GL, HF! Lots of Peace matchups this time, aren’t there?
P2T1
Starting hand: 5
Merfolk Prospector
Playful Panda
Ironbark Treant
Verdant Tree
Forest’s Favour
Thoughts
The Dog is open to a Zane kill, but I wouldn’t be able to keep him covered. Ironbark Treat could be killed with only the loss of Nautical Dog, then a Prospector behind him could be traded with a Mad Man. That leaves Oni open to a trade with Zane afterwards, though, maybe that’s fine. Worse would be the Treant kill, then Bloodrage Ogre. Bringing out a hero would be even worse, Mad Man + Dog could kill them if Oni takes care of anything in front.
Playful Panda + Merfolk Prospector can be killed, but at least roughly at cost parity if I stick the Wisp in Elite, and Prospector in Technician. Hoping for no Pillage.
well peace IS a very interesting spec, even though I honestly don’t really like it. But as burning legion proved - it can also be very powerful… FYI: I had the monster split with dog in my first and MM & Bogre in my second hand, I must confess that I’m a bit disappointed that you didn’t test your chances with playing a hero in t1
XCAFS22 Round5 P1T2
P1 [Fire]/Bashing/Peace vs. P2 [Feral]/Anarchy/Peace
Yeah, I couldn’t have covered Zane well enough for that, unfortunately.
P2T2
Starting hand: 4
Tiger Cub
Young Treant
Rich Earth
Rampant Growth
Technician draw: 1
Spore Shambler
Thoughts
Spore Shambler might be OK here: in Squad Leader it takes two units to kill, even if zango’s teched Lobbers, and kills anything that attacks it. Or it takes a midband Oni to kill, then I have Panda + Wisp facing down Ogre + Dog + maybe a Lobber. Still not great, but with patroller bonuses it won’t work out too badly. Unless zango unless Elite Training. I’m guessing we’ll both want units for the Peace engine first, though.
How am I teching, anyway? Delaying for Peace II is probably the default as second player, and between Onimaru and the red starter the beefier units of the other specs aren’t as useful. Or I could go for Surprise Attack, and try to take tempo. One thing about the Peace engine is that all of zango’s heroes have ways to indirectly damage buildings. I could try to go for Feral Strike into Gunships while he’d have spent that gold on not clearing my board, but that’s pretty dicey, and needs me to keep Calamandra alive at maxband.
Tech I unit I’m most worried about is Lobber, so Overeager Cadets should be efficient enough for now.
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Worker - ($5)
midband Oni readily kills SL - ($1)
dog trades panda, you gain 1
lobber kills wisp - ($0)
Bogre deals 3 to tech 1
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 3, reshuffle, draw 2
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Oni (3/2A, lvl5)
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Bloodrage Ogre (3/2A)
Lobber (2/1)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 4
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 7
Thoughts
I think I’m far enough ahead to not risk immediately drawing the one garrison if I tech only one, so I’ll play it safe. safe that is against anything but sharks…
Verdant Tree
Forest’s Favour
Overeager Cadet
Tiger Cub
Young Treant
Thoughts
I could take Oni down with Zane, but I’d have to skip Tech II, and I’d only have 2-3 gold left for patrollers. With the threat of another Lobber, I don’t think that’s enough.
If I tech up, I have 4 gold for patrollers. Cadet + Cub is two patrollers against potentially four attacks, all with one-to-one trades. Young Treant might let me draw the other Cadet. That sounds like a decent approach, the only drawback being that Young Treant is a target that Oni doesn’t need to maxband to kill. He’d have Verdant Tree to hit otherwise, though.
I need to tech first. Which way do I want to go? Peace is the obvious route, although losing my Tech I next turn could make that a little awkward. Anarchy for Monkeys is sort of interesting, but they can’t quite destroy Garrisons on their own, I’d have to go for Lizzos for that. I think I stick to the Peace engine. Once it’s down, Calamandra gives good options.
Teched cards: 2
T2: 2 x Overeager Cadet
T3: 2 x Flagstone Garrison
I got a few lucky draws there. I’m not so sure what to do with this hand. Obviously, I’d like the Garrison. I’d also really like to clear some Lobbers, with Rampant Growth or Zane, but that’ll be tough without also having few patrollers to stop hasted units coming out on zango’s turn. Killing a Lobber just after the reshuffle would be nice, though, and means zango can’t burn down my Tech I quite as quickly. So maybe I just suicide everything into the Squad Leader.
Time to introduce Calamandra spells, I think.
Teched cards: 2
T2: 2 x Overeager Cadet
T3: 2 x Flagstone Garrison
T4: Drill Sergeant, Ferocity
Get paid - (8)
Flagstone Garrison - (5)
Merfolk Prospector, draw 1 - (4)
Spore Shambler
Thoughts
I could skip a worker to more efficiently take down a Lobber or two. Is that worth it? It gives me another unit on block, and I think next turn is going to be crucial for getting my engine into full swing. Let’s do it. Putting the run on the Cadet, because with Tech I nearly down the Tiger Cub is more replaceable, if at gold cost.
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($9)
Garrison - ($6)
dog, draw 1 - ($5)
cadet, draw 1
cadet, draw 1
MSR, draw 1 - ($3)
Bogre, draw 1 - ($1)
worker - ($0)
oni trades SL
MSR kills MP, you gain 1
lobber pings your garrison
Float ($0)
Discard 3, reshuffle, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Overeager Cadet (2/2A)
Elite: Nautical Dog (1+1/1)
Scavenger: Overeager Cadet (2/2)
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Flagstone Garrison (4)
Bloodrage Ogre (3/2)
Lobber (2/1)
Makeshift Rambaster (1/1)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Peace)
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 1
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 9
Thoughts
what a nasty habit of him to always come back, but I think that worker skip should be the nail in his coffin, unless he get’s lucky with a well timed spell
lucky early cadet draws bring me to the point where it’s tempting to go maxband Oni instead of playing two 2-drops, but I think my next turn(s) will be more explosive if I go for units instead. with trading Oni and killing MP with MSR, which then sticks to the board, I can almost guarantee a DS+DS+4-5 units turn while already being up front on the board. And with my second garrison being ready within my draw 5 out of 6 even if he breaks garrison still a monster turn is going to be ahead of us! I like!
Post draw: I managed to bottom deck my second garrison let’s hope he doesn’t have detonate at the ready
This all feels way too similar to burning legion, with oni having been able to apply enough early pressure…
[Fire]/Peace/X is just soo strong if no real counterplay is possible, this can even live with wasting the third spec to Troq.
Don’t see you being able to drag yourself out of this hole yet another time…
XCAFS22 Round5 P1T6
P1 [Fire]/Bashing/Peace vs. P2 [Feral]/Anarchy/Peace
GG, yeah green starter is not an easy fest of you have to put on early pressure. I think I would have gone FF Cal. I’ve done quite some testing with neutral starter because of Bloom and an early Cal with a +1/+1 rune usually gives you value without end.
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
Base HP: 20
Merfolk Prospector 1/1 (
let’s hope he doesn’t have detonate at the ready