Summoner Wars Tournament (iOS)

Pacman wrote:

Dysplastic your next match is against athros, robthomasson you get to play me next.

I am not an expert in playing Fallen Kingdom, but I tend to view them as a champion focused faction. Between the Elut-Bal power and forced summon you have the ability to get champions out fast for low magic cost. Then you can use dark sacrifice to heal the champions, and also build your magic (the sacrificed units go to your magic pile, not your discard pile, with the exception of skeletal archers I think, where you need to lose a magic lock roll). I tend to use mostly cultists and reapers. Cultists make nice "armor" to put around your summoner, and also pack a nice punch when they attack, while reapers have plenty of hit points to make sure they live till you sacrifice them. They are a very event card focused faction, with forced summons, dark sacrifice and legion of the dead (chance to get 6 magic worth of units for 3 magic!) very key to their success. My problem is that they feel more dependent on card draw order than other factions. If you start off with a whole bunch of event cards, and your champions don't come till late you will have a hard game.

You're right that the events are very champion focused. What I've found while playing with FK is that I never have enough "spare" units on the board to make effective use of Dark Sacrifice - especially since FK commons tend to be expensive. In a way, Dark Sacrifice and Greater Raise are counterproductive events - Greater Raise is a cheap way to get expensive units on the board, and Dark Sacrifice is much more cost efficient when you do it with inexpensive units. Ideally you would combo them, but that depends on draw. My biggest criticism of the game is the fact that you can modify the units in the decks but not the events.

Either way, I overestimated a build that had done well against me, and played it poorly, but learned a lot in the process against a real pro - I don't envy whoever plays rob next. Though I look forward to playing more ad-hoc games against him - it will kill my win/loss, but make me a better player.

Dysplastic wrote:

What I've found while playing with FK is that I never have enough "spare" units on the board to make effective use of Dark Sacrifice ...

I think that we were playing "Avoid The Magic Drain" chicken at times which of course works against having more units on the board and thus against Dark Sacrifice.

Dysplastic wrote:

... but learned a lot in the process against a real pro - I don't envy whoever plays rob next. Though I look forward to playing more ad-hoc games against him - it will kill my win/loss, but make me a better player.

And there it is, the Kiss Of Death. Hey ho. I made a mistake in my deck selection when accepting your invite, so I cancelled that game and sent you a new invite. Looking forward to this next match against you.

Gulp! I stuck with the Phoenix Elves for my match against Pacman and (quite probably suspecting that) he has fielded the Jungle Elves who have the best record against the PE out of all the factions. If I don't get some decent protection soon against his fast and deceptive movement then I am going to become a whole hunk of burning elvedom ...

Well, actually the Jungle Elves are just my favorite faction, and the one I have played the most (according to the stats I have played 50 games as the Jungle Elves). But it is true that Phoenix Elves are not a bad match up for them. You seem to be doing just fine so far though

Pacman wrote:

Well, actually the Jungle Elves are just my favorite faction, and the one I have played the most (according to the stats I have played 50 games as the Jungle Elves). But it is true that Phoenix Elves are not a bad match up for them. You seem to be doing just fine so far though ;)

I do like look of the JE but I haven't played them so much, so I stuck with the more familiar (to me) PE. But I am getting some JE familiarity at the moment in a couple of friendlies.

Back at our match you just used Negation better than I have ever managed. I had a hand stuffed (as in clogged up) with all my Burns so now they've been force flushed out and all those bolts are shot ...

Well, I wouldn't say it was that great a use :p

I figured from your lack of discards you were loaded up with event cards. I was just hoping it was several Spirit of the Phoenix rather than the burns....

Pacman wrote:

Well, I wouldn't say it was that great a use :p

I figured from your lack of discards you were loaded up with event cards. I was just hoping it was several Spirit of the Phoenix rather than the burns....

Yeah, it was more the indirect effect of causing me to use up all my Burns as I could not use my available Spirit and having to double up on the Lioneer. I find the Burns to be more flexible than Spirits and would rather have kept at least the Greater Burn. I had to start up an offline game to understand exactly what was, and what was not, affected by the Chant Of Negation.

