Ahh, so now I see his plan. Thankfully, with Centaur and Now! in hand I can neuter his unit count before it truly gets going. If I worker skip I can also play Tiger or YT as a patroller to keep myself fairly safe from reprisals. Tiger reduces his board way more so that’s probably my preference.
Lets think through his possible responses…
With no Tech I, only 5g to spend and Merfolk and Tiger both played, his unit selection is really limited to Panda, Shambler, Ironbark while his spell range can only be Rampant Growth, FF, Kidnapping, Bloodlust and another War Drums. The good news for me is that he can’t play both Kidnapping and unit, since Merfolk is already in his discard.
Kidnapping my Centaur gets him a 5ATK overpower to trade into me, but with Tiger in SQL and Geiger behind he can’t kill both and he’d be forced to use Drakk to kill one or the other, leaving him on 1HP. Geiger in elite doesn’t really help here since he can use Drakk on Tiger.
He can play a hasty 3g unit + Panda and Wisp to max out his War Drums at +3, making Shambler a 6/3 and Ironbark a 7/2, but they don’t have Overpower, so he’s got to take 2 damage on Drakk to clear my patrol and he has no way to kill the Centaur. The Shambler would survive vs the Tiger or Geiger (unless Elite) but with Drakk dying to my counter attack I assume he’ll not take this line.
Finally, he could play Panda + Bloodlust on Wisp and Centaur, that kills the Centaur at end of turn and he can use Drakk and Wisp to clear my board. That leaves him with a 4/2 unit for next turn (plus more with War Drums) and Drakk on 1HP. This is probably his best play but it leaves my Tech I on full health.
Assuming he has 1HP Drakk, a Panda and War Drums active next turn, he can bring a fair amount of damage so I need to be careful. If he has 6 gold he’s got options like Prospector + Kidnapping or Prospector + Tiger + Bloodlust to get up to 4 attackers. I think he needs more attackers to get to a base race level though so I don’t think I need to panic yet.
I’ll have 7g next turn unless I put Geiger in Scavenger and I know the four cards I’ll have unless I put him in Technician and try for a draw. I could play for the draw and double tech Murkwood Allies but even then I’d only have a 33% chance of drawing it off of Technician. If I whiff I’m probably playing Hero + Tree + Tower as I can’t really give him more units via Kidnapping where as I could take the Scavenger, play that line and set up my deck better for the next turn.
I think on balance I’m best to go for Geiger in Scavenger this turn and see if he has one of the card combos needed to clear my board. Worst case I’m Towering/Patrolling up and forcing him to have the right cards to protect Drakk as he rushes me down. I’ll be able to reliably draw into counterplay on my following turn and I’ll know better what the lay of the land is to tech in another couple of cards to help.
Base HP: 20
Drakk L6 3/3 (dies: 1 to your base; units get frenzy 1; first unit played from hand gets haste; 1 damage)