Verdant Tree
Rich Earth
Ironbark Treant
Merfolk Prospector
Forestās Favor
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($10)
Draw from Surplus
Summon Calamandra - ($8)
Cala casts Ferocity, giving my units swift strike and armor piercing until my next upkeep - ($6)
Barkcoat Bear pierces Jainaās armor and swiftly kills her, overpowering the excess 2 damage to your Base and taking 1 damage from your Tower; Cala gains 2 free levels (Remaining Base HP: 16)
Arg exhausts to give +1/+a to Rampaging Elephant
Rampaging Elephant attacks your Base for 7 damage, its armor blocking the Tower shot, then readies to attack again (Base HP: 9)
Rampaging Elephant attacks your Base for 7 damage again, taking 1 damage from your Tower (Base HP: 2)
Playful Panda destroys your Base! (Base HP: 0)
Float ($6)
Board Info:
In Play:
Buildings:
Base HP: 18 Tech I HP: 5 Tech II HP: 5 (Feral) Surplus HP: 4Thoughts on the game now that itās over, which Iāll try to keep brief (but will inevitably fail to):
This is all of my thoughts after the fact, looking at your hand for each turn to see what options you have. You might also want to see my thoughts on each of my turns to see what I thought when the game was still ongoing and I only knew the cards in my hand.
In hindsight, I hope if nothing else this game has taught you the danger of leading with Zane. He tends to be most useful waiting on the sidelines for a moment when a hasty attacker who doesnāt cost a card from hand would be useful to break through the opponentās defenses. You did make good use of him later, most notably the first Surprise Attack on turn 4.
Looking at your starting hand, you had a lot of good options here! Even if you wanted to stick with the Zane opening, you could have played Mad Man alongside him to both get in 1 more damage and have another body to either attack or patrol with next turn. Another opening would have been Nautical Dog and either Drakk or Jaina, threatening a beatdown next turn if I didnāt patrol well enough. You could have also just played Bloodrage Ogre by itself, since itās a pretty good card to play on the first two turns in particular (since itās really strong for a starter card, but gets outclassed by your Tech I units of the same cost).
However, I think the best opening here might have been Bloodrage Ogre and Nautical Dog. You would only draw 4 cards for your second hand, but it puts 5 ATK worth of attacking power on the board at once, which even Green would have a hard time blocking, and delaying the choice of a hero lets you see how they defend against your units and pick the hero that responds best to that defense. Notably, if Mad Man were in your second hand instead of your first (and your opponent doesnāt know that you drew Mad Man in your first hand), playing him and Zane on Turn 2 gives you a total of 8 ATK between your 3 units and a hero, all while still saving enough money to build your Tech I on schedule!
One last thought: turning Mad Man into a worker when youāre acting as if youāll be going for a Base Race seems like a bad idea, since heās essentially a way to turn 1 gold into 1 damage. If youād kept going for the Base damage, it wouldāve been sad if youād gotten 1 HP short of what you neededā¦ If youāre opening with Zane, keep anything that lets you do immediate damage above all else.
Not sure why the Starting Hand on this turn is different from the Next Hand listed on the last turn, but Iām assuming it was something to do with the trouble you had with the spreadsheet. Iāll go with the previous turnās Next Hand, since that should be more accurate (and even if you played with the wrong hand somehow, I figure giving you advice based on a legal hand would be better anyway).
Admittedly, Iām a little short of ideas for how to handle this better. Itās an awkward situation to be in, but I think the only thing I wouldāve done differently would be to play Careless Musketeer and put him in Squad Leader instead of killing a Wisp with Makeshift Rambaster. I know part of why that happened was because you didnāt see the Wisp at first, but thereās still that Panda waiting on the sidelines to attack something if you donāt put up any defenses. Thatās why Red is hard to play well, since you need to find the delicate balance between all-out aggression and keeping just enough defense up to not get blown up.
Same thing here; based on the actions you took it looks like the Next Hand shown on Turn 2 was more accurate than the Starting Hand shown on Turn 3.
It turned out that saving money worked out well here, since you were able to play Surprise Attack next turn, but you might have considered playing Bombaster either in addition to or instead of Musketeer, since itās a better unit for blocking attacks (2 HP vs 1).
Ah, good. Since this is where you found the History function, it looks like your hands will be consistent from here on.
