[Casual] Hobusu (Whitestar Order) vs ascendingPrime (Vortoss Conclave)

Codex Codex play-by-forum
21

Player 1 Turn 8

Starting Hand and Workers

STARTING HAND


Bird’s Nest
Sparring Partner
Rambasa Twin
Snapback
Earthquake
Fox’s Den Students
Reversal

WORKERS

Fox Viper
Morningstar Flagbearer
Safe Attacking
Fox Primus
Grappling Hook
Sensei’s Advice
Rambasa Twin

Next Hand

Aged Sensei
Fox’s Den Students
Mind-Parry Monk
Earthquake

Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($14)
Setsuki draws 2 cards for me
Rook casts Earthquake, dealing 4 damage to all of your damaged buildings. Your Tech I and II are destroyed, each resulting in 2 more damage to your Base (remaining Base HP: 8) - ($8)
Setsuki casts Fox’s Den Students, summoning four 1/1 white Ninjas and giving my ninjas haste and stealth this turn - ($4)
Three of the Ninjas sneak into your Base and hit it for 1 damage each (remaning Base HP: 5)
Savior Monk bashes Tinkerer, you gain $1 and Monk takes 1 damage
Setsuki swiftly defeats Geiger, you draw and the free levels fizzle
Rook walks under the Stingers and piledrives your Base for 5 damage (remaining Base HP: 0)

Everything from here can be ignored, since the game is over. This is what more I would do if that weren’t lethal.

Recruit Sparring Partner - ($3)
Rook casts Bird’s Nest, summoning two 1/1 white Birds with flying - ($1)
Worker - ($0)

Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 3, reshuffle, draw 1

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Young Lightning Dragon (3/3+a) (Flying) (Resist 1)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]: Ninja 一 (1+1/1)
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Bird (1/1)
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: Bird (1/1)
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]: Sparring Partner (2/2) (Resist 1)
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Training Grounds (+1 ATK to heroes)
  • Bird’s Nest (Channeled by Rook)
  • Setsuki Hiruki Lv. 6 (4/4) (Upkeep: draw 2, costs $1 to attack, swift strike when attacking)
  • Garus Rook Lv. 8 (5/6) (Two Lives, ignores lone patrollers)
  • Savior Monk (2/1) (Healing 1)
  • Ninja 二 (1/1)
  • Ninja 三 (1/1)
  • Ninja 四 (1/1)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Discipline)
  • :heart: Heroes’ Hall HP: 4

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 4
  • Disc: 0
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 11

I still can’t believe that I beat a codex with Prynn in it using two heroes’ ultimate spells…! Admittedly, you seem to have had rather bad luck with drawing the cards you wanted when you wanted them. I’ll look over your thoughts and see what was meant to happen.

1 Like
22

Alright, I’ve looked over your thoughts. I’m not good enough with Purple to say how you could have won this, but hopefully something I say here could help.

Back on Turn 1 you decided to go for a Reaver play to see if you could make it work, but you also considered going for Slow Time Generator. A Past plan may have been better for leveraging your early economy, but it’s hard to say since I haven’t tried either myself. At the very least it would have given you large bodies faster since you wouldn’t have to wait for them.

Also, while I’ve definitely gone into games saying “I’m going to tech these specific cards,” and I’ve even won some of them that way, there’s something to be said for a plan that emerges from the board position over time. That’s what I did this time, since I knew that trying to plan out too far in advance would get me in trouble due to being rusty. If you read my thoughts, I didn’t decide on the plan I ended up winning with (Earthquake) until Turn 4 (though I’d been thinking about it on Turn 3), and that was after I’d already teched a Mind-Parry Monk to ensure Rook could stay maxed long enough for that to work and a Young Lightning Dragon to keep the pressure on. While

Your initial tech plan had Reaver coming before Omegacron, and I understand that from the perspective of trying to make Reaver work, but perhaps swapping them would have been more effective? A Reaver might have a better chance of getting its lockdown started if the opponent is desperately fending off a 9/7… More interesting to me is that you went with Argonaut and Seer for your first tech. Did you consider Stewardess of the Undone? For that matter, if you were going for a strategy involving forecast, you could have gone all in with Knight of the Conclave.

You did notice the risk of True Power of Storms as early as Turn 2, but that was a feint more than anything – I knew that I wouldn’t be able to prevent Origin Story from getting Grave, so I was just using him as a large body that could cast Reversal.

I think Turn 3 was a critical point. I’d just killed Geiger and got Grave dangerously close to max level before you had Origin Story in your deck. Worse, I also had three units to support him while you only had Mox. At that point, two things seem like mistakes here:

  1. You continued going with the Reaver plan, despite the pressure I was putting on you. Your plan was to use Reaver to lock down my board, but at this point I was already locking you down. Pivoting to either Past for cheap but strong units (including a $1 flyer) may have been better. Pivoting to Present for various large units and in particular Hyperion’s haste may have been better still.
  2. You still rushed Tech II, again despite the pressure I was putting on you. To be fair, if you’d managed to get Reaver out there before your Tech II fell it might have been able to do something… But you were betting on a 50/50 chance for getting it down on Turn 4, and that failed you. Because of that, and because Reaver was the only Tech II you had in your deck, it was a waste of 4 gold that could have been spent on defense.

