Strength + Growth

I’ve seen a number of people playing Strength/Growth/Whatever. It has a lot of little synergies, beyond Doubling Barbarian + Everything Growth Does.

From those that have played it, I’m curious how well it works in practice?

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I would have thought the bigger synergy to mention was the Tech I Legendary out of Growth. Getting a 4/4 for 1 and a 2/8 for 3 is pretty good mileage out of Myth Making. I think it is also typically paired up with a black hero to get the only Tech 0 Legendary.

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I’ve had a lot of success in play-by-posts on the old forum with [Growth]/Strength/Anarchy and [Growth]/Strength/Fire. The Galina Glimmer + Mythmaking combo is really strong against decks that don’t have good removal, and even then it’s still hideously cost-efficient. Green’s tech-0 defensive abilities + quick Bird’s Nest is also solid.

Both Red splashes work well. Fire gives you some targeted removal, which Strength and Growth lack, and also haste. And an obnoxious synergy between Lobbers and Earthquake. Anarchy gives you Zane, Zane’s combat tricks (Chaos Mirror is pretty crazy when combined with buffs), and more anti-air than just maxband Arg.

I know @Mooseknuckles has had success playing [Growth]/Necromancy/Strength. Maybe he has something to add.

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Chaos mirror with wisp’s seems pretty unfair :slight_smile:

Also, Bird’s Nest to double trigger Blooming Ancient (or just generate fliers for greens many +1/+1 runes)

I’ve found [Anarchy]/Strength/Growth to be another strong way to play the combination, with the red starter bringing early pressure as well as haste throughout the game. Once you have the various buffs teched into the deck (dinosize, chaos mirror, etc), you have the threat of casting these on a hasty Mad Man or Rambaster (as if Wisps and Birds weren’t enough!). They also activate Might of Leaf and Claw very quickly.

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Lest we forget Dinosize + Doubling Barbarbarian

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[quote=“zhavier, post:5, topic:1260”]
Chaos mirror with wisp’s seems pretty unfair :slight_smile:
[/quote]Chaos Mirror with Wisps is pretty good. Chaos Mirror with Spore Crawler is crazytown, though, or with Ardra’s Boulder+Mythmaking. Those will let you hit the magic number to kill those obnoxious 3/4 squad leaders like Argonaut and Centaur, without taking any damage yourself.

With Fire, Lobbers are pretty good for Blooming Ancient/Might of Leaf and Claw.

But I think I prefer Anarchy because Zane’s combat tricks (plus being available as hasty damage himself) are good, and his tech 2 offers stuff that Strength and Growth really don’t. If you’ve been keeping up the pressure, Anarchy T2 can help keep that locked down, especially with the threat of stuff like Dinosized Disguised Monkeys. And then of course Anarchy tech 3 is one of the best in the game.

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i think u mean for 2 (boulder costs 2 if is that u r talking abo).
I was thinking to try a [growth]/strenght/blood.
Green starter for econ, blood cuz bloodlust+drakk maxb could do real dmg with a colossus!
Imagine if u manage to dinosize him too! :heart:

Red starter + any of red is also great for activating Might of Leaf and Claw. Zane + Sharks means 3 immediate charges, Bloodlust can bring 2 quick ones, Lobbers can bring quick charges…

Still, I think I want [Demon] / Str / Growth if I’m running Rook + Arg. Black starter too strong, Mythmaking + Jandra too strong, Dark Pact too strong, Metamorphosis on Rook too strong… And then you can always have the totally unnecessary Mythmaking + TerrasQ / Zzaramonde XD

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ok, i’m sold. Gonna try that!

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I mean, if you’re going to run [Demonology]/Strength, you might as well run Feral as the third spec for Feral Strike + Terras Q + DeGrey.

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Wow, that was not a method I had considered of clearing the warlocks. So, Feral Strike for 2 Blooming Ancients, they both get a +1 Rune from each other because they really do arrive at the same time (sharpo said this somewhere I think?). So that means that the warlocks would get destroyed by Degrey, I think? It is not clear to me from the card or the rulings in the database, but it does seem to work that way.

For what it’s worth, I think [Growth]/Strength/Necro is a tier I deck in Codex, along with Past/Peace/Anarchy and a few different flavors of Vandy beatdown. The weird thing to me is that I don’t see others playing it.

I wrote a guide for it on the old forums, which is probably gone by now, but the deck is really scary around turn 4/5. You’re able to build up gigantic blooming ancients pretty easily with all of the token generation. If your opponent doesn’t have an answer to upgrades, Might of Leaf and Claw is also a really good win condition.

I’ve kicked around trying to use the white or black starters with this deck. The Green starter synergizes with the midrange strategy best, but Arg is the hero that you’ll be playing least. You’ll almost always be playing Rook first, but the white starter is so weak as P2 that I can never make it work.

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You mean this guide?

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Better to copy that guide into the new forum.

QUOTE MOOSEKNUCKLES

I haven’t seen much resembling an actual spec guide or gameplan on these forums, so I thought I’d take a crack at it. This is a hero list I saw @Marto running with a lot of success, which seems a bit outside of the current meta, since it relies pretty heavily on green. I’ve been trying it quite a bit the last few weeks on the PbP forum and on TTS and the deck feels really strong.

