For reference, here are the relevant changes to cards for this matchup:
Bashing Blood Fire
Neutral Starter: Spark costs 0 (instead of 1) Fruit Ninja is a 3/2 (instead of 2/2) and keeps Frenzy 1
Bashing: Troq midband becomes topband and can deal 1 damage to any building (not just a base) Troq midband becomes readiness, level range is 4-7 instead of 5-7 Troq maxband becomes Overpower The Boot becomes “Trash an opposing Tech 0 or Tech I unit. Trash this card” Intimidate changes from “Give a unit or hero -4atk until end of turn” to “Give a unit or hero -3atk/1hp until your next upkeep” Final Smash cost reduced to 3
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”
White Starter: Fox Primus is a 2/3 (instead of 2/2) Aged Sensei Can only give its buff to units, no longer can buff heroes
Discipline: Versatile Style has these 4 abilities (improved, still costs 2):
Destroy an Upgrade
Disable a Hero, or a Unit with Flying
Repair 4 damage from a building
Your Discipline hero is a Detector until your next turn
Focus Master - Changes to 2 cost, ability becomes “All your patrollers gain +1armor” Hero’s Monument - Daigo Stormborn has Haste in addition to his other abilities
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 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
That enhanced Ninja is quite the obstacle. I need to present a bad trade and a counter-threat… Monk and Rook seems like a good pairing, if he tries to patrol as SQL, Rook can attack, and if he goes Elite, the Monk can trade. Having Hook in my T2 hand helps as well. I’d like to patrol the Monk as Scavenger, but Bloom/Wither make that very unreliable. Elite’s more likely to force a trade.
Withering Rook is always good and we want to try out new Troq obviously, so let’s do that. Probably will still be fire game plan, so lobber + intimidate? Not sure I want to go full for Das Boot yet
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Worker - ($5)
Grappling Hook to Lookout
Monk trades with Ninja
Tower - ($1)
Tech I - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, reshuffle, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: L1 Garus Rook (1/3A) [1-]
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tower HP: 4
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 5
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 7
Thoughts
I’m not facing any upgrade removal, so i don’t need to wait to play Mythmaking, however, The Boot now can trash the Boulder, so I should probably play Mythmaking ASAP to bait The Boot, but wait to play Legendary units until after I have Mind-Parry Monk. Alternately, I could try to use Spectral Flagbearers to screen for the Boulders, but that seems risky.
Yay no early Rook shenanigans (though is birds as scary now?), I think Firebird + Bloodlust is the play, I have to assume the idea here was Mythmaking + Boulder + Daigo or Macciatus? Not really sure what Neko’s angle is with this deck but I’m curious to find out
Okay, I didn’t draw Mythmaking off the reshuffle, and now Troq isn’t even on the field anymore. I think it’s fair to say the baiting train has derailed. Teching in Boulders, 'cuz by the time I’m ready to play them, I’ll very likely be ready to drop Mind-Parry Monk as well.
Spark
Bloom
Hotter Fire
Molting Firebird
Wither
Brick Thief
My Thoughts
This is super fun in how weird and different it is, I think this is going to be a really fun tournament XD When’s the last time you saw Drakk get buffed?? He LOVES being the Big Man bullying Grave for a change! (or at least, I love it, XD)
Ouch, drew both Grounds while my Tech II was down, that really hurts. I guess I can still pay to level up Quince, but that Bird is a problem. My best countermeasure for the moment is to try to bait it into attacking things other than my buildings, I suppose, at least until I can get some Birds of my own.
Hmm, I think I go ham, not sure if playing the Ninja makes sense or not (probably not? More hotter fire and another Bird is really what I want), but he’s such a beast now I feel like I gotta maximize pressure so we’ll spend the card and gold and maybe regret it?
…
Well I do wish I had more gold after drawing the firebird; being able to insta-max Drakk and rain dual fire from the sky immediately would be worth more than the measely ninja. Lesson learned for next game!
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.
Patrol as below
Base HP: 20
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Squad Leader:
Elite: Savior Monk (3/2) Healing 1
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
Base HP: 20
We were just getting the fun started, too.