I fought an interesting battle in Modern Champion ranked. I only acquired a max level Cryptic very recently. I also don't have a max level Risqruel Drath. That means I'm not used to the Cryptic vs. Risqruel match-up. So this is a chance to get used to it! Risqruel can be somewhat of a counter to Cryptic, at least in theory. An important part of Cryptic's strategy is making your opponent miss a lot of attacks with the -1 speed and Blind. Risqruel can provide True Strike to two units, giving the player the option to make their two biggest attackers always hit. However, that doesn't guarantee the other units hit, although Impede also helps the other units hit their attacks. Still, Cryptic also has powerful Tactics, especially the Poison plus Expose, and the speed still helps attacking first. This game also involves Heloise the Hollow, which probably means this won't be the typical Cryptic vs. Risqruel game.

This game had the following rule sets: Fog of War, Holy Protection, and Blood and Sunder. It was a 34 mana cap game, and only Water, Earth, and Dragon were available. I went with Cryptic and placed Commander Slade and Jicarilla the Rime in the first two positions, a very staple Cryptic team combination. Ujurak Elder was next, for some extra speed, followed by Stampeding Calf and Ferrous Brewer. They opted for Risqruel Drath and placed Phlegmunculus in front, followed by Halfling Refugee and Blackmoor Nymph. Thunderhoof Nomad and Mahkah Hemlig were next, and Heloise the Hollow was in the last spot.

I gave Poison and Expose to Slade and the Brewer. My idea was to give it to Slade and another unit, since Slade was the only unit that wasn't attacking Heloise. I thought about Enfeeble, but I don't think the debuff stays on Heloise after she comes back. They gave Redemption (and Taunt, which she already had) to Heloise. Redemption in Heloise is always interesting, but maybe True Strike to two units would have been better against Cryptic.

Dodge plus Blind is a 50% chance of missing. Since all their units except for Hemlig had 2 or less speed, they were guaranteed to miss Slade. Hemlig just had a 10% chance of hitting. Nymph was also an exception because of Immunity, Blind didn't affect her. Slade missed the attack because of Flying, and they missed all their attacks on Slade. Heloise didn't get killed thanks to the double Triage. The Brewer didn't trigger Poison or Expose. The round ended almost how it started but most of their units had lost the Divine Shield.

Slade missed again, and the Calf killed Heloise for the first time. Spite only took out the Divine Shield. However, Redemption was very effective, as all my remaining units lost the Divine Shield. Their Nymph became Weary. They kept using Triage and missing most of their attacks on Slade.

Slade finally hit and killed the Phlegmunculus when it was at 1 HP. The Poison affected my first two units. Calf could have had another Heloise kill, but it missed. The Nomad missed and died from the Backfire damage, while both Nymph and Halfling got Exhausted. The Brewer inflicted Poison on Heloise and left it at 1 HP.

Heloise died to the Poison, which was great as it meant one less Spite attack. Hemlig became Weary, and they had no non-Weary units left, which meant this was Heloise's last life. The Calf got the final Heloise kill, but Spite took it out too. Meanwhile, their units kept getting Exhausted. When they didn't, they missed and took Backfire damage.

Slade finished the Refugee, and the rest of my units took out the Nymph. Hemlig took two more rounds, but the game was already over.

Holy Protection and Blood and Sunder are two amazing rule sets for Heloise. Fog of War might look like it isn't good for her, but the reality is that it often doesn't matter. She's not a very fast unit, so she ends up not getting a chance to do her normal attacks very often. She would have gotten to attack a couple of times in this game, though. They had a very solid strategy. The problem is that my strategy countered theirs, and they needed to adapt and try with True Strike. Losing Redemption would suck but True Strike was much more necessary. Halfling Refugee is an amazing unit, one of the best in the game. I use it very often. But playing Weary units with Heloise makes her way less effective. Not that one extra revival would have made a difference, but it might in other games.

What do you all think about this game? Would you have done anything different? Let me know in the comments! Thank you for reading!!