One of my stated goals, particularly in the last few weeks, of tracking my deck and my success at Realms/Regionals, has been to learn, improve and net a playmat as a result of said efforts. With the change in the prize structure coming into play as of April 11th, I had one last chance to try to get my own 'Holy Grail', a playmat.
Portland, Oregon is 167 miles from my home, according to maps.google.com, and by their best guess, would involve a 2 hour and 51 minute drive. In order to have a shot at a playmat, not only would I have to tweak my deck a bit more, but I would have to consider driving about 340 miles round trip, at a cost of about 6hrs of travel time total, and a full tank of gas. ( Thanks to my shiny red Kia Rio getting around 34mpg freeway, the math on that was pretty easy.)
So.. with the blessing from my wife, I spent a week testing 101 minor tweaks, including some really random stuff, and finally settled into what I thought was the best possible deck I could run. I stripped out some Protectors I had put in after the last even, I dropped Magister Ashi entirely and added two cards that I hadn't really considered in the past. Those two, it turns out, are great tech, and actually turned a couple games around for me.
Adding Vindicator Kaldel served two purposes. Firstly, it allows me to inspire an ally, allowing me to ready half of my 'new tech', as well as allowing me to get much more use out of Jazmin Bloodlove. Yes, I know that Jazmin is generally regarded as weaksauce, but with Kaldel in play, not only can Jazmin drop for 1, and attack immediately, even if just for 1 damage, but she can be inspired back into a position to be able to defend, keeping at least 1 attack off of Kagella or another ally that can be handy. Secondly, Kaldel is a 3/2, for 2. And a 3/2 is enough to trade even with Bloodsoul, take out a Kagella or, providing she drops after a Gifts, become a 5/4 for 2 which is just beastly.
My other added tech came as a suggestion from two folks that I regard as being bright enough, and skilled enough to know what they are talking about, so I took their suggestion and just ran with it. I added my 2 Borlis Brode to the deck. Yes, I know he is just an uncommon, and that I should have more, but sadly I didn't get more than 2 in the single box of FoO I had aquired. At an amazing 3/4 for a mere 2, Borlis can take out a pair of Bloodsouls, or a couple protectors before falling, making him a great trade. And even with his drawback of not readying during my upkeep, I rarely had the problem of having him just sitting there idle, between Broan and Kaldel. And in the one game that I did have Borlis just sitting idle, he was joined by his twin, both of them being ignored turn after turn. I left them there as well, until I was able to capitalize on them on turn 8, when I was able to drop 2x Broan, readying both of them and finish the game with a pair of Gifted Borlis swinging in for 5 each, and their eager companion Broan swinging in for 4 each, giving me a turn 8 delivery of 18 damage after I sacrificed the rest of my board to clear holes in the defense.
So, without going into long drawn out report mode, I did indeed make the trip to Portland where I was able to go 4-1 on the day, losing only to a netdecked Omedus rush that was more aggressive than I was. My wins were against 1 Beastmaster Hunter, 1 Alliance Druid that was supposed to be the equivolent of Taheo Gifts, 1 Morova Gifts/Moonfire combo and an Alliance Mage deck. Aside from the struggle to force Omedus to 3 games, the roughest contender on the day was the other horde druid deck, which came close to beating me.
Facing Morova, I knew that it was going to be a close round regardless and I had hoped I could win the initial dice roll to set some tempo. Sadly, I lost the roll and the first game as my opponent stayed 1 turn ahead of me on every aspect. Our decks were very similiar, nearly mirror, except he invested in early drop protectors where I prefered some more beats and speed. Second game, I am on the play and our positions are reversed. I am a turn ahead, drop Gifts first, finish him cleanly that way. Then on to the third game, where I was really worried. I draw into 2 resources, 2 Jazmin, 2 Borlis and 1 Kaldel in my opening hand. I opt to keep. He got off to a good start, dropping Magister Ashi, then passed to me. I drop a resource, drop Jazmin, swing in to clear Ashi, end turn. His turn 2 nets a resource and nothing else, where mine is a resource and Borlis. Turn 3 he drops Tyrennius Scatheblade, which Borlis will run over and eat, and when I drop Vindicator before passing, my opponent realizes that Borlis is here to do some damage. The rest of the game is sort of back and forth until turn 8 when I double Broan the ignored Borlis twins, as I mentioned above.
Because of the odd number of players, and going 5 rounds, it was possible that we could end the day with 3 folks going 4-1 and due to the other two guys being buddies that rode up together, and the only 4-0 after round 4 double conceeding in round 5 to his buddy, that is exactly what we ended at. Three players sitting at 4-1 for the day. I figured my chances of Top2 were good as I had beaten one, so the tiebreaker should be mine, and it was, allowing me to finish in 2nd place on the day. Payout for my efforts included my treasured playmat, where I had to pick the hot bloodelf over the squidfaced dude, a deckbox I promptly set aside to give my son, a Molten Core loot pack with netted nothing fantastic, an Onyxia loot pack that burped up my 2nd Cull the Weak and Backpack cards, and 8 boosters of MotL which produced some tradeable stuff.
Most importantly, it got me the invite to Realm Championships and the last Playmat available for some time to come. So, I can relax a bit now, and spend the next month figuring out what I can take to Realms that will hopefully serve me well for the day. At the moment, I haven't really had the chance to look deeply at the possible contenders, but I am planning on cycling through a few prospects before I start tweaking and tuning whatever I think I will be most comfortable with. At the moment, I am looking at Warlock, Hunter, Shammy or Priest, but I still want to take a few existing decks such as a rogue or warrior deck, tweak them without disrupting their core concept, and see if I can find something that can handle a variety of challenges.
And to be upfront and honest, I don't expect to Top16 at Realms. I really don't. I want to go, have fun, get an EA Wraith Scythe, play as well as I can until it is clear I am out of the running, then I will look at the side events of the day and see what I can manage. However, as I gear up for Realms, I think I will continue to publish my thoughts as well as the deck ideas I am toying with, in hopes of giving others a bit of insight or help, and with luck, drawing some insight and help from the friends that watch this blog.
For those who are interested, my 'winning' Taheo decklist:
Hero: Tahoe
Allies:
2x Borlis Brode
4x Vindicator Kaldel
4x Bloodsoul
4x Broan Charges-The-Fight
2x Nyn'jah
2x Shadala
1x Shawn of the Dead
1x Varimathras
4x Broan Charges the Fight
4x Jazmin Bloodlove
Abilities:
4x Force of Nature
4x Gift of the Wild
2x Innervate
4x Cyclone
4x Moonfire
Quests:
3x Torek's Assault
3x Poison Water
3x Finkle Einhorn at your service
3x Hellfire Fortifications
2x Chasing A-ME-01
Related to:
World of Warcraft TCG
