What Would DKMR Do? #11
by JR Cook - 10 years ago show comments
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Written by [DKMR] Kisstafer
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:
Yeran wrote:
While using Holy Fire on Cairne does not improve the board, I still think it to be the most reasonable play. I’d strongly recommend against going face with spells as we don’t have the damage to kill him quite yet.
-Yeran’s play uses our mana efficiently, which is often a good rule of thumb, and also begins working on removing the Cairne Bloodhoof in the quickest fashion possible.
BFantana wrote:
Holy Fire Cairne and attack Baine with Blademaster. Leaves all 3 enemy minions at 1 health, which gives options for next turn.
– BFantana agrees that Cairne is a high priority target, and offers a way to foreseeably remove him entirely from the board. He is willing to sacrifice possible damage with the Blademaster to ensure a board clear in the following turn.
Fireplugly wrote
I would go for broke. Holy fire and injured blademaster to the face. Unless the Hunter has heals, you are likely to take him to zero in a couple more turns, and you don’t have to try to remove Cairne/Baine.
– Fireplugly would take a unique route, he has formulated a plan based around the burn potential in our hand and would go all-in on it, hoping it stays good and we can finish the hunter in a couple turns.
Anthony wrote:
I would play the soulpriest, then hero power Cairne for 2.
– Unlike the others, Anthony would keep his options open by going for the “take the board” approach instead of playing spells. He puts his Soulpriest at risk but develops the most power on board.
So what would DKMR do?
This is a peculiar situation where it is hard to say what the best play is, because each option could potentially backfire based on what is in his hand (as is often the case when one gets behind on board). There is merit to each suggestion offered, but DKMR believes the best play is to go for play Loatheb and attack face with the Blademaster. The main reason for this is it allows us to keep our options open and gather more information about his hand, and Loatheb denies a large range of his potential holdings. Since we are not able to full-clear the Cairne, by playing Loatheb we put ourselves in the best possible position on board. Based on what he plays on his turn, on our next turn we can either go for broke on his face and follow up with Holy Fires, or we can go for the defensive move and clear the Cairne next turn using our minions and spells.
Loatheb is particularly strong on this board because he does not efficiently die to what is already on the field, and he prevents the Hunter from using any Unleash combos; makes Hunter’s Mark extremely unwieldy; and makes Kill Command/Animal Companion unplayable (all of which we would be extremely vulnerable to if we had played the Auchenai or Holy Fire). This means the Hunter would have to have a very specific set of cards to prevent Loatheb from getting in for 5 damage. This sets us up to either retake the board in a dominating fashion, or close out the game with the remaining damage in our hand.
Next week we’ll be talking about the scenario below. What would you do? Let us know in the comments!
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Play Yeti, then Keeper and silence Leokk. Now one would need to depend on previous turns and what cards hunter have played. I’d play Yeti, silence leokk with the Keeper, kill Houndmaster with Feugen and Undertaker with Stalagg.
Attacking face is risky, beacuse if the secret is Misdirection or Freezing trap – it’s lose. If hunter has Kill Command in the hand – it’s lose if we don’t attack face. If hunter’s secret is Misdirection or freezing trap and he has Kill Command in the hand – it’s lose anyway.
Playing cards my way druid can hope that hunter doesn’t have strong taunt, charge minion or Kill Command. If hunters attacks with Leokk, Steady Shots and plays any minion, which isn’t charger or taunt, druid has 4 hp. In both turns uses Hero Power, attacks face with the Keeper – that way Misdirection won’t change the game.
I’d play yeti, silence Leokk with the Keeper. If the secret wouldn’t be snipe I’d kill Houndmaster with Feugen and Undertaker with Stalagg. Otherwise would go for the face. If’d be alive next turn I’d attack with the Keeper first to minimalize potential negative outcome of Misdirection.
If the secret is freezing trap or snakes, I don’t think you can find lethal and he only needs to find 2 more damage on next turn to win. So I would hero power, attack face to start. If the trap procs, you now have lethal with a keeper-silence on leokk and face with the twins.
If it doesn’t proc, it’s probably freezing or snakes. Either way, I’d still silence leokk and attack undertaker with the 7-4. Regardless of which trap procs, next attack houndmaster with the 4-7, play the Yeti.
