Casual: Stokes vs Hobusu

Codex Codex play-by-forum
141

Before you view this turn, know that the only units I used to attack this turn were Tech 0 (including tokens, naturally). Thus, Tiny Basilisk’s ability was extremely important…

Player 2 Turn 6

Starting Hand and Workers

STARTING HAND

Makeshift Rambaster
Charge
Bombaster

WORKERS

Scorch
Bloodburn
Careless Musketeer
Pillage
Giant Panda

Next Hand

Disguised Monkey
Bloodrage Ogre

Discard

Charge
Bombaster

Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($11)
Summon Zane the Insane - ($9)
Recruit Bombaster - ($7)
Zane casts Charge on Bombaster, giving it haste and +1 ATK this turn - ($5)
Bombaster trades with Flagbearer, you get 1 gold, MoLaC gains a 4th rune
Elemental kills Midori and takes 2 damage, you draw a card, Zane gets 2 free levels and MoLaC gets a 2nd rune
Argagarg exhausts to give +1 ATK/+1 armor to Nautical Dog
Nautical Dog safely kills your Arg, Zane gets 2 more free levels and MoLaC gets a 3rd rune
Level Zane to max, shoving Tiny Basilisk to Lookout - ($4)
Zane kills Tenderfoot and takes 2 damage, Might of Leaf and Claw activates and gives all of my units and heroes +5 ATK and +5 HP
My wisps (now 5/6 each) break both of your Tech buildings, dealing 4 damage to your Base
Recruit Makeshift Rambaster, which becomes anything but makeshift under MoLaC’s influence - ($2)
Rambaster does 8 to your Base, leaving it with 8 HP remaining

Float ($2)
Discard 0, draw 2

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]:
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]:
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]:
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Might of Leaf and Claw (+5/+5 to units and heroes)
  • Argagarg Garg Lv. 5 (6/10)
  • Elemental (8/6) (Anti-air)
  • Captain Zane Lv. 6 (9/7) (Haste)
  • Nautical Dog (6/6) (Frenzy 1)
  • Wisp (5/6)
  • Wisp (5/6)
  • Makeshift Rambaster (6/7) (+2 ATK against buildings)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 19
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Anarchy)
  • :heart: Tech Lab HP: 4 (Growth)

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 2
  • Deck: 6
  • Disc: 2
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 2
  • Workers: 10
Thoughts

This should be game, since I can keep him from playing any Tech I and II units forever unless he gets to use Nature Reclaims, and I’ll probably have destroyed his base by the end of next turn then. Got lucky that he wasn’t able to get a Potent Basilisk, but now it’ll never get a chance to stop my rampage.

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142

Arg must target his flag bearer with his ability, as it can target the flag bearer, but you can do it after bombaster kills his flagbearer.

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143

Easy enough to fix. That was just the order I thought of doing things in, but nothing prevents me from killing the Flagbearer first.

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144

Yeah that’s GG. You can see in my post game thoughts, but basically the moments I saw that both Potent Basilisks were still in my deck was the moment I knew it was over.

I tried multiple experiments this game, including using River early and going for a Surplus. Against Anarchy I suppose that’s just a poor choice since they have so much haste and stealth to get to the back line for free. I really really want to make river work but it always seems like her spells cost too many cards and I end up surrendering way too much tempo to get her going.

Ill be honest, I thought going Growth against Balance was a poor choice. I still do, just because of how many upgrade removal options Balance has. Unfortunately I did not tech or draw those options in time. A molac play in this game was super super ballsy… But you pulled it off.

In general I really struggle against molac. It seems to me that in an even game, even tempo, 3 gold spent on molac will almost always provide more value than any other 3 gold, and I still haven’t quite figured out how to play against it. It seems to me that if the opponent even has molac potential, you HAVE to play differently and try to completely clear his board every turn, regardless of cost or efficiency, and that’s just such a weird mind trip to play. I don’t have enough experience to comment on how to beat it except to say that I’ve lost every game molac has come into play and it is a really stressful card to play around lol.

Ill be looking over this game more closely later since I feel like there’s a lot to learn here. In general my questions for consideration:

  • Can river work or is she almost always a worse choice than other heroes?
  • How to beat molac? How much should the turn 1 tech plan and strategy change when you see Growth across the table?

