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I keep trying to get out, but they keep dragging me back in.
Those of you who played Vs. System might know who I am. As for the rest of you, let me provide a brief introduction. My name is Michael Barnes; and I – like my name implies – am a longtime barnacle of Tim Batow. In recent years, I've tried to ease the burden of Tim having to carry me by distributing my weight to Tim Rivera and Niles Rowland. However, one general truth remains – where Tim Batow leads, so I follow.
My sole noteworthy success in the WoW TCG came at WoW Worlds 2010. After a 0-2 start, riddled with horrendous play errors, I managed a 10-2 record over the rest of the weekend to finish a respectable 15th place. Don't let that fool you – I managed that record in large part to a Constructed deck that was better than I am; and a timely second-pack, first-pick [Kel'Thuzad] in my second draft pod. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while...
The build-up; the hype; the intense preparation
So, my preparation for Realm Championships started with a phone call from Shane Wiggans. Shane, along with me and John Hall, have been friends and teammates (and Tim Batow barnacles) for nearly eight years. Shane hadn't played regularly for a few years. With a full-time job and a full-time child, he had more important commitments. However, he was really excited for the upcoming Realm Championships, with the prospect of a paid trip to Vegas for the winner. So, Shane, John, and I all started playtesting in hopes of finding a good choice for the Core metagame.
We began with a couple of decks inspired by the one and only Tim Batow. Our first stop was Tim's recently publicized Aberration Hunter deck. Several of us had played the deck at different Realm Qualifiers; and posted consistent results with it. However, we found that it did have some practically unwinnable matchups. While we've never been afraid to play decks with weak matchups, we felt that the specific bad matchups would be fairly popular in our metagame.
The next stop was a variant of the [Jumo'zin] deck made popular by Matt Markoff and (in our area) Bryan Lyons. Initially, our build was beating everything in our gauntlet. However, we revised our gauntlet a bit following the World Cup. After tweaking the decks to answer the anticipated metagame (including [Jumo'zin] stall), we started losing a lot with the deck. It became apparent that, when the metagame was ready for the deck, [Jumo'zin] was not nearly as dominating.
After that came an [Ayaka Winterhoof] Disease deck (which we lovingly dubbed “Mad Cow Disease”). This deck took advantage of an ally-heavy meta that didn't have adequate answers to excessive ongoing abilities. After some tweaking, we came up with a build that was consistently beating our Emek build (the deck we considered to be the best in the metagame). More importantly, it was able to play [Really Big Worm] effectively (the mark of any truly amazing deck :P). However, similar to the Hunter deck, Mad Cow Disease had some fairly bad matchups. Additionally, some of the “good” matchups became “bad” if we couldn't answer problem cards like [Vuz'din] and [Zempre, Grace of Elune].
After an extreme amount of testing, something happened that hadn't ever happened before – we all decided to play different decks. John, who had been wielding Emek for most of the testing mathups, decided that Emek was just too good not to play. Shane, who has an obsessive love with Rogue Poison decks, felt like Mad Cow Disease was as close as he'd ever reasonably be able to get to a competitive Poison deck. Tim, who hadn't really been a part of the testing but was still better than the rest of us combined, settled on a tweaked Hunter build based on some comments from Matt Spreadbury.
As for me, I had access to a Rogue list built by the amazing Stuart Wright. Much like the aforementioned Tims, Stu is a far better deckbuilder than I am. Given that my two favorite classes are Paladin and Rogue, I was very interested in the deck. Unlike [Zorak'tul], which relies on [Boots of Utter Darkness] and healing from [Swift Raptor], Stu's deck was an alliance build that was more proactive. [Mikael the Blunt] and [Ashnaar, Frost Herald] give the deck answers to aggressive early decks; while the standard Rogue disruption suite give the deck game against control and stall builds. While I found that an experienced player with an aggressive deck could win before I could stabilize, I felt that the deck had a good overall matchup across the metagame. Here's the build that I took:
Hero: [Gyro of the Ring]
Master Hero: 2
2 [Kel'Thuzad]
Allies: 27
4 [Ashnaar, Frost Herald]
4 [Mikael the Blunt]
3 [Adam Eternum]
3 [Koeus]
4 [Magni, the Mountain King]
4 [Dimzer the Prestidigitator]
3 [Weldon Barov]
2 [“Pappy” Ironbane]
Abilities: 19
4 [Deadliness]
3 [Enveloping Shadows]
4 [Poach]
4 [Sap]
4 [Tuskarr Kite]
Locations
4 [Eye of the Storm]
Quests: 8
4 [A Question of Gluttony]
4 [Junkboxes Needed]
Stu's list played one more [Adam Eternum] and a copy of [Darkness Calling] instead of a third [Enveloping Shadows] and [Weldon Barov]. However, [Enveloping Shadows] was playing very well in our testing (so much so that I really wanted four copies); and I found that whenever I played Weldon against an aggressive deck, I won. So I decided to adapt the deck a bit to the expected Durotar meta (which has traditionally been a bit more aggressive than European metas).
