Having trouble with Cratos First match

[Daimaoh34]

OK, I've been driven to frustration at my lack of ability to even come close to winning on this map. Here's some background on my playing history thus far:

-Started out with the green/red deck, with a few extra cards won from 4-player games.
-Breezed through the first 4 stages without any trouble.
-Struggled a bit at Rabbid, but eventually won. Struggled again at the next place (the one with the Sage and Leo), but got lucky when Leo landed on a Level 5 land.
-Won the 2 vs. 2 match in 2 tries.

Now I'm stuck on the first match at Cratos, and I would be grateful for any advice that can get me through this stage. I have tried using a Green/Red deck, a Red/Yellow deck, and a Yellow/Blue deck, but none have gotten me even past 5000 G.

Should I be using a 4-color deck? A monochrome deck? Should I be taking any land I land on? Only my colors?

The biggest problem I notice is that in the late game, the CPU has a lot of G on hand while also having a lot of land and they start having Level 4-5 upgrading sprees and then I start doubting the way the computer controls the rolls (especially when I land on their Level 5 space right after they level it up ).

Again, and advice/help would be great!

[TheTampaCepter]

If you have enough cards (especially green) go for an one color book. Load up on damage spells and defensive items. Take your time to estabish your lands and then when you feel its time, start leveling them up. Make sure you have plenty of creatures on their color land so you can get the boosts. Once you get your land high always keep at least one defense item and offense item in your hand at all times. These few strats worked very well for me on the Cratos matches.

One more thing to add is to monitor what items the other characters have in their hand. Don't place a 20 hp creature if your see an evil blast in their hand. I personally think thats the key to building up your land. That plus making sure you build up your land in groups. A group of lvl 3 lands is way better then a single level 5 land. Don't get greedy and go for the quick lvl 5 land. Let the game play out and make sure you make use of your most powerful creatures. Use your weak ones to grab the desired spots of land, then when you get a chance switch them out for ones that can protect a lvl 5 land well.

[WhoseYerLilith]

Tampa gave some great advice and Cratos 1 can be a little intimidating because it's the hugest board that you've so far encountered with 2 castles. Im not really sure of what cards you may or may not have but a good key to winning this is to really know your opponents:

Pickett plays with blue and green, he always includes a Coati and a MudMan whose ST and HP stats increase with the amount of placed green creatures respectively. His creatures tend to be more defensive in nature (Wall of Ice, Shell Creeper) He levels up his land with horrifying frequency and at some point in the game you can count on him to cast "Backwards" on you. As an attacker, he's more conservative, he generally won't start a battle he can't win and he's always has defensive items. If he can win, and it's a blue/green land, he'll take it.

Selena plays a Green/Red deck very heavy on support creatures (Dryads, Sages, Odradeks, Valkyrias) and decent fighters (Minotaurs, Fighters, Ninjas). She's a little more choosy in which lands she takes; almost always passing a land if she can't drop a matching creature and she's not as intense in levelling up- she's definitely more agressive than Pickett in choosing fights, but she's reckless and will fight even if you have defensive items. Her spells (Holy Word 3, Shrink, Fog, Silence) will probably be aimed at you though if Pickett has gone too far ahead, she may try to go for him. She levels up conservatively, with a more "slow and steady wins the race" meaning her tolls are never very high until you notice that she has a Level 5 Cait Sith that you're about to land on.

Knowing all that, you can probably try to form a good strategy- I would be more inclined towards a blue/yellow deck, if you have him, play with Dhampir as he has a 60% chance of killing green creatures and nuetralizes green attacks. If you have Yetis and Storm Giants, you'll also have a much easier time defeating Selena (though beware her ever present Cait Sith) who will neutralize those attacks. Sphinx lowers green's HP and you might want to include a battering ram or 2 because both Selena and Pickett play with defensive creatures, also definitely throw in that hammer weapon as its STR +20 plus critical hit to green creatures. Evil Blasts and Magic Bolts can definitely help you to take out Selena's support based creatures. I would include a good mixture of those defensive hard to kill creatures (Wall of Ice, Wall of Stone, Decoy, Wonderwall, Hurricane, Pillar of Flame, Gigantherium, Gargoyle, Algae Ball, ) and offensive creature that can target red, blue or green (if you have them). And let us not forget that luck will also play a big part- my first time through I didnt end up on a land until my 7th roll, I just went building hopping and lost because of the awful start whilke Pickett and Selena each established 3 or 5 lands.

Good Luck!

[Daimaoh34]

Thanks for the great advice!