He now has 5 dmg on board + hero power for 7 against your 9 health & either 10 dmg (w/ freezing) or 17 (w/ snakes) for lethal next turn either way. If he can’t find the extra 2 damage on his turn he’s in a tough spot, but the hunter has lots of outs for 2 extra damage.
Play Yeti first to see if trap explodes or snipes. Use Keeper to silence Leokk. If trap exploded, then finish off hunter with both druid minions and Hero Power. If trap didn’t trip before, then Feugen attacks Houndmaster. If trap is freeze, you still have bigger attack available with Stalagg. (Trap won’t trigger yet if it’s misdirection, and a snake trap will trigger in any case unless you can go lethal this turn). Finally, I would take out Leokk instead of Undertaker with Stalagg if I have killed Houndmaster. Hunter is more likely to have cards that play with a beast (Kill Command or another Houndmaster) than cards with a deathrattle.
Well everything depends on the trap,
My option = Silence Leokk with keeper.
If trap = snipe : SUCCES! (lethal Stalagg + Fuegen + Hero Power)
if trap != snipe : Attack face with Stalagg
if trap = Explosive : SUCCES! (lethal Stalagg + Fuegen + Hero Power)
if trap = Freezing : Attack houndmaster with Fuegen + Play Stalagg+ Armor up Hero Power
Leaving you with 9hp and a 4-7, 7-4 and opponent with 2-3 and 2-4
So opponent can’t kill you (except for KC draw), but you have lethal next turn.
We have lethal, but first we must play around the secret. There are two secrets that can mess with lethal: freezing trap and misdirection. The latter is not common in the current meta, so I wouldn’t play around that. And if it’s freezing trap… well, we are pretty much dead anyway, because we won’t be able to clear enough of its board to prevent enought damage from him next turn.
So I would go for the win: silence Leokk and go for face with Stalagg first. If it’s not freezing trap, we win (except misdirection, but again, I’m not playing around that, and even if it is, it has a 3/5 chance to hit and opponent’s minion).
If it is freezing trap, then I would clear the houndmaster with Feugen, drop the Yeti and hero power face. This way we are at 9 and the opponent at 11. We have enough damage on board for lethal next turn (4+2+4+1), but the opponent doesn’t (3+2+2, not that it would be hard for the hunter to find the remaining 2 damage).
I’d say:
Silencing Leokk with Keeper of the Grove.
Hero Power attack to the face. (Of course depending on what traps have been played before. Misdirection would be terrible. I would expect freezing trap though.)
If it’s explosive trap, we have lethal with Feugen and Stalagg.
If nothing happens:
Attack face with Stalagg. If it’s freezing trap, it doesn’t matter if we attack minion or face. In that case, attack Houndmaster with Feugen. Then play yeti and hope for the best. Hunter should have 2 + 2 damage on board, +2 from hero ability.
If it’s not freezing trap, we have lethal.
I would propose suggest : use keeper of the grove to silence leokk, go for the face with hero power. It will tell if it’s explosive trap or something else. If explosive we have lethal. If not go for houndmaster to check if it is a freezing trap or misdirection. If it is misdirection finish to clear board, drop the yeti and win next turn. If it is freezing trap we are dead anyway.
I’d silence the leokk with keeper. That removes the taunt, the +2/+2 buff from the hound master and the +1 attack to other minions. Then I’d hero power to the face to check AOE (explosive trap?). If explosive, then you have lethal. If not then it is likely freezing in the current meta, go in with 7/4, which goes back to your hand. Attack hound master with 4/7. Play chill wind yeti. He is left with 4 damage on board plus 2 damage hero power to your 9 health. Hope he doesn’t have kill command!
Interesting! I didn’t even consider Loatheb a viable solution. After that explanation, I agree that he would be the most strategic play here. I always forget Hunter’s summons are actually spells. I get such tunnel vision on making sure there are never any beasts on the board to Houndmaster or use Kill Command. (I also always forget that those spectral spiders aren’t beasts — I’ve even gone so far as to put a post it on my monitor “SPIDERS ARE NOT BEASTS.” Derp.)