Casual: zhavier (Mono Green) vs. jasonwocky (Mono Purple)

Codex Codex play-by-forum
1

@zhavier gl; hf! Would you mind going first for this match? Happy to switch afterwards if you like.

Also, no time pressure at all in this. Just give me a heads-up if you feel the need to take a few day’s break :slight_smile:

Thanks again for the rematch!

2

P1T1

StartingHand Workers

STARTING HAND
Playful Panda
Forest’s Favor
Tiger Cub
Verdant Tree
Rich Earth

WORKERS
Verdant Tree

NextHand

Rampant Growth
Spore Shambler
Merfolk Prospector
Young Treant
Ironbark Treant

Discard

Forest’s Favor
Playful Panda
Tiger Cub

Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($4)
Rich Earth - ($1)
Worker

Float ($1)
Discard 3, draw 5

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

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]:
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]:
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]:
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Rich Earth
    [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: 5
3

I’m working through some build options in my head, and I’m off to work now, so I’ll make my first move tonight.

4

No worries. Take your time.

5
Starting Hand and Thoughts

Tinkerer, Neo Plexus, Battle Suits, Nullcraft, Hardened Mox.

Given his start with Rich Earth, can I perhaps try the Tinkerer / Plasmodium opening? Or just do Neo Plexus / Fading? Or do I start with the Mox? Mox is good for keeping my deck thin, but it has a problem in that a) it costs more money than I want to spend, and b) won’t give me SCAV bonuses. Either the Mox or Tinkerer is getting workered.

I’m going to keep the opening simple. Neo Plexus. Worker Tinkerer.

So, let’s assume he’s going to still do some Balance-style stonewalling, only this time with Polymorph teched in earlier (perhaps in lieu of Ferocity). My goal in this game will be to see if I can explode with board at Tech 2 with Warp Gate Disciples and Now!. First I’ll lay out an Immortal to provide the WGD some protection, and then be opportunistic after that. Aside from something at Tech 1 (Stewardess, Argonaut, or even Seer since it trades with the Tiny so well), I’m thinking that my techs will mostly be WGDs and Spells, and I’ll use the WGDs to cheat in other units. Future units like Hive or Void Star could provide for air superiority. I may cheat in a Rememberer to start bringing in Past units as well, which would lend credence to the notion of teching a Seer at T1.

The basic idea here is to have so many units that if/when I can finally play around Moment’s Peace, I’m able to to do a lot of damage.

It’s going to require some good funding to get this engine going. If I try to spring it all at once, it looks like:
4 (WGD) + 1 (Now!) + 2 (Geiger) + 1 (WGD:Immortal) + 3 (Tower to protect WGD from stealth) + 1 (Worker b/c I don’t want to stall) = 9g to get going. I’ll likely want to have a 2nd hero out like Vir in order to provide cover, so make it 11g even though I’ll probably want to bring Vir early. +1 in case I have to cheat in Now or WGD via top deck, so that’s 12 the turn after I build Tech 2. I’ll collect 8g, so a big trap spring would require floating 4 the turn AFTER building Tech 2, during which I’ll be incoming 7 and spending 4 on T2 and 1 on worker and 1 on a Seer, so I need to float 3 going INTO T3. Hmm. That doesn’t seem feasible.

T1: 5 -1 (w) -2 (unit) = 2
T2: 6 + 1 = 7 - 1 (w) -1 (t1) -2 (unit) - 3 (tower) = 0 (seer, now)
T3: 7 - 1 (w) - 1 (unit) - 4 (t2) = 1 (wgd, now)
T4: 8 + 1 = 9 - 4 (wgd) - 2 (gei) - 1 (now) - 1 (w:imm) - 1 (w) = 0 (wgd, up)
T5: (up, rnd )
this seems really brittle. Luckily I don’t have to commit yet.

Worker

Tinkerer

Tech

None

P2T1

  • Collect 5g (5)
  • Worker (4)
  • Neo Plexus (2)
  • Patrol as Below
  • Discard 3, RS, Draw 5
  • Float 2g

Patrol:

  • SQL: Neo Plexus 2/2+A
  • ELITE:
  • SCAV:
  • TECHN:
  • LOOKOUT:

Info:

  • Base: 20
  • Buildings:
  • Other:
  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 0
  • Discard: 3
  • Gold: 2
  • Workers: 6
Next Hand

Plasmodium, Time Spiral, Temporal Research, Fading Argonaut, Forgotten Fighter

6

I am surprised 2g didn’t go to a hero.