While we were all feeling a bit strange about playing different decks, we hoped that our diversity would pay off in that one of us would hit a favorable metagame.
THE MAIN EVENT!
59 people from across the Durotar Realm showed up for the Realm Championships. It made for some cramped quarters at Madness Comics (though store owner, Jim Schuman, did a nice job of keeping everyone organized).
Round 1 – Charles “CHARLES!!!” Chappell ([Emek the Equalizer])
Anyone who's met Charles would know that he is easily the nicest person playing the WoW TCG today. Aside from playing my teammates, Charles was the person that I least wanted to face. His Emek rush deck can create problems for me with the burn from [Searing Light] and [Divine Fury]. However, in this match, everything went right for me and wrong for poor Charles. Aside from a [Broderick Langforth] on turn two (which quickly got hit by [Sap]), Charles didn't have a play for the first three turns. Multiple copies of Dimzer took over the board and I quickly went to 1-0.
Round 2 – Ryan Merkle ([Boarguts the Impaler])
From one of my worst matchups to one of my best matchups, this one was never in doubt. [Poach] and [Junkboxes Needed] each took a copy of [Bloody Ritual]; [Deadliness] on four was good for an [Edge of Oblivion] and [Tanks for Everything, Dalaran]; and a turn five [Sap] made Ryan's aggressive draw completely sputter. [“Pappy” Ironbane] was answered in back-to-back turns by copies of Heroic Throw, but not before he destroyed a [Greaves of Ancient Evil] and [Death Wish]. A rather large board swarmed Ryan to take him from zero to dead in two turns. 2-0
Round 3 – Patrick Muehlbrad ([Kinivus the Focused])
Patrick has a reputation for creative and cool homebrewed concoctions that do amazing things when they go off. This deck was a fairly aggressive Shaman burn that relied on an interaction with [Astral Recall] and [All Things in Good Time] to burn for ridiculously large amounts of damage. Patrick started off extremely fast against me. Two direct swings from [Flint Shadowmore] put me in a precarious position. However, [Deadliness] stabilized me; and [Weldon Barov] cemented my position. However, at 24 damage, a single copy of [Incendiary Totem] would finish me off. On his turn, Patrick dug for an answer with his quests. With a [Junkboxes Needed] in play, I drew another on my turn. Before placing the one I drew, I activated the one in play. Patrick responded with Kinivus' flip; showing the copy of [Astral Recall] that would win him the game next turn. I could only shake my head at my misplay in not rowing my second copy of the quest. 2-1
Round 4 – Brandon Larkin ([Erondra Frostmoon])
I hadn't tested this matchup much, but I knew that it basically came down to keeping the Death Knight player off of [Tuskarr Kite]. [Sap] also makes [Scimitar of the Sirocco] mostly useless. In this match, I kept an opener of [Poach] and [Junkboxes Needed]. Brandon kept a hand without any quests or a [Tuskarr Kite]. While he put a bit of early pressure on me in the first few turns, he was in topdeck mode by turn four. [Mikael the Blunt] wiped most of his board away, but [Deadliness] put the exclamation point on it by killing [Zempre, Grace of Elune] and a resource. A few turns later, [Kel'Thuzad] gathered a large board for my side. With a [Strangulate] in hand and no quests in play, Brandon had to rely on topdecking an [Army of the Dead] to win. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't quite get there. 3-1
Round 5 – Tim Batow ([Chaigon Steelsight])
