So gold advantage does seem to be the key thing in this matchup. Does that mean that Rich Earth is actually playable? I still don’t quite think I can pull that off. Let’s try this line instead. If I’ve mapped it out right (not a given at this stage ) he has to drop to 4 cards and skip Tech I to clear my board. Otherwise he can only clear the Treant and I’ll have a 4/5 chance of a Calamandra kill off of Rampant Growth, while still Teching up on time. Otherwise I can tech up and patrol acceptably with YT and Tiger or even go YT and Tree to keep my Tech I alive.
@zango absolutely agreed. I’ll be able to speed up a lot now it’s the weekend. Sorry it took so long for this turn, really needed to think through how I wanted to play from here and I had zero time or mental space the last few days.
P2T2
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Sparring Partner (Desperately need another 1-drop)
Sparring Partner (Ditto)
STARTING HAND
Rampant Growth
Tiger Cub
Young Treant
Playful Panda → Worker (Least good patroller remaining)
WORKERS
Rich Earth
Playful Panda
NextHand
Verdant Tree
Sparring Partner
Forest’s Favor
Spore Shambler
Sparring Partner
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Prospect for gold - ($7)
Worker - ($6)
Tech I - ($4)
Tower - ($1)
Float ($1)
Discard 3, draw 1, reshuffle, draw 4
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Ironbark Treant 1/2AAA
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Merfolk Prospector 1/1
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tower HP: 4
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 3
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 7
Thoughts
So I looked at the line with YT into Verdant Tree but the lack of attack in play didn’t seem great. Tower with Ironbark seemed better on balance.
This way I draw into Verdant Tree and a high chance of a cheap Tech I. There are still ways he can break my Tech, but from what I can see he’ll need to run down his hand a fair bit and/or leave himself open to a counter attack so I’m probably still ok in the long run.
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Worker - ($5)
2x fencer & Cal kill SL, each take 2 - ($1)
tenderfoot trades MP
brother attacks tower for two damage and takes 1 from tower
Float ($1)
Discard 2, draw 3, reshuffle, draw 1
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
cal (2/1, lvl1)
Nimble Fencer (2/1)
Nimble Fencer (2/1)
Older Brother (2/1)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 4
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 7
Thoughts
that tower probably threw the game away. I was absolutely convinced to face tiger in technician and Cal backline which would have put me into a way way harder situation. but well, I’ll take it
Verdant Tree
Sparring Partner
Sparring Partner
Forest’s Favor → Worker (Less useful than having more units in deck)
Spore Shambler
WORKERS
Rich Earth
Playful Panda
Forest’s Favor
NextHand
Young Treant
Tricycloid
Tiger Cub
Rampant Growth
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($8)
Worker - ($7)
Tech II Present - ($3)
Verdant Tree - ($1)
Spartner - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 3, reshuffle, draw 1
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Sparring Partner 2/2A
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Verdant Tree -/3 [Healing 1]
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Present)
Tower HP: 2
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 5
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 8
Thoughts
Worker, Tech up, Tree and Spartner. Hoping for an even split. If he’s gone absolutely all out on Starlet aggro he can break my Tech II and take out the Tree but I think that’s probably less likely than trying to get teched up at this stage. There are probably some other lines but I still think the Tree makes for a more annoying tech break for him than a second 2g patroller would.
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($8)
Worker - ($7)
midband Cal - ($5)
Tech 2 - ($1)
Float ($1)
Discard 3, draw 4, reshuffle, draw 1
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Older Brother (2/1)
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Nimble Fencer (2/1)
Lookout: Nimble Fencer (2/1)
In Play:
cal (3/4, lvl3)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Finesse)
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 4
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 8
Thoughts
my first reaction was: yeah, let’s clear the board and still have a fencer in technician - instant win, as I don’t see him teching SPartner+tric in T2. second impression was: hmmm, didn’t see the RS 6 draw 1… if that is a tric in his hand… uargs! so I’m playing against the 33% worst case scenario of a tech 2 unit in his hand and I’m sooo going to bite me in my own ass in case he missed these 33%
Hey, I hope you’ll be able to free some of your mind for Codex this week and that life is just busy but not harsh to you right now.
I hope you don’t mind if I start the next round, once Bryce_The_Rice and rathyAro finish their match. It then will be two games in parallel for a short while for the two of us but then the others don’t have to wait…
Calamandra Resist is pretty brutal for Tricycloid. A worker skip would have cleared his board but I think I need the gold. My main decision was whether I use any of my remaining shots to hit his buildings this turn. Guide boosted Fencer is 4 attack and Starlet is 5 so keeping my Tric in SQL at 5/5 should make it more costly to clear, gives me a decent chance at keeping Tech II and reducing his hand size.