If you read my thoughts for Turn 4 you can see that I was not only expecting Origin Story, in a sense I was counting on it. I had invested exactly 6 gold into Grave ($2 to summon him, $2 to midband him a turn later, and $2 to max him the turn you played Origin Story). That gold was able to kill your Fading Argonaut ($2) and Argonaut ($3) before he was removed.

Meanwhile, the cost to cast Origin Story on him was… also 6 gold ($2 to summon Prynn, $3 to cast the spell, $1 for Resist). What did that $6 get you? Well, it did remove a max-level hero, which is good, and you were left with a 1/3 hero afterward. However, all told Grave cost you $5 “in damages” and the same $6 to remove that I spent to get him there, so while it would have been nice to keep him around longer, I was happy to see you spend the money to remove him instead of on things that could threaten my position.

Perhaps the draws you got made that your best play, but I didn’t find it to be that bad. Honestly, the Mox killing Sparring Partner set me back more!

I could go on, but I think everything from there is clear enough. The overarching theme of why you lost is sticking too rigidly to a single plan, rather than adapting to what’s happening on the board. There are some game plans that can work in a solitaire-esque way, but those tend to be strong enough that the opponent is forced to react to them – and it would appear that early Reaver isn’t quite that.

23

Thank you for your feedback Hobusu, I have yet to review your thoughts but I will definitely be doing so.

First, just to sort of frame everything that comes after, I should say I think different people play for different reasons. Personally I don’t play to win so much as I play to explore how different combinations of actions/cards hang together (or fall apart). As you highlight, this tends to make my play a bit more rigid since I treat casual games almost like experiments, setting down a marker and seeing how game-play violates / conforms to my expectations. Another side effect of this is that optimum play tends to feel like a “solved puzzle” to me; I find it much more interesting to see how far off optimum I can play and still be successful.

K, to the actual analysis.

cards

Reaver :: the point of this exercise, clearly didn’t work as I played it. I think this card may just be too expensive to (drop + take 2.tr off + haste + fire) all in one turn. Which means the card needs to be shown for at least a turn. Which, as you say, means this can’t be the first T2 I play. Useful insight. Still on the fence though about what the first T2 drop should be in this case though.

Stewerdess :: she is expensive, and I don’t really like her vs white. For me to feel like I’m getting value, I’m usually looking to bounce at least a 2.g card or token w/ combined atk-hp of 3+. This is hard to get against white and usually works best vs purple, green, & black. There is also a momentum argument here, but I haven’t really explored that yet.

Knight :: no idea what to do with this card. I think maybe it is supposed to be a null drop (replaced by research) which is supposed to ease the transition to T2, but I’ve never tried it and never seen this card used in a way that makes sense to me.

Omegacron :: who doesn’t love a hasted 9dam. I find it goes better at the end of the game though, b/c at that point you have the option to burn down 6 workers if it lets you finish the game.

Argo :: I think an early game 4hp body is just really strong, and of the options (glax, argo, iron man, centar, baron, knight) readiness is generally my preferred ability.

Seer :: she is a cheap drop, allowing for an early game hero or to ease a T2 transition, and mid-late game she is a better time-spiral. I’ve always been a fan.

Slow Time :: in order for this card to be gold-neutral (assuming destroyed on the turn it is played) it should be played on worker.9. That’s all I know which is why this is worth exploring.

Your play

The discipline Tech was inspired. I’m used to seeing strength (lots of 3g) and ninja (for glorious ninja), so I didn’t give discipline enough weight. I think your drop of mind-parry (and my inability to clear it the next turn) was when the game ended.

Also I was expecting earthquake and teapots, so foxden students was a surprise. That last turn I had my base at 2hp b/c of this.

The point you make about Graves is compelling. The intention had been to invest little in early game defense (and accept losses) in order to get reaver out early and make back my losses. This Grave play forced me to spend money when I could least afford it, in retrospect this may have been decisive.

1 Like
24

@Hobusu :: another game, same codexs, trading first player?

1 Like
25

Sounds good! Also, it makes sense that you’re experimenting rather than playing to win, but maybe in this case experimenting with Past would have been better. Unconventional plays are fine, but there’s still room to react to what the opponent is doing even without the obvious cards, right?

Edit: A couple thoughts on your analysis post:

I think your valuation of the cards is pretty solid, and I agree with the choice of Argonaut over Stewardess here (especially since I never played an eligible unit that cost more than $1). I threw out both Stewardess and KotC as alternatives not to say Argonaut was wrong, but rather to see why you chose what you did.

Discipline Tech II works well for me because it supports the hero plans that White tends to favor so well – Training Grounds makes them terrifying with extra ATK and free levels for one gold, Mind-Parry Monk protects them from nasty spells and abilities and can help defend Training Grounds, and Young Lightning Dragon forces a different kind of defense from opponents and keeps pressure high. I didn’t use the other two this game, but Vigor Adept is a solid body and Focus Master can sometimes set up or amplify a snowball effect by letting units live a turn longer than they otherwise would.

To be fair, a second Earthquake would have worked just as well as Fox’s Den Students there, since it really just acted as 4 damage to Base. Still, I added it as an insurance policy against the possibility that you might somehow remove Rook before Earthquake hit, with a side benefit of being good to set up for another Earthquake depending on draw timing.

You’re probably right that the work Grave put in and the Mind-Parry Monk lasting just long enough sealed the game. Still, the MVPs of the game were definitely Smoker and Aged Sensei! Smoker poked every one of your buildings, setting them all up for that lethal Earthquake turn, and Sensei is the reason Grave was able to do as much as he did.

