11/05/2023 Daimonji (CC) 3-0

 

Didn’t realise it’s been more than a month since I lasted posted a report, but here it is now.

RTN season is coming up real soon and I’ve been trying very hard to settle on a deck to bring for the only CC RTN I signed up for. Why only one? Because there are a plethora of event coming up and it’s honestly not cheap to pay even the entry fee, so yours truly must budget his hobby spendings. 

I should be safe to qualify for nationals with the 90 days EXP so getting into the top 4 for RTN is not crucial, but there are 2 pieces of cards I really want from the prize support: CF <Uzuri, Switchblade> and CF <Jubeel, Spellbane>, so most likely I’m gonna spend some money on those….

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It’s been some some sine I last played with <Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn>, but with the diminishing of “Ice” heroes in general in the meta, the only “Light” warrior feels like he’s playable to some extent and so I brought him to this week’s armoury at Daimonji to charge some souls and swing some light saber.

Deck list: https://fabrary.net/decks/01GSQM7Z4RBC1TMFPFZAP6RN4F

A couple of cards I’m still deciding on, but this list was created by Jimmy Le, who’s been a super dedicated <Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn> player since the hero’s inception back in “Monarch”

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The deck is called “Hybrid Boltyn” for a very good reason, as it boasts both the <Cintari Saber> plan and <Raydn, Duskbane> plan. Main focus of the deck is still on <Raydn, Duskbane> while the sabers are meant for hyper aggressive decks like <Fai, Rising Rebellion> or super draggy decks like pistol <Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire>.

I’ve written a very detailed version of the combo lines in the previous armoury report so I’m not going to reiterate on that. Instead, I’ll briefly highlight some key cards and play patterns when using <Raydn, Duskbane>

First up, the best card when we’re on the <Raydn, Duskbane> plan is <Fyendal’s Spring Tunic> as it allows our most sickening turns to be possible and allow a 3 hit chain with <Take light> with only 3 cards, thus allowing us to block with 1 card to dampen the damage we’re taking.

What we want to do in the early game is to charge a couple of cards into our soul so that we can take back tempo when our hand line up to be damaging enough. We want to block with any and all unusable cards in our hand as we don’t really make good use of 4 card hands.

Some of the frequent play patterns include:

1. 2 card hand with a 0 costed charge card and a random card we will charge into our soul
2. Single <Illuminate>
3. Single <Command and Conquer> off a yellow pitch
4. <Fyendal’s Spring Tunic> for <Take Flight>, <Raydn, Duskbane> swing and <Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn> to grant “Go Again”, followed up with a 0 costed card with on hit like <Engulfing Light> and <Bolt of Courage>

And some of the plays we can make to swing really take back the tempo in our favour:

1. <Take Flight>, <Lumina Ascension> for double <Raydn, Duskbane> swings and a potential follow up with a on hit attack action like <Engulfing Light> and <Bolt of Courage>
2. Pitch blue for <Take Flight> charging a card, <Raydn, Duskbane> and <Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn> for “Go Again”, followed up with <Bolting Blade>.
3. <Fyendal’s Spring Tunic> for <V of the Vanguard>, charging 2 cards, <Raydn, Duskbane> and <Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn> for “Go Again” and followed up with a <Bolting Blade>

As you can see from the number of cards needed to pull off the plays above, we are either blocking with 2-3 cards or not blocking at all when we’re trying to gain back the tempo, so <Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn> is a true mid-range deck when we’re on the <Raydn, Duskbane> plan.

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Game against Bravo on Talishar

I was on 1 life and had <Spirit of Eirina> in the arena, my hand was <V of the Vanguard>, <Beacon of Victory> a blue and a red and my arsenal was <Command and Conquer>, I had 4 cards in my soul.

So I pitched blue to play <V of the Vanguard> charging the red card into my soul, pumping it using <Beacon of Victory> for x = 3 leaving behind 2 cards so I could give my <Raydn, Duskbane> go again twice, and searching for <Lumina Ascension> and played it instant speed to gain back my action point. Swung <Raydn, Duskbane> twice for 5 each because I didn’t break the combat chain so they still get buffed by <V of the Vanguard>. And finally follow it up with the CnC in my arsenal.

Total damage count, 8+5+5+7=25 and this is not counting any buff opponent gave me by blocking with attack action cards.

