GL HF. I’ll try… Blue is all about using combos and knowledge of the opponent to undermine their strategy. It’s very versatile, but also very challenging to play. Because its own strategies are less obvious, and because it relies more on knowing the opponent, it has the longest learning curve of any color, IMO. You’re looking good so far, though! That’s a strong opening against Purple. Don’t forget you have Onimaru in play… it looks like you didn’t list him on your board in the spreadsheet.
P2T1
StartingHand Workers
STARTING HAND
Neo Plexus
Time Spiral
Fading Argonaut
Plasmodium
Nullcraft
WORKERS
Neo Plexus
NextHand
Tinkerer
Temporal Research
Hardened Mox
Battle Suits
Forgotten Fighter
Discard
Plasmodium
Nullcraft
Time Spiral
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Max Geiger - ($2)
Fading Argonaut - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite: Fading Argonaut (3/3) [3 time]
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
L1 Max Geiger (2/3) Sparkshot
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 0
Disc: 3
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 6
Thoughts
Okay, what to do here… I really want to kill that Inspector by next turn, but it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to… at least, not without playing Forgotten Fighter, which would be even worse than just paying the $1 tax. If only I could swap Nullcraft into my next turn hand and/or Mox into this hand… but I can’t afford to use Vir for that… not against that board. At least he doesn’t know I won’t have Nullcraft next turn, so maybe he’ll feel pressured to SQL the Inspector. But does that help me? Maybe. If I patrol a Soldier as Elite, Oni would have to either leave it alone, trade with it, or midband first. If he midbands and goes for the kill, he’ll have to worry about Nullcraft, unless he uses Lawful Search to check first, which would mean he couldn’t afford a worker… so he probably wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) go that route. If I backline a hero, he’d also be discouraged from trading. If he doesn’t attack, that gives me a chance to go on the offense, so I’ll go with that plan. Now, which to choose… Vir or Geiger? I think, Geiger, in case he decides to midband and SQL Oni, that extra health could allow Geiger, at least, to survive the trade. Alright, I’ll try this and see how it goes.
Not to derail this game, but I’m curious whether you’ve read Toan’s blog post about Blue? Here’s a link to the forum topic about it, in case you haven’t yet. I’d love to hear your thoughts, since you’re the expert Blue player in the community.
Squad Leader: Traffic Director (1/1+A), Untargetable
Elite: Spectral Aven (2/2), Flying, Illusion
Scavenger:
Technician: Building Inspector (1/1), +1 Building Tax
Lookout:
In Play:
General Onimaru (2/3)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 3
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 6
Thoughts
Arrest would have made this an easy turn. He can Sparkshot the bird, and trade with Nullcraft, but that leaves him with 2 gold to defend with (after worker and T1), opening him up to Arrest. +1 Card is more valuable than +1 Gold right now, so he pretty much will Sparkshot the bird. Therefore, the trade off is FF vs Nullcraft. If he has FF, he still has to deal with the bird next turn. If he has Nullcraft, the extra gold would be good. I think I would rather take the 50/50 that he has FF and keep my bird around for next turn. I think this looks right. Maybe someone else can take a look at this later. As for techs: Idk. I like Doggos. They almost always give you a gold advantage vs Purple (unless they tech in Vortoss Emblem). I don’t mind trading a dog for Now! but that’s for a later turn.
My bad, AutocardAnywhere didn’t pick him up for some reason, so he blended in with the text above and below him as I was skimming.
Manually, yes, and because of that people develop their own format / style and inevitably make mistakes from time to time.
P2T2
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Stewardess of the Undone
Stewardess of the Undone
STARTING HAND
Temporal Research
Hardened Mox
Forgotten Fighter
Battle Suits
Tinkerer
WORKERS
Neo Plexus
Hardened Mox
NextHand
Nullcraft
Plasmodium
Forgotten Fighter
Time Spiral
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Worker - ($5)
Forgotten Fighter, return Building Inspector to hand - ($3)
Geiger kills Traffic Director, sparkshot damage Spectral Aven
Battle Suits - ($1)
Fading Argonaut trades with Onimaru, Geiger midbands
Tech I - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, reshuffle, draw 4
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Battle Suits
L3 Max Geiger (2/4) Sparkshot
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 5
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 7
Thoughts
Sneaky, patrolling Aven as Elite so Forgotten Fighter can’t target him… but not as sneaky as not patrolling the Aven at all. If only I had Nullcraft, I could use it to kill the Inspector, have Geiger kill the Director and sparkshot the Aven, drop Battle Suits and have the Argonaut trade with Oni to level up and heal Geiger, protecting it from the Aven’s attack. Oh, well, t’was not to be. However…
Turn was a mess with the Spreadsheet. I think I ought to try and take out my cards and play it in front of me IRL so I don’t miss things.