Yeah, that can be a bit tricky. Generally things that give units abilities are affected, but things with direct effects are fine. So burn, magic drain, reinforcements, chant of haste are still good, while spirit of the phoenix, goblin rage, goblin horde attack or chant of growth would not work.

Now if I could just draw a unit rather than all event cards in our game something might happen *sigh*

Got a win. Really thought hubbinsd was going to finish me off at the end but didn't. Close one there.

Just lost a great game to thejustinbot/raptordinance. Why didn't I realize you had a 3 square range on your summoners attack?! I thought I had you! Arg, I say, ARG! Nice job!!

Yeah, I had two health left and you could have moved in with your Elien and flame blasted me to death.

Barring some amazing bad luck, good game Dysplastic, well played!

EDIT: He's got my summoner with The Eater and Mook. 3 rolls with a +1 each - the way my luck has been going with SW, there's no way he's going to roll 3 1's

Not that I am nagging, but how are things going in match B? I'd love to get down to my next match!

(Especially since I have made some really dumb mistakes in my current friendly with Athros, and I've got them out of my system now. Note to self: Summoning surge only gives you magic out of your discard pile. If you don't have any cards there, well.....)

necroyeti wrote:

(Especially since I have made some really dumb mistakes in my current friendly with Athros, and I've got them out of my system now. Note to self: Summoning surge only gives you magic out of your discard pile. If you don't have any cards there, well.....)

Don't feel too bad. I'm considering a Faction change, mainly because while I understand the VG, apparently I can't play them at all.

If you want to get another game going, I'm up for it. You're a good opponent!

Well, it's been a tough game against Hereafter thus far. He's got Prince Elien down to 1 health. His summoner still has all 5 and is the only card on the board.

That said, I have survived both Khan Queso and Miti Mumway, and dispatched them both. Guess I'll see what he's got left in his final nine cards.

Pacman and I are still lurking. But he just pulled out an Archer attack with Haste & Growth that got two hits on Prince Elien - I had not even considered that possibility having been more worried about a Hasted Miti Mumway trampling my Commons. If he gets to pull that Archer stunt off once more then I am dead. I was already running (well, cowering behind walls) scared and now even more so ...

athros wrote:

Don't feel too bad. I'm considering a Faction change, mainly because while I understand the VG, apparently I can't play them at all. ;)

If you'll forgive a bit of feedback from someone who maybe isn't good enough to give it, I was wondering why you weren't moving your Summoner to protect her better. Given that you were building a ton of magic and not bringing out commons to protect her, running would definitely have been an option. Apart from my one berserker (which you admittedly got unlucky by not killing a turn earlier), the only person coming up to kill you was the Eater, and his advance was pretty telegraphed. i would definitly have run away with your Summoner, using your ranged attack to peg off my berserker, leaving behind no commons for the eater to eat, hopefully forcing him to be discarded and buy you time to bring out your champion(s). Leaving her stand put made her very vulnerable.

That being said, Cave Goblin is a good matchup against VG because Berserkers can ignore the defender ability.

So I can put down a win for Dysplastic over athros? Seems like that is the case, but I want to be sure before entering it.

Any word on how your match is going Gunner and ForcefulCheese? Not to bug you, but you are lagging behind the other matches a bit.

Not yet, it ain't over until the Fat Goblin sings.

Dysplastic wrote:
athros wrote:

Don't feel too bad. I'm considering a Faction change, mainly because while I understand the VG, apparently I can't play them at all. ;)

If you'll forgive a bit of feedback from someone who maybe isn't good enough to give it, I was wondering why you weren't moving your Summoner to protect her better. Given that you were building a ton of magic and not bringing out commons to protect her, running would definitely have been an option. Apart from my one berserker (which you admittedly got unlucky by not killing a turn earlier), the only person coming up to kill you was the Eater, and his advance was pretty telegraphed. i would definitly have run away with your Summoner, using your ranged attack to peg off my berserker, leaving behind no commons for the eater to eat, hopefully forcing him to be discarded and buy you time to bring out your champion(s). Leaving her stand put made her very vulnerable.

That being said, Cave Goblin is a good matchup against VG because Berserkers can ignore the defender ability.

