Nice thread. I think I’ll join. Was accused of being unexperienced in pandora today at discord. Well, I totally am. Actually, I’m pretty inexperienced at this game as a whole - that’s the main reason why I’m mostly playing practice runs at the moment. Today’s one was kinda successful. Darfted the following deck with the following result:
No flashy synergies. I’ve chosen treasures to compensate for the lack of removal (in particular - had picked scythe over clockwork yak to compensate for the lack of hard removal in chosen colors).
I think I’ll try use this thread to collect some statistics in the future. Have played four games:
Win against GB opponent. That game was a long one, we used our decks, and I was dying from fatigue, but my opponent conceded first.
Loss against RG deck. Made seveal mistakes at the beginnnig (put hermit on an empty board as T1 drop (was removed by flamespitter), missed opportunity to block my faeria well from opponent (had to deal with two angry axe grinders later)), and then the opponent just snowballed to the victory. I’ve fought for a while, but there was no place for miracle.
Win against mono-blue deck with several very strong cards. Was unpleasant to play against (I didn’t really played around the first frogify, the second was even a greater surprise, and I was totally not expecting the third - oh, and he had Aurora, too), but my opponent hadn’t counter-attacked, and I’ve overwhelmed him or her with my creatures.
Win against mono-green rush deck. This one had almost killed me, but I’ve managed to stabilize and counter-attack.
Good job! Thanks for posting, @PlasmaRager . There is nothing wrong with being inexperienced, everyone starts out as inexperienced. Amazing you survived 3 Frogify and Aurora in the third game. The first game sounds really close too, so you both drew all your cards? It’s always nice to outlast your opponent after a long game.
Yesterday was terrible: 0-2, 1-3, 1-3 iirc.
But got 3-1 just now with Practice Pandora, Yellow Rush deck again with like 3 green cards. Got some really good treasures (Urn of Gambria, Hammer and Dark Crystal) and 4 Wind Soldier which bailed me out more than once.
In the last game, I was 1 damage (from Shayton Demon -2 self damage) and 1 turn away from losing but had to deal 13 damage to win (only 10 on the board). Lucky for me, I drew a Wind Soldier and just had enough damage to win. In the previous turn, my tiki played a crucial role in blocking a tile so that Grizzly couldn’t attack as well. Especially lucky that in the penaltimate turn, my opponent didn’t have another haste creature, and he didn’t get a Taunt creature from Ruuin’s Presence (he summoned that 6/7 Seedling on the board from Ruuin’s Presence). Would have been win for him otherwise.
Yellow Red Events for the 8-3 run. The deck was so good, so many hard removals:
Falcon Dive x 1
Seifer’s Wrath x 1
Soul Drain x 2
Choking Sand x 2
Last Nightmare x 2
Wheel of Chaos
Wind Soldier too.
There was a game where opponent would summon a creature every turn and I would take it right off the board for several turns in a row. I guess all the good draws and easy wins made me complacent.
I was winning so easily, 7-1 at one stage (one loss due to disconnection but it was not looking good), then lost 2 games in a row where I had almost no chance. May have blundered twice in the last 2 turns in the last game but my position was really hard already.
A tense win, I got lucky with card draw and opponent hand.
The turn before I summoned Templar but dash him away to collect faeria. That proved to be a fatal mistake. Opponent buffed his Warlord with Gift of Steel and the situation was hopeless. I attacked his Warlord to bring forward my demise.
I was lining up to take out his Warlord about 2 turns earlier with my Windstorm Charger but opponent had the perfect answer, Firebomb. I thought I had it covered with my Gift of Steel + Campfire buffed Shedim Brute but his/her Gift of Steel secured the win.
It’s disappointing to lose but those last 3 games were pretty fun. I just wished the last loss wasn’t so quick, I couldn’t even collect from enemy’s well once.
Haven’t done any practice runs recently, but first 9 wins of my life
Not as many buffs (or green in general) as I would have liked, but the red was extremely solid with pretty much each type of card you could ask for. Very good treasures, and crackthorns did a lot of carrying.
Ran into a lot of rush opponents (5?), with a mixture of yellow, red, and green (splash red) rushes. I did pretty well against the yellows and a lot worse against greens, which is more or less my experience with crackthorn on ladder. Also had the “pleasure” of finding a red burn that I swear was constructed level.
Notable games included my 7th win, which easily takes first place for the most nerve-wracking match I’ve had in just over a month of playing.
(Repost from my entry to the Screenshot Thread. Seriously, when that fatigue damage popped up I thought I’d died.)
And the final game…
Opponent pulled out a ruunin’s presence into god hunter turn 4, and I decided to race with a kobold warlord (which survived to the end, with the help of pipers) and a war yak (which didn’t. RIP yak.)
There was a period where I thought my attempt at racing wasn’t going to work when he pulled out 3 consecutive taunts. But then I pulled out a taunt of my own and it turned out to be one heck of a lot more effective. (I mean, that interaction won me the game and all, but it really should be fixed similarly to how iona was.)
