[XCAFS20] Round8: EricF [Past]/Peace/Truth vs charnel_mouse [Balance]/Blood/Strength

@charnel_mouse gl;hf!

My Changes

Quince Midband ability now costs 1 (instead of 2)
Time Spiral costs 0, and ability adjusted: “Add or remove a time rune from a card (or forecasted card) that you control”
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.
Tinkerer also triggers on Arrival. “Arrives: or :exhaust:: Add or remove a time rune from a card (or forecasted card) that you control” //combined with the other changes, previous version was a bit too degenerate
Seer can only affect cards you control.
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.
Mind Control Cost reduced to 4 and can attach to any unit, including tech 3s
Spectral Tiger gains Resist 1
Spectral Roc gains Resist 1
General’s Hammer costs 2 (instead of 3)
Drill Sergeant’s gains “limit twice per turn” on it’s second ability (can only move 2 runes off of the DS each turn, same as Ancient)

P2 Changes

Green starter

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”.

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’”.

P1, Turn 1
  1. Forgotten Fighter — Magic
  2. Time Spiral — Magic
  3. Temporal Research — Magic -> Worker
  4. Tinkerer — Tech 0
  5. Hardened Mox — Tech 0

4 gold (4)
Worker (3)
Hardened Mox (0)
Discard 3, Draw 5

Lookout - Hardened Mox (1/1)

Base - 20

5 workers, 0 gold
Hand: 5
Deck: 0
Discard: 3

Next Hand
  1. Nullcraft — Tech 0
  2. Plasmodium — Tech 0
  3. Fading Argonaut — Tech 0
  4. Neo Plexus — Tech 0
  5. Battle Suits — Tech 0
2 Likes

GL, HF! Sorry for the delay.

P2T1

Starting hand: 5

Tiger Cub
Spore Shambler
Forest’s Favour
Verdant Tree
Rich Earth

Thoughts

Thoughts on changes: New Hallucination is good for delaying to Peace engine, so I’ll need a way to deal with it. Hallucinations are tokens and only copy health, so Tiny Basilisks + units with special abilities would be the way to go.
General thoughts: Boot Camp on Mox could give me a really bad time here, I don’t know if Tiny Basilisk is a good way to work around that or not. I’ve started with Rich Earth, at least. After that I might need to get aggressive pretty quickly to stop set-up for Peace engine, but EricF’s deck has plenty of ways to stop me doing that. It might be worth trying to hit Tech II first with Verdant Tree.

I don’t want to rely on high-level heroes, especially early on. So maybe Rook is worth opening with here, for a change. Thunderclap could be handy against illusions, and the midband could be good for opportunistic kills. Birds could still be handy too, even if not as much as usual. Alternatively, I just put Tiger Cub down, then Midori + Rampant Growth is an option next turn. I’ll try that.


Get paid - (5)
Rich Earth, Wisp arrives - (2)
Worker
Tiger Cub - (0)
Discard 2, draw 4


:psblueshield: Wisp 0/1+1A
:ps_: Tiger Cub 2/2

Rich Earth (workers cost no gold; 10+ workers: exhaust to summon a Wisp)

:heart: Base HP: 20


Hand: 4

Merfolk Prospector
Playful Panda
Young Treant
Rampant Growth

Deck: 1

Ironbark Treant

Discard: 3

Tiger Cub
Spore Shambler
Verdant Tree

Card-count check (opponent-viewable)

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


Gold: 0
Workers: 6

5 x start
T1: Forest’s Favour

P1, T2

Nullcraft — Tech 0

  • Plasmodium — Tech 0 -> worker
  • Fading Argonaut — Tech 0
  • Neo Plexus — Tech 0
  • Battle Suits — Tech 0

Tech Boot Camp and Elite training

5 gold (5)
Worker (4)
Fading Argo (2)
Onimaru (0)
Discard 3, rs, draw 5

SQL - Hardened Mox (1/1 +1)
Scavenger - Fading Argo (2/3) [3]

L1 Onimaru (2/3)

Base - 20

6 workers, 0 gold
Hand: 5
Deck: 3
Discard: 0

P2T2

Starting hand: 4

Merfolk Prospector
Playful Panda
Young Treant
Rampant Growth

Thoughts

I’m not sure why I though I’d need Verdant Tree to hit Tech II first, giving I’m going second. Maybe I’m OK playing more keep-away instead of early aggression.

