you have a nice deck, one of the 3 strongest ones in this tournament. Will be interesting. I have the P1 advantage, but I think that will not be our last game in this tournament and then you will have it.
GL&HF!
CAMS24 P1T1
P1 [Fire]/Blood/Demonology vs. P2 [Finesse]/Feral/Growth
StartingHand Workers
STARTING HAND
Careless Musketeer (2/1)
Mad Man (1/1)
Nautical Dog (1/1)
Pillage
Bloodrage Ogre (3/2)
I’ll choose to take all that as a compliment to my gameplay. Good luck and have fun to you as well!
For posterity’s sake, this match is part of a tournament with the following errata relevant to this match: Vandy: remove resist 1 at midband, midband changes to “①, , Discard a card → Fetch any non-ultimate Demonology spell from your codex, reveal it, then put it in your hand.” Dark Pact: increase cost to 1 Might of Leaf and Claw: → If there are at least 5 growth runes on this, your heroes and units get +3/+3 until your next upkeep
P2T1
StartingHand Workers
STARTING HAND
Fruit Ninja
Brick Thief
Granfalloon Flagbearer
Wither
Helpful Turtle
Tech card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Summon Argagarg → summon Wisp - ($2)
Cast Wither on the Naughty Dog, killing it - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger: Wisp (0/1)
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Argagarg L1 (1/3)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 0
Disc: 4
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 6
Thoughts
The death-doggy is a very powerful card. Across all the teams in the tournament, this wasn’t the opener I feared facing the most, or even top 3! But that nonetheless doesn’t mean I’m happy to be sitting across from it . Why couldn’t it have just been the mad man? Oh well.
There are some sad truths playing against this. The 1st is that I any hero I play is one he can kill on a fair range of hands. The 2nd is that regardless, I can’t not play a hero: the unfortunate curse I accepted in exchange for the power of the neutral starter. Its units are simply inadequate for pressuring anything except purple (ie heroless) play because they’re all sized to just get eaten by the hero and then have the damage shrugged off through leveling, leaving no lingering impact for the price I pay.
My hand is almost all the clunkier units, but because it’s an off-color Vandy I think I have a gambit I can offer here. Withering the dog looks weird because I pay more than cost to remove it, but I think it actually minimizes the value he can trade it for. I can afford to trade at 1 gold less value on most turns because of the starting worker disparity, as long as I ensure through doing so he doesn’t sneak some rider into the deal that generates recurring value on board. This is such a play. Either haste unit out of his hand can kill the wisp, then a mid-banded Vandy can kill Argagarg, but the maxband trigger will force him to doom his own unit with no compensation from my board or even ability to patrol it while it’s temporarily oversized. In the end he gets to keep a maxed Vandy in play (6 gold value) to my 6-unspent-for-turn plus the scavenger bonus. If he does that with mad man (marginally favored), his 1 float makes the gold state even (and Vandy no longer counts as a source of recurring value because she can’t heal back lost health once maxed on his team). He still maybe catches slightly favorable trades with her already developed (p1 advantage is worth about a gold, hence the starting worker disparity) so it’s not a great spot for me, but I think it’s the best I have to offer here. If I’m lucky he has to do it with the more expensive haste unit and I feel great about it, and because of off-color casting penalties no spell is cheap enough for him to take the kill another way. In this world I need my follow-ups to address the possibility of metamorphosis (an obvious plan with his late tech building), but I have the perfect heroine and starting deck for that. Of course, he can always decline the gambit by allowing Argagarg to live. I’m not sure which pans out better for him, but that uncertainty feels like its own kind of victory when you’ve accepted the reality that suiciding jobber heroes is your best option.
The last choice is whether I recoup more value from patrolling the wisp as a scavenger or a technician. Given that Argagarg makes herself more annoying via maxing than any of my t0 units can, I think in one of the 2 possible worlds I may face I’m unlikely to be able to play 2 cards anyway. I’d also be forced to overdraw my deck before putting in any tech cards so as to stack my first inclusions to be drawn late on turn 4, so I think this is better. In the world where Arg lives he can generate the gold by Vandy attack and then pillage it, but because of the off-color price hike that’s effectively just -1 gold for both of us. Such a trade favors the richer player: me. I think getting one of the 2 death bonuses amounts to my entire potential margin in this gambit, so patrolling wisp in squad leader and Argagarg in scavenger to prevent death to haste guy + midband Vandy is not acceptable; he’d be able to simply attack and kill the wisp for free, develop an ogre, let Argagarg live, and get too much value from the whole equation.
Seems that Titania doesn’t like dogs, but they are not my favorite animals either…
Not an easy decision. She will probably go for maxband Arg. Could be combined with fencers or spirit of the panda. I have different answers resulting in different strategies and different tech choices. I think the small CB are the best option. But if I don’t tech lobber, I usually miss them in turn 3…
Yes, don’t worry too much. I don’t spend much time with the sheet. If you have a typo in and press the button too fast you have to manually correct it everywhere. You can proceed when it is obvious.
