[XCAFS20] Round2: Nekoatl [Growth]/Strength/Truth vs charnel_mouse [Balance]/Blood/Strength

Codex Codex play-by-forum
1

Green

  • Ironbark Treant ability becomes “-1 ATK/+1 :psblueshield: while patrolling” (rather than -2 ATK/+2 armor)
  • Rich Earth gains “Arrives: Get a 0/1 wisp token. While you have 10 or more workers, this gains “tap: make a wisp””

Balance

  • Midori Midband becomes “Your units with no printed abilities get +2/+1”
  • Circle of Life becomes “Sacrifice a Tech 0 or Tech I unit. If you do, put a unit one tech level higher with cost 4 or less into play from your Codex” (instead of a green unit with cost 5 or less)
  • Gemscout Owl is 1/1 (instead of 0/1. It still can’t attack)
  • Chameleon costs 0 (instead of 2)

Blood

  • Rickety Mine gains Haste, ability changes from coin flip to “When this arrives, put two Ore runes on it. Tap: gain 3 gold, remove an ore rune. When this runs out of Ore runes, trash it and deal 1 damage to you and your opponent’s base”

Growth

Strength

  • Bird’s Nest Ability changes to "Arrives or upkeep: Put a 1/1 Flying Bird Token into play (max 2 tokens in play at a time). Remains as a channeling spell.
  • Mythmaking gains the ability "Your Legendary units ignore the “Legend Rule”

Truth

  • Spectral Tiger gains Resist 1
  • Spectral Roc gains Resist 1
  • Hallucination Changes to: Spell - Summon :target: Target up to 2 units or heroes. Summon a 0/X Hallucination token for each target, where X is the current HP (factoring in any buffs, debuffs or damage) of the target. Destroy these at your next upkeep.
  • Dreamscape Instead of “all units are illusions” this becomes “Arrives or Upkeep: mark up to 5 units. These units are illusions until your next upkeep, even if Dreamscape is removed from play”. Also gains "Tap: Create a Mirror Illusion (max 2). Still channeling, still cost 3.
  • Quince Midband ability now costs 1 (instead of 2)
  • Mind Control Cost reduced to 4 and can attach to any unit, including tech 3s

GL HF @charnel_mouse!

P1T1

StartingHand Workers

STARTING HAND
Playful Panda
Spore Shambler
Rampant Growth
Young Treant
Forest’s Favor

WORKERS
Young Treant

NextHand

Merfolk Prospector
Ironbark Treant
Verdant Tree
Rich Earth
Tiger Cub

Discard

Forest’s Favor
Rampant Growth
Spore Shambler

Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($4)
Worker - ($3)
Playful Panda - ($1)

Float ($1)
Discard 3, draw 5

Board Info:
In Patrol:

  • :psblueshield: Squad Leader:
  • :psfist: Elite:
  • :ps_: Scavenger: Wisp (0/1)
  • :pschip: Technician:
  • :target: Lookout:

In Play:

  • Playful Panda (2/2)

Buildings:

  • :heart: Base HP: 20

Economy Info:
Cards:

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 0
  • Disc: 3

Gold:

  • Gold: 1
  • Workers: 5
Thoughts

boo, T2 Rich Earth AND Prospector… AND Favor and Rampant both on T1 :stuck_out_tongue: Guess I’ll deploy Panda for Galina synergy.

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2

GL HF! No idea how this matchup works.

P2T1

Starting Hand: 5

Playful Panda
Tiger Cub
Young Treant
Ironbark Treant
Verdant Tree

Thoughts

Green starter changes I’ve obviously seen before.

Growth: Might of Leaf and Claw is now less dangerous, but the healing 1 could make it easier to activate in the first place. I don’t expect to see it anyway, since I have Nature Reclaims available. Blooming Ancient is also a lot less dangerous, so I’d expect more card variety at Tech II here.

Strength: Mythmaking change is interesting, and, with Galina Glimmer in the deck, it’s not infeasible that Nekoatl goes for a Legendary rush. No Jandra to top things off, but it’s not usually necessary, and using it with Macciatus is also a possibility. Vulnerable to Nature Reclaims, however: between that and no Jandra for early pressure, Mythmaking might not stick on the board for long enough to have much effect. Birds are weaker than usual, but could still be annoying in combination with Growth II.