26

So this is perhaps a bit off the deep end but the way I see it,
in the context of the game you and your opponent are two forces,
and the game consists of the two of you taking alternating turns dictating how the forces interact.

Now (assuming the players are equal enough to have a competitive game) if your objective is winning
the best (only?) strategy to achieve this is to interact with your opponent as harmoniously as possible
because this will allow you the opportunity (through appropriately timed sharp contrasting shocks) to
leverage their force as well as your own against them (…short-hand jujitsu).

Now in the alternative, if you act as discordantly with your opponent as possible, you maximize
the amount energy that is dissipated / expended into the current moment and environment (which can be illuminating if attended to)

To try and tie this together
The point you are making (if I may put words in your mouth) is an advocacy for the harmony position,
which you highlight may be pursued as a goal whether or not you have teched optimal cards to do so.

My response is that, while what you say is absolutely true, it is also the antithesis of the discord position.

That being said, I will do my best reign in my inner troll and play this one harmoniously.

GLHF
P1T1

Tech StartingHand DrawDeck Workers

TECH

STARTING HAND
Mox
Temporal Research
Neo (2/2)
Forgotten Fighter
Time Spiral

DRAW DECK (bottom of turn, unordered)

WORKERS
Time Spiral

NextHand

Tinkerer (1/2; exh: add/remove tr)
Plasmodium
Battle Suits
Fading-Argo (2/3+a; fading-TR.3)
Nullcraft (1/1; flying; can’t be tgt of buff/debuff spells)

Discard

Temporal Research
Neo (2/2)
Forgotten Fighter

Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($4)
Worker - ($3)
Summon Mox - ($0)

Patrol Mox (elite)

Float ($0)
Discard 3, Draw 5

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]:
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]: Mox (1+1/1; indestructible; trash when my first T2 unit in play)
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]:
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]:
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]

[B]Buildings:[/B]

  • :heart: Base HP: 20

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: -
  • Disc: 3
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 5
Thoughts

After last game, I think I want to try another timing atk, this time though using warp-gate
to bring in immortals.

Also going to go early soldier play to apply more up-front preasure.

Soldiers gives me the option to pull-back into more classic hyperion+tricyloid play if it goes south.

(tentative tech plan; subject to change)
Arg + Arg
Origin Story + haste
Warp-gate + ready-or-not
hypereon/tricyloid + chronofixer
hypereon/tricyloid + temporal distortion

1 Like
27

Not sure I entirely understand what you’re saying there, but feel free to play however you want. I still think it should be possible to do whatever you’re wanting to do while being a bit more flexible, but we seem to come at this game from completely different perspectives.

Game 2 - Player 2 Turn 1

Starting Hand and Workers

STARTING HAND


Smoker
Sensei’s Advice
Morningstar Flagbearer
Fox Viper
Fox Primus

WORKERS

Fox Viper

Next Hand

Aged Sensei
Grappling Hook
Snapback
Safe Attacking
Savior Monk

Discard

Morningstar Flagbearer
Fox Primus
Sensei’s Advice

Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Recruit Smoker - ($3)
Summon Grave - ($1)

Float ($1)
Discard 3, draw 5

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Grave Stormborne Lv. 1 (2/3) (Sparkshot)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Smoker (1/1) (Stealth) (Resist 1)
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]:
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]

[B]Buildings:[/B]

  • :heart: Base HP: 20

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 0
  • Disc: 3
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 1
  • Workers: 6
Thoughts

Not the best opening hand, but getting Savior Monk was 50/50. At least I have some good options for next turn.

28

EDIT - actually teched 2 cards, stupid parts of template only update once per game.

P1T2

Tech StartingHand DrawDeck Workers

TECH
Arg
Arg

STARTING HAND
Tinkerer (1/2; exh: add/remove tr)
Plasmodium
Battle Suits
Fading-Argo (2/3+a; fading-TR.3)
Nullcraft (1/1; flying; can’t be tgt of buff/debuff spells)

DRAW DECK (bottom of turn, unordered)
Neo (2/2)
Forgotten Fighter
Fading-Argo (2/3+a; fading-TR.3)

WORKERS
Time Spiral
Tinkerer (1/2; exh: add/remove tr)

NextHand

Arg
Temporal Research
Arg
Battle Suits
Plasmodium

Discard

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)

Summon Nullcraft (haste) - ($2)
Nullcraft atk smoker
smoker takes 1dam & dies, 1g to you

Build T1 - ($1)

Patrol Mox (elite)

Float ($1)
Discard 3, Reshuffle, Draw 5

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]:
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]: Mox (1+1/1; indestructible; trash when my first T2 unit in play)
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]:
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]:
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Nullcraft (1/1; flying; can’t be tgt of buff/debuff spells)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 3
  • Disc: -
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 1
  • Workers: 6
Thoughts

(tentative tech plan; subject to change)
X - Arg + Arg
Origin Story + haste
Warp-gate + ready-or-not
hypereon/tricyloid + chronofixer
hypereon/tricyloid + temporal distortion

Going to be a tough worker choice next turn…
between temporal research and plasmoid. I don’t plan to have many time runes, but 4/4 haste is solid

