CAWS 2016: Zejety ([Discipline]/Strength/Finesse) vs. Mooseknuckles ([Growth]/Necro/Strength)

@Mooseknuckles GL HF

P1T1

Turn secrets
  • Hand: Smoker, Snapback, Fox Viper, Safe Attacking, Aged Sensei
  • Worker: Smoker
  • Tech: -
  • Thoughts: Grave is not a part of my usual plan but I’m just too fond of the Grave+Sensei opening. It’s also possible that his Sparkshot will pay off next turn with Grappling Hook against possible wisps.

Turn:

  • Start of turn:
  • Tech 2 cards
  • Collect 4 gold (4)
  • Main phase:
  • Summon Grave (2)
  • Summon Aged Sensei (1)
  • Hire a worker (0)
  • End of turn:
  • Discard 3, draw 5
  • Float 0

Patrol:

  • :psblueshield: Leader: L1 Grave (2/3A)
  • :psfist: Elite:
  • :ps_: Scavenger: Aged Sensei (1/1)
  • :pschip: Technician:
  • :target: Lookout:

Board:

  • Buildings:
  • :psgem: Base (20)

Economy:

  • Workers: 5
  • Gold: 0
  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 0
  • Discard: 3
New hand

Savior Monk, Morningstar Flagbearer, Sensei’s Advice, Fox Primus, Grappling Hook

Discard

Safe Attacking, Fox Viper, Snapback

@Zejety, your turn secrets aren’t very secret right now (situations like this are why I put spoiler tags around my turn secrets along with the details tag).

3 Likes

@Mooseknuckles I understand if you are busy over the holidays.
Just tagging you again in case you’ve just missed or forgot this thread.

Hey! Just got back from some holiday travel. GL HF!

I haven’t played much lately. It’s funny coming back and thinking through all the scenarios. I’ve played this matchup probably 10x at this point, and it still took me 15 minutes to decide where to patrol my wisp.

P2T1:

Starting Hand

Merfolk Prospector Playful Panda Spore Shambler Rich Earth Rampant Growth

Gold (5)
Worker (4)
Playful Panda (2)
Rook (0)
Discard 3, Draw 5

Patrol:
Leader: wisp (0/1 + a)
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:

Buildings:
Units/Heroes: Playful Panda (2/2), Level 1 Rook (2/4)
Base: 20
Other:

Economy:

Workers: 6
Hand: 5
Deck: 0
Discard: 3

Worker

Rich Earth

New Hand

Tiger Cub Young Treant Ironbark Treant Verdant Tree Forest’s Favor

Just noticed that our match is featured (!) so I’ll add my thoughts

[details=“Thoughts”] In general, the best way to beat white is to take things to T2. White T2 ranges from bad to lukewarm, where my deck has as strong a T2 as any.

Early on I really just want to put as much power out as I can, while stalling things. I’m a bit surprised that he went with Grave, as normally players will use Rook against me. I’m a lot less scared of Grave. My plan will be to get out birds as fast as I can (possibly drawing for them with young treant on turn 2) and use the value from them to get me to tier 2.

I thought about patrolling the wisp in scavenger to get some value, but I don’t want to him to be able to kill the panda so easily. SQL is superior to the elite slot, since safe attacking is a good card against me. I don’t want him to get value out of it on turn 2. [/details]

P1T2

[details=Turn secrets]* Hand: Savior Monk, Morningstar Flagbearer, Sensei’s Advice, Fox Primus, Grappling Hook

  • Worker: Fox Primus
  • Tech: Bird’s Nest, Two Step
  • Thoughts: Going for classic Dancing Birds. He has a couple things that can counter them but barring DeGrey, I can remove most of them with Discord. I’m not planning to play Two Step next cycle (unless I draw Nest and Step in the exact right turns) but There’s nothing I would want to play next turn except for Nest anyway (maybe Reversal or Vines). If I don’t draw Nest, Ill probably just dump Rook, level Grave and hope to get back to 5 cards.

Patrolling in SQL instead of Technician because it requires a card to remove, which would very likely leave Rook defenseless. This means I might end up with two units next turn, making Two Step actually playable.

