#19 Jacksmack (Johktari) Vs. Schneente (Pristess)/1:17
#Deathlock
#Ehren
#Johktai
#Priestess
#Felella
#Cervere
#Pressure
Another agro match from Jacksmack. Johktari is scary. Or rather I think fast is an amazing ability.
Running around all over the place shooting boomerangs, fireball or whatever is your preference.
It seemed to me that Snowduck (Schneente) played the exact same spellbook - only now with better channeling and better abilities. He was put under early pressure. Deathlock+Felella+buffed Cervere+buffed Johktari is quite a treat. I think Snowduck made a bad decision when he moved two to the left, rather than 1) stay in his zone and meditate. Temple zone would be a lot safer, and just easier to get creatures out. 2) Go for the damage race. He just been hit by a Kajarah for 1 damage and could go up and smash the Johktari with her 3 dice (Priest would have been better here?) With Brogan and a Guardian Angel, reinforcement to come and the perfect tools to deal with Cervere (Tanglevine/Pillar of Righteous Flame/Chant of Rage)
Easy now to dismiss the Chant of rage to be to early and to obvious (better in the QC than the round before) but kudos to Jacksmack for preparing a Dispel. Guessing What Schneente was up to.
Even after that is was a close match, according to Schneente he could have used his Force Push to get protection from his Guardian Angel.
Oh and I mentioned that Ehren was overpowered. That not true if the opponent uses Deathlock
#20 Aridigas (Forcemaster) vs Parkdeck (Druid)/1:06/6 rounds
#Minds Eye
#Regeneration
#Thornlasher
#Enchanters Ring
#Thoughtspore
Another Mind Eyes using FM. This time failed to put hard pressure on the opponent.
Giving up real quick - but maybe it was game over?
Enchanters Ring felt like a waste here, at least it would have been better to take 2 spellbook points worth of something else, rather than use enchanters ring only once.
Maybe Battleforge don´t belong in FM? (i have one in my current version) or maybe it can wait, so you better can apply early pressure?
#21 Keejchen (Wizard) Vs. Jacksmack (Arraxian Crown Warlock)
#Battleforge
#Gate of Voltari
#Demons
#Mhgeddon
#Hardtokill
#Curses
#Pressure
#Demonic Bloodlust
#Bear Strength
#Knights Courage
#Teleport
#Bloodreaper Dark Pact Slayer or Blood Demon?
#Drokarr
#Deathlock
#Sanguine Hunter
#Aflicted Demon
#Running
#Armor
#Acid Ball
So before i go back home and re-watch the rest of this video let me just say a few things.
I think Keejchen "butchered" his opening. Normally he would go for Mana Siphon and something cheap like Leather Chausses at r 2. He might have gotten a couple of Fireballs in the face round 2 or something, but that 2 mana would likely mean that jacksmack would not have been able to apply quite as much pressure on keejchen early.
And jacksmack did apply early pressure - no sitting back there.
I feel i and others can learn a lot about early aggressive play from watching Jacksmack play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faE8TQA-SWc
#21 Keejchen (Wizard) Vs. Jacksmack (Arraxian Crown Warlock)
This is probably the most insane and tense game i have ever played.
Tense and insane indeed
Lots of really tuff decisions on both sides.
All the running, movement, Force Pushes and Teleport! Its just a 4x3 square arena!
Hope to see more matches from you both soon
#22 Johktari (Powlich) Vs. Thesaris (Druid)1:25
#Lair
#Felella
#Maim Wings
#Thornlasher
#Outcreatured
#Bloodspine Wall
#Wall of Thorns
Another example of really good aggressive play early on.
Thesaris as the Druid - went for a round 1 Felella, and i kind really blame him. With Felella i your deck youll want her early and up against a nature mage you would hate to see your opponent cast Felella.
Powlich killed Felella real fast. I usually struggle a lot with that. Maim Wings+Falcon Precision and a buffed up mage made it seem easy. Earlier in the tournament we saw an enchantment on Felella being an "obvious" Chant of Rage, but here Coshade called it. If Thesaris had seen it, he might have reacted to it.
Coshade made a comment "You focus at the Lair so much, you just lose the game" i think that happened here.
Losing Felella + wasting time on the Lair i think it was to much. Thesaris did a pretty good job after that killing several creatures, but it is hard to catch up.
