Porkhand Magistrate ability costs 0 (instead of 1) to use. Lawful Search Changes to an upgrade, with “sacrifice this:” as the trigger for the ability it currently has as a spell (Look at opponent’s hand or discard, then draw 1) Building Inspector ability is “Your opponents must pay you 1 gold to build (or rebuild) a building” (instead of only the first building costing 1 more) Bluecoat Musketeer can now be long range while 2 attack or less (instead of exactly 1)
Law:
Jurisdiction gains “You may trash Jurisdiction and/or the searched-for spell” and “If that spell has Channeling your Law hero can Channel it until he leaves play” at the end of it’s effect. Tax Collector is a 3/3 (instead of 2/3) Guardian of the Gates is a 2/6 (instead of 1/6) and affects Units and Heroes (instead of just Units) Arresting Constable Gains “Haste” and can target any unit or hero with it’s ability.
Peace:
General’s Hammer costs 2 (instead of 3) Drill Sergeant’s gains “limit twice per turn” on it’s second ability (can only move 2 runes off of the DS each turn, same as Ancient) Debilitator Alpha costs 4 (instead of 5) and has “As Patroller: Attackers get -1 ATK” (even if they aren’t attacking Debilitator Alpha)
Finesse:
Harmony Instead of “sacrifice Harmony” to stop the music, the card now reads “You may sacrifice Harmony at any time. Whenever Harmony leaves play, turn all dancer tokens over. They are now 2/1 Angry Dancers with Unstoppable” Star-Crossed Starlet Her ability is now optional (“Upkeep: You may have SCS deal 1 damage to herself”)
Green Starter
Ironbark Treant: ability becomes “-1 ATK/+1 while patrolling” (rather than -2 ATK/+2 armor).
Rich Earth: gains “Arrives: Get a 0/1 wisp token. While you have 10 or more workers, this gains “tap: make a wisp”.
Balance
Midori: Midband becomes “Your units with no printed abilities get +2/+1”.
Circle of Life: becomes “Sacrifice a Tech 0 or Tech I unit. If you do, put a unit one tech level higher with cost 4 or less into play from your Codex” (instead of a green unit with cost 5 or less).
Gemscout Owl: is 1/1 instead of 0/1. It still can’t attack.
Chameleon: costs 0 (instead of 2).
Blood
Rickety Mine: gains Haste, ability changes from coin flip to “When this arrives, put two Ore runes on it. Tap: gain 3 gold, remove an ore rune. When this runs out of Ore runes, trash it and deal 1 damage to you and your opponent’s base”.
Strength
Bird’s Nest: Ability changes to “Arrives or upkeep: Put a 1/1 Flying Bird Token into play (max 2 tokens in play at a time)”. Remains as a channeling spell.
Mythmaking: gains the ability “Your Legendary units ignore the ‘Legend Rule’”.
Playful Panda
Ironbark Treant
Spore Shambler
Forest’s Favour
Rich Earth
Thoughts
I still need to worry about Spectral Aven, but without Truth I don’t need to worry about mass Illusions later on. Harmony is possibly a pain, outside of Bloodlust.
Merfolk Prospector
Tiger Cub
Young Treant
Verdant Tree
Thoughts
Interesting, bansa went for the Porkhand draw instead of whittling down my Wisps. Maybe I can delay Tech I to punish him for that.
Midband Drakk, Merfolk Prospector, Panda kills Musketeer, Wisp trades with Building Inspector, other Wisp in Scavenger/Technician, Drakk in Elite. The latter because there’s a good chance than Drakk just gets kills by a Nimbler Fencer, but if he’s in Elite he takes Fencers / Porkhand Magistrate down with him. Discord would also be really annoying, leaving only Drakk alive, but it will be worse if I don’t attack now. I maybe don’t play Prospector, in case it’s just Discord fodder.
Midband Midori? Wisps become 2/2, which doesn’t really work out for attacking efficiently. Discord is still a problem, though, since it puts everything at 2 attack and 1 health. SQL Midori to protect from a post-Discord battering dies to Fencer + everything else, even gold trade but bad on cards for bansa. Maybe that’s safe, and I’m guaranteed a Rampant Growth in hand for him to efficiently cast next turn, if I need it. No Free Speech, so his maxband might actually be handy. I just keep the units out of patrol in case of Arrest.