The rough plan is to take Mine + Basilisk: Mine helps me set up, Basilisk lets me get past a buffed Mox. I’ll need to put down more blockers than usual to fend off a buffed Mox, though, so I’ll go with the Panda.

Spreading out my patrollers in case of Elite Training. I don’t like patrolling with no retaliation damage, but the Onimaru and Fading Argonaut at 3 health each there’s not point putting my real units up front.

Teched cards: 2

T2: Rickety Mine, Tiny Basilisk


Get paid - (6)
Tech I - (4)

Young Treant, I draw - (2)

Ironbark Treant

Playful Panda, Wisp #2 arrives - (0)
Worker
Discard 2, reshuffle, draw 4


:psblueshield: Young Treant 0/2+1A (can’t attack)
:ps_: Wisp #1 0/1
:target: Wisp #2 0/1 (resist 0+1)

Tiger Cub 2/2
Playful Panda 2/2

Rich Earth (workers cost no gold; 10+ workers: exhaust to summon a Wisp)

:heart: Base HP: 20
:heart: Tech I HP: 5


Hand: 4

Verdant Tree
Rickety Mine
Merfolk Prospector
Rampant Growth

Deck: 2

Spore Shambler
Tiny Basilisk

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

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


Gold: 0
Workers: 7

5 x start
T1: Forest’s Favour
T2: Ironbark Treant

Your move, @EricF :slight_smile:

Yes, yes. Next move coming Monday when I’m back at computer and can know what my hand is.

1 Like
P1, T3
  1. Tinkerer — Tech 0
  2. Battle Suits — Tech 0
  3. Forgotten Fighter — Magi
  4. Nullcraft — Tech 0
  5. Boot Camp — Magic

Tech Boot Camp and Overeager Cadet

Draw: Elite Training
Worker: Forgotten Fighter

6 gold (6)
Onimaru kills Treant
Mox kills Lookout
Nullcraft (4), kills Scavenger
Fading Argo kills Tiger Cub
Boot Camp on Mox (3)
Worker (2)
Tinkerer, add rune to Fargo (0)
Discard 2, Draw 2, rs, Draw 2

SQL - Tinkerer (1/2 +1)

Nullcraft (1/1)
Hardened Mox + (2/2)
Fading Argo (2/1) [3]
L1 Onimaru (2/3)

Base - 20

7 workers, 0 gold
Hand: 4
Deck: 3
Discard: 0

Next Hand

Time Spiral — Magic
Neo Plexus — Tech 0
Battle Suits — Tech 0
Boot Camp — Magic

P2T3

Starting hand: 4

Verdant Tree
Rickety Mine
Merfolk Prospector
Rampant Growth

Thoughts

Assume Peace engine and go for Balance II air force? I don’t have a good grasp on this matchup. I don’t like my options for patrollers this turn, either.

Teched cards: 2

T2: Rickety Mine, Tiny Basilisk
T3: Faerie Dragon, Potent Basilisk


Get paid + Scavenger - (8)
Rickety Mine - (6)
Rickety Mine exhausts for gold - (9)
Worker
Tech II Balance - (5)
Garus Rook - (3)
Merfolk Prospector - (2)
Discard 1, draw 2, reshuffle, draw 1


:psblueshield: Merfolk Prospector 1/1+1A
:ps_: Rook L1 2/4
:exhaust: Playful Panda 2/2

:heart: Rickety Mine HP: 3 (1 ore run)

Rich Earth (workers cost no gold; 10+ workers: exhaust to summon a Wisp)

:heart: Base HP: 20
:heart: Tech I HP: 5
:heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Balance)


Hand: 3

Spore Shambler
Tiny Basilisk
Faerie Dragon

Deck: 4

Young Treant
Tiger Cub
Potent Basilisk
Verdant Tree

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

Expected: 10 + 4 teched = 14
4 on board
3 in hand
4 in deck
0 in discard
3 in workers
Total: 14


Gold: 2
Workers: 8

5 x start
T1: Forest’s Favour
T2: Ironbark Treant
T3: Rampant Growth

P1, Turn 4

So,
Defense: 2, 4, 2 // 5, 5, 3?
Attack: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3+ = 9
w/ Suits: 1, 1, 3, 3, 3+ = 11. Though that barely matters?

