by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

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Written by [DKMR]Varranis

Welcome to this week’s “What Would DKMR Do?” Each week we’ll present an in-game situation and discuss the possible lines of play. Here’s the scenario for this week:

We have a bevy of tools at our disposal, but we’re facing down a Rogue with full health and plenty of turns to finish us off! What do we do to stay alive and set up a win in the coming turns? Let’s see what you said.

Chung Ren Khoo, SkarnSW, Paul, and Andrew said they would:

Run shade into SI:7. Play spectral knight.”

This play progresses our board while stemming the bleeding.

Peter Thorne identified an alternative play with a similar result:

I would Wrath the Agent and Hero Power and then Attack the Rogue with the Shade and Hero.”

In addition to creating a favorable board state, this play potentially baits the Rogue into using his five damage dagger to remove the Shade and puts us four damage ahead of where we would be otherwise.

So what would DKMR do?

We would play Wrath to remove the SI:7 Agent, attack the Rogue with Shade of Naxxramas, and Hero Power and attack the Rogue with our Druid. Removing the SI:7 Agent is an absolute must whether we use the Shade or the Wrath. We cannot allow the Rogue to untap with eight damage on board while we sit at 15 health. As many of you pointed out, it’s not unlikely the Rogue is playing Arcane Golem or similarly devastating damage spells. Using the Shade allows us to use our mana most efficiently by playing The Black Knight or Spectral Knight. If we remove the Agent with the Shade, some argument can be made for playing The Black Knight in order to use our mana most efficiently. However, the potential upside of The Black Knight if our opponent runs Sludge Belcher and the fact that Spectral Knight cannot be Saped make Spectral Knight the far superior play.

But we’re using Wrath. We have a long way to go before we claim victory over this Rogue, so we need to get the pain train rolling ASAP. Dealing four damage this turn between the Shade and our Hero Power may seem inconsequential, but it essentially shortens the game in our favor by one turn. The real kicker is that the Shade presents the same threat of damage as the Spectral Knight on the following turn while also dealing damage this turn. While a 3/3 is significantly easier to remove than a Spectral Knight, any damage sent at the Shade is effectively life gained. At 15 health, we would love for the Rogue to spend his five damage dagger charge on the Shade. Shade has then effectively dealt six damage and gained us five life. If the Rogue removes it with Backstab, Shiv, or Fan of Knives we’ve essentially gained a turn as the opponent is spending his five mana to affect the board and not work toward ending the game. Depending on how likely we feel our opponent is threatening lethal, we either heal with Ancient of Lore on the following turn or play Spectral Knight and Hero Power.

Next week we’ll be talking about the scenario below. What would you do? Let us know in the comments!

[DKMR]Varranis streams every Sunday from 10 AM – 4 PM EST at http://www.twitch.tv/varranis.

You can find all of DKMR’s streamers on their website with times and the days they stream!