What's The Play? - True Power of Swords

Codex
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“What’s The Play?” is a type of article other games have where a scenario is put forward, and people can comment on what they would do, what the pros and cons of various lines are, and in general serve as a catalyst for discussion. This is the first scenario in my series, and it’s a doozy:

You are playing an experimental Discipline/Blood/Law deck against Mono-Green. It’s fairly late in the game, and you’ve just started your turn 7 with this board (you went second):

Bugblatter (4/2)
Sparring Partner (2/2)
L7 Grave (5/5) - has his Sword rune, and is being buffed by Training Grounds
Training Grounds
Safe Attacking

10 workers, and 4 gold floating
Base - 8
Tech I - 5
Tech II (Blood) - 5
(your Tech Lab (Discipline) just got destroyed)

Bigby and Drakk both available to summon.

Hand (5):
Crashbarrow
Bugblatter
Day of Judgement
Snapback
Morningstar Flagbearer

Deck (1):
Savior Monk

Discard (3):
Injunction
Kidnapping
Smoker

Unfortunately, your opponent has been beating you up with Fliers, and his last turn was spent destroying your tech lab, and casting Moment’s Peace, while building his Tech III.
His board looks like this:

Moment’s Peace in effect
Squad Leader - L1 Midori (2/3 +1)

Faerie Dragon (4/2)
Merfolk Prospector

Base - 20
Tech I, 2, and 3 - 5 (spec: Balance)
10 workers, no gold floating

Hand: 5
Deck: 2
Discard: 5

Playing mono-green, has previously played a Wandering Mimic, Tiny Basilisk, Galina Glimmer, and Ferocity, as well as playing Moment’s Peace this turn.

So the question is, what’s the play?

3 Likes
2

Here’s what I’d do:

Get gold (14)
Bigby (12)
Max Bigby with Training Grounds
Snapback Midori for Argagarg and a Wisp (9)
Bugblatter (6)
Sparring Partner puts a rune on Grave
Judgement Day (2), opponent’s base takes 12 damage
Grave attacks base for another 6 damage

Patrol with Grave and Bigby, stash the Crashbarrow. Next turn you have a sword rune and Crashbarrow, and maybe Kidnapping or Injunction or Bugblatter too - there’s a pretty good chance we can squeeze in the last two damage next turn.

1 Like
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You’d only be drawing 1 card, I believe (playing 3 and stashing 1). So none of that other good stuff will be in your hand.

If your opponent took a page out of your book, and patrolled with Potent Basilisk + Ferocity next turn, you might not squeeze in that 2. I still think you’re in a good position though.

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Lettucemode arrived at more or less the same solution I did.

[quote=“jasonwocky, post:3, topic:804”]
If your opponent took a page out of your book, and patrolled with Potent Basilisk + Ferocity next turn, you might not squeeze in that 2.[/quote]If that’s his only serious patrol, Sword Rune the Basilisk, kill him with Bigby+Crashbarrow.

[quote=“jasonwocky, post:3, topic:804”]
You’d only be drawing 1 card, I believe (playing 3 and stashing 1). So none of that other good stuff will be in your hand.
[/quote]This is incorrect. Playing 3 from a five card hand would usually leave you at discard 2, draw 4. Stashing 1 would mean you discard 1, draw 3, and have 4 cards in hand again. And then Bigby can exhaust to draw. So probably tech 2x Shoddy Glider. If you draw 1, you win.

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Potent Basilisks are untargetable. Shoddy Gliders are a great idea though.

6

Whoa brain fart. Agree that Shoddies are a great call, though.

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[quote=“lettucemode, post:5, topic:804”]
Potent Basilisks are untargetable. Shoddy Gliders are a great idea though.
[/quote]Ohhh right. That’s pretty obnoxious. You could suicide a hero into it to get max Draak if necessary, though.

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get gold (14)
Use sparring partner on Grave (6/6) 14
Summon Bigby 12
Tap Grave to sword Midori 12
Max Bigby 10
Summon 2nd bugblatter 7
Summon Morningstar flagbearer 4
Cast Judgement Day 0 (10 damage for 5 units x 2 bugblatters)
Stash Crashbarrow
Patrol Bigby

EDIT: I took so long typing this inbetween other things, lettucemode had the same idea and executed it better
EDIT2: I wonder if it’s better to go with lettucemode’s plan except use Grave to take out tech3 and leave the opponent’s base at 6 instead. Trex is no joke.