#23 Johktari (Aridigas) vs Arraxian Crown Warlock (DrMambo23)/1:02/7 rounds
#Battleforge
#Spawnpoint
#Outcreatured
#Ring of Curses
So pretty fast game this one!
Aridigas came with a "simple" but very effective plan. Put up a Central Zone Lair - use Meditation Amulet. Pump out a creature each round. Then cast a Battleforge to get equipment out.
It might be simple and seen before, but as i said: Very good!
DrMambo did not have the counters for this. Playing without a creature spawnpoint vs one is often quite hard, as they get reinforcement more or less automatic and you do not.
I think Warlock could have done better had he tried to stay a bit away from Lair and the Meditation Zone. Summon Drokarr and whatever creatures you have. Use Ring of Curses/Enchanters Ring/Morlochs Torment/Battleforge and then try to draw your opponent creatures to you - with Chant of Rage or something, then maybe if you have Rise Again, you could get Zombie Falcons/Wolfs army.
At the very least you could get the Johktari to either "meditate out of position" or give up meditate to do something about it.
#24 Schneente (Anvil Throne Warlord) vs. Werekingdom (Arraxian Crown)/3:17/26
#Battleforge
#Wandgame
#Stonegaze Basilisk
#Hurl Rock
#Jet Stream
#Acid Ball
Another real strong spellbook from Schneente. Tuff Dwarf with Wands and Equipment add Ballista and the nice Elemental Wand with Jet stream on it. (add Akiro´s Favor + Gale Force Ring and even Puddinhead might rely on getting that push effect)
Werekingdom´s Arraxian Crown Warlock seemed pretty good also. Like Schenkgoot and Florian in the video im not convinced about the merits of Stonegaze Basilisk. The Dwarfs tuff -2 just makes that cripple hard to get even with a reroll. Staying in range of the Ballista to summon Basilisk and a Battleforge seemed a bit risky to me.
After one Balista shot i think a move out of Ballista range and just play enchanters Ring and Regrowth would have been good. Then summon creatures.
This would still have given The Anvil Throne Warlord time to equip all kinds of annoying equipment from Battleforge so it might not work.
The Anvil Throne Warlord went for early pressure damage on the Warlock and put a lot of damage on him, but we saw just how much damage he can take and still be OK. The Anvil Throne Warlord isn't that great outside range of his own Battleforge, but its hard to keep him there.
#25 Keejchen (Bloodwave Warlord) Vs. Grimmbart (Bloodwave Warlord)/4:13/27
#Bloodwave Warlord
#Ballista
#Battleforge
#Barracks
#Equipment
#Creatures
#Pillar of Righteous Flame
Another mirrormatch! This time two Bloodwave Warlords, but very different in style.
Keejchen played an equipment Warlord, much like a few of the Anvil Throne Warlords we have seen.
Champions Guantlets, Wands, Armor and tons of equipment.
Must say it reminds me of Wizard - Warlords throwing Teleports and Dispel every round. Ballista reminding me a lot of Wizard Tower - only firing every second round, but still pretty good.
Grimmbarts Warlord was creature based. Construction Yard + Battleforge then Barracks + Meditation Amulet to pay for everything. Pretty scary economy.
Keejchen got somewhat lucky in round 2 were his Ballista one-shot the Battleforge then continued to change spells on his Elemental Wand, binding Fireball to it and going after Grimmbarts Barrack.
He almost got it and that might just have been the end of it. Looked like Keejchen could have dispelled the reinforce on Barracks, before Grimmbart walled of.
Also i didnt see round 1, but Keejchen Battleforge was placed in C1 an unfortunately place when you are in B2 and have to go to A2 to shoot at the Barracks in A4. Your out of range of your own Battleforge.
Take round 3. Keejchen played Champion Gauntlets form his Battleforge, changed spell on his Elemental Wand (Surging wave?) to Fireball and went to A2 and threw a Fireball at the Barrack. Casting a new Elemental Wand from the Battleforge and QC either Hawkeye or Akiro´s Favor would have improved the chances of taking down Barrack, but being out of range from his Battleforge then Keejchen wouldnt be able to protect his Elemental Wand with the Gauntlets. I think i would have risked it - as it would have required Grimmbart to run 2 (giving up Meditate) running into Ballista rnage and hardcast a dissolve.
