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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 10:33AM
#21
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Date Joined:
Oct 16, 2010
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It seems to me that the danger of playing Delthrin Everet is mostly that your opponent will only bring out his high level characters. And you will be left only killing a few of them before the game ends. However, it is the low level characters that are most effective. Perhaps the point of this commander is to incentivize higher level creatures.
I kind of disagree that lower-level creatures are more effective, though. There are certainly advantages to running a bunch of dudes, but there are a lot of cards that scale quite well with higher levels, or that really punish swarms. It seems pretty balanced to me at this point.
Even aside from that, though, four dudes is a whole lot to kill, and since you're not running Snig, you've got to kill four dudes and then get the extra guys into position, and even then you've just gotten to the point where you started 10 LD and otherwise have the worst stats in the game. He just seems bad to me, even if you expect a swarm. If you think you're going to be facing down infinite dudes, I'd rather just build a deck that's effective against that than run a commander that might be.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 11:21AM
#22
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Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2002
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I kind of disagree that lower-level creatures are more effective, though. There are certainly advantages to running a bunch of dudes, but there are a lot of cards that scale quite well with higher levels, or that really punish swarms.
Yesterday I had 4 Zombies take down a Dracolich by themselves. It was a thing of beauty. The Dracolich was able to kill one and severely bang up the remaining three (they only had 10 HP remaining each) but I consider that more than an even trade, all things considered.
Good use of cover (that Lightning Breath is sort of scary) and overconfidence on the part of my opponent.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 11:38AM
#23
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Date Joined:
Oct 16, 2010
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Absolutely, and Zombies are good for that too (other than being slow, hence needing overconfidence) because they're really hard to take out for a level 1.
On the other hand, I've killed 10+ levels of level 3 or less guys on one turn with a Bugbear several times, but conversely barely pulled out a super close game with my tuned Int/Cha deck vs. the Undead starter box. Optimization talk aside, one of the awesome things about DC is that things tend to be close enough in power that good gameplay is always important. (And as you point out, overconfidence will almost always kill you, that's part of what happened to me vs. the Undead box.)
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6 months ago ::
Nov 28, 2012 - 1:09PM
#24
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Date Joined:
Jun 20, 2003
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I kind of disagree that lower-level creatures are more effective, though. There are certainly advantages to running a bunch of dudes, but there are a lot of cards that scale quite well with higher levels, or that really punish swarms.
Yesterday I had 4 Zombies take down a Dracolich by themselves. It was a thing of beauty. The Dracolich was able to kill one and severely bang up the remaining three (they only had 10 HP remaining each) but I consider that more than an even trade, all things considered.
Good use of cover (that Lightning Breath is sort of scary) and overconfidence on the part of my opponent.
It's easy to get overconfident with one of the "big guys". My goblins took down a Dracolich the same way. Cutters and Archers pack a nasty (and quite massive) punch when being allowed to gang up on a single opponent.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 30, 2012 - 7:01PM
#25
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Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2002
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I've adapted the ideas from Bugbear Bowling but I only own 2x Bugbear.. but I do have 3x Vampire Stalkers which can fulfill a somewhat similar role (more staying power, less outright explosive destruction).
2x Goblin Archer (best 1 drop in the game, has DEX)
2x Hypnotic Spirit (CHA, basically wins any 1 on 1 confrontation long term)
2x Goblin Champion (more CHA, DEX, flanking is decent in a melee warband)
3x Vampire Stalker (core of the band with...)
