I was excited to hear the announcement about the Realm Championships. I enjoy playing at higher level events as it brings out the higher level competition. As happy as I was when I heard the announcement, I was just as sad when I found out that Las Vegas would not be holding an Realm Championship Qualifiers. With this information I decided that I would have to travel to qualify. My sister in-law lives in Phoenix (technically Mesa), so I asked my wife if she would like to visit her sister for a week, and lets just say it didn't take much to convince her.
Those who know me, know that my favorite class to play is Warrior. Prior to this tournament I had played solo warrior in three different regionals, and in each of those tournaments I finished first after the swiss and ended up winning them all. I decided not to break my trend and I ended up playing Gorebelly Twig.
4 Blood Soul
4 Feasha Firestalker
4 Rak Skyfurry
4 Morlug
4 Kagella Shadowmark
4 Intercept
4 Heroic Strike
4 Mortal Strike
4 Puncture
4 Blood Rage
4 Perdition's Blade
4 Twig of the World Tree
3 Stronghold Gauntlets
3 Against the Legion
4 One Draenei's Junk
2 Counter Attack
Sidedeck(I don't really remember now, I think it's close though):
2 Confessor Mildred
2 Sister Rot
3 Crushing Blows
3 Cleave
I asked my friend, Kirk Buckendorf, to build the deck for me and he did and I was ready to game... or not. I headed down to the Convention Center where the tournament was being held, only to find out that I didn't have a Gorebelly hero in the deckbox Kirk gave me. I asked everyone at the tourney if they had one, but no one did. It looked like I would not be playing, but the judge was nice enough to give me one from his collection. 17 people entered and we were ready for battle.
Round 1: Bye
Most people wouldn't complain to receive a bye first round, but I'm not one of those people. I was ready to game, and now I would have to sit around for an hour and wait to do so. I spent the time walking around looking at what the other people are playing, and decided my game plans for each deck I could face.
1-0
Round 2: Kat playing Alliance Shadow Priest
I had to play down this round, and I remember her playing a Shadow Priest. Both games I drew multiple Blood souls and was able to combo her out before she was able to get much going with her Shadow Weaving.
2-0
Round 3: Don't remember...
This person does not have their information updated in the UDE site but I remember that the kid I played was playing an alliance mage. One could tell that he was a relatively new player and his deck had a lot of cards that should never be played in limited. I easily killed him on turn 6 both games.
3-0
Round 4: Ken playing Rapid Fire Elendril
This match up seemed nearly impossible for Ken. The intercepts wrecked his strategy, even though he had Silencing Shot (paying 4 resource points to interrupt a intercept doesn't help). Then after sidedeck, I was able to Crushing Blow his equipment and get multiple 2 for 1s. That, along with the punctures, made things hard for him. I won this match up and secured my shot to win my first Realm Qualifier, even though I lost one game to Rapid Fire.
4-0
Round 5: Chris Shaner playing Horde Warlock
Even though I'm not from Phoenix, I know that Chris is the one of the best players in the area. First game I combo Chris out on turn 5, with Twig, Heroic Strike, 2 Rak Skyfurry, and Mortal Strike. The second game Chris stabilizes my early game and Eye of Killrogs my threats. I topdeck a Bloodrage, fill up my hand with the combo cards and kill him when he taps out to Bringer of Death my board.
5-0
It is nice to win, and I am happy with the way I played all day. After this tournament, there was another Realm Qualifier in Phoenix which I also attended with Dane Young and Jason Galeski. I opened a broken sealed deck, and went 3-2 after conceding to both Jason and Dane. I still managed to sneak into Top 8 (20 players) and draft an insane deck with 3 Puncture, Sudden Death, and 2 Ras'fari Bloodfrenzy. I ended up losing in the semi-finals to Chris Shaner. Both games that I lost, I mulliganed into hands with 0 quests and ended up drawing only 1 in both games that I lost. Since my removal traded 1 for 1 with his threats, and he drew into multiple quests, I got destroyed by all the card advantage.