Small aside that I found amusing: in that relatively quick game (finishing before pandora, although admittedly the fragments were more elusive than usual) I found 2 of my 3 pipers and used them both on kobold warlord. In return, they received 3 of his 4 combat buffs.
Congrats! It’s a great feeling to get a 9 wins run. Good job surviving all those rushes. The games you described were so close. Epic.
The heroic Piper, what an unlikely hero! I don’t understand what that wisp is doing in the corner though. Did he/she misplay the turn before? I guess your opponent didn’t know you had lethal.
TODAY WAS FILLED WITH RAGE. GODDAMN, IT WAS AN ANGRY MORNING TODAY. I HATE MORNINGS IN GENERAL, BUT THIS ONE WAS MONDAY’S MORNING, WHICH MEANT
I HAD TO GO TO WORK;
DURING WEEKENDS I HAD LOST TWO PRACTICE COINS DUE TO STUPID INCONSISTENCY.
I’VE PLAYED A PRACTICE RUN THAT I’VE DRAFTED BEFORE WEEKENDS. AND IT WAS REALLY NOT THAT AWFUL AS I EXPECTED IT TO BE. THE DECK I’VE DRAFTED WAS A PLAIN GY ONE THAT WAS STARTED AS AN ATTEMPT TO DRAFT A SACRIFICE-SYNERGY DECK, BUT WAS ENDED UP AS A COMPLETE FAILURE. TOO WEAK FOR RUSH, TOO WEAK FOR CONTROL, NOT MUCH IN TERMS OF TEMPO. IIRC, I HAD A SINGLE AIR ELEMENTAL TO SPPED UP THE PROCESS. SURPRISINGLY, I’VE MANAGED TO WIN TWO GAMES EVEN WITH THIS SHITTY DECK. FIRST ONE PROVIDED THAT AWESOME PUZZLE-SOLVING FEEL. I’VE FIGURED OUT HOW TO DONE EXACT LETHAL TO MY OPPONENT IN THE LAST SECONDS OF MY TURN (THANKS, JALMYR!), WHEN THE OPPONENT HAD MORE THAN ENOUGH RESOURCES TO FINISH ME ON HIS OR HER. SECOND GAME STARTED AS A RUSH LAND PLACING MINI-GAME WHICH I’VE EVENTUALLY WON. MANAGED TO PROTECT MY ORB, GOT CLOSE TO OPPONENT’S ONE. LOOKS LIKE OPPONENT HAD EITHER DISCONNECTED OR RAGE-QUITTED IN THE END. FELT GOOD, TOO. IN THE THIRD GAME I HAD NO GOOD STARTING HAND AND WAS FINALLY OBLITERALTED BY THAT RED EVENT THAT DEAL 9 DAMAGE RANDOMLY DIVIDED BETWEEN TARGETS. OF COURSE IT HAD HIT MY TAUNT 6 TIMES, ALLOWING OPPONENT’S CREATURE TO BREAK MY ORB. FOURTH GAME WAS ANOTHER LOSS TO SOME FILTHY BLUE-RED DECK. I HAD A DEAD WEIGHT OF TWO LAST BREATHES IN MY HAND (OPPONENT HADN’T PLAYED A SINGLE MINION WITH LESS THAN 4 ATTACK) THAT FINISHED THE GAME IN EXACTLY THE SAME MANNER (BY THAT RED SPELL KILLING EVERYTHING THAT COULD SAVE MY ORB FOR ANOTHER TURN OR TWO).
AND IF YOU THOUGHT THAT WAS INFURIATING - NOW I’LL MOVE TO THE REALLY INFURIATING PART. BEING AS TILTED AS I WAS, I’VE CLICKED THAT GODDAMN “CLAIM YOU PITYFUL REWARDS, LOSER” BUTTON. DAMN! DAMN! NO STATS TODAY, NO SCREENSHOT OF MY DECK. WHY WE CAN’T HAVE SOME LOGS OR GAME STATS RECORDED? DAMN!
I’M KINDA EXHAUSTED BY TODAY’S FAILURE, BUT HERE’S AN IDEA I WANTED TO SHARE IN THIS THREAD: IT WOULD BE REALLY, REALLY NICE TO GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT RARITY OF CARD THAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN YOUR PANDORA DRAFTS. SO I’VE PREPARED TWO IMAGES ABOUT RECENT RUNS (MULTIPLAYER PRACTICE ONE AND SOLO PANDORA RUN) WITH RARITY STATISTICS INCLUDED. BEING UNABLE TO GATHER SUCH STATISTICS FOR TODAY’S RUN WAS THE MAIN REASON OF MY ANGER. ANYWAY, I HOPE PEOPLE WILL HELP ME AND EACH OTHER TO UNDERSTAND THIS GAME BETTER.
First match was a win against monogreen deck. Second - loss against monogreen with Ruunin that got out of control. Third - loss to RYB deck (nobody expects spanish inquisition!).
