Round 4-9 Preparation Threads

[Zawadx]

27	Gen. Zawadx	Avenger
1	Jenkar	flyingcat
5	Spacious bjesse	Gen. ddevans96
19	UndeadSpider1990	Gen. SpikeSpiegel
16	sumtwig07	Blacksmith

Ok, I'd like to make it easier for the whole team to come together for testing, so I'll be emphasizing this forum.

To start off, I'd like to ask you guys to predict your opponent's decks for ALL their opponents in this round. Our intel doc can provide you with the information on how it has worked out in the past. Based on this intel we can specify a couple of decks that we are likely to face, and can optimize our decks from there! Of course there are a few decks still hidden, but we've faced each element at least once now so no surprise answers are likely.

Also, if you test a deck vs a likely opposing deck, please record all stats here, as exactly as you can. This can help organize what decks works vs which in the future.

[Zawadx]

Let me start:

Earth is also having a bad start (worse than us), but they do have a lot of cards hidden in vault. We can still expect a few surprises from them.
They have lost their denial grabbow twice though, and have not salvaged any good grabbow materials, so we can reduce the threat of that.

vs Entropy, they're scared of CP Wyrms or Wings, maybe both. If they have a Fire Duo with RoF/deflag saved for air, I expect it'll come here. Or else they might try Denial grabbow. For Life they need to maximize their rush, so parhaps Graboids or standard Mono. For darkness they're afraid of RT splash, which darkness can do effectively alone or with ghostmare. If they've saved fractal it might go here, since their immortal has been weakened. For Gravity their Zap Grabbow is extremely effective, can't think of anything stronger.
So the most likely candidate for us are Immortal (weakened) or Dark Domin. Pulvy Smash is still around as a potential go-to deck of course and Denial grabbow has a faint chance of showing its ugly head.

Spoiler for Fire:

Fire still has tools left for a tough fight!

Gravity isn't going to be easy for them, since Catatitans threatens firestall while Death duo threatens rushes. Dark domin seems like a decent option. For time they'll turn to dims, prolly a dim fractix to counter RT. Darkness is best faced with a grabbow, since it can outrush their rushes while having strong offense to break if needed (and darkness's RTs have better targets in gravy, earth or light). Death is tough for them, so they might bring out something innovative. Their Wings/Purify stall looks potent tho. That leaves many options for us, tho denial immo and dark domin seem most likely (I have a feeling they'll keep firestall under the radar, tho they could reveal it too). They might choose to use these for other teams too, in which case we need to make our deck strong vs their suite of immos and strong rushes.

Spoiler for water:

Water has also been doing badly so far, though they might be on the verge of getting back on their feet. They do have a sizable vault left, so expect a fight.

I don't claim to be an expert on water, as a lot of their matchups this round might be facing weird decks or nonstandard ones. Air is going to be tough since SoW Wyrms provide resilient rush and sofree dragons provide a powerhouse rush capable of beating their AoE. I'd expect the rush with massive healing, so SoP Vamps or Sancrush are candidates. They need to be tuned for speed tho. Light has the threat of discord (less) or their air duo (very real). So Perhaps their fire duo to beat those two? Life is iffy on both sides, I'd expect a standard grabbow to beat life's weaker decks. Finally, gravity has strong options in DBH. I'd expect Sancrush to be used to beat DBH here (and SoP vamps vs Air), or perhaps Dark Domin to counter a mindgated Gravytal. That leaves Nymphcord as a prominent option vs us. Their fire/dark domins can also be used, but I'd say they're less likely.

Spoiler for Time:

Time's matchup vs Air is a bit complicated, since air can effectively stall or rush, Time needs to mindgate whether to use Ghostal or ghostmare properly. Based on Jenk's analysis they have all other elements as better stall targets than time, so I'd say they'll bring Ghostmare here. Entropy has a problematic grabbow, so I'd expect Pharaohs or an RT deck of their own (Graboids perhaps?) Pharaohs seem like the strongest option, but it might suffer to disco which might make Time bring their own grabbow. Fire is tough for time, and I'd say RoL/Hope is one of the best decks they have as it beats everything but firestall decently (and almost all other elements for fire are good firestall targets). But Spike might have the fallacy of overestimating RoL/Hope's weakness and bring Pdials instead. Life as a whole is iffy, I'd expect an OTK deck here.

Which leaves a lot of options for them vs us, but I'm kinda sure that Pbow is coming. If I were writing this analysis as a spectator, I'd start with Pbow vs aether first as it seems really really strong. Other options such as Ghostmare, grabbow and standard pharaoh decks seem much more inferior in comparision.

Spoiler for Light:

Light's decks can widely vary, and I can't say I'm sure which route they'll take in certain cases. Their chosen decks might widely vary since they are likely to still have surprises.
Darkness's AM/RT/BB duo is scary for them, so I'd expect firestall here to beat those. SoP RoL/Hope is also a strong candidate, but that's weak to panda. Air duo is a no-brainer vs water, unless they have a disco bow which will probably target water over us (although hain might recognize our weakness and choose to strike). Gravity seems like a good place for Vader Sader, though immortal is also possible if they somehow preserved it. Death is probably gonna be SoFree peggies, as it holds strong against bonewall and can punish their break decks designed to counter light's stalls.