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Round 1 Riptide, Lurker of the Deep

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

Weapon used: <Raydn, Duskbane>

Given my limited experienced with <Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn>, I’ve not played against a <Riptide, Lurker of the Deep> before so I was unsure of what to do, but charging up my soul in the early game shouldn’t be wrong anyway, so I proceeded with blocking his pumped arrows and generic attacks with cards from hand and swinging back with charge cards or <Illuminate> to get my soul count up.

Attacker into <Riptide, Lurker of the Deep> know well that we are at a disadvantage when it comes to the reaction phase if we want to give “Go Again” to our attacks especially <Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn>. So I took quite a number of damages from opponent’s plethora of traps, but I was managing my life total well and we were within 5 life down to the 15ish range when a big turn came.

I played <V of the Vanguard> charging 1 card, <Raydn, Duskbane> and finishing with <Valiant Thrust> for a total of 18 damage out of a 4 card hand, forcing opponent’s hand. From this point onward, opponent could no longer swing back with threatening damage and I had enough cards in my soul to maintain the card lead in every turn cycle.

I finished opponent off with a <Fyendal’s Spring Tunic> resource into <Take Flight> and <Lumina Ascension> into double <Raydn, Duskbane> swing for total of 12 damage.

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Round 2 Dorinthea Ironsong

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

Weapon used: <Raydn, Duskbane>

There is almost no point in going the <Cintari Saber> plan against <Dorinthea Ironsong> because she could very easily block 3 or 4 of our <Cintari Saber> swings which means we need 5 or more cards in our soul before we can go off which can prove very hard when facing a ever-growing <Dawnblade>.

The game went by without too much hiccups, I managed to contain opponent’s counter generating to a maximum of 1 with help from “D-React” like <Soul Shield> and <Sink Below>.

I finished the game with a red <Courageous Steelhand> when opponent was trying to hold onto his card so he could swing back at me for force blocks.

Game against <Dorinthea Ironsong> shouldn’t go as easy as it did because she almost never triggers the <Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn> passive making it that much harder to react with hero ability, so cards like <Beacon of Victory> becomes extraordinarily important if we can garner enough cards in our soul for an on-hit charge attack followed by double <Raydn, Duskbane> swing that are threatening life gain on hit to force block. As we all know, a <Dorinthea Ironsong> with 2-3 cards is much less scary than one with 4 cards in hand.

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Round 3 Fai, Rising Rebellion

Equipment used: <Crown of Providence>, <Courage of Bladehold>, <Gallantry Gold> and <Snapdragon Scalers>

Weapon used: 2 x <Cintari Saber>

As mentioned in the beginning paragraph, <Cintari Saber> are good into aggro match ups like <Fai, Rising Rebellion> so I went with them. As for the head piece, I’d gone for <Halo of Illumination> if I won the die roll and could go first, but since opponent went first, the 2 blocks and arsenal saving ability from <Crown of Providence> is more attractive for me.

There wasn’t any key decision point in this game because he was trying to output the maximum damage he could and I was trying to get a couple of cards into my soul and get double <Lumina Ascension> while still able to maintain a 4 card hand so I could activate my <Gallantry Gold>. 

We both drew very bad in that he didn’t see any of his <Art of War> until my combo turn and I didn’t see any charge card in the first 3 turns so I only got 1 card into my soul which was the on hit from <Illuminate>. But the good thing for me was I was able to play out a <Spirit of Eirina> after I blocked with 3 cards, that saved my effort of trying to get 2 more cards into my soul because now <Lumina Ascension> generates “Action Point” for me.

The turn before I was going off, opponent brought me down to 1 life after an unfortunate draw from a blue <Snatch> which I was thinking hard whether to block. Blocking it means I couldn’t use my <Gallantry Gold> and doing 6 damage less while not blocking it means I could potentially face 4-5 more point of damage from opponent, eventually I chose not to block it and I was paid for taking this rick.

So the combo turn was fairly standard with <Engulfing Light> getting me my third card in the soul and double <Lumina Ascension> with <Gallantry Gold> and 6 swing of 5 damage each which was enough to bring opponent down to 1 and I went back up to 11 while opponent had to block with his whole hand as well as entire equipment suite.

And on the follow up turn, I could finish him off with <Take Flight> into <Valiant Thrust> and <Cintari Saber> swing.

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Getting 3-0 always feels good, especially with an off-meta hero like <Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn>, <Raydn, Duskbane> is a really powerful weapon if we can maintain a couple of cards in our hand.