As an aside, please don’t turn this into an argument about what’s balanced or propose game changes. These forums are littered with (mostly dumb) attempts at “fixing” things that aren’t necessarily broken. Feedback/discussion on ways to play this deck, ways to counter this deck, or where its relative power level is are what I’m hoping this will generate.

GENERAL GAMEPLAN: This deck plays to win with Blooming Ancient + token spam at tier 2. The idea is to leverage blooming ancient with Garth (skeletons and Lich’s Bargain), Arg (lower and maxband), or Rook (Bird Nest). Transferring runes to birds usually works best, but Blooming Elm to overrun your opponent can also work. Might of Leaf and Claw is situationally really good for a win condition as well, especially against decks that run sweepers. I’ve never bothered with Necromancy or Strength for T2, and wouldn’t suggest it.

Like any Rook deck, you can also win with a strong opening into birds + earthquake. I generally find it safer to go the Growth route over this, but it’s a consideration. Stampede is also an obvious finisher with the volume of units produced.

EARLY GAME(T1-T2): This deck doesn’t look to pressure your opponent in the early game. What you want to do is flood the board and beat them on value. Against almost any sort of aggressive deck I’ll build a tower early, since it hinders a stealth gameplan and makes their trades really painful. You’re almost always going to want to summon Rook as your first hero and tech in a copy of birds on turn 2. You only really want to be attacking if there’s a threat you need to answer or you can make a positive trade. Playful Panda, Rich Earth(in most situations), Young Treant(on turn 2), or Merfolk Prospector are your premium early cards. As usual, you can’t allow your opponent to blow you out with an early hero kill (where they gain levels).

Your early tech choices are really important, since we’re running on a pretty tight race to blooming ancient. You basically always want to tech in a copy of Bird Nest with your first tech, since it’s so high value and represents a major threat with Blooming Ancient later on. You’ll want to tech in a Lich’s Bargain within your first two techs, since you want to pair it with a blooming ancient later on. LB is also really strong the turn you go Tech II to protect it. This is particularly relevant is player 2. Other cards to consider heavily early on: Galina for economy, Bone Collector if your opponent isn’t playing aggressively, Doom Grasp if you’re worried about a particular hero or unit.

Look to worker Verdant Tree, Ironbark Treant, Forest’s Favor, Tiger Cub, Young Treant, or Rampant Growth in that order generally. The green spells are really good if you’re going Arg early, but it’s pretty uncommon that I prefer Arg over Rook.

YOUNG TREANT + BIRDS: This is a cute early play that creates a ton of trouble for your opponent. If you don’t draw YT in your opening hand, it’s often worthwhile to make your first tech two copies of bird nest, then to draw for it on turn 2 with YT. You have a 40% chance to draw the birds if your tun 1 play remains. Note that you’ll need to float gold to pull this off generally, since YT + Rook + Bird Nest is 6 gold on turn 2. Missing this draw doesn’t kill you (though you’ll often want to build a tower here), and you’ll draw the bird nest on turn 3 100% of the time.

MIDGAME (T3-T4): Where in the early game you’re playing totally defensively, in the midgame you’re looking to outvalue your opponent a bit, while still focusing on playing defense. It’s critical that you hit tech II at 8 or 9 workers and you’re able to protect it. You generally want to either threaten or actually snipe heroes, key units, or tech buildings with your birds. As expensive as it is, Spore Shambler can create pretty nice value by shifting rune(s) to a bird, then taking one for the team in a patrol spot. If you’re under threat, Lich’s Bargain is a good way to shield yourself. If neither player is being aggressive, Galina can provide a ton of value. You can also threaten to Stampede. Against a lot of decks, timing Doom Grasp is pretty important, as you can wipe out a key hero.

LATEGAME (T5+): The gameplan here, as you’ve probably gathered, is to make your blooming ancients huge, then overrun them with blooming elm/might of leaf and claw or drop the runes on birds. You want to keep your deck as thin as possible, so you usually want to stop teching at 10 workers. Maxbanding Garth to grab a blooming ancient out of the graveyard is really strong, obviously. Knowing when to tech in blooming elm or might of leaf and claw is tricky and something that I frankly need to work on.

WEAKNESSES: This deck’s lack of haste and emphasis on board presence makes it vulnerable to decks which can sweep the board. These aren’t super common right now, so I don’t have a ton of experience with handling this, but I’d imagine that these will be entering the meta soon. The cards which scare me most are: Judgement Day, Rewind, Discord, Plague Labs, and Jefferson DeGrey, since they can clean up so much of the board without any setup. Decks planning on swarming the board themselves with Growth or Peace are also potentially tricky. Against either of these general strategies, I’d likely shift plans to ending the game with Tech 3 or Might of Leaf and Claw (assuming they don’t have an answer for upgrades).

LEGENDARY APPROACH: One thing that I’ve kicked around is the idea of running this deck with an emphasis on legendary units. Galina has pretty nice synergy with Strength, if one wanted to play that way. Your add-on spot with this deck is really only ever useful for a tower, so it’s very possible to use a tech lab for strength and grab DeGrey in some matchups.

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