03/01/2023 Tanoshimou (CC) 3-0 (5-0)

 

It’s been some time since I last posted because I was out of town during the Christmas/New year holiday so I didn’t get to play any physical armouries. During the quarantine(yes, I went through quarantine when the whole world is opening up) I was jamming a lot of Talishar games and it helped me with my familiarity with the deck. The win percentage on Talishar is unrealistically high so if anyone out there is testing only on Talishar, do be mindful of that. 

The 5-0 in the title is me fooling around, we finished our games in round 2 and 3 rather fast and the other table was still playing so we played 1 more game just for fun anyway and I was lucky to win both of the additional games, thus the 5-0, :P

Dorinthea Ironsong

https://fabrary.net/decks/01GNBD6578WD6TXVQQADGQ2QY6

List is from Joshua Lau of "The Card Guyz", I take no credit to this. Was working on tweaking TNN’s list during the 100+ of Talishar games but JL posted his updated list so I adopted it. What I always experience in games in general is that I can usually pick up things fast and learn how to pilot a build to some level of proficiency rather fast, but when it comes to building my own deck/character, I normally fail miserably, this experience/occurrence push me into “net-decking” a lot and just adapt my play-style to it. On the positive side, I’m making full use of better players’ play testing experience, on the negative side there’s nothing personal in my deck, which I’m actually ok with.

Round 1 Arakni 

Equipment used: <Crown of Providence>, <Fyendal’s Spring Tunic>, <Braveforge Bracers> and <Refraction Bolters>

There were only 4 of us present for the armoury so it was going to be a full round robin and with that there’s a potential to a 3-way tie where each players gets 2 wins and whoever gets the earlier win would normally get a higher seat, so early wins are usually more important than later wins. 

Opponent is a cheerful chap I’ve know for over 2 years and he was aiming for the CF Arakni by playing Arakni, lol. In my limited playing, however, Arakni doesn’t do too well against Dorinthea due to the limited armour block and non-relevance of their weapon attack. <Spider’s Bite> on-hit only reduces the defence of attack actions which Dorinthea doesn’t play a lot of.

A small note on the equipment choice, do not play <Courage of Bladehold> into Arakni. <Shred> will pop it by reducing its defence to 0, so always go <Fyendal’s Spring Tunic> into Arakni.

I lost the die roll and opponent chose to go first. The game started with some fair exchange of attacks and blocks, I blocked none of opponent’s weapon attack and didn’t get counters on my <Dawnblade> as my opponent drew his D-react early and was blocking well. We were on even life total down to the 25ish range when my pivotal turn came. It was <Steelblade Supremacy>, <Glint the Quicksilver>, <Singing Steelblade> and a blue. Opponent played a <Leave no Witnesses> which I blocked with my <Crown of Providence> and drawing an <Out for Blood> for sinking my arsenal card. With this kind of hand, there’s just no good block for my opponent. If they over block I’ll <Glint the Quicksilver> and <Singing Steelblade> into <Twinning Blade>, if they block just nice I’ll just <Singing Steelblade> into <Glint the Quicksilver>. Opponent chose to over block, so I swung 3 times and drew 2 cards off of <Steelblade Supremacy>, also scoring a counter on my <Dawnblade>. From there it was a downhill ride for me as my opponent’s D-react was running low and my draws were acceptable.

On a particular hand I scored a hit to maintain the counter and finished the turn by playing <Remembrance> and putting back 3 copies of red <Warrior’s Valor>, we chuckled together, :P

Round 2 Rhinar

Equipment used: <Crown of Providence>, <Courage of Bladehold>, <Braveforge Bracers> and <Refraction Bolters>

I don’t remember too much from this first game we played other than his draws were mediocre and mine were quite good. When I had my powerful hand of <Steelblade Supremacy>, <Singing Steelblade> while still having my <Refraction Bolters> available, my opponent’s hand had 3 cards that don’t block so I had a big damaging turn and scoring a counter on my <Dawnblade>. Having a life disadvantage, opponent played more aggressively and pretty much didn’t block from there on while I was blocking with my equipment and 1 to 2 cards form hand and still threatening <Dawnblade> swings plus pump, the game quickly ended there.

