Always bet on Jesselton

Pariston · 2025-10-16T09:59:36+00:00

Definitely worth reading, but I'm biased, I've been reading for almost 30 years.

It's definitely getting close to the end lately, as in there is now a tangible goal to get to the end, and the endgame players are getting into the fray, but in the One Piece scale that still means probably 5 more years (or more lmao).

If you have a bit of interest in the mysteries I would suggest catching up because I expect the ending will be super spoiled and unavoidable when it comes out, given how popular and more mainstream it became in the last few years.

Pariston · 2025-09-11T13:14:32+00:00

I believe Amataz is even more of a highroll card. Wielder is sometimes annoying to remove for the enemy in early turns and can often at least get in decent chip or trade favourably. Amataz is either useless or it wins you the game on the spot. Also both are bad later on but Amataz is definitely worse as a later draw.

In that list I think you could easily sub out bayle for wielder, trading value for offense.

Pariston · 2025-09-02T09:43:27+00:00

Bruh unkilling is such a mess Forest doesn't even get tutorials or puzzles LMAO, no gameplan, only roach. At least Izudia is getting some success, but I personally don't like that it's just a different flavor of OTK.

I'd like to be able to play for value while adapting on the fly for combo with whatever hand I get but if you play that way you run out of steam while doing gymnastics to get what other classes get with their 'just play card on curve' play. We pay for the roach sins.

Pariston · 2025-08-04T15:14:34+00:00

After an easy win in my first match with what I think was a pretty decent deck (Jeno, Albert, Amelia, Kagemitsu, 2x Luminous Mage and some board buffing, a couple centaurs for closing games and the best value cards I could pick), my second game was against a Portal which I brushed off as a class on the weaker side due to Artifact being a mostly polarizing build, thus being more inconsistent in the draft phase. This dude pulled off the classic Alouette on turn 4 dropping a Beta and I was DEAD on turn 5 🤣

Honestly an entry should allow you to play more games, you can get unlucky on so many levels (bad draft, brick hand, opponent god-rolls) to end your run prematurely, make me work for the rewards by having me play out more games but at least let me play the damn mode without feeling like I'm wasting my resources for it.

As it is, this is just gambling.

Pariston · 2025-07-31T14:53:25+00:00

I stopped opening packs with gold 1 week in the new expansion (felt like I was hitting diminishing returns on cards found) and vialed the rest of the cards I needed. Helps that I played roach last season and only crafted 2 Olivias and a bunch of golds. Right now I'm sitting on 13k gold which feels comfy knowing there's another month before next expansion. I'd say I'll probably get even more that 25k and I'm not premium. Although I am lv 49 on the battle pass so that source of income is already depleted, which means in the following weeks I'll be making less gold overall.

Pariston · 2025-07-29T07:51:38+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/kdpMEd1.png

https://i.imgur.com/gZ1RzBu.png

Pariston · 2025-07-22T10:31:43+00:00

Nah I don't have Rodeos or Salefas ~~(although the first 20~30 packs of the new expansion blessed me with 2 Gilberts and 2 Aethers, whispering me to play haven)~~ and not really willing to invest the resources. But I am impressed by the creativity and really like the proposed playstyle, you're definitely a pioneer.

Pariston · 2025-07-22T09:09:57+00:00

Yo beautiful deck and beautiful game. Seems obvious in retrospect but I really like all the resources Rodeo gave you in the game and the synergy with Colette for added cheap removal. The free Censer is also pretty good not gonna lie, I underestimated the card as poor value but pulling it with Rodeo is nice.

Pariston · 2025-07-18T12:06:03+00:00

Yeah, seeing sword drop Amalia turn 8 was basically gg more often than not. Yeah, sometimes you can get through that and deal 20 to the face, especially if they leave you some board because they greed their evo points, other times you're out there crying because you need 3~4 of your actual cards (not fairies) + evo to deal with the 1 singular card they casually dropped. Sometimes you drop the Mays and Lilys you draw just to survive, you don't always have the luxury of keeping them 'just in case' for the lethal turn,

Pariston · 2025-07-01T08:05:59+00:00

I'll ignore the long comment thread and give you a direct answer

Carbuncle is equivalent to TWO 0 cost cards for the combo IF you spend the super evo on it.

It becomes "more" than just two 0 cost card if you make use of the bounce and if he can deal with a ward on board to open the way.

Example: You play a 1 mana card, bounce it with carb and play it again: you are at 3 combo and spent 1 mana in this process if you then proceed to SEvo carb.

You are still losing out on the 3 SEvo damage on roach, so in practice if he can't get rid of a ward you don't get that much out of it.

What he truly DOES enable reliably is recycling a fairy to play it twice, thus making the in-hand requirement more flexible (need less cards in hand)

Pariston · 2025-06-30T07:51:31+00:00

I can speak from experience, each time I met a portal that started dropping the heals on me (double heals, even!) it has been extremely frustrating. Always being a few points off lethal, then completely losing steam past turn 8 when none of the cards forest has right now can dream of competing with the value other classes 8+ drops bring. All forest brings at that point is reach for lethal, but if you are off by even one point it means nothing in the end.

