I’m back so horrifyingly soon? What a surprise. In case you didn’t know, there was another tournament happening last week – the Team Not Tavrod tournament played in the Throne format. I’m not going to lie, I found out about this tournament literal hours before it started, so I just picked up whatever I had lying around in my bag of decks and just picked one that I felt comfortable playing. It should come as literal no surprise to anyone who knows me at all what I picked.
Decklist:
https://eternalwarcry.com/decks/d/V3sZt03oynI/ss-classic
…shocker. Real talk, however, I think that Stonescar has a pretty good matchup into both Xenan and Kira-based decks, and as long as I don’t see too much control, which, to be fair, has been pretty much shoved out of the meta by the overabundance of Kira decks. On the other hand, the Throne ladder tends to be the complete Wild West, so who knows what I might encounter in this tournament?
Decklist discussion:
In terms of the deck composition itself, I believe that it is incredibly straightforward, and is very similar to the list I discussed last time, hence I won’t be going a massive deep-dive this time around. The only new addition to the deck since Bastion Rising and Buried Memories have come out is the Midchief Saluses, which have proven to be just…fine, to be perfectly honest. (Wow, we really didn’t get much from the new set at all, huh?) Nothing particularly mindblowing, but a 3/2 quickdraw, and nothing more than that, is sometimes exactly what you’re looking for, and those have slotted in over the Condemns we had previously to combat Yetis and Kira.
Instead of the Condemns which we’ve generally found to be too low impact, we have 2 Vicious Highwaymen, which serve to ping a Masterwork, a Justice unit, or just to break Face Aegis whilst still applying pressure on board. Unfortunately, following the arrival of Flash Fry and Smite from Buried Memories, I sort of felt that Vicious Highwayman wasn’t quite doing enough, and in the future, I would probably replace those Highwaymen with Kaleb’s Persuader a la the original deck – I haven’t seen too much Elysian since the Cylix nerf, and that was the primary reason not to play expensive weapons that might blow up in your face following a Pause for Reflection.
Now here comes the Shakedown VS Open Contract part of the argument. Open Contract is a great choice against Xenan, opposing Stonescar Midrange and Kira decks, because it allows you to cheaply answer a threat whilst not giving up tempo, and hopefully you can slam the door shut on them before the cost reduction really matters. On the other hand, Shakedown is also quite good against decks like Shrine/Trove, Control or Reanimator because you have the opportunity to snag a key piece of their strategy before it even hits the board. The feeling when you take their Arcanum Hourglass just brings me butterflies. I do think either option is defensible – and both options have the chance of backfiring spectacularly in your face – so it does come down a little what you’ve personally been seeing more of. I think if you run the Open Contracts, you can probably keep the Crests because you don’t need available power on 1, but if you’re running Shakedown, you should probably go with the new option of Paintings. (Which…I forgot to change in my list before submitting it for the TNT tournament. Look, prepare well; don’t be sloppy like me.)
Ok, now moving onto the market. I previously included Dark Return and Open Contract because they were fetchable with Condemn, but now I’m back to a pure Cen Wastes market, I’m eschewing Open Contract for the more open-ended Desecrate. I took out Silverblade Menace for Nullblade for concern over the Reanimator or Know/Krull matchup, but I think the raw power of Menace means I should probably swap it back in. I have included Bandit Queen as a way to close out the game against non-Kira decks (Intrusion just completely ruins combat for us), but I haven’t pulled it much in practice. As a result, it could worthwhile to consider other top-end-ish options, perhaps 4 cost Vara, Highwayman, or even Inferno Den.
Gameplay!
Match 1: (VS applechips)
Resident tournament slayer themselves, it’s always terrifying to be playing against them. That being said, I do feel pretty good about this match-up: I should hopefully be able to apply some decent pressure on them, and since they aren’t playing Primal for the Huntress, they’re going to have a tough time removing my units. Nullblade isn’t as great against them since they aren’t planning on looping any units with Krull; plus, a lack of Face Aegis means it would have been easier to clock them with Menace. As long as I dodge those Intrusions and that Pristine Light, we should be OK.
Game 1:
I mulligan an opening hand with 2 Insignias, a Crest, 2 Fire Sigils, a Jekk and a Cen Wastes Smuggler – whilst I feel that this is probably a keepable hand in certain matchups, considering I want to get extremely aggressive against most Kira decks, this hand just feels a touch too slow. The next hand yields a Seat, a Fire Sigil, a Yushkov, 2 Warleaders, a Milos, and a Shakedown. Whilst this hand is driskier, if I can draw at least 1 power off my Shakedown Nightfall draws then I should be in business and just start to whack in for a lot of damage. It’s a gamble, but I’m feeling a little lucky, so I keep it. There are no stakes, right? 😛
I open with a Shakedown, seeing Justice Etchings, Pearl Abbey Smuggler, and a Valkyrie Enforcer; on the bright side, that’s a pretty mediocre hand out of their side. Considering the units I have in hand, it’s a very easy Enforcer here; so much of my units’ utility comes from their text. They play a Justice Symbol, and I draw into a Seat and Milos. Never punished apparently, and I drop a Warleader. They play out a 2nd Symbol and a Justice Etchings, which is fantastic news for me. I plop down a Milos like it’s hot and get in for 5.
