Right, my decisions are made - let’s see what you’ve got!
To continue on from the previous discussion, the phoney war is largely still ongoing - both starting heroes are alive, and all tech buildings intact, although I had many ways to change most of that. My base has taken a damage though, because I couldn’t let Drakk live
(Also, hooray at getting back to a 5-card hand!)
P2T7
StartingHand Workers
STARTING HAND
Free Speech
Free Speech
Jefferson DeGrey, Ghostly Diplomat
Earthquake
WORKERS
Rich Earth
Tiger Cub
Ironbark Treant
Spore Shambler
Playful Panda
NextHand
Forest’s Favor
Merfolk Prospector
Rampant Growth
Centaur
Oathkeeper of Kor Mountain
Discard
Whitestar Grappler
Earthquake
Free Speech
Free Speech
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($12)
draw from Mirror Illusions’s death
the two birds kill Drakk, dying in the process. Rook to level 3. MY BASE TAKES ONE DAMAGE
Jefferson DeGrey arrives, killing both your skeletons. You draw and get $1. - ($9)
Rook to maxband - ($4)
Calamandra - ($2)
Rook waltzes past the lone Poisonblade Rogue to kill Blooming Ancient - but loses his first life in the process. Ancient goes to the Graveyard, but doesn’t get to take any of his runes with him
Float ($2)
Discard 3, draw 5
[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]
-
[I]Squad Leader[/I]:
-
[I]Elite[/I]:
-
[I]Scavenger[/I]: Jefferson DeGrey, Ghostly Diplomat (4/3)
-
[I]Technician[/I]: lvl 1 Calamandra (2/3)
-
[I]Lookout[/I]:
[B]In Play:[/B]
- Verdant Tree (3, Healing 1)
- Bird’s Nest (channeled by Rook)
- max Rook (4/6+A, crumbling rune)
[B]Buildings:[/B]
-
Base HP: 19
-
Tech I HP: 5
-
Tech II HP: 5 (Strength)
[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]
- Hand: 5
- Deck: 3
- Disc: 4
[B]Gold:[/B]
- Gold: 2
- Workers: 10
Thoughts
I’m definitely still losing, despite the one lucky break of getting DeGrey here.
I have MANY options this turn, and can’t know for sure what is best. Playing DeGrey and maxing Rook are a given, with the main choice being what to hit with the birds. He has so many big threats! And since I won’t be able to attack with birds next turn, it was tempting to hit his base or a tech building so that Earthquake can do some real damage and be worth its 5 cost. (Really quite annoying to have drawn it from Technician - I can live with a dead card, but losing a big threat for the next several turns is very annoying!)
I then have to decide whether to use Rook’s midband ability to kill something else, leaving my patrol zone rather light, or turtle up and patrol a 2-lived Rook in SQL. I was going for the turtle option for a while - but I’ve eventually decided that the Blooming Ancient is too dangerous, and worth using up one of Rook’s lives for. Of course he can replay BA from the Graveyard (smart move from him to play it at this late stage), but that’s 4 gold and 3 runes that he’ll have to waste.
As for what to kill with the birds, Drakk has to be the biggest danger - the haste and frenzy would give me much too large a headache, before we even come to consider War Drums and/or Kidnapping. (I don’t think he’ll have War Drums in hand, but Kidnapping is a very real worry. Or Bloodlust again.) As it is, he still has 3 attackers to my 2 patrollers, but he can’t attack with anything else next turn - and two of his attackers do no more than 2 damage, so with two 3HP patrollers my VT should be safe. Even if he has a Spirit of the Panda in hand (and I know there’s at least one in his deck somewhere), he needs something else to break one of my buildings.
By killing the Ancient I’ve also nullified the immediate threat of a Blooming Elm letting him give overpower to most of his units. I’ve also delayed a MoLaC activation for a little longer (his comment strongly implies he has teched at least one, and I have to expect it because he’s playing Growth Tech 2 with the ability to get lots of units out, and me with no upgrade destruction!). But there are still reasons to worry: the principal ones are Sac the Weak and Doom Grasp (the latter is unlikely but not impossible). Deteriorate could also work in combination with a buff spell. I was going to mention Stampede too, but with him having only 2 units that can attack, and my 2 patrollers, it would only be a moderate amount of base damage. Of course, if he has Stampede AND StW in his 3-card hand, it’s very definitely GG
Note that I’m not midbanding Cal, useful though that would be for defence - because I need to have at least 12 gold otherwise I’ll look very foolish when I draw Oathkeeper with my VT still intact. I expect my opponent will work this one out if he wonders why I’ve gratuitously floated 2 gold on each of the last 2 turns. (I’m actually curious why he hasn’t built his own Tech 3. I think Guargum trumps absolutely everything I can do.)
And now I’ve drawn - phew on getting an Oathkeeper, let’s just hope I can play it! (It was always pretty likely, drawing 5 from an 8-card deck containing 2 of them. And I will most likely be drawing a 6th card too.) If I can’t - well then it’s probably GG anyway, but it’s not too bad a selection of units and spells either in case somehow it’s worth playing on.