29

Player 2 Turn 2

Tech, Starting Hand and Workers

TECH

Rambasa Twin
Sparring Partner

STARTING HAND


Aged Sensei
Safe Attacking
Grappling Hook
Savior Monk
Snapback

WORKERS

Fox Viper
Safe Attacking

Next Hand

Sparring Partner
Sensei’s Advice
Morningstar Flagbearer
Rambasa Twin
Smoker

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($7)
Worker - ($6)
Build Tech I - ($5)
Recruit Savior Monk - ($3)
Build a Tower - ($0)

Float ($0)
Discard 3, reshuffle, draw 5

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Grave Stormborne Lv. 1 (2/3+a) (Sparkshot)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Savior Monk (2/2) (Healing 1)
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]:
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]

[B]Buildings:[/B]

  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 4
  • Disc: 0
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 7
Thoughts

Not much to say here, my only real option with Nullcraft there to kill 1 HP units is Savior Monk + Tower. Rambasa Twins should work well with the econ of P2, and Sparring Partner is always a good option. Not sure if I want to rush Tech II yet; depends on how much pressure he puts on me next turn, but if I draw Twin it’ll be unlikely.

30

EDIT - removed the nullcraft atk on nothing

P1T3

Tech StartingHand DrawDeck Workers

TECH
Origin Story
hyperion

STARTING HAND
Arg
Temporal Research
Arg
Battle Suits
Plasmodium

DRAW DECK (bottom of turn, unordered)
Origin Story
hyperion
Temporal Research

WORKERS
Time Spiral
Tinkerer (1/2; exh: add/remove tr)
Plasmodium

NextHand

Neo (2/2)
Forgotten Fighter
Fading-Argo (2/3+a; fading-TR.3)
Battle Suits
Argo

Discard

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + Float - ($7)
Worker - ($6)

Summon Argo - ($3)
Build Tower - ($0)

Patrol Mox (SL)
Patrol Argo (scav)

Float ($0)
Discard 3, Draw 3, Reshuffle, Draw 2

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Mox (1/1+a; indestructible; trash when my first T2 unit in play)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Argo (3/4; readiness)
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]:
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Nullcraft (1/1; flying; can’t be tgt of buff/debuff spells)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 3
  • Disc: -
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 7
Thoughts

(tentative tech plan; subject to change)
X - Arg + Arg
X - Origin Story + hypereon
Warp-gate + haste
ready-or-not + chronofixer
hypereon/tricyloid + temporal distortion
~assimilate + ~R&D
^- hyperion will be a dead draw on the first pass,
but I want to maximize my chance of drawing warp-gate and haste in the same hand.
Hypereon over tricyc b/c still not sure what hobs is up to & hyper is gen stronger.
Extra tech added in case I need to skip a worker.

I went back and forth between tower vs 2nd argo.

So my happiest-path is something like
wk.7: 1g worker; 4g T2; 2g hero/card
wk.8: 1g worker; 4g warp-gate; 1g haste; 1g wg power; 1g extra

Now I need geiger to caste haste,
and I don’t have enough gold to summon on w.8 and worker
which means summon on w.7, which means I’m not playing a card,
which means a 2-card play on w.6 is better than a tower
OR
skip worker on w.8 + tech an extra time (since I plan to over worker, should be fine)

Since wg lets me play from my codex, I figured this second option was better
(so went for tower)

Also, Hobs analysis of Grave’s “value” last game was really interesting.
I’ve never looked at it that way before, I want to keep track of that now
Still not exactly sure how to do this counting, at this point I’m doing

  • since this is basically an effiency measure, I’m not doing any adjustments
    for scav, building damage, hero bonus lvls --just gold value on the card.

Grave
cost : kill
$2 ::: $0 – 0.00

Hobs (unit+hero)
cost : kill
$5 ::: $0 – 0.00

Me (unit+hero)
cost : kill
$8 ::: $1 – 0.125

My marker for Hobs’s thinking

Graves :: can’t read too much into this, given all the below he is just a super
strong early game hero
2/3 base; sparkshot; lvl.3 mid-band; +/+ on lvl; readiness on mid-band

Smoker :: based on Hobs’s feint last time with reversal, this feels similar.
after killing it w/ null craft, I’m not expecting to see this card again.

Savior :: slows the game down, doubly so w/ tower. Instantly sends my mind towards
bigger cards (colossus, mind-parry, glorious, T3). Also tends to pair well w/
haste & and an explosive turn. Based on this I’m currently guessing Ninja. Hyperions
counter glorious, tricyc can handle glider and students, porcupine might be tricky.

31

Too tired for thoughts right now… I did most of this turn right before the Yomi Mentournament, so 3.5 hours of that fried my brain! :sweat_smile:

Edit: Added retroactive thoughts on this turn.