On their turn they drop an Alessi and pass; they probably have either Safe Return or Intrusion in hand to protect it, but it still doesn’t block either of my unis well, so I think I’m fine with that. Having drawn power the last 2 turns, I curve perfectly into a Yushkov before swinging in. They use the Intrusion and block the Milos, which is fine by me since my Warleader still gets to grow. On their turn, they play the Smuggler into a Symbol into a Bring to Justice on the Yushkov – I originally thought they were going to get Pristine Light, but this isn’t too bad either. Come round back to me, I drop my 2nd Milos and attack with everything; since they’re out of available power, I’m not concerned about a trick here. They trade a Milos with Alessi, but still take 7 damage and a Firebomb into their deck. Wanting to put on as much pressure as possible, I follow up with my 2nd Warleader post-combat.
On their turn, they drop a Tower and play some Valkyrie blockers for my units, but I topdeck a Buhton, kill their Smuggler, and just all out attack at their face – they only block Buhton and drop to a rather precarious 2, especially since I know you don’t have a Sword from your market in hand. I scout with Crest and leave my 3rd Milos on top. On their turn, they draw, and scoop. That game panned out pretty much exactly as I drew it up, just applying pressure and never stopping; don’t think there were too many interesting decision points in that game, unfortunately.
Game 2:
My first 7 only has Fire-influence producing power alongside 3 Shadow cards; this is Throne, not Expedition – I’m sure we could do better than that. My second 7 consists of a Crest, an Insignia, a Fire Sigil, a Shakedown, a Warleader, an Annihilate, and a Cen Wastes Smuggler. With a good balance between threats and interaction, this seems like a keep. Here, my start would have been great if I remembered to make the power swap, but you can’t expect me to be competent. That’s a bit much of an ask. 😛 I end up leading with Insignia and Shakedown, mainly because I’d rather go Shakedown into Warleader, particularly since I’m on the play. I open with Shakedown, and see Alessi, Kira, and 2 Predator’s Instinct. Oh boy, that is…an unbelievably awkward hand. In this position, since I have the Annihilate in hand and I know they don’t currently have any protection for their Kira, I opt to take their Alessi. Plus, this way, I know I should be safe running out Warleader and getting a hit in – don’t think they’d run out anything on T2 here even if they draw another 2 drop unit. They play an Insignia and just pass.
On my turn, I Nightfall into 2 power cards, play out my Warleader and pass; on their turn, they play a 2nd Insignia into an Icaria. On my turn, I play the Crest, leave a Champion on top, and go for the Annihilate on the Icaria: I don’t want them pulling ahead in power since they do still have 2 unknowns in hand, and if need be, I have the Cen Wastes Smuggler to pull an Edict out of my market – or I could just slam a 5/5 Champion. Not too bad either. On their turn, they drop a Valkyrie Enforcer on the Warleader, which is honestly fine – I can still attack in, at least this turn, and it means they don’t have it around for my Champion, which I’m quick to play following that.
Next turn, they drop a Pearl Abbey Smuggler, play a Justice Symbol and pass; honestly, besides Trickshot Ruffian and Bring to Justice, I’m not entirely sure what they got. My first guess is probably Pristine Light since that card is fantastic against Stonescar, but I could easily see them picking up Stand Together and Sword, since they probably know I at least don’t have Torch, otherwise I probably would have used it last turn on the Enforcer. Not too sure here. I draw and play a Midchief Salus, amplified once, before swinging in with both units; they choose to double-block the Blackhall Warleader instead of the Champion, which screams to me they unequivocally have Pristine Light in hand; however, I’m still fine trading off my Warleader for the Smuggler. I decide to kill the Smuggler over the Enforcer because in this deck especially, it’s possible for it to grow out of hand really quick, and since I’m going to be the aggressor for most of the game, I’m not too concerned about the flying on Enforcer. On top of that, the fact that Smuggler is multifaction is definitely a point of consideration.
