DMF was a very bitter sweet experience for me. My friend and I had decided to play in the 2-headed Ogre tournament on Saturday since I've always liked multiplayer and I've never seen a multiplayer tournament held before. Unforunately in it's infinite wisdom UDE decided to hold the tournament while the main event was going on...so I bit the bullet and decided I'd skip the main event and at least be able to play in the regional the next day with my new favorite deck.

Which brings me to the decklist for said deck:

Hero: Marlowe the Felsworn

Allies (31):
4x Syluri (2)
4x Xanata (2)
4x Parvink (3)
3x Apocannon (3)
4x Myriam (4)
3x Seraph the Exalted (5)
3x Weeble (6)
1x Narthardus (6)
2x Vindicator Zalreth (7)
1x Ishanah (8)
1x Greench (9)
1x Lady Vashj (9)

Abilities (13):
4x Eye of Killrogg (2)
2x Banish to the Nether (3)
2x Swallow Soul (2)
3x Ripped through the Portal (5)
2x Invoke the Nether (6)

Equipment (2):
2x Bringer of Death (5)

Quests (14):
1x Deep Sea Salvage
2x Missing Diplomat
3x Chasing A-me
4x Manhunt
4x Information Gathering

Sideboard (10):
2x Greatsword of Horrid Dreams
4x Steal Essence
3x Shadowbolt
1x Bringer of Death

Before I even knew what class or faction I wanted to play I had two goals: draw a ton of cards and have a really good matchup against control (especially Aleyah). For card draw I went alliance for access to Parvink and Weeble and class I decided on warlock as it's generally the anti-control control deck with all it's remove from game tricks. Traitor ended up as the default option since I wanted to be human for Manhunt (as a preemptive answer to Myriam) and Ripped seemed like a much bigger beating than the other human specs.

The deck is top heavy and vulernable to really fast decks like Omedus and Desecrator, but if it can make it to turn 6 with more than 10 health Weeble and/or Invoke can quickly turn a losing game into a winning one. It's late game is where it really shines. The Chasing A-me's and Zalreth give the deck lots of recursion and the Ripped through the Portals mean even against another warlock you can bring your own guys back.

A couple days before DMF I decided a little bit of the Main Event was better than nothing at all so I made the decesion to play in the first 2 rounds and drop no matter what. For what it's worth this deck was 2-0 without a game loss in the main event before I dropped (having been lucky enough to face Aleyah twice). In hindsight I wish I had stayed in the main event as even though my teammate and I won the Two-Headed Ogre tournament, from the looks of things I had some good matchups in the main event. Sadly, I did not even get to play in the regional the next day as I played in the loot card tourney that went until 2am and I was just too wiped to play cards again the next day.

Anyway, if you don't expect to face a lot of rush in an upcoming tourney, I'd reccomend giving Marlower a shot as it's a blast to play and gives a lot of control decks headaches.

Tags: DMF

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         This past weekend I participated in the Servants of the Betrayer sealed event and I had a blast. After the packs were handed out it was announced there would only be 4 rounds of swiss which was a little disappointing considering there was 44 people entered. Anyway, constructed is more my game so I don't have a ton of experience in limited but I knew the following: equipment (especially weapons) is good, removal is good, a good curve can be more important than impressive allies.
         I decided I was going to let my equipment (or lack thereof) determine my class as a strategy. Out of my 6 packs I pulled 4 weapons and 2 armor that were playable and the combination of the 2 left me with warrior, paladin, rogue, and shaman as possibilities:

- Shaman could use all of the weapons and none of the armor but the ability pool was terrible so I sadly cut that class out.
- Warrior had some real nice abilities and access to 3 weapons and no armor but most of the abilities were tied to equipment and I didn't like having to depend on that with only 3, so I cut it as well.
- Rogue could use 2 weapons and both armor and a single On the Brink but was VERY light on other abilities to I sadly cut the rogue out.
- That left me with paladin which could only use 2 of the weapons and no armor, but the weapons were the best 2 (2x of a single weapon actually) and had by far the best ability pool of my weapon classes.