Truth: Sucks for same reasons as before, I need to keep a close eye on my limited targeting options. Macciatus is dangerous with the threat of Mythmaking.

I’m expecting to see either Growth II for Ancients, or a late Mythmaking to support Strength II or Truth II. I’m less clear on what to expect at Tech I.

Generally, Nekoatl has several good specs for Mythmaking at Tech II, but not so much in the early/mid game. If it does come out, I’d likely not have enough time to react with a Nature Reclaims, before Strength II or Truth II roll me over.

Possible early strategies:

  • Bloodlust + Crash Bomber, allows early Drakk aggression and is OK for taking out Galina if she appears.
  • Double Mine to guarantee first to Tech II? Lets Neko benefit from Galina without interference, maybe two Galinas with Mythmaking later on, so income advantage might not be that good.
  • Bloodlusts to set up for hasted Chameleons + Mimics, don’t let Nekoatl keep his Tech II up. Might be vulnerable to Mind Control, but can easily hit Quince too.
  • Bloodlust + my own Mythmaking, to make killing Galina a cinch.

Anything I’m forgetting here? If I see Rook next turn, I might go for Tiny Basilisk, to kill him before he can get Birds out. That might not be necessary, though.

Nekoatl doesn’t have enough gold for Tech I + hero + spell, so my Panda should be safe. Either he’s floating for a 3-cost unit, or he got the awkward 2-cost starting hand for Green. I think I’m fine to go straight for Drakk here. I’ve got the option for Rich Earth or an expensive spell next turn, if I really need it.

Hanging onto Verdant Tree, in case I go for fast Tech II.

Get paid - (5)
Worker - (4)
Playful Panda, Wisp arrives - (2)
Drakk Ramhorn - (0)
Discard 3, draw 5

:ps_: Wisp 0/1

Drakk L1 1/3 (dies: 1 to your base)
Playful Panda 2/2

:heart: Base HP: 20

Hand: 5

Merfolk Prospector
Spore Shambler
Forest’s Favour
Rampant Growth
Rich Earth

Deck: 0
Discard: 3

Tiger Cub
Young Treant
Verdant Tree

Card-count check (opponent-viewable)

Expected: 10
1 on board
5 in hand
0 in deck
3 in discard
1 in workers
Total: 10

Gold: 0
Workers: 6

5 x start
T1: Ironbark Treant

3

P1T2

Tech StartingHand Workers

TECH
Galina Glimmer
Mythmaking

STARTING HAND
Merfolk Prospector
Rich Earth
Tiger Cub
Ironbark Treant
Verdant Tree

WORKERS
Young Treant
Ironbark Treant

NextHand

Tiger Cub
Galina Glimmer
Spore Shambler

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($6)
Rich Earth - ($3)
Worker
Merfolk Prospector - ($2)
Verdant Tree - ($0)

Float ($0)
Discard 1, reshuffle, draw 3

Board Info:
In Patrol:

  • :psblueshield: Squad Leader: Playful Panda (2/2A)
  • :psfist: Elite:
  • :ps_: Scavenger: Wisp (0/1)
  • :pschip: Technician: Wisp (0/1)
  • :target: Lookout:

In Play:

  • Rich Earth
  • Verdant Tree (3) Healing 1
  • Merfolk Prospector (1/1)

Buildings:

  • :heart: Base HP: 20

Economy Info:
Cards:

  • Hand: 3
  • Deck: 3
  • Disc: 0

Gold:

  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 6
Thoughts

Not really a fan of the Ironbark modification, so I’ll ditch him. I don’t want to lose my Tree or Rich Earth to a Nature Reclaims, so I’ll rush Galina and Mythmaking. The combo should be scary enough to prioritize Mythmaking’s removal, and Galina should still be valuable to me even without the buff. I won’t take a 2nd Galina, though, because even if I protect my other Mythmaking from Nature Reclaims with a constant stream of Free Speech, I’d have to simultaneously destroy his Tech II each turn to prevent a Potent Basilisk from destroying it and killing all my duplicate legendaries. For right now, my primary goal is to keep the Prospector and Tree from being destroyed, secondarily I want to keep as many Wisps as possible alive to fuel Galina. I have to assume that even his Wisp can kill one of mine, meaning 3 patrollers is mandatory. I want the Panda to die first, so he’ll go SQL. My biggest concern in dropping my hand size so much here is that I won’t have a good worker card next turn, but that’ll only be really bad if I draw Myth, Galina, and Rampant and my Technician Wisp doesn’t die, which is pretty unlikely… only a 5% chance of drawing that hand… well, here goes…

4

Tree!

