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So I just got back from a Monday night 8 man draft in Brooklyn at Kings Games.  Members of the drafts were the usuals, notables being Charles McArthur and Andrew Farrell.  I open up Bringer of Death and Mental Anguish.  I pick Bringer of course, hoping that alliance priest floats my way, and pass the pack.  I tilt alliance and 6th pick comes a Prayer of Fortitude.  I manage to wheel the Mental Anguish  Okay I'm alliance priest.  Pack 2 I first pick Terokk's Shadow staff*whaaat*. Second pack I pick up late the 5/4 5 drop scryer rare that sabatoges a player, strong card.  I also pick up 2 melt faces.  Nice right?  Pack 3 I first pick the 8/1 8 drop protector that can't die from fatal damage.  NUTS!  Pick 2 I pick Woe Or Grow so now my flip works.  I also pick up 2 levitates, a Myriam and did I mention I had Marnie Moonlight and Archbishop Benedictus from pack 1?  My deck has to simply be the best at the table.  I'm actually so confident I take two $5 dollar bets.  Here is where things go wrong.  I nearly lose game 1 round 1 to Warrior.  I had 8 resources and Bringer in my hand as well as the 3/3 that shuffles my graveyard into my hand with no quests.  My opponent has only 1 card in hand and no quests.  I pay 5 to play bringer, he wrecks it.  wtttf.  I basically need to bringer next turn or I lose.  I play the 3/3 to shuffle bringer into my library.  Guess what I top deck?  Bringer.  I win game one on the draw luckily, and smash game 2.  Round 2 I go againt Andrew Farrell whose running mage.  I was better off going against McArthur since he was Druid, but I figured I can 3-0.  Game 1 I lose simply to losing.  My deck lacked a good curve.  Game 2 I completely smash fash.  Game 3 is a tight nick battle and I need to leave after the match.  However when turn 9 came around I made a fatal mistake that was so bad, it not only wasted me a turn but cost me the game in more ways than one.  It's a mistake, it happens.  But it keeps happening.  At this point I feel like I'm an extremely good drafter but it doesn't matter if I can draft the best deck if I keep making play errors.  If I can't make the best plays round after round I can live, but to make play errors that don't only cost you tempo but cost you the game is getting more than annoying. 

I play the game for fun, but if I wasn't in it for the competitve edge truth be told I wouldn't find the game all that fun.  I don't understand what it will take to erase these errors from my play.  It could be due to my age(16) that is preventing me from truly excelling but that doesn't bring me any solace.  This horrible trend started at Nationals in the last round last year that prevented me from going 6-2 into day two, and has continued since.  I can accept losing, but losing when I know I had the win if I did something else is simply frusturating. 

I'm actually picking one deck over another since I'm so discouraged with my own playing abilities at this point since one of them is basically set for auto-pilot.

Tags: Errors Mistakes Frustration

Hey folks', it's been a long time since I've written anything WoW related.  Mainly because I had lost interest in the game and when I found interest in the game again I lacked anything worth writing about.  Well I've been inspired recently, and thought I'd write about certain ways of dealing with Myriam, as well as powerful control allies.

The cards I would like to look at today are cards that have gone under the radar, and/or are simply ignored.  To start, I'd like to catch your attention with Terokk's  Shadowstaff.  This card has provided me in prior Regionals some nice wins.  How?  I was running Runetusk with an arsenal of Melt Face, Soul Rend(meta worthy) and other allies to keep the board clean so I can steal my opponents game plan, Myriam or Greench.  This card was a major sleeper in the last set, and has for the most part seen its use only in limited.  On top of great Horde allies such as Brok and with some good ally removal, Mriams in trouble.
            &nb sp;                         &nb sp;  


Notice which classes can use this:  Mage, Priest and Warlock.  Priest in my opinion is the stand out choice.  Why?  It offers the quickest ally removal  when in combination with Terokk's Shadowstaff won't only provide a steed bump for Myriam decks everywhere, but possibly turn their win condition against them.  Keep in mind many players attending Continentals most likely have not and will not play test against this card nor expect it.   This card can snatch many games without you showing anything more than your early game.   In the control match up, this is far from a dud either.  Even if your opponent plays a Greench with two allies out, if you have two melt faces and a Terokk's and an opponent not wise enough to self destruct his own Greench (opportunities for bluffing against better players) you have caused quite a shift in tempo.  This as well as all the other neat priest abilities can lead to quite a bit of pain.  Raesa Morningstar has had a huge improvement to her arsenal with Divine Spirit (Turn 6 Bringer of Death with activation, wtf?), and Runetusk is still the master of hand manipulation we remember him being.

