Tech card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Summon River - ($2)
Cast bloom on River - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: River L1 (2/3 + 1/1 rune + 1 armor)
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
*
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 0
Disc: 4
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 6
Thoughts
I’m trying to figure out what his team is built to do. The thing that stands out most is the synergy between graveyard and crashbarrow? He must have had a pretty sad opening hand to start this way - missing all 3 of the ghost, the skeleton, and the imp I’d wager.
Pestering Haunt
Skeleton Javelineer
Thieving Imp
Graveyard
Sacrifice the Weak
Thoughts
An unfortunate hand, where there’s nothing I really want to worker. Playing Graveyard here is a slow start, but Skeleton Javelineer is the card I’m least worried about losing.
I understand that on turn 1 your skeleton had resist 1 because of being patrolled as a lookout. Did that get copy-pasted? I am not sure what is granting it resist 1 this turn. I believe it should be 1/1 + 1 armor instead?
STARTING HAND
Wither
Brick Thief
Spark
Older Brother
Tenderfoot
WORKERS
Fruit Ninja
Older Brother
NextHand
Helpful Turtle
Brick Thief
Giant Panda
Granfalloon Flagbearer
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Worker - ($5)
Cast wither on the skeleton, killing it - ($3)
River attacks and kills Garth, in the process leveling to 3 for a full heal. You draw via the technician bonus.
Construct a tech 1 building - ($2)
Play tenderfoot - ($1)
Float ($1)
Discard 2, reshuffle, draw 4
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Tenderfoot (1/2)
Lookout:
In Play:
River L3 (2/4 + 1/1 rune)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 5
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 7
Thoughts
Good line! Calamandra would have come out instead if I really felt like the priority was getting Garth off the table; it’s pretty clear with him being willing to fodder him off that he understands what things matter over which to fight. He has to know Garth’s (slightly) over 50% to die here, but not 100%, so I doubt he teched any spells that could just be dead in hand depending on which hero he guessed. Which means I should prepare to fight 3/3 engines of recurring value, recurred. Centaur matches up okay in combat against a 3/3 and importantly can kill graveyard without a 2nd attacker needing to get through. Discord is tempting to clean up stray skeleton tokens and avoid wasting an attack on the haunt, but playing my predictions forward in my head it looks like I probably want it on turn 5, not 3 or 4?
STARTING HAND
Helpful Turtle
Brick Thief > discarded to thieving imp
Giant Panda
Granfalloon Flagbearer
WORKERS
Fruit Ninja
Older Brother
Granfalloon Flagbearer
NextHand
Bloom
Centaur
Wither
Discard
Brick Thief
Helpful Turtle
Blooming Ancient
Blooming Ancient
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($8)
Worker - ($7)
Construct a growth tech 2 building - ($3)
Play giant panda, summoning a wisp on arrival - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 1, draw 3
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger: Wisp (0/1)
Technician: River L3 (2/4 + 1/1 rune, 1 damage)
Lookout:
In Play:
Tenderfoot (1/2)
Giant Panda (2/4)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Growth)
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 3
Deck: 2
Disc: 4
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 8
Thoughts
This turn plays itself by design, what with the gold float from last turn and the double 3-cost techs making it all work out. Looks bad of course, but exactly as bad as expected a turn ago. The only real choice is in how to patrol. This feels like a weird allocation at face value, but assuming his entire turn goes to using graveyard and building that blood tech 2 I think it actually minimizes the worst case?
Damn, did realize a little way too late that you forgot the off color penalty in your very first turn for casting a green starter spell with a non green hero. @FrozenStorm I assume it’s too late to do anything about that?
Had me thinking I was going mad for a minute, there.
P1T4
Starting hand: 4
Poisonblade Rogue
Skeletal Archery
Bone Collector
Deteriorate
Thoughts
Growth II means no big Virtuoso push, but I do still need to watch out for Timely Messenger and Nimble Fencer building up MoLaC quickly. Given the Giant Panda, I suspect we’re more likely to see Blooming Ancient.
I have various interesting options for Drakk or Zane to help wipe the board, but not without skipping a worker or delaying Tech II. Options that don’t do that:
Tech up, kill River with Bone Collector + Haunt; either bring Bone Collector back from Graveyard, or play a hero first and bring back Haunt. This gets River out of the way before Titania can get something like Two Step going, and stops her from sidelining things. I have Collector/Hero, Imp, maybe Haunt, Skeleton, against Wisp, Tenderfoot, Panda. Gains add up to 5g-2c, if we include the Skeleton, don’t include the cost of the + rune on River, and make a hero to take the levels. That’s not great.
