Draconis 8 Tournament Elite Eight – DanTheMeek(Elo rank 1) vs Eydir(Elo rank 5) – Game 1

At the time of this writing, Draconis 8’s first major tournament is in its final stages.  32 of the top players from the games beta were collected into a single tournament, including nearly all the top Elo leader board players and members of the dev team, with official prize support from WWG.  The tournament is using a 3 pack sealed format, removing all collection advantages as everyone is given 3 random packs to build their deck from.

The tournament started with four pools of 8 players each, with only the top 2 making it out of each group.    All 3 of the top 3 on the Elo leader boards at the time made it out of their groups, but there were a number of surprise upsets, as well as two players I dubbed the Tragic Two, OttoCyclPlus and Szaniz, failing to advance despite finishing 5-2 in their group due to tie breakers.  Other noteable surprises included two unranked elo players, Scorium and the games lead programmer Dev36, escaping a group that including numerous top 10 elo players.  In the end, though, we were left with just 8 players who qualified for the Elite Eight, and the additional prizes.  Of those, was myself, DanTheMeek, currently number 1 on the life time Elo board, finishing 6-1 and first in my group, and Eydir, currently ranked 5th but number 3 on the leader board at the time, who finished 5-2 and by virtue of the seeding system, found themselves matched up with me, assuring that at least one of the top 3 would move on to the final four, but also that at least one of us would be eliminated.

Starting from the Elite Eight the tournament format changed to being a best 2 of 3, and so it was Eydir and I began our matches.  Prior to play, one of the games lead developers, Carl (CVO) had requested if any of the players could stream or do a play by play of their match.  As Eydir and I participated in a asynch match, streaming didn’t make much sense, so I decided to try something different, writing down my thoughts at each stage of the matches, and taking a handful of screen shots, with the hope of giving a time capsule play by play.  Hopefully you find this interesting or enjoyable.

Game 1 – Deck Building

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the packs I opened, but my thoughts on the packs that I wrote down were largely negative.  I didn’t hate my dragons, 2 of the 3 were poor but the third was a respectable slow stomp dragon.  My unhappiness was with the champs.  I only got a handful of champs with speed over 10, most of my cards had even or split stat distributions, and I had, per my notes, 7 stomp champs in those 3 packs, resulting in a slim selection of non-stomp abilities.  One note I made was the pain at the fact that one of the few fast cards I did get, was a Range card with a 50 on the side opposite its range, literally the worst stat distribution possible for a range card.  I also pulled zero aura, giving me less ways then usual to make up for the speed point loss from being slow (note at the time of the tournament speed points were worth 1 full point rather then half a point as was announced to be coming as a balance change in the near future).  All of this pretty much forced my hand into running 4 stomps (3 champs and the dragon), confuse cards even though I was already over loaded on disruption via all that stomp, and some faster cards I wouldn’t normally have chosen just so that I wouldn’t lose the speed battle 7-0.

Game 1 – Turn 1 (D 0 – E 0)

I’m going to quote my exact notes here:

“So the good news, my terrain was selected. It’s not a huge advantage to me, but its something, and with this deck I’m going to need everything. I can clear all 4 sides of the terrain, and one of my stomps can clear the highest side by exactly 1. Unfortunately I drew it in my opening hand, and my other card is my fastest card, speed 15 confuse, which I can’t justify wasting on the opening turn. The good news, potentially, is even if they play a rooted to a high ground, this guys still getting me 2 turn 1 points.”

As it turned out, despite being slow, my stomp won the speed battle as my opponent played an even slower flyer, then played it against my stomper to activate flight, resulting in my being up 3-2 (1 speed point, plus high ground, they got 2 points via flight).

This move did leave me curious as to my opponents reason for playing where they did.  My best guess is that they used the 43 side so the 1 would be furthest away (and thus potentially end up on the edge of the board and thus not an exploitable weakness), and attacked me instead of the 40 high ground (which would have accomplished the same thing with out the risk of me gaining a point if I later rotated them) because they have a 41 or more non-flight card in hand they wanted to use against the high ground.  It’s possible my assessment is wrong, but assuming this is the case I now begin to factor in the possibility that they have a 41+ power card in their hand into my strategy until I see one played.