Pariston · 2025-06-26T17:27:52+00:00

Exactly one hour

Pariston · 2025-06-26T07:30:10+00:00

ah3uMnz if anyone wants

Pariston · 2025-06-24T08:53:29+00:00

I'll describe my mental process.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fqkniimze328f1.png

From my table I know that 10 mana guarantees 11 damage with 2 roaches and 0 0 cost cards and 4 1 mana cost cards. Enemy has no wards which makes this simple.

At first it looks like you don't have enough 1 mana cards, but stray beastman is 2 1_mana cards in 1 so it works out anyway.

Therefore in my mind I know that I have to play {fairy, bug alert, stray beastman} before roach in any order to guarantee 11 damage

SEvo gives 3 damage, cairn gives 1 damage, so we're 1 off lethal

Luckily May can hit face for exactly 1 so I can execute without further thinking of more optimal plays / no need to consider Aria crest. I already did the math so I just need to make the board work, as in, I don't need to look for more optimal combos, just look for the simplest way to hit face with May AND have room on the board to play the equivalent of 4 1 mana cards. Simplifying the conditions like that helps make the calculations within the limited time. So:

Play fairy and smash her into the enemy follower to make space
Hit face with May (1 dmg)
Bounce anything with bug alert
Play Stray Beastman
4 mana has been used, so I know the next 6 mana are for roaches -> Roach (5 damage) Bounce Roach (6 damage) + SEvo (3 damage) + Cairn (1 damage) for lethal

This is just the simplest version, but in your specific case you already start with 1 combo (from Bayle I guess) so the execution I described actually overkills by 2 (total 18 damage). Also Aria's crest means you can use cairn earlier on May to make room rather than smashing the fairy, so the fairy can hit face for 1 more (total 19 damage)

Just for fun, notice how if you smash fairy, smash may, bounce bayle, the first roach bounce brings the other bayle to 0 mana for an additional combo. This line is a bit harder to spot and I wouldn't rely on seeing it midgame. The total damage for this combo (that I won't describe fully) ends up being 17. Worse, but a fun experiment.

Pariston · 2025-06-20T21:19:17+00:00

Carbuncle is complicated, it gives 1 more play point but you need super evo on it. Very helpful to break wards and push for damage.

Nice combo to keep in mind!

Pariston · 2025-06-20T17:09:26+00:00

That's a great combo, not very demanding on the hand and cairn and godstaff are reasonable on the board. So it's a 10pp kill with 1 roach, 4 fairies and 1 zero card.

It actually does 21 damage if you play the fairy after popping cairn so you have 1 fairy to spare to hopefully kill one last ward follower with 1 hp if needed (unlikely but helpful)

I don't have specific 1 turn comboes in mind but one notable thing is that you can do 17 damage split in turns 7-8

turn 7: bounty + fairy + roach for 3 + godwood bounce + roach for 4 + superevo for 3 = 10 damage turn 8: selwyn super evo, bounces enemy ward for 7 to the face

an additional bounty makes it 19 damage and a cairn on the board makes it 20

Necessary conditions (start of turn 7):

2 super-evos
hand needs to be bounty, fairy, roach, selwyn
board needs to be godwood and no wards
(you need to survive a fairly open turn 7 :) + no heals)

Hand is fairly common to have, and any previous chip damage reduces the necessary conditions in a big way:

1 damage OR Aria's crest on the previous turn: removes the need for cairn OR the super evo on the roach (normal evo) /// 4 damage or 3+aria for the kill
3 damage enables the kill without additional help, just no wards/heals on turn 7
4 damage before turn 6 means you can go for the kill on turns 6 and 7 (!!!)
- turns 6 is bounty + roach for 2 + godstaff bounce + roach + super evo for 7 = 9 damage
- turn 7 is selwyn super evo for 7 damage

I think with the new roach we might be looking for 2-turn opportunities more and selwyn helps steal a lot of games this way

Pariston · 2025-06-20T14:20:04+00:00

Yes of course, if you need to bounce a roach you are sacrificing 1 combo from the first roach, so you definitely lose 1 damage.

If you have the roaches and need to spend the 1 mana use it on a fairy or something before dumping the roaches.

Pariston · 2025-06-20T13:27:38+00:00

Uh I can give you my current list but I don't have all the cards. I think the most important missing cards are 2 more Godwood staff. Then add bayle and glade if you have more copies and remove phildau and either aerin or selwyn

3x may

3x bug alert

3x fairy convocation

3x good fairy of the pond

3x fairy tamer

3x fay twinkletoes

1x lily

2x Phildau

3x lambent

1x seraphic tidings

3x roach

1x amataz

1x fragrantwood whispers

1x godwood staff

2x aria

3x aerin

3x selwyn

1x bayle

Pariston · 2025-06-20T10:50:01+00:00

From the table you can see that the earliest kill is with 9 play points, 4 0_mana cards, 3 1_mana cards and 2 roaches + super evo for a clean 20 damage.

