@thehug0naut good luck and a lot of fun to you too. I think it definitely is a good choice to pick P1…
Let’s go for something unconventional:
[green]/Finesse
@thehug0naut : sorry but I just changed my mind - hope that does not completely throw you off and that you are fine with me changing
1 Like
@zango Absolutely not a problem, you can always change your mind. The very best of luck to you too, we all need a little bit in codex!
Thanks for bearing with me on this one, I had a full on day so just getting round to actually thinking about what I want to do for this game. @dwarddd will be happy I’ve written my musings down, though after a bunch of deliberating I ended up coming back full circle.
As P1 I’ll choose the very conventional Black Starter, Demonology and Necromancy
Very interested to see how you round your deck out.
Thoughts for Bystanders
Green starter with Finesse makes me think we’re going to see Feral/Growth here to stay monocoloured. That gives him Cala for aggro, Arg to spam units without cards, Fencers for haste and Finesse Tech II as a really strong default game plan. He could be doing something very off piste instead though, perhaps with another pseudo mono deck. Blood+Anarchy and both pretty good with Green starter, but he’d be lacking a combat hero. Rook is great as P2 but less so with Green starter I would have thought, and he could have chosen Neutral if he was trying daymare again.
Green starter usually doesn’t enjoy facing Black starter, given the hand destruction and unit removal. I think I still want Vandy and Garth so I have my early game sorted, good Tech Is and great transition to whatever Tech II I add to that. The only issue is that I have to choose Disease or Bashing as my last spec to stay monocoloured. Bashing isn’t actually too terrible, given that meta makes Troq Overpower pretty scary and Bashing Tech II offers a variety of units to Garth in, though only Pig and Stomper have any instant impact.
Splashing multicolour leaves me a ton of good options; Present, Anarchy, Blood, or even Balance (to use his haste against him, and give me a stupidly good meta target). Fire is the other great combo for early aggro and meta but doesn’t offer much at Tech II, so I’d be trying to win with Meta in that instance. I suppose I could maybe think about pivoting away from Necro, but I don’t want him able to focus on his early game and still Garth in a Guide at Tech II. Finesse + Necro are just so strong together.
Outside of Black starter, Red would let me run [Fire]/Demonology which is a very strong combination, but I haven’t really much experience with that deck and I know Zango plays with Moby a lot so he’ll have plenty of practice defending it. Again, that would let him take Finesse+Necro which I don’t like much, even if he’s multicoloured and with Green Starter.
Hmmm I think I’m overthinking now, will go with my initial gut reaction and see what comes my way
Edit: clearly I was tired when I wrote my thoughts 
edited for clarity and typos
2 Likes
Well, let’s say I want to stick to unconventional:
Law & Peace are my other picks
1 Like
Then I shall finish with Anarchy for a deck of [Demonology/Necromancy]/Anarchy
Thoughts for bystanders
The main thing I’m puzzling over is why he chose Green instead of Neutral. I suppose the main benefits I see are access to Panda and Spore Shambler, so extra bodies and runes for units. Boot Camp would be even more runes as well as card draw. Panda, Fencers and Justice Juggernauts are all pretty great as runes targets and Oni loves card draw to get to AoW. Speaking of AoW, if you’re doing a big Oni line then you might be fine going Rich Earth early for bump economy or Tree for healing. Either early is risky if I get a good P1T1 hand though.
JJ is also very resistant to unit removal and he’ll have Cadets and Scribe to help with cheap extra bodies. Censorship council is very good vs Black as it really stops my card draw accomplishing much while Insurance Agents are pretty great with most decks. I definitely feel like I’m leaning Law but he does have a very good Tech II in Finesse so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if chooses it instead.
So what do I do for my final spec? I think it needs to be a strong Tech II (likely my primary Tech II choice) and the hero needs to make meta a very credible threat, while I could benefit from some some anti-building as well as good disruption of AoW and/or unit spam. Anarchy is my first thought, definitely skewing more to Meta threat and anti-AoW but Zane and his spells are just helluva disruptive and the Tech II plan helps with Meta stealthing. Balance, Future and Fire also come to mind but I think this time Zane is the choice.