       After looking through my cards my alliance allies had a much better curve so I went with that direction but meant cutting my only talent spec card which required a Holy paladin. Faced with the choice of the 3 alliance paladins I went with the new traitor hero as I felt he had the best flip for my deck. It came out as follows:

Hero: Crusader Michael Goodechild

Allies (16):
1 x Falana of the Glen (1)
1 x Quigley Slipshade (1)
1 x Vindicator Dindro (1)
1 x Bakaar (1)
1 x Angelista (2)
2 x Miner Steelwhiskers (2)
2 x Vindicator Agran (3)
1 x Alhas (3)
1 x Rames the Purifier (4)
1 x Anchorite Alona (4)
1 x Breen Toestubber (5)
1 x Orderkeeper Henley (5)
1 x Stella Forgebane (6)
1 x Gabble (7)

Equipment (2):
2 x Bloodskull Destroyer

Abilities (5):
1 x Seal of Redemption
2 x Blessing of the Martyr
1 x Paladin Training
1 x Reclusion

Quests (7):
2 x Dr. Boom
1 x Marks of Kil'jaeden
1 x Hellfire Fortifications
1 x Information Gathering
1 x The Name of the Beast
1 x Falling to Corruption

Total: 30

I wasn't actually too happy with the deck at first but after playing it I found some nice interactions. My thoughts on some of the new cards:
- Falana was amazing the first couple matches when people didn't know what she did, but she's always bad on the play and so-so on the draw when people know what to do (kill her then place a resource).
- Quigley I'm on the fence about, he's almost an expensive Luppo that everyone can use but has one major bonus in that you choose when to make him untargetable. In multiple games I attached a Blessing of the Martyr on him and left 2 resources open which made him an unkillable 4 attack ally.
- Angelista I like because her effect is at the end of your turn so she can be useful at any point in the game "You just played Thunderfury? Go ahead and pay 9 again"
- Miner Steelwiskers is awesome. 2/3 at a 2 cost with protector AND he mills? Nuts.
- Breen, I really liked her in limited but really I don't think she's great for constructed.
- Stella is awesome, she's almost Zygore but alliance can use her. If you can keep her on the field she can completely shut down equipment based decks.
- Bloodskull Destroyer is nuts in limited. A 3/2 weapon for 2 is pretty damn good on it's own, but the added 1 cost removal can really swing games.
- Seal of Redemption would be much better in constructed if it was any combat damage, as it is I'm not so sure. I did manage to get the engine going a few different times this tournament which when you do is completely game changing.
- Blessing of the Martyr is very playable in constructed in my opinion and extremely good in limited. This and Earth Mother's Blessing make it very worth it to play attached abilities since they replace themselves. The attack and health bumps are almost just gravy.
- Dr. Boom will be rush deck's new best friend after One Dreanei's Junk. I held my breath every time I completed it with this deck expecting to draw Gabble, luckily I never drew more than a 3 cost.

On to the matches:

Round 1: Hekto Starspire
I don't remember too much from this match but games 1 and 2 played out very similarly. Game 1 I playe Falana on turn 1 and traded her with his 1 drop on turn 3 and it turned the game in my favor. Game 2 he actually killed Falana on his turn 2 but after he placed a resource which netted the same result.

Record: 1-0

Round 2: Kil'zin of the Darkspear
Amazingly out of the 42 people I hadn't played against I get paired with my friend who I came with, which of course always happens...in the end my deck curved out a little better than his and I was able to take the tempo and the games. Both games I got my weapon out on turn 2 and just started clearing his board which gave me too much board and card advantage for him to deal with.

Record: 2-0

Round 3: Taheo
This was a very frustrating match in that I started out with what looked like a dominating board prescense, only for it to be turned around by an Earth Mother's Blessing pumped ally. Game 1 I spent most of the early turns killing his allies with my weapon but in the end I had done so much damage to myself that despite my dominating board prescense he had enough damage left to kill me. Game 2 started out much the same and I appeared to turn the corner when I killed his Doshura with 2x Earth Mother's Blessing on it with my weapon's effect. I had really turned the corner when I looked at my "deck" which only had 2 cards in it...with no way to shuffle my yard back into my deck it was over. Having to kill him almost 3 times after Tranquility healed a ton didn't help either.