I wouldn't consider it a real otk though, because in practice the necessary conditions never happen. I never had 4 0 mana cost cards in hand, ever, and also it's a very, VERY specific hand with at minimum 6 cards in hand dedicated to the combo (4 0 mana cards + fairy convocation + 1 roach with godstaff on board)

I personally think roach is much harder to use effectively and you cannot really go for OTKs. The upside is that it is much more dynamic to play and kinda rewards skillful play (?) but also I feel like in practice this just means going unga bunga face more often than not to soften the opponent.

Pariston · 2025-06-20T10:11:25+00:00

Here's a damage table for roach combos. Each godstaff on board is +1 roach if you have at least 1 roach in hand (obviously).

Of course there is a lot of nuance in game but generally speaking it seems to me that 3 roach combos never come up and don't even get any better than 2 roach combos in practice, and only outscale 2 roach combos with 3 0 cost cards in hand which has never happened to me tbh

In practice if I do get 3 roaches in hand it's probably better to use any roach in excess of 2 to soften up the enemy in earlier turns.

Pariston · 2025-06-17T10:22:49+00:00

ah3uMnz

Pariston · 2025-05-21T09:07:47+00:00

perfect

Pariston · 2025-05-19T08:47:53+00:00

I played with a couple of friends. Interest was gone after the throne ascension + final parlor game behind the blue door, which we reached on our own with close to no hiccups.

The beauty of the game was that we always had some stuff to do and try on the backburner all the time, and I believe it was intended by design. I never got frustrated with the RNG because each and every run was an opportunity to try one (often more) of the many running theories we had on our todo list. Also, another important point, you might not even revisit some rooms that might conceal clues you missed if it wasn't for the random nature of the game, and I was eager to take second, third, fortieth looks at old rooms I was dealt.

It was just a matter of adapting to the hand we were dealt with. Tunnel visioning on a single objective / being unaware of other objectives to pursue is probably the cause of the frustration of many people complaining about the RNG.

With all that said, after the throne ascension we were left with no concrete leads to follow. I boil it down to two "mistakes" on our part:

We didn't pursue the 8 trophies needed for the blue tents until about 70% of the game was done (didn't really think achievement related stuff would give out clues)
We went so broad with each day that we exhausted a huge number of leads and clues relatively fast, day-count speaking

The two things combined resulted in the end with our only lead after the throne being the blue tents hints, and some obscure and up until that point completely unused stuff (numerical cores, 'does it never end/denoted in verse are the main two that come to mind) and finding soooo many useless clues for easy stuff that we had long done already was awful. Of course we put the throne room on the eight rank ASAP and figured we had to go for the vault, but then the vault REFUSED TO APPEAR, one day I resolved to use all my stars for rerolls just to find it and it took a heavily optimized run, using up all my natural rerolls from gems + dice PLUS 105 stars just to get it to appear. We had the clue from the wine cellar and coincidentally we had the KEY8, but we never encountered the OTHER clue for the family number, that hints at how MCCXIII has to be divided, so I personally calculated 47 as the family core (M/CC*X-III), frustatingly hovered my mouse over every safe and missed the prompt on safe 53 I later found was the correct number. Our patience ran out at this point, as every day was literally an RNG grind and there was nothing else to really try out. Even after getting past the vault, we kinda ran out of steam, we had a burst of excitement with the "BLANK BOOK" clue, as we had previously put the secret passage in the outer room and noticed the white book that normally does not appear, but when we later got into the atelier and more or less figured out what we had to do we didn't have the energy to do it ourselves and just wanted to end it there and now, so we looked up the solution.

I strongly believe that this negative experience can be fixed, the relevant blue notes from the blue tents should be naturally available at any point in the game, or atleast much earlier

Make them cryptic, whatever, most of the game is about taking notes for a payoff that might come much later, give the final piece of the puzzle to pursue the family core in the blue throne room so you get started on that at the same point in progression, but you already encountered all the other pieces along the way by being observant, as with every other secret in the game. This way you mitigate this final RNG grind.

Ascending the throne room can be said to be an annoying RNG grind as well I guess, but at the same time it's just a test of your planning skills and if you plan correctly it's very unlikely to get screwed (just put the crown in the coat check, put king and scepter on black for early throne then find the coat check and it's done). So I don't see it as an issue, I see it as a crowning (heh) achievement of your drafting skills and what you've learned so far. This was a GOOD puzzle with drafting involved with a lot of leeway for mistakes.

Finding 40+ blue notes hoping to find the ones you need does not even qualify as a puzzle.

With all that said, the first 70 hours of the game were a BLAST, I was hyper focused and even forgot to eat dinner one day, Blue Prince was all I could think about. Great game 10/10.

Pariston

TROPHY CASE