1. #1
    Deleted

    What would you do?- Mage vs Mage duel

    It's turn 6. You are playing against the Tempo Mage deck that runs secrets. This is the first secret the mage has played. You have 2 Mana Wyrms in the field with 2 attack, the opponent has a Loatheb and 1 secret. You have the following cards in your hand:

    - Piloted Shredder
    - Cenarius (from Portal)
    - Mal'Ganis(from Portal)
    - Azure Drake

    What do you do?

  2. #2
    Personally I'd drop like, Azure Drake or Piloted Shredder in case it's Mirror Entity. But I'm not that great so yeah.

  3. #3
    You're in flamestrike territory. So.. two options.

    1.) Play piloted shredder. Even if it's mirror entity-- unless he wants to waste removal, he'd trade the Loatheb into the shredder and you can ping it for 1 (unless you draw something better next turn. If he runs the shredder into the shredder then you'll still have 3 minions on board and depending on what he trades into. Depending on the RNG if he trades into whatever the shredder dropped, you can play cenarius next turn and buff the minions on board (hopefully out of FS range.)

    2.) If he flamestrikes and trades into the minion the shredder dropped then you can play cenarius with the two taunts and hope he doesn't have a second FS.

    You don't have a spell so if it's CS then it doesn't really matter.

  4. #4
    Since you said tempo I'm assuming Flamestrike is not in the deck so I wouldn't play around that.

    I'd attack face with Wyrm, worst case its mirror, I play Cen, and pick treants. My opponent doesn't gain the extra minions, then ram my other Wyrm into Loatheb to play around mc tech, and setting up Loatheb to die to a simple ping.

  5. #5
    Bait Mirror Image with Shredder.
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  6. #6
    Deleted
    This is what happened:

    I played Piloted Shredder and it was Mirror Entity as expected. I sent one of the Wyrms into the Piloted and finished him off with hero power. Millhouse appeared. The 2nd Wyrm I sent to the face.

    Next turn the opponent played Wyrm and Frostbolted my Shredder and I got Owl from it. Millhouse took care of Owl and Loatheb finished my Wyrm. With the remaining mana the mage played Sorcerer's Apprentice+another secret. I topdecked a 2nd Azure Drake and thought about playing it to pop Mirror Entity and search for my Flamestrike. Problem is there was nothing stopping the mage from just going face and since he still hadn't used any Fireball I would be in danger. I eventually played Cenarius.

    Next turn mage Flamestrikes and sends Apprentice to finish Cenarius off along hero power. Rest goes face. I topdeck Belcher and play it, use hero power on Cenarius. Last turn mage Polymorphs Belcher and finishes me off.

    It's funny because I usually don't get that amazing minions out of Portal but the game where I get not only 1 but 2 big legendaries was the game I couldn't really just play them unrestricted.

  7. #7
    First, why play into an assumed mirror entity if you can't take care of the minion you summon, unless you have a fantastic followup? It seems to me that playing shredder is absolutely pointless in this scenario because you're almost guaranteed a weaker board and you're just giving him initiative. In this situation, I would've actually played Cenarius, using the minion buff, then traded both the wyrms into the opposing Cenarius and have a 5/8 to contest the 5/5 loatheb. Frostbolt will result in an even trade but then you have followup minions.

    Second, what's with these scenario questions?

  8. #8
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by kaiadam View Post
    First, why play into an assumed mirror entity if you can't take care of the minion you summon, unless you have a fantastic followup? It seems to me that playing shredder is absolutely pointless in this scenario because you're almost guaranteed a weaker board and you're just giving him initiative. In this situation, I would've actually played Cenarius, using the minion buff, then traded both the wyrms into the opposing Cenarius and have a 5/8 to contest the 5/5 loatheb. Frostbolt will result in an even trade but then you have followup minions.

    Second, what's with these scenario questions?
    The end result would have been the same: he would have filled his board with more minions and would have placed another Mirror Entity. On my next turn I would have again a hand filled with good minions and one of them would surely get copied. I would get snowballed easily even with Cenarius being played (check what happened). In fact it would have probably been correct to play Azure Drake to get me closer to a Flamestrike that would have been the only way to come back.