P1T2

Tech StartingHand Workers

TECH
Centaur
Galina Glimmer

STARTING HAND
Ironbark Treant
Spore Shambler
Merfolk Prospector
Young Treant
Rampant Growth

WORKERS
Verdant Tree
Ironbark Treant

NextHand

Forest’s Favor
Young Treant
Centaur
Playful Panda
Rampant Growth

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($6)
Worker
Calamandra lvl 3 - ($2)
Tech 1 - ($1)
Merfolk Prospector - ($0)

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

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

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Calamandra 3/4+A, lvl 3
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]:
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: Merfolk Prospector 1/1
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Rich Earth
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5

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

  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 3
  • Disc: 0
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 6
7

Wanted to float some for a Tower. Nice nest egg you’ve got building there. I also often refrain from building a Hero as P2 for as long as possible. One of the reasons I like playing Purple as P2. The heroes are all pretty weak in combat anyway so I don’t miss them as much :stuck_out_tongue:

EDIT: Actually I’m going to adjust patrol real quick. I think Elite is better than SQL right now.

Starting Hand and Thoughts

Plasmodium, Time Spiral, Temporal Research, Fading Argonaut, Forgotten Fighter.

Teching the Seer to stay on budget.

Worker

Plasmodium

Tech

Seer, Now!

P2T2

  • Collect 6g (8)
  • Worker (7)
  • Tech 1 (6)
  • Fading Argonaut (4)
  • Tower (1)
  • Patrol as Below
  • Discard 3, RS, Draw 5
  • Float 1g

Patrol:

  • SQL:
  • ELITE: Fading Argonaut 3/3
  • SCAV: Neo Plexus 2/2
  • TECHN:
  • LOOKOUT:

Info:

  • Base: 20
  • Buildings: Tech 1 (5), Tower (4)
  • Other:
  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 3
  • Discard: 0
  • Gold: 1
  • Workers: 7
Next Hand

Seer, Battle Suits, Time Spiral, Nullcraft, Hardened Mox. This nice draw guarantees I have a Now! on T4. That means I can tech 2x WGD. If I can protect T2 I think the math means I can get rolling.

8

I am not sure elite was better? I am guessing you want the gold.

"P1T3

Tech StartingHand Workers

TECH
Tiny Basilisk
Feral Strike

STARTING HAND
Centaur
Playful Panda
Rampant Growth
Young Treant
Forest’s Favor

WORKERS
Verdant Tree
Ironbark Treant
Playful Panda

NextHand

Spore Shambler
Tiger Cub
Young Treant
Galina Glimmer

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Worker
Calamandra kills Neo, takes 3, you get 1g
Max Calamandra, heals - ($4)
Prospect - ($5)
Centaur - ($2)
Forest’s Favor on Centaur - ($0)

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

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

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Centaur 4/5+A, +1 rune
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]:
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]:
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Rich Earth
  • Merfolk Prospector 1/1
  • Calamandra 4/5, lvl 5
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5

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

  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 4
  • Disc: 0
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 7
    "
9

Not sure if Elite was the best play, but yeah, I get Gold and I keep the Fading this way.

Starting Hand and Thoughts

Seer, Battle Suits, Time Spiral, Nullcraft, Hardened Mox.

Teching the 2x WGDs now.

Worker

Mox

Tech

Warp Gate Disciple, Warp Gate Disciple

P2T3

  • Collect 1 SCAV Gold (2)
  • Fading Argonaut fades 1 rune
  • Collect 7g (9)
  • Worker (8)
  • Tech 2: Present (4)
  • Seer (3), add a rune to the Fading b/c why not
  • Vir (1)
  • Patrol as Below
  • Discard 3, Draw 3, RS, Draw 2
  • Float 1g

Patrol:

  • SQL: Seer 2/1+A
  • ELITE:
  • SCAV: L1 Vir 2/3
  • TECHN: Fading Argonaut 2/3+A @ 3
  • LOOKOUT:

Info:

  • Base: 20
  • Buildings: Tech 1 (5), Tech 2 Present (5), Tower (4)
  • Other:
  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 4
  • Discard: 0
  • Gold: 1
  • Workers: 8

[details=Next Hand]Now! Forgotten Fighter, Temporal Research, Battle Suits, Warp Gate Disciple. So, I got really lucky here. Turns out that after all was said and done, my odds were 1/3 that I’d draw a WGD this turn. It hit this time, but it’s not really a good build.

