No Better Opponent

"I just go my Deck Manager too," I return the smile, "maybe we can both test out the game together."
"Yes! I don't really know how the game works yet so I want to get comfortable with the game before starting to play more seriously," she nods excitedly.

I extend my hand, "My name's John, yours?"

She firmly shakes my hand, "Nice to meet you John, my name's Claire."

"Let's take a seat over at that table, then we can start the battle." We walk over to the table and take a seat. We both open up our deck managers. "What is your username?" I ask. "Claire-osaurus007," she says with a laugh. I decide to be the gentleman and send her the request. This means she will get to make the first move. She accepts the request and our deck managers ask us what cards we want to include for the bet. "I don't have any ownership cards and I don't think you do either. Just keep the bet empty," I suggest. Claire nods in agreement. We both agree to the bet and the battle begins.

Once the battle starts, four cards appear in front of me with a short deck to the side. I am curious and try to grab another card from the pile. As soon as I start to lift a card, it disappears from my fingers and resets on the top of the pile. I look over at Claire's hand and, even though I can see the front of her Cards, I can't see what the specific cards are. They are all just blank to me. "I believe it's your turn," I say to Claire. She looks at her cards and decides to place out an Orc card. Once she places her card, I can then see the face of the card she placed. The Orc card costs four energy, leaving her at one left. She draws another card. I don't think she will place anything else on this turn.

I was correct. Claire presses the "End Turn" button on her Deck Manager. "Your turn," she says with a smile. I have to place something out to defend from her Orc on the next turn or else it will be able to directly attack me. My hand consists of an Orc, an Archer, a Heal Spell, and an Ogre. The Ogre has much more health and damage but costs six energy. I think the Orc will be the best card for me to play. I place out the Orc card. My deck manager shows that I have one energy left. I press the end turn button but a message comes up saying that I must draw a card first. I draw a card and it is a Fireball. This is a card that I can use to directly damage either the other player or one of their cards. I end my turn and my Orc becomes active and I gain two energy.

Claire attacks my Orc with hers. The Orc card has six health and deals four damage. When she attacks my card, she deals four damage but also receives the damage of my card. Both of our cards now only have two health remaining. She uses her card that allows her to discard two of the cards in her hand and draw two new ones. I am unable to see what cards she discards from her hand. The Discard card costs one energy, leaving her at two energy remaining. She ends her turn without placing anything else.

Now that it is my turn, I have a decision to make. I could use my fireball that does three damage to kill her Orc, or I could use my Orc to kill hers. Doing the latter will kill my Orc as well. If I do the first option, I can use my Orc to directly attack her player with four damage. This is the better option. I use my fireball to kill her Orc then attack her player with my Orc. "Ouch, that hurt," Claire laughs. I only have one energy left so I can't do much else. I draw another card. It is a Knight card. It only costs three energy so I could use it on my next turn. I end my turn.

Claire places out a Rat card. This card can do two damage while only having one health. This only costs one energy, leaving her at three. She draws another card. She then places out a Cannon card. This card costs her remaining three energy. This card can do five damage but only has two health. I don't think she has many cards that she is able to play with very little energy. She didn't want me to be able to immediately attack her on my next turn. It would have been a better placement to just place the Rat out to take the damage of my Orc. However, now I can instantly kill the cannon which is a much stronger card. Claire draws another card and ends her turn.

I have my Orc attack her Cannon which now dies before it even got to do anything. This also kills my Orc. I have just enough energy to place my Knight. This card has 4 health and can do 3 damage. This will be able to take the blow from the Rat and still survive to be able to do damage on my next turn. I grab a new card. It is a Rat card. I end my turn because there is nothing else I can do.

Claire knows that she could use her Rat card now but then she will be defenseless on her next turn. Her Rat will die either way but if she waits then she can absorb the damage of the knight with her rat and not her player. After thinking for a bit, she ends the turn without playing anything. This is a smart move. Now she is up to four energy.

I don't want to allow the rat to be able to get two hits on me so I have to kill it now. Now that she has four energy, I have to worry about not having enough energy to be able to defend the next few turns. I do have the really strong Ogre card but that costs six energy and would take me two more turns to get into play. I kill the Rat with my Knight and now my Knight has two health. This will defend me for a bit but not long enough to do anything amazing. I could play the Archers. They have the ability to attack from a range. this means they can do damage without taking any from the defending card. She won't be able to kill anything of mine on her next turn unless she uses a spell. I play the Archers which cost two energy, leaving me back at zero. I grab a new card. It is one of my Buff/Nerf cards. This might come in handy. I end my turn.

Claire current has no cards in play but has four energy to work with. She uses the best card she has in her hand. She places out the Giant. This card has seven health but only does one damage. This uses her four energy. The Giant will be able to take quite a few hits which will buy her some time and keep her alive for a while. She ends her turn.

I need to start working on that giant. I could use my Buff/Nerf card on my knight to bring his damage up to five. Then attack with my archers making to total damage seven. This would kill the giant in one turn! I use my two energy to buff my Knight. I draw a new card. It is another fireball. Then I attack the Giant with my Knight. This brings my knight down to one health. I then finish the giant with my Archers. These don't take any damage. "Wow, I didn't think my Giant would die so quickly. That was a good move," Claire says. I thank her and end my turn.

Claire only has two energy and I don't think she has enough to be able to put anything on the table except maybe archers. If she doesn't play anything, then I will be able to kill her on my next turn. I think that she knows she is dead and can't do anything but prolong the game for a turn or two. She sighs and ends her turn.

"You just giving up?" I ask. "Yeah, you won fair and square," she replies. I attack with my Knight, doing five damage, and finish her with my Archers.

The battle ends and our cards disappear. My Deck Manager says I now have a new ownership card.