Player 2 Turn 3

Tech, Starting Hand and Workers

TECH

Sparring Partner
Porcupine

STARTING HAND


Smoker
Morningstar Flagbearer
Sensei’s Advice
Rambasa Twin
Sparring Partner

WORKERS

Fox Viper
Safe Attacking
Morningstar Flagbearer

Next Hand

Snapback
Grappling Hook
Fox Primus
Aged Sensei

Discard

Smoker
Sensei’s Advice
Sparring Partner
Porcupine

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($7)
Worker - ($6)
Recruit Rambasa Twins - ($2)
Recruit Sparring Partner - ($1)

Float ($1)
Discard 2, draw 4

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Rambasa Twin (3/2+a)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Savior Monk (2/2) (Healing 1)
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: Rambasa Twin (3/2)
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Grave Stormborne Lv. 1 (2/3) (Sparkshot)
  • Sparring Partner (2/2)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 0
  • Disc: 4
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 1
  • Workers: 8

[details=Thoughts]Got both of my techs in my T3 hand again, so why not? I doubt anything in my next hand will be worth playing, so it’ll be easy enough to get my hand size back up (and since I’m writing this with the benefit of hindsight, that’s exactly what happened). Argo is a problem without Reversal or Entangling Vines,
but with Tower up he can’t attack with it without trading. I get the feeling he might try Present this game, so Porcupine seems good to slow that down.[/details]

32

Hey Hobusu, no worries. I hope you did well in your tournament.

P1T4

Tech StartingHand DrawDeck Workers

TECH
ready-or-not
chronofixer

STARTING HAND
Neo (2/2)
Forgotten Fighter
Fading-Argo (2/3+a; fading-TR.3)
Battle Suits
Argo

DRAW DECK (bottom of turn, unordered)
ready-or-not
chronofixer
Battle Suits

WORKERS
Time Spiral
Tinkerer (1/2; exh: add/remove tr)
Plasmodium
Forgotten Fighter

NextHand

Origin Story
hyperion
Temporal Research
Neo (2/2)

Discard

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($7)
Worker - ($6)

Summon Fading Argo - ($4)
Summon Argo.B - ($1)

Patrol Mox (SL)
Patrol Fading Argo (elite)
Patrol Argo.B (tech)
Patrol Argo.A (scav)

Float ($1)
Discard 2, Draw 3, Reshuffle, Draw 1

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Mox (1/1+a; indestructible; trash when my first T2 unit in play)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]: Fading Argo (2/3; farding-tr.3)
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Argo.A (3/4; readiness)
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: Argo.B (3/4; readiness)
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Nullcraft (1/1; flying; can’t be tgt of buff/debuff spells)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 3
  • Disc: -
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 1
  • Workers: 8
Thoughts

(tentative tech plan; subject to change)
X - Arg + Arg
X - Origin Story + hypereon
X - ready-or-not + chronofixer
Warp-gate + haste
hypereon/tricyloid + temporal distortion
~assimilate + ~R&D

So the original plan was to build T2 w/ a 2g drop. Trouble is that,
assuming reversal, hobs is showing enough damage to get through my line
and smash a tech building (which would defeat the purpose of doing this).

I can counter by delaying T2, and drop argo + fading argo. This does mess with
the warp-gate explosion I was shooting for (push back that tech), but it does
strongly threaten an explosion w/ suits.

My marker for Hobs’s thinking

Rambasa :: Don’t see this card much, not super clear where it leads.
The obvious is that it gives momentum back to hobs after I stole it with
nullcraft killing smoker. But from here…?

Sparing Partner :: just a really solid card. Should try to clear it soon.

I’m expecting T2 next turn.

Grave
cost : kill
$2 ::: $0 – 0.00

Hobs (unit+hero)
cost : kill
$10 ::: $0 – 0.00

Me (unit+hero)
cost : kill
$13 ::: $1 – 0.08

33

Can’t complain, got 3rd place and if I’d handled the last turn of my last game better I could have had a chance at 1st, which is way better than I expected.

Edit: Forgot to add Tech II to my buildings; it’s there now.

Player 2 Turn 4

Tech, Starting Hand and Workers

TECH

Porcupine
Hidden Ninja

STARTING HAND


Aged Sensei
Snapback
Fox Primus
Grappling Hook

WORKERS

Fox Viper
Safe Attacking
Morningstar Flagbearer
Fox Primus

Next Hand

Aged Sensei
Hidden Ninja
Sparring Partner
Porcupine
Grappling Hook

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($9)
Worker - ($8)
Build Ninjutsu Tech II - ($4)
Sparring Partner spars with both Rambasa Twins - ($2)

Float ($2)
Discard 3, reshuffle, draw 5

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Rambasa Twin (4/3+a) (+)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]: Savior Monk (2+1/2) (Healing 1)
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Rambasa Twin (4/3) (+)
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]:
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Grave Stormborne Lv. 1 (2/3) (Sparkshot)
  • Sparring Partner (2/2)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Ninjutsu)
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 4
  • Disc: 0
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 2
  • Workers: 9
Thoughts

Teching up; Porcupine seems difficult for him to deal with efficiently, so I’m doubling up on that and grabbing Hidden Ninja to give them Stealth. Still not sure what my win condition is, but I think I’ve still got a turn or two to figure that out.

34

Good Job on the placement. Sorry for the turn delay, I was trying to focus on doing my weekend errands which didn’t get done over the holiday (mixed success).