@zango not great, no . I’ve tried a few times now at figuring this one out, and every time it just makes my brain feel burned up and foggy. I know it’s a concussion thing, but it’s just been so unpleasant to force myself on figuring this out that I’ve stalled a bit. For the sake of the tournament moving along though, I can try to get a move together in the next couple hours. Sorry.
Don’t worry too much about this turn. I tend to always struggle the most in challenging games with p2t2 as it provides the feeling of it being possible to deterministically calculate everything through while in other turns the number of lines usually is significantly smaller AND I tend to just accept simplifications to be necessary. Please just try to get over with this one and I promise the follow-up will be easier to cope with
STARTING HAND
Tenderfoot
Older Brother
Spark
Timely Messenger
Bloom
WORKERS
Fruit Ninja
Older Brother
NextHand
Spirit of the Panda
Brick Thief
Spark
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Scavenger bonus - ($7)
Worker - ($6)
Play Timely Messenger - ($5)
Cast Bloom on Timely Messenger - ($3)
Level Argagarg to 3 - ($1)
Activate Argagarg to give Timely Messenger +1/+1a
Timely Messenger attacks and kills Bombaster, losing armor and receiving 1 damage
Play Tenderfoot - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 1, reshuffle, draw 3
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Tenderfoot (1/2 + 1 armor)
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Argagarg L3 (1/4)
Timely Messenger (1/1 + 1/1 rune, 1 damage)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 3
Deck: 5
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 7
Thoughts
I don’t know, but time is up and I have to move. With a concussion this hurts weirdly to think about in adequate depth, and I probably shouldn’t be doing it. Killing Bombaster without losing a unit or giving over an on-death bonus feels like good value, I guess.
Have to to do a sub-optimal trade, but tech skip and down on cards on Titania’s side justify it. Messenger has to leave, because I think Titania is going for double sotp. She played that in one of her previous games. That would mean growth tech 2. But might be two fencers as well with the small hand. I don’t think it is a mixture of both, could be very risky if they are on the wrong hands. I could read through her previous thoughts to get a better idea, but man that is just too much text. Anyway no haste next turn, but water elemental will come.
I will try to use her not optimal cycle and I like that messenger and tenderfoot are not in.
MM would have been great, and 1 float would have given me more opportunities next turn. But she took the risk and it went well. And again, whenever you don’t tech lobbers you regret it in turn 3. But in the long term small CB fits better in my strategy.
STARTING HAND
Spirit of the Panda
Brick Thief
Spark
WORKERS
Fruit Ninja
Older Brother
Spark
NextHand
Wither
Nimble Fencer
Bloom
Discard
Tenderfoot
Timely Messenger
Spirit of the Panda
Oversized Rhinoceros
Artisan Mantis
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($7)
Worker - ($6)
Level Argagarg to 5 → summon Water Elemental - ($4)
Construct a tech 1 building - ($3)
Play Brick Thief → your base goes to 19 - ($1)
Float ($1)
Discard 1, draw 3
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Water Elemental (3/3 + 1 armor)
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Argagarg L5 (1/5)
Lookout:
In Play:
Brick Thief (2/1)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 3
Deck: 2
Disc: 5
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 8
Thoughts
No think, only Codex.
Spirit of the Panda was IMO less dumb at the time I teched it than it looks here, because its threat is what forces him into bad trades like that one. I could have counterfactually threatened it without teching the card since it’s such an obvious follow-up, but it’s not a real threat unless sometimes you actually do have it. This time I was on the losing end of that minigame. Having it in deck though probably pushes me into growth 2 for what it does for my growth 3. I’ve seen opponent bleed everybody else out through small direct damage instances, and he’s clearly intending to do that to me if he put a crash bomber in his deck, so mantis will be useful anyhow.
Opponent obviously has a mad man here or he would have used it last turn over rambaster, so that plus the crash bomber can trade with water elemental. It means that if he has a lobber here (or bless him he’s willing to pay 4 for scorch), it and Vandy will finish Argagarg and maxband Vandy. I could patrol Argagarg elite to trade with that hypothetical lobber, but that feels like I’d be giving up too much against shadow blade.
Was a difficult turn. Titania is playing solid so far, so I cannot achieve good trades. The only chance was last, turn which I could not use, because I had no MM. This 1g would have changed this turn completely. So I have to try to win it on a strategic level and I need cards for that. I think she has now the sotp and will go for ancient supported by murkwood allies. Finesse tech 2 with low hand size is good for me as well.
I am not sure if she is aware of the risk of meta with Jaina. This would provoke killing Vandy or building a tower. Both is fine for me. Ignoring Vandy gives me a good card draw engine.
Squad Leader: Vandy L1 (2/3)
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
Base HP: 20
, Discard a card → Fetch any non-ultimate Demonology spell from your codex, reveal it, then put it in your hand.”
. Why couldn’t it have just been the mad man? Oh well.
. I’ve tried a few times now at figuring this one out, and every time it just makes my brain feel burned up and foggy. I know it’s a concussion thing, but it’s just been so unpleasant to force myself on figuring this out that I’ve stalled a bit. For the sake of the tournament moving along though, I can try to get a move together in the next couple hours. Sorry.