Double Battle Report

[gamjuven]

I'm not sure where to post something like this, I hope this is correct. I posted this over at boardgamegeek but thought it could go here too:

So my friend happyjosiah and I played 2 games of this the other day, and I thought them worthy of mention:

Game 1 - Black vs Green

The first game Josiah played Liliana, while I played Nissa. I won the roll and decided to let Josiah go first. He started out summoning both his squads. His Restless Zombies stayed in a group behind the ruins, while the Blighted Zombies were spread out in order to more easily grab glyphs.

I then went and deployed my Elementals also in range of getting the glyphs as well as my Elf Rangers. Neither of us played spells.

Josiah went and activated his Blighted Zombies and moved 2 of them onto the movement glyph and the toughness glyph, allowing the 3rd to move extra and get adjacent to one of my Elementals. The Zombie did 1 damage to my Elemental and then Josiah played Liliana's Caress to discard 1 random card from my hand, which was Skyreaping.

I then went with my Rangers and attempted to take out the glyph grabbers but rolled horribly and did nothing.

Josiah activated Liliana again, put her on height, played corrupt on one of my Elementals then auto killed it. I went with my Rangers and did nothing.

Josiah then activated Liliana and got her on height used her special to autokill my wounded Elemental. I activated my Rangers again and tried to dislodge the Blighted Zombies but only managed to wound 2 of them.

Josiah activated his Restless Zombies and destroyed one with Dark Harvest, giving them +3 power, and then used Rise of the Dark Realms to place the recently destroyed one adjacent to Liliana. He moved the one adjacent to Liliana up to Nissa and struck with 6 dice, dealing 4 wounds. He also played a facedown enchantment on the Zombies and Despise on my Nissa to reduce her attack.

My next turn I activated my Rangers again. This time though I played Primeval Light to destroy all enchantments, which included a rather nasty Strangling Soot that was waiting for me on the Zombies. I also played Overrun to give them +2 attack against adjacent enemies. With my Rangers I managed to destroy 2 of the Zombies as well as the toughness grabbing Blighted Zombie.

Josiah activated his Restless Zombie again but didn't manage to wound Nissa. On my turn I played Paths Revealed to give my Rangers +3 move as well as Titanic Growth to give one +3 attack and moved them adjcent to Liliana and dealt 4 wounds to her.

Josiah activated Liliana and moved her adjacent to his remaining Restless Zombie and used Altar's Reap to destroy his remaining Restless Zombie and heal 4 wounds. Note: This was done with the technical chance of a loss on Josiah's part since he triple disengaged my Rangers. Luckily for him, I blanked on 3 dice.

I activated my Rangers again along with Snare the Skies and attacked Liliana, giving her 2 wounds.

Josiah had Liliana move behind Nissa (and out of range of my Rangers), attacked Nissa and brought her within 1 wound from death. Josiah also played Crippling Blight on the Rangers to give them -1 power and toughness.

I played Bountiful Harvest to remove 3 wounds from Nissa and attacked Liliana, but missed. Josiah attacked me back and brought me to 1 wound from death again.

On my turn I played Groundspell for +3 power, played and discarded Leaf Arrow for 2 more, moved to height and rolled 9 dice against Liliana and managed to finally destroy her.

It was a really tight game and exciting as it went back and forth. I don't think I got everything down correctly as I am thinking I missed a turn somewhere along there, but it was basically correct. It was a great example of a good game I think as we both used everything we could to win the game. There were combos, thrilling dice rolls, maneuvering and strategy, everything one could want in a game.

Game 2 - White vs. Red

We then played a 2nd game where he played White (in my opinion as the worst Planeswalker), while I played Chandra (in my opinion the best Planeswalker). Don't worry, this battle report is not quite as long:

Again I won the roll and made Josiah go first. He summoned only his Rhinos 5 spaces ahead in a nice little pack while moving Gideon up. I went and summoned my Phoenixes all spread out and ready to grab glyphs if I wanted to and moved Chandra up.

Josiah went and summoned the Kor Hookmasters all up on height, and moved Gideon onto the power glyph.