Option 1:
Nullcraft + Tinker kill Prospector
Level Oni to 5 (3)
Oni Kills Rook, goes to L7
Mox kills Panda
Battle Suits (1)
Fargo breaks Mine
Boot Camp Mox / Worker / Max Oni

Option 2 (works 1/2 times):
Mox kills Prospector
Boot Camp Mox (6)
Draw Elite Training? Train Oni + Fargo (4)
Oni kills Rook, sparks Panda
Nullcraft kills Panda
Tech I (2)
Fargo breaks Mine
Worker (1)
(Boot camp Mox again if I draw it)
Patrol Tink again

Option 3:
Tink and Nullcraft kill Prospector
Boot Camp Rook (6)
Mox kills Panda
Oni + Fargo break Tech II #nohasteforyou
Tech I (4)
Neo Plexus (2)

Option 4:
Boot Camp Prospector (6)
Oni kills Panda
Battle Suits (4)
Mox and Nullcraft kill Rook
Fargo breaks Mine
Tech I (2)
Worker (1)
Patrol Tink

Time Spiral — Magic
Neo Plexus — Tech 0
Battle Suits — Tech 0
Boot Camp — Magic

I think getting the panda out of the way is my best bet here. That means I’ll be getting a Tech I, so

Tech in Stewardess and General’s Hammer

Boot Camp Draw: Elite Training
New situation: Defense: 2, 4 / 3, 5
Attack: 1, 1, 3+, 2, 2
Battle Suits: 2-> 3
Elite Training: two +1 bonuses
Neo Plexus: patroller

7 gold (7)
Boot Camp the Panda out of the way (6), draw
Tech I (4)
Battle Suits (2)
Onimaru kills Prospector
Mox and Nullcraft kill Rook, Oni to L3
Fargo breaks Rickety Mine
Neo Plexus (0)
Discard 2, Draw 2, rs, Draw 2

SQL - Neo Plexus (3/2 +1)
Scavenger - Tinkerer (1/2)

Nullcraft (1/1)
Hardened Mox + (3/2)
Fading Argo (3/1) [2]
L3 Onimaru (2/2)

Battle Suits
Base - 20
Tech I - 5

7 workers, 0 gold
Hand: 4
Deck: 3
Discard: 0

P2T4

Starting hand: 3

Spore Shambler
Tiny Basilisk
Faerie Dragon

Thoughts

He destroyed the Mine, interesting. He also skipped a worker, so if I’m not gunning for T-Rex then skipping a worker to help my hand size isn’t out of the question.

I definitely want to play the Dragon here, it can kill the Fading Argonaut. I’m then left facing (at least) 11 attack, and potentially more sidelines from Boot Camp.

Do I want to patrol the Dragon to stop Nullcraft? Do I want to spend my last 3 gold on a fifth defender, or on a Tower and keep a card? I have 7 health on the ground, 8 if I put someone in Squad Leader, versus 11 attack. Elite Training might be enough to let EricF destroy Tech II, but it also makes a fourth defender less useful, due to the sparkshot. It could even let him sparkshot the Basilisk to death, if I’m not careful. I can get around that by trading the Panda with the Neo Plexus, so I only have three ground patrollers again. Then I can put the Shambler in Squad Leader with 4 health, and its ability means EricF might not want to Boot Camp it. Or I just put the Cub there, which is the same but it kills non-Oni Elite Training attackers too. On the gripping hand, I could play the Shambler, not attack with Panda, and keep the Basilisk out of the patrol, since it can’t block most of Eric’s attackers anyway. Let’s try that. Then all my patrollers have at least 3 health, and most of Eric’s attackers do 3 attack already so the effect Elite Training is limited. Fingers crossed for no Boot Camp.

Teched cards: 2

T2: Rickety Mine, Tiny Basilisk
T3: Faerie Dragon, Potent Basilisk
T4: Bloodlust, Wandering Mimic


Get paid + 2 float + Scavenger - (11)
Tiny Basilisk - (9)
Faerie Dragon, Tiny Basilisk takes to the air - (5)
Master Midori - (3)
Spore Shambler - (0)
Skip worker!
Discard 0, draw 2


:psblueshield: Spore Shambler 2/3+1A (++)
:ps_: Midori L1 2/3
:target: Playful Panda 3/3 (resist 0+1; +)

Faerie Dragon 4/2 (flying)
Tiny Basilisk 3/1 (feather rune: flying; deathtouch; can’t be attacked or blocked by Tech 0 units)

Rich Earth (workers cost no gold; 10+ workers: exhaust to summon a Wisp)

:heart: Base HP: 20
:heart: Tech I HP: 5
:heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Balance)


Hand: 2

Potent Basilisk
Verdant Tree

Deck: 2

Young Treant
Tiger Cub

Discard: 4

Merfolk Prospector
Rickety Mine
Bloodlust
Wandering Mimic

Card-count check (opponent-viewable)

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


Gold: 0
Workers: 8

5 x start
T1: Forest’s Favour
T2: Ironbark Treant
T3: Rampant Growth

Dragon can only target a Tech 1 or Tech 2 unit.

