Very scary and exciting match. I knew I could win but didn't dare to believe in it myself.
When I played paper I had 16 uppeds ( he had 20 like elk had now ), this time I had another 4 uppeds down. 26 people voted against me in betting and only 4 people voted for me: Inthisroom who knows me personally, Jenkar who I played with recently, Mrpaper who I played last trials and myself.
Tales of the Baron.After wandering in the wild, fighting wars on both 
and 
side I returned to the lands that belonged to me. When i entered my halls I saw that another master was sitting on my throne. Once again I had to prepare for a great fight and spent hours predicting his every move. Once again I had my friends suport me along the way, motivating me to work harder.
The battle didn't start out the way I had hoped, the stalls were failing. I reversed my tactic and went all on rush and managed to defeat my opponent. And once again I sit on my throne of glory as a master of . Now it's time for WAR
I have always believed that choosing bans is one of the most important parts of the battle. Considering elk's bans last year I thought that I could get an advantage if I choosed wisely. I didn't think he would do any big changes in his baning from last year since not much had changed in the matchup.
I spent a lot of time preparing decks before bans. Then I looked at the meta I most likely would end up with and the best way to win with it.
My 2 most important bans imo was SS and nova. Without nova no super fast rushes and SS is the main earth stall card.
When I first saw his bans I was really surprised he didn't ban nova. I used nova in every single deck last trials. After the game elk explained he was certain I would play lots of stalls since I couldn't win on speed with my upped disadvantage.
Game 1Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
592 592 594 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5mq 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 77b 77i 77i 77i 77i 7la 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 8puI started of with stall decks. I was quite sure it was unexpected since he used more or less the same anti-stall bans last year and his opponent didn't bring any stalls that time.
In testing this deck had about 70% win rate vs all of his rush decks with 1-2 pc cards. Seems like elk predicted it and brought a slightly bigger rush with at least 3 PC cards making it harder for me to stall him.
The game started of well and I managed to draw my dims+pa's in time. Vs a normal rush this would have been a win, unfortunately for me it wasn't. In the end I had Pa, SS and 3 dials in hand. He had 3 cards left in the deck and all I needed was another dim. I played the SS and went up to 80hp and played 1 dial. He destroyed the dial and made me go down to 20 hp. Next turn I didn't draw the much needed dim and played both my dials in case he had another deflag, he had 2, gg. Well played by elk.
Game 2Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 594 594 594 594 596 596 596 596 596 596 5rp 5rp 5rp 71b 71u 71u 71u 71u 71u 71u 7hi 7hi 7q9 7q9 7q9 8pkI brought another stall being prepared to face another stall considering he had Miracle on odd games. This deck can pretty much deal with all decks he could bring except a gravity-earth stall-breaker deck or maybe a aggressive devquake deck. It turns out he predicted another stall and brought his Stall-breaker. It was not much I could do.
However I didn't give up. I also lost my 2 first games vs paper and managed to turn it around to a win.
Game 3Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vl 4vl 4vl 58o 590 590 590 590 590 590 5aa 5og 6u1 6u1 74f 778 778 77a 77a 78q 78q 78q 7ae 7dm 8pjAt this point I had the change tactic. My initial idea was to go with stalls the first 2-3 games. Then when he predicts another stall game 3-4 I would bring rush to counter his slow stall-breakers. Since stalls didn't work, my control decks were slower than his, I did the only thing that I was slightly better at, rushing.
With no novas for him duos was to be expected. I faced a
deck . I got a nearly perfect draw and disco really made a good job. It was not much he could do. I won on 6ttw ( this deck can do 5ttw with crazy draw ).
Game 4Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 590 590 590 590 590 590 5f6 5fa 5fa 5fa 5og 71a 778 77a 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 7ae 7dq 8poThe rush deck that did the best vs stall and control decks due to golems building damage. Since this was an even game the chance of miracle was slightly bigger and therefore I brought the rush deck that was slightly better vs it.
I meet the stallbreaker deck from game 2 again. I had another good start and pulled a 6ttw again.
Game 5Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
4vh 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 590 590 592 592 592 592 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 71a 77g 77g 77g 77g 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 7ae 8prNow I once again expected the first deck he played. It was the deck that best was able to compete with my rushes.
Initially this deck was runed with 4 dims but since there were no flying cards in his
deck I switched to wings.
When i first saw the mark I thought he had copied my first deck, the dim+dial stall which surely would have meant a loss.
Got a ok start with a boid. Quite soon he got a warden out and I had to burrow my shriker. Eventually I got another boid out which I kept unevolved. At this point he had at least 5 gnomes, another 5 wardens, a lobo and lots of earth quanta. If he had SS or dragons as fodder I would lose. Fortunately for me he hadn't played either this far. I got the arsenic in play mid-game. The turn before the last turn I realized I had baned SS and was so relived. The turn after, I won on poison damage.
Game 6Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 590 590 590 590 590 590 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5og 71a 778 778 778 77a 77a 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7dm 8pnThis was the fastest deck I could come up with in testing that still had 1 pc card. The deck simulator gave it an average TTW of 7.68 which was even faster than his fastest rush.
It's worse vs stalls than the other rushes but at this point I was quite confident he wouldn't bring a stall. The frogs would bring more speed and resistance to BB, wardens and RT. It turned out I was right.
Got a ok start with several frogs out. Got a arsenic mid-game, this time it wasn't crucial since the deck was so fast. I won on 9ttw.
Game 7Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
4sm 4vh 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 590 590 592 592 592 5f6 5oo 5oo 5oo 71a 77a 77g 77g 77g 77g 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 7ae 8prThis could be the last game. His control decks had failed to stop my rushes. I was certain he would play one of the first 2 decks since they were the only ones that had won for him this far, it turned out I was right.
This time I only played 3 wings since I figure that playing just 1 wings should be protection vs his decks, and I wanted more speed just in case he played something else.
None of us got a good start. Mid-game I had 2 wings in hand and had quanta for both, but no pa. I still played one and hoped he didn't have a deflag. Fortunately he didn't. That 5 turn block was just enough for me to win the game.
Good games elk. You have become a much better player since last year, and it took me lots of preparation to win this matchup. I'm looking forward to play you again and wish you all the best.
O and if anyone has any other question about the game, or wants to see some of the unplayed decks I prepared, just ask.