Funny thing is that after posting that, I went back and played and tried out some monochrome decks. First, I tried a mono-green deck, but that didn't fair too well as I got some leveled lands taken away by Pickett right away.

Then I tried a mono-red deck, and I think the rolls were finally going my way. Pickett and I were competing for the lead, and he eventually got over 9000 G when I had a "unlucky" roll and landed on one of his Level 4 lands. But then as "luck" would turn out, I landed on one of his high level water lands, and I knew he didn't have any defense items in his hand. So I just took it handly and it sent him below 9000 G. Finally, I had an Old Willow and Ba=Al next to each other, and eventually leveled both up to Level 5. The CPU's "luck" ran out as Pickett decided not to attack the Old Willow, and when Celina tried attacking it, I successfully defended. Finally, to add injury to insult, she landed on my Lvl. 5 Ba=Al which netted me about 4500 G in two turns. ;D

So a little luck and following some of the advice posted finally got me past this board. Thanks again!

[s6]

Good advice. Just remember that Cat Sith and Selena's other Support Creatures, for the most part cannot be targeted with Spells (I think only Dryad can be targeted with Evil Blast and Magic Bolt, Binding Mist, etc.). I use Wind creatures like Soul Collector and Gouda (both have 0ST) later on her Cat Sith and it works like a charm. Sometimes Pegasus or Centaur (30ST). Another item that works sometimes is Counter Amulet (if she chooses a weapon).

It's her Minotaur that takes until almost the end of the game to get rid of...she embeds it really quick with Land Support and it can't be taken out with a normal creature and a +50ST weapon.

Pickett's Mujina is annoying towards the middle of the game but makes the perfect target for Evil Blast! Mudman takes an Evil Blast and a Magic Bolt, especially if he was Growth Body'd.

I had problems in Story Mode with Cratos-w/2Castles, too. Seems to me that I finally prevailed when I added Mana-generating Spells and more Normal creatures to my book so I could lay them down faster. Golden Idol, if you draw it quick enough, would work, too.

Just level up land as fast as you can, and spread them around the board in strategic spots. For example, I noticed that the spot two spaces before/after the castles are popular with the CPU characters on almost all boards. Keep an eye on which creatures are targeted with Spells because that's usually where the opponent will land soon.

[WhoseYerLilith]

Congrats Daimaoh! It always feels good to see them get what they deserve!

s6- Woodfolk, Sage, Dryad, Carbuncle and Cleric are Selena's support based creatures that can be targeted. I think Odradek and Grimalkin are the only two green support creatures that can't be targeted. I think one of her decks "Cats2" or "Cats3" Is designed for untargetable creatures (Cait Sith, Grimalkin, Blynx...)

[Daimaoh34]

Thanks!

I wish I did have some Evil Blasts, because Magic Bolts were just horrible on that stage (since the creatures heal that much faster).

I also wish I had some of the better wind creatures, since I did decently the one time I played Blue/Yellow.

I guess I just gotta do some card gathering before I try to advance more in the game.

[s6]

You're right. Selena generally doesn't use Cleric (she used to) and Carbuncle in this stage of my game. However, Pickett sometimes uses Carbuncle and usually does Turn to the Wall on it within a few turns. It's mainly her ever-present Cat Sith I was referring to. She always uses Ninja on my First Attack creatures because it and Valkyria are her only First Attack creatures (so far). Generally, she parks either or both beside of my FA creatures, then she'll use the Spell card that won't allow my Cepter to use items for two turns if he's not currently Barrier'd

WhoseYerLilith said:

Congrats Daimaoh! It always feels good to see them get what they deserve!

s6- Woodfolk, Sage, Dryad, Carbuncle and Cleric are Selena's support based creatures that can be targeted. I think Odradek and Grimalkin are the only two green support creatures that can't be targeted. I think one of her decks "Cats2" or "Cats3" Is designed for untargetable creatures (Cait Sith, Grimalkin, Blynx...)

[WhoseYerLilith]

Ugh I hate when she does that too, she has amazing luck as far as where to park her creatures. I always love beating her enough to say" This is Horrible!" as my revenge.

[Daimaoh34]

Yes, Selena is the cheater of all cheaters when it comes to landing on open territory. I remember one match on Cratos First Round where she took all 3 fire territories on the left side in three consecutive turns. Then she goes on to create a 5 chain later in the turn. It can get ridiculous sometimes....

But thankfully in the match that I won, the computer decided to let her taste misfortune when it decided to make her use a Holy Word 6 right in front of my Old Willow, and then it rolled a 1 to land on my Ba=Al, both of which were Level 5 at that point.

And by some miracle, I actually had an easy time with the semi-finals. Only took me 2 tries on this map.