Zane (2), Haunt + Collector trade with River, Zane to midband (1), Zane kills Wisp (-1), worker, Tech II, Imp kills Tenderfoot. I have 3/3 Zane, Imp on 1, Skeleton, against a Giant Panda. That’s 5g-2c for the initial River kill, then attacking with Zane and Imp brings it up to 6g-1c. That’s a better tradeoff, and leaves Titania with less options on the board.
Option 2 is clearly the better option, here. Skeleton gets killed by the Panda in any patrol slot, but still goes in Squad Leader to protect against Timely Messenger / Spark.
Teched cards: 2
T2: 2 x Bone Collector
T3: Crashbarrow, Shoddy Glider
T4: Crashbarrow, Shoddy Glider
Get paid - (7)
Captain Zeno Zane - (5)
Bone Collector and Pestering Haunt trade with River, you draw, go to Graveyard, Zane hits level 3, Skeleton arrives
Pestering Haunt arrives from Graveyard
Midband Zane - (4)
Zane kills Wisp, we both get a gold - (5)
Thieving Imp kills Tenderfoot, takes 1 damage
Worker - (4)
Tech II Blood - (0)
Discard 3, draw 3, reshuffle 5, draw 2
Squad Leader: Skeleton 1/1+1A
Zane L4 3/3 (haste; kills Scavenger/Technician: share bonus)
Thieving Imp 2/1 (1 damage)
Pestering Haunt 1/1 (attack capped at 1; unstoppable; can’t patrol or be sacrificed)
Graveyard HP: 3 (my dying non-token units are buried here; : play a buried unit; collapses on 4+ units) Bone Collector (buried)
Base HP: 20 Tech I HP: 5 Tech II HP: 5 (Blood)
Hand: 5
Crashbarrow
Shoddy Glider
Sacrifice the Weak
Shoddy Glider
Bone Collector
Deck: 3
Crashbarrow
Skeletal Archery
Deteriorate
Discard: 0
Card-count details (opponent-viewable)
Expected: 10 + 6 teched = 16
1 buried in Graveyard
3 on board
5 in hand
3 in deck
0 in discard
4 in workers
Gold: 0
Workers: 8
4 x start
T1: Jandra, the Negator
T2: Skeleton Javelineer
T3: Summon Skeletons
T4: Poisonblade Rogue
I’m really sorry about slow play and making you wait so long for each move. Yesterday and today I’ve got a mean tummy-ache, but I’m doing my best to be brave about it
P2T4
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Murkwood Allies
Murkwood Allies
STARTING HAND
Wither
Bloom
Centaur
Timely Messenger (from technician draw)
WORKERS
Fruit Ninja
Older Brother
Granfalloon Flagbearer
NextHand
Tenderfoot
Spark
Murkwood Allies
Wither
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($8)
Scavenger and technician bonuses - ($9)
Summon Argagarg - ($7)
Cast wither on your skeleton patroller, killing it - ($5)
Giant panda attacks your graveyard
Play timely messenger - ($4)
Timely messenger attacks your graveyard, finishing it off
Level Argagarg to 5, summoning a water elemental - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 1, reshuffle, draw 3
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Water elemental (3/3)
Elite: Argagarg L5 (1/5 + 1 attack patrol bonus)
Scavenger: Wisp (0/1)
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Giant Panda (2/4)
Timely Messenger (1/1)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Growth)
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 7
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 8
Thoughts
That’s definitely one way he can resolve that. Him choosing to value Zane’s leveling over keeping the graveyard is interesting though? I think that means he only teched 1 crashbarrow on his T3, and then the single-card overdraw drew it last turn. Graveyarding crashbarrow is more valuable than anything else he’s got going on, and he’s clearly good enough I can read into these plays (rather than assuming he just forgot the neutral starter has cards). This means I’m actually fighting whatever the other tech card was on T3, presumably shoddy glider because it’s the only one cheap enough to play alongside an expected crashbarrow → graveyard crashbarrow turn. So this turn I need to defend the board, a shoddy glider, and 2 cards of overdraw when his deck surely contained the other crashbarrow; let’s pray he wasn’t lucky enough to draw that one. Either way it’s going to suck, but it’s not like I didn’t know I’d be in this world back on turn 2. At least with the graveyard gone I can probably catch a break in the next 1-2 turns, which is hopefully before I’m dead.