Thinking about the odds, next turn I’ll have 1 + 8 = 9g, maybe 10.
Geiger + Now + WGD = 7, + worker = 8. If 10g, I could have cast Temporal Research which bumps my odds to maybe 1/2. If he kills the TECHN also, then finally we’re at 4/6. That’s a stretch. I’ll play this next round out but I’m probably going to go back to the drawing board.
[/details]

10

P1T4

Tech StartingHand Workers

TECH
Ferocity
Fairie Dragon

STARTING HAND
Galina Glimmer
Spore Shambler
Tiger Cub
Young Treant
Rampant Growth

WORKERS
Verdant Tree
Ironbark Treant
Playful Panda
Spore Shambler

NextHand

Tiny Basilisk
Ferocity
Feral Strike
Forest’s Favor

Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($7)
Worker
Young Treant - ($5)
Galina Glimmer - ($4)
Tech 2 (Balance) - ($0)
Centaur kills Seer and overpowers 2 on FArgo
Calamandra kills Vir

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

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

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Young Treant 0/2+A
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Merfolk Prospector 1/1
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]: Galina Glimmer 2/2
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]:
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Rich Earth
  • Calamandra 4/2, lvl 5
  • Centaur 4/2, +1 rune
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Balance)

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

  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 3
  • Disc: 0
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 8
11

So what I was trying to do here worked out for me draw-wise, but seeing the card flow I doubt it’s reliable enough. If I had put Vir onto TECHN it would have made it a bit more stable (as I would have been guaranteed either his look-ahead or a TECHN draw), but as it turns out the gold makes the turn more powerful. Since I can’t have both I doubt I’m going to end up happy with this build but at least I tried something new :slight_smile:

Starting Hand and Thoughts

Now! Forgotten Fighter, Temporal Research, Battle Suits, Warp Gate Disciple.

Yeah so this was at best a 4/6 shot, between Vir, Temporal Research, and TECHN draw possibilities. And that’s set up by the previous turn’s 3/8 of me having Now! (though I suppose if I don’t get the Now! draw lined up, I can opt not to tech the WGDs on T2). Getting the 1/3 natural draw made this turn a lot more powerful, though.

I’m going down on gold here, but if I can keep the WGD alive I should recoup some value. He doesn’t have any flying unless he maxes Midori or copies something I put out so it’s safe for now, I think. He could obviously Polymorph it to slow me down.

Teching Now and RnD puts me at about a 50-50 chance to repeat this next turn.

Worker

None

Tech

Now!, Research & Development

P2T4

  • Collect 1 SCAV Gold (2)
  • Fading Argonaut fades 1 rune, @ 2
  • Collect 8g (10)
  • Geiger (8)
  • Warp Gate Disciple (4)
  • Now! on WGD (3)
  • WGD summon Tricycloid from Codex (2)
  • Tricycloid artillery kills Calamandra, Geiger to L3, @ 1 rune
  • Tricycloid does 1 to Centaur, @ 0
  • Max Geiger, blink Tricycloid (0)
  • Reloaded Tricycloid kills Centaur, @ 2 runes
  • Tricycloid kills Gailina, you get a Card, @ 0 runes
  • Patrol as Below
  • Discard 3, Draw 4, RS, Draw 1
  • Float 0g

Patrol:

  • SQL: Fading Argonaut 2/1+A @ 2 Runes
  • ELITE:
  • SCAV: Tricycloid 3/3
  • TECHN: Lvl 5 Geiger 3/5
  • LOOKOUT:

Info:

  • Base: 20
  • Buildings: Tech 1 (5), Tech 2 Present (5), Tower (4)
  • Other: Warp Gate Disciple 1/1
  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 6
  • Discard: 0
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 8

[details=Next Hand]Time Spiral, Nullcraft, Warp Gate Disciple, Neo Plexus, Battle Suits. Unfortunately I miss on the 50-50 of another Now!, though I could potentially resummon Vir and tap Geiger next turn.
[/details]

EDIT: Fixing counts

1 Like
12

I said to myself, you should be more worried about tricycloid, but I wasn’t really thinking about WGD. In retrospect, I really didn’t need to use Calamandra on Vir, that was foolish of me. I also have to say, wouldn’t it have been 1g and 1 card cheaper to get the tricycloid directly rather than use WGD? I suppose WGD is more of an investment.

I basically shot myself in the foot by making Calamandra too easy to kill, so you probably have this game in the bag. Also your lucky draw.

I’m gonna take this turn, but this game is over.

