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Hello everyone, I’m Mikko Pena – magistermik in the forums, and member of the Zangarmarsh Realm-based Team RAMPAGE. I’m the guy who tries to keep the Team Rampage blog interesting until JDJ or ECS comes up with another one of their bomb deck ideas. This week’s entry will cover our Realm Championships and how our team fared over the weekend, as well as bits of interesting lessons along the way.
Our formal RC preparation began around the first week of April. The unfortunate, but interesting note about the tournament is that it’ll be held on the last week of the month, which means that while we’ll have access to the winning decklists from other realms around the world at that time, the probability of facing one in the tournament is quite high – which equates to a more difficult playing field.
Lesson 1: Information is power. Top 8 lists are very enticing to copy, and people will do so despite the state of their local metagame. Winning lists, interesting lists, combo lists – if it made its way to the top tables elsewhere, it’ll be sure to appear locally at some point. We made this mistake when making our gauntlet, and were quite unprepared for the sudden abundance of Spark and Vorix decks.
The first week of the month went by without any team practice due to school and work. Most of us were even unsure of what to play. With that in mind, ECS suggested that while we wait for the RC results from other countries to come in, the team needs to practice drafting.
The plan pushed through during the weekend, but the results were a bit disappointing despite ECS’ lecture - half of the team was making bad picks and building sub-par decks. The practice session ends with gauntlet testing, against Bogmara, Chaigon, and Triton – three of the aggressive decks we expected to be popular in the tournament.
Lesson 2: Learning Limited play is always a good thing. Knowing card synergies, picking good allies and abilities, and building a good deck with the right numbers will go a long way in helping you tackle not just the present, but the future sets as well. The knowledge that you’re well-rounded and capable of playing any format in the game also develops confidence.
The third week arrived and so did the RC decklists from the different realms. The first thing we did was to sort out which ones we thought will appeal to the local players here and which ones will not. At the top of our list was Death Knight (right call) and Death Wish (wrong call), followed by Spark, Druid/Hunter Abberation, and Bogmara, and then Emekk, Karvok, Jumo’zin, and Gyro.
Lesson 3: Test against the perceived field thoroughly, especially when they contain popular decks. At the very least, this’ll provide you with an idea on how the matchup will go and how to play it out. Theorycrafting is good too, but nothing beats actual practice.
Just a week left and only four members are decided on what to play. Meanwhile, another draft practice was held during the weekend. However, there wasn’t a lot of time spent on the gauntlet this time around... Maybe we’re getting a bit too focused on drafting?
Thursday. We’re short on time, and decisions regarding deck choices have to be made. I decided to go with the “play what you know” philosophy and stick to the Triton list I’ve been using since the start of the season. ECS however, made a last-minute switch from his homebrewed “LBT and Friends” deck to Gyro Control (or Stu-Rogue as we fondly call it). To complicate matters, Ron made it through the last-chance qualifier on Friday. Being the new player that he is, it was decided that he’ll be using Bogmara, which was initially intended for John, who ended up using an untweaked Jeremiah Karvok. Meanwhile, Bryan also made a sudden switch from the Dalron Zombies he was practicing with to Katiana Ring Pop.
Lesson 4: Last-moment deck-switching is never good. Unless you’re unnaturally gifted in cards or have the luck of a lottery winner, it takes time and practice to perform well with any deck. And no, the “I had a few games with it” argument doesn’t cut it either.
And so, despite all of the bad decisions which doubled as omens of disaster, off we go to the fated day. Here are the decks we piloted:
Me – Triton Midrange
ECS – Gyro Control
JDJ – Turov Control
Tomii – Vorix Combo
Bryan – Katiana Ring Pop
Marlo - Chaigon Aberration Aggro
John – Jeriamiah Control
Ron – Bormara Rush
In the six rounds, I faced:
McNhel Bulabos – Malaxia Whizwhirl
Close game where I was pressured with Exxi and Uruka early on. Timely [Corpse Explosion]s helped me establish board advantage and allowed me to take over the game in the later turns.
1-0
Caesar Famorcan – Velindra Sepulcher
Should have put a couple of [Canissa the Shadow] in my deck. KT really messes things up for Horde DK.
1-1
Jerry Red Cabardo - Deathseer Zuk’raj
Very close game, got him down to 2 health until he turned into [The Lich King], which I got down to 3 health before I got smacked with Gorehowl. Ouch.
1-2
Joseph Engalla – Mythen of the Wild
I only had the vague idea that he’s playing control, and things suddenly took a bad turn when he played [Boots of Utter Darkness] after I rowed my first [Entomb]. Zempre came, and was answered by [Army of the Dead], but a mount soon followed, backed up by [The Torch of Retribution]. A major misplay on his part happened when he completed the quest out of habit at the end of my turn, which allowed me to use Corpse Explosion safely on my turn, rendering his hero without Elusive and allowing me to attack for lethal.