And so we begin our series of face-offs! GL and HF as always @zango
Though I regret to inform you that the god hand is with me this P1T1
Obligatory list of relevant changes
| Card | Change |
|---|---|
| Vandy | Remove resist 1 at midband |
Midband changes to “①,  , Discard a card → Fetch any non-ultimate Demonology spell from your codex, reveal it, then put it in your hand.” |
|
| Garth | Reduce midband stats to 2/3 |
| Deteriorate | Increase cost to 1; cannot target illusions |
| Dark Pact | Increase cost to 1 |
| Lich’s Bargain | Base damage increased from 4 to 5 |
| Flagstone Garrison | Ability changes to “Your units can no longer have haste. Whenever you play a unit, draw a card” |
| Pirate Gunship | Remove obliterate 2 |
| General’s Hammer | Cost reduced to 2 |
P1T1
StartingHand Workers
STARTING HAND
Jandra, the Negator → Worker
Skeleton Javelineer
Pestering Haunt
Summon Skeletons
Sacrifice the Weak
WORKERS
Jandra, the Negator
NextHand
Graveyard
Skeletal Archery
Deteriorate
Poisonblade Rogue
Discard
Summon Skeletons
Sacrifice the Weak
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($4)
Worker - ($3)
Vandy - ($1)
Jav - ($0)
Haunt
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 4
Board Info:
In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
- L1 Vandy Anadrose 2/3 [Sparkshot]
- Skeleton Javelineer 1/1 [Javelin]
- Pestering Haunt 1/1 [Unstoppable]
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Economy Info:
Cards:
- Hand: 4
- Deck: 1
- Disc: 2
Gold:
- Gold: 0
- Workers: 5
Thoughts
Have god hand, play god hand. If his plan was to do something strange with Rich Earth, presumably this should push him off of it.
Edit: Added Changes
Well, I also have something like the green god hand… or maybe not…
GL & fun to you too!
XCAFS24 FINALS part1 P2T1
P1 [Demonology]/Anarchy/Necromancy vs. P2 [Green]/Finesse/Peace/Law
Link to all relevant rule changes
StartingHand Workers
STARTING HAND
Rich Earth
Forest’s Favor
Verdant Tree (3)
Rampant Growth
Spore Shambler (2/3)++
WORKERS
Rampant Growth
NextHand
Young Treant (0/2)
Playful Panda (2/2)
Merfolk Prospector (1/1)
Tiger Cub (2/2)
Ironbark Treant (3/2)
Discard
Spore Shambler (2/3)++
Verdant Tree (3)
Forest’s Favor
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
rich earth - ($2)
worker
Float ($2)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info:
In Patrol:
- Squad Leader:
- Elite:
- Scavenger:
- Technician:
- Lookout:
In Play:
- Rich Earth
Buildings:
- Base HP: 20
Economy Info:
Cards:
- Hand: 5
- Deck: 0
- Disc: 3
Gold:
- Gold: 2
- Workers: 6
Thoughts
LOL, what a split. But you have to work with what you’ve got.
My whole game plan just went down the drain against black god hand and with this weird split.
2 Likes
You’re certainly delivering on an unconventional game!
That said, no board is the best way to avoid me killing anything… for now 
P1T2
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Dark Pact
Hooded Executioner
STARTING HAND
Graveyard
Poisonblade Rogue
Skeletal Archery → Worker
Deteriorate
WORKERS
Jandra, the Negator
Skeletal Archery
NextHand
Thieving Imp
Hooded Executioner
Dark Pact
Deteriorate
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Expensive Tech I - ($2)
Rogue - ($0)
Vandy, Haunt and Jav hit base to 16
Float ($0)
Discard 2, draw 1, reshuffle, draw 3
Board Info:
In Patrol:
- Squad Leader:
- Elite:
- Scavenger:
- Technician:
- Lookout:
In Play:
- L1 Vandy Anadrose 2/3 [Sparkshot]
- Poisonblade Rogue 2/1
- Skeleton Javelineer 1/1 [Javelin]
- Pestering Haunt 1/1 [Unstoppable]
Buildings:
- Base HP: 20
- Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info:
Cards:
- Hand: 4
- Deck: 3
- Disc: 0
Gold:
- Gold: 0
- Workers: 6
Thoughts
So it is Rich Earth after all. I can see some wisdom in that, but it lets me double down on early aggro unopposed. After my basic economy spend I’ll have a spare 2g and options of either Graveyard, PBR or building a HH.
With 8g to spend he can build a massive board for sure but that either comes at the cost of cards (which I can punish) or needs to includes a hero. That means I should have something in play that specifically counters hero play. While access to Zane/Garth would be good early it doesn’t deliver on that, while PBR seems to do that in spades.
