Starting this thread with the hope of gaining some insights about a recent game I played, and lost.
Before I get started, I wanted to say that I welcome feedback on my analysis, the game linked below, or both.
Decks
Bravo840 - Necro/Blood/Ninjutsu
Looking to abuse Graveyard and Blood’s Tech 2 is the “go-to” play for the deck but there are lots of synergies here. The addition of Ninjutsu brings a few additions I think are interesting:
- Stealthy options in the form of Hidden Ninja and Setsuki’s Ultimate, both of which could work really well with Captured Bugblatters. Ninja tokens could also fuel Corpse Catapults or Doom Grasps.
- Inverse Power Ninja stays pretty big when Blood’s Tech 2 is dying every turn anyway and is quite the body to deal with early. She likely trades well with units but at 3 cost is a little more expensive than Necro’s Tech 1 which makes Undo gold neutral and $2 more than Crash Bomber.
- Setsuki’s Speed of the Fox gives the deck the ability to deal with things in the Squad Leader position and having a hasty hero is nice. Early game, most heroes and other annoying units like Hardened Mox wont survive and midbanded Setsuki won’t even take damage.
- Setsuki’s maxband is just good if you can keep her in play.
FrozenStorm - Past/Peace/Anarchy
Rather than recreate the wheel, I think this post by FrozenStorm sums it up nicely.
Turn-By Turn Analysis
P1T1
Probably could have workered the Archery upgrade instead of Pestering Haunt. I didn’t intend to play either of them but the Haunt is $0 and may have been a convenient sacrifice for Sacrifice the Weak or Death Grasp had I teched it a body albeit a small one.
Jandra seemed like the obvious play here. She out bodies everything Purple can play from the starter deck. I don’t anticipate her living very long and the Imp I know I will be playing next turn is a demon so her downside isn’t much of a downside for a while.
I will discuss tech choices prior to the start of my turn 2 since they aren’t locked in until after P2 takes their turn.
P2T1
FrozenStorm very conveniently put his thoughts regarding his turn in the post so I have them quoted below. In reviewing the game I was almost disappointed at how often he was right in predicting what my intentions were.
P1T2
Tech Choices
- Bone Collector - Solid body, makes more bodies and only costs $2.
- Speed of the Fox - I’m anticipating having to deal with Oni and I want options if (when) he comes in.
I dismissed Inverse Power Ninja because she just gets blocked by purple all day, her lack of evasion here is what holds her back, and doesn’t do anything interesting again Brave Knight.
Crash Bomber may have been a better choice than Bone Collector. He can trade with FArgo, Brave Knight, and may even 2-for-1 against Neo Plexus and Mox. He keeps Nullcraft out of the patrol zone which frees up targets for Shoddy Glider which isn’t something I needed but may have been nice to have if things had gone differently. He also only costs $1 which is attractive when I am summoning Imp almost every turn. Not teching Crashbomber here was probably a mistake.
I workered Sacrifice the Weak because I wasn’t going Skeletons despite the Bone Collector tech… And I didn’t want to be sacrificing Imp or Jandra and I already workered Pesting Haunt. Keeping this around would have made sense with Crash Bomber though… and as for “not going skeletons” Summon Skeletons could have been workered instead of my removal.
I was surprised to see FArgo in the Scavenger slot. I had assumed he’d be in the Squade Leader position to survive an attack from Jandra. Summoning Imp puts Frozen down on cards here and my intent is to keep him down for a while so giving him $1 and killing FArgo seems like a good trade. I assume Nulcraft is going to finish her off but Imp will survive so I’m not too concerned.
P2T2
He notes I skipped Tech 1 and correctly guesses that I have some trick in the form of a spell. I had skipped Tech 1 because after I worker and summon the Imp, I didn’t have the gold to do it. Maybe I over value Imp in this game and in general.
P1T3
Tech Choices
- Crash Bomber - See my discussion of Crash Bomber above. Probably could have teched 2 of them here.
- Bloodlust - Haste is good, the fact that this works on heroes too is nice, and the bonus attack lets Crash Bombers and Imp trade up.
I could have gotten Setsuki in play, killed Oni by midbanding her and playing Speed of the Fox, and then she’d have been maxband by end of turn. I’m leery of Origin Story here and this would mean I’m not workering and not getting Tech 1 online so this doesn’t really seem like a viable option.
