A Humongous Season, UL, And Grave Buster

by puntwothree
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A Humongous Season, UL, And Grave Buster

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★★★ Guide

There used to be a General Discussion on this page, on which there used to be a player who used to post plant UL deck-lists at the end of every season.

 

That player is on sabbatical, indefinitely, due to game stagnation.

 

I assumed the mantle, which no one requested that I bear, and people stopped reading and responding to the General Discussion in General (as was their right).

 

This discussion has since been decimated, his posts and mine all but erased... unless you have a Computer Science Degree and a microscope. And yet here I am. (For how long? I don’t know. Maybe this post is on the EA Relegation List.) You know what they say about the walking man.

 

So... I started this season thinking this might be a post about plants. I’m a chronic dabbler, and just got ahold of my 3rd Molekale via pack (I don’t craft plants... pssha.) I decided to dabble with it on Ranked mode, and did so successfully to the tune of about my first 17/20 games, a more-than-satisfying win-rate IMHO. (Pic 1).

 

And then I ran into a vein of Huge Giganticus decks. And Huge beat me with RNG. And Huge beat me with Plank Walkers. And Huge beat me with tiny zombies and deadly and bonus attacks. It turned out the size didn’t matter. It was how they used it.

 

I decided, see one play one. I played yet a different variation of Huge than I had yet seen, and suffered a lot of close wins on the way, ultimately, to UL... with not a whole lot of resistance (Pic 2). As you can see, I play a Imp core with a few surprises. The deadly + bounce + bonus attacking with Neutrino tend to function as adequate removal, and I can successfully play through both Forget-Me-Nuts and DMD because my environments function as Tricks. (And I don’t play many tricks...). This deck is capable of presenting multiple threats at once that have to be dealt with in different ways... and itself can handle almost anything except a well timed Grave Buster.

 

Huge just seems to have a lot of good options in the Wake of Berries. Sneaky and Guardian seem to be vying for dominance in the competitive meta, with Huge, Grass Knuckles, Beta, and Wall-Knight all on the rise. I see a lot of games coming down to the availability of deadly and/or a Grave Buster used at the correct (or incorrect) time. Due to recent changes, I have to wonder if Guardian is a popular choice now BECAUSE of Grave Buster, and/or whether ya’ll are sharing my experiences.

 

Due to recent changes, the value of Gravestone Hate is increasing, which is an interesting dynamic I’m not sure whether I like. Bluff opportunities are ample, which is kinda cool... I just hope The Rise of the Guardians isn’t as much a tend as it appears to be from this angle. I would hate for the meta to pidgeon-hole itself.

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Re: A Humongous Season, UL, And Grave Buster

★ Guide
I used to get owned by HC to the point where I feared seeing it in Ranked. That changed when I started playing Rose + Rose. The nerf hurt but is still my best bet.

Now I dislike Gravebuster. A lot. A saviour when dancing with the stars is behind that grave but a card killer when no graves hit the board. For this reason I much prefer blockbuster. Twice the cost but 5 times better.
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Re: A Humongous Season, UL, And Grave Buster

★★★ Guide

Blockbuster seems pretty solid. I’m always a bit surprised I don’t see it more.

 

Unfortunately, it + Grave Buster being in the same class doesn’t solve the “Do I need to play Guardian?” dilemma.

 

Since the advent of Shrinking Violet, Rose does have options v. Small and Wide and Big Dumb Zombies... but lately my Imps seem to be running her over. (They probably have the most trouble with Wall-Knight. Idk. I just never seem to anticipate the Walnut Bowling.) Do you have to play a Violet or two to stay in the game w/Huge? Do you run a whole set?

 

I’m always curious what’s happening on both sides of the curtain.

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Re: A Humongous Season, UL, And Grave Buster

[ Edited ]
★ Guide

Here is my experience:

HG decks were either imp/shift or science/conjure. On rare occasions I had to battle pirate/strikethrough.

Imp decks were very easy to deal with before solar winds and rose got nerfed. Barrel rolling would come out on turn 2, solar winds, rose on turn 3 with 4 sun and poppin poppies infront to defeat against deadly/shift and you took command of the board. Water Balloon/Whack-A-Zombie for cc. Now post nerf the key card is twin sunflower. Honestly if you play a gravestone at turn 2 against a solar plant it better be able to take out a twin sunflower on reveal else you are now behind the curve. But even with a sun to brain lead science cards can create so many issues so I carry 3 shrinking violets.

In my experience turn 2 and 3 set up the rest of the game. If I see I am going up against HG I try hard for one card to be shrinking violet at the start.

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Re: A Humongous Season, UL, And Grave Buster

★★★ Guide

UPDATE: New season, same result. I’ve grown lazy in my old age and rode Imps to the end (deck above). I suppose I’ll adapt when I need to.

 

The meta does seem to be shifting ever so slightly.. as it always does. I didn’t get a glimpse of it from the plant side, but I saw a few fewer Grass Knuckles out there, with some Kaboom and Rose 🥀 making a comeback. Nightcap was a mostly toss-up matchup for me this season and dedicated heal gave me the biggest headache. Knuckles only really beat me this season (as last) when I had to play into the gravestone hate and he had it.

 

Freezer and Bean seem to have mostly disappeared by level 50. Flower decks are scarce. “Good stuff” predominates. Plant evolution decks seemed to have gained a bit in popularity, a trend I can get behind.

 

And of course, all of this is all a one-user snapshot of what is happening in the game.

 

Good luck, all Ultimate seekers!

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Re: A Humongous Season, UL, And Grave Buster

★ Pro

@puntwothree Nice reading. Thank you!

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