Hey everyone,
My name’s Denis Gelrud. I am a member of Team ThanksForPlaying and live in MD. I’ve been playing WoW TCG for about 6 months now. Now that the background info is out of the way let’s get to the weekend of the realm championship.
I was driving up to Philadelphia for the Realm championship tournament on May 9th, the day before it started. With me was my friend and owner of the store I play at, Dave Gress. Also in the car was Nick Walters, another member of Team Thanks for Playing and someone I usually test with. We got to the hotel I rented around 11:00pm and after some last minute play testing decided to go to sleep.
My sleep was all around okay, although short. It turned out however that Nick wasn’t that lucky. It seems I slept through some huge trucks pulling up to the parking lot which woke him up. And apparently on top of that the guy in the room next to us was yelling back and forth to another guy at the hotel across the road, about how he wants to leave this hotel for that one. Anyway, after Nick told us this story we each took some showers and hit the road for the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
We got there at 9:00am just as registration was starting. We signed up and got our decklist registration sheet along with our pretty new wraith scythe. Each of us took a last look at our decks before the tournament to make sure we were happy with it. Dave was playing Runetusk; Nick was playing Form of the Viper, and I was packing what now looks like the new favorite deck, Traitor Rogue. My decklist was as follows:
Traitor Rogue – Ressa
Maindeck:
4x Whispering Blade of Slaying
4x Perdition’s Blade
3x Demonblood Eviscerator
4x. Apprentice Merry
4x Jeleane Nightbreeze
4x Lowdown Lupo
4x Myriam Starcaller
4x Gut Shot
4x Gouge
4x Purloin
3x Jackknife
3x Sinister Strike
3x Eviscerate
4x One Draenei’s Junk
4x Dr. Boom
4x Corki’s Ransom
Sidedeck:
3x Dismantle
3x Chipper
4x Xanata the Lightsworn
I decided to go with a more burn heavy version, mostly because I enjoy burning (doing direct damage to your opponents hero ex: Gut Shot) someone for 1/3 of his or her total life in a turn.
The decklist is pretty standard so I’ll just explain it broadly and then give you some input on the more irregular choices I made.
Deck Breakdown:
16x Untargetables: They are your main resource of damage. They beat your opponents face while also not being able to be targeted with any point removal.
11x Weapons: Your secondary forms of damage. They help by having your hero swing for damage both against their hero if you are racing or their allies if you want to gain card advantage.
13x Burn Abilities: These finish your opponent off when you’ve brought them low enough with your allies and weapons.
12xQuests: These help you dig for cards and not run out of steam late game.
8x Disruption Spells- These help disrupt your opponents game plan. Namely Purloin takes a relevant card and gouge exhausts a relevant hero or ally.
Irregular card Choices:
Combo Cards/Eciscerate: As I stated earlier I decided to go with a burn heavy version and eviscerate becomes your 5-7th Gut shot.
Gouge- This card was relevant in a lot of games and I am surprised that a lot of builds don’t have it. It’s a very versatile card that costs only 1 resource. It can exhaust a hero giving you two turns, a protector so you can get through with your guys, or an ally who is going to kill your allies or you. I’ve been very happy with it and think the versatility alone warrants its inclusion.
Sinister Strike- The more burn the better and this usually does 3 damage for only 2 resources.
Demonblood Eviscerator- I wanted to have a big weapon that can swing for a lot on its own. It worked decently well, as playing it on your opponents end of turn helped stop a lot of equipment removal and allowed me to swing and then burn them out next turn.
Jackknife- I wanted to put in more combo cards and this was by far the best of the bunch. With a dagger this can take down two allies or take down an ally and deal 3 damage to your opponent’s hero. Worst case it’s 3 resources for 3 damage.
Dr. Boom- I started testing this quest and it has helped me a lot. Apart form being easy to complete it helps you keep up your tempo with more cards and can usually complete itself before runetusk has a chance to get rid of it.
Phew, describing the deck took longer than I anticipated. So getting back to the tournament. After my friends and me did a last minute check of our decks we waited for the tournament to start. Around 9:45am 3 other members of Team ThanksForPlaying showed up, as they decided to drive here early in the mourning rather than coming the night before. Finally at around 10:10am pairings were put up and I went to my first round opponent.
We had 59 people and were to have 6 rounds.
Round 1 – Horde Feral Druid (at table #1)
After listening to the announcements and commenting that sitting at table #1 will probably be the highpoint of the tournament for me, we got started. His deck consisted of the best horde allies and the best forms and pumps, namely predatory stikes, cat form, claw and etc.
Game 1: He had 2 bloodsouls, predatory strikes, and a cat form out by turn 3 and the race was on. I played out some untargetables and we started attacking each other. The turn before I would have killed him he surprised me with a Broan Charges the Fight for exactly enough to bring my hero to 27 damage.
Sidedeck: 1 Gouge, 3 Jackknife for 4x Xanata the Lightsworn
Game 2: A turn 1 Purloin took his Claw and he couldn’t draw a form for the rest of the game. We each played some allies but without having a form to allow his hero to attack I was faster and a Gut Shot for 4 finished him off.
Game 3: This game was more of a fair fight between us than the others. We both played allies and he played a cat form and predatory strikes while I had a perdition blade, which killed his turn 1 Voss. We started attacking each other until I drew a Xanata and played it. I then drew a Myriam Starcaller and placed her on the field. I traded some of my guys for his. Afterwards with Xanata protecting Myriam, Myriam domes him for 5 for 3 turns traight and I burned him out.
I chatted with Dave for a while until Round 2 pairings were called.