Game 1 – Turn 2 (D 3 – E 2)

While I now have a decent play for my confuse card in hand (I could cover up my exposed 1 or 16 and rotate the chimera), doing so would leave a weak corner with the territory for my opponent to exploit.  The optimal play (if I go first) for my other card, a ranged dwarf, also does this, but he both also has the potential to take that last high ground, and to cover up his own 4 by playing onto my ogre.  Further still, if I play him on the 16 instead of the 1, he’ll have a 41 facing the weak corner I’d have created, making it harder to exploit, and putting my 18 against his 34, a place I wouldn’t mind him covering up if he wants attack that 18 down the road.

As it turns out he goes for a 19 speed strong cornered rooted bug.  This makes me happy, he’s won the speed point but at a 10 speed difference, rather then the 4 speed if I’d played the confuse.  He also can’t take the high ground, and thus has no current play for more then 1 point.  Given how much disruption I’m running, its mildly annoying that he’s using a rooted, but no matter where he plays I’ll still have a strong target for disruption in his chimera available.  Ultimately he chooses to take the bottom 9 on the territory, a solid play which prevents me from covering the 1 with my ranged (his 28 side will beat my 18), leaves me no weak corners to play into, and if I go for the high ground, means he won’t be attacked by my range.  I do in fact go for the high ground, as I hope to rotate that chimera at some point and thus, if I do, will push that 43 off the board.  The high ground also means I not only get 2 points now, but have the potential for a 3 point play if he plays into that top 16 on the territory later, and if he rotates me later, he’ll have to keep the 41 in play.

Game 1 – Turn 3 (D 5 – E 4)

My new card is a middling speed stomp.  While I can stomp the chimera, I can get far more value from confusing it, and now with the bug in place, I can even score a point while covering up my weak 1 at the same time, so I decide the time is finally right to play my confuse elf.

Eydir plays a stomp of his own, and a fast one at that.  It’s unfortunate to use my speed card and not even get the speed point, but its  also a curious move to me, not the card he chose, but how he uses it.

Rather then attack my ogre from below, or push my ogre up and face his 16 down, he instead opts to push my dwarf up.  This nets him a 3 point swing, a much higher in the moment swing then if he’d done anything to my ogre, but it both leaves open my original 4 point swing plan (which again, also covers my 1), keeps my 41 relevant, and most noteworthy of all, creates an exploitable 9/9 corner.  I wasn’t able to screen shot it earlier, but my dragon actually can’t exploit this corner, however, I included a single flyer in my deck, 10 speed, with a 42/21 corner.  This means, the potential for a 4 point play outside of my dragon has been opened to me.  Of course he doesn’t know I have this, and I don’t have the flyer yet, but its something I immediately take note of before making my 4 point confuse play, gaining a point on his bug, negating his 2 flying points, and then gaining a point from my ogre.

Game 1 – Turn 4 ( D 5 – E 4)

This turn was, per my notes at the time, the turn I felt would likely determine the winner, and the turn I spent the most time thinking about.  I drew my dragon, but as previously noted, with a 1/24/5/47 split, he couldn’t fully exploit that weak corner.  I didn’t really have a great target for stomping, but, as it was a speed 4 dragon, I could play him and just hope Eydir played a faster card I would want to stomp.  I don’t generally like doing that if I don’t have to, though, among other reasons not only because they could play a rooted, but because they will get the chance to play said card where I can least exploit it.  Still, my only other option was my speed 12 stomp, so there was a very real chance I was going to have to burn a stomp ability (something you always hate to do given its the most stat expensive ability in the game).  If I was going to burn a stomp, I wanted it to be on the card with the lesser point potential from a good stomp, so went with my ogre.