This game is so simple on the surface, yet such a ridiculously complex puzzle when you get into it, haha. I love it.

Well played, well deserved win, pulling out 5 runes against the most upgrade-removal-happy spec in the game :smiley:

2 Likes
145

I’ll be totally honest: I completely forgot about Balance until you built your Tech II. Then all I could do was wonder why I hadn’t died yet… I guess bad luck would be a good reason for that! :wink:

Still, that was a great game! I thought you had that for a while, and if I’d had to stall long enough to get Tech III out instead of relying on MoLaC, you’d almost certainly have taken it before then. Yeah, the ability of MoLaC to completely warp both players’ goals is why I love using it so much! I can’t always pull out a win if I have to do other things, but attacking 5 times? That’s easy! It creates a nice puzzle, and the payoff is hilariously good. I think I’ve only seen one game where someone lost after activating MoLaC, and that’s because they used so many things to attack that they didn’t have much to patrol.

The Surplus seemed greedy, and I think building a Tower would have been a lot better. That would have prevented me from using Disguised Monkey to snipe things, meaning I’d have to tech completely different from then on – and any other hasty unit I could have picked would have cost more, making my turns less flexible. I was happy to see the Surplus, since it meant I could get rid of a hero that was terrifying me at the time! Don’t sell River short, she can do absurd things if you set her up right. Discord is brutal against the red starting deck (only two patrollable units with more than 1 HP, and only 1 unit with more than 1 ATK), Two Step can get value from keeping your units alive longer (try patrolling one of them in Technician), and Appel Stomp lets you sideline any patroller (even heroes!) and choose whether to do it again next turn. Combine that with an early Bloom/Forest’s Favor and you can put serious pressure on your opponent early. She probably isn’t a game-winning hero like Vandy can be, but if you use her right she can get you to an advantaged position – which is key to preventing MoLaC from being an issue.

Speaking of which, the best way to stop MoLaC is just to deny me the opportunity to play it, either by never giving me a moment that’s safe to build it or by destroying it every turn until I just lose from not having Tech II available for so long. If that’s not an option, then I think you did the right thing by teching multiple things to get rid of it. That said, maybe grabbing Nature Reclaims would have helped too? Perhaps a bit overkill, but then again, so is MoLaC. The last option if you don’t have removal is just to deny me the opportunity to attack. Against mono-green, that’s pretty much just “wipe their board every turn.” Obviously [Anarchy]/Strength/Growth makes that harder with all the haste, but that just means you need to either break my Tech buildings so I can’t play the units to attack with or just kill me.

All of this is easier said than done, but that’s because MoLaC is a very strong card. It’s part of why aggressive play is favored in this game, since most of what helps keep it under control also helps against every other strategy… It warps everyone’s play, but aside from forcing you to play upgrade removal cards, the only effect it has on the game is to shorten the deadline for you to get a decisive advantage. My goal is different, but yours is the same as ever.

If you want more advice from other players (for example, ones who have first-hand experience using River outside of Bashing vs Finesse), don’t be afraid to make a thread about it! I’m sure people could point to more games where River did fantastic or MoLaC failed, and the discussion would be interesting.

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146

@Stokes52 the surplus on T4 really killed your aggression off. That combined with your tech 2 the following turn meant you had spent 9 gold for no board presence, allowing Hobusu to just keep playing units and gain board control. Once you give growth board control, it likes to run away from you very fast :wink:. Growth has very little to get it started with (Arg is not aggressive, his spells require you to have units to attack with, and the tech 2 are mostly just very large units/things that make your current units bigger). Knowing that most of your opponents power lies in their board, it does become a priority to keep up the pressure and to keep clearing it (wisps become 6/7 from dinosize etc). Having Anarchy as his starter helps him by having hasted units, meaning he is not completely reliant on his board, but growth is still the sit back and win master, so removing its options so they dance to your beat is far more powerful then against most other decks.

6 Likes
147

So much to learn from here. I know there’s a tournament going on, but hit me up if you want to play another casual game some time. (You too @Shadow_Night_Black)

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