Edit: the double murkwood allies is because the expected outcome is to get crashbarrowed once each on his not-this-but-next turn and the turn after that, and it seems like that’s one of the few things I can do that defends it with adequate value without already having other growth combo pieces down.
Crashbarrow
Shoddy Glider
Sacrifice the Weak
Shoddy Glider
Bone Collector
Thoughts
6 attack on the board against 9+1A patrol and 5 backline. 2 gold gets 1+1A damage from Zane’s shove, 3 gold gets 6 damage from Crashbarrow, 1 gold gets 3 damage from Shoddy Glider. 3 gold + 2 levels gets midband Drakk, which ups everything else.
Drakk L3 (4), Crashbarrow kills Water Elemental and hits Arg down to 3 (3), Zane kills Arg and Drakk hits midband, Haunt kills Wisp, Imp trades with Panda.
Crashbarrow kills Water Elemental and hits Arg (3), Zane kills Arg, hits maxband and kills Wisp in Lookout.
Maxband Zane to shove Elemental (2), Crashbarrow kills Arg and Wisp (3), Imp trades with Elemental. Either Zane kills Panda and Glider+Haunt kill Panda (1), or Zane destroys Tech II with Haunt, and Bone Collector comes down to defend (2).
Crashbarrow and Glider (4) kill Elemental and Arg, Zane shoves Wisp to Lookout, kills Panda. Pestering Haunt trades with Timely Messenger. Imp and second Glider (1) destroy Tech II. This leaves 3 gold for worker + Collector/Drakk/Garth, and generally puts me in a really good board position. but does put me rather down on cards. I think that makes Garth the one to play, since I can use the fetch/Skeleton if needs be.
Option 4 looks good, I just need to work around the low hand size afterwards.
Tech-wise, if Titania’s going for Ancients, which the Panda makes me suspect, then my main problem is going to be Murkwood Allies. Crashbarrow/Glider isn’t great for that. I’m wondering whether to bring in Bugblatters. If I do, then levelling Garth next turn lets me play that and a Crashbarrow, if I’m willing to skip a worker, or I manage to steal a gold.
In the meantime, I think it’s worth teching the other Bugblatter, and a Doom Grasp to keep Calamandra under control.
Teched cards: 2
T2: 2 x Bone Collector
T3: Crashbarrow, Shoddy Glider
T4: Crashbarrow, Shoddy Glider
T5: Captured Bugblatter, Doom Grasp
Get paid - (8)
Worker - (7)
Shoddy Glider - (6)
Shoddly Glider suicides into Water Elemental for 2+1A damage
Crashbarrow - (3)
Crashbarrow trades with Water Elemental and Argagarg, Zane maxbands, shoves Wisp to Technician and kills it, we both draw 1
Technician draw: 1
Skeletal Archery
Thoughts
Phew, nothing I’d want to actually play next turn.
Zane kills Giant Panda, takes 2 damage
Pestering Haunt trades with Timely Messenger
Shoddy Glider - (2)
Shoddy Glider and Thieving Imp destroy Tech II, your base to 18
Garth Torken - (0)
Discard 2, draw 2, reshuffle 9, draw 2
Shoddy Glider crashes
Garth L1 1/3+1A (1g, once per turn: create a Skeleton)
He just played TWO shoddy gliders and a crashbarrow? Well that stinks. That means in 2 cards of overdraw, he drew 2 out of the 3 possible hits. Unlucky, but I guess it’s better to get unlucky in a game where I’m already down some than one that’s even closer.
He’s rapidly running out of upper-tier blood techs he can put in that don’t direct damage me (land octopus counts in this game-state, bugblatter, and pirate gang vs only ogre recruiter that does not), so if I’m alive in a couple turns Mantis has his work cut out. Nimble fencer is my (eventual) removal spell for the tech bugblatter → Max Garth that’s going to come either this or next turn, depending on which tech 2s he’s drawn. Since I still believe the original read that his turn 4 wasn’t just a misplay, crashbarrow is literally guaranteed here. Please don’t also redraw a glider for Calamandra, because I have no other remotely viable play this turn
→ If there are at least 5 growth runes on this, your heroes and units get +3/+3 until your next upkeep
Squad Leader: Garth L1 1/3+1A (1g, once per turn: summon a Skeleton)
Lookout: Skeleton 1/1 (resist 0+1)
Base HP: 20
Technician: Garth L1 1/3 (1g, once per turn: summon a Skeleton)
don’t know where my head was when I wrote this…