Tech wise I need to keep spamming units so let’s go with Hoodie as a value body now and utility later. As ever, Dark Pact will keep my hand size up and my cycle fast. With him stockpiling gold GPT was worth considering over Hoodie but I think it’ll be too slow to get to the point of pressuring his gold, assuming he’s rushing Tech II and/or dumping it all into Oni.
Uhh quick question, @zango you said you chose law and peace but in your post you wrote peace and truth. What are you running?
1 Like
why are you so focussed on killing things? I come in peace, I swear. Also my units don’t even want to hurt anybody!
XCAFS24 FINALS part1 P2T2
P1 [Demonology]/Anarchy/Necromancy vs. P2 [Green]/Finesse/Peace/Law
Link to all relevant rule changes
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Overeager Cadet (2/2)
Overeager Cadet (2/2)
STARTING HAND
Young Treant (0/2)
Ironbark Treant (3/2)
Merfolk Prospector (1/1)
Tiger Cub (2/2)
Playful Panda (2/2)
Spore Shambler (2/3)++
WORKERS
Rampant Growth
Spore Shambler (2/3)++
NextHand
Forest’s Favor
Tiger Cub (2/2)
Overeager Cadet (2/2)
Overeager Cadet (2/2)
Verdant Tree (3)
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($8)
tech 1 - ($7)
YT, RS 5 draw 1 - ($5)
Worker
panda, wisp arrives - ($3)
tower - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 3, reshuffle, draw 5
Board Info:
In Patrol:
- Squad Leader: Wisp (0/1)
- Elite:
- Scavenger: Young Treant (0/2)
- Technician:
- Lookout:
In Play:
- Rich Earth
- Playful Panda (2/2)
Buildings:
- Base HP: 16
- Tech I HP: 5
- Tower HP: 4
Economy Info:
Cards:
- Hand: 5
- Deck: 2
- Disc: 0
Gold:
- Gold: 0
- Workers: 7
Thoughts
let’s speed up my cycle a bit
thank you for catching this, @Bryce_The_Rice This is the second time this tournament that I clicked wrong in a dropdown menu and both times you found it immediately, wow! I corrected it above as well.
2 Likes
Wow really? I don’t even remember the first time. That’s my eye for detail I guess
2 Likes
Yeah, in my game against frozen I wanted to tech two feral strikes but incidentally clicked once on Seer instead, of which I already had two copies in my deck… Definitely not something that’s easy to spot for a spectator, so again: respect! 
1 Like
@Bryce_The_Rice you really are brilliant at picking up subtle things in these games. Always been impressed by your powers of observation
P1T3
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Doom Grasp
Disguised Monkey
STARTING HAND
Thieving Imp → Worker
Hooded Executioner
Dark Pact
Deteriorate
WORKERS
Jandra, the Negator
Skeletal Archery
Thieving Imp
NextHand
Sacrifice the Weak
Graveyard
Summon Skeletons
Discard
Deteriorate
Poisonblade Rogue
Pestering Haunt
Skeleton Javelineer
Doom Grasp
Disguised Monkey
Dark Pact
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($6)
Worker - ($5)
Deteriorate Wisp - ($4)
PBR trades YT, you gain 1g
Haunt and Jav hit Tech I to 3HP, both die from Tower
Midband Vandy, breaks Tech I, takes 1, your base to 14 - ($2)
Hoodie - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 1, draw 3
Board Info:
In Patrol:
- Squad Leader:
- Elite:
- Scavenger: Hooded Executioner 3/3
- Technician:
- Lookout:
In Play:
- L3 Vandy Anadrose 3/3 [Sparkshot]
Buildings:
- Base HP: 20
- Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info:
Cards:
- Hand: 3
- Deck: 0
- Disc: 7
Gold:
- Gold: 0
- Workers: 7
Thoughts
There are two lines that get me to a tech break here. Deteriorate the Wisp then either PBR trades with YT and I use Vandy and the rest to break (with hoodie as my patrol) or I use Vandy for YT and max her to doombuff PBR.
The maxband line feels too all in, and leaves him with a 4/4 panda. That would be fine except I feel like Boot Camp is fairly likely and with just Jav left patrolling he can tech break my Tech I with just one other buffing card. With midband and hoodie yes I can lose Vandy but I’ll have a 4/4 Hoodie off of Boot Camp and he would need multiple buffing cards and would have to spend all his gold to get Panda to 5ATK for a break.
The other benefit of the midband line is that I can stack the deck for my next cycle. Garth Maxband is a big part of my plans so a Doom Grasp in case of Oni Maxband seems essential, and I can start to add some Tech IIs as well so I have good cards to draw into. If I can take a tech lead I should press that advantage fairly hard.