P2T2

Starting Hand: 5

Merfolk Prospector
Spore Shambler
Forest’s Favour
Rampant Growth
Rich Earth

Thoughts

Either I’m missing something obvious, or Nekoatl’s going hard into Galina setup here. He’d have 4 gold left after free worker + Prospector gold + Tech I + Galina, so he could block with Boulder, Giant Panda, or Argagarg, or hero + spell. Or Mythmaking, but it seems pretty early for that. Maybe Hallucination if I kill the Scavenger, but then he won’t get much income and would have a terrible board on the next turn.

I’m wondering whether to go with a Tiny Basilisk instead of a Crash Bomber: I have a good chance of only facing Tech 0 units apart from Galina. My biggest problem would be a patrolling hero, especially Rook. Bloodlust or haste on Tiny Basilisk could help me still get through to Galina, and Basilisk might scale better later if I’m not fighting illusions.

Alternative is double Kidnapping, so the patrol doesn’t matter. I’d be delaying Tech II, though. I probably am anyway.

Extreme alternative option: skip worker and Tech I to maxband Drakk and play hasted Prospector, Pandas trade, Wisp and Prospector kills Wisps, Drakk kills Prospector or destroys Verdant Tree. Probably the latter, and I tech War Drums as a cheap option while I build Tech I. I wonder how viable a Tech I lockdown is, might need Tiny Basilisk later. Killing his Panda with Drakk, and destroying the Tree with my Panda, keeps all my units alive, but Neko’s Prospector could then kill Drakk if he’s holding a Green spell.

I think I give the extreme offense a go, I’m not confident about my chances of drawing both my teched cards to deal with Galina quickly enough. Also, Nekoatl’s deck really needs Tech I units down before its spells start becoming useful.

Teched cards: 2

T2: 2 x War Drums

Get paid - (6)
Skip worker!
Maxband Drakk - (1)
Merfolk Prospector, Drakk gives it haste - (0)
Playful Pandas meet, frolic away together
Wisp kills Scavenger Wisp, you get a gold
Prospector kills Technician Wisp, you draw
Drakk destroys Verdant Tree
Discard 4, reshuffle, draw 5

Drakk L6 3/4 (dies: 1 to your base; units have frenzy +1; first unit from hand gets haste)
Merfolk Prospector 1/1 (haste; Drakk: frenzy 1)
Wisp 0/1 (Drakk: frenzy 1)

:heart: Base HP: 20

Hand: 5

Verdant Tree
War Drums
Spore Shambler
Forest’s Favour
Rich Earth

Deck: 5

Tiger Cub
Young Treant
War Drums
Playful Panda
Rampant Growth

Discard: 0
Card-count check (opponent-viewable)

Expected: 10 + 2 teched = 12
1 on board
5 in hand
5 in deck
0 in discard
1 in workers
Total: 12

Gold: 0
Workers: 6

5 x start
T1: Ironbark Treant

5

P1T3

Tech StartingHand Workers

TECH
Giant Panda
Giant Panda

STARTING HAND
Tiger Cub
Spore Shambler
Galina Glimmer
Rampant Growth

WORKERS
Young Treant
Ironbark Treant
Tiger Cub

NextHand

Mythmaking
Giant Panda
Playful Panda
Forest’s Favor
Rampant Growth

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + Scavenger - ($7)
Worker
Tech I - ($5)
Prospector kills Wisp
Tower - ($2)
Garus Rook - ($0)

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

Board Info:
In Patrol:

  • :psblueshield: Squad Leader:
  • :psfist: Elite: L1 Garus Rook (3/4)
  • :ps_: Scavenger:
  • :pschip: Technician:
  • :target: Lookout:

