(Fire Trials) Agentflare 3, Essence 0

[agentflare]

by agentflare

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5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5fa 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fc 5fc 5fc 5gi 5gi 5gi 5l9 5l9 77e 77e 77e 77e 7dq 7dq 8pm

Same deck all 3 times. I didn't feel like being too creative. Fire (and the deckbuilding rulse) doesn't encourage that kinda thing. Essence can complain about that, and I agree with him. IMO, instead of having only 6 non-element cards, we should have a 50% in element rule.

First game he just got outrushed hard. His second turn Fire Shield just wasn't fast enough to kill my first turn golem. I outrushed him.

Second game I went with the same deck, trying to double bluff him. He went with Maxwell's Demon splashed into his deck. He got a poor draw, and my golems outrushed him.

Third game, I was seriously thinking about switching to either Raging Angels or just a fire stall, but had a feeling that it wouldn't pay off. We desynced with this epic scene:



He gave me the win, though he claimed he won on his side (I don't see how since the AI dumped its hand), but gave me the win anyways.

[MatrimKK]

Likely your ai focused on killing his 2/1 ash eaters with rage potions instead of pushing for damage.
Also once a game desyncs, he and your ai could have drawn different cards.

[Essence]

This matchup was an exercise in proving that clever tactics don't work in the face of bland, brainless golem rush.  I'm disappointed.  (Not in agentflare, but in the way that the Fire element encourages exactly two tactics over and over again.)

by Essence

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5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f7 5f7 5fc 5fc 5fk 5fk 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5v2 5v2 5v2 5v2 5v2 5v2 7di 7di 7di 7dl 7dl 7dl 8pt

This deck I figured would stand up to anything except a first-turn Golem that was able to grow before the Fire Bucklers hit the table.  Cloaks would keep the shield and sword safe from deflags and the creatures safe from anything but RoF, so this deck could take on both fire rush and fire stall.

I went first.  My Fire Buckler hit the table on turn 2.  One turn after his Golem.  End of game.  Lame.

by Essence

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5f2 5f2 5f2 5f2 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5lg 5lg 6tt 6tt 6tt 6tt 7ds 7ds 8pj

Again, meant to take on fire rush (with Demons) or fire stall (with Phoenixes + Reflective Shields) with equal ease.  I figured no one runs Rage Pot in a rush, so the upped Demons would be pretty safe. Reflective Shield is a gamewinner vs. fire stall, particularly with Phoenixes as unkillable damage.  Shoo-in.

He was nervous about Demons when he saw the Entropy mark, but he got just lucky enough to draw his first Rage Pot just in time to kill the Demon I dropped as soon as I dropped it, and I never had time to drop another.  The RNG just loves this guy. 

by Essence

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5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 61q 61q 622 622 622 622 7dh 7dh 7dh 7dh 7dh 7dh 8pu

I figured I'd go for something unexpected.  Fire bolts to kill his creatures, brimstone eaters for damage and if he was stalling, for quanta to out lance him before he out lanced me.  The game was incredibly close -- we desynched and he beat my AI while I beat his AI.  Both of us won with 2 HP left, leading me to believe that my AI didn't cast the Brimstone Eater it drew BEFORE it cast Fractal, and thus ended up 1 Brimstone Eater too shy in damage to have won.  I didn't make that mistake.

Either way, I gave the game to agentflare because I was pissed at my bad luck and I needed to make breakfast.  All credit where credit is due, agentflare was smart enough to play a deck that wins, and I wasn't.  End of story.

[agentflare]

Essence, IMO, you were defeated not through my superior skill, but RNG luck. Both your round 1 and round 2 decks should've dominated my deck.

[kirchj33]

My only reservation about placing my trials bet on you was that you would try to get too cute while wielding the power of .  Let's regroup here Essy!  My bet needs you.

In all seriousness, congrats on the win agent!

[Essence]

Essence, IMO, you were defeated not through my superior skill, but RNG luck. Both your round 1 and round 2 decks should've dominated my deck.

Ironically, it was only my round 3 deck that actually did, when played by an intelligent human instead of the stupid AI.    That's the RNG for you.  (And actually, in retrospect, the first round deck was a little slow; you might have been able to win just off of Phoenix damage if the Dragons weren't early in coming. )

[kirchj33]

I enjoyed this chat comment, agreed, and thought I would share:

[17:37:09] ddevans96: Takes a badass to use fractal brimstones in trials.

[Jappert]

This matchup was an exercise in proving that clever tactics don't work in the face of bland, brainless golem rush.  I'm disappointed.  (Not in agentflare, but in the way that the Fire element encourages exactly two tactics over and over again.)

This is what bothers me about the fire element in general and the reason it's my least favorite element.

These also must have been the most unentertaining trial matches I've read about so far...

[TheonlyrealBeef]

No Bone Walls, Lightnings, RTs or AMs? o:
I'm sad to see unoriginal decks prevail

[Xenocidius]

Hmph, my bet is in danger. It's a shame how brainless rushes can beat well thought-out decks.