P1T5

Tech StartingHand DrawDeck Workers

TECH
Tricyc
Temporal Distortion

STARTING HAND
Origin Story
hyperion
Temporal Research
Neo (2/2)
chronofixer (temporal research)
Battle Suits (temporal research)

DRAW DECK (bottom of turn, unordered)
Tricyc
Argo.A (3/4; readiness)
Fading Argo (2/3; farding-tr.3)
hyperion
chronofixer

WORKERS
Time Spiral
Tinkerer (1/2; exh: add/remove tr)
Plasmodium
Forgotten Fighter
Origin Story

NextHand

ready-or-not
Temporal Distortion
Temporal Research

Discard

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + Float - ($9)

Fading argo fades (tr.2)

Summon Pryn - ($7)
Pryn casts Temporal Research (6.tr, draw 2) - ($5)

Upgrade Battlesuits - ($3)
Summon Neo - ($1)
Worker - ($0)

Argo.A atk Lead Twin
argo crack armor + 3dam, twin dies - to codex :: twin deals 4dam + 1tower, argo dies

Mox atk Savior Monk
mox deals 2dam, monk dies :: monk deals 3dam + 1tower, mox exhausts

Fading Argo atk Twin Scav
fading-a deals 3dam, twin dies - to discard, 1.g to you :: twin deals 4dam + 1tower, fading dies

(readiness) Argo.B atk Grave
argo deals 4dam, grave dies, lvl to pryn :: argo takes 2dam + 1tower

Patrol New (SL)
Patrol Pryn (scav)
Patrol Argo.B (tech)

Float ($0)
Discard 2, Draw 1, Reshuffle, Draw 2

Board Info:
In Patrol:

  • :psblueshield: Squad Leader: Neo (3/2+a; soldier)
  • :psfist: Elite:
  • :ps_: Scavenger: Pryn (1/3; lvl.3; fading-tr.4)
  • :pschip: Technician: Argo.B (4/1; readiness; soldier)
  • :target: Lookout:
    In Play:
  • Nullcraft (1/1; flying; can’t be tgt of buff/debuff spells)
  • Mox (1/1; indestructible; soldier; trash when my first T2 unit in play)
  • (upgrade) Battlesuits :: my non-token Soldiers + Mystics have +1 atk

Buildings:

  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

Economy Info:
Cards:

  • Hand: 3
  • Deck: 5
  • Disc: -
    Gold:
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 9
Thoughts

(tentative tech plan; subject to change)
X - Arg + Arg
X - Origin Story + hypereon
X - ready-or-not + chronofixer
X - tricyloid + temporal distortion
Warp-gate + haste
~assimilate + ~R&D

So it is nice to see the Ninja read turned out to be correct. Floating 2g is also
a pretty clear sign a pair of glorious ninja will be popping out next turn.
Tricyc should be a good counter to this, also which is nice. Also the immortal plan
should be a solid speed bump.

Originally this was going to be my T2 turn, but I think it was worth it to clear the decks.
The ratios seem to back this up, although the next 2 turns are going to be rough for me.

My saving grace would be if…

  • both ninja’s pop (and used)
  • pryn gets choped (giving me gold and free hero slot)
  • I can bring in Geiger and “ready or not” to lock ninja down next turn while T2 is built

This of course also means warp-gate and haste need pushed back a turn (again)

Hobs (unit+hero)
cost : kill
$12 ::: $5 – 0.42

Me (unit+hero)
cost : kill
$15 ::: $11 – 0.73

35

Don’t worry about delays – a similar thing happened to me yesterday.

Player 2 Turn 5

Tech, Starting Hand and Workers

TECH

Versatile Style
Glorious Ninja

STARTING HAND


Sparring Partner
Grappling Hook
Porcupine
Aged Sensei
Hidden Ninja

WORKERS

Fox Viper
Safe Attacking
Morningstar Flagbearer
Fox Primus
Aged Sensei

Next Hand

Snapback
Porcupine
Smoker
Sensei’s Advice

Discard

Savior Monk
Rambasa Twin
Grappling Hook
Hidden Ninja
Versatile Style
Glorious Ninja

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float + scavenger - ($12)
Worker - ($11)
Recruit Porcupine - ($8)
Recruit Sparring Partner - ($7)
Sparring Partner #1 spars with Porcupine
Summon Setsuki - ($5)

Float ($5)
Discard 2, draw 4

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Porcupine (3/7+a) (+) (Deathtouch)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]:
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: Sparring Partner #2 (2/2)
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Sparring Partner #1 (2/2)
  • Setsuki Hiruki Lv. 1 (1/3) (Costs ① to attack)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Ninjutsu)
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 0
  • Disc: 6
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 5
  • Workers: 10

[details=Thoughts][spoiler]Realized this turn that teching Hidden Ninja may have been foolish, since his Tower will detect one of the two things I give Stealth with it… But the other can still get through, and I can probably use it in a way that activates its draw clause, so it stays in my deck for now.

Grabbing Versatile Style to remove Battle Suits (perhaps too late) and Glorious Ninja to synergise with Sparring Partner (a 5/4 with swift strike is hard to deal with through combat). If this goes on long enough I may get Fox’s Den School, which I think would be a better investment than Tech III (Jade Fox seems way too expensive for her power level, and I’d rather not replace my Tower with a Tech Lab).

