pvp event ai koth's cascade too insane?

madwren

Netatron wrote:

. But matches aren't random, you and usually the AI will be aiming to get your best colors when you can. So with an available on color match on the board, Koth makes twice as much mana as many other planeswalkers. Sure, the board will run out of red gems, but then his first skill will counteract that and often gain enough loyalty to use it again next turn.

I have to disagree. One, I've seen the AI target my red Koth gems ahead of their own color with regularity. Two, the first skill doesn't always lead to red matches. Sure, it works sometimes, but it also results in a lot of disappointing "oh, guess I'll just match these 3 black again then. Sigh."

Of my five decks, Koth was the one that felt the most fragile. Thankfully, just one red match can make up for 4 turns of poor matches, which is why he remains viable.

madwren

Morphis wrote:

being this my first real pvp event, I realized a couple things playing these days

- kiora in indeed op. Now we all know this but the problem is that she is op cause of first skill. AI uses always the higher skill available each turn.
This means that it can waste some first skill and never save for other skills. That makes it easier for us usually.
Kiora first skill is almost never a waste.
When you add just a couple op cards(exert-undergrowth-harbinger etc...) the chance it will own you are high.

- nissa and Garruck are at BIG disadvantage, Having only one removal(at rather high cost).
If something unexpected happens in the first couple turns and you have not scour in starting hand... You have basically lost. If I had great aurora I would play it as "single target situational removal" only because of this.

I lost twice so far in this event, both times against kiora and both times with green deck(Garruck)

Next pvp event I will play kiora as green and use a Jace or tezz full control with thopters.

You're right about Kiora's first skill. Same for Liliana, to be honest. I mean, the AI triggers it nonstop, which makes it hard to cast anything that you can't get out on the board in one turn. The virtue with Liliana is that it means she can't actually get anything out either. In those instances where she has a big early cascade, though, it can be hard to come back from it.

Garruk does have his strengths. Being able to continually overwhelm removal by just generating more creatures for essentially free is huge. The one game I lost this pvp round was to Garruk, as my Jace mana denial/bounce deck didn't stop him at all (despite being consistently good otherwise).

I think things will change greatly once Rabid Bite rotates in. If it's anything like the paper card, it'll really help Green's removal options.

Netatron

AlexBrisingr wrote:

His final ability is strong, I grant, but it is the most expensive final ability I've seen (none are more expensive, anyway), and it can often be a flop.

Kiora, Tez, and even Nissa's are more expensive

AlexBrisingr

Netatron wrote:

AlexBrisingr wrote:

His final ability is strong, I grant, but it is the most expensive final ability I've seen (none are more expensive, anyway), and it can often be a flop.

Kiora, Tez, and even Nissa's are more expensive

Apologies. I don't have the first two yet, and I don't really use Nissa.

EDHdad

If you know you're playing against Koth, consider retooling your deck and putting some ingest cards into it. If you destroy all the red gems, Koth is dead in the water.

nerdstrap

Exactly! Target the heavy bonus gems and the high powered PWs crumble. Make one mistake though...