Record: 2-1

Round 4: Taheo
Bleh, bring on the Earth Mother's Blessing again! Luckily it turned out he had none. On the play in game 1 I get out to a fast start hitting turns 1-3 and on his turn 3 he plays Lacerate which I thought was a questionable play but later found out he also had Chew Toy which made a little more sense. For that game it was a little slow and I manage to push through the victory. Game 2 I trotted out Falana on turn 1 hoping to catch him in a misplay but he smartly killed her turn 2 before placing a resource. I got the Bloodskull + Seal of Redemption engine going however and he had no answer which gave me the game.

Record: 3-1

          In the end I came out in 8th place with my 1 loss to the person who ultimately got 1st. I was disappointed in not getting a playmat and an extra 6 packs, but still was happy to get another top 8 even if it didn't really mean anything.

Now to start forming new decks with the new cards!

Tags: Preview Event

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In my last entry I eluded to my last Realm Qualifier and I'd like to talk a bit about tournament but mostly I'd like to talk about the deck itself. Right to the decklist:

Hero: Grennan Stormspeaker

Allies (31):
4 x Bloodsoul
4 x Waz'luk
4 x Faseha Firestalker
4 x Morlug Soulslayer
4 x Kagella Shadowmark
4 x Borlis Brode
4 x Broan-charges-the-fight
3 x Bloodblade
2 x Kiani De'nara

Abilities (16):
4 x Chill
3 x Purge
4 x Totem of Wrath
2 x Earth's Bounty
3 x Earth Shock

Quests (13):
4 x One Draenei's Junk
4 x Torek's Assault
2 x Finkle Einhorn
2 x Demonic Contamination
1 x Name of the Beast

Side (10):
3 x Bloodlust
3 x Garrel Strout
4 x Shattering Blow

First off, the backbones: Bloodsoul, Kagella, Broan, Junk, etc. Everyone knows about these, they go into so many rush decks you can practically play a blank horde hero and have a decent chance.

The second portion worth mentioning is the Morlug combo. Everyone knows about this also and if you drop down Omedus or Grennan a good player is going to expect it. In the first incarnation of this deck it was actually the focus, but it's predictability made me lessen it's importance and make it more of an alternate win condition. In a perfect world you don't reveal the combo at all and win game 1 or 2 using a general rush and then the next game drop it down on the draw to somewhat surprise your opponent. One thing of note is that Kiani is the much more preferable way to combo off as it makes it much harder to stop and gives you a "free" fatty as a threat if need be (Faesha is only a 4 of to give the deck enough 1 drops just in case).

Some notes on specific card choices:

Waz'luk: Not that he needs a lot of justification since he's decent on his own, but as a small added bonus he can ping for 3 with ToW (even if he dies to Withering Shout).
Earth's Bounty: This card seems slow, but it's mostly in there to recur the combo if needed. It's also good when you're in control mode and need to use it to toolbox draw Shattering Blow, Chill, Earth Shock, etc.
Earth Shock: May be a little redunant with Purge but it's mostly in there to stop the Mortal Strikes to the face or stopgap removal.
Demonic Contamination: I love this quest when you're playing undercosted guys. It's like Defias except the horde can play it.
Borlis Brode: Hands down, the card that got the most strange looks. 100% of the time it was either "what does he do?" (from those who've never seen him) or "wow, you're actually using him?" (from everyone else). In this deck however, Borlis is King. He eats every 1 drop in the game and most 2 drops without blinking. When he's done he stays on the field powering up Kagella. Or being a target for Broan. Or being Finkled. Or helping complete Demonic Contamination. Or being fodder for Ishanah. This doesn't even include using Inspire:Ally effects. Borlis is underrated.

Sideboard: I hate using Shattering Blow, I'd much prefer Hur and/or Jon Reaver. The problem is this deck would practically scoop to Greatsword or Eternium Runed Blade then, so it's a necessity. I was underwhelmed by Bloodlust and Garrel Strout. Most of the time Broan is as good or better than Bloodlust, so they don't both need to be there. Garrel was put there as another trigger for ToW but without the totem Bloodblade is better. Really those need to be Chain Lightning for untargetables or Arnold Flem for a better effect.

On to the matches!

Round 1 Omedus:
I played against my opponent a few times and have talked to him a bunch about the game AND he works at my local shop so I'm ashamed to say his name escapes me :( . At any rate I looked forward to the matchup as every game we've played is fun and good natured. I was fairly certain whoever won the die-roll would win the match considering our decks, which made me very glad indeed that I won it.