Instead Graveyard comes out Tech 1 is built and Imp positions himself to not only put Frozen down a card but put me up a card. If Oni comes at Imp, he will go to Graveyard which potentially furthers the disparity in card quantity.
P2T3
In reviewing my previous turns, I am not sure how I could have had enough pressure to keep Surplus from coming out here. I even noticed as I was playing that he was floating more gold than I’d have liked but I didn’t . Frozen saying that he has basically never had an opportunity to safely build a Surplus this early makes me sad. I hope that someone can offer additional insights here. It is probably the sum of teching mistakes and not building Tech 1 on Turn 2.
P1T4
Tech Choices
- Crash Bomber - Should probably have teched both of these already and been working on teching some T2 units.
- Fox’s Den Students - I was hoping to be able to get Setsuki on the board. I think see that I “could” have had her maxbanded already made me tech this with no real plan of how to make than happen. You will see in future turns that I probable draw this 2-3 times but never get Setsuki on the field to begin with.
Kidnapping/Doom Grasp/Nether Drain are better spells to have teched here. but if I wasn’t low on gold and behind in tech buildings, I think Tech 2 units was what I should have been going for here.
There are lots of ways this turn could have gone. I think resummoning the Imp here put me behind in gold in a way that I didn’t see for what it was: Terrible. I end the turn with 8 workers but no Tech 2. I was behind in T1 and I’m behind again for T2.
Bone Collector would have left me with a Skeleton as a defender and would have cost me 1 less gold than Imp. The Javelineer that I workered would have traded with Oni, cost me 2 less gold and would have gotten Drakk 2 levels. I don’t know what I was thinking here. This is probably my biggest misplay as far as Turn Actions go. I think one example of a better turn would have looked like this:
Get Paid + float - ($9)
Worker - ($8)
Drakk Ramhorn - ($6)
Javalineer - ($5)
Bone Collector - ($3)
Bloodlust Javalineer and Bone Collector - ($1)
Bone Collector trades with Fading Argonaut - ($1) (Summon Skeleton)
Javelineer trades with Onimaru - ($1) (Drakk gains 2 Levels)
Crash Bomber - ($0)
P2T4
Bravo840 - 
P1T5
Tech Choices
- Captured Bugblatters (x2) - I think seeing Fox’s Den Students in my hand made me think I’d get this combo off. 2 Blatters with 4 ninjas is potentially 8-12 damage to his base in 1 turn depending on what they trade with. Also lets me beat up on Surplus.
Considering that I was actually behind at this point, I think teching 1 Crashbarrow and 1 Shoddy Glider or 1 Ogre Recruiter would have been better. Reserve the second Crashbarrow for Garth’s maxband on a future turn.
This is pretty much a defensive turn hoping to keep Tech 2 alive long enough for me to get some more meat on the board and get a little ground back under my feet. I don’t have units in hand that can help. Jandra is just a target and would take the Crash Bomber with her if Frozen has a way to get to her and I need defenders here so whatever I have is going to Patrol.
P2T5
After killing my board and keeping units on the field, it is over here and Frozen knows it. He techs the Gunship and Origin Story. This provides an end (Gunship) if he didn’t already have the board to kill me and an answer to pretty much my only defense (Origin Story on Garth).
So not only did he have the board locked up here, he techs to keep me locked up on future turns. I need to have been playing more “in the future” like this.
P1T6
I don’t think a lot more analysis here is relevant. The game appears to be over already but I can explain Tech choices and their perceived relevance at the time.
Hidden Ninja gives my units, if they stayed in play, a way to reach his tech buildings since I’m sure he has prepared a Gunship to end me. This doesn’t deal with the fact that he has a full board, but it is something. Crashbarrow should 2-for-1 if I get a chance to draw it which could give me a little breathing room if I wasn’t already completely smothered.
P2T6
Turn things sideways, win the game.
Outcome/Final Thoughts
P1 Concedes. There is no coming back here. No units to summon. Summoning 2 heroes to defend is just a stall tactic and it probably wouldn’t have even bought another turn, not that there would be anything to play with no tech buildings on Turn 7.
Congratulations and my thanks to FrozenStorm for winning and teaching me more than a few valuable lessons this game.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading and please be reminded that I welcome feedback on my analysis, additional insights about the Linked Game, or both.
I think I learned more about this game writing the review than I did by playing it first hand.
You did fine given the position you were already in, though perhaps bringing Garth out would have helped. This is also where Bloodlust > SotF would have helped, could have killed Oni