STARTING HAND
Scorch
Charge
Bloodburn
Pillage
Bloodrage Ogre (3/2)
WORKERS
Bloodburn
NextHand
Careless Musketeer (2/1)
Mad Man (1/1)
Nautical Dog (1/1)
Makeshift Rambaster (1/2)
Bombaster (2/2)
Discard
Scorch
Charge
Pillage
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Cal - ($2)
Bogre - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Bloodrage Ogre (3/2)
Elite: Cal (2/3, lvl1)
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
*
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 0
Disc: 3
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 6
Thoughts
LOL, that hand leaves exactly ZERO options for choosing my way, the only question is where to put Cal, but with MM in hand 2 elite seems like the right call in case he has both messenger and spark in hand. Leading with Bogre really isn’t ideal against neutral, but nothing I can do about that. I’ll probably be forced into a bad bogre trade but then maybe a stealth hero kill might round it out…
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + Scavenger - ($7)
Worker - ($6)
Multicolour Tech I - ($4)
Messenger - ($3)
Intimidate Bombaster, Messenger safely kills, you draw - ($2)
Troq kills Dog, takes 1, Tech I to 4HP, you gain 1g
Brick Thief, Tech I to 3HP - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 1, draw 3
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Brick Thief 2/1 [Resist 1]
Lookout:
In Play:
L3 Troq Bashar 4/4 [+, Attacks: Deal 1 to a defending building]
Timely Messenger 1/1 [Haste]
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 3
Deck: 1
Disc: 5
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 7
Thoughts
This one needed some deep thinking. I went around a lot of different lines before coming back to what was pretty much my second option.
I can’t see a world where he techs Hounds here. Intimidate is just too face-up and my starter also has Wither and Spark to make short work of them. Based on his other games I think Crash Bomber is a high probability and Huntress probably makes the most sense as a chunkier Tech I and gives him flyer cover. Tech rushing blood would also make a lot of sense, aiming for a crippling level of burst as whiffing vs Troq building damage or my typical Balance Tech II range (flyers with unit removal) wouldn’t end well. The main predictive thing I can lean on is that if he wants to tech up on time he can only spend 2g or 3g this next turn, depending on whether I kill his Dog or not.
Generally my feeling with Red is to always punch them really hard and see if they can take it. To that end I’m inclined to kill his board, leaving Messenger alive thanks to Intimidate and letting Troq take just 1 damage from Dog. Ideally I’d like to worker Turtle but it is my only 2HP unit in hand. Brick Thief is much more aggressive but dies very cheaply to Mad Man. Cala or Rambaster can’t really justify trading into it though, especially if I get a card back. With Troq being able to swat a Tech building all on his own he can’t break my Tech I and leave an empty patrol, which most likely rules out Mad Man clearing Thief, then Rambaster and Cala break Tech I while he techs up. I don’t have any Tech I’s to play anyway and I would simply break Tech II in return. Of course, I don’t much like being on 3 cards but I don’t imagine he will let Brick Thief live. If I get to keep my board then hopefully I can find a way to exploit his patrol and break Tech II.
Game plan wise, I don’t imagine I’ll see anything other than Blood Tech II so we’re going to want Moment’s Peace to halt his aggro. I may as well add 2 copies now and worry about my other techs once I see where next turn is heading.
I really don’t know whether “achievement” is the right term for that. On the other hand there definitely is no other player that comes even close to the number of games you played over the last two-three years in this forum…
CAPS25 round 5 P2T3
P1 [Bashing]/Balance/Disease vs. P2 [Blood]/Feral/Truth
uargs… that technician draw is… unfortunate… So much for my tech rush plans… tough decision on whether I prefer a “midband” Drakk or a maxband Cal in this situation. But as Moby keeps mobbing me that I should go less for the feral strike, let’s try something different
@charnel_mouse dropped so we can return to normal pace if you don’t mind. On the other hand I’ll be in the mountains Saturday till Monday and I don’t know about the cell reception there. But maybe we’ll be able to proceed either way…
Alright, let’s take a tech lead and get some flyers in our deck. Better to have the evasion and rely on Moment’s Peace and heroes to patrol I think. Will just need to watch out for Bloodlust Calamandra Stealth getting to my backline.
Darn, even without Feral Strike maxband Cal would have been soooooo much better here… I still do understand my reasoning behing wanting the float 1 over the maxband Cal, but right now this feels… just wrong…
Board clear + teching up still is possible, but I really don’t like going down on cards here… leaving the messenger with his balance choice (as expected, but still) also really hurts. But well, there’s one thing that I learned with codex: advancing your own strategy usually is more rewarding than to adapt to the opponent’s game plan so let’s stick to the strategy and let’s not get sidetracked.
