Critique my play!

[Malarious]

So I havent played much recently but am trying to get back into the swing, I am still in the low level arena but here is a game I just had, looking for feedback on changes in play or the file/SS.

https://alteil-login.gamepotusa.com/auditorium/index.php?id=1928659&code=2dfff13be43caaca245316e0dd94d68f

If anyone wants to know why I randomly decided to use deaths embrace... I saw it was a gowen rush so I knew the denial of the 2 sp would mean he was stuck with what he had, and with my SS about to go off I knew I would clear his field with him only getting 1 monster.

[GonFreeces31]

Wow, tons of mistakes in this match. Okay.

The other guy got off to a terrible start by letting himself get hit by a shade, not starting with Kurina, and then wasting another SP for Iczer attack. His early Iczer attack basically resulted in a 3SP swing to you. Your SS gave you 2, he lost 1.

The death's embrace turn 3 was kind of inefficient. Since you had Domina SS about to activate, at best embrace was going to be a 3SP for 2SP trade and force him to sacrifice his highland hunter (not really worth it). It would have been better to play a unit that turn, and wait to use your embrace until he had more units on the field and you had better field wipe capability.

Turn 5: Playing shade there was great, however that iczer attack was really bad. This turn look at the field. You have complete control. If you ever get to this point in games... NEVER ICZER ATTACK. The only way the other guy is going to be capable of a comeback is if he uses his soul skills. If you refuse to iczer, that forces him to sacrifice units from the field to use his soul skills. That shortage of units on the field basically means when he uses his souls, he won't have enough guys on the field to recover.

Resting LeBeau and killing with Smoke would have been better. It also would have meant you would have 2 more SP the next turn (you would have saved 1SP from iczering, and 1SP from not having to revive LeBeau).

Turn 8: There was no reason to Eyes of Terror Alraune. She would have been easy prey anyway. Just pump more units.

So yes you won, but you had a lot of little mistakes in this match. But you can learn from them.

[LoneKnight]

What Gon said basically. I will admit I liked the embrace though. His choices were basically play Monk, play Kurina or play alraune, and none of them deal enough damage to dent hellsmoke; you were in total control from that point on.

I like iczering when I'm in a position of power... but you had a pretty frail LeBeau out so that's a debatable move.

Your opponent played badly and you really messed up your endgame by playing grims. You could have won quite a few turns sooner.

[GonFreeces31]

That's true, when to iczer is tough. I think my dislike of iczering from power positions, and LK's affinity to iczer more reflects my preference for Falkow files (which iczer less) and his talents with lycans (which iczer more).

[LoneKnight]

Yeah, I was thinking of that as well. Lycans are pretty sturdy with their regeneration, and even Riza has a somewhat respectable 30-40 life, and even if something dies, jolly good, I can finally sinSS you! That and as a rush it needs to play fast, before it runs out of copies of riza/esk/succ, so for me iczering is a much more tempting option than for a falkow deck that has frail units everywhere and can't keep field presence/mana afloat for returns and skills if he keeps iczering.

Lawt rush is somewhere in the middle. I usually don't iczer with Lebeau down because he dies to EVERYTHING, and doing so after an iczer means you just wasted his close skill. If all I have is smoke/anna/Igina I usually iczer away because Igina is there as an SS/grim magnet anyway, and the rest revives free.

All hinging on situation. I REALLY hate/love (not)iczering 2LP ss because it can be either Skeleton Soldier or Mitzett... It's really tense!

I'd say about half my losses come from iczering at the wrong time though, lol.

[psylensse]

First off, great to see a low level person (or anyone for that matter) put themselves out there and ask for advice! This sort of thing would be great to see happen more often.

The Death's Embrace is interesting. It's unlikely your opponent wants HBH to expire; you not only deny him that choice you prevent him from playing a unit the next turn. I think it works because you happen to be left with the matchup of Combat Monk vs. Smoke, which works great in your favor. But as Gon says, his problems stem from other factors, such as not playing Kurina or dodging shade. If Kurina were there instead of HBH Death's Embrace would be more questionable since you deny them a play next turn, but technically you just denied yourself one too and you're back at square one.
Dual Wielder seems like the critical mistake to me on his part, especially since he doesn't seem to have enough copies to justify it. Tanking with the Axe-dude to build up the field makes more sense.
Turn 8 neither grim makes sense. Alraune seems to spook everybody in crest. But at best she's going to do, what, 15 damage here? nobody's going anywhere because of her. You would have been able to kill her regardless. Same goes for warning knife. Alraune is just not that spooky...