Another card worth mentioning which from what I've seen has been completely ignored in all Myriam and Scryer  V.S. Aldor arguments is the sleeper Retainer Mythras.  Some of you with the mention of Retainer have already gotten on the defensive to protect the Aldor reputation which is fine.  Aldor is very powerful(and better).  The cards in general are more powerful than the Scryer cards, but if I may quote William Brinkman, "you should draft the best card for your deck. Keep in mind, though, that the card you pick may not always be the best card in the pack."  Although this is about drafting, the same applies to constructed.  Aldor lacks direct answers (and synergetic support) for Myriam.  However, Scryer cards like Myrthras can very well be the better for the deck (and meta) rather than Aldor's powerhouse line-up.  

Let us go back to Priest.  In a meta where solo decks have nearly disappeared due to how popular Paladin and Druids are (Band of the Inevitable), stacking your deck with ally hate is not a bad idea.  Retainer Mythras on top of cards like Melt Face, Soul Rend, Terokk's Shadowstaff and other strong priest abilities and equipment(Voidfire Wand) can not only lead to domination of Myriam based decks, and very strong match ups against control which means a strong chance of doing well at major tournaments.  The main problem is over commitment to ally hate can lead to auto-loses to decks like Mother Misery and other decks with a similar nature.  However, you sometimes have to accept your bad match ups and hope for the best a field including an array of decks.

Hopefully after reading this you have learned something and have some gears turning.  I would extremely appreciate any feedback from the community =)
Feel free to comment.

AIM:  Frankiswtf
Email:  FDAlberts@gmail.com

Disclaimer:  I don't personally think it's worth adding in Retainer Mythras over Niyore/Ishanah, the part regarding Retainer is simply theory.

Tags: Myriam Priest Sleeper Control

If you couldn't take a guess, the following is going to contain a new theory for maybe not idiots, but anyone on solid to great deck building. It is fair to say not all of us have the ability to create innovative decks like some others, and it's safe to say that because of a lack of good deck building "experience" it actually stops a lot of players from trying, let alone playing constructed all together.
I'm here to fix that. I won my first regional back in January running somewhat of an original deck, but with a stolen 'engine'. What do I mean by engine, well frankly. The ally build.
I'll be completely honest with what I did at my first regionals which is 6-1'ed.

Story time
Back in Heroes of Azeroth days, Elendril hunter was the biggest thing, and it showed at the Ft. Lauderdale Regional in Florida, having that 5 of my 7 rounds where against Elendril. Up till a week of the event, I was going to follow the trend, but I had a Road to Regionals event* Wilson Avenue, NY I think it was at(I travel a lot)*, and I had none of my hunter cards. So I put together a Dizdemona Warlock rush using nearly the exact same ally build.

To my shock this worked very well, and I started thinking. What makes Elendril a better rush than Dizdemona? Well it was simple, Nothing. The problem that Elendril had besides having a useless flip*at the time*, was that if you didn't win the coin flip, you most likely lost that match if it was against another rush. Well, Dizdemona fixed that problem with great tempo cards such as: Sarmoth, Steal Essence, Shadow Bolt, Infernal, Rain of Fire, and her flip.
Running pretty much the same ally build(only one Leeroy+3 Curse of Agonies), I won the whole bit on tie breakers against a net decked Dizdemona Control, and net decked Elendril rush that actually beat me round 6 2-0 some how. I forgot how to play my deck. He played very well regardless, and yes I ran Curse of Agony. It is the most underrated Warlock card, that purges can't touch and stole me several wins at Nationals, and that regional, and the following. REGARDLESS!

The moral of the story is...
you don't really need to make a new deck at all, rather evaluate previously made decks and modify them to fit your playing style and your meta game. I will now give you a modern example I have been playing around with due to the success of Tim Batows Phadalus Tempo control, and the newly formed meta game of Rogue, maybe Priest and Warrior. Rogue is going to make a huge huge showing at the next Nationals, due to it's great match up against Warrior and everything else.
If you are unfamiliar with Tim's deck that could've landed him first if he got a little luckier, here it is.

Hero: Phadalus
Allies

2 Acolyte Demia
1 Apprentice Merry
3 Crazy Igvand
1 King Magni Bronzebeard
4 Korthas Greybeard
3 Lady Kath
1 Marshal Reginald Windsor
2 Moira Darkheart
4 Parvink
2 Vindicator Enkallus


Abilities
4 Ancestral Spirit
3 Chain Lightning
4 Earth Elemental Totem
4 Searing Totem
2 Vanquish


Equipment
4 Perdition’s Blade


Quests
4 Chasing A-Me 01
2 In Dreams
4 Rescue the Survivors
4 The Defias Brotherhood
2 The Missing Diplomat


Side Deck
3 Apprentice Merry
1 Chain Lightning
1 Kavai the Wanderer
1 King Magni Bronzebeard
1 Moira Darkheart
3 Purge

If you can't tell, this deck handles Rush very well considering it's a Shaman. Has Chain lightning, Perditions blade, Earth Elemental totem, the whole 9 yards. Lady Kath plus Crazy Igvands quite nasty two. However, the only two loses this deck had were to Brad Watson, and Charles McArthur. Both Warriors, in a close series. Well, with the meta game most likely shifting warrior again, it's time to fix that, With some FoO additions. Here is a rough build of what I came up with, that uses the same "Engine" as Tims.