It would’ve been great to be able to keep PBR around since I expect Oni but I would have needed to tech in a Soulstone to do that.
1 Like
That’s some nice work from my tower, it’s really abusing blacks lack of a 2/2 body for 2g…
Please do now excuse my River, she is busy counting all that money.
XCAFS24 FINALS part1 P2T3
P1 [Demonology]/Anarchy/Necromancy vs. P2 [green]/Finesse/Peace/Law
Link to all relevant rule changes
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Drill Sergeant (3/3)
Flagstone Garrison (4)
STARTING HAND
Overeager Cadet (2/2)
Verdant Tree (3)
Overeager Cadet (2/2)
Forest’s Favor
Tiger Cub (2/2)
WORKERS
Rampant Growth
Spore Shambler (2/3)++
Forest’s Favor
NextHand
Tiger Cub (2/2)
Ironbark Treant (3/2)
Flagstone Garrison (4)
Overeager Cadet (2/2)
Merfolk Prospector (1/1)
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + scavenger - ($8)
Worker
River - ($6)
verdant tree - ($4)
rebuild tech 1
Float ($4)
Discard 3, draw 2, reshuffle, draw 3
Board Info:
In Patrol:
- Squad Leader: Playful Panda (2/2)
- Elite:
- Scavenger: River (2/3, lvl1)
- Technician:
- Lookout:
In Play:
- Rich Earth
- Verdant Tree (3)
Buildings:
- Base HP: 14
- Tech I HP: 5
- Tower HP: 4
Economy Info:
Cards:
- Hand: 5
- Deck: 3
- Disc: 0
Gold:
- Gold: 4
- Workers: 8
Thoughts
not much to think about this turn, especially with this ultra small cycle. but I am very grateful for his choice to not go for GPT with this ton of float
1 Like
You’re not wrong, that Tower has done some serious work for you!
P1T4
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Metamorphosis
Detonate
STARTING HAND
Graveyard
Sacrifice the Weak
Summon Skeletons → Worker
WORKERS
Jandra, the Negator
Skeletal Archery
Thieving Imp
Summon Skeletons
NextHand
Disguised Monkey
Metamorphosis
Doom Grasp
Skeleton Javelineer
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($7)
Worker - ($6)
Tech II Anarchy - ($2)
Hoodie trades Panda
Maxband Vandy, nothing to doom - ($0)
Float ($0)
Discard 2, reshuffle, draw 4
Board Info:
In Patrol:
- Squad Leader: L5 Vandy Anadrose 4/5A [Sparkshot]
- Elite:
- Scavenger:
- Technician:
- Lookout:
In Play:
*
Buildings:
- Base HP: 20
- Tech I HP: 5
- Tech II HP: 5 (Anarchy)
Economy Info:
Cards:
- Hand: 4
- Deck: 8
- Disc: 0
Gold:
- Gold: 0
- Workers: 8
Thoughts
Tree behind that patrol is very bad news here. I can only break through by skipping a worker, which completely neuters my ability to Hero+Meta next turn. So my best plan is to worker and tech up, trade off Panda to feed hoodie back into my deck. I’ll max Vandy to patrol, probably SQL to try and keep her alive or at least force a fair amount of resource to be devoted to killing her.
I still don’t know what his tech plan is but both Finesse and Peace are good. I’ll grab meta so the threat isn’t an idle one and Detonate in case of Peace engine. It also lets me delete Tree which is good if this becomes a Tech III race. The main thing I’m quite worried about is Injunction, but I don’t think I can really play around it here.
