Season 1 Recap:
Hey everyone! So as you saw in my last post CLICK HERE, Season 1 was wild and full of unexpected surprises. Dodges, coin toss losses on turn order and other headaches really put a strain on me. I even had 20+ viewers throwing their suggestions for those 12-14 Mana Windeku battles and for some reason even they couldn’t get a win on this accoount. Both me and the bot ended in Silver 3 but the bot outperformed me in-game in regards to climbing leagues quicker and earning more DEC. That said, I pulled better rewards, had a $4 PeakD Weekly Challenge post and strangely had a better win rate.
So the bot was technically better at climbing and earning in-game but a scholar would still prove more profitable.
Anyway let’s get into season 2 where things got a bit of a shuffle!
Objective:
Outperform a bot using an account with Gold power at the cheapest cost, rather than specific, usable cards.
Season 2 Begins:
Some changes are afoot this season! Bulldog has provided me and the bot with a Level 3 Tarsa, a Level 2 Uraeus and a Sand Worm. He has also requested any suggestions of Modern card additions but I’m trying to keep things minimal still, so only request a Level 3 Antoid Platoon. I know that Tarsa at Level 2 or above will help me immensely by allowing a leveled Antoid and Uraeus to showcase themselves.
So my roster is as follows this season;
- Fire – Exploding Rats, Lava Launcher, Tusk the Wide, Scorch Fiend, Tarsa (Lv3) and Antoid Platoon (Lv3)
- Water – Wave Brood, Djinn Oshannus and Torrent Fiend
- Earth – Venari Seedsmith, Djinn Biljka and Fungus Fiend
- Life – Djinn Renova and Soul Fiend
- Death – Harklaw and Corpse Fiend
- Dragon – Twilight Basilisk and Djinn Chwala
- Neutral – Creeping Ooze, Gargoya Lion, Gargoya Devil, Uraeus (Lv2) and Sand Worm
As before, everything else is a starter card. So lets see if my request of a Level 2 Tarsa (though got a 3), Uraeus and Level 3 Antoid will make the improvements I insisted they would last season.
Bronze 2 (Day 1):
We hit the ground running with a huge 7 match winning streak. Antoid and Uraeus are doing the business! Those same peaky 12-14 mana battles with Windeku are now a thing of the past. Windeku is stuck on my Level 3 Antoid while my Uraeus and/or Serpentine Spy are ripping their team to shreds. Ah this feels good, just like my main account where I swear by Antoid who doesn’t suffer the missed hit issues that Lava does due to 1 extra speed, plus he’s cheaper in mana so I have extra mana for another attacker to clean up Windeku’s support cards.
Momentum is great here. I drop a few battles but the win rate is good! In just one casual sitting we’ve stormed right into Silver 3 and the bot is lagging behind me. First reward chest we pull a Djinn Renova and the refreshed DEC pool has been paying us nicely.
Silver 3 (Day 2-3):
I only pop in for 1-2 battles as work is killing me. I’m missing out on a lot of capture rate and progress. The bot is being given time to catch up and I have no idea how it’s doing.
Silver 3 (Day 4):
I’m exhausted but I can’t let the progress go to waste so I log in for another grindy session. I’m going to sit and get to Silver 2 today or go grey trying… Probably the latter.
Silver 3 is definitely testing my patience. Looking at my cards I’m still limited to Novice level 1 cards in all but Fire, even then I have no specialist cards, no epics/legendaries, no Wild format and just 2 max Bronze level cards for Fire. So I guess it makes sense but I’m nervous that the bot is running ahead again. Silver 3 is definitely seeing me face a lot of players with levelled cards or some more premium non-starter types that are putting my strategies to the test. I’m getting some streaks going but also having a tough time whenever Fire is banned in those Low Mana/Little League battles. My opponents have a lot of the low mana specialist cards and I’m stuck with starters. I do fine when I face someone who equally limited decks however, so that’s a positive.
Several times I get on the cusp of Silver 2 before a losing streak pulls me back into the middle of the league. Definitely seeing the limitations at this point.
