Sneeks vs Vlox

This match-up between the Cave Goblins and the Cloaks is a pretty even match-up in Summoner Wars on android / iOS. The Cave Goblins have a slight advantage (at least according to the stats). In my opinion this is mostly due to the low health of most Cloaks units so they can get overrun horribly by the swarming Cave Goblins. In this playthrough I’ll describe my deck build, basic strategy and how the individual turns went. At the end there’ll be an overview of the game and a conclusion. Both decks have no mercenaries or second summoner units in them. Summoner Wars is a game by Plaid Hat Games.

My thoughts going in to this match-up
Hawk and / or Violet (and to a lesser extent the Admiral) are the key champions for my opponent (I’m definitely expecting Hawk). If I can play around those / prevent those from appearing until I am about to kill Vlox then I’ll win. If not, all of my zero cost commons can be picked off very quickly due to Vlox’s ability. So my strategy should be the default Cave Goblin one, be very aggressive, kill everything, isolate Vlox and swarm the walls. Swarming has the bonus of rendering half of the Cloaks events pretty much useless (Assassinate is a very expensive way to remove a 0-cost unit and Raid is less useful if all your walls are swarmed). Spy and Magic Drain are still problematic though and I can’t really play around those (Magic Drain a bit due to Blarf / not that much magic building). One thing I should watch out while being aggressive is sacrificing my commons too easily as every common lost early on is another magic towards a Cloaks champion. The Eater and Blarf would be my ideal turn 1/2 champions as I can use them to very quickly put insane pressure on the Cloak walls. His strategy, in my opinion, should be to try to slow me down as much as possible; losing some commons (or walls) for that purpose is acceptable.

DeckTurn 1Turn 2Turn 3Turn 4Turn 5Turn 6Turn 7Turn 8Turn 9Turn 10Turn 11Turn 12Conclusion
Screenshot_2015-01-13-00-24-02

Starting setup. I’m first.

Deck build
– 1 Mook
– 1 Blarf
– 1 The Eater
– 6 Fighter (3 initially)
– 6 Slinger (2 initially)
– 1 Berserker (1 initially)
– 2 Climber
– 3 Beast Rider

Screenshot_2015-01-13-00-24-02I get to go first, which is a pity. I would have preferred to go second and see what my first hand is as he can only hit my two goblin units on the right (and I only get two moves). What I want to do here is make sure I can get Vlox into the action for the next turn without exposing him (or the Goblin commons) too much. This is why I move the two fighters forward towards the wall and then Screenshot_2015-01-13-00-44-34Sly Vlox in place of the second fighter. This way he can’t be hit by the Scrapper or one of the Gunner’s. I also wanted to get one magic (in case of an early Blarf) so I killed one of my own units (I wanted to kill the bottom-right Fighter but failed, so I killed the bottom-right Slinger instead). Another interesting option would have been to move both slingers and attack the Gunner and Scrapper. This would leave the Slinger attacking the Gunner exposed though and didn’t feel as aggressive.

Screenshot_2015-01-13-22-51-01The worst possible thing happened: My opponent drew ‘Spy’ his first turn (and played it of course). The discarded card is a ‘Goblin Horde Attack’, not good. Another interesting move on his part is that he went completely offensive against my units, which was unexpected (we’re both playing this faction for the first time). The result is pretty good for him, he kills two of my units and hits one die on Vlox with his Slasher. Luckily I have a pretty good first hand, two Goblin Rushes and a Goblin Rage. Which is probably a bad sign for which cards are at the bottom of my draw pile though. I took some time thinking how to exactly do this turn, as it’s pretty much a puzzle. I think I ended up solving it in the most efficient way. That involved using one Goblin Rush & Rage. I definitely wanted to use those to make sure I’m not holding on too much cards and to be sure I’m being Screenshot_2015-01-14-00-57-32offensive enough. Also, I wanted enough magic to summon Mook or the Eater next turn if they’d appear. This caused the totally different board situation you can see at the End of the Turn to appear. For those wondering: Sneeks (Up, Right), Berserker (Up, Right), Fighter (Up, Left) was my move phase. The reason I killed my Slinger is to avoid a possible Magic Drain.

Screenshot_2015-01-14-19-58-11A completely different turn from my opponent. I was kinda expecting a (pretty scary) Scrapper attack + Cloak of Shadows on Sneeks, but instead a defensive ‘kill my own units’ for magic turn. A possible sign of an incoming big champion and / or that he has one or more Magic Drain’s in hand. I was pretty happy with this turn as this gives me ample opportunity to really pressure the lone wall without much risk at too much being summoned against me. And I got Blarf in my hand which isn’t too bad as I can immediately boost him up to avoid Magic Drain and start hitting that wall with four dice. I did exactly that.Screenshot_2015-01-14-20-38-08 I also moved the Berserker to avoid any attacks from the side / support him (although it doesn’t seem too necessary). I dropped the wall one square from the center as I didn’t want him putting a wall directly against it and getting one less attack spot against it. Not sure if that was the smartest move as it does mean I can’t summon and attack his wall. Finally I summoned the beast rider to use the last magic and to get another card cycled; I’m not too sure whether that position is ideal as it can’t really use its ability effectively. Oh and 6/7 hits on the wall, great result!