Anyway Walls, reinforce, defend on Panzarguard saved the Barrack and when Altar of Domination came down and Talos came out it looked pretty grimm
for Keejchen.
Pillar of Righteous changed everything. I do think Grimmbart played way to passive here, staying away and doing nothing for to many rounds. Keejchen still had his Fireball Wand and could just stay at range 2 and kill Grimmbarts army.
#26 Aridigas (Wizard) vs MrBubu (Straywood)/2:17/16 rounds
Another cool and interesting game
#Super squad
#Grizzly sacrifice
#Dragonclaw Wolverine
#Playing without a spawnpoint
#Elephant Grass
#Win or Lose
Aridigas opened with a pretty terrifying super squad: Gorgon Archer, Water Elemental and Alandell.
MrBubu opened with Ring of Beast and a Grizzly. Then continued with Mana Flowers, Meditation Amulet and a Pet Wolverine. But he did sacrifice his Grizzly letting him go up and fight the super squad all alone - all the damage he put on the Gorgon was easily regenerated, so frankly i thought Mr Bubu had lost the game already.
But he made a nice comeback - getting good use out of the Pet Dragonclaw Wolverine and Elephant Grass were most of the fighting took place.
It ended up with a very standard situation. Mr Bubu had killed all of Aridigas creatures and had 3 himself, but had taking 20 something damage. So could Aridigas get the last damage through or would Mr Bubu recover and kill Aridigas instead?
Ending felt close and i think this game could easily have went the other way.
#27 Aridigas (Paladin) vs. CapredbeardIV (Bloodwave Warlord)/53(+30)/10 rounds
#Spawnpoints
#Paladin
#Bloodwave Warlord
#Bridge Troll
This was one of those matches i remembered as "why you don´t play without a creature spawnpoint"
But im still not 100% convinced - after all we have seen a lot of matches were mages without a creature spawnpoint worked just fine. Arraxian Crown Warlock comes to mind but Sharkbaits Paladin did really well vs. Dr Mambo´s Druid and so did Jacksmacks Johktari vs Schneente´s Priestess.
Here i think the Bridge Trolls did to little - main idea seemed to set up a hill with Grimson and Ballista, but id didnt work well. First Troll was Teleportsnatched then Grimson was Force Pushed down the hill and killed.
It might have worked if Cap had tried to set up at range 3 - maybe with a wall and Archers Watchtower - or put Hurl Meteorite on an Elemental Wand.
#28 Schneente (Siren) vs Keejchen (Paladin)/4:51/23 rounds
#PvS
#Turtle
#Spawnpoints
#Tsunami
#Who decides where we fight?
#Sherean Leviathan
#Mage Wands
#Champion Gauntlets
Well another really good match - this time with the two newest arena mages: Siren and Paladin
Schneente (Siren) ran a spellbook with heavy dude mainly Water Elemental and Leviathan (+backup)
Mana Flower, Naiya, Shallow Sea, Echo and Meditation Amulet.
Keejchen (Paladin) ran Temple of Asyra (Harmonized) and more creatures than i normally see. A lot more.
With Battleforge, Goblin Builder and Cassiel he also had more spawnpoints and familiars than normally seen.
This match took almost 5 hours. Interesting enough they played the first 7 rounds in 44 min then round 8-11 took 90 min!
Im sure a lot of if was new cards as there were some rule issues like: Guarding a creature with hate and a Chant of raged creature, Flyers hitting non-flyers in shallow sea, the Paladins Auras, Sherean Leviathan abilities.
Besides rolling/resolving a Tsunami take a bit longer than rolling/resolving a Hurl Boulder.
I think Schneente should have waited a bit before advancing - meditate and take out both Water Elementals and the Leviathan first then do the Tsunami thing.
The Tsunami was cool and looked like it put Siren back in the game. I think the Water Elemental should have gone for the isolated Ehren instead of into the Paladin zone. With Lifelink on Ehren thats likely to do 3 damage on the Paladin for a while. After the game its easy to agree. Keejchen got a lot of valor early out of punching and damaging the Water Ele - enough to put out an early retribution aura.
Siren was pushed and im still wondering if pushing her into a wall might have been a good idea?
When you plan to summon the Leviathan next round that is. His slow and having him in the Paladin´s starting zone might have been better?