Some worst-case scenarios: Discord, Nimbler Fencers, maybe Porkhand Magistrate sidelining my blocking hero first.
me\bansa
Discord
Fencer(s)
Drakk
Drakk L4, 1 gold vs. River L1, PM, 1 gold (0)
Panda and Wisp, 1 gold vs. 3 gold or 1 gold and PM(-2/-1)
Midori
Midori L5 and Panda and 2 Wisps versus BM, PM, BI, 5 gold (-2)
Panda, 2 Wisps vs. BI + 3 gold or Panda, 1 Wisp vs. BI + 1 gold + PM(-4/-3)
That’s a tough pay-off spread. Midori does a little worse in most cases, but Drakk is much worse if bansa has a Fencer in hand, and doesn’t mind giving me a gold to move my hero out of the patrol zone. Midori / Sideline + Fencer is the Nash equilibrium, for whatever that’s worth.
It’s actually worse than I’ve described it above, since Manufactured Truth also lets bansa kill either hero. So does Two Step. I hate fighting River.
OK, I’ll look at other options. Young Treant + Midori + Rampant Growth lets me… kill the Musketeer. That’s no good. Verdant Tree gives gold to bansa, everything else is too vulnerable to Discord for my liking. The hero strategies might be the best of a bad lot, maybe I just lose from a bad Turn 1 play.
Midori is more awkward to tech for, since he has no offensive spells to bring in while I delay my Tech I, whereas Drakk has Bloodlust / Kidnapping. He can efficiently play Rampant Growth if he survives, though, maybe that’s enough for now? He’ll also be hard for bansa to stop, outside of Spectral Aven. I could go for Circle of Life if I really want to get a Tech I unit down, or I could add Crash Bombers as fuel for Bloodlust / Circle of Life later on. Or Boulder, I suppose, but that makes me depend heavily on Midori. On the other hand, Drakk is easier to kill. Maybe Circle + Crash Bomber is OK, if I’m really, really lucky, I draw them both on Turn 4 and get a cheap Tech II + CB death damage. 1/7 chance of that, I’m not counting on it.
Sorry for the delay, patrolling decisions against River are a nightmare.
P2T3
Starting hand: 5
Rampant Growth
Ironbark Treant
Spore Shambler
Tiger Cub
Young Treant
Porkhand Magistrate draw: 1
Merfolk Prospector
Thoughts
Wow, really lucky draws. I think I’m still in trouble, though. I can’t reach the Building Inspector. If I don’t attack, looking at 8 attack currently, against current defence of 7. I don’t know what to expect in addition to that. Discord? Fencers? Two Step? River can midband to sideline something, too.
Tech I for 3 gold, Tiger Cub, Merfolk Prospector, float 1. I have 5 patrollers against 6 things on bansa’s board.
Tech I for 3 gold, Spore Shambler, rune something to kill Cadet, then I could also kill the Musketeer. I don’t think I benefit from attacking here, Two Step will hurt either way and my attackers could be finished off with Discord.
Delay Tech I again, Tiger Cub, Young Treant and hope for Circle of Life to make a Boulder. If not, Spore Shambler. It’s vulnerable to River’s midband, but either way I end up with five patrollers.
Delay Tech I again, Spore Shambler, rune two things to clear patrol, Tiger Cub patrols with Spore Shambler. Only two patrollers, but bansa’s left with only River, PM, and BI to attack with, so he can’t use Two Step as effectively if that’s what he’s doing. Discord would wreck me.
Heroes’ Hall, then same as options 1 or 2. Threatens Drakk’s aura next turn, in addition to Midori’s, and I could try to turn things around with Kidnapping.
Patrol choices here are mind-crushing. Let’s assume that bansa wants to tech up, and I’m only facing a single spell / Fencer. Main thing I’m worried about is Two Step, but I think I can try to deal with that by giving as many patrollers 3 health as possible, since Two Step doesn’t affect parity. Tiger Cub + Spore Shambler / Boulder would help with that. Assume River and Porkhand “remove” a patroller each, leaving Two Step for Newsman and Inspector / Musketeer. That’s 2 + 3 + 2 + 1 damage, against 3 2-health units once the 3-health units / Boulder are removed (ignoring cost of removing something from Lookout). That’s just about good enough to keep Midori alive. I think option 3 might be an OK option here, but I’ll need to lean even more into Midori spells. Maybe Moment’s Peace + Final Showdown, and plan to leave enough patrollers down to let me level things with Midori. Or I take another Circle to upgrade my board more quickly. Yeah, I’ll do that.
Teched cards: 2
T2: Circle of Life, Crash Bomber
T3: Circle of Life, Final Showdown
Get paid - (7)
Young Treant, I draw - (5)
Circle of Life
Circle of Life, Young Treant turns into Ardra’s Boulder - (2)
Tiger Cub - (0)
Worker
Discard 3, draw 1, reshuffle, draw 4