Screenshot_2015-01-16-16-33-53No champion (which is nice). A Cloak of Shadows on Vlox though and a scrapper attack on Blarf. He wants the magic no doubt, which is fine with me as I can swap Blarf out to safety this turn and he hasn’t successfully hit my weaker goblins. Also the summoned Thief missed it’s attack, which is nice as I should definitely be able to kill it. The new wall is a pity though as I had almost destroyed the first one ;). I don’t want to focus on Vlox this turn as I’d rather block his walls / kill the commons he summoned instead. This was one of the hardest turns to play as I had three different events in hand and I was wondering which one’s to use here. Also, one big question for me here was whether I want to kill his first wall. If I kill it now, I open up an avenue for attack on Blarf / Screenshot_2015-01-16-18-11-58Sneeks I don’t want to open yet and it’s not adding any new summon spots as long as the spot to the right and bottom are filled (which they will be). I ended up choosing to use just Rush here, a choice I think I’m still happy with as there’s not really much to use Horde Attack against and Rage seems overkill against the Thief and Scrapper. Sadly I ended up only hitting one die of 6 on the Scrapper, which thereby miraculously survives! At least the Thief died.

Screenshot_2015-01-16-23-51-06Still no champion. This feels close to over now with just one Scrapper between Sneeks and Vlox and the Slasher in the corner missing. I was somewhat expecting another Cloak of Shadows and a Slasher attack on Sneeks (with a 1/36 chance at an instant win). This is no doubt a better move though. Now the question is how to go ahead; in retrospect it’s a pity now that the wall is still there as without the wall I would have had a direct attack on Vlox. Anyway, I decide to use Goblin Rage here to make sure I kill the Scrapper and Slasher this turn and to get an extra attack in on Vlox. I also kill the wall which seems like an acceptable risk; he’ll need to use Vlox to attack Blarf or Sneeks as a Screenshot_2015-01-17-00-09-28Slasher and hit a 1/36 chance to kill either. And there are no champions with three attack in Vlox’s deck. Sadly my dice here are horrible, both the Scrapper and Slasher survive against the odds. Which is extra bad as I wanted enough magic to summon a possible Mook / Eater next turn. Because of these bad dice I only end up at four magic. With the Scrapper surrounded by four units now ;-). Note: I also got Magic Drained for one magic this turn.

Screenshot_2015-01-17-02-05-26Disaster happens. First of all, the unthinkable happens (which I didn’t really plan for), he has another Slasher in hand and it throws a six on Blarf thereby getting five magic. Secondly Hawk, probably the worst Cloak champion for the Cave Goblins to see. Hawk and Vlox together can clear four one hitpoint Goblin units per turn (luckily only the Fighter gets hit this turn). And thirdly Vlox hits two for two on the Berserker. That last occurring is probably the worst as with Goblin Horde Attack and the Berserker on the board I’d have had 10 dice on Vlox. Note: He really should have moved Hawk two spots to the rigScreenshot_2015-01-17-02-42-40ht of his wall to do a second attack on the Berserker in case Vlox failed. Still, with the Fighter moving towards Vlox and using Goblin Horde Attack I can get four dice on a four hitpoint Vlox. That’s an obvious move. I also finally manage to kill the resilient Scrapper and one of the Slashers. This brings me to eight magic, enough for Mook to appear next turn! Note: Having him on board this turn would not have been crucial. Finally: Looking at the board situation again I should have swapped Sneeks with the Slinger at the end as that would have given me three more dice at Vlox next turn.

Screenshot_2015-01-18-00-33-14With two cards left in my deck I now know which two cards were put at the bottom: “Goblin Invincibility” and “The Eater”. Darn. Both would have been very useful in the previous turns. Especially “The Eater” feels pretty useless now as I’m pretty sure I’ll be seeing three champions of the Cloaks pretty soon. This turn he summoned “The Admiral” and put the Cloak of Shadows on him which is a pretty good move in my opinion. It makes the Slasher pretty much invulnerable there by protecting Vlox and at the same time I can’t directly attack “The Admiral”. At this point I’m in my opinion now clearly losing as Hawk + The Admiral + whatever third champion will beat a hurt Sneeks and Mook. And I feel I can’t wait with using Goblin Rage as the three commons I have will probably die next turn. So I move both Slingers foScreenshot_2015-01-18-01-20-42rward and try to break through the Slasher with Horde Attack + Rage (4 possible two dice attacks on the Slinger). Not ideal, but I roll pretty good and hit six die on The Admiral in one turn (he should probably have let the Slasher die on the first attack by the bottom Slinger, but he thought I’d get two dice attack Vlox). I also summon my last Slinger and build the fighter to get The Eater out next turn. Not sure moving Sneeks in so aggressively was smart, but I wanted to be able to have both Mook & Sneeks hit on whatever champion moved in front of Sneeks.