2x Bugbear (oh yeah, this can escalate quickly)
1x Horned Devil (a final CON, CHA bruiser at the high end of the curve, could be the 3rd Archer)
2x Magic Shortsword
3x Death Sentence
3x Hypnotic Gaze
4x Defensive Advantage (hey, no Scheme, Lolth's Blessing or Arcane Circle)
2x Unbreakable
2x Tough as Nails
4x Undaunted Surge
4x Quick Jab
3x Nimble Strike
3x Spring Attack
I call it Chessmaster. Other former Dreamblade players will get the reference. I am going to be playing it with either the 8 or 9 Leadership commander. I think Tarkon because I want them to wish to refrain from cowering.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 30, 2012 - 8:53PM
#26
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Date Joined:
Oct 26, 2012
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That looks like a good plan to me. I was about to recommend Parry, but then I remembered that Parry is a level 2 card and you would have to keep your archers next to a dexterity creature, if you wanted to protect the archers. Since you are going to using Tarkon you might consider droping the Magic Short Sword. If you are going to keep the Magic Short Swords then add Cleave.
I can certainly see posibilities for Spring Attack and the Bugbear. Bugbear with an Undaunted Surge could kill a creature with one hit, then you could play Spring Attack, move six spaces, kill another creature, move six more spaces, kill another creature, move seven spaces, and then attack a fourth creature for thirty damage. Using only two order cards and your bugbear you would have split 120 damage equally between four creatures.
Hypnotic Gaze is your only card that lets you move your opponents and since it is useable by two-thirds of your creatures it is likely to help you set up the battlefield the way that you want.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 01, 2012 - 8:50AM
#27
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Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2002
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I refrain from using any STR cards like Cleave because the only card being able to play them is the Bugbear, and I do have only two of them. Vampire can use all my cards, the rest of the figs can only use a subset but together they should have adequate coverage that I rarely see useless cards even if I have to play two support figs instead of one support + one core. In fact I've been thinking of cutting back on CON cards and adding more DEX but Parry is just not as good as Defensive Advantage and the only figs I 100% want to protect are Bugbear and Vampire, since they're going to get a bunch of cards invested on them.
I think 2x Magic Shortsword is good because you just will never get an opportunity to kill multiple creatures even with Tarkon as a commander unless you can force damage through. You don't want 4x because they'll just get stuck in hand, and even 3x is a bit pushing it.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 01, 2012 - 2:25PM
#28
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Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2002
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Thinking of changing Tough as Nails to Regenerate and cut one Undaunted Surge to shore up one of my other 3x of cards (I'd make it Nimble Strike if I had a fourth, instead I think Hypnotic Gaze). I haven't played yet but I've tried a few test draws and unless I change Goblin Champion to Hobgoblin Soldier I think 6x cards that remove all attached cards is too much. They start to screw each other up. At least Regen and Magic Short Sword I can play in the right orderr so they don't get removed.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 02, 2012 - 8:53PM
#29
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Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2002
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After one game, a change around.
Commander : Tarkon
Creatures (no change)
2x Goblin Archer
2x Hypnotic Spirit
2x Goblin Champion
3x Vampire Stalker
2x Bugbear
1x Horned Devil
2x Magic Shortsword
4x Death Sentence
4x Hypnotic Gaze
4x Defensive Advantage
2x Unbreakable
4x Undaunted Surge
4x Quick Jab
3x Nimble Strike
3x Spring Attack
I never drew Regenerate and there is not a single time I thought it would have been a great card to draw, so I cut them back and will be putting in the last Hypnotic Gaze and Death Sentence. Death Sentence isn't great with Bugbear but is stellar with a boosted up Vampire and serves as extra Quick Jab for speedy healing. Hypnotic Gaze is just really devastating and when they know you have it, it often forces your opponent to play suboptimally just so they don't get blown off by a well timed Hypnotic Gaze.
Never drew the Magic Shortsword so I'm seriously considering cutting it due to it being somewhat less than useful. I'd like the fourth of Nimble Strike and Spring Attack, though I don't actually own the Nimble Strike... Unbreakable is also a bit underwhelming at time, it could easily be a Close Call or some other level 3 DEX card to allow use by Goblin Champion.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 03, 2012 - 10:45AM
#30
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Date Joined:
Jun 20, 2003
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That looks pretty solid. Although the Goblin Champion is....well...a sub-optimal creature, I get why you would want to include it on account of the Dex/Cha combo. Let us know how this warband performs in future encounters.
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