Feel free to change your turn, and re-draw regardless.

2 Likes

Well, that sucks, but I don’t think that I can do much better. I’ll just put the feather on the Tiny Basilisk, and re-draw.

P1, Turn 5

Flying Nullcraft Immune Basilisk is actually way more annoying than having my Fargo die :stuck_out_tongue:
It does mean that I’m definitely Not Maxing Oni

Stewardess of the Undone — Tech I
General’s Hammer — Magic
Boot Camp — Magic
Overeager Cadet — Tech I

Tech: Brave Knight; Overeager Cadet

Draw: Elite Training

7 gold (7)
Stewardess (4), bounce the Spore Shambler
Mox kills Panda
Boot Camp the Mox (3), draw
Fading Argo kills Midori, Oni to L5
Elite Training for Oni and Tinkerer (1)
Tinkerer trades with Faerie Dragon
Onimaru Readily breaks your Tech II
Neo Plexus and Nullcraft hit your Base for another 4, leaving it at 14.
Overeager Cadet (1)
Discard 1, Draw 2, rs, Draw 1. Float 1 gold.

SQL - Overeager Cadet (3/2 +1)
Technician - L5 Elite Onimaru (4/4 +1) anti-air

Stewardess of the Undone (3/3)
Neo Plexus (3/2)
Nullcraft (1/1)
Hardened Mox ++ (4/3)

Battle Suits
Base - 20
Tech I - 5

7 workers, 1 gold
Hand: 3
Deck: 6
Discard: 0

Next Hand

General’s Hammer — Magic
Boot Camp — Magic
Time Spiral — Magic
Technician Draw (which will happen, or I easily win next turn no matter what): Tinkerer

P2T5

Starting hand: 2

Potent Basilisk
Verdant Tree

Stewardess bounce: 1

Spore Shambler

Thoughts

Painful turn, terrible draw. I think my best option is to maxband Rook and kill Oni, and stall while my Tech buildings and hand recover. Only 2 gold left over, so no replaying of Spore Shambler. I wonder whether it’s worth taking a Tech Lab to threaten Morningstar Pass, it’s either that or get Verdant Tree down. I’m not sure I can afford to go for T-Rex, let’s just focus on getting an air force. Free mimics will help a little bit on the ground.

I need Mimics, do I want a Moment’s Peace too to get some breathing room? I think so. I’ll pass on the Tech Lab for now, then.

Teched cards: 2

T2: Rickety Mine, Tiny Basilisk
T3: Faerie Dragon, Potent Basilisk
T4: Bloodlust, Wandering Mimic
T5: Moment’s Peace, Wandering Mimic


Get paid + Scavenger - (9)
Rebuild Tech II
Garus Rook - (7)
Tiny Basilisk trades with Onimaru, you draw, Rook hits level 3
Maxband Rook - (2)
Worker
Discard 2, draw 2, reshuffle, draw 2


:exhaust: Rook L8 4/6 (can ignore lone patrollers; two lives)

Rich Earth (workers cost no gold; 10+ workers: exhaust to summon a Wisp)

:heart: Base HP: 14
:heart: Tech I HP: 5
:heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Balance)


Hand: 4

Young Treant
Tiger Cub
Rickety Mine
Potent Basilisk

Deck: 9

Merfolk Prospector
Moment’s Peace
Wandering Mimic
Playful Panda
Faerie Dragon
Bloodlust
Wandering Mimic
Tiny Basilisk
Spore Shambler

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

Expected: 10 + 8 teched = 18
1 on board
4 in hand
9 in deck
0 in discard
4 in workers
Total: 16


Gold: 0
Workers: 9

5 x start
T1: Forest’s Favour
T2: Ironbark Treant
T3: Rampant Growth
T4: Verdant Tree

oni still ha AA from ET

1 Like

Actually the feather rune stops doing anything once the Fairiee dragon leaves play. Basilisk is blocked by the cadet from getting to Oni.

2 Likes

I’ll just resign in that case, without killing Oni I see no way to recover. Well played, Eric! @FrozenStorm

1 Like

Heh, I didn’t see that interaction either. Gg

1 Like