First a little background about myself since this is my first blog. My first experience with a TCG was MTG where I primarily played with a friend of mine over a 3 month period during summer vacation while I was in college. I loved the game but when I came back to school in the fall I couldn't get any of my other friends to play and just figured it'd be a hobby I wouldn't be able to pick up. That was about 8 years ago. Fast forward to last summer and the Penny Arcade Expo. Me and a couple gamer friends are there and I see they're running WoW TCG beginner tournaments and I figure it's worth getting them to try it since we all play the online game. We were immediately hooked and ended up playing it the rest of the day. These days their interest has somewhat waned, but I still devour any knowledge on the game I can and attend tournaments whenever possible.
So, with that out of the way, I'd like to talk about a couple different tourneys I've attended using two different decks. One being a regional qualifier and the other a battleground at my local card shop.
This past Saturday I played in a battleground event using a Daspien deck that was my first real decent deck (took 7th in a regionals of 34). I really wanted to play a new and original deck for fun but I didn't know if I'd be able to attend until about an hour before it started, so I went with the old standby. Of the 3 rounds of swiss the matches went as follows:
Round 1 Nathadan:
This was actually the first time I played against Nathadan with my Daspien deck, but I knew that matchup well enough to know it was an uphill battle. Luckily I won the die-roll and unluckily the game went 10+ turns. I somehow manage to pull out the victory and figure at the very least I have a chance since Nathadan hates losing game 1 in a long match. Game 2 I pretty much got trounced as Aegis, Hammer, and Snowball are too much to overcome. Game 3 I get 8-10 damage on him which he heals to full with the Aegis and we go to time on my turn with neither of us having any damage. Unfortunately for him I have a weapon out, a couple suprise attacks, and my flip available and he has no threats on the board so I put 6 damage on him and win. It was noted by another player he should have dug for Lay on Hands to at least tie and go to game 4, but I had the Kick in hand and ready if he tried any of those shenannigans ;)
Round 2 Warrax:
I felt really good about this matchup because all of Warrax's armor is dead to Surprise Attacks and in a race my deck is almost always faster. I lost the die roll but got a god hand in Surprise Attacks, Whispering Blade, Timeslicer, an Demonhide Spaulders. Even on the draw I felt I could win the race with that hand so I elected to go balls to the wall from the beginning. When he played Girdle of the Endless pit on turn 1 follwed by my Surprise Attacks I felt even better. After the quick game 1, game 2 started with him playing turn 1 Steelsmith, turn 2 Steelsmith and when I tried to kill Steelsmith with my Kris on turn 2 he flipped to protect him...gg. Game 3 with me on the play I get a great hand of Eye of Rend and 2 weapons and my deck is able to win the race.
Round 3 Harrigan Soulsunder:
This was against a player I've played a few times and had yet to beat, so I was excited to face Kevin again for another chance. I had no idea what to expect from his deck, whether it be control or rush, DOT heavy using Ustable Afflicition, etc. I believe I won the die roll (on the third try and tying twice!) and after few turns in he had played some rush type allies so I figured it wasn't hardcore control. Unfortunately I can't remember which games which plays took place because we played our full 3 games and another 3 using my other deck after we were done. What I do remember is that all 3 of our games were games of attrition that went to around 10 turns. Between his Snowballs, Kilroggs, Shattering Blows, and Bringers and my Purlions, Kicks, Sinister Strikes, and Prey on the Weaks, it was almost impossible for either of us to get or keep anything on the board. In the end I won the match to both claim my first ever 1st place and first victory against Kevin, a great day indeed. I look forward to our next matchup!
On second thought this blog has gone on for quite a while so I think I'll break off talking about my other deck/tournament into a separate one so as not to have a tome written.
Tags: Battleground
Related to:
World of Warcraft TCG