On the subject of Iczering...

Try to iczer attack a lot too. You don't need an endgame if you are consistently applying pressure and iczering the opponent aggressively.

This was said in a previous thread on the topic of how to play Natural Born Killers, and to Malarious, no less! so now I'm sure he's confused.

My personal feeling as a somewhat new player is that early opponent SS's should generally not be triggered (though there are plenty exceptions), however the rest of the way through go nuts. This isn't always true, but often the first SS is some sort of SP+1, SP+2, Raise Sphere level by 3, raise ALL sphere levels by 3 etc., type thing. You Iczering this helps them because they start the next turn with this advantage already in hand. In contrast, most later grims are damage type grims. You Iczering means that even if you lose a unit, you can start the next turn by reviving and restoring your field. You letting their SS go off at the START of the next turn however means your field being crippled to begin the fight, which is likely to lead to an even more crippled field by the end of that turn. Not to mention so many SS's these days are of the type, "Do X damage to disengaged units", or "return/send to cemetery disengaged unit". To me it's almost always worth the risk. If I had 10 gran for every assassin, esria/astaforse, or mizett i've dodged i'd have been able to play Ex lotto until I had a set of every Ex in my sphere. (exaggeration...) Anyway, it also helps when you tend to know what's coming. In Crest, Gowen SS 1 is often dryad; the rest of the way through is usually damage grims, if I remember correctly, so at least you know what you're getting into before you make that call.

Hope you keep posting games! This IS training week after all

[GonFreeces31]

Fail xD I'm sorry! Let's just say earlier it is better to spend SP on units and later it's better to spend SP on iczering. Man I feel like an idiot.

[winfrith279]

Gafc is better than Domina for ss, but maybe you don't have that many options.
For me, i only iczer when i expect to mess up my opponent's SS or when LP matters a lot to my opponent.

[Malarious]

Ok! Thanks for the replies all here are my thoughts on things.

When I played deaths embrace I saw Domina was about to fire with intent to target the highland born, and hellsmoke is faster than salamander. I had a field wipe and no chance to revive if I embraced. Its a gowen deck I had no illusions that domina would take SP from him. I actually started with gowen, and its still my "starter" so I knew how it would play (though I use the lvl 2 knight looking guy who drops your gowen 1 level. He holds the field very well and later on can be moved to second row).

Anyway the wipe meant it would be my hellsmoke + whatever I played vs just his monk with hellsmoke at full health and able to 1 shot his monk. I was assuming I had control for at least another turn following. While I knew I would set off his SS I also only had an undead so I didnt have to worry about revival on him, I had the opening to play lebeau and get rid of the "stronger" SS.

I am pleased the shade worked

I knew when it was monk vs lebeau + hellsmoke that monk wouldnt live the turn, if he hit hellsmoke I would get him back, if he hit lebeau the close skill would kill him. I iczered because I didnt expect to need the SP at that moment and I wanted to try to push any SS out of timing, in hind sight I didnt look that it was a 3 LP SS, or I would have saved it. Alraune doesnt scare me, but on another failure to think it through I expected fire tornado or a revive with another damage grim so I thought I was about to lose field control, the pure terror was for the dual wielder that didnt revive.

The warning knife was not paying attention, I hit faster than samurai girl, I was expecting a slash across the front.

I will post another one shortly

EDIT: No gafc

[Malarious]

Ok I have very little experience against refess but I tried to aim for controlling buffers and GENERALLY closing at least 1 card per game. But I failed to take into account the card he had played on one turn I expected a full field clear

https://alteil-login.gamepotusa.com/auditorium/index.php?id=1930930&code=90db314deeb7ddf50e483c624038ec98

Also, later today maybe I can go with someone in the training arena