Early Season Meeting On Day 4!:
I decide to lay my NFT cards on the table at the end of Day 4 and have a proper talk with Bulldog about the project. I want to compare how things are for the bot and myself as it’s had 2 extra full days of playing on me, so will be a good indicator for how things are. I want to lay out the weaknesses, the outright problems and see what Bulldog wants to do. Is he happy if we’re both stuck in Silver 3/2, heck maybe the bot in Gold for all I know. Either way, let’s sit and talk.
I explain that I’m essentially stuck in Silver 3. I’m pretty sure I can get to Silver 2 if we get a good run of optimal opponents, rule sets and mana amounts. But we’ve got a few glaring weaknesses that are costing us what would be easy wins with 1 cheap card here and there, or a Bronze maxed card of something I have access to.
Biggest weaknesses are that if Fire is banned and mana is low, we’re hurt big time. Water requires too many higher mana cards for the same performance in regards to Melee. We have no strength in magic either, sure we have Oshannus but he has no support in Water from magic. Earth has the same problem, after Peryton all my magic cards have like 1-2 health and are super slow so easily picked off by Sneak attackers before we move, leaving him exposed. Dragon is no better, sure I have Chwala but what exactly do I do with him? He has no other Dragons to pair with, so I’m entirely at the mercy of my paired Splinter… only we have no Delwyn, Camila or Quix, so all I’m during is weakening those other cards with Drake’s summoner bonus. They’d get extra speed if I just dump Drake/Chwala and play Kelya. They get more power and health with Tarsa and Magic could really use the Magic boost considering Armor is bypassed in a Magic battle anyway.
Scholarship works but not when based purely on power, at least not for optimal return on investment. I feel this is slowing down financial gains when a few more specific cards would vastly improve things for very little additional cost versus the max level cheapest cards I can’t play, that were bought for power reasons. I need 2-3 developed hands to cover those awkward rule sets like Poison, Earthquake and Little League. We’re just hindering progress at this stage, but this isn’t my project so I wait on Bulldog’s thoughts.
Bulldog Replies!:
The bot has stalled as well! It – very much like me – is a Silver 3 player who when fortunate can get into Silver 2 for a moment before falling back to 3. This was expected to happen eventually so Bulldog asks if I’m happy with Fire now and plans to review my personal account as there I routinely have Gold 1 rating with a mix of Novice and Bronze tier cards.
Meeting Outcome:
I say to really complete Fire, I’d want Forgotten One for poison battles. Besides that I’m fine. A Level 3 Serpentine Spy for the extra speed/health would be cool but all I really need is Forgotten One. I can always use Battering Ram infront of Spy as bait anyway. The few Magic cards are great but if we’re focusing on Modern then I can’t pair Delwyn Dragons with Fire, so I don’t really need them.
For Water I request Nerissa to give me additional Magic support for Oshannus. I’d also want a Level 3 Deeplurker which would require a Level 2 Kelya. Those two aren’t by any means vital but I own them on my own account and it’d be nice due to familiarity.
Earth needs help. All my Magic cards are so low on health besides Slipspawn, who isn’t always available due to mana limit. So I ask for a personal favourite; Magi of Chaos. A Level 3 Goblin Psychic for more health would be nice too but not essential.
I don’t want/need any Life or Death cards, I’m trying to keep this budget and they’re just not necessary, I only play them in very specific circumstances. Dragon is the same, I’d love Void Dragon, Chaos Dragon and Desert Dragon but they’re very pricey singles and I’m lacking a decent Dragon summoner anyway. Brighton Bloom could work if he wanted to give me one, up to him to rent though.
Silver 3 (Day 5-6):
So we’ve had our business meeting and I’m feeling better knowing that the bot is in the same boat as me. Still, I’m not sitting on my hands, I’m pushing for Silver 2 and getting my daily quests done!
Day 5 was more of the same, I get to 1 victory from Silver 2 and keep falling back into the middle of Silver 3. We get a Venari Bonesmith reward though which is nice.
Day 6 things finally stepped up. I was back and forth between 60 and 20 rating from Silver 2 and finally I pushed through the door! I don’t chance falling back and choose to open my daily reward at this point for a bonus chest and call it a night.