P1T3
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Injunction
General’s Hammer
STARTING HAND
Lawful Search
Arrest
Jail
Reputable Newsman
Manufactured Truth
WORKERS
Porkhand Magistrate
Bluecoat Musketeer
Building Inspector
NextHand
Arrest
Spectral Hound
Traffic Director
Lawful Search
Spectral Hound
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Worker - ($5)
Bigby Hayes - ($4)
Lawful Search (Hand) - ($3)
Jail - ($0)
Spectral Aven hits T1 for 2 DMG (3 HP left)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 2, reshuffle, draw 3
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Bigby Hayes (2/3+A) [Level 1]
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Spectral Aven (2/1), Flying, Illusion [1 DMG]
Jail (3/3 HP)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 4
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 7
Thoughts
Somehow I missed that Battle Suits would get Oni killed. Oh well. No Hounds in hand either. Probably has Stewardess next turn. Lucky tech on General’s Hammer. I don’t have any good plays anyway.
For reference: I forgot to put Bigby in my sheet, so I was planning as though he didn’t get played. And furthermore, I forgot about Stash before I hit Draw/Discard.
It didn’t matter this time because I didn’t want to Stash anything, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t fiddly.
Also, having “more” time to consider plays is difficult when I usually just pick whatever seems good and worry about it later.
I did that for my first few weeks of forum gaming, and I gradually got used to relying on the cards less and less until it was easier not to use them at all (though that was before codexcarddb started struggling to load pages).
The spreadsheet definitely takes some getting used to, but in balance, it’s quite the time-saver. Depending on the device/browser you’re using, you might be able to use the google sheets version history to roll back to before the draw/discard if you need to correct something.
Having time to carefully consider the best turn can be overwhelming, especially when you can look in your deck and calculate the chances of drawing a given card before spending a certain amount of resources. In casual games, I typically don’t bother putting in that much effort, though.
P2T3
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Shimmer Ray
Shimmer Ray
STARTING HAND
Plasmodium
Nullcraft
Forgotten Fighter
Time Spiral
WORKERS
Neo Plexus
Hardened Mox
Forgotten Fighter
NextHand
Stewardess of the Undone
Fading Argonaut
Tinkerer
Stewardess of the Undone
Discard
Time Spiral
Nullcraft
Shimmer Ray
Shimmer Ray
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($7)
Worker - ($6)
Tech II: Past - ($2)
Plasmodium bypasses Jail - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 4
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: L3 Max Geiger (2/4A) Sparkshot
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Battle Suits
Future:
Plasmodium [3 time]
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 3
Tech II HP: 5 (Past)
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 1
Disc: 4
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 8
Thoughts
This might be the first effective early-game use of Jail I’ve seen! I don’t even have any $1 units to slide stuff through. Protecting Geiger, while not impossible, seems impractical. I can at least make him maxband prior to attacking if he wants the kill, though. Right now, I’d rather have Vir in play anyway. Unless and until I can break the Jail, I’ll need to either quickly tech in and utilize $1 past units, or quickly tech in and utilize forecasted units. If I don’t patrol Geiger as SQL, my Tech I will probably go down next turn, even if I somehow kill the Aven now, so the idea of trying to midband-fetch a 2nd unit is a bit unnerving. I also want to get a Tech II up and running ASAP with my Tech I under fire.
Never played against Past. I’ll just default to Law and try to murder the Rememberer. Golgort would be a good kill too. I guess Newsman can be workered. I think the only spell I care about would be Undo vs Juggernaut, so I could just not play it. Looking to play cheap cards, and bash the T2.
STARTING HAND
Tinkerer
Fading Argonaut
Stewardess of the Undone
Stewardess of the Undone
WORKERS
Neo Plexus
Hardened Mox
Forgotten Fighter
Stewardess of the Undone
NextHand
Temporal Research
Shimmer Ray
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($8)
Worker - ($7)
Stewardess of the Undone, goes to Jail - ($4)
Tinkerer, goes to Jail, Stewardess arrival kills Spectral Aven - ($2)
Fading Argonaut - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 0, draw 1, reshuffle, draw 1
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Stewardess of the Undone (3/3A)
Elite: L3 Max Geiger (3/4) Sparkshot
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Battle Suits
Tinkerer (1/2)
Jailed:
Fading Argonaut
Future:
Plasmodium [2 time]
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 3
Tech II HP: 3 (Past)
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 2
Deck: 5
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 9
Thoughts
Pesky Aven needs to go, at least. I’m trying to make attacking costly and set up for a Plasmodium rush next turn… it’s telegraphed, of course, but maybe that’ll put him on guard and give me a chance to develop my board a bit. Hopefully the sight of Stewardesses will discourage him from using tech 0 units, 'cuz I’m workering them ASAP.