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Definitely agree, TRex is pretty scary. In this situation though, I’m not that worried about it. TRex costs 8 out of the green player’s 10 gold. With the play I suggested, we don’t have any units or upgrades in play, so the TRex will just hit two of our workers. Then they have 2 gold left to, say, summon and patrol with Calamandra. So we’d have 10g on our turn. If they put the TRex in squad lead, we sword rune it for 2g, Crashbarrow the heroes for 3g, then attack with Bigby for the win. If they put it anywhere else we can attack one of the heroes with Grave and then sword rune the TRex, which works out better but still has the same result of us winning.

If we draw a Shoddy Glider on the next turn, I’m not sure what the green player can do about it. Potent Basilisk + Calamandra + Ferocity doesn’t stop it. If they play another Fairie Dragon, we can sword rune it. If they play Fairie Dragon and Wandering Mimic and Calamandra, then we attack Cala/Arg with Grave, sword rune the other, and attack base with Bigby.

If we don’t have Shoddy Glider though, then I think the green player has some plays that could maybe buy them another turn:

  • Dinosize Argagarg, kill one of our heroes (hopefully we squad leaded Bigby?), play Potent Basilisk and Calamandra. Actually, this doesn’t work because we can suicide Grave on the Potent Basilisk, then play Crashbarrow and kill Calamandra and overpower onto the base.
  • Potent Basilisk + Calamandra + Ferocity + 2g for something else, maybe another patroller. This still dies if we happen to draw Injunction, though.
  • Calamandra + Murkwood Allies for four frogs, 3g left over for something else. This is enough patrollers to deal with what we have, but if we draw Judgement Day again, or one of the Bugblatters, they are still in trouble.
1 Like
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Hi, new here. Couldn’t you swing for lethal if you did this:

Get Gold (14).
Play Bigby (12)
Max Bigby with Training Grounds
Bugblatter (9)
Sparring Partner puts a rune on Grave
Judgement Day (5)
Deal 10 damage to opponents base (5 units x2 Bugblatters)
Play Crashbarrow (2)
Swing with Crashbarrow and Grave for 12 (so 22 damage total)

Or am I missing something?

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Crashburrow wouldn’t be able to attack.

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I don’t think it’s possible to draw shoddy glider on the next turn. We know we will have saviour monk, so that leaves 3 more slots from flagbearer, injunction, 2x bugblatter, snapback, sparring partner, kidnapping, smoker, day of judgement. That’s all before you even add the two gliders to the deck. Bigby gets to draw one more but that’s not enough to cycle. So that means we have to give the opponent at least one more round of shenanigans before the deck cycles assuming Bigby lives.

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You’re teching Gliders at the start of the turn, so they’ll be in your cycle when you reshuffle.

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Oh I’m dense. That makes sense but you still have a fair number of cards to shuffle against.

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Smoker + Max Drakk can also deal the final 2,so gliders make it 3/11 chance to win next turn

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Good work everyone - you’re in a commanding position here, with no risk of dying, and an almost assured win next turn.

However, there is a way to win this turn…

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Think I have it, on break so can’t double check easily…

Get gold (14)
Play Bigby (12)
Play Bugblatter (9)
Snapback Midori for Arg, Wisp shows up (6)
Max Arg with Training Grounds, Water Elemental shows up
Sparing Partner puts +1/+1 on grave.
Grave attacks base for 6.
Grave uses sword rune, takes out Arg
Bigby gets 2 levels.
Pay 2 gold to finish maxing bigby (4)
Play judgement day, bugblatters deal 14 to base. (0)

2 Likes
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Yup, I was trying to figure out how to arange the gold to get max arg and judgement day, but you got it first :smiley: It checks out.

Mine was

Get Paid + Float - ($14)
Captured Bugblatter - ($11)
Tap Sparring Partner to give Grave +1 Rune
Snapback Midori for Argagarg + Wisp - ($8)
Bigby - ($6)
Grave deals 6 to Base (14)
Tap Training Grounds to max Arg for Water Elemental
Grave uses sword rune to kill Arg, Bigby to 3
Bigby to max - ($4)
Judgment Day - ($0)
Sparring Partner, 2 Bugblatters, Wisp, Fairie Dragon, Merfolk Prospector, Water Elemental, 14 Damage to base, GG!

19

Hah, nice! Never noticed that Training Grounds could be used on enemy heroes.

1 Like
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Are you sure that a dying Captured Bugblatter does damage to the enemy base, or are there 2 other units dying to Judgement Day somewhere?