Wow! Devestating Battle!

[GeneralRolando]

My friend and I played a really fast game a couple days ago. It was Benders (me) vs Mountain Vargath (him). I don't think I have ever as easily defeated the MV ever before.

He started by rushing a deceiver hoping to get a quick magic and remove some stun from the board. This failed and I laughed as now I had a free magic point essentially.

On my turn I drew 3! Deceivers and a magic drain and Kalal! Pretty much a dream hand! obviously I couldn't use the magic drain so I decided to scrap it for magic. During this turn I collected the sitting duck on my side of the field and kept my guys away from his brutes.

His turn he only got one attack with a brute which failed miserably again. He scraped most of his hand for magic.

My turn drew my 1 card and played 2 of the 3 deceivers and with that was able to stun ALL of his units, except his summoner obviously. Scraped the extra deceiver and gained 1 other magic point from attacking with controllers.

His turn. Using his self generated magic he played a warrior and used that one event card that put commons close to his summoner so he could get away from my deceivers

It didn't help him much as I was able to destroy most of his commons at that point where he only killed 1 deceiver and 1 controller. I had about 5 magic at this point and decided to summon nothing to save for Kalal I killed his second to last common on the field which boosted it to 6 and I discarded his other common with Tacullu's couter summon. Which put me down to 4 magic so I scraped 3 from my hand to get Kalal next turn. (it's nice knowing that I'm not fighting a magic steal deck, lol!)

His turn he summoned a brute cause other than that he had events that were unhelpful. He then proceeded to kill another deceiver.

MY TURN, summoned Kalal. At this point he was absolutely screwed. I started doing all I could to just build crap tons of magic. Even killed my own deceiver for the extra point.

His turn, managed to summon another 2 commons but were little help, as he couldn't roll hits to save his life... literally.

My turn again! draw some cards, summoned a breaker and started sifting through his deck and discarded a champion of his cause he had no magic to save it. lol!

Basically the game continued like that, I kept summoning breakers and in combo with Kalal is just too evil. I've heard a lot of flack about Kalal but after this game I never want her to leave my deck. Eventually I was able to maraud Sunderved with shots from kalal and finish him off. Neither of us got through our deck even with all the discarding we were doing.

It was quite an incredible game. Anyway, just thought I would share that cause it's kinda evil and seemed really over-powered.

[airdroppers]

Yeah, I find that match up very lopsided.

Deciever's are brutal against the MV and so is Mind Control.

I liked your combo with Kalal + Breakers. I am not a fan of those units, so I have never tried that, I am more of a Controller player. However, your post kind of makes me want to try Kalal + Seer next time I play Benders.

[GeneralRolando]

I usually focused on controllers at first because the 2 attack at range is tempting, but then I realized that Benders are definitely not about attacking. With 2 controllers already on the field at the start, it sets you up perfectly to use the controller ability to move units adjacent to your deceivers which obviously lock them up. Breakers have become one of my favorite units because they are almost over-powered. Losing just a few cards from your deck can be devastating, and if they pay the magic to keep the cards it slows down their movements because it's a wasted magic for a card to be put on the bottom of your deck.

[champrjk]

Funny, when I did this match up the opposite happened. The Mountain Vargath crushed the Benders. I guess I suck at using the benders.

[prometheuslkr]

Colby and co. have stated in the podcast pretty much what is seen here: the benders in general are a crush or be crushed faction. When they're winning, they win more, and when they're losing, they lose more.

[GeneralRolando]

I wouldn't totally agree with that. I've had a game or two that could have gone either way until the very end. In the past I felt fairly behind but eventually got Guldune out and that made all the difference. Guldune took over some strong commons of swamp orcs and even was able to swipe a champion near the end. I was able to run away with Tacullu and assault him with his own units. It eventually came down to a summoner on summoner fight which under any other circumstance I would have lost but the final common assault got his health low enough to where 1 lucky roll won the game for me.

[Aleph]

I see the win-more point - while I don't think it defines every Bender game it's a reasonable summary.

Counter-summon gives a lot of control if you're ahead on the magic race (effectively being worth 1 additional magic to you every time you pull it off), and once in a while you get to play Drain Magic ->Mind-Control for a huge swing (essentially, a 3 point magic economy shift, followed by paying X magic to gain board value = X magic and remove from your enemy board value = X magic, for a net magical shift of 3 + X for the Benders). Further, the mere math of the swing doesn't always take into account the large momentum shift that such a move can inflict upon a battleline. On the other hand, if your board control is lost, your fragile units can sometimes get steamrolled one after another, and it feels like you never get a chance to restablish yourself.

And, on an even simpler note - sometimes you draw Sorgwen, and sometimes you don't.

Apropos of breakers: I am a particular fan of immobilizing durable enemy commons with Deceivers and hitting them with Breakers from a position of safety. I don't usually find it a game-winning strategy by itself, but I do find that my opponents are disproportionately irritated by it and they sometimes act rashly to remove the threat. Also gives me an excuse to sing Foreigner's "Head Games", which also is apparently equally irritating.

[GeneralRolando]

WOW! That's a lot of maths that I don't understand!

Sorgwen is definitely awesome but I can't say I always put my bet on her. I prefer her late game and unless you've been crafty with walls, she's annoyingly fragile.

I honestly think the entire Benders deck is simply for annoying people. lol. It's a magic control, mind control, and deck control all in one. I honestly think they only lack some power in being able to zone and control opponents walls. The 1 life commons obviously don't make them power houses to get into good positions of board control.

[Aleph]

WOW! That's a lot of maths that I don't understand!

Sorgwen is definitely awesome but I can't say I always put my bet on her. I prefer her late game and unless you've been crafty with walls, she's annoyingly fragile.

I honestly think the entire Benders deck is simply for annoying people. lol. It's a magic control, mind control, and deck control all in one. I honestly think they only lack some power in being able to zone and control opponents walls. The 1 life commons obviously don't make them power houses to get into good positions of board control.

Kind of agree on the annoying... certainly my opponents do. I love the theme more than the annoying, but I can't say that I've ever won a game with them that my opponent felt good about.

The math is basically just true costing - every card on the board or event played essentially costs its magic cost +1, because if you built them instead of playing them you'd have +1 magic. So:

- Tacullu's paying magic to Counter-Summon essentially nets you +1 magic in comparison to your opponent.
- Drain Magic takes up to two from your opponent, gives them to you, but costs itself not being built to pull it off - hence, a 3 point swing.
- Mind Control is itself a card, thus being a card you aren't building, and it costs magic equal to the cost of the opponent's common as well. On the other hand, the card you're controlling has a true cost of its summon cost +1, so you (spend true cost of enemy common) to (get enemy common) + (remove enemy common from enemy).

On the life front... that's why Stone Golems and Benders are a peanut butter and chocolate combination. That and Controllers work well with the loveable lumps.