Did I mention that I think that Garrison is OP? But how well green starter synergizes with the peace plan I had no clue, tbh
Edit in thoughts only
XCAFS24 FINALS part1 P2T4
P1 [Demonology]/Anarchy/Necromancy vs. P2 [Finesse]/Peace/Law
Link to all relevant rule changes
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Drill Sergeant (3/3)
Flagstone Garrison (4)
STARTING HAND
Ironbark Treant (3/2)
Merfolk Prospector (1/1)
Overeager Cadet (2/2)
Tiger Cub (2/2)
Flagstone Garrison (4)
Drill Sergeant (3/3)
Young Treant (0/2)
Overeager Cadet (2/2)
Flagstone Garrison (4)
WORKERS
Rampant Growth
Spore Shambler (2/3)++
Forest’s Favor
Ironbark Treant (3/2)
NextHand
Young Treant (0/2)
Drill Sergeant (3/3)
Tiger Cub (2/2)
Playful Panda (2/2)
Flagstone Garrison (4)
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($12)
exhaust tree
build instant tech 2 - ($8)
Garrison - ($5)
cadet, draw 1
DS, draw 1 - ($2)
MP, draw 1, add a rune - ($1)
cadet, RS 3, draw 1, add a rune
give MP one rune
Worker
Float ($1)
Discard 3, draw 2, reshuffle, draw 3
Board Info:
In Patrol:
- Squad Leader: Overeager Cadet (2/2)
- Elite:
- Scavenger: Merfolk Prospector (2/2)+
- Technician: Overeager Cadet (2/2)
- Lookout:
In Play:
- Rich Earth
- Verdant Tree (3)
- Flagstone Garrison (4)
- River (2/3, lvl1)
- Drill Sergeant (4/4)+
Buildings:
- Base HP: 14
- Tech I HP: 5
- Tech II HP: 5 (Peace)
- Tower HP: 4
Economy Info:
Cards:
- Hand: 5
- Deck: 0
- Disc: 0
Gold:
- Gold: 1
- Workers: 9
Thoughts
never thought I would run that early in a game into a situation where I don’t want to worker because I want all of my cards to stay in my deck
Looking forward to tech my first Backstabber ever next turn… If only to worker it directly, but it will still be the first time ever for me to tech that card 
Friendly poke @thehug0naut
I know your situation will not be easy, but still…
1 Like
Haha yes this is not a fun turn to try and find the least bad line. I think I probably found it.
Will be interstesting after the fact to look at the whole game and see what might have been better. I assume not going all in on the early tech break might have served me better.
P1T5
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Surprise Attack
Detonate
STARTING HAND
Disguised Monkey
Skeleton Javelineer
Doom Grasp
Metamorphosis
WORKERS
Jandra, the Negator
Skeletal Archery
Thieving Imp
Summon Skeletons
NextHand
Sacrifice the Weak
Dark Pact
Pestering Haunt
Detonate
Deteriorate
Discard
Metamorphosis
Surprise Attack
Detonate
Skeleton Javelineer
Doom Grasp
Disguised Monkey
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($8)
Zane - ($6)
Metamorphosis, demon-ify heroes, Zane maxband shoves Scavenger to Elite and deals 1 - ($0)
Vandy is detected, readily kills SQL, takes 3, Sparkshot elite
Zane invisibly and readily kills DS, takes 4
Skip Worker
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 5
Board Info:
In Patrol:
- Squad Leader: L6 Captain Zane 6/2A [++, Haste, Invisible, Readiness]
- Elite:
- Scavenger: L5 Vandy Anadrose 6/4 [++, Sparkshot, Invisible, Readiness]
- Technician:
- Lookout:
In Play:
*
Buildings:
- Base HP: 20
- Tech I HP: 5
- Tech II HP: 5 (Anarchy)
Economy Info:
Cards:
- Hand: 5
- Deck: 3
- Disc: 6
Gold:
- Gold: 0
- Workers: 8
Thoughts
So I think I’ve almost certainly lost this one. Metamorphosis offers me a partial glimmer of hope. Garth would let me summon a Monkey to use up the Tower and kill SQL but then I just get Vandy hitting one thing. Unfortunately I don’t even have the usual out of breaking Tech I to slow the Garrisoning, as he has that damn tree. The other way to use Garth is to bring a Steam Tank to wall up but again he can just reset with Garrison.
Zane gives me two perhaps more interesting ways to
play this; (1) he can drag SQL out the way to let him hit Scav and give us both gold. That way I can worker, then hit something else with Vandy. (2) I can drag Scav to Elite and then have Vandy hit SQL to kill both of them, and finally have Zane hit something else, probably Drill Sergeant.
That latter option means he only has one unit and River who can attack, and he needs to spend gold to re-establish his engine. That that with two patrollers I should be able to keep Tech II up, unless he goes for Boot Camp to get one of them out the way.
If he still has Rampant Growth in deck then River or a boosted Cadet can break my Tech II so he does only need one patroller out the way. Main issue with this plan is that I don’t have Zane for next turn Detonate, since he’s almost certainly dead. Can’t really afford not to patrol him.
Other thing he can do is just tech rush Tech III. Did I say that that tree is absolutely horrendous in combo with
Zane takes 5 as tower also deals one damage. Does this change your turn, as then River like she is or the other cadet can just trade Zane?
The tower does not shoot Zane, because it cannot see Zane. He is invisible!
1 Like