On their turn, they play the Kira we knew about, and play an Instinct on it, but elects not to fire off the killer attack and just pass. When it comes back to me, I open by Shaking them Down, and in response, they decide to Intrusion their units to nullify my combat and get another card from Kira; so I did see that they ended up taking the Pristine Light out of the market, and that rest of their hand consists of an Icaria, a Hojan and a Hooru Envoy. I’m not worried about the Envoy at present since they have no spells in hand to trigger it and to a lesser extent the renown on Hojan. I ultimately decide to take the Pristine Light out of their hands now that they don’t have any way to keep their engine going, and I feel like this Champion is what is going to get me over the finish line, so I best make sure it sticks around.
Following that, now that shields are down, I take the opportunity to play Smuggler and grab Edict to kill the Kira before it gets too out of hand – I still have no idea what they might draw, particularly off the Nightfall. It’s risky since that leaves me with no cards in hand to their 3, but I’m hoping that I can just keep pressuring them. They draw and play a Banner followed by a Hojan and 6J Icaria – a pretty impressive set of blockers – and I hope that conspicuous 1 power left open isn’t another Intrusion. :S I grab a Banner and a Warcry-buffed Milos off the top, I slam down the Milos, and jam – show me the Intrusion. They elect to double block the Milos with Enforcer and Icaria, and let everything through; I assume the reason they left the Hojan around and dropping to a pretty precarious 2 life is that they have a power in hand to trigger its empower next turn, which still doesn’t put them in a great spot, honestly.
On their turn, they play out a 2nd Hojan and pass, which should honestly be ringing alarm bells for me since they had a Hooru Envoy which they could play it, which tells me that they probably have a trick – again, if this is Intrusion, I’m in a very bad position, but the odds are pretty low, and now that they have 2 Hojans for a massive life swing the next turn, I don’t think I can afford to just pass here – so I attack with everything. They plop a Hojan in front of each of Cen Wastes Smuggler and Midchief Salus – it’s Safe Return, which they use to pick up the Hojan blocking Salus and trigger renown, allowing them to trade with Smuggler and leave them barely hanging on at 1; I follow up with a post-combat Warleader.
When it jumps back to them, they play Envoy and use Etchings on it to grab an additional card, and go rummaging through their market; my guess is that they probably grab Bring to Justice here since they need to play out the Hojan to ensure they have enough blockers to survive, and they don’t have enough power to both do that and play Stand Together or Sword. It is, and they hit my Champion with it. I attack, and they’re forced to chump both of my units, and I drop a post-combat Yushkov to secure their fate. They draw and go for another Justice Etchings on the Envoy, but I don’t think there’s anything that gets them out of this; there isn’t, and they scoop it up. I had some very fortunate draws towards the end there, and my decision to keep pressing the attack where possible meant that those units were all buffed by Warcry, which, for a deck running so little removal, is unbelievably difficult to deal with. Be, be aggressive. Yes, if they drew Intrusion, they could absolutely pull the Uno-Reverse on me, but the odds of that were just so low that if they had it, they had it, and I should, instead of playing around everything, just go for the more likely line that gives me the win.
Match 2: (VS Sunsfury)
Another Kira match-up, oh boy. Hooru is probably a stronger iteration of the archetype, but I’m not sure if the addition of Fort Smasher, which is still going to be fairly straightforward to pluck off, is necessarily than Krull/Know shenanigans. Either way, the plan remains the same: play a bunch of big, smashing units, let them run themselves out of removal, and then smash. The Jetpack in the market is an interesting inclusion, but probably not fantastic against me since they’re going to be on the backfoot the majority of the time.
Game 1:
I mulligan an opening hand with 2 Buhtons, a Milos, an Annihilate, 2 Fire Sigils and a Banner; the hand is kind of mediocre thanks to the 2 uncastable Buhtons but still technically keepable, particularly since I’m on the play, but considering I want to be as aggressive as possible against Kira, I’m looking for a 2 drop. I keep my 2nd hand with a Fenris, a Milos, a Cen Wastes Smuggler, a Yushkov, a Crest, and 2 Fire Sigils. I’ve got a 2 drop, an aggressive start, and if I can draw 1 more undepleted power, the perfect curve out of this deck. I open with Crest, see the undepleted power I want on top, and pass. They play a Symbol and pass, I play Fenris, and they play Icaria. I play a Sigil and drop a Milos: honestly, them getting the ramp off Icaria isn’t the worst since they aren’t advancing their board in any way. They take 6, and that’s exactly what they do the next turn. As a result, I’m down for playing out the Yuhskov here and get in for another 6 since hopefully whatever they play will end up exhausted and I can keep pressing.