To put it simply, when my opponents card was revealed, it became clear that this all important turn 4 could not have gone much worse.  I won the speed battle, but by 10, meaning at a HUGE stat loss.  What’s more, as previously noted, I had no good stomp targets.  But it was far worse then that.  My opponents card was an aura mage with the powerful corner necessary to exploit the 41/16 corner they’d created last turn.  Suddenly I felt foolish for not recognizing why Eydir had made the play he did last turn, it was a slightly weaker play in the moment to set up this huge, unstoppable play on this turn.  And it was unstoppable.  Even if I filled in the corner, I’d just create a new corner for him to get 4 points off.  That left me only 3 real choices.  The first was to fill in my weak aura exploitable corner, nett just a single point.  He still gets 4 off of my new weak corner, I waste the stomp effect, and even leave open a weak challenge side (4 power) above for further exploitation.  The second is to stomp his stomper down, I get a net 2 point swing, but lose that weak corner.  The third is just to play into his weak corner, again, I get 2 points, but the corner is closed.

I note that I’m up 2 points, due to the speed point I just gained, so if I gain 2, and he gains 4, we’re just back to neutral.  I have a few more exposed weak sides then him, but at least we’re pretty much even.  Stomping makes no sense as it opens me up to be stomped up later, but filling the bottom right corner, that’s the safe play.  After thinking for some time, however, its not the play I make.  I take the single point, and still give him 4, giving him the lead.

Why?  Well lets just see how the rest of this match plays out…

Game 1 – Turn 5 (D 7 – E 8)

So during deck construction I’d included 1 command card in my deck.  I had better stat distributions on other abilities, but this was my only command, and it had a respectable 14 speed, and unless its completely unplayable bad, I almost always want to try to include a command in my decks if I can.  One of my hopes in playing the play that I had on the last turn, was that, on this turn, I would draw that command.  Why?  Unlike if I had allowed him to create his aura against the territory, by pushing him to create it against my ogre, I could command the Ogre to rotate and, in so doing, undue his aura.  What’s more, the command had a 32/14 corner which would allow me to slot into the 21/3 corner Eydir had just made for me, gaining 2 points, AND then allow me to flip around my ogre, for a massive point swing.  I did not, however, draw my command.

What I did draw was my flyer, and seemingly at the perfect time.  My opponent now has TWO corners I can exploit for 4 points with said flyer, so even if its 10 speed isn’t good enough to go first and get the speed point, he couldn’t block both avenues for a massive point swing, and if it did win the speed battle it would be a 5 point swing and I could take the bottom right corner, leaving open the possibility for that command play on a future turn.

And yet, that’s not what I chose.  I chose the dragon.

My opponent chose a 13 speed cheetahman, who occupied one of my only 2 remaining avenues for commanding my ogre, scored a speed point, a point off my elf, and then rotated my ogre to take away 3 points.  A fantastic 4 point swing in his favor (5 including the speed point), though one which did not seal his two weak corners, as if daring me to do what I would do, pushing up his mage, and thus breaking up one of his weak corners for him.  Why did I choose the dragon, and why did I do this move anyway?  In my view, this move served 4 purposes that would hopefully set up my victory.

First, and perhaps most obviously, it broke up his aura, a 4 point swing by itself.  Second, it made the bottom a border wall such that, if I could get my flyer into that bottom right corner, it could not be disrupted, it would a locked in 4 point play.  Third, it gave me 3 points, a point for attacking him, as well as 2 more range points, with the broken up aura that was a 7 point swing in my favor.  But 4th, and perhaps not obviously, but in my view at the time, most importantly, it pointed range at empty spots that were now guaranteed to be in play, one of which was over my ogre that was already being pointed at by my ax thrower and which I predicted would be a game defining spot if I could keep my opponent from wanting to touch it.

Oh, and another consequence of this play, though not nearly as important, was that I would no longer feel bad if I failed to draw my command next turn, as the amazing command play from before was now off the table anyway.

