Hello clove!

It's me, byzantinist (a.k.a. b-kitty)! Great article and fantastic video!

For the first game of the finals, I thought th12-pura's placement of the Lord Arianthus was bizarre. I get that he was worried about Target Practice but I would have gone with:
Paladin Feral Cutthroat Arianthus Angel Ooze
or
Paladin Feral Cutthroat Ooze Arianthus Angel
instead.

In Game 2, I thought Valnamor was an odd choice with only two Magic using monsters. Maybe something like:
Turtle Medusa Genie Pixie Archer Chicken
would have made more sense with Valnamor. With the lineup that was used (including Electric Eels), I would have used Alric or Xia instead.

While Plado does provide +1 melee and +1 speed, it's actually his -1 health that is most useful for Fire, combined with Phoenix Blast (in higher mana games you can also throw in Goblin Shaman for weakness). That's what allowed me to one shot the Armorsmith and Feral Spirit. Their 3 health was reduced to 2 so that a single blast would kill them. And it meant I could kill the Paladin in two shots.