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Welcome back to the second part of my World Cup report. Today I’m going to tell you the story of the remaining 2 days of this event and how different it was from the regular tournaments. The keyword is teamwork. This was the first event in which we could openly communicate, build decks together and basically support each other instead of competing against ourselves.
Day 2 – Team Limited – Deckbuilding
Before even looking at the cards that we got we had a couple of things agreed. Being a Team’s captain and player A, I was going to play the strongest deck we could build. Most of the top players were sitting in group A, so a deck that could counter them was only natural. Krzysztof wanted to play the weakest deck and Maciej was in the middle. If possible we wanted to build a Druid – Hunter – Death Knight composition, but that would of course depend on the cards. After getting our set we quickly realized that the best classes we have are Druid, Shaman and Warlock. The cards were very good - we had plenty of good quests, decent allies and fine abilities to choose from. After getting our initial card selection for each deck we’ve ended up with 40+ cards in each, which needed to be cut a bit.
Krzysztof ended up with a really decent aggro Shaman sporting 32 cards after the cut. He got all the Horde allies he wanted, a [Venerable Mass of McGowan], [Sava’gin the Reckless] and a couple of [Abomination Knuckles].
Maciej got an Alliance Warlock. We had so many good alliance allies that we were able to split them easily between 2 decks and none of us felt like we were left behind. Both of us had a couple of allies for each turn and decent abilities. He also got most of our dragonkin.
As planned, I received all the good stuff and there was a lot of it. A couple of bombs mixed with great abilities and most allies above the curve created a 35 - card monster. You can see the full list below:
Hero: [Arturius Hathrow]
Allies: 22
1 [Bayner Cogbertson]
1 [Jinie Swizzleshade]
1 [Nightstalker Austen]
1 [Furan Rookbane]
1 [Emerald Acidspewer]
1[Ruby Skyrazor]
3 [Marcus Dominar]
1 [Magni, the Mountain King]
1 [Aileen the Thunderblessed]
1 [Andrew Ulric]
1 [Emerald Wanderer]
1 [Zuur]
1 [Bella Wilder]
1 Kalek Deepearth]
3 [Loriam Argos]
1 [Emerald Soldier]
1 [Emerald Captain]
1 [Garret Vice]
Abilities: 7
2 [Entangling Growth]
1 [Earth and Moon]
2 [Wrath]
2 [Mark of the Untamed]
Quests: 6
1 [Mystery Goo]
2 [Corrosion Prevention]
1 [The Essence of Enmity]
1 [Cleansing Witch Hill]
1 [Crystals of Power]
Total: 35
Building our decks together was a lot of fun. We were exchanging ideas and trading allies before the decks were completed to create the best possible builds from the card pool that we’ve received. The best thing was that no one felt discouraged after the decks were finished. Every one of us was happy with his deck and positive to win all the games that were awaiting us.
Day 2 – Team Limited Challenge
Round 1 - Team Trickplay from Denmark - Rene Skyggesjerg
Confident with our decks, we sat in front of the Danish Team. I was facing Rene who won against me on Friday, so this was a chance to take my revenge. I was happy to see Rene playing an Alliance Paladin (Jarael) as I consider this class a rather weak one. Weapons might have been the only real danger in that match, but the only one I saw was a [Citadel Enforcer’s Claymore]. Both games were very fast with me having an almost perfect curve supported by [Earth and Moon]. Rene was on full defensive trying to get good trades with [Blessing of Defense] and [Blessing of Virtue]. To no avail as most of my allies were above the curve giving me an initiative. In both games we played Rene managed to deal only 1 point of damage to my hero. On game two he put [Polished Breastplate of Valor] on the board, but it was not able to stop my two consecutive [Marcus Dominar] followed by [Bayner Cogbertson].
Maciej and Krzysztof also won their games and they did that even before I was able to finish with Rene. We shouted “Problem Denmark!?” and called a judge to get the score.
1-0
Round 2 – Team Google from Netherlands - Wouter Egas
Wouter was sporting a Red Priest ([Yuna Sunridge]). The only card that I was afraid of was [Dark Extortion], which might have totally shifted the board situation on turn 5+. It turned out that it was the least of my concerns in Wouter’s deck. The first game felt like a Core Constructed duel. He opened with [Rosalyn von Erantor] T1, then [Onnekra Bloodfang] T2, [Ruby Enforcer] T3 and [Orkahn of Orgrimmar] T4. I was not able to kill the Enforcer, which made all his allies so much better. I died in an instant. Game 2 I had an initiative, so we were trading allies and my health was stable. Getting on the curve on T5 I was able to play [Marcus Dominar], then T6 a 6 drop, T7 [Bayner Cogbertson] and the game was mine. In that game Wouter was on his defensive - revealing a [Divine Fury] + [Wand of Ruby Claret] combo. In the last game I was again rampaged by his tempo allies and losing the game. Fortunately my team mates proved their worth again and won theirs. I lost to Mr Egas, but we won the match. Problem Netherlands?