Game 1 the race was on and I hit my draws and was able outpace Omedus.
Game 2 started and I went straight into control mode knowing I had no choice. I made favorable trades when I could but really it came down to the fact he wasn't running PW:S to protect Shadowfiend. With lots of instant speed burn (I even Earth Shocked the fiend!) I killed Shadowfiend every time he hit the board and he eventually ran out of gas allowing me to combo out for the win.

Record: 1-0

Round 2 Rotun:
I really had no idea how I fared in this matchup, but I was hoping my knowledge of the deck would be enough to give a me a chance since I new my opponent was a good one. I lost the die-roll so I knew I was in trouble already.

Game 1 I made a very costly play mistake that cost me the game. I started the game with the Morlug combo in my hand so I was happy with that, but I knew I had to time it carefully as he expected it. On his turn 4 he tapped out, I took the opportunity to drop ToW at the end of his turn and Morlug + Feasha on mine to complete the combo. At this point I had Kagella, Morlug, ToW, and Faesha on the board and maybe 8 damage on Timmo. I could either blow up all my resources now for a garuanteed 12 damage or wait it out so I have the resources on turn 5. In my head I thought "No matter what I can blow up my resources at any time and get the 12 damage". So I passed the turn and my opponent thought long and hard on his turn and made the exact right play, he declared an attack on Morlug, which I responded to by blowing up my 4 resources, which in response to that he flipped and killed my ToW. I have no idea why I thought Morlug's damage is modified as it's put on the chain as that makes no sense, at any rate that brilliant move saved him 2 damage and I lost the game with Rotun at 1 health left...
I was pretty disheartened after the game 1 mistake but felt good abotu game 2 being on the draw and having a great opening hand. Unforunately I made another costly error, although this one was strategic. My starting hand had Bloodsoul, Kagella, Borlis, and Demonic Contamination. Turn 1 I played Bloodsoul, turn 2 Borlis, turn 3 drew another 1 drop and had a decision to make. Play Borlis and the 1 drop, or Borlis and complete Demonic Contamination? I chose to complete the quest as I was worried about running out of steam like the last game and was pretty sure Kagella was a gonner on his turn anyway. Unforunately on his turn Jacknifed Kagella and Borlis (who died since I put the 1 damage on him) and it was pretty clear I should have kept pressing.

Record: 1-1

Round 3 Warrax:
I was pretty sure this was a solo deck with Steelsmith and I was right. My Chills gave my a temporary way to deal with Steelsmith but with only Shattering Blows to hit equipment I knew I'd have to win at least 1 game on combo alone. I started out by losing the die roll, crap.

Game 1 went about how I expected, I hit a decent draw but he had turn 4 Wraith Scythe and I didn't have my Shattering Blows yet. He wiped my board and healed to full so my only hope was to try and combo. I had all the pieces on turn 5 but had run out of steam trying to put pressure on him and was forced to row everything I drew to power up the combo. I did manage to get to 10 resources to attempt the kill shot but on his turn his by then huge Steelsmiths finished me off. It was moot anyway since it was extremely obvious what I was doing and he told me afterwards he had the Intercept in hand to stop it. Really, I should have just conceded around turn 6.
Game 2 was somewhat unremarkable. On the play I hit my curve well and won easily on turn 5.
In between games 2 & 3 I made the colossal mistake of taking out my main deck Purges (for Garrel Strout) since he didn't play a single ongoing ability in games 1 & 2, this would be my downfall in game 3. His turn 4 Withering Shout wiped my board and took away the possibility of comboing and his turn 5 Bloodrage sealed the deal, ouch. I'm not sure if I would have won the match, but being able to with 2 resources what cost him 9 would have been a huge tempo swing.

Record: 1-2

Round 4 Phadalus:
Another opponent I'd faced before, this one in my first ever Regionals. I don't know if he remembered me, but I was hoping he did as he might have then underestimated me since I'm a much better deckbuilder/player. I lost the die-roll.