On workering Primus: Anti-air is nice but Flagbearer is at its best against Growth and Necromancy and I do not need two 3g tech0 cards in my deck.
[/details]

Turn:

  • Start of turn:
  • Tech 2 cards
  • Collect 5 gold (5)
  • Main phase:
  • Summon Savior Monk (3)
  • Cast Grappling Hook to move the Wisp to Lookout. (3)
  • Aged Sensei kills the Wisp
  • Grave kills Playful Panda, taking 2 damake
  • Hire a worker (2)
  • Construct a Heroes’ Hall (0)
  • End of turn:
  • Discard 2, reshuffle, draw 4
  • Float 0

Patrol:

  • :psblueshield: Leader: Savior Monk (2/2A)
  • :psfist: Elite:
  • :ps_: Scavenger:
  • :pschip: Technician:
  • :target: Lookout:

Board:

  • Characters:
  • L1 Grave (2/1)
  • Aged Sensei (1/1)
  • Buildings:
  • :psgem: Base (20)
  • :heroeshall: Heroes’ Hall (4)

Economy:

  • Workers: 6
  • Gold: 0
  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 4
  • Discard: 0
New hand

Bird’s Nest, Morningstar Flagbearer, Grappling Hook, Safe Attacking

[details=Discard][/details]

[details=“Thoughts”] Yuck - his draw has been perfect. I don’t love this play, but I have to roll the dice. If I don’t draw bird nest here I’ll have to play Ironbark treant. In that case I’ll probably get blown out next turn. With that said, a 40% chance to be back in the game is better than a 100% chance to lose.

I’m guessing he’ll Rook + Bird Nest me here, but there’s a reasonable chance he doesn’t draw it given that he’s down to 4 cards.[/details]

P2T2:

Tech

Bird Nest x2

Starting Hand

Tiger Cub Young Treant Ironbark Treant Verdant Tree Forest’s Favor -> Bird Nest

Gold (6)
Worker (5)
Young Treant, pray to RNGesus, get lucky (3)
Bird Nest (1)
Discard 3, Draw 5

Patrol:
Leader: Young Treant (0/2 + a)
Elite:
Scavenger: Level 1 Rook (2/4)
Technician:
Lookout:

Buildings:
Units/Heroes: Bird #1 (1/1), Bird #2 (1/1)
Base: 20
Other:

Economy:

Workers: 7 + 1 float
Hand: 5
Deck: 0
Discard: 3

Worker

Verdant Tree

New Hand

Merfolk Prospector Spore Shambler Playful Panda Rampant Growth Bird Nest

1 Like

Bernulli, why have you forsaken me?! I can deal with this! Who needs cards anyway?

P1T3

[details=Turn secrets]* Hand: Bird’s Nest, Morningstar Flagbearer, Grappling Hook, Safe Attacking

  • Worker: Safe Attacking
  • Tech: Rambasa Twin, Discord
  • Thoughts: I don’t have the hand size to play Safe Attacking later. Teching Rambasa to recover some cards. Going further card negative but setting up a board in this match up seems pretty good. The only real problem next turn might be a Lich’s Bargain.
    [/details]

Turn:

  • Start of turn:
  • Tech 2 cards
  • Collect 6 gold (6)
  • Savior Monk heals Grave for 1
  • Main phase:
  • Cast Grappling Hook to pull Young Treant to Elite (6)
  • Grave kills Treant and sparkshots Rook, taking 1 damage
  • Aged Sensei exhausts to buff Savior Monk
  • Savior Monk kills Rook, taking 2 damage (1 of which gets absorbed by armor); you gain 1 gold and Grave levels to 3/mid
  • Summon Rook (4)
  • Cast Bird’s Nest (2)
  • Hire a worker (1)
  • Construct a Tech I Building (0)
  • End of turn:
  • Discard 1, draw 3
  • Float 0

Patrol:

  • :psblueshield: Leader: Bird (1/1A | flying)
  • :psfist: Elite:
  • :ps_: Scavenger:
  • :pschip: Technician: Bird (1/1 | flying)
  • :target: Lookout:

Board:

  • Characters:
  • L3 Grave (3/4)
  • L1 Rook (2/4)
  • Savior Monk (2/1)
  • Aged Sensei (1/1)
  • Spells/Upgrades:
  • Bird’s Nest
  • Buildings:
  • :psgem: Base (20)
  • :ps1gem: T1 (5)
  • :heroeshall: Heroes’ Hall (4)