They play out a Tower, and shrink all of my units which unfortunately means I don’t have anything that can get past the Icaria. Hoping they don’t have a Bubble Shield here, I go for the Edict here and take down the Tower – I might have been able to snag a juicier target down the line, but I don’t want to give them an ounce of breathing room, particularly with 2 units in my hand. They draw a Firebomb, which is very fortunate for me, and play a Kira and Levitate her. They then follow up with an exhausted Hojan. I elect to attack only with Cen Wastes Smuggler, which they block with Kira and tell me that they most likely don’t have an Intrusion in hand; besides, they can’t effectively get in with Hojan unless they have (most likely) a Smuggler in hand for the Milos. Post-combat, I Seek Power and play a Champion, passing. There is something to be said of not playing out the power and holding it for a Jekk, but this way I can activate Fenris and play out the Salus I have in hand next turn.
Back to them, they start with an unexhausted Justice Etchings, which tells me they probably have bonus market access for that Pristine Light. They attack with Hojan, I opt not to block – which was 100% incorrect – they don’t run pump spells in their deck, and they’re going to eat my Champion down the road anyway. Sometimes my brain catches up just a touch too late as they play a Smuggler into Pristine Light. On my turn, I start by drawing with Fenris, attacking with Yushkov for 2, and playing out a 2nd Fenris. Let’s draw some more gas, shall we?
On their turn, they play out 2 exhausted Hojans and an exhausted Huntress – this Yushkov is putting in some work this game. I activate the undebuffed Fenris and attack with it and Yushkov – the Smuggler ends up trading with the Fenris, and I pass, holding up Annihilate in case of the Huntress Killer attack or barring that, a Hojan attack with Lifesteal. They opt for the Killer attack on the debuffed Fenris, which makes perfect sense to guarantee at least a trade. I Annihilate the imbued Hojan, and they poke in for 2 with Hojan followed by an exhausted Envoy. Oh boy. On my turn, having drawn undepleted power in the form of a banner, I decide to go for a Cen Wastes Smuggler into a Nullblade – I know that they’re not on the Know/Krull iteration of the deck, but I want to get rid of these units whilst I know that they’re empty-handed. I opt to hit the Hojan first simply because it’s the one that can grow.
They unfortunately just have a banner, and on my turn I draw a Salus – I definitely should have played it pre-combat for the Warcry buffs. I attack in for 5, they don’t block, and post-combat I finish off the Envoy. They draw a card and pass, and I topdeck a Vicious Highwayman to poke them for 1 and end the game. Felt that this game was incredibly straightforward from my side, and Sunsfury just could not recover from the pressure we were applying – a few bad draws, and SS turns the corner on you really quickly.
Game 2:
I keep a slightly dicey opening hand with Salus, Fenris, Annihilate, Yushkov, Milos, a Fire Sigil, and a Banner – if I could just draw 2 more power, this hand would be perfect, but that might not pan out that well considering I’m on the play. Crossing my fingers that I didn’t get too greedy. We both open with Banners, and I draw a Seat. Isn’t it wonderful to be a luck-sack sometimes? I play out Salus first and pass. They play a Huntress and immediately off my Midchief, but I follow up by smacking their face for 3 with Milos; they play a Hojan and pass with an inconspicuous 1 power open. I opt to slow speed Annihilate to make sure I don’t lose my Milos in an awful blowout into that Hojan alongside Intrusion, and play a 2nd Salus after adding another Firebomb to their deck.
They play an Enforcer, silencing Salus and pass, once again holding up 1 power; I still suspect Intrusion from the previous turn, so I play my Yushkov and just attack with the Salus – I’m honestly fine trading the silenced Salus for an Intrusion here since they’re not going to be able to put up blockers next turn, and that’s exactly what happens. They play a pair of exhausted Hojans, which is great news. I play a Buhton, imbuing Yushkov, killing Enforcer, and getting in for 12. Never gets old. I have the option of playing out either a Fenris or Warleader post-combat: I decide on Warleader, but in hindsight Fenris seems like the better option since it can force a trick out of them if I decide to block a Hojan.
They draw and pass, and frankly I’m just confused at this point – I suppose they probably have Intrusion, which would completely negate my combat, but still leave me with a massive Milos; and if they don’t have it, they’re almost assuredly dead next turn, with my having just drawn a Champion. I’m not too concerned about additional blockers, particularly since Yushkov is still around and they’re only at 4 Justice influence. On their turn, they see the writing on the wall, and scoop. Post-game, they did admit it was an unfortunate punt on their part not silencing the Milos with 2 Hojans in hand, especially with Intrusion as your trick. 
Oh well, it’s still a victory for me. 😛
Match 3: (VS WitchyDiana)
This match-up is awful for me. There are sweepers, plenty of removal, and Darkwater Vines to stall out any of my 2 drops. And with the card draw they have, they have the late-game on complete lockdown. Gosh, removal faring well against big units – who’d have figured? 😛 In any case, my best shot of winning this match is probably just to draw into a bunch of Champions and hope that they don’t find Transpose into Turn to Seed.
