I'm not a sore loser by any means, but this boggled me a little.. I got steamrolled by Skywings and for once I felt like I'd lose no matter how I had played it. I quickly lost mid font, but I wasn't too worried. FS is fantastic at playing with a font down. I got fantastic Nora-gen with Noraweave as well. And yet, The beefiness nor the damage of my units mattered. The Unstoppable Onslaught of dragons was overwhelming. I have no animosity towards my opponent, but it really felt like all he had to do was keep spawning dragons, and it worked really well. Typically when I lose, I know WHY I lost. But this time I felt like no outplay in the world would have changed the end result. I'm pretty sure that is not true, so I thought I'd ask the forums for some tips&tricks! I was playing Snaptooth's , and I have no reason to believe that they're powerless against a rush like that. Thanks in advance!
It's less about feeling for losing than trying to find out how to deal with a BG/strategy like this. Genuinely asking for help here.
As Goyo said, Skywings are probably among the best rush bgs around at the moment. With that said, as a general rule, the best way to deal with a rush is to disrupt it. That seems a really intuitive and simple strategy, but doing that is actually quite hard. To disrupt it you have a few options: hidden mechanics (cancel magic and poison trap mainly), cc (reverberating blast, poison trap, tome of the arcanis, mind orb, goading mask, octopi helm, murkwater weakness, etc), surprise kill (drown, dmg spells, horn of order, etc), divide their attention (put pressure on some of their fonts/shrine) or hold them off for as long as you can with tanky units/healing/positioning. It's really important to consider all of this when building your bg. Usually several of those are employed to disrupt a rush and the options you choose must take into consideration the matchup and the situation. For instance SL, unless they have Valdac out, and UD have poor cleansing options, so cc is really effective. In the case of SL if they have Valdac out you can remove that cleansing aura with confuse (twisted emerald). Mind orb also offers an uncleanseable cc. Regardless of the strategy you choose, the best bet usually is to deploy as many champions as you can and choose those champions carefully. Since your opponent is on the aggression, he will have to spend a lot of nora to keep its momentum going and that often means abusing spells and thus reducing his board presence, so by deploying a lot of champs the idea is to slowly grind your way through his units. Also, it might seem counter intuitive, but sometimes it might be wise to give up a font to keep your units alive so you can build up your momentum and regain that font afterwards. This gives you a general idea, but again there isn’t a specific strategy that will consistently beat rushes, especially in this map rotation and especially against Skywings. Anywyas hope this helps and gl next time.
I will link my current meta bg when I get home. I do well against almost anything. But against skywings my win really depends on good draws EDIT: Here it is
The last bit of what @4NIK8 said reminds me Tortun's guide. Even though tortun's don't have the fastest momentum and so rushing isn't always a reliable scenario. Careful retreats to gain better positioning and conserve nora will win you match ups. A retreat can be considered an advantage in where the next turn had you held your position your unit would have died and possibly the enemy would collect it's globe. Retreat to keep what you invested alive and you'll gain the advantage. Also how @4NIK8 mentioned if they're rushing You should try and counter what nora your opponent invests in spells, they have spam on their side however if you work a counter into your bg you can play that to your advantage. Comboed with learning when to retreat and nora conservation that's what it will come down to in most match ups
Consider the spell that makes them entangled(?) when they leave the aoe of the water terrain. It's actually decent to hold back large swarms of enemies for a turn or so.
I wish I could help but my track record vs Skywings is around 4/10. I usually just say Firk it and try my hardest to do whatever power plays I can do. It really depends on the skill of the player who plays them.
nora weave is great spell to cast if sense your opponent building for a rush/powerturn. Snaptooth Frenzy is really solid for a surprise attack with vivify impatient and manic. When Snaptooth Frenzy has multi attack it is easy to deploy, gain ap from friendly attacks, attack himself, then manic. Great for covering large distances and still attacking as well.