Economy:

  • Workers: 7
  • Gold: 0
  • Hand: 3
  • Deck: 1
  • Discard: 4
New hand

Snapback, Two Step, Sensei’s Advice

Discard

Rambasa Twin, DIscord, Grappling Hook, Morningstar Flagbearer

2 Likes

[details=“Thoughts”]I lose this game. His strategy and draw were both really good, and I played poorly. In hindsight I made a few mistakes…

  1. My turn 1 play was bad - I made it too easy for him to eat the panda without giving me any value.

  2. Going birds after he built HH instead of T1. It was pretty obvious he was going to get birds of his own, which would make mine useless. I should have tried for bone collector and/or lich’s bargain on turn 3

[/details]

P2T3:

Tech

Lich’s Bargain, Bone Collector

Starting Hand

Merfolk Prospector Spore Shambler Playful Panda Rampant Growth Bird Nest

Gold + f + scav (9)
Worker (8)
Arg (6)
Merfolk Prospector (5)
T1 (3)
Tower (0)
Discard 3, rs, Draw 5

Patrol:
Leader: Bird #1 (1/1 + a)
Elite:
Scavenger: Level 1 Arg (1/3)
Technician:
Lookout: wisp (0/1)

Buildings: Tier I - 5, Tower - 4
Units/Heroes: Bird #2 (1/1), Merfolk Prospector (1/1)
Base: 20
Other:

Economy:

Workers: 8
Hand: 5
Deck: 5
Discard: 0

Worker

Bird Nest

New Hand

Lich’s Bargain Tiger Cub Ironbark Treant Young Treant Playful Panda

P1T4

[details=Turn secrets]* Hand: Snapback, Two Step, Sensei’s Advice

  • Worker: Sensei’s Advice
  • Tech: Jefferson DeGrey, Doubling Barbarbarian
  • Thoughts: Clearing the board seems pretty good at this early stage of the game, especially with Arg unavailable. Spending the sword rune on a bird feels bad but I think it’s worth it here to conserve my position. I’m also pretty glad about an opportunity to recover my hand size.
    There was a more exciting line of play here that I was really tempted to use, but it was ultimately to risky. It involved using the sword rune on my own Rook to summon River and cast Two Step.
    [/details]

Turn:

  • Start of turn:
  • Tech 2 cards
  • Collect 7 gold (7)
  • Savior Monk gets healed from all damage
  • Main phase:
  • Hire a worker (6)
  • Construct a Strength Tech II Building (2)
  • Aged Sensei buffs Rook
  • Rook kills Arg, taking 1 (2-armor) damage because of the tower; you get 1 gold and Grave levels to 5
  • Savior Monk kills the Wisp, taking 1 damage from the tower
  • Level Grave to 7/max (0)
  • Grave destroys your Tower, taking 1 damage; your base takes 2 damage
  • Grave kills your SQL Bird with his sword rune
  • Bird1 trades with your remaining Bird
  • Bird 2 kills Merfolk Prospector
  • End of turn:
  • Discard 2, draw 1, reshuffle, draw 3
  • Float 0

Patrol:

  • :psblueshield: Leader:
  • :psfist: Elite:
  • :ps_: Scavenger:
  • :pschip: Technician:
  • :target: Lookout:

Board:

  • Characters:
  • MAX Grave (4/4)
  • L1 Rook (2/3)
  • Savior Monk (2/1)
  • Aged Sensei (1/1)
  • Bird (1/1 | flying)
  • Spells/Upgrades:
  • Bird’s Nest
  • Buildings:
  • :psgem: Base (20)
  • :ps1gem: T1 (5)
  • :ps2gem: T2 (5)
  • :heroeshall: Heroes’ Hall (4)
  • Spec: Strength

Economy:

  • Workers: 8
  • Gold: 0
  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 5
  • Discard: 0
New hand

Fox Viper, Rambasa Twin, Morningstar Flagbearer, Two Step

[details=Discard][/details]

1 Like

Nice game - you played really well here. Good luck in the rest of the tourney!

2 Likes

tag @EricF

GG and a happy new year!