Having finished our game and looked over to the other table, we saw the other guys still playing, so we decided to play one more just for fun.

This second game started much more akin to what a “Classic Battle” should look like with me on the blocking duty and waiting for my pivotal turn. We were on something like 20ish life when my opponent started his turn with a <Bloodrush Bellow> and the random discard was another <Bloodrush Bellow>, we shared a laugh and his turn basically ended while I had my <Glistening Steelblade> and <Singing Steelblade> “combo”, I scored 3 counters on that turn as I still had my <Refraction Bolters> and opponent over blocked the first swing. Second gamed ended with a much closer life total than the first.

Rhinar mach ups are really very swingy from my point of view. If they draw a couple <Bloodrush Bellow> in a row, it’s pretty much GG for me because the life lead they have will be so much that it’s almost impossible to pivot. On the other hand, if I draw my specialisation cards early, they have a hard time too.

Round 3 Viserai

Equipment used: <Crown of Providence>, <Courage of Bladehold>, <Braveforge Bracers> and <Refraction Bolters>

Losing die roll once again, opponent chose to go first which definitely makes sense for them. His starting hand was rather bad, but that’s the good thing about going first as Viserai, he simply activated his <Grasp of the Arknight> by pitching 2 red cards and arsenal-ing a card.

I have to admit my draws for this game was rather sick. My starting hand was <Steelblade Supremacy>, <Glint the Quicksilver> and 2 blue <Overpower> and this is probably the worst hand I drew. I played <Steelblade Supremacy> and swung <Dawnblade>, opponent chose not to block having what he deem a very threatening hand, after drawing an attack reaction I swung for a second time which once again he didn’t block, giving me a counter and I arsenal-ed an <Out for Blood>. At end of turn I drew <Glistening Steelblade>, <Singing Steelblade>, <Glint the Quicksilver> and a blue. Opponent played <Sonata Arcanix> discarding a non-attack action and getting a red <Shrill of Skullform> he then played red <Mauvrion Skies> into red <Shrill of Skullform> for 7 damage and threatening 3 rune chants generation. I wasted no time in throwing my fridge at it, blocking all 7. Opponent followed up with his <Rosetta Thorn> swing and I took it all. My crack back was a typical sick warrior’s turn and by the end of it I had 4 counters on my <Dawnblade>.

On next turn cycle he tried to turn the tide once more with <Mauvrion Skies> into <Shrill of Skullform> and <Rosetta Thorn> swing but my hand had <Steelblade Supremacy>, <Singing Steelblade>, a blue and a pump in arsenal. the game just ended there as I was swinging for 10ish with every <Dawnblade> activation. For this win, I saw 2 of my <Steelblade Supremacy> and all 3 of my <Singing Steelblade> within the top 20 cards which is honestly rather lucky, but the main decision points that led to my victory was opponent not respecting <Glistening Steelblade> enough and allowing me to put 3 counters on my <Dawnblade> which is just too big of a tempo swing.

Upon finishing our game, opponent wanted to play test further so we shuffled up and played another, which ended in similar manner but the difference is my pivotal turn came much later. I was at 17 when opponent was at 33 still. I was disciplined to keep my <Refraction Bolters> for as long as I could and it paid off, i was once again able to <Glistening Steelblade> into <Singing Steelblade> and get counters on my <Dawnblade>, form that point onward, all it takes is opponent getting a not-so-great turn for me to clinch the dominating position. I’m not sure if my opponent played <Tome of the Arknight> because without it, the average damage he does per turn is about 10 which gives me the window to pivot and get back the tempo.

I’m super happy about getting a CF <Arakni, Huntsman> so early in the month~~

Working hard toward a good Pro-Quest performance! Onward, Dorinthea!!!

Finally, wish whoever's reading this post a wonderful 2023!