If I were not the one organizing the tournament I would say: take all the time you need, but now…
And I feel like this is about to come to a close, so…
XCAFS23 round 3 part 2 P1T5
P1 [Finesse]/Feral/Present vs. P2 [Feral]/Present/Discipline
Older Brother (2/1)
Nimble Fencer (2/1)
Temporal Distortion
Star-Crossed Starlet (3/2)
Brick Thief (2/1)
Research & Development
Research & Development
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($9)
Worker - ($8)
max - ($6)
Maestro - ($3)
exhaust fencer to deal two damage to your tech 2
TD fencer into starlet - ($1)
play fencer & tenderfoot for free
starlet runs into SL
Cal trades SL
exhaust fencer & tenderfoot to deal 4 damage to your tree
Float ($1)
Discard 1, draw 3
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite: Maestro (3/5)
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Max (2/3, lvl1)
Nimble Fencer (2/3)
Tenderfoot (1/2)
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Finesse)
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 3
Deck: 1
Disc: 7
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 9
Thoughts
phew, worst case but now I’m way ahead in terms of board presence. and I’m guaranteed to have all of my four next cards available (unless he teched two trics, which I would bet anything against), so next turn is going to close the deal, nice!
well, the reason to put maestro into elite was to be able to kill the expected Hyperion in case he had an accompanying RG. it still hurts to loose the maestro here… but I’m so far ahead, this should be it (but never say never against present)
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($9)
Rebuild Tech II
Geiger - ($7)
Ironbark Treant - ($4)
Rampant Growth Treant - ($1)
Now! on Treant, breaks Tech II, your base to 18 - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 4
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite: L1 Max Geiger 3/3 [Sparkshot]
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Ironbark Treant 3/2
Buildings:
Base HP: 18
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Present)
Tower HP: 2
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 3
Disc: 8
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 9
Thoughts
This looks real bad. Best I can do is to try and slow him down by forcing trades and breaking Tech II
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($10)
Cal - ($8)
TD fencer into starlet - ($6)
fencer - ($4)
starlet trades max, Cal to midband
max breaks tower, base to 16
Hyperion attacks tech 2, draw 1
maxband Max flickers Hyperion - ($2)
fencer attacks base to 14
Hyperion attacks tech 1, draw 1
TD Hyperion into tric - ($0)
tric shoots down tech 1 & tech 2, base to 10
rebuild tech 2
Float ($0)
Discard 5, draw 5
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Tricycloid (4/4)*
Elite:
Scavenger: Cal (3/4, lvl3)
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
Max (3/4, lvl5)
Nimble Fencer (2/3)
Buildings:
Base HP: 18
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Finesse)
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 1
Disc: 10
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 10
Thoughts
I’m one damage short of lethal, but either way, it’s definitely over now
Be interested in your overall take on the matchup. Maybe could have won game 1 if I played better but honestly I felt outgunned from the start in both games, and only got to a decent position in game 1 because of a mistaken risky gambit that worked out.
In this game I think I had to skip worker on the turn I played Tric and kill off both your Fencers to stay in it. I probably played too defensive, and was relying on Tower to force trades but it didn’t pan out like I hoped.
The more I think about it Finesse and Neutral starter is just a much better combo with Feral+Present. At all stages of the game you had a more routes to impacting the board, so I was either setting myself back to cover them or I was caught by something I didn’t really see coming. Finesse Tech II also combos really well with Geiger. I didn’t quite realise how well until this game!
Was hoping this format would make Green more competitive, but I didn’t feel like it held up all that well against neutral + chunky hero. The lack of a second 1 drop in the starter makes it really tough on gold while facing down someone like Calamandra.
Thank you, it was a fun matchup and I felt extremely lucky to win the first one. After your defensive start in the second game I felt sure to win but you made me work hard for it. And seeing how closely I dodged the immortal again makes me feel lucky. So GG & WP to you too!
In game one I was very afraid of a turn 2 hero kill with FF instead of midbanding your own Cal beforehand. That way you will have one whole healing cycle left and I cannot sacrifice heros without adding more power to your Cal. That alone probably would have made the small difference required. Alternatively you could have put ironbark (which you didn’t have) in SL in turn 2 in order to level out the gold advantage of P2 with your MP. That gives you a nice t3 attack which usually is way more important than a possible T2 hero kill.
In game two (as already mentioned) the too defensive play with tower got you on the back foot. I think trying to make more use of MP by bringing more attack to the table (tiger+Cal in turn 2) would have been the better call. Also I would have gone for huntresses as the first tech choice in order to have a way better SL behind which you can hide your hero. To clear a huntress SL or to stealthily kill a hero in early game is just too costly in terms of card count and therewith handsize.
All in all I really do think green starter is awesome in this format as there just is no safe defense against the standard P1 start for P2 with playing a hero. And if you don’t play a hero, P1’s FF Cal will put you behind. A general advice: make more use of FF. An early Cal with a +1/+1 rune is just freaky and it will wreck havoc. And also she then is able to stealthily do a tech break, which is huge with the right timing.
Green Starter as p2 definitely is way weaker than neutral starter as p2 (at least in my liking) but if you’re able to make MP count, that may be changed super fast.
All in all: I understand your feelings on the matchup, those stated reasons are all part of the reason why I love my deck
But I think if we repeated this matchup under the tournament rules for a really long series, I would not be able to get a win rate above 50%-55%.
And also I want to express a big thank you for keeping up the game even though life got busy!
Thanks, I think you’re right on using FF more. I kept worrying about you blooming your Cal, so it was my biggest takeaway from this round for sure. Best of luck going forwards. That double win gives you a nice lead on the field!
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
Base HP: 20
) he has to drop to 4 cards and skip Tech I to clear my board. Otherwise he can only clear the Treant and I’ll have a 4/5 chance of a Calamandra kill off of Rampant Growth, while still Teching up on time. Otherwise I can tech up and patrol acceptably with YT and Tiger or even go YT and Tree to keep my Tech I alive.