Man! 59 people, and I had to face a good friend for the second time in five rounds. I knew Tim's Aberration Hunter deck very well. While his allies are generally better than Horde rush decks, the deck has no burn elements for me to worry about. Several plays defined the way this match went. Tim had an absolutely nutty opening with [Lady Bancroft], [Fang], and triple [Magni, the Mountain King]. However, I had the turn one [Poach] to get rid of [Fang]; and Mikael on two to get rid of [Lady Bancroft] and one of his Dwarf Warrior tokens. [Enveloping Shadows] really slowed down Tim's momentum. Two copies of [Deadliness] netted five of Tim's cards between the two of them. With an empty board and no quests in play, Tim gave me the handshake. 4-1
Round 6 – Skyler Thomas ([Sarina the Immaculate])
Really? Are we being paired on the basis of how well we know our opponents? Considering that Tim got paired against John; Shane got paired against Charles; and I got paired against my protege, I was beginning to think this was the case. Skyler was playing a really cool deck based around [Repurposed Lava Dredger]. With enough Stash effects, he could ramp to double digit resources by the end of turn five. While I felt that I had the edge in the matchup due to my discard, I wasn't able to get to Skyler's hand until after he had the dredger in play. He quickly ramped to around 15 resources and dropped [Ysera the Dreamer] into play. I had a huge board to deal damage, but Sklyer's [Berserker Bracers] did a decent job at keeping my damage to a minimum. Once [Iravar] hit the board, I picked up my cards. 4-2
So after the Constructed rounds, I sat at my goal of 4-2. I figured if I could manage 2-1 in the draft portion, I'd have a shot at the Top 8; and was a lock if I 3-0'd the table. Unfortunately, my table was a veritable Who's Who of the Durotar region; with several established players (including my good friend Tim Batow sitting directly to my left). Getting to the Top 8 was going to be an uphill battle.
As much as I enjoy drafting Worldbreaker, this draft quickly devolved into a comedy of errors for me. I knew that Tim would probably be forcing Alliance Druid, so I shipped him the goods and focused on Horde allies. After the first pack, I was split between Hunter and Warrior. When I opened a [Tesla], and got passed a copy of [Blast Trap], I made the commitment to move into Hunter. Shortly after that, though, I saw a copy of [Thunderous Challenge] and three copies of [Chaotic Rush]. Had I known that I would see a second pick [Bloodied Arcanite Reaper] in the third pack, I definitely would have drafted differently. Unfortunately, the Warrior cards showed up too late; and I got stuck in a class with two other drafters. Additionally, while the players on either side of me were Alliance, there were three other Horde drafters at the table. While a 4-4 split is good in most formats, it's generally bad news in Worldbreaker draft.
Here was the list that I ended up playing:
Hero: [Valerie Worfield]
Allies: 19
1 [Telor Sunsurge]
1 [Landon Dunavin]
1 [Zulanji]
1 [Frex Sniplex]
2 [Gorz Blazefist]
1 [Cadon Thundershade]
1 [Huruk Lightvow]
1 [Jezziki Shinebog]
1 [Kistix Shockvat]
1 [Mahna Lightsky]
1 [Tesla]
1 [Drizzie Steelslam]
1 [Kerzok Plixbloom]
1 [Neboz Tombwex]
1 [Vala Carville]
1 [Ruon Wildhoof]
2 [Zulbraska]
1[Sura Lightningheart]
Abilities: 5
2 [Blast Trap]
2 [Track Dragonkin]
1 [Wing Clip]
Quests: 6
1 [Counting Out Time]
1 [The Essence of Enmity]
1 [A Matter of Time]
1 [The Torch of Retribution]
1 [What's Haunting Witch Hill]
1 [The Witch's Bane]
While I didn't have any true bombs in my deck, I felt as though I had a very strong late game. In addition, I had several other allies in my side deck that would allow me to adjust to my opponent's strategy. This ended up being invaluable in all of my rounds.