This is a tricky turn. On the one hand, I can break everything. On the other, Plasmodium will arrive. Could go for a conservative turn, and have some blockers around though. I’ll be damned if he has a Time Spiral, but what are you going to do? I might end up going for Justice Juggernaut, so Flagbearer seems ok here for anti-Undo. Holding onto Manu. Truth just in case I need to deal with hasted Plasmodium. Next turn I’m probably just spending gold on levelling up and drawing with Bigby anyway.
STARTING HAND
Temporal Research
Shimmer Ray
Seer
Shimmer Ray
WORKERS
Neo Plexus
Hardened Mox
Forgotten Fighter
Stewardess of the Undone
NextHand
Seer
Time Spiral
Nullcraft
Shimmer Ray
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($9)
Rebuild Tech II
Prynn Pasternaak - ($7)
Temporal Research - ($5)
Seer to Jail, Fading Argonaut arrives - ($4)
Float ($4)
Discard 2, draw 3, reshuffle, draw 1
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger: Fading Argonaut (3/3) [3 time]
Technician: L1 Prynn Pasternaak (1/3) [4 time]
Lookout:
In Play:
Battle Suits
Stewardess of the Undone (3/3)
Jailed:
Seer
Future:
Plasmodium [1 time]
Buildings:
Base HP: 18
Tech I HP: 3
Tech II HP: 5 (Past)
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 5
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 4
Workers: 9
Thoughts
I really want to get my Plasmodium in play this turn, but not having a Tech II makes that much more difficult. If I use Temporal Research to draw 2 cards, I have a decent chance. It’s worth a try, and worst case scenario, I can still bump FArgo out of Jail. … Whiff. I’m not prepared to use Prynn aggressively, so I’ll try to get an extra card draw out of her, but I need 2 patrollers either way to protect my tech buildings. Floating gold to buy a Tech III.
Censorship Council
Judgment Day
Manufactured Truth
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($9)
Worker - ($8)
Maxband Bigby - ($6)
Draw a card with Bigby
Midband Onimaru - ($2)
Onimaru kill Prynn
Hero Bounty => Onimaru
Maxband Onimaru - ($1)
Get three 1/1 blue Soldier tokens
Insurance Agent - ($0)
Insurance Agent insures Stewardess of the Undone
Float ($0)
Stash 1, Discard 1, draw 3
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Elite: Insurance Agent (3/2)
Scavenger: Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Technician: Soldier (1/1) Sparkshot
Lookout:
In Play:
Bigby Hayes (3/4) [MAX]
Jail (3/3 HP)
General Onimaru (4/5) [MAX]
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Law)
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 5
Disc: 3
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 10
Thoughts
Awesome. Both heroes still alive, no Plasmodium shenanigans. Also no worker out of him. Looking to rebuild my board, with a release valve should he go off. T3’s coming soon, I think. Can’t Undo or Rewind that. Want him to believe that I teched in AoW, but really, I just want to stop Rememberer shenanigans.
If my Rememberer survives to next turn, I think I win. Blue’s ability to deal with tech III units is quite limited, and Archons are amazingly powerful. Judgment Day could wreck me, though.
Called it. But I have an Injunction. Hope to draw Arrest, then build towards closing the game with T3. Double Injunction, cash in, get a Tech 3. I don’t think he can come back from this. Especially because next turn is Judgment Day and unless he’s teched in Origin Story and rips it off the top… Even then, I can Judgment Day for full cost so I’m fine.
The spreadsheet calculates your workers by your player number and the list of cards in the workers column, so if a worker gets trashed, you just delete one of the cards you workered.
P2T7
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Ebbflow Archon
Ebbflow Archon
STARTING HAND
Rememberer
Temporal Research
Tinkerer
WORKERS
Neo Plexus
Hardened Mox
Forgotten Fighter
Stewardess of the Undone
Nullcraft
NextHand
Shimmer Ray
Rememberer
Plasmodium
Temporal Research
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($10)
Vir Garbarean, maxband - ($2)
Tinkerer to Jail, Shimmer Ray arrives - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 1, reshuffle, draw 3
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger: Fading Argonaut (3/2) [2 time]
Technician: L7 Vir Garbarean (3/5)
Lookout:
In Play:
Battle Suits
Shimmer Ray (3/4) Flying [2 time]
Yesterday’s Golgort (6/4) Resist 1 [1 time]
Stewardess of the Undone (3/3)
Seer (3/1)
Seer (3/1)
Jailed:
Tinkerer
Future:
Mech [2 time]
Buildings:
Base HP: 18
Tech I HP: 3
Tech II HP: 5 (Past)
Tech III HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 5
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 10
Thoughts
Nice, I thought I might get hit by an Injunction, but I didn’t expect both. Teching in Archons to play directly, since the Remember plan’s been derailed for now, and purchasing a Mech for more robust defense.