Dog
Star II · 2 base copies
Swiftclaw / Catalyst
Nearby kill-triggered attack-speed support and marching Pack Leader.
THE FIELD NOTES · CRITTERFRONT
Egg and Treant: shielded growth support
A five-unit support engine that feeds Treant with recurring Hatchlings while Scorpion disrupts armor and healing.
Test budget30g
Net roster investment30g
Base-copy purchase total44g
Round rules testedRound 4
Net investment deducts merge refunds from the purchase total. 0g of the test budget is unspent. This is an owned-roster comparison, not a starting purse or a promise you can find these copies in that round. Shop rolls, reroll costs, liquidity and other players’ purchases were not simulated.
Support coordination · 5 DEPLOYED RECRUITS
The exact roster
Egg
Star III · 4 base copies
Brood / Hatcher
Two recurring defensive Hatchlings per cast and final-death marching shields.
Petal
Star IV · 8 base copies
Nightveil / Hatcher
Four-hit shields on newly created allied summons across the whole battlefield.
Scorpion
Star I · 1 base copy
Ironhide / Catalyst
Fifth-shot Venom that disables armor and blocks healing on defense.
Treant
Star III · 4 base copies
Ironhide / Hatcher
Range-one scythe attacks with growth from every allied summon.
Open this roster in the planner ↗
Exact families and stars, with an illustrative starter layout. Edit both formations before playing. This is not a recorded simulation layout. The planner’s base-copy value is the 44g purchase reference, not 30g net investment.
What the families activate
Attacking threats
- Ironhide: 2 distinct families · 2-family bonus
Defending roles
Duplicates do not add faction members. These are current rules interactions, not proof that a particular bonus caused the recorded score.
Give each side a job
Placement notes below are practical interpretation of the abilities, not experimentally optimized hex positions.
YOUR DEFENDING TOWERS
Cover the route
- Placement suggestion, not a tested hex layout: give Egg a productive route to feed Hatchlings into and put Treant where its short scythe reach can connect.
- Dog’s two-hex support reach is local; Petal’s summon shield is not. Do not force Petal beside Egg just to receive shielding.
- There are three Hatcher families, so only the two-family breakpoint is active—not the four- or five-family bonus.
YOUR ATTACKING MARCHERS
Plan the approach
- Try Dog near the front while keeping allies in Pack Leader reach. Egg’s final death shields adjacent allies, so its spacing matters.
- Keep Treant within one hex of likely friendly deaths when possible; that can trigger its own healing.
Recruit toward it, without forcing it
This is a conditional recruitment plan, not a tested shopping sequence. Keep a playable board while the shop decides which copies are available.
- Suggested collection priority, not a tested buying sequence: start from usable Egg/Treant pieces and develop Petal’s shielding without leaving the board empty.
- Four-star Petal needs eight base copies; three-star Egg and Treant need four each. Thirty net gold does not price the search for those copies.
Where it can struggle
- Egg has no normal tower attack, and Treant’s growth needs summons and time rather than arriving as immediate burst.
- The frozen holdout contains a losing direct matchup for this composition; its overall score is not proof of invulnerability.
Recorded matchup notes
- The historical holdout scored 83.8% points over 48 opponents. Treat fast early pressure and disrupted firing coverage as ideas for counter-testing, not measured universal answers.
- A recorded weak matchup was Bee III + Cat IV + Lurker II + Petal II + Scorpion I: this guide earned only 33.3% points across their eighteen direct holdout battles. Those specific stars matter.
What the experiment measured
83.8%
Historical points
A win is 1 point. A draw is ½.
- Opposing compositions
- 48
- Battles in this comparison
- 864
- Opponent-panel 95% interval
- 78.4%–88.7%
- Cap or allocation-drop battles
- 0
Each opposing composition spends at least 85% of the test budget. Each opposing composition has equal weight. Repeated seeds and swapped seats are not independent opponent strategies. The interval describes this tested panel, not ranked players or a guaranteed result.
| Test policy | Historical points |
|---|---|
| Planned defense · front-row offense | 83.9% |
| Random legal defense · randomized Nexus | 86.5% |
| Planned defense · randomized full-depth offense | 81.1% |
Scores pool many placements. None of these numbers is a result for the editable starter layout linked above. They compare both armies’ applied Nexus damage, not total DPS.
Evidence source and reproducibility
Frozen run: validation-20260906
Stage: validation
Roster: r-adce02af5c1e7e41bf93
Download the compact evidence snapshot, including source SHA-256 hashes. Read the method and limitations.
A different direction to try
27G TEST BUDGET · Summons and scaling
Five Hatchers: the recursive summon engine
All five Hatcher families combine protected summons, recursive Bunnie copies and Treant growth. Strong against broad opposition, but with a demonstrated mixed-army counter.
27g net investment82.6% historical points
Pre-nerf opponent panel
Read the roster guide ↗27G TEST BUDGET · Mixed anti-swarm
Wyrm and Petal: a mixed counter package
A five-unit mixture of burst, summoned protection and scythe coverage. It emerged from direct counter-search against a Hatcher-heavy army.
27g net investment92.1% historical points
Pre-nerf opponent panel
Read the roster guide ↗12G TEST BUDGET · Taunt and reflection
Hermit King and Treant: the historical shell
A historical reference for a remarkably efficient taunt-and-scythe pair. Hermit King has since been nerfed, so the old score is not a current recommendation of equal strength.
12g net investment99.8% historical points
Hermit changed · retest needed
Read the roster guide ↗