That’s why I posted those thoughts, the game is a complete mess. It’s almost like no one tests it.
I use Troll teams and I’ve seen blobbing start at a ridicolous level, then disappear and be substituted by anti-blob RNG then be back but not as in force as they were.
And nothing being said about that. (RNG is being adjusted all the time, or maybe it’s Mercury retrograding in the various houses).
I may point out that while Forest Troll needs gems to multiply, Loyalty or Justice happily creates them, if there are already some on the ground or not.
(How blobs are counted it’s a different matter. Yet people doesn’t lament skull blobbing as much, yet it’s a thing with Bone Dragon and Keeper of Souls. Also others.)
Remove the damage and devour and he would still be everywhere with just spawning gems because it’s not really his ability that’s made him popular it’s his third trait paired with Forest Troll.
He was vastly popular even before.
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Before Forest Troll I never saw him in GW and would see maybe 5 Krakens in 100 battles in pvp.
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We must move in different circles. I’ve seen it consistently since it appeared when Blackhawk was created.
Having it as a guest in a loopfest is quite more recent, yes. In fact its first loop team - the one I saw and was recommended to me - was with JusticeX2, and then with Giant Spider and Green Seer.
Then came Forest Troll.
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Kraken was often at the top of the vjm teams on ps4, along with ek or archon statue occasionally.
I can’t see @Vangor’s post but I completely agree with using dragons against Kraken/Troll. I have been using Krystenax/Krystenax/Dragon Soul/Elemaugrim and rarely lose. All you have to do is get Krystenaxs full and remove blues and greens and Kraken/Troll is easily beatable. Like all teams in the game it can still fail if the ai gets lucky but 9/10 I win.
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Shoot. If 9/10 is enough, use Kraken / Alchemist / Hellcat / Kraken. My win rate is significantly higher than 90% against all the meta teams when I take that quartet.
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It’s better than 90% I’m just saying 9/10 for when I don’t do much pvp.
If you are level 1000+ you know how many Kraken/Troll teams there are in pvp. As you can see I have a pretty good win rate against them with dragons.
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Btw I use that dragon team against almost everything but I put a Mab last slot against Wisps and Sylvanimora against Psions and the times I forgot to put Elemaugrim back in I still usually win. It’s the Krystenax removing greens that makes it work really well.
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Playing the team you normally play and winning ‘unless the AI gets lucky’ isn’t a counter strategy, which is what the other threads were appealing for.
Running a team reliant on casting KNax at mana cost 16 while running two other dragons that you don’t dare cast - is not a reliable counter strategy. Yes removing greens helps, but only if you can have a KNax cast ready at the right time. Given trolls are cheap and the AI gets a lot of cascades, that’s far from failsafe.
Ps: happy forum birthday.
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Not to mention, again, that removing a color can backfire : unless you take quite a long time to calculatr how it will shift the board, you are very likely to give the opponent an extra turn, shutting your extras (frozen) and receiving damage (tentacles).
The lesser colors there are on the board, the more chances of extra turn.
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Actually I do cast Dragon Soul it helps get up Nax before the ai can get a Troll up it’s just Ele I don’t cast unless it can kill the Krakens. I have found never taking skulls unless it can kill the Troll helps as well.
And thank you I can’t believe it’s been a year already.
As you can see by the soul gains I do cast him.
Sometimes it can be a bit messy
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Have you tried it?
Unless it doesn’t take you “quite a long time” and you should calculate how the board will shift anyway… Its called “strategy”
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Yes it does give the ai a few extra turns but it’s never been enough to do huge damage and being frozen doesn’t usually hurt much.
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Just quoting myself to support @Maxx and @Vangor - Krystenax is pretty decent against krakens and wisps.
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I don’t know where your definition of “strategy” comes from, but this isn’t one, at best, a part of a strategy. Here, I’d rather call that being meticulous.
If you can calculate it fast, good for you. I can’t, and it’s a pain in my burrito to do it.
I try to anticipate a bit, but not spending too much time on it, simply because it’s boring to do so, and if I needed to do that on every game of GoW, I’d simply move on to another game.
Anyway, I understand better how it “works” against Kraken, thanks to a single sentence of Maxx :
I’m too used of chaining spells, abusing extra turns by lining up 4+ gems with every cast. This team doesn’t chain spells, so it doesn’t care much about frozen, while it’s usually the thing I want to avoid the most.
So while most of my decks really need to prevent Mab from proccing her 3rd trait, meaning I can’t let a single 4+ match through, this deck keeps going, and can withstand several 4+ matches (or, in Maxx’s case, even Kraken casts, with Elmaugrimm guarding against devour).
If your Krystenax spell backfires, you virtually only take a couple damage from tentacles, but the ennemy doesn’t get much mana and even if it can cast the troll, it won’t do much due to the lack of Greens on the board.
Now the problem with this deck, as Jainus said, is still that it needs to collect more mana than the Troll. I’d guess you would loose 40% of the times the Troll can cast before you, but since you have the first turn, it won’t happen that often.
The other cause for loss would be TDS leaving a good board to the ennemy, and while Whiskeyjack’s deck is ready for that with his Mab, the others can still loose to this. Wich is why Vangor simply doesn’t use TDS (and which is the reason why his deck can’t be called a “counter” to Kraken. It’s just viable).
Maxx uses TDS at the cost of some rare loss, but plays so much in short times he doesn’t care and simply goes for the shortest games, wether they are won or lost.
Am I correct?
EDIT : I’d still rather play my own deck, since I have a better win rate than the one shown by Maxx, but again, I don’t have problems in regular games, Kraken is a pain to me during GW only.
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Call it what you will but simply doing this before you do things that will change the board greatly (excluding explosion of course) can be enough of a difference to change a loss to a win.
Wanna be able to judge this faster? Practice with a rubix cube. For me it is the same set of skills. If you can quickly solve a rubix cube you can quickly assess the way the board will change