Silver 2 (Day 7):
BIG NEWS! I wake to a Discord message from Bulldog and we have some new cards to play with! He’s added my Forgotten One and Nerissa. I’m so pumped at this point that I totally overlook that he says he’s also added Spirit Hoarder and Magi Necrosi with some more surprises in-game.
So I log in to find a Level 4 Kelya, Level 5 Pelacor Bandit, Level 4 Angelic Mandarin, Level 4 Diemonshark, Level 2 River Hellondale and Level 4 Deeplurker So lets breakdown everything I have below at this point. Note the bot has these too!
- Level 1 Unless Specified!:
- Fire – Exploding Rats, Lava Launcher, Tusk the Wide, Scorch Fiend, Tarsa (Lv3), Antoid Platoon (Lv3) and The Forgotten One
- Water – Wave Brood, Djinn Oshannus, Torrent Fiend, Kelya (Lv4), Deeplurker (Lv4), Pelacor Bandit (Lv5), Angelic Mandarin (Lv4), Diemonshark (Lv4) and River Hellondale (Lv2)
- Earth – Venari Seedsmith, Djinn Biljka and Fungus Fiend
- Life – Djinn Renova and Soul Fiend
- Death – Harklaw, Corpse Fiend and Magi Necrosi
- Dragon – Twilight Basilisk and Djinn Chwala
- Neutral – Creeping Ooze, Gargoya Lion, Gargoya Devil, Uraeus (Lv2), Sand Worm and Spirit Hoarder
This is way more than expected and probably more than I needed but lets get to battling… BOOM we immediately go on a winning rampage! This gets tripped by an Earth battle when my Goblin Tower proceeds to miss every turn and my opponents one lands every turn. Love it when rng makes me eat lemons...
Another winning streak follows and we’ve burst into Silver 1 with pure fury, a 9-1 record. I can’t get over how good Diemonshark is with Enrage! Wave Brood with Spirit Hoarder is a huge stall tactic too. I still haven’t even played Mandarin or River at this point or really looked at them.
I take a break for dinner and some TV but get the itch to carry on. So I load up the mobile browser and we’re back at it. Another massacre follows, a 12 winning streak playing a mix of Fire, Water and Earth. I love Spirit Hoarder with Slipspawn and Forgotten One has won me every Poison battle he took part in, this is what I needed.
Oh did I say I was now in Gold 3?
Gold 3 (Day 8):
Bulldog is in shock at how I’ve only taken to using a few of the cards and heavily rotate my Splinters, yet I’ve stormed ahead. The bot is still in Silver 2!
I breakdown what I’ve been playing:
- Earth – Obsidian, Unicorn, Magi of Chaos, Princess/Peryton (depending on mana), Spirit Hoarder, Goblin Psychic and Slipspawn
- Water – Kelya, Diemonshark, Squid, Demented Shark, Seaweed, Deeplurker and Oshannus/Wave Brood (depending on rules)
Fire use has dropped a bit as I now have options, Dragon remains unused but Life/Death got a couple of spins and victory in last nights 12 win streak too. I just didn’t need any of the cards he’d bought for those.
So I wouldn’t say Bulldog overdid things as all I played with Diemonshark, Magi of Chaos and Spirit Hoarder from the new cards.
Bulldog points out River has the melee boost of my beloved Demented Shark as it’s Level 2, but can still attack in battles without helpful rule sets that allow Demented to hit from the middle. I’d totally overlooked the card and make the swap.
I get back to battles, earning DEC, winning a huge portion and collecting extra reward chests.
Bulldog decides to take over from the bot to try to reprogram how it plays, hoping to catch up with me as right now I’m destroying it in performance, income and win rate.
Gold 3 (Day 9):
I take the day off, let me quest roll over so I have two the next day. Work is hell.
Gold 3 (Day 10):
I pick things up again at night. Bulldog updates me that he’s got the bot to Gold 3 as it’s just not capable of using the deck right or playing its best option. It has also only managed 3 of the daily quests in the last 7.