Result: 1-2
First game was against GY rush. I’ve lost land competition, and managed to survive and turn the tables only thanks to Iona’s Mirror. Second game was against monogreen deck that almost destroyed me with Hilltop Archer buffed by last words of Hermit and later - several other buffs. Only getting Doom Scythe as my first treasure helped me to stop taking damage. Probably should have spend that precious removal on the archer while it was smaller. Third game was a loss against strong mono-blue deck (Aurora, Mirror Phantasm, god-tier treasures). And final game was really tense. It was a rare case when I’ve WON the land battle, had several nice fights at the beginning of the game, chipped a bit of opponent’s health with Blood Singer and Bloodstone Sprite, while avoiding opponent’s big creatures. Finally - topdecked a flame burst that allowed me to deal a final blow when there was a queue of threats near my orb.
Result: 3-1
First three games were against RY rush-y decks. I’ve won first, lost 2nd, and hit opponent’s orb twice with a blue colossus in the third game (he or she conceded, unable to prevent third blow). The last game was tense, against controllish red deck. I’ve lost most of my creeatures to opponent’s boardclears but managed to recover (thanks, colossi!).
Result: 3-1
My 1st pandora full complete.
I have no idea why it went so well. I came so close to losing so many games.
Magda’s rose was my savior at least 4 times. Heals were awesome too.
Sorry I didn’t table the rarities. I’ll check next time if I do.
Had a vacation recently, spent far from my lair and trusted portal to realms of Pandora. Was a̶ ̶b̶i̶t̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶a̶p̶p̶o̶i̶n̶t̶e̶d̶ INFURIATED TO THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART by lack of new posts in this thread. Now it’s time to break that spell of silence. April, 28th
First draft in the recorded series that included legendary card. The deck looked very promising:
Unfortunately, after winning first game against some GY deck, I was completely obliterated by 10/15 apex in second and very lucky crackthorn in third (last opponent also had played Seifer while I had no answers for that creature).
Result: 1-2
April, 29th
Tried to gain revenge in the same colors.
First two battles (against GY and GB decks) were pretty one-sided, while the third opponent played very control-ish deck, and it was a game I’ve enjoyed most. As for me, MVPs of this run were Oradrim Sagittarius (this dude helped me to steamroll through first two games) and Hellfire (I know that this casrd is kinda low in pandora tierlists, but I like how it can be used for extra orb damage):
I am getting better at practice pandora, 7 three-wins runs so far this season. Went 3-0 with Yellow Rush then 2-2 with Mono-Red, good draft in both I think.
This was the second last game, I was lost many times and lucky to turn it around.
Earlier he had two Primeval Colossus which took me everything to remove, then he summoned the Apex you see here and I could only delay with Defender of the Faith. Luckily, that bought me just enough time to save up faeria for Magda’s Rose to steal the Apex but it’s still not over. It looks good in the screenshot but right after he used humbling vision on my Apex and I was 1 turn from defeat again. Luckily again, I drew Flame Burst and had lethal combined with Gift of Steel.
I needed one mountain or faeria to summon Ogre Battler to save it. My decision to go neutral on the first and third turn turned out to be my downfall. I had both Time of Legends and Seifer in this deck, along with Hammer of Destruction and Magda’s Rose, but it still wasn’t enough.
Seifer is said to be great Legendary card but it’s been underwhelming for me so far. Usually my opponent can get rid of it with removal or a big creature, even red burn combined with some minions. I haven’t figured out how to make him win games for me so far… In this game, my opponent used Voice of Truth combined with Aurora’s Teapot to get rid of him.
Got my first 9-0 run just now. It seems the game felt sorry for matching me against top 10 and god ranked players and gave me some easier opponents. Went 3-3, 2-3, 2-3 in previous 3 runs.
The draft was really good, lot of top-tier big creatures. I actually never used Tethra or Magnus in all 9 games.
Nice, congrats. I think I was one of the people you beat. Thought I had drafted a pretty good GY Sac deck but it tanked hard with some bad draws and misplays on my part. Glad I lost to someone going 9 - 0 though, if I’m going to lose I prefer to lose to good players with strong decks.
Thanks! 2 Elementals (Water and Wood) with Verduran Force too in opening hand if I remember correctly. I was thinking that hand must mean a win, right? I was nervous anyway against a good player like you. Luck with the draft and hand can decide games, I got super lucky in that game.
Got two 9-2 in the last three standard pandora runs, really happy with that. Mainly down to lucky draft, had 4 Verduran Force, 2 Tiki Caretaker and 2 Embrace in last run.
My record for this season are:
43-28 in practice, 65-49 in standard pandora.
235 points with three 9-wins runs.
Combined win-loss ratio is 1.4, around 4 wins per standard run.
Almost recovered from illness, tried my skills in practice pandora run. Previous practice run was drafted before introduction of the six most recent cards, and I played it horribly (0-2). As for this one… I really wanted to try something new, and Deepwood Stalker brought that opportunity in two games out of three I’ve played. Never had a proper setup to try Oakling combo with it, though.
There is nothing wrong with being inexperienced, everyone starts out as inexperienced. Amazing you survived 3 Frogify and Aurora in the third game. The first game sounds really close too, so you both drew all your cards? It’s always nice to outlast your opponent after a long game.
9-2 after going 2-2 
Good job surviving all those rushes. The games you described were so close. Epic. 