By the way, it's a druid.

Hero
Yanna Dai`Shalan (Alliance Balance Druid, flip is Pay 3 deal x dmg to target ally where x is the amount of allies in your party.)


Allies(30)
2 Acolyte Demia
4 Kryton Barleybeard
1 King Magni Bronzebeard
4 Korthas Greybeard
3 Lady Kath
1 Lorekeeper Darian ( I will explain trust me lol)
2 Moira Darkheart
4 Parvink
3 Medoc Spiritwarden
4 Vestia Abiectus
2 Vindicator Enkallus


Abilities(14)
4 Cylone
4 Entangling Roots
4 Wraths
2 Natures Majesty


Quests(16)
3 Chasing A-Me 01
2 Corki's Ransom
4 Zapped Giants
2 Blueleaf Tubers
3 Crown of the Earth
2 The Missing Diplomat

Side Deck
3 Circle of Life
3 Kavai the Wanderer
2 Vanquish
2 Moira Darkheart


Right off the bat, you can spot some major differences. I will go straight to the inclusion of one Lorekeeper Darian. It is for game 1 Solo warriors lol. I felt this deck would be able to shut down a solo warrior from swinging, but wouldn't be able to win till I put in Circle of Life in game 2, so why not deck him while I keep Medoc, Cyclone, and Kryton Barleybeard recursion up? He has his use, 99% of the time he will go face down and to the sideboard. Cirlce of Life is on the sideboard replacing Spirit Healer since Circle of Life in my opinion is more devastating against a solo. You can flood the field with Moiras, sack em, and blue leaf to do it all over.

Other than that, it's pretty similar. Kryton is included for pressure early on, recursion on Cyclone and Entangling, along with Vestia. I was debating adding in Mass of McGowan, but with the meta game going equipment, and the new equipment hate I figured it'd be a waste.

All I did to build this unique, original deck that deals with the current meta game, was simply change heroes and a few gears in the engine. This is all you have to d.

 

Heres a good example. The Timmo deck that 7-1ed at Nationals, listed below:

Hero: Timmo Shadestep
Allies
4 Steelsmith Joseph Carroll
1 “Chipper” Ironbane
2 Parvink
Abilities
4 Cold Blood
3 Kick


Equipment
2 Eye of Rend
4 Major Healing Potion
3 Pads of the Dread Wolf
2 Bracers of the Eclipse
4 Onyxia Hide Backpack
4 Perdition’s Blade
2 Skibi’s Pendant
3 Striker’s Mark
2 Devilsaur Leggings
3 Ramstein’s Lightning Bolts
1 Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker


Quests
3 A Refugee’s Quandary
4 Chasing A-Me 01
4 Samophlange
2 Sunken Treasure
3 The Missing Diplomat
Side Deck
2 Moira Darkheart
2 Medoc Spiritwarden
1 Kavai the Wanderer
1 “Chipper” Ironbane
1 Ramstein’s Lightning Bolts
3 Gouge

With the new set, to hurt the meta game even worse you can give up the Cold Blood and Ramsteins Lightning Bolts combo, for surprise attacks to beat down hard into your opponents armor. Personally, I like the Wrath of God(Ramsteins+cold blood) combo far to much, and Joseph handles solo decently well to switch over, but thinking like that will crack you a solid deck even if your not the best deck builder.

Hopefully with these few examples of somewhat, out of the box thinking, all you readers will gain some insight on deck building. I use WoWtcggame.com to help me build my decks, since it lists all different abilities. A piece of advice I'd like to give out is, No deck is bad till you test it out, if you come up with a Miner Moggun Stitches deck, go for it. You'd be shocked how much you can learn playing with decks like that. Also, try to use a program called OCTGN(look it up on google), it helps a lot with play testing considering it is online.

That is the end of this weeks Idiots Guide to. Next week I will most likely cover some excellent, general drafting tips which I have learned from New Yorks finest *cough Tao, Mike, Kyle, Andy and Andy, not Charles.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions on anything regarding anything but your personal life, feel free to email me at Frankistank@gmail.com, or instant message me on AIM at Frankiswtf. I am obsessed with my name. Thanks for reading.