2-0
Round 3 - Team John and the Guys from Germany – Jan Palys
This was a very important game for us as we considered Jan’s team to be the toughest to get through in our group. We were also pretty happy to meet them in the limited part as we felt that our decks are better. Playing with Jan is always a fun experience as I tend to mix Polish with English, at one point Jan was confused as well and started to talk in Polish to his team mates! Jan was playing [Arturius Hathrow], so we had a mirror match. The first game took us pretty long. I was constantly pushing, which was putting Jan on the defensive. He was stopping my allies with Entangling Growths (he had 3 copies) and healing himself with Lockjaw. Eventually my big guys overwhelmed him as well as some sneaky nature resistance provided by [Mark of the Untamed]. The time was running out and I was 1-0. We started to play the next game, which got full attention of our team mates - they both won and lost. The final outcome of the match was in my and Jan’s hands and it was going to be a very exciting end. Game 2 was very aggressive from Jan’s side. He was pushing for a quick win with a great dose of success. I was trying to defend, but with a couple of [Entangling Growth]s I was pushed back. Jan’s [Avatar of the Wild] was put to good use eating some last points of life that I had. The round was over and we only had about 10 minutes to play the last game (extra time added because of the deck check). My teammates literally ripped the deck out of my hand and started to do the changes.
The first thing they did was cut all the quests. “You have 7 minutes left, you will play only 3-4 turns, there is no time to do the quests anyway” – said Krzysztof. The next thing they cut was all 5+ cost allies. That left my deck at 20 cards from 35. Fortunately we had a lot of good cards to side in for this game:
3 [Shanis Bladefall]
2 [Mark of the Untamed] (4 total)
1 [Flourish]
1 [Rejuvenation]
1 [Nami Dabpox]
1 [Ruby Protector]
1 [Kentro Slade]
Both I and Jan were nervous. The time was not yet called, but it was going to be at any minute. We carefully shuffled and drew our first hands. Mine was Flourish, 2x Shanis, Wrath, Emerald Soldier, 2x Loriam Argos. It was like a dream and I decided to keep it, even though Krzysztof was prompting me to mulligan. The sequence looked as followed:
Marcin T1: Shanis
Jan T1: Garret Vice
Marcin T2: Loriam Argos
Jan T2: Ruby Stalker – then he trades Garret with my Loriam.
Marcin T3: Emerald Soldier – 1 mana free (time is being called)
Jan T3: Ruby Stalker attacks me for 1, Jan keeps 3 resources ready. I cast a Mark of the Untamed on Shanis.
Marcin T4: Stash nourish – heal 1 damage. Wrath burns the Ruby Stalker. Jan responds with Entangling Growth to the attack proposal from Emerald Soldier. First Shanis attacks for 1. I play a second Shanis on the table.
Jan T4: If only Jan had a Wrath I would be dead. Fortunately his play was Lockjaw - heal 1.
Marcin T5: Shanis deals 1 crucial point of damage, which gave us a win.
Problem Germany?
3-0
Day 2 – Team Core Challenge
Round 4 - Team Les Tontons Chatons from France - Patrick Aschero
Excited about our previous win we asked the French team what was their score was and they replied 0-3. It seems that after hearing that and winning with Germany we underestimated our opponents as we could potentially get through Core without any real problems. I personally was facing a control version of [Velindra Sepulchre] and I mulliganed into a really slow hand. I did my best to deal as much damage as possible before [Kel’thuzad] came in, but that was not enough. I managed to deal 15 damage total before Patrick healed himself with a [Conjured Cinnamon Roll]. The funny thing was that I had to play all 3 of my [Kor’kron Vanguard] copies before the first Saurfang entered play. After Kel’thuzad hit the table I was trying to do some shenanigans using Thrall and Munkin, but Mr Ashero had total control of the board and he was fully healed.
Maciej won his game, but Krzysztof lost. France proved to be a problem.
3-1
Round 5 - Team Just the Love! From Hungary - Zsolt Varga
It was the final game of the second day. We were ignorant about our opponents’ success until the moment we met. They were a solid 4-0! We knew that this is our last chance and that if we win we will be tied on 4-1 and eventually get in the top 8 as the winners of the head to head match.