Round 7 – Colin Mowery ([Kadus Frosthand])
Given that Colin was sitting directly to my right, and I didn't see a single [Emerald Captain], [Garet Vice], or [Savis Cindur]; I had a sneaking suspicion that he was playing an aggressive deck. This turned out to be the case as he quickly ran me up to 24 damage in the first five turns. My Jezziki helped to neutralize some of that damage; then Colin's offense stalled as I started dropping out big protectors. Game two was much the same, with the combination of Gorz, Jezziki, and a side decked [Traxel Emberklik] allowing me to deal with Colin's seemingly endless swarm of 1-drops. 5-2
Round 8 – Randy Brasher ([Arturius Hathrow])
With the possible exception of Tim Batow, Randy is probably the best player in the Durotar Realm. He had been telling me before our round that he had been sitting to the left of two Horde drafters; and to the right of a third. Needless to say, he had an amazing assortment of great Alliance allies. The first game threatened to get out of hand quickly when a copy of [Varandis Silverleaf] followed by a [Mark of the Untamed] generated a two-for-none trade. However, Randy didn't put much pressure on me over the subsequent turns, and I was able to use my quests and big allies to regain control of the board. Unfortunately for him, Randy's quests remained hidden in the deck, and I was able to take the first game. Game two was a much better start for me; with the ideal Telor/Zulanji/Frex opener. [Tesla] threatened to take things into overdrive, but Randy cleverly played [Mark of the Untamed] on [Loriam Argos] to get a favorable trade. He followed that with two copies of [Pyromancer Davins]. However, I was able to dispatch both with copies of [Blast Trap]. Nearly out of gas, I swung in for exactly lethal with [Mahna Lightsky]. Randy revealed the copy of [Ysera the Dreamer] in his deck that never made an appearance in the matchup. 6-2
Round 9 – Brandon Larkin ([Grizzlik Sparkhex])
On the rematch, Brandon had a decent Warlock deck with about twenty copies of [Sardok] (at least, that's what it seemed like). After some posturing on my part in game one, Brandon took complete control with two copies of the annoying pet that none of my melee allies could break through. I side decked most of my melee allies out for the magical damage characters that sat in my side deck. After wiping out the board with [Landro's Lil' XT], I was able to land some large allies on my side of the board. Brandon tried to hold me off with his own copy of [Mahna Lightsky], but I was able to use [Sura Lightningheart] to kill off his copy of [Huruk Lightvow], then my own Huruk took out his Mahna. I followed that up with Kerzok and Vala, and we were off to the third game. After shipping a truly horrible hand, I mulliganed into an even worse hand. Without a play for the first three turns, Brandon quickly got board advantage on me. I planned to retake the board by taking out his [Sardok] with my [Tesla] on turn four, but his [Kloxx Dedrix] had was having none of that. My Ruon was swiftly answered by and instant speed [Thrandis the Venomous]. Even after those shenanigans, I felt that I still had a shot with two copies of [Blast Trap] in hand. However, [Ruby Skyrazor] was the final nail in the coffin. 6-3
Once the final round wrapped up, we sat around to see if either Tim or I managed to sneak into the Top 8. We both finished 6-3, so we both had an outside shot. With some of my opponents having less than stellar draft performances, I wasn't too keen on my chances. However, Jim's voice resonated through the shop: “Your Top 8 is Matthew Parker, Logan Dyer, Chad Lathrop, Timm Trepanier, Brandon Larkin, Brian Ogilbee, David Mauck... and Michael Barnes!” A big cheer rose from our section of the shop. Despite my final round loss, I was still able to get the last spot for Day 2.
Following a quick meal at Double Dave's, we headed back to Shane's house to relax after a long day. I persuaded John to play me a match against a reasonable facsimile of Matthew's [Triton the Sacreligous] deck. While the deck is a bit more aggressive than Brandon's [Erondra Frostmoon] deck was, the basic strategy is the same – use your discard to keep them off of [Tuskarr Kite] and [Sap] their hero to prevent Scimitar shenanigans. Game one was an unfortunate affair where my turn two [Junkboxes Needed] couldn't answer John's two copies of Kite. With the Kite allowing John to keep his hand full, John dispatched me with a triple [Dethvir the Malignant]/double [Vuz'din] draw. The next two games were completely lopsided; as he never got a Kite into play. We also discovered that [Kel'Thuzad] didn't leave you nearly as vulnerable to [Army of the Dead] in this matchup; as you could steal their Dethvirs. With a solid strategy in mind, I wrote up my notes on my Saturday performance and headed off to bed to get some rest for the next day.
