LLL 2: Shadow-Night-Black ([Necro]/Blood/Growth) vs. robinz ([Feral]/Strength/Truth)

Well, I was going to post a move before going to bed - but I’ve decided against it. I saw some pretty good options which only differed in minor details, so I thought I could post quickly - but now I see more risk attached to what I had planned, which leads me into considering other options. It’ll probably be another 19 hours or so before I can post - but I’m looking forward to sorting out what to do (when I’m less tired), because this is looking like an exciting finish! :smiley:

(Philosophical question: can it really be called a “finish” when both our bases are still on 20HP?)

3 Likes

Yes? Although I find it more funny that both our starting heros have not died, nor have any tech buildings taken any damage

4 Likes

Gotta love a defensive war.

That’s usually either a sign of a real chess match, or one player not being aggressive enough :wink: I think in this case it’s the former though

2 Likes

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 :wink:

(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 :wink:

Float ($2)
Discard 3, draw 5


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

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]:
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Jefferson DeGrey, Ghostly Diplomat (4/3)
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: lvl 1 Calamandra (2/3)
  • :target: [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]
  • :heart: Base HP: 19
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: 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 :slight_smile:

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.


1 Like

Well I will at least keep this Phoney war continuing, at least until MoLaC comes online :stuck_out_tongue:
P1T8


StartingHand Workers

STARTING HAND
Deteriorate
MoLaC
Kidnapping


WORKERS
Skeletal Archery
Pestering Haunt
Thieving Imp
Summon Skeletons
Jandra, the Negator (3/3+A, Overpower)
Skeleton Javelineer
Nether Drain


NextHand

Kidnapping
Spirit of the Panda (attached to Bone Collector)
Bloodlust
Lich’s Bargin


Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($11)
Tech and Scav - ($12)
Molac - ($9)
Skip Worker
Tap graveyard, Blooming Ancient - ($5)
Garth (BA 1 rune) - ($3)
Garth makes a skeleton (BA 2 runes) - ($2)
Bone Collector kills Degrey, makes a skeleton (BA 3 runes, Molac 1 rune)
give Poisonblade Rogue a rune
Poisonblade Rogue kills Cal, Garth to lvl 3, Molac 2 runes)
Mid band Garth - ($1)
arg hits Verdent tree for 1 (molac to 3 runes)

Float ($1)
Discard 2, reshuffle, draw 4


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

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Blooming Ancient (4/6 + A, 2 runes)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]: Garth (2 + 1/4, lvl 4)
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Skeleton #1 (1/1)
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: Skeleton #2 (1/1)
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Arg (1/2, lvl 5)
  • MoLaC(3 runes)
  • Graveyard (-/3)
  • Poisonblade Rogue (in Graveyard)
  • Bone Collector (in Graveyard)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Growth)
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

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

  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 4
  • Disc: 0
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 1
  • Workers: 11
Thoughts

If, as @FrozenStorm says, this game has been a chess match - then this looks like checkmate.

I’d been so fixated on trying to get Oathkeeper out (it’s the only thing in my deck which could be a “win condition”) that I hadn’t realised how little that would matter once you got your BA/MoLaC engine set up. I ought to concede, but don’t want to deny you the fun of figuring out how to get lethal.

P2T8


Tech StartingHand Workers

TECH
Morningstar Pass
Mythmaking


STARTING HAND
Oathkeeper of Kor Mountain
Rampant Growth
Forest’s Favor
Merfolk Prospector
Centaur
Earthquake


WORKERS
Rich Earth
Tiger Cub
Ironbark Treant
Spore Shambler
Playful Panda
Merfolk Prospector


NextHand

Earthquake
Centaur
Young Treant
Oathkeeper of Kor Mountain
Morningstar Pass


Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float + scavenger - ($13)
Draw from Technician
2 birds are reborn
Verdant Tree taps
Tech 3 - ($8)
Oathkeeper of Kor Mountain - I promise not to play cards from hand (other than workers) while he is in play - ($1)
worker - ($0)

Float ($0)
Discard 4, draw 2, reshuffle, draw 3


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

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: max Rook (4/6+A, crumbling rune)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]: Oathkeeper of Kor Mountain (7+1/8, swift strike, Resist 2)
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]:
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]:
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Verdant Tree (3, Healing 1)
  • Bird’s Nest (channeled by Rook)
  • Bird A (1/1, flying)
  • Bird B (1/1, flying)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 19
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Strength)
  • :heart: Tech III HP: 5

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

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 8
  • Disc: 0
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 11

GG! (Unless I did something horrible wrong) @EricF

P1T9


StartingHand Workers

STARTING HAND
Spirit of the Panda (attached to Bone Collector)
Bloodlust
Kidnapping
Lich’s Bargin


WORKERS
Pestering Haunt
Thieving Imp
Summon Skeletons
Jandra, the Negator (3/3+A, Overpower)
Skeleton Javelineer
Nether Drain


NextHand

Sacrifice the Weak
Deteriorate
Artisian Mantis


Discard

Lich’s Bargin
Bloodlust
Kidnapping
Spirit of the Panda (attached to Bone Collector)


Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($12)
Lich’s Bargin (BA gains 3 runes) - ($10)
Garth summons a skeleton (BA rune) - ($9)
Arg runs head first into Rook (MoLaC to 4)
BA kills Rook (MoLaC to 5, SUPER POWERS ACTIVATE, Garth to lvl 6)
Max band Garth, summons another BA - ($8)
Summon Drak (BAs rune) - ($6)
Bloodlust Horror and Zombie - ($4)
two runes from BA to Zombie
Zombie kills OathKeeper
BA #2 give 1 rune to Horror
BA gives 6 runes to Horror
Kidnapp a bird - ($0)
Garth, 2 Skeletons, Horror and Bird hit your Base for 41 damage

Float ($0)
Discard 1, draw 3


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

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Drak (6/8 + A, lvl 1)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: 6/6 Skeleton # 3
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: 6/6 Skeleton #4
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]: Blooming Ancient (7/9, 0 runes)
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • MoLaC(3 runes)
  • Garth (8/9, lvl 4)
  • Skeleton #1 (6/6)
  • Skeleton #2 (6/6)
  • 15/14 Death Touch Horror
  • Blooming Ancient (7/5, 0 runes)
  • Graveyard (-/3)
  • Poisonblade Rogue (in Graveyard)
  • Bone Collector (in Graveyard)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 16
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Growth)
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

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

  • Hand: 3
  • Deck: 1
  • Disc: 4
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 10
Thoughts
1 Like

Can’t be bothered to check all the details, it always looked likely you could do it, and 41 damage is pretty convincing!

GG, WP. I clearly need to find a way of dealing with Growth’s board flood, as well as Peace’s. Or perhaps just figuring out a way to win at this game in general (as in win some games, of course I’m not asking to win every one) :wink:

Thanks, and good luck in the next round!

3 Likes

You too! It’s been the closest games I’ve had for a while (aka, where I haven’t been beaten to a pulp), so if you want another (without random specs) let me know!

1 Like

Yeah, I’m tempted to play a few casuals, although perhaps only after this tournament is over (I think there’s only 1 more round). There are a couple of decks I’d like to try out, I think. It was definitely a close game, although TBH I never felt like I was in a position to win it. My draw weren’t always the kindest (both Free Speeches and WG near the bottom of the deck early on), but I also got lucky a few times (most notably DeGrey on Turn 7) - and I certainly shouldn’t complain. I thought I was in a dominant position early on, but you were able to recover board position, after which I was always on the backfoot having gone down on cards so hard.

2 Likes