I then activated Chandra, summoned my Firecats adjacent to Gideon, played Firebreathing on them and Twinflame on the one with haste. I then got to roll with 5 power. I got 4 hits, which were doubled thanks to Twinflame, and then I got a bonus one thanks to the Firecat's ability, which made for 9 possible damage. Josiah rolled and Gideon took 5 wounds. I then attacked with Chandra and on her first of two attacks she killed him. I also had Seize the Day in my hand and could have had the same Firecat attack again if needed.

Not quite the lengthy match as the first, lol. This goes to show why you must always fear the Chandra combo! It is quite potent. I had so many opportunities to instantly win the game. I did get lucky with my card draws but then again you start out with 25% of your deck and I got to draw 2 more cards. I had almost half my deck in hand when I pulled off the combo on my 2nd turn. Not that hard to pull off. It is very satisfying to win like that though

I hope you enjoyed these 2 reports, and thanks for reading!

[Aldin]

Great reports! I played a similar game between Liliana and Nissa with Liliana abusing Killing Wave to take out three adjacent Elementals and essentially secure the victory.

Also played Gideon/Chandra. Also had Chandra roll him with brutal spell cards. Having said that, Gideon's units can wind up with ridiculous stats. I kinda want to play around with him to see if there is any real way to get them going.

~Aldin, color coordinatingly

[chas]

One bgg poster said that the Blue Planeswalker was "just annoying." This immediately moved him up to my favorite-and I don't even have the game yet. I noticed you didn't use him in these two games, and so wonder what your opinion of him is so far, if any?

[Aldin]

Originally Posted by chas

One bgg poster said that the Blue Planeswalker was "just annoying." This immediately moved him up to my favorite-and I don't even have the game yet. I noticed you didn't use him in these two games, and so wonder what your opinion of him is so far, if any?

He's evil. And he's even more evil than you think he is. His abilities are geared towards saying "nope" whenever your opponent does something. A lot of times the nope includes knocking an opponent's squad back into the "to be summoned" pile - which can only be accessed when the Planeswalker is taking a turn, and after which the squad has to wait through an opponent's turn before it can do anything (Chandra's favorite kitty excepted). He gets to do this THREE times - once as a card on his turn and twice when an opponent's squad attacks either him or one of his squads. Aargh!

To add insult to injury, he has a powerful ranged attack and his troops are big bruisers. Did I mention that he can steal your favorite enchantments and cast your favorite sorceries from your graveyard? He's brutal.

~Aldin, feeling blue

[chas]

"I Don't Think So!"
--Action Negating Game Card in Conquest of Planet Earth (Flying Frog)

"I'm not evil; I'm just drawn that way!"
--Jessica Rabbit, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Listening to your most excellent description, I think he's still my favorite. But then, I always like Trickster Gods. Griznakh's Loki is one of my favorite custom Super Scape cards (its double sided).

[gamjuven]

Originally Posted by chas

One bgg poster said that the Blue Planeswalker was "just annoying." This immediately moved him up to my favorite-and I don't even have the game yet. I noticed you didn't use him in these two games, and so wonder what your opinion of him is so far, if any?

Jace is very good. Possibly #1. I haven't played enough games to decide that or not but he's easily #2. I have a feeling he will become the best simply because he takes a lot of strategy and the best players will emerge. Chandra is amazing but her greatest strength is that combo, and if you protect against that, you can beat her.

I do really like him though and I was very thankful Josiah didn't use him against me, lol

[gamjuven]

Originally Posted by Aldin

Great reports! I played a similar game between Liliana and Nissa with Liliana abusing Killing Wave to take out three adjacent Elementals and essentially secure the victory.

Also played Gideon/Chandra. Also had Chandra roll him with brutal spell cards. Having said that, Gideon's units can wind up with ridiculous stats. I kinda want to play around with him to see if there is any real way to get them going.

~Aldin, color coordinatingly

They can, but there is a ton of auto damage in this game. Nearly everyone either has a way to deal direct damage, or easy ways of removing enchantments. I am still working on my power rankings of the Planeswalkers but I am very convinced he is the worst. There are many types of spell cards that could be made to really boost him though.

[Lord-IVD]

Jace is BLUE ....