Game 1 – Turn 6 (D 5 – E 6)

As one might expect, the moment I stopped hoping for my command card, it arrived:

This left me with a choice.  I could try the command and, if given the chance, go top left, scoring a point on the chimera, and 3 points from rotating my ogre (2 high ground plus 1 on his chimera), or I could try my flyer and just pray 10 speed was enough to get that 4 point play in the bottom right.  The command was significantly faster, and even if they did block me, I could still play top right above my axe thrower and turn him for a respectable 3 point swing.  Conversely, in addition to being far less likely to go first and both win a speed point, and get those 4 points, my flyer would have to settle for 2 if its optimal spot got filled, and leave a weak side available to be exploited.

But I didn’t play the command.  I played the gryphon.

To understand why, its important to understand two of the core aspects of Draconis.  The first is that in Draconis, while not every card is played, the player has the chance to play every card.  The second, is that every deck has exactly one dragon, a card with 3 abilities instead of 1, and higher stat potential then any other.  As a result of these two core principles, games are often won and loss by virtue of who gets the most value out of their dragon, and that no game is usually decided before both dragons have hit the table.  In this case, I’d already played my dragon, got respectable value for it, both in points (7 point swing) and board shaping, but my opponent had not.  It was possible my opponent bottom decked their dragon, and if so that was itself an advantage to me, but assuming they hadn’t, odds were extremely high they would play it this turn.  If I out-sped that dragon, this decision likely wouldn’t matter much, but if I didn’t, they could block my commands play while still scoring at least 3 points, maybe much more depending on the type of dragon.  If I played my flyer, though, no matter which dragon they had, if they wanted to block my bottom right play, they would gain only a single point from that play.  As a result, as I saw it, one of three things was about to happen.  I was about to get 4 points with my flyer, my opponent was about to be forced to use their dragon for a single point, or they didn’t play their dragon until the final turn, which was its own advantage.

As it turned out, I predicted correctly.   Eydir played a fast green dragon.  Despite seeing my four point play coming, he couldn’t justify using up his dragon to block.  I can’t say I blamed him, if he had, I likely play against his chimera for 2, knowing my dragons range protected its back side and the score is Eydir 8 to my 9, with my weak 5 now covered up and neither player with dragons to create a major final turn point swing.  Instead he went top right, scoring 2 on challenge, 1 on range, 1 on speed, and turning my ogre of its score for a 4 point play (5 including speed point), trading 5 for 4 seemingly still in his advantage, and leaving us tied 10 a piece entering the final turn.

Game 1 – Turn 7 (D 10 – E 10)

Of course what Eydir didn’t know, couldn’t know, that I had, and had successfully manipulated him into allowing me multiple avenues of exploiting such that he could not block them all, was that lone command card I’d made sure to include.  Eydir played a speed 20 Command, and with pretty great stats for a speed 20:

He used it to attack my dragon, and flip his chimera, a 3 point play, 4 counting the speed point he got.  A 4 point play on your final turn with out a dragon is an extremely strong play, and the best one available to him.  But it didn’t matter.  Eydir had no avenue for victory.  I played my command between his wizard and dragon, a neutral +0 in challenge points, but then commanded the ax thrower, turning a -3 instead to a +2, for a 5 point swing and a single point victory.

For those wondering, Eydir had the tie breaker (we both had a 47, but my next highest was 42, his was 43).  As for why Eydir played where he did instead of where I did, you might recall that I had set up 2 range arrows aiming at this key spot I just played into, anticipating this moment several moves earlier.  So while Eydir could have played there, and could have both gotten a point off my ogre and used his command on his mage to negate a point on my dragon, it would have been a 1 point total play (+1 challenge for him, -1 challenge for me, +2 for me from range, +1 for him from speed).  I could then attack his chimera and rotate my ogre for +3 points and actually won by a larger margin.  So Eydir made the best play, there just wasn’t a winning move left to be had.

I hope all of that was interesting.  I want to take a moment to thank Eydir again both for the match, and for agreeing to let me share it and my thoughts on it with all of you.  If you’d like to see game 2, or more of this kind of play by play break down, please let me know on the Draconis 8 discord.