In Play:

  • Rich Earth
  • Merfolk Prospector (1/1)

Buildings:

  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

Economy Info:
Cards:

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 4
  • Disc: 0

Gold:

  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 7
Thoughts

Okay, I did NOT expect him to be so wary of the Tree that he would delay his Tech I and skip a worker, but if he’s willing to go that far, I won’t complain about losing it. This does present the issue of how to dispose of Drakk and the concern of him teching Blood spells. Kidnapping seems like overkill against tech 0 units, but Bloodlust and especially War Drums are concerns. I could have had the Prospector kill him if I had Forest’s Favor in hand, but substituting Spore Shambler would be too expensive. I can at least have the Prospector kill the Wisp if I can spare the gold, and under these circumstances reducing his unit count seems valuable enough to warrant it. However, with that gold I could get a Water Elemental out of Argagarg and still afford my Tech I… though maybe investing in a Tower would be better. Fortunately, I can now use heroes as cannon fodder without giving away free levels. The problem is, even with Rook patrolling he’ll probably still be able to break the Tower… the maxband haste, even limited to Green starter units, could kill a non-SQL Rook using Ironbark, not to mention Green starter spells could (at a penalty) boost any of his attackers. But it will allow me to refill my hand, and I think he probably won’t break both the Tower and my Tech I. Guess it’s my best option. I’ll go for Giant Pandas to compliment Galina since I don’t have any great options to push back using my early codex cards, except maybe Boulder as a stall tactic, but since I don’t expect Mythmaking to survive, the Boulder really isn’t going to be that helpful until I can start dumping runes on it.

6

P2T3

Starting Hand: 5

Verdant Tree
War Drums
Spore Shambler
Forest’s Favour
Rich Earth

Thoughts

Losing the Wisp was expected, but for some reason I wasn’t expecting Tower + Elite Rook. That’s going to be painful to press into, since it’ll slow down my War Drums buildup.

Ideal plan is worker + Drums + Shambler, then worker + Drums + Cub + Panda next turn, draws willing. If not, tech up. That puts my board this turn, including Frenzy, at 3/4 Drakk, 2/1 Prospector, 3/3 Shambler, with War Drums starting at 2.

Prospector can trade with Rook, so Shambler is at 4 attack, enough to destroy the Tower, or to help Drakk destroy Tech I. The latter leaves Drakk vulnerable to Prospector + Rampant Growth, so I’ll just take out the Tower for not. I can have Drakk kill the Prospector in the meantime.

Alternative is to not attack, and hold onto the Prospector. I think I’d rather keep on the pressure, given Nekoatl still has economic advantages on the board.

Tech-wise, Nekoatl might still think it’s worth going for green weenies, since I don’t have much crowd control at Tech 0. I probably want to go for Strength II eventually. Until then, Crash Bomber, Tiny Basilisk, and Kidnapping are looking good. It might be worth playing my own Mythmaking later, especially if I want DeGrey to clear out Wisps. I’ll take Crash Bomber and Tiny Basilisk for now, hopefully that’s a good mixture of high damage and ability to bypass Wisps.

Teched cards: 2

T2: 2 x War Drums
T3: Crash Bomber, Tiny Basilisk

Get paid - (6)
Worker - (5)
Spore Shambler, Drakk gives it haste - (2)
War Drums at +2 - (0)
Merfolk Prospector trades with Rook, levels fizzle, War Drums to +1
Spore Shambler destroys Tower, your base to 18, takes 1 damage
Drakk kills Merfolk Prospector, takes 1 damage
Discard 2, draw 4

Drakk L6 3/3 (dies: 1 to your base; units have frenzy +1; first unit from hand gets haste; 1 damage)
Spore Shambler 3/2 (++; haste; Drakk: frenzy 1; War Drums: + 1 attack; 1 damage)

War Drums (units get +1 attack per unit)

:heart: Base HP: 20

Hand: 4

Tiger Cub
Young Treant
Playful Panda
Rampant Growth

Deck: 1

War Drums

Discard: 5

Crash Bomber
Tiny Basilisk
Merfolk Prospector
Verdant Tree
Forest’s Favour

Card-count check (opponent-viewable)

