I'm going to assume the #12 in the tournament title means @z3ll has been hosting this tournament 12 times which is pretty cool. I was there for #11 where I had the #1 spot after round 1 but fell to #3 by the end of it.
What's different about this tournament though is that Z3ll also does a giveaway to those who participate so even if you don't land in the prizes for performance you can still win that way.
This time the giveaways were really good so thanks Z3ll for keeping this going as long as you have despite falling DEC prices making it difficult. Please send some love to Z3ll here so he can keep these tournaments going!
@yager1152, @lunchboxxx. @beanandpanda, @shinkurisu, @jos3lider, @fawndillmiballs @tbbgg, @chestnut13, @knightdehell, @morlorwong, @notestokill, and @bonobogologolo
Congrats on winning the drawing!
Now, Z3ll has outdone himself this time because the next tournament which can be found here has a Legendary up for grabs and if that wasn't enough 10 level 1 Time Mages will also be randomly given out to participants so you don't want to miss it!
This is a fun tournament to play just from the shear amount of matches you get to participate in and if you've been following me for a while you know this is my favorite ruleset to play.
Let's go over some key cards for this tournament that will definitely help you win more games if you decide to play in this tournament next time!
Daria Dragonscale
Daria is a must have as the only Dragon Summoner with +1 melee attack that can be played with any other Splinter and open up the dragon monsters for play.
Because she's an epic summoner, you can use level 3 rares in bronze games which is a massive edge when everyone else can only play level 2 rares.
Furious Chicken
With Fiends banned because they're legendary's, the chicken is the only option for a zero mana card and so many battles come down to just having access to one extra meat shield hit or sneak blocker.
At this level it still doesn't have a melee attack so it can also take a snipe shot.
Creeping Ooze
You're not going to find a better deal than Creeping Ooze who gives you a slow effect for just one mana. A lot of the time in tournaments you and your opponent will land on similar lineups so if you slow them and they don't slow you, most of your guys will go first.
Axemaster
Is my favorite carry card in this format. As long as you protect him he will pump out 4 damage per round with his double strike ability.
Luckily, Water has some strong front liners and supports to do just that.
Silvershield Assassin
Is another beast of a carry and I feel like there's a theme here since she's also double striking. As a sneak attacker though she prefers to take down the backline and work her way forward.
Pairs really well with Daria for the +1 attack boost.
Mushroom Seer
Is an integral part of the earth team in this set as a magic monster that pairs with Obsidian but that also has the silence ability to reduce magic attack by 1.
If it comes down to Earth Vs Earth and you don't have him you will struggle to do enough damage.
Here's a look at the leader board after round 1 was complete. No one managed to go totally undefeated but 4 of us hit the 13 win mark so the tournament would have to be decided in round 2.
Let's take a look at some battles!
In this battle you can see I make use of the Creeping Ooze, Furious Chicken, and the Mushroom Seer. Wood Nymph is another great reward card you can use in this set and I'm sure I'll feature it sometime down the road but for now just know it's a 4 mana monster with magic damage and tank heal.
The rules for this battle don't really sway me one way or the other. Close Range is nice but General Sloan is banned and I don't really want to play Water with Earth Magic open so this is one of those situations where it's better to just play the strongest team set up.
You'll see in this battle what I talked about with the Ooze and it's slow ability, because we have similar monsters, my Grund will always go first, my Wood Nymph will go first, etc.
This is a low enough mana battle where I don't like the Grund + Slipspawn combo. The idea is to split your opponents damage by forcing the back line to attack the taunt monster so Grund can do his thing but we can keep our Grund alive with a double healer set up and if we also use Mushroom Seer's Silence to lower magic damage it's more valuable overall.
As you can see our opponent's lineup just can't do enough damage to get through my Grund and his Sneak doesn't pay off in time before his team crumbles.
I had to check and see if I played the same person twice or something because this Earth team looks very similar to the last one I faced! Maybe it's just a testament to how common this strategy is but the Slipspawn + Grund combo is not a strong play unless you have enough mana to build out your entire team. If you have to play a chicken and Uraeus in your earth team because you spent 19 mana on Grund and Slipspawn it's time to go back to the drawing board.
Let's do a little thought experiment here to show my point. For my Water team, what order will my monsters be attacked? It's Torhilo my tank, then chicken, then ooze, then Nerissa, Magi of Chaos, and finally Axemaster, my carry. My most dangerous cards, Nerissa, Magi of Chaos, and Axemaster will be attacked last which means they'll survive the longest.
Sneak can throw a wrench into that plan but given the rules, my Axemaster will have Divine Shield, 1 Armor, and 6 HP, meaning it will be a while before a sneak can take him out.
Now let's do the same thing for my opponent's team. What get's attacked first? If you said Slipspawn and Grund you nailed it, by far his two most powerful cards get killed first, the opposite of what you want and the rest of the enemy team is not that scary.
As you can see it plays out pretty much as described. Don't fall into the Grund + Slipspawn trap!
This is a battle against the 3rd place finisher Amaari and at the time it's a game I had to win if I was going to get first place. If Amaari won we basically would have flip flopped where I got third and they would have got first.
In this tournament I'm always looking to play Daria if I can so an Earthquake battle is perfect. Combined with Life I actually have a full flying team except for the Creeping Ooze which is there because I had 1 mana left over.
Amaari doesn't have as many flyers so they will need to take me down before the Earthquake plays to big of a role in the outcome.
It ends up being a pretty quick battle but when you look at the lineups it definitely makes sense why that would be. There isn't a ton of analysis to do here other than the basics. Shielded tank up front, reach creature to off tank in the second position, ranged guys in the back.
That's it for me, thanks for reading and don't forget to follow if you like this content as I post every other day or so. If you want to know more about me or the $3,500 to $10,000 challenge you can find my introductory post linked just below here.
Until next time, PEACE!
Start Date January 7th 2022 Initial Investment $3,500 Estimated Account Value $3,151 Card Power 109,505 Target Account Value $10,000 Target Card Power 250,000 End Date : Unknown
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Cya next time!