2-2
Brian Ofiana – Kinivus the Focused
Another close match. I got him to almost lethal despite making a couple of misplays - I only needed a [Corpse Explosion] to seal the deal but never found it. The game dragged on until the last few turns, but with an active [Voice of Reason] in play and a 7-damage Spark, the damage count was clearly in his favor as the last turn ended.
2-3
Michael Ryan Villamayor – Lanthus the Restorer
Finally, a match that’s somewhat favorable. Without a [Deathcharger] though, a [Lady Bancroft] stuck on his side of the board and became buffed with [Gift of the Earthmother]. [Extract of Necromantic Power] stemmed the bleeding a bit, and with zero cards in his hand, I opted for a damage race with Saurfang and [Edge of Oblivion]. Facing lethal the next turn, he attacked Saurfang on Bancroft, but on my turn I managed to draw a Cromarius to destroy the Gift along with the Lady. Board advantage was on my side from that point, and all that remains is to push to victory.
3-3
Lesson 5: Learn the fundamental concept of every matchup : which is to identify whether you’re the aggressor or not in the game. I think this is the main reason behind my losses to Spark and Zuk’raj – that I didn’t play aggressively enough when I needed to, or didn’t mulligan into a possibly more aggressive hand. As a result, I fell short on damage. This is especially important for mid-range decks, since the timing window for making attacks against control decks is very small, so it is important to know which turns will be spent on offensive plays, and when to step back and draw cards.
Given that there were 57 players in the tournament, the possibility of going into the drafts with a 3-3 record will depend on the tiebreaks. Still remaining hopeful, I returned to the team and waited. It wasn’t until when the standings for round 6 were out that the full realization of the team’s results dawned on me.
We performed badly.
Only Tomii and Marlo sat at the 4-2 record while the rest of us are at 3-3 or worse. The nail in the coffin came when we realized that aside from the two of them, we won’t be able to make it to the top 24 cut-off.
The short break before the draft was spent on teaching the important pointers to Marlo, as he was absent on both draft practice sessions. After that, we wished our two remaining hopes the best of luck and, looking for an outlet to vent our frustrations, ECS, JDJ, and I entered the Sealed side event.
ECS took the whole thing down and won the [Spectral Kitten] while I landed in 3rd place. At the same time, the stars aligned for a moment during the door prize raffle which resulted in me getting the [El Pollo Grande].
Lesson 6: You can get lucky...sometimes. Like once in a blue moon. So never rely on luck alone.
After that we checked out on Tomii and Marlo after the draft rounds. Marlo, at 1-2 was out of the top 8 cut. Tomii is at 2-1, and might have a very slim chance of making it to the top 8. However, it was not to be as the standings were announced and we found out that he finished at 13th place.
At this point, our Team’s RC run officially ended. JDJ and I however, still planned on joining the Classic side event the next day. For that event, I assembled the deck I missed the most since the new core came out – Bloody Mary Aggro.
Day 2 arrived, and while the top 8 playoffs started, we were at the other table battling it out too (though for smaller prizes). I ended up sweeping the preliminary rounds, beating Jumo’zin, Bogmara, Kil’zin, and Mythen of the Fang 2-0 apiece, and placed first seed in the Top 4. Unfortunately I had to play against JDJ in the semis, claiming a bittersweet 2-0 win, only to lose the Finals match at 1-2 to the same Jumo’zin in Round 1. The stars didn’t align again for the door prize either.
As for the RC itself, our Top 8 featured:
Walter Villa - Spark Shaman
Aaron Arpon - Google Shaman
Caesar Famorcan -Velindra Control
Mark Zarasadias - Turov Control
Alex Enila - Gyro Control
Sonny Estrada - Emekk Mid-range
Jay Tanhueco- Triton Mid-range
Mark Anthony Enriquez - Katiana Mid-range
The matches went:
Quarterfinals
Caesar vs. Sonny – Caesar Wins
Mark vs. Jay – Jay Wins
Alex vs. Walter – Alex Wins
Mark Anthony vs. Aaron – Mark Anthony Wins
Semifinals
Caesar vs. Jay – Jay Wins
Alex vs. Mark Anthony – Mark Anthony Wins
Finals
Jay vs. Mark Anthony – Mark Anthony Wins
You can find the Top 8 Decklists HERE.
So that’s it for our Team’s report for this year’s Realm Championships. While we’re disappointed with our performance overall, we nevertheless learned important lessons which will aid us greatly in preparing for a better performance in Season 7.
Congratulations to the Top 8, and especially to the new Realm Champion Mark Anthony Enriquez! Well-played gentlemen.
Until then!
Lesson 7: Win or Learn. It’s never a complete loss as long as you’ve learned something from the experience. This, in turn, will help you become a better player.
Then you win.
-Mikko Pena
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