Skirmish Season 4 Preparation
Shields up, helms down, it's Skirmish season 4!
We are going into another season of Skirmish. The prizes for this season are really spicy.
I'm really excited to participate in another Skirmish season. Last Skirmish season was a lot of fun. I learnt a lot about how to play Oldhim and his matchup against different heroes. I have gained even more experience since then and also adjusted my deck post-Everfest. I will once again be bringing Oldhim to Skirmish and I'm really excited to put all my training to the test!
This season, I'll be participating in multiple Skirmish events too! I am planning to do:
- Rule Zero - 26th March
- Dice and Destiny - 26th March
- Dice Saloon - 2nd April
- Dark Sphere - 16th April
That's quite a lot of Skirmishes! Two of them are even on the same day, and they're 2 hours of travel apart. Some may think that I'm being a bit odd, being so dedicating towards Skirmishes, one of the more casual events.
Well yeah, I'm a bit odd 🤪.
Since I'm doing multiple Skirmishes, I might switch heroes for different events. But, for the time being, I'm sticking with my main. Let's discuss Oldhim.
Threats from Everfest
Upon Everfest release, lots of heroes got new cards that bumped up their aggressive games.
Blood on Her Hands means Kassai can pull off a ridiculous damage turn that's not easy to fully block. Spring Tidings gave Benji the ability to OTK (one-turn-kill). Whilst Oldhim have some tools to deal with these before (Blizzard), they're not a guarantee. I knew I had to do a bit of testing to see if there's a better strategy around these new threats.
Tools from Everfest
Whilst other classes did get some cool new cards, Everfest did not slouch on Guardian support at all! We too have some awesome new tools.
The de facto new target for Awakening, Pulverize! This card is an amazing tempo swing in Blitz. With heroes only having 20 health in Blitz, Pulverize threatening 14 damage means your opponent is likely to block with at least half their hand, if not their entire hand. It essentially nullifies their next turn. After that, its just a matter of keeping the pressure up.
A potential game ender coming from Everfest. In my opinion, its a slightly easier-to-pull-off Glacial Footsteps, especially if you can set up just 1 Seismic Surge from the previous turn.
Speaking of Seismic Surges, the new chest equipment, Earthlore Bounty, has also piqued my interest.
If I could combo Earthlore Bounty with cards like Tome of Harvest, Polar Blast and Sow Tomorrow, I can create Seismic whilst also drawing cards, which increases likelyhood that I could utilise the Seismics on my next turn. Playing Endless Winter for 1 pitch, and having enough resources to Pummel doesn't sound half bad.
These new tools definitely makes Guardian, and espeically Elemental Guardian (only Oldhim, hell yeah), an even more viable pick in Blitz. But, does it help deal with the new threats? And, is it enough?
Lessons from ProQuest
I've always been on Ice Oldhim, so I thought I'd also experiment with the 'disrupt' plan that is the essence of Ice. Coming out from ProQuest, I noticed some cards that works well with each other to disrupt my opponent.
Frost Fang and Pummel are cards I found to work together really well. Frost Fang is quite cheap to play, only costing 2, yet it threatens at least 2 cards from my opponent's hand. Going up againts heroes like Viserai, who is fine with using 2 cards to block and still play our their Mordred Tide into Read the Runes turn, the Pummel can really disrupt their plan and take out their whole hand.
Whats more, even if I drew badly, and ending up with only 1 blue pitch in hand, I can still pay for the Frost Fang, Pummel turn.
Pummel also works super nice with Command and Conquer.
I'm glad to have participated in ProQuest, which essentially prompted me to consider these cards that may now trickle down to Blitz build as well!
Testing and Practise
I went to local armouries and tested out the new cards, playing against the new Benji and Kassai builds, adjusting my own build with each battle.
I think the new Everfest cards for other classes made fatigue an unrealible strategy in matchups such as Kassai, Benji and Viserai. Playing fatigue would just allow these opposing heroes to set up their explosive turn, which could mean instant defeat. I needed to adjust Oldhim to be able to go more aggressive against these heroes, taking them out before they can enact their explosive kill turns.
Quite luckily, Everfest also provided tools for Oldhim to be on the aggressive. Pulverize is definitely the target for Awakening. Being on the aggressive, its somewhat okay to drop health down a little bit to play Awakening, especially when I can guanrantee a tempo swing. I found in my testing that Pulverize does indeed always force opponent to block with their entire hand. I will be playing at least one copy of each in my build.
I also tested Earthlore Bounty out and found it to be more natural to play compared to Tectonic Plating. I would no longer create Seismic Surge on demand. However, when I was using Tectonic Plating before, creating a Seismic Surge didn't mean that it will be useful when it pops, I might not have a Guardian attack action card in hand. So, creating Seismic with Tectonic was more of a "I have a spare resource, so I guess I'll create a Seismic", I didn't know if the Seismic was going to be useful.
In contrast, when using Earthlore, its much smoother because I don't have to pitch for just the Seismic. I just play cards like Polar Blast from arsenal, reap the benefits from that, and create a Seismic along the way. In a build where I don't opt, trading the on-demand Seismic creation for with-benefits Seismic creation is better, in my opinion. The additional Earth cards to combo with Earthlore, like Sow Tomorrow and Tome of Harvest, also helped fuse with Awakening and Oaken Old, which again pivots Oldhim into more aggression. The only downside is that it has Temper, but I'm okay with that. Needless to say, I'm swapping Tectonic out for Earthlore.
Whilst the new aggressive cards from Everfest are good, I don't think its quite enough. This is where my experience from ProQuest comes in, as I pivot into an Ice disrupt Oldhim. I'm glad that my Frost Fang into Pummel plan fits well into this new aggressive play-style. I can take a hit to play out a disruptive turn that will turn the tempo back to me. What's better, it still fits into an Ice-leaning Oldhim, a build that I have ran since the previous Skirmish. CnC into Pummel is also an amazing play, as I found that many Kassai and Benji would Arsenal their new specializations.
I wanted to make sure that I can play disruptive turns easily. So, I only included attack action cards that costs 4 or less and has on-hit effects, with the exception of Pulverize and one blue Macho Grande for good measure. Cost 4 is the golden ratio because I can still Pummel it off a 2 blue pitch hand. A Seismic will also make the cost for these attacks 3, a single blue pitch.
Ready for Battle
I am quite happy with the resulting build. Its still very Ice-leaning, which is very much my style. I made sure I can still play fatigue if I needed to. I managed to adjust the resource curve so its just about right. Its a very flexible Oldhim build, able to go tempo and fatigue. I love it and I can't wait to see how it performs in Skirmish this season. Let's hope I get that Cold Foil Oldhim!