Recently, I had a similar situation in a Polish tournament – Alex-R (Sandro) played very poorly against me on Jebus – he ventured into the center as early as turn 132 (before that, he was timidly farming trees with his hero) – as if there weren't enough creatures for that purpose – and I attacked him with upgraded vivs (I upgraded them right before the attack, which was prohibited by the Polish rules). I also managed to collect an elixir (I misunderstood their rules – I thought you couldn't use the collectors you found, only the ones you assembled). However, neither my vivs nor the elixir played any significant role there – I had a huge advantage, even if I had attacked without vivs and without the elixir. But my opponent decided to focus on the rules...
Perhaps, that's the fate of the weak :)