Expected: 10 + 4 teched = 14
2 on board
4 in hand
1 in deck
5 in discard
2 in workers
Total: 14

Gold: 0
Workers: 7

5 x start
T1: Ironbark Treant
T3: Rich Earth

7

P1T4

Tech StartingHand Workers

TECH
Blooming Ancient
Blooming Ancient

STARTING HAND
Mythmaking
Forest’s Favor
Giant Panda
Playful Panda
Rampant Growth

WORKERS
Young Treant
Ironbark Treant
Tiger Cub
Forest’s Favor

NextHand

Spore Shambler
Mythmaking
Verdant Tree
Galina Glimmer
Giant Panda

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($7)
Worker
Tech II: Growth - ($3)
Giant Panda - ($0)

Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 4, reshuffle, draw 1

Board Info:
In Patrol:

  • :psblueshield: Squad Leader:
  • :psfist: Elite:
  • :ps_: Scavenger: Wisp (0/1)
  • :pschip: Technician:
  • :target: Lookout:

In Play:

  • Rich Earth
  • Giant Panda (3/4)

Buildings:

  • :heart: Base HP: 18
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Growth)

Economy Info:
Cards:

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 5
  • Disc: 0

Gold:

  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 8
Thoughts

Yeah, that went about as well as expected, though I had hoped that something bigger than a Prospector woud need to trade with Rook. I was planning to drop Mythmaking as an intimidation tactic, but that’s not going to work when I’m at so much of a board disadvantage. He STILL hasn’t build a Tech I, so at least I don’t need to worry about scarier units or a second hero just yet, and maybe he’s even workered his basic spells to keep more tech 0 units in his cycle… that would be helpful. I expect the Shambler to trade with the Panda, which leaves the hasty unit and Drakk to clear the Wisp and hit a tech building, maybe Tech II will survive? Even if he destroys it, I probably won’t be bothered. The most important thing now is to just make steady progress and get him to expend his units in trades so War Drums doesn’t balloon out of control. If I manage to remove Drakk, that will undo most of his progress, so he can’t afford to ignore even backline units like the Pandas. Hmm… I could postpone my Tech II and take an extra Panda and a hero, but… I feel like that wouldn’t be helpful enough, and the Tech II provides a renewable buffer to lure damage away from my Tech I… and if I do manage to keep the Tech II alive, I can maybe slip out an Ancient, which could go along way to helping me turn this situation around.

8

P2T4

Starting Hand: 4

Tiger Cub
Young Treant
Playful Panda
Rampant Growth

Teched cards: 2

T2: 2 x War Drums
T3: Crash Bomber, Tiny Basilisk
T4: 2 x Whatever

Get paid - (7)
Tiger Cub, Drakk gives it haste - (5)

Young Treant, I draw - (3)

War Drums

War Drums #2 at +3 - (1)
Drakk kills Wisp, you get a gold
Spore Shambler (9) and Tiger Cub (9) destroy your base, GG!

Drakk L6 3/3 (dies: 1 to your base; units have frenzy +1; first unit from hand gets haste; 1 damage)
Spore Shambler 8/2 (++; haste; Drakk: frenzy 1; War Drums: + 3x2 attack; 1 damage)
Tiger Cub 8/2 (haste; Drakk: frenzy 1; War Drums: + 3x2 attack)
Young Treant 6/2 (Drakk: frenzy 1; War Drums: + 3x2 attack; can’t attack)

War Drums #1 (units get +1 attack per unit)
War Drums #2 (units get +1 attack per unit)

:heart: Base HP: 20

Remaining hand: 2

Playful Panda
Rampant Growth

Deck: 0
Discard: 7

Crash Bomber
Tiny Basilisk
Merfolk Prospector
Verdant Tree
Forest’s Favour
Whatever
Whatever

Card-count check (opponent-viewable)

Expected: 10 + 6 teched = 16
5 on board
2 in hand
0 in deck
7 in discard
2 in workers
Total: 16

Gold: 1
Workers: 7

5 x start
T1: Ironbark Treant
T3: Rich Earth

@FrozenStorm Green starter rushdown’s a thing

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9

Disgusting

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