Game 1:
I mulligan my opening hand with only had 1 power, and keep a hand with a Crest, a Seat, a Fire Sigil, a Fenris, an Annihilate, a Smuggler and a Champion. Pretty strong. I open with a Crest and see the Shakedown on top; I end up topping it, which I now believe to be incorrect – I’m hoping to just curve out on them anyways so there is unlikely to be a window of opportunity for me to play it and still doing something else. They draw a Hurler, play a Crest, and pass. I opt to play the Shakedown over the Fenris, which is just compounding on the punts here, especially since they didn’t play a Darkwater Vines – there’s something to be said about playing around a Hailstorm, but there are so many ways to remove the Fenris so at least get it out of them. I see a Huntress, a Hailstorm, an Exploit and 2 Snowballs; I take the Exploit because I don’t want them getting anywhere near my Champion.
On their turn, they play power and pass; I play a Champion and they play a Strange Broker. Gross. I, unfortunately, don’t have a 4th power for my pair of Yushkovs, and here, I decide to go for the Cen Wastes Smuggler grabbing a pre-emptive Bore for the eventual Tomes. With the Hailstorm, Huntress and Snowball in hand, I don’t think there’s a way of saving my Champion regardless since I’m missing my 3rd Shadow influence. Granted, I probably shouldn’t have run out a Smuggler into a known sweeper, but passing without doing anything and having no intention of doing anything would have been pretty bad and at least it’d get the sweeper out of the way, at least in my mind. I think there’s an argument for holding up Annihilate in the event they decide to go for the Huntress line, but if I were them, I’d be mighty suspicious of 3 open power out of SS, and as a result gone for Hailstorm + Snowball instead, especially with open decklists.
On their turn, they opt to double Snowball the Cen Wastes Smuggler and then use the Huntress to take out the Champion, correctly assuming I have plenty of things in hand to get swept up by Hailstorm. As a result, I use this chance to get in for 3 with Milos and knock off Face Aegis before playing a depleted Seat. They follow up with a 2nd Strange Broker into Huntress to finish off my Milos, and if this was a ladder game, I would have absolutely scooped it up at this point. They are still at 18 with a Hailstorm in hand, so I can’t even commit to the board to try and overrun them; plus, those 4/5 Huntresses are just a touch too big for Yushkov. I play out the Yushkov, and they play Exploit, taking Annihilate – probably looking to just beat me down with Huntresses, which seems fine. They play a Trove, and attack for 8, which I take. I get a huge chunk of power from Yushkov the following turn, and play a Fenris, activate it, play a 2nd Yushkov and attack with the 1st one; I’m not entirely sure if I have outs at this point, but them not having such a high life total would be a start. They attack, I take 8 and dropping down to 1, having not seen a 3rd Hurler previously, but as it turns out they have Incursion. Oops: should have blocked.
Game 2:
I mulligan a hand with 2 Fire Sigils, a Crest, a Yushkov, a Torch, an Annihilate and a Shakedown; this is far too reactive of a hand in this match-up, and I need to be applying pressure way earlier. I end up keeping my 2nd 7 with 2 Torches, a Seek, a Seat, a Fire Sigil, a Cen Wastes Smuggler, and a Champion. Not thrilled, but not poor enough to go to 6. I play Seat and Seek, whilst they play a Crest and pass. I play a Sigil and pass; they play an Exploit and take Cen Wastes instead of Champion – not entirely sure why there, but I’m assuming they have at least 1 Tome in hand they’d like to protect – everything else out of my market is rather unexciting in this matchup.
I play my Champion on 3, and they play Darkwater Vines into Exploit to take my Salus – ok, so that explains many things; a regen blocker for my Overwhelm unit is a pretty good way to buy some time. I play the Seat I just drew and decide to just attack with the Champion to hopefully knock off Regen – things are looking pretty bad, but not bad enough for me to double Torch a 1 drop yet. I hope. They don’t block, and I immediately regret my decision to not kill the Vines when they play a Huntress and Killer the Champion. I draw power, and I would not blame most people for straight-up scooping here. But this is a casual tournament for no stakes, so I’m content to just let it play out. I’ve got some time anyways.