This line of action doesn't really leave many options for us, so we must expect a wide variety of decks. Discobow or grabbow is possible from them of course, which need consideration as well as Vader Sader as a standard (don't see them trying to stall us though).

[Jenkar]

Fire faces :

Spoiler for Hidden:

: They haven't used firestall much. In their last fight with death, they barely won with dim fractix vs pandebonium. A firestall is very likely there as a direct answer to that cc deck. Their water-air-winged firestall could be a beast here.
: Here i would try something along the lines of stall faster, since they were beat by a "It's a trap variation". Firebolt for damage as well as phoenix and fahrenheit. Fast and can bypass dolls. That or retry the rt splash, but that'd be very specific.
: Time fears cc. Their fight was a SoP deja vs relatively slow mono, and that went in favor of time. Water deflag splash might give them the edge by freezing.
: They tried RT last time and utterly failed. If i were them, i'd try an extremely agressive rush, maybe grabbix.
: Honestly, their best shot is the denialbow, if they still have it. They've seen the weakness to denial we left WIDE open, if they have any brain, which they do. If they don't have a denialbow, i'd say they'd bring a reflective sancstall.

Light faces :

Spoiler for Hidden:

: their other good option for saders, and for aetherstall. Reasoning behind that is that we rarely prepare to fight dims
: faced entrostall last time. Likely will bringRoL/Hope
: firestalllllll, so gud there.
: Something rushy will fit here no doubt, maybe (hopefully!) saders
: imo they might go for fat aetherstall here. A good strength

[Jenkar]

Light :
Zap gravytal vs vampsaders : 7-3 vs AI. Depends entirely on the reliability of them getting (or not) their combo out early.

Earth :

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 55q 595 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61r 61r 61r 61r 61r 61r 63a 63a 63a 77f 77g 77g 77g 77g 808 81q 81q 8pm

vs

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4vc 4vc 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vl 4vl 4vl 50u 50u 50u 50u 590 590 590 595 595 595 5c1 5f6 5f6 5v1 6u3 6u3 74f 77g 77g 77g 7k0 8pm

: 6-4 vs AI : very close matchup, ai doesn't mistake much save for burrowing shriekers (accounted for)

[UndeadSpider1990]

R4 faces:
: May not be so keen to field Ghosts this time. I feel lobo will be useful this round.
: Scared of CC. Will prob bring Pharoahs/Nymphs for their high HP.
: Got crushed in R2 by Blue Nymph duo.
: Beat by Grabbow before
: Won R2 with SoV Dials.

Erm... not sure much on the analyses yet :/

[Zawadx]

Posted my analysis of all of our opponents, be sure to read them AFTER posting your own, if possible. This way we can get a good perspective

[Zawadx]

Discord Tinkerer vs Nymphcord: 8-2 Discord is a very powerful advantage since we get it first, and later dragons can come down to finish the game very fast.

Devtal vs Nymphcord: 4-6 I won first 4 in a row, and then went into losing positions on last 6. They just need to get fast NT out alongside disco, and then they can either rush us down with nymph spam or use ambers to lockdown. Fractal is absolutely essential to win here, but their denial makes it hard to use a fractal. I'd say that facing Gen here really discourages devtal.

[Jenkar]

Pbow vs Fun litt'el ghostmare counter : 5-5. Even matchup regardless, with tough decisions. If they get pharaoh combo down it's gg for us.
Rushy Gravytal vs Vampsaders : 4-6 : evenly matched indeed

[Zawadx]

Disco Tinkerer vs Water Dark Domin - Roughly 6-4 (I kept track in head, might be a bit of)

Gravytal vs Vader Sader - 4-4 Evenly matched, they just need to get combo out to beat us to a pulp. Unless we get very fast Guardtal.

[Zawadx]

Rushy Grabbow vs Denial Earth Grabbow: 4-6

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 55q 595 61o 61o 61o 61o 61r 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 77g 77g 77g 77g 7dm 7tb 7tb 80g 80g 80g 80g 80g 8pm

VDagger is the lifesaver here. Maybe try tested grabow with it?

[Zawadx]

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 595 61o 61o 61o 61r 61r 61r 61r 61r 63a 63a 63a 77g 77g 77g 77g 7dm 7dm 7tb 7tb 808 808 81q 81q 8pm

vs Denial grabbow: 16-4. Some ridiculously good luck for me at times, but this deck has a strong showing. Their grabbies can be food for our pus, Vdagger seals the game single-handedly if not dealt with and multiple grabbies can rush hard. I'd say this is the a-ok we need!

[Zawadx]

Tested the above vs Dark Domin, 11-9 for me and 9-11 from jenk's tests. Gonna try to see if replacing an Explosion for PU and upping a pillar helps. These matches are often really close, with about 3-4 of the losses by a single turn. The other 5 are usually due to subpar draws, maybe PU can help with that?

^Tried this, 4-6. Hand filled with PU led to 3 of those losses. Perhaps make a switch back to rushy, checking it vs denial grabbow on the way?

11-11, Recluse isn't that great. Back to the old