Post by awall on Oct 3, 2008 15:30:54 GMT -5
games.ravenblack.net/warlocks?num=67211&turn=8
So I'm playing a game vs. Bio using the Panic Variant (SFFF casts para, FFS casts Panic). On turn 8, the board looks like this:
Bio: 15 health
DSFWPDWP
PSDW>PSF
Awall: 14 health
SWWSFFSP
PSPFPSDW
- Bio's cast PDWP at himself, not at me, so my perm was successful.
- In case anybody is curious, my RH:P on turn 5 was a shield, not antispell.
I then went on to botch this one terribly and wound up down 6 health an an Ogre. But I think this situation merits discussion, and I'd be interested to see both what Bio was thinking and what other players would have done in either of our shoes.
The fallback option here would be to go for a permanent shield, which would be guaranteed. However, from recent games against Bio, ExDeath, and (somebody else?) in which I've had one, I've come to the conclusion that they really don't help that much. I'd rather do something offensive if possible.
The first possibility that I see in this situation is the potential for an almost guaranteed Antispell with my LH. The only way Bio could stop this is by clapping, which he really doesn't want to do at the moment. My instinct on this play was to go LH:F and start a three-gesture spell on my RH that I will attempt to make permanent while he's helpless the turn after the antispell. Unfortunately, Bio can stop this fairly easily by aborting the Ogre and going RH:F this turn, giving him his choice of Panic or Para on the turn that I cast Antispell, either of which will prevent me from casting a disruption (para messes up anything except DPP, and I can't do that without surrendering; if I go for Protection, he can instead cast Panic and put P on his other hand which both prevents me from casting Protection and also keeps me from continuing SPFPS).
Note that if he doesn't do RH:F and I go for the Antispell, I essentially win the game. RH:D, S, or F allows me a guaranteed permanent disruption the turn after Antispell (maladroit, fear, panic), all of which will be uncurable. So I assume here that he's going to go RH:F.
Now, if he's going to go RH:F, what does this leave me? I could go S/W, counter his para, and try to summon an Ogre. However, this sucks if he goes LH:W, and if he doesn't go LH:W, then I have a much better play:
P/W
If he doesn't have W on his LH, then I continue with:
SWWSFFSPPFDx
PSPFPSDWWSWD
He can't prevent time stop, and during my free turn I peg him with permanent fear, essentially winning me the game. He can avoid this by clapping on the F/S turn, allowing him to get Dispel off if I hit him with Fear. But if I see him clap, then instead of casting Fear, I instead go for an Antispell on my RH, Blindness on my LH, and then another Permanency, which puts him in a tight spot.
So, to summarize, unless he submits W/F on his next turn, I essentially win the game, right?
Whoops. The problem here is that if I don't go for the antispell, then he doesn't actually need the RH:F. He still needs to have a W handy, but there's a much better way he can get one of those.
DSFWPDWPF
PSDW>PSFW
So now I have two problems. The first is that he's now summoned an Ogre, has wounds ready, and has means of stopping my permanency assault. The second, and much worse, is that I was so deep into my presumptions* about what he was going to do, that I didn't actually notice the fact that his RH:W gave him an answer to my Time Stop! My comment the next turn reflects this: I expressed confusion at his choice of LH:F, and comment that I've essentially won the game. Then, instead of cutting my losses and casting permanent WWP the following turn (which takes away his Ogre threat), I kept going forward with my original plan (this time going for permanent Amnesia rather than Fear, because I figured that didn't give him the option to clap), and then... wound up with a very rude awakening the next turn when I realized that I had not, in fact, just won the game.
At this point, I figure I'm pretty much toast. Bio is a good enough player that I'm not really confident I can make up 6 health and an Ogre against him. Let this be a lesson to everybody about how quickly one little oversight can take a game from being a "in the bag, a sure thing," to being an exercise in humility.
*This word was supposed to be "assumptions." However, due to the wonderful swear filter on this board, when prefixed by "my" it becomes "I disagreeumptions."