Setsuki is there as a distraction; attacking her costs ① (and gives 2 free levels, but those don’t matter if I cast Snapback next turn), whereas Origin Story costs ① more to cast than I payed to summon her.[/spoiler][/details]

36

P1T6

Tech StartingHand DrawDeck Workers

TECH
Warp-gate
Haste

STARTING HAND
ready-or-not
Temporal Distortion
Temporal Research
Argo.A (3/4; readiness) (temporal research)
hyperion (temporal research)

DRAW DECK (bottom of turn, unordered)
Haste
ready-or-not
Temporal Distortion
hyperion

WORKERS
Time Spiral
Tinkerer (1/2; exh: add/remove tr)
Plasmodium
Forgotten Fighter
Origin Story
Argo.A (3/4; readiness)

NextHand

Tricyc
Fading Argo (2/3; farding-tr.3)
chronofixer
Warp-gate
Temporal Research

Discard

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($9)

Pryn fades (tr.3)

Pryn casts temporal research - ($7)
tr.3 - I draw 2

Worker - ($6)

Build T2 (present) - ($2)

Patrol Mox (SL)
Patrol Neo (scav)
Patrol Arg.B (tech)
Patrol Pryn (lookout)

Float ($2)
Discard 3, Draw 3, Reshuffle, Draw 2

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Mox (2/1+a; indestructible; soldier; trash when my first T2 unit in play)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Neo (3/2; soldier)
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: Argo.B (4/1; readiness; soldier)
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]: Pryn (1/3; lvl.3; fading-tr.3) (resist.1)
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • (upgrade) Battlesuits :: my non-token Soldiers + Mystics have +1 atk
  • Nullcraft (1/1; flying; can’t be tgt of buff/debuff spells)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (present)
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 4
  • Disc: -
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 2
  • Workers: 10
Thoughts

(tentative tech plan; subject to change)
X - Arg + Arg
X - Origin Story + hypereon
X - ready-or-not + chronofixer
X - tricyloid + temporal distortion
X - Warp-gate + haste
~assimilate + ~rewind

So that was a lot less preassure than I was expecting.
The play now looks like

  • porcupinse (again to slow the game)
  • 2/2 flying/swift strike ninjas

This would be gold-expensive, so pooling gold makes sense.
Prob worth getting rewind to address this.

Updated the tracking ratio to reflect investment in eco vs army vs kill.
According to this, I’m about a turn behind hobs in terms of army build up
(due to the money I bleed off for card manipulation)
At the same time I’m up on kills …I’m not sure this matters though
(at least not yet). Still an interesting new way of tracking the game.

Hobs-t.5
eco : army : kill : (k/a)
$10 : $21 :: $05 :: 0.24

Me-t.6
eco : army : kill : (k/a)
$11 : $21 :: $11 :: 0.52

37

Edit: Cleaned up formatting a bit.

Player 2 Turn 6

Tech, Starting Hand and Workers

TECH

Fox’s Den Students
Fox’s Den Students

STARTING HAND


Porcupine
Sensei’s Advice
Snapback
Smoker

WORKERS

Fox Viper
Safe Attacking
Morningstar Flagbearer
Fox Primus
Aged Sensei

Next Hand

Sensei’s Advice
Rambasa Twin
Fox’s Den Students
Glorious Ninja

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($15)
Recruit Porcupine #2 - ($12)
Sparring Partner #1 spars with Setsuki, Porcupine #2, and Sparring Partner #2 - ($8)
Setsuki casts Sensei’s Advice on Sparring Partner #2 and Porcupine #1 (+1/+a to both) - ($7)
Sparring Partner #2 pushes Mox out of patrol and takes 2 damage after armor and Tower
Porcupine #1 hugs Neo Plexus and takes 3 damage after armor and Tower
Level Setsuki to Lv. 4 - ($4)
Setsuki swiftly defeats Prynn, takes 1 damage from Tower, then gets 2 free levels and heals
Summon Grave at Lv. 3 - ($0)

Float ($0)
Discard 2, reshuffle, draw 4

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Porcupine #2 (3/7+a) (+) (Deathtouch)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]:
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: Grave Stormborne Lv. 3 (3/4) (Sparkshot, readiness)
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Setsuki Hiruki Lv. 6 (4/5) (+) (Costs ① to attack, swift strike when attacking, upkeep: draw 2)
  • Porcupine #1 (3/4) (+) (Deathtouch)
  • Sparring Partner #1 (2/2)
  • Sparring Partner #2 (3/1) (+)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Ninjutsu)
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 7
  • Disc: 0
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 10

[details=Thoughts][spoiler]Big turn here! Saw a chance to get to Prynn without any losses, so I went for it and maxed Setsuki to boot. Now I’m guaranteed at least one turn without Origin Story, so with six cards next turn I’ve got decent odds of getting at least one FDS (especially if I can use Hidden Ninja to dig for it).

Not happy about having to spend so much money on sparring, but I might as well leverage my econ advantage while I can and reduce the chance of a comeback. Grave is honestly there as insurance, since odds are low he can get through Porcupine but I don’t want him getting any farther if he somehow does.[/spoiler][/details]

38

EDIT - had geiger’s lvl wrong, also called out mox trashing

P1T7

Tech StartingHand DrawDeck Workers

TECH
assimilate
Rewind

STARTING HAND
.Tricyc
Fading Argo (2/3; farding-tr.3)
.chronofixer
Warp-gate
Temporal Research

DRAW DECK (bottom of turn, unordered)
Rewind
Neo (3/2; soldier)
Fading Argo (2/3; farding-tr.3)
Warp-gate
Temporal Research

WORKERS
Time Spiral
Tinkerer (1/2; exh: add/remove tr)
Plasmodium
Forgotten Fighter
Origin Story
Argo.A (3/4; readiness)

NextHand

ready-or-not
Hyperion
Temporal Distortion
Haste
assimilate

Discard

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + Float - ($12)
Scav payout - ($13)