P1T5

StartingHand Workers

STARTING HAND
Feral Strike
Forest’s Favor
Tiny Basilisk
Ferocity
Fairie Dragon

WORKERS
Verdant Tree
Ironbark Treant
Playful Panda
Spore Shambler
Feral Strike

NextHand

Ferocity
Forest’s Favor
Tiger Cub
Rampant Growth

Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($8)
Worker
Tiny Basilisk - ($6)
Fairie Dragon, Rune on Tiny Basilisk - ($2)
Argagarg - ($0)
Prospect - ($1)

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

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

  • :psblueshield: [I]Squad Leader[/I]: Argagarg 1/3+A
  • :psfist: [I]Elite[/I]:
  • :ps_: [I]Scavenger[/I]: Young Treant 0/2
  • :pschip: [I]Technician[/I]:
  • :target: [I]Lookout[/I]: Fairie Dragon 4/2
    [B]In Play:[/B]
  • Rich Earth
  • Wisp 0/1
  • Tiny Basilisk 3/1, Feather Rune
  • Merfolk Prospector 1/1
    [B]Buildings:[/B]
  • :heart: Base HP: 20
  • :heart: Tech I HP: 5
  • :heart: Tech II HP: 5 (Balance)

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

  • Hand: 4
  • Deck: 2
  • Disc: 0
    [B]Gold:[/B]
  • Gold: 1
  • Workers: 9
13

So, I wanted to try WGD. One of my problems with my previous games vs Balance is that Purple is so unit dependent. Its heroes don’t do much other than, basically, buff the units. In our last game, the one time I was finally able to attack I was able to do a lot of damage, but not enough to cripple you.

So I got to thinking, how can Purple build up the biggest board possible for those turns when Moment’s Peace isn’t in play? And I thought about WGD. Pros in the matchup were:

  • Green has little removal. I need to deal with flight and stealth (hence the early Tower priority), but at least there aren’t a ton of spell options.
  • It offsets the heavy cost of Present tech units (like you say, as an investment)
  • It lets me tutor in the creature that’s most tactically applicable to the moment.

Downside is it’s slow and hard to protect. But if I can get it to go off with Now!, it can bring its own defense. So I tried to play this game to maximize the likelihood that I’d have both available on T4. My T3 draw worked well to set me up by promising a T4 Now! (and in fact if it didn’t, I’d probably be advised to branch in a different direction with a different build altogether). But I was still faced with somewhere between a 1/3 and 2/3 chance of getting the cards to line up (depending on Purple hijinks available i.e. Temporal Research and Vir’s topband, and on TECHN draw). This game I hit the 1/3 chance so I got to use all of my gold on a strongish T4. Even so, if the best I can do is 2/3, I’m not bullish on the build. I’d like to at least be able to push a 4/5 or 5/6 chance before I’d consider it viable.

Anway, I’ll play this turn out but I guess I suggest calling this one? I feel like I’ve learned what I set out to learn, and while intriguing I don’t think I can actually trust this exact build. We certainly might end up grinding this out awhile more but I’m not sure of the value :slight_smile: Happy to go with your preference though.

Starting Hand and Thoughts

Time Spiral, Nullcraft, Warp Gate Disciple, Neo Plexus, Battle Suits.

Worker

None

Tech

Research & Development, Unphase

P2T5

  • Fading Argonaut fades 1 rune, @ 1
  • Collect 8g (8)
  • WGD cheats in a Tricycloid from codex (7)
  • Tricycloid #2 uses runes on Arg, Basilisk (killing it), and Fairie Dragon (paying resist) (6)
  • Tricycloid #1 kills Arg with actual combat, takes 1
  • Fading kills Young Treant, you get a gold.
  • Warp Gate Disciple #2 (2)
  • Nullcraft (0)
  • Nullcraft trades with Faerie Dragon
  • Geiger kills Prospector, takes 1
  • Patrol as Below
  • Discard 3, Draw 5
  • Float 0g

Patrol:

  • SQL: Tricycloid #2 3/3+A
  • ELITE:
  • SCAV:
  • TECHN:
  • LOOKOUT:

Info:

  • Base: 20
  • Buildings: Tech 1 (5), Tech 2 Present (5), Tower (4)
  • Other: Warp Gate Disciple #1 1/1, Warp Gate Disciple #2 1/1, L5 Geiger 3/4, Tricycloid #1 3/2, Fading Argonaut 2/1 @ 1
  • Hand: 5
  • Deck: 1
  • Discard: 5
  • Gold: 0
  • Workers: 8
Next Hand

Now, Now, Seer, Temporal Research

14

Yea, we can call it. GG! so what I was trying to set up was Feral Strike, which is why I was kicking myself for killing Vir, he wasn’t actually a top priority. If Cala had been fully healthy, I could have stuck her in lookout, or left her in the backline, and you wouldn’t have had the gold to blink the trike and kill her, probably summoning something else, I’d bet.