They attack for 2 and pass; I drop a Warleader and have it immediately by Annihilated. They attack for 2 and pass, and when I draw more power, I probably should just double Torch the Vines here, let’s be entirely honest. But I don’t and pass it back to them; they play a Broker and poke in for another 2. I amplify a Salus twice – should not have done that as it gets plucked off before the Songs even resolve. Should have gone for it once and then double Torch’ed the Broker – repeatable Permafrost is fantastic against this deck. They clock in for 4 and play a Felrauk, to which I discard a power card; I draw Cen Wastes Smuggler, pick up a Nullblade since nothing else is helpful here, and Torch the Felrauk. They have a 3rd Exploi to take my Nullblade, and swinging in again for 4; I block the Strange Broker to shrink it to try and preserve my life total – not that it terribly matters once they drop the fully enable Intrusion on my face, and I scoop. Don’t think I could have done too much about it in the 2nd game – it was simply a very fantastic draw that I couldn’t contend with. 😛
Match 4: (VS Joan/ChangelingRain)
Praxis Tokens is kind of a weird matchup because whilst they can’t effectively deal with any of my threats, we don’t have a good way of clearing their chump blockers, so on occasion, I’ve just sat there with my opponent, staring each other down for a couple of turns. We do have Bores for the Obelisks, and I’m not too concerned about the Inferno Dens since we’ll hopefully be able to push through that, and may we find a window to close out the game before they poke us to death. Although I must say, I am very glad to not see a Fire Conjuring out of their market – that is certainly one way I might end up dying in a hurry. 😛
Game 1:
I keep an opening hand with 3 Fire Sigils, a Banner, a Seat, a Fenris Nightshade, and a Champion – a little power heavy, but not poor enough to mulligan. Maybe we’ll find a Jekk to ditch the excess power to? :} I open with a Banner and pass; they play a Grenadin Drone. I play a Fenris, and they play a Logistics Expert followed by a Torch on the Fenris to get in for 2. Turn 3 I do find the fabled Jekk, which is wonderful, and drop a Champion. They play an Assembly Line and a Crest, and I start Turn 4 by attacking for 4 with Champion – honestly, the battle skills don’t really matter in this matchup, it’s just the stats – and they stuff a bunch of tiny Grenadins in front of it to trade, which is fine by me. I Jekk their face and the Expert post-combat to cut them on their power.
Back on their turn, they play out a Temple Scribe followed by an Initiate and a Crest; back to me, I offer the trade of Jekk for their whole board, and I follow up with a Champion and a Crest, keeping Buhton on top – here, I should have probably just run out the Sigil in my hand over the Crest and just drawn the card with Trove: they’re unlikely to be able to remove the Champion regardless. Also, I should have probably bottomed the Buhton instead – since it doesn’t have any form of evasion, it really isn’t particularly helpful in this match-up. They play a Cykalis and clock me for 5; on my turn, I play Buhton and exhaust the Champion to kill the Initiate, which is…not great, since this allows them to keep chump blocking. Honestly, I think forgoing the imbuing and just attacking with everything might have been better since I’ve already committed to taking the Buhton. XD
They play a Kato, which unfortunately is just more chump-blockers, and get in for 5 again with Cykalis – c’mon, Torch. XD I draw and play a Yushkov, play a Crest, keeping Milos on top, and drawing it with Trove before cracking in with my 2 units. On their turn, they attack with both Kato and Cykalis, which is a little suspicious, but I block with Yushkov anyway; they Torch post-combat to finish my unit off, play a Supplier with both draws active, and follow up with a Drone – extremely smooth play there. Right now, I think I unfortunately need to hold back the rest of my units to avoid getting killed by charge units, so I cash in my 2 Troves and play a Milos before taking away their Tocas with Shakedown. They play an East Annex Smuggler and pass; since they didn’t play the card they took out; I’m inclined to think it’d be a Waystone Fragment or Flame Blast to the face.
Despite that, I opt to pitch the Cen Wastes Smuggler to the Jekk I have in order to take out Supplier and Cykalis – even if they did have Fragment, their units are still a pinch too small to get past mine. I play my 2nd Milos, and attack with both of them alongside Jekk – although unlikely they have Be Gone or Purify since I think they’d play it last turn, I hold back Buhton so I don’t get surprised on the crack back. They get in with everything, and manage to put me to 6; they did pull a Flame Blast which puts me to 1, and they scoop it up. A very close game which I almost shot myself in the foot with thanks to some misplays and Joan’s excellent play, but managed to get lucky enough to pull it back.
Game 2:
I mull my first 7 which only had 1 power, and decide to keep a Seat, a Crest, a Banner, a Highwayman, a Champion, a Yushkov, and an Annihilate. Definitely a little slow out the gates, but I am on the play, so hopefully I don’t get completely run over the first few turns, because the units in my hand are all great in this match-up. I Crest, and elect to keep the Seat on top; it’s depleted, but I do need the power. They play a Drone, I play a Seat, and they play another Drone followed by an Expert before poking in for 2. Oh dear – that’s a lot of very quick board presence. Fortunately I topdeck a Sigil to get my Seat online, and I plop a fully enabled Champion onto the board. They have a Cykalis, which gets in for 5 before passing.