This turn actually surprised me, since I hadnāt expected a Surprise Attack at all. You got good value out of it, too, since you were able to very nearly wipe my board and take out Calamandra, who Iād expected to be untouchable behind those three patrollers and wouldāve certainly been leveled to max next turn. I think playing Calypso Vystari and patrolling her in Technician wouldāve been a good idea here, since that would give you some defense that either didnāt cost a card (if I killed her and you got the Technician bonus) or provided another attacker or an opportunity to use her ability (if she survived). Still, after seeing your turn I said āmaybe I donāt have this in the bag after all.ā
Oof, this hand wasnāt kind to you. I probably would have workered Pillage or Scorch instead of Charge myself, but other than that there wasnāt much you could have done better here.
Evaluating the correct play is getting increasingly hard. I would say that teching Maximum Anarchy was probably a mistake, since Zane would have to be at max level at the start of the turn you want to cast it (meaning you canāt just summon him, level him to max right away, and immediately cast Max Anarchy). It might have been better to tech something like Bloodlust instead, to give haste to that Ogre Recruiter youāre teching this turn. It might have also been a good idea to use Shoddy Glider to kill one of my heroes (most likely Calamandra) before they caused too much trouble, but itās hard to say whether it would be worth the card if you donāt play a hero to get the free levels from the kill (and itās also hard to say whether it would be safe to play a hero there).
Before anything else, can I just point out how weird it is that you havenāt teched a single Crashbarrow at this point? That card is often a reason people pick Blood Tech II all on its own, so I was worried about it the whole timeā¦ It actually would have been better than Surprise Attack here, since it does the same amount of damage at a much lower cost (only 3 gold instead of 5 for the spell and 2 more for Zane if he isnāt already in play). This is the point where it became clear to me that the sheer size of my units was making this a war of attrition that you wouldnāt be able to keep up with, since every time I played a particularly large unit you would need to spend a bunch of resources to get rid of it ā often more than I payed to put it in your way ā and with my Surplus helping me regain the hand size Iād lost earlier while youāre forced to spend more cards every turn, eventually Iād just have more options than you.
Definitely a great play here, getting rid of two units and a hero with only two cards. You also realized, probably correctly, that Pirate-Gang Commander was your best option for getting out of this situation. If the game had lasted long enough for you to be able to play one, Iām not sure what would have happenedā¦ I donāt think you made any mistakes here, but there sadly werenāt many options at this point.
The final turn. Iām still surprised you didnāt patrol Drakk, since that would have made it that much harder to get to your Baseā¦ More to the point, I think you should have played Ogre Recruiter here and patrolled him. That would probably have been enough to prevent me from destroying your Base, though itās likely that I couldāve got at least one of your Tech buildingsā¦ But if I only got one, you could have had a chance.
Overall, I thought you did fairly well considering the lackluster opening. It may not have seemed like it based on that turn-by-turn analysis I just put up there (sorry about how long it isā¦!), but every time I thought I had you cornered you managed to turn it around again ā not to the point where you had the advantage, but at least back to a more even position so I had to put in some effort to regain the advantage. I think the stuff in my Turn 1 analysis is by far the most important, since a good opening sets you up for the rest of the game.
Red really wants to be in a position where it doesnāt have to worry as much about defense as you were forced to this game, but thereās quite a few ways to do that. One option is to do as much damage to their Base as possible right away so that the game wonāt last long enough for them to take advantage of your weak defensive options, but you can also keep killing their units so that they canāt do anything ā my first game on the forums had me just barely beat @FrozenStorm as Red vs his Green by using Blood Tech II units to keep his board empty just long enough to get a Tech III and a Tech Lab up, letting me play a Pirate Gunship just as he was getting ready to destroy me.
Would you like to trade colors, or try again with the same colors? Either way is fine with me, and both have their advantages ā you just saw me use Green, so that should give you some ideas on how to use that (though if you just use the exact same plan I went for I will punish that 
), and Iād be happy to show you some of the ways Red can play, but thereās also something to be said for learning more about a color by sticking with it for a while. I will say that Iām probably more rusty in my Red play, for what thatās worth.
@Hobusu Thank your for giving such a great recap! I read it over once and will need to do so again.
The more I play the more I think how important it is to understand the starting deck for each color. At this point I would say it is the most critical part to understand and master. Maybe it is just that way for me. The rest of the game is not as nuanced and easier for me to understand.