Lots of events, and I completely spaced moving her until it was too late.

I banked too heavily on the priest+2 Holy Judgements getting in 1 more wound than he did, so when I dropped Kalon and got the stalwart archer in position The Eater would pass. Too much banking on my luck

Pacman wrote:

So I can put down a win for Dysplastic over athros? Seems like that is the case, but I want to be sure before entering it.

Dysplastic wrote:

Not yet, it ain't over until the Fat Goblin sings.

If you roll 3 1's, I'm going to go buy a lottery ticket

That being said, Pacman, I'll report it as soon as there's an outcome.

5000brians wrote:

Well, it's been a tough game against Hereafter thus far. He's got Prince Elien down to 1 health. His summoner still has all 5 and is the only card on the board.

That said, I have survived both Khan Queso and Miti Mumway, and dispatched them both. Guess I'll see what he's got left in his final nine cards.

I hate to tell you this but Miti was a trap.

Here def Brian

robthomasson wrote:

Pacman and I are still lurking. But he just pulled out an Archer attack with Haste & Growth that got two hits on Prince Elien - I had not even considered that possibility having been more worried about a Hasted Miti Mumway trampling my Commons. If he gets to pull that Archer stunt off once more then I am dead. I was already running (well, cowering behind walls) scared and now even more so ...

I think your position is much better than you are making out

That said, it is very hard to block against all the ways the Jungle Elves can attack

Hereafter wrote:
5000brians wrote:

Well, it's been a tough game against Hereafter thus far. He's got Prince Elien down to 1 health. His summoner still has all 5 and is the only card on the board.

That said, I have survived both Khan Queso and Miti Mumway, and dispatched them both. Guess I'll see what he's got left in his final nine cards.

I hate to tell you this but Miti was a trap.

Here def Brian

Argh NOOOOOOOOO!

Actually, I've played you enough to know that every move you make is very deliberate. At least it seems that way. But even knowing that, I struggled with deciding my response.

I considered running to the right, but I was worried about you summoning someone on that side and losing my champion to Miti.

So I was basically betting that you 'spent it all' just to get Miti out, and that you weren't prepared to lose him on one turn. Guess I was wrong. I completely forgot about the JE archers, which was dumb because I've been playing them lately.

As expected, Dysplastic takes the match! Well played Dysplastic!

Thanks! To be fair, you also did get pretty unlucky that last turn, as you missed the last shot which would have killed the eater and made it a new ballgame.

Pacman wrote:

I think your position is much better than you are making out

That said, it is very hard to block against all the ways the Jungle Elves can attack :D

I do tend to focus more on the disadvantages of my position rather - I guess because I know all about them - and not enough on the disadvantages that my opponent might be suffering, always assuming they've had a great draw and so forth. Having said that, I am having real trouble working out how to mount an effective attack in our game, especially with the need to protect my wounded Summoner from the threat of your jumped up Elves. I will keep chewing at the problem ... a skill is knowing when to take the chance, you rarely get a "perfect" attack.

robthomasson wrote:

Having said that, I am having real trouble working out how to mount an effective attack in our game, especially with the need to protect my wounded Summoner from the threat of your jumped up Elves. I will keep chewing at the problem ... a skill is knowing when to take the chance, you rarely get a "perfect" attack.

I am having the same problem, but one of us will have to stop cowering behind our walls and make a move at some point. I've already made my reckless charge of the game, so I vote you :p

Pacman wrote:

I am having the same problem, but one of us will have to stop cowering behind our walls and make a move at some point. I've already made my reckless charge of the game, so I vote you :p

That sounds so reasonable and even-handed. What I have done for now is give up on one hope and burn a dearly beloved card for magic in the hopes of getting a new insight with its replacement ...

Okay, Pacman, I have given up - I can't get what I want. So I have made a move forward. It goes without saying that I don't like the look of it one little bit what with all your implacably lurking potential. But hey, I could get lucky ...

After the game you'll have to let me know what you were hoping for. As it is, I have no idea how things will go, but I think you have a larger margin of error than I do, given your advantage in material (and magic). We'll see what happens