Round 2 – Horde Frost Mage
My opponent was playing the old Mage stall and interrupt deck with the upgraded Invisibility. His game plan was to stall and interrupt my threats while drawing a lot of cards until he could play and activate Bringer of Death and drop a huge guy like Varithimas.
Game 1: Game 1 went by pretty fast, or, as fast as a game can go against a frost mage hero. A turn 1 purloin revealed 3x Nether Fracture, 1x Bringer, 1x Invisibility, and some quests. I took the invisibility. The game consisted mainly of him drawing cards and interrupting some of my threats with nether fracture. Eventually I got enough threats through and attacking that a Sinister strike, with a Demonblood Eviscerator out, was enough to kill him.
Game 2: This game is kind of a blur to me now because it lasted about 40 minutes. As far as I can remember he played Invisibility 3 times throughout the game and Ice Block twice. A midgame Purloin revealed among other things 2x Fizzle and a Bringer. I took the Bringer and at that point had him at 20 damage. He played some more stall cards and I won eventually when I drew 3 burn spells that could do 5 each.
I barely had time to talk before the next round because as soon as I got up time was called. Were off to our next matchup, which turned out to be:
Round 3 – Horde Moonkin Form (table #1 again, yay)
I was playing against a fellow Marylander who I’ve seen and played against in a lot of tournaments. In fact, he was one of the people I played in the realm qualifier top 8 when I qualified for the championship. I wished him luck and we started the match.
Unfortunately the luck I wished him never quite got there. I won’t bore you with the details but his hands were god-awful both games. Game 1 both our hands were horrible and mine got better eventually where as his did not. Game 2 mine was decent, where as when I purloined him turn 1, he revealed the following: 2x Dreamstate, 2x Tatulla, 1x Innervate, 1x Runesong Dagger, and a quest. I took the Innervate and pretty much just attacked with untargetables till he was dead.
He was a good sport about it and I told him I’d try not to screw up his tiebreakers too bad. Flashforward to after Round 6, he’s 5-1 and in top 8, so maybe the luck was just taking its time.
Well at this point I’m 3-0 so I’m pretty happy with myself and think I have to screw things up pretty badly to not Top 8. That kids, is what we call foreshadowing.
Round 4 – Mirror Match
I was playing against a pretty nice guy who was playing traitor rogue as well. I was honestly surprised I was only playing him now as it looked like at least 25% of the field was traitor rogue at the tournament.
I wish I could tell you we fought it out and the best player won, but unfortunately the entire match came down to luck and a broken card. Game 1 I drew 2 Myriam Starcallers back to back and there was nothing he could do. Games 2 and 3 he drew 2 Myriam Starcallers, along with gouge and protectors, and there was nothing I could do.
That was how the match ended and I was a little on tilt because of it, but I figured it happens and I wished him good luck.
Luckily I had time to go eat because I was starving at this point and that helped me get back to my senses a little. On to Round 5!
Round 5 – Horde Shaman Burn
I was playing another guy I saw quite often back in Maryland. He was a nice guy and we chatted a bit about the tournament metagame before we began.
The entire match basically came down to Myriam again.
We were racing each other until in Game 1 I slapped down a Myriam and after a few Hadokens from her it was over.
Game 2 was very similar. We both played some allies and while attacking with mine I played a perdition and took out a bloodsoul. He started burning me but after I played Myriam and she hit twice I had enough to Gutshot for the win.
Well I’m 4-1 at this point and my deck has been working pretty well so far. All my matchups have been pretty close apart from mirror so I’m thinking I should be ok. That is until I see what I’m playing in the final round.
Round 6 – Horde Undead Destruction Warlock
So I sit down and start chatting up my opponent. He’s a cool guy who’s very energetic and after some comparisons of my Servants of the Betrayer Sneak preview playmate against his Jessica Simpson nude one, we start the match.
Folks, I’ve played a lot of matches in this great game, but never have I been blown out so bad and felt so powerless than I did with this one match. Essentially his deck was tuned to crush mine. Before the match started, he pretty much told me he was expecting a lot of traitor rogue (a correct expectation), and built a deck that completely demolishes aggro and especially traitor rogue.
His deck basically consisted of every card imaginable to beat mine. He had Vexmaster, Doshura, Tatulla, Xanata, Ras’fari Bloodfrenzy and the 2 cards that completely blew me out, Cannibalize and Shadowfury.
Game 1 and 2 after some killing of my guys and weapons he cast cannibalize and shadowfury and it was all over. Cannibalize, along with taking away damage from Gutshot, basically set me back to the beginning of the game in terms of the damage on his hero. Then Shadowfury completely clears my board and taps down Myriam so he has a chance to kill it.
After he completely wrecked my game plan he played a Abominable Greench to win.
So I ended the tournament with a 4-2 record. Unfortunately, even though 2 4-2’s got into the top 8, my first round opponent went 0-4 and my second went 1-4, so my tiebreakers were shot.
Conclusion:
I got 12th and with that received a Box of Servants of the Betrayer and 4x Wraith Scythe.
The metagame had a LOT of Traitor Rogue and even more of Myriam.
Myriam Starcaller seems to be the next card to beat and there was a good amount of it in the Top 8. My deck performed well but I would probably have to change my sidedeck a bit.
The main card that will go in will be Mass of McGowan. It seems to be one of the only cards that can kill Myriam without 2 for 1ing yourself. Along with that I’d put in Kick, which should help against the Undead Warlock Matchup.
Nick Walters also finished with a 4-2 record and got 9th while Dave finished 36th just out of prize range.
I hope everyone enjoyed my report and feel free to comment on anything I can improve on.
P.S. If anyone I played is reading this and can give me their name, I’d appreciate it. I’m really bad with names.
Denis Gelrud
Related to:
World of Warcraft TCG
