The combination of Balance and Blood is a pretty hard counter to Warp Gate Disciple. Bloodlust can hit them, even through Spectral Flagbearers, and even if I try to use Dreamscape to hid one, Balance wrecks upgrades. Rook is also difficult to patrol against… there’s a good chance I’ll be facing birds sooner than I’m able to field an aerial defense… I really have no good early-game answer to Bird’s Nest. However… I can put a damper on Rook himself in a number of ways, most immediately with -1/-1 runes from the Rogue. And getting rid of Rook is the only way to get rid of the Nest. I’ll follow him up with Necro spells, best case scenario, I don’t even need to use the Rogue on him. No need to keep StW, for one thing, it’s a waste to use it on Birds, for another, I can get better value out of Executions later if I want that kind of effect.
Nothing immediately useful here. Looking to the future, I’m going to want Flagbearers to protect against Kidnapping and other such, so may as well go for them now. As for what to do now… maybe just start summoning Skeleton tokens to buy time…? No, if I do that, Garth could die, and then I wouldn’t be able to Doom Grasp Rook next turn. But I won’t have enough stall without a hero, so I need to summon someone else, and build a Heroes’ Hall to make room for Garth in case that someone survives, since I can’t yet build my Tech II. Guess I’ll backline the javelineer, best case scenario, he survives and gets to snipe something meaningful before being sacrifice fodder for Doom Grasp. With Deteriorate to take out a SQL Wisp, it could happen?
Rook to level 6, kills Geiger, maxbands and heals (0)
Workers
Tiger Cub, Rampant Growth, Merfolk Prospector
Patrol as below
Discard 2 Draw 4
Board Info:
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Hero’s Hall HP: 4
In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Wisp (0/1)
Lookout:
In Play:
Rook (5/7 lvl 8, +)
Rich Earth
Economy Info:
Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 1
Disc: 5
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 8
End of Turn Hand
Spore Shambler
Ironbark Treant
Bird’s Nest
Young Treant
End of Turn Discard
My Thoughts
Looks like Neko whiffed, good for me, I’m expecting double LB probably, but we’ll see. Teching Desperation and CB, making HH for Kidnapping to hopefully counter some of that LB pain
I was hoping he wouldn’t level to max yet… I was too optimistic, I should have doubled up on both necro spells since I need them at the same time to take down a maxband Rook, at least without being painfully inefficient and using 2 Doom Grasp. At least he hasn’t managed to land any building damage yet. I’ll take advantage of that to tech up, is what I’d like to say, but… I need more Necro spells, which means I have no room for tech II units in my cycle yet, and moreover, that wouldn’t leave me with enough gold to defend. I’ll take the Wisp kill, just because I’m worried about its potential for spell synergy.
Thunderclap
Crash Bomber
Young Treant
Playful Panda
End of Turn Discard
My Thoughts
Interesting… Flagbearer? I’ll Thunderclap for that I spose, and grab EQ to mess some stuff up. Delaying T1 further here kinda sucks but I can manage, birds give Shambler some STW cover… I like this patrol
Again, just shy of having the cards in hand needed to make an impactful play. At least I can push back a little and delay his Earthquake a turn. Or… I could take a chance and go for a midband Garth draw… or 3… and with 2/5 upcoming cards being Doom Grasp, it just might be worth it. Before I commit to that, I’d better pick a tech I unit to revive, in case Garth maxbands. Muahaha, first try!!!
Cccccombo. Well glad I only teched one EQ then. Bring out midori, clear as much as possible, play the YT and hopefully draw EQ to worker it (or Verdant to give more options). Teching WSG and Tiny B for now, leaning T2 Str but any could be good honestly.
…
Kidnapping, hmmm. It’d be awesome if I could take Argo and run it into SQL but flagbearer be mean like that… Guess I just keep it back pocket for now.
Okay, not great, but not terrible… I can at least kill a Bird and hopefully keep my Tech II alive long enough to get some proper air defense, maybe through Garth reviving a Roc next turn. Teching in support units to protect my Illusions so the Roc can better hold the line.
Wisp (0/1 since it has frenzy, 1/2 if drakk dies and midori doesn’t* ty charnel)
Playful Panda (2/1)
Maxbandori (4/5 lvl 8)
Crash Bomber (2/2)
Verdant Tree (3hp, healing 1)
Rich Earth
Economy Info:
Cards:
Hand: 2
Deck: 4
Disc: 2
Gold:
Gold: 2
Workers: 11
End of Turn Hand
Spore Shambler
Forest’s Favor
End of Turn Discard
My Thoughts
Cool, I can dominate from here I think. Grabbing two more cheapies and hitting that RS with Desperation, hopefully I get a couple things to throw down
…
Hmm, not a great hit, but I spose we’ll take it
Not much to do here but mitigate damage. As for tech choices… guess I’ll expand on unit fetching. In hindsight, I probably should have just gone for buildings/upgrades/ongoing spells and forced him to choose between this difficult to deal with aggressive strategy and removing my enhancements. Maybe I’ll try that next game.