Well I’ve been waiting for you to draw your Sensei’s Advice to combo with the birds…but that Snapback was pretty rough!
P1T6
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Pirate-Gang Commander
Pirate-Gang Commander
STARTING HAND
Nautical Dog
Makeshift Rambaster
Mad Man
Crash Bomber
WORKERS
Bloodburn
Scorch
Careless Musketeer
Bombaster
Mad Man
NextHand
Charge
Crash Bomber
Pillage
Rickety Mine
Discard
Bloodrage Ogre
Nautical Dog
Makeshift Rambaster
Pirate-Gang Commander
Pirate-Gang Commander
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($8)
Hire Crash Bomber - ($7)
Worker - ($6)
Summon Jaina - ($4)
Build a Tower - ($1)
Float ($1)
Discard 2, draw 4
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Jaina 2/3
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Crash Bomber 2/2, 1 to your base when it dies
Lookout:
In Play:
*
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Blood)
Tower HP: 4
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 5
Disc: 5
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 9
Thoughts
Ouch. What a savage turn. I was hoping he would kill Drakk, levels would fizzle and I would draw a card. Instead, he neutralizes Drakk, I don’t get a card AND he kills Zane, denying me my gold outlet this turn. Plus I know by now he must have EQ tech’d in. I’m left with an aenemic turn any way you slice it. And no way can it be sliced to bypass Rook.
STARTING HAND
Smoker
Aged Sensei (1/1)
Training Grounds
Earthquake
WORKERS
Morningstar Flagbearer
Safe Attacking
Grappling Hook
Fox Primus
Smoker
NextHand
Training Grounds
Earthquake
Earthquake
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($12)
Worker - ($11)
Training Grounds - ($10)
Birds hit your tech buildings for 1 each, they die
Earthquake, your tech buildings are destroyed and base takes 4 total. Tower takes 1 as well - ($5)
Tech 3 - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 1, draw 2, reshuffle, draw 1
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: L8 Rook (4/6+a) *two lives *can ignore patrol zones with only 1 patroller
base takes only 4. First dmg buildings get 4 dmg (tech blds go down and dmg base too) then undmgd buildings take 1 dmg. tower does, but since base has already taken 4, no more dmg.
I read up the rule clarification and don’t like it myself. The fact that earthquake ends up doing no damage to the base just seems illogical. I also don’t get why you wouldn’t play out the effects of the card and then have the tech building destruction damage done.
But the rule clarification on the card is pretty clear
What bothers me isn’t even that the official ruling is bad flavor (what you called illogical, though it’s perfectly following the logic of the game’s rules), what bothers me is that it would’ve been easy to slightly change the card text and make this not be so weird. Just put both damaging effects on one line, using the magical word “and”! It’s not even a balance concern or anything, it’s just that if I gave your scenario to anyone who hadn’t thought through the problem before they’d be certain to get it wrong.
Yeah, I’m not seeing how this would set anyone back much, and its just counter intuitive to not apply any dmg to a building in play when it was cast. I guess in destroying the tech buildings I somehow strengthened the ground beneath the base!
Flavor-wise, it is a bit weird, though your always get minimum 1 base damage. Mechanic-wise it’s unintuitive. Balance-wise it seems fair? EQ has got to be one of the best ult in the game (up there with Meta), especially because some colors really struggle against a 4/6 hero with 2 lives!
Also, GG. I can’t remove Rook. One if these days I’ll draw a crash barrow against you while my tech building is alive
Earthquake by itself isn’t actually all that strong for an ultimate spell, it’s expensive while only be possible to cast by a hero that’s already expensive himself and its effect is very weak without any stealth/flying support. If it seems strong it’s because when properly set up it’s devastating, but you need to do more work and more precise setup than with many other ultimates.
Obviously I’m a bit influenced by recent games, but I would disagree that doing 1 damage to a tech building before casting qualifies as “precise set-up”. It’s quite easy to do, and stealth/flying mean it’s all but guaranteed to work. Rook is an expensive hero and EQ itself is not cheap. Still, I would say it makes the top 5 best ultimates in Codex list without hesitation. It’s actually a better burn spell than many of Red’s, though I know it’s not fair to compare outside of color. Building damage in general is typically quite expensive, but EQ having the potential to double or triple smash buildings is the kind of scaling you see with Metamorphosis, another ult I wouldn’t say requires “precise set-up”. Rook being so hard to kill makes it less risky to tech EQ after you’ve already maxed Rook as well, something you can’t say about most heroes (though I realize there are options in white, blue, purple, and black to counter EQ or netralize Rook).
Are there good red cards against Rook? High-health seems to be really difficult for Red.
My question after our games would also be what is the best avenue for red to deal with the high health units? Like you said other decks have ways to effectively deal with rook, but I don’t even know what I would have done as you to counter rook once he got maxlevel. Maybe some people can weigh in on whether it’s not a good matchup? I would be down to switch things up and play more
just my 2 cents: red deals well with rook. Early game he is expensive, so maxb him is hard/expensive, and if you do red can easily dominate the board. if opponent has high health, the best answer is blood+drakk. crashbarrows and hasted+frenzied units can deal a ton of dmg (like land octopus). White/red is not unbalanced, imo. If red keeps the aggression high white has an hard time keeping up with no hasted units.
Oh I was not saying red vs white is unbalanced at all! I joined the EQ discussion and claimed that EQ is a very good spell (top 5 ult) that is easy to set up, not super difficult.
I have not played a lot of red, am trying things out, and have no opinion on the balance of the match-up. Except that Rook is a pain.
Just my 2 cents: rickety mine is terribad. Unless the opponent is playing badly, imo avoid. Makes lose gold and tempo. early game is much better 2xtaxman to steal float and AA. Against white never invest much in heroes unless u can dish out big dmg cuz snapb. Your midbzane was a waste (imo) for just a saviour monk and allowed him to take out 2 heroes at once.
T1 just as you did.
T2: tech taxmanx2 or taxman+bloodl. summon dog and bombaster to get a board.
dog in tech and bombaster in elite. So if he kills dog you refill hand, if he kills bombaster rook gets badly dmg and if you hit taxman+charhe/BL you can do some serious dmg.
So I went aggressive too early with Zane? I didn’t draw either tech card on t3, so I don’t think the tech choice made a huge difference. Taxman is way better at stopping birds - is there any other anti-air in red? Or just use burn like ember sparks?
Squad Leader: Jaina 2/3
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Crash Bomber 2/2, 1 to your base when it dies
Lookout:
Base HP: 20
Base HP: 20
