WHAT WOULD DKMR DO? #16
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:
How you use your removal is key to winning the Zoo match-up. So how would you deal with this situation?
Paul, Matheus Revoredo, Peter Thorne, and Dorkmaster Flek said they would:
This is the most straight forward play and provides the best result in the current situation. While it doesn’t use our cards most efficiently, against Zoo it’s often critical to keep your life total high at the expense of card advantage and keep their board clear to prevent them from buffing their minions.
SkarnSW and Nuclein decided on an alternative play:
Use Backstab on the Knife Juggler and then Fan of Knives.
This play ensures we remove our opponent’s strongest minion, cycles our deck, and holds our strongest board clear for later. The question is can we afford to wait to use Blade Flurry.
So what would DKMR do?
We would play Deadly Poison and then Blade Flurry in order to clear the board. We can’t allow the board to get much more threatening without the game spinning out of control so we need to use some of our removal options. While we may get a slightly better sweep by holding our Blade Flurry, it will be at the cost of significant damage. A smart opponent would also ensure he does not overextend into a Deadly Poison fueled Blade Flurry by Life Tapping on the following turn or playing minions like Harvest Golem or Defender of Argus who have Deathrattle or buff other minions out of Blade Flurry range.
It’s also important not to underestimate how powerful Backstab can be in this match-up. Backstab is a zero mana 1-for-1 against many of our opponent’s powerful minions. Not only is it useful on nearly any turn of the game, but it’s one of the few cards we can play on turn 5 alongside Gadgetzan Auctioneer to ensure a draw and manage the board in the same turn.
Next week we’ll be talking about the scenario below. What would you do? Let us know in the comments! We know one of the traps is Snake Trap.
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i play weapon armor up coin and Shield Armor. I will have enough armor next turn. He will not destroy his bow so its 6. Means with next turn armor up i have 3 armor. Nice for follow ups.
I want to save Shylvannas for some BADSTUFF
i would simply axe armor up pass, no need to start taking bow damage yet.
Basic concept is to not hold myself back because of the secrets. It is in the hunters best interest to play safe an extra turn if I shield up. (could reduce damage to as low as 2 without attacking, but hunter would likely hit me for 6 leaving me with 1 armour and forcing me to deal with the Cat, unlikely they will attack with bow.
I would run the acolyte in the hunter:
– If it is a explosive trap I will gain 1 armour and a card. I would follow this up by bringing out Sylvanas. Which puts pressure on the hunter to deal it with next round. (as little as 1 damage taken to a max of 8)
– If it is a misdirection into a snake trap I will still get 1 armour and a card, I would follow up with a brawl then to remove excess mobs 4/1 probably a shield slam to clear. on bad/lucky rng would likely coin for an axe. (likely only 4 damage taken but max 8)
– Cast Sylvanas to see if it is a snipe, if it is I would then shield slam sylvanas to take jungle cat. (reduces damage take to 4)
– If freezing would cast Sylvanas to again put pressure on hunter. Could defence up but I still think it is in the hunters best interest to force a secret reveal.
Shieldblock Armour up not scared of the traps but cant give the extra six damage off of the bow.
Can’t simply trigger trap shieldblock armorup because we have 2x shield slams in hand.
The best play would be to go face with the acolyte (we dont need extra cards in that situation, so if its a freezing we’re ok!), then if its freezing, drop sylvanas pass. if its explosive (meaning more chances of him having an extra freezing) we see what we draw, if its belcher or jones we drop it, coin armor up, if not, we just armor up, axe and hit face (because we have the second axe anyway).
If you look at the play history, it is also known that on your last turn you played armorsmith and acolyte and attacked face dealing one damage to each of your own creatures and killing his web spinner, obviously with the second charge of a death’s bite. Thus, we know it’s not an explosive trap, snipe or misdirection. It is a freezing trap.
I would drop Sylvanas and pass, preventing him from using his weapon next turn unless he’s willing to let it die. That way he won’t be able to attack his creature and weapon into sylvanas or more likley hit me for 9 in the face + whatever is in his hand.
There is really only two paths here: Play Brawl or not. There is no other way to kill the Panther, if you deem that necessary. And it could be! If the Hunter drops a Houndmaster, that’s 6 damage plus Hero Power and a bow attack for 11 total. Responding to that with the Black Knight still leaves 9 damage on the board. Brawl is a 66% favorable chance, but it could miss and then we’d be in really bad shape.
Knowing one trap is Snake Trap, I would attack with the Acolyte then play Sylvanas. If the trap is Snipe, Sylvanas will live. If it’s Freezing, we get the Acolyte back. If it’s Explosive, we get a card and two armor. We could drop Sylvanas before setting off the trap, but I think we’d rather steal something than have the Panther kill her off for free.
Sylvanas gives us lots of protection. If the Hunter drops several cards, we can just Brawl. There will not be a minion left for the hunter, so Snake Trap still won’t go off. If just a Houndmaster is played, we could Black Knight it or use Shield Block plus Shield Slams.
Worst case is an Owl showing up to quiet her, but otherwise we will be in very strong shape.
This puzzler highlights why Control Warrior is so hard to play well – it presents sooo many options! Following what Aanvil mentioned, it seems pretty likely that the traps are snake and freeze. If this is the case, and we want very much not to give the Hunter value on his Bow, I think the best course here is to play Sylv and pass. This forces the Hunter to be active, which is exactly what a Control deck wants. Because we have Brawl, we can deal with most of the plays (outside Ironbeak). The worst scenario I can see following from this is either a Houndmaster (up to 11 damage) or a Highmane. Even if we take 11, we have a number of strong answers for the follow up, and should be in position to stablize around 10 hp with armor.
There is no perfect answer here, but by playing Sylv, we put ourselves in the best position to take over the board and keep the Bow under control. Doing this is the surest path to victory, since we can negate the Hunter’s Hero Power with our own.
I like this ty
You will win the long game. The hunter can’t hide behind traps and kill you with steady shot. Armor up, play fiery war axe and pass. There is no reason to press things and give him value on the bow if it can be avoided. Alternatively you could play sylvanas but there’s no way to get value out if her yet with a snake trap and freezing trap on board and it’s usually correct to armor up every turn against hunter aggro.