When it comes back to me, I opt to go for an Annihilate on the Cykalis before playing out a Warleader – I can’t profitably block the Cykalis with anything in hand or on board, and that’s what got me so low the previous game. Hence, I opted to remove it instead of playing out the decidedly juicy Yushkov from my hand. On their turn, they drop a Kato and a Grenadin Drone for a terrifying number of bodies. I go for a Highwayman on my turn, pinging the Expert and getting in with everything – with the lifebuff from Highwayman, I should hopefully be able to afford to get a little more aggressive here – they double block the Warleader, but still take 10 to the face. They play a Supplier, picking up 2 cards before sacrificing the Kato shade and getting in for 7 with their motley crew. Probably figured that I wouldn’t use my removal on 0/1 Totemites, which would be entirely correct.
I play a Yushkov before attacking with both my units: they chump the Highwayman but still go down to 5 from the Champion. On their turn, they play an Expert amplified once alongside a Grenadin from Waystone, but both come in exhausted, which puts them in a not fantastic position. Fortunately for me, I topdeck a Buhton, imbue the Yushkov, killing Supplier and getting in for a lot of damage – they survive the attack at a precarious 1, and me being back up to 21, they’re going to hard-pressed to finish me off from here, especially with lethal on my board. They do not, and scoop it up. Turns out that Lifesteal and ping from Highwayman does WORK against this archetype.
(Disclaimer: due to timing reasons, I never bumped into EarthsOverseer or johnkkez whilst I was awake, and therefore was unable to get in my matches against them. Downside of playing asynchronously, I suppose. However, with my 3-1 record, I still somehow managed to place 2nd in my group due to a large number of missing matches, so thanks to the tiebreaker system of Battlefy, I’m in the semifinals. Honestly I’m shocked. XD But hey! I’ll take the content where I can get it. :P)
Semifinals: (VS Essarefess)
Stonescar Shrine tends to be a little grindier than Praxis, and can definitely win out of nowhere with some surprise Shrines. That being said, they do go a little less wide and aren’t that good at playing defensively, so I’m looking to overwhelm them with board presence before they can get set-up. I am absolutely snagging the Bore from my market every time, and having a Milos in play so they can’t afford non-lethal Shrines would also be nice. Essarefess themselves said that the match-up isn’t fantastic for them, but I could honestly see it going either way. Let’s find out.
Game 1:
I keep a hand with a Banner, 2 Fire Sigils, a Buhton, a Salus, a Fenris and a Milos. Snap keep. Enough power, 2 drops, and a Milos are exactly what I’m looking for. We both play power T1 and pass; they Turn 2 Exploit and take the Milos, which I agree with, particularly since it keeps me off-curve. I play a Salus, but on their turn, they play a Quiver and Brew it. Going back to me, I opt to play the Warleader I just drew over Fenris, just in case they have another Quiver. 😛 They Quarry, play a Grenadin Drone, and play a discount Exploit, taking the Annihilate, which makes sense given I don’t have the right influence for Buhton at present. I draw a Milos, and decide to offer the trade for Warleader, which they take – I’d rather them trade now than with Milos – before playing Fenris post-combat. They play a Strange Burglar, and on my turn, I play Seek Power before activating Fenris. Since I had the right influence for Buhton at this point, I think there’s something to be said of just imbuing the Fenris, cracking in and offering the trade – I don’t have an answer maindeck for the Burglar other than Jekk + Sigil, so ideally I’d want it off the board, and should be willing to trade my 4 drop for it.
They attack in for 5, which I take, and play a Shrine post-combat. I draw a Seat, which doesn’t help me with either concern, so I just slap down a Milos, crack in for 6, and play a 2nd Fenris post-combat followed by the Seat. They have a 2nd Makkar’s Quiver for both Fenrises, which is such a massive blowout. Man, this might be the first time I’ve ever seen that text on Warlock’s Brew come up. They attack in for 5, which I take, and the next turn I get in with Milos before passing, which I now consider incorrect. With the Makkar’s Quivers in play, I won’t be able to kill any of the small units with the Buhton Imbue trigger anyway, so I might as well get in for damage before they find units to start sacrificing and triggering Shrine.
On their turn, they play a Gleaming Grenadin, sacrificing it to draw 3 cards including a Firebomb, and then play out a Kato for lethal on me. I guess it didn’t matter anyway. Don’t think I could have done much about that, unfortunately.