Mox atk porc-2
crack armor + 1dam to Porc-2 : mox exhausts

Summon Tricyc - ($8)
Tricyc spends 3.tr, 3dam to sets
trash mox

Summon Geiger - ($6)
buy 4-lvl for geiger (max) - ($2)
max geiger: resummon Tricyc

Tricyc spends 2.tr, 2dam to sets, she dies
Tricyc spends 1.tr, 1dam to SP-2, dies

Summon Chronofixer - ($0)

Patrol Tricyc (SL)
Patrol Argo.B (scav)
Patrol Geiger (lookout)

Float ($0)
Discard 3, Draw 4, Reshuffle, Draw 1

Board Info:
In Patrol:

  • :psblueshield: Squad Leader: Tricyc (3/3+a)
  • :psfist: Elite:
  • :ps_: Scavenger: Argo.B (4/1; readiness; soldier)
  • :pschip: Technician:
  • :target: Lookout: Geiger (3/4; lvl.5; sparkshot)
    In Play:
  • (upgrade) Battlesuits :: my non-token Soldiers + Mystics have +1 atk
  • Nullcraft (1/1; flying; can’t be tgt of buff/debuff spells)
  • Chronofixer (2/1; mystic; opposing heros can’t lvl up)

Buildings:

  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (present)
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

Economy Info:
Cards:

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 5
  • Disc: -
    Gold:
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 10
Thoughts

(tentative tech plan; subject to change)
X - Arg + Arg
X - Origin Story + hypereon
X - ready-or-not + chronofixer
X - tricyloid + temporal distortion
X - Warp-gate + haste
X - assimilate + rewind

This is much more of a slow push strat than I was expecting.

one way I can play this turn is
Tricyc, deal 3dam, max geiger, tricyc deal 3more dam, chronofixer

the other is
geiger, fading-argo, temporal research (50/50 draw haste), warp-gate,
haste warp-gate, warp-gate in immortal, worker(?)

either way, the chronofixer / warp-gate wouldn’t survive the turn.
I think this way taxes Hobs’s resources a little more though.
(if glorious ninja at this point it is prob GG though) I’m hoping the
plan was a pair of “fox den students” (which would be consistent w/
max-sets and is now nixed). Still props to hobs, I am now a turn behind
for kills and army.

Hobs-t.6
eco : army : kill : (k/a)
$10 : $35 :: $09 :: 0.26

Me-t.7
eco : army : kill : (k/a)
$11 : $34 :: $11 :: 0.32

39

Well now, that was an unexpected play! Good riddance to Mox, at least…?

Edit: Corrected Glorious Ninja’s HP

Player 2 Turn 7

Starting Hand and Workers

STARTING HAND


Sensei’s Advice
Rambasa Twin
Glorious Ninja
Fox’s Den Students

WORKERS

Fox Viper
Safe Attacking
Morningstar Flagbearer
Fox Primus
Aged Sensei

Next Hand

Hidden Ninja
Savior Monk
Grappling Hook
Snapback

Discard

Sparring Partner
Sensei’s Advice
Fox’s Den Students
Rambasa Twin

Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($10)
Recruit Glorious Ninja - ($5)
Grave casts Sensei’s Advice on both Porcupines - ($4)
Porcupine #1 hugs Tricycloid and survives with 1 HP
Porcupine #2 hugs Argonaut and takes 4 damage, you gain ①
Sparring Partner spars with Grave and Glorious Ninja - ($2)
Grave defeats Geiger and takes 4 damage
Glorious Ninja demolishes your Tech II and takes 1 damage from Tower
Summon Rook - ($0)

Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 4

[B]Board Info:[/B]
[B]In Patrol:[/B]

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Garus Rook Lv. 1 (2/4+a)
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]:
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: Grave Stormborne Lv. 3 (4/1) (+) (Sparkshot, readiness, resist 1)
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Glorious Ninja (5/3) (+) (Haste, swift strike)
  • Porcupine #1 (3/1) (+) (Deathtouch)
  • Porcupine #2 (3/2) (+) (Deathtouch)
  • Sparring Partner (2/2)
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Ninjutsu)
  • :heart: Tower HP: 4

[B]Economy Info:[/B]
[B]Cards:[/B]

  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 3
  • Disc: 4
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 10

[details=Thoughts]Didn’t expect that play at all… That may have been decisive, but I’ll see what I can do! Taking out his Tech II seems like a good start, but unfortunately that leaves his Tower and Chronofixer untouched. Still, letting him keep Present Tech II up is not a good idea, so down it goes. Rook gets thrown in as a card-free blocker with respecable HP for his cost.
[/details]

40

EDIT - spelling is hard

I think I have to concede. To quote my previous turn’s thoughts, “if glorious ninja thats GG”. If this had been just a board-wipe I might have had a path back, but I don’t have any T1 in hand so my next turn would need to be a T0 + hero drop. At this point I’m already basically a turn behind in terms of board presence, so having this weak a drop is tantamount to game ending.

I believe you are one of the most efficient people I have ever played against. After you laid out the counting you did with Garth last game, I have been trying to keep track throughout this game. In retrospect, I noticed that I have bleed off a lot to card manipulation (Temporal Research) which accumulated over time to my being a turn behind in terms of board presence given your efficiency. This is something I never would have had insight into before without tracking the investment in army / eco / kills.

Thank you for the game, I bow to your skill.

EDIT - just looked at your cards: grin small victories, but at least my reads were correct in the end.

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