Showdown for the Title
I headed to Madness in the early morning for the showdown. After some pictures and deck checks, we sat down to find out who would be the next Durotar Realm Champion.
Quarterfinals – Matt Parker ([Triton the Sacreligious])
Matt is a native Tulsan like myself; and frequents the tournaments in Northeast Oklahoma. He's become very good in a short amount of time, and proved it by going 8-1 in Swiss. I felt like my matchup against him was pretty good, though. I won the flip and quickly put out a [Tuskarr Kite]. From an earlier [Poach], I knew that Matt had a [Cleansing Witch Hill] in hand, so I figured that he would use it to flip down my [Eye of the Storm]. However, he surprised me by dropping out [Vuz'din]. This gave me a great opportunity to get way ahead with a [Deadliness] on his quest. From there, Dimzer took out his [Vuz'din]. However, I made a slight misplay by rowing a [Sap] instead of [Adam Eternum]. He proceeded to put pressure on my board with a Scimitar. He quickly stole my Weldon with [Rehgar Earthfury]. However, [Kel'thuzad] returned the favor by stealing Rehgar and three copies of Dethvir. Two copies of [Army of the Dead] allowed Matt to keep pressure on me. But my two [Enveloping Shadows] and [Sap] on his hero meant that it was just a matter of time before I took complete control.
Game two saw a much more aggressive start for Matt. He quickly pushed me to 17 damage with twin Brodericks and a Dethvir. After an [Army of the Dead] on turn six, I was dead to Dethvir and three ghouls the next turn. However, I was able to recruit a [Koeus] and rip a Mikael off of [Tuskarr Kite] to put four counters on [Eye of the Storm]. Mikael killed his Dethvir; and the ghoul tokens were stymied by my Weldon on the following turn. My [Kel'thuzad] got a [Deathcharger] and two Dethvirs. Matt tried to make a valiant recovery with [Johnny Rotten] and a Nathanos. However, an [Eye of the Storm] activation followed by a Mikael forced the concession.
Semifinals – Brandon Larkin ([Erondra Frostmoon])
So I faced off against Brandon for the third time over the weekend. While I beat him pretty soundly in Constructed the day before, I felt this would still probably be a rough matchup. After shipping a questless hand, I drew into another hand with no quests or locations; making four draws in a row against Brandon without a reasonable card to row (counting game three in our epic Draft match from the night before). While Brandon had no pressure in the early game, I had no immediate answer for his [Scourgeborne Battlegear]; and I quickly went down a game. My opening hand for the second game included two copies of [A Question of Gluttony], [Eye of the Storm], [Adam Eternum], [Koeus], Dimzer, and [“Pappy” Ironbane]. I decided to keep in hopes of a similar match to the first one. However, Brandon had a much more aggressive draw with two Magni tokens, Ashnaar, [Grumdur Bladebane], and a [Deathcharger]. After forcing a flip with an attack by Adam, Brandon took me to 20 damage. I faced the unpleasant choice of dropping a Weldon into a double Army hand; or playing [Poach], [Sap] and [Tuskarr Kite] in hopes of getting another 1-cost card to turn on the Eye. I settled on the latter; which ended up being a mistake. Brandon took me to 24 damage with his attacks; leaving me dead to any face up resource or a [Corpse Explosion]. While my extremely late Mikael wiped out Brandon's attackers, he ripped the [Corpse Explosion] to take the match.
So my journey ended with a 4th place finish. While I suffered a natural disappointment in my loss (especially since I felt I had an amazingly good matchup against eventual winner Chad Lathrop's [Death Wish] deck), I was happy with my performance over the weekend. It was especially gratifying to see such a great turnout at several of the RCs. Cryptozoic has done an amazing job building up interest in the game. Hopefully, this will translate into a great turnout at NACCs in Vegas.
I hoped you enjoyed my write-up. See you all at Continentals!
-Michael Barnes
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