Game 1 he passed turn 1 and turn 2. I hit Bloodsoul and Kagella on turns 1 & 2 and on turn 2 declared an attack with Bloodsoul. If there was no response I knew he got a horrible draw and the game was pretty much mine be did as I expected played Earth Elemental totem and protected, which let me know his deck was likely hardcore control. He passed turn 3 again and I assumed he had another Earth Token to toss in my way which he did against Kagella. Turn 4 down came Aegis and turn 5 Wraith Scythe. I hadn't seen him play any instant burn yet so I kept applying token pressure and started assembling combo pieces. Turn 9 came and he was fully in control with Aegis, Wraith, and Mana Spring Totem and possibly some others. I dropped the combo and he had no answer which gave me the improbable victory.
Game 2 came and knew I had to start with Shattering Blow in hand or else I'd be in serious trouble. The hand I was delt had a good curve but no SBs so I recluctantly shipped it, good choice. My mulligan hand had 2 x Shattering Blow, Earth's Bounty, Bloodsoul, Kagella, and a quest. The game started almost exactly like game 1 and on my turn 3 I had Bloodsoul (with 2 dmg) and Kagella and he had an empty board (except the uselss EE totem) and 3 open resources which I assumed he was saving for mana spring totem which he played on my EoT. His turn 4 he played Aegis to pair with the totem. My turn 4 I played SB to kill the Aegis and Killed the totem with Kagella. Turn 5 in came Wraith Scythe but I had another answer in another SB. Turn 6 he played Stoneclaw and I had my answer in Bloodblade. Ultimately my timely answers won me the tempo race and the match.

Record: 2-2

Round 5 Timmo:
This match was a real pleasure to play in that my opponent was very good natured and played the online game and it's always fun to talk to people about that. It turns out that this was his first tournament so I tried to give him strategic tips when approriate since he was such a good guy. Ultimately my better tuned deck and experience won over and I was able to win two quick games. He was much better off than I was my first tourney so I hope to see him again.

Record: 3-2

Round 6 Gorebelly:
Entering the round I was in 10th place. I hadn't done the math on the standings but felt like with 24 players I would almost certainly make top 8 if I won and still had an outside chance at qualifying for the Championship if I lost since at least a few in the top 8 had already qualified. Then I saw I got paired up with the 2nd place player who's only loss was to the 1st place player. Even more daunting was the fact that I knew he had a really high constructed rating and I had lost to him before. When he plopped down Gorebelly I assumed it was Twig and was at least happy it would be likely be a race which I'm much more comfortable with. Luckily I also managed to win the die-roll.

Game 1 I hit my god hand in Bloodsoul, Kagella, and Broan. On the play I couldn't hope for better. His turn 4 Wraith Scythe made me really nervous though considering the skill of my opponent which forced me to reveal my combo and play Morlug as a beater to keep the pressure on. My rationale was he probably knew it was in my deck anyway and turns out it was the correct play for the game as he conceded about one turn before he was going to turn the corner.
Game 2 I don't remember each individual turn but I remember a few keys. I had learned my lesson from my previous warrior matchup and kept in all my Purges and Earth Shocks. His turn 5 he played Bloodrage and I left an open resource to Purge it before my turn started to steal some tempo. The key turn turned out to be turn 6 though. My board consisted of all 4 of my Bloodsouls (insanely lucky I know) and he had Stronghold Guantlets and Demonblood Eviscerator. In my hand I had 2 Chills and an Earth Shock. After attacking with 1 Bloodsoul that was killed I was really worried about running out of steam and thought about completing a quest to get more board prescense but passed the turn with 6 resources open instead. On his turn he declared an attack on my hero and I responded with the 2 Chills (1 to get through the guantlets, the other to stop the attack) he then tried to Mortal Strike me to the face and I responded with Earth Shock. The strategy paid off and I ultimately won the game and the match, phew!

Reocrd: 4-2

Afterwards the final standings came out and I was in 9th place. I will never understand these swiss tiebreakers but it was extremely disappointing to only move up 1 place after beating the 2nd place person. On the bright side, I still qualify for the Realm Championship because of the fact that a couple people in the top 8 (including my last opponent) had already qualified.

Next tournament is the preview event this Saturday and I hope I can repeat my top 8 from the MotL preview. After that is the last Realm Qualifier this season in Seattle which I hear will be sealed so that should be interesting. In the meantime I'm working on a new hunter tempo deck, stay tuned...

Tags: Realm Qualifier

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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

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