As I said before I donāt get red. I play it very āclunkilyā . It is obvious I donāt understand the starting deck. What you said up there about the first hand and roundsā¦ I still donāt get. I donāt understand the āwhyā of red. I usually make the mad man a worker. He does not seem that good to me. Having that said every card I say that about I have been going back and saying to myself I just donāt understand how its supposed to be used. This game is, for me, is not an easy pick up and play kind of game. I donāt think you can just pick this up and intuitively play it with any success. You have to know the math. Although I love the depth I can see how people would easily drop this game after a few times playing it.
I am still discovering a lot about the game. I think that is amazing. It makes this game a master piece.
I actually came out very short because of the learning curve of the spreadsheet. I mentioned that early on. It was either turn 2 or 3 that my teched cards didnāt make it into my deck. I never had a chance to draw them when I should have. No worries beginners folly. It was to late to go all the way back and fix it.
This was a great learning experience. I appreciate your help along the way. I would enjoy another game. Letās switch colors so I can watch how red is ādoneā.
Iāll let you go first and it will be casual on my end just like last time.
you missed an opportunity here (Turn 8). If you had spent 1g more, you could have had a lvl 4 drakk, giving frenzy to the glider, and being able to kill Argagarg, thus maxing Drakk, giving you a chance to create some nasty hasted unit next turn.
Thatās a good point. At least to begin with, you probably need to learn how to use the starting decks more than anything else. The other parts will start to become more important as you get better, and the nice thing about the starting decks is that theyāre each only 10 cards, most of which are relatively simple.
I think the best way of summing up Red is the way Sirlin described how he played it. To paraphrase, he said that he wants to end the game with his board empty, his resources exhausted, and heād lose next turnā¦ But he won by getting the last point of damage needed onto his opponentās Base just before it was too late. Again, thatās not the only way to play Red, but the color is designed to support that kind of plan where you race to finish off your opponent before they can stop you. Thatās why something like Mad Man is helpful, since there may come a time when youāre doing that strategy when you only need one more point of damage on whatever youāre trying to destroy and you need it right away.
That said, if youād like me to clarify anything about either the Red starting deck or opening strategy, Iād be happy to! Just let me know what youāre having trouble with.
This is true, there is a lot going on in Codex. I know that before I got the Starter Set I had trouble teaching new players using just the Core Set, but I had a much easier time last week teaching a friend the basics using the Starter Set so there wasnāt as much to focus on at once. Weāll see if he gets lost when I move him up to the full game, thoughā¦
Yeah, I knew something like that would happen. Donāt worry about it, you seem to have a much better grasp of it now than before, and everyone makes mistakes with it their first few games.
Sounds good! Iām doing this on my phone, so Iāll edit in thoughts on this turn when I get home.
Edit: Thoughts have been added.
P1T1
STARTING HAND
Nautical Dog
Bloodburn
Scorch
Makeshift Rambaster
Careless Musketeer
WORKERS
Bloodburn
Bombaster
Charge
Mad Man
Bloodrage Ogre
Pillage
Scorch
Careless Musketeer
Makeshift Rambaster
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($4)
Worker - ($3)
Summon Drakk - ($1)
Recruit the Nautical Dog! - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:In Play:
Buildings:
Base HP: 20Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
Given this starting hand, I could use Rambaster to start a base race, play Nautical Dog and either Drakk or Jaina to threaten high damage output next turn, or if Iām feeling crazy I could play Bloodburn as a trickshot opening. Since I want to teach Azuset how to use Red, Dog + Hero seems best to bridge the gap between how he seems to think and how Red works. It doesnāt commit to a base race, itās based on good play for any color (a hero and a 1-gold unit is pretty much always a good opening for player 1), and if I go with Drakk in particular I could reinforce the idea of how powerful granting Frenzy and/or Haste to units can be.
No need to patrol as player 1 against Green, since they have nothing like haste or spells that target opposing patrollers. Workered Bloodburn because itās hard to find a good chance to play a 3-gold upgrade with such a delayed effect later.
If all goes well, Iād like this to lead into āEricFās Recommended First Red Planā of Fire units supported by Drakkās abilities and spells.
I will get my round in as soon as I can. I am in a bit of a complicated situation for a little while.