He’s not sure what’s next for Season 3. He’s deciding whether to end the experiment and drop the bot in favour of a second scholar, after me showcasing the vast performance increase. Perhaps see if there are smarter bots or to cater a new deck to the bots preferred cards in an attempt to compete with me. It seems to really like Earth Magic, playing it in favour to the leveled Water deck a lot.
In my opinion it’s very clear a Scholar is the way to go now. I play just a handful of these cards I’ve been handed and look at the performance. All the rest could simply be the cheapest power. I don’t even need half of the specific cards I was given. So there are savings on the table for someone running these scholarships.
I have a bit of time on my hands so I play another 30 mins and destroy Gold 3. I’d be in Gold 2 now if I had more power available to me.
Gold 3 (Final Stretch):
So at this point I just casually enjoy playing. I’m not as available as the bot but my rating is well into Gold 2. I could certainly get to Gold 1 rating but with me capped at Gold 3 power and the DEC prize pool running dry, I don’t see the need to push too hard.
The bot is lagging way behind and that’s a wrap for the season!
End of Season Rewards:
Honestly I’m pretty disappointed with these rewards. I got significantly better on my Silver 3 including 2 Epic cards and a bunch of Rares. But it feels good to have smashed my challenge this season and starting to see the bags fill.
End of Season Review:
With just a Level 3 Antoid and Level 2 Uraeus (plus a Leveled Tarsa to play them), I was immediately able to massively improve last seasons performance and be neck and neck with the bot in league rating, while outperforming it in Daily Quests.
But once we both got stuck in Silver 2 (Silver 3 mostly for the bot) in came some new cards. Of which I only even played Diemonshark, Deeplurker, River Hellondale, Forgotten One, Pelacor Bandit and Spirit Hoarder (plus Kelya to allow the leveled Water cards). At this point the bot was beaten so badly that Bulldog had to take over for the bot. Factoring in Weekly Challenges, every Daily Quest and extra time in higher leagues for DEC rewards, the bot has been beaten significantly in financial performance too.
- Biggest Surprise – Diemonshark with Enrage. Sweet jebus it’s incredible.
- Biggest Headache – Having my game time massively reduced this season due to work.
- Best Splinter – Water; Kelya, Diemonshark, Squid, River, Deeplurker, Spirit Hoarder and Wave Brood
- Worst Splinter – Dragon. Didn’t bother using it and handily abused it anytime I fought it.
- Kryptonite Team – Level 4 Alric Water Magic with numerous leveled Wild format Magic cards
- Toughest Ruleset – Odd Mana
- Favourite Card – Diemonshark Level 4
- Hated Card – Unicorn Mustang, to fight anyway, I love playing it.
- Most Valuable Card – Spirit Hoarder
- Most Useless Card – Goblin Tower for costing me a 21 win streak by missing 4 attacks in the middle lol. But investment wise, many of the cards I’ve been granted for use and not power aren’t even needed.
Conclusion:
Scholars offer you a clear improvement over Bots. I only used a select handful of cards from what I’ve been given and then you could simply fill the cheapest power and I’d hand you Gold 1 rewards. Yet the bot seems to begin to struggle as strategy becomes more of a factor in the higher leagues. Lower leagues have a lot of “just pick team A or B and hope your opponent picks the weakness”, particularly if playing Novice tier starter cards. Silver 2 and above you start to face leveled decks, invested players who you now need to study and outplay, often with a fail safe within your hand just incase you’re wrong about their hand this time... this is where the bot really starts to fall off.
What’s Next?:
Season 3 I have again agreed to return for and intend to find more time for now I’m more settled in my new job. I don’t need any new cards, in-fact Bulldog could remove many of them at this point and replace with cheaper power to get me higher in Gold eligibility to maximise his investment.
I do wonder what is in store for the other account? Will I face a new bot, will the bot get extra cards to showcase a double strength bot versus a more budget focused scholar? Heck, will I face a new scholar? I honestly don’t know what Bulldog has in store, but I’m excited.
Stay tuned for smaller, regular updates in Season 3!
P.S: Let me know if you'd like a video review to accompany these write up's or any mid season video reviews etc! I could do side by side comparisons of my project account and my main?