    Second question, these were key moments in certain matches that ended up deciding the game. I find it fun to ask other people what they would have done and think about what I could have done differently and see if that would have given me a win. Who knows, in the future, in similar situations I might play differently. Other than that, I think anyone is free to make any thread they feel like doing, unless there is some kind of site policy that forbids these type of threads (inform me if that's the case). Other than that, if you are so bothered with these threads you are perfectly free to ignore them, no one forces you to read them or to answer them.
    Last edited by mmoc9f0bced709; 2015-04-06 at 09:12 PM.

  9. #9
    I understand what happened, and there's a decent chance you would've lost even had you played Cenarius, I merely posit that during that specific turn, with the information given, Cenarius was the best play. The second best play would be to trade wyrms and ping loatheb then pass. Shredder would probably be the 4th best play, after the drake.

    I ask why these questions because you've shown a sequence of responses where you'll ask a hypothetical then post the results ... following the trend, will there be a big reveal on the consolidated answers of the forum? I bear no hostility, however, "key moments" seems to be a misnomer when you've already concluded that the "end result would have been the same: he would have filled his board with more minions and would have placed another Mirror Entity. On my next turn I would have again a hand filled with good minions and one of them would surely get copied. I would get snowballed easily even with Cenarius being played."

  10. #10
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by kaiadam View Post
    I understand what happened, and there's a decent chance you would've lost even had you played Cenarius, I merely posit that during that specific turn, with the information given, Cenarius was the best play. The second best play would be to trade wyrms and ping loatheb then pass. Shredder would probably be the 4th best play, after the drake.

    I ask why these questions because you've shown a sequence of responses where you'll ask a hypothetical then post the results ... following the trend, will there be a big reveal on the consolidated answers of the forum? I bear no hostility, however, "key moments" seems to be a misnomer when you've already concluded that the "end result would have been the same: he would have filled his board with more minions and would have placed another Mirror Entity. On my next turn I would have again a hand filled with good minions and one of them would surely get copied. I would get snowballed easily even with Cenarius being played."
    In fact, based on what happened it would probably have been correct to play Azure Drake on this turn and Azure Drake on the next one too (I never did get to see Flamestrike, but maybe with 2 additional draws I would have). In the other thread (Druid vs Warrior one) playing Ancient of War is the right answer 99% of the times, but knowing that the Warrior had Sylvannas + Shield Slam if I had placed Shieldmasta things might have been different.

    The feedback from people allows for some reflection on the "would haves" and "could haves", even if in some cases the end result would have been the same: defeat. I find it interesting to know what other people would have done in the situation and think about where that could have led to. Now that I think about it, if I was the one getting Millhouse on my Shredder and him the Owl, that might have slowed the game down a bit more and allowed me to get Flamestrike. It's funny looking back at those moments after the game.
    Last edited by mmoc9f0bced709; 2015-04-06 at 09:41 PM.

  11. #11
    You put yourself at a disadvantage by proc'ing the deathrattle on their shredder when its your turn. If anything I would've traded the wyrms into Loatheb and pinged it off to keep it a 1v1 board and force him to waste removal or trade into your own shredder. (Thus him being unable to attack whatever comes out unless he wants to spend more removal or waste 2 mana pinging the owl off [assuming that's what would've dropped, don't know if thats a predetermined thing or what.])

    Also, lol to whoever said you shouldn't play around flamestrike.
    Last edited by hollafame; 2015-04-06 at 10:35 PM.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by hollafame View Post
    Also, lol to whoever said you shouldn't play around flamestrike.
    Not to play devils advocate, but some mage decks now only carry 1 flamestrike, or none.
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  13. #13
    Play Shredder, trade into Loatheb, and ping it off.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Symphonic View Post
    Not to play devils advocate, but some mage decks now only carry 1 flamestrike, or none.
    Problem is you won't know that until/if your board gets FS'd down. Unless you have a way to bait it, you generally don't want to give it value by needless dropping things down you don't have to. I'd only expect Mech Mage to not play it, all the rest are fair game usually.

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