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:

While we are very far ahead in this game, I felt this was an especially interesting scenario due to the sheer number of options at your disposal. It looks like many of you felt the same way, as you left many comments postulating the best play. Let’s take a look at what some of you said!

This is what Trisfal said he would do:

I would kill treant with sylvanas and argus. Kill sylvanas with soulfire, play watcher if he’s not discarded and tap. This line of play lets me easily deal with any other big plays druid may have (considering that chances of discarding siphon soul witch is my best card in hand now aren’t that big) and dig for one of my giants to speed up the game. Also if I draw something useful from tap (like a twilight drake or even better mountain giant) I can play it cause I used only 2 mana this turn. Of course bane goes to face this turn.

Many players felt it was correct to Life Tap this turn and all decided to clear the board. Trisfal has opted to clear the board first using minimal mana knowing he can’t Life Tap with 10 cards already in hand and hoping to draw into a powerful minion.

Tiago said this:

So I would attack a trent with Sylvanas, another with Bloodhoof, Argus his face, kill Sylvanas with Siphon Soul to steal Cenarius and drop the other Watcher in case you draw a taunter or need to Shadowflame without using your taunted Watcher.

He noted it was important to keep the Force of Nature combo in mind as it is one of the few ways the Druid could potentially squeak out a win.

Chill took a similar approach:

Argus into Treant 1, Sylvanus into Treant 2, Siphon Soul on Sylvanus, Baine to face. Play Watcher because you can. While this play is nearly identical, it’s important to note the different ways the two players used their minions. Tiago values the resiliency of his minions most while Chill struck a balance between dealing the most damage and keeping Baine safe from removal.

Eldorian offered two different plays:

Kill treant with 2/3, kill treant with Baine. Power overwhelming Sylvanas and hit in the face for 9. Get his Cenraius end of turn.
Option 2 would be to keep Sylvanas and use a Siphon Soul on his Cenarious to put your health up a bit more just in case there’s some shenanigans.

We really like using Power Overwhelming on Sylvanas. It allows you to use your mana this turn to set up lethal next turn and very cleanly deals with the Cenarius while keeping your board very strong. Eldorian’s second option is similar to Tiago and Chill’s plays, which we believe are solid strategies.

Wilson Lyal Polk said:

Tap first, play watcher, shadow flame it, swing with Argus, shyvannas and baine to face, then soulfire the cenarius. Tapping first reduces the odds of discarding soulfire #2, leeroy or power overwhelming. This leaves you with your entire board and assuming nothing relevant is discarded, 17 damage in hand. Unless the druid is playing Deathwing or holding double swipe, he has no cards available to him that can clear this board, and Deathwing would be stolen be Sylvannas. Any taunt that is played could be siphoned, leaving you with easy lethal next turn.

While you should definitely not tap first with 10 cards in hand, the rest of Wilson’s play is very strong. It puts the Druid to 19 life while you have potentially 17 damage in hand and 11 damage on the board. Your minions also don’t take any damage, meaning it’s essentially impossible for your opponent to deal with your whole board outside of Deathwing (as Wilson mentions). You can use Life Tap after you’ve played the Ancient Watcher.
So what would DKMR do?

We removed one Treant with Defender of Argus and the other with Baine while attacking face with Sylvanas. Noting I did not have lethal this turn, this gave me the most damage with my resources on board. We cast Siphon Soul to clear the Cenarius and sustain a high life total. We used our remaining mana to play the second Ancient Watcher, noting that Life Tap would put us back to 10 cards and burn our draw on the following turn.

Many of you offered variants of this exact play. While others opted to use the Sylvanas to steal the Cenarius or to save health on the Defender of Argus, we felt the best play was to deal as much damage as possible while clearing the board and setting up to deploy the extreme amount of burst in my hand on the following turn. We valued dealing the three extra damage from Sylvanas more than the potential loss of the Defender of Argus to Wrath or Swipe. We also valued Sylvanas more highly than Cenarius. Siphon Soul offers you a stark choice between the two powerful minions. Your decision really comes down to whether you value 3 health or Sylvanas’ Deathrattle more highly. We personally feel keeping Sylvanas on board is significantly stronger than a Cenarius on board. She opens a lot of plays you wouldn’t otherwise have access to, particularly when you have multiple ways to trigger her Deathrattle in hand. This is important to keep in mind, particularly for newer players, as we’ve seen many players suicide their Sylvanas for little value because it’s an interesting play and seems like it should be powerful. I once saw a player Siphon Soul his Sylvanas to steal my Ancient of Lore, leaving himself with a vanilla 5/5 when he could have Siphoned the Ancient and kept a 5/5 with a powerful ability.

We believe Wilson’s play is also especially strong. It is somewhat riskier, but ultimately puts you in a better position. Playing Soulfire this turn risks you losing a crucial damage spell like Power Overwhelming or Leeroy Jenkins. If you don’t discard those cards, you’re essentially guaranteed a victory. Waiting a turn allows you to maximize your potential damage by playing out Leeroy, Hellfire, and Power Overwhelming before bombarding your opponent with Soulfires but may not secure a victory as quickly if your opponent lands another taunt.

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!