After that Keejchen made a small attack when he attacked with his Messinger of Bim-Shalla into a Shallow Sea with Leviathan (No more Flying) In that round the Siren could have hit that MoBS and most likely kill it. Rather than Meditate and then have Naiya cast a Chant of Rage on that same MoBS.
Another small thing was not revealing Ballad of Courage when Keejchen had a Mage Wand with Seeking Dispel out.
Id also liked earlier use of the Sirens call - something that could deny Keejchen of fighting in the Temple of Asyra square or those withing range 1 of it. One idea would be to use Elemental Wand with Tsunami. If you stay put in A3 and cast a Tsunami every second round in A4, B4 and C4 i doubt it be long before Keejchen would react to that.
If we speaking of spellbook improvements an extra Tsunami would have been real good in this game.
For Keejchen id like meditation Amulet - with double spawnpoints and 3 spellcasters you just can´t be to "greedy"
I really recommend this game for anyone trying to become really good vs Siren. I think she´s difficult but have great potential. Leviathan is only a promo atm, but Battle fury on him for 7-8 dice + 7 piercing 2?
Im not sure how effective defend was - but watching something like that makes me think about how i could use defend.
#29 Powlich (Arraxian Crown Warlock) vs Parkdeck (Priestess)/2:22/16 rounds
#Deathlock
#Curse
#Unicorn
#Healing
#Range
#Single fine
#Arraxian Crown Warlock
#Priestess
Mystery already commented on this: "Watching parkdeck/powlich i see only bad play by the priestess up to 60min at least, dont want to offend anyone, but a magewand with dispel/disperse/remove curse to PERMANENTLY remove the ghould rots (even though there is a wardstone, just skip casting a creature once), which forces powlich to react and get close again, and the bit of dmg he took from the griffin with deathlock out hurts, with deathlock he cant heal himself, ghoul rots gone (2 easily if powlich wouldnt react even more) he cant use deathlink as no healing etc.
would be cool to know the deck of parkdeck, if it was just bad play or a bad deck
Hard to judge powlichs play if your oponent doesnt really do anything against your play"
Its hard for me to disagree with this.
Powlich played a curse deck with massive Ghoul Rot, Wardstones and the a starting zone Deathlock.
Immediately shifted gears w Parkdeck destroyed Deathlock.
Managed to stay at range putting curses on and then go up and then deal with the enemy creatures 1 by 1.
Parkdeck played a Unicorn book. Almost all his creatures had some kind off healing ability, so he was strongly affected by Deathlock. Poor spellbook or bad matchup?
When you put your spawnpoint in the corner + and you stay there w Meditation Amulet and summon 1-2 dice creatures its not odd that you struggle to put on an offense.
Priestess in general can be pretty slow if she wants to turtle and take a long time before she moves forward.
The Deathlock was very likely so i think Consecrated Ground was not the best choice.
Mysterys suggestion is pretty solid - stop summoning every round and do something about the curses. Coshade was also spot on (according to me) attacking single fine with your creatures is rarely a good idea.
Was there anything else that could have been done?
Yes i think so. Ghoul Rot vs Lowland Unicorn is not really a mana win for Powlich - both cost 8 mana - Powlich had Ring of Curse and Sersiryx while Parkdeck had a harmonized Temple.
So if those Unicorns could get 2 dice in vs Sersiryx or the Warlock it looks to me as good enough value for Parkdeck, even if Powlich gets his Curses back in his spellbook.
Another early option would be the classic Asyran Clerics early - they suffer less from Deathlock than most of Parkdecks other creatures. Asyran Cleric should be a better choice vs Deathlock than Highland Unicorn.
And how should Powlich deal with those Clerics? Put Ghoul Rot on a 5 mana creature?
While im talking about sacrificing your holy creatures
Id would have loved to see a Cassiel sacrifice. After she gets Ghoul Rotted - you could summon Dorseus then Ehren. Let Cassiel use Martyrs Restoration on Ehren and die then heal Ehren w Dorseus.
With Ehren, Dorseus and then the Griffin i think Parkdeck could have mounted an offensive and not care much about the Wardstones and Deathlock.
Even if the Deathlock was and is brutal for the Priestess you shouldn't forget that most Warlock has amazing healing as well.