Game 2:
I keep a Buhton, a Jekk, a Warleader, a Torch, 2 Seats and an Insignia. Particularly since I’m on the play, I’m hoping to just ride this Warleader and spit out massive units that just overwhelm them. We both play depleted power T1, and I open with my T2 Warleader. They play a Kato, but I get in with Warleader anyway and they chump with the Totemite. On their turn, they go for a Quarry, and I respond with an Annihilate – not the best value, but this Quarry ideally means I don’t have to contend with any blockers after the Shade goes away. They pitch a Devour and use a Combust on the Shade to take out the Warleader. Well…that was a bust. On my turn, short of a 4th power, I run out a Jekk with no summon ability – haven’t seen one of those in a while, eh?
They play a Quiver and pass, which is great news – at least we’re both strapped for power. I attack with Jekk and immediately cash in the Trove, and play the Fire Sigil I just drew. On their turn they play a Gleaming Grenadin and pass; I go for a Jekk attack, they play a discounted Devour, and I play a post-combat Warleader, leaving up Annihilate for Arach. They play a Shrine and pass. Yikes, still no power. I decide to just Annihilate the Rustling here since I have a back-up one anyway, and I want to keep the board as clear as possible. I poke in for 4, and play the Champion I just drew in lieu of another Jekk or Buhton since I am ahead right now and can afford to be a little patient with their summon abilities. They play an Exploit and take my Jekk – pretty straightforward choice I think since it’s the best card to clear their board with – and follow up with a Kato.
I Torch the Kato before swinging in with everything – they double chump and let the Champion through, taking 5. Post-combat, I play Smuggler and grab Bore for the 2 relics they have in play at present – if they find a bit more power, they’re quite in danger of just recovering with a surprise massive Shrine turn. They play Arach and sacrifice it with a Combust to get rid of the Champion – not sure if I’d have sacrifice the Arach there; might have gone for one of the Razorbots instead since it still bounces with Jekk. On my turn, I blow up both relics, Annihilate a Razorbot, and attack with everything – they block the Warleader, which I think is defensible; I think either that or the Jekk would make sense here since they’re quite a potent combo. They play a Gleaming Grenadin followed by an Arach; not desperately needing the card draw in this spot, I imbue Jekk with Buhton, killing the Razorbot and cracking in. They chump the Buhton and take 4; post-combat I cash in my Trove and pass. They play a power and pass, but I have a 2nd Buhton for lethal.
Oh, the very first Game 3 of this tournament, at least for me. How exciting!
Game 3:
I keep a debatable opening hand with 3 Seats, a Seat, a Crest, a Shakedown, and a Warleader. I am a little threat, but hopefully I can buy a little time if I can snag a Shrine with this discard. They play a Grenadin Drone, and I shake them down – as it turns out, Shrine is their only legal target. How serendipitous. They poke in for 2 and pass, where I drop my Warleader. They get in for a dubious attack with both Grenadins, and having remembered the Quiver, decided not to block. Turns out that’s exactly what they have – good for me. I opt to go for a 2nd Shakedown to clear the way but unfortunately whiff on targets; I get in for 2 with Warleader, and play out a post-combat Salus. They play an Arach, making 2 Razorbots, and I Nightfall into a Jekk, which I use to take out the Arach and hit their face; I think considering the nature of their deck, I should have probably gone for Arach and a Razorbot instead. Oops. I then poke in with Salus for 3.
They start by Exploiting the Champion from my hand and then play out a pair of Grenadins that they had gotten from Waystones. I mis-sequence, playing a Trove before scouting with Crest, and put another power to the bottom; wanting to eke max value from the 2nd Salus I have in hand, I opt to just attack with the Salus on board for 3, which they just take. The density of units on their board is starting to be of concern, however, but I can’t do anything about that. They play an Emblem, use Combust to take out my Jekk, followed up by a Strange Burglar before attacking with everything. Oh dear. I opt to block one of the 3/1 Grenadins, taking it out, but I’m still taking 11 and in a very precarious position. I draw a power, and elect to just scoop – they can start giving their units a buff with Quiver, and I can’t deal with the Burglar at all. (Kudos to Essarefess on the back-to-back TNT tournament wins, by the way; I wonder if they didn’t TO for the TNE series they’d just completely wreck the competition? :thinkingface: )
Final thoughts:
I had a really good time in my very first TNT tournament – the asynchronous matches work great for anyone with a busy schedule, and considering it’s a very casual environment with no stakes, it’s a great place to try out some fun brews in a tournament setting without feeling like you’re giving up too much. I’m not a fan of non-official tournament formats such as Serf or Hero (hence why I didn’t play in my own team’s Peasant tournament, shhh…), but if you are, they run tournaments every week. Definitely going to be coming back for the Expedition one! ^-^
As per usual, you can always hit me up on Twitter @stormguard798 or lurking in the FE, TEJ and now Misplay Discords. Until next time. 🙂
Careful Considerations - Ramblings of an Aspiring Azorius Lawmage 