So I'm playing a game vs. Bio using the Panic Variant (SFFF casts para, FFS casts Panic). On turn 8, the board looks like this:
Bio: 15 health
DSFWPDWP
PSDW>PSF
Awall: 14 health
SWWSFFSP
PSPFPSDW
- Bio's cast PDWP at himself, not at me, so my perm was successful.
- In case anybody is curious, my RH:P on turn 5 was a shield, not antispell.
I then went on to botch this one terribly and wound up down 6 health an an Ogre. But I think this situation merits discussion, and I'd be interested to see both what Bio was thinking and what other players would have done in either of our shoes.
The fallback option here would be to go for a permanent shield, which would be guaranteed. However, from recent games against Bio, ExDeath, and (somebody else?) in which I've had one, I've come to the conclusion that they really don't help that much. I'd rather do something offensive if possible.
The first possibility that I see in this situation is the potential for an almost guaranteed Antispell with my LH. The only way Bio could stop this is by clapping, which he really doesn't want to do at the moment. My instinct on this play was to go LH:F and start a three-gesture spell on my RH that I will attempt to make permanent while he's helpless the turn after the antispell. Unfortunately, Bio can stop this fairly easily by aborting the Ogre and going RH:F this turn, giving him his choice of Panic or Para on the turn that I cast Antispell, either of which will prevent me from casting a disruption (para messes up anything except DPP, and I can't do that without surrendering; if I go for Protection, he can instead cast Panic and put P on his other hand which both prevents me from casting Protection and also keeps me from continuing SPFPS).
Note that if he doesn't do RH:F and I go for the Antispell, I essentially win the game. RH:D, S, or F allows me a guaranteed permanent disruption the turn after Antispell (maladroit, fear, panic), all of which will be uncurable. So I assume here that he's going to go RH:F.
Now, if he's going to go RH:F, what does this leave me? I could go S/W, counter his para, and try to summon an Ogre. However, this sucks if he goes LH:W, and if he doesn't go LH:W, then I have a much better play:
P/W
If he doesn't have W on his LH, then I continue with:
SWWSFFSPPFDx
PSPFPSDWWSWD
He can't prevent time stop, and during my free turn I peg him with permanent fear, essentially winning me the game. He can avoid this by clapping on the F/S turn, allowing him to get Dispel off if I hit him with Fear. But if I see him clap, then instead of casting Fear, I instead go for an Antispell on my RH, Blindness on my LH, and then another Permanency, which puts him in a tight spot.
So, to summarize, unless he submits W/F on his next turn, I essentially win the game, right?
Whoops. The problem here is that if I don't go for the antispell, then he doesn't actually need the RH:F. He still needs to have a W handy, but there's a much better way he can get one of those.
DSFWPDWPF
PSDW>PSFW
So now I have two problems. The first is that he's now summoned an Ogre, has wounds ready, and has means of stopping my permanency assault. The second, and much worse, is that I was so deep into my presumptions* about what he was going to do, that I didn't actually notice the fact that his RH:W gave him an answer to my Time Stop! My comment the next turn reflects this: I expressed confusion at his choice of LH:F, and comment that I've essentially won the game. Then, instead of cutting my losses and casting permanent WWP the following turn (which takes away his Ogre threat), I kept going forward with my original plan (this time going for permanent Amnesia rather than Fear, because I figured that didn't give him the option to clap), and then... wound up with a very rude awakening the next turn when I realized that I had not, in fact, just won the game.
At this point, I figure I'm pretty much toast. Bio is a good enough player that I'm not really confident I can make up 6 health and an Ogre against him. Let this be a lesson to everybody about how quickly one little oversight can take a game from being a "in the bag, a sure thing," to being an exercise in humility.
*This word was supposed to be "assumptions." However, due to the wonderful swear filter on this board, when prefixed by "my" it becomes "I disagreeumptions."
)
