Troq is a charging beast. He loves meeting his opponent head on and using his superior strength and stamina to crush them.
Diagram:
Between the middle and the Econ/Rushdown edge
Troq’s Strengths:
- Great Purple Density. Due to thindecking, height bonus and Beast Unleashed draws, Troq will see most of his purple orbs on most of his turns.
- Moderate to good rushdown. Giant Growth will at least double his rate of ante and speeds the tempo of the game up immensely.
- Decent Economy after early game. Giant Growth and More Shiny get Troq a handful of [2]s.
Troq’s Weaknesses:
- Vulnerable to wounding and other attacks.
- Very few total purples in deck due to orb restriction.
- Weak early-game economy.
Troq’s General Gameplan
Troq usually wants four things in a game: To use Giant Growth to end up with a small deck; a way to play around Giant Growth’s orb-buy restriction; a washer that lets him Crash after playing Beast Unleashed; and to get to a pile height of 6+ quickly.
Puzzle Chips
Chips Troq Loves
- Any brown to black washer or fork. Safe Keeping, It’s a Trap, Button Mashing, Gem Essence, One-Two Punch, Roundhouse, Punch-Punch Kick, It’s Combo Time, Degenerate Trasher and even Secret Move are useful.
- Ways to gain purples besides buying. Chips such as Training Day, Chips for Free, Iron Defense, Stolen Purples, and Combos are Hard can let Troq get purples while maintaining Giant Growth.
- Ways to control his pile without purples. Safe Keeping, One True Style, Mixmaster, Dashing Strike, Hundred Fist Frenzy, Option Select, X-Copy, plus sometimes Gems to Gemonade and Ebb or Flow
- Self-Trashing Chips. Chips like It’s a Trap, Button Mashing and Option Select give Troq the ability to actually shrink his deck with Giant Growth.
Chips Troq Fears
- Anything which wounds. Troq pitches gems into his pile for rushdown, and if you can replace them with wounds degrades his econ.
- Anything which can deny him chances to play his few purples. Stolen Purples is the big one here, since Troq will often be at a 6+ pile height with only a single crash in deck.Be careful though as Stolen Purples is a chip Troq likes to play himself. Ouch!'s ability to nuke combines can also be problematic and sometimes Color Panic, Chip Damage or Pick Your Poison can be worrisome.
- Bang Then Fizzle. With Giant Growth and Beast Unleashed, Troq wants to get to 6+ pile height. Thus despite being a brown-black washer, this chip is almost always better for his opponent.
- Knockdown. This attack denies Troq the opportunity to countercrash and makes it tougher for him to keep his pile height in the desired range in the midgame.
Other Notable Chips
- Combinatorics: This can be extremely powerful for Troq, as it lets him get double usage out of each of his Combines, and he will usually be at 6+ pile height anyways, it stays in play to slim his deck, and it has a brown arrow which can lead into his character chips. However, lining it up to play in is tricky. Early game, Troq needs other chips more and late game, Troq will usually be using purple arrows to play orbs. If Troq already has adequate brown to black washer(s), this is extremely potent. If there are no such washers in the bank, Troq needs to forgo a turn of crashing to play this in the midgame or later.
General Tips
What to do as Troq
- If your opening hand does not have Giant Growth in it, buy a Combine first thing.
- Play Giant Growth as early as possible
- Use Giant Growth to purge [1]s from your deck early
- In the mid and late game be aware of what your maximum survivable pile height is.
What not to do as Troq
- Do not use More Shiny to trash from your pile until there are 10 total gems in both piles. Unless you’re snagging a first turn combine (or getting to a DcG / MP) , it’s better to use More Shiny to trash from hand. While trashing from pile does give you a +$1 buy this turn, it also adds another [2] into your deck, which lowers Troq’s purple density and how often you cycle and hit your crash and washer.
- Do not be afraid to buy [1]s. You can get rid of them later, you can’t get rid of useless puzzle chips.
- Don’t be afraid to buy orbs and drop Giant Growth once you’ve gotten rid of most of your [1]s.
Matchups:
Matchups Troq Loves
vs Quince: Troq’s desire to have a pile height of 6+ means that Flagstone Tax is nearly worthless, yet it discourages Quince from buying enough purples to keep up with Troq’s doubleplus ante.
vs Gloria: Gloria has a hard time surviving the rush and her chips help Troq set it up. Troq should be careful about crashing small gems for the +$1 at Gloria in turns 2-5, since she can use Healing Touch to lower his pile height and make it harder to hit Beast Unleashed.
Matchups Troq Fears
vs Vendetta: Both Stunlock and Surgical Strike can deny Troq key chances to play his few purples, so this is probably Troq’s worst matchup. Troq has to be very careful and wants to consider buying a blue shield or two. However Vendetta has no inherent pile control, so he can have issues against the rush and Troq should consider using Giant Growth to put bigger gems in his pile in place of combining.
vs Jaina, Valerie: Both of these ladies can keep up with and even outpace Troq’s early rushdown, and both can easily play the sorts of red attacks that give Troq problems, however Troq’s thindecking and gem improvement tends to give him an edge if he can last, so he wants to play defense and econ in these matches.
other notable Matchups
vs Degrey: Troq wants to go strong rush and heavy thindeck here. If Troq can get the turn 1 Combine and there are useful 1 or 2 cost chips Troq can shrug off Pilebunker and win without econ.
This guide was written by rabid_schnauzer in 2012. It has been reproduced here by permission.
buys until he can pressure Midori out of Dragon Form, or by making good use of 3-cost puzzle chips. Troq often loses this matchup based on Giant Growth mistakes - not thinning his deck enough early, or putting in one too many gem and dying for it, or skipping a necessary