Screenshot_2015-01-18-02-05-12Oh. His second magic drain. I was pretty convinced at this point it was in his magic pile. Luckily Hawk completely whiffs on Sneeks giving me no additional wounds. Sadly most of my other commons die to all the Hawk attacks / commons and only one Slinger remains. Note: The Slinger at the bottom left got assassinated! ;-). One thought which also suddenly occurred at the start of this turn: Wait, he has only summoned two champions, so he still has one champion left to summon. Screenshot_2015-01-19-01-23-42Hmmmm, that’s probably Dagger then as Sneeks didn’t get hit from behind by a champion. Wait, that means I really need to watch out for getting backstabbed now. This made my next move pretty easy. I attacked Hawk and killed the Thief with Mook + the Slinger leaving only spot for him to advance on Sneeks. Note: Mook only hit for one damage, so the Admiral took that damage. He could also have let the Admiral die to prevent the three hits on Hawk; interesting champion!

Screenshot_2015-01-19-21-29-02Dagger appears, moves in and immediately hits two dice on Sneeks. As predicted the game at this point is pretty much lost as I can’t kill Dagger (The Admiral can also take a big hit for him) and he’ll get anothScreenshot_2015-01-19-21-38-18er chance to attack me next turn. So I pretty much have to play Goblin Invincibility now (might as well ;)). I do switch Sneeks and Mook to draw his other units closer (not much reason for it other than that really). My attacks go really bad though and I only hit two dice on Dagger (with Sneeks) and Mook completely misses. Note: With Mook only 1’s miss for Sneeks, so it’s a very good chance to do three hits with him.

Screenshot_2015-01-19-22-00-40Screenshot_2015-01-19-22-02-50This was not a good move from my opponent. He summons a Scrapper to attack my protected Sneeks and moves in his other two units. This allows me to probably kill the Scrapper (as it’s out of range of the Admiral) and get the last magic for the Eater. I decided against attacking Dagger with both of my units as I probably won’t kill him anyway due to the Admiral being able to take one big hit for him. I moved Mook away to prevent having Sneeks get hit by both the Admiral and Dagger. Still, if Dagger hits two out of two it’s over!

Screenshot_2015-01-19-22-07-13Wow. Dagger had the finishing chance but threw two 1’s. And even better, this is a perfect setup to kill almost three champions in one turn and kill the Slasher as well. That opportunity was too much to resisScreenshot_2015-01-19-22-13-26t, I pretty quickly played The Eater and attacked The Admiral, Hawk and Dagger all at once. The attacks went perfectly and in the end situation only Vlox, the Gunner and Dagger are left. Dagger however will die the next turn as he can’t avoid the Eater. The only problem here is, he still has one shot at killing me first as I couldn’t prevent either Vlox or Dagger doing another attack. If he misses that 50% chance I have a better chance at winning as I can have Mook boost Sneeks his dice!

Vlox doesn’t miss. Cloaks win!

I am pretty happy with how this game went. I definitely made some mistakes, but overall I think it mostly was some bad luck that made it swing back my opponent’s way. Once Blarf died and Hawk was out, the game was pretty much over. I still think I made the right move there as it was only a 1 in 6 chance (if he even had another slasher) to kill Blarf. Another positive thing is that I hung in there after that to still get another chance at victory (which I really should have never gotten). The whole experience of playing as Cave Goblins was pretty fun, especially the aggressive and swarming style of the Cave Goblins. All in all I still consider them relatively weak as they are very dependent on rolls / cards drawn.

Lessons learnt
– I think it’s good to put more Berserkers in the build. I definitely had times at which I could have easily summoned a two attack, two cost common to remove a blocking common (especially considering normally I’d have reclaimed Blarf’s magic at some point). And both the beast rider’s and climber’s felt pretty useless, at least in this game.
– Against the Cave Goblins it can be essential to sacrifice commons just to prevent surrounds on walls / champions. Especially if that common blocks an essential route towards the enemy summoner. This can give you the extra time needed to get a few more heroes / walls out. Basically once the Cave Goblin player runs out of steam, he’s pretty much dead in the water against most factions.
– Movement is the limiting factor with the Cave Goblins. All those Fighters are no use if you can’t get them into the right position. Because of this Goblin Rush, the Slingers and Sneeks are the most important cards as they allow more reach for your combo’s. Also: Going through your deck fast does indeed work well with the Cave Goblins.

Turn overview

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2 Responses to Sneeks vs Vlox

  1. Maks says:

    Interesting read!
    Did you know that your opponent were playing Cloaks in advance? And you did not allow mercenaries for both sides at the beginning of the game I suppose?

    • Cognitive bias says:

      Yeah, but I didn’t change my deck because of that. I wanted to try out how my ‘default’ Cave Goblins deck at the time would hold up. My opponent did some slight deck building against the Cave Goblins which is why I was almost certain Hawk would pop up. We agreed not to use Mercenaries (it was his first game playing as the Cloaks).

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