My opponent was playing an alliance Warlock – [Victor Baltus]. I was expecting a regular blue Warlock build with [Jhuunash] + [Dominate], or [Kel’Thuzad] as his win condition. The game was pretty even, when I looked at Zsolt’s hand with a [Lesson to the Nether] played by exhausting Mias T2 he had: [Summoning Portal], [Sardok], [Jhuunash], [Mikael the Blunt] and [Burly Berta]. I got rid of the Berta and felt pretty safe. It was easy for me to establish a good board position as Zsolt had mostly pets in hand and putting one in play would mean removing the other. I got the Kite and started outdrawing him. Around T8 he had to play Juunash to defend against my Saurfang, but I took him with my succubus. T9 I finally got in with lots of damage thanks to [Hesriana] leading the way pumped up by her new super powers. He had [Kel’thuzad] in hand, but it was too late for him.
Maciej won his game again giving him a 5-0 score for Day 2, which secured a win for us.
Problem Hungary?
4-1
Finally we were in top 8 and it was confirmed. It was a great day for Poland as our friend Wojciech Wójcik who played in the DMF also got to top 8. Unfortunately the other Polish team lost to Team B-B-B losing the chance to win their group.
Day 3 – Top 8
Our first opponent on Sunday was Team Samoulle from Canada. We were prepared and knew their decks as all the deck lists were handed out by judges on Saturday. We didn’t have much time to test against their exact setup on the previous day, but the matchups were mostly favorable, or at least winnable.
Quarter Finals - Team Samoulle from Canada - Philippe Gareau
Philippe was playing a very fast version of [Emek the Equalizer]. He didn’t have any [Devouring Plague]s and [Tuskarr Kite]s. Before the game started he told me that he was tweaking his deck to win against Stuart Wright’s warrior, which clearly worked for him. I was positive about this matchup and relaxed about the lack of those great abilities. Philippe’s deck seemed to also have too much 4 drops including 4 Munkins added against Stu. The first game proved me wrong as my opponent from Canada was able to generate an impossible tempo to stomp me. I died when he was only on 11 points of damage. During the second game I was more cautious and won a really close game using my own Saurfang. The third game was very unlucky for Philippe as his Munkins got to him. He was missing with [A Rare Bean] and I stripped his hand of good cards with a [Lesson to the Nether]. Finally I was able to get the last points of damage on him to win another game and a match.
Maciej and Krzysztof won their games as well giving us a tremendous 3-0 score.
Problem Canada?
Semi Finals – Team B-B-B from France - Raphael Ait Slimane
Before the game started we knew that Krzysztof was in trouble. His matchup with Guillaume Wafo-Tapa was a very unfavorable one. Our chance was to win the other 2 games, which put more pressure on me and Maciej.
Raphael piloted an interesting aggressive version of a Kinivus – Spark deck. I evaluated my chances as 50-50 with both of us racing to get the kill first. The outcome would mostly depend on the card flow and our decisions during the games. Instead of chatting Raphael immediately started to beat me, he played an early Adam followed by [Edge of Oblivion] and he really didn’t need the Spark to finish me off in game one. We quickly started game two, which was very similar but now in my favor. I put a lot of pressure on my opponent using [Dreadsteed] and Sava'gin played on the table. My later plays were Dethvir, [Hesriana] and Saurfang who got rid of the [Feral Spirit]s and allowed me to score. Game 3 was a very close one. Raphael managed to get me to 26 with his double [Feral Spirit], Adam and [Edge of Oblivion]. On the other side of the table I was pushing as well with Saurfang, Hesriana, Dethvir and Broderick. My [Thrall, Warchief of the Horde] won the game giving me enough power to deal a whooping 20 damage on turn 8 putting Mr Ait Silmane on exactly 28 points of damage.
Krzysztof was fighting like a madman, but he couldn’t battle fate. Maciej had a good score against Laurent Pagorek, but was not able to grab a win in the end. France proved to be a problem again!
We lost the match, but it was a very close one and we were fully satisfied. Welanded on 4th place only after USA, France and Russia.
The whole event was marvelous and I can’t wait for the next World Cup in 2012. The whole team experience was remarkable and I hope that CZE will look into organizing some more tournaments like that. The fact that you could communicate with your team mates during games and ask for their feedback was incredible!!
This summarizes my whole World Cup experience, which is very positive indeed. I hope you enjoyed this report and if you did please leave some feedback on the forums.
Problem?
-Gnimsh
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