P2T1
STARTING HAND
Ironbark Treant
Rampant Growth
Tiger Cub
Playful Panda
Spore Shambler
WORKERS
Spore Shambler
Verdant Tree
Forestās Favor
Merfolk Prospector
Young Treant
Rich Earth
Playful Panda
Rampant Growth
Tiger Cub
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Recruit Ironbark Treant (3/2 -2 ATK / +2 armor while patrolling. (Armor absorbs damage before HP and is then destroyed.) - ($1)
Build Tech I - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Ironbark Treant (3/2 -2 ATK / +2 armor while patrolling. (Armor absorbs damage before HP and is then destroyed.) Elite: Scavenger: Technician: Lookout:In Play:
*
Buildings:
Base HP: 20Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
@Azusetās turn!
I think youāre misunderstanding the Next Player box. Last game you put 2 in it, which didnāt help at all since @2 isnāt going to tag anyone on the forums, and now youāre using it to tag yourselfā¦ Itās really only meant to be used in a free-for-all game where thereās up to five players, so that you can automatically tag the person who goes after you to let them know itās their turn. Because thereās only two players in our game, Iāve already told the forums to notify me if anyone posts in this thread, so even if you put my username in that box it wonāt make a difference.
Edit: Corrected a mistake in my thoughts.
P1T2
TECH
Lobber
Lobber
STARTING HAND
Pillage
Bombaster
Bloodrage Ogre
Charge
Mad Man
WORKERS
Bloodburn
Pillage
Makeshift Rambaster
Charge
Scorch
Lobber
Bombaster
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Build Tech I - ($3)
Recruit Bloodrage Ogre - ($1)
Float ($1)
Discard 3, reshuffle, draw 5
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Elite: Scavenger: Bloodrage Ogre (3/2) (Returns to hand if it didnāt arrive or attack this turn) Technician: Lookout:In Play:
Buildings:
Base HP: 20 Tech I HP: 5Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
Ironbark Treant, huh? Makes sense, it would be costly to break through it this turn. Instead Iāll get Bloodrage Ogre ready for some smashing next turn. The only way he can kill it without trading Treant away at a loss is to summon a hero and use either Green starting spell to buff Treant enough to survive the combat, but then he canāt build a Tech I without having his only patroller be that lone hero. (Guess who forgot that he already built Tech I because it wasnāt marked on his board, even after reading that it was built in the turn actions list? This guy!) Just mid-banding Drakk would buff Dog enough for the revenge kill, and then Iād have a max-level Drakk ready to throw hasted units into playā¦ So if heās paying attention to Drakkās abilities (or just how many ways Red has to punish a weak patrol), heāll play another unit to reinforce his patrol instead.
Double Lobber tech to max my chances of getting one next turn, since a Frenzied Lobber is really good value (1 gold for 3 hasted damage). Workered Pillage because, as much as Iād like to keep it around in case I can punish a gold float, I think the other cards will end up being more useful in the long run with the strategy Iām going for. Patrolled Ogre in Scavenger because the extra armor wouldnāt make a difference and Iām only patrolling Ogre, so the gold would make it even easier to punish if he goes for that kill.
P2T2
TECH
Tiny Basilisk
Giant Panda
STARTING HAND
Merfolk Prospector
Rich Earth
Verdant Tree
Forestās Favor
Young Treant
Rampant Growth
WORKERS
Spore Shambler
Rich Earth
Tiger Cub
Tiny Basilisk
Giant Panda
Verdant Tree
Playful Panda
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Worker - ($5)
Recruit Merfolk Prospector (1/1) - ($4)
Recruit Young Treant (02) - ($2)
Draw a card for Young treant.
Summon Argagarg Garg (1/3 L1) - ($0)
Summon Wisp (0/1) with Argagarg Garg
Ironbark Treant (3/2 ( -2 ATK / +2 armor while patrolling.)) trades with Bloodrage Oger
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 4, reshuffle, draw 1
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Young Treant (0/2+a1) Elite: Merfolk Prospector (1/1+1atk) Scavenger: Wisp (0/1) Technician: Lookout:In Play:
Buildings:
Base HP: 20Economy Info:
Cards:
Gold:
I have a possible 2-4 attackers this up comming turn. I descided to trade with the oger in hopes to take less damage over all after my weak defences are broken. I was able to get young treant out to fill my hand size to 5 when I draw and get a descent SL out. Merfold was cheap, sadly, I will probably not be able to take advantage of his economic gains. My plan was to start out feral but being able to get a free meat sheild from Garg was too good to pass up. I teched a basy ā¦ well becuse its amazing. It will come in handy later in the game when I need to kill heroās. Then I tecked the Giant Panda to continue fortifying my position.
@Hobusuās turn!