Leaving Drakk out in SQL tells me he’s likely not depending on Drakk spells, so Midori + Moment’s Peace should be pretty safe. The only way to kill Midori with MP active would be Cala Stealth + Bloodlust and that seems extremely unlikely now. The question is what else do I do? I really need to draw my other MP to cast it again next turn (assuming no unexpected Free Speech), so I want to keep my hand size up if possible. If I skip worker I could play Fairie Dragon, but I don’t like being behind on economy with him strongly showing a Tech III rush. Bloom on Midori gives me options to use him to attack with more readily. The only issue is dropping to 4 cards and reducing my chances of drawing MP. Brick Thief might be strictly better, since it lets me damage his Tech II and next turn break it or Tech III while using another Moment’s Peace. Float 3g is also fine I guess, but feels too passive with him pushing Tech III. I think I need to play Brick Thief. The chip damage is just to effective at limiting his play.
From a theoretical perspective: MoP obviously is very effective against blood, but the constant gold cost and card cost is going to be neck breaking unless you have enough board advantage.
From a practical perspective: I’m very curious whether you’re able to build up enough advantage quick enough to really capitalize from this/these timeouts.
CAPS25 round 5 P2T5
P1 [Bashing]/Balance/Disease vs. P2 [Blood]/Feral/Truth
He’s not wrong on that point. The card cost is particularly painful, hence my need to skip worker here to give me the best chance of drawing into my good cards. Calamandra needs to die so that I can keep Midori and Tech II safe, killing her means he will get to swing next turn. Tech lab gives me more ways to get haste and evasion for Mimics. Need to build a threatening board before the inevitable Free Speech comes
Turn 6 and I havn’t attacked once… I’m really wondering when I’ll finally be allowed to participate in this game
I’m also wondering whether I should have kept my mouth shut - that hand refresh turn of yours sounds like a nice way to possibly align these MoPs further, even though my statement about the gold still holds true.
CAPS25 round 5 P2T6
P1 [Bashing]/Balance/Disease vs. P2 [Blood]/Feral/Truth
Bloodlust
Nautical Dog (1/1)
Scorch
Crashbarrow (6/2)
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($10)
expensive bloodlust on thief & messenger, will die at end of turn dealing 2 to your base - ($7)
PGC - ($1)
Float ($1)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Pirate 2/2
Elite: Pirate 2/2
Scavenger: Captured Bugblatter (4/2)
Technician: Drakk (1/3, lvl3)
Lookout: Pirate 2/2
In Play:
Pirate-Gang Commander (6/6)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 3
Tech II HP: 4 (Blood)
Tech III HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 2
Disc: 4
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 10
Thoughts
well, this bloodlust was meant for a possible Midori kill, but removing haste for a flying mimic also is quite nice! let’s slowly create the board such that a single attack step will be enough for lethal and until then I’ll have to wait for him to at some point miss the MoP or to get silenced, which I’m guaranteed to draw very soon.
Dang, Bloodlust was bad news for my burst. Perfectly timed to shut me down! I either have to hit his PGC or his base. Base obviously gives me a chance at finding lethal in a couple of turns, but I’m not convinced I’ll survive to do that unless I can limit his ability to play good units and that means killing that PGC asap. Definitely need to hope for a good draw, and also probably need to get lucky and catch him without a second PGC in hand!
Okay this should be it, without even attacking once. This combo of double PGC and double bugblatter is just absurd. And having ELEVEN units on the table at that time just adds to this ridiculous situation…
Really looking forward to look at your hand to see how close you got to lethal in case you might have aligned your choices slightly different (or did I overlook something and it indeed is not yet over?)
CAPS25 round 5 P2T7
P1 [Bashing]/Balance/Disease vs. P2 [Blood]/Feral/Truth
And there’s the Free Speech I’ve been expecting/dreading for a few turns now!
If I had hit your base instead of the PGCs that would have been 15 base damage over the last two turns. If I had focussed down your base from the start that would have been another 3 so very close, and I’m sure some better play from me earlier would have been able to take it.
Anyway less analysis, enjoy attacking… for the first time
also please do note, that your base took quite some more hits during your turn:
killing first PGC triggers four when dies effects → base to 14
second PGC dying triggers another three of these → base to 11
your pig dying triggers again two of these → 9
now my turn:
get gold + float $11
midband quince $9
make mirror a copy of a bugblatter $7
a pirate pings Orpal, dies and distributes two runes to other pirates → base to 6
the two weakened pirates run into orpal, both die without really harming him → base to 0
What a game! That was very intense without much happening, lol. But it definitely was a lot of fun, GG & thank you!
I think the key thing was losing Troq when I did. Had I kept him at 5HP by using him to hit the Bombaster I could have kept pressuring you more as I progressed to tech II. After that the switch to Orpal meant the Intimidates were dead cards in my hand which didn’t help
Squad Leader: L1 Troq Bashar 2/3A
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
Base HP: 20
I really don’t know whether “achievement” is the right term for that. On the other hand there definitely is no other player that comes even close to the number of games you played over the last two-three years in this forum…
